A Football Rainbow That Gathers Moss - The 2011 Topps Chrome Football Rainbow of Randy Moss

We’ve shared with you some of our unique Rainbows recently.  Now we would like to share a good old fashioned rainbow.  The inspiration for posting this today comes from this evening's playoff game between the Denver Broncos and the New England Patriots.  But the player we used to build this rainbow might surprise you.  It is Randy Moss.

Now we have had a lot of fun here with Moss and his antics.  One of our favorite and most popular posts was from over a year ago “Randy Moss and Tom Brady in a girl fight” which oddly enough ended with a picture of Tim Tebow, so talk about kismet.  Another reason it feels like the right time to share this rainbow with you.

While Moss announced his retirement back in August, he still appeared in early 2011 Football card releases. Because of that, he also appeared in 2011 Topps Chrome Football.  We pulled the Randy Moss 1/1 Superfractor, card #101, from a box of Chrome.  Despite Moss' off the field missteps, there is no denying his impact on the game.  It's a pretty safe bet he will make it to Canton, so in addition to the fun aspect of putting this rainbow together, there might be some serious value to come from this collection of cards in the future, even though his is pictured here in a Titans uniform. 

Here are all the cards, 12 in total, we obtained to complete this rainbow.

Chrome Base, Chrome Refractor, Xfractor

Orange Border Refractor, Purple Border Refractor #/499, Black Border Refractor #299

Blue Border Refractor #/199, Atomic Refractor #/139, Sepia Refractor #/99

Gold Border Refractor #/50, Red Border Refractor #/25, Superfractor 1/1

Here they are lined up.

Could a Cross Release Rainbow of this be far behind?

So let us hear from you.  How many of you are collecting rainbows and what are you currently working on?

Pineda Bronx Bound In Exchange For Montero

There was speculation from Seattle sources that the Mariners were close to completing a big trade.  Now word has leaked that the trade involves Michael Pineda going to the New York Yankees for young catcher Jesus Montero and right handed pitcher Hector Noesi.

Pineda will join the Yankees starting pitcher rotation that includes free agent Hiroki Kuroda, who was signed today, C.C. Sabathia, Ivan Nova and either Phil Hughes, Freddy Garcia or the inconsistent pie lover, A.J. Burnett.

2011 Bowman Sterling Baseball Cards Box Break Recap and Review

About a month ago Topps announced that the autograph checklist for 2011 Bowman Sterling Baseball would be significantly enhanced from what was originally provided.  After busting a box, it is clear to see what they meant.  At 13 auto and 7 relic cards this product is loaded with enough goodness to make any prospecting collectors happy.

Bowman Sterling Basetball comes in at the high end of our premium cards category.  Each hobby box contains 6 mini-boxes with 5 cards each.  Each mini-box should yield 1 Relic and 2 Autograph Cards for a hobby box total of 12 Autographs and 6 Relics.  In addition to that you get a box topper dual relic and one dual autograph card.

Here are some of the cards we pulled.

Base Set

 Eric Hosmer, front and back

Yankees Prospect Manny Banuelos, Indians Rookie Jason Kipnis

Base Parallels

 Mike Moustakas Refractor #/199, Javier Baez Gold Refractor #/50

Box Topper

 Justin Verlander - Roy Halladay Duel Game Used Memorabilia #/196

USA Baseball Relics

 Dominic Ficociello

 Nolan Fontana, Brady Rodgers

Rookie Relics

 Zach Britton

 Brandon Beachy, Michael Pineda

 Rookie Autographs

 Maikel Cleto, Nathan Eovaldi

Minor League Prospects

 Chris Wallace, Mychal Givens, Aaron Hicks

 2011 Major League Baseball Draft First Round Picks

 Brandon Martin (#38 overall), Blake Swihart (#26 overall), Taylor Guerrieri (#24 overall)

 Jose Fernandez (#14 overall), Brandon Nimmo (#13 overall), George Springer (#11 overall)

 Taylor Jungmann (#12 overall) Gold Refractor Auto #/50

Dual Auto

 Minnesota Twins Ben Revere and Liam Hendriks #/225

Overall Look

This is solid design along the lines of Premium and Finest but feels very Bowman.  Not a lot of variation besides color parallel and refractors, but that is fine.

Quality and Variety of Players

This is a tight base set at 50 cards and that is OK.  The Autographs and relics checklist is top notch.

Do the Hits satisfy?

How can you go wrong when the autographs are made up of current rookie, farm system stars and first round picks from the 2011 Baseball Draft?  The dual Memorabilia box toppers are great as are the dual Rookie/Prospect Team Auto cards.  Additional hits from USA Baseball are a bonus. In our box 6 of the autos were of current first round draft picks, 1 from the supplemental first round, 1 former first rounder and 3 rookies.  This seems to be in line with expectations, which should satisfy plenty of prospectors.

