A Pankratzy Package!

This one is REALLY old... so old that the blogger that sent me these hasn't posted since March.  Not entirely sure what has been going on with Adam from Addiction As Therapy, but he sent me the below cards earlier this year.  Let's go through them!

We'll start with a handful of set needs that Adam sent me.  2011 minis still have a long way to go for me... I have far too many of the inserts and far too few of the actual base minis.  Adam brought me ever so slightly closer which I greatly appreciate.

While I didn't really make any official blog resolutions this year, one of the things I told myself was that I was going to work hard on my A&G insert set review series.  I haven't.  I've worked very not hard on it.  Regardless, this World's Deadliest Predators set from 2014 remains one of my favorites that Ginter has ever produced.

Another fun insert!  This 2011 set featured visionaries and scientists mostly from the Industrial and Progressive Eras.  Samuel Morse invented... what else, the Morse Code, and this card (and the entire set in general) focuses and features the inventor rather than the invention.  I enjoy this little cap tip as I don't think we necessarily highlight these people as much as we should, though I suppose most of these guys did get their inventions named after them.

Adam sent me a single black mini parallel for my frankenset build.  One of the greatest women's soccer players ever to play the game instantly graces the binder.  Unfortunately, the USMNT got slaughtered at Red Bull Arena last night by Costa Rica in a World Cup Qualifying match.  With three matches to go, the US really needs to get a result in Honduras on Tuesday to not go into panic mode for the last round of the Hex in early October.

These are pretty cool.  2011 base code card parallels.  These came roughly four to a box and spanned the entire 350 set.  Over the years, I've met a number of people who have been sitting on a handful of these parallels with no real idea of what to do with them.  I've picked them up and have been slowly making my way towards building this set.  It's a slow, but fun process and Adam had 10 of these to contribute.  Here are my two favorites from the lot.  Apparently, the flower patterns line up with other cards to produce a message that was unrelated to actually breaking the Ginter Code for that year.  Red Herring!

The final card in this package was a PC addition.  A Gypsy Queen black mini parallel of Julio numbered out of 199, complete with floating ball in air!  I've never really been a huge fan of Gypsy Queen, but this card is pretty sharp looking.  Then again, most black bordered cards are pretty sharp.  Many delayed thanks to Adam for this package!

Relishing the Ambiance

I promise!  Last soccer related post for a while for all of you baseball purists out there!

I feel like I have to write something about this recent pickup though, so here goes.  As you know, I've recently been scavenging around for a soccer set that's worthy of a chase and it's eluded me thus far.  The Topps Premier League Gold series has been too high-end to chase, Donruss doesn't feature anyone from the Premier League, and Topps Stadium Club, while great, isn't a chase (it was simply one box and done).

I noticed that Topps restructured their Premier League Gold product for this year to make it less high end and I was definitely intrigued...

...and I can't say I'm overly thrilled with the design.  It's simply not a base set that I'd look to collect.

However, while perusing through the set, I happened upon one of the insert sets that I think is beautiful.  I decided that I would simply purchase the set outright instead of grabbing a box and only getting one of the cards.

Front and back... yes, two different cards.  The set is called "Ambiance" if you can't read it from the scan and it features stadium scenes from all 20 current Premier League teams.  The combination of English soccer fans being who the are...

...and the sheer history of some of these venues...

makes this set awesome.  I actually wish Topps would do something similar to this for baseball stadiums (with the same level of photography).

Here are the four cards from the set that really stood out.

One of the newer Premier League stadiums, Arsenal's Emirates Stadium showcases modern construction technology at its finest.  The stadium was built to house fans... lots of them, and is still England's 3rd biggest stadium (Wembley, Old Trafford).

This panorama of the stadium shows off the masterful design even more, with the trusses covering the vast majority of the fan seating, but still leaving the pitch open to the elements.

Obviously I have to get my favorite team's stadium in here.  Another newer gigantic stadium with a pretty cool display of the colors.  I'm struggling a bit to figure out exactly how they got this particular shot because I'm fairly certain they don't have a retractable roof, and similar to Arsenal, their pitch is open to the weather.

I threw this shot in here simply because I like it.  It appears that West Brom covered their normal side facing facade with a giant poster of sorts and it makes for an awesome shot.  The Baggies are having their historically best season ever, currently sitting 8th in the table and needing only 9 points to surpass their best PL finish (2012-13, 49 points).

My favorite shot of the entire sets features a traditional old English, open air venue under the lights.  Simply stunning.

I picked up this 20-card set off of EBay for $30 shipped, which seems like a lot but these are seeded 1 per box so you'd have to buy 3 cases of the product to even think about completing this.  I'm very happy with the pickup.

