Burbank Pickups Of The Month Part 2: Sets!

Burbank has been a huge help with my set chasing, especially 90's.

But, it as also helped me with a newer set as well.

My chase for the 2011 Topps American Pie base set continues. I have gotten really far, but still missing some important pieces such as the Kurt Cobain card. I now have every card that Burbank has to offer for my set help for this one, I will have to look elsewhere for more help on completing this.

Added this Sanders to my Dream Team chase.

I thought from a distance about chasing this set, but, not as cool once I got it in person. They are also numbered.

3,2,1 Inserts....except these are the holofoil parallels of those. They are much sharper, not that the basic insert looks too bad either.

This Kerry Collins serves as a dual PC item.

Remember, you too can order from Burbank Sportcards Beckett Marketplace and Save 10% off your orders from Burbanks Sportscards on Beckett Marketplace. Use Code: 15BURBANK at checkout to do so! Also spend $50 and you will get free shipping. BOOM!

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Thoughts on today's mail day is welcomed below!

Trading Again With @Bocephus

For the second time this year, newest trader to me @Bocephus and I pulled off another great PWE trade.

This time it wasn't for a fun relic but instead a lot of fun cards.

Kicks off with these shiny Mosaics. I can't ever get enough of these things. They are quite appealing.

Zack Moss Optic parallel for my rookie card collection.

Michael Strahan Prizm base. It was impossible to find Prizm this year so I have plenty of gaps in my Giants collection for it.

This card when he sent a pic I thought was just a plain boring Panini card, but it's far from that. It's embossed, has rainbow foil and plain purty. This is of the Giants new weapons.

As I said above, I didn't get much Prizm so I had to find other ways to add rookies to my collection and this was one way. Of course these are my best two. I doubt I will ever land top guys.

Thanks again to @Bocephus for the trade and I am looking forward to our next.

CARDBOARD REVIEW:2020 Playoff Football

Playoff football is here and so isn't Playoff football.

I may or many not have saved this review for this time of year. Nothing is more exciting than the NFL Playoffs, especially when the Patriots are out of them.

Let's see if this box break ended up being just as exciting as that,

Every box of 2020 Playoff football comes with 12 packs of 8 cards each. There are 4 hits in every box and boxes are currently running around $220. Which is probably twice what they normally would but looking at how the hobby is going, I can only imagine where these prices are hiking to next.

BASE:

The base set is built up of 300 cards that feature veterans

Legends of the past

And stars of the future. Speaking of stars of the future, you only find one-per-pack and it feels like long odds of actually pulling the bigger stars. Love was my by a mile my best player of the box.

PARALLELS:

You can find the following parallels, Goal Line, Kickoff, Red Zone, 1st Down #/99, 2nd Down #/49, 3rd Down #/25, 4th Down #/10, Touchdown 1/1.

 

1st down is /99

2nd down is /49

3rd down /25

INSERTS:

Inserts offer the following parallels, Blue, Pink, Purple, Red, Silver, Gold #/10, Touchdown 1/1.

I like the chrome technology used on this years inserts. They really stand out, though in some ways, feel out of place with a non base chrome product.

Behind the Numbers has 30 cards to collect. Can't go wrong with the three guys I landed.

Call To Arms has 20 cards to chase

20 cards to fill up Thunder and Lightning set. That Saquon and Slayton is pure fire.

30 cards makes up Rookie Wave. I really like these, especially finding a Burrow.

HITS:

Changing Stripes is made up of players who played for multiple teams. I dig this Dickerson.

Turning Pro. Tua played well and almost led them to a Playoff game up until they met the Bills in Week 17. Wowzah.

Harrison Bryant Rookie Auto

And a really tough SSP pull of a Preview Contenders Rookie Ticket auto. This one is /23

There we have it!

FINAL THOUGHTS

The hits were fun, but for me, Playoff was all about those shiny inserts. I really liked those and looked forward to finding them.

When it comes to box price vs what I pulled however, it isn't pretty. Now if that Higgins had been a Burrow that would have changed the story on this one.

RATINGS BASED ON THIS BOX BREAK

Design ⭐⭐

Inserts ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Parallels ⭐

Hits ⭐⭐

Value  ⭐ 1/2

Fun Factor ⭐⭐⭐

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 48:Power Surge!

Set's talk Volume 48 is here folks! And just before I started typing this up, I learned a new position on today's sets. 

That there is more than just one way to have this sets.

