Batman= 1: Batman + Robin= 2

 

Last year when I began organizing my collection I made the decision to cut out impulse purchases as best I can. It can be a chore sometimes when you find an insert or set that is really interesting but if I have no interest in the set otherwise than I don’t want to waste money on a card I will just sell in a couple of months when I question why I bought it in the first place. I do occasionally break the rules when it comes to cards that just grab me and drag me in making not buying them seem like a sin.

I picked up two cards from the 1995 Batman Forever release, specifically the Gold Blaster inserts. I was not a fan of the Batman Forever movie, I could not get in to Val Kilmer as Batman after watching Michael Keaton rock the first two movies, but these Gold Blaster cards are defiantly worth paying attention to. There are 10 cards in the insert set but these are the only two that I like, the rest include Two Face, the Riddler and mixtures of close ups, and they are relatively cheap so I was happy to add them to my super hero collection.

Card Randomness

I have a horrible habit of setting cards to the side, my sports card procrastination. I decided to just take the time to scan in the cards and write up an “All-in-one” post about my recent pick-ups. So in no particular order here are a couple of cards that I have picked up between

 

Trade

I am a fan of Reem, he can be a pompous ass, he failed a drug test and he can be dismissive of his opponents but he has the talent. If it weren't for his streak fighting he could be looking at a Championship matchup versus Cain Velasquez.

 

Bought

The Koi Animal Kingdom card has been on my “Wants” list since the checklist was announced, I love Koi fish and have always wanted to install a Koi pond in my yard. I like the Panini Crusade cards, they look just like the 1998 Donruss Crusade cards, and the Russell Wilson card seemed like a steal for a couple of dollars shipped. The George Mikan printing plate was just one of those opportunity pick-ups but I am happy to add it to my personal collection.

 

Pack pulls

I had high hopes for Spiller when he came in to the NFL, he had a decent career at Clemson but besides last year's 1,244 rushing yards he has only showed glimpses of what could have been. I pulled it out of a rack pack from Walmart so there are no complaints from me.

Random Blaster Box: 2013 Topps Platinum Football

I am a fan of Topps’ Platinum releases, I am not sure what it is about the cards that peeks my interest but whenever a Platinum set comes out I have to pick up some packs. 2013 Platinum Football has been out for a couple of weeks and in that time I have picked two blaster boxes and a 3-pack rack pack, I opened up another rack pack tonight. Out of those 22 packs I have been pretty satisfied, a couple of Seahawks, a couple Cardinals, a handful of parallels, two rookie autographs and a Camo die-cut card.

 

I begin with the Seahawks, Beast Mode and the injured Percy Harvin. The interesting thing about the veteran cards is that the back of the cards are not glossy like the rookie cards in the set.

I pulled 15 rookies with these guys leading the way.

I pulled a handful of X-Fractors, nobody special so I am going with a Cardinals rookie. I actually opened three more packs this evening and I pulled another Taylor X-Fractor.

 

The rack packs include Orange Flame Refractors, they are the same design as the other Refractors (except for the X-Fractors). I pulled the Lacy Flame Refractor tonight.

A Steven Jackson Sapphire Refractor. These cards are thicker than the other cards, I am not sure why it is different. These refractors are one per pack in Hobby boxes but they do not have the same odds for retail packs. I pulled the Richardson Sapphire Refractor from a pack tonight.

 

The Black Refractors are one per hobby box, I am guessing they are the same 1:24 packs odds. With the way that the Steelers are playing, it is possible that Landry Jones may actually see playing time depending on Gradkowski’s ability.

I pulled two autographs, one from a blaster box and one from the rack pack. At 1:44 packs I was quite surprised to see one out of my original 19 packs let alone 2 autographs. Neither player will see much field time, Brown should at least get in the games though.

I close out with a Montee Bell Camouflage Die-cut ribbon card. Another card I was surprised to pull, Montee Ball is sitting behind Hillman on the depth chart but with his numbers from college he has shown that he has the ability.

My wife did the worst thing possible tonight, she sent me out for eggs at 9pm so she could finish making cupcakes. So I swing by the card aisle... for the second time today... and pick up another rack pack of Platinum Football. Three packs later and I add a Manti Te'o BCA die-cut  and a Geno Smith Orange Flame refractor. So far I have opened 25 packs and I seem to be defying the pack out odds. Not huge hits but still some nice cards to add to my binder.
 

Random Rack Pack: 2012 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

I recently picked up a rack pack of Goodwin Champions to get a hands on look at the release. I know that some people do not care for mixed products like this but I think that it gives a little something for everyone. The down side is that without a MLB, NBA or NFL license any related athletes are stuck in relaxed poses and not in uniform as they should be depicted.  I like the mix of old and new, there are a nice selection of players from years past along with athletes that are still in the prime of their career. It makes for a very interesting pack busting experience.

