Blaster Madness 5: 2019 Panini Stars and Stripes (This Was a Good One)

I've got a number of scans from other blasters that I had planned on blogging about, but the contents of a blaster I purchased yesterday forced it to the front of the queue. I had to make a quick run to Walmart for a couple things and decided to grab one of the available blasters of 2019 Panini Stars and Stripes. I'm a sucker for anything Team USA, so thee cards are right up my alley. 

Each blaster promises two autographed or memorabilia cards per box, on average. Let's take a look at what I pulled.

First was this Caleb Pendleton auto. Pendleton is a member of the 17U National Team, a squad that works in the USA Baseball development program. Like Bowman, there may be a wait to find out if he makes it to the majors.

This was the third hit of my box, a Hunter Haas relic auto. The wait for Haas will be even longer, as he is a member of the 16U team.

But here is the real beauty of the box:

This is a 1-of-1 Jack O'Dowd USA Baseball patch autograph! How awesome is that?! Again, this guy may take a while to determine if he ever makes it to MLB, but it's a beautiful card nonethelless.

What's the best card you'v pulled from a blaster (of any product!)?

Sorry for the brevity, but today has turned out to be a bit busier than I expected                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

A Matt Harrison-Centric Post

Player collections can be funny, at least for me. I can go weeks or months without adding a single card. This is especially true when you are down to pretty much a handful of low-numbered cards as the only ones you need.

Such is true with my Matt Harrison PC. It feels like an eternity since I picked up a card that I needed for this PC. But, as the cardboard world seems to go, I've added three within the last month. Crazy.

First, I received a care package from none other than Greg, the mind behind the Plaschke, Thy Sweater Is Argyle blog. A while back, I sent a 2016 Topps Gold Label black-framed Julio Urias auto to Greg. Greg said this package was for that card, but I am pretty sure that he has already sent me something for it. I guess this means that I will have to keep sending all the Cory Seagers I pull his way!

Anyway, here's the card at the center of that package:

This comes from the 2004 Just Rookies set. The card always makes me crack up - who's the poor schmuck in the lower-left that had his faced blurred and half cropped out? One day, I'll figure it out. This is the black version, numbered to only 25!

Just a couple days before receiving the package from Greg, I won an eBay auction for the following card. It arrived the day after Greg's:

This is the 2013 Topps ERA leaders black printing plate from Series 1. I honestly never thought I would see this card or, even if I did see it, I had even less confidence I would win it. I guess I'm fortunate that David Price and Jered Weaver have kind of taken a step down from the star players they were in 2013 (well, Weaver retired, but Price certainly isn't what he was). 

I always hate the "1 of 1" tag on a printing plate. It is misleading. I think we should petition Topps and all other card companies to label printing plates as "1 of 4." That's a losing battle. 

Finally, I noticed another card hit eBay that I have been looking for since I began collecting Harrison's cards. I had seen others in the set and fell in love, but Harrison's never popped up anywhere...until last week. Behold:

The 2011 Topps Lineage 1952 Canary Autograph of Matt Harrison! These are limited to only 10 copies. I love the gold shimmer (hey Fuji, not a gold refractor, but I think that Gwynn would look good with this background, too!). The only "knock" I have on the card is that it's a sticker auto. Regardless, I love this card. It looks perfect to me (the scan is a little off because of the crop), so I am thinking about sending it in to PSA to get slabbed to keep it that way.

So there you have it: three cards in a month for a player collection I haven't added anything to in a while. Do you have any player collections that you are finding it hard to add cards to?

**UPDATE** Naturally, after I finished and scheduled this post, I won an auction for yet another low-numbered Harrison that I needed (for less than $3, at that!). I'll get that post up as soon as I receive the card!