Christmas in July (part III)

This is the thrilling conclusion of my Christmas In July break - and unlike Hollywood, I'm not going to split the final part of the trilogy in half. Here's my two-box break of 2018 Panini Classics:

A week or so prior to this purchase, I lamented that hobby boxes of Classics cost over $100. Jon Pennysleeves and I are both fans of the chrome-style parallels and, since he's the reason I'm even aware of this set, I was hoping to pull a few legends for him.

Unfortunately it's not possible to pull those Optichrome parallels out of retail packs. But at just $9.99 per blaster, there's still plenty of value to be found. Let's get crackin':

Box I, Pack I:

Boom! Right of of the gate we have two Brett Favre cards I needed, including an Eras insert. That brings my Favre count to 709 - not counting two more sitting in my COMC inventory.

Box I, Pack II:

This one starts off weak but ends with four HOFers including Roger Wehrli (misspelled on the front). I like the way Panini divided this set into thirds: cards #1-100 are current players, #101-200 are retired greats, and #201-300 are rookies. Short-printed, of course.

Box I, Pack III:

The wrapper lists non-base odds at 1:2 packs. I actually like the Ray Guy more than the Zeke insert. (Punters are players, too!) Have to admit I'd never heard of Mike Wagner before pulling this card. Those Seahawks uniforms look like they're relics of the WLAF. 

Box I, Pack IV:

This pack had a little bit of everything - a Packer, a trio of HOFers, a couple of future HOFers, a short-printed RC (which will probably go to Dennis if he needs it) and a blue back parallel RC #d/175. Very cool.

Box I, Pack V:

The Big Ben Composers insert is the highlight here, but I'm partial to the Tomlinson and Flutie. My younger self used to jokingly refer to Rayfield Wright as Ray Right Field.

Box I, Pack VI:

Oooh a relic! I was not expecting that (even though the box clearly states that I should.) The Cowboy QBs are the big names here, but the only base card of interest to me is the Gilbert Brown.

 Box I, Pack VII:

This pack was all passers and pass-catchers. I like the Warfield in particular. (War Paulfield doesn't work as well lol)

Box I, Pack VIII:

Another rookie card, a black & white Raymond Berry, and another Packers legend. Don Majkowski wouldn't be considered a "legend" to most fans but he had a monster 1989 season and he passed the torch to Brett Favre after a 1992 injury. I'm happy to see him resurface in recent sets.

Now let's see what's inside the second box...

Box II, Pack I:

Brady and Big Ben on a "Classic Clashes" insert is the key card here, but I'm no fan of either guy so I'll add it to the tradebait pile.

 Box II, Pack II:

Another Big Ben, a nice John Hannah, and...a Lamar Jackson RC! That might be the best card of the break.

Here's a closer look at that Lamar:

It's gonna be tough to beat that one in the next six packs.

 Box II, Pack III:

Hmm. I feel like I've seen those first three cards before. Also the High Praise insert is a bit disappointing. Not because it's Lawrence Taylor, but because the "praise" comes from LT himself. Lame.

Box II, Pack IV:

It's practically impossible to get a "bad" pack out of this product. Even though there's nothing I'm drawn to here, it still contains a RC and a pair of legendary quarterbacks.

 Box II, Pack V:

Another Composers insert of a Steelers signal-caller, and an Eric Dickerson for my PC. I think I had a Larry Little rookie card back in the day.

Box II, Pack VI:

The Manning and Moore are nice, and what are the odds that I'd pull another relic of a LSU alum?

 Box II, Pack VII:

A Brady dupe, a Barry Sanders, and another Packers legend. Here's an interesting fact (to me, at least) I pulled five out of the six Packers legends in the set; only Paul Hornung eluded me. Yet I didn't pull any of the four current Packers.

 Box II, Pack VIII:

The final pack was heavy on Rams legends, and also contained the sixth RC of the break. As much as I like this set I won't be attempting to complete it, for two reasons. One is the short-printed rookie cards. (I would need 94 more!)

The second reason is that the collation of current player cards was not in my favor. 

Far too many dupes here. The strange thing is, I didn't get a single dupe out of the legends subset. I can't complain, though. I got two new Brett Favre cards, a nice stack of base cards, a pair of relics, and some solid tradebait for only $20.  Can't beat that.

Thanks for reading!

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