 

I started off with a group of baseball players from the 1800s; Ross Barnes, Ned Hanlon and Billy Hamilton. A nice group here with two Hall of Famers, Hanlon and Hamilton, though it should be noted that Barnes is not in the Hall of Fame on a technicality, he only played 9 professional seasons and the Hall requires 10 total pro seasons. Sadly he played 4 years with the Rockford Forest Citys (1866-1870) but because there were no professional leagues at the time they do not count these 4 seasons as professional.

 

 Totaled up we have 3 players accounting for 34 professional seasons (plus Hanlon’s 18 years as a manger), 5 batting titles, 8 NA/NL Championships (plus Hanlon’s 5 NL Championships as a manager) and numerous records.

 

I followed up with Knute Rockne, a football genius who changed the game. He played at Notre Dame where he was named an All-American in 1913. Some people claim he invented the forward pass but that is not true, though he was part of making it an integral part of the game. After graduation he stayed on as the ND coach, over the next 13 seasons he went 105-12-5; his .881 win percentage is still the all-time winning percentage among college coaches. Toss in 5 undefeated seasons, 3 National Championships and a 1925 Rose Bowl win and you have one of the best coaches ever. You wonder how much more he would have added to his resume had he not died in a plane crash.

 

 A group of fighters up next, two real and one fake. Overeem has/had a bright future, there is still time but I guess we are going to have to wait until he is able to apply for his license in December. He had his shot at the UFC Heavyweight title but failed a testosterone test and now has to wait until his ban ends. Couture is one of my favorites, he helped bring MMA and UFC back in to the public after the banning of UFC in the early 1990s in the US. He is a classy guy and a champion. His records are amazing, 3x Heavyweight Champ, 2x Light-heavyweight Champ, the most UFC Championships, the most Championship fights, the oldest UFC Champ ever and he is in the UFC Hall of Fame.

The Hulkster may be in sports entertainment but he did the same for wrestling that Couture did for MMA. Hulk Hogan was the man that made the WWF a legitimate organization and he did body slam Andre the Giant (with some help from Andre). To see that he is still (sort of) wrestling at 59 is amazing, even if it is only TnA Impact.

 

A couple of Bean(e)’s, one walked on the moon and the other changed the way baseball players are ranked by teams and scouts.

 

I think Upper Deck missed it with Payne Stewart; they should have gone with a shot of him in his famous knickers. He was another person taken before their time by a plane crash, he was 42 when he died and you know he still had more championships ahead of him.

 

Mike Bossy, why oh why do you look like Alice Cooper? This is another card where I think that Upper Deck went wrong, this is Mike Bossy, arguably the greatest NY Islander ever, he is in the NHL Hall of Fame and he still holds NHL records 20 years after he retired. UD has an NHL license, why would they not put him in an Islanders sweater?

 

A couple of “suave” guys here, well Donnie Baseball looks a little 1980s GQ but he still looks good.

 

And then we have a “not so suave” shot here. When I first saw this card I immediately pictured the Roger Patterson Bigfoot pictures. Just the way he is staged reminds me of the Bigfoot shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of minis, including Iron Mike and Bigfoot-esque Larry Bird.

 

 

A Lady Luck green parallel of golfer Dustin Johnson.

 

 

I close with a Military Machines B-24 Liberator. These inserts are different from the base set, they have a smooth coating where the base cards are the old-school cardboard.

 

The B-24, not as famously known as the B-17, was actually better (to a point) than the Flying Fortress. The Liberator could carry a heavier payload, could fly faster and had a greater range but on the downside was more difficult to fly and when they were hit they tended to go down harder causing more death to the flight crews.

 

The Liberator was used in Europe, the Pacific and Indo-China by the US and her allies. Great Britain, Canada, Australia all had them in their arsenals because they had multiple uses on top of the bombing. They were used as spy planes, air and sea patrols, flying gas stations and transports. One was "lent" to the Soviet Union but they captured 73 other Liberators that were forced to land in areas held by Soviet forces. Even the Germans had a couple that had been captured and were used as spy planes over Allied lands.

 

The Liberator was retired by the military in 1944 when the B-29 Superfortress was released but they remained in use by the Navy until 1952 and by the Coast Guard until 1958. They were still being used privately until 2002 when one crashed while fighting a wildfire and the remaining planes were all grounded.

 

Random Rack Pack- 2012 Bowman Platinum Baseball

Some times when it comes to a hands on review I can be a procrastinator. Often times I pick up a pack or box and will set it to the side for a while before opening them. I just get side-tracked and once something is out of sight it is just as quick out of mind. Then there are times where I open up packs and set them next to my computer with the intent of doing a review but will start writing about other hobby news and my pack reviews have to wait. Right now I actually have three stacks of packs waiting for a review sitting next to my computer so I decided it is time to buckle down and start the reviews.

