Box Break and Review: 2019-20 Panini NBA Hoops Premium Stock Hybrid Box

The Pirates are not a good baseball team right now. They're fully committing to a rebuild and I'm OK with it. They're trading away their major league talent for very young prospects, so there's not a ton for me to chase in the baseball world. Couple that with the fact that the card market staying red hot, and it's caused me to spend most of January "hobby time" selling as opposed to buying cards. 

As my cards funds have built up, I wanted to treat myself. In a shameless effort to continue milking the 2019 rookie class, Panini decided to re-release 2019-20 NBA Hoops during the 2020-21 season with a new product called NBA Hoops Premium Stock. It's NBA Hoops as we know it with two changes: New photography, and a chrome finish.

I'm a sucker for chrome, and NBA Hoops is one of my favorite basketball products. I had my eye a box of this for a while, and was excited to get a decent-enough price on Blowout to pull the trigger on a "Hybrid" box, aka, a Hobby Box.

Each Hybrid box only contains 24 cards. There are no guaranteed autos, which is unusual for a hobby box, but Hoops has never been an autograph-centric product. In this instance I'm totally OK with it. A guaranteed auto would jack up the price, and there's a 99% chance I'd pull a no-name.

One thing I love about the Hybrid boxes is that all of the cards are Flash parallels, pictured above. They pop off the card a little more than the standard chrome and have a rainbow refractor glean to them, along with the north-south striping. These are your "base cards" for a Hybrid box, but they are not true base cards. The true base cards exist in the retail products and have more a standard chrome finish. Think: Topps Chrome.

Here's an example of the standard chrome from eBay:

Here are all of my veteran base cards:

Getting just 24 cards isn't ideal, but the fact that that all cards are guaranteed to be Flash parallels is cool. No one too notable here except SGA.

While we're looking at the veteran base cards, I'll take the time to point out a major printing flaw that unfortunately made an appearance in my box. See the image above, and notice the lines that I circled in red. Those thick solid lines on the border of these four cards are not supposed to be there. They're so well centered in the middle of the card that at first glance, they almost look as if they're part of the design. Sadly, they are not.

To be fair, I was warned about these flaws prior to purchasing. I saw some pictures on Twitter that showed some of the print flaws. I got the box anyway and figured "It won't happen to me!" And of course it did. Live and learn.

Here we see the Flash Red parallels. Cool to pull a Knick, would be better to pull a Knick that plays more than 0.0 minutes per game.

This one is my favorite of the three Reds. The Tribute cards are part of the base set, but have a nice throwback design. Sweet picture of Iverson.

I pulled one Green Flash parallel, which is numbered to /99. 

I also pulled a Purple Flash parallel, numbered to /35. I'm excited that it's a rookie. Quinndary Weatherspoon certainly wouldn't be my first choice for a short printed rookie, but I'll gladly take it. The Spurs have done a fantastic job of developing young players lately - Keldon John and Lonnie Walker come to mind - so this could be a good card to stash away.

Each box promises two Silvers. Both of mine were vets.

Here are my rookies. Kabengele and Schofield are still waiting to see some real minutes. Alexander-Walker has worked his way into the Pelicans rotation and has been a solid role player for them this season.

The Wizards suck, but one of their bright spots is their young forward, Rui Hachimura. He's awesome and this is a sweet card.

This one definitely felt good. Zion is undoubtedly one of the guys you want to see when opening a 2019-20 basketball product, and this card alone makes the break worth it for me. For a while, hitting a Zion meant the card went straight to eBay to help reimburse your box/pack purchase. Selling this on eBay today would earn me back about 25-30% of my purchase price, and that's not worth it to me. I think we're transitioning into "hold" territory with Zion. 

And you know why it's best to hold? Because Zion isn't the hot new thing anymore. He's not a prospect. Therefore the value of his cards is declining. The hilarious part is, the dude is actually panning out. Remember all that hype around him? Well, it's actually happening!! The hype was real! He's 19th in the league in PPG, 30th in RPG, and 9th in FG% - in what is essentially his first full season. Better yet, he's been fully healthy and hasn't any injury concerns. He has a real chance to be an All-Star this year.

