Bronny

When you find out that one of the NBA's All-Time greats has an upcoming SuperStar son, as a card collector, how can you not want to chase a few cards of his? I guess in most circles you would call this prospecting.

Bronny, the son of LeBron James is already playing college ball and on his trail to the pros despite having a scary cardiac arrest back in July of 2023 which hopefully won't play any further role in his life. So far, Bronny is averaging 5.7 points a game for USC. Not mind-blowing numbers, but you can see some of the plays he makes are pro ready ones.

When I found out Bronny had some early cards in products, I wanted to get a jump on a few. Just in case.

Not only was he included in the 2023 Topps Chrome McDonalds All-American Basketball, but he is also in Bowman Chrome U with his very 1st Bowman.

So, I wanted to add one to my collection. Right now they are going pretty cheap.

So cheap that I was able to add this Purple Shimmer

And insert for all under $8 on eBay with some of my gift card.

You read that right.....under $8. If this wasn't a steal, I am not sure what one is.

I am hoping that Bronny will be as good as LeBron, but there is also a lot of pressure when your dad is who he is. A lot of kids of superstars like this struggle to make their own name as they will always be so and so's son until they do.

I hope to add a few more to this collection as time goes on. I also do have the Mcdonald's base card that I got in a trade. Would be fun to add a refractor of it to or any other parallel run to this.

Let me know your thoughts on Bronny in comments.

Random Cardboard Of The Day: 2022 Upper Deck National Prominent Cuts LeBron James

PACK WARS EPISODE 6

I know it must feel I open a lot of wax for this series, but secret is, I had to trade for most of these. Some I found at Walgreens and Walmart, but a good chunk I acquired through trading. I basically did it so I can do this series and just to have the weekly rip. When this series is over, I won't have any more to rip.

Today's matchup is two more shiny products and my first multi-sport battle crossover. Let's check it out.

 VS 

First, let's rip the NBA Hoops Premium

LeBron and RJ Barrett, good start

Iverson silver

Bleh

Bleh

Meh

Now onto the Chrome,

(solid)

(this would have been a great pull last year)

(Cabrera and Vlad Jr refractor)

 

Well, I can't pick a winner here. Both seemed equal but I will let you guys help me out in comments and tell me which break you think gets the trophy.

CARDBOARD REVIEW:2020-2021 Donruss Clearly Basketball (NICE BOX BREAK!)

A few years ago, collectors-especially those of us from the 90's-made it very CLEAR when Panini brought back acetate cards they were on board and wanted more.

Which is why Panini went full force and made a few products CLEARLY full of acetate.

Today's box break was one of those. Let's take a look at some Donruss Clearly basketball.

In every box of 2020-2021 Donruss Clearly basketball comes with 4 packs of 5 cards each. Each box is $170 roughly. Seems cheap for these times. Boxes come with 3 parallels and 1 insert, no guarantees on autographs.

BASE:

The base set is a clear version of the Donruss design. Pretty simple, but pretty cool.

100 cards makes up the base set.

50 veterans

And 50 Rated rookies make up the base set.

PARALLELS:

The following parallels make up Clearly Authentic, Gold, Purple, Holo Mosaic, Blue /99, Red /49, Green /25, Holo Silver /10, Holo Gold /5, and Holo Platinum 1/1.

Tobias Harris is a Purple

Bradley Beal Gold

INSERTS:

Usually I don't get too excited about inserts anymore, but I nailed the inserts in this break.

Zero Gravity pull, couldn't have asked for a better insert pull out of the 10 card insert set.

My House! Red parallel as well /49 of one of the young greats in the league in Luka. 10 cards in this set.

HITS

Hey look, I pulled an autograph!!

 

Autographs don't appear to fall one-per-box, so I am guessing one in three or maybe one in two boxes.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I really enjoyed this break as I am one of those passionate about my acetate cards. Would be a fun set build I think.

As for the value of this break, that came from my inserts. The inserts in the product are worth more than you think they would be. I am guessing it's because its harder to pull hits and hard to land to pull inserts as well as they only fall one per but I got lucky with two.

CARDBOARD REVIEW:2020-2021 Elite Basketball

Basketball season may have come to a rest, but not the cards. They are still flying off the shelves and new releases continue to come.

