Set Chasing:1998 Ex2001 Baseball

There isn't many of us left that do it and I can't say I do as much as I used to, but set collecting remains in my hobby blood.

A lot of what I do now is chase down my favorite sets of the 90's from multiple sports. As you have seen I have done that with my 90's Spx Project that is still a working progress but now I am turning my focus to an Ex Project.

I have already completed both the 1997 Ex2000 and 1998 Ex2001 football sets, but now I am chasing down baseball. There was just something about those two years of Ex that was spectacular. The cards other than the Spx were probably my favorite base of the late 90's

If you need a refresher on which one was the Ex2001, it was these. Try not to drool too much on your keyboard....

 

Even though I do like the Ex2000 a tad more, there is nothing wrong looking at these either. I think my only issue was the gold foil that would sometimes rub off from the acetate over time. I only had a couple that did that. The overall design though, very nice. I was glad when Upper Deck  mocked it in the retro product, but nothing is like the original. I hope to knock this one down off my set wants.

I have a good start on this set, but still have plenty of needs. I have my set numbers written down and at some point will update this post with them. I just need to double check on a few cards. I WILL HAVE THIS AS A TAB AT THE TOP OF THE BLOG WHERE YOU CAN LOCATE THE TWO POSTS WITH MY SET NEEDS.

SET NEEDS:
100,97,96,93,91,90,88,84,80,79,78,74,72,70,66,64,62,61,60,58,56,55,54,50,46,43,39,32,30,26,25,22,20,19, 17, 15, 9,2

After I chase down the baseball, I hope to do the basketball which will be a much bigger challenge because of players like MJ and of course the Kobe rookie. I don't have any start on these, so that also adds to the fun of the chase.

Thoughts on my latest chase are welcomed in comments.

Set Chasing:1997 Ex2000 Baseball

There isn't many of us left that do it and I can't say I do as much as I used to, but set collecting remains in my hobby blood.

A lot of what I do now is chase down my favorite sets of the 90's from multiple sports. As you have seen I have done that with my 90's Spx Project that is still a working progress but now I am turning my focus to an Ex Project.

I have already completed both the 1997 Ex2000 and 1998 Ex2001 football sets, but now I am chasing down baseball. There was just something about those two years of Ex that was spectacular. The cards other than the Spx were probably my favorite base of the late 90's

If you need a refresher on which one was the Ex2000, it was these. Try not to drool too much on your keyboard....

 

The Ex2000 was my favorite of the two designs. The sunrise/sunset/sky acetate background against the colorful border and player in the forefront gave it a unique cool look that makes the player jump off the card. It was something I hadn't ever seen before and still haven't since then. I really hope to knock this set off as they look great in a binder just like my football one does.

I have a good start on this set, but still have plenty of needs. I have my set numbers written down and at some point will update this post with them. I just need to double check on a few cards.

After I chase down the baseball, I hope to do the basketball which will be a much bigger challenge because of players like MJ and of course the Kobe rookie.

SET NEED
95,89,85,83,77,74,50,49,45,36,35,34,32,31,12,5,4

Thoughts on my latest chase are welcomed in comments.

REVIEW:2016 Panini Football

In 2016, Panini makes its debut as a standalone football product.

If you are new to football card collecting or trying to introduce someone new to football cards, I think this is the kinda product for you. Let's read on.

In every box of 2016 Panini football, you will find 24 Packs with 10 Cards Per Pack so you are getting a good handful of cards. Boxes come with one hit, either an autograph or memorabilia card and run about $60 per box.

The base card design is simple. I am not too much of a fan of it as it takes up a lot of the photo, I think they could have downed the name part a bit,  but I do like the fact that the borders are by team colors, the players that changed teams are updated and

rookies are featured in NFL jerseys.

There are 300 cards in the base set so it's a chase to build.

There are many parallel chases in this product with you pulling many of those in a box.

But here is the product checklist that may help you along. Find it HERE.

Gore is a Red Knight numbered to 49 and Dez is a Blue Knight #d to 99. There is also Gold Knight #/10 and Black Knight 1/1

Sacrifice Die-Cuts numbered to 199

Shiny stuff! Not numbered but very purty! The plain shiny ones are Templar parallels and the rainbow are Shining Knights. Makes sense.

Oooooooooh love it! Lot's of shiny here! Makes me think of something you would see at a rock concert. These are Chainmail parallels.

The inserts are basic and the theme of the product stay the same.

All inserts appear to have parallels as well of Red #/25, Gold #/10, and Black 1/1.

My best pull of the box seems to be this card. These are rare pulls from what I read and they are Predictor cards. You can find rare MVP, Offensive Player of the Year and Offensive Rookie of the Year Predictor cards to earn a chance at a rare set of Panini trading cards.  Also search for Gold and Black versions for a chance at exclusive sets, including parallels sequentially numbered to 10 or One-of-One!

I pulled the base version.

I think I have a solid shot with this one even with the suspension. (and against every thread of dignity I have in my body I may have to route this guy on but hope Pats lose)

There are also tough to find Knights of the Round Die-Cuts that fall one per case on average. There are 40 of them to chase!

