June and July Mail Roundup

At this rate, this blog is amounting to monthly "Mail Roundup" posts, which will have to do for now. Life is getting very busy, and I'm starting to learn how much free time I was granted during my quarantine-life. Life is back to normal (for now) and it really has been tough to sit down and write.

It's still better than the blog dying all together.  I think writers in the blogging community put a lot of pressure on themselves to write consistently and often. Two years ago I made the commitment to write one post a month, and I've more or less stayed true to that, and frankly it's something I'm proud of. 

The other good news is, while I'm having a hard time getting in front of the computer to write, I'm still collecting at a decent pace and I'm making it a point to carve out time for my hobbies, and I've had some fun maildays that are worth showing off here. And, since I missed a post in June, I'm back to round up two months worth of card mail.

Bryan Reynolds - 2020 Topps Chrome

(L) Sepia

(R) Negative

Some exciting news, I've decided to chase after the 2020 Topps Chrome Bryan Reynolds rainbow, and I've gotten off to a nice start. I did the same for Reynold's 2019 Topps Chrome Rookie Card (and since that post, I landed the super), and I'm still one card away from wrapping up that rainbow. 

It's been about a year since the release of 2020 Topps Chrome, and I certainly did not help myself by waiting. I haven't seen anything lower than the gold #/50 listed on eBay or COMC. Aside from two Pirates collectors who each have one of the Orange #/25, there is no trace of anything out there that I need. At this point I'll just hope that a big breaker does a 100 case break of 2020 Topps Chrome and maybe some of these will surface...

Until then, here's what I've got so far:

(L) X-Fractor

(C) Prism Refractor

(R) Refractor

(L) Blue #/299

(C) Purple #/199

(R) Pink

(L) Gold Wave #/50

(R) Green Wave #/99

The best part about building this rainbow: Bryan Reynolds cards are pretty dang affordable. Don't forget that this dude was the starting Center Fielder  for the National League All-Star team this year. 

Some more Buccos:

Nick Gonzales - 2020 Bowman Draft Refractor

I'll wager that you'll see a lot more of Nick Gonzales on this blog in the future. Since last posted about him in May, he has moved from the #32 prospect in baseball to #29.  This is my second copy of this card, and I'll likely grab a few more. He has been playing this season in High-A, and I imagine we'll see him rise through the ranks quickly next year. 

Travis Swaggerty - 2018 Bowman Draft Gold Refactor #/50

Another top prospect in the Pirates system, Travis Swaggerty. Excited to pick up my first gold refractor of his. 

Elijah Hughes - 2020 Panini Contenders Draft Picks Autograph #89

Elijah Hughes - 2020 Panini Contenders Draft Picks Autograph Variation #89 

Grabbed a two autos from Elijah Hughes, one of the best Syracuse guards in recent memory. These were a few bucks apiece. Both cards are #89 on the checklist, so one of these is a variation but I honestly don't know which is which. 

A few more hoops cards:

(L) LeBron James - 2009-10 Panini "The Franchise" Insert, Artist Proof #/199

(R) Kobe Bryant - 2009-10 Panini Artist Proof #/199

The two cards above actually came as a lot, and therefore I think I got a fair deal on them. Lots are typically not advised for sellers hoping to maximize profit, so I feel good about snagging these as a package.

(L) Kobe Bryant - 2018-19 NBA Hoops Silver #/199

(C) LeBron James 2016-17 NBA Hoops Silver #/99

(R) LeBron James 2017-18 NBA Hoops Silver #/199

In the May Mail Roundup, I talked about how I'm hoarding LeBron serial numbered cards. I'm doing the same with Kobe. There's not a specific strategy behind this. Both of these guys are legends, and some day I'd love to have a box full of short printed cards of two of the best players of all time. Maybe it will bring back great memories. Maybe it will pay for my kid's tuition. Who knows. 

That's it for this month. It was another great month of card mail. Thanks for following along.

May Mail Roundup

Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day Weekend. I've been enjoying some quiet time off of work. I'm able to do that thanks to the brave men and women who fight to keep us safe, and I'm very grateful for that. 

