Contested Shots 30: A Thanksgiving Playoff Prize from Panini

Every few months, typically around a holiday, there is a scavenger hunt contest on the Panini America blog. They will link to several photo galleries of Panini products, where there are logos hidden in a certain number of pictures. To enter the contest, you have to find the logos and comment with the locations of the hidden images. There are usually 150-200 entries, and 10-20 prizes, so the odds of winning something are pretty good. I recently participated in the Thanksgiving contest, where the prizes included boxes of 2017 Illusions Football, 2017-18 Ascension Basketball, 2017 Chronicles Baseball, and 2017 Playoff Football. I won one of the prizes, which happened to be a box of 2017 Playoff Football. I've won twice previously, getting a box of 2015-16 Panini Preferred Basketball at the end of August 2016 and an Odell Beckham Jr. National Treasures relic card in the 2016 Easter contest. I think there were about 160 entries in this latest contest, so an entry had about a 1 in 8 chance of winning a box of cards. I think it took me about 30 minutes to find all of the logos. Sometimes it takes me a little longer.

A few days after I responded to the e-mail notifying me of my prize, it arrived on my doorstep. This particular product has 12 packs per box, 8 cards per pack, and tells me that I should find an autograph and a relic card inside.

The pack design mimics the box design. Marcus Mariota seems like kind of an odd choice for a cover athlete given that he's barely inside the top 25 fantasy quarterbacks this year, but he had a pretty good season last year and he's the leader of a probable playoff team this year.

Based on what I pulled from this box, a typical pack will hold 5 base cards, 1 rookie, and 2 inserts/parallels.

I think this is a good-looking set. The base checklist includes 200 players, with a mix of active and retired players. It seemed like there were a lot of retired guys in the set, but maybe collation is playing tricks on me. I had to photograph the Broncos from the box, Bo Jackson, Neon Deion, a couple of quarterbacks, and a neat kicker card.

I got a total of 58 base cards in the box, with no doubles.

In addition to the 200-card base set, the checklist includes 100 rookies. They are short-printed, falling about half as often as you'd expect based on the size of the checklist. I got 13 rookie cards in the box, or about 1 per pack. These four were the highlights, the top two because they made an impact and the bottom two because they were rookies for my son's favorite team (Bengals) and my favorite team (Broncos). Also, Jake Butt's last name is Butt. In retrospect, I probably should have ignored Mixon's card because of his legal history, but I forgot about that until I looked him up just now.

There are plenty of inserts in this product. I kind of like most of them. They take me back to the 90's, which were kind of the heyday of inserts. The folks over on Cardboard Connection seem to dislike them, saying they are cheap-looking and pointless. Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Boss Hoggs is the running backs insert, highlighting various ball carriers. When I see Derrick Henry, my mind immediately thinks 'Eddie George.' I guess Eddie George will always be Tennessee's running back in my world.

The Flea Flicker insert shows three playmakers from each team, a rusher, a receiver, and a quarterback. This might be my least favorite insert of the group, probably because the three player photos don't leave much room for anything else on the cards.

Gridiron Force is devoted to players on the defensive side of the ball. I was happy to get a Von Miller card, but disappointed to pull two Ravens. I might dislike the Ravens more than I dislike even the Broncos' division rivals. Michael Strahan was a nice pull, though.

These Playoff Momentum inserts are pretty flashy. I think this might be the insert devoted to wide receivers. If not, my collation made it seem that way. I like the design of this insert, with the lines and positioning making the players look fast. The Jordy Nelson is a 1st Down parallel, and is serially-numbered # 96 / 99. All of the parallels in this set have football-themed names, like 1st Down, Kickoff, Hail Mary, Red Zone, Touchdown, and so on.

Star Gazing appears to be a catch-all insert featuring star players. I pulled a receiver, a tight end, and two quarterbacks. There are some pretty decent cards here, although I think Rob Gronkowski's party boy gimmick is tiresome. It works for him, though, and you can't deny his talent on the field.

Thunder & Lighting is the quarterback/receiver insert. I got two of them, with another couple of cards featuring Packers and Patriots. I guess there are worse teams to pull.

The box promises two hits, on average, and both of mine were parallels. The relic card was a Kickoff parallel of Jordan Howard's Headliners insert. This card is numbered # 31 / 49. Howard has been a top ten running back this year, so this is a decent card.

My autograph is another Kickoff parallel, this time of Josh Jones' Rookie Signatures card. It is numbered # 11 / 99. He plays Safety for the Packers, and is currently 4th on the team in tackles. He's also got two sacks. I don't mind pulling a defensive player autograph, especially from a free box of cards. 

