Stadium Club Blaster

Listening/Watching:  Nothing; a rare moment of absolute silence.

NBA free agency officially opens shortly.  What will happen?

• Kyrie to Brooklyn?
• Kemba to Boston?
• Kawhi and KD pairing up?
• Butler leaving Philly?  What about Harris?
• Will the Lakers get a third superstar?  Will it be Russell?
• Where does Cousins land?  And Horford?
• Can the Clips sign two superstars?  Or the Knicks?
• Does Vucevic stay in Orlando?

Of particular interest to me:

• Can the Bucks resign Middleton and Lopez?
• Will anyone throw a big offer at Brogdon?

The NBA truly is a 365 league.  It's a never-ending soap opera!

I gushed over the new Stadium Club release yesterday.  I watched a break last night and it just furthered my fondness for this new set.  I zipped out to Target early this afternoon and picked up a blaster.  While there I also picked up a fat pack of Topps Series 2:
 

The only reason I picked up the fat pack is because I was feeling lucky and thought I'd take a shot at pulling a Alonso, Guerrero, or Tatis RC.  Unfortunately, the Series 2 pack was a huge dud.  Nothing of interest to me.  I'm putting all the cards, including the four inserts and parallels on my For Trade list:


On to the blaster, which housed eight packs of five cards each.  31 of the 40 cards are base cards:

I mentioned yesterday how I liked some of the creative photos used in this set.  Below I have included some of the base cards I pulled that really appeal to me:

The nine remaining cards are inserts and parallels.  Six of the nine I like and will keep.  These include Beam Team and Chrome inserts, and parallels for Black Foil, Red Foil, and Sepia:

The three remaining cards are inserts that don't do anything for me so they are going up on the For Trade list:


No major hits, but I actually like the cards, which is a nice change of pace.  I think I will make an effort to try and complete this set.  My most recent complete baseball set is from 1991; 28 years feels long enough.

2018-19 Panini Chronic (what?) cles of Narnia

Listening:  Jimmy Buffett A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean

Summer has finally arrived; hot and humid today.  Perfect day to crack open a cold one and listen to some Jimmy Buffett.  I attended my first Buffett show at Alpine Valley in the summer of 1996.  It was an absolute blast.  A group of us would make the 30 minute drive up each summer to tailgate and attend the show.  The cast of characters in the group changed from year-to-year, but its core was three of us who went to high school together.  The tailgating grew little by little to the point where we took our own large inflatable pool, and the water to fill it, one year.  We had run the streak to 18 straight shows when scheduling conflicts arose; life.  It's been three or four years since I last went to a show.  Jimmy's move to country music and slapping "Margaritaville" on countless products jaded me, but I still carry fond memories of those Parrothead days and enjoy listening to the old Key West stuff.

I watched several 2018-19 Chronicles breaks on YouTube.  (Yes.  I watch breaks on YouTube)  It's an amazing product!  My favorite for 2018-19.  Seeing cards from Gala, Luminance, Marquee, Phoenix, Studio, etc. in one offering... I'm left speechless.  I would love to get some of these but entering a break doesn't make much sense as the set focuses on rookies, heavily, so as a Giannis/Bucks collector it doesn't really offer much for me.  In looking through the checklists I don't even see any Giannis hits or even inserts so the only cards I could get as hits are Donte rookies.  Probably not worth it.  Maybe a random team break...

I was out and about running a couple errands this morning and found myself down the road from Target.  I stopped in and picked up a couple of Stadium Club packs for Owen's collection:

I mentioned yesterday how I miss Finest basketball.  Well, I also miss Stadium Club basketball.  I saw a post this morning regarding some of the excellent photos used in this year's Stadium Club edition.  Panini doesn't offer base cards like these.  I'm tempted to pick up a couple more packs and open them for my collection.  And there are Chrome parallels?!?!  I'm even more tempted now.

Today's lone package also goes in Owen's collection.  I picked up a Yelich Gypsy Queen insert on eBay:


Good God.  The Yanks-Sox game is still on?!?!  What a way to introduce the Brits to MLB.

Finest travels back to 1994-95 for inspiration

Listening:  BoDeans Joe Dirt Car

Three packages arrived today; one TCDB trade and two more eBay purchases.

