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 Archives

70 years of Topps was the theme in 2021 Topps Archives this year.

Archives incorporated one design from each previous decade that Topps has been making baseball cards from the 1950s to the 2010s. Which are the following designs,1957, 1962, 1973, 1983, 1991, 2001 and 2011 designs.

So let's check it out!

In each box of 2021 Topps Archives it comes with 24 packs of 8 cards. Boxes run $120 and come with 2 autographs.

There is also one move poster per box as well.

How cool is this??

BASE:

The base set is 300 cards deep with players from the past, present and future.

PARALLELS:

The following parallels can be found in Archives,

Rainbow Foil /150, Green /125, Silver /99, Red /75, Red Hot Foil /50, Blue Foil /25, Orange Hot Foil /15 and FoilFractor 1/1.

Red Hot foil. I am not a Red Sox fan, but man this card is stunning with team colors.

INSERTS:

Falling at 1:24 packs, is the 1994 Draft Pick design featuring rookies from this year.

1963 Topps Peel Offs fall 1:6 packs and have 15 to collect.

Movie Poster cards fall 1:6 packs with 15 cards to collect.

Bazooka is back..except these packs had no gum but had this 15 card insert set that falls 1:6 packs.

HITS:

2 autographs to find...I have never had any luck pulling big names, but what I will say about Archives is that they include fun names. The guys you don't see in every product.

Jason Kendell

Bazooka Silver border falls 1:1105 packs.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

This was a fun break. I enjoy the throwback designs, the on card autographs and the solid checklist of rookies, veterans and legends.

The box topper movie poster really jumped out at me then the rest was great from there and for some reason or another, I have not gotten tired of seeing that overused photo of Cutch.

I am not sure what the other parallels look like either, but that Devers was quite stunning and I like the fact the product isn't over run with them per box. Makes them more valuable and it's all about the chase!

Your thoughts on Archives is welcomed below!

A Couple Of GOOD LOOKING Cards

For a stretch in May and June, I had won a few contests and pulled off a good amount of trades. It was mail days galore! For a low budget collector, that's exactly what you want to keep your interest in the hobby going.

Today I am taking a look at a couple cards I acquired in different ways. One I won in an RT contest on Twitter, while the other took me almost a year to get. So let's take a look.

Up first, this Bowman Chrome Mega Box mojo refractor of Devers I won in an RT contest from @Scotty_Ballgame. I know, I know.  A Yankees fan entering to win a Red Sox card seems wrong, but that's not why I entered. I entered to win to add it to my baseball rookie PC and I feel Devers has a very bright future. Maybe not as I thought he would be up to this point this year, but I still see lots of potential so adding some extra cards of him now isn't a bad thing.

Not to mention, it's my first card from Mega Box as I don't have a Target around to acquire them. Actually, my state will be getting their first Target this year but it's a two hour drive so I may still never go. Not even for baseball cards.

 

A thanks goes out to @Scotty_Ballgame for the card!

My next card took me almost over a year to get in a trade. You ever have two or more buddies you trade with that collect the same teams? Well, that was the case here. 

When you make my trading circle, every card that I get from a certain team is going to be guaranteed yours. Well, Bryan over at 90's Niche Football Card Blog gets all of my Packers and that happens to be the team that @TCovCards11collects. Sadly, he doesn't collect much else besides them. So that put me in a pickle. He had tons of Giants cards I wanted and missed out on because I didn't have the right trade bait for him. Then he pulled a beautiful Fans Of The Game autograph of one Marissa Miller I wanted as well but once again it came down to what I had for trade bait.

I just didn't have what he wanted. 

 

Except I did but it was saved for someone else and that someone else was a trusted trader of 3 plus years. There was no way I was touching what I had saved for him to do the deal. So another deal was going down the drain.

Or was it....

Months had passed and I saw that he tweeted he needed help with his 2015 Gridiron Kings set. Whoa. Something I could help with. Maybe. At first I could only find a few cards he needed so I was just going to send them to him. Then he re-posted the checklist and I found I had even more he needed. Could this finally be the deal that brings me the Miller home.

That answer was yes.

After hours of digging for set help, he graciously said he would pass the Miller onto me for helping him with his set. Good guy!

The Miller was going to be another nice fit into my non sport PC. If you don't know her you probably didn't buy the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. She is an American model best known for her appearances in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and Victoria's Secret.

Thanks goes out to @TCovCards11 for our first trade. Hopefully this won't be our last and hopefully you will find some other sport you enjoy to collect so I can hit ya up with some other stuff and claim your team spot in my group of traders.

How many of you trade with people who collect common teams and how many of you will trade off your own team for your team? Hmmmmm. Let me know in comments!

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 

Field Day

Today is Labor Day, a day that marks a small get together in my small town every year. We call it Field Day.

It usually starts out with a parade, there is fun raffle auction where you can buy tickets and win prizes, there is good food and vendors set up throughout the town. It sounds like a big thing, it's really not, but locally it is.

One year there was a vendor set up with baseball cards I purchased from. Will he ever return again? I am not sure. But, at least I have some baseball cards to show off today thanks to a contest mail day from @RMcardsfan.

I know it's sometimes hard to understand my collecting. How many fans do you see collect cards from a hated rival? Well, that's me. Devers has been on fire just like a good portion of this years rookies.

 

Here's another one of those great rookies

 

Another Devers. This time a refractor.

 

And speaking of refractors.....

This guy!

 

 

A big thanks goes out to @RMcardsfan for the mail day. If you guys aren't following him yet on Twitter, go hit that follow button. A nice guy and generous collector.