PACK WARS EPISODE 7

Hello once again! Here is the latest installment of Pack Wars!

We have quite the battle going on today with the battle of Mega Boxes, one by Topps and one by Panini. There can only be one winner so let's check this out.

 VS 

It's time to see if the Mega Box of 2021 Bowman I found at Walgreens can take down the Box of 2020 Optic Mega I trade for.

And it all starts now with Optic,

Carolina Blue Parallels

Mythical Inserts, Lindor is a silver Parallel

 

Alonso Silver

Daza Silver

Bart Silver

Inserts including a couple Gavin Lux and Acuna

Bo Bichette Rated Rookie

And a surprise auto....of a pitcher.

Now the Bowman Mega,

Prospect Parallels. Not too many big names in the mix

Rookies and Prospects I found

Top Players

 

Best Card?

I know many don't want to hear it or even see it, but Optic has gotta win here right? It had an auto, it had some good player parallels but is unlicensed. I want to hear your thoughts in comments below!

Coffee Break:2021 Donruss Fat Pack

*coffee is in hand along with a pack of cards. I will make sure the pack doesn't get coffee-drowned. Instead it will be ripped in the latest Coffee Break!*

 

2021 Donruss Baseball Fat Pack
30 Cards Per Pack
3 Holo Red Per Pack
1 Rapture Parallel Per Pack
$9.97 Per Fat Pack

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:

That was a short break, probably shorter than most real-life coffee breaks at work. Unless you sneak that extra cup or have a co-worker make a Dunkin' run on company time. I think we all have been there at least once.

*takes a sip*

The pack didn't provide me with much for my collection other than some Rated Rookies. It was still a fun rip regardless and gave me an excuse to come on here and drink more coffee. Not that I need to. Okay, I need to.

*takes another sip, 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*

These Are Fun

 

I haven't opened much in terms of product in 2020, the biggest reason being the pandemic with crazy flippers and not doing reviews because of it, so when I get to see newer products its because of others.

I am very 50/50 on how I feel about products like Topps Archives when a companies take old designs and bring them back by putting newer players on them.

This years 2020 Archives was no different. It included Topps base card designs of 1955,1974 and 2002.

The one thing though that set this years apart from past years, is a subset known as Nickname Poster Cards.

When I found these in my box of goodies from Sport Card Collector reader Grady M, I was hooked. This is the kind of creativity I have been waiting for from Topps.

And calling them Poster cards is perfect.

 

I can picture going to a movie theater and seeing a movie poster hung up with the words, The Conductor starring Chris Sale.

Or one that says, Big Papi. One man's mission to over slug Fenway.

This is just a couple of the 14 card subset. Once again, a subset is a set within a base set. I just wanted to be clear these are not inserts.

Grady sent along a good portion of the subset and I was completely infatuated with them.

There are a few missing from the set and I hope to finish up the missing pieces. I want to get these updated on here soon.

Panini does a nickname parallel for their Donruss baseball but are not even close to as cool as these. I think this would make a great insert set and maybe a chromed version or foil would bring these even more to the next level.

I will say though, these seem like an odd fit for this product or at least part of the base set that built upon Topps history. As far as I know, I could definitely be wrong, I don't know of any nickname cards in 1955,1974 or 2002 Topps base sets.

What do you guys think of these? Cool? Nah? Ugly as sin? Mind blowing?

Breakin' Wax:2020 Donruss Baseball Hanger Box

It was awhile ago when I busted this hanger box of Donruss baseball, end of August roughly, so I figured it was time I posted it.

 

Donruss baseball wasn't my first choice in something to open, it was the only option at the time so I was happy to find something when I had the itch.

Was it worth fixing the itch? Guess you will find out here,

There are 50 cards in every hanger box of Donruss baseball. You have a shot at autographs and relics but are guaranteed to find 6 holo orange and 2 diamond parallels in every box.

At the time, I hadn't seen any Donruss baseball up close.

but it felt like a repeat of the past few years with the same design

the terrible nickname cards overflowing

and and overused Diamond King theme.

I wasn't too impressed to start this box.

Then came the rookies,

Can't argue with Bo Bichette and Kyle Lewis who to me is the runaway ROY in the American League.

Then came more disappointment,

These 1986 Donruss design is cool, but feels like it has been in this product for years now.

Something that hasn't though is a new line of emoji parallels to hip up this product and tickle those born after 2000. Such as this On Fire of Brock Burke and also the infamous Baby Shark then Look At This,Number 1,One Hundred and Presidential Collection.

 

Now onto the guaranteed parallels starting with the 2 Diamond parallels of 

Marte

and Chapman.

Those inserts usually look shiny anyways, but its the diamond shapes in the shine that separate it from a base version.

 

Up next is the 6 orange holofoil

Cal Ripken is a nice find

So wasn't Gerrit Cole and Luis Servino

Not a terrible break overall with a couple of good rookies and a few decent parallels.

I do like what Panini does for Donruss football and wished they would take that approach to the baseball as well. Not that the baseball is terrible, but there is room for improvement. 

 

One of the biggest improvements I would make first is getting rid of the nickname cards.