Box Break: 2012 Panini Prizm

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 16, 2013

Prizm has had a huge impact on the hobby this year starting with the basketball version, to football and now to baseball. I picked up the football box a while ago and am just now getting around to reviewing it. Spoiler alert, i really liked what i saw.

My favorite part of the box is that the cover image of RG3 was removable and created a nice box topper, top box-er of sorts.

Card Design – 5 of 5

The cards for this set are awesome. Panini did a great job of bringing in the shininess that we like and adding in some texture as well. The cards have a feel of something from the future and the future is really cool…and shiny. Everything pops in the card and has a great thickness with the card stock used.

Photography – 5 of 5

Each image appears to jump out of the card. The players blend in and out of the border of the card and each picture has a bit of a 3D affect to them. Again, there is minimal processing and a very high image quality. The best part for me is the slight recess that traces the border of the player putting the focus on their intensity and emotion.

Hits – 3 of 5

The hits for me were terrible, but hey, the base cards are great and I don’t think you buy this brand for the hits. You buy them for the quality of card along with the strong visual and textural quality of each card. There were a couple of nice inserts in the box that offered a wide variety of players from Page to Peyton.

The Luke Kuechly auto is really cool and he seems to be one of the next great linebackers in the NFL.

There was a redemption

and there was a parallel die cut

Review

This is a great product and something i will be picking up next year. I’m not a fan of the baseball version since i can’t get over the lack of logos or photoshopped hats and jerseys. The quantity and quality of cards was great and i was able to get some of the base Redskins cards in my box.

Ryan Kerrigan, a Buccaneer??!!?

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 15, 2013

I realize that i’m crazy late here, but why did Topps do this?

I know it’s always nice to be first, but why did they feel the need to jump out ahead of everyone on the 2011 NFL Draft and basically do a Mock Draft of manufactured patches…and be wrong? I’ve seen the Cam Newton version of this card with the Redskins patch…in hindsight, i’m glad that was not the case. Kerrigan has proven himself to be a pretty good Defensive End and of course…RG3 is in DC.

Box Break: 2012 Panini Playbook

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 14, 2013

Panini Playbook

This is something i have never thought of buying in the past and will not buy in the future. For me, this was a high risk, low reward box and something that i bought because i got whipped up in the Panini hype machine and my pursuit of pulling an RG3 auto from a box. As you will see, that did not happen. With all that negative energy out, these cards are pretty cool and it’s difficult to have any kind of criticism of the cards themselves. They are quite beautiful and definitely pieces of art…for the cardboard connoisseur.

As you may know, Playoff gives you 4 cards in a box with some autos and some jersey cards. You always see the great 1/1’s on the websites out there, but I never actually pull them myself. I do love the booklet card idea and had hoped to pull any kind of Redskin card… instead i got a freakin’ Cowboy. A very young and talented cowboy no less…but a Dallas Cowboy.

The other booklet card i pulled was a guy that i strongly remember from Hard Knocks that barely made the team and seemed lost quite a bit. Michael Egnew. He played in two games last year and put up some goose eggs. I wonder if he even ran the right routes? It’s kind of crappy that this is the box ‘hit’. A guy that will probably be out of the NFL in a year or two. No disrespect to Mr. Egnew, but Panini should do a better job of making these box hit booklet cards of guys that will have some type of impact in the NFL. I realize they don’t have crystal balls, but if they did, it would be awesome…crystal balls. If i pulled a single card of Egnew, I would have been cool with that, but not the booklet.

The next two autos were of the Bears Rookie Brandon Hardin…

…and Casey Hayward from the Green Bay Packers. Casey had a pretty good rookie season with the Packers, picking of 6 passes. Seems like the kind of guy you want to keep an eye out for in the future…would love to have received a booklet auto of THIS GUY!

After re-reading this post, it sounds really negative an filled with varying levels of disappointment. That’s not totally the case. I knew what i was getting in to. It was a gamble and in all honesty it was a fun gamble that i enjoyed taking part in. I probably won’t buy another box of these in the future, but I really do like the look and feel of them.