Let's see how today's box break went with a box of Elite.

Every box of 2020-2021 Elite basketball comes with 20 packs of 5 cards each. Each box guarantees 2 autographs and a good amount of parallels. Boxes run about $350 and like the 2019-20 set, 2020-21 Donruss Elite Basketball will be sold through Panini’s website.

BASE:

Elite has stuck with a pretty simple layout design over the years made up with a lot of foil. Some years it's plain and other years there is a shine.

This years base design is back to the shine and even adds a little bit of background photo.

The base set is built up of 100 base cards of veterans.

And 50 rookies numbered to 299 which makes for an overall base chase of 150 cards. I like how this base set is built. You are not going to find a rookie card in every pack and the numbering adds some value to not on the card itself, but to a set chase of the product.

Well done.

PARALLELS:

There are plenty of shiny parallels to find in Elite, but the good part is, there isn't an overwhelming about like you can find in some products.

Find the following, Red, Blue /99, Aspirations /99 or less, Status /94 or less, Purple /49, Gold /10 and Black 1/1.

 

Blue /99

Blue /99

Purple /49 (solid pull!)

Purple /49

Aspirations die cut /99

Aspirations die cut /99

INSERTS

The inserts in this years Elite are fun, colorful, and shiny.

This Jokic Star Status is one of 20 cards in the set.

Primary Colors has only 10 in the set. This is the best of them to find..if only Panini had MJ rights.

Power Formulas has 30 cards to collect in the set.

And returning again for another year in Elite is Spellbound. Featuring 9 players this year, the Spellbounds spell out a players first or last name once collected all from the set.

HITS:

Elite is loaded with some great ink, but my box didn't contain any of the top ink in the set. It instead had some interesting signatures.

RJ Hampton. Nope, not that Hampton I collect but what a short to the point signature he has.

 

And then comes this Cam Reddish. Is this possibly the worst signed card you have ever seen? It literally looks like he was up late one night trying to get these done and fell asleep and the sharpie slid across the sticker. Charles Barkley would say these are TURRRRIBLE.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I really like the build up of the overall product. Design is one of the better Elite ones and I liked the fact the players name can actually be read in this foil use.

The value of this break was a little rough, but it was nice finding a Zion, something I didn't have much luck with in the previous years products.

Let me know your thoughts on Reddish's autograph and the product as a whole in comments.

Stay tuned for some giveaways from Elite coming up soon either on here or on Twitter.

Coffee Break:2020-2021 NBA Hoops Fat Pack

*not much sleep last night, lots of tossing and turning despite the cool sleeping temperatures. Guess I will need to hook up the coffee IV and pretend there is caffeine in my coffee*

I apologize I haven't posted in a few days. I am still working through where I want to do all of my blogging when all is said and done. I have three blogs, but, only one blog can survive and get my total focus.

For now it's been this blog, but in the end, who knows. I am up in the air on this decision still and any guidance would be appreciated.

In the meantime, enjoy another coffee break brought to you by NBA Hoops.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

In each 2020-2021 NBA Hoops Fat pack there are 30 cards. I opened this pack up a long time ago so I am not sure what the going point was on these, but now I see they are going for about $15.

Summary: There are 270 cards in the base set with 200 veterans and 70 rookies.

There are plenty of parallel options for Hoops including, Blue, Hyper Blue, Neon Green, Purple, Purple Explosion, Purple Winter, Red Backs, Teal Explosion, Winter, Yellow, Silver #199, Green /99, Hyper Red /99, Green Explosion /89, Red /75, Teal /70, Blue Explosion /59, Artist Proof /25, Hyper Green /25, Orange /25, Orange Explosion /25, Red Explosion /15, Artist Proof Gold /10, Hyper Gold /10,  and Artist Proof Black 1/1.

Inserts are aplenty with close to 22 different ones, unless I miscounted. That is a ton!! Some of those also have parallels and numbered parallels. The Slam inserts were very popular and still are.

The hits in Hoops are a good mix of veteran and rookie content.

Let's see how my break went,

*takes a sip before closing*

Not a bad break, pulled a Slam insert, LeBron and a Knicks parallel. It was very weak again on the rookie card front but I have no luck in pulling good basketball rookies in the little bit of basketball I have broken.

I hope everyone has a great day.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*