Cards on Cards Contest Winnings--and a Well-Timed Trade

It has been well over two years since my last post. I have several reasons for putting the blog on hiatus, and I don't anticipate that I'll be coming back to it often...buuut, this is a post that probably needs to happen. Recently Kerry over at Cards on Cards ran his annual March Radness contest, and I won! The prize was a blaster of 2026 Heritage. I can think of no better way to say, "Thank you," for the contest and to let Kerry see what his lucky winner pulled out of the box.

Now, before we get to the box, there is another transaction to be dealt with. Serendipitously, Kerry and I were in the midst of a TCDB trade at the time of the contest. So he sent both the trade and the prize together in one well-timed package. Let's look at the trade first.

Yes, I'm still collecting BYU players. Fred Warner has become an absolute stud in the NFL. This Jamaal Williams card (which doubles as a Packers card--YES!) has a nice serial number of 100.

 

I was able to pick up some new Cubs from Kerry. I don't know how I didn't have a 1990 Fleer Joe Kraemer already. Not only that, but I had never heard of him before. This is a nice A&G Javy Baez insert. These are also the first Owen Caissie, Andrelton Simmons, Luke Little, and Ryan Pressly cards in my Cubs collection. Caissie had just a short stint in Chicago before being shipped off to Miami this offseason. I'm still not sure how I feel about that trade.

 

 

Another long-time collecting focus has been MLB Rookies of the Year and All-Star Game MVPs. Most of these players are new to my collection since the last time I posted anything.

I'm also still collecting NFL All-Decade performers. But for the latest iteration (the 2010s team), I don't feel as much nostalgia. So I decided to focus my collection for All-2010s players on inserts rather than anything I could get my hands on. This Chandler Jones card fits the bill.

I'm also still pursuing plenty of sets. Donruss Optic is the set I chose for 2024 football, and I'm getting down to the last 50 cards or so to complete it.

There is one new thing about my collection. With the Utah Mammoth coming into town, I'm learning how to be a hockey fan. So naturally, that means card collecting. A budding hockey collection and the early days of this blog sparked a new idea. One of my first blog projects was to create a Franchise 9 page for every NFL team. So I thought it would be fun to have one page of every team in the four major sports leagues. Though I had collected basketball cards as a kid, my attempt at one page per NBA team was essentially starting on equal footing as the hockey, which I had never collected. It has been a fun project, and Kerry helped me out with some cards.

Now for the prize. A big thanks to Kerry and his generosity. He holds a few annual contests and the prizes are always great. We'll go pack by pack through the blaster. Teaser: this particular box started out as just an average box in terms of my collection, but started to catch fire in the last few packs.

Pack 1:

A couple of collection hits here, with ROY Drake Baldwin and ASG MVP Kyle Schwarber getting a binder spot.

Pack 2:

PCA is the highlight for me here, though a couple of All-Star MVPs (Duran and Stanton) make appearances. An Isaac Collins Chrome is the first non-base of the box. On a side note, there appear to nine cards in this pack.

Pack 3:

Pete Alonso and Luis Gil are Rookies of the Year. It looks like we have a Pirate of Penzance here, too.

Pack 4:

Aaron Judge fits in my collection, but a shared card isn't quite as cool as a solo. We have our first "Dark Green" parallel of the box. Since there isn't much for my PC in this pack, I'll take a moment to talk about the break. I think this is probably just my 2nd or 3rd blaster box break since my blog went on hiatus. I just haven't been buying much new product. That's one reason why I stopped blogging. I wasn't yet alive for the release of the original 1977 Topps, let alone collecting, but it's a Top-3 offering of the decade in my book. I like this Heritage product.

Pack 5:

 

Wait, what's this? Only six cards? Well, that's because one is a relic, a nice surprise hit from a blaster! Riley Greene is a pretty good player to pull, too. Not only that, but here's a pink sparkle Austin Riley. Though nobody fits in my collection, it's still a good pack.