1. My first trade with volsaunders is today’s lone trade.  I received a stack of 25 1991 Score baseball set builders:


2. A single card eBay purchase is up next because it's almost mandatory to have a Webber card in each post.  Here we have the Gold parallel for the 1997-98 SPx Chris Webber:

Die-cut, hologram, gold... what's not to like?  Cool set.

3. I love old Finest basketball cards and it certainly does not hurt that Topps introduced Finest during Webber’s rookie year.  Aside from picking up Webber cards, I had essentially stopped collecting by 1993.  I was a teenager who was far more interested in his girlfriend than cards.  I really liked the Finest cards I picked up in the mid 90s, Webber’s Golden State and Washington days, and when I finally resumed collecting in 2017 I set Finest as a top priority.  When Topps released the 2019 Finest baseball edition I immediately noticed the Prized Performers insert set as they obviously took inspiration from the 1994-95 Finest Lottery Prize insert set.  While I do not collect baseball cards I set out to build this 20 card set.  Over the weekend I found a 14 card lot on eBay with a “Best Offer” option.  In the end I purchased the 14 card lot for under $14; less than a dollar a card.  Not bad at all.

Hoody's Haul

Listening:  The Doors The Doors

Sadly, Michigan fell to Vandy last night in the decisive third game of the College World Series.  Hell of a run though.

Houston is targeting Jimmy Butler?  Basically, they would have to strip much of their depth to make it happen.  Lack of depth certainly came back to bite the Warriors this season.  And can you imagine a locker room with Harden, Paul and Harden?  I don't see how they navigate a full season without it blowing up in their face.

Today's lone package is an eBay purchase from Hoody's Collectibles.  I won a Chris Webber auction and then took advantage of the shipping discount and added several more Michigan cards.  A pair of Webber's to begin; a 2001-02 Fleer Force insert (SN699) and a 2018-19 Select insert (MEM, SN49):


The next Michigan name I usually search for after Chris Webber is Glen Rice.  Hoody's had three I added to my collection; 2016-17 Absolute (MEM, SN149), 2018-19 Cornerstones (MEM), and 2018-19 National Treasures (MEM, SN99):

I have more Glen Rice MEM cards in my collection than any other player.

Finally, single additions for Mo Wagner, DJ Wilson, and Charles Woodson:

The Wagner is a 2018-19 Cornerstones (MEM), the Wilson is a 2017-18 Noir (MEM, SN99), and the Woodson is 2015 Crown Royale parallel (SN99).  I absolutely love Noir, it's usually my favorite release each year, so the Wilson is a nice pick up.  The Wagner might be my first Lakers MEM.  I like how the yellow piece pops against the predominantly purple background. 

Itty Bitty Bop (Funky, Funky) - Cliffhanger Conclusion

Listening:  Us3 Hand on the Torch

A decisive Game 3 between Michigan and Vandy tonight out in Omaha.  UM played a sloppy game last night (errors, passed balls/wild pitches, etc)  Hopefully they can reorganize and put forth a solid effort tonight.

Finally getting around to logging the wbaker01 package that arrived on Friday the 21st.   A few 1980s Topps baseball set builders kick things off; one from 1983 (69.9%)and ten from 1984 (97.5%):


An assortment of basketball set builders follows and covers of wide array of sets from 1991-92 through 1999-00:
        

The big news here is that I now have complete 1991-92 Fleer set!

We move on to football set builders for 1984 Topps (99.5%), 1991 Pro Set (81.4%), and 1991 Score (99.9%):


The final set builder in this package is from Series 1 of the 1989 Topps Batman set (46.2%):

I loved this movie when it came out and purchased a decent number of Series 1 cards, but I never purchased any Series 2 cards. 

A pair of cards for the Bama collection:

Croyle was the QB went I was in grad school

A single basketball addition for the Michigan collection – a Glen Rice:


The remainder of the trade consists of roughly 200 football additions to the Michigan collection!  Singles and small batches to begin:
  

On to larger batches, beginning with Derrick Alexander:


Tim Biakabutuka:


Elvis Grbac:


Brian Griese:


Jim Harbaugh:


Leroy Hoard:


Amani Toomer:


Ty Wheatley:


A huge "Thank you" to fellow Michigan fan Bill for the trade and helping me add so many cards to my Michigan collection.