Breakin' Wax:2021 Stadium Club Baseball Blaster Box

I was fortunate enough to walk into Walmart last week and actually find a few things on the shelf. It doesn't happen often as the vendor doesn't put up a lot of stock when they come, but I try to at least find something I want from the rubble.

I didn't have many choices to choose from. 2021 Topps Series 2 blasters, there was three of them, I already acquired what I needed from that so no longer needed it. 2021 Score football, that seems to be the one product I can find and have way too much of. And then there was two blasters of Stadium Club baseball 2021. I grabbed one of those despite reviewing the hobby box already but still was missing the Griffey and Jeter base (I did acquire these after this thanks to my buddy Grady)

Every blaster box of Stadium Club comes with 8 packs of 5 cards. They also come with an oversize, though not that large, Master Photo card.

 

I opened up the blaster and pulled out the packs. I then began to question where the Master Photo was, which was in there unwrapped and tucked off to the side and hidden almost into the box. I wonder how many of those get thrown away by mistake. 

Now onto the rest of the break (I excluded the base and the nameless base rookies),

Red Foil

Black Foil

Superstar Duos Aaron Judge/Stanton

Triumuirates (was disappointed in these this year with no foil or shine to them)

Stadium Club Greats

Stadium Club Greats Red Foil (think odds were 1:191 packs) of the greatest player in MLB history.

Not too bad for a blaster, I have seen much worse. This Griffey by far was the highlight.

Let me know in comments if you busted one of these and tell me how you did!

Hopefully I will find some Prizm Draft football the next time I am out. I have been wanting to open some of that but usually anything with the name Prizm in it doesn't last too long.

Breakin' Wax:2020 Donruss Baseball Hanger Box

It was awhile ago when I busted this hanger box of Donruss baseball, end of August roughly, so I figured it was time I posted it.

 

Donruss baseball wasn't my first choice in something to open, it was the only option at the time so I was happy to find something when I had the itch.

Was it worth fixing the itch? Guess you will find out here,

There are 50 cards in every hanger box of Donruss baseball. You have a shot at autographs and relics but are guaranteed to find 6 holo orange and 2 diamond parallels in every box.

At the time, I hadn't seen any Donruss baseball up close.

but it felt like a repeat of the past few years with the same design

the terrible nickname cards overflowing

and and overused Diamond King theme.

I wasn't too impressed to start this box.

Then came the rookies,

Can't argue with Bo Bichette and Kyle Lewis who to me is the runaway ROY in the American League.

Then came more disappointment,

These 1986 Donruss design is cool, but feels like it has been in this product for years now.

Something that hasn't though is a new line of emoji parallels to hip up this product and tickle those born after 2000. Such as this On Fire of Brock Burke and also the infamous Baby Shark then Look At This,Number 1,One Hundred and Presidential Collection.

 

Now onto the guaranteed parallels starting with the 2 Diamond parallels of 

Marte

and Chapman.

Those inserts usually look shiny anyways, but its the diamond shapes in the shine that separate it from a base version.

 

Up next is the 6 orange holofoil

Cal Ripken is a nice find

So wasn't Gerrit Cole and Luis Servino

Not a terrible break overall with a couple of good rookies and a few decent parallels.

I do like what Panini does for Donruss football and wished they would take that approach to the baseball as well. Not that the baseball is terrible, but there is room for improvement. 

 

One of the biggest improvements I would make first is getting rid of the nickname cards.

Breakin' Wax:1995 Pinnacle Zenith Football

1996 Zenith along Ex and the Spx's of the 90's were king to me. Nothing topped those. I know I mention often how much I love this set or that set, but deep down, those three can't be touched.

One product in the 90's I never got to open for football was 1995 Zenith. I opened TONS AND TONS of 1996, but never once laid sight on 1995.

In my latest box break from Shane over at Project Pedro Blog, I finally got the opportunity to open some even in box form for the first time.

In every box of 1995 Zenith football, there were 24 packs of 6 cards. There was a shot at three different inserts in every box, most notably, Z-Team.

There are 150 base cards in the base set, designed like the yellow brick road I would say, including veterans and

"rookies". For some reason or another, Zenith didn't do real rookies. They made it like baseball and called rookies, "rookies" from the year before like this Willie. In the three year run of the 90's, it never once put a true rookie card in it's product.