But, he's not a rookie anymore! He's not the next big thing! So no one cares about him anymore. I think I'll hang onto this one for a while.

Each box promises one Rookie Photo Variation per box, which is an enticing offer since the rookie class is so loaded. Here's mine. Doumbouya hasn't seen a ton of minutes for Detroit but at least he's a consistent part of their bench rotation. Detroit is bad - very bad - so I hope they'll give him a bigger role and to see what they have in him. 

REVIEW:

Overall Design: The Hoops design is always clean, and this year is no different. The new photography and chrome finish only add to the appeal for me, and I really love the Flash parallels.

The Hits: No guaranteed autographs or memorabilia products. Hits will come in the form of short printed parallels. You could also make an argument that the top rookies are hits. With a good amount of color and a loaded rookie class, there's plenty to chase here.

Positives: Card design, checklist, array of parallels. 

Negatives: Potential printing lines on cards, no guaranteed hits, recycled product/money grab by Panini.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10. This is a really fun product. There's no question that Panini is "pulling a Topps" here, if you will, by slapping a new card stock on an existing product. I'm not upset about it. In this case, they took a product I already love and made it better. I was leaning towards a rating of 9 out of 10, but the print lines are definitely a real problem and seem to be relatively common. That earned a half point deduction. Otherwise, there aren't any major drawbacks. It's not a perfect product, but it's pretty awesome. It's definitely expensive, but compared to other 2019-20 basketball products it's actually pretty affordable. Grab it if you have the means.

Thanks for reading!

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!

2020 Topps Chrome Black Hobby Box Break AND REVIEW!

It's been a while since I've written a product review, so let's throw it back and give it a shot.

Topps Chrome is my favorite baseball release each year. When I heard about Topps Chrome Black, I was interested to take a look. Initially I was a little disappointed to see that each box would only contain four cards - one encased autograph, one refractor, and two base cards.

Despite my disappointment, plainly stated, I am sucker. Especially for new products. I set a calendar reminder in my phone for the product release, and logged on Topps website when the boxes went live. I went in with pretty low expectations. For those of you that have tried to buy products direct from Topps, you'll know that it can be a dreadful process. When I was able to add a box to my cart, I started to get my hopes up. A few more clicks on the screen and my payment processed. My confirmation email hit my inbox. My box was on it's way. 

A few days later, it arrived. At this point my disappointment in the checklist had dissolved and I was just thankful to have gotten my hands on a box at MSRP.

Fancy packaging! Topps has clearly invested some effort into making this product appear to be high end.

To my surprise, the encased autograph was not wrapped. It just sits under the pack of three cards. That's not a problem, I guess it's just not what I was expecting. Naturally I moved the pack aside and checked out the encased autograph. I found myself to be the lucky recipient of an on-card auto from one Domingo Leyba. 

I'll be honest, I had never heard of the guy. I had to look him up, and all I learned is that he's played in less than 25 big league games, and that he was suspended for the entire 2020 season due to PED use. Sweet!

I'm not crazy about the autograph card design. The good ol' "make a big white space where the autograph goes" design is just garbage. Since the cards are, ya know... black... there's no other option. The white diagonal gash across the card just isn't cute. 

*It's worth noting that the autograph checklist is pretty solid.* There are tons of great vets and Hall of Famers. Ichiro, Vlad Guerrero, A-Rod, Derek Jeter, Mike Trout, and so on. I think I may have pulled the single least desirable autograph on the checklist... such is life.

Now for the contents of the three card pack:

Going from left to right, we've got a Jake Fraley Green Refractor #/99, a Brendan McKay base rookie, and Mauricio Dubon base rookie. 

So... yeah, this could have gone better. Not exactly the names that you're hoping for. I'll look for some silver linings here: One, it's nice to pick up a rookie of Brendan McKay. He's an exciting prospect, as a pitcher with the potential to also DH. Two, the design on the refractor is sweet. Do I wish it were numbered lower than 99? Probably. Do I wish it were someone not named Jake Fraley? Perhaps. 

