Breakin' Wax:2020-2021 Prizm Basketball Hanger Pack

So far in 2021, I have had zero, I mean ZERO luck in my pack and box breaks both retail and in hobby.

But, yet I still keep chugging along and trying more.

Today I am breaking a hanger pack of 2020-2021 Prizm basketball and hoping my luck can turn around.

Each hanger pack of 2020-2021 Prizm basketball comes with 15 cards distributed in two packs. One is a 12 card pack with base, inserts and regular parallels and one 3 card pack featuring red, white and blue packs. Packs usually go for $15 but with pandemic prices they can be found for up to $50. Don't worry, I didn't pay this.

First I opened up the 12 card pack. I always save the bonus packs for last.

Base, Curry and Carter not bad finds.

I saw two Charlotte Hornet rookies and got excited, but once again, no Ball.

Up next, a silver rookie. Not sure who CJ Elleby is, but sure hope he pans out.

Matthew Dellavedova green prizm

And my one insert, Kawhi.

Now onto the Red, White, Blue parallel pack.

Tim Duncan...solid!

Well, nothing too huge in this break which isn't surprising for my luck so far this year.

Hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

A Mystery

*sun is already shining, heat/mugginess is building, and here I am sitting down with my first cup of joe to type this*

 

I love a good mystery.

Well, except for my coffee. Don't mess with my coffee. I have one way of liking it so don't mess with it and add some flavored mumbo jumbo or replace it with tea. 

Don't you dare.

Otherwise a good mystery is fun. Whether it's a mystery book, mystery movie, mystery mail day or mystery packs that you can buy. A good mystery keeps us on the edge of our seats.

Just like recently, when I tried my very first mystery pack.

Why is it my first? Well that's not a mystery I will leave you hanging on.

I always worry about buying them not knowing what kind of junk could be within. I assume in order to get the money the sellers are seeking, that the "chase" cards are impossible to find and a lot of it is what we could find in nickel and dime boxes. Which I am running out of places to store that kind of stuff. Yes, I have gotten to the point of collecting where space is becoming an issue. Mainly because my boxes to store stuff in are running low.

Another point to make about these mystery packs is most of these packs cost $10 when I could have turned that into a card or even two for my PC instead of possible junk.

But, this mystery pack was different than the rest I found. It was focused on my favorite era of collecting, late 90's and early 2000's. What made this pack even better, it was cheap. It had my attention.

So for $2.25 plus shipping, you get 30 cards. There are "25 cards" plus 5 cards that are Inserts/Parallels/RC cards. Intriguing.

All of the cards are NBA cards from the late 1990's through early 2000's. The seller put the Inserts/RC's/Parallels/#'d cards in plastic sleeves and each pack was wrapped like the above example.

Here's an example of some of the sets that were to be included into these mystery packs,

• 1997-1998 Topps Chrome
• 1997-1998 Bowman's Best
• 1998-1999 Fleer Mystique
• 1998-1999 Fleer Brilliants
• 1998-1999 Topps Finest
• 1998-1999 Skybox Thunder
• 1998-1999 Fleer Ultra
• 1998-1999 Upper Deck Black Diamond
• 1998-1999 Upper Deck Ionix
• 1999-2000 Skybox EX
• 1999-2000 Topps Gold Label

And the list of players that are in it as well,

• Kevin Garnett
• Vince Carter
• Grant Hill
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Anfernee Hardaway
• Tim Duncan
• David Robinson
• Jason Kidd
• Steve Nash
• Paul Pierce
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Richard Hamilton
• Chris Webber
• Kobe Bryant
• Michael Jordan
• Scottie Pippen
• Reggie Miller
• Karl Malone

Combine all of that with the price, the BIG NOSTALGIA FACTOR, how could I say no? So I grabbed two of these packs and paid under $10 for them both. After getting the packs and seeing how I did, I wished I had gotten more as they sold out almost immediately.

*smiles during my next sip*

Time to show you why they sold out so fast after opening them,

PACK 1:

We kick off the pack with a Topps Finest Felipe Lopez rookie card in old school Grizz uni. I would love a pair of those shorts to wear.

(no that's not an extra Lopez, that's the same one) I found John Stockton and a Karl Malone. Man I wished that Jazz team could had won a title. But, those darn Bulls...

Tim Hardaway, Payton, Garrity Finest rookie

Marbury (I wonder if my buddy still collects anymore who was a big time fan), another Payton and a Barkley

Shaq, Garnett, Penny Hardaway (forgot he played for the Suns)

And now onto what's supposed to be the good stuff. I thought I had already seen all of that up to this point.

Grant Hill Wing Men

Charles Barkley NBA All Stars

Elton Brand Topps Gold Label rookie. Imagine how hot this card must have been back then? For me it's about the Gold Label

Kobe! Great photo to. I never busted any of this Fleer Genuine

Cummings Topps Chrome rookie

And a Larry Hughes Black Diamond rookie. If I remember right, the rookies in this product were Sp's.

That was just pack number one folks. I was feeling like I had drank the best cup of coffee I had ever had after opening that one. Well, the cup I have right now isn't too shabby either nor is Pack 2.

*takes another sip*

PACK 2

I remember Mcleod and how hot his cards were supposed to be.....

Here we go some more. Fleer Mystique was another great looking product, PC guy Allan Houston Topps Chrome, Shawn Kemp, Spreeeeeeeeeeewelllll or as MSG called it out

Jamal Mashburn, Ewing, my first dupe with the Stockton, Kittles

A few Gary Paytons, Barkley another Hakeem Olajuwon

Marbury peeled Finest parallel, The Admiral, Hakeem again, Ray Allen

The sleeved cards including Webber, Tom Gugliotta nice die cut insert

Tim Duncan insert. I think it's either rookie year or year after. I can't remember now. I opened this awhile back.

