WOW Factor: A Crazy-Loaded Prize Package from Iron Lion Collectables

I mostly avoid high-end cards. I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than five or six bucks for a pack in my whole life and the idea of dropping hundred on a box of fancy-deal product with the hopes of landing something rare and cool just doesn’t do much for me. Of course, plenty of other folks do. And a brand new shop in Colorado Springs (home to more than just Brewers prospects with terribly skewed statistics) carries all kinds of this stuff. THE IRON LION is opening this Saturday, Feb 17. In the run-up to their opening, they have been doing a bunch of give-aways and breaks on their facebook page. Encouraged by the Daily Dimwit, I threw my hat into the give-away ring.

This happened right around the time I was called out of town for all that awful family stuff that has consumed most of the last three weeks. I had planned to watch a facebook break and give-away of some Bowman’s Best stuff, but got distracted and forgot about it. The next day, the Dimwit messaged me on Twitter telling me I had won, saying something like, “WOW!!!!”

Ok, I thought. I checked out the video on facebook when I had a moment, just glancing at it, and saw that I had been picked out of over 100 entrants. So maybe that was the wow? I hate to say that I didn’t care about the prize, but with everything going on, it just wasn’t a priority. It wasn’t until later, when I watched the video, that I understood the wow.

But let’s build up to that!

First off, it was two boxes.. or mini boxes or whatever the hell. A big stack of Bowman’s Best 2016 packs and a few packs of Panini Absolute football.

Some of these base card names I recognize…

And I certainly know Dan Fouts, one of the numbered cards I got. That Josh McCown is out of 25. I am unfamiliar with him, but know enough to be certain that if he is a former Browns QB… as in a QB that the Browns did not want anymore, he must be terrible.

In the Bowman product, the base is split between vets and rookies and prospects.

Here’s ol’ Mike Trout. I must admit, these cards are very sharp. The effects and photos are very well-defined and the foil shimmer adds to the almost 3-D effect.

Here is one of the prospect cards, Mr. Universeandbeyond, Aaron Judge. These use the same basic design as the vets, just with the team logo “slash” thing in the background going in the other direction.

And, of course, there were refractors. Lots of ‘em. I got some decent vets, including Trout, Rizzo, and this Kenta Maeda RC. I also the Scwarber and Aaron Nola RCs fractor-style.

And then some prospect fractos. Number 1 pick Mickey Moniak was probably the top find here.

And then some inserts.

And some more inserts, with one having that “cracked” foil effect. I think that’s what they call a “Superfractor.”

And a blue parallel of Michael Conforto, who had a pretty good season last year with the Mets.

And what I assume is the box’s promised base superfractor Atomic refractor.

And a pair of very cool 1996 Best tribute cards.

Now let’s get to the hits…

T.Y. Hilton patch card, numbered out of 25. He has made four straight Pro Bowls, so that’s not bad. UPDATE: This card has been traded.

Kenny G!!! According to Pro Football Reference, this fellow played for the Lions last year, but also signed a four-year deal with the Titans before the season? Anyway, he seems to have a sense of humor. UPDATE: This card has been traded.

G’s nickname is Babytron, a play (I assume) on Megatron. Laquon Treadwell is nicknamed Megaquon. He was a first round pick in 2016.

David Johnson ball/jersey/helmet(?) card. How do they cram a helmet sliver into a card? Anyway, he was real good in 2016, but missed most of last season.

Bowman’s Best promises four sigs per box. Here is sig one: Padres prospect Anderson Espinoza. (UPDATE: This card has been traded.) Not much I can say about him. This, honestly, is the kind of stuff I would expect from these high-end products. Cards shiny as hell, relics that look bonkers, and autographs of fringe prospects. If this prize package ended here, I’d be perfectly happy with it. But things are about to get crazy. Buckle up, kids.

Here was the big Panini Auto. I recognized the name, but didn’t realize he was the top draft pick last time around and seemed to impress people in his rookie season with the Bears. It’s numbered out of 100.

Nolan Arenado is just 26 and probably the best third baseman in the game. He’s a regular 2-3 win player on defense and has claimed two home run crowns and three Silver Sluggers over the past three years. An absolute stud.

And here is a World Champion stud! Carlos was just 22 years old last year and missed part of the season with an injury, but still hit .315 with 24 homers to lead the Astros to the world title. The sky is the limit for this kid, and I was thrilled to add his signature to my collection.

Back to football… A redemption card! I haven’t been in possession of a redemption card since I pulled a Signature Rookies voucher for a Shawn Respert autograph. This was back when I still followed the Bucks and I was thrilled to pull it. Sadly, Respert didn’t do much in the NBA and had his career cut short by stomach cancer. So will this yield me something better???

Whoa! A Dan Marino etched crystal card? Damn. And a one-per case insert at that. I’ve looked these up online and they look hella-sharp.

So what can top all of this stuff? How can this package get any better? Let’s count it down!

THREE

TWO

ONE…..

BOOM! ANOTHER Correa autograph, the Superfractor variety, numbered 25/25. This was pretty stunning. It’s probably the most valuable modern card I’ve ever owned. It’s the kind of card that makes one of these boxes actually worth the sky-high price tag. This, dear readers, was the WOW. UPDATE: This card has been traded.

And now, I don’t really know what to do. I def want to keep some of the Best cards and the Arenado auto and the first Correa auto. But I am more than willing to spread the other stuff around to those who would appreciate it more than I. I have no interest at all in football cards (save for Bo Jackson) and as long as I have one Correa auto to keep, I’m be glad to swap the fractory version.

So that’s a lot of product up for grabs! I’m not QUITE so generous as to do simple blind trades for the big stuff, but I’d be interested in creative swaps. I don’t want to sell them and I’d prefer to keep things within the blogging circle, as opposed to posting on a trading forum. I am in need of some major Topps baseball rookies for my set-building. Like the ’76 Eck, the ’79 Ozzie, the ’82 Ripken… oh, and that pesky 2011 Trout.