I pulled two base parallels from the box. This might be one of the cooler cards from the box, a Kickoff parallel of Jim Brown. Look at that old-school uniform! This is just a cool card. I don't know football cards well enough to say if this photo has been used before, but I thought it was neat. This one is # 075 / 299. 

The other parallel was in the last pack I opened, and it was quite a shock. This is Jordan Mathews' Touchdown parallel, numbered 1 of 1. Mathews struggled with injuries this year, but he's not a scrub. I can't recall ever pulling a non-printing plate 1 / 1 before, so this was a pretty awesome card to find in a pack.

I like this product. If I were more into football cards, I might chase more of this stuff. The base set looks good, I like the inserts, and the hits are about what you expect. The only thing I don't really like is the short-printed rookie cards. You'd have to open 9 boxes with perfect collation to complete the base set including the rookies, and that is just too many. I know a lot of products use short-prints to keep people buying them, but I hate that tactic. Other than that, though, I enjoyed opening this box. It was exciting to win the contest, and I got some very nice cards out of it. Thanks to Panini for the box, and for running the scavenger hunt contests. Even when I don't win, I enjoy spending a little time looking for the hidden pictures and hoping that my name comes up in the list of winning entries.

At the Trade Deadline 50: Secret Santa Delivery from Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle

In a bit of a twist, Greg Zakwin of the blog Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle and I were assigned as each other's Secret Santas in the Bob Walk the Plank gift exchange organized by Matthew Scott. I received a big stack of cardboard in the mail from Greg, touching on many of my collecting interests.

As with most very large trade packages, I just scanned many of the highlights from the bunch. It's Christmas Eve as I write this, and there are family events to participate in. There are some big names here, but I think my favorite card of this bunch is actually the 1975 SSPC card of Roger Craig. He is pictured on the front as a coach for the Astros, but on the back he is listed in his new position as a coach with the Padres. As a player, he was on three World Series-winning teams and also lost the first game in Mets history. I've been meaning to pick up some more of those SSPC cards, but as with many of my hobby aspirations, I haven't really got around to it yet.

Other sports were well-represented in the package, as well as non-sports, like NASCAR (lol!). Von Miller is the cornerstone of the Denver Broncos right now, a team that is clinging to playoff hopes at the moment. I think that to get in, they have to win tough games against Kansas City and Oakland and hope that Miami loses to New England next week and that Pittsburgh beats Baltimore this week. Basically, the defending Super Bowl champions need to take care of business, and they need some help elsewhere to get into the postseason tournament.

It's always nice when I get some Yao Ming cardboard in my hands. He was a great player, but his career happened when I was out of collecting, so I have very little of his cardboard. There were plenty of Rockets from several eras in the package. How charmed was Robert Horry's career? He has seven NBA Championships with three teams, more rings than greats like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, and Shaquille O'Neal.

Here's some horizontal cards, with some Broncos wearing college uniforms and a Max Scherzer/Bartolo Colon sighting. I still haven't been able to decide on a favorite card of 2016 for P-Town Tom's contest yet, but I think Colon's Topps NOW Home Run card is in the running.

These are cards for TV shows that are very popular, but that I have never watched. I pretty much checked out of watching television a decade or so ago. I will watch a movie from time to time, and I watch sports occasionally, but I can't remember the last TV series I watched for more than an episode or two. Ron Swanson, however, has been the subject of enough memes that I have a pretty good handle on the character. I think he is the official mascot of Greg's blog. Archer is something I'm only vaguely aware of, mostly due to reading about Greg's pursuit of the set and its sketch cards.

This is a terrible picture, but this is a 1967 Coke cap of Harmon Killebrew. It looks better in person. Killebrew was from a town not far from the town I spent my teen years in, and is probably one of the few positive things that have ever come out of that place.

This Rashad Evans card hails from 2010 Topps UFC, and is the Onyx parallel numbered # 067 / 188. Evans had a pretty good run to start his UFC career, but appears to be on the downside of things now, losing 4 of his last 6 fights.

Jay Cutler spent a couple of seasons as the Broncos' starter at quarterback. He had plenty of talent, but attitude questions and injuries (and interceptions) have made him a polarizing figure in Denver and then in Chicago. His trade to the Bears led to the Kyle Orton era in Denver, which eventually led to Tebowmania, which was a bright spot after many years of less-than-exciting football. I am pretty sure that this is my first Jay Cutler relic. It comes from 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces.

