Various Recent Racing Card Pickups

In addition to busting various packs of racing products recently, I've picked up a handful of singles that I figured I'd show off today. I don't watch a lot of racing, but I sure do enjoy collecting the cards and following things online.

First up is a Hailie Deegan Blank Slate insert out of 2023 Panini Donruss Racing. These cards are tough pulls from the product, rumored to be case hits. I got this one for a relative steal on eBay compared to other copies of the card that were listed, so I was happy to add it to my Hailie Deegan collection.

I picked up these Brittney Zamora cards from 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing as a lot, again on eBay. I actually bought another copy of the Newly Minted triple relic, but it arrived packed in tape which peeled off the foil along the top edge, so I had to replace it. Luckily the seller was understanding and issued a refund without too much hassle. I hate eBay returns. They feel very confrontational at times. Zamora has replaced Danica Patrick as my current primary driver collection in racing cards, although I'm not sure how much racing Zamora has done recently.

I'll close things out with a couple of cards for my longest-running driver collection, Danica Patrick. She retired a while back, but Panini luckily still puts her into most sets that get released. The tire relic is #/50 and comes from 2021 Panini Donruss Racing, while the Clear Vision insert is #/99 and comes from an older set, 2016 Panini Torque Racing.

A Second Box of 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing

I mentioned in my last post that I'd opened a couple boxes of 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing. It's probably my favorite racing product to open because of the variety of designs and the checklist's focus on stars and rookies. I always know I'm going to pull something for my collection.

Here are four of the base designs that I liked from the box. Danica Patrick has long been the most numerous racer in my collection, and Brittney Zamora has been my non-retired collection focus for the last couple of years. Luckily they both make appearances in most products, so I always have new cards to chase.

These are four more of the base designs. I haven't counted the base designs yet, but there are quite a few Panini brands represented in the checklist. Thunder and Luminance are a couple of my favorites. Luminance has a very Stadium Club feel to it.

 

In addition to a lot of base designs and plenty of hits per box, this product also drops a lot of parallels on you. The basic parallel in Hobby boxes is the Blue /199. It's a good-looking color. Pulling a couple of Hailie Deegan Blues in this box was pretty good. She's one of the better sellers in the current crop of young racers.

My Immaculate pulls were both pretty low-numbered, with an /25 and an /51. I assume that all of the Immaculate cards are serially-numbered, based on my small sample size. The big names came in the Red parallels for me, with a Jimmie Johnson /99 and a clear Kevin Harvick /100.

Each box promises four hits, but I pulled five in each of my two boxes. Not sure if that's typical of the print run, or if I just got lucky. I pulled three autos and two relics per box, although Panini stopped guaranteeing a certain number of autographs this year. I pulled a basic tire relic of Tanner Gray and a triple relic of Austin Cindric.

The Chase Briscoe autograph here is actually an /10 Gold parallel, so it's the lowest-numbered card in my Chronicles break. I would argue that the Kevin Harvick Immaculate auto-relic is actually the hit of the break, though. It's a nice-looking card of a guy I kind of collect.

That does it for this break of 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing. It's a fun product with a lot of variety. Again, it's probably my favorite racing product to open because the checklist is full of good drivers and there is so much different stuff you can pull.

A Hobby Box of 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing

I really like Panini Chronicles Racing, probably because of the sheer variety of cards you can find in every box. I usually don't get lucky and pull huge hits of big-name drivers, but there's usually a smattering of stuff that fits into my various collecting interests. It's hard (for me) to have a bad break of Chronicles Racing, as there's typically something interesting in there. That all being said, I opened up a couple boxes of 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing recently. Here are some of the cards from the first box.

Technically I guess there is a Chronicles base set design and everything else is considered an insert, but I tend to think of the whole product outside of parallels and hits as one big conglomerate set. I took pictures of some of the sets designs I like, and some cards of drivers I collect. Some standouts for me this year were the Luminance and Thunder designs.

Here are a few more designs featuring drivers I collect. I especially like the Overdrive cards. They remind me of 90's Topps Chrome.

There were plenty of parallels in both boxes I opened. Most were of the /199 Blue variety. Nothing here really fits my collection, but I do like the look of the Blue parallels. The John Hunter Nemechek Pedal to the Metal card is especially eye-catching.

Every box has 2 Immaculate cards in it, which I guess replaces Spectra as the thick cardstock special set in the product. All the ones I pulled had serial numbering, but I don't know if that's true of all of them or if I am just lucky. I also got a Martin Truex Jr. card /99 and a clear acetate Richard Petty /100.

The lowest-numbered card in the box was this Lawless Alan /25. I've never heard of Lawless Alan, but he's got a great trading card name.

The box promises 4 hits, but I got 5 in each of my boxes. It used to be 3 autographs and 1 relic per box, but they did away with the guarantees this year. I still got 3 autographs per box, but I also got 2 relics per box. It's nice to get bonus hits, but I don't know if that happens across the print run. I guess the Chase Elliott Recon relic here is my favorite hit card from the box.

As I mentioned, there were three autographs in the box. The Spencer Boyd is /49, but I think the Chris Buescher Contenders auto is my favorite of the group.

That does it for my first Hobby box of 2023 Panini Chronicles Racing. Overall this is a fun break that pays off in variety and has a rather narrow checklist of stars and rookies, so you're likely to pull something you like if you're a fan of racing.

The Other Half of a Blaster Case of 2021 Panini Chronicles Racing

I'm back with the second half of a blaster case of 2021 Panini Chronicles Racing. I talked about the base cards in the last post, so I'll forego that discussion and get right to the hits and parallels.

This half of the case game me a ton of numbered Spectra inserts. The top row are numbered /99 and the bottom row are numbered /49. Brittney Zamora and Danica Patrick are two racers I collect specifically, so it was nice to pull so many of their cards in this bunch. The Brittney Zamora parallels are both nickname variations.

The William Byron Pinnacle parallel here is numbered /99 and the Austin Dillon Obsidian card is the lowest-numbered card in the whole break, at /25. The Obsidian parallels can be hard to spot, but the pink foil gives this one away.

Chase Elliott features on this Blue Pedal to the Metal insert parallel, the last numbered parallel in this half of the break.

Similar to the last post, most of the relics and autos don't really fit into my specific collecting interests. I guess my favorite card here is the John Hunter Nemechek relic. Chronicles Swatches are the basic relic you're going to find in most Chronicles blasters.

I've still got three pictures to go here and I've pretty much run out of things to say. All of the stuff that fits into my collection happened in the first photo. I guess maybe the several-year layoff has given me a bit of blogging rust.

I guess the Kevin Harvick card here is my favorite of the bunch of dual relics. It's kind of a boring card, though, as the black firesuit and tire swatches blend into the background of the card.

Just like in the last half of the case, this half produced 8 relics and 2 autographs. The autographs in this batch are Matt DiBenedetto and Sheldon Creed.

Overall this was a fun break, but probably not worth the price of admission. I'd argue that busting packs, especially retail packs, is a sucker's game on most days. You really are better off buying singles and sets on the secondary market, although that is much less fun than rolling the dice on ripping packs.