1998-99 Fleer Ultra Basketball

Greetings!

I hope everyone's Turkey Day was excellent, and that those who went shopping this weekend found what they were looking for.

Those looking for the end of the NBA lockout got what they wanted, sort of, as all that stands in the way is the approval from the owners and players.  I welcome the return, as well as the condensed schedule that comes with it.  No watching D-Rose on a Tuesday and then waiting till the weekend silliness.

To mark the occasion, here's a pack from the last year there was a shortened NBA season.  This came from a repack box I picked up.  Clear the lane, Keith Van Horn is driving some 1998-99 Fleer Ultra to the hoop!

10 cards per pack, with Chauncey Billups wondering what he's doing on the wrapper since the Nets are playing the Nuggets.  Everyone's used to the Fleer Ultra design, with its excellent photography and curvy names.  The backs (room permitting) have a "Dare To Compare" section where they take the player's stats from last year and dared to compare it to a random year's stats from a much better player.  I'll put that in parenthesis next to the player's name.  Here we go!

#84 - Tariq Abdul-Wahad (1985-86 Detlef Schrempf)
#2 - Antonio Daniels (1967-68 Walt Frazier)
#1 - Keith Van Horn (1982-83 Dominique Wilkins)

See, Keith's up against Bobby Jackson.  Perhaps Chauncey's future projecting himself or something like that.

#42 - Rik Smits (Fleer did not Dare To Compare)
#37 - Bobby Jackson (1960-61 Lenny Wilkens)

#39 - Steve Smith (back; 1973-94 Earl Monroe)
#95 - Derek Anderson (1970-71 Jo Jo White)

Showing the back of the Steve Smith card since it's the most boring shot of the pack.  I do like the backs, I just don't remember if the "Dare To Compare" was always a part of it.

#49 - Detlef Schrempf (Fleer did not Dare To Compare; I'm sure Detlef's not too happy his stats were used in a Tariq Abdul-Wahad comparison)
#25 - Joe Dumars (again, Fleer did not Dare To Compare)
#5 - Issac Austin (1969-70 Bob Love)

I wonder if they Dared To Compare the stats of His Airness.

Anyway, that's the pack.  What, you didn't think I was only capable of baseball cards and cartoon robots, did you?  Thanks for reading!

1991 Fleer Ultra Football

Hooray, feetball! Everyone likes the feetball, yes? Here is a pack full of today's latest stars!

199 - Steve Jordan (Interesting choice of photo here.)

210 - Eric Martin

294 - Mike Pritchard (This is a college photo from Pritchard's time at Colorado. Fleer tried to block out the Colorado on the uniforms in the foreground, but you can see they left it on one of the players on the sideline. Nice.)

222 - Dave Meggett (You always want David Meggett on your side in a game of Tecmo Super Bowl. Meggett is currently serving a 30 year prison sentence for doing some burgling and sex crimes.)

232 - Wes Hopkins (This was from the era that made me an Eagles fan. I wish I could say the same today.)

253 - Tom Rathman (Here's a look at the multi-photo back card design.)

163 - Michael Irvin (Who decided that it would be a good idea to put a microphone in front of Michael Irvin?)

29 - Reggie Langhorne

96 - Tom Hodson (Hodson is part of an elite club of Terrible Pre-Tom Brady Patriots Quarterbacks.)

187 - Cleveland Gary (First name for a last name, last name for a first name.)

200 - Mike Merriweather

107 - Ron Stallworth (I miss these Jets uniforms. They've been going "retro" for far too long now.)

260 - Reggie Cobb

90 - John Offerdahl

2005 Upper Deck Classics

Greetings!


So, it appears madding and I have been trading sport card volleys and everyone else is content to watch.  I'm new to the game, so perhaps this is the equivalent to the off-season here at APTBNL.

Anyway, since it's my turn, here's a pack from the old $1.49 bin.  As it turns out, it's too bad I only picked up one of these...feast your eyes on some 2005 Upper Deck Classics!

8 cards per pack, here we go:

#28 - Earl Weaver
#84 - Rollie Fingers

I wonder if the backgrounds for the cards in the set were photoshopped.  I mean, it appears Rollie's pitching on the beach or something.  In any event, it's a nice start, especially since I don't see many Rollie-as-a-Brewer cards.   

#70 - Monte Irvin

#CC-RS - Classic Counterparts:  Nolan Ryan / Tom Seaver (#1507 / 1999)

The serial number's on the bottom right corner of the card.  It's almost hidden there; it took me a while to realize that it was numbered.  The back of the pack says these are seeded 1 in every 14 packs. 

#CC-RS - Classic Counterparts:  Nolan Ryan / Tom Seaver (back)
No # - Upper Deck Rewards dummy card (not pictured)

Here's the back of the card for those who are interested.

#24 - Dave McNally (back)
#76 - Phil Niekro

Not very impressed with the card backs.  The picture's the same as the front, and there's just a brief career summary and lifetime stats.  The team logo for that era is prominently displayed, though...and by the way, welcome back, cartoon Oriole!

