1997 Pinnacle X-Press / 2020 Panini Diamond Kings & Select Group Break Results

This weekend's group break was a little different as Friday was my birthday and I had to take the break on the road as I was celebrating both my birthday and Father's Day at the beach. This caused the break to get started later than planned and my set up wasn't ideal, but hey when life gives you lemons you make lemonade. We still had some good cards pulled from the boxes so if you weren't able to make the live break Friday evening, below is the video as well as a recap of the highlights.

We'll start off with the box of 1997 Pinnacle X-Press. I actually picked up a lot of these boxes last fall and have been sitting on them for awhile now. I thought this was a fun set even though it must not have sold well for Pinnacle and it was rebranded for it's second release and then ended after that. Made up of mainly horizontal oriented cards, this was meant I believe as a low end entry.

Men of Summer was a gold foil parallel set. These look much nicer in hand than when photographed. There was an interactive game called Swing for the Fences where you could guess the home run leader for each respective league. These game cards also doubled as a insert set. The only other insert we really had a chance of pulling was Far & Away as the Melting Pot inserts were 1:288 packs.

These Men of Summer parallels fell 1:7 packs and as I said earlier, these look much nicer in hand. The McGwire Peak Performer card especially looks really nice.

Far & Away fell 1:18 packs so we beat the odds by pulling two of these. I thought these cards featured Pinnacle's patented Dufex technology, but the silver background is more or less etching. Still nice looking, just not what I expected.

I thought we had fun last week with the hobby box of 2020 Diamond Kings, so I grabbed another box from my LCS while they were still in stock. Then the next day I found two blasters of 2020 Select so I grabbed them. I had already heard the moans and groans regarding the blasters only containing 3 packs so I was hoping people would want to try their hand without having to invest too much money. The break sold out quickly so I guess I was right.

3 more framed parallels, one gray and 2 plum this time. Despite what you may think about Pete Rose, I thought it was cool seeing him included in the checklist.

The Aficionado inserts are very colorful and look great...even the Altuve looks good.

Par the course from the first box, we pulled another 6 of the All Time Diamond Kings inserts, including Trout this time around.

I still think these Artist's Palette inserts are some of the brightest uses of color I've seen on a baseball card.

Love 'em or hate 'em, two more DK206 inserts pulled. This time we got Pete Alonso and Yordan Alvarez.

The DK Originals yielded a pair of players from different points in the game - Rendon for the Angels and Ty Cobb for the Tigers. I know Paul from the Scribbled Ink blog was happy to see this Cobb.

From the days of Donruss Triple Play comes a new version of Gallery of Stars...beautiful!!

The last of the regular inserts are The 3000. Twitter user @jmswyo was very happy to see this George Brett pulled.

The last box yielded an auto of a youngster from San Diego and this time we get a youngster from San Francisco...but this time with two pieces of jersey included. Not serially numbered this time around, but not a bad hit.

Happy birthday to me! I don't always like it when my Braves get a hit as I like for the other participants be the ones to take home the good cards, but I won't lie...pulling such a beautiful card of a Braves player on my birthday was pretty cool. I like bat cards and this is one the best looking game used bat cards I now have in my collection.

Up next we opened two blasters of 2020 Panini Select. I had opened one of these previously for myself and while the cards are absolutely beautiful, I can see why some people say the "value" just isn't there in these $20 blasters. 

None the less we did pull 5 of the retail exclusive Scope Prizm parallels. The more and more I looked at these the more my eyes started hurting with the swirling little circle patterns in the background.

Both of these are regular Prizm parallels, just of different "levels" in the base set. The Realmuto is a beautiful red Prizm and numbered to /199.

A sampling of some of the other inserts: Hot Rookies, Moon Shots, Sensations and this Trout insert (the name of the set escapes me, sorry)

Probably my favorite cards pulled from the blasters were these two Select Stars. I should have photographed the back of the card as it features the green and gold (yellow) from the initial 1992 Select set. The Vladimir Guerrero Jr. card obviously is the Prizm parallel.

Overall this was a another fun break and I'm glad the guys that made the break Friday night seemed to have fun as well. We will be doing some more new product soon (ordered two hobby boxes of 2020 Big League tonight), but next week's break will be going back 24 years and will have a LASER focus on the card design. Look for the next sign up post Monday, 06/22/20.

