A Mystery

*sun is already shining, heat/mugginess is building, and here I am sitting down with my first cup of joe to type this*

 

I love a good mystery.

Well, except for my coffee. Don't mess with my coffee. I have one way of liking it so don't mess with it and add some flavored mumbo jumbo or replace it with tea. 

Don't you dare.

Otherwise a good mystery is fun. Whether it's a mystery book, mystery movie, mystery mail day or mystery packs that you can buy. A good mystery keeps us on the edge of our seats.

Just like recently, when I tried my very first mystery pack.

Why is it my first? Well that's not a mystery I will leave you hanging on.

I always worry about buying them not knowing what kind of junk could be within. I assume in order to get the money the sellers are seeking, that the "chase" cards are impossible to find and a lot of it is what we could find in nickel and dime boxes. Which I am running out of places to store that kind of stuff. Yes, I have gotten to the point of collecting where space is becoming an issue. Mainly because my boxes to store stuff in are running low.

Another point to make about these mystery packs is most of these packs cost $10 when I could have turned that into a card or even two for my PC instead of possible junk.

But, this mystery pack was different than the rest I found. It was focused on my favorite era of collecting, late 90's and early 2000's. What made this pack even better, it was cheap. It had my attention.

So for $2.25 plus shipping, you get 30 cards. There are "25 cards" plus 5 cards that are Inserts/Parallels/RC cards. Intriguing.

All of the cards are NBA cards from the late 1990's through early 2000's. The seller put the Inserts/RC's/Parallels/#'d cards in plastic sleeves and each pack was wrapped like the above example.

Here's an example of some of the sets that were to be included into these mystery packs,

• 1997-1998 Topps Chrome
• 1997-1998 Bowman's Best
• 1998-1999 Fleer Mystique
• 1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants
• 1998-1999 Topps Finest
• 1998-1999 Skybox Thunder
• 1998-1999 Fleer Ultra
• 1998-1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond
• 1998-1999 Upper Deck Ionix
• 1999-2000 Skybox EX
• 1999-2000 Topps Gold Label

And the list of players that are in it as well,

• Kevin Garnett
• Vince Carter
• Grant Hill
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Anfernee Hardaway
• Tim Duncan
• David Robinson
• Jason Kidd
• Steve Nash
• Paul Pierce
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Richard Hamilton
• Chris Webber
• Kobe Bryant
• Michael Jordan
• Scottie Pippen
• Reggie Miller
• Karl Malone

Combine all of that with the price, the BIG NOSTALGIA FACTOR, how could I say no? So I grabbed two of these packs and paid under $10 for them both. After getting the packs and seeing how I did, I wished I had gotten more as they sold out almost immediately.

*smiles during my next sip*

Time to show you why they sold out so fast after opening them,

PACK 1:

We kick off the pack with a Topps Finest Felipe Lopez rookie card in old school Grizz uni. I would love a pair of those shorts to wear.

(no that's not an extra Lopez, that's the same one) I found John Stockton and a Karl Malone. Man I wished that Jazz team could had won a title. But, those darn Bulls...

Tim Hardaway, Payton, Garrity Finest rookie

Marbury (I wonder if my buddy still collects anymore who was a big time fan), another Payton and a Barkley

Shaq, Garnett, Penny Hardaway (forgot he played for the Suns)

And now onto what's supposed to be the good stuff. I thought I had already seen all of that up to this point.

Grant Hill Wing Men

Charles Barkley NBA All Stars

Elton Brand Topps Gold Label rookie. Imagine how hot this card must have been back then? For me it's about the Gold Label

Kobe! Great photo to. I never busted any of this Fleer Genuine

Cummings Topps Chrome rookie

And a Larry Hughes Black Diamond rookie. If I remember right, the rookies in this product were Sp's.

That was just pack number one folks. I was feeling like I had drank the best cup of coffee I had ever had after opening that one. Well, the cup I have right now isn't too shabby either nor is Pack 2.

*takes another sip*

PACK 2

I remember Mcleod and how hot his cards were supposed to be.....

