PACK WARS EPISODE 4

When I started this segment, I promised to spread around the love when it comes to different sports and since I hadn't done basketball yet, well, it was all in due time. Though most battles you see on here will be football.

Today, we are in the battle of two 2019-2020 products.

Let's find a Zion!

  VS 

The battle is between two hanger packs Chronicles vs NBA Hoops Premium.

First, the Premium,

Chronicles Basketball:

 

(GREEN PARALLELS)

Well, this one won't be easy to choose from. Nothing outstanding from either break. Do I go the shiny stuff? Or do I go with the one that had the RJ Barrett for my PC?

Let me hear your thoughts in comments!

RJ's Cardboard:2019-2020 Prizm Draft Blue Prizm

 

Shiny, Duke blue and an upcoming star all sums up this card.

It amazes me the huge difference in both value and price when it comes to Prizm Draft vs Prizm. You can land cards of top players in Prizm Draft for next to nothing in comparison to Prizm.

You would think with as popular as college sports are that they would be a driving value but it's really about the pro uniforms.

That's okay as I can land cards like this easier and thanks to @CardPocalaypseNC for helping me do so.

CARDBOARD REVIEW:2019-2020 Topps Chrome UEFA Champions League

I don't know a lot about soccer besides a few names, but I do know how popular it has become and how popular the cards have been.

So I usually turn to my good friend @CardPocalypseNC to find out "what's good" in boxes of soccer so I don't sound like a moron when I do a review.

How did today's break go, keep on reading to see!

 

Every box of 2019-2020 Topps Chrome UEFA soccer is 18 packs of 4 cards per pack. There is one autograph and 6 base refactors guaranteed per box and each box is....hope you are sitting...$600 each.

BASE:

The base set is built up of 100 cards including some popular names and rookies such as Ansu Fati, which I pulled two of in this box.

PARALLELS:

There are a ton of refractor options in UEFA including some I hadn't seen before.

Offerings are, Base Refractor, Purple /250, Blue Bubbles, Purple Carbon Fiber, Blue /150, Green Bubbles, Green /99, Blue Wave /75, Gold /50, Gold Bubbles, Orange /25, Red /10, Red Wave /10, Red Carbon Fiber, and SuperFractor 1/1.

My six base refractors that fall 1:3

Green Bubbles 1:33

Mmmmbop....sorry...Mbappe Blue Bubbles 1:17 odds

 

Purple /250 is 1:14 odds

Purple Carbon Fiber 1:19 odds

Green /99 falls 1:34

Blue /150 falls 1:22

Orange Refractor /25 and falls 1:131

INSERTS:

 

Future Stars fall 1:6 packs and have 15 cards in the set to collect

Teammate Sensations has 15 cards in the set and falls 1:5 packs.

HITS:

Juan Foyth Orange /25 falls 1:517 odds. Same odds of him filling in the blank spot where the autograph is supposed to be.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Topps Chrome is always a fun rip no matter the sport especially if you are a chromie like me and also enjoy the search for refractors in every pack.

I didn't do my research on this box break before I ripped it and waited until after but the two Fati rookies are definitely the hits of the box.

RATINGS BASED ON THIS BOX BREAK

Design ⭐⭐⭐

Inserts ⭐⭐⭐

Parallels ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Hits ⭐⭐

Value  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

RJ's Cardboard:2019-2020 Prizm Emergent

 

 

Prizm is one of the toughest products to land top rookies out of, so when I was able to land this insert via trade with @CardpocalypseNC I was excited.

The card itself is pretty dull which is typical for any insert from Prizm unless its a parallel. Those cards can be pretty stunning depending on the type of parallel.

Thanks Tim for the trade!

RJ's Cardboard:2019-2020 Panini Chronicles Prestige

 

The latest RJ Barrett to my collection comes via trade with Dion's Autograph Collection blog.

Panini Chronicles is a product with multiple brands involved that builds up one huge set. I haven't really taken much of a look at the product to see how many times RJ's name pops up in it but I am sure he probably has at least 5 or 6 cards in the base set along with all of the parallels to each one.

I am just happy to land what I can from it however I can. I do like this Prestige one for the sole fact of the photography alone.

7 Day Trading Card Challenge Day 4:Favorite Basketball Card

My buddy Tim over at Cardpocalypse, has created a 7 day Trading Card Challenge which has taken the blogosphere by storm.

There is a good variety of topics to cover throughout the challenge so are you up for the challenge? I am.

So let's take a look at Day 4 of the challenge. Favorite basketball card.What hasn't been announced fully, is that I am PCing Allan Houston big time right now. He was my favorite Knicks player growing up so I will take any and all that anyone has to trade, well, as long as I don't have it.

When it comes to basketball, I actually have quite a decent collection I could have chosen cards from, but I took the new PC and my favorite card from it instead.

 

Allan always made it rain just like this 2019-2020 Pink variation of the Making It Rain from Spectra. Hooooooooooooooooooooouuuuuuuusssston for three. Yes! I can hear Marv Albert's voice in my mind. He was one of my favorites to listen to and the NBA on NBC in the 90s was also epic.

This card is almost an eBay 1/1 with jersey number.