But I will say, the green-metallic background looks incredible. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, as the print material is not something I've really seen on a baseball card. Here's another look. I tried to catch it at an angle under the light:

The contrast with the matte black really makes it pop. It's not the usual refractor "foil" paper. It almost looks like the whole card is metal, even though it's not. 

REVIEW:

Overall Design: The base cards are fine, the refractors are absolutely awesome, and the autographs suck.

The Hits: Only 1 guaranteed autograph is tough for the price ($150 MSRP). The autograph checklist is very solid, but the card design is poor.

Positives: Refractors are gorgeous, autos are on card, autograph checklist has a great mix of stars.

Negatives: Only one autograph, autograph card design, only four cards per pack, price point.

Rating: 6 out of 10. Overall, pretty underwhelming. If I hit an Ichiro or Trout autograph, I'd probably be singing a slightly different tune, but my feelings about this product are pretty strong. The refractors are sexy, the base cards are meh, and it's overpriced. I had fun ripping the box but I'm not itching to get another one. Frankly this feels like another unnecessary release by Topps. If you rip a box, pray for a good autograph. Otherwise the buyer's remorse could set in quickly. 

Thanks for reading!

Busting a 2020 Topps Update Blaster

One of my favorite product releases of the year looks a little different this year. Update will deliver us rookie cards of some mid-season call-ups and other fun additions thanks to the expanded rosters and the postseason. This year, the checklist is definitely unspectacular due to the compromised season, so I wasn't sure that I'd be buying any Update this year.

On top of that, it’s impossible to find baseball cards in retail stores these days due to flippers. I don’t think Update is going to generate any massive resale margins for anyone… yet I’m sure there are hundreds of idiots out there giving it a go.

As I’ve said on this blog before: "Sports Card Twitter" can be a dodgy place. Although for every con, it has some pros, one of which being that it's a great to place to get “breaking news” on new products. There was a generous soul out there who pointed out that Walmart was selling 2020 Topps Update Blasters online. I must have seen it at the right time, because they were still in stock when I logged in. Walmart also offers free shipping so I was really happy with the deal. 

On to the cards:

What do you do when you’re desperate to fill a checklist? Make a million cards of the best player in the game, of course! Granted, these are “Active Leaders” cards, and Mike Trout is the active leader in a whole lot of things.

Due to the fact that there was no All-Star game this year, and in what appears to be another checklist-filling technique, Topps went back through some semi-recent All-Star games and honored some past All-Stars. I pulled the McCutchen in my first pack, I was delighted to see my man Cutch in a Pirates uniform. I’ll be honest, seeing him in any other jersey still looks odd to me. 

On the subject of the Pirates, these are my two Pirates pulls. Jarrod Dyson was horrible failed experiment replacement for Starling Marte. He hit maybe .150. He’s lightning fast and all that, and yes, it was fun to watch him track deep fly balls to the warning track. In September he was traded to the White Sox for international pool money, which the Pirates have already used to sign a teenage prospect. That’s actually a big win. 

Some more inserts.

As far as I can tell, these are Walmart blue parallels. They’re not serial numbered; I’m a little confused because they’re two different shades of blue.  It looks good – the Montgomery card has a royal Blue to match KC’s colors, and Arroyo’s card has the navy blue to match the Indians colors. They’re undoubtedly different than the base cards which have the plain grey in that side panel, but I'm not entirely sure what's happening here.

I ended up with seven Turkey Reds.

I pulled one rainbow parallel. I’m very lucky that it’s Bo Bichette’s Rookie Debut.  I’ve had a real knack for pulling Bo this year. This was my only pull that went straight into a sleeve and toploader.

Every blaster promises an exclusive player coin card:

A first-time Gold Glover! Joey Gallo is known primarily for hitting dingers. This year, the converted first baseman was the American League’s Gold Glove Winner in right field. He had 12 defensive runs saved, and he trailed only Nolan Arenado for the league lead. Pretty cool for a guy that’s known strictly for his power bat.

