Cyber Week Breaks: Day 22 - An Appropriate Sponsor for An Old Racer

Today I feel like crud. I stayed up too late last night, but I think the real thing getting me down is that I have to go to work in the morning after ten straight days away from the office. I know I have some stuff I have to get pushed out this week, and I am already dreading getting back to the grind. I also woke up to the sound of one of my 6 year-olds pitching a fit about something. That always puts me in a sour mood.

Today I finish up the last 2 packs of 2016 Panini Certified Racing, the last 2 packs of 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles, and the last pack of 2017 Topps UFC Knockout. Tomorrow is the last day of Cyber Week Breaks, so then I'll have to start blogging about other stuff.

Here are the two big pulls from the Certified Racing packs. The Kahne die-cut is the base version of his Skills insert card. It's numbered # 055 / 199. That Mark Martin relic is the base version of his Famed Fabrics insert. It's numbered # 142 / 199. How appropriate is it that Mark Martin is sporting a Viagra sponsorship on his firesuit? On most of the pictures I've seen of him, it looks like he stepped right out of one of those ads. I guess it's a good move on Viagra's part to aim right at their target demographic.

The Chronicles packs weren't all that exciting. I like the idea of a set with a comprehensive checklist, but sometimes that makes for a bland break. I think we as collectors always clamor for a low-cost, big-checklist set, but I don't know how well they actually sell for the card companies. For better or worse, collectors are kind of conditioned to expect a certain number of hits or inserts in their breaks. This Georges St-Pierre Gold parallel is numbered # 83 / 88.

Joe Lauzon is kind of known for showing up as a token hit in a lot of products. It seems like he signed about a million stickers for Topps, and he tends to show up a lot in breaks. I guess that's good if you're a J-Lo collector, but otherwise it's less fun. That's the last hit from this box.

The Topps UFC Knockout pack gave me this Red parallel of Tony Ferguson, numbered # 15 / 25. I pulled a lot of Green and Blue parallels from the Knockout packs, so it was nice to get at least one Red out of the break.

The autograph hit from this pack was Pack War favorite, Ryan Bader, on the base Tier One Autograph design. This one is numbered # 167 / 199.

The final Knockout hit of these breaks is a Blue Jumbo Fight Mat Relic Card of Chuck Liddell. This one is relatively low-numbered at # 18 / 25. It also bears the caption on the front that this piece of mat is 'fighter-worn,' which seems kind of funny. I like to track down approximately where on the mat these relics come from if they've got a little bit of color to them. This one came from UFC 57, and in looking at pictures of the mat during the event, the swatch appears to be taken from the Amp'd Mobile logo on the fighting surface.

That's all for today. Tomorrow I'm taking my eldest son to see the new Star Wars movie, and I'll probably be finishing up the Cyber Week Breaks.

Cyber Week Breaks: Day 16 - Christmas Packs

There's not really much about today's packs that makes them fit the holiday, but today is Christmas and that makes these Christmas packs. I didn't get any cards for Christmas, but I was kind of expecting that because this Cyber Week order was pretty huge.

Two of my boys went to sleep pretty early on Christmas Eve, but the other one couldn't sleep because he was too excited about Santa's imminent arrival. Then he couldn't sleep because he was stressed out that if he didn't sleep, maybe Santa would skip our house. He finally nodded off, though, and Santa dropped off plenty of gifts. I was especially proud of my sons for their gift-giving this year. We took them to the LEGO Bricks & Minifigs store this week, and they all thoughtfully picked out gifts for each other. Then this morning they were all gracious in receiving those gifts, even though they weren't the big-ticket items under the tree. Sometimes it's hard to tell if the lessons we're teaching them are getting through, but days like today give me hope for them.

Today's breaks are 2 packs of 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles and 8 packs of 2017 Topps UFC Chrome. I decided to add another pack of 2017 Topps UFC Knockout to the break as well, because it's Christmas and a Christmas break deserves some hits. 

