2018 Topps Bowman Holiday Promo pack

 These promotional packs became available after November 16th, 2018.  To boost off season sales all you have to do is buy $10 or so of Topps products to recieve a pack.  There are a couple base parallels and autos to be had.

There are also a couple gimmick cards in the set including this Santa card.  There's also a Christmas Elf and Turkey to find.

 Also included in my pack was this 2019 Topps Series 1 sSilver Pack / Home Run Challenge promo card.

2018 Topps Gallery Hanger Pack

 Topps brings back Gallery as a Wal-Mart Exclusive once again this year. 
Over all the art quality is pretty good. Topps uses a small stable of artist for this set and you can see that is the slightly different quality and style between the cards.  It's hard to see but the base cards have a textured border.  I ended up splurging on a hanger pack the other day.  The hanger packs feature 2 canvas/wood border parallels. Let's have a look at what I got.

 For current players Topps offers just the 2017 stats broken out by month.  I do like that the artist the produced the card is clearly listed on all the cards.

 I'm not sure why Topps would call these canvas parallels as they clear look like wood grain.

 I also pulled on insert, a Heritage insert of McCutchen in Giants uniform.

1992 Fleer Ultra Series I

In 1992, Ultra was Fleer's second attempt at a premium card set. The design was a step up for them, but the set overall suffered from the same overproduction that plagued almost everything in the early '90s.

91 - Brian Harper - My hometown AAA Portland Beavers team was affiliated with the Twins at the time, so I got to see Brian Harper (a former Cardinal) play in person a bit.

112 - Mike Gallego - Ultra offered three distinct player photos (no one does this anymore) and the cards had a super-'90s design feel to them.

245 - Ricky Jordan - I think this was one of the last seasons of the old 'P'-with-a-baseball-inside logo for Philadelphia.

215 - Jose Offerman - One of the more unstable baseball players of my time.

191 - Barry Larkin - Our first Hall of Famer of the pack.

163 - Brian Hunter

137 - Dean Palmer - Palmer gets the Rookie designation.

123 - Ken Griffey, Jr. - This is a great looking Griffey card from one of the last seasons of the Mariners yellow 'S' look.

146 - Kelly Gruber - My memory may be off on this, but I feel like Gruber was a sneaky good player that people didn't talk about a whole lot. It probably helped that the Blue Jays were generally really good back then.

175 - Mark Grace - Another familiar face.

204 - Pete Harnisch

230 - David Cone - Cone went on to throw a perfect game in 1999 with the Yankees, which was also the first no-hitter thrown in an interleague game.

238 - Anthony Young - Young was, unfortunately, notorious for his dreadful won-loss record. He went 3-30 as a swingman for the Mets over the course of the 1992 and 1993 seasons. The pitching win truly is a farce, but just try telling that to this guy.

249 - Dale Murphy - Finally, a should-be Hall of Famer. Maybe one day one of those alternative methods of electing members will get Murphy a better look.

1990 Fleer

Greetings!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Turkey Day.  I decided to put a post up while we're waiting around for the food to be ready, the first post here on Thanksgiving since 2010.  While looking through the scan folder for a pack, I considered another Pokemon pack, but then came across this:

I'm not sure why I scanned a pack of 1990 Fleer.  There's a pack on the site already.  Maybe it's because not all the cards in the pack were scanned and I was thinking I should correct this injustice, but it's still 1990 Fleer!  Oh well, it's Turkey Day, so here's a pack from the era many consider to be a turkey.

I do know it was from one of those repacks my eldest likes to convince The Wifey to buy from time to time.  Here's what he got:

No # - Royals Sticker

#290 – Harold Baines

#364 – Tim Wallach

#118 – Kurt Stillwell

Baines as a Ranger and the Expos unis start us off.

#131 – Mike Fetters

#368 – Doug Baker

#45 – Mitch Webster

#618 – Gary Ward

There were 660 cards in the set, with subsets starting at #621.

#152 – Jack Clark

#629 – Players Of The Decade – Jose Canseco

#279 – Eric Hetzel

#44 – Jerome Walton

The kid got 2 Cubs in the pack so he was pretty happy.

#338 – B.J. Surhoff

#629 – Players Of The Decade – Jose Canseco (back)

#107 – Steve Farr

#196 – Don Aase

Yep, got 2 Cansecos, so you get to see the back.  Yay for collation!

Speaking of backs, here's a couple more:

You might as well see the back of the Aase card because I'm silly that way.

Anyway, that the pack.  Nothing thought-provoking or earth-shattering this time.  According to my spreadsheet, this is the 100th baseball card pack I posted on the site.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  Be thankful for what you have and be kind to the retail workers while shopping!  Thanks for reading!

1994-95 Fleer Hockey

Card design of 1995 Fleer was strange. They got artsy and ends up a mess on baseball and basketball. Not sure about football because I never seen one. Then there is the 250 card hockey set. There are 12 cards a pack with one insert. How does it look?

149 - Alexei Yashin - you know what? It looks good on hockey. It uses team colors on both sides of the card.

23 - Pat LaFontaine

3 (of 10) Netminders - Dominik Hasek - Netminders insert card featuring top goalies. One of few players to lay claim on winning Olympic gold and Stanley cup.

12 - Al Iafrate

59 - Sergei Fedorov - different design but it still looks good.

98 - Andrew Cassels - Whalers colors on the card

39 - Chris Chelios

133 - Alexei Kovalev - another design but still looking good

230 - Cliff Ronning - for those who played NHLPA 93 he was best offensive player in the game

113 - Claude Lemieux - forget Sean Avery. He's the biggest shit-stirrer on ice and backs it up.

201 - Michal Sykora - played 7 seasons in NHL before finishing his career in Czech league

159 - Chris Therien - mainstay of the Flyers for 11 seasons

While 95 Fleer design was a miss for baseball and basketball, this design fits for hockey. The player is out in front with either watermark of him or faded team logo on the background. Fleer scores a goal with this design in hockey.