The New Mentality

*brews his cup of coffee, pours the last little bit of Peppermint Mocha creamer that's in the bottle and decides that's probably it for the Christmas season on that.*

  

The New Mentality in the hobby is spreading and spreading fast.

When I got my father back into the hobby three years ago, he was all about adding cards to his collection and opening packs for the thrill of the chase. 

Then 2020 hit and he caught The New Mentality.

He started to see how others were making big time money off from retail flips and decided to dip his feet in. That's the starting point of The New Mentality. First it was a fat pack. Then a blaster. Then a blaster and a hanger. And then he started to do the thing I hate most, clearing off most of the shelves of products and even attempting to flip the unflippable products like Score. It had gotten so bad where he wouldn't even tell me what products were on the shelves when I texted for him to pick me up something. He preferred to flip it for more than have me be able to open some. 

That was a painful realization.

The New Mentality is an ugly disease in the hobby. It's when greed and money means more than card collecting. It's all about the money and not about the fun. I believe the only cure for people who have caught The New Mentality is to show them how to have fun collecting again.

I am currently working on that with my father. It's a slow, slow cure especially if someone has had that mentality for awhile.

*takes a sip of coffee while game planning the next part of my cure*

Before The New Mentality fully hit him, I was able to land myself one more blaster box from him in trade. It wasn't the hottest product on the shelf but it was better than nothing at the time.

*takes a sip, begins to rip*

In every blaster box of 2020 Panini Optic baseball, there are 27 cards. There are 6 packs of 4 cards of Optic then an extra 3 card pack of Pink parallels. Each blaster is $20 unless you are buying from a flipper.

There wasn't much in terms of names of note for base, so I will skip to the rookies which I was impressed with. There was almost two in every pack which seems odd to me. Feels like the last time I ripped Optic on here there was maybe a couple total. 

Even found a Gavin Lux Rated Rookie. He's no Luis Robert in terms of value, but maybe down the road he will be.

*takes a sip happy at what I have seen already*

 

Now onto the shiny stuff and inserts

Nelson Cruz Silver

Inserts of Illusions with Trevor Story, The Rookies AJ Puk and Stained Glass with Ketel Marte

This Lindor was my favorite designed insert of the group, Mythical.

*takes another sip before another rip*

Now onto the bonus Pink Pack Parallels.

Each of these have three cards. Could be insert parallels, subsets or base. It's all a surprise.

Andres Munoz. Not sure who this is.

Acuna! 

Hiura

Not too bad at all!

*finishes up cup of coffee with the remaining Peppermint Mocha creamer, now back to Hazelnut for the next cup and to finish up this post*

Remember above where I mentioned the spread of The New Mentality is fast, since my father started doing that, others around the area caught it. They have the disease much more than my father does as they follow the vendor store to store to store taking all they can and leaving the scraps. Scraps are known as Hockey cards. This has helped me out some in trying to fix my father's catch of The New Mentality. He isn't getting the opportunities as much to flip anymore and I have been trying to take advantage of that and remind him how great the hobby is just collecting again.

And believe me, collecting is great. So isn't coffee.

Before I close, I wanted to give you some insight on what to look for when you or someone else you know has caught The New Mentality.

Here are the signs to look for to know if you or someone you know has caught it, it's as simple as one, two, three.

1. Buys a pack, blaster, hanger or mega box of a popular product when its able to be found
2. Looks up value online to see what it goes for.
3. Flips it.

It will be pretty obvious when you have or someone you knows does.

How do you know if you are cured or don't have it? Well, that's as simple as one, two, three as well.

1. Buy a pack, blaster, hanger or mega box of a popular product when its able to be found.
2. Barely make it to the car before ripping it. It's okay to rip it just outside the Walmart or Target door. We all have been there.
3. Enjoys the cards that were opened.

I hope this helps. If you or someone you know has caught The New Mentality, remember to remind them why they got into collecting in the first place. It may or may not work but it's worth a try.