Here is my autograph of the box, Heir to the Throne Signatures

There is also, First Impressions that is signatures of the 2016 Rookie Class featured in their NFL uni's, Rookie Calligraphy Autographs and base autographs that features all 199 cards in all the vets.

You can also find memorabilia cards, Squires Jerseys that are technically the first memorabilia cards of the 2016 NFL Rookie Class, with Prime parallels #’d to 25, Gridiron Warriors, Quest, and Catapults with prime versions for each.

To close this out, had to show off my Jerell Adams "rainbow" I started with just this one box:

 

Overall, seems like a basic enough product once you get the parallels figured out. There are some nice looking cards and some chase cards that will make this fun for collectors of all ages. Panini football also comes in a variety of retail buying options like the one I opened. That means there is plenty of price variety on this product for all collectors.

Here is info on that I copied from this Knights Lance post to let you know more on it.

• From a Retail pack expect (on average): two Rookie Cards, one insert, one parallel; also look for the exclusive Sacrifice die-cut parallels.
• From a Blaster box expect (on average): 11 Rookie Cards, five inserts, five parallels, one autograph or memorabilia card; also look for exclusive Bravery parallels.
• From a Fat Pack expect (on average): two Rookie Cards, two inserts, two parallels; also look for the exclusive Chivalry parallels.

I also believe set collectors like myself will have fun putting this one together. I may try to chase down the rest of my Adams "rainbow" to and other collectors may take on a player for themselves to try.  Another added fun chase.

Let me know your thoughts on this produt in the comments below.

 

By the way, make sure you thank Panini America for this review box and check out their site for products like this one and others. Find some of these cards in a future NFL contest!

HOBBY TOPIC

Another post in the series Hobby Topics. This is not so much a post for us to comment about or give our opinions on, this is your chance to let your voice be heard on a variety of topics in the hobby. We are leaving the floor open to you! So comment away! But please no language and keep your answer clean as we do have a younger following as well.

Today's Topic: Complete Sets. Do you buy completed sets or do you build your own? What are your thoughts on set collecting? Do you collect any older sets? What set is your biggest accomplishment?

Let's hear your thoughts!

Set Collectors Still Live! (at least I do) PT 2 of 2

As I spoke about at the end of in yesterday's post about set collecting, today's part is telling you about my biggest and most favorite set I put together ALL-TIME! I hope this kind of post will influence some of you who may not set collect to give it a try. It's honestly quite the rush and relief when you accomplish something like this. This is as much of a high as getting a big hit or busting a box.

My ALL-TIME favorite set that was both challenging, yet tons of fun to put together was the 1997 Upper Deck baseball. The set was in two series and an overall 520 whopping cards not including the update cards which I didn't do.

There were some fun inclusions in both series including this tribute cards to Jackie Robinson to open up the first 9 cards of the set:

Then some great photographs for the base set including this unique one:

The base cards were border free and each were "game dated". The base set also included these subsets within:

Strike Force

Defensive Gems

Global Impact

Star Rookies

The challenge to this set, other than the 520 cards, was trying to complete all of the "Griffey's Hot List" subset cards in Series Two. The subset, that was packed with many super stars at the time, fell 1:4 packs (at least I think it did) and was card numbers 415-424 in the set. Chasing down 10 of these wasn't so easy. Upper Deck baseball 1997 was one of the first sets to feature cards SPed in it on purpose to add value to the overall set.So I knew what I was up against especially knowing these were the last cards I needed to have all 520.

 

So pack upon pack. Box upon box. Card show upon card show and I finally acquired them after many months of the chase.I felt so relieved and couldn't wait to put the entire set into a binder to view.

To this day, this is still my favorite set despite the many I have put together since. This set will always remain in my collection in that same binder til I hand it down someday along with the story behind it. Along with this, I hope to hand down the art of set collecting as I will do my best to help keep it alive.

Set Collectors Still Live! (at least I do) PT 1 of 2

Hi, I like to sport card blog and collect sports card. I also have something else to admit, I like to set collect.

Set collecting seems like a thing of the past to most. Some may not even have heard of such a thing in the new generation of collectors. But, I still know what it is. I spend countless hours rummaging through my finds and buys and try my best to complete the set. Some are more fun to try and complete than others, but I still have fun sorting it all out in hopes I have pulled off a set.

This week, I was sorting through about 600 2014 Score base cards to try and put a set together. As you can see, I am very precise on how I do this. I sort them it into piles of 100's, 200's, 300's (or more if the product is bigger). Those then get broken down into piles of 10's, 20's, 30's and so on for every big pile of 100's. I then sort them by number tossing the doubles to the side.

Here was the aftermath after an hour of putting these by number. On the right, is my set so far and on my left is a hefty load of doubles.

After sorting these, I went back through my "so far" set pile and found some numbers I was missing and wrote them down. I almost have the set except roughly twenty cards. I may have to go and search Jammin JDcards who just listed a bunch of singles for my missing numbers.

So even though I don't see much set collecting around anymore, I wanted to let you all know that it still does exist. Just look above at my pictures. WE SET COLLECTORS ARE ALIVE! And I think we always will be, though far and few in-between, as long as companies continue to produce base sets worth collecting.

Part 2 of this series, the finale of it, I will show you my favorite all-time set I put together. Stay tuned!