I’m not one for manufactured relics, memorabilia cards, commemorative coins, etc. This card is cheesy (and bulky) as heck. 

In what’s been a bizarre year, it felt good to rip a blaster of good ol’ Topps Update. Aside from the Bichette, all cards here are for trade. I also have 70+ base cards available. Feel free to drop a comment if you’re interested.

Thanks for stopping by!

September Mail Roundup

How many times have you read this on the blogosphere: I've been slacking on here over the past month. No excuses, just haven't gotten around to posting much. Despite my journalistic failures, I've made plenty of purchases and a few TCDB swaps. Time to show off some the highlights from September:

Derek Jeter - 1993 Topps RC

A good friend of mine was cleaning out some old possessions and came across a small card collection from his childhood. He hasn't collected in a long time and has no intentions of getting back in. He's an experienced eBay seller - so he was able to liquidate and make some money. While doing so, he gave me a good deal on this Jeter rookie. It's not an expensive card by any means - I think there are about a million copies of this card out there - but I'm super pumped to add this to my collection. It's my first Jeter rookie. I feel like it's almost a must-have for any baseball collector. 

 Eloy Jiminez - 2019 Topps Chrome RC Refractor

My first eBay pickup of the month. The White Sox were tons of fun this year,  and their young nucleus of players is firing on all cylinders. Their "window is open," and they've got a few great years ahead of them. Hitting in the middle of the lineup you'll find slugger Eloy Jiminez. His career is off to a blistering hot start. After hitting 31 homers his rookie year, he followed it up by hitting 14 homers and hitting .296 in 213 at bats. 

Eloy was the hot prospect last yearbut has since been eclipsed by fellow CWS outfielder Luis Robert. He's already been slept on, so I felt it was a great time to grab a nice rookie of his.

(L) Ke'Bryan Hayes  - 2015 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects - Chrome 

(R) Ke'Bryan Hayes  - 2015 Bowman Draft Picks and Prospects - Chrome Purple Refractor #/250

Ke'Bryan Hayes joined the Pirates big league roster this year, and as one of their top prospects, he did not disappoint. In just 24 games, he hit .376, played Gold Glove caliber defense, and had a WAR of 1.8. I really should dedicate an entire post to his season and I have plenty of his cards to show off. Hayes has the potential to be one of the best 3B in the league, although I fear his prime may be wasted with the Pirates inability to contend over the next several seasons. 

Gavin Lux - 2020 Topps Turkey Red

Acquired via TCDB trade. Lux is another exciting young rookie. I was able to add this in a counter-offer and my trade partner agreed.

Kyle Lewis - 2017 Bowman - Prospects Silver #/499

Also acquired via TCDB trade. Lewis was a surprising rookie this year and I was happy to pick up a cool prospect card of his.

Javier Baez - 2015 Bowman Chrome Rookie Autograph Refractor #/500

As a Pirates fan and Cubs-hater, this one pains me a little bit. When Baez first came up, his demeanor was a little triggering. After developing into a well-rounded and popular ball player, he's earned my respect. "Real recognize real," I suppose. Doesn't mean I'll root for the Cubs. 

Now onto some basketball...

Bam Adebayo - 2017 Donruss Optic Bam Adebayo RC Lime Green #/175

I had a blast watching the NBA finals, specifically watching the Heat make a really special run. I've been following Kentucky basketball closely since 2015, almost never missing a game. I liked Bam's game at UK, but I'll be honest, I didn't predict this kind of early success at the NBA level. In college he was very much a traditional big man, but he's done an exceptional job of adjusting his game to the NBA style. He's developed a great dribble-drive, a reliable jumper, and he's a good inside-out passer.

I actually acquired this card via a Twitter sale. For the record, I don't endorse buying cards on Twitter. I've been part of the Twitter-card community for a while now, so I have a decent eye for red flags and such. Even so, there are no real buyer protections and you could easily get burned. There are definitely some dodgy characters on there. The upside is that you can find some really great deals. Sellers love it because they can avoid the fees. I've made a handful of purchases via Twitter (less than 10) and never had a problem, but I hold my breath every time.

