Buzz Break: 2018 Pearl Jam Seattle trading cards (two packs)

From time to time, Buzz will break a box of something and post the results here. Like this and want to see more? Or maybe there's a box you'd want to see busted? Send Buzz an email at BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com.

The packs 2018 Pearl Jam Seattle trading cards
First Buzz preview: N/A
Where to buy: Will take some looking ... (click here for non-sports boxes)

Keep reading for a full breakdown and gallery of what was in this one.

Cards per pack: 11
Cards in this lot: 22
Base set completion: 
10 of 60 (17 percent)
Duplicates: 10

Notables on base cards – Stone Gossard (guitar), Jeff Ament (bass), Mike McCready (guitar), Boom Gaspar (keyboards), Brendan O'Brien (producer)

Insert/short-print cards: 2 (all cards in gallery below)
Seattle logo sticker (2)

Autographs/Memorabilia: None

What's Buzz-worthy: It's been a few years since I ripped into these in some volume, but after a recent Twitter thread about music cards I decided I'd mix it up here and dabble a bit with this one -- a clean and memorable indy release of recent years that still had some cards that eluded me. What are they? As part of the legendary band's merchandising for three big concert dates in 2018, Pearl Jam made three 60-card sets -- one for Seattle, Chicago and Boston -- using the 1990-91 NBA Hoops design (1989-90 Hoops wrappers) and with completely different photos for everything. They're not their first card sets as their previous releases using the 1991 Topps baseball design as a starting point were a big hit, so that's probably why these happened. The cooler cards here? In my mind they're the ones where the band members don baseball jerseys and helmets and pose -- and I got a sampling of that here with two names in the mix but not the one I wanted to see the most. ... This pair of packs was a little funky -- or was there too much even flow? -- with the identical same cards in each one -- and with neither having any of Eddie Vedder's cards in there at all as well as no cards of drummer Matt Cameron. (This is not for you! I got told.) The wrappers here are paper but are securely sealed, so there are no worries there even with my unfortunate run. There's no wax staining to worry about here, but the top card will have some surface damage more times than not thanks to the packaging. The silver-edge design is one that will showcase flaws easily but these are smoothly cut and clean for the most part, save for centering, and are way better than the set they are re-creating. The good news? This pair was just my warm-up act as the set where I am still missing at least one key big card -- Vedder in a Cubbies uniform -- is where a few more packs are here waiting to be ripped. That will be on another day ... and I'm hoping those packs will deliver. We'll see.

Product Grade: A-
Lot Grade: C (No Vedders and both packs the same?!? Bummer.)
Fun Grade: C (see above)

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