Retail Repack Adventures #5

I was at the local Walgreens a while back grabbing some odds and ends and decided to take a gander at the toy aisle. As usual, they had a few repacks hanging from the shelf. The temptation was too strong so I grabbed one and just had to bring it home. Since it's been a while since I've done one of these, spring to be exact, I figured with the Christmas season upon us, now would be a good time to see what the cardboard gods gift me in this retail repack.

Our cover card, a nice 2015 Topps Heritage Rookie Performers insert of Javier Baez. I'll gladly take that to start off with. Sorry Cubs fans, I'm keeping this one.

These repacks certainly do like 2012 Topps. Interestingly there were two Thomas Field cards (he's the Rockie card in the bottom right) in the middle of the package right on top of each other. 

Some 90s stars. 1995 Leaf is a pretty foil-y and unreadable set. Don't get me wrong, I like the design, especially the diamond in the upper left with a profile shot, but do we really need all that foil? It makes the names completely unreadable.

Hey, this is pretty cool. A 1991 Topps Rookies Larry Walker card. Even though my Expos collection is now primarily focused on pre-1987 cards, this will make for a nice addition. This was the last year that Topps produced the Rookies subset.

Here's a card that goes into a new collection, that being throwback uniforms. I've always like cards featuring players in old school uniforms, no matter the sport, so I'll be on the lookout for these when perusing dime and quarter boxes.

Hey look, a very green parallel card of Erasmo Ramirez, whose name is nearly erased from all the green in this card.

Repacks are all about randomness, so what could be more random than three mid-90s catching prospects, only one of which I've heard of. For some fun, let's review the careers (with the help of Baseball Reference) of the three catchers who share this card.

First up, Kevin Brown who played in a handful of games over the 1996 and 1997 seasons with the Rangers before being dealt to Toronto. With the Blue Jays in 1998, he saw action in 52 games and hit .264 with two homers and 15 RBIs. After that season, he never appeared in more that 17 games in any one season and bounced around from the Blue Jays to the Brewers and two final games with the Red Sox in 2002.

Next, there's Ben Davis who spent 7 years in the bigs, mostly with the Padres. His most prolific season was 2001 playing in 138 games with a .227 average, 11 HRs, and 57 RBIs. Most of his career though was spent as a serviceable back-up catcher with the Padres, White Sox, and finishing up with the Mariners in 2004.

Finally, the most notable of the batch and that's Bobby Estalella, who played 9 years in the majors most notably with the Phillies and the Giants, but also spent time with the Yankees, Rockies, Diamondbacks, and Blue Jays. Like his counterparts on this card, he was a mostly a backup catcher but landed a starting role with the Giants in 2000 hitting .234 with 14 home runs and 53 RBIs in 106 games.

I love the 80s ... especially 80s cardboard. Plus, who can go wrong with Thad Bosley in the White Sox softball uniforms, an early Donruss card of Larry Bowa, and an old-school Indians card. The rest of these are just icing on the cake.

Along with the 2012 Topps I mentioned earlier, there was a handful of 2014 Topps as well. These were the best of the batch. I always get 2013 and 2014 confused as the designs look nearly identical. Side note, I really dig the uniform on the Rafael Soriano card.

Lastly, there was a pack of Triple Play that was probably acquired for a song. I was tempted to not even open in and throw it in some random trade package but my curiosity got the best of me and I figured I could give the cards to my three year old son. Then I found this ...

I guess this would be classified as a hit? I'm not sure but I know I've never seen anyone pull a card like this from a Triple Play pack. Then again, not many people are opening packs of Triple Play these days. They're mostly thrown on the scrap heap with packs of 1990 Donruss and any other unwanted junk wax cards. I'll give this card to my son, I think he'll enjoy it.

This wasn't the best repack ever but it was still fun to open regardless. I've got the itch now so I might have to grab another one of these next time I make a run to Walgreens.

The Yard Sale Find Pt. 2: The Excessive 80s

The 80s have been called the "decade of excess" and that's definitely true throughout the realm of baseball cards, especially by the end of the decade with card manufacturers nearly around every turn. The yard sale find produced an epic stack of cards from the early 80s. Remember, I'm not showing every card, just stars, HOFers, interesting cards, etc. Journey with me now back to a rad time when MTV actually showed music videos, Reaganomics, Ghostbusters, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and hair metal. It's the 1980s!

1980

1980 was the last year Topps had the monopoly on the card industry. These cards still reek of the 70s to me with the hair, mustaches, etc. Only four 1980 cards in the batch, which saddens me a little as I really enjoy the 1980 set. At least I got some decent players in the lot.

1981

1981 ... the year everything changed in cards. Fleer and Donruss jumped on the scene and Topps comes out with a design I'd forgotten about. I've got a handful of 1981 Donruss in my collection already, nothing from 1981 Topps or Fleer so these fill in some gaps, even though they're not the most inspiring card designs ever. 

