1993-94 Fleer Basketball Series 1

In 1993, I went off to college and found some brand new 1993-94 Fleer basketball packs at some store in town. I went ahead and bought a few. At some point, I started questioning my behavior. They would be the last packs I would buy until 2006. Here's a pack from that set that came in a repack box recently.

85 - Reggie Miller - Hall of fame player, horrible broadcaster.

53 - Mark Macon - Fleer abandoned the "full stats" card backs with this set, a poor move. The Nuggets would soon abandon these jerseys, also a poor move.

31 - Will Perdue - Perdue won a few rings as Bill Cartwright's backup on Jordan's Bulls. Are backup center rings smaller or less shiny than star player rings?

175 - Mario Elie - Elie had a single season stop in Portland before he would move on to Houston, where he was best known.

20 - Kendall Gill - Dunkin'!

2 - Mookie Blaylock - Something something Pearl Jam.

208 - Jay Humphries

140 - Hubert Davis - Davis is the nephew of Walter Davis. He bounced around the league for 13 years before returning to his alma mater (North Carolina) to coach.

59 - Joe Dumars - Pistons legend and Hall of Famer who is, fortunately, not Isiah Thomas.

99 - Doug Christie - Christie would eventually end up on the wrong side of the famous 2002 playoff series between the Kings and the Lakers.

36 - Craig Ehlo - Contrary to popular belief, Ehlo did not immediately die in shame after that shot that Michael Jordan hit over him that one time.

81 - Otis Thorpe - This is right before Thorpe was... ugh... traded for Clyde Drexler. Love the scoreboard in the background of this shot.

44 - Derek Harper - Harper is showing off the Mavs new (at the time) blue road jersey.

71 - Chris Mullin - Mullin has the increasingly rare 'C' on his jersey, indicating that he is some sort of captain of something.

114 - Anthony Avent - Finally, here's a Bucks 1st rounder, coming off of his rookie season.

2017 Topps Series 2 Toys 'R Us

I don't recall what year Topps and Toys 'R Us teamed up to offer exclusive purple parallel cards, but the trend continued in Series 2 this year. Unlike in past years, there is only 1 parallel card per pack now. The packs retail for $2.99 at TRU stores...I hope the included parallel is worth the extra dollar.

Nothing fancy or special here, just regular cards from Series 2. I need to check these against my own list to see if I need any of these for my set.

Rainbow parallel of Rockies catcher, Tom Murphy.

Memorable moments insert of Derek Jeter. Not a Yankees fan, but I can respect Jeter's talent. 3,000 hits...dang. Not sure though how I feel about this set though.

...and finally the purple parallel that I'm sure most are curious about. George Springer. Nice photo Topps. Appropriate that this card was pulled on the night of Game 2 of the World Series.

I was hoping to find packs of the new Update series while at TRU, but no such luck. Not sure of Topps even produced these special packs for Update. Well, now off to find me a purple parallel of Freddie Freeman.

2016 Japanese BBM Masterpiece Multi-Sport Set

The thing I like about the Japanese BBM company is that it does a wide variety of card sets giving the collector a good range of products to choose from.  Last year, BBM released the Masterpiece Set which is a multi-sport set covering former athletes with a mix of insert cards.  One pack contains 5 cards with a 128 cards in the base set.  Insert-Card wise, there are 18 Glorious 3D Insert Cards, 18 Stay Gold Cards, 18 Superstar Cards, and 18 Sparkling Hero cards along with a variety of horizontally and vertically oriented autograph cards.  This was a big hit with collectors and packs are hard to find these days on the secondary market.  I managed to come across a handful....let's open one up to see what I got.

Card #126: Koji Gushiken - The 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist and budding "Superstar"

 Card #118: Eri Yamada - Another Olympian who helped her team win Gold in 2008.

Card #076: Koji Murofushi - This half-Japanese, half-Romanian athlete took home medals in the 2004 and 2012 Olympics in the Hammer Throw.

 Card #115: Yukio Motoki - A Japanese Rugby player from the early 1990s.  I don't think horizontal stripes make him look any less badass

Card #009: Kazuhiko Ushijima - This former baseball player shown here in the Lotte Marines uniform.....unfortunately, the Marines struggled throughout the 1990s.

2017 Topps The Walking Dead Season 7

Greetings!

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend.  Before the Dodgers and Astros square off in the World Series, fans get to take in the 100th episode of The Walking Dead later tonight.  To celebrate, here's a pack of The Walking Dead Season 7!

Target has had packs of this for a couple of months now.  I decided to pick up a pack for the site...hoping for a card with the tiger.  Here's what I got:

#29 - Hilltop Heroes
#42 - Today and Only Today

There's 100 cards in the set, with the various inserts, autographs, and parallels for all of them.

Season 7 starts with Rick Grimes and gang on their knees in front of Negan, who proceeds to (spoiler!) bash the heads in of two of Rick's buddies.  The rest of the season shows how they rebound from this and how they eventually get the courage to stand up and fight back.

The cards appear to go in chronological order, telling the complete story of Season 7.  And since there were only 16 episodes in the season, each episode is summarized over several cards.

#58 - New Best Friends
#69 - We Are Negan

Some folks complained about the ultra violent premiere and blamed that and the multiple storylines for the lower viewership totals.  I didn't mind all that, but I couldn't reconcile the existence of the Scavengers, the junkyard gang featured in the New Best Friends card above.  They speak in some sort of broken simplistic English, and I have no idea why the spoken language would devolve like that a few years into the zombie apocalypse. 

#54 - An Audience With The King
#R-4 - Negan Vs. Spence (Rivalries)

The Audience card should be the Rust-colored parallel, which comes 1 per pack.  The Rivalries card comes 1 in 4 packs.  Here are the backs:

The write up is pretty decent for a show summary; the Topps Star Wars writers should take notice.

Anyway, that's the pack.  A little pricey for the number of cards in my opinion, and there's a point deduction for no pet tiger in the pack.  Enjoy the premiere and World Series, and thanks for reading!

1991 Topps Football

Time warp to a pack from 26 years ago. That year Topps pack contains 15 base cards and 1 1000 yard club insert. Surprise this haven't been ripped on here yet. Let's rip

307 - Louis Lipps - same design as their baseball counterpart as well same color back with a football field design

 

644 - New England Patriots - Patriots hit the low point in 1990 with 1-15 record. Team card featured running back John Stephens getting stopped. Quite fitting.

 

542 - Kevin Greene - one of best linebackers to play with a 15 year career and few matches in WCW.

148 - Jonathan Hayes

537 - Doug Smith - another multi-time Pro Bowler

334 - Jessie Hester

228 - Al Smith

397 - Herman Moore - was Lions top WR in the mid-90s

 191 - Darrell Green - the ageless wonder who played his entire 20 year career with the Redskins.

18 (1000YC) - James Brooks - 1000 Yard Club insert featuring stats on how many yards he ran from each game of the season. He barely made the list.

610 - John Stephens - photo featured the game against Eagles which Randall Cunningham outran the Pats D nearly untouched for a TD. Oh yeah there was this Pats RB on the card.....

134 - Neil Smith - become a Pro Bowler after this breakout season. He would earn Super Bowl rings with AFC West rival Broncos

387 - Mike Merriweather

63 - Pierce Holt

138 - Rich Baldinger

550 - Bobby Humphrey - his career started out hot only to flame out quickly when he decide to hold out. By the time he ended it Broncos found his replacement.

Not a bad pack. Good to remember Patriots did suck during that time.