Ozzie Albies Mail Day

For the first time in awhile, my mail box actually contained something yesterday. I not only got that surprising mail day from @JGfan24ever I shared yesterday, but I also got my mail day from Sports Card Info from a recent contest he held.

First off, he threw in this really cool piece of sport card blogger memorabilia. This will be displayed with my Rodney Hampton sketch card from Baseball Card Breakdown

 

And here is the main prize. Ozzie Albies rookie jersey auto from Bowman Inception. I don't know much about prospects, but I do like to prospect lol. What does that mean, I basically try to get a rookie card of everyone I can. If they are an auto, jersey or auto jersey, it's a bonus.

But, I did hear from a friend yesterday that this guy could be the Braves starting 2nd baseman next year but did recently just get hurt. So who knows. Either way, solid looking card other than his sloppy auto.

 

A really nice mail day from Sports Card Info and a huge thanks goes out to him for it. I also appreciate the bonus!

 

If you haven't checked out his blog, he has some unique segments like Pin-Up Of The Week (it's not what you are thinking it may be), good reviews and a always a card of the day post. Not to mention, weekly contests that are very easy to enter.

Topps Redemption Mail Day:Giancarlo Stanton Autograph!!!!

On a daily basis I check the updates on my redemption cards, especially two I am waiting on.

Well, in Topps latest redemption update, I knew that one was on it's way.

This morning about 5 a.m.I received an email from Topps telling me that my card was on it's way and five hours, yes, FIVE HOURS later the card was in my hand. Crazy huh? I just assumed they were a bit delayed on the update.

Well, anyways, here is my newest addition. One I am extremely happy to have in hand as the 25 year old has an outstanding future ahead of him. Just wished he played in a more popular place. Hopefully he makes a healthy return on Friday and swings away for the remaining part of the baseball season.

This card is numbered 21/50.

Here is the front. ON CARD AUTO TOO!

Pretty happy with this card and the turnaround on it. Luckily I haven't had the same problems that others have had with Topps redemptions. I have always gotten a two to four month return on them from Topps. I have only gotten one Panini redemption back in that time frame so I usually just get replacements for my redemption cards from them. I have also pulled many more Panini redemptions than Topps too.

So tonight's topic is a three-parter,
First, thoughts on my card?
Second, what's your normal return wait on redemption cards?
Third, which company takes care of redemptions better, Topps or Panini?

Trade With Miami Vice

Usually when it comes to trading, I am more of a hoarder than a trader. I just can't let anything go. And in a world where you can't trust everybody especially when it comes to trading, I usually steer clear from it. But when Sport Card Collector fan Miami Vice approached me about a trade I decided to do it. Not only because of what he was offering, but I knew I could trust doing one with him. And I am glad I made the trade.

As you can tell by his name, he collects Miami teams like the Heat and the University of Miami. So that is what I sent in return. And this is what I got:

 

 

Man I truly like the Crusades!

 

Big play against the Raiders in the blocked punt return for a TD.

And the biggie that stared me in my eye...

Overall, was a great trade for the both of us. And I would recommend trading with him if he ever approaches you for a trade.

Thanks again goes out to Miami Vice on this mail day and trade!

As always your thoughts are welcomed!

Yard Sale Find # 20 FINAL BOX FINALE PT 3: The 31 Hits!

We recently posted about a Yard Sale we went to and picked up a bunch of sports cards at (mostly baseball). We thought it would be fun to take you on the journey with us to discover what is inside of every box, every single we got picking out the best ones along the way to show. We hope you enjoy the trip and comments are always welcomed.

This is it. The finale of our Yard Sale Find series that took 20 posts to break it all up. Remember, we got all of these cards for all 20 posts for $30. And we can finally say we got a steal.

In the final box that we showed off in the last two posts, we also found all of these embedded below. Did we expect to find this many hits? No. Not at all! We expected to get mostly base cards, few rookies and maybe some inserts. But that's not at all what this yard sale find came packing with.

 

To me, I would much rather pull a bat card than a jersey card. So many jersey cards out there. Finding these bat cards were a great addition.

 

RAUUUUUULLLLL!!! It's an Buy Back Upper Deck card. Most of the autographs we found were also on card!

