2002-03 Upper Deck Ovation Basketball

The NBA draft is tonight, so I figured it was a good of a time as any to flashback to the days leading up to The Darko Draft.

56 - David Wesley - This is a really nice design, and I really like the inset logo that has an almost "stamped" feeling to it. I am still in the process of figuring out who the New Orleans Hornets cards that I've accumulated will belong to in my basketball card club, now that the Hornets are the Pelicans and the Bobcats are the going to be the Hornets.

11 - Darius Miles - A few years before LeBron James was hyped on ESPN while he was still in high school, Darius Miles was providing the blueprint for what it means to be completely overexposed to an athlete when he's still young enough to have a curfew. Yes, the so-called Worldwide Leader had Darius Miles high school games on their channel, but Miles crapped out in L.A. He showed flashes of his early brilliance in my hometown of Portland, but it ultimately led to much more heartache (and ridiculous amounts of wasted dollars) than anything positive.

3 - Glenn Robinson - Uh, Big Dog.

60 - Tracy McGrady - The NBA is soooo stupid! (HOW STUPID IS IT?!) The NBA is soooo stupid, it allows players to sign with any team when there's literally one game left in their regular season schedule, yet they are still allowed to participate in the postseason.

111 - Marko Jaric Level 2 - The pack wrapper implored me to look for two levels of rookie cards, and I have done such a thing. And I ended up with Marko Jaric. It's numbered, and you can see it if you look at the basketball.

2007-08 Topps Basketball Rack Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  It's been about 24 hours since the Blackhawks beat the Bruins in Game 6 to win the Stanley Cup.  2 goals in 17 seconds...amazing.

I don't have many hockey cards, but I was able to locate a previously-scanned pack to mark the Heat going back to back in the NBA Finals.  Here's a 2007-08 Topps Basketball Rack Pack!

Packs of this set have been posted twice already.  Heck, I even posted one.  Ah, but this is a rack pack; there's more cards here for us to enjoy.  Unfortunately, I must have taken the prior posts into account, because I only scanned a handful of cards.  Here's what was in the pack:

Top Pack

#62 – Ricky Davis

#66 – Josh Childress

#73 – Jameer Nelson

#80 – Josh Smith

#106 – J.J. Redick

#132 – Jared Dudley (RC)

#117 – Corey Brewer (RC)

Middle Pack

#82 – J.R. Smith

#93 – Ron Artest

#84 – Chris Webber

#25 – Eddy Curry

#GN1 – LeBron James (Generation Now)

#122 – Thaddeus Young (RC)

#118 – Brandan Wright (RC)

Bottom Pack

#24 – Kobe Bryant

#74 – Caron Butler

#104 – Kevin Martin

#58 – Jason Richardson

#10 – Elton Brand

No # - Work Hard Get Cards

#101 – Tracy McGrady (1957-58 Variation)

#128 – Marco Belinelli (1957-58 Variation)

Here's the aforementioned scans:

 

That is a great Kobe card.  I must have scanned the Childress because I thought both the background and the afro were photoshopped.

Anyway, that's the pack.  Again, congrats to the Heat and Blackhawks for the entertaining championship series, and quick Happy Birthdays to my youngest son (Sunday) and my dad (today).  More later...thanks for reading!

2007-08 Upper Deck Be A Player

For Father's Day (yes - I procreated.....TWICE!) I got the right to hit a card show as my gift. Did some dime boxing, picked up some cheap 1964 Topps for the set I am starting, and bought a few packs. My gift to myself was a blaster of '07-'08 Upper Deck Be A Player. It was $13 and guaranteed an auto. Two packs of 5 cards each, and for time and readability, I will just post the pack with the hit.

I know what is says in the upper corner of the pack, but this is Hobby - I SWEAR! Ok - it's not. Retail product here. Five cards in the pack. For starters, just how frigging awesome is the pack, huh? No Crosby, no Malkin, no Ovech. That, my friends, is what a hockey player looks like. Unfortunately, that is the only Blackhawk I pulled from either pack, as there were no Indian head sweater clad players to be found. Oh well, can't win them all. Right Red Wings?

