Blog Bat-Around: 5 Best Pack Pulled Hits (Here's Mine)

Matt, great name by the way, over at Diamond Jesters has sent forth a new Blog Bat-Around challenge.

He posted his best 5 pack pulled cards and wanted other bloggers to do the same.

Having been sponsored by sport card companies, I have opened a lot of products over my time with some nice hits in-between. However, for this challenge, I didn't want to count any of the pulls from the card company packs. Instead, I wanted to share hits from my own personal pack openings...back when I could afford to open them.

Most of the time, my own pack openings were complete duds. But, then there were some nice ones.

Let's take a look,

5. Is this /25 Totally Certified Gold Rookie Autograph of Luke Kuechly who was one heck of a linebacker. He will be one of the names forever known in Panthers history.

4. How could a sweet MJ parallel be number 4? Well, I would call it 1D. It was really hard to pick a top one in this top group.

3.I pulled this Deion/Cam dual auto from Panini Black for Christmas one year. Still the best Christmas pack pull I have ever had.

2. I usually don't like opening up retail Allen&Ginter. It's so boring. But, I still do it just to have some. I got lucky in 2020 with this one. One of my all-time favorite Yankee players.

1.Stallone auto. This is probably my best all-time pack pull including company sent products. It's really hard to top Rocky.

Well, that's my Top 5. There are a couple other pulls I could have put at number 5 but felt Luke had earned his spot. The other top cards were hard to beat.

I still have all of these cards except the Luke. I traded that away for something that fit my PC better. The others won't ever leave my hands.

As Matt put at the end of his post and I will add it to mine, let's see what you guys have pulled. I can't wait to read and see them.

Ripping Wax:2021 Playoff Football Blaster Box

Football season is officially over, but, football card season is not. It appears many releases were pushed off until so I am just getting my first look at them via retail.

Before I show off one of the newest releases, I must admit I lost the picture I had of the blaster box so you will have to deal with without it. I can tell you that every blaster box comes with 8 cards per pack and 7 cards per pack. Oh wait, Panini misprinted the box...I see. Each blaster does though come with 56 cards in the box so there's that. Each box is $27.98 and comes with an autograph or relic card per.

Here were the rookie card finds in my box highlighted by Kellen Mond.

There are also three Kickoff Parallels per box as well. Matt Ryan wasn't a terrible find.

One thing I have always liked about this product is the fact they have chromed inserts and these chromed inserts also have parallels. I was happy to find a Mahomes for the PC above.

Cam Newton (you would think a late season release would have him back in his Panthers uniform, guess not.

woowooww. I really liked the Rookie Wave insert. This one is actually a red parallel. I have a couple coming of Kadarius Toney you can view on Big Blue Cardboard soon.

The hit in my box was this Turning Pro relic card of Kellen Mond. Not too bad, maybe the future in Minnesota?

Thoughts on this box break and product is welcomed below in comments.

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.

REVIEW:2019 Donruss Optic Football Box 2

Well box 1 wasn't great, let's see if Box 2 can top it!

Every box of 2019 Optic football has 20 packs of 4 cards. There is one autograph and 10 parallels per box. Boxes are running close to $150 right now.

Rated Rookies. Looks like most boxes only come with 6 Rated Rookies per box. I didn't land any of the huge names such as Murray, Jones or Haskins. Will be tough to tackle a base set without top rookies. Hopefully someone has some for trade.

INSERTS:
There's not a lot of inserts per box, which isn't a bad thing, but they look pretty cool I think. They should have added parallels to these since it's this type of product. That part was a bit disappointing.

Power Formulas. There are 15 to collect in this series

 1999 Tribute has 15 cards to collect

 Elite Series veterans and rookies. There are 30 in the veterans version and 22 for the rookies.

There is no shortage of parallels in this chrome-type product. They fall 1:2 packs as well.
Here is an overall look at the parallels

BASE PARALLELS: Holo, White Sparkle, Aqua /299, Orange /199, Blue /150, Red /99, Orange Scope /79, Purple /50, Black Pandora /25, Purple Stars FOTL /25, Gold /10, Green /5, Gold Vinyl 1/1.

