REVIEW:2018 Classics Football+GIVEAWAY!!!!

When Panini first revived the Classics brand, I was so excited. Then I opened a box. Not so much. The following year they released it again, I was hesitant, but still tried some. It was much improved from the previous year. So when this years product came out I was hopeful.

I had only heard great things about this years product and I tend to agree with those that were fans. This is by far the best Classics ever.

Why do I feel this way, well, your gonna have to read on and check the break out.

Every box of 2018 Classics football comes with 14 packs of 10 cards per pack. There are 2 hits per box promising to be one autograph and one memorabilia card. There are also 4 chrome parallels with one promised to be numbered. Boxes currently run under $80 which is a great deal.

The base cards are player focused on photos, but have some full color photography. there is minimal border leaving for more photo and it has a throwback pennant design for the team name. The card in general has a throwback feel.

There are 300 cards in the base set to collect. 100 veterans, 100 legends and 100 rookies.

Here are the Legends. Big name finds up and down the 100 card checklist.

And the rookies. Here are the best from my box. I still NEED SAQUON!!! If you have one or an extra, please PWE it my way!

As with any product, you gotta expect the parallels. I pulled Timeless Tribute ones in gold /99 Tyrod and Orange /25  Toliver. There is also Blue /10 and Black 1/1 not found in my box.

Then came the numbered parallels which you can't tell what you have til you flip them around.  There is Red Back /299 (Wims and Hilton), Blue Back /175, Blank Back /50 (Henry), Green Back /40, No Name /10, and Full Name /5.

 

Speaking of the card backs. They are a ton of fun by the way. I was going to mention this with the base but didn't take a photo of it. So I will here with the card backs in view. There are stats, a fun write up and a tid bit or trivia involved. Kind of like the old days.

Up next we take a look at the optichromed cards that have 90 in the set. They are a thing of beauty! I can see Panini taking this to a set of it's own before they are done. And hey look who I found..they Saqoun guy :D

Each box also comes with a numbered parallel from the optichrome. I didn't find a bad one at all in this break with Mr.Fournette! I want to chase the Barkley rainbow. Have one? Let me know and let's trade!

 

Overall parallels for the optichrome,

PARALLEL CARDS: Red Back /175, Blank Back /35, No Name /5, and Full Name 1/1.

TIMELESS TRIBUTES PARALLELS: Gold /65, Orange /15, Blue /5, and Black 1/1.

Let's take a gander now at the inserts shall we? They all have a throwback feel to them and parallels of Gold /99, Blue /10, and Black 1/1.

Classic Clashes takes star players who battled each other on the gridiron many times.

Composers. The QB's of the NFL that play beautiful music when they are on the field. Need to find me the Eli!

Full throttle. Top players in the game that give it their all.

High Praise. Top players in the game and their top stats.

Team Eras. Teammates that "hand the torch" to an equal player at the same position on the team they formally played on

Stickers. Just like the good old days. I want the Giants one.

 Instant Classics. Love this card as this game was an instant classic for sure.

And now we move onto the hits!

My first one was a relic of Von Miller.

And my autograph was a Significant Signatures blue /10 of Delanie Walker.

  

Overall parallels for these autographs are,

• Gold /49 
• Orange /25 
• Blue /10 
• Black 1/1.

Other hits not found in mine but could be in yours include,

• Optichrome Premium Edition Significant Signatures
• Award Winning Autographs
• Classic Combos Signatures
• Canton Collection Swatches
• Classic Combos Materials
• Saturday Swatches
• Buyback Autographs

See the overall checklist for the product, HERE.
 

OVERALL:There wasn't anything with Classics I could complain about. I liked the base set, the inserts and especially the chrome cards. The box price is fairly decent with getting one autograph and one relic per box. I have seen only good breaks from the product so far as well which is very promising.

I do wished we didn't have so many early on college based rookies as I think this set could have been even better if we saw the new class in their NFL uni's.

To win this card above with some bonus cards, please read and follow the instructions

1. MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT OR HAVE SHIPPING IN THE U.S. Sorry, I do appreciate all of my readers but shipping costs are a little haywire and my spending cash is way down to ship. I need to be reasonable where I ship.
2. Guess how many views this post will get
3. Person who is closest to the number will win
4. Be aware that this prize WILL BE SHIPPED PWE
5. Sport Card Collectors blog, it's blogger Matt, and Panini ARE NOT responsible for lost, stolen, or damaged mail once it's left my hands. I will ship it safely, it's up to USPS to deliver it that way.
6. Time on shipping prizes varies as we all have busy lives and can only get to things when we can. But you will get your prize. 
7. Contest winner will have 72 hours after the winner announcement to claim or it goes back into the prize pot.
8. Make sure to thank Panini for their generosity!
9. Contest starts today and will end on July 7th 2018. Winner will be announced shortly after.
10. Once you enter this contest below, you agree to all terms above. 