 

Old timer Sykora starts out the pack. Nice cards. The design is pretty vibrant. There is a gloss over the player, the BAP logo, the little dash of color in the upper left, and the position characters. Otherwise, the card has a flat finish.

Milan currently is with the Sens. Not sure if I like the lack of any upper case letters in the player or team names. I get the trendy look they are going for, but still....

 

 

Kessel as a B. Unless he had a card in 06, this would technically be a Kessel BAP rookie. I am being told he did have a card in 2006, so this would be a 2nd year.

Mathieu has mostly been a backup in his career. Man, I hated those Oiler sweaters. But that is a pretty kick ass mask Garon is sporting, so he saves the card. (pun intended)

Image recycle on the back. Plus the usual 5 seasons worth of stats. Seems to be the standard now on hockey cards (and anything Panini puts out). And my hit?

Could be worse. It is sticker. But a Brind'amour is not a bad pull from the box. Granted, it's not the Kane or Toews I was hoping for, but I can deal with it. If you are a Brind'amour fan, we can talk if you are interested in the card.

Ok - 2013 Cup is now tied 2-2 after Seabs pops in another OT goal. Three game series for Lord Stanley's hardware. Who takes it? (I'll give you a hint - NOT the team with a letter on their chest).

2013 Topps Series 2

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well.  Looking forward to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.  The rest of the Heat certainly stepped up when LeBron wasn't playing too well.  Here's hoping the Blackhawks can make a similar statement tomorrow...scoring on a power play is a good start.

Anyway, the release date for these guys is today, but one of the Targets in my area had them out Monday.  The one closest to me had them out yesterday, and I grabbed a couple of packs.  Here's some 2013 Topps Series 2!

As usual, 330 cards are in Series 2, with the returning favorites and a couple new insert sets.  Let's see what I got (I apologize in advance for the scanner cutting off the borders):

#626 - Gio Gonzalez
#629 - Trevor Plouffe
#371 - Jeremy Affeldt

#437 - Dayan Viciedo
#627 - David Price (Cy Young Award)
#569 - Ryan Ludwick

The back of Price's card breaks down his season stats.  While I enjoy these celebration cards, you really should see the player's face.  Here comes the inserts:

#CH-86 - Roy Halladay (Chasing History)
#CTC-28 - Al Kaline (Cut to the Chase)

Didn't get one of the new inserts, but I'm not complaining with the Kaline card.  

#373 - Derek Jeter (Checklist)
#503 - Clay Buchholz
#497 - Brett Myers

I would have rather seen the Checklist cards highlight an achievement, instead of taunting the player; why not 4,000 hits?  Just a few more years, Derek!

#586 - Jose Quintana
#432 - Jose Iglesias
#522 - Dallas Keuchel

I like the new Astros logo.  The new uniforms, not so much.

Oh, here are some back samples, because that's how it is:

Anyway, that's the pack.  The Kaline saved it.  If you paid attention, you'll see that I got 2 extra cards in this pack - bonus for me!  Enjoy Game 4 tonight and Game 7 Thursday...thanks for reading!

2006 Topps Series 2

Greetings!

Hope everyone's doing well.  Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.  Hope you all were able to relax and enjoy the day.

I wanted to post another basketball pack since we're still in the Finals, but looks like I went through all of the basketball packs in my scanned pics folder.  I may have to go back to sorting some basketball cards in my never-ending massive reorganization project.  Anyway, here's a pack of 2006 Topps Series 2!

Now you may ask, "hasn't there been a pack of this already?"  Well, yes, this set has been represented already, but not this specific type of pack.  You're all gonna see a lot of these "nitpicking" packs from me
as I try to get my collection in order.

This was a retail pack, and since we all know the set by now, let's just get on with it::

#380 – Marcus Giles

#509 – Freddy Sanchez

#457 – Shea Hillenbrand

Topps / Target Sweepstakes card (not pictured)

#373 – Woody Williams

#414 – Lance Niekro

#492 – Bob Wickman (back)

Always nice to get a card of a pitcher batting.  Showing the back of the Wickman card.  The little graphic was a nice add-on, but the stat highlight wasn't necessary.