Any suggestions? Any offers? Anyone want to share in the WOW?

2018 Topps - The Big Breaks!

I want this to be a positive post.

You see, I kinda like 2018 Topps. I know it high-fashion to crap on the flagship (and I certainly do my share of that), but I dig this year’s design and too deep into the dorkdom of all this not to get excited about the new releases each year.

Just look at that… bright, bold, colorful, and lots of action. It’s great-looking set.

So, as I said, I want this to be positive. I’m going to ignore most of the insert sets…

… like this pair of Topps Fire knock-offs that will excite no one. Or the couple of other insert sets that I didn’t even bother to take pictures of.

And I’m certainly going to skip over this damn thing…

…which came in the blaster I bought.

Or this utter piece of stupidity…

… that was my “hit” in the hobby box I picked up. Why should I dwell on these rubberized manu-patches when I could instead showcase this awesome-ass Keon Broxton…

… now that’s what I’m talking about! That’s big fun!!!!

And under no circumstances will I breath a word about THESE…

…since it would drive me to speculate about who at Topps said, “Hey, you know those awful-looking cards were made of Derek “Since we can’t make Mickey Mantle cards anymore” Jeter this summer? The ones that look almost exactly the same? Yeah! Let’s reprint those at half-scale with some stupid sales numbers that only a bored Darren Rovell would every give two turds about and make them part of an insert set!!” I def don’t wanna think about that.

Like, I want to talk about how cool the ’83 silver pack cards are… usually I don’t go for super-shiny stuff, but these are nice.

So nice that it distracts me from the fact that EVERY CARD have the SAME write-up on the back that says nothing that any collector doesn’t already know.

Yeah. Like, who wants to think about that??

Um… where was I?

Oh, right, positivity.

Joking aside, I do think the base set here is pretty great.

And check out the color on this one. I know it’s probably filtered, but still. This one sticks with me.

And as for the inserts I didn’t hate…

I found some parallels. I guess I don’t HATE these, but I have no need for them. These, with the inserts above, are up for takes if anyone is interested. The ‘83s included.

I also found this guy, numbered out of 99. It’s a vintage stock parallel or something. Better than the rainbows and stripes varieties, but still of no use to me.

And I picked up a pretty nice SP, which is actually more S P’d this year, compared to last year’s update, when they P’d them not so S. Any Dodger fans interested?

And I found a home run challenge card of Michael Conforto. I haven’t looked too deeply into this promotion yet, but it sounds kind of fun. A bit of a throw-back to the old Upper Deck Crash the Game cards.

The one insert set that I really dig are the regular 1983s. For one, they have some damn stats on the backside, the bright, faux-vintage stock backsides…

…and a nice mix of current and retired players.

There are 100 cards in the series one set, which one can extrapolate to a 300-card year-long series (1, 2, and Update). I might challenge myself and try to put this one together. Right now, I’ve got #s 1, 5, 7, 13, 16, 34, 40, 56, 67, 83, 95, 100… so if anyone can add to that and wants anything I’ve listed above, HIT ME UP.

And I have some base set needs: 2 23 51 157 204 205 268 304 313. Willing and ready to swap for these as well.

So that’s my 2018 Topps adventure. I’m glad I got through it without saying anything negative!

Diggin' into Series Two

So, it's been a while since I've posted anything of substance and, to be honest, I've gotten kind of back up on things. I had a number of posts I meant to do, but never got around to any of them. Such as things go, I suppose.

My Big "get" over the past few weeks was some Topps Series 2. Since this is the first time I am collecting the current-year base set since 2010, I was pretty excited about getting into the second wave. Wax box prices were a bit high for my present state, but I managed to find someone on eBay selling jumbo pack lots for a price that worked out to just under $7 each. Not bad all, even assuming that the seller had searched out any packs with hits.

But wait, that turned out not to be the case, as I pulled this Gregory Palanco batting glove (I think) relic numbered out of 25. One of the better relics I've pulled, but still nothing I was interested in keeping. It's already been traded. 

Despite its flaws, I do like this set. There are some GREAT photos like this one from last year's incredible World Series.

And I got a pair of first-time Brewers cards for a couple of guys pacing this year's offense. Shame about the Thames, though. That is some next-level laziness on the part of Topps. If you are not familiar, Thames has been wearing a very large beard for a while now. I expect photoshopping, but maybe if your only option is a four-year old photo it's time to get a little creative with the whole process. A press conference photo? A photo from Korea? Hell, photoshop his damn beard! That would be fun. 

At least they included his NC Dinos stats on the back. That is very cool.

Speaking of cool, I loooove this card. It might be the best of the set. 

Topps also started doing this weird thing in series 2 where they blur out the faces of fans. You can see it above.

And above.

And above.

It gives the photos a weird kind of three-dimensional quality to them. But they're also kind of inconsistent with the practice.  

I assume this is to prevent some kind of claim from a fan about using their image without permission. I suppose anything goes in Texas. 

Speaking of odd images, I guess this is a parallel of some kind. Good lord. Who would want a binder full of these? 

Anyway, I got a pretty good chunk of the set, but found on many occasions that base cards appeared in different packs in the exact same order... runs of eight cards or more! Yikes. Anyway, with a few trades I've gotten pretty close to getting this one in the can. If anyone can help out with these cards : 283, 319, 382, 384, 420, 432, 440, 447, 449, 453, 455, 457, 469, 478, 479, 492, 503, 527, 539, 540, 542, 566, 570, 574, 586, 596, 619, 660, 682, I've got plenty of dupes to search for your needs. Hit me up! Let's swap!