1996 Fleer Retail

We've already seen the hobby version of this product, but 1996 Fleer is such a weird bird that I figure everyone deserved another look. This time, that look is in the form of a retail pack. Sadly, I paid nearly 8 cents more than the price on the sticker for this batch of fun. Inflation, I guess!

- Official Game Card - We start off with an official game card. Did I win? Maybe? The Thanks a Million! contest ended before Bill Clinton was reelected, though.

364 - Darren Holmes Tiffany - In my day, glossy Topps cards were "Tiffany" and glossy Fleer cards were "Glossy".

4 of 12 - Ken Griffey, Jr. Lumber Company - Right off the bat, it's an insert card and a pretty good one at that. I know Griffey still draws some interest in the card collecting world.

37 - John Valentin - So about these cards... they're crazy thin, right? I love that they are matte finished and, while I'd probably reduce the size of the gold block lettering, the design works for me. The problem is that these cards are basically the same thickness as an index card. Fleer did something radical that I really appreciate all these years later, but I can't imagine the reaction to it was very good and I'm sure the whole thing was a major cost reduction run through a marketing person's filter.

327 - Rey Sanchez - Lots of stats on the back and a big brand new picture.

 121 - Alan Trammell

350 - Jose Rijo

416 - Orlando Miller - I get a bit misty-eyed when I see Astros players in the old orange rainbow jerseys. I can't say the same thing about these jerseys.

575 - Melvin Nieves

396 - Marc Valdes

 441 - Raul Mondesi - Mondesi was coming off of his only All-Star season.
 

507 - Curt Schilling - Apparently this guy did something somewhere for someone at some point. I wonder if anyone DNA-tested that sock.

2013 Calbee Football

Calbee is a snack company in Japan that's known by some collectors for their trading cards.  Each year, Calbee releases certain snacks with specially marked packages that have packs of cards attached to them.

I recently picked up a case of 2013 Calbee JFA Football potato chips in hopes of finding a Keisuke Honda or Jungo Fujimoto card.  If you're wondering, these particular chips are similar to Lay's classic potato chips (the kind you find in the yellow bags).

Here's a closer look at the actually pack of cards:

Each pack contains only two cards.  From what I've gathered there are 53 cards in the base set, 3 checklists, and a pair of insert sets:  Goal Scorers (16 cards) and Overseas Samurai Blue (17 cards).

I ended up pulling a pair of the base cards in the first pack from my case.  

First Card - #43 Kyoko Yano

Yano has been a defender on Japan's national football team (Nadeshiko Japan) since 2003 and has made 67 appearances.  She recently retired from her club team (Urara Reds Ladies).

Second Card - #3 Masahiko Inoha

My second card was another defender, but this time it was a member of Japan's male national football team.  Inoha has been on the team since 2011 and has made 16 international appearances for the Samurai Blue.

I know these cards aren't for everyone, but if you enjoy oddballs, food issues, or football cards... then it's a really cool product.

I ended up busting twenty-three out of the twenty-four packs (I kept one for my Japanese Wax Pack PC).  Here's the breakdown of the forty-six cards I pulled:

Base Cards: 20 Different Cards + 9 Doubles

Checklists: 2 Cards

Goal Scorers: 7 Different Cards + 3 Doubles

Overseas Samurai Blue: 5 Cards

As soon as I'm finished eating all of these chips, I might go out and buy another case of these.  In terms of value, I'm not sure you'll get your money back.  But the cards look amazing and the set would definitely be a welcomed challenge.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

2013 Bowman Baseball Retail Pack

It has been too long since my last post. Today we have a retail blaster pack of 2013 Bowman.



Key rookies in this set include Manny Machado and Jurickson Profar. That's quite a handle... Jurickson Profar. Sounds like a power tool or piece of heavy machinery.

Anyhow, onto the pack.



Iwakuma, Escobar, Frazier, Scutaro. Marco has aged very gracefully, particularly for an infielder. Still very productive.



Ben Rowen, Brian Goodwin, and Yovani Gallardo. The gold parallels fall about 1/pack. Fun fact...Yovani, in his first 7 seasons, has 11 home runs and 28 RBIs, and he's a pitcher. For comparison, Omar Vizquel had 13 home runs in his first 7 seasons.



Here is the chrome version of Brian Goodwin and Fu-Lin Kuo. I don't have any dirt on either of these guys.



