3&B_cards

Trying something new tomorrow night on the Voggt show, and I'm excited to see how it goes! 8 spots for our next Illusions box - each spot goes into a random to determine draft order. When your spot comes up in the draft, you can pick from:
- first acetate card pulled
- second acetate card pulled
- red Tmall parallel
- all rookie parallels
- all vet parallels
- all rookie inserts
- all vet inserts
- all base vets and rookies
Spots are Buy It Now on the Voggt show, so you can pick them up in advance!
If you haven't used Voggt before, join up with 3_AND35 to get £10 credit.

I'll be breaking three boxes of 2020 Illusions live on Voggt on Tuesday night from 9pm - grab your spots now for a fiver - DM me to snap those up! Voggt will also be dropping in a mystery card for half price during the stream, and it's a juicy one.

Voggt UK

Jayson Tatum print - digital download - now available on my Etsy (link in bio)
Hard copy prints coming soon. Drop me a line if you'd like to talk about commissions - I'm keen to work on new stuff.

A new work in progress, after a few weeks of practice and picking up a few new colours. This one took a good while, but I really think it's a bit of a breakthrough. It had to be Sir Charles. Not sure who should be next, but let me know if there's someone you'd like to see.

1973 Topps - Walt Bellamy
It doesn't get much better than 1970s card photos. The ones where it looks like the players were just stopped in the hallway on their way to get changed are among the best. Add to that the sweet stylings - afros, moustaches, gold teeth - and the gorgeous, simple card designs. It's easy to forget what a different world these guys were playing in. Yes they were stars, and got invited to the big parties, but they were also dealing with overt racism, seen as rent-a-giants, and earning money that's not even comparable to today's stars.

Walt Himself was a 6'11" centre, 4x All Star, whose best years were his early clutch for the what started out as the Chicago Packers, then became the Zephyrs and settled in Baltimore as the Bullets (they're now the Wizards). While they were sorting themselves out, Walt averaged 29 points and 17 rebounds. He won Olympic gold in Rome in 1960 as well, back when only college players were eligible.

1999 Pacific Prism - Emitt Smith - Holographic Gold /480
I've banged on about Pacific cards before, and this is a great example - the gold parallel of a classic set. The whole holographic set (gold, purple /320, mirror /150 and blue /80) are fantastic and would look completely at home alongside today's ridiculous refractors. I don't know how they're seen in the hobby, but I don't see them much talked about and they should be more.

Emmitt himself is the model of a kind of running back that we'll never see again in the NFL. He's over 1500 rushing yards ahead of Walter Payton at the top of the all time list. Three Superbowl rings, and most unrepeatable: 13 years as a starter. Can you imagine a running back starting for more than half that length of time now? He's made of vulcanised rubber.

2020 Panini Donruss - Nikola Jokic - Complete Players Purple Laser /15
Is Donruss the undisputed monarch of inserts these days? I'm a big sucker for the deco stylings of 2019 Great X-Pectations and 2020 Complete Players, and especially the trademark laser parallels. This is the shortest run of the set, and the purple and gold really zings. I haven't seen a Lebron or AD of this card but that colourmatch would be chef's kiss, chef's pat on the bum, and chef's unsolicited compliment.

There's definitely a skill to designing a card that's both busy, colourful and actually good. The thick black lines in this one (especially the border and diagonals) really help it to pop and the limited palette also makes Joker himself stand out against the black background. Delish.

2016 Panini Excalibur - Jaylen Brown - Coat of Arms Blue /199
I really miss Excalibur! Panini really embraced its weird little knight logo and just went all in on the heraldry and medieval themes (as well as reaching a bit for those celtic knots). The Crusade cards are the ones that have really stood out from these sets, but the Coat of Arms inserts are like a collection of all of their design ideas thrown into one layout. I thnik they're meant to be a shield maybe? A beautiful example of Panini managing to bring goofy inserts into the modern era. Check out the Knights of the Round sets from 2014 and 2015 too - they're disastrously brilliant.

Jaylen himself has more and more hobby juice as the seasons wear on, I reckon. With the Celtics doing well and even with Tatum leading the way, he's got bags of respect in the hobby - it feels like there are two options for him long term: either he wins things with the Celtics or he one day gets his own team (the former would hopefully avoid the latter). I can't decide which would be the better outcome for his values...

2021 Panini Black - DK Metcalf - Regulators
🎵It was a clear black night / a clear white moon🎵 The real ones know.
Anyway, this year's Black was mostly pretty ordinary looking jersey/auto combinations apart from the Futuristic jersey cards and these, the wild Regulators case hits that look like something out of a Total Recall nightclub. The abstracted leopard print? The pink and powder blue? The neon coming from every angle? A 6'4", 240lb unicorn wide receiver is the least outlandish thing on the card.