Affordable Group Break - 2020 Panini Diamond Kings w/ 2020 Panini Select Blaster Bonus

** UPDATE 06/18/20 - Remaining teams now just $5 each **

This break will feature 2020 Panini Diamond Kings (Hobby) and two retail 2020 Status blasters!! These blasters feature retail exclusives Premier Scope and Diamond Level Cosmic die-cut inserts. For more info on this set, be sure to visit the Trading Card Database or BaseballCardPedia for checklists. The DK box should yield two autographs or memorabilia plus various colored parallels. Who knows what the Select blasters will yield?!

Price is listed beside each team. All cards ship. Any cards with multiple players featured will be randomed off between those participants. The price does not include shipping. Like with my recent previous breaks, stacking applies so if you bought into a previous break or want me to hold your cards until you see what's next, I'll send you a PayPal invoice for shipping whenever you're ready. We'll break this box Live on my YouTube channel on Friday, June 19th at 10 PM Eastern. I'll update all of my social media outlets (FB group, Twitter @flywheels) as the teams are claim.

To claim your team(s) please comment with your request and submit your payment at that time. If you haven't participated in one of my breaks, please email me your name & mailing address. Please send your payment as Friends & Family: http://paypal.me/flywheels86


Arizona Diamondbacks $5 - Adam McK PAID
Atlanta/Boston Braves - Colbey PAID
Baltimore Orioles $6 - Nick D PAID
Boston Red Sox $8 - Roy G PAID
Chicago Cubs $8 - Trevor P PAID
Chicago White Sox $6 - Johnny R PAID
Cincinnati Reds $6 - Chris R PAID
Cleveland Indians $6 - Timothy H MAILED
Colorado Rockies $6 - Johnny R PAID
Detroit Tigers $6 - Paul D PAID
Houston Astros $7 - Chris R PAID
Kansas City Royals $5 - @jmswyo PAID

Los Angeles Angels $7 - Roy G PAID
Los Angeles Dodgers $8 - Joey N PAID

Miami Marlins $5 - @RubenCollects PAID
Milwaukee Brewers $5 - Mark E PAID
Minnesota Twins $4 - @jmswyo PAID
New York Mets $6 - Alex M PAID
New York Yankees $10 - @Lost_Collector PAID
Oakland Athletics $5 - Alex M PAID
Philadelphia Phillies $6 - Jordan S PAID
Pittsburgh Pirates $5 - Wade F PAID
San Diego Padres $5 - Spiegel83 PAID
San Francisco Giants $5 - Dustin D PAID
Seattle Mariners - Colbey PAID
St. Louis Cardinals $7 - Kerry B PAID
Tampa Bay Rays $5 - Tim B PAID
Texas Rangers $3 - @jmswyo PAID
Toronto Blue Jays $6 - Captain Canuck PAID

Washington Nationals $5 - Alex M PAID

      

   

       

  

2004 UD Play Ball / 2020 Diamond Kings Group Break Results

Man, last night was a blast. This had to be hands down the most fun I've had hosting a break in a long time. We had a good turn out in the live YouTube video...which always makes the break more fun. We opened what I thought were some nice boxes and we even pulled some pretty cool cards. I know some people have told me that my weekly break is something they look forward each and every Friday night and I appreciate that. I do this for fun and I'm glad to hear others are enjoying this as much as me.

Now, let's get on to the results if you happened to miss Friday's night's video. The original plan was just to open the 2004 Upper Deck Play Ball box, but at the last minute I grabbed a hobby box of 2020 Panini Diamond Kings from my LCS and everyone gobbled up the teams really fast...so I tossed that one in as well. Let's take a look at the UD box first.

2004 Play Ball was a product I had heard of, but never opened before. I didn't even have any cards from this set in my collection so I thought this would be a fun break. The box was supposed to yield two game-used memorabilia cards and one auto along with several other parallels and inserts.

The base cards have a very nice, unique look. The player images appear to be painted and have an early Gypsy Queen look . Personally I think these look sharp. It's always nice to break a product that isn't all slathered in UV coating and foil stamping.

Blue parallels fell 1:6 packs and feature a blue border and a different image from the base card.

The red parallels have the image inset in the card, which I thought was a nice touch. These are numbered to /175. We're not sure on the odds of these.

