The Better Experience

*coffee grounds in my coffee this morning, 2020 summed up in one cup. Guess I will have to brew another. In the meantime, let's talk about a real nice surprise Clark. Sorry inner Christmas Vacation coming out. I will cut it out with the early morning cheesy jokes and get onto a seriously good mail day*

 

The jury is still out on Trading Card Database for me, but, I recently had a very positive moment from the site that may give me some light about giving the website a second chance.

On my Set Help post for 1995 Fleer Prospects, I had a comment from Trading Card Database member jimetal7212 who said he had a couple of the cards for my set chase and just to contact him with my address. I was both caught by surprise, excitement and questioning it since I didn't remember ever having any interactions with him.

 

 (Steve Walsh understood my feelings)

 

But, I gave him my info and he sent me two cards for that set and so much more.

 

(if these don't scream 90's not sure what does)

 

Jack Jackson and Rob Johnson were the cards I needed for the 1995 Fleer NFL Prospects set. This is a set I am ever so creeping towards and only am 4 cards away out of the 20.

*takes a sip, gets excited to show off the rest of the mail day*

Not only did he send those two, but also sent a bunch more set help,

1995 Ultra Achievement

 

 

  

 1995 Pinnacle

 

 

 1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion

 1995 Score Red Siege (I believe I am halfway there to this one)

 

1994 Fleer Pro Visions

 

I was blown away! Never had any interaction with this person but they took note of my bad experience on the TCDB website to make it better. Imagine if rest of the world did this in the hobby or in real life. What a world we could live in.

 

*drinking a fresh hot cup of coffee makes this post even better* 

 

That's the kind of experience I kept hearing others talk/blog about when it comes to using TCDB. It surely wasn't like my first time there. I guess it is like real life. You just have to meet the right people. Or even maybe like a cup of coffee. Sometimes there is some coffee with creamer and other cups with straight up cup grounds in it like my first experience.

With this moment that had me feeling like this I may go back again give the website another try to see if I can have other good experiences.

 

Maybe the more good people like jimetal7212 I meet, my circle can grow from there. Who knows, I think the most important thing is they've got to accept and take a chance on me and also realize I won't be posting any trade bait or doing collections. Like the meme that I see go around on Facebook all of the time, "Ain't nobody got time for that", I simply don't have the time to add in thousands of cards. I am a "what do you collect and let me see what I have type of trader" and do all of my cataloging on blogs which this one will be fully updated with soon.

Thank you again jimetal7212 for being a positive light in the darkness I felt on that website or in coffee terms, thanks for being the creamer and making my cup brighter.

*breakfast time with the next cup, coffee blogger out*

The Better Experience

*coffee grounds in my coffee this morning, 2020 summed up in one cup. Guess I will have to brew another. In the meantime, let's talk about a real nice surprise Clark. Sorry inner Christmas Vacation coming out. I will cut it out with the early morning cheesy jokes and get onto a seriously good mail day*

 

The jury is still out on Trading Card Database for me, but, I recently had a very positive moment from the site that may give me some light about giving the website a second chance.

On my Set Help post for 1995 Fleer Prospects, I had a comment from Trading Card Database member jimetal7212 who said he had a couple of the cards for my set chase and just to contact him with my address. I was both caught by surprise, excitement and questioning it since I didn't remember ever having any interactions with him.

 

 (Steve Walsh understood my feelings)

 

But, I gave him my info and he sent the two cards and more along when the mail day arrived.

 

(if these don't scream 90's not sure what does)

 

Jack Jackson and Rob Johnson fill in two of my set needs for the 1995 Fleer NFL Prospects and I am slowly creeping towards this 20 card set as I am only 4 away!

Not only did he send those two, but also sent a bunch more set help,

1995 Ultra Achievement

 

 

  

 1995 Pinnacle

 

 

 1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion

 1995 Score Red Siege (I believe I am halfway there to this one)

 

1994 Fleer Pro Visions

 

I was blown away! Never had any interaction with this person but they took note of my bad experience to make it better. Imagine if rest of the world did this in the hobby or in real life. What a world we could live in.

 

*drinking a fresh hot cup of coffee makes this post even better* 

 

That's the kind of experience I kept hearing others talk/blog about when it comes to using TCDB. It surely wasn't like my first time there. I guess it is like real life. You just have to meet the right people. Or even maybe like a cup of coffee. Sometimes there is some coffee with creamer and other cups with straight up cup grounds in it like my first experience.

With this moment that had me feeling like this I may go back again give the website another try to see if I can have other good experiences.

