BillInDallas
Verified Trader,
Thanks to the fine gentlemen at Breakaway Sports Cards, I was able to have two master cases broken at the Expo to take advantage of the redemption program. I also was able to get my grubby hands on one more box post expo that still had the redemption along with them. Big thanks to Chuck and the guys at his store. I wholeheartedly recommend them for any collector (Canadian based or otherwise) for their great pricing, and EXCELLENT customer service. Now onto the cards...
The Redemptions
I know there's a large part of the hobby that looks at redemption cards as though they don't exist and are somehow lesser than cards that were inserted into the product on packout. Let me tell you, these redemptions are nothing short of outstanding. The quality of the players and memorabilia is outstanding. I'm going to be keeping more than several of these for my own collection!
The Main Event
When the product was announced, I wasn't sure whether I really liked the checklist on the whole. With the redemptions, I took the plunge and hoped that the cut in production would result in decent collation without too much filler.
Obviously there's the base card. But I'll be honest, I really like the acetate base cards and I'll likely put the set together since I have so many already. I'll skip the scans of those.
Then there's the auto and memorabilia cards. All the time you hear how sometimes you have to see cards in hand to appreciate them as opposed to scans or watching videos. This is definitely the case with these cards. You can see how Leaf upped the ante with these cards. Little things like the foil really make many of the cards pop.
Normally I don't like the "slap the sticker on" offerings, but a lot of the stickers on these are well placed and work well with the card itself. Now I didn't inspect every single one, but it did appear as though these were put on by a machine given the consistency I saw throughout. If nothing else, they're not all over the place like other sticker releases. It would be nice if the ink colors were uniform within sets, but these things happen.
We all know of the constraints that Leaf/ITG has to work under without the license. Normally the lack of logos doesn't bother me one bit. But I have to admit that with some of the cards the large amount of airbrushing made the player look awkward, and like I said somewhere else, made it look like some players were wearing pajamas. But there are some cards where the airbrushing was very well done. For me it really just varied from card to card. One thing I'd recommend is that if the card is predominantly white on the front like the Journey cards, using the dark jerseys minimized all of the white that could potentially appear if using white jerseys. For these cards, colors are best and pop moreso than all white cards.
One last little pet peeve were the cards that featured photos of the player on the front and back of the card. Now granted, I didn't take notes of each and every card, but it seemed as though the same exact photo was used for the fronts and backs. Again there may be limits on images available, but having a different image is one of those little things that in my mind take the card to the next level. Using the same photo make the back very pedestrian in a world where few people look at the backs. A different photo would be reason to flip it over!
So here are the cards. Like the redemptions, there's a LOT I'm going to keep and a few sets I'm going to put together. As much as it seemed like I complained about earlier, I'm VERY happy with the product. Lots of great memorabilia, very good design for most cards (even if it's just adding foil to something like a 6 player card - the foil really makes the card much nicer than before), and the feeling of quality feel when you hold them, makes it a hit with me! Thanks if you made it through all of this and enjoy!
BTW, if you're interested in something feel free to shoot me a PM. Whatever I decide to move will be getting listed in the next few days.
The Redemptions
I know there's a large part of the hobby that looks at redemption cards as though they don't exist and are somehow lesser than cards that were inserted into the product on packout. Let me tell you, these redemptions are nothing short of outstanding. The quality of the players and memorabilia is outstanding. I'm going to be keeping more than several of these for my own collection!
The Main Event
When the product was announced, I wasn't sure whether I really liked the checklist on the whole. With the redemptions, I took the plunge and hoped that the cut in production would result in decent collation without too much filler.
Obviously there's the base card. But I'll be honest, I really like the acetate base cards and I'll likely put the set together since I have so many already. I'll skip the scans of those.
Then there's the auto and memorabilia cards. All the time you hear how sometimes you have to see cards in hand to appreciate them as opposed to scans or watching videos. This is definitely the case with these cards. You can see how Leaf upped the ante with these cards. Little things like the foil really make many of the cards pop.
Normally I don't like the "slap the sticker on" offerings, but a lot of the stickers on these are well placed and work well with the card itself. Now I didn't inspect every single one, but it did appear as though these were put on by a machine given the consistency I saw throughout. If nothing else, they're not all over the place like other sticker releases. It would be nice if the ink colors were uniform within sets, but these things happen.
We all know of the constraints that Leaf/ITG has to work under without the license. Normally the lack of logos doesn't bother me one bit. But I have to admit that with some of the cards the large amount of airbrushing made the player look awkward, and like I said somewhere else, made it look like some players were wearing pajamas. But there are some cards where the airbrushing was very well done. For me it really just varied from card to card. One thing I'd recommend is that if the card is predominantly white on the front like the Journey cards, using the dark jerseys minimized all of the white that could potentially appear if using white jerseys. For these cards, colors are best and pop moreso than all white cards.
One last little pet peeve were the cards that featured photos of the player on the front and back of the card. Now granted, I didn't take notes of each and every card, but it seemed as though the same exact photo was used for the fronts and backs. Again there may be limits on images available, but having a different image is one of those little things that in my mind take the card to the next level. Using the same photo make the back very pedestrian in a world where few people look at the backs. A different photo would be reason to flip it over!
So here are the cards. Like the redemptions, there's a LOT I'm going to keep and a few sets I'm going to put together. As much as it seemed like I complained about earlier, I'm VERY happy with the product. Lots of great memorabilia, very good design for most cards (even if it's just adding foil to something like a 6 player card - the foil really makes the card much nicer than before), and the feeling of quality feel when you hold them, makes it a hit with me! Thanks if you made it through all of this and enjoy!
BTW, if you're interested in something feel free to shoot me a PM. Whatever I decide to move will be getting listed in the next few days.