DK himself is in desperate need of a QB this coming season, and has gone off the boil a bit from his buff 2020, despite actually hanging up 12 TDs last time round. This set has some big rookies in it, but it's a 40 card checklist, so is going to be a hard collect for anyone who's perspiring looking at the design.

2018 Topps Chrome CL - Robert Lewandowski - Green /99
There's not much to say about Lewandowski that hasn't already been trotted out as many times as he's probably scored since I started writing this post. He's closing in on 400 league goals, which would put him just shy of 550 in all competitions... over 600 if you include internationals. That's at a goal every 1.4 games.

I love the greens from this year's Chrome, although the red or red wave (both /10) would probably be the ultimate chase card in that Bayern uniform. I don't even know what the 1/1 superfractor looks like so if anyone's ever seen one, please point me in that direction!

2016 Panini Unparalleled - Perfect Pairs - Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski - Blue /25
Gronk looks a bit taken by surprise by the ball in this card - like he's just turning back inside from a decoy route and accidentally catching a pass meant for someone else. Brady, of course, looks normal.

Unparalleled is kind of like the Revolution of NFL, so you can get galactic patterns for a tiny fraction of the price! This is the shortest parallel for these inserts, and they're probably about as rare as Revolution's chase cards anyway. I usually stay clear of multi-player cards like this until right at the end of guys' careers, in case one of them flames out - not a risk in this case.

2006 Upper Deck Reserve - Lebron James - Flight Team Gold
I don't have many UD cards, purely because of when I was buying - they weren't around by the time I came back. I love this set because of a) the grid design that's cropped up again most recently in Essentials, b) the slightly soft focus pearly finish that gives them a real quality feel, c) I just love a UD logo - it's nostalgic.

This is the rarer gold parallel, but I think the base is the better fit for this design - the 'Flight Team' text is in the same bluey colour as the rest of the card, which ties it all together and makes Bron pop even more. Generally, UD reserve is the typically uneven product of that era - Flight Team and the Star Rookies are beautiful cards, then you have quite nice designs like MVP watch and the full bleed base cards...but there's also that bizarre, super-goofy The Lebrons insert set. A box of this would be a nervous rip.

2019 Panini Black Friday - Stephen Curry - Pyramids /5
I've no idea why this is called the 'pyramids' variation because it just uses the bubbly circle refractor design similar to things like Revolution Groove. Maybe it's because they look like water drops and Pyramids is the name of an '80s municipal swimming pool. It would be MUCH cooler if it had holographic pyramids in the background. Exclusive Illuminati parallel.

I probably said this before, but these giveaway pack cards (Black Friday, Father's Day, National Convention) are a great way to get hold of short-printed cards of big players. The checklists are often multi-sport rookies and stars, so it's a crapshoot opening them yourself but the singles are always priced a lot less than comparable numbered cards from retail/hobby sets.

2019 Panini Donruss - Patrick Mahomes - Image Variation Jersey Number /15 and Black Press Proof /10
I think I picked these up at the height of Mahomes mania when I had a chunk saved up in my COMC account. The rainbow is probably off the table because while there's only one shorter numbered that these it's the 1/1 black die cut and that likely will never surface from someone's PC vault. Someone's got another black /10 listed on Ebay at the moment for about $10,000, which I think is a little optimistic.

I've never been tempted to put a rainbow together before, partly because the lower numbered cards have always been out of reach, but with Mahomes it's a weird dilemma - do I want him to take it easy next season in the hope that the 1/1 might become more affordable if it does come to light, or would the amount that that would knock of the cards I already own mean it was too much of a double-edged sword? This is all academic anyway - I can't afford a Mahomes 1/1 whatever he does on the field!

2009 Donruss Elite - Kobe Bryant - Prime Targets Gold /100
Still not decided how I feel about horizontal cards. Football sets seem to be keener on them than basketball (Elite ran these inserts for several years before this one-off NBA set and brought them back in 2018) but this one does feel as though the design fits with the format. Kobe looks like he's running from a mid-level bad guy's goons in the final act of a 90s action film, which all ended in a semi-industrial lot on the edge of town.

You can't go far wrong with a numbered Kobe, although this set has a jersey subset with prime versions numbered to 50, which would be a real find! David West is included in the checklist, so there will be some lovely teal Hornets patches in there somewhere.

1997 Fleer Ultra - Tim Duncan - Star Power Die Cut Plus
There's something weird and goofy about this set that I love. Back in the 90s they'd die cut anything, and it was as hit and miss as it is now, albeit usually with a bit more thought put into how the shaping and the card image would fit together. That led to some all-time sets, and while the Star Power die cuts aren't quite in that range, the die cut plus are maybe the best version.

The Die Cut Supreme are much rarer but throw in one of those pointless duplicated images in the background behind those incongruous but fantastic atomic icons. They're too much, but the green Plus versions get the balance between swooshy and silly just right. They were good enough to make it into the 2015 Marvel Fleer Retro set anyway.