#64 - Kirk Gibson

#125 - Ryne Sandberg (Retro Star Rookies)

The Ryno Retro Rookie ris ra rinner, er, winner of this pack.  The pack says the RSR's seeded one in every 4 packs.  Other Rookies include Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt, Nolan Ryan, Ted Williams, and Tony Gwynn.

Anyway, that's the pack.  I would have definitely gotten more if there were more to get.

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.  If I remember right, K-Mart's having a 20% off sale on trading cards.

I am thankful for finding this blog, as the contributions of all of you has made it possible for someone like me to see cards from packs I would never have bought (and in some cases, thankful I didn't buy them when I had the chance).  Thanks for reading!

1992 Upper Deck Comic Ball IV

Upper Deck mixes Looney Tunes, a few NFL greats, and their passion for making quality trading cards. How could this go wrong? Comic Ball IV: Comic Bowl follows a strong lineage that brought us such quality sets, like this one. Let's go crazy, NFL style!

83 - "Zee Smell of Victory" (What language is he supposed to be speaking? Also, are some of these football players smoking? Skunks shouldn't emanate visible odors even if they are spooked or ticked off.)

98 - "Half Time" (I have no idea what's going on here, or why there's a strangled cartoon duck wearing a t-shirt that says 1/4 on it.)
98 - "Half Time" (This is the same stupid card, only this one is damaged. I thought I'd take the opportunity to show the back of the card, which turns out to be a whole lot of nothing.)

182 - "Gut-Check Time" (No idea, Bugs. No idea.)

150 - "Hoppin' Half Time" (Sad frog on a pillow. I guess this beats Nickelback halftime shows.)

148 - "Hoppin' Half Time" (Sad frog is happy now. I always thought he was sort of a drunk and/or possibly afflicted with multiple personality disorder.)

34 - "Hang Time"

51 - "Run & Shout" (What IS Yosemite Sam, anyway? A really, really short trigger-happy redneck?)

64 - "I Get a Kick Out of You" (For some reason Eggbert doesn't get a lot of Looney Tunes love.)

162 - "Martian Touchdown" (It seemed like everyone had a Marvin the Martian t-shirt in the '90s.)

108 - "Crowd Control" (Daffy looks pretty tame by today's football fan standards.)

111 - "Crowd Control" (Just remember: actual NFL Hall of Famers-to-be were dragged into this mess.)

2004 Topps Chrome Series 1

Greetings!

I couldn't let Nigel Tufnel Day go without a post from another old time pack.  I have two packs of this and they don't have the Target discount price on the back of them.  Since I don't actively buy Chrome, this means the wifey purchased them for me, probably for a stocking stuffer...and I don't turn down gifts from the wifey.

Let's turn the shiny to 11 with a pack of 2004 Topps Chrome!

Only 4 cards in the pack...let's see what we got:

#47 - Trot Nixon
#19 - Aaron Rowand

Hot-To-Trot and member of the '05 Champs lead off the pack. I am assuming these are direct images from the 2004 base set.  I like the Roward card, showing the field during batting practice with the crowd slowly filtering in.

#21 - Luis Castillo (Gold Refractor)
No # - Checklist (front)

The Gold Bordered Refractor Parallel comes 1 in 10 packs, per the back of the wrapper.  The checklist card is thick, mirroring the 2004 Topps Update checklist, but missing the puzzle piece front.  I guess those puzzle pieces were not in Chrome, and therefore that whole puzzle thing confuses me more...how many packs do you need to get to complete that puzzle?

No # - Checklist (back)

#33 - Jeff Weaver

No need to show the backs, since it's the same setup as the 2004 Topps base set.  In the other pack, I got Geoff Blum, Gil Meche, Terrence Long, and Curt Schilling.  Other than the Gold Refractor, no real winners here.  Oh well.

Turn down the volume from 11 before you leave...thanks for reading!

2010 Upper Deck World of Sports

Here's another one of those wacky dollar store finds, although it's from a supposedly legitimate company that makes their own sports cards. This reminds me of the old Classic Four Sport cards that started coming out when I was in high school, except with Lacrosse and Tiger Woods for some reason.

76 - Thierry Henry (Henry is a world class soccer player, but my opinion of him is pretty low based solely on one MLS match that I watched this season.)

68 - Brad Davis (Two soccer players that I've heard of in the same pack? I guess it helps that my city has an MLS expansion team and there wasn't a lot else going on here this summer.)

183 - Brandon Kozun (The internet tells me that Kozun plays for the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL, an affiliate of the LA Kings.)

130 - Joshua Fields (Fields is a Red Sox prospect who was acquired from the Mariners this summer as part of the Erik Bedard deal.)

293 - Pat McCabe (I'm not going to pretend to know anything about lacrosse players. Is this card obscene?)

274 - Chris Garrity (Annnnnd this guy.)