Here we go some more. Fleer Mystique was another great looking product, PC guy Allan Houston Topps Chrome, Shawn Kemp, Spreeeeeeeeeeewelllll or as MSG called it out

Jamal Mashburn, Ewing, my first dupe with the Stockton, Kittles

A few Gary Paytons, Barkley another Hakeem Olajuwon

Marbury peeled Finest parallel, The Admiral, Hakeem again, Ray Allen

The sleeved cards including Webber, Tom Gugliotta nice die cut insert

Tim Duncan insert. I think it's either rookie year or year after. I can't remember now. I opened this awhile back.

And I believe I can fllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyy wooooooooooooo. An MJ spotting. Very cool especially being a side PC card and the way his cards have been moving. Fleer Ultra was also the bomb back then

 

It was the back of the card that caught my attention. I am not sure if you can read it, but the Did You Know? was "four hours before every game, Michael eats a 23-ounce New York Steak, either a baked potato or mashed potatoes, a salad and ginger ale."

That's crazy. Can you imagine running around for three hours with that in your system? That's just another reason why he is the GOAT.

*cup one down, next one coming up*

I contacted the seller afterwards and thanked them for a trip back in time and told them how much I enjoyed their mystery pack. They mentioned to me that they may make a second series seeing how this one went, if they could find the rest of their cards.

A week later, guess what they found and made and even contacted me about.

And guess what I did

And guess how I did...

A mystery isn't it....

Too bad that's for another cup of coffee, or two, another day.

Breakin' Wax:2019-2020 Panini Prizm Basketball Rack Box (HIT!)

I told myself I wouldn't....I told myself not to....I told myself there are better things....I told myself well...I told myself how could I not...I told myself it's in my hands...I told myself it's in the cart....I told myself I have bought it...I told myself guess it's time to open it.

I was hoping I wouldn't fall into the Prizm warp like every other collector has, but I did. I still fell into it. Everyone, I MEAN EVERYONE, on Twitter was buying up every single piece of retail Prizm they could and here I was sitting back watching the action.

That's until my wife went Black Friday shopping. She didn't get what she had wanted, which was one of those DVD tablets for our cousins because they had sold out, but on the way out of disappointment she found this hanger box for me. Luckily I don't have collectors nearby so there was plenty of hanger boxes and packs left. For now anyways. The blaster boxes did sell out.

In every hanger box, there is 20 cards. 20. Along with 4 Orange Cracked Ice parallels. No guarantees other than that, but it was going to be a fun short $10 bust.

However, I didn't pull any good rookies. I pulled one or two and never heard of them as opposed to my father who bought a hanger pack and landed the Zion. Sigh.

Emergent insert

 NBA Finalists Kobe Bryant

 LeBron James NBA Finalists silver prizm parallel

John Collins Silver Prizm

 Josh Richardson green/blue Prizm. That's at least the colors I see anyways lol

 Grant Williams Orange Cracked ice. These look good.

Ray Allen

 Damian Lillard

 Courtney Lee

And to my surprise when I opened the pack, I could see a thicker card in the middle and saved that for last just hoping it was something special......

Well, not anyone or even a name I bet I can't announce properly but I really dig the design and the card looks spectacular in person. I will give it that.

Well, a surprise hit is always nice. Wished I could have gotten a decent rookie but I will take what I did get and it was fun. To me, fun is all that really matters. However, it left me wanting another and I am not sure when I will make it back to Walmart. It may be too late already.

I will throw in a tiny bit more of a tidbit of thoughts, but is it me or does it seem that Panini really flooded Prizm basketball retail out there this year? I mean my lousy Walmart had three flats, THREE flats full of it which is a ton compared to any other release. And doesn't it feel like a lot of collectors are hitting Zions and Zion Prizms? I worry it's going to drive this product down with so many being hit and the biggest thing about this product is it's value. Will it hold overtime with so much out there right now and are collectors like myself falling for the trap not really thinking about the long term on it. Time can only tell. But, right now, this product is the hottest thing out there.

So how about you guys? Did you bust any Prizm basketball? How did you do?