(L)  Ja Morant - 2019-20 Panini Contenders Draft Picks School Colors Insert

(R) Ja Morant - 2019-20 NBA Hoops RC

These two were part of one eBay sale. I went on looking for the just the Hoops base card, but the lowest priced BIN included the Contenders insert so I jumped on it. I think Morant is the best player last year's draft and I'm adamant that he'll have a better career than Zion Williamson. I don't want to spring for any of Ja's other rookies, so Hoops is a great middle ground.

2003 Skybox Autographics - LeBron James/Kobe Bryant Rookies Affirmed Insert

Saved the best for last. This was also acquired via Twitter, but not blindly. I had already traded with the seller through TCDB and I was very happy with our trade. The cards were sent quickly and packed well, and the purchase of this card was no different. This was a bigger purchase for Twitter and I probably wouldn't have done it if I wasn't familiar with the seller. 

This card is awesome. Two of the greatest players on one card . It's also from 2003, LeBron's rookie year, so we'll call it half of a rookie card. My only gripe is the gigantic Skybox logo across the middle of the card which doesn't make a ton of sense to me. We would have been way better without it.

 I have a nice little collection of both LeBron and Kobe and this will fit right in.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

"Set" Complete - 2017 Topps Chrome Purple Rookies

A long time coming. When I returned to blogging in July of last year, I set out several collecting goals -one of which was to put together a complete set of 2017 Topps Chrome Purple Parallels. These particular parallels are numbered #/299.

I actively pursued the set throughout the summer last year. I targeted rookies first as they're usually the toughest to find and most expensive. By October, I was feeling a little fatigue from chasing down the cards and decided to pivot and chase only the rookies.

Also last year, I wrote about chasing and eventually completing the 220 card 2013 Topps Chrome Blue Parallel set, with all cards #/199. Completing that set is, by far, my biggest collecting accomplishment to date. 2013 Topps Chrome is my favorite set ever. 2013 was the first year I got deep into collecting and the set has become sort of keepsake for me and a symbol of my love for this hobby.

As fun as it was... here's the rub: The 2013 project took me six years (granted, I had 219 out 220 cards in hand for over a year while I waited for the last card to surface).

Now, while I don't pursue these projects as an "investment," (HOBBY JAIL WORD!!) I'd be lying to if I said there isn't a degree of "prospecting" involved with this. By no means I am building these sets with the intention letting them appreciate and then selling. However - if one of these guys is the next Mike Trout, that would be awesome, and might help pay for my kids' tuition some day. Who knows. The point I'm making is, I'm more eager to collect the rookies than the vets, as those could really hold some value some day. For example, the 2013 set has rookie cards of Gerrit Cole, Nolan Arenado and Manny Machado. It also has Topps Rookie All-Star Gold Cup cards for Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. All short printed to 199. The Trout one is particularly valuable. 

I remembered collecting the 2013 set, and how I shelled out at least a dollar or two for every card. It was usually more than a few dollars, even the vets and no-name rookies. Alfredo Marte, Mike Kickham, Donald Lutz, Paco Rodrguez - any of these ring a bell? I probably paid $10 total for those four cards for the 2013 set. Multiply that across a 220 card set... that's a lot of money. Hence my decision to target just the rookies for the 2017 set.  Out of the 200 cards, only 44 are rookies. Much more doable!

I think setbuilders would agree that there's always that one elusive card. That was certainly the case for me - I have been sitting on 43 out of 44 cards for a year, almost to the day. I was able to gobble up a bunch of these quickly through COMC. But for damn reason, #59, Kyle Freeland, was no where to be found. Maybe there's a Kyle Freeland super-collector group that I don't know about. Nothing against him - he's put together an average-at-worst MLB career thus far - but not seeing his card surface for 365 straight days drove me bananas. 

Thanks to an eBay saved search, my heart skipped a beat when I finally laid eyes on the unicorn last week:

I was a little nervous because it was a .99 cent auction. But I set an alarm, dropped in with 30 seconds left in the auction, and dropped a max bid that was absurdly over market value. The card itself is probably worth a dollar or two, so the seller was probably pumped to get $6 for it. Paying 3-6x value isn't a habit of mine, but this card has quite literally become priceless to me.