A Different Kind of Stadium Club

I've been sitting on this post for quite a while now because I wasn't entirely sure how I wanted to approach it.  I was slightly behind the times when Topps released what I would probably consider the best set of the decade in 2015 Topps Stadium Club.  I was never able to get my hands on a box of it, but I did acquire some cards through both trades and a blaster or two.  Eventually it'll be a set that shows up on my want list.

I did look into collecting 2016 Stadium Club, but I really didn't enjoy the design or photos nearly as much as I did the 2015 set, so I passed.  I also had already decided to collect last year's Heritage set (something I certainly won't be doing this year), so that ate into my budget.

When I heard that Topps had announced a new Premier League set with the Stadium Club moniker attached to it, I was immediately interested and honestly quite excited.  To me, this was exactly what I was looking for... a low to mid-end set collector's set with beautiful design and/or photography.  The release day was December 22nd and boxes of this immediately went on my Christmas list.

I received one hobby box of the product and immediately ripped into it.  Here's what I got.

This Andre Gray is technically a parallel (that PL logo in the top right is unique to this card), but this is essentially what your base cards look like.  The logo, nameplate... heck, even the card backs are spitting images of the 2016 baseball set.

I suppose I don't mind this too much, especially since I don't have all that much of the baseball version.  The lack of stats and personal information on the soccer card is probably to be expected.  I don't really expect Topps to go diving into advanced soccer statistics just yet.

Before heading more into the base set, there were also your standard inserts in this box.  Other than the fact that I was happy I pulled an Aguero Contact Sheets card, I wasn't overly impressed with any of the inserts as a whole.  There's just a bit too much going on in these 'Golazo' cards and...

...this Team Marks insert is quite boring.  On a related note, how boring is it that I got two inserts of the same player in my box, when it only came with five total?

Hey!  More soccer players that don't know how to write!  I really don't understand this phenomenon.  The Terry auto is actually a fairly decent hit considering the auto list for this set.  These autos were just icing on the cake for this box and certainly not the reason I wanted it.

Just like your typical Stadium Club sets we get parallels.  I pulled four of these gold foils, two of these First Day Issue cards, and the above Andre Gray PL logo parallel.  Don't care.

I bought the box for the base cards, the good photography, and the set chase.  What I didn't know was that there would be no chase.  I received the entire base set of 100 cards in my lone box.  While I suppose I don't mind this, I can tell you that Topps lost out on more of my money.  I would have bought another three boxes of this to try and put this set together.  I guess it's not my concern... I have the set.

One thing I will say is that the base set photography seems very hit or miss to me.  The five above 'base set' cards (autos/parallels) are your standard 'in the run of play' type photos.  While I certainly don't mind some of this, they tend to get very old if its not one of your favorite players featured in the photo.  While I think there is certainly room for improvement, I also think Topps really outdid themselves on the top 20% of the set.  There are some really outstanding photos in this set... so I give you my top 10 favorites.

#10

Former Southampton man celebrating his late game-winner earlier this season against Crystal Palace.  Wanyama kept this game from being an embarrassing opener at White Hart Lane.

#9

One of the better goalie cards in the set with Cech getting up high.  It helps that Nacho Monreal and Arsenal are sporting their awesome blue and green kits.

#8

Firmino is emulating the Karate Kid here complete with ponytail and all.  Enough said.  Awesome shot.

#7

I don't know why I enjoy this shot so much, but you'll see two themes in this countdown.  The first being these goal celebration cards.  They always make great photos.

#6

See... great photo.  Which brings me to the second theme... Manchester United.  I can't stand the team, but they absolutely have the best cards in the set.

#5

Point proven.  It helps that this card features a superstar, is set in the middle of the night, and encompasses half of the stadium.  Zlatan's widespread arms also just show you how big this guy really is.

#4

Hate the player.  Love the picture.  Is that allowed?

#3

This card is simply awesome.  This rainy photography is something that we didn't get to see in the baseball version of Stadium Club since no one plays baseball in a downpour.  I really love the effect it gives the card.  Meanwhile, De Gea is floating.

#2

Man U's young phenom gets one of the best cards of this set.  Celebration.  Rain.  Teammates.  The referee giving the goal in the background.  A Hull City player looking dismayed.  What more could you want in a card? 

#1

Oh, this... this is what you could want.  What a stunning photo.  The only thing that could have made this shot better was if Fellani wasn't creeping in the background.  Even still, this photo gives the impression of one vs. one hundred, red vs. black.  The fact that the photographer caught the ball in the shot is just a bonus.