Fantasy Baseball Sluggers card (not pictured)

#640 – Jeremy Hermida (RC)

#500 – Derek Jeter

#3 of 3 – Series 2 Checklist

#528 – Doug Mirabelli

#536 – Scott Eyre

#MHR15 – Mickey Mantle Home Run History

Work Hard Get Cards card (not pictured)

#609 – Pittsburgh Pirates

Anyway, that's the pack.  Hope everyone has a great week.  Go Hawks and thanks for reading!

2009-10 Upper Deck Basketball Rack Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone's doing well.  The fourth quarter's about to start in Game 3 of the NBA Finals.  I'm going with Heat in 6.  LeBron's gonna play all crazy-like and Wade and Bosh will play pretty close to what's expected of them.

Anyway, I felt the need to post a basketball pack for the Finals.  It's a variation of a pack we saw before...it's a 2009-10 Upper Deck Basketball Rack Pack!

There were two versions of this rack pack, one had LeBron on it and other had Jordan.  I don't think there was a difference between the two other than the athlete that graced the front of the pack.  As you can see, there's 36 cards in the pack with 2 exclusive Sophomore Sensation cards.  Here's what was in the Top Pack:

Top Pack:

#19 – Emeka Okafor

#57 – Andris Biedrins

#119 – Chris Douglas-Roberts

#95 – Dwayne Wade

#44 – Dahntay Jones

#92 – Mike Conley

#142 – Hedo Turkoglu

#104 – Andrew Bogut

#SS-LM – Luc Mbah A Moute (Sophomore Sensations)

#294 – Spencer Haywood (Immortals)

#963 – Michael Jordan Legacy

#177 – Michael Finley

#191 – Mehmet Okur

#163 – Steve Blake

#93 – Michael Beasley

#86 – Trevor Ariza

#50 – Rodney Stuckey

#112 – Craig Smith

I did not scan every card since we've seen a pack already.  Below are some samples:

As usual, the photography is very good.  Showing the back of the Turkoglu card just because of Hedo's goofy grin.  Here's more from the Top Pack:

 And the backs:

Upper Deck used the same design as the Baseball set they put out that year.  The names and some of the logos are sometimes hard to read; it may have been because of the photography used for the card.  Bonus points for digging up that old Seattle logo:

Here are the cards from the Bottom Pack:

Bottom Pack:

#131 – Jared Jeffries

#109 – Al Jefferson

#55 – Jamal Crawford

#137 – Desmond Mason

#144 – Rashard Lewis

#200 – Dominic McGuire

#80 – Pau Gasol

#182 – Andrea Bargnani

#208 – Eric Maynor (RC)

#SS-BB – Bobby Brown (Sophomore Sensations)

#51 – Amir Johnson

#71 – Jeff Foster

#195 – Antawn Jamison

#181 – Jose Calderon

#72 – Jarrett Jack

#120 – Eduardo Najera

#106 – Joe Alexander

#114 – Devin Harris

And again, here are some samples:

Packs like these were plentiful at Wal-Marts and Meijers for a while.  I would just keep buying packs thinking I didn't have the big names.  Then, after realizing I had a stack of packs, I double-checked them and saw that I had the big names just a few packs in; sure, I would have loved to pull a Blake Griffin or Stephen Curry RC, but they were short printed.  Discounted pack buying can be addicting.

Anyway, that's the pack.  Here's hoping to a long and entertaining Finals.  Oh, and go Blackhawks!  I'm sure JediJeff's got some hockey packs all lined up for Lord Stanley's Cup.  Thanks for reading!

1995 Skybox Bill Nye The Science Guy

       As my first post on this site, I was torn as to what pack to do, as my love of oddball cards makes choosing just one favorite very difficult. Then it all came together with one bid on Lista:

1995 Skybox Bill Nye The Science Guy cards!  I never even knew such things existed.

Sadly, Bill was on the air a little later than I could really appreciate him.  Did that stop me from watching the show? Hell no! 'cuz this show is friggin' awesome. Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! If you have kids and don't make them watch this show, you should be arrested for child abuse.

