Before I reveal my plans for world domination with tomorrow's post of my goals for 2014, and since we already touched on how 2013 went, let's take a fast glance at what I consider my pulls of the year. Now, I did receive some amazing cardboard rectangles through the year, and I have showcased them in trade posts. These are the items I pulled directly out of packs during the calendar year. It's going to be up for debate whether they are awesome or not (maybe), but I think they are great additions to my collection.
Let's start with relics. We all know the whole "are they or aren't they" stories, plus Topps and their disclaimer about who the hell knows when the uniform the swatch came from was actually worn, but I still get some joy pulling a relic from a pack. Three of my fav pulls in this department.
I pulled the Vonn relic from a few packs of A&G at my LCS. The Brock bat came from a Black Friday purcase of a box of Golden Age. And also from my LCS is the Team 8 swatch pull out of Score hockey. The flip side has the Blues and the Jets. I did fairly well with relics out of repack boxes this year as well.
Moving to the John Handcock's...
The Jones was pulled about 6 weeks ago during my LCS pack war night. I hope she does well in Sochi so I can sell that card. Dent was a pull out of a Target 10 pack repack box. And the Hobbie came out of a rack pack from Meijers. Yes - damn retail keeps sucking me in to making purchases.
Ok, my highlights for the 3 best pulls of the year.
That's not just any black border Bourn. My LCS got in a few boxes of Topps minis, so I bought a few packs looking for anything to put in my Beckham rainbow. Pulled this in one pack. As opposed to the regular sized which are number to 100, these are a scant /5. Yup - I pulled #5/5. I wish it was a player or team I collected, but I am certain that me showcasing it now will have a comment or two about it.
I showed this before. I pulled this from a box at the National this year. Anything old timer makes me smile, so getting a bat relic of a HOF first baseman with a stellar career (last man in the NL to hit over .400) made this an amazing box, because if you recall the post, that same Golden Age box yielded me...
...this card, which is my vote for the hit of the year. On card, clean auto of another HOFer (a third hit in that same box was HOF Jim Palmer auto). I have almost pulled the trigger on a few Kaline autos. Yeah, he's a dreaded Tiger, but you give props where props are due.
Not so fast, buddy. Red Wings get no props here.
There ya have it. Tomorrow, let's talk about the current year.
It might take a few seconds for some of us to ID who Fairfield is, but a look at their Facebook page should help those that can't place where you know the name. When I get bored, I like picking up a repack box. Or anything repack-y. It's a total gamble, but you never know what you get. I have added far more cards to my collection through the 20 pack repack boxes at Walmart (no idea the company), but Target Fairfield repacks have done me fairly well. I talked a month or so ago about a Bucky Dent auto I pulled from a pack of Goudey. 10 pack repack at Target. The dual Ducks auto? Another Fairfield hit. There are a few more jersey pulls I have never blogged about.
Lately, the budget has been tight, but I still like ripping open packs. GQ, Heritage and Series One are pretty complete, and I am waiting on Allen and Ginter to be released, so I have turned to Fairfield's hanging 100 card count rack packs for some fun. Just five bucks, and I get a good 15-20 cards out that I want or need. However, the packs list the ratio of a hit (relic or auto) at 1 out of every 8 packs. I have bought four packs so far, I have 3 hits. 75% compared to 12% - I am WAY ahead of the curve. Granted, the hits aren't going to pay my daughter's college, but I still like a bonus.
I just pulled this Maine jersey a couple hours ago. Not a bad card design, but available if you are interested. Maine is not a collection of mine, nor are the Mets.
Pulled this Rodriguez auto about a week ago. Actually, the whole rack pack was pretty sweet with the number of cards I added, plus the cards that will be traveling around the US in PWEs. Again, this is available for trade. I am looking at you, Baseball Dad. But the first rack pack I bought a few months back had the best pull of all, in my opinion. I think you will agree.
This was still in the penny sleeve (with $15 written on it in marker). But how great a pull for $5? I needed a jersey card of Frank. Now I just need his autograph to finish off the trifecta.
I have posted in the past about retail packs containing some darn good pulls. And between the two big stores, I am hitting more in Walmart than Target. Case in point: had to get a couple things at Walmart and even though I am just a few cards short of series 1, I picked up a single pack to rip. Not only was the pack kind enough to give me two cards I needed on my want list, I also found this baby:
Not a White Sox, but a camo numbered 98/99. The scan makes the name FAR easier to read than in person. Camo + foil = bad. Check off another insert from the list. Just need to pull a pink border, cuz I highly doubt I'll snag a platinum.
