2008-09 Fleer Ultra hockey

We are three weeks out from the first preseason game in the 2015-16 NHL season. Today, let us jump into the wayback machine and set the dial back 8 years.

Back into the packs that came from that repack box. It was a gold mine for stuff never posted here. Third year in the league for poster bot Ovechkin, who won his first of 3 (to this point) MVP awards the previous season. He would go back to back with the hardware this season as well. Hobby pack, so we get 8 cards in a pack.

Full bleed, as always, with Ultra. The big thing with Ultra, versus Upper Deck, is the blah photo selections. You certainly know you have the player on the card, but very few images in Ultra will get you excited. The design is clean, though the foil team name and position are almost illegible with the tiny font used. Dallas has a bad campaign and failed to make the post season for the first time since 2002.

The Thrashers had a rough 08-09, missing out on the playoffs for the 2nd season in a row.

Wade was not with the Sens at the start of the season, signing a contract with the Rangers. The Senators were another team on the golf course the day after the 08-09 regular season ended.

Gold medallion cards fall one to a pack. It's just the base card with a gold background. The Wings made it to the Cup finals in a repeat of the previous season's final with the Penguins. However, as opposed to raising the Cup the previous season, Pittsburgh took it home when the final buzzer sounded.

Uhhhhg. This sweaters are the pits, as is Bertuzzi. The Ducks squeaked into the playoffs and took the Red Wings to 7 games, but dropped in the end.

Scoring Kings insert. Twenty card insert set. Heatley had been playing well in Ottawa considering his life 5 years earlier.

Second year for Backstrom. He helped the club to the playoffs, but knocked out in the 2nd round by the Penguins.

Stars at the front and the back of the pack. Penultimate season for Lehtinen in the NHL, but this one and his final the following year would end without getting any games beyond the initial 82.

1991 Q-Card Japanese Baseball

On my site, I was blessed with a box of packs by the manager going by "Jacksonville Jobu." In that box, this pack of Japanese cards instantly caught my eye - as I'm sure you can imagine.

The wrapper is a silver material that is not foil. I guess it is plastic - very thing, like a trashbag feel to it. The front of the wrapper features Japanese writing, of course, but also the number "2" (indicating there are two cards, I discovered upon opening the pack). There is also the "QCard" logo and "Official Pro Baseball Card" on the front. That little guy you see at the bottom is actually the team logo on the top card in the pack. That is a little see-through window.

The back of the pack is chock full of Japanese writing. The 120 indicates there are 120 cards in the set (I discovered online through a convoluted search). Also on the back is a UPC code, a phone numbers, and a "Q-Card Company Store" insignia.

The cards themselves are smaller than our squared off traditional-sized baseball cards. These cards are also made of a stiff plastic and are made to resemble credit cards. The fronts feature a white border with a gold-ish inset border, the player, the player's name in English in an arching banner, the team logo is planted in the bottom center.

The backs of the cards have (presumably) bio and player stats. The upper right corner has a white sticker for signatures, which is a cool touch since these are supposed to mimic credit cards. Watanabe's card is the one on the right with the yellow highlight. I assume it is yellow because he was one of the great players in the league (according to Internet research). I could certainly be wrong about that.

These are certainly unique collectibles!

You can read more about these: http://japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/2012/05/q-card.html

2012 Panini Score Football

A few weeks ago I picked up a cheap box of 2012 Panini Score Football box had 7 packs of 11 cards per including one Rookie and one Glossy card per pack.  Nothing special in this pack did get the 2011 MVP Aaron Rodgers and the one per pack Glossy and Rookie along with a insert subset Hot Rookie card of St' Louis Rams Draft pick from Wake Forest Chris Givens.

2012 Panini Score Football Box Featuring RGIII

Unopened pack 2012 Score Football

Base Fronts with 2011 league MVP Aaron Rodgers

Base Card Backs 

Rookie Bryce Brown, Glossy Dwayne Bowe & Hot Rookie Chris Givens

1994 Benchwarmers Series 2

I posted early 1992 Benchwarmers, this post is the other packs I purchased 2 of 1994 series II Benchwarmers.  As with the 1992 set I know none of these women but I have seen one before Kristen Rose (3rd & 4th pictures upper right) as she was in the Queensryche video "Jet City Women".  I wouldn't have purchased these but for 20 cents a pack why not! I do like that there are different pictures on front and back would like that to be true on all sports cards but not always the case. Also, the card subjects are all better looking the Terrell Suggs! Set has 100 cards and there were 8 cards per pack.

