Try a pack #1: 2016 Donruss Football

Decided to try something new on the blog.  I see a lot of stuff in the Target card aisle that I normally turn my nose up at.  That's right, look at it and kind of go "ugh" and turn away. 

I've dabbled with football in the past, and had to stop collecting it because my primary hobby loves of hockey and baseball really took up most of my budget.  But there are others out there whose envelopes I might help fill with a football card here and there.

So when at Target on the weekend, I looked at all the packs that they had and grabbed 3 different products that I normally would never buy, just to try my luck.  Every now and then I'll do the same as new releases come out.  Who knows, I just may pull something that somebody really wants! 

The first of the packs I'm going to feature is a pack of 2016 Donruss football, which I bought kind of by accident because I thought it was 2017.  This new series has already taught me to look a little closer at the writing on the front of the pack.

After opening the pack, I recognized the cards as I've seen them on someone's blog in the past.

I like that Donruss used the team colors in the border, makes it a lot nicer for team collectors in my opinion.  I pulled a couple of legends cards; I like the photo of Joe Namath even though I can't quite tell who he's playing against (if someone recognizes the player/team, please let me know in the comments). 

This was a rack pack of 20 cards, so to me it made sense that a good portion of the base was devoted to the skill positions.  Imagine if the Case Keenum card had a yellow border, it might just burn out your retinas.  Didn't pull any star RBs in the pack, but got some names that I knew. 

3 of the 4 defensive base cards featured players I knew, including the only Steelers player in the pack, Cameron Heyward.  I'm hoping Craig "Ironhead" Heyward's son comes back from off-season surgery and bolsters that defensive line in 2017. 

Pulled 3 blue press proof cards in the pack, I understand that there is more than one color of the press proof parallels (which doesn't make sense to me).  If I remember correctly, Max from the Starting Nine blog collects Saints, so maybe he'll be interested in the two of these.  Will Fuller of the Texans on the right had a decent rookie season, totaling 635 yards in catches over 14 games. 

The Noah Spence card on the left made me remember that I'd seen this set before, as it looks very similar to the 1990 Donruss baseball set.   I have to start watching more west coast games this season, as I didn't remember Hunter Henry on the right.  Hunter seemed to have a decent first season as a TE for the Chargers, with 36 catches for 476 yards and 8 TDs!  Not shabby.  Donruss could have been smarter and made the border for the Rated Rookie cards the same as the team's colors.  Would have made sense to me, as it would have just followed the rest of the set.

For me, the cards don't look bad at all.  I don't know if this would be the first choice if I ever started collecting football again, but the pack wasn't that bad to be honest.  Maybe there's someone out there that may need a home for these, just let me know.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Delirium

I've spent the past 7.5 months rooting for a team filled with kids.  A lot of them either A) barely able to shave, and B) cannot buy alcohol in the US of A.

But you know what, it doesn't matter that these are kids anymore.   The Maple Leafs are headed to the playoffs.

It's been such a struggle to get there for the past decade, I'm in a state of delirium.  This post is probably going to meander and not make a whole lot of sense to anyone who isn't a Leaf fan, but to be honest I don't care tonight....

These three were a line for a good portion of the season, until the coach took Nylander off the line and put him with Auston Matthews, now a 40 goal scorer in the NHL.

They're going to the playoffs.

These two have been linemates for quite a while now, the last few seasons with Phil Kessel, and this year with young phenom Mitch Marner.

They're going to the playoffs as well.  Looking to exorcise the demons of the 7 game playoff loss to the Bruins for years ago. 

These two are probably the best defensemen the Leafs have right now.  Rielly wasn't a Leaf yet when the Leafs lost to the Bruins in 2013.  Gardiner had arguably the best series of anyone on the Leaf blueline that year with 5 points in 6 games, and was almost the goat tonight when he accidentally kicked in the 3rd Penguins goal.

No matter, they're going to the playoffs.

Now this post would have been helped if I had cards of Matthews, Marner, Fredrik Andersen or any of the other dozen or so Leafs who helped get them to the playoffs this year.  Oh well.

The Blue Jays will have to take a back seat to the Leafs for a couple of more weeks, cause the Leafs going to the playoffs.  Can you tell I'm just a bit excited...

Heaven help me if they actually win a series.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Have modern RC's lost their luster?