First off, there are still quite a few cards available in my Christmas giveaway. If you haven't picked your two, then get over there.
I was forced to hit Walmart for a few items. I was forced to go down the card aisle. I was forced to purchase a repack box. When you are told to do something, no matter the voice in your head, you should do it. So, once again, let's show the best card from each pack.
First up is a 2007 pack of Upper Deck Masterpieces. One of those sets I wish I bought more. And this four card pack didn't make picking the best card any easier. I passed over a card of Cal Jr. being honored for his games record, a card of the wizard of Oz mid-flip, and a card of Maris hitting the long ball to come to this great card of Clemente scurrying down the first base line.
Next is my bane in repack boxes - 09 O-Pee-Chee. I got two packs again, but somehow there are a couple decent cards to showcase. Here is the first, a nice action shot of Pedroia. It's a keeper.
2007 Topps. Geez, these things are UGLY. And the pack was just as bad. I almost picked the 7 year old gum as the winner, but figured this shot of Gathright reaching high was worth posting.
I have received rack packs in boxes before, but they are usually Goodwin, so not really a deal. This card comes from a rack pack of 08 Topps. So it's almost like getting a bonus pack in the box. Considering this photo of Lou wondering why the hell he took the Cubs job is what I think is the best of the 30 cards, it wasn't much of a bonus.
2008 UD X. I had two diecuts in this pack. The Griffey would have won, except these gold diecuts fall once in every 8 packs. So I beat the odds. Too bad the player on front, though.
2008 Upper Deck Spectrum. A very bland pack. I believe these Jeters are one per pack, so that will give you an idea of the rest of the cards within.
2010 Topps series 1. Nothing too great in this pack, so I have to give the nod to this very cool looking card. Hate the Yankees all you want (with good reason) - their uniform is iconic.
Not one, but two packs of 2006 Topps were stuffed in the box together. Pack one was nothing exciting, so I am calling home field advantage and giving the win to Podzilla. But it's a shaky win, cuz what genius thought purple would look good paired the the ChiSox uniforms?
As I was ripping open pack 2, the back card was Jim Thome. Considering the meh of pack one, I was set to post the Thome, cuz frankly, it's Thome. However, the card just before Jim was this rookie of Prince Fielder. Ok, you win.
Back to a regular pack of 08 Topps series 1. I have to say - many of the packs in this box would have been painful to rip at retail price when you see the magnitude of nothing within. The last card of this pack was this sunset card of Piazza. That sound you hear is Nick from Dime Boxes sending me an email to ask for this card.
2005 Fleer Ultra, the pack that inspired the post title. I have never pulled a pack of Ultra from a repack box, so this was a nice surprise. I love the photos on the later Ultra cards, and this image of the Big Hurt putting the hurt on a ball is no exception.
2009 Upper Deck X. The diecut was Kerry Wood as an Indian, and there was a nice UD Retrospective card of Dave Winfield in the old brown and yellow Padres uniform, but I am going to pick this X2 sunset card of the Big Unit as the best of the pack. And there goes Nick sending off another email. You can hit send now - no more sunset cards, buddy.
2007 Upper Deck. I hate this design. It doesn't work at all, unless the card is horizontal. But that isn't the reason I picked this card over the others, though the others did suck. I love the sheered off bat handle in his hand. There's a binder project - cards showing a player with a broken bat.
2010 Topps Update. SCORE!!!! Strasburg RC. Granted, it's not worth that much, but still a good pull.
2009 UD Icons. Zzzzzzz. What a crappy pack. Only picked this card cuz it be shiny. Moving on...
2010 Topps series 2. Nothing too wonderful in this pack, but if you have been following garvey cey russell lopes' double play dump, this would fit right in. Except that his fascination with the play has inspired me to pull all the DP cards I can find. So sorry GCRL, this one is staying with me.
Another 09 OPC, and thankfully another semi decent card, this of future Triple Crown and league MVP Miggy. The card design itself is pretty bland, but we are talking 09 OPC.
2008 Upper Deck Heroes. I pulled two cards of this design, - the team names with the smaller pic of a player. Decided the black parallel deserved the honor more than the regular version.
We close out the box with two packs of 2008 Upper Deck. We start with a pack of series 2. And yeah, this was the best card out of 18. It was a poor pack, but at least the legacy card shows a Yankee loss to my White Sox. Gotta like that.
Saved the "best" pack for last - 2008 Upper Deck series 1. Yup, that's a hit. Jersey swatch from some player on Team USA. So how has Tyler Wilson done since 2008? Well, he is in the Orioles organization, currently assigned to their level A ball club. Yeah, this card will never be worth much.
