Card Shop Singles

My much-delayed 2020 Topps Heritage hobby box recap will be posted sometime this weekend, but before I get into a more in-depth analysis of this year's product, I thought I'd share a select few singles that I picked up before grabbing the Heritage box on release day just over a week ago.

When your spending money on a hobby box in general, you're not usually too inclined to splurge even more and grab some individual cards, but I figured it couldn't hurt to take a look. I purchased more cards than I actually chose to show, but they only added around $5 to the total cost.

Plus, I can't remember the last time I went on a dime box search: that is, giving myself a $20 budget and scanning through the cards until I reached the limit.

The whole process is wonderful because I end up with 200 new cards for my player collections that I can sort later that day, especially during the Baseball season when the Red Sox are playing.

I might be going off on a tangent and/or getting ahead of myself, but all this talk of dime boxes is inspiring me to get back to the card show and look through the bins. As I mentioned, it's been far too long since I significantly boosted my various PCs.

Moving on, I have a few cards that I specifically chose for today's rather brief post, starting with the one from the 2017 Topps Stadium Club set at the top of this post. No, I don't collect Willson Contreras, and I didn't necessarily choose this card because he plays for the Cubs.

Instead, it was the cameo that Aroldis Chapman made that sold me; 10 cents is well worth it for a parallel of a guy who played in Chicago for just half a season.

The Contreras card with a Chapman cameo didn't spell the end of my Stadium Club pickups. Despite how much 2018 I ripped, this is definitely my first time seeing the Carl Yastrzemski card, and I don't believe I'm familiar with the Ty Cobb either.

Some products end up in the dime boxes a lot more than others, but both Topps Stadium Club and Archives are pretty dependable in that, year after year, I can pick up singles for my player collections a week or 2 after release day.

Come to think of it, I can even wait 8 months and find new cards for my PCs in late February.

The 2 cards above were located directly next to one another in the order of the dime box, so for a quick second, I thought they were from the same set. As I soon found out, one is from Fleer Maximum Impact while the other is from Upper Deck SP Signature Edition.

Overall, Derek Jeter and Harmon Killebrew could not be more different. One was a contact hitter with superb defense while the other would've been a DH had it been implemented and focused on crushing homers rather than upping his batting average.

In my opinion, one of the better parts of specializing in player collecting is that you can find cards of all different players from virtually any era in Baseball history, allowing you to expand your repertoire as a baseball fan and card collector.

Plus, thanks to both Topps and Panini, both current, retired, and future players get their own cards thanks to the extensive range of different products.

As I've said before, there are abundances of cards from various sets/brands depending on when and where you search through the dime bins. In the case of my most recent visit to the card shop, that particular set was 2003 Donruss Team Heroes.

There were a few other cards in the Team Heroes stack, but the majority of them, oddly enough, featured members of the Chicago Cubs.

Though Ron Santo was not included, Jenkins, Sandberg, Banks, and Williams all were, so I'll definitely take this as a victory and an opportunity to enhance player collections from my 2nd favorite team.

I don't really have an effective way to transfer from 2003 Donruss Team Heroes to a "power plaid" parallel from 2019 Panini Prizm, but I wanted to save this card for last because it is a nice addition to my 2019 Panini Prizm project, which I haven't had the chance to add to in a while.

Anyone who follows my blog closely knows that I don't necessarily believe that I can achieve the goal of tracking down all parallels with print runs higher than 25 in a 300-card set, but I'm going to everything in my power to at least try.

Panini is going to release Prizm once again this year on May 13th. As much as I'll be tempted to rip into some packs, I'm going to give it my best effort not to open any of this product. Instead, I plan on saving the money I would've spent on the new release and concentrating on picking up singles for my project.

Whether or not that happens is an entirely different story.

Unfamiliar Territory; Card Show Recap #25

I take pride in having a reasonable understanding of Baseball and cards, particularly the 1960s-70s and the 2010s. It helps when I want to include bits of information on my frankenset page posts or when I'm updating my online player collection inventories following a trip to the card show.

Being able to write a few sentences about Dave Parker off the top of my head or identify some crazy Panini Prizm parallel helps me out big time, but really, the more cards/information I come across, the better equipped I am for when the next stack of dime cards needs to be categorized.

That being said, there's always been one period in Baseball history that's challenged my ability to identify cards and list facts about players. I'm referring to an era chock full of various brands, products, and parallels as well as high print runs and, to make things more confusing, dates printed on the back of the cards that don't match the year the set was released (I'm looking at you, Upper Deck).

The mid-1990s through the end of the decade (~1995-1999) perplexes me to this day. There's just so much inventory that I haven't yet familiarized myself with like I have for virtually all other decades in Baseball card history.

Alas, when updating my player collection inventories, I have to search for most mid-90s cards on COMC to ensure that I'm adding the correct one to the spreadsheet.

I suppose, nonetheless, that continuously buying and adding cards from '95-'99 to my collection will only help me gain more knowledge about this period in Baseball history. This plan, unintentionally so, went into effect when I visited my local Baseball card show earlier today.

