PACK WARS EPISODE 4

When I started this segment, I promised to spread around the love when it comes to different sports and since I hadn't done basketball yet, well, it was all in due time. Though most battles you see on here will be football.

Today, we are in the battle of two 2019-2020 products.

Let's find a Zion!

  VS 

The battle is between two hanger packs Chronicles vs NBA Hoops Premium.

First, the Premium,

Chronicles Basketball:

 

(GREEN PARALLELS)

Well, this one won't be easy to choose from. Nothing outstanding from either break. Do I go the shiny stuff? Or do I go with the one that had the RJ Barrett for my PC?

Let me hear your thoughts in comments!

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*

Nuts And Bolts and The Big Finish

Every so often I catch someone selling cards that become a big interest of mine and I try to do my best to pull off a trade for them.

@mydadscardcoll1 was running a sale of mid to late 90's basketball cards and I was watching carefully to see if something would catch my eye. Then it did and I pulled the trigger on inquiring whether he wanted to trade or not.

He wanted to see if they would sell first and since they didn't, there was a trade.

Anytime I see a 90's Jordan card, I find interest. Can't explain it, but I do.

So I grabbed these two complete subsets with MJ in both in this trade. Nothing huge or overly spectacular, but it's still MJ who is by far my biggest side NBA PC.

Let's check these out. ***note I didn't take picture of each card I got, I only chose a handful to show off in these subsets***

 These are from 1995-1996 Fleer Metal, Nuts and Bolts. Cool design. Much of the 90's was.

 LJ!

 Grant Hill in old school Pistons jersey

 David slamming one down

 Shaq doing Shaq

The next one is called The Big Finish from 1996-1997 NBA Hoops

 Seems like a great subset name for MJ, always finished big in games.

 David Robinson

 Shaq

 My boy Patrick Ewing. The good Knicks days

Allan Hoooooouuuuuuuuuuuusssssssssssttttttttooooooooon

Karl Malone

Pretty cool adds for my 90's PC.

Thanks @mydadscardcoll1 for the trade! Hope we can do more down the road.

Players Of My Past #2: Marcus Camby

I first want to admit that I messed up today's post by shorting it by a card. I am not sure where the fifth card is, but, it's gone. So let's take the four favorite 90's cards I have of today's player instead of the five and enjoy those. I will make sure this doesn't happen again.

There was one TALL DUDE coming out in the NBA draft in 1996 and his name was Marcus Camby. He was drafted second overall in the first round by the Toronto Raptors who were already cool for having a dinosaur dribbling a basketball on their jerseys.

I believe the combination of finding his rookie cards often in packs that year, playing for the Raptors who I liked only because of their uniforms and him standing so tall at 6ft 11inches,I began to be a fan. I remember feeling that tall in graded school even though I was nowhere near his height and still am not. But, I still towered above other classmates and that was a form of connection I felt with him.

On recess I used my long Marcus Camby like arms, well I thought they were, to block shots and be the man in the middle who would drive to the basket even though I was a much better three point shooter. However, sometimes when you use your imagination , you never know who you can become and what you are capable of. I probably should have used mine  a bit more as I was good at blocking shots but my layups needed some work.

I may nit have been him, but I was a collector of his back then. I definitely don't have the cards I used to of him as I downsized my NBA collection after I stopped watching it (something I honestly regret), but at least I have some still.

Here are my favorite ones I still have from the 90's,

Fleer Metal always looked cool, but toss in this graffiti look, it's super-dee-duper!

Jammin! Marcus above the rest!

I don't know what it was about these Hoops base cards, but darn it, I liked em!

 

And once again he is beating defenders to the rim!

Another great thing about Camby, was the fact he played for the Knicks when I loved the NBA, not much longer after playing for the Raptors. In the lockout shortened 1998-1999 season, he was traded to the Knicks for Charles Oakley, a deal I will never get, but oh well. I was sad to see Oaks go but was happy to see Marcus arrive. 

