Cardboard Review:2020 Onyx Vintage Extended Series 2 Box Break (HUGE HIT)

Baseball season has officially ended, but that doesn't mean the baseball card season has. That never has an end date.

Swinging it's way into stores recently is the latest product from Onyx, which is Vintage Extended Edition. Which is basically an update or Series 2 to the Onyx Vintage. I reviewed the first series awhile back and had a blast, not too mention I also pulled a Gavin Lux auto.

So I couldn't wait until I got my hands onto this edition and today will show off how a two box break may look.

How did my break go? Well, you gotta read on to find out.

Every box, which feels like a pack, of Onyx Vintage Extended Edition comes with 4 cards. Two of those cards will be base and the other two will be autographs. On card autographs as well. Boxes of this product currently sit just under $40.

Before I show you how Box One went, I wanted to show you the back of the box and how the product is broken down.

 

Now onto the box break.

 

You open the box from the side and pull it out. Inside is a clear pack and this one shows Diego Caraya right on top.

 

Here is a better look at the Cartaya. I think Onxy did a great job with the design and feel of these cards.

 

Second base card was Carmen Mlodzinski

Now onto the two autographs. The checklist overall for this product is small which isn't a bad thing because you have a better chance to land a top autograph for a pretty solid price for the box.

Here's the checklist,

Adael Amador - Colorado
Adinso Reyes - Detroit
Adley Rutschman - Baltimore
AJ Vukovich - Arizona
Alexander Ramirez - New York NL
Angel Martinez - Cleveland
Armando Cruz - International
Austin Martin - Toronto
Bayron Lora - Texas
Bobby Witt Jr. - Kansas City
Bryan Mata - Boston
Carlos Colmenarez - International
Carmen Mlodzinski - Pittsburgh
Cody Thomas - Los Angeles NL
Cristian Pache - Atlanta
Cristian Hernandez - International
Danny De Andrade - International
Diego Cartaya - Los Angeles NL
Dylan MacLean - Texas
Endy Rodriguez - New York NL
Erick Pena - Kansas City
Estevan Florial - New York AL
Felnin Celesten - International
Francisco Alvarez - New York NL
Freudis Nova - Houston
Jake Vogel - Los Angeles NL
Jasson Dominguez - New York AL
Jerar Encarnacion - Miami
Jordan Walker - St. Louis

Jorge Ona - San Diego
Jose De La Cruz - Detroit
Juan Then - Seattle
Julio Rodriguez - Seattle
Kris Bubic - Kansas City
Luis Robert - Chicago A
Luis Toribio - San Francisco
Luis Rodriguez - Los Angeles NL
Marco Luciano - San Francisco
Mick Abel - Philadelphia
Miguel Bleis - International
Nick Yorke - Boston
Omar Estevez - Los Angeles NL
Pedro Pineda - International
Pete Alonso - New York NL
Riley Greene - Detroit
Robert Puason - Oakland
Roderick Arias - International
Rodolfo Castro - Pittsburgh
Ronny Mauricio - New York NL
Ryan Mountcastle - Baltimore
Seuly Matias - Kansas City
Spencer Torkelson - Detroit
Spencer Howard - Philadelphia
Wander Franco - Tampa Bay
Wander Javier - Minnesota
Yanquiel Fernandez - Colorado
Yiddi Cappe - International
Yusneil Diaz - Baltimore

 

Some solid names to chase in there. Being a Yankees fan I of course prayed hard for a Dominguez.

 

But, no luck in box 1.

Kris Bubic went 1-6 in his time in the MLB this past season for the Royals.

 

Felnin Celesten is an International Prospect who could be a stud when he reaches the majors.

 

There are also parallels to the autographs as well, but the base blue autographs like the ones I pulled are "numbered" to 275 copies. There are also Green Signatures (50 copies), Red Signatures (25 copies), Purple Signatures (10 copies), Black Signatures (5 copies), and Full Name/Inscription that are numbered.

So not too bad for the first box. I wonder what the second box will hold...(prays for Dominguez)

  

I pulled the pack out and Yusniel Diaz sat on top.

Closer look at it.

Next base card is this Freudis Nova

 

And now my two autographs...

 

BOOM!!!! First overall pick of the 2020 draft Spencer Torkelson.