I will have further updates on Allan Houston over on Cards Over Coffee at some point. So please go follow that blog.

This has been a fun challenge so far, let's see what I will show off for Day 5.

RJ's Cardboard:2019-2020 NBA Hoops Ugly Sweater

I know, I know.

Manufactured relic..worn by the player and not in the game....blah blah blah.

Now that we got that out of the way, I am excitingly here to show you the latest add to my RJ Barrett PC. The single relic version of the ugly sweater.

I knew once I had the dual relic in hand, I had to grab the single relic to go along with it. I am still quite surprised how low these go for. Well, not the one that features him and Zion. I won't ever be able to add that one. But, overall these cards are cheap fun.

 

Look at all those colors!

And for once the player is wearing the actual relic on the card we got swatches from.

I think Barrett is featured on a couple other of these as well. If I can find them cheap, well, I will add them. If not, I am happy with the two I got.

What is your guys thoughts on relics like this?

Cut To The Chase

Now that I have been showing off my RJ Barrett PC, I think it's time I cut to the chase about an incident I had along the way.

When a seller cut the price of a RJ Barrett Prizm rookie card, which is his clear cut rookie card to have, I decided to cut the rug and jump on it.

A few days later, the package arrived, I wanted to cut loose and open it. However, the seller taped up the package really tight and didn't cut corners on doing so. The only option was to use scissors carefully to cut it open.

So I proceeded to do so....very slowly just to make sure I didn't....wait that part of the...oh no..that wasn't envelope...I think I just cut in to the card.

I pulled the card out of the envelope after carefully cutting through the rest of the envelope and it revealed I had fresh cut the card. The seller never put it in a toploader or in a team bag but yet shipped it in a bubbler that way. I almost cut the cheese after seeing it knowing I threw my little bit of hobby funds I have down the drain.

I wouldn't have damaged the card if the seller didn't cut corners on their shipping and put it in a lousy top loader so I wouldn't have cut into it.

I wanted so badly to message them and tell them of their short cut, but I cut the cord and decided just to cut my losses and find another one.

Which I did and didn't get it from a cut rate seller.

Even though I had to pay a little bit more, it was worth it to get one that was actually safe from being damaged. This time I actually made a clean cut on the envelope and was able to hold the card in mint condition.

Let me know if you have ever had a situation like this before in comments. I would be curious if it was a cut above my experience.

REVIEW:2019-2020 Contenders Basketball

Well, well, well. I had no idea when I busted this box to review of Contenders how hot the product was. No idea. It's so hot that the original pricing for hobby boxes I believe was under $200 but now appears they are selling up towards anywhere twice plus t right now.

This will be the first year in a long time I haven't opened any Contenders football with no such chance in sight, but at least I got a taste of my favorite Panini product and their popular autographed tickets with basketball.

Guess it's time for you to sit back and see why this product is so hot.

In every box of Contenders basketball 2019-2020,  you will find 12 packs per box with 10 cards per pack. Boxes will have 2 autographs, much lower than the six there used to be, and boxes can run you up to $400+.

BASE:

Typical layout design for the base this year with Contenders sticking with the ticket theme like it has for many years.

(Card Back) There are 100 base cards in the set and the set consists of veterans.

PARALLELS

Find the following parallels,

TICKET PARALLELS: Playoff /199, Semifinal /149, The Finals /65, Conference Finals /125, Cracked Ice /25, Championship 1/1, Printing Plates 1/1.

GAME TICKET PARALLELS: Green, Red, Blue /99, Purple /49.

 Playoff Ticket /199

Conference Finals /125. I like the rainbow shine on these

INSERTS:

 Lottery Ticket has 14 cards to collect. They have a Hyper parallel look to them.

Team Quads looks like the other inserts in the product. 30 to collect of your teams four best players. NOt sure how they found four on my Knicks.

 Rookie Of The Year Contenders. Couldn't find info on how many in this set.

Superstar Die Cuts has 10 cards to collect and yes, really cool die cut.

HITS:

Dylan Windler....who? I didn't know til I Googled him. Was the 26th overall pick in the draft and is out for the season with a leg injury.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker The Finals autograph ticket /49. He was the 17th pick in the NBA draft and averages 6 points a game.

Other hits not in my box but could be in yours include...

• Rookie Ticket Swatches Autographs
• Veteran Season Ticket Autographs
• Veteran Season Ticket Stub Autographs
• Contenders Autographs
• Legendary Contenders Autographs
• MVP Contenders Autographs
• Sophomore Contenders Autographs
• Kobe Bryant Autographs
• 2018 Contenders Extras
• Rookie Ticket Swatches
• Rookie Ticket Dual Swatches 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Well, I am and always have been a fan of this strong product but cutting back to two autographs and paying close to $400 for a box is scary. My box didn't even reach $100 in value. it's all apart of the hobby gamble though as there is plenty of content that could lead to a big payoff now or one later on.

It's not particularly one this blogger will take but it's always fun to rip a box of Contenders.

Please thank the WONDERFUL people at Panini America for providing me with this box to review for some upcoming giveaways. Here are many places you can find Panini America: official site, blog, Twitter, and Facebook.