The Legend

The Legend

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Lacking Hot Takes

You probably don't read this drivel for hot takes about whats happening in the world of cardboard. In fact I don't really know why you read my nonsense, but I'm grateful you come along for the ride. My guess is you all secretly think I'm Bob Walk or love hearing about a new middle reliever auto I picked up! 

As most of you know I'm not a set collector.  I'm always jealous of fellow bloggers that can dissect a set so perfectly and then compare it to sets across years.  These posts are important as they are nice change of pace from the "sick hits" collecting mentality on most social media sites. I feel like the blogs help as a nice way to show that people can appreciate all types of collecting.  Sometimes it is good to have a little base card appreciation 101. I'm just not the person to teach it. 

My collecting brain tends to focus more on content than design. I can look past a lot of design flaws if some obscure Pirate or Mountaineer is featured.  I love base cards, but don't feel like I'm a good person to give a review of an entire set.  The set as a whole could be piss poor, but if a Pirate middle reliever got his first card you better believe I'm buying that card.  I'm also likely posting said card on the blog and praising whatever Panini Pantheon Spectra Triple Play Onyx set it came out of.  

In some ways I kind of wish my collecting brain would tell me "hey that card is kind of ugly." Unfortunately the side of the brain that likes well thought out design is overruled by the one who likes variety. "Hey Matt this is your left brain, that 2015 Panini Prizm set looks like shit." More powerful right brain, THAT SET HAS A JARED HUGHES CARD!!!!.  That pretty much sums up my collecting and why I rarely do set reviews.  

Ok, I better show some cards now.  Maybe I'll try and do a review! 

Contenders is a well known football and basketball set that features a deep rookie checklist. I've long been a fan because deep checklists means I can find obscure Mountaineers.  When I heard they were making a baseball version I was excited.  The 2015 set was a personal favorite because it featured 3 Black Bears.




Whenever you feature college baseball you are obviously making a niche product. On the flip side it makes for a nice way around the MLB licensing issue.  If you like prospect autos you should check out this set.  You can get some big names for a fraction of the Bowman price.  I think all three of these cost me around $7 total.  Both Hayes and Newman are big prospects in the Pirates system and Kramer is coming off a huge season. 

Now all of you go out and buy Contenders autos based on this glowing review!

Thanks for reading!



10 comments:

  1. I dissect cuz I have opinions, and (too often) I don't keep them to myself. It's tough to make a decent card when you have to shop half the shit out of it, but from time to time, Panini pulls it off. But holy hell - they cannot make a card back for the life of them. I have no idea what goes on in the design room at Panini, but they need to pick up a few people that have worked on card backs or some kind of statistical paperwork and figure out how to make something remotely interesting.

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    1. Card backs have become an afterthought for the most part. It was nice to see some of the Topps Now cards really focus on them.

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  2. I think I’m definitely more in line with how you think about cards.

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  3. The beauty of these blogs (and any platform really) is that we can show our appreciation for whatever we want. If you ever feel like you want to talk about base cards we're all here for you, everyone has something they can bring to the table (more than people give themselves credit for).

    And great cards. These college/amateur cards are definitely a nice way for Panini to get around the lack of MLB/MiLB logos. Plus considering how college allegiances are kind of a thing in this country I could easily see someone having a Vanderbilt or UCLA collection.

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    1. You could definitely have a nice college collection if you collect SEC teams or something like that.

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  4. I have move in to the same frame of mind in regards to sets and design. I don’t really care what the set looks like as long as I like the player cards I want from that set. Every so often a set will come out that I love from top to bottom but it is pretty rare.

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    1. Obviously I love sets like Stadium Club, but I just don't throw sets like National Treasures under the bus because they don't have a license. I can always find something I like.

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  5. 2015 Contenders is a solid design. Maybe I'll go over to COMC and see if there are any Stanford Cardinals, Cal Bears, or SJSU Spartans for my collection.

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