1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Series 1

Not sure exactly how many different wrappers there were for this set, but I chose the Deion wrapper when I purchased it because I didn't recall it right away. Seems I mostly find either Kirby Puckett, Mike Piazza, or Barry Bonds wrappers.

The checklist cards have the same type graphic as the wrappers for the most part, although there is no checklist card with Deion on it, so again I'm not sure exactly how they match up. I have the checklist set for series 1 and 2 (all of which are found in series 1 packs), and those cards are of Bonds, Griffey, Piazza, Puckett, Ryan, Alomar, Clemens, Gonzalez, Griffey (again), Justice, Kruk, and Thomas.

Each pack comes with a silver or gold signature parallel.

1986 Topps Quaker Oats

This 33-card set was distributed in 3-card packs found in boxes of Chewy Granola Bars.

The players featured were current All-Stars.

You could see the top card in the pack, so I wonder how many boxes were found opened in the store with the pack missing. The top players would have been Nolan Ryan and Cal Ripken.

There was also an offer card to use in sending away for a complete set, or for ordering Topps Baseball Stickers and Yearbook.

1991 Upper Deck Denny's Grand Slam

One pack from the inaugural 26-card set by Upper Deck, featuring one player from each team. One pack was distributed with each Grand Slam meal purchased at Denny's restaurants.

Each pack included a scratcher for a chance to win prizes:

Grand Prize - Trip for 4 to the 1991 World Series

First Prizes - Team Jacket

Second Prizes - Team cap

Third Prizes - Any Denny's desert

Fourth Prizes - 16 oz Coke

Bonus - Grand Slam meal

 

I pulled #14 Andre Dawson of the Cubs. 

This is the backer card, it's a blank back.

1992 ProCards Tomorrow's Heroes

This is different. ProCards was printing out minor league baseball cards in the late 80s to mid 90s in team sets. In 1992 they decide to put this set in packs featuring top prospects. There are 360 cards in the set. What should be consider hit or miss in this pack? Those who made it and those who didn't. Let's find out.

49 - Mark Lewis - a hit. He made it with 11 year journeyman career. It's also action shot consider 99% of minor league cards are posed.

50 - Jim Thome - a big time hit as Thunder Thome became Hall of Fame player

217 - Dan Wilson - a hit as he spent almost all of his 14 year career with Mariners. Charleston Wheelers are now known as West Virginia Power

111 - Dave Silvestri - a minor hit. Spent 8 seasons in the majors but only two of them were full seasons.

13 - Rick Krivda - a minor hit. Four season in the majors only one was a full season

158 - Derek Bell - a hit. Became All-Star and part of Killer B's with Astros.

344 - Paul McClellan - borderline hit. Got in total of 17 games in two seasons.

207 - Jerrone Williams - bust. Didn't make it.

119 - Rich Batchelor - borderline hit. Got in 43 games in 3 seasons.

316 - Omar Olivares - a hit. A 12-year journeyman career

310 - Joe Sondrini - a bust. Didn't make it

35 - Darryl Scott - borderline hit. A 16 game stint in his only season in the majors. Spent remainder of his career in the minors to 2000.

Ten players in this pack made it to the majors. Six of them had a long career including one inducted to the Hall of Fame.

2017 Moose Despicable Me Mineez Surprise Pack

Greetings...

Continuing the crap-tastic 2018 ol' Jafronius has been going through, we had to put our dog Miner to sleep last night.  His health deteriorated in the past few days so it was just time.  We were hoping he'd stick around to Christmas, but it wasn't meant to be.  He did give us over 14 years of companionship so we are very grateful for that.  RIP, Miner.

I also have a new-found respect for those in the veterinary field.  I don't know their compensation, but it has to be gut-wrenching to be euthanizing a beloved family pet on one hand and then on the other dealing with folks who don't want to pay the costs for keeping their loved one alive.

So, it's another quickie post today, a blind bag of 2017 Moose Despicable Me Mineez:

Image borrowed from the interwebs.

My youngest son got one of these from the Easter Bunny I believe.  Crack open the ball and find a mini Minion.

There are many to choose from; over 75 according to their website.

[Update 1/13/24:  While prepping for my next post, I came across 2 pictures of the checklist that were meant for this post.  When I pulled up this post to see if these were uploaded, I didn't see them.  It appeared that instead I grabbed a picture of the checklist from their website, but as of today (at least), the picture is missing and the link to the website no longer worked.  So, below is the checklist that came with the figure.]

Who did he get?

#1-11:  Au Naturel Minion

I believe the Au Naturel Minion is from early in the Minions movie.

That's all for now.  This year is almost over.

2018 Panini Playoff Football Hobby Pack

 I regrettably decided to splurge on a pack of this year's Playoff.  As far as a Panini product goes I really like the design of the base cards.  While the borders take up a good portion of the card the player isn't cut out and you can see some action behind them.  Would also have been nice if Panini had taken the time to use a different back photo as well.  Let's see what was in the pack.

 The pack contained 2 inserts.  The Darnold Rookie Wave parallel is very shiny.

 I also managed to pull a Packer to add to my team collection, but overall it's a pretty poor for such an overpriced product.  No parallels or serial numbered cards in the pack.  Overall I'm pretty disappointed so far with Panini's NFL products especially since they got their exclusive license. 

2018 Topps Stranger Things Season 1 Hobby Pack

If you're about my age chances are you really loved the retro feel of Netflix's Stranger Things.  It reminded me of a mash up of the Goonies, Gremlins, and Aliens, all of which I still love. Topps' Season 1 keeps that retro feel by being issued in a similar style to Topps' 80's and 90's tie-in sets.  The set uses not quite but pretty close vintage style card stock.  There are also stickers found one pack.  Of course to keep with the times there are also plenty of parallels and other inserts to be had.  Hobby boxes promise one auto or sketch card per box.  There are also relics and other goodies to be had depending on if get the cards from a hobby box or retail.  I will most likely be just buying a complete set off the internet as pack prices make this set pretty cost prohibited to put together from packs, but since most box breakers are looking for the hits base set are going for about half the cost of a blaster.  Spoiler: I didn't hit anything spectacular from my one pack but I really did enjoy the overall look and feel of the base cards.  Let's have a look at what I got.

 My one per pack sticker....

 If anyone is interested the NPN address for this product is:
NPN 2018 Topps Stranger Things - NPN Group 20, PO Box 5013, Scranton, PA 18505.