Before I get to the glorious cards from the 90s, there was a small portion of pickups from today's post of cards that didn't hail from the last century.

As is always the case when I'm at the card show, I kept my eyes peeled for Red Sox singles so that I can continue adding to and building up my coalition of Red Sox cards, meaning both my player collections and the actual PC.

The 4 cards above, come to think of it, are all from 2019, and most of them will be going to their respective player collections. The only exception is the Wade Boggs card which will go towards my 2019 Panini Prizm project.

In addition to new Red Sox cards and 2019 Panini Prizm project additions, I'm always on the lookout for new Craig Kimbrel cards to add to the closest thing I have to a "super collection."

If someone were to ask me for my top 3 focuses as a collector, I'd list the 3 things above, though I'd have to rank my individual player collections above all.

Anyways, I came across a new Kimbrel card while searching through a bin of cards priced 3/$1. One of the easiest decisions I made all day, I added the card to my stack and went on with my time at the show.

I suppose you could include the first couple years of the 2000s (2000-2002) alongside the mid-to-late 1990s in terms of periods in Baseball history that I'm not overly familiar with. Honestly. with all the different brands, sets, inserts, and parallels out there, can you really blame me?

I will, however, stand by my thoughts that the 2000s, leading up to the end of Donruss and Fleer's respective runs as Baseball card manufacturers, was one of the golden ages of card collecting. Even if Panini gets the MLB license, I doubt we'll see as wide of a selection of sets as we did in the early 2000s.

It was that period, for better or for worse, that delivered some picturesque set designs and creative inserts, just like the 2 cards above.

Moreover, stars who debuted in the early 1990s and lasted through the mid-2000s are the recipients of some of the most cards produced of any single player, primarily because they played at a time where there were numerous brands, each of which was striving to produce the best possible cards.

What I got, as a result, was an extensive range of Ivan Rodriguez cards, for example. This sheer variety is what allows for so many of my player collections to reach gold and even platinum tier status. The wide selection and availability of some players' cards are simply unparalleled.

At the end of the day, Baseball cards from this era, more so than most others except for the 2010s, will be viewed with mixed opinions depending on what each collector likes and looks for in a card.

Those who love inserts and parallels as much as I do will be fond of the mid-1990s while those who prefer traditional cards might not be so inclined to pick out either of the 2 Topps Tek cards above.

At the end of the day, these cards have their ups and downs just like all others, but something intrigues me about the unfamiliarity that makes me want to come back for more.

I know that I haven't discovered everything that this period has to offer, and that's both exciting and slightly scary at the same time.

4-Color Magic

It's become somewhat of a tradition here on Cardboard Greats. A quick trip to my LCS for supplies leads me to search through the various bins set up around the shop and before I even know it, I have new cards to go with the top-loaders that I bought. Then, the cycle repeats itself all over again a few weeks later.

If nothing else, the unplanned purchases provide content for the blog, and it's not like I'm choosing cards just for the heck of it. I think very closely about what I believe is reasonable when buying singles at my LCS, and I always try to walk away without breaking the bank.

Today, for instance, I needed some 130-pt and 180-pt top-loaders to store my abundance of new Red Sox autographs. I knew full well that this store has the best prices for supplies aside from the weekly card show, so I picked up what I needed and, while I was there, searched through the 50-cent box.

The card at the top of this post will let you know what direction I went in from there. Indeed, there was a handful of 2019 Panini Prizm parallels in that box, a no-brainer for me to scoop up to make progress with this mission of mine.

I've had much more luck with Prizm parallels over the past few weeks than I had during the 2 months prior. I wasn't able to find any while walking the floor of The National, but a casual trip to the card show as well as my LCS landed me some singles for the project.

The red and blue parallels are common to both retail and hobby boxes, so I've accumulated more of these 2 refractors than most others in the set. Still, the checklist consists of 300 cards, so completing any complete set rainbow will prove challenging, nevermind 27 of them.

Still, I envision having this project for many, many years as something that I can always add to or work on. It'll take me as far as it takes me, and I know I'm going to have fun doing it.

Plus, the missing logos and team names make the cards a bit more affordable, hence why each card in this post was found in the 50-cent bin.

Today was actually a pretty big day for the 2019 Panini Prizm project in that I picked up my very first purple parallels, cards that I believe to be blaster box exclusives.

It seems that each medium of Prizm retail has its own exclusive parallel, including different colors depending on what store you buy it from. For example, Target's mega box exclusive is pink, but I've seen other stores with cosmic haze Prizms instead.

I don't know if this will positively or negatively affect the price point of the cards, but it is going to make tracking them down a bit more challenging, hence why I hadn't come across a purple parallel until today.

The parallels themselves, nonetheless, are stunning, some of my favorites from the set thus far. Although they aren't serial numbered, you rarely see this shade of purple make it onto a sports card (Topps' shade of purple is much darker; this is more of a magenta).

