Black Friday buy - 2013 Panini Prizm baseball box

Since I'm not a particularly passionate shopper (except when it comes to sports cards), my only Black Friday shopping involved purchasing a box of 2013 Panini Prizm baseball and a box of Panini Prizm hockey from RyansCardz, a local brick and mortar card shop.

I've already reported on the contents of the Black Friday Panini packs I received, and posted my hockey box pulls on my Hockey Card Geek blog page.

So, it's time to post my Panini Prizm baseball pulls. First, however, a small caveat.

I'm not usually a fan of non-licensed baseball products. There's nothing more unexciting than logos  and uniforms that have been completely airbrushed out, rendering them totally devoid of any  recognition or resemblance of your favorite team. I mean, even going so far as to remove the piping off a uniform? Are you kidding me?

However, Heaven help me, I do have a weak spot for the Panini Prizm line of sports cards. There's plenty of nice photos and thanks to the Prizm printing progress, the pictures always appear to just "pop" off the cards.

Let's start out with some of the inserts. First, there's the Fearless insert set, with Michale Bourn (F13), Adam Jones (F16) and Jose Bautista (F20). Those are followed by a Superstar Ryan Braun (SS4), Top Prospects Jameson Taillon (TP4) and Rookie Challengers Evan Gattis (RC3).

The Panini Prizms include Nomar Garciaparra (193), an Orange Prizm Starling Marte #56/60 (146), Bernie Williams (179) and Wilin Rosario (136).

Other nice cards include a Stephen Strasburg "Panini Spokesperson" card (304), and USA Baseball subset cards for Alex Gordon (USA7) and Troy Tulowitzki (USA3).

Autographs are packed two to a box, so I saved the best for last.

The first auto was Adam Eaton. The second auto didn't come up until midway through the second stack of packs. I love the fact it's a Manny Machado Autographs and Rookie Autographs, but am disappointed in that it's a redemption. I haven't heard good or bad about Panini's Customer Service when it comes to redemptions, so I'll have to wait and see how this turns out.

For the most part, I was pretty happy with the RCs I pulled, which include
Nick Noonan, Giants (206)                        Nathan Karns, Nationals (252)
Brandon Maurer, Mariners (207)               Jackie Bradley, Jr., Red Sox (253)
Ryan Pressly, Twins (208)                         Brandon Barnes, Astros (254)
Leury Garcia, Rangers (211)                      Tyler Skaggs, D-Backs (265)
T.J. McFarland, Orioles (212)                    Scott Rice, Mets (266)
Kyuji Fujikawa, Cubs (223)                       Mike Olt, Cubs (269)
Mike Zunino, Mariners (224)                     Shelby Miller, Cardinals (276)
Manny Machado, Orioles (233)                 Phillipps Aumont, Phillies (280)
Carter Capps, Mariners (234)                    Sean Doolittle, A's (281)
Jaye Champman, Cubs (237)                    Darin Ruf, Phillies (290)
Ryan Jackson, Cardinals (238)                 Oswaldo Arcia, Twins (291)
Tyler Boyd, Phillies (248)                        Robbie Grossman, Astros (292)
Adam Eaton, D-Backs (249)                    Jean Machi, Giants (296)
Hiram Burgos, Brewers (250)

Overall, not too bad of an experience. My only complaint? Only two Padres were included in this box - Huston Street and Casey Kelly's RC.