A big thanks goes out to Panini America for the box to review. Without their support with these reviews giveaways wouldn't be possible. Check them out at Panini America website and follow them on all social media sites. Please let Tracy Hackler and Panini know your thanks so we can continue to host giveaways like this or bigger ones! 

Sets Of My Childhood THE SERIES! Part 24:1995 Fleer Aerial Attack

Sets Of My Childhood THE SERIES is a spinoff from just a want list. I decided not only would I make a want list of each of the sets I am chasing in a tab, but I thought a little breakdown and feature may help get me more set help. I am sure many of the sets I am seeking are nickel and dime type of cards so I am hoping my trader friends can be on the lookout for any I don't have.

Yes folks, we are back with 1995 Fleer. Sorry to all the hatah's out there. I liked the product and the inserts, especially today's. This was by far my favorite insert from the product.

 

Inserts in 1995 Fleer fell one per pack. But, not all were that easy to find. Aerial Attack only has 6 cards in the set, but they fall one per box as opposed to easier pulled inserts from the product. Out of hundreds of packs I have busted including one box, this was the only one I found even though they fall 1:36.

Rare, no. Tough to pull, I would say so. But, I have one out of six so I am hoping this one should be an easy one to tackle with some help.

The design is pretty simple. A groovy 90's etched color-themed footballs foil background with a featured player up front. But, it looks unique up close. Sometimes it's really hard to show you how great a card is with a picture.

My current haves are,

6

Only five left to go! Can you help, just let me know!

How many of you remember or collected these?

WINNER Of The 2017- 2018 Optic Basketball Autograph

Another Panini contest is done and over and this time entries were way down with a lousy 15. I had more entries for a redemption card sadly.  Wonder if I need to start setting 25 entrants needed for a contest type of thing. Hmmmm...

But, that doesn't mean we still don't have a winner. I said guess the amount of views to win this autograph plus some bonuses..

 

  

Here are the views at 273....

 

  

And here is our winner who guessed 275.....The Lost Collector! Congrats! Please email me at sportcardcollectors@hotmail.com with your address or DM me on Twitter with so as well and I will hopefully get those out soon.

There is still a contest going on now that you can find HERE and another starting up soon. Make sure you enter both!

 

Make sure you thank Panini and Tracy Hackler for the contest and all of the other ones. 

Guess The Autograph #6

Before I announce the latest Guess The Autograph, let's reveal the last one I posted....

 

Yup one of you nailed it right on the head card and all!

Way to go....

HudsonFan15

And to Dion's IP Autos Only For guessing Lippett. 

If you can guess this weeks, I will put whoever guesses it right in next rounds post.

Now onto the next! Good luck!

Guess the autograph is as easy as it goes. I will throw up an autograph "swatch" and you guys have to simply guess whose autograph it is. There are no prizes involved, it's just for fun to test your autograph knowledge and give you bragging rights.

The autographs will spread across multiple sports and non sports so it should be fun to see the challenge it presents and see how many of you can correctly guess it. If you really want to take it a step further, try guessing the brand of card as well.

I will reveal the "answer card" and the autograph in the next post of this series.

So here is the next autograph to this series, 

 

Can you guess it? Good luck. 

Let me know in comments!

Museum Musings:Gambling At Foxwoods

Over the years, I have accumulated so much junk. A good portion of it including most of my Starting Lineups and any figures were traded off. I also had a bunch of autographed items I was just looking to downsize with and traded half of those off as well. I still have some to go in that area.

Most of the items I acquired over the years were from purchases in online catalogs, local outlets, department stores, gifts from family, and from a few contests I won. I originally really wanted these items, but as time has gone on and I have gotten older and what feels as my house getting smaller, I decided it was time just to collect cards now. No more adding those markdown McFarlane figures just for the fun of it.

There were some pieces however, I plan on keeping forever. These pieces I will showcase on here.

Back when I used to work in the meat department at our local grocery store (it was a job I held for seven years; two days after graduating from high school) I was the manager of the department and was asked to go to the food show that was being held at Foxwoods. The plan was to head down to Foxwoods the night before and gamble then wake up to go to the food show the next day to pick out new items representatives were there to showcase.