2017 Court Kings - Kevin Durant - Dieci Migliore
I reeaally want to like Court Kings case hits, I really do. Some of them definitely hit home, like Aurora, and others like Blank Slate are fine... but I've never been able to get on board with the Cinque Pui Belle. The earlier versions were great, like the 2013 set, but later ones take the artistic theme of CK and manage to make it cramped and fussy. In 2017 though, Panini decided to expand their five most beautiful and have Ten Best instead...

This set avoided the ornate frame device of later CPBs and gave the room to breathe with full bleeds. I think it works as a bridge between ealier, roomier CPB designs and the later ones, but overall it still feels a bit run of the mill for Court Kings. You've got the pain splash and the signature waterpixel effect, but there isn't much there other than their rarity to make them real chase cards.

2014 Select - Giannis Antetokounmpo - Purple and White
This is probably one of my favourite cards. It's got young, skinny Giannis, a fantastic design year for Select, and that candy sweet purple and white laser finish. I don't know what the print run is like for these, but they just feel special and are a perfect example of how much better a lot of cards look in hand.

I'm not a huge one for the idea that 'second year' is a thing in of itself - for me it's purely about rarity and age. Cards from 8 years ago were shorter printed, have been soaking up into collections for longer, and are just harder to get hold of now. That's the only reason that second year cards from past years might be in demand if people can't afford rookie year ones, and it definintely doesn't move the needle for me when we're talking about Lamelo or Ja cards from ten minutes ago. They're ubiquitous.

MAILDAY!
2022 Topps Now Anthony Elanga /6913 and Topps Living Set Liam Delap /152
More limited edition rookies, this time from opposite ends of the Manchester colour spectrum. Neither of these are going to become either player's go-to rookie card, but I like the fact that they sometimes end up quite short printed like the Delap. These are courtesy of the extremely solid Chris over at who sorts out the orders direct from Topps.

2020 Mosaic - Aaron Gordon Elevate - Reactive Blue /99
This arrived super quickly today from Ollie at , who you should check out if you like good, affordable breaks with a mix of products and generous giveaways thrown in too. I did my first break with him this week and will be going back for more when I've got some change in my pocket. Gordon's career seems to have gone off the bubble and I don't think he ever really got going hobbywise, but this is a decent card. My real favourites from last year's Mosaic are the bobblehead Jam Masters though.

.elanga.cards

2019 Prizm EPL - Phil Foden - Orange /25
'First Prizm' is very much a thing - Foden's second year Prizm cards are almost if not MORE popular than his 2018 Optic rookies. The 2019 'orange' parallels in this set are weird because they're very metallic and easily mistaken for the /10 golds. Those are much more yellow when you look at them side to side, but the orange is still a colour that you wouldn't mind getting a medal in.

I'm not as convinced by the idea that's been sloshing around for a while that the World Cup this year will bring a big boom in the soccer card market (I think it's overestimated, and that there's too much money already being ploughed into the market in expectation) but after a solid Euros with not a tonne of pitch time, it's definitely another shot at Foden boosting his card values. It'll only take one big game before the knockouts...!

2019 Donruss Elite - DK Metcalf - Pen Pals
This is such a clean set, even with Elite's potential to be a slightly busy design. Every year is a different but tidy look, you get full face, jolly expression and usually a really smooth on-card autograph. I particularly like Pen Pals because the rookies do look so happy and optimistic about their careers. It can make for some bittersweet nostalgia if you go back and look through past years' classes.

As for Metcalf himself, while I like to see a WR with a physique like his throwing defenders around the field, his prices have taken a hit since I picked this up. With a mildly disappointing season Russell Wilson leaving town, I will not be retiring off this one in the forseeable future!

2012 Threads - Century Stars - Kevin Durant
These were pretty unremarkable inserts in 2009 and 2010 with some numbered versions and autographs, I think they then skipped a year in 2011 and came back with this dinky die-cut star pattern for a few years. The star eventually got ahead of itself by 2016 and turned into a huge chomp out of the bottom of the card. But from 2012 to 2014 these were a nice little case hit.

It would have been even cooler if the stars related to the number of all-star games that the player had appeared in, but that might have been hard to accommodate in the design itself. Die cut cards are usually quite blunt with the use of the actual cutaway sections, so having something intricate like these is a great nugget.

MAILDAY!
2019 Topps UCL Match Attax - Victor Osimhen
It's a rookie card as far as I'm concerned (see previous Harry Kane post). The 2019 design is iconic for me because it's the one used for both Ansu Fati's and Erling Haaland's On Demand rookies. These aren't big investments, but it's worth looking at the difference between European and US pricing for them. Osimhen's first year cards are all stickers and Match Attax (as well as the 2016 365 sticker), which makes his 2020 Mosaic, Merlin and Chronicles more popular. This is one for the Lille fans then.