1995 Stadium Club Power Surge was inserted in Series 1 packs falling 1:18 packs but I also found out that they were in Series 2 as well falling 1:36 packs making this once thought 12 card set into a 24 card set chase.

And this is why I do my research.

I just recently started to decide to chase this set when I opened a box of 1995 Stadium Club series 1 and saw how invigorating the design was.

  

The foil doesn't only shine with rainbow,but the lightning strike in the background does as well with a streak that offsets the rest of the card. Not sure how they did that but its very appealing.

 

And a couple more. These are a little bit up close so you can see the full angle.

With these 6 new adds from Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace (also saved 10% by using code 15Burbank), I am only 3 away from having the Series 1 set. Now I gotta figure out how far from Series 2 I am.

Another fun chase in the works among my many others. I will further update this chase down the line with more sets talk.

For now, have a good day and remember to have protection for when you are doing sets.

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 47: Man 2 Man

Let's have a talk about sets, Man 2 Man.

Back in 1995 Sportflix released an insert set called Man 2 Man that fell roughly 1:8 packs. At the time, I pulled the Dan Marino/Troy Aikman version which had a book value of $25 and was one of the biggest cards in my collection.

Since then, we know the story of how values fell, and I am simply looking just to chase the set down and every year find myself inching ever so closely to doing so.

With these 2 new adds from Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace (also saved 10% by using code 15Burbank), I am only 4 away from having the set.

The lentincular appeal is what catches my eye. It has a 3D look to it as opposed to other Sportflix cards that move when you flip them, these do not. Which makes them stand out.

I hope to complete this set by years end but have a lot of set updating on here before doing so. 

There will be other posts coming up soon in this series as I can't get enough sets.

As I always say, the more sets, the better.

Let's Talk About Sets Volume 45:Noteworthy Adds

Let's talk about sets baby, let's talk about them with me, let's talk about all the good adds that can be, let's talk about sets.

This segment is back and we are getting down and dirty with some set adds. This time my latest help for my 1996 Zenith Noteworthy insert set.

Falling at 1:12, these Noteworthy cards note key stats from the 1995 season. There are 18 in the set to collect in all.

 

With these 7 new adds from Burbank Sportscards Beckett Marketplace (also saved 10% by using code 15Burbank), I am only 5 away from having the set.

What stands out to me, is the rainbow foil at the top and then a sepia foil set in at the bottom. It makes these cards not only shine, but the offset in colors makes them really stand out. 

1996 Zenith was full of great looking inserts and the base set as well. I completed the Z-Team chase but still have the football base, the 5 Noteworthy, and most of the Rookie Rising still to chase from the product before I am happy with it.

Plenty of Sets to come. You can chase sets at any age.

24 Years Later...

It's a story that has stood the test of time, the story of my first big pull of my youth.

I have shared that story many times across multiple blogs and areas of social media. I know many of you have heard it again and again, but, in order to do today's post, I feel it's needed to be told again.

Back in 1996, I went to a card show with my father. There was a new hot product out that everyone was buying called Pinnacle Zenith. Not only was it a hot product, but dang it was beautiful one from base card to inserts. It wasn't a "cheap" one either per pack so I knew I wouldn't be getting much if not any coming from a low income family. So my father and I scoured the card show looking for deals and grabbed a few cards here and there. Nothing too major. I was in luck that we had some funds still remaining and grabbed a couple of packs of Zenith before we were leaving the show. It's tradition at that show to open your packs there before you exited so I did so. Low and behold, as I ripped one of my packs, I saw something in the middle and slowly went around the card before the big reveal. I slid it out from behind the card in front of it very slowly and it revealed a 1:3 boxes-1:72 pack odd pull of a Zenith Z-Team which was of Emmitt Smith. I couldn't believe it!

The card was acetate with this really unique rainbow etching on it as well. There stood Emmitt in the forefront with a big Z in the back. I related it somewhat to Lord Zedd of the Power Rangers but let's save that discussion for another day.

I had multiple offers on that card on the spot including a few trade ones. But, I wouldn't take them. I wanted to keep that card in remembrance of that day. Regrettably, when I moved out of my parents house after high school, I left the card behind in my father's half of the collection because we split it up when I moved. Having been from a low income family, my parents needed some funds and since I wasn't at home collecting with my father anymore he sold off what cards he had including said Emmitt.