The Chronicles packs featured a handful of parallels and another buyback. None of them are extremely exciting to me. The Gold is # / 88, the Black & White is # / 188, and the Green is # / 288. I have toyed with the idea of building a complete set of the Black & White cards before, but the checklist is huge and it would take a lot of effort to do it.

Here is the non-horizontal parallel I pulled from the packs. It's a Green # / 288. Again, Jared Rosholt isn't really a guy I collect, so this card doesn't do a whole lot for me.

The Topps Chrome packs yielded a couple of box hits. Both the Blue Wave Refractors and X-Fractors are seeded one per box, but only the Blue Wave Refractors are numbered. The Jessica Aguilar card is # 49 / 75.

The Knockout pack was pretty good. The first hit was this Demian Maia Tier One relic card. This is the base version of his card, numbered # 07 / 99. He's a pretty popular fighter who has been around for a long time and won a lot of bouts.

The second hit in the pack would have been even bigger a couple of years ago, before he got over-matched by Mickey Gall, but this Red autograph parallel card of CM Punk is still a pretty good pull. These Red cards are pretty rare, and this one is numbered # 06 / 10.

Cyber Week Breaks: Day 13 - Another Pack-Pulled # 1 / 1

More UFC cards today, but I will be showing off another pack-pulled # 1 / 1 card later in this post, just a few days after I pulled one from a prize box of football cards from Panini. Today's break was 2 packs of 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles and a box of 2016 Topps UFC High Impact.

I got a few different parallels from the Chronicles packs. The Krylov is a Gold, numbered out of # / 88, if I recall correctly. The BJ Penn is a Black & White parallel, numbered out of # / 188. There are also buybacks in this product, stamped with a foil Topps Originals Octagon.

That Green parallel is numbered out of # / 288. I also pulled one of the hits from the box, a Dual Relic of Cain Velasquez and Fabricio Werdum. This one isn't numbered.

The Holly Holm Femme Fighters insert is a double for me, but I was expecting some doubles from that insert set. This is the third copy of that Al Iaquinta autograph I've pulled in this break. I'm getting kind of tired of seeing it.

One card I couldn't pull doubles or triples of was this one, because there's only one of them! This is the Gold parallel of Dominick Cruz's base card. I'm not much of a Cruz fan, but it's pretty cool to pull a # 1 / 1 from a pack.

That does it for today. I'm glad I pulled that Cruz card, because otherwise this was a pretty boring break. Maybe I'm just getting jaded. I'll be back tomorrow (probably) with some cool shiny cards.

Cyber Week Breaks: Day 7 - Seeing Green

Today's break is kind of boring, at least for me. Maybe I should have scanned a recent mail day or something to go along with it. It's too late for that now, as I am tired and don't feel like doing anything extra now. I opened a box of 2016 Topps High Impact and 2 packs of 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles.

The Femme Fighters insert from High Impact was Liz Carmouche, whose card I already had. I collect her cards, so I guess I now have one for the PC and one for the set. The autograph is Al Iaquinta. I don't know much about Iaquinta. He's only had one fight since I started watching UFC events, and I don't remember if I watched it or not. A bunch of Green parallels came out of the Chronicles packs. They are numbered # / 288. Royce Gracie is a legend in MMA, but his heyday was well before I started watching. I saw his Bellator 'fight' with Ken Shamrock last year that was pretty sad. Julianna Pena is another fighter I collect, and I probably have a few copies of her Green parallel now.

Jessica Penne and Khabib Nurmagomedov are the other two Green parallels I pulled. I also pulled another of the hits from the Chronicles box, a base relic of Michael Bisping.

That's about all for today. Tomorrow's break is a box of 2017 Topps High Tek Baseball, so that should be a pretty exciting post.