The unconventional parallels, from this distinct shade of purple to the zebra stripe and snakeskin cards, are what inspired me to begin this project in the first place.

Panini makes up for not having the MLB license through their creative cards, and I hope that, even if they come to an agreement with MLB, they never lose this uniqueness.

The last of the 4 Prizm parallels that I found today is pink from the previously mentioned Target mega boxes. Unless I'm forgetting something, I only had the 8 from the box that I opened going into today, so any addition to that list would surely help.

The various tiers in this set (I-III) still feel extremely unnecessary. Though it doesn't affect the print-run of each card, it makes some base cards more expensive than others, and it could be impacting the price of parallels for all I know.

Still, I don't exactly know where this Panini Prizm project is going to take me or how close I'm going to get to complete the whole thing. It's projects like this, however, that make Baseball card collecting such an enjoyable thing for me.

I truly love finding new parallels from this set and watching them accumulate as I sort the piles by player. Granted, I may never complete all 300 of the rainbows (I'm excluding cards with print runs <25), but I'm going to do everything I can to make it happen.

Polar Opposites

A little over a week ago, I received an email from Jon of A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts, telling me that he had a card for my 2019 Panini Prizm project that he wanted to send my way.

Though I was determined to find something to give back in return, he insisted on sending me this card and didn't want anything in exchange for it. I sincerely appreciate this act, Jon, though I'll make sure to find something for you in the coming months.

Anyways, when his letter arrived in the mail today, I had some idea of what to expect. Sure enough, I opened it up and was greeted by a red mojo parallel of Gary Carter, numbered out of 299 copies.

Out of the 2-dozen plus parallels in this 300-card set, I'd have to rank the red and blue mojos near the top along with the donut circle cards and the burgundy shimmer refractors.

Aside from Bowman mega boxes and Series 1, 2, and Update silver packs, Topps doesn't do anything with mojo refractors, but I've seen my fair share of them in Panini Prizm and Chronicles Baseball along with a ton of Basketball and Football sets.

Moreover, Carter is one of a handful of retired players featured in this set, and the photo Panini chose is perfect because I never would've guessed that the card is unlicensed.

I would've been more than happy with the Carter parallel alone. After all, Jon didn't ask for anything in return, and I need all the help I can get with this project.

However, he sent one more card my way, something that couldn't be more different than the Carter parallel but a card that I was absolutely stoked to get.

A couple of weeks back, I purchased my first 1952 Topps card from my LCS, a Cubs card graded by PSA at a 3. Now, thanks to Jon's extreme generosity, I have a card from every single Topps Flagship set.

Ever since the debut of the Topps Living set, I've become fonder of 1953 Topps. I only have a card or 2 from the online exclusive, but the details are unlike any other set, licensed or unlicensed, produced nowadays.

Having my first '53 Flagship card in-hand, I see wh Topps puts so much emphasis on the details in the Living Set. After all, that's what they did 66 years ago when they didn't nearly have as much technology as they do today.

Considering how long it takes me to complete sets that I already have a reasonable number of cards from, it would be nearly impossible to complete the 1953 Topps Flagship set.

That said, I'll keep my eye out for singles in the future because now that I have one of these cards in hand, I have an even greater appreciation for these beautiful cards.

Thanks again for the cards, Jon. This was a much-appreciated surprise.

All For Half the Cost of a Blaster; Card Show Recap #24

Ever since I got back from The National, I've felt torn when it comes to where and how I'd like to buy my cards, and I've yet to find a solution to this newfound confusion.

Usually, whether I come home with a stack of dime cards or a hobby box, I'm thrilled with what I've purchased, but that hasn't always been the case as of late. I haven't had the best luck with packs, but when I switch over to individual cards, I don't find as much value as I would like.

The internet, moreover, is a double-edged sword. Sure, you can find something super specific that's been on your radar, but you can also find virtually every card out there, so the rationale of "I can only find this online" applies to such a wide range of inventory that it becomes slightly overwhelming.

Apart from whichever box I choose for myself on my birthday this upcoming week, I think I'll be taking a break from packs until Bowman's Best is released just before Christmas.

After today's spontaneous visit to the card show, I realized that, even at smaller shows, I can be more than content with purchasing individual cards, something that hasn't been the case for several weeks; I just have to look a little more closely.

I spent the majority of my time at the show today searching through bins, picking out cards for player collections. Though I was tempted by a couple of inexpensive hobby boxes, as soon as I left the show, I knew I made the right choice.

For starters, I found a ton of cards for my 2019 Panini Prizm project, something that I wasn't able to accomplish at The National believe it or not. I relied on the Google Sheets app on my phone which, with such a large inventory, was a little challenging to maneuver.

Nonetheless, I made progress with this set for the first time in months by adding 20 new cards to the collection, half of which were the hyper blue Prizm parallels showcased above.

I wouldn't be attempting this crazy project if I didn't love all the shiny parallels, but I especially like the contrast between the bright jerseys and the hyper refractor. Mancini, Heaney, and Correa's cards certainly do the trick.