Woohoo! Retail auto hit. This is an orange parallel auto (1/230 packs) numbered to 250. Not much dirt on him either...he's only 21. He does have a .930 fielding percentage in the minors thus far.

Thanks for looking!

1985 Fleer

From grey to more grey, here's a wax pack of one of my favorite sets of all-time, 1985 Fleer. I'm still working on this set, a project I began a few years ago.

- Mets Jersey/Pennant sticker - There are a couple of different stickers for each team. One of the things that I miss about '80s Fleer cards are the stickers. They're just fun, and so much more edible than Topps' gum. There's a great website called The Fleer Sticker Project that can tell you all about 'em.

608 - Atlee Hammaker - Each card is color coded according to the team that is represented. This was my favorite thing about this set growing up, and it really helped me learn all of the teams and their representative colors.

289 - Mike Smithson - Smithson was the type of workhorse that would be appreciated in today's game, but I don't really remember anything about him. He logged 252 innings in 1984 and posted a 3.68 ERA, with a pretty solid K:BB ratio. Whew, look at those empty seats!

362 - Dave Smith

465 - Cecilio Guante - This is an excruciating closeup shot.

317 - Geoff Zahn - As is often the case in these types of sets, there were some curious choices with how team colors were assigned. I always associate the old California Angels with yellow because of this set (and 1986 Fleer as well) and I guess they must have grabbed the color from the halo?

69 - Rick Sutcliffe - After a lousy start to his season with Cleveland, Sutcliffe went 16-1 with the Cubs and became one of the National League's most dominant pitchers. It seemed like he was on WGN every other day back then.

484 - Jim Beattie - Sweet Mariners jacket.

652 - Joe Hesketh / Glenn Davis Major League Prospects - This ended up being the only card I needed for my set in the two packs that I purchased. Hopefully I can upgrade a few cards, though. I remember this being a pretty nice card to have back in the day, as Davis had a couple of All-Star appearances under his belt.

557 - Danny Darwin

620 - Jeff Robinson - Jeff had scarcely a care in the world, having no idea that Fleer would confuse him with another Jeff Robinson just a few years later.

349 - Frank DiPino - Before he became a Cardinal, DiPino would go on to win the first night game at Wrigley Field.

418 - Ray Burris

148 - Gary Allenson

367 - Bob Bailor - More empty seats.

39 - Tim Lollar - And we finally have an action shot.

121 - Don Baylor - Apparently Dodger Blue was the same as Yankees Blue in Fleer's eyes. Not too many players got the DH designation on their cards back then, but Baylor certainly did. These days you could start your own league full of current major leaguers who can't properly field a position.

2000 Topps Series 2

Here's another pack I snagged at a card show recently. I barely have any 2000 Topps cards and have never so much as seen a pack of the stuff on a shelf before. This wasn't really on a shelf, either. It was buried in a pile of dusty junk on a table in a well-past-its-prime mall. And now you get to open it, virtually.

371 - John Thomson - This isn't a bad design, to be honest. Of course, in the days leading up to the year 2000, everyone was in love with saying the number "2000" an awful lot, but the "Topps 2000" designation now looks sort of quaint.

437 - Ron Coomer - In the past 10 years, Topps has used a non-white border design exactly one time, and it was boring old greasy fingers-attractin' black. Topps base cards continue to be the most disappointing thing to me about my return to collecting, so it's nice to go back to a time when they seemed to at least be trying some things.

409 - Dave Mlicki

316 - Ruben Mateo - I'm sure this upset the Topps purists, but this is a seriously nice looking card back, complete with a completely different photo of the player. Aside from this set, you have to go all the way back to 1993 to find cards with a portrait-oriented reverse.

262 - Matt Lawton

465 - Randy Johnson / Pedro Martinez League Leaders - Here's the first problem I've seen. These foilboard two-in-one cards look dated and kind of terrible. I've probably passed over quite a few of these cards that I actually needed in nickel and dime bins because I never bothered to notice someone I collect on the reverse.

429 - Randy Velarde

444 - Julio Zuleta / Dernell Stenson / Jorge Toca Prospects - These fine fellows have a grand total of 141 games logged between them.

414 - Ron Belliard

439 - Tony Batista - Okay, enough about the design. Playerwise, this pack flat out sucked, aside from the League Leaders thing.

 329 - Ray Durham - Not even Ray Durham can help.