Will you keep coming back for more?

This is a “High Risk, High Reward” product but the risk is greatly decreased by the caliber of prospects/rookies and the volume of autographs contained in a full hobby box.  This is definitely a multiple box purchase if you can swing it.

Rating

4 1/2 out of 5

2011 Bowman Sterling Baseball is perfect for prospecting current rising stars.


Review box provided by Topps

Topps Is Tebowing As Supreme Football Includes Some Tebow Time

 In 2011 we got Tebowed here while opening a box of 2011 Topps Tribute.  If you haven’t been lucky enough to pull one of his auto cards yet, you should know that Topps Supreme Football releases today and it features autographed cards Tim Tebow.  Here is a list of the autographed cards in that can be found in Topps Supreme:

Tim Tebow Base Autograph #’d to 27

Tim Tebow Base Autograph Red Parallel #’d to 20

Tim Tebow Base Autograph Green Parallel #’d to 10

Tim Tebow Base Autograph Platinum Parallel #’d to 1

Tim Tebow Base Autograph Printing Plates (4 versions) #’d to 1

Tim Tebow Triple Autograph w/ Newton, Bradford #’d to 10

Tim Tebow Quad Autograph w/ Newton, Sanchez, Ryan #’d to 5

If luck doesn’t hit you with Supreme, you can try Precision because Topps has announced it is including 50 more Tebow Autographs (via redemption) in Precision Football.  These cards, which are appropriately named “Tim Tebow Precision Comeback Autographs” will capture all of Tebow’s late game heroics including the overtime playoff win versus the Steelers last week.  Each limited edition card will be numbered to 9 or less and include Tebow’s autograph.

2012 Press Pass Racing NASCAR Trading Cards Box Break Recap And Review

Even with the 2011 Sprint Cup going to Tony Stewart a short time ago. we are ready to bring on the 2012 racing season.  To hold us over until then we have 2012 Press Pass Racing NASCAR Trading Cards and as usual, it is a great set of cards.

We classify Press Pass Racing as trading cards.  Each hobby box contains 28 – 6 card packs.  Each box contains authentic race-used memorabilia card.

Here are some of the cards.  First from the base set

 Tony Stewart Sprint Cup Series, front and back

 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Nationwide Series, Austin Dillon Truck Series

Carl Edwards  No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Hauler Transporters

 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Front Runners, Jeff Gordon Head of the Class

 Trevor Bayne Wins Daytona 500 2011 Highlights

Base Set Parallels

 Denny Hamlin Blue #/35, Jimmie Johnson Gold, Greg Biffle Gold

 Kenny Wallace Gold, Max Papis Gold, Timothy Peters Gold

 No. 88 AMP Energy/National Guard Hauler Gold

 Joey Logano Gold, Ryan Newman Gold, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Gold

 Danica Patrick Fourth At Vegas Gold

From the inserts

Mini Snapshots

 On the left is the Danica Patrick Mini Snapshots with her base card on the right for comparison.

 Danica Patrick Snapshots, front and back

 Kyle Busch, Joey Logano

 Ryan Newman, David Ragan

 Brian Vickers, Michael Waltrip

 Jason Leffler, Robert Richardson

 Brendan Gaughan, Monica Palumbo

 AJ Allmendinger

Showman

 Tony Stewart, Mark MArtin

Continuing Series Of Hall Of Fame

 Cale Yarborough Call of 2012

The Preferred Line

 Ryan Newman, Danica Patrick

Showcar

 Jimmie Johnson No. 48 Lowe's Chevrolet, Carl Edwards No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing Ford 

Cup Chase Contest Code Card

 #/18 - The Field

 Card #0 - The Chase Contenders

And the hit.

 Kurt Busch Burning Rubber Race Used Tire Memorabilia #/99

Overall Look

Reviewing the design of Press Pass cards is a little like being a weatherman in Southern California where it is Sunny, in the 70’s all year round.  Press Pass just seems to get design right time after time.  From the base set to the insert, it all looks good.

Quality and Variety of Drivers and Subsets

All the drivers you could want from the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck series are here.  Inserts of the top drivers in the sport are really nice too.  Add to that an Autograph roster that is limited to NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers and you couldn’t really ask for more.

Do the hits hold up?

The hits here are great, especially for a trading card set.  The tire relic we pulled had plenty of detail.

Will you want to collect them all?

Sure and the really adventurous will want to create a master set with all the inserts too.

Rating

5 out of 5

2012 Press Pass Racing NASCAR Trading Cards gets the 2012 racing card collecting season off to another great start.