Marcus didn't get much playing time for the Knicks, but did contribute off the bench. The Knicks snuck into the playoffs and with Latrell Sprewell and Camby heating up, the Knicks took down top seeded Miami Heat (which was thrilling by the way), swept the Atlanta Hawks and then faced the mighty Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. That is also when Camby got more playing time because Knicks legend Patrick Ewing went down with a season ending injury. Camby helped lead the Knicks take down the Pacers in six games and advanced them to the NBA Finals. First time an 8th seed had gotten that far. It was just too bad they had to face a much better opponent.

The Knicks went onto play the Spurs in which they got their butts handed to them in five games. It was also the final season I watched of the NBA despite some of the key players I loved remaining on the Knicks.

Overall, Marcus played 17 seasons in the NBA for 6 different teams. I was amazed to see how many times he was moved around but that's just apart of today's game. One that I don't like for a variety of reasons this being one of them. He averaged 9 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks a game in his career.

I would love to own a Camby autograph someday for my 90's Knicks collection. He was a name I left off in my last post with Allan Houston.

More Players Of My Past to come and from different sports.

Random Card On My Desk:1995-1996 NBA Hoops Block Party Derrick Coleman

CAPTION THIS CARD!

This card is crying out for a Caption.

 

Leave a caption below for this card. Please keep it free of language and clean please for our younger audience  

Mine would be....

"Hey Mom, I don't wanna go to the NBA anymore. I just got drafted by the Supersonics. No, not Thunder. Supersonics."

Random Card On My Desk:1996-1997 NBA Hoops Chris Gatling

REVIEW:2015-2016 Panini Hoops Basketball

Hoops basketball is always the way I like to "tip off" my basketball collecting season.It gives you the first look at the rookie class and offers players in their new uniforms.

That is actually only the tip of the iceberg of what Hoops offers, read on to find out more!

In every box of 2015-2016 Hoops basketball is 24 packs of 12 cards. So you are getting a lot of cards! One positive! You will also find two autographs per box. Second Positive. And each box will run you roughly $65. Third positive. This review is off to a kicking start!

Each box will also come packing with 24 Rookie Cards, seven numbered cards, three Red Back variations, two Gold parallels, one Green parallel, one Bird’s Eye View, one Courtside, one Team Leaders and one Triple-Double.

The base cards are very simple wrap around border with a posed photo, mostly for players changing to their new teams or some nice action shots. There is a little bit of everything.

Find all of the rookies in their new uniforms! Porz is having a great year with the Knicks so far. I also pulled Okafor. With a big checklist, it's hard to get all of the key rookies in one box with only one rookie per pack. No complaint from me on that as it helps make the rookies a bit more valuable.

Parallels. There wasn't one that I didn't like. Shiny, some numbered. I am once again impressed.

These are just like the Elite Series for baseball.

More shiny goodness. Road to the Finals are numbered. Depending on which round, they are all numbered differently.

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh Flyers defines just that. A player going rim high.

It appears my Birds Eye View never made it on here. Those look amazing with the photography on them. They also have a rainbow foil finish to them. You are only supposed to get one per box, I got two with my second one being a Artist Proof parallel of Dirk. 

Another one-per-box is Triple-Double. I pulled LeBron, doesn't get much better than that.

My two autographs weren't super stars, not even close, but the design is really nice. It's also fun to have a variety of players in a low-end product such as Hoops that you may not see in other brands.

Anthony Bennett is a player that just hasn't panned out. 1st overall pick by the Cavs didn't play up to expectations and was involved in a three player trade that helped Cleveland nab Kevin Love. I think Cleveland got the better deal there. Even though pictured in a Timberwolves jersey here, he now plays for the Raptors trying to hold onto his NBA dreams.

Jordan Mickey hasn't had much experience yet as a rookie. As I type this, he has two points and one game played. Being a big man, 6'8" 235, he might get more playing time as the season goes on for the Celtics.

Overall, I believe this product is well worth the $65. It packs fun, it covers set collectors and kids, could provide some nice hits and just has a solid appeal.

This years Hoops will not disappoint!