When the End of the Rainbow Is Hard to Find

Washington State Cougars football is one of my card collecting passions.  Sometimes, just sometimes, a WSU football player is good enough to be included in card releases.  Last year, wide receiver Gabe Marks was fortunate enough to be included in a couple Panini releases.  This year, quarterback Luke Falk has the honor.

So far he has been included in 5 Panini releases featuring him in his college uniform.  Typically I'll only collect the player in their college uniform but this year I might make an exception for Falk.  He was a great quarterback to watch, even if he had his struggles, and he embodied the Cougar spirit.  I honestly don't know how far he will make it in the pros but I wish him the best.

Anyway, I've picked up a lot of Falk cards--44 and counting.  Including duplicates.  The one set I've really focus on is 2018 Score.  Score is basic but the cards look sharp.  I therefore decided I would pick up as many of his Score cards as I could.

At some point, I decided I would go for the rainbow of his cards.  Excluding printing plates, there are 14 total cards in the rainbow Easy, right? Wrong.

Base

Like I said, a rather basic design.  However, the photo selection is something a little different.  Quarterbacks aren't usually featured scrambling outside the pocket.

The crimson bar under the photo adds some flourish to what otherwise could have been an even simpler design.  There is a touch a gray in the border around the photo, next to the position and team designation, and behind the name.  These gray elements are present in all the cards but given that WSU colors are crimson and gray, it really fits well on Falk's card.

Based on everything above, I was drawn to the card.  I even want to put together the rest of the set.

Gold

The gold parallel is a blaster box exclusive.

Scorecard

These scorecard parallels are the most common.  I've pulled a handful myself in my Falk search.  This one was picked off eBay.

Gold Zone /50

Out of all the numbered parallels I've seen on eBay, this one has shown up the most.  I have no idea why given it's low numbered.

Red Zone /20

I've also seen this parallel a couple times on eBay. The red border was a must have since it matches the school colors.

Gem Masters /1

If I was a betting man, I would have guessed that I would have picked up other retail exclusive parallels before I found the one of one.  With the 1/1 secured, I thought that the rest of the rainbow would come easily.

Instead, this is the last card I've found and it has been a couple weeks.  I check every day, multiple times, for needed parallels.  Nothing.  It's rather discouraging.  Score is a common set! Cards should be popping up on eBay left and right.

If you counted, I have 6 out of 14 cards needed.  It's going to be a long journey.  I won't give up though.

Did Panini Botch Its Own Contest Results?

Full Disclosure: I entered the Panini Player of the Day contest I am talking about.  My guess was not correct and therefore I have no stake in the outcome of this contest. For the record, I guessed 54 yards.

Panini has wronged the football card community. I am here to bring awareness to the issue.  The mistake appears to be so obvious, I must be wrong.  That's the only way I can explain this gross incompetence.   If am I wrong, please someone point it out for I cannot see it.

Panini, through its Player of the Day brand, held a contest for yesterday's Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals. Panini asked people to guess the total number of yards (rushing, receiving, and returning) gained by rookie Ryan Switzer.  The prize was an autographed card of Ryan Switzer.

Exhibit 1a: Twitter Contest Post
Source: https://twitter.com/PaniniPOD/status/912366929372950530

The Facebook post was worded slightly differently but the entry was still the same.

Exhibit 1b: Facebook Contest Post
Source: https://www.facebook.com/PaniniPlayerOfTheDay/posts/1636444633090207

Switzer had a mediocre night against the Cardinals. He rushed for a total of 3 yards.  He had one punt return for 18 yards.  Finally, he had four kick returns for a total of 43 yards.  He had no receiving yards.  All told, Switzer earned 64 yards against the Cardinals.

Exhibit 2: Pro Football Reference Ryan Switzer Game Log
Source:  https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SwitRy00.htm; see also ESPN Box Score http://www.espn.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=400951668

Today being the day after the football game, I checked their Facebook page to see if my guess was correct.  It was not.  Instead, I saw Panini award the card to a guess that was nowhere close to the box score results.

Exhibit 3: The "winning" comment on Facebook as awarded by Panini

Panini declared the winning guess to be 31 yards.  Less than half of the 64 yards Switzer earned according to the box score.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  I re-read the contest announcement to see if I missed something.  Nope, Panini said total yards.  

