Quarantine Cards

"I miss baseball." A phrase that many of us will utter many times over the next several months. I was just starting to get the baseball itch before all the craziness hit. It's going to be a long time before we see America's favorite pastime again. How this affect our collecting habits? Will we collect more? Less? Will we write and blog more? It remains to be seen. I'm going to use my added downtime to try and show off some of my favorite cards and get some trades going.

(L) 2020 Topps Heritage Bryan Reynolds Refractor #/571

(R) 2020 Topps Heritage Bryan Reynolds Black Refractor #/999

Heritage refractors: A very polarizing style of card. The general consensus seems to be more against these cards than for them. If that's the case, I'm in the minority. I'm sucker for refractors and I totally dig these cards. Reynolds broke out over the summer and his first card was printed for 2019 Update - so seeing him printed on cards is novel to me and frankly... I want them all.

2017 Bowman Chrome Josh Bell Refractor #/500

Another small eBay purchase. I was able to grab this for less than $10 shipped. Like Reynolds, JB really broke out last year. It seems people are still sleeping on him a bit, but the guy hit 37 dingers and knocked in 117 runs last year as was selected for his first All-Star game appearance.

2012 Bowman Chrome Josh Bell Gold Refractor #/50

This is card is, for the time being, the crown jewel of my ever-growing "Pirates Gold Room." AKA, my collection of Pirates Gold Refractors. The scan didn't quite do this card justice - but it's gold, and it's shiny, and I love it. I've been looking to get my hands on this card for quite some time. There were a few listings on eBay with pretty outrageous prices. Finally a seller came through a totally undercut his competition (by about half the price) and I was right there to scoop it up. Win/win.

2020 Topps Heritage 2020 Rookie Stars Yordan Alvarez / Aristides Aquino

2019 Donruss Devin Bush Red Press Proof

These two came my way via PWE from Max at Starting Nine. I won't be buying any Heritage packs this year so anything I'll be acquiring will be via single card purchase or trade. I was reading through Max's post about opening ripping Heritage and the Alvarez/Acquino caught my eye. I think both of these guys are for real. I'm pretty sure I'll be watching Aquino terrorize the Bucs for years to come. I had some random team set needs for Max, and we cooked a up a PWE trade quickly. The Bush rookie was a surprise - and an awesome one at that. Thanks Max, this was a pleasure!

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!