ROOKIE/RATED ROOKIE PARALLELS: Holo, Bronze, Green Velocity, Pink, Red/Yellow, White Sparkle, Aqua /299, Orange /199, Blue /150, Red /99, Orange Scope /79, Purple /50, Black Pandora /25, Purple Stars FOTL /25, Gold /10, Green /5, Gold Vinyl 1/1.

Holo silver

Aqua /299

Blue /150

Orange /199

Red /99

 

Purple /50

HITS

Well, not the greatest hit ever. but, fits my theme of Optic breaks.

Other hits not found in my box but could be in yours includes,

• Rookie Patch Autographs
• Rookie Dual Autographs
• Rookie Triple Autographs
• 1998 Tribute Autographs
• 1999 Tribute Autographs
• Dynamic Patch Autographs
• Elite Series Autographs
• Elite Series Rookies Autographs
• Fans of the Game Autographs
• Legendary Patch Autographs
• Power Formulas Autographs
• Rookie Kings Autographs
• Donruss Threads
• Rookie Phenoms

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Well, I love the look of the product and my wife agrees. She helped break this box and was especially fond of the parallels. I do feel the box price is definitely a tad high for the return but there are also plenty of great hits to find as well.

This may be the first product I put a base set together of in 5 years of newer stuff. Will update that if I come to a decision to do so.

You can Google a checklist to see the overall look at the product. I can't seem to locate one on their website to link you to.

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.  

Project Pedro Trade Recap Part 13:Newton's Law, Gotta Own A RC Auto

October has officially been named, Cards I Got From Project Pedro Blog Month.

By now, you have seen quite the gallery, but you are probably wondering where the BAM went after I kicked off this series with a huge card and mentioned there was more to come.

Well, I thought I would post another as I am saving the best card for last.

You know what rights with Bam right, yes CAM!

 

Last years NFL MVP and a guy who helped lead the Panthers to Super Bowl 50, now makes his new home in my rookie autograph collection. 

It's my first rookie auto of his and I think the card looks really nice with the clean crystal-clear photography. I am just hoping he continues to lead the Panthers and continues to play well and not flop now (as I am sure we all hope with any rookie auto we pull or trade for) that I own this. This year isn't looking good so far as his offensive line forgot how to protect him.

Have you ever traded for a rookie auto with a good value then the player flopped along with the value? Who was it? Let me know, and try not to scare me, in comments!

Nuttin But The Hits:2015 Gridiron Kings (Some Boom)

Very artistic as a dedication to past Donruss designs, Gridiron Kings is very bright and bold. It only has two hits per box and runs roughly around $45 for 12 packs.

This is my second break which was much better than my first.

Insert pulls:

My jersey card pull. Not too bad if this guy can catch some passes from whoever is the Jets QB next year.

And a small boom, Studio Signatures autograph /5 of Randall Cobb (this break was done in January and this card has already been traded away as I am far behind on posting these)

Overall, Cobb saved the break. My rookie card pulls were weak, jersey card wasn't the best but luckily that Cobb found its way in here.

What are your thoughts on Gridiron Kings and my box pull?

Hobby Break 'Em: 2011 Topps Football Jumbo Box

I got a box of 2011 Topps Jumbo Football as a late Christmas present from dacardworld. I was hoping for the same kind of mojo that I had with my other Christmas breaks. However, that kind of mojo wasn't found here, but honestly that wasn't really the ultimate goal when I had put this on my Christmas list. I really wanted to load up on some rookies from this class and think I did a good job of that.

Here is how the box break went. There were 50 cards per pack. 10 packs per box. So 500 cards to dig through. Also 3 of those cards were hits. For under $70 there was some value to be found.

 

TONS of Base cards in a box.

There were about 30 per pack

 

Rookies anybody? These are jumbo packs meaning there is about 10 rookies in a pack. Many doubles..but I am not complaining. Especially when they are top WR's AJ Green and Randall Cobb.

  

Insert heavy! At least a good combination of ten in every pack.

 

Really like these rookie patches! Some sweet swatches such as this one can be found one per box!

 

This wasn't the BEST auto I could find

Not pictured is another Lion auto that was a redemption for Titus Young. Once again, not a great one. 

By far the best pull of the box was the patch card and the tons of rookies. 

Let me know your thoughts on this break and if it's something that you have broken.