The silvers a fairly hard to come by (3 per hobby box), so I enjoyed finding 2 in one of the dealer's bins this morning, especially of well-respected sluggers like Schwarber and Donaldson.

Before today, I'd never done business with this vendor before, and he didn't have prices on the majority of his stuff. Usually, these would be 2 strikes against this dealer, but he said that he'd make reasonable offers on whatever I brought over to him.

As you'll see, all the cards in this post cost me less than half the price of a blaster box.

I opened 2 hobby boxes plus a retail mega box of 2019 Prizm before I stopped buying packs as I was beginning to accumulate duplicates. Since both of my hobby boxes were hot boxes, I came across a ton of parallels which inspired me to begin this crazy project in the first place.

The 2 lowest-numbered parallels are the blue and red mojos, and I absolutely love the look of these refractors. In addition to the 2 above, I picked up a blue mojo of Joey Wendle (#/399).

While it wasn't unusual to see the blue and red mojos (since they have a higher print run), I was shocked to see 2 power plaid parallels, each of which is serial numbered out of just 75 copies.

Better known as x-fractors in Topps Chrome, these cards were fairly hard to come by when I opened my packs (I believe I pulled just 1-2), yet if I want to complete this unfathomable project, I'll need all 300 of them.

But it wasn't just 2019 Panini Prizm, the vendor had a ton of other cards (which I'll showcase over the next few days), including one of the greatest things to find at a low price; Kellogg's 3D cards.

Just like my last trip to the show, I was able to make a purchase for one of my newly-organized PCs. Though the Dwight Evans will go to his player collection, the Bill Buckner card will go to the miscellaneous 1980s section of one of the Cubs binders.

The dealer didn't have any Hall of Famers for sale, but I found a reasonable number of semi-stars from the 1982 Kellogg's design. Better yet, he had 5 cards of players that I collect, including 2 players from the Big Red Machine who, years after the dynasty ended, were still playing in Cincinnati.

I commented last week about how thrilled I was to add a '74 Topps George Foster card to my collection, for I don't see his cards all too often. Well, I guess I'm lucking out because I picked up my 2nd in 8 days. 

Finally, a Bill Madlock card in an awesome Pittsburgh Pirates jersey caps off a selection of cards that ended up costing me half the price of a blaster box that I could've picked up at Target instead.

Combined with the fact that I haven't had great luck with hits this year, you can see why I'll be leaning more towards singles for the next few months.

A Nice Welcome Home Gift

What a week.

I'm not going to get into my recap posts for the 40th National Sports Collectors Convention until tomorrow, but I wanted, if nothing else, to share how unforgettable this experience was.

This was my 2nd straight year attending the show, so I had a better idea of what to expect. The sheer size of the venue is overwhelming for anyone, but after a while, I was able to find my way around and do business with some phenomenal vendors.

In many ways, the Chicago show was extremely similar to and different from the Cleveland convention. This year's show seemed to be slightly larger, but at the moment, I can't necessarily rank one above the other.

My flight from Chicago to Boston got in around 11:30 this morning, allotting me some time to get situated and begin the process of organizing all of the new cards that my Dad and I brought back.

Before I get overly invested in sorting and sharing the cards from The National, I wanted to take today to share the cards that I received from a trade package, sent to me by Marc of Remember the Astrodome.

We worked this trade out before I departed for Chicago last Tuesday, and it was nice to return home and see that the package had arrived in the mail. He reached out and mentioned that he could help with my 2019 Panini Prizm Project.

Though the package he sent me was centered around 2019 Panini Prizm, Marc also threw in a few cards that I didn't already have in The Kimbrel Collection. In addition to a Panini Prizm card from a few years back, I received a Pinnacle insert and a 2014 Topps retail green parallel.

With the addition of these 3 cards, The Kimbrel Collection is up to 131 different cards. That puts Kimbrel at the #27 spot on the list of my largest player collections, trailing guys like Carl Yastrzemski and Brooks Robinson by only a few cards.

Because he didn't sign a contract until June, Kimbrel hasn't been featured in many 2019 Baseball card sets. Hopefully, 2020 will be a better year to grow The Kimbrel Collection as a whole and that PC will reach 150 cards before then.

As I mentioned earlier, I don't want to reveal too much about what happened at The National throughout the week, but I will say that I couldn't track down any 2019 Panini Prizm cards for my project. 

No matter how much I looked or how many bins I searched through, I came up short when it came to 2019 Panini Prizm base cards and parallels. There was one vendor at the show selling a few Prizm cards, but there were no price tags on the top loaders, and the lot was gone by the time I went back to the booth.

Thus, I was ecstatic, even after a week of buying Baseball cards, when I returned home to around 20 new cards for my Prizm set. The project as a whole is quite daunting, but this trade certainly helped, particularly with the base cards.

The wide range of parallels is what attracted me to 2019 Panini Prizm in the first place, but I can't say the same about the structure of the base set. The 3 tiers (#1-100 are common, #101-200 are uncommon, #201-300 are rare) make the set unnecessarily challenging to collect.