The second autograph was of 2015 first round draft pick Ryan Mountcastle of the Orioles.

Box number 2 was an obvious winner despite the lack of Dominguez for me.

Overall though, pretty solid breaks. I like the design and feel of the product and think with some of the big names on the checklist that this one is worth a gamble on if you are into collecting prospects.

My First Pettitte Auto

A little while ago, @BlowoutBuzz had tweeted out an Andy Pettite auto that was up for grabs in a contest he was hosting. He tried to give it away once but the winner never claimed. Never claimed!!

On and off, I have been adding a few Yankees autos to my PC of players I enjoyed watching in the 90's growing up and apart of their dominating teams. Andy Pettitte was on that list of players I still needed so I entered to win.

I can't remember how long the contest went for, but boom, guess who won. You got it, this guy!

 

 

Not only does it knock an autograph need down, but what a beauty in general. Great looking card by Topps. I wouldn't mind more of these.

 

Glad to have this five time World Series champs auto in the collection finally. A couple of other guys I am lacking still is Tino Martinez and Mo Rivera to complete what I am trying to do. It won't be easy to land Mo.

 

Thanks to @blowoutbuzz for the contest!

REVIEW:2018 Bowman Baseball

One of the hottest products on the market right now, Bowman baseball came out hitting hard with a Golden Ticket search. Well, not a real Golden Ticket or anything from Wonka, but a real valuable card. The Superfractor of Otahni is still out there, yes it wasn't in my box sadly, waiting to be pulled and cashed in for $75,000. Wow. I could have paid some bills down with that and maybe be able to afford something in the hobby as well

I am not sure how I feel about this bounty Golden Ticket card find. I am not sure if it's good for the hobby or bad. I kinda feel like it has brought out the greediness from collectors and from people selling boxes of Bowman as prices have skyrocketed. I wanna hear your guys thoughts on this.

Now you can hear my thoughts on 2018 Bowman.

In every hobby box of Bowman you will find 24 packs of 10 cards each. There will be one Atomic rookie parallel, one Bowman Sterling insert and one autograph per box. Boxes right now, well,are crazy at $175-$180 with jumbos going for almost twice that. If you are lucky, go retail if you can find any.

The base card design for Bowman looks really nice  in my opinion this year. I don't even mind the border actually for a person who prefers borderless cards. I think the team logo at the bottom is what catches my attention.

There are 100 cards to collect in the base set including veteran stars (by the way this marks Judge card #67 for my PC)

 

and key stars of tomorrow. Nice walkoff on Friday night by Andjuar by the way.

 

As always, Bowman comes with tons of prospects as that's what they are known for. King of the rookies. These are not apart of the base set and are there own set. There are 150 to collect.

 

Also 150 of the chromed-up versions of prospects only to seek out as well. I pulled Gleyber for chrome but not for paper. If you have an extra of him send him my way as I am trying to collect him now as well.

 

The paper prospects and the base cards have parallels. What product doesn't have parallels today?? This is a sky blue that is numbered to 499 and falls 1:95 packs.

 

 

Other paper parallels include,

• Purple /250
• Blue /150
• Green /99 (Retail only)
• Gold /50
• Orange /25 
• Red /5
• Platinum 1/1
• Printing Plates 1/1.

Also having parallels is the chromed-up versions of the prospects. I pulled a base refractor and an aqua. The base refractor is numbered to 499 and falls 1:63 packs while the aqua falls 1:132 packs.

 

Here is also the promised Atomic refractor that falls one-per-box.

 

 

Other chrome parallels not in my box include,

• Purple /250
• Blue /150
• Blue Shimmer /150
• Aqua /125
• Aqua Shimmer /125 
• Green /99
• Green Shimmer /99 
• Yellow /75
• Gold /50
• Gold Shimmer /50, 
• Orange /25
• Orange Shimmer /25 
• Red /5
• Red Shimmer /5
• SuperFractor 1/1
• Printing Plates 1/1. 

Now onto the inserts. These look really solid in terms of design. Most inserts have the following parallels excluding a few. Atomic /150, Green /99, Gold /50, Orange /25 , Red /5, and SuperFractor 1/1.