1982

These Diamond Kings were the best to come out of the 1982 Donruss pile, along with a few commons which I didn't scan in. The early to mid 80s are the best because there are still 70s stars floating around and the cards are very affordable. I think my favorites of these are the Reggie Jackson and Steve Carlton.

Some cards from the very non-descript 1982 Fleer set. I really like the 1981 All-Star Game card as is was the first game back after the mid-season players strike. The picture of a packed house at old Municipal Stadium is pretty cool too although I think a horizontal format would've been better. 

At one time I was working on the 1982 Topps set but I decided to hold off on that for the time being. However, I won't complain when cards from the set show up randomly in lots. Remember what I said earlier about old 70s stars still kicking around? Well, who knew Sparkly Lyle was still around and with the Phillies of all teams! That's the other thing I like about early to mid 80s cardboard, you get cards of players with completely random teams.

1983

1983 and 1984 were well covered. I'll start with 1983 Donruss, which are some of my favorite old school Donruss cards. Come to think of it, anything pre 1987 Donruss is really cool. Got two Mike Schmidt cards here along with George Foster, who had one of the most impressive seasons in Reds history in 1977 with a .320 average, 52 HRs, 149 RBIs, Did I mention he won the NL MVP award that year?

Some 1983 Fleer featuring Gaylor Perry, Tony Perez, and a really cool Red Sox all-stars card with Eckersley, Yaz, and Mark Clear. This is the first year that I noticed Fleer putting their name on the front of the card. The design is much improved from 1982

And a nice batch of Topps to close out 1983. I had no clue that Vida Blue ever pitched for the Royals, or Bud Black for that matter. I think that Gaylord Perry card might be a sunset card but not sure.

1984

This Donruss set always reminded me of one of those charts that you write musical notes on in school. Looking at this batch that I picked out to share Steve Garvey makes an appearance finally along with Jesse Orosco and Mike Scott. Dave Stewart with the Rangers? I must have missed that, especially since the year before he was shown with the Dodgers. At some point I'll be working on this set too, but not until I finish up some other projects.

There were loads of 84 Fleer cards in the box which meant duplicates of course. Check out the 'stache on Dick Tidrow! Looks like a chipmunk could live in there. I didn't know Chris Chambliss was still kicking around this late into the 80s either. These are clean, simple cards and I love the fact that the whole logo is shown at the bottom.

Of everything that was included in the haul, I got a stack of 84 Topps somwhere in the neighborhood of 4 inches tall. Needless to say, that will put a serious dent in my want list for the set. Speaking of which, I need to update that after I sort through just these cards alone. I think my favorite here has to be the 1983 highlight card with Bench, Perry, and Yaz all retiring. Yeah, it's seen better days but it's the centerpiece of the 84 Topps stack.

Right about there is where the collection stopped. There was very little from the rest of the decade. I wonder if the person collecting these got overwhelmed, lost interest, or a combination of the above. Anyway, there's still a good handful of stuff left to show off.

I'll start with these oddballs. There were about four copies of the Mike Schmidt Coca-Cola card included. I'll be keeping one and the rest will be dispersed accordingly. Getting some TCMA cards was nice but the kicker was the Drake's John Castino card. Now, I've never heard of John Castino but I really dig the powder blue Twins uniform and I'm really curious how a card distributed in Minnesota wound up in a pile of cards in rural southwest Ohio.

1985 Fleer and 1987 Topps. Nothing to really write home about here but the 85 Fleer cards didn't scan all that well. Getting a Billy Hatcher rookie card is pretty cool though.

1988 Donruss. I really hope that if Panini keeps doing what they've been doing with Donruss (the throwback cards in each years set) that they skip this set. It's just so bland and boring. I think my favorite card has to the be the one of Teke, mainly because I haven't seen in 10,000 times like the others.

Some 1988 Topps. The biggest name from this batch is Herm Winningham.

Finally, we've reached the end of the decade with 1989 and the junk wax era in full steam. Cards were seemingly around every corner and with the launch of Score in 1988 and Upper Deck during 1989, there were five major card manufacturers. Unfortunately, there were no 1989 Upper Deck cards to be had and the only thing that even strikes my interest is the Dave Parker card.

That does it for the 1980s, a decade of cardboard excess. While the cards were fun at the beginning of the decade and still had a bit of a vintage feel to them, the cards by the end of the decade felt bland and unexciting.

There's one more part to go, the 1990s and that's coming up soon.

A Vintage Yard Sale Haul!

One of my favorite things about spring is that it marks the official beginning of yard sale and flea market season. I don't have a lot of time on weekends to hit a lot of yard sales but a long standing tradition in the town I live in is what everyone refers to as "yard sale weekend". The third weekend in May every year is when people come from far and wide and descend upon the town like locusts seeking deals on rusty tools, clothes that are 20 years out of style, and hoards of other things. Much like last year, I went in search of cards, with my wife and son in tow.