 

Maybe the more good people like jimetal7212 I meet, my circle can grow from there. Who knows. I think the biggest thing is they have got to accept and take a chance on me but also realize I won't be posting any trade bait or doing collections. Like the meme that I see go around on Facebook all of the time, "Ain't nobody got time for that", I simply don't have the time to add in thousands of cards. I am a "what do you collect and let me see what I have type of trader" and do all of my cataloging on here which isn't up to date too often. I will need to add these new set adds to the blog soon.

Thank you again jimetal7212 for being a positive light in the darkness I felt on that website or in coffee terms, thanks for being the creamer and making my cup brighter.

*breakfast time with the next cup, coffee blogger out*

REVIEW:2017 Bowman Chrome Mini Baseball Complete Set

Running with this red hot rookie class, why not release a late season season rookie loaded product? Especially by the Home Of The Rookie Card?

Here comes 2017 Bowman Chrome Mini and a review of it.

 

In every set of 2017 Bowman Chrome Mini, there are 273 cards. This set includes ROY winners Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger along with 1st Bowman cards of Ronald Acuna, and many more.

If you weren't already intrigued enough, there is a bonus with this as well. 3 packs of 10 parallels exclusive to these sets. Sets right now are running pretty high at $199. But, looking at the 2017 class, it may be a good investment.

First let's take a look at the base card minis. Pretty cool. It's broken down in Bowman Rookies, Bowman Chrome Rookies, Bowman Prospects and Bowman Chrome Prospects. I will tell you this ahead of time, the cards are not by number in the box : /. But lots of rookies and chrome so I excused that.

 

Like I said, there are 30 parallels per box. Let's take a look at them.

Refractor

Bowman 70th Logo Refractor /70,

Green Refractor /99

Blue Shimmer Refractor #/150

Gold Refractor /50

Orange Refractor /25 and probably my best hit of the box, Rhys Hoskins.

 

Other parallels not found in my box include Red Refractor /10, SuperFractor 1/1, and Printing Plates 1/1. 

OVERALL:Love the idea, love Chrome and love refractors. However, I don't love the price even though I bet it's worth it with sets and parallels being limited. This is a fun product for player collectors to chase their favorite rookies and prospects rainbows of.

Take a minute out to thank Topps for providing the box to review. Some of the cards you see above will be included in the #MyToppsMomentOfTheYear promo! Follow Topps on all social media sites and check out their website HERE for cards and more!

Review:2017 Bowman Chrome Baseball

All I need to see is the word chrome and I will come running.

But, when it has chrome to the Bowman power, it makes me run a bit faster.

Combining the power of chrome and the Bowman baseball is a beautiful thing. Not only do we get to see our favorite rookies in chrome action, but we get to search for their many parallels and autographs within the product. Prospectors dream!

This is one of my many breaks over the years of Bowman Chrome. Let's see how 2017 went.

Every Hobby Box of 2017 Bowman Chrome has 2 mini boxes. Each mini box come with 6 packs and one autograph. Each hobby box comes with Two Autographs, One Prospect Shimmer Parallel Card, and Two 2016 Arizona Fall League Fall Stars Chrome Insert Cards. Boxes are currently running $105. Not to bad in my opinion.

The base set is built up of veterans and rookies. There are only 100 cards in the base set with not a ton of rookie but the normal group of, Cody Bellinger, Aaron Judge, Yoan Moncada, Andrew Benintendi, Alex Bregman, Yulieski Gurriel, Alex Reyes, Jharel Cotton, David Dahl, Ryon Healy, Carson Fulmer, Jordan Montgomery, Manny Margot, Josh Bell, Tyler Glasnow, Dansby Swanson, Hunter Renfroe, and Amir Garrett.

 

My box only had 6 total rookies with the best being Alex Bregman.

 

Speaking of the rookie cards, there are also photo variations. Luckily for us chasers of these 1:119 variations, we can tell them apart once again by the digits on the back. Base cards end in 927.The SSP variations end in 953.

To go along with a 100 card base set, there are also 100 prospect cards to chase. Like I said, this is for the prospector!

 

As I mentioned above, parallel chase is part of the chrome fun. Both prospects and base cards have them.

Base have the following refractor parallels, Refractor /499, Purple /250, Blue /150, Green /99, Gold /50, Orange #/25, Red /5 and SuperFractor 1/1.

Prospects have the following refractor parallels, Refractor /499, Bowman 70th Logo Blue, Purple Shimmer, Purple /250, Blue /150, Blue Shimmer /150, Green /99, Green Shimmer /99, Gold /50, Gold Shimmer /50, Orange /25, Orange Shimmer /25, Red /5, Black Shimmer 1/1 and SuperFractor 1/1.