A High-Range Break for a Mid-Range Price

In the past few years, I've grown to greatly appreciate the sport of soccer.  No, it will never outweigh my love of baseball, but when you're a fan of a rebuilding team like the Atlanta Braves, you tend to become disinterested a bit more quickly during the season.

I have always (well, as long as I can remember) been a fan of the U.S. National Team.  Pretty much any American who saw that Landon Donovan goal live and witnessed the sheer pressure and build up to that moment had to turn into a USMNT fan of some form.  

My fandom continued on from that World Cup as I followed certain players into domestic leagues.  The English Premier League quickly became my favorite to watch and to follow, and I have since become a fan of Manchester City.  Yes, I admit, a bit of a bandwagon effect, but it was more latching on to a style of play that I appreciated... quick, decisive, and forward ball movement.  My favorite players to watch are attacking mids, a position at which City happens to be very deep, with the likes of David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne, and even Yaya Toure to an extent.

I've attempted to pursue finding some decent soccer cards in the past.  I broke this box of Panini Donruss a while back and didn't really like it.  The lack of Premier League kits bothered me.  When I originally bought that box, I didn't know that Topps had exclusive rights to the Premier League.  Upon discovering that fact, I started searching for Topps products that I might enjoy.  I recently took a winger on two.

This is 2014 Topps Premier League Gold, a set that has been in many a store's bargain bins for quite some time.  It was the second iteration of a revamped, high-end Topps soccer set featuring solely the Barclays (at the time) Premier League.  I believe these boxes originally retailed well over the $200 mark, and I ended up picking this box up for just shy of $100 from a Blowout flash sale.

The box layout is certainly high-end style as you get 10 packs with each of the packs containing a hit.  It was certainly a fun rip as I don't get to dive into high-end product very often... you know, budget and all.

I can't say the standard relic design is all that interesting.  As seen from the two above, you get a pretty basic action shot with a background of wavy lines.  I suppose it's okay.  I do appreciate the variety of color in these relics, as I only got a single white/gray one out of the bunch of five.

Another thing that I thought was unique was the way Topps presented relic parallels in this set.  Instead of simply color coding the card or giving it a chrome varnish as is so often the case with modern parallels, they instead decided to make the relic bigger.  I like the idea of this and almost wish that Topps would try this type of thing more often in baseball sets.  The execution sucks here... as the card simply looks like its cut wrong, but I applaud the creative attempt.

Above is your standard base card, a set that checks in at 150 cards, though you only get about 30 from a box.  In general, I'd have to say that the base cards are a bit boring.  The lack of any background and/or grass makes me a bit sad.  Save the fancy background design work for your inserts.  I will say that I do enjoy the nameplate on these cards and like that Topps let the player pop out over it (see the Charlie Austin card below for an even better example).

The card backs are even more boring and actually a bit squinty... especially for all that wasted white space.

Inserts seem to be somewhat rare as I only pulled five in total.  This is certainly where I'm okay with Topps going "backroundless" and I think they did a great job with all three of these designs.

These captain cards especially make me smile as they seem to try and bring out a player's personality... I see you down there Wayne Rooney.

Obviously, we can't be Topps without colorful parallels.  Here's two that I pulled.  These are numbered out of 50 and 60 respectively.  I absolutely adored Charlie Austin while he was on QPR before their relegation.  He had actually been doing fairly well for Southampton this season and had a run of 6 goals in 10 games before dislocating his shoulder in Europa League play.  Also... the card is purple... so I instantly love it.

While I do love my autographs, the five in this box left me slightly disappointed.  I didn't realize until I later checked the auto list that the only Man City player even on it was Frank Lampard.  I knew what I was getting into with the sticker-graphs, but what I didn't realize was how little effort soccer players put into their signature.  These are mostly just scribbles.  At least Diego Costa's has a bit of a flourish he seems to intentionally put on there.

Side thought: I wonder if there is a correlation to the amount of people asking baseball players for signatures, and how well players sign their name.  Yes, I know there are plenty of bad baseball John Hancock's out there right now as well, but I don't think I've seen a halfway decent soccer auto yet.  Perhaps it simply sample size.

Though I can't stand his team, probably my favorite card from the box is this relic. Mesut Ozil is a genius and a freak of nature.  I appreciate owning a piece of his clothing.  

This 1-of-1 printing plate is of former QPR man and now Burnley man Joey Barton.  Probably going to put this one up on the secondary market as I can't stand how he plays.  He embarrassed himself last week in his conduct against Lincoln City and I was very happy to see the Imps pull that game out.

Overall, I'd probably pick up another box of this if I found at the under $100 price point again.  While I don't think you can expect much from the hits, the inserts and parallels are pretty cool (give me more purple)!