2005 Zatchbell

I actually wanted to name the post "Zatchbell!" but Blogger does not allow exclamation points in their post titles. Oh well.

I had never heard of these things until I stopped by my semi-local Dollar Tree picking up mailing supplies for my latest free pack giveaways. As soon as I saw the packs hanging on the rack, I knew one (un)lucky one would find its way here.


Each pack has "9 cards (5 commons, 3 uncommon, 1 rare). The card below must be the 'rare' one because it is all shiny and foil-like...


Are the orange-bordered cards the 'uncommon' ones? I have no idea, nor am I going to look it up. So there.


Rigron? Do you realize how hard it must be for TCG companies to trademark the names of their characters? I mean, come on, what TCG doesn't have a Rigron these days?


Oooo, BRAGO. Sounds like a jerk to me.


I'm thinking the next one's name was created after a night of binge drinking and watching Scooby-Doo...


Umm, "Summer Vacation?" I love the bulging eyes...


Do not mess with TIA... She's one of those psycho anime chicks...


I can't even think of anything for this one:


Clayshield? Really, that's it? Clayshield? I'm thinking the name-creators just use captcha codes to come up with names... I would.


I hope you enjoyed these as much as I did.... Well, hopefully, you enjoyed them a whole lot more. We make sacrifices in the name of opening one kind of wax pack ever made. Someone's gotta do it.

1988 Topps Stickers

1988 Topps Sticker Cards, our pack opening for the night.

These were sold as stickers with a Superstar Card attached to the back of each one.There were 5 stickercards to a pack for $.25 with 48 cello wrapped packs to a box.The stickercards consist of 66 different players and 1 checklist card. 313 different stickers were attached to the cards,but not all cards had the same sticker. There are 3 different sticker combinations for each card.Some stickers were the same size as the cards, 2 1/8" x 3". Others were half size with two smaller stickers mounted horizontally.The smaller stickers all had individual numbers. An identical set was sold in Canada under the O-Pee-Chee brand name. An album was also available for placement of the stickers.

Cards depicting National League players had a blue background.

#22 Gary Carter

Stickers depicting National League players also had blue border lines.

#123 Lance Parrish

Americam League stickers had red border lines.

#199 Dave Sveum

#27 Rick Sutcliffe

Stars in corners indicated 1987 Championship Series player.

# 15 Tom Brunansky

# 8 Mike Schmidt

# 179 Wally Joiner

# 4 Tom Herr

" Arrow " markings in corners indicate Highlights sticker. # 12 Juan Beniquez

# 237 Oddibe McDowell

Cards depicting American League players had a red background.

# 51 Rickey Henderson

Final sticker in this pack : #126 Andy Van Slyke

And, of course, what would a pack of cards in the '80's be without a piece of bubble gum !!

2007 Topps Turkey Red (retail)

I didn’t even know that they had packs of this for sell. I only thought they came in inserts of other packs.

This is a retail pack that lists 8 cards. Packs with a relic contain 7 cards. The 2007 series is modeled after the 1911 T-3 cabinet cards.



Okay let’s get started.

First card is a David Eckstein card # 87. He’s bunting and looks a little to focused on the task at hand. A little creepy to me. The Turkey Red logo is different on this series than the later ones.


The first thing I notice about this card is the painted shadow behind him. I think these cards look a little more like drawings than the newer Turkey Reds.



#86 David Dejesus. Sequential numbering and sequential Davids’.
A really nice horizontal card with a strip of bright light behind DeJesus. I guess this supposed to be fans sitting in the stands? It’s hard to tell, but it looks cool.


#20 Alex Rodriquez
It doesn’t really look like him much unless you really squint your eyes. Slightly awkward pose, but a really cool stadium background.



# 142 Jered Weaver. This card looks a little like current Turkey Reds with the subdued dark background. In his white uniform Jered really pops out of the background.



#115 Prince Fielder Dick Perez sketch


#170 Hanley Ramirez Dick Perez sketch
#26 Frank Thomas


#156 Travis Hafner

This card is awesome!!! For someone interested in photography like me, this is a funny card to have. The big shadow on the left is the first thing I noticed, but later I noticed the shadow of the “cameraman” on Hafner’s leg.

All in all it looks like a good set. At first I wasn’t digging the borders much, but they grew on me.

2008-2009 Upper Deck Basketball Retail Jumbo Pack

As you can plainly see, this pack was on clearance and that is really the only reason I picked this up. I'll buy a basketball pack here and there but I've never collected a set. Maybe I should buy one more often because I was pleasantly surprised with what was waiting for me inside.

Here are the base:

#36 Dirk Nowitzki#53 Tayshaun Prince

#30 Daniel Gibson

#42 Carmelo Anthony

#161 Brad Miller

#39 Jose Barea

#166 Ron Artest

#119 Vince Carter

#126 Zach Radolph

#1 Mike Bibby

#111 Ryan Gomes

#142 Jason Smith

#155 Channing Frye

SQ-9 Kevin Durant Un-Common Starquest

#153 Steve Nash

#204 Larry Bird

I was surprised to find this little gem waiting for me at the bottom of the stack of cards. My first jersey basketball card I believe.

GA-TM Tracy McGrady Game Used Jersey

So once you strike oil you've got to try again right? On my next trip through I picked up two more discount packs and got lucky again:

GA-AS Amare Stoudemire Game Used Jersey

2009 Upper Deck MLS

Dear Chris from Stale Gum,

As our resident Soccer Expert, is this pack anything?

Sincerely,

Matt F.



#137 Matt Reis

#67 Dwayne De Rosario

#53 Danny Dichio

#157 Paulo Nagamura

#3 Abdus Ibrahim

#96 Freddie Lungberg

GB-12 Tayler Twellman Golden Boot

#129 Louis Crayton

#182 Steve Cronin

#72 Eric Denton