2023 Panini Prizm - Red Ice Prizm

Year: 2023
Manufacturer: Panini 
Set: Prizm
Card Number: 89 
Card Type: Parallel
Parallel Set: Red Ice Prizm

One of the 25 parallel flavors in 2023 Panini Prizm.  So many to hunt.  I will say the ice prizms look great in hand.  And the ice prizm parallel comes in multiple color variations like green, blue, pink, and purple.

 

2023 Donruss - America

Year: 2023
Manufacturer: Panini
Set: Donruss
Card Number: 162

Card Type: Parallel

Parallel Set: America

Serial Number: 7/50

 I got my COMC order a few weeks ago. It had been about a year since my last shipment and the order had over 300 cards in it.  And of course a ton of new Younts to add to the collection.

First up out of that haul is this 2023 Donruss America Parallel.  Panini over the last few year's has become the king of parallels.  The last couple of years has seen Panini do a bunch of emoji style parallels.  Not a bad pick up these America parallels that feature border full of United States emojis all over it and are numbered to just 50.  Since the cards are numbered on the front the backs of all these parallels is identical to the base card.

2020 Topps - WARriors of the Diamond Black

Year: 2020
Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: WOD-48

Card Type: Insert Parallel

Insert Set: WARriors of the Diamond

Parallel Set: Black

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 010/299

Next up in my recent COMC delivery is this 2020 Topps - WARriors of the Diamond Black Parallel.  In recent year's Topp's designs do not lend themselves well to color parallels.  At least some of the color parallels, Franchise Feats also comes to mind from this set.  You'd be hard pressed to tell this was a color parallel without noticing the serial numbering on the back.  As for the insert, I like the play on words and maybe not so much the photo used.  In the simplest of terms WAR stands for Wins Above Replacement and measures the players value being on the field versus them not and how much the player contributes to a team win, or something like that.  It's one of those fancy shmacy sabermetrics that the math guys love.  And the card marks Robin's career high WAR of 10.5 that he had on the 1982 Brewers World Series team.

 

2019 Panini Prizm - Neon Orange Donut Circles Prizm

Year: 2019 

Card Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Prizm

Card Number: 216

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Neon Orange Donut Circles

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 130/150

From my last COMC order I picked up quite a few of the 2019 Prizm parallels over that last couple years.  The last couple year's Panini has gone crazy with the base parallels with over 40, so 2019's 27 base parallels seems almost tame (not really that's still an insane amount of base parallels).  But that also means I have many, many Yount cards to chase.  Panini also likes to give some of their parallels interesting names like Forest Green Flash, Navy Blue Kaleidoscope, Cosmic Haze, etc etc.  So the Neon Orange Donut Circle Parallel kind of falls into that long weird naming convention, but actually pretty accurately describes what the parallel looks like.

I'll be honest the parallels are pretty hit or miss with me, but this parallel and it's sister parallel the Lime Green Donut Circles really pop and are hard to miss.  I've lamented over how terrible the color correction and air brushing is on Panini cards so no reason to rehash that.  I can see why NFL and NBA collectors really like Prizm though, imagine this card with correct colors and logos (chef's kiss).

 

2020 Panini Diamond Kings - All-Time Diamond Kings Red Framed

Year: 2020

Card Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Diamond Kings

Card Number: ATDK-12

Card Type: Insert Parallel

Insert Set: All Time Diamond Kings

Parallel Set: Red Framed

Continuing through my stack of new Yount cards from my recent COMC delivery.  Next up we have Robin's Red Framed All Time Diamond Kings insert card from 2020 Diamond Kings.  If the image looks familiar it's because it's the same one featured from the last card I posted about his 2020 Donruss card.  I'll be honest this card does not flow well.  The yellow background and red border clash terribly.  But I do like the effect the raised frame gives to the card.   

And like most Panini products the back features a small canned blurb, but not much else.

 

2020 Panini Donruss - Holo Orange

Year: 2020

Card Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Donruss

Card Number: 233

Card Type: Parallel

Parallel Set: Holo Orange

Nothing says Panini more than that big blue helmet without a logo.  That being said this Holo Orange prizm is nice and sparkly (which doesn't come out in the scan).  The thing that makes me giggle them most is the small blurb on the back talking about Robin's bobblehead giveway from 2014.

Wait what??!!??

This card was part of my most recent COMC delivery.  And I also picked up a couple of this cards different flavors that will be showing up in future posts.