This card could cause a lot of contention in my household. For some reason my eldest son decided that he hates the Broncos and loves the Bengals. Seeing both teams together on one card could totally blow his mind. Terrell Davis helped the Broncos win a couple of Super Bowls and racked up plenty of awards in an injury-shortened career. His inclusion in this TD Threats relic set is somewhat questionable, as the main stat highlighted is the number of touchdowns each player scored in 2001. Corey Dillon scored 13 TD's, while T.D. scored 0 TD's in an injury-plagued year. But this is a cool card in spite of that, as it is pretty rare for me to make an addition to my Denver Broncos collection.

This is probably my favorite card of the package, as I don't think I had a Clyde Drexler relic in my collection yet, and he played a role in helping the Rockets win their 1995 Championship, reuniting with his college teammate Hakeem Olajuwon. The relic is contained in that basketball die-cut window, and this is just a good-looking Championship Material relic card from 2009-10 Topps Basketball.

This was a fun package to open, and I was very happy to add some cards to player collections that I often neglect, especially the relic cards for players I didn't have relics for. I'm glad that I decided to participate in the Secret Santa project. It was fun to shop for my person, and it was fun to receive a surprise package in the mail. Thank you to Greg Zakwin for the cards and Matthew Scott for organizing the exchange!

At the Trade Deadline 49: Jaybarkerfan's Holiday Tradeathon

I participated in the recent Holiday Tradeathon at Jaybarkerfan's Junk. Throughout the month of November, jaybarkerfan put various trade bait up for readers to claim, with the condition that anyone claiming cards would send him a trade package in return. I believe his plan is to open all of the return packages on Christmas. I already knew what I had claimed, so I didn't feel compelled to hold onto the package until the holiday, but I guess this post is scheduled for the 25th anyway. I hope he finds my return package acceptable.

This first card in this post is this Peyton Manning Noodle Golden Arms insert from 2015 Panini Black Gold Football. The Broncos were able to win the Super Bowl in spite of his arm last year, but the team's offensive woes combined with a surge from the Raiders and Chiefs means they are on the brink of elimination this year. I guess he deserved to be carried by his team at least once in return for all the years he spent carrying the Colts around. This is a cool shadowbox-style card, and it is serially-numbered # 085 / 199. Going back and looking at the Holiday Tradeathon posts, it looks like there was another Peyton Manning card offered up that I failed to claim, but this was the one I really wanted anyway.

The second card I claimed actually was a bit of a surprise, as jaybarkerfan just posted a picture of a box of 2016 Topps Archives Signature Series with the caption, "Not just an empty box here.  If you select this prize you will receive the same O Shucks card I did but it's a mystery." That was enough mystery for me to jump in and claim it. There are plenty of guys in that set who I would be excited to get an autograph from.

Well, it does pretty well match the description that jaybarkerfan gave it. It is a decent-looking autograph of a pretty good player. This buyback autograph of Darren Daulton's 1993 Topps Stadium Club card is numbered # 09 / 38. He had some decent years and won a World Series ring. I learned from his Wikipedia page that he had a couple of DUI's and wrote a book on occultism.

That was my haul from the Jaybarkerfan's Junk Holiday Tradeathon. I had a good time watching for his posts to pop up so I could see if there was anything I wanted to claim, and it was exciting to wait and see what the mystery autograph would be.

At the Trade Deadline 42: An Awesome Trade Package from Lonestarr

I recently got a massive trade package from blogger Lonestarr / Twitch. It touched on nearly every part of my collection. I scanned quite a bit of it for this post, but there was plenty more. I just couldn't scan any longer.

I don't have many Elway cards, and this SPx Gold card is a great addition to my collection. I remember that the Hakeem Olajuwon SPx Gold from this set's basketball equivalent was one of the prizes of my collection in my teen years. Hologram, die-cut, and foil on thick card stock? Yes, please!

This package may have nearly doubled my Peyton Manning collection. It certainly was a big boost to the number of Manning cards I have showing him in a Broncos uniform. I've heard rumors that Peyton will officially announce his retirement soon. I guess we'll see what happens. That whole business with the sexual harassment allegations from his college days is pretty disappointing. Without any context outside of working in male-exclusive jobs for a large portion of my life I imagine he tried to pull some sort of prank that went over the line, and instead of owning his actions he denied them and went on the attack. Probably a sincere apology and an admission of wrongdoing 20 years ago would have cleared the whole business up.

There were plenty of other Broncos in the package. That Terrell Davis is probably my favorite of this bunch, although it is hard to deny the power of Tim Tebow. I wore my Tebow jersey just the other day. Apparently there was a poll recently in which respondents were asked who their favorite and least favorite NFL quarterbacks were. Tim Tebow appeared in the top handful of both lists (5th-most popular, 2nd-least popular), despite the fact that he hasn't played in a regular season NFL game for a few years.

