We be crusin'

My lovely wife and I are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary this year by taking a cruise to Alaska. We'll be departing Seattle on June 20, returning June 27. Then we'e going to spend a few days driving around Washington state.

There will be no new blog posts until probably the first full week in July.  I hope you miss me.

2015 Panini Prizm Inserts

OK, with any luck, this will be the last Panini post of 2015.

The product has 10 insert sets. There are 2 autographed inserts but no relics. Most of the inserts have ultiple parallels, some of the parallels are autographed. I pulled 4 of the inserts, not bad considering I only bought 1 blaster and 3 packs. All but one of the inserts are new this year, with only "USA Baseball" making a return appearance.

Panini Prizm Fresh Faces #5 Joc Pederson

Whoa, this kid's hit 17 home runs already this season.  This 15-card set is die-cut on the sides and top (the top is curved). In addition to several different colored parallels, this insert also comes in an autographed version (in 7 different variations).

Panini Prizm Field Pass #3 Carlos Santana

A 15-card insert set in 6 flavors. This is the base insert.

Panini Prizm Fireworks #5 Nelson Cruz

A 20-card insert set in 6 flavors. This is actually the Prizms parallel of this insert. The slight rainbow cast of the silver gives it away. Or the fact that it says "Prizm" on the back of the card. I also pulled a base card from the set as well.

And finally:

Panini Prizm Baseball Signature Prizms Camo #25 Tom Koehler

It's always nice to pull an auto or relic from a blaster. And not just any auto, but a serial numbered auto. The "Baseball Signature Prizms" some in 8 flavors. This is the "Camo" parallel, numbered to 199.

2015 Panini Prizm

Two Panini products in a row.

Panini Prizm has the same problem as all Panini baseball products. They don't have an MLB license so they can't show MLB logos, or apparently, even mention MLB team names.  They photoshop away logos on uniforms instead of relying on contorted poses. The other problem is a problem shared with Panini Donruss, the batter cards pretty much all look the same and the pitcher cards all look the same. There are few fielding plays depicted.

Otherwise, I kind of like Prizm. It's certainly shiny enough.  I bought a blaster and a 3-pack value pack (to get the red white and blue parallels included).

The main difference between 2015 and past years is the absence of borders on this year's card fronts. That is a plus. Also the photo on the back is a bit larger, but since it's the same photo that's on the front, it doesn't make much difference.

The cards are a bit cheaper this year, $0.63/card vs. $0.72/card last year.

I pulled just the one Phillie card but at least it was current Phillie phenom Maikel Franco. I also pulled Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg.

The biggest problem with Panini is, and always has been, that it's impossible to collect. There are 200 cards in the base set which doesn't sound too bad but there are 14 base set parallels. Each pack only has 4 cards it it, and only 2 of them are base cards. Making the outrageous assumption that you wouldn't get any duplicates, you'd have to buy 100 packs, at $252, to get the base set. So the cards are nice to look at but I'd never consider trying to build a set.

Of the 14 parallel sets I pulled 4 of them.

This is the Prizms subset (yes, this card is a Panini Prizm Prizms). It's got a refractive finish much like Topps Chrome Refractors. Hey, do you know what a prism does? It refracts light.

This is the Panini Prizm Prizms Black and White Checker. This set is serial numbered to 149.

Panini Prizm Prizms Red Baseball. If the little baseballs look familiar, it's the same baseball from 2014 Donruss.

Panini Prizm Prizms Red White and Blue Mojo. These remind me a bit of Topps Chrome X-Fractors.

I hope to have a post up soon with the inserts from the packs I bought.

One more 2015 Panini American card

Here's the next to the last card I pulled from the 6 packs I bought.

Another card featuring someone I didn't recognize. The back of the card provides some information on her.

OK, well she's on the show "The Real Housewives of New Jersey". This is not a show I've ever watched but I'd heard of it. She has four beautiful daughters and has written cookbooks. I checked her on Wikipedia and found out a few other things. She was born on May 18, 1972 and has also appeared on Donald Trump's "The Celebrity Apprentice". The 3rd line of the article starts "As of 2015 she lives in a federal prison". Whoa, I didn't see that coming.

Further down it says:

"On March 4, 2014, Teresa and Joe entered a guilty plea to 41 counts of fraud, following a deal struck with federal prosecutors. The couple was accused of engaging in bank, mail, wire, and bankruptcy fraud, which allegedly saw them net over $5 million over a 10-year period. On October 2, 2014, Teresa was sentenced to 15 months in a federal prison; Joe received a 41-month sentence, followed by potential deportation to Italy."

2015 Panini Americana

Due to probably some deep-seated personality disorder, I actually like Panini (formerly Donruss) Americana. I don't go out of my way to buy it but if I see it on the self, I'll buy a blaster or at least a few packs. I don't remember seeing it last year but Target had a single box of packs this year so I bought some.