Pack 6: 

 Now we're going to add a couple of Cubs superstars--one of them Chrome, no less! And Shohei Ohtani insert. This is also my first Cal Raleigh that isn't part of a set build, so this card will go in my All-Time All-Star project. For this project, I'm collecting one card of every player who was ever a Major League All-Star. This is a great pack in my book. 

Pack 7:

We'll keep the Cubs rolling here with a little Nico Hoerner. Another Shohei, this time a highlight card. Circling back to the Owen Caissie trade--I mentioned earlier I was on the fence about the trade. I was high on Caissie as a prospect. Well, here we have Edward Cabrera--the return for Owen Caissie. I have to admit that I didn't know much about him when the trade happened. So far, he has been solid for the Cubs. I'll give him that.

Pack 8:

The last pack is pretty good, too. We have a dark green Aaron judge to add to my collection and a nice Clayton Kershaw sunset card. That's a good ending to the box.

And there we have it. Once again, I have to say, "Thanks," for the trade and the contest, Kerry! 

 

2021 Donruss Jumbo Pack Box

I went on a dry spell without making any purchases for about 3 months. I was saving up some change to a certain amount, then I started buying a bunch of stuff that I needed. In the past few weeks, I've tried to fill set needs. I've tried to hit project and mini-collection needs. I've pursued some new BYU players that I needed to add. Part of what I "needed" was the fun of busting some packs. I found a good deal on a couple of boxes to scratch my itch.

One of those two boxes is 2021 Topps Big League. I haven't touched that one yet. But a fat pack box of last year's Donruss football has already been finished off. I chose this one because I was thinking I needed to complete a 2021 set still. However, after I bought the box, I remembered I already had a complete 2021 Prestige set in my possession. Oh well, I still wanted to bust a box and we'll see if I get close enough to this set to go after it.

Let me me walk you through a typical pack.

Each pack contained 18 veteran base cards. You can see from this pack, there are a handful of legends in the checklist.

There are three rookies in each pack. This particular pack didn't include any spectacular names. There are 50 photo variations in the set. Each variation is just a helmetless shot.

Finally, each pack brought four Press Proof Blue parallels and one insert. This was fairly consistent throughout the box. (Four packs had 3 variations replaced with base cards.) Collation was good; I pulled no dupes. Which, if you do the math, you can already figure out what I ended up with: 220/250 veteran base, 36/100 rookies, 44/50 variations, 48 Press Proof, and 12 inserts.

Moving on from a pack breakdown, we'll see an overview of the entire box.

A Pack hot pack.

 

 This was an interesting pack. I ripped it and saw a Nick Chubb Dominators as the insert.

Then pulled the cards out of the pack, flipped them to the front, and found Nick Chubb's base card on the top.

Oddly, there are two Tom Brady base cards. These are not variations of each other. Buccaneer Brady is #1 in the set. Patriot Brady is #2 in the set. It's like the Patriots used Tom Brady as their legend on the checklist, despite the fact that he had a current card with his active team!

I didn't pull any of the bigger rookies, like Justin Fields or Trevor Lawrence. Or Zach Wilson, which I would have liked best. But here are the best of the rookies in the box. Micah Parsons is already on the threshold of superstardom. Amon-Ra St. Brown has been a beast this year. Davis Mills has been surprisingly reliable for the Texans. Rhamondre Stevenson, Travis Etienne, and DeVonta Smith are pretty solid.

There are far too many masks in the variations. I don't like the reminder, but I guess it will make an interesting historical note in later years for this set. This box got me so close to completion that I decided I'll make a run for the complete base set: vets, rookies, and variations all.

Of all the Blue parallels, these are the ones I am going to keep.

Any other Press Proofs are up for trade. These are the most notable. I pulled both versions of Jonathan Taylor. There are a few interesting rookies here. Rashawn Slater was named #78 in the NFL Top 100 by his peers after just his rookie season. Sam Ehlinger was briefly the starter in Indy this year. And Javonte Williams was playing pretty well before he went down for the season.