With a quiet Sunday at home, I was able to get catalogue all of the cards I acquired in May - let's take a look:

Christian Pache - 2021 Bowman 1991 Chrome Throwback - Gold #/50

Readers of the blog know I have a soft spot for gold refractors. I'm also a huge fan of the 1991 bowman throwbacks, which I personally think look great in chrome. I picked this up through a Twitter sale. Christian Pache has the tools to be a star, but he's got a a long way to go to get there.

(L) Nick Gonzales - 2020 Bowman's Best Autograph

(R) Quinn Priester - 2019 Bowman's Best Autograph

In another Twitter purchase, I grabbed two Pirates prospect autographs in one deal. I haven't been collecting many autographs these days, so it was nice to pick up two top prospects at a reasonable price. This is my first auto from Gonzales - more to come on him...

Bryan Reynolds - 2016 Bowman Draft

Mitch Keller - 2019 Topps - Gold #/2019

I have several copies of Bryan Reynold's first Bowman card from 2016, and I'll take even more copies when I see them on TCDB. I might be weird, but I love having multiple copies of my favorite cards.

(L) Wil Crowe - 2017 Bowman Draft

(C) Travis Swaggerty - 2018 Bowman Draft

(R) Quinn Priester - 2019 Bowman Draft 

On the subject of first Bowman cards, I grabbed a several from the same TCDB trade in which I acquired the Reynolds and Keller cards. Wil Crowe is enjoying his first season in the majors as we speak. Several injuries in the rotation at the big league level expedited Crowe's timeline, and he's been so-so. The arm talent is there, but he's struggled with efficiency. 

(L) Nick Gonzales - 2020 Bowman Draft

(R) Nick Gonzales - 2020 Bowman Draft Chrome Refractor

Nick Gonzales, the #7 overall pick in the 2020 draft, is the Pirates top prospect. He currently sits as the #32 prospect in the MLB. It will be a another year or two before we see him, but his elite hands and bat speed have generated plenty of excitement among scouts and Pirates fans alike. 

I acquired the paper base card on the left from a TCDB trade, and the chrome refractor was another Twitter sale. The refractor scanned in a really cool way with that shimmer look - but it's just a standard base refractor.

Luka Doncic - 2017-18 NBA Hoops RC

Believe it or not, I actually pulled off a TCDB trade for this Luka rookie. I was sent a trade by a gentleman in Texas for a few Astros cards. I noticed he had this for trade (a rare sight) and we negotiated for a bit. I ended up sending him a great haul, including two Altuve rookies. It was a win-win, and by far by highest value TCDB trade. I'm really, really stoked to add this to my collection.

2019-20 NBA Hoops - Darius Bazley RC

My last TCDB trade piece is this Darius Bazley rookie. Bazley and I have a very rocky past, but we're on better terms now. He was committed to Syracuse back in 2018, and would have been one of our most highly-touted recruits since Carmelo Anthony. I believe he was #9 recruit in the country. 

Several months after his commitment, he decided to skip college and play a year in the G-League. He was one of the first players to do so, and blazed a trail for many young amateurs who are doing the same in his wake. It's been a few years and I'm finally starting to allow some forgiveness. Bazley has found a nice little role with OKC, and I'm happy for him. Maybe soon I can forgive him for good. 

2020-21 NBA Hoops - LeBron James Premium Stock #/199

2019-20 NBA Hoops - LeBron James Premium Stock #/199

LeBron James - 2009-10 Panini Studio Masterstrokes - Proof #/199

I've developed somewhat of a LeBron James PC of late - I've been trying to grab as many short printed cards of his as I can. After watching the boom of Jordan cards earlier this year, I started to wonder if the same thing will happen with LeBron in 20 years. If it does, it would be really cool to have a bunch of short printed, serial numbered cards in a dusty old box somewhere. 

Not to mention, I'm a closet LeBron fan. I say "closet" because I sort of just... admire him from afar. I was definitely annoyed by his move to Miami in 2012, but that was a long time ago, and we all would have done the same thing in his shoes. The number of LeBron haters that exist present day really surprises me. Then again, I think Jordan had his fair share of haters in the 90's too. LeBron, to me, is the ideal role model. The dude is seriously squeaky clean. He's not a criminal and he's not a cheater. He's a great teammate, a great family man, and he's done a ton for his community. He's also a winner.

