1991-92 Fleer Series 1 Basketball

In "honor" of the NBA lockout, here's the very last NBA pack in my household that I haven't posted anywhere. It's pretty much garbage, just like work stoppages in pro sports. I'm done with this league until they can get it together.

31 - John Paxson (Paxson was a key cog in the early Jordan-era Bulls teams, but wasn't nearly the scorer that his older brother John was in his heyday with the Blazers.)

138 - Charles Oakley (I had a softspot for the '90s Knicks teams. Oakley was fun to watch. He's had some serious back issues that may keep him from his continuing his coaching career, which is a shame.)

155 - Jim Lynam (Another guy with Blazers ties, Lynam served as an assistant to Dr. Jack Ramsay with Portland in the '80s. Nice tie, Jim.)

165 - Mark West (West used to battle Buck Williams for the field goal percentage crown every season by never shooting the ball unless he was inches from the rim.)

112 - Rony Seikaly (Seikaly's card is indicative of this set's ill-conceived design where so much real estate is taken up by a series of NBA logos. Lame.)

55 - Joe Wolf (Wolf played a few games with Portland and from what I can remember was pretty terrible.)

191 - K.C. Jones (More Sonics! Less Stern!)

217 - John Stockton Fleer All-Star Team (I hate to say anything positive about Stockton, Malone or the Jazz, but he sure did make playing point guard look simple.)

63 - Dennis Rodman (What can you say that hasn't already been said about Rodman?)

117 - Fred Roberts

139 - Pat Riley (Post-Lakers and pre-Heat.)

235 - 1991 All-Star Game Alvin Robertson

80 - Otis Thorpe (Thorpe, shown facing the Blazers here, was Portland's consolation prize when Clyde Drexler wanted out.)

130 - Derrick Coleman (Coleman should have been huge, but he had to wear those tie-dye jerseys.)

50 Houston Astros cards pack

I was on my way to Pittsburgh last week when I had a layover at Houston International. Being an Astros fan I picked this up at one of gift shops. (Hometown Favorites - Terminal B). Jeff Bagwell 2001 Topps Heritage is on top. I divided this up through sets.


1981 Topps - 62: Heep, Knicely, Sprowl; 190: Cesar Cedeno - Cedeno was the star of the team in the 70s. 81 happens to be his last season with the team. Heep, Nicely, and Sprowl all had journeyman career. Funny thing Topps includes the same three players as Astros Future Stars in 1982 set.

1981 Donruss - 144: Denny Walling

1981 Fleer - 69: Bruce Bochy - even current World Series winning manager played with the Astros.

1983 Topps - 692: Denny Walling

1983 Fleer - 466: Dave Smith

1984 Fleer - 240: Mike Scott

1984 Topps - 752: Phil Garner - would become manager two decades later

1985 Topps - 353: Julio Solano

1986 Topps - 476: Ron Mathis; 590: Bob Knepper

1987 Donruss - 410: Kevin Bass; 508: Danny Darwin

1988 Donruss - 85: Jim Deshaies; 209: Craig Reynolds; 261: Billy Hatcher; 358: Danny Darwin

1988 Fleer - 453: Dave Meads

1988 Topps - 24: Jim Deshaises; 342: Larry Andersen; 557: Craig Reynolds; 643: Rocky Childress

1989 Star - 18: David Silvestri - minor league card; never played a game with the Astros

1989 Score - 61: Billy Hatcher; 245: Dave Smith

1989 Donruss - 325: Kevin Bass

1990 Donruss - 359: Larry Andersen - Astros fans like to thank whoever the GM of the Boston Red Sox at the time for taking Andersen and sending Jeff Bagwell to Houston.

1990 Topps - a whole pile of them. I think I got 1/3 the team set so far. The players: Craig Biggio, Terry Puhl, Eric Anthony, Mark Portugal, Glenn Wilson, Glenn Davis, and Bill Gullickson

1991 Fleer - 521: Gerald Young

1991 Upper Deck - 250: Mark Portugal - a pitcher batting

1992 Fleer Ultra - 496: Scott Servais; 497 - Ed Taubensee

1993 Donruss - 272: Pete Harnish

1994 Score - 400: Eric Anthony

1998 Bowman - 332: John Halama - played 6 games with the Astros in 98

2001 Topps Heritage - 243: Jeff Bagwell - Astros legend and future Hall of Famer

2002 Topps - 104: Daryle Ward

2007 Topps - 362: Chris Burke (red letters), 390: Roy Oswalt - worst Topps design of the decade. Still miss Roy.

2008 Topps Update - UH25: Lance Berkman - still miss Lance

2008 Upper Deck Series 1 - HC38: Carlos Lee - more like unmovable overpaid player

Didn't get 50 cards. I got 47 cards. About 3/4 of the cards from junk wax era. It was fun to go through.

Fairfield $5 Jumbo Repack [Red Wrapper]

I've seen these now with white, black, and red wrappers...it seems that the red and black versions are newer and contain way more vintage cards than in the earlier versions.  Rather than bore you with all the cards here are a few of the highlights.

There really is no greater feeling when writing this blog then when I come upon great cards that I had no idea existed AND pulling them from a cheap repackage...who wouldn't like to find a Willie Stargell in their pack.

1989 Topps All-Star Game Commemorative Set #22 Willie Stargell 

In total, there were five 1977 Topps in my pack with this being the highlight, Kent Tekulve's third year card.

1977 Topps #374 Kent Tekulve

How about a Craig Biggio rookie card for good measure?

1989 Donruss #561 Craig Biggio [RC]

If you've never opened one of these packs, let me warn you that coalation of the cards is not the greatest.  Typically this means that you get three copies of a 1987 Ed Lynch and his many, many chins.  But in this pack I got three Jim Rice '85 Donruss, a set which I have probably fewer than 20 cards of.

1985 Donruss #50 Jim Rice x 3

The pack warned me to "watch for vintage cards" and it didn't disappoint.  Here are the other four '77 Topps I pulled...all were in great condition.

If the baseball card monopoly has gotten you down I would recommend giving these a try, but only stick with the black and red versions. The white version doesn't seem to have as many vintage cards in my experience.