When you've got over 25 parallels in a product, there's no need to separate the base set into tiers, especially since there are no big-name rookies in the base set checklist.

Nonetheless, Marc was kind enough to send me some of the higher number cards, including quite a few rare (#201-300) ones like the Eric Hosmer card above.

I absolutely envision myself spending years on this insane project, but I'm fortunate to have resources, especially trading partners, to help me inch closer to my goal. 

No matter how many parallels, both numbered and non-numbered, there are in this set, acquiring just 1 helps me make progress with my mission. I'm not looking for Prizms numbered to fewer copies than 25, so that should make this a little easier.

Thanks again for the Prizm cards, Marc. Now, get ready for a week full of recap posts from The National.

Top 5 Cards; Ryan Howard

Approximately a week and a half ago, former Philadelphia Phillies slugger Ryan Howard was honored with a retirement ceremony at Citizens Bank Park, in front of the fans that cheered him on for over a decade. 

From 2006-2011, there were few hitters more feared in all of Major League Baseball than Howard. A 3-time All-Star, he was a vital part of the perennial championship contending Phillies team, especially the club that won it all back in 2008.

Unfortunately, the 2006 NL MVP began to falter after a successful 2011 season. He began to suffer injuries, causing his performance to fall drastically even when he was healthy. 

Even when the 2005 NL ROY award winner was healthy, like in 2014, his .223 average with 190 strikeouts proved that he was a shadow of his former self which is quite unfortunate given that he was on track for a Hall of Fame career.

After the Phillies declined his player option for the 2017 season, he had 2 unsuccessful minor league stints with the Braves and Rockies, though he'd never see major league action ever again. He ended his career a .258 hitter with 382 home runs.

A lot of the late-2000s and early-2010s superstars suffered the same fate as Howard. Guys like Brandon Phillips, C.J. Wilson, and Josh Hamilton simply couldn't keep up the momentum, and they ended up faltering. 

As someone who still collects and has respect for Ryan Howard, I pray that his final few seasons in the major's don't end up defining him as a person. Before the injuries became overly intense, Howard was one of the best players in the game, and the Phillies would not have won the 2008 World Series without their renowned slugger.

I don't find his cards in the dime bins all that often, but I have amassed a Ryan Howard PC of 61 total cards. Without further adieu, here are my 5 favorites.

#5 2015 Panini Prizm Red, White, & Blue Mojo Parallel

Just seeing this card gets me excited for the progress that I'm bound to make with the 2019 Panini Prizm project when I attend The National next week. With well over 20 parallels included in the set, the mission is definitely ambitious and, frankly, crazy.

However, I'm in love with the funky Prizm parallels, and I expect them to be available and relatively cheap at the show.

Though Howard was well past his prime in 2015, Panini still included him in the Prizm set. I'm not very familiar with the past Prizm Baseball products, but it appears that the parallels are fairly similar.

In the 2019 release, there are red, white, and blue as well as mojo refractors. However, the combination of the 2 makes this card worthy of the top 5.

#4 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter

Furthermore, seeing this simple yet stunning base card of Ryan Howard from 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter gets me excited about this year's A&G product, another set that I'm looking to track down at The National. This year, the non-sports cards include dogs, horses, and plants. Sign me up!

This card also demonstrates how much Allen & Ginter has changed since the inaugural set in 2006. Although the premise is virtually the same each year, the difference between the first set design and the 2018/2019 base cards is like night and day.

In some ways, I long for the older Topps Allen & Ginter sets, for the simple set designs were absolutely incredible. However, I love the direction that Topps is taking the set. Nonetheless, cards like the one above will forever be timeless.

#3 2010 Topps 2020

Unless I'm missing something, Topps hasn't produced a 3D insert set since the beginning of the 2010s with the 3D cards in Lineage as well as the 2020 insert. Though there aren't any Red Sox included in the 20-card set, there are a reasonable number of players that I collect, including Howard.

The insert set design, especially the stars in the background, fits perfectly with the 3D theme. On its own, the card is on the simple side, but the 3D cardstock allows the colors to pop and creates something incredibly unique, especially since we rarely see 3D cards anymore from any Baseball card company

#2 2011 Topps Lineage Stand-Ups

While I expect the original versions of these cards to be quite expensive, it would be awesome to find a vintage Stand-Ups insert for a reasonable price at The National this year. I don't want to get my hopes up, so I'll instead focus on the replicated insert from 2011 Topps Lineage, a set that recreated a ton of past Topps oddballs.

The yellow and green background holds true to the original cards, and the photo of Howard is expertly chosen. Apart from the batting helmet, the picture looks like something from the original 1964 set.

I'm rarely a fan of facsimile signatures, but they appeared on the original cards as well, so I suppose it's not too major of a deal.

#1 2016 Topps Archives Red Parallel

2016 marked the end of Howard's 13-year MLB career, all of which was spent with the Philadelphia Phillies. By that point, he was barely hanging around, for he hit .196 in his final MLB season. 