 

2014 Panini Classics Timeless Tributes Silver

Year:  2014

Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Classics Baseball

Card Number: 113

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Timeless Tributes Silver

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 090/149

COMC Black Friday Haul #26

I picked up some nice parallels this last card season.  One of those was this Panini Classics Time Tributes Silver parallel.  There are two other Timeless Tributes parallels the Gold and Platinum, numbered to 25 and 1, so the likelyhood of those parallel falling into the collection are slim, but I'm glad to be able to add this fairly low numbered card.  While not as terrible as some of the other cards Robin has in Panini products it's still not great.  Not so terrible that I'm not going to add this card to the collection, but still...  The airbrushing isn't huge on the card with just the batting helmet logo gone and the uniform color isn't as terrible as some of the other cards I've seen where it's recolored to a dark navy blue and almost black.  Nice little blurb on the back with career totals.  

2013 Panini Cooperstown Gold Crystal Parallel

Year: 2013

Manufacture: Panini

Set: Cooperstown

Card Number: 97

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Gold Crystal

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 265/299

COMC Black Friday Haul #19

For me it seems Cooperstown was a set that always had one more parallel to find.  Well I can say that with this Gold Crystal parallel I finally have all the parallels, except the Black Crystal 1 of 1.

I was just reminiscing the other day that it's been quite a while since we've had a HOF dedicated set.  Not that I'm pining for another Panini effort, but it would be nice to see a very decent effort by Topps for such a set.  Maybe now that Topps' golden cow will be entering the hall we'll see one.

The 2013 Coopertown set wasn't bad.  Panini using black and white photos eliminated them having to skew the colors of player uniforms and the close cropped faces meant they didn't need to airbrush out logos.  Panini probably could have found a worse picture of Robin to use for his card, but they also could have found one a little better.  A nice touch on the back of the card having the box score from the 1992 game against Cleveland where Robin hit his 3000th hit.  And a great piece of trivia is that Cleveland was the team that Robin got his 1000th and 2000th hits as well.

2019 Topps Stadium Club Red Foil parallel

Year: 2019

Manufacture: Topps

Set: Stadium Club

Card Number: 182

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Red Foil

2019 COMC Black Friday Haul #10

I can be very critical sometimes at Topps, but that comes when you've had the exclusive MLB license for trading cards for a decade.  But for all my criticism I always try to give credit when it's due and Topps has done an outstanding job with it's reboot of Stadium Club.  Since the product came back in 2014 they've done a great job at base card design and photo selection.  They also include a healthy checklist of veterans and HOFers in the base set.  Robin has been featured a few times in Stadium Club.  While I'm a big fan of action shots, I love this photo.  It's so well framed, Yount takes up most of the card.  The player and team name and Stadium Club logo don't get in the way.  Just an all around great looking card.  As with just about every Topps issue this card comes with multiple variations besides this Red Foil version.  But this is the first of the variations I've been able to get a hold of.

2019 Panini Prizm Snake Skin Prizm

Year: 2019

Manufacture: Panini

Set: Prizm

Card Number: 216

Card Type: Base Parallel

Parallel Set: Snake Skin Prizm

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 32/50

I guess I better actually post a card I did pick up during COMC's Black Friday sale.  This year's Panini Prizm has insane amount of base card parallels, 27 according to the TCDB. I managed to pick up a few of those parallels during the sale.  The one I was really excited to get in had was this Snake Skin Prizm parallel.  While I'm not a huge fan of the set or the overly photoshopped and airburshed images I am a sucker for oddballs and I do love chasing down parallels if they can be had for a decent price.  This card covers both of those.  It's also one of the lowest numbered card I picked up this year for Robin.

2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Zip Code Parallel

Year: 2013

Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Hometown Heroes

Card Number: 19

Card Type: Base Parallel 

Parallel Set: ZIP Code

Next up in my COMC Black Friday haul delivery is this 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes ZIP Code Parallel.  I had been looking for one of these cards since 2013.  The ZIP Code parallels fall 1:12 packs which equates to one per hobby box. NO clue what the insertion rate was for the 24 pack retail boxes. I couldn't find any print run information on the cards but as a box hit and the full 300 card set is paralleled any one card is pretty hard to get.  This was not a card I nabbed on Black Friday, no this card had been sitting in my portfolio since last January.  I can count the number of times I've seen this parallel or Robin's come up for sale on one hand so when this popped up on COMC or under $4 I grabbed it.  Overall I actually really like this set, it's fun and has some great inserts and bright in your face colors that really pop.  This card however is pretty terrible, with most of Yount's face obscured, the terrible photoshopped uniform color and airbrushing.  But I'm glad to be able to finally cross this card off my wantlist.