One Dollar and Five Cents Pt. IV: Non-Redskin Redskins

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 13, 2013

Getting back to the copious amount of cards in Marv’s boxes…I found a lot of good pieces to plug in to my PC for Santana Moss. He’s been with the Washington Redskins for so long, I forget he put up some really nice numbers with the New York Jets in the first four years of his career, most noteworthy was 2003 when he had over 1500 all purpose yards. Not bad for an undersized receiver.

Box Break: 2012 Panini Absolute Football

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 12, 2013

I am way behind on reviewing some of the boxes I have opened in the past few months, mostly focusing on cards that i’ve picked up at card shows. I have a few lined up, so here is the first one. Panini Absolute Football.

Like most of Panini’s cards now, you can buy a retail version and a hobby version but the quality is quite different. As a set collector this would drive me insane, but since i don’t plan on putting this set together, it’s no worries to me. I do think this is a great way to differentiate between a hobby card and something you can pick up at Target, good for the hobby and collectors in my opinion, but allows the fringe collectors to afford different brands of cards.

Card Design – 4 of 5

The base card for Absolute is pretty clean. Photo of the player on the front along with his name and position as well as the team name along the bottom. The greatness of these cards for me is the vertical gradation in the colors from left to right, or right to left depending on your culture. The gradation gives them a nice light show or a cardboard Pink Floyd laser show look to the card. Groovy.

The one thing i’m not liking about these cards is the card stock. Seems really thin for the amount of money these guys cost. I also wasn’t crazy about the overall packaging by Panini. You get the display box, and a pack box…with a cello wrapped cards inside. That’s quite a bit of packaging for a box of cards, wouldn’t you agree?

Living in the Pacific NW, all the extra wrapping is heavily frowned upon. Yes, we are those people that bring their bags to the grocery store and ride our bikes to work in the rain. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Photography – 4 of 5

Panini has the waist up photos locked down. They do a great job of focusing on the player, allowing them to take up most of the photo space available on the card. All the cards i’ve seen appear to be game action photos and give you a good view of their eyes. No over processing or out of control editing for these cards either. Another good job by Panini.

Hits – 4 of 5

No Redskin hits here, but when you get any card autographed and numbered to 10 it’s a good thing, and it’s an even greater thing when that player is AJ Green. This may be one of the best hits i’ve had in a long while. It is a sticker auto, but i will let that slide for a perennial pro bowler card numbered to 10! Not really a Bengals fan or an AJ collector, but the guy has proven to be a beast in his first couple of seasons.

The other hits were fairly nice as well. Brandon Weeden came through with a nice looking jersey card but he looks completely unimpressed in this photo…or thoroughly confused, you be the judge?

I Like the Terrance Ganaway autograph, it has a nice flair to it. The card itself has a ton of great color in person and is very attractive (much better than the scan!)

Review

I was pretty happy with the box i received. Nice hits and i really love the design of these cards. If i have a few extra bucks to spend on cards laying around next year, i can see myself picking up a box for 2013. Although, with my desire to spend less on boxes and packs I doubt i can justify the cost for the value.

Opening each pack was cool, although i think it was a bit excessive packaging. It was nice that i could open one or two as i wanted, can’t have everything i guess. I think Panini can do a better job of their future packaging. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

A Rookie Redemption Auto comes home

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 11, 2013

I finally got one of my redemptions from Panini.

It only took 167 days and it was this beauty, Dontari Poe. I know, I know…you all want a piece of this cardboard. Well he is definitely available for trade and at the very least he will find himself on ebay in the next few months. I was getting a little inpatient with the redemption and just like Cardboard Conundrum was hoping i could swing another auto, so i emailed Panini about getting a Redskins auto or…really…anything. I just wanted my redemption redeemed. Within a week, this guy showed up in my mailbox.