Before checking out the cards, let's discuss the motivation behind the set:

Why Topps Chrome? It just happens to be my favorite release every year. I like that it's flagship but with a smaller checklist and a shiny finish.

Why 2017? *I'm going to sound like the dreaded card investor again for a minute* I really believe in this rookie class. Furthermore, I believe the timing is perfect. It seems that there is always a big lull in value somewhere between one to three years after a product release. The product launches, people pay crazy prices to jump all over the hot new rookies and the next Babe Ruth (whomever it might be that year), and then the price starts to slowly and steadily decline. Then, five or so years after the release, the players that actually pan out are getting into their late 20's, the prime years for a baseball player, and values jump again as they become perennial all-stars. 

Why Purple? This may surprise you a bit - but aside from orange (gross) and canary yellow, I don't think there's a worse color parallel for a baseball card. Give me red, blue, black, gold, pink, hell, even green - but purple usually looks silly unless it's a Rockies card. 

The draw for me is the short print to 299. The notion of knowing exactly how many copies of a card are in existence is such a fun concept to me. The purple #/299's are the highest short print that was offered in 2017, so I rolled with it. I looked into the blue #/150's, but they're a little too rich for my blood. What I'd really love is for standard refractors to be numbered #/500, or even #/1,000 and I'd go for those, but I don't make the rules.

Here's a look at the 44 card "complete set." Straight from my phone camera because I'm too lazy to scan them all:

And now let's talk about some highlights. When looking through each of the cards, I separated them into two different tiers:

Tier 1: Potential Hall of Famers:

#169 Aaron Judge

#79 Cody Bellinger

#9 Alex Bregman

Relax - I said potential Hall of Famers. I know it's early, but the tools are there.

Tier 2: Potential perennial All-Stars:

#47 Trey Mancini

#8 Dansby Swanson

#75 Yoan Moncada

#100 Benintendi

There's definitely room for debate here. Trey Mancini had a huge year last year, and flew largely under the radar because he plays in Baltimore. He was gearing up for another big year this year before being diagnosed with colon cancer in March. He recently finished chemotherapy and is expected to make a full recovery and be ready for the 2021 season. God bless! If there's a lesson to be learned here - his cancer was discovered due to low iron levels found during a routine physicals. Get a damn physical!

Dansby Swanson, I think, has highest ceiling out of anyone in the group due to his offensive presence and gold-glove caliber defense. Moncada's ceiling is right there with him, but his strikeout problem is, well, a problem. After setting an MLB record for strikeouts in 2018, he progressed beautifully in 2019 and hit .315, before taking another step back in 2020. Next year will be very telling for him.

Speaking of regression, how about Benintendi's 2020? Sheesh. He was awful for 14 games and then ended up injured. He'll need to have a big year in 2021 to remain relevant, but the raw talent is there.

#158 Josh Bell

#189 Tyler Glasnow

Of course you can't stop by The Bucs Stop Here without some Bucs stopping here. Both of these cards probably belong in Tier 2. Glasnow is, in my opinion, the single most exciting young pitcher in the MLB. He's 6'8, built like a catapult, throws 100+ and has a curveball that falls off a cliff. Sadly, because he plays in Tampa, he's terribly under-appreciated. There is a handful of of former Pirates that I still collect. He and his teammate Austin Meadows are part of that handful.

Josh Bell is also in the regression category, having a pretty weak 2020 after an getting an All-Star nod in 2019. I could go on about his poor mechanics, lack of defensive ability and so on, but I'll spare you today. I'll hope he returns to form in 2021 and all will be right in the world.

There you have it. 44 cards, each with their own story. It was fun to build a set with my own rules - now I see why so many bloggers love Frankensets. I don't have any immediate plans for another parallel set, but I'll wager I get another one rolling soon. 

I had a blast building this set, and I hope you enjoyed reading about it.