I double checked multiple box scores.  They all showed the same results.  I even used a calculator in case my mental math was incorrect.  Nope, the calculator showed 64 yards.

In disbelief, I went to their Twitter page to see if someone else was awarded the prize.

Exhibit 4: Twitter Reply

Same thing.  Panini declared the 31 yards was the right answer. Unbelievable.  

I posted a Facebook comment on the contest asking how 31 yards was the correct answer.  I also tweeted at Panini saying the same thing.  I have received no response.  

I'm probably making a big stink over nothing.  However, if Panini is making even small errors such as this one, how we can trust that Panini is not making errors elsewhere? Indeed, Panini has made quality control mistakes, including the Dak Prescott autopen controversy and the usage of Mitchell and Ness jerseys for game-used veteran cards.  

Again, if I am wrong please point it out.  I will have egg on my face but I am completely fine with that.  I just want to get to the bottom of this. Maybe Switzer had 33 negative yards that are not reflected.  Who knows?

A Tale of Two Packs

I've seen quite a bit Prizm, watching people chase the pink parallels in the retail only $50 boxes (and only 20 cards in the box!!).  I'm not interested in chasing retail color but with Topps Chrome Football out of the picture this year, Prizm appears to have taken over as the shiny replacement.  

Prizm retail finally made it to my grocery store so I decided to buy a couple packs to see what the fuss is about.  Even though I think the base design is rather bland, the shine on the cards does look nice.  With only 4 cards per pack, at $3 per pack, the value is not there.  

I haven't figured out the trick to scanning the base cards so my apologies for the inconsistent scans.  

Pack 1

Starting off nicely with a competent quarterback.  Other than last week against the Broncos where he completed only 30% of his passes with no touchdowns, Mariota had nice stretch of three games.  He had completed over 65% of his passes with at least two touchdowns.  

I have Blount on my fantasy football team so I've been happy about his play this year.  Last Monday he topped 1000 yards rushing and tied the Patriots' single season rushing touchdown record.  I have no doubt he will break that record.

As much as I hated the Cowboys during the '90s (who the hell declared them "America's Team?") I can't deny that Emmitt Smith was an excellent player.  I'll always happily had a Hall of Famer to my collection.  

The last card of the pack was a rookie prizm/refractor.  Even though he's struggled since the first few weeks of the season, getting a rookie card of the 2nd overall draft pick is still pretty sweet.  

Pack 2

Starting off the second pack with an average receiver.  Nothing to be excited about here.  

Who? I seriously have no idea.  This year he has rushed for a total of 34 years so that's probably why I don't know his name.  

The Jets cut Amaro all the way back in September.  The Jets haven't exactly been a model of success this season so to be cut from the Jets says a lot.  

I love seeing a Packers card the week after they beat up on the Seahawks.  As far as I can tell, Davis has had little to no impact so far this year.  This makes this a dud of a rookie card.

I could convince myself that I opened my money's worth with pack 1.  With pack 2 though...ouch. No card was noteworthy.  I know that not every pack can be a winner but these two packs were total opposites.  Despite the popularity of Prizm, I will be spending my money elsewhere as I'm not too excited about this set.  

An Absolute Storm

Rain isn't anything new during the fall in Seattle.  The rain is actually welcomed and looked forward to by some (crazy) people around here.  I can understand that after a usually brief, hot summer people are ready to put on their Ken Bone sweaters and hunker down indoors.  To actually cheer the return of rain though is unforgivable in my book.  It's rainy here 9 months out of the year, can't you just let the rest of us enjoy the sun?

Today is the start of the first big storm of the year.  It's been pouring all day instead of our usual drizzle.  Did you know that more rain falls in New York City than it does in Seattle?  It's true.

Forecasters are predicting an historic storm this weekend with high winds and flood warnings all across the region.  Thankfully, I live at the top of a hill so I shouldn't have any worries about the rain. The wind is a different story as it could very likely knock out the power.

To prepare me in the event of a power loss, I headed to the store to pick some supplies such as candles, batteries, dry goods, and of course, cards.  I also bought a couple nice 3-inch D-ring binders to use for my PC binder and my completed set binder.  I didn't think there would be any new releases to pick up but I did see packs of 2016 Panini Absolute Football.  