Of the 12 inserts in the box, there were four that will slide into my collection. Elite Series may be shiniest, but only one of the designs is really appealing to me: the simpler Inducted set.

I don't necessarily plan to keep all of these inserts. There are some pretty decent cards here, though. Jaylen Waddle and Ja'Marr Chase are young studs at receiver, and there are three between the two of them here. Nick Chubb and Lamar Jackson are two of the best at their positions. The Rondale Moore card is interesting. In the scan, it looks like just a base card, except for the "Rated Rookie" in gold foil stamping. But it's a "Rookie Portrait" insert and the card has a canvas feel to it.

Even though it's not the coolest product out there, I had a blast opening packs for the first time since my annual Opening Day break back in March. As a bonus, there were no collation issues, so I was able to come within 30 base, 64 rookies, and six SPs of a complete set. So I'm going for it. If you have any 2021 Donruss, here is my wantlist. Let's deal!

Updated Card Status at Walmart

The status of cards at Walmart has not been good around here. But in the past few months, I've been able to find some blasters once in a while. I've followed the same pattern every time I have: I choose a product and pick up two blasters off the shelf. If I continue to find cards there, I probably won't keep buying two blasters every time I go to the store. I just don't feel comfortable letting the opportunity pass when I'm still not sure when it will come around again, I guess.

A couple of weeks ago, I came across some Topps Update. I opened it right when school let out for Christmas break.

Of course, the main reason for buying Update is to find some top rookies. These were the best I pulled in my two boxes, with my favorite here being my first card of 2021 NL Rookie of the Year, Jonathan India.

The other reason to buy Update is to find old faces in new uniforms. But these are not players who changed teams mid-season; they are players who were traded or signed before the season began. If I were Topps, I would make a list of free agents in the offseason and plan to put them in Series 2 with whichever team they signed with. There would inevitably be some players who are traded before the season that you would miss, but free agents are easier to predict a team change. I would reserve Update for players who change teams midseason or who are traded in the offseason.

But that's not how Topps does it. Instead, I'm left with this experience as a Cubs collector in 2021. Joc Pederson gets his first Flagship Cubs card--months after he leaves the team. Nick Madrigal joins the team at the trade deadline, but is still a Southsider in Update series. See, if I were in charge, this Joc Cub would have come in Series 2 and his Update card would have him as a Brave.

 

 

 

I decided not to pursue a complete set of Update, but I do like that all the checklists feature no-hitters thrown in 2021. Aside from the firesale decimation of my favorite team, the plethora of no-hitters are the defining feature of the season. So I decided that I would chase after all the no-hitter highlight checklists in Update this year.

The above observations all came from the first box I opened. This scan displays all my keepers from Box #2.

Now let's look at the inserts. Most of these are keepers for me. I like the 1992 design, but I don't understand why it needed to be an insert set. They even got the cardstock wrong; Topps used an older feeling cardstock for this insert set, but 1992 was really the first time the company used a glossy stock. I like the feel of the 1992 inserts, though, so I can't complain about it too much. The 1986 Anniversary set is glossy, however, as is the Cards that Never Were, in my box a solo Nolan Ryan rookie.

Each blaster comes with a manu-relic 70th Anniversary card. I pulled Yogi Berra out of the first box. The second box yielded a Tom Glavine relic, but somehow I forgot to scan it. Oh well, I'm not going back to do it now.

To be honest, I probably wouldn't buy these blasters of Update if I could do it over again. In hindsight, I would have saved the money for something else. My reason has little to do with the product. Rather, it's that opening baseball card packs in 2021 has been a weird feeling for this Cubs fan. Pretty much every Cub card I pull is of somebody who is no longer with the team. I'm happy to have my first Jonathan India and a refractor card of fellow ROY Randy Arozarena from this purchase, but overall, there are probably other products/sets that I would rather have.

I'm posting this on Christmas Eve because these boxes were kind of my Christmas present to myself. So I'll end by wishing all who are reading a very Merry Christmas! Enjoy your holidays!

