Save Second Base Campaign by the Collecting Cutch Blog

 

Collecting Cutch blog does a great job every year in promoting breast cancer awareness with his Save Second Base event in October.  Today he kick started the campaign with a post about Kelly Preston who died this year from breast cancer.  It's something that touches so many and it's awesome someone uses their forum to promote awareness in any way they can.  Everyone should do what they can to help those who fight this terrible disease.  

As John Travolta is her husband the question about our favorite Travolta movie came up.  That's a tough one as he has so many good ones.  Pulp Fiction, Wild Hogs, The General's Daughter, and Primary Colors come to mind quickly.  But my favorite has to be Grease.  That is a movie I can always watch and enjoy so much.  And who doesn't want to sing along?

You should already be reading the Collecting Cutch blog but if not, start and be ready for his posts in October.  He does a good job promoting the cause with ladies you may or may not know.  Thanks to him.

Random Wax: 2017 Donruss Football

 2017 Donruss Football: This was a clearance pack I picked up some time ago.  It's a simple design but it has some fun cards and inserts.  My pulls have also been pretty good.  It's been really fun having football back this last weekend and tonight is our first Monday Night Football of the season.  I'll kick it off with a legend.  I can't say he was fun to watch because Jerry Rice always torched any team I was rooting for.  Well I guess he did that to most teams.  

Eli is gone and Cam Newton is a member of the New England Patriots.  His debut as the Pat's starter was successful as they beat Miami.

I love the inclusion of retired greats.  A big reason I keep coming back to this brand.  

Mike Evans is a big beneficiary of Tom Brady's move to the Bucs.  It was weird seeing Brady in a Tampa Bay uni yesterday.  This was a fun pack as always and I'll always grab one given the chance especially at a reduced price.

BREAKDOWN:

30 – Total Cards

6 – Retired Greats

4 – Blue Parallel

2 – RC

2 – Rated Rookie

1 – Dominator

Random Wax: 2019 Contenders Football

2019 Contenders Football: Here's a pack I've had running around for a while but seems perfect for today.  Not often do you get doubles in a pack but when you do you hope it can be this guy.  Reigning Super Bowl champion quarterback Patrick Mahomes is a stud and a favorite of mine so I couldn't ask for any more.

I'm a big Luke Kuechly guy too.  Bummer to see him go but so happy he went out on his own terms.  Can't wait to see what Todd Gurley can do in Atlanta this year.  Love him as a player and I know he isn't going to give them 1200 yards but I still think he can be a solid running back at age 26.

Many of these guys will be keys to their teams success this year and plenty of story lines across the league. Can Buffalo win the AFC East?  How will AJ Green do with with the expected rookie of the year at QB?  Will the Packers make a serious run at the Super Bowl?  Only to name a few.

This was a really fun pack with the inclusion of duplicate Mahomes cards and we also get to see all-time great Peyton Manning among the other many stars.  I'm big on the Contenders brand and this pack does it proud.  Great to have football back tonight.  Enjoy the season!

BREAKDOWN:

22 – Total Cards

2 – MVP Contenders

1 – Retired Great

1 – Green Parallel

1 – Round Numbers

1 – Winning Ticket

2012 Press Pass Ignite NASCAR Blaster

2012 Press Pass Ignite NASCAR: Playoffs start today!  This has been a fun season and I thought NASCAR did a great job being the first sport back and has also mixed up things with their schedule including two Cup races on a single weekend (double header) and making the night race at Daytona the final regular season race.  And what a race it was.  It was fun to watch start to finish as drivers vied for the final playoff spots.  Danica is a favorite of mine so this Rookie Card is a great place to start.

This was a 16 pack retail lot purchase from Blowoutcards.com.  You aren't seeing double.  The first card was Danica's NASCAR Spring Cup rookie card while this one is for the Nationwide Series (minor leagues).  Great seeing NASCAR legends like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. on cardboard.

The design is pretty simple but OK.  I lean more toward the garage or track photos we see nowadays but these have their place.  The backs are missing stats.  The write ups are good but stats even in NASCAR go a long ways to telling the story about these drivers.  

Plenty of stars start to finish here.  Some of these guys were really good in 2012 but are now seasoned veterans with championships under their belt.  Denny Hamlin is the only one of this group not to win a championship yet but is the second seed going into this year's playoffs. Joey Logano (#4 seed) and Kevin Harvick (#1 seed) are also in the mix for another championship.  

Some of these don't scan well due to how they are made.  I like the Limelight insert.  Still not sure about the Profile inserts.