Don't get it twisted, Howard was a far better player throughout his career than he was in 2016. As far as I know, this is the last card of his that I ever pulled. I always enjoy when the color of a parallel or refractor matches the team's uniform, and this red parallel numbered 1/50 from 2016 Topps Archives, does exactly that.

I recall pulling this card during the summer of 2016 when Archives was first released. Now, roughly 3 years later, Howard was honored, deservingly so, with a retirement ceremony in front of the fans in Philadelphia.

He may not have ended his career on a high note, but I'll always collect cards of Ryan Howard.

Goals For The 2019 National

Although I'm back to my normal routine for the next week and a half, it's time to get serious about the 2019 National Sports Collectors Convention which is just 10 days away.

Admittedly, The 2019 National definitely snuck up on me. It seems that all of a sudden, the show is right around the corner when I've been anticipating this event for months, ever since the end of last year's show in Cleveland.

As you can tell from my recap posts, I had the time of my life at the 2018 National. I got some in-person autographs, pulled incredible cards from packs, finished the 1975 Topps set short of 1 card, and experienced an event that was unlike anything that I'd seen before in my life.

This year, the show is in Chicago, and I'll have one less day at The National this time around since I'm seeing the Cubs battle the Brewers on Friday, August 2nd. 

At most, I'll have an hour and a half at the show before I head to Wrigley Field, so my Dad and I are going to have to make the most of our 2 full days (Thursday and Saturday) at the show.

Last year, I set 7 goals to accomplish at The National, and I ended up achieving all but one of them (I didn't purchase any 1959 Fleer Ted Williams cards). 

Although I'm not typically a fan of creating goals for Baseball card shows given how unpredictable they can be, I feel that it's necessary for an event at the caliber of The National.

Since I'm going to have 1 less day at the show this time around, I decided to list 6 goals that I'll try to achieve throughout my time at the 2019 National and share them on the blog today.

#1 Focus on player collections but not too extensively

This goal, give or take, was one of the 7 that I sought to accomplish at last year's NSCC show, and that's exactly what I did. Throughout my 3 days at the show in Cleveland, I made a few purchases for my player collections, but I made sure to leave room for want list cards and packs as well.

I specifically remember 1 trip to the dime bins as well as the time when I filled an entire 800-count box, primarily with cards for my various PCs. Other times, I'd buy bargain vintage cards of players that I collect, something that's widely unavailable at the shows I typically attend.

Overall, I'm looking for cards and memorabilia at The National that I can't find easily at home. I'd love to fill another 800-count box of cards featuring players that I collect, but that'll likely be one of my only PC-oriented purchases.

#2 Work on my 2019 Panini Prizm project

After purchasing 2 hobby boxes plus a few retail packs of 2019 Panini Prizm, I concluded that the only way I could continue with this project was to stick to individual purchases of these cards. Thus, one of my missions for The National is to make progress with this slightly crazy project.

The only issue is that I have a spreadsheet that lists what cards I have and don't have, but I can't print out the entire sheet and bring it with me. Therefore, I'm going to have to figure something out when it comes to an inventory of what I have from the set because the last thing I want to do is return home with a bunch of Prizms that I already have.

#3 Buy some 2019 Topps Allen & Ginter and 2019 Topps Chrome

A&G and Chrome, 2 of my top 5 favorite sets (along with Bowman's Best, Panini Chronicles, and Topps Heritage) are both released towards the end of July this year. While Allen & Ginter came out earlier in the week, Topps Chrome will be released on the first day of the NSCC show.

Last year, my Dad and I bought A&G and Chrome at The National, and we had a blast opening the packs both at the show as well as at our hotel. We landed some monster hits out of Chrome, including retail, while Ginter delivered its usual oddities which we cherish. 

Whether it's a blaster box or a hobby purchase, I thoroughly expect to get my hands on packs and individual cards from both of these sets when I get to The National, especially because of Topps' wrapper redemption.

If you purchase a hobby box of any Topps product, you can go to their booth at The National and redeem it for a bonus pack of NSCC-exclusive Bowman Chrome cards. Last year, we pulled gold refractors (numbered /50) of guys like Cody Bellinger, Ken Griffey Jr, and even Ronald Acuna Jr. 

If I get my hands on a hobby box at the show later this month, there's no doubt in my mind that I'll immediately go over to Topps' booth and get my hands on one of these bonus packs once again.

#4 Complete the 1979 Topps set

Currently, I'm missing just 48 cards from the 726-card 1979 Topps set, meaning I'm roughly 93% done with this product. Even though it's challenging to find vendors who sell individual cards from the '79 set, there has to be at least one of them at The National.

This goal could prove to be a challenge, but I'd love to complete the 1979 Topps set while I'm in Chicago. That way, I can begin collecting the '73 set as soon as I get back. I usually have 3 vintage Topps sets that I'm collecting at any given time. 

Completing '79 would not only be a great accomplishment, but it would allow me to continue piecing together various vintage Topps sets, specifically from the 1970s.

