2014 Press Pass NASCAR

The new chase format will soon decide the champion in this year's NASCAR schedule. I watch super little of the sport. If I see it as I am channel surfing, I'll stop for a couple minutes, then on I go. My mom was a HUGE Jeff Gordon fan, so maybe he can pull out the series this year in her honor. From another LCS pack war, and chosen by random.org, let's see it.

My mom's track partner when they went to races, Suzy, is a big Dale fan, so she would like the wrapper. Hits as can be expected with the releases nowadays. Gentlemen, start your ripping!

Ugh. I am glad I don't collect race cards - not a fan of this design. The "border" at the bottom is too large and clunky. Full bleed, but really - what can you put on a card for auto racing besides a boring portrait style photo.

And shades. Lots and lots and LOTS of dudes wearing their shades. I wonder: if a driver changes teams in the off season, will they shop out all the sponsors on their fire suit?

Some kind of insert. Ya know - with the different font, the whole polygon thing kind of looks better.

I think there is a law that each pack must have a Danica card. And Press Pass, if you want to talk snapshots, let me help you find a few to use instead of that.

I think the companies that plaster their suits should subsidize the card printing the reduce the costs.

I was going to be snarky, but making a joke about an unfortunate death isn't funny.

Here's the back of Stewart's card. Still not liking the design, with that wedge feature, but it's a decent back with a nice image of the car.

2014 Topps Valor Football Hobby Pack

I recently celebrated my 5th blogaversary over at Collector's Crack and I thought what better present to the blog then to sign up to be a contributor to this one.  I mean I've been reading a A Pack To Be Named Later for years and contemplated joining up for just as long.  So I took the plunge.  I won't say I buy a ton of packs anymore, mainly because there are so few reasonably priced packs to buy.  I really miss the time I could go into to a hobby shop and walk out with a hand full of packs of lots of different brands for $20.  But that's a rant for another place and time.

My first offering is this pack of 2014 Topps Valor Football Hobby.  Valor has been available in Topps 2014 Football Mega boxes at retail stores for a while now, but Valor Hobby came out only about a week ago.

So lets get to the cards.

#26 Odell Beckman Jr - Rookie card.  So far Odell has 3 TD receptions on the year.

#104 NaVorro Bowman

#36 Carlos Hyde - Rookie Card  Backing up the aging Frank Gore, Carlos has amassed 2 rushing TDs and 161 yards so far in his rookie season.

#70 Darelle Revis

#195 Sheldon Richardson

Our lone insert was the Speed parallel of Vernon Davis, I guess this was a Niners hot pack.  These Speed parallels come one per hobby pack.

Overall a pretty terrible pack for a Packers fan like myself, but the cards don't look terrible. Although they do look more like a Panini product than Topps.

1990-91 Hoops Basketball Series II

Basketball season started last night and time open packs. This is a pack of 1990-91 Hoops basketball series 2. Series 2 consists of draft picks and players who changed teams. Cards from Series 1 mixed in it as well.

415 - Sam Perkins

205 - Mark Jackson

355 - Dominique Wilkins - Team checklist with artwork of Human Highlight Real slamming down from the sky.

276 - Quintin Dailey

110 - John Salley

118 - Sam Mitchell - what's annoying eyesore? This rookie logo or current rookie logo?

399 - Rumeal Robinson - draft bust; currently in prison for fraud

136 - Chuck Person

238 - Kevin Johnson - mayor of Sacramento who saved the Kings from relocation

207 - Charles Oakley

116 - Chris Mullins - Dream Team member

413 - Wayne Rollins - they put his nickname on the card

391 - Gary Payton - can you hear me? Yeah, I got drafted and went on to Hall of Fame career

117 - Jim Petersen

299 - Charles Jones

370 - Pooh Richardson

297 - Harvey Grant - I'm the other Grant that's not named Horace

Enjoy the season

2002 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone's ready for the weekend.  As I type this, the Royals have just locked up Game 3 of the World Series.  I hope it's an entertaining Series and while my heart says Kansas City (because why not?), my brain says San Fran (because somehow I think it's more logical to watch a team develop and take gradual steps to win it all as opposed to a "Cinderella" scenario).  But hey, if KC wins I have no problem with that, because why not?

When I did my anniversary post I noticed that my first sports pack post was uploaded 3 years ago today.  Not only that, but I noticed I uploaded a pack from the same set last year.  Well, I have one more from 2002...from the scan folder, it's a 2002 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Pack!

I believe I did pay $5 for the pack, purchased from the LCS near where my parents live.  I figured it was a good deal, since I didn't have many 2002 cards in the collection, and it's 2 more cards than what you get for a $5 Topps rack pack nowadays.  Let's see what I got:

 

No# - Ticket To History Promotion

No # - Checklist (4 of 4)

#483 – Chris Carpenter

#537 – Luis Sojo

#514 – Mark Grudzielanek

#421 – Felipe Lopez

Since this is the third 2002 Topps pack on the site, there's no need to comment on the cards themselves.  I 

will give bonus points for the Checklist not counting as part of the 38 cards.

#456 – Eric Owens

#372 – Willis Roberts

#586 – Nate Cornejo

#402 – Kyle Loshe

#538 – Brent Butler

#468 – Rusty Greer

I didn't notice until now that the trusty scanner did not eat up the borders here.  Maybe it's a white border 

thing.  Moving on...

#377 – Nick Beugebauer

#439 – A.J. Pierzynski

#434 – Bill Mueller

#559 – Sun Woo Kim

#448 – Kevin Millwood

#506 – Wilton Guerrero

#432 – Erubiel Durazo

#697 – Ivan Rodriguez (Gold Glove)

#713 – Larry Walker (Gold Glove)

#99 – Gene Woodling (1952 World Series Anniversary)

#610 – Scott Rolen

#550 – Ken Griffey Jr.

That Woodling is shiny, but not Chrome-shiny.  Airbrush that C from Junior Griffey's helmet and you've got 

5 great base cards for one of them Panini sets.

#425 – Frank Thomas

#633 – Jermaine Dye

#470 – Lance Berkman

#385 – Fred McGriff

#367 – Mike Lieberthal

#640 – Alex Rodriguez

The last 11 cards ain't so bad for 2002 standards.  And ignoring A-Rod, more Panini goodness.  I think 

that's the problem...Panini's offerings are so tightly cropped, the lack of logos is too obvious.

  

#613 – Ray Lankford

#570 – Ryan Klesko

#530 – Brian Giles

#599 – Preston Wilson

Nice Giles and Wilson shots.  Moving on...

#585 – Miguel Tejada

#455 – Barry Zito

#516 – Sterling Hitchcock

#522 – Steve Finley

#505 – Ben Sheets

#565 – Andres Galarraga

 

Oh, it's the horizontal portion of the Jumbo pack.  Nice Big Cat card to end it.

Here's the obligatory backs:

Anyway, that's the pack.  I'm out of 2002 Topps packs, so I have no idea what I'll post next year.  Anyway, enjoy the rest of the World Series...thanks for reading!