2013 Baseball Card Windup - What I bought in 2013 Part 6

Continuing with my review of card sets I bought in 2013.

Panini USA Baseball Champions

 I don't know too much about USA Baseball. I know there are different age classes and apparently a team made of veteran players. This set has kids from the various age classes, some current players and some retired players when they were on the teams in the past. I bought about 8 loose packs of this product. The 7-card packs cost $2.99.

Base cards

Varitek was apparently on the 2006 team.

So apparently was Griffey. Most of the veteran player cards were gold bordered. The Veritek card was the only red bordered card I got.

 

Kids from the 16U and 18U 2010 teams. These cards all had blue borders and the same backs as the Varitek card.

This card appears to be part of the base set but is different from the rest. It is on foil board with the "Champions" label and the embossed "Certified" seal. I only pulled one card like this.

Parallels

I guessing there was a "Legends" subset. This is the "Certified Die Cuts Mirror Green" parallel of one of them. It's serial numbered 124/199.

Inserts

The "Panini USA Baseball Champions PRIDE" insert. Tallion was the Pirates #1 draft choice in 2010.

Pinnacle

Last year, Panini resurrected an old Donruss set called Triple Play (which is back in 2013). This year they've brought back another mid-1990s set called Pinnacle. I bought four 8-card packs for $2.99 each.

As with the Home Town Heroes set, Panini choose to Photoshop away logos. I kind of like this set, but I'm not really happy that they're black.  If you remember the mid-90s, you'll recognize the Pinnacle logo. The set includes retired and rookie players,

The rookie card uses the same "Rookie Card" logo as Home Town Heroes.

Parallels

Just like the old days, the set has an "Artist's Proof" parallel (and an "Artist's Proof Blue" one as well). It features a brushed foil finish. There is also a "Museum Collection" parallel but I didn't get one of those.

Inserts

There are only 5 cards in this set, so I'm lucky to have gotten one.

I don't remember the last time clear plastic baseball cards were produced. It used to be a fairly common type of insert. This is from the 16-card "Pinnacle Pinnacle of Success" insert.

The 20-card, "Pinnacle Position Powers" insert. There are plenty more inserts but that's all I got.

So that's it for Panini cards, at least, until we got to Triple Play.