So what do these cards look like?  Exactly what you would expect from the mid-90's:

These are covered in purple and magenta and teal and Bill's very goofy face. I got Plants, the Periodic Chart, Stegosaurus, Digestion, Antibodies, a couple of do-it-at-home experiments, a sticker, and a contest card that expired in 1996 - pity, I'd enjoy a free trip to Disney World.

Let's look at the backs of these too:

Wonderfully colorful and informative, eight-year old Max would love to find more of these.  Luckily, these form a wonderful starting nine, perfect for my own collection and blog.

1983 Topps Baseball Stickers

Every now and then, I need to take a break from my cardboard addiction and focus on something different.  And that's exactly what I did, when I discovered my friend was dumping a box of 1983 Topps Baseball Stickers for $2.

Now if you're not familiar with this product, it's essentially the same thing as the 2013 Topps Baseball Stickers.  The only difference is that these are three decades old.  I set my sights on building a complete set of 330 stickers from the box of 100 packs.

Each pack contained 6 random stickers that were designed to be affixed in the baseball sticker album above.

Here's what I pulled in my first pack:

#259 Dave Kingman

Kong was a three time all-star, who played sixteen seasons in the MLB with seven different teams.  He ranks 38th all-time on the home run list with 442 round trippers.

#143 Joel Youngblood

On August 4th, 1982, the New York Mets traded Joel Youngblood to the Montreal Expos.  That day, Youngblood became the first and only player in MLB history to get a hit for two different teams in two different cities.  And to make things even cooler, both of his singles were against HOF pitchers.

By the way... this sticker isn't a printing error.  The rest of Youngblood appears on sticker #144, where he's also pictured in his Mets uniform.

#54 Carlton Fisk

Easily, the best player in the pack and the only HOFer.  Fisk played a staggering twenty-four seasons in the MLB... thirteen with the Chicago White Sox.

#208 Steve Rogers

Steve Rogers has the most wins and strikeouts in Montreal Expos history.  He played his entire thirteen year career with the Expos and represented them in five different all-star games.

#63 Lance Parrish

Topps selected one player from each team to appear on a special foil sticker.  Parrish beat out Lou Whitaker, Alan Trammell, Kirk Gibson, and Jack Morris to represent the Tigers.

#314 Tim Laudner

The final twenty-four stickers in the set were made up of what Topps called... STARS OF THE FUTURE.  I'm not sure if I'd go as far as to say Laudner became a star, but he did end up making the 1988 AL All-Star team.

You might recognize a few other players from this subset:  Cal Ripken Jr, Wade Boggs, and Ryne Sandberg.  If you're interested in seeing the "rookie" stickers for Boggs and Sandberg, click here.

As for the rest of the box break, I ended up with 327 out of the 330 stickers.  But thanks to Sportlots, I was able to complete the set at a reasonable price.

So if you're ever in the mood to take a break from collecting cardboard, here's a fun and affordable alternative.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

1998 Topps Stadium Club Hobby Edition (Evens)

Today I bring to you a pack of 1998 Topps Stadium Club. About a year ago I broke a pack of the odds. This time, we do the evens.



Shall we?



Staring things off are three of the premier pitchers of the 90's. Okay, one sub-.500 pitcher and two of the premier pitchers of the 90's.



Lankford is the only player to have 200 home runs and 200 sb's as a Cardinal. We all know Sosa's credentials.



Here are two of the more common inserts. Andy Benes had a pretty solid career, racking up exactly 2000 K's. Nunez plays in Worcester, MA for the Can-Am league now.



Here is an upside down checklist and Brian McRae who never quite lived up to his father Hal's legacy.



The royal court inserts fall at about 1:36 packs so apparently I got lucky. This is a nice hit. Cool 90's insert.

I'm happy with how this pack turned out. Are you?