Colbey's Affordable Breaks

Last month, I took a spot in one of Nacho Grande's breaks and had my stack finally shipped to me after I don't know how long. Then I turned around and did the same thing with one of Colbey's Affordable Breaks. I had bought into a few of his breaks and accumulated a stack, but I couldn't even tell you how far back my stack had been growing. I finally requested it and received the contents earlier this week.

I know it was probably a pain for both of these gentlemen to keep piling cards up for me and I appreciate their patience with my slow requesting. But one of the advantages to accumulating a stack over many months is the fact that when I received the cards, I had completely forgotten which breaks I was a part of, let alone what cards had been pulled for me. It made for a fun package opening.

Of course, if there is a break and the Packers are to be had, they will be my #1 pick. I got these three cards from a 2003 UD Patch Collection break. The Favre patch on the bottom was one of the highlights of the entire package from Colbey and is, interestingly, part of the base set. I guess that fits for a set called "Patch Collection." It's a really cool card.

I brought in the entire Packers team set for 1996 Topps Gilt Edge, and then some. I have to say, I don't really understand this set, but these are all new cards to me. Plus, how can you go wrong with multiple Favres and Reggie Whites?

I nearly brought home the entire team set of 1993 Bowman, too. I'm only missing the George Teague rookie. I love the foil cards (which are base cards, not parallels), the Mark Brunell rookie, and, of course, BYU Heisman winner Ty Detmer. I showed the back of Bill Maas (Kevin's brother) because it gives cool information, like a coach's assessment and a future forecast for every player.

I didn't choose the Packers exclusively, though. Here I picked up the Bengals, hoping to come away with former BYU lineman Scott Brumfield. Brumfield played for my high school's rival and was the head coach of their team when I was playing in high school.

These two breaks are examples that I have no recollection of buying. They're both 2020 sets, so I was probably just trying to add something from last year to my collection because I couldn't find any to buy. I was successful in adding to my collection. Aaron Donald, Tom Brady, and Derrick Henry are all keepers for me. But if you like the R&S Brady or Henry base, I did get two each of those.

I don't remember this 2006 Topps Rookie Progression break, but I'm guessing I picked up the Colts on the off-chance that I could come away with a nice Peyton Manning hit. I did get the base card, which is a nice pull from this high-end feeling set. I did get a couple of other good hits: both the Reggie Wayne jersey and Bob Sanders parallel are serial-numbered (Wayne /99, Sanders /299).

And the break that led me to ask for my cards to be shipped. This is 2021 Absolute. I picked up the Jets hoping for Zach Wilson, then added Washington and Houston because they were still available. I did get one Wilson, the Introductions insert. For me, those two blasters were Davis Mills hot boxes. I ended up with two base of the rookie out of Stanford and one of the hits. It's hard to see in the scan, but Chase Young in the middle is a Green parallel.

 Now on to the baseball. Like the Packers, I will typically look for Cubs in the breaks. I've found that the baseball breaks always sell out pretty quickly, though, and I'm usually too late for the Cubs. But these 2003 Upper Deck Standing O and 2003 Fleer Hot Prospects cards sure make me happy that I was able to get them.

 

I was also able to snag the Cubs in a couple of 2020 products: Diamond Kings and Stadium Club. Ernie Banks is a Red Stadium Club parallel and just an overall great card.

 

I got the Mets in 2020 Topps Big League. Somehow, I ended up with all of these cards already, minus the first Alonso Rookie of the Year award card. All of the others in this scan are available for trade to anyone who is interested.

Also for trade is any card you see here. I was trying to get some cards for my All-Star project, which is why I bought the Rangers spot in the 1997 Pinnacle Xpress break. I got every card you see here in triplicate except for the John Wetteland parallel, so all of these are available for trade as well.

I have just one final card to show. When I got my stack of Nachos Grande breaks, I found that I had gotten extremely lucky and pulled two Javier Baez boxtoppers. Well, my luck has continued. In my Affordable Breaks from Colbey, I pulled yet another oversized boxtopper, this time a 2020 Stadium Club Widevision.