Anyhow - about the cards -  I grabbed three LeBron cards, all numbered to 199. Anything that's a shorter print is likely out of my price range. All were bought on eBay. I'm not being too picky about the product or the year, I'd love to get a variety. I don't have a specific number of cards or a target I'm shooting for - I'll just keep grabbing these until I get bored with it. It's been a fun chase so far. 

Thanks for stopping by, Happy MDW!

The Knicks are in the Playoffs

It's been eight years since I've been able to say those words. It feels great. I was hoping to get this post up prior to the series start, but I'm a little late and the Hawks already have a 1-0 lead. Last night's loss was brutal, it really felt like the Knicks were in control starting in the middle of the third quarter. A would-be turnover eluded R.J. Barrett, and it turned into a momentum-swinging three pointer by Bogdan Bogdanovic with 55 seconds remaining. 

Despite the loss, it was still thrilling to watch the Knicks in the postseason. No one, myself included, expected the Knicks to finish over .500 or contend for a playoff spot. The Knicks truly are playing with house money, and I keep reminding myself of that. I'm also very optimistic about Game Two at MSG on Wednesday night. The home court advantage is very real, and I don't see them losing two straight at home. 

The blog crowd seems to be 75% baseball fans, so I try to keep my basketball posting to a minimum. This is a special occasion. My Knicks PC is pretty small, mostly because we haven't many players worth collecting. It seems like the leadership in place has a plan to win, and the team is becoming more collectible.

My scanner is jacked up, so we'll have to settle for cell phone photos today:

R.J. Barrett - 2019-20 NBA Hoops RC

Julius Randle is undoubtedly the star and the leader of the team, but I believe that the team goes as R.J. goes. Randle has been attracting a ton of attention from opposing defenses and it frees up a lot of space for other scorers. There are plenty of solid role players, but R.J. has star potential. 

The remainder of my R.J. rookie cards - I have at least one copy from most major releases, aside from Prizm.

I also have a few R.J. cards from 2019-20 Prizm Draft. The middle card is a Purple Refractor, and the card on the right is a Green and Yellow Prizm, #/249.

Immanuel Quickley - 2020-21 NBA Hoops RC

The jury is still out on the the Knicks first first-round pick in the 2020 draft - Obi Toppin - but it certainly looks like they hit on their second first-round pick, Immanuel Quickley. I watched every game this dude played in at Kentucky, and I was hyped when the Knicks grabbed him. He put together a stellar rookie year and finished fifth amongst rookies in scoring. 

There's no rhyme or reason from here on out - I'm just going to show off some cards at random. Alonzo Trier is out of the league, but he made a nice little splash with the Knicks in 2018-19, and Panini printed the sh*t out of his rookie cards. The Randle and Mitch-Rob cards are blue velocity parallels from 2019-20 Donruss Optic. They are sweet looking with the matching team colors. 

Some random rookies - the Shumpert is #/599. The Gallo card is cool - he got a nice start to his career with the Knicks, but he's made more of a name for himself elsewhere.

I pulled the Kadeem Allen autograph out of a retail pack last year, which was cool. I didn't love him as a player - he was one of those guys that probably belonged in the G-League, but stuck around the big league roster to help with the tank. 

I traded for the Toppin rookie on TCDB, and I've had the David Lee auto in my PC for a long time. He was a favorite of mine back in the late 2000's when he was a lone bright spot for the Knicks. One year, he averaged 20 ppg and earned himself an All-Star nod. I was happy for him when had sustained success with the Warriors and went on to win a ring in 2015. 

A selection of my childhood heroes - all of those are pack-pulled by me in the 90's. Gotta love the Allan Houston insert. 

I don't have much 'Melo - but here are a few. 

Finishing up with some more randoms. Looks like I got the wrong Antetokounmpo, but still fun to see that name on a card. 