The Bowman Scouts Top 100 insert was the weakest insert design of the group but it does include the Top 100 rookies. These fall 1:4 packs

 

Here we kick off with one of the good looking inserts that falls 1:12 packs, Talent Pipeline. It takes a look at upcoming prospects for each team.

 

1:6 packs will land you a Bowman Trending inserts. Some of the top rookies are included in this set.

 

Falling at 1:8, here are some of the rookies playing this year that could make a major impact for ROY. I know Albies falls into that category for sure.

 

Wanna feel even older? Falling at 1:8 packs, Bowman Birthdays lets us see players were born. I think this was my favorite-ist design of the entire product. Gives you that 90's feel.

 

And falling 1:24 or one per box is the Bowman Sterling inserts. Cool looking card and now it teases us to want Bowman Sterling to return.

 

Now onto my hit of the box. Like I said it wasn't Ohtani and actually wasn't even a player I knew but it's purple, a prospect so all is good. You just never know who is next.

Cedric Mullins purple autograph that falls 1:313 packs.

 

 

Other chrome prospect autograph parallels include, 

• Refractor /499 
• Blue /150 
• Atomic /100
• Green /99 
• Green Shimmer /99
• Gold /50 
• Gold Shimmer /50 
• Orange /25
• Orange Shimmer /25
• Red /5 
• Red Shimmer /5 
• SuperFractor 1/1
• Printing Plates 1/1

Other hits found in Bowman but not in my box include,

• Paper Prospect Autographs (Retail only)
• Chrome Rookie Autographs
• Lucky Autograph Redemption
• Dual Bowman Prospect Autographs
• All-America Game Autographs
• Bowman Scouts Top 100 Autographs
• Bowman Sterling Continuity Autographs
• ROY Favorites Autographs
• Ultimate Autograph Book

OVERALL: The price right now for Bowman is nuts, but I like the design and the potential value wise in Bowman. I always have. When collectors seek out for rookies of their favorite players, this is the brand they turn to. Especially for autographs. One would suggest sticking to retail or box breaks til Otahni is found and prices drop on hobby boxes unless you are joining the chase and can afford to do so.

If you want to see who is in Bowman, you can check out the checklist HERE.

Please take a minute out to thank Topps for providing the box to review. Some of the cards you see above will be included in the Fantasy Baseball contest! Follow Topps on all social media sites and check out their website HERE for cards and more! 

Auction Lot:Guess What Was Paid...

My mother in law, yup, I have spoken a lot about her on the blog this year in helping my cardboard obsession, went to an auction this summer for something she wanted but saw some football cards and knew she would have to wait around to bid on those as well.

What she didn't know was that it would take 3 hours of waiting for her to snag em.

I am not going to tell you what she paid for them as I think it would be fun for you guys to guess. On top of what is pictured, there was also roughly 100 base cards from football as well. It seems the former owner must have been a big 49ers fan.

These cards are all from 1999 and seem to have the Beckett book value on some.

First auto is Ray Barker. I honestly don't remember him.

This card looks great. I miss UD in the game. Garrison Hearst played for the Cardinals before he tore it up in SF.

Steve Young rookie card! So weird to see him in a Buc's uni.

Jeff Garcia who played well in SF before leaving, then bounced around the league till he was 100 years old before he finally retired. Cool on-card rookie auto.

Terrell Owens on another one of these sharp Retro cards. On-card too. Remember those days.

And to finish it up, another Terrell Owens autograph on-card.

 

So now it's your turn to guess what she paid for them. I won't tell you if she overpaid or got a deal. I will give this a week and then will comment with the answer and you can tell me if she did or didn't

REVIEW:2017 Bowman High Tek Baseball

The High Tek or Topps Tek name isn't new to the Topps family, but it is new to the Bowman one. Introducing in 2017, Bowman High Tek.

This prospect loaded product is exactly what you expect from Bowman plus more. How did my inaugural break of the product go, well, let's take a look!

Each 10-card box of 2017 Bowman High Tek Baseball will include, 4 On-Card Autograph Cards

and 1 Base Parallel Card. Boxes run around $110.

Each 12 box case will guarantee a 1992 Bowman Variation Insert Card.

