Mystery Group Break Expo-se

I received some mail last week from Kerry of Cards on Cards as part of his 10th anniversary free group break extravaganza. Since by the time I signed up for the break, the Reds and Indians had already been claimed, I went outside the box and claimed the Montreal Expos.

The results of the base cards from the minor league Team Best sets. Brad Wilkerson is really the only player I recognize from this pile but I thought it'd be the nice thing to do to at least show the base cards, if only in passing.

I got two autographs out of the Team Best deal ... Peter Bergeron and Michael Barrett. Actually, there were two Peter Bergeron autographs, the other has already been set aside into the trade box.

The other portion of the break was some 1999 Stadium Club, of which I have very little. It was nice to see these cards, especially the Vladimir Guerrero. This also reminded me I might have to look into some of this years Stadium Club.

Of course, not only were there cards from the break but Kerry also threw in some bonus stuff, such as these really cool old Fleer stickers. I'm not really one for stickers but I will admit, these are pretty neat.

It took me a minute to figure out that this was actually a Leaf card, despite the fact it clearly says "Leaf 2005" on the top right corner. I can honestly say that this is the first card from the 2005 Leaf I've ever seen in my life. Also, it being a card from 2005, shouldn't the team be Washington since the Expos ceased to exist after 2004? All that aside, I really dig this.

The oddballs that were included were my favorite of the bonus cards. I never was a Toys R Us kid (we had K.B. Toys in the mall where I grew up) but the recent trips I made there showed that the stores were horribly out of date and also the prices were very expensive. I guess I should all them to the list of defunct retail store chain oddball cards I collect (places such as Hills, Revco, etc.)

I saw a physical Drake's product in the grocery store for the first time ever last week. Until I learned about the cards they put out, I'd never heard of them. The cards I've seen though for them have always been pretty cool and I'm always happy to add one to my collection. Also, a Tim Raines SI for Kids card? Sure why not. 

It's odd that I would mention Kaybee (or K.B.) Toys earlier and there just so happened to be a Kaybee Toys card in the package. It's from the 1990 Kaybee Kings set. Zellers I'd never heard of so I had to look it up on Wikipedia. It turns out that it's a defunct Canadian discount retailer and in 1982 they issued an Expos "pro tips" set that came in three panel sheets.

As much as I liked the oddballs and other stuff Kerry included, this card, by far, was my favorite of the package. Since Panini launched the Diamond Kings line, it's always been one of my favorites. The card stock, the variety of old school and current players, the beautiful inserts, and of course the fact that it feels like a high-end release at a pretty affordable price point. I've always enjoyed the Heritage Collection inserts and this card, such a simple card with a black background and the player in a gold circle to me just screams "awesome card".

That's a wrap on the group break. Thanks to Kerry for putting it together. It was fun to participate and I appreciate the cards you sent over.

Retail Repack Adventures #14

Rejoice! Spring Training has officially started! While I have been enjoying the hockey season this year, I'm ready for some baseball. Being that I haven't been able to pick up any 2018 Topps yet (that will probably change by the time you read this) what better way to start off the dawn of a new season than with another baseball repack. This time along, I've got the 4-pack, 50-card variety. 

If you're not familiar with these, then you get four packs, a 50-card mini box, and a "bonus". I tend to think of the "bonus" prize in terms of the prize you get from a cereal box, nothing spectacular but sometimes kind of neat. In terms of packs, there's a Babe Ruth Collection, 2016 Heritage, and two retail packs of the Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks. The Babe Ruth pack I've already earmarked for Dimebox Nick so I won't be ripping into that, but the others I will, at least the Heritage pack should be somewhat fun.

This was the bonus prize, a pack of Teeny Mates baseball figures. In the pack, there's two figures and two puzzle pieces. I'm not sure what good the puzzle pieces will do me but the figures themselves aren't bad. This particular pack had a Reds figure and a Mariners figure. 