It was my very first time going to a casino. I had no idea what to expect but all I knew was that I was taking any money to waste that's for sure. I figured I would go and watch others.

Upon getting to my room in the hotel, we all were handed an envelope from the store owner containing $100 for us to spend. Now, being who I am, I wasn't going to gamble $100 away and watch it go to waste. Just wasn't me. So instead, I used the money wisely on items I could physically touch even though that wasn't the intention for it from the big boss.

Anyways, I did a little bit of gambling, and I mean little. The rest was spent on food and the following items in their gift shop. I went in hoping on a gamble hoping for sport cards and came out with other items instead. And let me tell you, these items were not cheap as they ate up the rest of my money.

Normally I wouldn't have overpaid for such items, but I wanted something to bring back and what the hey, the money was free.

I looked around and saw a couple of Yankee items I decided to snag.

First was this bear bank. I am not sure why, but it looked what my wife would call "cute".

And then this sick Gehrig shirt with number. I have worn this every year since. I guess that means I have stayed in the same shape since 2007. Can't complain about that!

 

It was a fun night and an experience I will always remember especially with these items I have to keep the memory by. Unlike my co-workers who went home empty handed.

So what do you think of my items? Ever been to Foxwoods? What would you had done with the $100?

My Top 9 From A Trio Of Mail Days

I have been right out straight typing up mail day posts for the month of July. Yes, the month. It will basically take the entire month to catch up on so many thank yous but I don't want to miss a single one whether the mail day was big or small.

Between that project and busy life, I saw a contest over at It's Like Having my Own Card Shop blog and wanted to jump in on getting in on it but had to figure out how. Well, I decided to combine three recent mail days that I got and do a countdown of the Top 9 cards acquired from them. Now, this doesn't mean I didn't enjoy all of the cards sent, this just means these were the Top 9 of the group. So no offense should be taken.

So here is the trio of mail days combined into one post. These cards were sent by @JGfan24ever, Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown and Greg over at Night Owl Cards.

9. Y.A. Tittle.

 

#8 Jordan Montgomery Green parallel from Donruss

 

#7  is time to All Rise for some new Aaron Judges. I want to chase the set I think.

  

#6. Pacific Gold parallel of Ike Hilliard /199

 

#5 is this Monday Night Heroes of Eli Manning numbered to 1000. Remember when most inserts were numbered? I do and Pepperidge Farm remembers.

 

#4 this Rated Rookie Of Clint Frazier. Not sure how much longer he will be a Yankee according to trade rumors. I hope they don't move him.

 

#3 is this chromed Odell Beckham Jr. Cool stuff.

 

 #2 are these numbered Griffeys from that huge Spx set. I haven't looked to see if they are new to my set part, but still new to my collection with different numbering.

 

And #1 is my first new Rodney Hampton add in some time.

 

Here are the remaining cards from the mail days from the trio.

New Paul Perkins add.

 

These three I do have, but I just dig the look so much that they are still well enjoyed.

 

Some double Yanks but I still enjoy looking at the snowflake cards.

 

Elite Series of my man Rueben, was really hoping this guy would pan out, this card is numbered to 999.

 

Eli to Shepard. Well Eli and Shepard. I expect a bigger year from both.

 

A Yank I needed. He looked like he wasn't ready for photo day.

 

This card almost made the cut for Top 9. I really like cards with great photos. This one is definitely that.

 

Another one that was close to the cut because it's a new add and because of the photo.

 

And we finish it up with two Donruss adds. I like the Mantle look without a color photo.

 

 

A thanks goes out to Gavin, Greg and Michael for the mail days and a congrats to Daniel on 9 years of blogging-hence the reason for the 9 card countdown.

Look out for more mail days in the entire month of July. There is some really cool stuff to see!

REVIEW:2018 Luminance Football (Big Hit)+Giveaway!

BLOGGERS NOTE: Today marks post number 4,000 on Sport Card Collectors. What an amazing accomplishment in less than 7 years. Thank you to those of you who have been here from the beginning and those of you who are just turning in now. Your support is much appreciated!

It's that time of year. Football time! Well, for us diehards it is.

This year I am extremely excited for every football release trying to chase down every Saquon Barkley card I can. I haven't been this excited in some time for a NY Giants draft pick. The problem is, I will need to trade for most as I haven't had a lot of luck finding him.

So here comes a new release from Panini on the football line, Luminance. From early breaks and previews I saw of the product, it seems very interesting.

So let's take a look together!