 

Really like the Mark Mulder find. And I remember picking up Donruss Signatures, very popular autograph cards back in the 90's.

 

Kenny Lofton is signed on card without authentications. The yard sale person must have run into him somewhere.

 

Carlos Pena auto jersey! 

We were quite shocked to find 26 autos and 5 memorabilia cards. What a way to end what was already an overly impressive yard sale find!!

We really enjoyed seeing all of these hits hidden within. You would be a fool not to say we really did well with this yard sale find. With all of the inserts, rookies and the 31 hits we would have to say $30 very well spent!

This person also has TONS more for sale and is having another Yard Sale next year..so don't be surprised if we don't return and bring this series back next summer.

Let us know your thoughts on our entire Yard Sale Find series and especially right here with the finale. Tell us your favorite cards from our find, if you liked the series and more! We would also love to hear your great finds at a yard sale as well. Hopefully next summer we can find another great yard sale to share with you guys!

Review: Topps Finest Football 2013

This break is from the box of Finest Football we won from Topps Football on Twitter. It's a product that is fun, though not nearly as much fun as Chrome to bust open. You never know what can pop up. Sadly, nothing to exciting in our box. But onto the review!

 

Since Topps was tricky in hiding cards in the Ginter covers I wasn't taking this box lightly..I ripped a box to look for hidden cards...none were found.

Box Breakdown:

• 2 Mini-Boxes Per Master Box, 6 Packs Per Mini-Box
• 1 Rookie Autograph Patch Card Per Box
• 1 Autograph Jumbo Relic Card Per Box
• 2 Finest Atomic Refractor Rookie Cards Per Box
• 2 Finest Moments Insert Cards Per Box
• $110 per Box

  

  

BASE CARDS: I have always enjoyed the Finest base cards design. Now, it may not be the same Finest I once collected when first collecting cards with the peel away front, but the design, feel (feels like it still has the plastic on them) and appeal is still there. Almost like another Chrome to me.

I also like the fact that base rookies are added to the product. I am not a fan of products that only include top rookies as auto/jersey cards. I think this adds more value to a product.

 

INSERTS: Refractor parallels is where it's at. Always been a huge refractor collector. And this product has plenty of them to choose from. Here is the list:

- Refractor Parallel: Inserted 1:3
- X-Fractor Parallel: Inserted 1:6
- Blue Refractor Parallel: Sequentially numbered to 99
- Gold Refractor Parallel: Sequentially numbered to 75
- Red Refractor Parallel: Sequentially numbered to 50
- Prism Refractor Parallel: Sequentially numbered to 25
- SuperFractor Parallel: Numbered 1/1
- Printing Plates: Numbered 1/1

There are also Finest Atomic Refractor Rookies that features up to 35 rookies featuring a perimeter die-cut on refractor technology and also fall 1 per Mini Box. We only got one.

Finest Moments includes 25 NFL Veteran and Rookie players featured with a defining career highlight. These are supposed to be 1 per mini box as well and didn't find any in our box.

The inserts however that we did pull are well designed and are not only collectible, but set-worthy building.

 

Gold refractor # to 50

And here was a big pull, now if only a better player, of an Rookie Refractor Autograph Variations that falls around 1 Per Case! And this one to boot is a blue refractor numbered to 25 when most are numbered to 50.

AUTOGRAPH CARDS: You get one Rookie Refractor Autographed Patch Card (Up to 40 NFL Rookies featured with a multi-color patch and signature on Finest refractor technology) and Autographed Jumbo Relic Refractor (Up to 50 Rookie and Veteran NFL players featuring an autograph with a jumbo jersey relic swatch) per hobby master box. There should be one or the other per mini box. Our box came packed with a third hit. The one thing we wished here was that the players were better. Two TE's and a possible third string running back makes it a tough sell though we did get the case hit and a gold refractor relic/auto parallel.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Finest is fun and we have seen some tremendous hits from the product. Especially on the veteran front which isn't a normal thing for products like Finest that usually comes packing with Rookie auto/patches. But because of the lack of excitement in this years rookie class, I think a lot of companies are jumping on getting veterans added.

In terms of design, this product is outstanding. The glimmer and shine. The two color patches against the Finest technology. It's all here.