The 2017 Bowman High Tek Baseball base cards are printed on acetate with a touch of foil that brings out a nice design. The base cards will also make you scratch your head some as there are multiple, 11 about, pattern variations that takes the background and changes it up. It also gives each background design a level of rarity.

The base set itself is only 56 cards. However, with 10 to 11 variations to each, it makes it much, much deeper and really is one for the player collector.

The players in the base set are young stars and upcoming future stars like you would find in the Bowman Prospects. Big names like Gleyber Torres, Rhys Hoskins and Clint Frazier are among the group.

 

How do you know the difference and the levels of rarity, your guess is as good as mine. 

But, from my research from multiple sites, here is the order mine are in.

Gears. Seems to be the base. Moniak was a nice find.

Pin Wheel, another base card version.

Stripes and Arrows is a tad tougher.

Hexagon is about the same toughness.

 

Unlike figuring out base cards, parallels are much easier to spot and luckily exclusive to one or two patterns and not them all. Parallels include the following, Green Rainbow /99, Gold Rainbow /50 (the one I pulled), Orange Magma Diffractor /25, Red Orbit Diffractor, Mojo Diffractor /5, Black Rainbow 1/1, and Black Galactic Diffractor 1/1.

Nice Devers right here. You can note how the gears and foil are gold.

 

I didn't pull any of the tough to find inserts, so let's take a look at the on-card autographs that have a checklist of 43 cards.  It doesn't appear the autographs have different versions. That would have been way too much.

My first was AJ Puk.

Second was Bo Bichette. Possibly the best pull of the box unless I can get some values on the Devers.

Patrick Weigel

And a gold parallel from the World Series champs, Forrest Whitley.

There are other autograph parallels to find of, Tidal Diffractor /199, Green Rainbow /99, Orange Magma Diffractor /25, Red Orbit Diffractor /5, Black Galactic Diffractor 1/1, and Black Rainbow 1/1.

 

Other hits not found in my box are,

2017 Bowman Rookies that has 10 cards, 2017 Bowman Rookies Autographs, 1992 Bowman Variations, 1992 Bowman Variations Autographs, Bashers Set, Bashers Autographs, and Foundations of the Franchise Die-Cut .

OVERALL, I am glad that Topps stuck to what the brand was known for in the late 90's and since the Topps version has been back in 2014 with it's multiple base card levels. It can be a bit confusing and hopefully there will be some detailed visuals for guidance on how to tell the difference in rarities but I like it. I would definitely say it's not one for the kids. I remember busting packs in the 90's and I didn't have a clue about the difference.

The autographs look pretty nice on the acetate and I think the checklist is pretty solid overall for autograph finds. The box price isn't too shabby for a prospecting product and there is definitely plenty to find.

This product is for the prospectors and for the player rainbow collectors that's for sure.

You can find the complete checklist for 2017 Bowman High Tek, HERE.

Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review as they help provide prizes for me to giveaway in the MLB Pick Em Promotion! This was the last product to be included in the prize package so new promos coming up! Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well 

MT, A Redemption Mail Day

A few months ago I busted a box of 2016 Panini Optic and pulled a redemption as my autograph hit...just my luck. But, I don't mind redemptions personally. Usually I mark 4 months on them when I redeem them so I can exchange them later on for NY Giants cards I actually want.

To my surprise, the Michael Thomas autograph I pulled from Optic came just a month later. Not a bad looking card and is an on-card auto. However, he has a terrible signature.

 

I am not going to complain about this one actually showing up however. This guy showed some spots of talent last year and with Brees down a top WR, this guy could be ready for super star status.

REVIEW:2017 Stadium Club Baseball (CASE HIT)

Swinging into stores recently was the action packed photography known as Stadium Club. A product that most collectors love to put a base set of or at least grab their favorite team base cards of.

I don't think this product ever really disappoints and this years product is packed with even more coolness. Let's check it out shall we?

In every box of 2017 Stadium Club baseball there is 16 Packs Per Box with 8 Cards Per Pack. There will be two on-card autographs per box along with One Insert or Parallel Per Pack and One Chrome Parallel Per Box. Boxes are currently running a bit high at $125.

The base set is 300 cards deep with key rookies of Aaron Judge, Yoan Moncada, Trey Mancini, Andrew Benintendi, Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman, Manuel Margot, Jharel Cotton, Hunter Renfroe, Ryon Healy, Tyler Glasnow, and Yulieski Gurriel. Base cards showcase exciting moments, team celebrations and just the fun of baseball. I think Sooz did a great job selecting images for the product once again.