 

I like how the refractors are numbered including the regular refractors like this one that falls 1:18 packs,

 

Purple refractors I found one in each mini box. These fall 1:36 packs.

 

And my shimmer refractor for the box was this tough-to-pull orange shimmer /25. These fall 1:356 packs.

 

Just like refractors, the inserts in the product shine as well. These were my promised 2016 Arizona Fall League Fall Stars inserts. Bellinger was a nice find. There are parallels of Orange Refractor /25 and SuperFractor 1/1 for these.

 

My Bowman Scout 100 pulls that also have Orange Refractor /25 and SuperFractor 1/1 parallels.

 

Now onto my autograph finds.

My first was of Mariner Braden Bishop.

 

My second one has a family name, Torii Hunter Jr.

 

 

The autographs have the following parallels, Refractor 499, Purple /250, Blue /150, Blue Mojo /150, Green /99, Gold /50, Gold Shimmer /50, Orange /25, Orange Wave /25, Red /5, Black Limited Edition 1/1 , and SuperFractor 1/1.

 

Hits not found in my box include, Chrome Rookie Autographs Set Checklist, Chrome Autograph Relics, 2016 AFL Fall Stars Autographs ,2016 AFL Fall Stars Relics, 2016 AFL Fall Stars Autograph Relics, All-America Game Autographs ,Bowman Scouts’ Updates Autographs, Chrome Sensation Autographs, Prime Chrome Inscription , Refractors that Never Were , Refractors that Never Were Autographs

OVERALL: I love chrome and will always pick up chrome when I can. Especially since I didn't get a Judge in this break at all. This box may not have had the biggest stars in the game for autograph hits, but they could be some day. That's truly what anything Bowman is about. Whoever thought Aaron Judge would be Aaron Judge this year. Very few I am guessing. So who knows if there is a future Aaron Judge hiding in this box or in any boxes of this product. That's the fun aspect of Bowman Chrome.

Another fun aspect is the Refractors That Never Were and Refractors That Never Were autographs as it brings some veteran and legend presence to this usual prospect heavy product.

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! Follow Topps on all social media sites and visit their SITE, as well

Review: 2013 Bowman Platinum Blaster

The glimmer and the shine of Bowman Platinum always grabs my attention and other collector's attentions as well. I like retail version of the product for 1, can't afford hobby right now and 2, it usually gives you your money back plus more and 3, you can sometimes hit an auto or auto/patch in a blaster box. It's not too often you can get a decent hit in a blaster product and this product is one where they odds are favorable.

The product is also rookie based with both prospects, rookie cards and inserts of them. Which is key an any product with the word Bowman.

I feel this blaster did just that.

Box Break Down:

• 8 Packs Per Box, 4 Cards Per Pack
• $20 PER BLASTER BOX

Base Card

Base Rookie Card

Even though these aren't base cards, I call them that anyways

BASE CARDS: This is a product that to me doesn't need the action photography like others that I crave it from. The glimmer and shine of the base cards does enough to catch my attention. The rainbow appeal is very nice and a base set I would spend time putting together.

I really like the border on these unlike the types of border used in other Topps products. This one is very minimal. I wished Topps would use this type of border for their other products with the action photography. That would drastically change my opinion on some of their MLB line.

Base Set Breakdown:

100 Cards in the base set
100 Card Prospect "base set"

Gold 1:5

Ruby 1:20

Prospect refractors 1:4

Top Prospects 1:5

Die-Cut Cutting Edge 1:10

Best Bowman Players Of All Time 1:20

INSERTS:The parallels are a thing of beauty just like the base cards as is rest of the inserts. And as you can tell by the odds for each one, we did pretty well with our blaster pulling both a 1:20 Ruby parallel and a Best Bowman Players Of All Time 1:20 insert in only a 8 pack box. Die Cuts are a nice touch as well.

AUTOGRAPHS: NONE (Though pulling some from retail is never out of the question)

JERSEY/PATCH CARDS: NONE

OVERALL THOUGHTS: For $20, you will get your money back. You will also get joy in busting the product. I have seen many people hit autos in blaster boxes. Some were big hits. This and Topps Chrome are the only two retail products in blaster form that will provide a big Bam and will provide your moneys worth. As always, I will recommend this product and hope you get Puig from your box. That was our aim but we don't mind seeing Machado either. A nice rookie PC piece.

And with this product being rookie loaded, it's also a buy for future value as well.

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: 4
                Base Design: 5
                Insert Design: 5
                Memorablila/Autographs: N/A
                Blaster, Hobby Box, or Pack Value: 5