The Apparel Collection cards are one of two of the memorabilia sets and seem to fall 1:12 packs. Not serially numbered, but a nice looking memorabilia card none the less. At least the jersey piece isn't white. Of note, the back of the card does mention the jersey is game worn and not from an event or photoshoot.

Artist's Touch is the other memorabilia set and these are numbered to /250. I can't say this is my favorite Chipper card, but as I had the Braves in the break this was a nice surprise for the host!

The Home Run Heroics inserts fell 1:24 packs and feature game box score inset in the card similar to how the player's image is inset on the red parallels. Not serially numbered, but still a nice card.

Classic Combos fell 1:24 packs so we beat the odds with two in one box! These are serially numbered to /1999.

Now if someone was prospecting and buying Play Ball back when this product was new, I'm sure it didn't take long for them to realize that Upper Deck really struck out when choosing young players and rookies for this set. This isn't the first time were I've seen a questionable checklist of young talent in an Upper Deck product. These Rookie Portfolio cards fell 1:16 packs and are serially numbered to /2004.

Rookie Portfolio Signature are the autographed versions of the above insert. These are not serially numbered. We had no idea who Alec Zumwalt was or what he did in the majors...if he did anything...but at least he has a nice looking signature!

Overall this was a fun box to open. Upper Deck first brought back the Play Ball set in 2003 so perhaps we'll have to pick up a box for a future break. Now we're onto 2020 Diamond Kings.

I picked up this box of 2020 Panini Diamond Kings from my LCS, Grand Slam Cards in Rock Hill, SC. The price was right and apparently you guys were eager to try out this beautifully painted set. All the teams were grabbed so quickly that I may just have to run back down to the LCS to grab another box while they are still in stock! Yes? No?

In my opinion the Diamond Kings set keeps getting better looking year after year. I originally had decided to skip trying to build this set this year, however after opening this box I have to say it's going to be tough sticking to that decision. The base cards look beautiful, as you can see above with these RCs of Yordan Alvarez and Gavin Lux.

Back from previous years are the framed parallels. The come in various colors and this Nolan Ryan is of the Plum variety.

Here are the Gray framed parallels...

The Litho parallels are serially numbered to /25. Other than the inclusion of the serial number, I can't really seem to make out any differences on the front or back of these versus the base card.

I forgot during the video to check the card numbers to see if we pulled any SPs since the last 70 cards of the set are all short printed. Turns out half of the packs in the box did yield one SP.

Aficionado is a name on a baseball card I haven't seen in a very long time, last used by Pinnacle. This version as a much more colorful look over the defunct version of the same name.

These All Time Diamond Kings inserts look beautiful in hand. Framed parallels of these also exist. 

Artist's Palette has to be one of the brightest, most colorful baseball cards I've seen in a while. It's quite nice looking in hand and pulling a card of a young stud like Vlad Jr. ain't too shabby.

I'm not too sure what to think about these DK 206 inserts. At least the set contained a Kirby Puckett.

The DK Originals are more of the same painted cards. What were the odds that we'd pull to Astros players?

Gallery of Stars is an insert I haven't seen in a long time! Originally debuting in 1991 Donruss Triple Play, those painted cards looked a lot like Diamond Kings. These Gallery of Stars look even better...even if one of them is a Bryce Harper!

These In the Zone inserts are probably my favorite insert set we pulled from the box. Just something about the red, white and blue and the horizontal layout that makes these pop.

The 3000 insert set highlights members of the 3000 hit club with a nice splash of color.

One of our two guaranteed hits was this Jersey Kings of the Tigers' Miguel Cabrera. Not serially numbered, but printed on the same canvas like material with a thicker point cardstock. If you're going to do memorabilia cards, this is how to do it.

I think this auto is from the DK Signatures set. While I wasn't familiar with Trent Grisham, several in the live video chat knew who he was and said this was a great pull for San Diego. Oh yeah, it's also serially numbered 04/10!

I had a blast opening this box and if there was enough interest I'd definitely would pick up another box. While my Braves were well represented on the checklist, I was at least hoping we'd pull the base card of Acuna! Let me know in the comments if you missed out on this box and would like to take a stab...or if you were in this break and would like to try your luck again.

As always, thank you so much to everyone who participated. We'll do it again this Friday night...from Myrtle Beach, SC. I'm going on vacation next week, but I want to keep the fun going so whatever product we'll rip, I'm taking my set up with me. Look for the next sign up post this weekend. Until then, have a great weekend everyone!