I initially passed over Absolute in the grocery store because I thought I had already purchased a pack or two.  However, after checking my collection on the Trading Card Database I realized I never bought any this year.  I decided to rectify that mistake by picking up a fat pack.  

With most foil cards, the scans never do the cards justice.  I never quite know how to adjust the scans to make cards look better.  Take my word though, these are slick looking cards.  All the lettering is gold foil and the surface of the cards is also foil.  Shine on, Absolute.

My pack was very QB heavy, with 8 base cards out of 18.  I wouldn't mind except I was stuck with Sam Bradford instead of Carson Wentz. No Seahawks cards, either.  Fooey.

Two non-base out of the pack.  The first was a blue, retail only parallel. It's a rookie parallel as well, which is a plus.  

The second is a cool idea for an insert, Unsung Heroes.  Presumably, these are cards of players who wouldn't otherwise have their own cards.  Although if they are considered heroes, then they probably deserved their own base card in the first place.  You can sort of see the rainbow refractor in the scan so at least these guys are getting extra special treatment.  

Will these cards do me any good in the storm?  You bet they won't but at least when the power kicks back on, I'll have something shiny to look at.

Coug Talk: Battle of the Palouse

Pullman, Washington and Moscow, Idaho are separated by a mere 8 miles, located in the heart of the Palouse region.  The short distance makes for a perfect storyline across all sports between two Division I schools, Washington State University and the University of Idaho.  This rivalry is known as the Battle of the Palouse.

I wouldn't call this a storied rivalry, at least not between the football teams.  Well, you could but the story is that WSU beats up on Idaho and Idaho limps back home.  Idaho has always been overmatched.  WSU's 56-6 victory on Saturday over Idaho is a picture perfect reflection of how the games have been played for these two teams.  WSU leads the series 71-17-3 and the last 20 games have been lopsided.  

A whole lot of crimson

This might be the last time the Cougars see the Vandals.  Starting in 2018, the Vandals will drop down to the FCS and join the Big Sky conference.  The two schools have stepped away from meeting annually so I think it is unlikely we will see Idaho next year.  If so, Saturday's resounding victory is a great way to end the series.

Jason Gesser, who was inducted into the WSU Athletics Hall of Fame prior to the game on Saturday, played in several WSU/Idaho games.  Gesser was the quarterback during one of WSU's rare losses in Idaho, in 2000.  However, he was able to close out his college career with a big 49-14 victory against Idaho.

Brink was the quarterback I saw the most of during my years at WSU.  Alex Brink played in all four WSU victories from 2004-2007.  His best game was in 2007 when he threw for over 300 yards and 4 touchdowns.  

Lastly, Brandon Gibson, a player who I have mentioned before.  His most prolific game against Idaho came in 2007 when he had 81 yards and 1 touchdown.

The theme from these brief player write-ups has been points.  WSU likes to score a lot against Idaho. The Idaho games always serve as a nice heart relief from the typical nailbiters.

Next week WSU has a bye but I'll probably still throw up some WSU cards on the blog anyway.  I should probably plan out some sort of schedule for these posts but who likes to do that?

Week 2 Recap + Cougar Ground Game

I don't envy sports writers.  I started to write the intro to his blog several times during the game before stopping. This was a game of peaks and valleys for the Cougars.  As of right now, I thought WSU was done for as they had failed to convert on 4th down, down by 10 points with 6 minutes left in the game.  Then two minutes later, WSU makes an interception and on the next offensive play, Luke Falk throws a long bomb to none other than Gabe Marks.  

4:17 left and the Cougars trail only by a field goal.  Boise State is about to receive the kickoff so I'm going to stop writing now.  

Alright.  Ultimately the game came down to a WSU Hail Mary pass from about the 50 yard line.  

There were no Central Michigan heroics tonight as Falk's pass was well short of the end zone and batted down anyway.

I truly believed WSU could have started this season 2-0 but instead they are winless on the year. Again, I think it's too early to lose hope for the season.  That's not to say that I'm not worried, though.

I'm going to cheer myself up by talking about cards.  

