A Mystery Stash of Cards

Supposedly this box held a 1992 Topps factory set. I say supposedly because I got it out to sort it and page it up but as soon as I opened the box, I noticed things weren't on the up and up. There were a decent amount of 1992 cards missing, replaced by some random cards from the early-to-mid 2000s. While I was sad that the set was missing cards, I was happy that I got some mystery cards.

2002 Upper Deck 40-Man? Ok sure. Jay Bell looks like a science teacher with those glasses. Also, I had no clue that Lenny Harris was still in the majors in 2002.

A couple random cards from 2004 Upper Deck Vintage. This was the last year for the Vintage line and the only year where they didn't attempt to rip off an old Topps design.

Some 2004 Opening Day. So far, I'm really digging this hidden stash of cards. Check out the leg kick on the D-Train!

Normally I don't really go for game cards like these but these two from the 2000 MLB Showdown set are super cool. It's not often that I've found a card of Fred McGriff in a Devil Rays uniform, nor do I come across many Jay Buhner late career cards.

Mid 2000's Donruss? Donruss from this time is super tough to find so imagine my excitement when I found these.

More mid-2000's Donruss, this time a pair of Reds from the Team Heroes set. LaRue and Kearns were part of the miserable 2003 Reds team that lost 93 games and went through three managers in the first season of Great American Ballpark. Both these guys would be gone from the Reds by the end of 2006.

A couple of Bowman cards of Johnny Damon and Jim Thome.

Mid 2000's Fleer. I honestly had no idea Fleer Ultra was still being produced at this time. I remember the Fleer Futures cards from seeing a ton of theme when I worked in a card shop in 2003.

And to finish this up, I'll show off a few more cards in rapid fire form. First this Bazooka Chipper Jones. I could be wrong but when Bazooka was produce at this time, didn't in come with bubble gum?

Next, an SI for Kids Jake Peavy. 

Topps Gallery Raul Ibanez from 2003. Apparently this is of the rainbow refractor variety.

And then there was this, the "big hit" if you will of the mystery cards. This is a 2001 Royal Rookies Miguel Cabrera. Now, while Cabrera isn't exactly someone I collect but he is one of the biggest stars of the game and to find an early rookie card of his forgotten in a pile of cards that's been sitting in my garage for two year is pretty awesome. Oh, in case you are wondering what became of the 1992 Topps cards, I picked out a good pile of cards that I knew I didn't have and wanted and the rest went into a Goodwill donation bag. I hadn't really planned on building the set anyway.

Retail Repack Adventures #4: Revenge of the Repack!

This is becoming a bad habit of mine. Not the fact that I can't leave these things alone whenever I step foot into Walgreens, but the fact that it seems that a new month of posts starts off with one of these! I bought this particular repack back towards the end of January and since then, I've been in a self-imposed drought in an attempt to stretch my card money as far as possible. Enough about me though! Let's dive in to this repack!

This repack was chock full of Topps from all eras, including these 2008 cards. My collection has a gaping hole regarding cards from 1994-2011 (I got back into collecting in 2012) and these repacks are helping to ever so slowly fill in that hole. I was pretty happy when the Mike Piazza card fell out of the box, especially considering that it's his sunset card.

As I mentioned, more Topps cards. The Cano was the cover card of the stack. I'm slowly learning to love the 2010 Topps design too.

Hey look! Parallels from the mid 90s! Bip is a foil version and big Cecil is from the Score Gold Rush line.

Here's something you don't see cards of every day, Wade Boggs in a Devil Rays uniform. This will get added to my personal stash as will the Pujols, even though I'm not a Cardinals fan at all.

Here's another 2010 Topps card, this one of Max Scherzer, before the Nationals backed up a Brinks truck to his front door a few years later. The Cabrera card is pretty cool. I remember Topps doing a bunch of the "Super Veterans" cards back in the day but don't remember many recently so this was a real treat to pull out of this package.

This 1992 Upper Deck pack I've already covered in the first edition of my new ongoing series called "Back Packs". Read about it here

Just like the last repack, this one was stuffed to the gills with 2012 Topps. I think I like these more than most people, simply because it was the first pack I bought when I got back into collecting. This was the best of the batch that was included, any duplicate will wind up in eventual trade packs.

Finally, the requisite Reds. Hatteberg played three seasons for the Reds at first and was Votto's backup during his final season in Cincy. To be honest, I'd kind of forgotten about him. Cairo was a solid player on the two Central Division winners in 2010 and 2012. It's also a sunset card as 2012 was his last season.

This was a nice solid repack and I'll be on the look out for another next time I hit up a Walgreens.