1992 Benchwarmers Premier Edition

I was at a local card store and they had some packs in a bin @ 5 for $1 so had to pick up some,  I picked up 3 packs of the 1992 premier edition of Benchwarmers, these cards are billed as the "largest collection of film and TV most beautiful women". Yeah well never heard of any of these beautiful except for Alicia Rickter(Bottom right 2nd picture below) and only know her because I have her autograph as she was Playboy's 500th Centerfold. Please find below pictures of the wrapper and fronts and backs of each of the 10 card pack this pack did include 2 Challenge cards and a sticker along with 7 base cards.

1999-2000 Upper Deck hockey series 2

What you have to love about a repack box is the old time junk wax that shows up. Sure, you get a lot of the current stuff, or the previous year's, but at least a couple packs have some years on them. That's the story of this pack what I pulled from a Target 10 pack hockey repack. This is the same box that gave us the 2003 Pacific Quest for the Cup a week ago here at APTBNL.

The Great One. He was on a LOT of hockey packs for many, many years. I haven't decided if seeing him as a Ranger or a Blue is more of a shock. Currently, as a Blue is the leader, but mainly because of the dreadful sweaters. Game used cards are a possible pulls, and goalie pads were inserts. 10 cards. Here we go...

Not a great design. The images, as always, are great selections by the UD team. The clunky bar at the bottom, with the impossible to read bronze foil does nothing to make this set nice to look at. And the whole last name/first name deal is garbage. Standard UD logo stamped in a top corner.

I miss CCM as the outfitter of the NHL. None of that BS Coolbase Reebok crap that gave us the Bettman stripes. That is not to say the Sharks had good looking uniforms back in the day. Woof!

"Hi - we're the LA Kings. After we traded away Gretzky, we are trying to find ourselves again. How do you like purple?"

"No? What if we switched the colors on the template and changed up the logo a bit?" Note the kid in the background in the Avs sweater. I am certain this is a game in Denver, so the old days when the teams wore white at home.

"We traded away the greatest hockey player ever too. Let's mess around with a classic sweater...."

I'm not sure the insert rate of these Starquest. The embossed numbers are kind of cool. But the design is quite busy with them.

I got two things about this card. One, I will avoid my Devils green rant. And two - screw Scott Stevens.

What ever happened to Anson Carter? He really became a journeyman after the 2000 season.

I get a Red Wing in every pack I open.

Not too bad at the end of the pack. And the backs...

Different photo and full career stats - Woo-hoo!!! Emma Stone approves!

2014 Rittenhouse James Bond 007 Archives

I forgot I even scanned this, considering the year. Random picked a pack of James Bond I ripped at my LCS pack wars a good year ago. Interesting set for sure, but definitely for that niche market of Bond film fans.

Gold foil wrapper. Who is surprised about that? This is the 2014 edition, but I have no clue is there was a 2013 or 2015 releases. Cardboard Connection says YES - 2015 edition was released. Well, you get six cards to a pack, let's have at it.

The 2014 set celebrates 5 different Bond films. The main is Casino Royale, but there are insert sets for Thunderball, Live And Let Die and Tomorrow Never Dies. Plus the base set has some Skyfall cards to complete it. Each box has autographs as well as gold foil parallels. Two autographs and one gold parallel per box. I do believe this is Eva Green as Vesper Lynd. Horrible Bond girl name.

007 Daniel Craig with villian Le Chiffre.

Some beefcake for you lady readers. And what the hell is he drinking? That is NOT a vodka martini, shaken not stirred!

This is a gold foil parallel, as you can see the movie name in the lower right. The cards for Tomorrow Never Dies also have gold parallels in the box. These are numbered to /99.

More of Bond and Vesper Lynd. What, no "Pussy Galore"? "Holly Goodhead"? "Mary Goodnight"? "Kissy Suzuki"? "Octopussy"??????? So much for the good ol' days.

And the tables get turned on the bad guy. Don't they always lose to Bond and his partners? WIll they ever learn?

All the back are horizontal with a different image. The description ties in the picture on the back with the image on the front. The card stock in nice on these, but all in all the design is very bland.

2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Hobby

As you can see, my "to be ripped and reviewed" stack for A Pack To Be Named Later is getting a little out of hand so I need to get back into the habit of regularly ripping packs. So let's start today with an odd ball one-off product from Upper Deck, 2009 O-Pee-Chee Baseball. In 2010, Upper Deck lost its baseball license and so we never got to see this product's true potential. I think I really did buy this for $1 from a clearance box at a card shop in Minnesota during a visit. And as TraderCracks says "when you find 2009 O-Pee-Chee Baseball, you buy 2009 OPC Baseball."

In my my six cards I was able to pull two stadium cards which is a subset of baseball cards that I collect! As you'll notice my card of Progressive Stadium in Cleveland has a black border which fell one per pack.