Random Cardboard Of The Day: 2020 Optic Luis Robert

The Grady Chronicles:Optical Color

This new short-term segment is based on my mail day from SCC reader, Grady M.

If you enjoy shiny cards especially, tune in as I take you on this journey.

Today, I will take a look at some Optic baseball shinyness.

Pink Optic parallels. Nice Pujols.

Silver Optic Paralells.

Neon Green Optic parallels

 

And Red Wave Optic parallels. The Soto looks really sharp.

This is just the first part of many in this series of showing off the shiny goods. 

Cardboard Review:2021 Topps Heritage High Number

I guess for me lost in the shuffle for card releases this year is the latest Topps Heritage product. I guess I already thought this product had been released and not just coming out.

I suppose because there was a minor league edition and it's been such a long time since Low Number was released, I forgot that the High Number never came out. 

So, let's check it out now that we know it hasn't already been released.

Every box of 2021 Topps Heritage High Number comes with 24 pack of 9 cards. Each box has a relic, sorry, an autograph or relic for a price of $75 or less.

There is also a choice of 3 box toppers you can find, I found an Originals 72 buybacks.

BASE:

The base set picks up where the low numbered ended with new rookies and veterans not included in the first series.

 

And if you are curious for those rookie chasers, yes, this guy is in there.

There are 200 cards in this set to collect.

Along with 25 Sp's

SPs And Parallels:

You can find the following parallels in Heritage,

Black Border /50, Flip Stock /5.

 

Many don't consider the Variations parallels to the base, but I do. The Andres Giminez is a Team Color one while the Cavan Biggio is actually just the missing card from the Low Numbered.

The most important part of the variations is the fact you don't have to read the little numbers anymore as the cards themselves tell you what is what. I wished Topps did that with every product with variations.

Base Chrome And Parallels
Purple Hot Box, Refractor /572, Red Border /372, Black Border /72, Gold Border /5 and SuperFractor 1/1.

Chrome Refractor /572 of the guy who beat the Yankees in the...hold on...not the same guy.

INSERTS:

 

There are 15 cards to collect in the Rookie Performers set.

15 Cards make up the Now and then set. So 70's looking!!

There are 9 cards to find in the Award Winners set.

72 World Series Highlights has 10 cards to find.

There are 15 cards to collect in the Clemente 3000 hit set.

HITS:

A relic, a pitcher relic. sigh. I have never hit an auto from Heritage.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

I like Heritage and just like my thoughts with the Low Numbered, I still prefer a retail version. You pay less, still have a shot at relic and autographs, and still land the same types of cards. I just can't see putting $75 into getting a relic, especially a pitcher relic.

As for the product itself, I love how the 70s theme stays throughout the inserts and hits.

Let me know your thoughts below!

CARDBOARD REVIEW:2021 Bowman Platinum Baseball Mega Box

I will admit that I didn't watch one single MLB playoff game and am probably the only person who didn't. Just not a fan of baseball anymore but would like to say congrats to the Atlanta Braves and their fans on the win. At least Houston didn't win.

Even though I don't watch baseball doesn't mean I don't collect baseball cards, because I still do. Cards are cards to me and I am still a big rookie card guy. So seeing this rookie class along with the next one in today's prospecting product makes me smile.

Here comes Bowman Platinum that can only be found in retail at Walmart in both blaster and mega box form.

In every box of 2021 Bowman Platinum Mega there are 20 packs of 5 cards each. Boxes run $80 and they also come with two autographs. In today's hobby standards, this is actually a pretty sweet deal looking at the player checklists for autographs.

BASE:

 

The base card set is made up of 100 cards with veterans

and rookies. They have a rainbow foil shine and stick with the basics Platinum has always brought us. Except it feels the cardboard they print on seems to get thinner every year. Maybe they ran over a Gypsy. (don't get the reference, watch the movie thinner by Stephen King)

Just like with Bowman that has rookies and veterans, there is a separate Prospects checklist of 100 cards. Honestly, I would rather have these be apart of the base set. It's my same feelings for Bowman.

PARALLELS:

Bowman Platinum offers the following parallels.

Ice Foil, Foilboard /299, Aqua Ice Foilboard /250, Pink /199, Blue /150, Green /99, Green Icy Foil /99, Gold /50, Orange /25, Red /10, and Foilfractor 1/1.

The odds are never in your favor as there are no guarantees you will get a parallel in a box, but they do exist. I pulled a blue /150.

INSERTS:

Platinum Etchings is a tough pull that I didn't know until now. These fall 1:267 packs.

Precious Elements has 30 cards at 1:5 odds.

v

Renowned Rookies has 20 cards to collect and falls 1:5 packs.

Meteoric falls 1:10 packs and has 20 cards to collect.

HITS:

Pitcher auto..