Unsolved Mysteries Episode 3

This blog post series is about unraveling unsolved mysteries from a card lot my mother-in-law bought me from an estate sale. What you are about to see isn't a breaking news broadcast or some new releases. There is a lot to go through here so whenever possible, I will try to condense down some of the graphics and whenever possible, real cards from the actual lot (well all of them are from the actual lot but let's have some fun with it) will be used for pictures.

Someone, somewhere can help me uncover the mysteries within this lot. Let's take a look and maybe one of you, will help me solve some mysteries.

*insert creepy music and theme song*

The location is still completely unknown where my Mother In Law went to grab this lot of sports cards other than it was a Estate Sale. Belief is, it was somewhere isolated as nobody grabbed them before she did. It may be the only explanation on why someone wouldn't have grabbed this lot before she showed up three hours after it started. Or maybe it was because the cards were more than they were expecting? Or was it a government conspiracy? I guess we will have to tune in to today's round and maybe you can help solve this mystery.

A 90's trio that I found a lot in packs. Was someone spying on me knowing this information ahead of time? Or was there a conspiracy?

An insert line that says Lottery Legends when it should say Lottery busts. Intriguing.

Except this one. This guy turned out okay. But, why did only one make it big time. Mystery....

Ghosted players in the background or are they really ghosts....

There was a lot of Prism in the box but all base except this one parallel. Staley was left stale in the lot.

Why would you ever leave such a great looking insert behind? Is there more to this card than I know?

How did Don Shula lead the Dolphins to the only undefeated season ever in the history of the NFL?

Why did Upper Deck create such fun parallels and products for kids with Collectors Choice than made the product disappear out of nowhere? it just vaniiiiiiiiisshheed.......................

Cardinals in the 90's, a mysteriously bad team.

299/299. Why was the end of the line found in this box? Why Ahman Green? Will my friend Bryan like this card? Lots of questions that will need to be answered.

So much creativity in inserts at one time with this hobby and then it all disappeared? Why don't we number inserts anymore and drive up their worthiness of being called an insert?

 

And finally, we find a lot of cards that appears was someones attempt at a set but they gave up or fell short? Or did the disappear like the rest of the cards to the set...

This does it for Episode Three of Unsolved Mysteries. There is a lot of unexplained findings here with even more mysteries to unravel. Tune in next time and Perhaps YOU, can help solve a mystery.

That's My Jam!

I know I complain a lot about today's NBA and how much I don't like it, but one thing you will never hear me complain about is 90's NBA and especially 90's NBA cards.

There was plenty of those to find in my latest cube break from Wes.

This cube starts off with a Kevin Garnett rookie on top. That's a great beginning in my opinion.

Here it is out of the cube. I have many of these already but I don't mind adding more.

I know this isn't 90's but it isn't basketball to me either. But, i dig the Antonio Gates prizm refractor crossover sport card. He is best known on the gridiron

KOOOOOOOBE!

Allen Iverson on this great looking Pacific card. I sometimes forget about these, what I would call oddball issues from the 90's.

My first one of these rookie card.

Who wears short shorts? Phil wears short shorts! I always wanted Jackson to coach the Knicks and carry them to victory especially when Patrick Ewing played. He deserved a ring.

Russell Westbrook still doing his thing without Durant.

MJ in a Wizards uniform is like that Emmitt in a Cardinals one, you should have just retired and stayed with the one team. Though MJ had a better experience in Washington than Emmitt did in Arizona.

Great photo on this one.

90's Jordan insert!!! Woo Hoo!

 

I hated MJ in the 90's for always winning and for always beating my Knicks when they were so close to going to the Finals. But, as I have aged, I appreciate everything that MJ brought to the game and even though it was tough to watch my team lose, I had to appreciate the way he always did it. There is no comparison to him. Lebron James will NEVER be Jordan. EVER. If you pit those two against each other in their primes one on one, I bet MJ wins. So over the years I have built a very small MJ side pc. Probably roughly 100 cards but nothing too special. I was glad to add these cards to it above.

Here area few hits that ended the cube.

Another solid cube break. There are still more to go in this series and hopefully I will have the rest posted by years end so I can start off the New Year with new material.