Pack of the Day 24: Six-Pack

I have mostly accepted the fact that 2013 Bowman Baseball isn't available in any of the local retail stores because some guy went around and bought it all over the last few months. And he still doesn't have a full set. I heard tell of a guy who is was selling full sets of base and prospects for $8 each, which is maybe less satisfying than building them out from packs and singles, but much less expensive. If I go that route, I will still have the Chrome prospects set to finish, so all is not lost on the set-building front.

That got off-topic quickly. I picked up six packs from the store the other day, 2 each of 2012 Panini Prizm Baseball, 2013 Panini Rookies & Stars Football (American Football), and 2013 Topps Series 2 Baseball.

The Topps Baseball is a pretty common sight on the blogs, so I believe everyone knows what it looks like. I filled a couple of holes in my set binder and got a Mike Trout Chasing History card. I chose to put Leonys Martin and Hisashi Iwakuma in the scan because they have each contributed to my Fantasy Baseball team this season. Sergio Santos is there because I love those maple leaf hats the Blue Jays wear. I want to get one of those at some point.

I also got this Adam Jones Chase It Down insert. I like these cards because they feature action fielding shots that take up most of the card, so there is room for the action to fit in the frame.



I kind of like the design on the Rookies & Stars football cards. Everyone's name and team are easy to find, the photography is decent, and there's just enough foil. I like this set's look a lot more than I like the Topps football set for this year. If I were to put together an NFL set this year, this is probably the one I'd go for. I don't know why I put a Raven as the first card in the scan. I hates them. Trent Richardson found himself traded to the Colts the other day, which is a pretty interesting move. I saw somewhere that the Browns were freeing up salary in case Lebron James decides to come back to Cleveland. In baseball I am cursed to pull cards of Ryan Braun and Alex Rodriguez, and in football my curse is to pull Ravens and Michael Vick. It's a sad state of affairs.





I got a rather shiny Crusade insert of Le'Veon Bell, who may or may not have a decent role in the Steelers' backfield when he returns from injury. I doubt he's going to be a superstar, though. This card is the same design as the Larry Johnson Crusade card I pulled out of yesterday's pack of Panini Crusade basketball.



Here are a few more base cards from the second pack...



...and the backs of a couple of base cards. Veterans get another little picture along with a team logo, and rookies get a team helmet. The Calvin Johnson in the bottom left is a Game Plan insert. On the back it basically says, "Opposing coaches have to set up their game plans to stop Calvin Johnson." Riveting commentary. One other comment on the Calvin Johnson card. I love it when the NFL does the Pink Ribbon stuff for breast cancer awareness, and it's always cool to see that little pop of pink on a football card. I like bright colors, and pink certainly qualifies.

Just the other day I was lamenting the fact that I don't have any cards featuring Peyton Manning in his Denver Broncos garb. Well, now I have one. So that's pretty cool. The next card in the pack was a Marshawn Lynch base card, which I believe is my first Lynch card. Pretty crazy that I have the guy's jersey, but I don't have any of his cards. In a similar fashion to the pink on Calvin Johnson's card, I really like the neon green flashes on the Seahawks uniforms, especially when the players pair it with green on their gloves and/or shoes. Maybe I should start a garish fashion blog.

The Prizm baseball cards are rather shiny. I don't have much to say about the base cards I pulled. It was cool to pull a Blue Jay in Colby Rasmus, although I'd rather have pulled Encarnacion or Dickey. The back of the cards features a sepia-toned portion of the photo on the front of the card as well as some stats and text. Rookies, like Jarrod Parker, get a color photo and a little blurb on how much potential they have. The lack of logos is a little hard to get past, especially on the players' hats, but otherwise I like the cards all right.

The insert from one of the packs is a Team MVP of Jason Statham Dustin Pedroia. It is almost impossible to handle these cards without getting fingerprints all over them.

And finally, the big hit of the day, a Nolan Ryan Dominance Green Prizm parallel. I know it's a Green Prizm because it is green and because the back of the card says 'Green Prizm' twice. It's a nice-looking card, although again the lack of logos lessens the cool factor a bit. All in all this was a decent set of packs, with a few cards added to various player and set collections.