An Annual Tradition

Mike Leach - Current WSU coach and lover of pirates

Saturday marked the start of college football all across the country and as per the recent tradition with Washington State University football, the Cougars lost their opening game. This marked their fifth consecutive opening day loss. And for the second year in a row, the Cougars lost to an FCS team. Last year that didn't post a problem as the team went on to finish 9-4 and claim their first Bowl win in a long time.

I'm still optimistic for this season though, even if their record over the past decade would give any rational observer some doubt.  Since I first started at WSU in 2003, the football team has been in disarray.  Sure the Cougars went 10-3 in 2003 under new coach Bill Doba.  However, that record was more of a reflection of former coach Mike Price who left to go to Alabama but was fired before even taking the field.

In 2004, the team slipped to 5-6 and dwelled in the basement until last year when the team finished with a winning record.   Despite these dark years, there have been a few notable players. I've made an effort to pick up some WSU cards as I previously had none.

2009 Bowman Draft Picks - College Logo Patch Autographs

Brandon Gibson played during my time at WSU as he joined the team after it's 10-3 season in 2003. Unfortunately for him, he played as WSU made it's race to the bottom.  Nonetheless, he had a breakout year in 2007, with 9 TD receptions and 1180 years. 

Gibson played well enough to be drafted by the Eagles.  He ended up being traded to the Rams during his first season and spent three years with the Rams.  Gibson then signed with the Dolphins where he played two years.  Last year he signed with the Patriots but injured himself before the season even began.  As of now, he is a free agent.

Here's a highlight from his time in the NFL.

2016 Panini Contenders Draft Picks

2016 Leaf Draft - Autographs

Dom Williams was a product of the Mike Leach Air Raid offense.  Essentially what that means is that Leach is going to throw the ball and then throw the ball some more.  Dom Williams had 30 receiving touchdowns over his career at WSU, including last year's 4th quarter game tying TD against Oregon. WSU would go on to win it in a wild double OT, which is notable because that snapped an eight-game losing streak to Oregon.

Undrafted in April, Williams quickly signed with the Chargers.  He didn't make the 53-man cut but it looks like he was signed to the practice squad.  He has the speed so I hope he can make it through the year with them.

Two current players who don't have any cards are QB Luke Falk and WR Gabe Marks. Hopefully they get some recognition next card season as they are the backbone of the Air Raid offense right now.

I have more WSU cards to post so I'm going to try and make this a weekly feature after every game.

Go Cougs!

Donyess: A Look At 2016 Donruss Football

(Over at Sports Card Collectors he is running a contest for 2016 Donruss Football.  Considering I purchased a pack of these cards just yesterday, it is rather fortuitous that he has a contest for this set. This gives me a good incentive to write a review of my pack as well as to encourage you all to go enter).    

2016 Donruss Football

After a few weeks of checking every time I shopped, my local Fred Meyer had finally restocked its card selection.  Now either they don't do a good job ordering cards or if my town really enjoys their cards because the store seems to go through it's card selection rather quickly.  Either way, the small card section contained several new products, including 2016 Donruss Football.

I'm always eager to try out new sets during my first year back into the hobby.  I happily picked up a larger rack pack; 20 cards for $4.  The breakdown of the pack was 14 base, 3 parallels, 2 rookies, and 1 insert.

The base cards bare some resemblance to the base of 2016 Donruss Baseball, mainly with the stripes on the sides of the cards.  However, I find the football cards to be more visually appealing.  Each card pops with color that fills the whole border.  The name plate at the top reminds me of notebook paper, especially with the cursive writing.  

The font choice for the names is excellent.  Some sets use cursive font as way to add perceived value to the cards to either make it look like a real signature or because the designers think nearly illegible cursive is fancy.  Here Panini is clearly not attempting to recreate signatures.  I feel like this font gives off a colorful vibe to go along with the rest of the card.

My biggest complaint is that the team name and position are in a small font that can be hard to notice. Moreover, the team and position are in foil letters, which further creates visual strain.  When looking at these cards I hardly notice the team and position most of the time and I almost would have preferred if Panini left them off.  The card features the team logos prominently in the lower right corner, which would have been sufficient.  

Base Back

In typical Panini fare, this set has only one year of status.  The colors again pop on the back and mirror the colors on the front.  The back has a clean look to it and I just realized this as I'm typing but the font gives me a 1960s/Fallout 4 vibe.  