And I believe I can fllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyy wooooooooooooo. An MJ spotting. Very cool especially being a side PC card and the way his cards have been moving. Fleer Ultra was also the bomb back then

 

It was the back of the card that caught my attention. I am not sure if you can read it, but the Did You Know? was "four hours before every game, Michael eats a 23-ounce New York Steak, either a baked potato or mashed potatoes, a salad and ginger ale."

That's crazy. Can you imagine running around for three hours with that in your system? That's just another reason why he is the GOAT.

*cup one down, next one coming up*

I contacted the seller afterwards and thanked them for a trip back in time and told them how much I enjoyed their mystery pack. They mentioned to me that they may make a second series seeing how this one went, if they could find the rest of their cards.

A week later, guess what they found and made and even contacted me about.

And guess what I did

And guess how I did...

A mystery isn't it....

Too bad that's for another cup of coffee, or two, another day.

Shane's Box Of Madness

This was kind of an off year for me and @ShaneSalmonson over at Project Pedro Blog. We always pull off multiple big trades a year but this year for some reason or another, dragged out a year long trade. Yes, year long.

But, we finally got the deal done and mailed our pieces out.

My end just arrived roughly a week ago and  it was packed nicely and packed full.

Shane even threw in some supplies. Awesome!

I won't be breaking down the entire box as I am working on multiple sorting projects going into 2019 and I will touch base on those soon. But, I will showcase some key cards from this massive mail day and show others as I go along with my sorting projects.

First up, Shane was lucky and went to this years National which is still a dream of mine to do. The Panini pack contains my boy Saquon! Not sure if I will open it to take him out or not.

For years Shane has been trying to unload all of his basketball cards and I have taken a few with each mail day. This time I grabbed his stack of Allan Houston cards who was one of my favorite Knicks in the 90's. The other two, Patrick Ewing and John Starks.

Here are a few highlights from this stack,

(one of my favorites)

And one more card I wanted was this rookie of Tim Duncan. Loved this set.

Well, this is just the beginning of a few pieces from this mail day I will be showing off. More soon!

My Best Rookie Card Of The 90's

My father and I have been going back and forth through text for weeks trying to work on our second major trade.

He was looking for some more Aaron Judges for his PC and I had doubles, while my focus was on one single card that I knew he didn't want to let go. After I made my last attempt towards the card I wanted, he finally agreed and we pulled off a trade. A day after mailing, we got our cards.

I not only got one card, but ended up with a second. I didn't pull a Bellinger from my Gallery break and he had three so letting one go wasn't too hard for him. The sad part is, right after I got this, I got a trade offer for it so I am shipping it off. So I still need one of these.

 

And here was my card aim the whole time. It's 90's, it's Topps Chrome, it's a Super Star and it's graded. How about this bad boy....

 

 

What, what!!!

 

I have been wanting this card for some time but watching it jump up and up in value I knew buying wasn't an option. So I lucked out here in a trade. I was hoping he had the Vince Carter Topps Chrome as well but didn't sound like he did.

I will take a trade any day with prospects as long as I am getting a solidified player already in return. As much as I didn't want my Aaron Judge doubles go, I also can see him failing next year and values dropping hard. One thing that won't drop ever is this Tim Duncan. I think in the end I won the deal but if Judge plays like this year, you never know....

Thoughts on this tremendous add is welcomed in comments!

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?!: Lego My Basketball

Here's the next edition of What's In The Box, graded school handmade box edition,

We look at some Legos. No, I am not a builder by any stretch. I probably couldn't even handle doing a 12 piece Lego set the right way. Not my thing.

But, 10 years ago or maybe more, my nephew had some basketball player ones with Upper Deck cards for sale at his yard sale already put together of course :0. I saw cards, which players they were and couldn't say no so I scooped them up and must have tucked them away in here as I forgot about them til I opened this box.

The three players I scooped up were Tim Duncan, Pau Gasol and Ray Allen. I have always been a fan of Duncan's and Allen isn't too shabby either.

 

I didn't know much about the items or why they did them, so I did some research on them to see.

These three-players actually came together in a set back in 2003 and the Upper Deck cards that were included were special trading cards in a Lego game that these sets were for. Each set also came with one gold foil card which explains the Allen being gold. 

 

I guess these sets also had some randomly packed autograph cards of Kobe Bryant, Jason Kidd, Paul Pierce, or Kevin Garnett. How cool is that?? 

 

I think this also helps grab kids attention as it's 2 hobbies in one. Great idea by UD and Legos to combine. Maybe this aspect should be used again.

Thoughts on today's find can be left in comments!

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!

More To Show!

Awhile back, I put up a post on some autographs that I was questioning if they were real or fake and in that ARTICLE I mentioned how one of my former teachers contacted me and asked if I was interested in some of her son's cards and no doubt I was. So here is more, still lots to go, of what I got from that lot and today's focuses on cards I found not in binders.

The overall lot had some decent finds, the only problem is, a good portion of the cards in this lot were in really rough shape. So a lot I had to take out what I wanted and found a home for the rest. Despite the bad corners on this Tim Duncan, I just couldn't let it go. It's one of very few damaged cards I held onto.

Up next was a Cliff Floyd Classic Best graded card

Then a 2001 Topps Debut #d rookie of Santana Moss

And finally, the card that caught my attention first and possibly the most out of the entire lot, a 1997 Pinnacle Epix Moment purple parallel of the one and only Brett Favre. This is also framed and now hanging in the man cave. Not sure if I will keep a sweet card like this in the frame too long for fear of it getting ruined, but I may.

I was pretty excited about these finds and the many others coming up in future posts which I hope you come back to check out as well. Stay tuned!