Cyber Week Breaks: Day 4 - Star Wars, UFC Chronicles, and Retail Baseball

Today's scheduled breaks from the big order didn't generate a whole lot of excitement for me, so I'm including scans of some retail baseball I busted last week to make things a little more interesting.

First up is the highlights from 8 packs of Topps Star Wars: Jedi Legacy. This box promises 2 hits, with one of them being a film cel relic. We got that hit out of these first packs, with a Darth Vader film cel. The Green parallel at the top left is a variation that falls one per box, and the Magenta parallel below it is either 3 or 4 per box. I can't remember. I don't find this product all that exciting, outside of the autographs and movie prop relics, so hopefully the second hit in the box is something enjoyable.

I also opened two packs of 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles. These come in a jumbo pack format, with 10 packs per box. Each box promises 2 autographs and 3 relics. That Frankie Edgar relic is the first hit of the box. The Gold Ben Rothwell card is numbered # / 88, the Black & White Jordan Mein is # / 188, and the Silver Ronda Rousey isn't numbered, but is probably still the best parallel of the bunch.

I also got a couple of decent inserts from these packs, with a Paige VanZant Climbing the Ranks card and a Ronda Rousey Victorious Debut insert. I also got the first autograph of the box, a base auto of Scott Jorgensen. It was probably about this point where I began to regret buying this box instead of another box of 2017 Topps UFC Chrome.

I picked up some retail cards on a shopping trip. These were my reward for catching and disposing of 5 mice in our basement, so my wife didn't have to look at or deal with them. I grabbed one of those value packs of 2016 Topps Chrome from the clearance bin. The highlights were a Kris Bryant Pink Refractor and a Byron Buxton Future Stars insert. Not the greatest break, but the Bryant is nice. 

I also picked up another box of 2017 Topps Holiday Baseball. I got a couple of nice Dodgers among the Metallic Snowflake parallels, Yasiel Puig and Cody Bellinger. I also got the same George Springer relic I pulled from my last box of this stuff. The relic on this one also does not quite fill the window. Maybe this card design just has an awkwardly-shaped window.

There was a blaster of 2017 Bowman Platinum hiding in the back of the shelf, and I grabbed it. I got an Aaron Judge insert, a Clint Frazier insert, and a couple of Astros among the base cards. I also finally pulled an autograph out of this product, a base auto of Will Benson of the Indians. Maybe even better, I pulled a Black parallel of Pirates prospect Kecin Newman, numbered # 06 / 10. That's a pretty good break when it comes to retail.

That does it for today's cards. The Cyber Week stuff for today wasn't great, but that's to be expected at times when busting a large amount of stuff over time.

Some PC (FC?) Cards in a Random UFC Lot

I snagged some UFC stuff a while back. Judging by the names in this group of scans, I am guessing I won these auctions in mid-January. That's how far behind I am in my posting. I have scans in my Draft folder that will take me well into May. In theory, I could go over a month without buying a card and still have new stuff to post about. That's not likely to happen, though. I'll hit a slow spot at some point and get this queue reeled in.

The key pieces of this lot were a couple of Neil Magny autos for my PC (FC?)* of him. The most important was this autograph from 2015 Topps UFC Knockout, which has the 1st Autograph designation on the front.

I am torn as to what to call PC's of subjects who aren't ballplayers, like wrestlers, fighters, and NASCAR drivers. My understanding is that PC means Player Collection. I guess it could mean Personal Collection, but that doesn't sound right. If it's in my collection, it's automatically a Personal Collection piece. But a Player Collection refers to a subdivision of your collection made up of cards of that individual. So do I call my Magny collection a Player Collection? Or do I call it a Fighter Collection and use the abbreviated FC? Do I have PCs or DCs (Driver Collections) of Danica Patrick and Josh Wise? I guess my life is pretty good if I can sit here and consider these questions.