Thanks for stopping by. Here's to hoping that the Knicks can bounce back on Wednesday night and make a series out of it.

The Bucs Stop Here: Top 10 Cards Acquired in 2020

Time for the yearly recap of my top cards of the year! It was a great year of card collecting for me, with lots of spare time to organize, sell, trade, and add to the PC.

I've been pretty lousy at posting on the blog lately, but I've been really active with collecting which is the bigger half the battle. I've been selling some higher-end stuff and building up funds to go for some larger PC items. If I'm not posting and I'm not actively collecting, that's when I get away from the hobby and that sucks. 

I did a top ten post last year and had lot of fun with it. I probably handled more cards this year than ever before, so it was tough to narrow it down to ten, but here we go:

Number Ten

Carmelo Anthony/Ron Artest - 2005-06 Bowman Beginnings Relic

Acquried via: TCDB trade

This is definitely the goofiest card of the ten, but I really love it. I acquired this the other day via a fun TCDB trade. My trade partner sent me another 'Melo jersey card as well as Chris Paul Rookie. In return I sent a random assortment of Bowman baseball and football set needs, most of which were short printed. It was an awesome trade. I don't formally collect Carmelo cards, but he falls into the Syracuse Alum category and I have a small stash of his stuff. It's so random to see him on a card with Ron Artest, of all people. The Pacers pinstripe is the icing on the cake.

Number Nine

Bryan Reynolds - 2020 Topps Chrome Future Stars Insert Gold #/50

Acquired via: eBay Purchase

When I saw that Bryan Reynolds had a Future Stars insert, I was pretty excited. I can't remember the last time a Pirates player appeared in this set, let alone my favorite player. I was lucky to pull the base version out of a pack. If you're a regular reader, you know I had find a gold parallel. It took a while for one to show up on eBay, but when once it did I was all over it. Reynolds had a pitiful 2020 season, so his cards have become more affordable and this didn't cost much. 

Number Eight

Fernando Tatis Jr. - 2019 Topps RC

Acquired via: eBay Purchase

One of my better habits is holding onto some unopened boxes. I have a great stash of sealed boxes, and one of the gems is a pair of 2019 Topps Series 2 blasters. Their value is higher than ever, and I'm contemplating selling them. I'm still undecided, but I hate the idea of selling away a great a chance at Fernando Tatis Jr.'s true rookie. We're all hunting the next Mike Trout, and we may never see that. But, if anyone is going to close, it might be this guy. He's the real deal. To help alleviate the potential sting of selling the blasters, I made decided to buy a single. I think it was only about $30. Baseball cards are much cheaper in offseason, and his type has already died off as everyone is looking for NEXT hot rookie already.

Number Seven

Javier Baez - 2015 Bowman Chrome RC Auto #/500

Acquired via: eBay Purchase

It's not often that I hunt for an autograph for a Pirates-nemesis. The Pirates suck, so it makes the rivalry less bitter, if you ask me. I love Javy Baez's game and I wanted to add a sweet card of his to my collection. So, I did! 

Number Six

2019-20 NBA Hoops Ja Morant RC

Acquired via: eBay Purchase

I believe Morant to be the best player in the 2019-20 draft. I like Zion, and I'm rooting for him, but I think Ja is the guy. It's a crazy-loaded draft class and there are about a dozen other players that are already having great sophomore campaigns, so the best player may very well be someone NOT named Zion or Ja. Time will tell.

Back before the hobby got crazy, I opened a good amount of 2019-20 Prizm and Optic. I pulled Ja rookies from both... and of course sold them. The return seemed to be good to pass up for base cards. Well, a year later, their value has tripled. Woof.

I felt some sellers remorse and wanted a Ja rookie back in collection, but I'm wasn't willing to pay obscene prices for a base rookie. I settled for the consolation prize - NBA Hoops. Hoops is one of my favorite basketball releases, and it's become a good budget option in an insane card market. If Prizm is Ferrari and Optic is Mercedes, Hoops is Honda. Old reliable.

