I've been bad about doing weekly recap posts and while I may not have the time to return to those type posts, I am going to try and at least share some of the highlights from breaks each month.
Several weeks back we opened a hobby box of 2004 Donruss World Series...which turned out to be a lot of fun and one of the best boxes we broke this year. It was full of low numbered parallels and several hits.
All three of these parallels were low numbered, but I can't remember the exact numbering as the cards are in the various participant's stacks.
If you're going to get an ordinary bat card, at least it's different with the player being a pitcher like Kevin Brown. The Austin Kearns jersey was serially numbered to his jersey, 28.
I try to work in as much variety as possible with the breaks and grab some current product when availability and price line up. I was happy to grab a box of 2021 Panini Donruss Diamond Kings as I think the set is nice looking and the hits can be a lot a fun. The dual jersey auto of Nate Pearson was a very nice pull, but I was happy w/ the quad jersey card of the Panda himself, Pablo Sandoval. Too bad the jersey is most likely from his playing days in San Francisco.
I lucked out and found some 2021 Bowman at Walmart on two different occasions - cello packs made up one mini break and the more recent mini break consisted of 4 blasters.
In the first Bowman break we pulled two colored parallels. Johnny who was the recipient of this Sky Blue parallel of Maximo Acosta (/499) was so eager to get it in his hands that he asked me to ship his stack immediately after the break...something I don't think anyone has asked me to do before!
What is old is new, right? That's the theme with these Refractor like Chrome 1991 Bowman inserts.
Not hits, but as a Braves fan I was happy with my first taste of 2021 Bowman, especially the Langeliers Chrome Prospects.
In the 4th and final blaster we hit a green auto (/99) of a Yankees pitcher I'm not familiar with, however I'm not familiar with a lot of the players on the checklist.
It's typical to have a slew of colored parallels these days and 2021 Bowman was no different. Neon Green (/399), Sky Blue (/499) and Yellow (/75). I hear this Adley Rutschman may be a good player.
Chrome Prospects fall two per pack and we ended up with two Refractors (/499).
Top 100 inserts seem to be pretty plentiful as we pulled 8 from the blasters. I'm just now seeing the number beneath the player which I assume is their ranking position.
1991 was my first full year of collecting and I had my fair share of 1991 Bowman so these Chrome versions are pretty cool. Odd that we pulled two Bellinger cards. The Alec Bohm is just one of plenty of cards we pulled of the hot Phillies prospect.
These Futurist cards look like something out of Finest in my opinion with its loud design.
I've had my eye on this Topps Shoe Box Collection for some time and we finally pulled the trigger and picked one up for a different kind of break. It is a 96 card reprint set, but packed out in packs broken down by the decade (50's/60's/70's/80's). The mystery if you will to the set was 4 vintage cards, one from each decade.
The 1997 Upper Deck UD3 was probably the most upside break I've hosted in a long time. Super small checklist with not every time represented. On top of that I paid way too much for the box...but it was still a fun rip. Only two inserts pulled, both Generation Next.
In our last break we opened our first ever racing box, 1997 Pinnacle. In my opinion you can't go wrong with any 90's era Pinnacle product, regardless of the sport. The Ricky Craven is a Trophy Collection, the equivalent to the Museum Collection parallels from other sports. The Spellbound insert of Jeff Gordon uses a swirled etched silver foil making the card look much nicer than the scan.
After we finished up the racing box we ripped a hobby box of 2003 Fleer Platinum and was a lot of fun. Platinum Finish is the one lone parallel with each card numbered to just /100 copies. Printed on thicker stock, the fronts have a shiny silver finish...which are finger print prone and don't scan well.
Guts ad Glory inserts were fairly prominent all in three different pack configurations.
The Scouting Report inserts open up, but this Ichiro card didn't want to open up easily so instead of possibly damaging the card, I kept it in a soft sleeve. Too bad since the listing on TCDB needed a scan. This was numbered to /400.
Platinum Portraits features a water color like rendition of the player and also comes in jersey and patch variations.
Possibly one of the nicest looking designed memorabilia cards of the early 2000's, these Fleer Nameplates are soooo nice. Barry Bonds is still a very polarizing player to date, but put all that aside and I think you can agree this is a very nice looking card.
I'm having a lot of fun hosting these breaks. I just got in another order of boxes to keep it going for a few more weeks before I may take a short break to get caught up on some things. I appreciate everyone who has participated thus far.