Coffee Break:2020 Donruss Optic Baseball Blaster Box

*has already finished his morning coffee as it is now mid-morning, how can this be Cards Over Coffee today when I am already running late on the coffee part. Should I make a cup just for this post? contemplating....*

I feel like I am on a rare tear on here with four posts in a row. Something I haven't ever done on this blog as these posts take a good amount of time to write. But, today, I have some extra time on my hands and I am trying to catch up on a couple of recent breaks I had thanks to a couple of trades with my father. So here we are.

Today's break is a 2020 Donruss Optic baseball blaster box. This a newer Panini product that released not too long ago. So I was a little surprised how quickly I was actually able to get my hands onto some the way things are going in the hobby currently.

 

*still thinking over the coffee idea, but will break into this box some first*

In every blaster box of 2020 Donruss Optic baseball there are 27 cards. Those 27 cards are split up to 6 packs of 4 cards plus a 3 card pack of Pink Parallels and blasters are $20. There are no guarantees in here other than the pink parallels.

The base set and basis of this product is basically chroming everything that the regular Donruss offered. That's the easiest way to put it.

 

The base set is made up of 200 cards. First are the Optic Diamond Kings in the base set

Next are the Rated Rookies. Two things to note, Luis Robert is in here for you prospect chasers (I think some form of Jasson Dominguez as well) and what is up with my run of Brendan McKay cards?! That's the fourth I have found recently in my breaks.

The Rated Rookies are followed by the base cards and ending with All Stars which I didn't get any of in this break to show off.

 

Another thing I didn't get a lot of to show off in this break are the parallels which are aplenty in this product.

 

So if you're looking to build a rainbow, good luck.

They include,

BASE:Holo, Pink Velocity /199, Red/White/Blue /150, Black Stars /125, Orange /100, Spirit of 76 /76, Blue /75, Red /60, Carolina Blue /50, Teal Velocity /35, Black /25, Gold /10, Green /5, Eagle 1/1, and Gold Vinyl 1/1.

FOTL PARALLELS: Pandora /99, Pandora Blue /99, Pandora Purple /99, Pandora Red /99, Cracked Ice Blue /7, Cracked Ice Green /7, and Cracked Ice Red /7.

CHOICE PARALLELS: Red Dragon /88, Green Dragon /84, Liberty /45, and Freedom /45.

RETAIL PARALLELS: Carolina Blue & White, Lime Green, Pink, and Red Wave.

 

If you're keeping track at home, that's 30 parallels including two 1/1's. Though it would look amazing to build one, it will be quite the challenge.

I was just happy to find this Aaron Judge holo silver in my first pack. It's pretty stunning.

Which was my only other parallel besides the three promised pinks which were,

Joe Palumbo. I have no idea who this is

Shane Bieber. Which song does he sing again?

And Jorge Polanco. Those aren't the strongest names in the hobby.

Now that we have taken a look at those, time to move onto inserts!

*before I do that I gotta finish making my coffee, yeah you knew this was coming. I expect you to do the same*

 

Inserts have their own form of parallels but nothing like the base cards...fortunately. Just three to find with Holo, Gold #/10, Gold Vinyl 1/1.

There are 25 of these Retro Donruss 1986 inserts to chase.

Illusions looks really cool, I would imagine the parallels to it helps it stand out more. There are 15 of these to find.

Mike Trout! Alright! These Mythical have 15 cards to chase as well. Solid design here too.

Stained Glass. This card is eye popping. This is actually the holo silver parallel to it. My PC guy Gleyber and all. Solid way to end this break. 

*takes a sip of very hot coffee, then moves onto finishing up this post*

Well my first break of Donruss Optic baseball in some time was okay. The Trout, Judge and especially the Gleyber will be going straight to the PC. I am pretty happy with those. The base and other parts were weak, but overall was a fun break regardless.

However, don't think I felt strongly enough about it to go back for more. I haven't ever been a huge fan of Optic like I am with Prizm. Which coincidentally enough will be our next Coffee Break. Til then, drink your coffee while it's warm and have a good day.

Ratings (ratings based on 1-5 🍵)

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