And with that, another repack box is said and done.
Everyone has what they would consider the best card they have ever pulled. I am not talking vintage here. Others may have a different definition, but to me, a "pull" in sports card collecting is something you find in a pack. If I'm wrong...well, tough crap, this is my blog! Seriously, I would think most would consider a pull something you get from a pack you open. There are two kinds of great pulls I have. On the one hand, I get a great pull if I hit a card I just like - say a short print or something that meets an official or unofficial collection. On the other hand, a great pull is also something that has rarity. And here I am talking serialed (or known rares like 1/1 canary sparkles, etc.). For a long time, the "rarest" cards I had were a couple of 2011 GQ sepia minis, numbered to 99. Soon, as I understood some of the special cards, my rares became a few (and now more) no number Allen and Ginter minis, which you may know are numbered to 50.
Hmm - it also seems that the sky is blue. Interesting.
As we move down (or up) in rarity, the next rarest card that replaced the no numbers was a Reggie Jackson Goudey I pulled from a repack box, numbered 19/34.
It's MISTER October. No, no....I don't care what your name is.
Luckily, if you read a month or so ago, I found a card I was missing that kicked Reginald to the curb - a hand numbered Allen & Ginter 15/25.
Ok...ok. So where the hell am I going? Well, as the title suggests, the number has dropped again. Picked up a couple packs of Topps Update from Walmart, and pack one gave me this.
Sparkle auto, number 9/10. I hope the numbers keep going lower.
There can be lulls in our hobby. We wait for the next release. We wait for a sport to pass by that maybe we don't follow enough that we collect. Our finances can cause us to step back from being too hard into our collection. We can be so focused on one aspect, being a specific player or set, that we do nothing towards anything else.
When the lull hits me, I like to hit the repack box. Depending on the size you get, you are talking about a buck to a buck twenty a pack. The joy I find in the repack box is you have 10 to 20 pack openings just wanting for your grubby hands. A twenty at my LCS might get me 4 or 5 packs to open. And those packs are as much a crap shoot as a repack box.
Someone say "shoot"?
Even though I hit the card show yesterday, I didn't get a lot of pack ripping in, and my local Walmart just refilled their repack row, so I plunked down $20 on a box. I dug through and found a box that had a pack of 07 UD Masterpieces showing. The rest of the packs in the box? Two 2010 Ginter, two 2008 UD Baseball Heroes, two 2008 UD Timeline, two 2011 Topps series 1, two 2011 Topps series 2, one 2011 Topps update, one 2010 Topps series 1, one 2010 Topps series 2, one 2007 Topps update, one 2012 Topps series 1, one 2011 Topps Heritage, one 2008 UD X, one 2009 O-Pee-Chee and one 2000 UD Ultimate Victory.
So why are repacks stuff I like? Well, sometimes you pull nice minis.
Boy kings and rookies.
Sparkles, shinies, original backs and other short prints.
Personal collections.
Oh, and relics.
Yup. Two out of the 20 packs had decent hits. Right now, I would like to take the time to completely make fun of another blogger. See, Greg from Plaschke is drooling so much over that Kemp that he stopped reading and is firing me off an email to ask for a trade on the Kemp. So let me just make fun of the guy since he is not here. I hear he has bad flatulence and can't count above 50. Oh crap...he's coming back. Act natural....
So yeah....um.... repacks can be your friend. Not saying you will always get something good, but some do contain very good things.
Welcome to part 3. For the past three days we have taken a glance at a crapload of cards my wife had packed away during one of her cleaning frenzies. This is one of the better kind of repack boxes because everything in it is pretty frigging awesome. Ok - maybe day 1 was a little lame. Yesterday was a move in the right direction. But today, let's look at a little of the bestest part of these cards - Allen and Ginter.
Among all the card packs and blaster boxes I found 8 packs of 2006 Allen and Ginter, a couple blasters and a bunch of 2007 A&G, and a blaster and a few packs of 2008. The best part, though? A couple of the blaster boxes were not "blaster boxes" in that I had started sorting the cards and the boxes were loaded with cards. I devised a way to turn a blaster in a storage box, so I found a good 200 '07 and about the same in '08 A&G in these "storage boxes", along with the random packs. Needless to say, all this drastically ramped up the amount of these cards from what I previously had.
A quick look at the cards to a checklist, I find while I had maybe a dozen 2006 A&G and 4 mini, I now have a dozen minis (one black border) and about 5 short prints. Much better than I had before. Nothing too exciting to show, so I won't bother to scan anything.
