Pinewood Derby Cars 2021

 

David Wright Extended

So today Mets fans got what I consider good news as David Wright was extended and probably made a Met for life.  In addition, it made these cards which I picked up during COMC's Black Friday promo even more enjoyable when they arrived today.

They are all 2012 cards.  First, on the upper left, is an ice parallel of the 2012 Bowman base card.  Second, on upper right, is a Tier One single jersey relic numbered to 399.  Lower left is a die cut Bowman Platinum Cutting Edge Stars.  Finally, on the lower right is a Museum Collection.  They are all cool, but doesn't that Bowman Platinum card just the epitome of a picture of a Franchise Player?

Good times, now we will just have to wait and see what the Mets do with Dickey.

2012 Triple Threads Unity (and the return of the scanner)

So I picked up these two Met Triple Threads Cards off Ebay, each for a reasonable price (you have to love the sellers who offer free shipping!).

I have to say despite not usually buying into the higher priced products, last year I fell in love with the unity design of Triple Threads.  I successfully put together a three piece unity set of the Mets which depicted Citi Field in the background.  I even had two versions of the set since I had two different right sides of Citi.

This year, however, I'm not even sure why they term the cards "unity."  There is no interesting way in which they combine like they did last year.  I am still glad topps put out the set since it allows me to obtain relatively inexpensive autos of young Mets I like such as Duda and Tejada, but it is nowhere near as interesting to me as it was last year.  Couldn't topps have figured out some other way to make them work together?  It could have just been the team logo or name in the background, it did not even need to be excessively creative.  Oh well, at least now I don't need to go out and get a third Met from the set.

What does everyone else think of Triple Threads, especially this year compared to last?

Panini Triple Play Box Break Results and Review

I got my box of 2012 Panini Triple Play in the mail today.  Target did have some packs at $1 each, and I ended up picking up two before the box came in the mail.

Here is the sealed box and one of the retail packs.  Interestingly, the packs in the box were foil rather than straight plastic like the ones at Target.

I really like the artwork on most of these base cards.  Here are two of my favorite depictions of "lesser known" players: Pirates Closer Joel Hanrahan and Nationals OF Mike Morse.

Current and Former Mets Greats

The normal base set is 1-90, with about three players from each team in the set.  The collation was great as I did not get one double out of the box, but the problem was there are only two or three of these per pack, another two puzzle piece cards (which I'll explain in a bit), and an eye black, sticker, insert, and/or tattoo.  So I still need 22 of those 90 cards, which means I am at about 76% complete with that set after a box which is slightly disappointing.

Here is a picture of some of the eye black, tattoo cards, and four of the "inserts": Real Feel, When I Was a Kid, Hall of Fame players, and Focus.  The Real Feel cards are nondescript game used pieces of Jersey,, Bats, Pants, Bases, and such seeded one per box.  I got the least exciting Jersey, so I think they are a bit pointless, but maybe I'd feel a bit differently if I had gotten a base.  As you can see I also got only two Hall of Famers and Two When I Was a Kid cards.  I only depicted two of the focus cards: Stanton (who looks like a supervillain here) and Garza.  However, I got about 10 of the focus cards (again all different), which are just zoomed in versions of the base cards on the front and different descriptions of the players on the back.  The eye black cards are usable and actually a cool idea as far as kid friendly fillers go, much better than terrible gum in my humble opinion.

Here is what the puzzle's look like.  They are nine cards each, which will look really nice in a binder, but unfortunately I did not come close to completing one of the many puzzles either, which along with the lower than hoped for set completion was a bit disappointing.

Clearly this is supposed to be a kid friendly set, I get that, and I love the art work.  However, the abundance of stickers included in each pack (probably about 1.5/pack on average) was a bit annoying especially since I got triplicates of some of those.  That also makes me hesitant to buy another box in order to complete the set.  I'm hoping I can find singles on sportslots, a card show, or checkoutmycards to finish the set.  If not, I hope I can still get a box off ebay or buy a bunch of packs at Target.

I'm interested to know what other people think about the set.  Also, I'll be posting my needs/have lists on the side bar in the near future if anyone wants to do any trades.

Thanks for reading!

2012 Panini Triple Play Baseball

So I was search ebay a couple nights ago for some interesting 2012 Mets stuff and came across an Ike Davis Triple Play card.

My first thought was, that is a way cool looking card.  I'm a sucker for art cards.  My second thought was, what the heck is Triple Play?  I remember buying cheap Donruss Triple Play cards when I was a kid but they were no where near as interesting as this card.

So, I did some research on Panini's webpage (which is still donruss.com hilariously) and found out that it was indeed a 2012 baseball release at only $1 a pack.  Here's the link to the product info if anyone is interested.  Here is a second link to a checklist.

Then I decided, I'm collecting this set and will be buying a box of the stuff.

Has anyone else seen or heard of this?  Any thoughts on the product?  I'm excited to see it first hand.  I'll probably go searching for it in retail stores tonight and if I don't find any I'll grab a box off ebay.

Return to the LCS & Rangers Tradebait

Hey everyone, I know it has been a while, but I'm still around and still collecting.  I finally got back to the LCS near my old place and picked up these three beauties.

First, the tradebait: A 2012 Michael Young Relic

I liked the design on this one, which is why I picked it up.

The second fits my love of collecting cards of alternate materials and is from the same set as one of my all time favorite cards which I detailed here.

Finally, I picked up a sweet Ed Kranepool autographed card.  Sometimes it's nice being a Met fan in the Chicago suburbs!

Thanks for reading everyone!

Contest over at Bass on Balls!

Hey, check out Bass on Balls for a contest with an entire 2012 set as a prize!