The other Magny card in this lot was a 2016 Topps UFC Top of the Class autograph relic card. Typically autographs and relics are serially-numbered in these products, but neither of these Magny cards have numbering that I can see in the scans. I could go look at the cards themselves, but it's been two months since I received them, and that means they are in a 5000-count box downstairs waiting for me to complete the sorting project I began a couple of years ago.

Even though the shine has come off her star a bit after losses in her last two fights, I'll still put in a bid on a Ronda Rousey parallel. There's no denying that she put Women's MMA on the map for most of the population. This Green parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles is numbered # 078 / 288.

I will also put in a bid on nearly any UFC parallel numbered to # / 25 or less. I especially like Gold ones. I lose a lot of them, but I win one every now and then. This Johny Hendricks card comes from 2014 Topps UFC Champions. I like these Predictor programs, but I have never won anything from one of them. They probably just make me feel some kind of nostalgia for the Collector's Choice brand from the mid-90's. This card is numbered # 22 / 25.

Urijah Faber prices have come down since his retirement. I've been able to grab some parallels and relics of his over the last couple of months. This Gold parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Chronicles is numbered # 52 / 88.

This Gold parallel from 2015 Topps UFC Champions is even better, as it's numbered # 13 / 25. I was pretty happy to get this one.

I have pretty much nothing to say about this card. I was scanning the other cards in the lot, so this one got scanned as well. I probably had the intent to at least put the pictures into the Trading Card Database. It looks like this is a 2011 Topps UFC Finest Gold parallel, and it is numbered # 57 / 88.

I also like picking up relic cards that featured relic swatches linked to a particular event. This swatch of green and black looks like it came from the Mickey's Fine Malt Liquor ad on the UFC 63 Octagon mat. It looks like the picture on the card actually comes from Lauzon's win against Jens Pulver at that event. The card come from 2010 Topps UFC. There were a couple of other cards in the lot, but nothing that was interesting enough for me to write about. I literally (not literally) fell asleep thinking about writing about them, so I just deleted the pictures from the post. It was freeing, in a way.

Pack of the Day 144: 2016 Topps UFC Chronicles

When I made my (relatively) recent order from Blowout Cards, I tossed in a pack of 2016 Topps UFC Chronicles. This product was put out in a jumbo pack format, so you get a decent number of cards (40) and a 1:2 chance at pulling a hit of some kind. Each box contains 10 packs with 5 hits, made up of 3 relics and 2 autographs. Additionally, there are parallels and inserts.

Apparently this is my third pack break post of this stuff. I guess I must like it. I have to admit that I've been using the same scan of the pack front, though. Scanning is kind of a pain, so I will reuse a photo if I can.

The base cards don't really break any new ground. I think I showed that Robbie Lawler card in one of the other pack break posts. I just like cards that show title belts in the photo.

I guess I showed these cards in those other posts, too. There's nothing new under the sun, especially on this blog.

I got a couple of Black & White parallels in this pack. They are numbered out of # / 188. This is probably the best-looking parallel in the product. It would make for a cool set to collect, but I don't think I have the drive for something like that right now.

I was flipping through the images during my photo editing, and this happened. I don't know why it makes me laugh to see Holly Holm and Joe Lauzon switch places, but it does and I made a gif of it.

These must be the Silver parallels. Some pretty decent photos in this batch, especially that submission attempt on the Brandao card. Silvers are unnumbered and are barely distinguishable from the base cards.

Here are the inserts from the pack. I got a Fight Poster, an Octagon of Honor insert of Demetrious Johnson, a Victorious Debut of Jimi Manuwa, and an autograph of Yoel Romero. I can't complain too much about pulling a hit. Romero's autograph looks kind of funny since it's offset way to the left. It looks like he got interrupted halfway through writing his name.

Today's post is a little light on content, I suppose. Sometimes it's hard to get something written. The UFC had a stretch there with an event every weekend, but they've taken a bit of a break and there haven't been any fights for a little bit. There are some good fight cards coming up, though, so I have that to look forward to.