2010-2011 SP Authentic Hockey

Jeff's posting a hockey pack - must mean the Hawks are playing. Yup - about to beat up on the Blues. So let's check out a pack I bought at my LCS' pack wars the other night. I bought three packs of this; here is the best of the bunch. And yeah - Chicago bias mode engaged.

Holy crap. It's not Sid the Kid. Someone got fired at UD for putting a player not named Crosby on the pack. Five cards in this foil. We are looking for auto'ed Future Watch rookies. Let's see what we got.

 

Well the hell with the rest of the pack - we got us a winner! Of the three packs I bought, this was the third I ripped. Saved the best for last I guess. Simple design. The bar on the right is kind of clunky, but I like the large number and the ghosting of the playing in the fog.

Little Pheneuf'ing in this pack. From Calgary to the Leafs. Still not sure if that was an upgrade.

 

They can start good, but a pack will sometimes have crap in it. Hate Datsyuk, mainly because he has been a thorn in the Blackhawks side too often.

Talk about your wasted white space. I think this is just an autograph card that is serialed for inserts. Then again, who knows. While the simplicity of the base cards is nice, this is a bad card. Unless you send it for a TTM. Hmmmm, that gives me an idea.

SHOOOOOOOTER! Nice finish to a pack that started wall, but was really bad in the middle. And the card backs?

Holy cow - complete career stat lines. There's something you hardly see. Sharpy was a TOTAL steal from the Flyers.

Ok - enough blogging. Time for goals. He shoots - he scores!

2012-2013 Panini Elite Basketball

Jeff back again. I am not a football, nor a basketball card collector. Needless to say, I do get packs of them when I hit my LCS for pack wars. Let's take a gander at the two packs I care little about over a couple days, starting with Panini Elite.

Five cards in this pack. I am guessing basketball goes the way of hockey, in that the card companies assume only 3 or 4 players exist in the league. I say that because Kevin Durant is featured on the pack. Then again, I stopped watching after the Bulls won their 6th.

Silver borders do not scan on my scanner. So everything you think is black is silver. Chalmers uniform? That is black. Simple design. Glad I don't collect basketball.

Being that I stopped really caring about the NBA before the turn of the century, I know very few of the middle talent players. Like LaMarcus here.

This name sort of rings a bell. Sweet, though is the Golden State uniform Curry is sporting. Nice!

I kind of know this name. I think he used to play for the Bulls. Yup - right out of the draft.

The back scanned far better. Just the single line of stats from last year, and a total underneath.

Sure - it's a hit. But who the hell is he? This card is clear accetate, so I hade to put an envelope behind it for better scanning.

Ok - who wants the cards? I don't collect basketball, so if you want to trade me for the pack, send me an email.

2013 Topps Spring Fever

Free packs! Who doesn't like getting free cards? Granted, to get a pack of 2013 Spring Fever, you had to buy a pack and pull the redemption card. But still - free. So if you pulled a card, get over to your participating LCS for a pack of 5 cards. I had three redemption cards - here is the best of my 3 packs.

Boom! 2012 not MVP Mike Trout. Very refractor-y cards; the scans don't show that. Bad HP scanner! Standard foil name at the bottom. Not liking the design.

The back looks like the redemption card. Zero stats, just a little bio information for the player.

 

 

Again, the scans do no justice. Prince should be surrounded by orange/green.

Same goes for Jean here.

Well there's a nice pull. Won't complain over a card like that. RIP Stan the Man.

And it finishes with Bautista. Oh - if you are wondering why I didn't post the wrapper, I didn't feel like scanning a piece of blank foil. Yup - no printing on the wrapper. Just a whole lot of silver.

2013 Upper Deck National Hockey Card Day

Last weekend was Upper Deck's hockey pack giveaway in the states. You know I had to hustle over and get my pack. So let's enjoy the cards and look forward to another Blackhawks win tonight against the Blue Jackets.

A very foil-y pack that's hard to read. Trust me - it's all sqiggley lines. You get five cards in a pack for a 15 card set.

Could you ask for a pack to start any better than this? The border on the bottom is a little too large in my book, but overall the design is not that bad.

Card back shows a muted view of the image on the front. You get a one line stat and a little career blurb for the player. The rest of my pack.

 Great goalie having a really bad year in the Big Apple.

Cup winner captain. Nice.

The Golden Brett in the ugly as hell Blues jerseys. Man, those things were dreadful. And to think the Great One ever wore that monstrosity.

Really bad end to the pack. To even put this jerk in the set is a joke. There are better American icons than a guy that had one good season and was a flopping crybaby the rest of his career.

Each pack had a checklist. I find it funny the title reads "...your favorite USA stars" and the first 5 of the set are foreign born. Being that I pulled the Lundqvist and the card read "America's Franchises", I am guessing the other 4 had the same card type.

There is a bonus card #16 that you could get. Separate from the pack and I assume a limited quantity that could be handed out. Since I hit my LCS 5 min after they opened, I made sure to score one.

GO HAWKS!

1989 Topps Cap'n Crunch

Greetings!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  Got another quick one for you all, and it's another food related card post...1989 Topps Cap'n Crunch!

Thanks Homer!