Freddy Valdez

I must point out before coming to my overall thoughts that even though I landed two prospect autographs in my break does not mean there are not veteran hits to find. There a big names on the checklist like Trout and Judge to and even relic cards.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Two autographs, a good amount of cards=success I think. Even though my box didn't provide a big boom, that just means I left those out there for you to find.

Let me know your thoughts about this product in comments!

Coffee Break:2021 Donruss Blaster Box #2

 *Cup of joe is ready and so am I, let's do this Coffee Break!*

 

2021 Donruss Baseball Blaster Box

88 Cards Per Box

11 Holo Purple Per Blaster

5 Rapture Parallels Per Blaster

$19.99 Per Blaster

Summary:Donruss comes hard hitting with shiny inserts and parallels once again. I know the logos don't exist but I am huge fan regardless especially of the inserts and this years Unleashed.

The base set consists of 262 cards which is base, Diamond Kings, Rated Rookies and 1987 Redux. 

There are also multitude of parallels to find, which many you will find in a blaster box. These include, Holo Blue, Holo Orange, Holo Pink, Holo Purple, Holo Red, Independence Day, Liberty, Red /2021, Career Stat Line /500 or less, Season Stat Line /400, One Hundred /100, On Fire /75, Presidential Collection /50, Mask Emoji /19, Artist Proof /10, Press Proof /5, Number One 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

Donruss also brings back plenty of past insert themes along with new ones in 2021 along with a powerful lineup of hits with autographs from Sammy Sosa to relic cards of Babe Ruth.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

Here are the key cards I found in this break:

 

 

 

This break wasn't quite as good as the first blaster box, but I still managed to land a solid PC card in the Aaron Judge parallel. Also a new Unleashed for my possible set chase, which I will elaborate on that another time.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you had a good time and hope you had a great cup of coffee.

*Coffee Card Blogger Out*

Update

*it's time for some update, coffee and cards. Sounds like a good start to a "warm" 30 degree morning. Almost T-Shirt and shorts weather! Takes a sip, begins to start today's post*

The title of today's post is update and I have a few. Let's start with these,

1. The blog is still snail paced growing after much promoting of it. Not sure what steps to take to get this blog going more.
2. Trying to build up this blog more has cost my other two blogs better content. I may take some time off from here to work on them. No worries about my coffee though, there won't be a break from that.
3. I had my virtual non alcoholic fatty liver appointment. The Liver Specialist is going to send me for multiple blood work, possibly put me on some medications (that's all I need is another medication) and have me come down to her in May to run a test on my liver to see if there is any scarring from having this issue for years. Just hoping all of that goes well. She did say however, keep on drinking coffee as coffee is good for the liver! Woo Ha!
4. My kidney check-in is for the 23rd of this month to see if the medications they gave me helped the blockage in my right kidney. I will be getting an ultrasound before that appointment to check. If the medications didn't work, they will test me further and who knows what happens from there.
5. Have any cards to trade? Well, I do to. I am always up for a good trade!

One more update....

Some 2020 Topps Chrome Update baseball.

Each 2020 Topps Chrome Update Mega Box comes with 28 cards which is 7 packs of 4 cards. There are no guarantees in here but I have seen some pull 1/1 Superfractors and autographs from the product. I was hoping for the same. Each box roughly costs $30-$50 depending on when and how you buy it.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

The base set is built up of 100 cards. Players featured are from the past and present.

I found a few PC guys in this break including the Tino above, Gleyber here

Aaron Judge (awesome photo)

Cal Ripken Jr (well not really PC, but dig a 90's guy find)

And Ken Griffey Jr, still my biggest PC I have.

*takes another sip before moving onto the rookies*

My rookies started off rough.

Not many big names to see in the first six packs.

That's not until I got to the last pack. Where I found this Bo Bichette.

And Luis Robert.

So not too bad of a start to this box. Let's check out the inserts next.

*takes another sip, hopes that his readers are joining in on the coffee today*

I found it odd that I didn't pull a single parallel in my break but they must be hard to find. There are these offerings to be had if I had pulled one,
Pink, Pink Wave, Refractor /250, X-Fractor /99, Gold /50, Red /25, SuperFractor 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1.

I did land some insets though, all of which I really liked the designs of.

Decades Next 2020 with Yordan Alvarez and Pete Alonso.

There are 25 cards in this set and they fall 1:4 packs.

Numbers Game Tony Gwynn

And my favorite card of this break, Numbers Game Jackie Robinson. I cannot tell you in words how great this card looks and my picture doesn't even touch it's beauty. It's like that perfect cup of coffee you can only taste, but can't describe.

There are 25 cards in this set and falls 1:4 packs.

*takes a sip, definitely not the perfect cup for this morning but is at least something to keep me going*

I am sure I will have updates on my updates to post when the time comes to do so, that way I won't leave you all hanging.

As for now, I am going to finish this cup of coffee and get going on the day. As you get older you come to realize more and more you don't want to waste a single minute of your day and I have lots to accomplish.

*takes another sip, coffee blogger out*