Number Five

Bryan Reynolds - 2019 Topps Chrome Update Gold Auto #/50 - Graded PSA 10

Acquired via: eBay Purchase

We're now over the halfway point and the cards are getting juicy. This card is about as close to perfection as you can get. It's my favorite player and it's an autograph. It's from my favorite set, and it's my favorite color parallel. To top it all off, it's a perfect 10/10. I overpaid for this, big time, but it will be a permanent centerpiece in my Reynolds collection.

Number Four

Derek Jeter - 1993 Topps Gold

Acquired via: Purchase from friend liquidating collecting

This card is a classic. A good friend of mine recently went through his childhood collection and sold off anything of value. He's not much a collector these days, and I helped him valuate some of his cards and liquidate his collection. I had wanted to add a Jeter rookie to my collection for a while and this was one of the cards he was selling. He gave me a fair deal. It's not Mint, but it's in good shape and it's one of the rare times I got buy a card off of a friend. A great memory for me.

Number Three

LeBron James/Kobe Bryant - 2003 Skybox Autographics

Acquired via: Twitter Purchase

This card is so awesome. It's technically a LeBron Rookie, and he's paired with the late great Kobe Bryant. This card features two of the three best players in the history of the game, IMO. My only gripe with the cards is the wholesomely unnecessary Skybox logo that gashes across the middle of the card.  Aside from that, it's flawless.

Number Two

Andrew McCutchen - 2005 Bowman's Best RC Gold #/50

Acquired via: Trade with Collecting Cutch

Huge, huge shoutout to Collecting Cutch for sending this my way. This card is. So. Badass.  It is the centerpiece of my Cutch collection, and no better way to acquire it than from the King of Cutch himself.

Number One

Bryan Reynolds - 2019 Topps Chrome Update Superfractor #1/1 - BGS Graded 9.5

Acquired via: eBay Purchase

Making it's blog debut, my favorite card. Yes. I did it. I acquired the card I never thought I would, Bryan Reynold's Topps Chrome Rookie Superfractor. I have been chasing the rainbow of this card, but from the jump I automatically assumed that I would never see the Super. It sold on eBay very shortly after the product it shelves. I set up an eBay saved search and I was floored when it surfaced for a .99 cent auction. There was no way I was losing. Admittedly, I paid a lot for this card. But this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I knew if I missed it I'd never see it again. 

As for the grade, it's a nice bonus. I don't understand why anyone feels the need to grade a superfactor. In my mind, grading cards is a way of separating a card from it's identical peers, if you will. But a superfractor has no peers. It's a one of a kind. Why grade it? 

Regardless, I'm extremely pleased that it came back as a Gem Mint 9.5. Even better, it has 9.5's across the board on the subgrades. I think anything less would have been a disappointment. It's also nice to have it secured and encased.

Getting this card is a big deal to me. In the past, if you asked me to pick a favorite card in my collection, it would have been tough for me to answer. Now, I can confidently and proudly answer that question.

That's all for the year 2020. Thanks so much for stopping by, and here's a great year of collecting in 2021!

7 Day Trading Card Challenge: Day Seven

Today’s challenge: Best hobby trend to emerge this year

As much as I’ve enjoyed showing off many of my favorite cards, I’m equally excited to get into a philosophical discussion that I imagine will vary greatly from blog to blog. I feel like my selection might be very polarizing and I’m hoping it sparks some conversation. 

My favorite hobby trend to emerge in the past 12 months is the re-emergence of the valuable rookie base card.

I have been collecting as an adult since 2013. In the 6+ years of collecting, I have not seen nearly the demand for base rookie cards that I have witnessed in 2019-2020.  The two easy examples that come to mind are the Zion Williamson base card in 2019-20 Panini Prizm, and the Jasson Dominguez base cards in 2020 Bowman. 

What this craze has created, in my opinion, is an added value when purchasing retail products. It’s also made them much harder to find, which is a negative side effect, and I think the reason that some may disagree with my choice. To me, it’s worth it. For years, I was buying retail products with the hope of pulling some Pirates, some cards to trade, and in a perfect world, a nice hit or some young rookies that have promise and could develop into stars.  