2008 Topps Triple Threads Emerald Parallel

Year: 2008

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Triple Threads

Card Number: 138

Card Type: Parallel

Parallel Set: Emerald

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 235/240

2008 was the third year of Topps' mid-high end product.  This wasn't Topps' most premium brand at the time, that was Sterling, but Triple Threads was a close second. It's a set that's composition really hasn't changed much since it was first introduced in 2006.  The base cards in the 2008 set have this bumpy texture to them which is kind of odd, but I love that the serial numbering is huge.  I also like the vintage image used for the card and we can date the image to sometime pre-1978 from the uniform and batting helmet.

Additionally while the backs are pretty much a right-off, the card number is large and the back is colored to match the parallel and isn't just a back used across all the parallels like alot of Topps' sets today.

2010 Topps National Chicle NC Back

Card Manufacturer: Topps

Year: 2010

Card Set: National Chicle

Card Number: 210

Card Type: Base parallel

Parallel Type: National Chicle Back

A one and done set for Topps, unless you count the 2009 football set, National Chicle was not so well received when it came out.  At least that's how I remember it.  The biggest complaint was the quality of the art for the cards.  Topps used a small stable of artists for the set and while art is subjective it's hard to have consistent quality when you ask artists to pump a ton of work out in a short amount of time.  However that being said Mike Kupka's painting of Robin is pretty sweet.  As is the case there are a bunch of back parallels to chase in the set.  The National Chicle back is the most common of the parallels and is pretty underwhelming.  

In 2010, Topps released 3 vintage sets with this one, Allen and Ginter and a second consecutive year of  Topps 206.  The next year Topps decided to scrape the National Chicle and 206 tribute sets and released the inaugural set of Gypsy Queen.  I'll be honest I actually really like this set and bought more boxes than I probably should have, but there are some nice relics and the autographs were on card.  And there are a couple really well done cards.  Topps current house artist Mayumi Seto, who also does all of the Topps Transcendence art cards, has some work in this set.

2003 Topps Retired Signature Series Black Parallel

Year: 2003

Manufacture: Topps

Set: Retired Signature Edition

Card Type: Parallel

Parallel Set: Black

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 33/99

I'm not ashamed to say I really like the 2003 Topps design.  I unfortunately was not collecting much do to work in the early 2000's so all I really have are the contents of a few series 1 flagship packs.  That being said the 2003 Retired Signature Edition gave us cards of Robin on the 2003 design.  While the flagship had a blue border, this series had white bordered base cards.  Boxes had 5 packs with 4 base cards and one uncirculated encased autograph card.  And there were also refractor autos and these black parallels.  Robin also has autographs in this series.  It's a great looking card the scan does not do it justice the black border is kind of sparkly and the back colors match to the Brewers team colors.  Plus I love the jumbo serial numbering.  I really miss being able to read the serial numbers without having to squint.

2014 Panini Hall of Fame - Green Shield - Red Foil Parallel

Year: 2014

Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Hall of Fame

Card Number: 83

Card Type: Parallel

Parallel Set: Green Shield (Framed) Red Foil

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 44/50

We are closing in on the last of my Black Friday delivery Younts.  I think there are 3 more after this card.  The 2014 Hall of Fame set is a confusing one.  Back in 2014 I tapped the Library of Congress and the NORAD super computers to figure it out.  You can see Robin's full checklist here.  

There are three base card variations.  I'm not sure which one would be considered the base card as all three base variations are numbered to 75.  They all have different photos on them and framed by either a red, blue, or green shield.  To make it even more confusing there are color variants of those each of those cards.  There there are the Crusade and Diamond King inserts (or are they parallels?) to chase.  And almost all the cards are very low numbered.  

Here we have the Green Shield base card Red Foil parallel.  The red foils are the next rarest after the base cards.  Numbered to just 50 copies.  I was able to pick this card up for a very good price and that may have been helped by just how convoluted the checklist is for the set. 

The last 3 cards to feature from my COMC Black Friday deliver or BFD, are also from this set.

2016 Topps Stadium Club Black Foil Parallel

Year: 2016

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Stadium Club

Card Number: 227

Card Type: Parallel

Parallel Set: Black Foil

I had had my eye on one of these last year around Black Friday time and it got snagged right before I went to buy it.  But in this game patience usually pays off.  Sometimes with just finding the card again, but sometimes finding cheaper too.  There were a few of us Yount fans that had an interesting discussion about this card when it first came out.  I personally really like this card.  I've posted before about the photo shoot this image came from.  Robin's 1995 Pinnacle Sidelines subset card also came from this photo shoot.  And out of all the cards in the set this is the only one that portrays the play doing another sport.  

