Color Coordinated

Two recent purchases have made me appreciate the art that is a color coordinated parallel.  Occasionally a card's colored parallel will match up well with the player's photo/team colors.  

Here are two such examples that I can think of off the top of my head:

2005-06 Upper Deck Rookie Debut - Gold

I'm loathed to actively seek out a Los Angeles Lakers card.  The 2008 and 2010 NBA Championship Finals with the Boston Celtics and the Lakers are the primary cause behind my dislike for the Lakers.  The Celtics should have captured their second title with the "Big Three" (or four if you counted Rondo). 

Anyway, I'm a Gonzaga basketball fan, which is the primary reason I was drawn to this card.  The other reason being that I think the set design is top notch.  With the photo of Turiaf in his college uniform I consider this part of my Gonzaga PC.  Even though it is properly listed as a Lakers card. 

As much as hate to admit it, the card matches the Lakers' purple and gold colors very well.  As a bonus, this card is low-numbered out of 50. 

2017 Topps Chrome - Green

Whereas the previous card look nice due to the design elements coming together, here the photo matches up with the parallel color.  The Mariners' "Northwest Green" uniforms debuted in the 90s and hung around for a couple years.  After some sporadic appearances in the 2000s, these jerseys became a regular fixture in the Mariners' uniform rotation in 2011.

The greens don't match up perfectly (side note: at one time my wife legitimately thought I was color blind) but I think they match up enough to consider this a color coordinated parallel.

Do you have any favorite color coordinated parallels?  

Crackin' That Chrome

I've bought into a total of four group breaks.  Group breaks are antithetical to my idea of collecting.  I like collecting my team cards but I also like to complete sets.  I could easily use that money towards blasters, singles, or even buying a complete set outright.  The allure of landing a big PC hit is temping so I can understand the draw.

Two of my group breaks have come at the hands of Crackin' Wax. The husband and wife team are entertaining on the stream, have a passion for the product, and treat the cards well.  For whatever reason I decided to buy into their 2017 Topps Chrome, half-case break.

I strongly dislike this year's Topps design but Chrome cards typically look nice, even if the base design isn't savoy.

I have't yet to hit a nice card in my group breaks so did I have any luck this time?

As expected, I hit all of the base cards with some extras to boot.

The lone insert of the bunch.  I don't recall if this exact card was in Topps Flagship.  I know this insert set was included previously.  I will admit these are a fun look at at a player's Bowman cards.

Unfortunately, no Chrome color this time around.  The colored parallels are really what make Chrome exciting and pop.  While disappointed, getting a total of 4 base parallels felt like a surprise.

Enough teasing with the boring cards, you came to see some hits!  It turns out the very first hit of the break was for ME! I could not wait to see that beauty in person.  And wouldn't you know, I had another hit on the way!

When my spoils arrived at my house I checked and double checked but did not see the two autograph cards! After e-mailing Crackin' Wax, they quickly said they would track down what happened.  A day later, the mix-up was solved and the cards would be on their way to me shortly.  100% professional service and in no way nefarious.

My two cards literally came to me from the Tampa Bay Rays.  After trading us back Erasimo Ramirez (who admittedly has performed adequately since coming over to the Mariners), I couldn't believe that I had been fleeced by the Rays, again.  All was well, though!

There we go.  A purple parallel of Dan Vogelbach! I would have much rather preferred Mitch Haniger, as Vogelbach is going to languish down in AAA for who knows how long.  An auto numbered to 250 is still a solid hit.  The base auto was a nice little bonus.

I'm not one to buy into group breaks regularly but I can confidently say that Crackin' Wax has done well by me.