 

First up are a couple of rack packs of 2012 Bowman Platinum. I was not a fan of the Platinum products when they first hit the shelf but over the years I have found an affinity for the products. The product has changed from year to year so that may be the reason for my change of heart.

 

Each rack pack contains 3 packs with 4 cards each and 3 retail exclusive Purple parallels.

 

The 2012 Bowman Platinum Baseball set is pretty small containing only 100 base cards. The parallels for the base cards are Gold, Emerald and Ruby.

 

The base checklist includes a nice mixture of veterans (Ichiro, Jeter, Chipper Jones and Cliff Lee, etc.), young players (Michael Pineda, Mike Trout, Justin Morneau, David Price and Andrew McCutchen) and rookies (Yu Darvish, Bryce Harper and Yoenis Cespedes).

 

I pulled some nice base cards from these packs. I was able to get three of the top five AL pitchers as well as 2 of the top five AL batters. With the NL counterparts I grabbed 2 of the top NL pitchers and two top NL batters.

 

Toss in David Freese and Cole Hamels Gold parallels and a Prince Fielder Green parallel.

 

The Bowman Platinum Prospects, also a 100 card checklist, includes a larger selection of parallels, all refractors; Refractor, X-Fractor (1 per hobby box), Green Refractor (#/399), Blue Refractor (#/199), Gold Refractor (#/50), Red Refractor (#/25), Atomic Refractor (#/5) and Superfractor (1/1).

 

One thing Bowman is known for is offering up a large selection of prospects. Some go on to stellar careers, some have solid careers and some end up selling shoes in a couple of years. This checklist is made up of players who will probably fit in all three categories. The big names are here led by Bubba Starling followed up by many Machado, Trevor Bauer and Gerrit Cole. Embarrassing as it is, I have to admit that there are some names I do not recognize on the checklist but I do not always follow prospects very well.

 

Interestingly you will notice a slight difference between the base cards and the Platinum Prospects cards. The design is very similar with the player's elements standard but the base card has the player's name/team over a black background with a team color border, the Prospects are reversed with the name/team over the team color background and a black border. The etchings along the side/bottom are over a black background on the base cards and over a silver foil background on the Prospects cards and finally the border up the side on the base cards is missing from the Prospects cards. I also noticed, at least with the cards that I pulled, that the base cards  use images of the players that seem closer where as the Prospect cards use player images that appear further back thus showing more of the player's body.

 

My Prospects were a little less exciting; Trevor Bauer topped my list as well as Vincent Catricala from the Mariners.

 

With each rack pack containing 3 Purple Refractors I pulled 6 total led by Gerrit Cole. Wil Myers and Jordan Swagerty have some nice potential too.

 

 I pulled 4 refractors, all pretty much mediocre players.

I was surprised to pull two X-Fractors because they are listed as 1 per hobby box (1:20 packs). Has anyone else come across this from rack packs?

Sadly, they two are pitchers who together may make it to just about a .500 win percentage and an ERA just north of 3.70.

 

I close out with my inserts;

Top Prospects Tim Wheeler and Tyler Skaggs

Cutting Edge Stars die-cut Bryce Harper

Autograph Prospects- Telvin Nash Gold Refractor #/50

 

Not really someone I would expect as a prospect, unless his prospect was his ability to sell shoes alongside Al Bundy.

 

Not that I am complaining, but when the odds are 1:1,029 packs (For the Gold Refractor parallel) to pull an Autograph Prospect you would think that the checklist would be more solid. There is no reason to force 44 players in to a checklist, especially if those players may never be a true prospect.

Random Rack Pack: 2012 Topps Chrome Baseball

I recently picked up a rack pack of 2012 Topps Chrome baseball, along with a couple of other recent releases, so I can take a hands on look. The rack pack came with three packs and three orange retail exclusive cards.

 

I was happy to pull a Diamondback, Justin Upton, and a double shot of young Mariners, Dustin Ackley and Kyle Seager. The Mariners may be sitting in the basement of the AL West again but with a solid group of youngsters on the roster it may not be too long before we see the M’s proving to be a contender again, we may even see a .500+ team by the end of season for the first time since 2009.

 

 

With the Orange refractors I pulled a trio of pitchers. I have always liked David Price and besides last year he has been a solid pitcher on a Tampa team that seems to have found their stride over the past few years. I still have high hopes for him before his career is over. Kimbrel is a pretty good closer and he is still young but when it comes to cards pulling a closer is only slightly better than pulling a middle reliever. Anibal Sanchez, OK I really cannot find much of an upside for him. He began the season one win over .500 (he is currently 3 wins under now) and after a crappy start in Miami he has become even more craptastic since his trade to Detroit.

 

 

A Jake Peavy X-Fractor

 

 

And I close out with a couple of refractors of two ex-Red Sox

 

 

I can sum up the experience with a single word… meh…

I will stick with Bowman Platinum; I am addicted to that stuff