Delays, delays, and more delays

We have seen many delays occur over the past few years due to the COVID 19 pandemic that struck in 2020.  

When the pandemic initially hit there were delays with nearly everything.  Panini even made a toilet paper parallel in 2021 Optic to aknowledge the craziness that occurred. 

We continue to see shipping delays occur two years later.  

In the past few months of 2022 we have seen Topps finally distribute two products originally intended for 2021.

Up first is the 2021 Big League Baseball

This product was originally scheduled prior to the All Star Break 2021, but kept getting delayed until it finally came out in the late winter months of 2022.

I've collected most of this rainbow by getting the base, rainbow foil, blue, and orange.  There is a black parallel /15 that I just won an auction for coming my way eventually. 

It is odd to see 2022 cards feature Cutch in a Phillies uniform and I've discussed my disdain for that already. I am a sucker for these kid friendly products like Big League Baseball though.  I will definitely try to get the 1/1 red foil and the /25 blue foil.

2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary is another recent product released that had an original street date prior to the end of 2021.

Former Miguel Cabrera and hobby shop owner, JT of TripleCrown24 sold me these two cards.  Visit his eBay store here.

This set is loaded with many parallels with lots of shiny refractors to collect.  The set features current and former stars on the 1952 set.  It is a 700 card set and features 14 different parallels to chase.  When the set was initially released it had 33 parallels announced. 

Have you purchased cards of either of these set releases this year?

What non cardboard shipping delays are you aware of still going on?

Baby, you're a firework...

I don't like pop music, but this time every single year I hear a song sung by Katy Perry and am reminded of how beautiful America can be, or at least how beautiful Katy Perry is.  Lol! 

Katy Perry is the only one I know of that could pull off a look like this

Or this

Or this

Regardless, she makes the American flag look fantastic.

One of her most popular songs is Firework and it plays constantly during this time of year.  Personally, I'm more of a Springstein fan with Born in the U.S.A.

Here's a card to celebrate fireworks

It's a 1/1 Black Finite Prizm Fireworks

🎆 🎆🎆 🎆

What are some songs you think of that show American pride?

Let's Celebrate our Independence

The 4th of July is meant to celebrate our independence as a free country.  

With all the flaws our country may have, let's celebrate the great things that our country has provided.

Leave a comment below why you love America.

"Just do it!"

For the entire time since I got back into collecting, Majestic was the clothing manufacturer for MLB uniforms and thus were the logos that card collectors would hope to get their hands on.  

I've shown off some of my Majestic logo cards in the past.

For those that may forget what some of those Majestic logo cards looked like, here is a recap.

2012 National Treasures autograph 

Nike bought the exclusive right to manufacture MLB uniforms for the 2020 season, which meant eventually we would start to see some Nike swoosh logos pop up on cards. 

Earlier this year I picked up this 2021 Five Star 1/1 Nike Swoosh logo with on card autograph.  

If you follow me on Twitter you've seen this with my MLB Logoman of the same design.  The laundry tag is available on eBay, but it seems the seller isn't willing to budge on his $500 asking price. 

I haven't bought any of the new Nike jerseys that debuted in 2020.  All mine that I wear around are still the Majestic jerseys.

Have you have bought any jerseys with the Nike logo yet?  If so, do they feel different than the Majestic ones produced?

Besides Michael Jordan, who else do you associate with the Nike brand?

You like metal?

I've been showing off a bunch of Allen & Ginter cards lately and this will be my last A&G post for awhile.

I thought it would be fun to show off all my metal cards from Allen & Ginter

This is the only non Pirates metal mini I have. It's from 2019 and features him in a Phillies uniform. Strangely enough the 2019 versions didn't have the standard hand numbering that others have.

Above is the 2015 version. The 2015 Rip Cards weren't coated inside with the proper wax sealant which caused all the metal and art cards to get EXTREMELY scratched up.

This is the 2016 extended SP mini metal

And here is the base of which I own all 3 of the print run.

I've talked about being a metalhead on here a few times sighting bands like Vision of Disorder (V.O.D.) and Pantera being two of my favorite bands of all time.  

I am not up with bands post 2005 though.  I don't really have the time now to listen to music other than driving home from work on occasion. 

Having been in a teenage metal band, I think the sounds of guitars shredding, double bass pedal drumming, and deep bass lines will always be in my blood. 

Do you listen to any metal bands? 

WOOD you believe I forgot a 1/1?

A few days ago I showed off my wood minis of Cutch from 2015, 2016, and 2017.  

I forgot to show off my 2019 though.

This is my only non Pirates wood mini

The 2018 A&G wood minis never surfaced except for a few of the "extended" sp set.  Cutch was included in that set and I was negotiating to get it shortly after the release day, but when it was revealed none of the base set wood minis made their way into the set, the seller pulled the item and I have never seen it again. 

Do you collect cards of your favorite players in other uniforms besides your favorite teams?

239,659?

I've talked on here about not purchasing many cards over the past year (at least in comparison to previous years) because of moving.  Now that things have settled down I finally requested shipment for my COMC inventory over the past two years.

Of course as soon as I submitted my order for shipping, the next day a /10 clear acetate League Leaders popped up.

2015 Topps - [Base] - Clear #127 - League Leaders - Justin Morneau, Josh Harrison, Andrew McCutchen /10

I wish I could have gotten this in hand with my recent order, but considering how far back my COMC order is in the waiting line, I'm hesitant to tempt fate and email them to ask if they can add this to my order. 

Yikes!

I find it hard to believe that they'll have my order ready in a month with that que level.

For those of you that have purchased from COMC in recent months have you seen hundreds of thousands orders ahead of you? 

Have you ever asked COMC to add cards to an existing order?