I do like getting two hits per box that are both relic/patch/autos. However, I would like a better chance at a top player. I feel in this break for $110 we didn't get that back with this player selection.

Let us know your thoughts on this product.

Review: Panini Momentum Football 2013

First off, I would like to say thanks to the WONDERFUL people at Panini America for providing us with this box to review. Here are many places you can find Panini America: official site, blog, Twitter, and Facebook. If you don't follow them at all..you should! They talk to you on Twitter, have contests on their blog and Facebook and the site is also fun to visit!

Box Break Down:

• 10 Packs Per Box, 6 Cards Per Pack
• Ten Autographs or Memorabilia Cards Per Box
• Find at least Five Autographs Per Box
• Ten Rookie Cards Per Box
• Studs insert returns featuring authentic diamonds
• Around $180 per box

                       

BASE CARDS: Panini continues to improve on their products with every release. This time they improved a much needed base card design in Momentum. They added a nice bottom border that doesn't fall flat with some foil and some team color at the top. Just a little added color gives these base cards more of an appeal than last years. I like the team name, position, number and how much the name stands out on these as well. Last year they had the team name in pretty big writing at the top of the card taking the focus off from the player name.I feel this is more cleaner and organized.

The inclusion of base card rookies is a plus as well.

 

INSERTS: We landed two parallels in our box. A Gold foil that is numbered to 99 and a rainbow foil to 49. I have always been a fan of parallels especially numbered ones.

 

AUTOGRAPHS:  (plus a jersey card that somehow snuck into the pics) We landed 6 autographs out of 10 hits in our box which is a great. The three-swatch Rookie Signature RPS rookie cards numbered to 399 or less are much more impressive this year with the addition of rainbow foil and a full-body image. I like also that it's done in landscape design.

You can also look for Class Reunion Combo/Triple/Quad multi-signed cards that bring together players drafted from the same year and 2013 Rookie Team Threads that's multi-swatch and may also include autographs.

JERSEY/PATCH CARDS: The jersey cards in momentum are unique. No single size swatches other than the Upside Jumbo, but come on, it's jumbo. They all are done well in terms of design. We like the fact that the Rookie Team threads come in different numbers of threads as you see above of 2 and 4. There are also Prime pieces in these and autograph versions to find as well.

Something we didn't find in our box was an incredible "memorabilia" piece in STUDS. This card showcases an authentic diamond embedded into each card of an NFL..well..stud. We among other collectors really liked that addition to the product last year. You can also find Double/Triple Feature Material showcase dynamic duos and trios from your favorite teams. Also find prime versions #'d to 49 or less.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Each 10-pack box of 2013 Momentum Football will deliver 10 autograph or memorabilia cards (with at least five autographs guaranteed), 10 Rookie Cards and one parallel.Our box had 2 parallels, 4 memorabilia cards, 10 Rookie Cards, and 6 of the 10 hits are auto's. Some positives about the product are the better designs. The inclusion of top rookie cards in the base set and not just as auto/memorabilia cards. Having the hit per pack potential that could provide a wow. The down sides are the autograph hits. For the second year in a row you can usually land one decent autograph then a bunch of lesser known rookies. That is a tough pill to swallow when you are paying close to $200 a box. But, I guess that's what you get when a company has to get 10 hits in a box. You can't just give away 5 EJ Manuel or Geno Smith autograph cards in every box either or companies wouldn't make money and not to mention if you get all of the star autos in every box it will drive down their auto values.

This years break was much better than last years however by a mile. The memorabilia cards are of future stars and not of nobodies or just lesser known vets. We actually got two decent autographs in Lacy and Mathieu and the other autographs I had at least knew the names of. Last years was awful with the best card of the box being an autograph/mem of Ryan Broyles. From what I have seen, most boxes provide a decent break but you still will have those lesser known rookie autos.

Let us know your thoughts on Momentum and if you have broken any yet?

Panini Unveils Even More For Their 2013 Father's Day Promo!

Panini every other day is unveiling more and more of the cards you will be able to find in their Fathers Day wrapper redemption promo as we are creeping closer and closer to Father's Day. There are some incredible cards to find in this promo that should drive you out to the shops to pick up some.

 

 

 

I really like the Lava parallels as in the Jaden Schwartz above and the artsy autograph appeal to the one next to it.