2017 Donruss Retro Variations Aqueous Test parallel

Year: 2017

Manufacture: Panini

Set: Donruss Baseball

Card Type: Insert Parallel

Insert Set: Retro Variations

Parallel: Aqueous Test

Card Number: RV-43

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 47/49

Continuing from my recent Black Friday delivery.  This 2017 Donruss Baseball Aqueous Test Retro Variations parallel.  Last year Panini did a throw back insert for the 1982 set, this year they're commemorating the 1983 set.  The aqueous test back also celebrates the famous aqueous test cards from the 1990 Donruss set.  Aqueous was a coating for the front of the cards.  I'm not sure if  Donruss ended up using the coating for it's products or not, but the cards became stuff of legends.  With less than 2500 cards total believed to exist and not all players having an aqueous test card in the set they are by far some of the most expensive and sought after 90's cards.  How the test cards made it out into the public is also another great area of speculation.  If you're curious about the set a quick internet search will send you down the rabbit hole.   Robin does have a 1990 Donruss Aqueous card, but one has alluded my collection so far.

Ahem.  So here we are with the 2017 parallel.  I was able to snag a copy for a decent price like all my Black Friday cards.  If my count is right there are 8 parallels to the Retro Variations set not including the 4 printing plates.  There are only 3 rarer, the pink, artist proof, and press proof.  I do love the 1983 design.  The 82 and 83 Donruss sets are some of my favorites and probably the best designs Donruss put out in the 80's and early 90's.   Panini could have found a better photo I'm sure and the Photoshop color and airbrushing leaves a lot to be desired.  

2006 Upper Deck Epic - Epic Materials Light Orange EM-RY2

Year: 2006

Manufacturer: Upper Deck

Set: Epic

Card Number: EM-RY2

Card Type: Insert Parallel

Insert Set: Epic Material Relic

Parallel: Light Orange 

Relic Type: Jersey

Card Attributes: Relic, Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 005/155

I'll be slowly working through all the new Younts I just picked up from my most recent COMC order.  While a lot of the cards had been sitting in my portfolio there for a long time this is one of the cards I was able to snag for a really good price during the Black Friday sale.  I have one other Epic relic and it's the purple version of this card.  Robin has two cards in the series, hence the RY2 in the card designation and there are a gazillion color parallels to chase.  

While I picked up a lot of really low numbered cards in my last shipment this was the only Yount relic I pulled the trigger on.  You gotta love when you find a seller who actually wants to sell some cards on COMC.  Plus it's always nice to get a swatch with a little color.

2017 Rediscover Topps 1988 Gold Foil Stamped Buyback

Year: 2017 sort of

Manufacturer: Topps

Card Number: 165

Card Type: Buyback

Card Set: Rediscover Topps - Gold Foil

It's rare that I find a card of Robin's that I don't already own at my LCS.  I stopped in the other day having not set foot in Don's Sportcards in a couple months.  I really just wanted to say and hi and maybe pick up a few cheap cards if I found anything that piqued my interest.

While looking through the 50 cent boxes I came across this guy.  I'm not big on these buybacks.  And I'll be damned if I'm going to pay the crazy money some people want for these.  This exact card is up on COMC with a price of over $20!  But for a couple quarters I couldn't pass it up.  Plus it's the Gold Foil parallel of the buybacks.  There are 5 levels of rarity with Gold being the middle level.  

2014 Panini Hall of Fame 75th Anniversary Blue Shield Red Parallel

Year: 2014

Manufacturer: Panini

Set: Hall of Fame 75th Anniversary

Card Number: 83

Card Type: Base Variation Parallel

Variation Type: Blue Shield

Parallel: Red Foil

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 21/50

In the past Topps has put out some pretty interesting set configurations.  So I'll assume this is Panini's attempt not to be outdone.  I'll do my best to break down the set for you before we get to Robin's card.  The base set consisted of 100 players, each of those players had 3 base card variations all numbered to just 75.  So right there the base cards are super rare.  On top of that each of those 3 base cards had 5 color parallels (red, blue, green, gold, and black) all very low numbered.  Robin had a bunch of other insert cards in the set also very low numbered.  I have a complete checklist and some images here.

This is my first card of Robin's from the set I've been able to acquire.  This is another deal I found on COMC.   This might be the priciest of the cards I had in my last shipment, but it was still under $5.

What I have here is Robin's Blue Shield variation Red foil parallel.  The other two variations are a green shield and a red shield and they use different photos for all three cards.

Not a bad first card to add to the collection.  Overall it is what it is.  The backs look very similar to Panini's other Cooperstown offerings.  Back in October of last year I had stated that I'd like to at least get a set of the base cards.  That's proving to be a little harder than I thought.  Both from the price point and just the general availability, but that's all part of the fun of the chase.