Keep in mind that I’m not a set-builder. I think many of us buy packs in order to get a nice start on building a set. I am devoid of that motivation, but I still love ripping packs, and having the chance to pull some instant value out of a blaster box is pretty damn appealing to me. And the best part is, we’re talking about base cards here! These cards are no more rare or difficult to find than other card in the set. 

I know the love for the rookie card has always been there, but I think it’s near an all-time high. I also think this is a sign of the beginning of the decline of a trend that was huge over the past ten years – the trend of “hit” based products. i.e. products that offered autographs and memorabilia cards with few base cards.  I’m as guily as anyone of having fell victim to the trend. I purchased many of those products and chased many autographs. I still do, to a degree, but not like I used to.

Anyhow, I’m hoping I’m onto something here. I hope hit-based collecting trends decline in favor of more traditional products. It seems like many of the most valuable cards being put out there recently are rookie base cards, not “hits,” and that's pretty cool to me. 

I’m really curious to hear others and I’m hoping to hear your thoughts in the comments. Have you enjoyed seeing the rebound is rookie base card value? Do you love it like me? Do you hate it? Have you not noticed? Let’s hear it!

Mailday: Bump and Run

In April I posted about joining TCDB and how I've been having a lot of fun with it early on. I've been a member for about two months now and I've already completed eight trades. All of the trades were PWE swaps and almost all of them consist of me sending a set-builder some set needs, and them sending me Pirates rookies in return. In a nutshell, TCDB has become a way for me to hoard Pirates rookie cards via trade and I'm totally cool with that.

After seeing my April post, Trevor at Bump and Run Cards shot me a note about trading for some of my 2020 Opening Day cards. He came across me on TCDB and we worked out the trade through there, which saves us a ton of back-and-forth emailing. He helped me continue my journey in hoarding Pirates rookies but moreso helped me add to my Steelers PC.

(L) Le'Veon Bell - 2016 Score

(C) Le'Veon Bell - 2017 Panini Prestige Phenomenal Athletes Insert

(R) Le'Veon Bell - 2013 Panini Prizm RC

Lots of great to stuff to unpack from the cards above. I'm still a Le'Veon Bell fan and I still collect him. I'll admit that I was annoyed by his contract shenanigans two years ago... then Antonio Brown happened and it made Le'Veon look like saint. How quickly we forget. I was shocked to see that his Prizm rookie card was from 2013 - I can't believe that he'll be going into his seventh year in the league this year. That flew by. I think he still has some juice left in the tank but he plays for Jets, where careers go to die.

(L) T.J. Watt - 2018 Panini Rookies and Stars RC

(C) Terrel Edmunds - 2018 Donruss Elite Terrell Edmunds RC #/699

(R) Bud Dupree - 2015 Donruss RC

I picked off another three rookies from Trevor's For Trade list. While Watt and Dupree are the stars, my favorite card here is the Edmunds card. It's short printed to 699 and has a really nice foil finish to it. I'm still high on Edmunds, although after two years of mediocre-at-best performance, he's entering potential bust territory.

Trevor is the opposite of most of us: A football collector with a side collection of baseball. It seems that it's usually the other way around. Judging by these two cards, he still rips some modern baseball products and I'm happy to be on the receiving end of another pair of Pirates rookies.

Thanks for the trade, Trevor!

2013-14 Panini Crusade Hobby Box Break

I promise you; I'm not that guy that takes his took his stimulus check and blew it on cards. I'm very fortunate to still have my job, and although the current state of affairs will likely have some sort of long-term affect on my career, I'm secure right now. I'd be lying if I said the stimulus didn't play a small part in the splurge on a hobby box... but I probably would have pulled the trigger on this anyhow but maybe the extra capital helped take away the guilt.

I'm not sure what the MSRP on these boxes was when they launched, but this puppy set me back $200 from Blowout. For what basketball hobby boxes cost these days, that's on the low end. The price is reasonable because the 2013 rookie class is absolutely atrocious. 2013 was the Anthony Bennett year, so uh, rough from the very first pick. Seven years later, there are only three players from that draft that have made an All-Star team: Victor Oladipo, Rudy Gobert, and one Giannis Antetokounmpo. 