The design is vaguely familiar to a late 90's or early 2000's Fleer Ultra one. But, to me the design of the names isn't the most important part as long as it doesn't take away from the photography.

Here are a few of my favorite images.

The Oswalt stare down.

 

Love the sky in this photo.

Yes, I even chose a Red Sox image but evened it out with a Jeter.

Speaking of the Jeter, here is the back of the cards which is nice as well.

This was just a few of the great images shown on these. So I agree with Mike below and Sooz deserves a clap for the images selected.

Here are a couple of rookies. I found it odd that Vogelbach doesn't have a rookie logo but his autographed version does.....logoless parallel?

 

Just like with most Topps releases, there are some base card image variations. This year there are a ton as opposed to the past few years. This years jumps to 50. I believe the odds are tough on them however at 1:72 packs.

Here is how to tell you have one. Once again it's based on the codes.

Base Card ends in 3023

Variations ends in 3055

On one more note with the base cards, the only negative thing I have to say about them, the backs are really prone for dings and nicks. I would almost say it's under the category condition sensitive. Sadly one of my better cards in the box had an issue with this among some others.

Parallels in Stadium Club are very easy to spot and I like the variety given.

Here are the Gold Foil

GOLD JUDGE!!!! Too bad this was the card with a little bit of dings on the back. I am very hobby OCD so this card bothers me very much.

Black Foil. These fall 1:8 packs.

Black And White Parallel falls 1:48 packs.

And a Rainbow Foil parallel that is numbered to 25. These fall 1:96 packs.

 

Other parallels are,

• First Day Issue Parallel - Limited to /10
• Gold Rainbow Foil Parallel #'d 1/1

CHROME!!!!!!!! The return of Stadium Club chrome. These things look beautiful! These fall one-per-box. I hope this is a sign to come and maybe this will be a stand alone product later on.

When you have chrome, you have gotta have parallels.

My best hit of the box was one of those. This is a Chrome Gold Minted Parallel that falls one-per-case or 1:256 packs. Beautiful card! I was however a bit disappointed it wasn't numbered.

Other chrome parallels include,

• Chrome Refractor Parallel - 1:4 boxes
• Chrome SuperFractor Parallel #'d 1/1
• Chrome Autograph Parallel

Now onto the inserts that ALL have the following parallels as well,

• Gold Parallel #'d to 50
• Black Parallel #'d to 25
• Orange Parallel #'d to 10
• Gold Rainbow Parallel #'d 1/1

Up first, Beam Team. My favorite designed one of the group.These are one-per-box.

Power Zone. These fall 1:8 packs.

Scoreless Streak. 1:8 packs.

Contact Sheet. 1:8 packs.

Insert I didn't pull was a case hit in 1:256 packs, Instavision. It makes it's return from the 90's and looks amazing. So glad Topps is using case hits for inserts and making those valuable again.

Now onto my autograph pulls.

Nothing overly spectacular here. These both are base cards signed on-card. Surprisingly, both are rookies so there is some upside.

Seth Lugo

Dan Vogelbach

 

These also have parallels of,

• Gold Foil Parallel #'d to 50
• Black Foil Parallel #'d to 25
• Rainbow Foil Parallel #'d 10 Hobby Only NEW!
• Gold Rainbow Parallel #'d 1/1 Hobby Only

Other hits not found in my box include, Beam Team Autographs, Co-Signers, Lone Star Signatures, Power Zone Autographs and Scoreless Streak Autographs. These have parallels of, Orange Parallel #'d to 5 and Gold Rainbow Parallel #'d 1/1.

OVERALL, The Judge and McGwire saved the box from a poor autograph sighting. However, I honestly was left wanting more. The base cards look good, the parallels add value, the Stadium Club chrome was a nice addition to the product and the overall product had a 90's feel for me with the themes. I think those of you that collected in that era will understand and enjoy. 

There is plenty to chase in this product from the base cards to the hits.

Please make sure to take a minute out to thank Topps for providing this box for me to review and to be able to add cards to the MLB Pick Em promotion.  Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well.