Like I said earlier, there are three chase inserts in the product.

Second Season which I didn't recognize at first. I assumed it was apart of the base set until I saw the numbers on the back. These fall 1:6 packs.

 

Give me some dufex baby! These Rookie Roll Call fell 1:72 packs and are beautiful both front

 

and back. I am chasing this set as well and you can also see that not more than 1200 sets were produced.

And finally the moment you have been waiting for....Z Team John Elway. Wowza!! These fall 1:24 packs or one per box. Much different than the 1:3 boxes the 1996 ones fall.

Just like with the 1996 version, I plan on chasing down the 1995 one as well. Cards look amazing.

How does this one live up to 1996? Well, it falls flat with the one insert and the base cards. 1996 base cards put these ones to shame. The Z-Teams look better in 1996 as well, but love me some dufex so this one is solid. Hard to beat a perfected product like the 1996 version.

I am working on so much from the Zenith 1996 product still and this one as well including the dufex inserts, Z-Teams, and base ones.

What are your guys thoughts on Zenith? Have a favorite year of it?

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.

Breakin' Wax:1998 UD3 Football Pack

Nothing is better than breaking some memories.

On one of my $25 A Week challenges, I told you about a couple of packs of 1998 UD3 football I got for cheap that I would be breaking a pack of later on, well, it's time to break it open. Remember, I am only opening one of these packs, not both. I plan on keeping the other sealed for fun.

UD3 returns for it's second season after a successful 1997 in which I bought a ton of. I don't remember how much 1998 I was able to find but I did break some.

A look at the overall base set is pretty deep. The 270 card base set is broken down into so many subsets,
Future Shock-Embossed (1-30), Next Wave-Embossed (31-60), Upper Realm-Embossed (61-90), Future Shock-Light F/X (91-120), Next Wave-Light F/X (121-150), Upper Realm-Light F/X (151-180), Future Shock-Rainbow (181-210), Next Wave-Rainbow (211-240), and Upper Realm-Rainbow (241-270)

Obviously being 1998, my hope was to land Randy Moss or Peyton Manning. I knew my odds were against me, but you never know.

The seller actually even tossed in one of the base cards which is actually the toughest pull at 1:125 odds. This is an Upper Realm embossed.

Now time to bust the pack.

Inside this is what you find. Cards are protected by two pieces of cardboard.

John Elway Upper Realm Light FX 1:6 packs.

Future Shock rainbow, great looking card up close, only falls 1:1.3 packs. Too bad it wasn't the rookies I had hoped for but solid card to have regardless just because of design.

Next Wave embossed falls 1:4 packs.

Keep in mind, these are just base cards at different levels of severity. I think it's a fun concept and makes it challenging to build a base set which is what a set collector like myself enjoys. Also helps give it added value so you want to chase it.

There are also multiple levels of die cut parallels and since I didn't pull any, I am not even going to touch that project.

Let's see how long I can hold onto the second pack without opening it. Because who knows what treasure could be hiding in there....

Chasing Lamar:2018 Classics Football Blaster Box #2

Well, here we go. We are ripping blaster box number two of 2018 Classics football. How will I do this time? Will Lamar finally be found? Let's check it out!

So let's get this going!

I found a two blaster box lot for $26 on eBay. That's $13 a box. Box one wasn't a bad rip so I expected about the same in box two.

 Not a bad way to kick it off. Bradley Chubb Blue Back /175 which will go into my buddy Tim's, @CardpocalypseNC,  pile for trade if he needs it.

 Who?

 Huh? You play?

 For a minute there I thought I had Superman, but nope. Not sure what role Deon Cain plays.

 This was always quite the clash!

 Once again no comment on Kareem

Cam didn't play any beautiful music this season especially on my Fantasy Team. It was all Jameis Int Winston.

And the final card, the hit, is a Carson Wentz. Not too shabby and once again the solid design.

Well, that does it for me. I am no longer wasting money on blasters when I could have been building sets or adding Rodney Hampton/Kerry Collins. I think between the four rips I have learned my lesson that it's better to stick with what you like and not follow the flow of the hobby. Remember that after you see all of these.