This is is another one of those player-approved but not MLB approved sets, so we again are treated to generic caps and shirts.  Here's the checklist, borrowed from the interwebs:

1          Jose Canseco  

2          Kirk Gibson    

3          Orel Hershiser 

4          Frank Viola     

5          Tony Gwynn    

6          Cal Ripken, Jr.

7          Darryl Strawberry        

8          Don Mattingly  

9          George Brett   

10        Andre Dawson

11        Dale Murphy   

12        Alan Trammell 

13        Eric Davis        

14        Jack Clark       

15        Eddie Murray  

16        Mike Schmidt  

17        Dwight Gooden           

18        Roger Clemens

19        Will Clark        

20        Kirby Puckett  

21        Robin Yount    

22        Mark McGwire

Not a bad selection for the stars of the day.  Don't remember if I had to chow down on two boxes to get these two cards, but here they are anyway:

#4 - Frank Viola
#20 - Kirby Puckett


Frank's pretty cool with the black cap, while Kirby looks a little bummed.  Here's the backs for completeness:

 

Not bad.  I like the complete stats and the extra info.
 
Something seems familiar with the Puckett card...here's the Topps flagship version:

And the Topps K-Mart version:

It's almost like they just tilted the camera or something.  Not the most flattering picture for one of the greats of the day.

Anyway, that's it for now.  Enjoy the Oscars tomorrow...thanks for reading!

1998 Bowman Series 1

Hey there, it's Matt. No, not matt., or Matt F., or even Matthew R. Long time, no post! You might remember me from previous A Pack To Be Named Later installments like 1996 Pacific Pure NFL Gridiron. No? Well, I don't blame you, I wouldn't remember that junk either.

What brings be out of hibernation you ask? Spring Training! I'm more excited about baseball right now than I have been for a long time. My Phillies had a disappointing season last year, and I'm eager to see if their veteran core can put together one more good run.

So I'm here today posting up a pack of 1998 Bowman Series 1, out of a sealed hobby box that I picked up online for $24 shipped. Why this set? Well, because of the emotional leader of that aforementioned veteran core. You see, this set features the Bowman Rookie Card of none other than Mr. James Calvin Rollins. Here's the first pack out of the box:

Ooo...shiny. Shiny and very, very boring. That's a lot of relatively small print jammed in there. The key details: 10 cards per pack, one International parallel per pack, and some other assorted inserts and parallels lurking around. Let's open her up.

Postmortem:

-Chipper is having a hard time there battling the sun.

- I actually really, really like the International parallels. If it isn't apparent what's going on here, the background map shows where the player hails from. Additionally, the text on the card back is in the player's native language. Mr. Monahan, here, is from Syosset, NY and expectedly, the back of the card is in English.

- The Montreal Expos. Remember when they were a thing???

-RAUUUUUUULLLLLL!!!!!

This was an okay pack. The Chipper lends it some star power. There is a Phillie in it, though I have no recollection of Dave Coggin whatsoever. Those late 90s-early 2000s Phillies teams were really, really bad. Raul closed out that pack, that's pretty darn cool. No J-Roll though, which was the ultimate goal.

 ...

Soooo...did I end up opening any Rollins rookies in the box?? Yeah, two actually. One in pack 8 and another in pack 15. The one in pack 8 was sitting right on top, staring back at me. I was pretty stoked. I also opened up an International parallel of Scott Rolen, which would have been pretty darn awesome back in 1998, with him coming off his RoY season and all. While Rolen's departure from Philly wasn't exactly amicable, I've come to respect his stirling contributions to some really, really bad Phillies clubs. 

I also beat the long 1 per case odds and opened up a Golden Anniversary parallel numbered to 50 of some guy named Pablo Ortega, who never made it to the Majors, but is apparently still kicking around in the Mexican League. 

Final note, as I just opened a box of this stuff to basically hunt down RCs of a single player, pretty much everything but the Phillies are up for grabs. If you're interested in any base, or want to know which parallels/inserts I opened, just let me know.

2012-13 Upper Deck Artifacts

Let's keep the hockey and the Blackhawks win streak going with a another pack of hockey to share. This time, we are going to rip a pack of 12-13 UD Artifacts. Picked this pack up from Target the other day.

Holy cow - they put someone different on the pack!!!! Sorry, I should have turned on the sarcasm filter first. Note to Upper Deck: Sid the Kid is not the only player in the league. Try watching the sport once in a while. Five cards in the pack. And let me say up front - I had a bonus card in my pack.

The card design is changed from last year, but still in the same style. Not liking the name in the foil at the bottom. Card companies need to knock that crap out.

Set contains both active and stars from the past.

Some of the stars are shown not in their team sweaters, but the All Star sweaters.

DEATH TO BETTMAN STRIPES!

Too bad I didn't get the other conference to show you, but that is life. The backs, you ask?

It's a different photo than the front, but just 5 years of stats and the totals.

So there ya go.

Yeah - I am messing with you. I forgot to post card #6 I pulled. Technically, it was card 4 in the order of the pack, but we're going to post it last.

BAM!!!! Ovech. I like the fact it's their throwbacks on the card. Not sure if the swatches are from a throwback, as they do have a main jersey in red. Still, it didn't impact on the surface (Star Wars reference FTW).