It took me 20 years to find that card again for a reasonable price and when I did, I bought one. No it wasn't the hottest rookie card or a card I will retire off from, but it was memories and nostalgia that only this hobby seems to bring back to me. That's what matters most to me about collecting.

After I got that Emmitt in hand, I began to think maybe I should take it a step further. That one card was so eye-attention grabber that I wanted to chase the set. I knew it wouldn't be easy as some aren't as available as others because they weren't easy to find but I said I would stick to it.

So for the past 4 years, 24 overall if you think about it, I have been chasing this set. I knocked down a card here and there when I found them and narrowed it down to one not too long ago.

 

That one, this Troy Aikman which also happens to be the number one card in the set. There was no other Aikman listings at the time and this one popped up at a cheap auction which I landed for $4 in the end. Heck of a deal looking at the last few that sold.

 

 

I thought I would give you a better look at the card in the light. Don't tell me you don't think this is a chill card.

Here is the overall 18 card set.

 

Lots of big names mixed in. I really wished one of them was a NY Giant, especially a Rodney Hampton one.

It's very invigorating to have accomplished this set. Now I just need to find a way to display them with pride.

Speaking of Zenith, Panini brought back the beloved product this year and the Z-Teams. It appears from the Z-Teams I have seen listed, that Panini tried to mock the design in this post. Not sure if they have the same feel or appeal in-hand, but I hope to find out. If anyone has any for trade, hit me up!

Breakin' Wax:1995 Skybox Impact Football

My final box break thanks to Shane over at Project Pedro Blog, comes the action packed Skybox Impact!

I remember going to Ames once a week and finding some packs of this to open in the car. I also found some at the local pharmacy as well.

It's a product I have come to try and build a master set of. As anyone who knows how hard it is to build a master set, building one from the 90's is even more challenging.

But, I will get there.

Let's see how my final box went from Shane.

 

In this box of 1995 Skybox Impact, I got to open 36 packs of 12 cards. There are inserts aplenty in the product!

I should note before going on, this wasn't a very fun box to open only because the cards were bricks sadly. But, I did manage through and not too many cards were damaged.

The base card set features decent photography and a touch of foil on the players first name. There are 200 cards to collect in the base set including veterans

Rookies

Super Bowl subset

Jags and Panthers innagural season subset

Super Sophs subset

And The Specialists subset.

The inserts was where it was at for me. I still have mine from 1995 and have been adding to it ever since.

Impact Power inserts fell 1:3 packs. These were all dupes here

And these were new to my set chase. There are 30 to chase in all.

My favorite insert was this Countdown to Impact cards that fell 1:20 packs. I beat the odds here with those. There are 10 of these to collect and i like the fact the numbers on the card are embossed. I am slowly creeping towards the set. The Deion I had, but Barry I needed.

 

And finally, Fox Same Game, More Attitude cards fell 1:9 packs and have 15 cards to collect. This is another one I am creeping towards. A couple of these were set dupes.

Well, that does it for the box breaks from Shane. Thanks goes out to Shane for the trade and hopefully we can keep our tradition alive again this year and do it again.

Breakin' Wax:1995 Stadium Club Football Series 2 Box Break

Not too long ago I showed off a box of 1995 Stadium Club football Series 1 on here I busted thanks to my buddy Shane. Now it's time to show off how Series 2 went which I felt was a better break between the two.

So let's check it out!

Unlike Series 1, I went retail for Series 2. There are 13 cards per pack and once again some fun inserts to chase.

The base cards for the second series look the same and are still apart of the 450 card set.

The photography is still stunning as you will see with this Swann card and some more following it

 

Unlike Series 1 with the Xtreme Corps, Series 2 had Expansion Team cards from the Panthers and Jaguars.

 

Like this one for the Panthers

and my boy Mark Brunell for the Jags.

Series 2 finished rest of the Series 1 Draft Pix such as Steve McNair

Now onto my inserts

Ground Attack fell 1:14 packs. Another set I am seeking by the way. They feature volcanoes, lava and foil, can't go wrong.

MVP falls 1:18 packs. I pulled two of the best with Emmitt and Rice with the laser cut.

 

And this almost stuck to the back of another card Power Surge card Michael Irvin that fell 1:28 packs. And yes, another set chase.

Like I said box number 2 was better than box 1. Better looking inserts, bigger names pulled.

There will be more boxes coming up soon to look forward to such as 1995 Zenith football, 1996 NFL Lasers, and 1995 Pro Line Classic Series 2.