I have to say, I'm pretty satisfied with these breaks. Thanks for running them, Colbey! Affordable breaks are always a good thing, especially those that are older sets that I still don't have much of.

 

A Wild Mess of a Card Set

Wild Card was a brief blip in card history, debuting in 1991 and lasting for three years. The brand had a couple of trademark features: a border of multi-colored numerals and the "stripe" chase cards. Last week, when I found blasters of a new product called Wild Card Matte, I wondered how much this new incarnation would look like the old one. The logo was the same, at least.

I could tell right away that it wasn't anything approaching a major release. It wasn't even as big-time as Leaf; the manufacturer appeared to be "IPL" (Individual Player Licensing, apparently). The lack of a logo on Trevor Lawrence's helmet told me that there would be no team licensing in the product--pro, college, or otherwise. But when Leaf revived Pro Set this year, it closely mimicked the old set. I was curious. And when I saw the base set had 70 cards and each box contained 40, I figured I could at least build the set while satisfying my curiosity. I picked up three blasters.

This will be a scan-heavy post as I show you all 120 cards I pulled, pack by pack.

 

Box 1, Pack 1

The top photo shows base cards. The bottom photo shows two inserts. There were two inserts per pack, without fail. The base cards are nice. They're glossy and thicker stock, definitely not flimsy. The inserts didn't scan well at all. Greg Rousseau--on the left--is from the Weekend Warriors set and Jaylen Waddle is an X-Plode card.

For each pack, I'm going to list the players and their draft results.

• Penei Sewell--1st Round, Lions
• Devonta Smith--1st, Eagles
  
• Rondale Moore--2nd, Cardinals
  
• Trey Lance--1st, 49ers
  
• Jaelan Phillips--1st, Dolphins
  
• Sam Ehlinger--6th, Colts
  
• Justin Fields--1st, Bears
  
• Elijah Moore--2nd, Jets
  

 

Box 1, Pack 2

A new insert set shown here: Javonte Williams on a Rookie Heat. As I go through the players and their draft results, I find there is already one duplicate here. I won't re-type a player's info if I have already done so. Pay attention to the attrition you see as the duplicates pile up.

• Jamie Newman--UDFA, Eagles
  
• Kyle Trask--2nd, Buccaneers
  
• Greg Newsome--1st, Browns
  
• Micah Parsons--1st, Cowboys
  
• Tylan Wallace--4th, Ravens
  
• Travis Etienne--1st, Jaguars
  
• Mac Jones--1st, Patriots
  

 

Box 1, Pack 3

The inserts are Elijah Moore (Rookie Heat) and Davis Mills (Weekend Warriors).

• Andre Cisco--3rd, Jaguars
  
• Jaret Patterson--UDFA, WFT
  
• Greg Rousseau--1st, Bills
  
• Michael Carter--4th, Jets
  
• Tyson Campbell--2nd, Jaguars
  
• Trevon Moehrig--2nd, Raiders
  
• Kadarius Toney--1st, Giants

 

Box 1, Pack 4

 Inserts of Najee Harris (Weekend Warrior) and Rondale Moore (X-Plode).

• Caleb Farley--1st, Titans
  
• Kylin Hill--7th, Packers

Here we are, the last pack of the first box still, and already six of the eight base cards are repeats. There are still more to come as we move into the other two boxes.

 

Box 2, Pack 1

Inserts of Najee Harris (Rookie Heat) and Kyle Pitts (Rookie Heat). It's hard to see in the scans, but you may notice that the Rookie Heat and X-Plodes come in different color variations.

• Chazz Surratt--3rd, Vikings
  
• Jay Tufele--4th, Jaguars
  
• Pat Freiermuth--2nd, Steelers
  
• Cade Johnson--UDFA, Seahawks
  
• Patrick Surtain II--1st, Broncos
  
• Terrace Marshall--2nd, Panthers
  
• Jevon Holland--2nd, Dolphins

 

Box 2, Pack 2

Inserts of Jamie Newman (Weekend Warrior) and Travis Etienne (X-Plode).