Moving on to the 50-card mini-box. It's to be expected that there will be a bunch of commons from the late 80s and early 90s in these but a good 90% of the box was that. There was so much, in fact, that I had trouble finding cards from the box to scan, something that typically isn't an issue. I did manage to find a few gems, but not many. This was the top card of the stack, a 2013 Topps Toys R' Us Purple Parallel of Giancarlo Stanton, late of the Miami Marlins. 

The oldest card in the mini box, a 1985 Fleer Bruce Hurst. No, it's not some goofy rainbow parallel, my scanner just seems to hate 1985 Fleer.

Some recent and future Hall of Famers in Alan Trammell and Tim Raines. Good to see that Trammell is finally getting his place in the Hall. Now, if we can just get Lou Whitaker in there as well.

A few nice horizontal cards, including one of Juan Castro, who I'd completely forgotten about until I saw that card. Castro spent the middle eight years of his career (2000-2008) with the Reds as a utility infielder, playing mainly third and short.

Can't go wrong with this either, a Future Stars Billy Hamilton card with the Topps Rookie Cup on it.

Moving on now to the packs of Panini Prizm Draft Picks. These are a staple of these type repacks and never really do much for me.

Only four cards in each pack and nothing really here to write home about from either pack. Jack Flaherty is at least someone I've heard of. Some of these will be thrown into the trade bin, the rest, I guess, will reside in the collection for now or will be set aside for the Goodwill bag.

Finally, the Heritage pack. There's 9 cards here and since it's the 2016 version, that means it's the 1967 version.

There you have it, a few interesting cards but wait, what's that in the middle? Why it's a Chrome parallel of Mike Trout #'d to 999. Here's a close up of it ...

So yeah, I'd say that was a pretty decent pull from a Heritage retail pack. Anyway, that puts the bow on a another repack. I'd say this was pretty much a bust aside from what I decided to show. Hopefully the next one will be better.

You've Got Mail #5: Wes (jaybarkerfan)

Back in the summer, I ordered a flat rate box of cards from jaybarkerfan (aka Wes) as he was doing some housecleaning and offering up boxes of cards for those who are interested. A few weeks ago, the box finally arrived loaded with all kinds of goodies ...

It's always fun when I unearth some crazy oddball cards like this. The red bordered cards are part of a late 80s Reds team issue from Kahn's, I'm thinking probably '88. Then there's some Expos craziness with a Larry Walker Hostess card and a Casey Candaele Toys R Us. Finally, a Pete Rose K-Mart and a Chris Sabo Post Cereal. These are great!

Here's a really nice James Allen die cut autograph card numbered 42/100. I looked him up and it looks like he last played in 2014 with Bakersfield, sporting a 4-7 record with a 6.23 ERA, 64 K's, and 22 walks in 36 games. Yikes.

Speaking of numbered cards, Wes threw these in as well. I really like the Bailey gold mini and the photo looks like it's from after the game where he threw his first no-hitter.

Here's a bunch of older stuff that was included. The 82 Donruss will go towards my build of that and the 80 Topps helps out there. The others will go in the Reds binder.

There was also some newer stuff thrown in including 2010 Upper Deck

This really nice Frank Robinson Allen & Ginter mini.

Adam Dunn and Austin Kearns ... the former Reds outfielders of the future. Kearns was involved in the disastrous trade that saw him and Ryan Wagner sent to Washington in exchange for Bill Bray, Gary Majewski, Royce Clayton, and one or two others. The Reds ended up getting a few good years out of Bray while everyone else contributed roughly nothing. Dunn ended up having a pretty good last few years in the AL and just recently retired.

Two of the First Home Run insert cards. It's rare that you come across Josh Hamilton Reds cards so that's pretty cool. I dig the Bryce Harper too.

Closing out the Reds portion are these TCMA cards from 1980 commemorating the 1961 Reds, if only I could find more of these I might put together the team set.

The Reds cards were great but where Wes really did the damage was my 84 Topps set build, here are some highlights ...

There was a bunch more fun stuff included too that I didn't have time to scan in but suffice to say my 84 set is over a quarter of the way done now.

Thanks for the box Wes! I can't wait to see what the next box you send has in store for me!