Really, I shouldn't buy any of this stuff because the subjects are generally B of C-list celebrities I've, at best, hardly ever heard of. A couple of years ago they featured a lot of astronauts which was pretty great.  There are 78 cards in the base set, and, sad to say, most of the names fail to ring a bell. The cards themselves are pretty good looking and there are some big starts in there. Like, who doesn't know this guy?

I rarely watch un-scripted TV shows, but we got hooked on ABC's show "Wipeout", so I also know this person.

But this guy was unfamiliar until I read his bio.

This is who the character Steve Urkel, from the TV show "Family Matters" grew up to be. I never watched "Family Matters" but even in those pre-Internet days it was impossible to not know who he was.

This lady is supposed to be a professional wrestler.

I never was much of a fan of professional wrestling but I thought wrestlers looked more like this.

The base set comes in 5 flavors: plain, black, blue, green and red. I pulled 2 red cards, one of Ms. Marie.

The red border goes nicely with her hair. I don't know about the other colors, the the red has a foil thing going on. I pulled two of the red parallels.

As I mentioned above, there are 78 cards in the base set, plus 4 parallels. Overall, counting parallels of the base set and parallels of different insert cards, there are about 85 inserts to pull from this set.  It seems like every pack should have at least one insert but I only got 5 inserts in the 6 packs I bought.

Look carefully, these are two different inserts. The top one is "Certified Albums", the other is "Certified Singles". The two sets have identical checklists of 6 cards each. Lucky me I got the same person from each set. I'll admit that I had no idea who she was but I have heard of Destiny's Child. At least they used a different photo for each set. These have 5 parallels each, one of them autographed.

And finally,

This insert is die-cut, has 6 cards and they are all jockeys. I actually already had a card of Ms Sutherland, from 2012 Goodwin's Champions.

If you've made it this far, a couple of final points.

 I had a little difficulty finding the checklists for this set. Neither beckett.com nor tradingcarddb.com had it. I guess it's a brand new issue. I went on Panini's site and found what I needed but they did not make it easy.

Second, the front of the pack has the statement "Ages 9+". Would a 9-year-old be interested in any of these cards?

It also says "No Purchase Necessary - See Back For Details". On the back is says you can get a chance to win an insert card by sending them a 3x5 card in a #10 envelope. I've seen this on other cards. Has anyone ever tried this and gotten a card back?

The back also says that non-base cards are inserted, on average, in every other pack, so I guess I got lucky.

If you want a chance to win a card, and you're a Canadian (except if you're from Quebec, you're just out of luck), you have to solve a mathematical skill test. The test is: 754+855/285x239-581. Yikes! You'll have to take your shoes off for that.  Good luck Canadians! Here's how Google parses it.

More Phillies cards from Dan

Here are some more Phillies cards I got from Dan of dansotherworld. Check out his blog.

1989 Topps Wax Box Cards #O Kent Tekulve

 I was collecting in the late 1980s and I remember that several manufacturers were featuring cards on box bottoms, but I don't remember ever seeing one. In 1989, Topps had 16 cards in the set featuring players who reached some milestone. For some reason, they numbered them from A to P. Maybe so they wouldn't get confused with the regular set. Dan sent me the two Phillies from the set, Tekulve and Greg Gross.

1989 Toys R Us Rookies #16

I didn't have any cards from this set. There aren't many card sets with yellow borders, and that may just as well. But I actually like cards with yellow borders, probably because they are rare.

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier #134 John Kruk

This was the first set that O-Pee-Chee released that didn't use the same design as Topps. A pretty nice looking card.

1992 Stadium Club Dome #4 Ron Allen

You don't see many cards featuring the player in his college uni. Dan sent me this and another Phillie from the set, Tyler Green. I already had the Kevin Stocker card. Only two to go, Kruk and Gene Schall.

1993 Fleer Atlantic #12 John Kruk

This is a nice odd-ball. It's the same basic design as 1993 Fleer except it has a gold border on the front and a gold background on the back. The regular card is silver. It also features different photos than the regular Fleer card. These were available in 5-card packs at Atlantic gas stations with an 8-gallon purchase. By the way, gas was going for about a dollar a gallon in 1993.

1997 Metal Universe #205 Scott Rolen

A Fleer product, perhaps the weirdest set ever produced. With his power belt on, Rolen could hit home runs into the next galaxy.

2000 Red Barons Magnets Jimmy Rollins

I don't really know what this is. I'm guessing it's from 2000 since that's the year Jimmy played with the Red Barons. It isn't really a baseball card but a refrigerator magnet. I guess it was a ballpark giveaway. Need and MRI? Call 800-383-4MRI.

2001 Bowman Heritage #24 Nelson Figueroa

2001 Bowman Heritage pretty much passed me by. I may have bought one pack. My first Phillie from the set.

2003 Fleer Splendid Splinters #41 Bobby Abreu

 Another of the myriad Fleer sets from the 2000s.