 

 

I have always been a fan of Pro Bowl game jerseys. You just don't see them included into may products. The Brandon Knight card above as you can tell from the image is pretty sweet! Especially since its a piece of game worn shoe!!

 

This years NFL draft may be weak but the cards are not. Just look above at these two images of Bruce Taylor and Lane Johnson. Then look at this incredible Geno Smith swatch:

Panini proves time and time again why they are the leader in sports cards right now. These amazing promos help drive us to the shops which helps keep the hobby going.

If you are interested in finding out if a shop near you is participating or not, follow the link below where Panini has posted the Dealers Links.

http://paniniamerica.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/panini-america-releases-dealer-list-more-images-for-2013-fathers-day-promotion/

I personally may not have an LCS nearby, but I am going to drive a few hours away to one to participate. I will also post how I did from the packs as well. If you are participating as well, please send us pics of how you did. Would love to post em and maybe throw you in a bonus point or two in our June Contest for doing so!

FANdom Card Of The Day: Nice Variety of Cards

 

Thanks to Arron Stout for providing us with these awesome cards to share!

Review: Sp Authentic Football 2012

Upper Deck's most popular brand (least I think it is) packs a punch every year and has collectors running out to get it. Though it may not be the same product that came out a few years ago when Upper Deck had an NFL license for it, the product still looks great and can still produce those one of a kind hits.

Box Break Down:

• 24 Packs Per Box, 5 Cards Per Pack
• Look for (3) Autographs Per Box!
• (1) Rookie Auto Patch Per Box!
• $110 a Box 

BASE CARDS: Sp Authentic stays to its core, white background base card with player the main focus. I am usually not one for non action photos for products, but this is Sp Authentic, this is an exception. The thing I don't like about the base card is the players name on top of the head. I would have either just left the last name the way it is or have put the first name on top of it. Other than that, glad Sp Authentic stays with its success with the base cards. You should also be able to put a set together in one box.

INSERTS: If you haven't tried this product, the Canvas cards have got to be some of the coolest inserts out on the market. I was hoping to land one of the awesome Stadium Authentics cards because I am a fan of acetate, but the next card after this sentence makes up for that.I haven't quite figured out why a couple of the base cards are dark. I assumed those are parallels. So stuck them right here under inserts.

AUTOGRAPHS: Boom!!! Trent Richardson Gold Parallel auto numbered 5/5!! I was just excited to have gotten my best hit ever out of Sp Authentic with a Richardson auto until  I realized it was numbered. Definitely made up for the other two hits in the box. And its on card for you non sticker auto fans.

JERSEY/PATCH CARDS:To me this product has always been about its auto/patch rookie cards. With one per box that is usually the hit that decides the value of your box. Luckily for us, it wasn't. I don't know who this Jeff Fuller is, but he seems to be haunting me in my Upper Deck breaks this year. However, the design sticks with the great designs of the past. The auto is on card. And these are still some of the hottest rookie cards on the market. Just pick up your Beckett or check eBay and you will see that. The Sp Threads pack, you get these 1:72 for odds, was sitting on top of our packs in the box. Though its Kellen Moore, someone else who stalked me in 2012, the card is pretty cool. The auto is signed on jersey. The card is printed or feels printed on a very thick acetate. Despite the player, these cards rock. I was a little disappointed though that the Threads pack counted as one of the autos in the box. I think it should have been an extra since its a tough pull.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Sp Authentic is worth a try. Hopefully your box turns out the big auto hits with three per box its worth a shot. Hopefully you get that big hit or name auto. I have seen a couple bad breaks of this product with no name autos and patch auto hits. But then there could be that RG3, Trent Richardson, Doug Martin, Dan Marino, Barry Sanders and so on box. Like with most products..theres high risk and possible high return. But if you are a fan of Sp Authentic, this years will not disappoint.

RATINGS:  Bloggers Note: Our ratings are based specifically on the blaster, box or packs we opened and do not express what the overall product could bring. Ratings based on a 1-5. 1 Being the lowest and 5 being the highest.
                Packaging: 5
                Base Design: 4
                Insert Design: 4
                Memorablila/Autographs: 4
                Blaster, Hobby Box, or Pack Value: 5