Retail Madness!

First of all, my photography skills with my phone are some of the worse on a blog.  I'm sorry. One of my purchases I plan to get next year is another scanner or some kind of lightbox so I can take better pictures.

One of the few purchases I made over the past few months is a card I have looked to acquire since 2013.

Yup, 2013!

Panini Prizm has always been one of my favorite card releases because of how bold the color parallels are, see below for an example.   

Recently the product has gotten a little silly with nearly 30 different parallels to chase after like lime green donuts, zebra stripes, etc but early Prizm was stunning.

Look at the group of parallels above that I scanned and showed off a few years ago.

Man, do those colors pop!

Pictured above is my latest pickup for the rainbow, a 2013 Target red exclusive coupled with my green retail exclusive. 

I always liked that Topps and Panini would do exclusive parallels to chase with some of the retail stores (Wal Mart, Target, Toys r Us, Meijer, Walgreens, etc).

Do you like the store exclusive parallels?

Despite not being licensed, do you like the Prizm brand?

Do you have any recommendations for taking pictures of baseball cards?

Random Rainbow Showoff: 2012 Prizm Baseball

Every once in awhile I like to show off my progress with a rainbow.

Today I chose 2012 Prizm Baseball

Prizm is the "flagship" set that fans of basketball and football collect.  It got it's first release in baseball though. 

Initially the "Refractors" were called Prizms so when cataloging the card on the left you would call it 2012 Prizm Prizm and 2012 Prizm.

Now the refractor style technology is called a silver.

Above are the three retail exclusive colors

Here is my rainbow as it stands 8 years since release.  I am still in need of the Black Finite 1/1 and the Gold Prizm /10

I like that they put the parallel name on the back of the card.  Imagine if they still did that?
You'd see names like the following:
Lime Green Donuts
Cosmic Haze
Burgundy Kaleidoscope
Je2er

Check Out This Rack (pack)!!!

It's been a long time since I highlighted a rack pack. So let's show off another.

I am always looking for retail exclusive packs that feature color parallels of Cutch on the front.

I have previously shown a green retail exclusive pack that showed Cutch on the front. It can be seen here.

That's a fine looking rack (pack)

Many of us grew up in a time when the term rack pack was used to describe a cellophane package, often three of them connected, containing baseball cards.  The top and bottom of the packages were clear so you could have a small glimpse into what the contents inside were.  While I was at the CSA show in Virginia a few weeks back I saw a guy selling packs of these and it got me to thinking when they went away and went to the blaster box packaging.

For old school player collectors these rack packs are sought after and they have a bunch of them in their collection despite already having the card inside.

For myself, I had a 1987 rack pack with the Barry Bonds card on top, but traded it away to BobWalkThePlank last year as part of our blockbuster trade.

Since Cutch is a player who didn't make his debut until 2009 it's hard to collect rack packs containing him.  However, I found a little niche that the market has left.

Retail exclusive packs inside blasters!

It's not a very pronounced rack pack (only a few cards) and has a stupid security tag on back so I have no idea who else is in the pack, but for now this sealed pack temporarily solves my problem of seeking Cutch cardboard still sealed.

Do any of you still have sealed rack packs?  Who can be seen in the package and why have you kept it sealed?

Mine Mine Mine Mine

As a supercollector, here is how I usually see cards on eBay when searching for new pre 2011 Cutch cards to add to my PC.

Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

Occasionally though I will come across a card that I don't have.

Then I change my seagull mentality to a hawk....

And must swoop in and add it!

This 2010 Topps Wal Mart black exclusive ran me $15.  It's the first one to surface in nearly 2 years.