I had mentioned on Sunday that our friends at K-Mart afforded me the opportunity to purchase another pack of update free of the parallels that dot the packs from other big box stores.

I showed off the inserts in that post, but one other card caught my eye.

I like this kid.  Yes, I can call him kid because he's 1/2 my age.  I really enjoyed watching him pitch for the Pirates this year, and I hope to get an opportunity or two in 2014 to watch him throw live.

It seems like I've been hearing about him for a while, but it's only been 2 years since he was drafted by the Buccos. 

But I digress.

Upon seeing this card, I saw the rookie card logo in the lower left, and it got me to thinking. 

Do rookie cards excite me anymore?  The one and only RC that I've "chased" since this blog started was the 2010 Topps Buster Posey card.  The reason I hunted for that card was to complete that set, not because I was a big RC/Posey fan.

I can't say that I've chased any rookie cards at all since the early 90's, when it was all the rage to buy 50 or 100 counts of RC's to try and cash in on the next big thing.  Now, outside of trying to pick up the big RC's from vintage sets, rookie cards just don't do it for me anymore. 

Is it because I've changed?  Is it because I've become more of a set collector now?  Is it because the hobby has other avenues for people to chase the almighty dollar?  I don't know to be honest.

I'm sure that the legions of Yasiel Puig/Bryce Harper fans probably have different thoughts on this subject, but honestly there's not one player out there that excites me enough that I need to rush out to the next card show and snatch up a bunch of their RC's.

Am I trying to diminish the importance of the rookie card?  No.  Never.  But for some reason, seeing Gerrit Cole reminded me of the rookie card "chase" of the past, and that I don't miss the chase one bit.

Maybe I'm just getting old.....

thanks for reading, Robert

Sampling, pt.1

While playing chauffeur on Saturday for my wife and her two friends, I was asked to stop at Target so they could look around.   This was one stop that I had no problem with, because of the card display at the front of the cash registers.

Since there is only one current product on the shelves that I'm working on set wise (2013-14 OPC hockey), there wasn't a whole lot on the display that really stood out.  I wound up deciding on a handful of OPC packs (of course), and a couple of products that I hadn't planned on purchasing at all this summer (GQ and Bowman Platinum). 

I guess you could call it "sampling", maybe somebody more in the know could help me out there. 

I figured that I'd get a couple of posts out of what I pulled, splitting the posts up by sport.  Let's start with the hockey goodies.

This year's OPC set is probably one of my most favorite of the past few years.   That's probably why I've bought as much as I have already.

The legends photography is always top notch, and this year is no different.

What makes them so special for me this year is the photos aren't generic ones that have been used many times in the past.  The Mike Bossy photo in the center is one of the best I've seen so far this year.

The rookies so far have left something to be desired.  The hyped up "double rookie class" is proving to be a tough one to crack, at least for me.  The only big name RC I've been able to snag is the Jonathan Huberdeau. 

I seem to be pulling all the rookies that played a handful of games last year.  It's even harder because the teams I follow didn't play any western conference teams last season, therefore making the rookies on that side of the league a little more "unknown". 

I pulled just one of the rainbow parallels out of the 5 packs I bought.

Not sure why every time I see this guy I think of "skillet" instead of Skille

I like the rainbow parallels.   Not enough to chase the whole set of all 600, but if the Leaf parallels were to find their way here, I wouldn't be upset at all. 

This next card is my favorite card of the set so far.  It's not too often that I say that about a base card, but the vintage uniform featured is fantastic...

The Gilmour card features him in the circa 1930's Leaf jerseys.  I love the old style design and logo, I've always thought that the logo looked much more "natural" than the computer generated logo of today.  This is the 2nd base card for Gilmour that I own, which is good because I will not have to chase an extra copy down for my Leafs collection. 

Nothing overly fabulous in the 5 packs, but still some stuff worth showing off.  Next up, GQ & BP.

Thanks for reading, Robert

I'm glad that I'm not like this anymore

I would have to say that trying to write posts the past couple of days has resulted in me staring into space with nothing to say.   That particular malaise has happened to me way too often over the past couple of months.

You know how it is, you start hunting and hunting, looking for something interesting to write about.  I have been using the Serial Insanity Project as a crutch a lot for posts lately, which is not good, because I feel it should be a complement to the blog, rather than the meat and potatoes.

