Busting Open a Hot Corner Box from Excel Marketing

I've been intrigued by these packs for a while, and today I picked one up. The package is certainly unspectacular - the artwork kind of looks like... something us bloggers would throw together. 

One of these boxes will run you $15. I believe they're exclusive to Target. The box promises two hits, a hobby pack, and three other packs (retail packs). I really like variety so these are really tempting. 

Front and back of the box if you're interested.

Here are the four packs that were inside. Left to right: 2019 Bowman, 2008 Donruss Elite (Hobby), 2019 Topps Series 1 Jumbo, and 1988 Donruss.

Not... awful. I went in super low expectations. 2008 Donruss is certainly a bummer for the hobby pack but I wasn't expecting to find Bowman Chrome. 

And here are the two hits. The cards are just free-floating in the box, tucked between packs. No penny sleeve, no top loader - but they were in good shape so no complaints.

The Adam Dunn bat piece is definitely cool and I love the framed Ginter Relics. Thumbs up. As for Nolan Fontana...  I had to look him up. He's a former prospect that had a cup of coffee in the majors. Fun fact: He has only two career hits and they're both home runs. That's pretty cool.

The Series One pack wasn't too spectacular and sadly didn't have any Buccos. It did contain a couple nice rookies. I'm super high on Kopech and I've been stockpiling his rookies.  

Is this enough to call in Kopech hot box?

The Bowman pack was much more generous with Pirates. The Seinfeld duo showed up! Funny enough, they were consecutively stacked in the pack as well. Maybe the pack-filling machine at Topps has a sense of humor. 

Overall, this was fun. I don't see myself getting another one of these again any time soon, but I don't regret it.

I'm curious... Have you ever opened an Excel marketing product? What did you think? If not, have you thought about it? 

Christmas Came Late

I was really jealous when I saw a bunch of bloggers busting 2019 Topps Holiday Boxes back in December. I think it's safe to say that this product is universally well-liked - I couldn't find you a collector that has anything bad to say about it.

I don't normally shop at Wal-Mart, but I started to make some Wally World pit stops once these hit the shelves, and I was lucky enough to stumble across a box in December. My plan was to open it around Christmas day. I ended up doing a lot of travel around the holiday, and then forgot that I had the box stashed away. 

I finally got around to opening it today. Merry Christmas to me!

Several of the rookie headliners showed up and I'm pretty pumped about that. I think Austin Riley might just have the best career out of these four. Don't @ me. 

If there is one Pirates card in the set that I was hoping for, this is the one. It's nice to add the base card to my collection. I already have the sparkly snowflake parallel which I highlighted as my #9 favorite card in my top 10 cards of the year. That came my way via a PWE swap with Matt at Diamond Jesters.

I kept a keen eye out for SPs, which come aplenty in this set. Some are subtle, and some are incredibly obvious, like Carlos Correa holding a giant candy cane. It's easy to hit big league pitching when you know what pitch is coming - but no word on the ease of swinging a giant peppermint stick.

Each box promises an autograph or memorabilia card. I have yet to see an autograph on the blogosphere, relics only. For a plain white relic, I think this is pretty much best case scenario. Very happy to add this to my collection. 

Who out there is building this set? I remember reading a few blogs that were going for it, but can't recall. I'd be happy to send out set needs to fill holes where I can. 

Thanks for reading!

Ripping 2 Jumbo Packs of 2019-20 Panini NBA Hoops

Each time I'm near a Target or Walmart, I still make a point to swing through to check for Prizm. There weeks ago I found two blasters of Prizm at Target but I've had no luck since. If I recall correctly, there were several blasters there that day and I'm starting to regret not grabbing more.

With my recent shortcomings at finding more Prizm, I decided to settle for some NBA Hoops.

Pack one highlights:

Each pack had several rookies, and I'm excited that the RJ base made an appearance. I imagine this picture was taken during some kind of photo shoot. Gesturing to your make-believe teammates to set a screen for you in a photoshoot is a weird thing to do... but I guess it comes natural to RJ. Also making an appearance is Coby White who could be one of the best rookies in this class.

Both of my backs contained a teal explosion parallell, so I'm going to assume these fall one per jumbo pack. Jarrell Brantley was the 50th overall pick out of the College of Charleston. By no means a household name, but at least it's a rookie to stash away.

Likely the best pull of the pack, Ja Morant base card. Not Zion, but a nice consolation prize.

On to pack two:

Barrett makes another appearance, this time on the Tribute base card. Jaxson Hayes shows up as well. I'm high on him as well. He has the athleticism to be the best big man in the draft.

This pack's teal explosion was... extremely underwhelming. 

However, I was lucky to pull a orange explosion of Jazz legend John Stockton. It's tough to see, but if you look closely near John's right bicep, you'll notice this card is serial numbered #/25. Orange can be a tough color for parallels, but somehow this looks pretty sweet. I think it's the 90's design paired with the 90's player. A worthy tribute to Stockton. Well done, Panini.

So for two jumbo packs, this turned out pretty well. 

Thanks for reading!

Merry Cutchmas

It's never too late for some Christmas cheer. Way back in early December, Brian at Collecting Cutch sent me a holiday gift package. Totally unannounced and unexpected. Brian's the most generous collector I've connected with, and apparently one of the most artistic. The artwork he did on above is on the top loader, not the card itself. I imagine defacing a cutch card is a cardinal sin for a Cutch super-collector.

Brian hooked me up with a wide variety of Pirates goodies. First off is the Nick Burdi Inception Autograph, Pink Parallel #/99. Also along for the ride is a Gerrit Cole Prizm RC. 

And the real gem here, my first Willie Stargell auto. It's part of the 1993 Nabisco All-Star set. I don't know much about the set but according to some light research, I see that Phi Niekro, Brooks Robinson, Don Drysdale, Catfish Hunter and Jim Palmer are also in the set, so it seems like a small set of some big time HOFers.

Brian also included some cards that I was lucky enough to win in his Save Second Base contest in October. There was a big stack of 2019 Topps Chrome Pink Parallels, as well this awesome Jose Berrios from 2018 Clearly Authentic. My infatuation with Berrios is well documented so this a sweet addition to my collection.

Thanks again Brian!

Speaking of packages, I also wanted to give a shoutout to Chris over at The Collector. I sent him Red Sox cards from his wantlist and he was nice enough to send me back a great stack of Pirates, Steelers, and Blue Jackets. I'm still very new to hockey collecting, so any CBJ cards are super appreciated. Thank you Chris!

Last week I joined a 4-Box Bowman's Best Break from Midwest Box Breaks. Theres' a hefty number of Pirates on the autograph checklist so I figured I'd spin the wheel. To acquire the Pirates in the break, the price was right. Cal Mitchell is the Pirates #6 overall prospect and #2 outfield. 20 years old, drafted in the second round in 2017. Quinn Priester is the newest Pirate, drafted 18 overall in 2019 and the #5 overall prospect in the system. I've been meaning to grab an auto of him for some time. Hopefully we'll see these guys in the show in the next 3-4 years.

Thanks for reading.