This card brings a lot in to focus for me. It exemplifies the problem with higher end packs and boxes. This was my big hit last November in a box of Prime Signatures that i purchased from The Sports Room. I opened the pack in front of Rick and he could see the disappointment on my face when i not only pulled a redemption auto, but i pulled Dontari Poe. A Defensive Tackle with the Kansas City Chiefs, who at the moment is most known for practically kissing Roger Goodell on draft day.

Rick looked at me and said “wasn’t really worth it, now was it…” Disappointment happens when you purchase these kinds of products more than excitement, at least in my experience. It was still fun to open though.

Getting back to Poe, he has the potential to become the next great DT in the NFL. As far as collecting goes though, DT’s don’t typically get you excited or draw major demand.

PLUS, he wears #92, the same number Big Fat Albert Haynesworth wore…and all Redsksins fans can feel my pain when they see the gif below from the Monday night massacre against Philly and Vick. Jackass.

Oh yeah, this guy…Han Ram

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 8, 2013

Looking at my recent purchases from the card show and my tagged items, i just realized i’ve never done a post about one of my favorite non Yankee baseball players, Hanley Ramirez!

$08 TC Hanley Ramirez Refractor$

I’m not really sure why i’m so drawn to him as a ballplayer as he hasn’t been that special the last couple of seasons mostly due to poor health. He is without a doubt a phenomenal talent though. A very good hitter (average wise), but he does tend to strike out a lot. Good power and speed, stealing 102 bases in his first two full seasons. To this point, his peak year was 2009 which was also the same season he got his huge contract…not saying the two had something to do with each other, but it’s not like it’s never happened before. Young player works hard to get to a point in his career where he can get a big contract to take care of himself, his family and friends. Then, the level of production tends to drop off…it’s not uncommon and sometimes it gets rectified.

$07 TC Hanley Ramirez Refractor$

I think the real reason i was drawn to him was through fantasy baseball, which i played religiously for quite a few years. I was targeting him in the late rounds of one of our drafts in a keeper league as i had done my research on the one time Red Sox phenom (always know your enemy!) Two picks before i was going to take him, he was snatched up by the guy sitting next to me. His words as i recall went something like this “I have no idea who this Henley guy is, but he’s at the top of my guys left in the queue…” so there you go. My guy was snatched away from me. No worries though. I traded for him, giving up a very talented and coveted at the time, Bobby Abreu. Needless to say i won the player for player trade in the long term. BUT the guy that got Abreu ended up winning the league that year…and i came in 9th of 16 teams. I was blasted for a few months in the league for making the trade, but i knew what i was doing as it paid out a few years later when i flipped him for some good talent and came in second place, just a 1/2 point from the title.

Hanley is young enough that he has plenty of time to get his career back on track and be a perennial MVP candidate and put up big numbers…especially if he can get healthy and stay healthy. I also love that he’s with the Dodgers, i can listen to his games on the At Bat app at night while i write up these wonderful posts.

Any Hanley fans out there? Marlin Hanley fans, Dodger Hanley fans, or just Hanley fans like me?

One Dollar and Five Cents Pt. III: QB Carousel

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 7, 2013

I stopped by Marv’s table over the weekend to go through his nickel box of football cards and ended up buying 100 cards for a whopping $4. Thanks for the deal Marv!

As I was going through the cards, i kept pulling QB’s and thinking to myself…’what in the hell is going on here!’ I’ve seen the charts and understand the numbers of QB’s that the Redskins have had since their last Super Bowl winning QB, Mark Rypien…but DAMN! To see it through a card collector’s eyes was a little overwhelming and as a fan, quite disappointing. It’s no wonder why the Redskins have had so little success in the past 20+ seasons. I realize it doesn’t begin and end with the QB, but that’s one major part of the ‘Why’.