Switching sports to basketball, several Houston Rockets cards were included in the package, highlighted by a couple of appearances by my favorite player of all time, Hakeem Olajuwon. I also liked that Panini Black Friday Dwight Howard card, although Dwight Howard himself has been pretty underwhelming as a Rocket. I have to wonder how long it will be before he and James Harden get run out of town and the Rockets enter another rebuilding phase without really living up to their potential? It's almost like a repeat of the Yao Ming / Tracy McGrady days, although their problems had more to do with injuries than with attitude. I don't know why that Earl Boykins cards has rounded corners. It must be a parallel that I am not aware of.

There were two other cards in this Astros scan, but I cropped them out when I discovered a big hair on the scan in front of one of them. It was a sweet card, but I was so done with the scanner by that time. I like that Bill Virdon card. I pulled an autograph of his out of a box of Heritage in 2014. For whatever reason that makes him stick in my head. I'm not about to run out and start a Bill Virdon PC, but I'm at least two cards into one now. I love those rainbow-colored uniforms. Sometimes I think I might be part unicorn or part leprechaun or something.

There were plenty of Astros from all eras in this package. I think I've mentioned at least six times that I didn't scan them all. I DIDN'T SCAN ALL THE CARDS IN THIS PACKAGE! There were a lot of cards. If I were a rapper I would be bragging about all of my phat stacks (of cards). But I'm not a rapper. When I try to sing or rap my wife tells me, "No!" and mists me with a spray bottle.

That Nolan Ryan / J.R. Richard card is one of the cooler cards in the package. It's an Astros card, but it's also a Nolan Ryan card, but from a time when he wasn't an Astro. And now the Astros are in the A.L. so this card wouldn't even be possible anymore unless they started making AL West Leaders cards. At that point Topps would have jumped the shark. Can you imagine Division Leader cards for all of the different divisions? That would be ridiculous.

The Astros probably got the least freaky of the 1995 Fleer card designs. Things don't get all that trippy until you're below the waistline and the colors go weird, which I guess is kind of a metaphor for life.

I like those framed Gypsy Queen parallels. That's one of the few things I like about the Gypsy Queen brand. I guess I'm a Ginter man if it comes down to faux-old-timey vintage brands. I like that Lance Berkman Soaring Stars card. It's like he's defending the Earth from Randy Johnson-thrown meteors with a cosmic bat or something.

Now we're getting to the hits portion of this trade package. Those two cards on the top are serially-numbered. Nolan Ryan is # / 250 and Tony Scheffler is # / 200. Olajuwon is die-cut, Prizmed, and # / 199. Also he is wearing those cool goggles that he sported for a while. He tried, but he couldn't rock the goggles as well as Horace Grant did. If there were a Mt. Rushmore of eyewear it would definitely have Horace Grant and Kent Tekulve on it. Who else would be on it? That Aaron West autograph is pretty cool, too. When I see the name Aaron it makes me think of that Key & Peele Substitute Teacher skit.

These relics are all pretty cool. I believe that Lancaster JetHawks Mascot Patch is my first manu-patch relic. Some of my readers might be impressed that I have remained untainted this long, while others wonder why I didn't get on the manu-patch train a long time ago. My one stalker might comb feverishly through my posts to find out if this really is my first manu-patch card. I know for sure that the J.R. Towles card in the upper right contains my first game-used base relic. The other relics are your more standard swatches of fabric, but the Rod Smith is # / 750 and the other card contains the previously-mentioned Tracy McGrady's pants or something. It's not a breathable enough material to be a jersey.

Closing things out are some non-sports items in the form of sketch cards featuring some of my favorite comic book characters. I believe the She-Hulk sketch was done by Lonestarr / Twitch himself, while the Wonder Woman sketch was done by Colby Zigler. I haven't been able to add as many She-Hulk and Wonder Woman sketches to my collection as I'd like, so these were a welcome addition to my sketch card binder. (I wish I had a sketch card binder. I actually don't. I have a vague idea of which sketches I have and sometimes I can find them in among the other cards in boxes and the piles of cards on my desk.

Closing things out is a sketch of Power Girl reminding all the fanboys out there that Cosplay does not equal Consent. That's a big deal with cosplayers and models, both online and at convention or promotional appearances. Sketch artist Cesar Feliciano has illustrated what might happen if one of these rude folks mistook Power Girl for a cosplay model.

This was an awesome package from top to bottom, and I was super-stoked to flip through all of it. I wasn't super-stoked to scan all of it, but I scanned many of the best parts. The rest of the stuff you'll just have to wonder about. It was all pretty cool, with plenty of touches personally-tailored to my collecting habits. Thank you!