Seeing retired legends on cardboard is fun in any sport.  That is a Cyan Color Proof parallel of Brad Keselowski.  

I pulled a 4 Wide Firesuit relic #/10 of Kasey Kahne.  I really like these.  Just a cool looking card and the write up stated they are race used.

Again plenty of star power in this set.  More past champions including  my favorite, and two time champion, Kyle Busch.  He is actually the reigning champ and did make the playoffs this year but has struggled overall in 2020.  His brother Kurt Busch and Martin Truex Jr. each have a championship under their belt as well.

I liked the photos on these inserts.  Nice zoomed in shots of the driver's rides.

It was really was fun opening these.  This season has been great and many of the key drivers are part of this set.  For the price of $9.77 this was a win.  I like the Steel Horses insert and the Dale Jr. car colors look good with the layout.

BREAKDOWN: 

80 – Total Cards

3 – Color Proof Cyan

2 - Profile

2 – Limelight

1 – Steel Horses

1 – Four Wide Relic #/10

1 – NASCAR Hall of Fame Blue

Random Wax: 2020 Topps Baseball

 

2020 Topps Baseball:  Not Topps' best design but while this was on the shelf it was still hard to pass up.  This was one of those smaller packs.  Anthony Rendon is a good place to start with this pack.  He's having an excellent season with the Angels but the team is struggling mightily.  

Mike Clevinger made news with his trade to the San Diego Padres who are all in on 2020.  Clevinger was also one of two Indians pitchers who broke team rules when he and a teammate visited friends while on the road.  Clevinger then didn't tell the team and flew on their next flight.  This seems like a big win for San Diego.  Clevinger is very good and under control for a few years.  

Three excellent pictures here.  Nice pulls.

A fun pack and a fun season.  While its been a bit crazy at times the short season means anything can happen.  Conventional wisdom says Los Angeles is the team to beat but there are still some very good and very fun teams like San Diego out there to contend with.  Go Braves!

BREAKDOWN:

16 – Cards

1 – League Leaders

1 – Turkey Red

1 – Chrome Turkey Red

1 – Decade’s Best

2001-2002 Upper Deck Basketball Series II

 

2001-2002 Upper Deck Basketball:  Another pack from the Amazon pack lot purchase.  If you look at these and think you were looking at 1990-1991 Upper Deck you aren't the only one.  They are very similar.  Since I'm a fan of the 90-91 design I'm OK with that.  I always liked Andrei Kirilenko (AK-47) but overall this pack won't wow most folks.

A Pau Gasol rookie?  Not something you'll see every day.  I've never seen this card before and it was a fun pull.  Gasol was a 6X All-Star, 4X All-NBA, 2X NBA Champ, member of the All-Rookie Team and was Rookie of the Year.  Outstanding career.  Stephen Jackson won a championship with the Spurs in his third year in the league.  I did not know that.  He went on to a long productive career but will always be remembered for Malice in the Palace where he went into the stands and fought with fans.

Sam Mitchell was a guy I always liked.  A role player he was just a guy who stuck with me.

The designs are overall good.  Again it steals from past designs but if it works it works.

The backs have a subdued photo different from the front.  Being Series II we are able to get photos of rookies in game action.  The was a fun pack.  The Gasol rookie is sweet and all the players bring back memories.  

BREAKDOWN:

8 - Total Cards

1990-1991 Pro Set Hockey

1990-1991 Pro Set Hockey:  Hockey playoffs are in full swing and I found a cheap buy of junk wax hockey packs on Wal-Mart .com.  I'm not a huge hockey guy but I do count Calgary and Boston as my teams.  So while I know names of stars I am not an expert.  I did figure out this pack had six Hall of Famers!  That screams good pack. 

I won't say I knew all six were members of the Hall of Fame or even great players but that was part of the funs.  https://www.hockey-reference.com/ was my friend.  I also enjoy seeing some of the fun unis like that Capitals jersey.

The backs are sweet.  All the stats you can ask for, a nice photo, good write-up, and plenty of color.  Excellent card back.  Only thing I'd add is the team logo.  You can get one on there.

Petr Nedved had a nice long career though only three years with the Vancouver Canucks.  

I like this design overall and actually like the NHL logo being used in conjunction with the Pro Set logo.  This was a fun pack.  I've got more to share as the playoffs go on so it should be fun.

BREAKDOWN: 

15 – Total Cards

1 – Draft Pick

(6 Hall of Famers)