Here’s one group starting with Rypien. Shuler…ugghhh…and Frerotte. Gus actually had a pretty good NFL career and saw some success with the Minnesota Vikings as well as the Redskins. Just not enough to be a franchise QB

The next group included Brad Johnson. He had varying degrees of success before and after his Redskins career and nearly got the Redskins to the NFC Championship game in 1999…but not close enough. Jeff George was a freaking disaster and appeared visibly unaffected by his inability to complete a pass to one of his teammates. Todd Husak…i don’t even remember him…

Now for the really dark days. Sage Rosenfels never got a start for the Redskins and i’m not sure if he had any games played in the NFL and I don’t really care to look it up. Patrick Ramsey. The poor kid. I was really excited when the Redskins drafted him and thought he could be a franchise QB…unfortunately, the team around him, especially the O Line was terrible and he got knocked around like a punching bag which hindered his career as it would anyone. Tim Hasselbeck. The thing i know about him is that he’s one of the generalist talking heads at ESPN and his wife is quite obnoxious, although cute, but still obnoxious.

Brighter days are ahead with this next group. Brunell led the Redskins to the playoffs in 2005, well not really because he was terrible and could barely complete a pass. That team made the playoff because of the defense and the running of Clinton Portis. Insert Jason Campbell. I really, really thought he would be the guy and was extremely excited about him starting at QB. But, similar to Ramsey, he was in a very unstable environment which ended up stunting his growth. You can’t expect a guy to learn a new offense every season of his career and have any ounce of success. He has bounced around the past few years and never really gotten a fair shot a starting job. I’m hoping he can be the guy in Cleveland this year. The Browns have done a great job of rebuilding their franchise and I think he can perform better than Weeden at this point. Palmer…that’s it.

Here is a list of the men that have taken a snap from center since Mark Rypien was injured and eventually released from the Redskins in 1994.

Rich Gannon – 4 games

Cary Conklin – 2 games

Heath Shuler – 13 games

John Friesz – 4 games

Gus Frerotte – 49 games

Jeff Hostetler – 3 games

Trent Green – 14 games

Brad Johnson – 27 games

Jeff George – 7 games

Tony Banks – 14 games

Shane Matthews – 7 games

Patrick Ramsey – 24 games

Danny Wuerffel – 4 games

Tim Hasselbeck – 5 games

Mark Brunell – 33 games

Jason Campbell – 52 games

Todd Collins – 3 games

Donovan McNabb – 13 games

Rex Grossman – 16 games

John Beck – 3 games

RG3 – 15 games

Kirk Cousins – 1 game

That’s 20 QB’s that have bridged the gap between Rypien and Griffin. This hopefully makes it clear why us Redskins fans are so overly infatuated with Robert Griffin III. He’s brought some stability to a very unstable position…now, if he can stay healthy…but, if he can’t? I will take my chances with Kirk Cousins…or at least welcome a first rounder or two for Captain Kirk next season.

Vintage Redskins and funny helmets

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 4, 2013

So, one of my goals as a Redskins collector has been to acquire some vintage cardboard. As you vintage collectors know, this is difficult for various reasons. They tend to be a little pricey for a basic common card and they are not always in the best of condition. I’m trying to be a little selective in the cards I do end up purchasing, but also keeping in mind that I don’t need gem mint versions of 60 year old cards. I kind of like the softer corners and faded images of these cards. They help tell the story or history of that card. I can imagine some 10 year old in 1955 getting excited to pull an Eddie LeBaron card from his Bowman Football card pack, rocking the face mask-less leather helmet and chin strap, just in case someone knocks his lid off…

In picking up these vintage Redskins cards, I stopped and visited with a dealer that i typically pass up. My first interaction with him a few months ago wasn’t that great. He had a sign that was a little confusing and instead of getting 80% off, i paid 80% of the card value…so i stayed away for a while as i am a tremendous grudge holder. Today though, the Cedar Hills show was dead and I had time to (re)visit new tables. I guess that’s what happens when it’s a sunny May day in Portland, Oregon. Nobody wants to be inside looking at old cardboard. So, with less dealers, there was more time to look at stuff i normally pass up. The dealer was much more welcoming and open about his pricing this time and an provided an excellent conversation. He explained his pricing and had gotten rid of the confusing signs which i appreciated. Maybe i’m just a dolt and didn’t get it, but who says you pay 80% of the price, you say 20% off…am i right? I have an issue with holding grudges, but i need to let go.