No slight to 'Dipo and Gobert, but this draft is now about one player and one player only, and that's Giannis. The shot at hitting a Giannis Rookie brings some real intrigue to this product for me. 

Each box promises one autograph and one memorabilia card. More importantly to me, it includes 18 Crusade cards which is what draws me in. That's roughly a one in 15 shot at a super badass Giannis Rookie. Not great, but there are bigger long shots out there. 

The Crusade cards are really appealing to me and they're the driving force behind the fun of this product. I've always gotten the feel that the low-numbered Crusade cards are often more sought after than most of the autographs in this set and that's a refreshing change of pace. The Crusade inserts came into existence right around the time that Panini Prizm started to get really big. The way I remember it, way back around 2012-2014, these cards were actually hotter than Panini Prizm. They were Prizm before Prizm, if you will.

On to the break:

Starting out with the base design. I'm not that big of a fan of this design. It's a bit busy. I like the 2012-13 design much more. Lucky for me, I'm not buying this Crusade for the base cards. Not complaining with the two names represented here, however!

Knight Court and Royalty are two of the various inserts. Again, busy and unimpressive, so let's get to the good stuff...

Ahhhh. The scanner does these cards a lot of justice, but I swear they're even prettier in person. Out of my 18 Crusade cards, 11 were of the blue variety which are the base design. Any other colors are serial numbered parallels. Pictured above are eight of my 11 blues. Anthony Davis in the top right is the highlight on a really solid second-year card. You'll notice some retired greats in there as well - the "Retired" checklist has 50 NBA Greats and Hall of Famers.

Red parallels showed up with two retired greats. These parallels are numbered /349. The retired checklist is heavy on Hall of Famers, but isn't exclusive to HOFers as we see Glen Rice pop in. Rice is well remembered for his All-Star seasons with the Heat the Hornets, but I'll always remember him as a Knick for one year in the early 2000's.

I pulled four Teal Crusade parallels, which are numbered /249. The highlight here is definitely Yao Ming backing down an invisibly opponent who is undoubtedly shorter than him. Yao was three years retired in 2013, and this set was released two years before he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

Fun fact: Did you know Yao is only 39 years old right now? 

The last parallel that I pulled is this sweet Khris Middleton purple parallel, numbered /49. Not the Milwaukee Buck I was hoping for but I'll take it. He's a two-time All-Star and one of the most-under-the-radar stars in the NBA. He'll never be the first option on the Bucks as long as Giannis is there but there's a reason the bucks have signed him to a 5 year deal... twice.

My first hit, a Michael-Kidd Gilchrist patch #/299 and rocking a Bobcats jersey. Definitely an underwhelming pul in 2020, knowing what we do about MKG's career. If this was pulled upon the release of this product it might have been a different story. A former #2 overall pick and a guy that many thought would easily pan out to be perennial All-Star.

And finally: The crown jewel of the break. I was floored when I flipped this over to see a beautiful on-card autograph from one of the best to ever play the game.

And how sweet is it that he signs his name "Abdul Jabbar."!?

I really wasn't expecting much from the autograph in this break. This comes from the "Sultans of Springfield" checklist which features 25 Hall of Famers. I feel like you always see those checklists when buying, but you know in your heart you'll have no shot. I took a look over the rookie checklist - which yes, has Giannis - but it also has the likes of Shabazz Muhammad, Alex Len, Shane Larkin, and so on. I had already accepted my fate of pulling one of them. 

Coincidentally, I was also on Twitter today and saw some rumors that Panini is no longer honoring expired redemptions. Painini hasn't issued an official statement on the matter but there were some tweets from an alleged Panini employee with an unverified account. I'm 50/50 on believing it so take it for what you will.  Of course I stumbled upon these Tweets a day after buying this box, so I was all but certain I would be pulling an expired redemption. Luck was on my side today. All things considered, this break turned out to be a lot of fun - everything I was hoping for aside from a Giannis rookie of course!

I'll tell you what - I certainly wasn't expecting to be adding a signature from the NBA's all-time leader scorer to my collection, so I'm grateful.