Lemme finish one more chapter and then I'll scan something.
2007. After sorting, I am probably a good 80% through a complete set. And doubles? Boy do I have doubles. However, we have highlights to share. A while back I talked about no number A&Gs. Total at that time was 3 - one from 2007, one from 2010 and one from 2012. Well, I just doubled that total.
You saw that Elijah Dukes black border. Now look to the left in that image. It's ANOTHER Elijah Dukes. This is a regular border. Something is screwy. What are the odds I have two no numbers of the same player? I won't complain. Anyway - my minis for 2007 reproduced like rabbits with this find. I have 5 pages now in my binder. Just has a single page before. Here's a couple more mini highlights.
Love the gloves with the Frazier. And the Crede looks lust like the Thome that would appear in 2008. How beautiful are those flag cards, though? I have 4. I want the set. If you have any, let's talk trade.
Finally, 2008. I had even less 2008 than I had 2007. Well, I am probably over 50% towards a complete set. To think I have been trading away some of these cards. Let's hope I replaced all I traded away. 2008 has a super special surprise (my English teacher appreciate that alliteration), but first, some prime minis.
Man - they truly did do 2008 Allen and Ginter right. It's a close call between 07 and 08, but I think 2008 just edges all other sets out. It's beautiful and simple, yet classy.
And now, the prize of the box. In that link about where I talked about the no number cards a few months back, I mention a Bazooka back card I misplaced. Well.....misplaced no more!
I knew I had one. I just knew it! I remember pulling it and thinking "Ah crap - who wrote on this thing?" I will say this - that card will only be traded for a replacement Bazooka back from the same year with a White Sox player. Otherwise, it stays in my binder. So if you have one, or can get your hands on one, we'll talk.
Ok - I have to run to my LCS for storage boxes and binder pages for all these cards. Oh I am SOOOOOO upset that I have to go.
I am a few days late getting this up. Granted, I know you have no clue what happened a few days back, and maybe you don't give a flip. But I am going to tell you anyway, cuz this is my house, and this is my yard and you can just take your toys and go home.
Wait....wait. Don't leave. I'm sorry. I haven't had anything to eat yet today, so I am a little cranky-er. Let me take a few deep breaths and center my thoughts before I come over there and smack you around for acting like everything is all about you, cuz it's not!
Oh boy - hold on. Let me grab a bagel real fast.
<CHOMP> <CHOMP>
So much better. Again, I apologize for all that. So where was I? Right - the other day. The other day was the monthly raffle and pack wars at my LCS. I have tried for many a month to get there, and finally had the chance. Didn't partake in the food (wasn't hungry) or the liquids (Coors Light?), but I did check my tickets for purchases during the month and for the door prize. No winners there, but that's alright. Cuz it's your favorite and mine - PACK WARS. It's like robot wars, but without the robots. Or the arena. Or the fans with home made posters. So really, it's nothing like robot wars. I took part in two of the drawings. Ticket for the selected card and a ticket for hits. For starters, how about a quick glance at my hits for the night?
Technically, the Kopitar is from a pack I purchased before I left. Nice hit, but way too much white space on that card. The Lindley is numbered to 350, which would be something if I knew who the hell this guy was. You want it? Email me. That Coffey was hidden right behind the exact same base card in the card. Deju vu for sure. Nice relic of an Oilers sweater.
Well, my tickets from pack wars did garner me a couple wins. I snagged an Earl Bennett autograph (8x10) and a blaster of Bowman Platinum. The Bennett will look nice on the wall, but I know you want to see the awesomeness of the blaster. Well, go to another blog, then, cuz the best part of this blaster was that it was (for the most part) free. Best three cards?
Trout and Paulie base. And a nice Chippa die cut. Like I said - snoooooooooooooze.
Ok - so I said "vintage" in the title, and that is why you are still reading. Here's the deal. Before I hit my LCS I stopped at Target for a few needs, and picked up a repack box of 10 packs. Nothing so great, but I was shocked when I pulled out three vintage packs to open. Usually, you only get packs from this century, but holy hell if the repack did go old school on me.
HEY!!! Those babies are almost 25 years old!!!! Ok, ok...I suckered you into that. But it was fun to have the feel of a true wax pack in my hand again, as well as the Score celo pack. As my standard, here are the best three cards, one from each pack:
Hell yeah I pulled a Johnson rookie card! Surprised to see that. The other Donruss was a major blah with the Gwynn being the winner. The Score was even worse, but you always respect the specs when it comes to Tekulve.
It was fun, if not completely knocking my socks off. But there are drawings at the end of every month, and it can only go up.