#5 Focus on finding cards from the want list

Adding onto the goal of completing 1979 Topps, I'd like to take a ton of cards off my want list throughout my ~2 days at the 2019 NSCC show. I'm always working on multiple vintage sets, insert sets, and modern products, so I'm willing to work on anything as long as it's available and fairly priced.

Last year, I found a ton of bargain cards from 1961 Topps just as I was beginning to lose hope of piecing together that set. Similarly, I picked up a ton of base cards and inserts from 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter. 

Because of the sheer variety of available cards at The National, I don't believe this goal will give me much trouble.

#6 Make a splurge purchase

Back in May when I attended the Memorial Day Mansfield show, I splurged on 2 Red Sox rookie autographs, including the card above of Rafael Devers, numbered 5/25. Recently, he's been swinging one of the hottest bats in baseball, so it appears (knock on wood) that this purchase paid off.

As a result, my 6th and final goal for the 2019 National is to splurge on 1 or 2 cards. Typically, I value quantity over quality, but I know there are going to be some incredible cards at the show later this month.

Maybe this will be my first ever card from 1952 or 1953 Topps. Maybe it'll be a key need from the 1961 Topps set, like Mickey Mantle or Roger Maris. It could even be a big-name autograph that I've been chasing for years.

One of the main purposes of going to The National is to acquire stuff that I can't typically find at the shows and shops where I live. Thus, if there's 1 particular card that impresses me and I think would be perfect for my collection, I may just splurge on it.

Last year, this show totally exceeded my expectations and thoroughly impressed me. All I hope is that the same will be said for The 2019 National because I truly cannot wait to go.

Even More 2019 Panini Prizm; Hobby Box Round 2

A busy blog post schedule has kept me from writing this recap post until today, but I actually purchased a 2nd hobby box of 2019 Panini Prizm last Saturday at my LCS. 

After purchasing both a hobby box at the Mansfield show and a mega box at Target over the last few weeks, I set out on an insane and (slightly) unrealistic project regarding the 2019 Panini Prizm set. 

The project is something I foresee myself gradually building over the course of many years as well as something that I can take a quick break from collecting from time to time. 

Granted, it's almost impossible to acquire over 20 different parallels from each of the 300 cards in the 2019 Panini Prizm base set, but I thoroughly enjoy opening Prizm packs in addition to all the unusual parallel cards.

To me, if Panini Prizm had the MLB license, it would be head and shoulders above sets like Topps Chrome. I've grown used to the logoless caps and jerseys so long as Panini makes up for it with a colorful and/or interesting card.

Clearly, Panini accomplishes this with the 2019 Panini Prizm product, and that's why I've been raving so much about these cards. Ultimately, this drove my decision to pick up 1 more Prizm hobby box. 

After which, I'll turn to COMC, Sportlots, and card shows for the thousands of cards remaining in this crazy project of mine.

Even though the hobby box break delivered far more doubles than I would've liked, I still pulled cards that I needed for all different aspects of this project, including the standard base cards. 

Given all the fabulous parallels and colorful cards within this product, I believe that the regular base cards are underappreciated. This year, Panini did an excellent job with the silver chrome stock cards, especially considering that they cannot use the MLB logos.

With a product like Panin Prizm, it is imperative that the base set is a perfect blank canvas for the surplus of bold and colorful parallels. The Prizm base cards accomplish that, and they allow the 25+ refractors to stand out the way they do.

As much as I appreciate the base cards, the main reason why I purchased another hobby box of 2019 Panini Prizm was the parallels. If I'm going to undertake this insane project, I need to acquire as many refractors as possible, so I was absolutely thrilled when I discovered that my 2nd hobby box was also a hyper blue Prizm hot box. 

While the plethora of hyper blue Prizms led to me pulling a reasonable number of parallel doubles, the hot box format also guaranteed 5 parallels per pack, including the 2 hyper blues. 

With 60 refractors across the entire 12-pack box, the 2nd Panini Prizm hobby box did not disappoint as far as Prizm parallels are concerned.

One of the main draws to the Prizm hobby boxes, whether it's a hot box or not, is the 3 silver parallels that you pull on average. It's challenging to differentiate the silvers from the base cards when scanned, but one of the 3 that I pulled was of Jackie Bradley Jr.

Throughout my Panini Prizm breaks thus far, I've struggled to pull virtually any Red Sox cards with the exception of Rafael Devers. I know for a fact that Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts, and J.D. Martinez are all in this product, so I'm surprised that I haven't landed any of their cards yet, not even base.

Hopefully, this Bradley Jr silver will jumpstart my luck and allow me to find many more Boston Red Sox Prizm parallels, even if I don't purchase any more packs of Prizm. 

At this point in the hobby box recap post, it's time to introduce the abundance of serial numbered Prizm parallels that I pulled. You may recognize many of the refractors from my initial box break, but all of the players are different 2nd time around. 