Tonight I starting hunting through a 5000 count monster box, just hoping for any kind of idea to pop into the empty recesses of my mind.  Instead of taking the usual couple of hours for a thought to develop, I found these cards, and instantly I time warped 22 years back, to the summer of '91.

Cards were all over the place.  The boom was in full swing, and I was head over heels for the '91 Upper Deck baseball set.

I bought a shit ton of it.  It was the next big thing!!   My thought process back then was totally warped.  Money, money, money.  I was going to buy up as much as I could, get all the great rookies, and let the money flow in when I sold them off at a huge profit.

Idiot. 

Some of you older guys and gals out there might remember this guy:

There's more where this came from

Rookie of the Year in 1992, the sky was the limit for Eric Karros.  The next HOF Dodger 1st baseman.  Yes, he had a few good years in LA, but the Dodgers could never quite get over the hump, finishing 2nd or 3rd in their division for a few straight years, before Karros was traded in 2002 for a Pirate that was supposed to be the next big thing here, Chad Hermansen.  Hermansen would hit .195 for his career, and wound up out of baseball  by age 26.

Maybe another blast from the past will jog your memories?  Reggie Sanders anyone?

Karros and Sanders career stats are somewhat similar, While Sanders out homered Karros 305-284, Karros had more career base hits (1724-1666).  Sanders did play for 3 more seasons in the bigs, and in 1998 started a string of 7 straight seasons where he played for a different team each year (Cincinnati, San Diego, Atlanta, Arizona, Pittsburgh, San Francisco and St. Louis).   If you take a look at the run of teams, you have to wonder how Reggie's body clock ever functioned properly, as he went from Eastern to Pacific to Eastern to Pacific to Eastern to Pacific and finally to the Central time zone. 

Now, if you're any kind of collector in southern Ontario in the early 90's, you knew all about this guy...

The next big thing until the Jays needed some help

I would have said that Steve Karsay's time in Toronto wasn't long enough for his cup of coffee to get cold, but he actually never threw a pitch for the Jays.  Drafted in 1990 out of a NYC high school in the 1st round, Karsay was going to be the next piece of the puzzle for the Jays rotation.  Something better came along in 1993, and he was traded along with Jose Herrera to the Oakland A's for leadoff hitter extraordinaire Rickey Henderson.  Rickey was the ultimate rental, playing only 44 games in a Blue Jay uniform, stealing 22 bases, and helping Toronto to a 2nd straight World Series.  3 weeks after the trade, Karsay made his major league debut for the A's, and had a decent 11 year career for 5 different clubs.

Karsay's rookie card was going nuts, selling easily for a few bucks in the Toronto area.  Prospecting was in full swing back then.  I was part of the insanity.  Can't you tell? 

What a mistake.  It took me a long time to get that warped money making mentality out of my system.

While I still have no problems selling a card today, I don't buy into the hype of rookies anymore.   I don't buy a lot of a particular product anymore trying to accumulate the next big thing.  I happily build my sets, some new, some old, and enjoy the hobby for what it should have been for me 22 years ago.

Fun.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Are GQ minis actually Rookie Cards?

I kind of stumbled upon this post today, because I had planned to do another angle to go along with the Gypsy Queen posts that I had made last week. 

I purchased two Gypsy Queen blasters yesterday during a trip to Wal-Mart.  I didn't have a chance to open them yesterday, so I opened the first one this afternoon.  Nothing fantastic to shout about, but I did get one card that kind of made me think.

Exhibit A is below:

Card # 208, regular back, Adron Chambers of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Notice the prominent RC stamp in the lower right corner.  This made me think for a minute.  Aren't RC's supposed to be from the base set, and not portrayed by any kind of insert?  This was always my impression, so I did a little hunting, and found this definition of a rookie card from about.com.  [NOTE: the paragraph below is the 2nd paragraph of the webpage, and is used to illustrate my question/point.]

Note that a rookie card is not necessarily always produced during a player's rookie season, as there may have been cards that fit the definition printed in previous years. It is generally agreed that to be a true rookie card, the card must be numbered as part of a product's base set. Thus, insert cards of any type are generally not considered to be rookie cards.

Minis have always been inserts as far as I'm concerned.  Does this further muddy the waters of how RC's are defined, or has Topps over stepped their bounds here by stamping GQ minis as Rookie Cards?

I am curious to hear the responses out there....

Thanks for reading, Robert