Anyways. The vintage selection this guy had of his football cards were fantastic. Most of them were in good condition with minimal creases, plus he had them organized by year and card number which i appreciated.

The prices were very fair considering the condition and age of the cards and he even gave me a break on the Sam Baker card. Being in Oregon, like any other place in the country, when you get a hometown guy his cards tend to be in higher demand. Mr. Sam Baker is from Corvallis and played at Oregon State University…which is a rival to my Oregon Ducks, but I don’t really care as a Redskin trumps Ducks 8 days a week…Ironically, the High School Sam Baker went to (Corvallis High School) was demolished and redone by my office a few years ago. We did a pretty good job on the project.

One of the great things about the vintage cards is the level of graphics and cut & past images. If you look closely at the very racist Redskins mascot for the two cards below, you can see the image was cut out differnetly and the image of the indigenous person is darker than the other card. I have no problem with this at all, just noticed it.

Another thing to check out is the sweet soft-white vignetting that surrounds the players. This is especially noticeable on Ralph Gugliemli as he does his best RG3 impersonation…look at that hair…fantastic…who needs helmets when you have locks like that? Who knew Daniel Craig was a Tight End for the Redskins in 1954?

The last card is Don Bosseler. There are no backstories to this card for me, but he looks like a total badass and someone you really don’t want to mess with. He went to The U, which i’m pretty sure was different back then…but i’m sure he is connected in someway to Luther Campbell.

good night and Hail Victory!

I miss the Captain…a rare post.

Posted by cardboard hogs on May 1, 2013

I really miss watching Jeter play short for the New York Yankees.

I know the guy is nearing the end of his career and the severity of his injuries has increased the past few seasons, but it’s always nice knowing the captain is in the lineup and there at shortstop. I’ve been lucky enough to see him play the last few years in Seattle, but will miss him this year since he will still be on his DL stint when we make our trek up to Seattle in June. This will be our son’s first baseball game and living in Portland, will probably be his only game for the season. So here’s hoping Jeter can come back and play well for many more years.

The team has been playing pretty well without him, Teixeira, A-Rod and Granderson, but I’m not sure if the Yankees have the staying power to keep pace with the other teams in the AL East. Boston is having a great season, are healthy and don’t have to deal with the Bobby Valentine circus. Baltimore is young, playing well and managed as well as any team in baseball. Toronto has a ton of talent and i’m sure they will get it turned around in plenty of time to compete for the division title…and Tampa is always lurking around with their deep farm system and endless amounts of young talent. At this point, i think it’s inevitable that the numbers being put up by Hafner, Wells and Overbay will level out and begin to pull the Yankees back to the rest of the pack a bit…I may very well be wrong. Wouldn’t be the first time tonight that i’ve been wrong.

Getting back to Jeter, I know he is one of those guys you love or hate and may be overrated due to his days with the pinstripes…but his passion for winning and dedication to the Yankees and the game of baseball is something i’ve always appreciated. Yeah he doesn’t have great range at short and his arm isn’t the strongest, but he always seems to make the big play with the bat or glove. Jeter is one of those guys you want your kid to emulate when they play baseball. Bryce Harper is another one of those guys. I have always loved the hustle guys (maybe Rickey wasn’t always about the hustle…). It’s the way i played baseball, when i played, way back when i was younger and in shape.

I know the cards i’ve posted aren’t the most exciting Jeter cards out there, but I like them…and i haven’t had too many posts dedicated to Derek Jeter. I always manage to pick up a few Jeters’ at the shows in the nickel and dollar boxes, coming home with 12-15 each time. He’s one of those guys that you can’t ever get enough cards of…plus he has a gillion of them.

We have another show this Saturday and i’m sure I will be adding a few more Jeters to the collection…and I might just post a few of them.

Sorry for the choppy thoughts, been busy at work and up all night with the kid, but I Hope you enjoyed the Jeter post!