Saturday was cool and damp as it had rained hard overnight and into the morning and didn't let up until about 10:30. After the rain finished, out we went.

Cars lined up on Clara Drive

Downtown traffic

More craziness in a newer part of town

Corner of Miami Street and Roger Drive

Unfortunately, after walking about nine miles around different subdivisions and neighborhoods, my search for cards came up empty. However, I did pick up Oz the Great and Powerful and Ides of March on Blu-Ray so it wasn't a complete bust. When I got home, I turned to the community Facebook page and asked if anyone would have cards on Sunday and got three leads.

Sunday was bright and sunny and near 80 degrees. So after a breakfast with friends at a nearby Cracker Barrel, we headed out in the car to track down the three leads from Facebook. The first stop had a decent amount of cards but they wanted 25 cents per card for early 90s junk, or five dollars for a 100-count box of the same. No thanks. Stop #2 on the other end of town was a dud, there was nothing resembling cards but there was plenty of general crap to be had. It was all down to the third and final stop.

Pulling up to a run down, brick house in a shady part of town, I had little hope and pretty much resigned myself that my search would be in vain. Oh well, at least the prospect of an M&M Master Blast from Sonic after this stop kept me motivated.

As I approached the sale, I saw nothing but odds and ends strewn about on tables but towards the back, there was a lady sitting behind a table that had cards on it! And vintage cards at that! Woo hoo! She called her husband/boyfriend/whoever over as she didn't have the slightest clue about any of the cards. I asked the fellow where he came up with the prices for the singles. He said "the vintage Beckett" and "online" to which I shuddered. He mentioned he had boxes he was wanting to get rid of too and pulled out a shoebox, a cigar box, and a random cardboard box filled with cards from the 70s and early 80s.

I asked how much for all three boxes, thinking he would come up with some ridiculously high number to which I would scoff and walk away. However he said "make me an offer", as he spit out tobacco juice into his flower bed. So, after some though I said "how about $25?" to which he accepted, much to my surprise. I asked about the random singles, he said it'd be an additional thirty for those, which I passed on. So, I forked over the $25 and proudly became the new owner of the boxes full of cards below.

What was in the boxes you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait to find out as there were more cards in there than I imagined and its going to take some time to do some sorting. Stay tuned.

WrestleMania Week: Random Wrestling Cards

It's the last day of March and another day in WrestleMania Week. Today I thought I would share some of the better wrestling cards I have in my collection.

I'll start off with some cards of one of my all time favorites, Rob Van Dam. From the first time I saw him wrestle in ECW, I was blown away by how unique his style was. The wild moves like the Van Daminator (where he would spin kick a chair into his opponents face) that was then followed up by the Five Star Frog Splash was usually the end for many opponents. 

This card is from the WWE Raw vs. Smackdown set from 2003. I can't remember where I got this from but if I had to saw, it was probably from the card shop I worked at during this time. The owner would get in wrestling boxes here and there and I'd always partake in a few packs. I'm not sure if I pulled this from a pack or bought it out of the case. I always liked this card because of the die-cut gears on the bottom right.

When I first started watching ECW in the fall of 1999, RVD's main rival was Jerry Lynn. Fast forward to 2001, when WWE (then WWF) brought in RVD and paired him up with Jeff Hardy in a series of matches. Their first was in 2001 at the Invasion pay-per-view and people raved about it. They wrestled each other on and off over the next year or so until Jeff Hardy was released in 2003. I've never been a huge fan of Jeff Hardy but the only reason I bought this card back in the day was because RVD was on it.

These two cards are from the 2003 Fleer WWE Aggression set. Again, another RVD card but this will segue perfectly into the Steve Austin cards in my collection (well, actually my wife's collection). 

I like this card because of the filmstrip design on the top and bottom. It's also a WrestleMania flashback card to the Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels match from WrestleMania 14 in 1998. The match itself has become pretty historic, mostly due to the involvement from Mike Tyson and the fact that Austin won the WWF Title, but also because it was Shawn Michaels' last match for over four years.

The last Steve Austin card is from the 2004 Fleer WWE Chaos line. Honestly, it's a pretty plain card aside from the fact its got a relic on it.

Finally, one of my best pack pulls from last year, this Bruno Sammartino refractor #'d out of 75. I didn't buy a lot of Topps Chrome last year, maybe only about 3-4 packs but this was a really great pull of a true legend. Sammartino is the longest reigning WWE World Champion of all time with two reigns totalling 4,040 days over 11 years. In 2013, after being away from WWE for many years, he was officially inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Hope you enjoyed these random wrestling cards! I'm back tomorrow with more WrestleMania week fun!