Starting with the most common of all the serial numbered Prizms, the beautiful blue mojos, serial numbered out of 399. Neither one of my hobby boxes hesitated to deliver quite a few of these refractors, but the players who I pulled were truly sensational in the 2nd box.

Rafael Devers is an excellent pull given how he's been playing so far in 2019, and Nolan Arenado is always a guy who you want to get. However, Mariano Rivera is definitely the greatest in this group. Cards like that make me appreciate the fact that a reasonable portion of the 2019 Panini Prizm checklist is dedicated to retired players.

The red mojo refractors, serial numbered out of 299, are the 2nd most common Prizm parallels within this product, and my box was generous, once again, when it came to these beautiful cards. Although the print run of these mojo cards may be high, the concept is so unique and unusual that I couldn't care less about how many are out there.

Like the blue mojos, the lineup of red mojo parallels that I pulled is very respectable. We have a player who's been swinging a hot bat in 2019 (Meadows), a reliable veteran (Freeman), and a Hall of Famer as well (Gwynn).

Plus, the combination of Corey Dickerson's gold and black uniform with the red mojo parallel is a daring yet sensational combination.

Out of all the different parallels that I landed in my original hobby box break, I most looked forward to seeing the lime green and neon orange donut circles cards in the 2nd box. Numbered out of 199 and 150 respectively, everything about these cards, from the design to the actual name, is incredibly special.

I didn't wind up with All-Stars and Hall of Famers like I did with the red and blue mojo cards, but I still ended up with 3 of each parallel. Plus, I need to acquire cards of superstars just as much as rookies in order to complete this project, so I have no problem pulling cards of players like Michael Perez or DJ Stewart. 

The donut circles parallels, regardless of the player, are exceptional. I can easily envision that one of my favorite parts of this project will be tracking down as many of these refractors as I can.

While the donut circles parallels are my favorites from the entire product, the zebra stripes Prizms will certainly go down as the most unique refractors in this entire product. I've seen these parallels in a couple of different Basketball products, and I was pleased to discover them in Panini Prizm Baseball as well.

My initial box break yielded 3 of the zebra stripes Prizms, but none of the players were of the caliber of Robinson Cano and Kirby Puckett. When you take into account how low of a print run these cards have (#/99), it's pretty incredible that I landed 5 in just 2 hobby boxes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased that I landed this card of Cano, for he's one of the greatest active hitters in Baseball in terms of career stats. However, it's almost impossible to beat the combination of Kirby Puckett, the powder blue Minnesota Twins uniform, and the zebra stripes along the sides of the card.

Not only are these parallels incredibly interesting overall, but I'm also intrigued by the number of each Prizm refractor that I pull in each box. For example, the first hobby box delivered 2 of the blue wave parallels (Matt Chapman and Framber Valdez). 2nd time around, however, I pulled 1, but it was also an MVP caliber player (Jose Altuve).

Although the blue wave Prizms don't appear very blue neither in person nor when scanned, I appreciate the fact that Panini included them in the product. As crazy as all the different parallels are, it's nice to have something a little simpler than bright donut circles or zebra stripes.

They may not be very blue, but Panini, nonetheless, did an excellent job with the wave parallels.

In the first hobby box break, the lowest numbered cards that I pulled were the "blue" wave parallels (2 base cards plus 1 autograph, numbered out of 60 copies). However, I lucked out a lot more with my 2nd hobby box break with not 1, but 2 navy blue kaleidoscope parallels, serial numbered out of only 35 copies.

Honestly, the scan doesn't do these cards enough justice. They look far more beautiful in person, and they're definitely some of the most gorgeous cards in the entire set. Plus, it doesn't hurt that I landed 2 perennial All-Star players.

Manny Machado being on the Orioles isn't a result of Panini not having enough time to show him on the Padres. Instead, Machado, like Albert Pujols, has 2 different base cards in the set; he has 1 with the San Diego Padres and another with the Baltimore Orioles.

However, the combination of the navy blue parallel with Charlie Blackmon's Colorado Rockies uniform gives his card the slight edge, though both of the Prizms are absolutely stunning.

Even taking the navy blue kaleidoscope Prizm pulls (#/35) into account, I still pulled 1 last parallel with a lower print run; a burgundy shimmer refractor of Kevin Pillar, serial numbered out of 25 copies.

It's just a personal preference, but I actually prefer the kaleidoscope Prizms to the burgundy shimmer. Nonetheless, this low-numbered parallel is undeniably a beautiful card, and one of my favorites from the entire box. 

Like the Machado and Blackmon, this is my first look at the burgundy shimmer parallels, and I must say that I'm a fan. Kevin Pillar is a respectable veteran and one of the greatest defensive players in the league. 

He wouldn't have been my first choice for such a low-numbered Prizm, but he's also far from my last choice as well.

Truth be told, I don't even feel the need to showcase the autographs; I didn't pull anything spectacular and they're not that important to me. My love for 2019 Panini Prizm is primarily due to the extensive variety of parallels, and that's what I feel obligated to showcase in this post.