• Elijah Mitchell--6th, 49ers
  
• Dyami Brown--3rd, WFT
  
• Joseph Ossai--3rd, Bengals
  
• Jaylen Waddle--1st, Dolphins
  
• Sage Surratt--UDFA, Lions
  
• Trevor Lawrence--1st, Jaguars
  
• Ian Book--4th, Saints
  
• Paulson Adebo--3rd, Saints

 

Box 2, Pack 3

Two X-Plode inserts of different colors: Patrick Surtain and Greg Rousseau.

• Rashod Bateman--1st, Ravens 

Only one new base card in this pack.

 

Box 2, Pack 4

Well, that makes two packs in a row with a yellow (gold?) Rousseau. And a second Rookie Heat Kyle Pitts in this box, though they are two different colors.

• D'Wayne Eskridge--2nd, Seahawks
  
• Joe Tryon--1st, Buccaneers
  
• Jaycee Horn--1st, Panthers

Final Box . . .  

 

Box 3, Pack 1

 

The two inserts are Greg Newsome (X-Plode) and another Najee Harris Rookie Heat Blue (See Box 2, Pack 1).

 

Aaaaand, a pack full of duplicate base. So 9 of 10 cards in this pack I have pulled already, including on insert, right down to the color variation.

 

Box 3, Pack 2

Inserts here are Rashod Bateman (Weekend Warrior) and Justin Fields (Rookie Heat). I'd probably be way more excited about the Fields pull if I didn't have such strong feelings about the Bears.

• Feleipe Franks--UDFA, Falcons
  
• Amari Rodgers--3rd, Packers
  
• Trey Sermon--3rd, 49ers
  
• Brevin Jordan--5th, Texans

 

Box 3, Pack 3

Inserts of Trevon Moehrig (X-Plode) and Kadarius Toney (Weekend Warrior).

• Zach Wilson!--1st, Jets
• Javonte Williams-2nd, Broncos
  
• Eric Stokes--1st, Packers
  
• Dayo Odeyingbo--2nd, Colts
  
• Jeremiah Osuwu-Koramoah--2nd, Browns
  
• Shaun Wade--5th, Ravens

 

Box 3, Pack 4

The inserts make this a Rashod Bateman hot pack! Here we have a Weekend Warrior (2nd one this box) and a Rookie Heat.

 

For the base, I turned the duplicates over so you could see what the backs look like instead of getting a second or third (or even fourth!) look at the front. The back quality leaves a bit to be desired. Being unable to mention any teams hamstrings the write-up and the little bit the backs do say is riddled with typos. But new base cards in the last box are

• Kyle Pitts--1st, Falcons

and that's it. Phillips was already pulled before, I just failed to turn the card over.

 

So those are my pulls. After three boxes that gave me 96 base cards, I'm still 16 shy of completing the base set. Not good. Even the inserts were duplicated within the same box. 

 

While I like the look of the cards, I can't say much else for the product. It's super confusing. If you've read Matt's post about his break over at Cards Over Coffee, you may have immediately noticed that his box produced cards with a white background. Apparently there is a Wild Card Matte White and a Wild Card Matte Black. But the base set we were pulling in our blasters differs from the actual checklist. Apparently, the hobby base set is only 22 cards, all serial-numbered. The larger base set is only available in retail blasters. I think. And it appears that stripe parallels do exist, but I don't think they were available in blasters.

I think I may try to complete the set. I averaged 18 new base per box, and I'm missing only 16, so maybe I am crazy enough to try it again. Then again, do I want to spend $90 in blasters for this product? Then again, there are still some available at Wal-Mart. Then again, why are they still available when everything card has been disappearing before I even see it on the shelf? We'll see where I land after this riveting conversation with myself.

And Matt, since you have white and I have black, I would love to swap a Kadarius Toney for your Zach Wilson. Two Toneys, in fact, because I'd love to send the Weekend Warrior Toney your way.