Each box of 2018 Luminance football comes with 4 packs of 10 cards each. Each pack comes with a hit and each box comes with 3 autographs and one relic per. Boxes run around  $120 each. Not too bad when you consider 4 hits with 3 of them being autographs.

The base set is full bleed photography with a dark tint to them. The names of the players are in silver foil. It's a nice unique look. I really like the Odell base card as I remember that TD catch against the Eagles. That's what photography on cards does and that's why I enjoy base cards with it.

There are 200 cards in the base set with 100 veterans

and 100 rookies. The rookies are in their college uni's but at least this time have the players team noted. My box was weak when it came to the rookie cards as these were the best.

I say this over and over again, but as with any product, there are some parallels to chase.

There is Gold (Woodside and Gurley)

Blue /99,

And other parallels to the base set include,

• Orange /225
• Platinum Blue /25
• Red /10
• Pink /5
• Gun Metal 1/1

Now let's take a gander at the inserts that kind of stick to the theme of the base with the dark dint and foil.

Vintage Performers takes those old school guys and adds them to the product. Not sure why they aren't base cards but oh well. They look the same and I was confused til I took a closer look at the checklist.

Luminary. These look super sharp and I landed Josh Allen who I still believe will be the most successful of the QB group in the first round. They remind me of an insert by Press Pass in the 90''s.

Flash. They look like the last insert but in veteran form.

 

Portrait which takes us back to the 90's type of card where if focuses on the single player photo. I love how the 90's seem to be creeping back into the movie/tv and card world.

Now onto the hits!

First one, Panini Rewards. Sigh. I would rather have a redemption. At least shipping is free on it. I don't think it's fair at all that we have to pay shipping to acquire a card that we already paid for originally when we bought the box.

I haven't really been a fan of jersey cards the last few years because they are pretty much worthless, but when they look this good, I will take this kind of hit any day. The dark design of the card really brings out the patch. Player not too shabby either.

 

Dallas Goedert auto. The sticker autographs I don't mind usually, but with this kind of card stock and look, they would have been more superb on card. This card is numbered to 99. This guy could be a big star for the Eagles to replace Burton who they lost to the Bears.

And finally, the BIG BIG HIT of the box, Mr. Saquon Barkley! This one is numbered to 75. Almost fell on the floor when this came in the last pack.

It took me some time to figure out the parallels on the rookie ink, but they are defined by the name color. Barkley is blue.

Other Rookie Ink parallels include,

• Gold /99
• Platinum Blue /25
• Red /10
• Pink /5
• Gun Metal 1/1

Other hits not included in my break are,

• Ink
• Autograph Jerseys
• Autograph Jerseys Prime Gold
• Draft Day Signatures
• Spotlight Signatures
• Vintage Materials 

OVERALL: What can I say about this break. Barkley auto was an amazing pull, Goedart will be a stud in Philly, sick patch on the Fournette and I guess the points card would be considered a bonus.

I liked the design of the base cards, especially with the added photography. The insert themes and design fit the appeal of the entire product same goes with the hits.

The only thing I would have fixed was adding the legends to the base set instead of having a separate set as an insert. Other than that, I hope to see this return in 2019.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

To win a mystery lot of cards from the product, please read and follow the instructions

• MUST BE A U.S. RESIDENT OR HAVE SHIPPING IN THE U.S. Sorry, I do appreciate all of my readers but shipping costs are a little haywire and my spending cash is way down to ship. I need to be reasonable where I ship.
• Be aware that this prize WILL BE SHIPPED PWE 
• Just comment below your thoughts on the product
• ALSO GUESS THE AMOUNT OF VIEWS THIS POST WILL GET!
• Must do BOTH parts of the question to be entered.
• Random winner chosen after 7 randoms.
• Sport Card Collectors blog, it's blogger Matt, and Panini ARE NOT responsible for lost, stolen, or damaged mail once it's left my hands. I will ship it safely, it's up to USPS to deliver it that way.
• Time on shipping prizes varies as we all have busy lives and can only get to things when we can. But you will get your prize.
• Contest winner will have 72 hours after the winner announcement to claim or it goes back into the prize pot.
• Make sure to thank Panini for their generosity!
• Contest starts today and will end on June 30th 2018. Winner will be announced shortly after.
• Once you enter this contest below, you agree to all terms above.

A big thanks goes out to Panini America for the box to review. Without their support with these reviews giveaways wouldn't be possible. Check them out at Panini America website and follow them on all social media sites. Please let Tracy Hackler and Panini know your thanks so we can continue to host giveaways like this or bigger ones!