Football aside for a moment, I found a Fallout 4 picture that shows I'm thinking:

Can a font be carefree?  Because that's the feeling I get when I look at the back of these cards.  For such a violent sport, my feeling could not be more opposite to the sport itself.  Anyway, I'm too distracted by the font to finish talking about the back of the card so let's change subjects. 

Base Rookies

A new set is not complete without some rookies.  At the top is a Cody Kessler Rated Rookie and at the bottom is a standard Karl Joseph rookie card.  As you'll see below, the Rated Rookie cards all look the same from a design standpoint.  They also appear to feature staged photos of the players, rather than action shots.  I have no idea why some cards are Rated Rookies and some are not.  

The base rookies look exactly like the base cards. I am perfectly okay with that.  Although, I'm mostly certain that the photo of Joseph is Photoshoped.  There would have been no opportunity for Panini to get a photo of him, in a Raiders uniform, in a stadium.  I say well done to Panini because this is a clean edit.

Blue Press Proof Parallels

I have little to add about these blue Press Proof parallels other than they are stamped in blue with foil lettering stating Press Proofs. These are not numbered.  The team name and position lettering is also blue foil.  This shade of blue is a nice choice.

Legends of the Fall insert

The lone insert of the pack, a Legends of the Fall insert.  I'd rate this set a solid "meh" in terms of theme and player.  

What do I think of this set?  Well, Donruss has a "Donyess" on it's hands.  I've come to realize that I prefer more of the low-end sets because the designs don't seem as pretentious.  This set fits that mold. I'm a man with simple tastes.  I hope to pick up more of these cards.  

Is it Football Season Yet?

Seattle weather has been hit and miss this summer.  As I write this Thursday night, we had a full day of gray gloom with some solid rain in the evening.  Where's the sun? Where's the warm weather?? Where's the Mariners???

Ahh yes, the "will they, won't they" story of the summer.  I'm talking about whether the Mariners will make the playoffs.  Right now it's about 50/50 split.  As of late the Mariners swept the Orioles, got swept by the Astros, and lost the first game of the Royals series in a walkoff fashion.  This All-Star break cannot come soon enough.

I'm not giving up on the Mariners but with new football cards rolling out into stores, I can't help but pay attention.  The latest release in stores appears to be Panini Prestige.  I'm not familiar with the Prestige brand but based on these cards I'm guessing they are aiming for mid-tier range with class to boot.  10 cards per pack, which is a good amount.

Nice full frame images.  The name plate has crisp, sharp lines but that's about the most positive thing I can say.  The semi-transparent name background doesn't work for me with the more muted colors like gray and black.  I think the fact that the text of the name fades into the background, rather than popping out, is what sets me back.

I've been watching the All or Nothing documentary on Amazon that follows the Arizona Cardinals during the 2015 season.  It has been pretty fascinating so far and I highly recommend it to any football fan, even if not a Cardinals fan.  Johnson came in as a rookie for Arizona and had to fill into the second string due to injuries and seemed to fill the role well. 8 rushing TDs along with 4 receiving TDs.  Pretty good for a rookie.

Again, the dark background does not look good.

Here the red pops a little bit and I think this suits the card better.

Ok the light gray looks alright here but I think the blue is what helps accent the gray.  Gore has always been a rumbling runner so I wonder how long he's going to go.

Don't sleep on Robinson, otherwise you might end up in the lake.  Literally.

The orange looks good here.  I actually like the Dolphins' colors.  Otherwise, I don't pay any attention to Miami.

Solid Pats receiver.

This is something we don't see all the time, an offensive player without the football.  I wonder what he was doing here.

 And we get 1 rookie in the pack.  I like the fact that it's a college uniform because a lot of times we don't get that.  There will be other sets with rookies in their current teams' uniform.

I'd be remiss if I didn't include a shot of the back.  Same image as the front but at least Panini made an attempt to make the image look different with the color grading.  I make the same complaint here as I would other Panini cards and that's there aren't enough stats.  One year just isn't enough.  

I'm glad I picked up a pack but I won't pursue any more packs.  I might try to get the Seahawks base cards on Sportslots later (since commons usually run $0.18 there) but that's about it for this set.