2009 Upper Deck SP Authentic

A long time ago, on a blog...well, on this blog in fact, a pack of this bad boy was opened, with the hope of a Stephen Strasburg rookie hiding within. Lets see if the pack that was expected to be opened then is opened now. Oh....er...Stephen Strasburg Stephen Strasburg Stephen Strasburg Mike Trout.

I'm being told I won't find a Trout in here.

Here's the front of the pack for those that dig looking at that kind of thing.

And away we go...

It's a pitcher but his name is not Strasburg.

Hmm...this guy hasn't even batted against Strasburg.

Another pitcher not named Strasburg. I like it's a White Sox, though.

YES YES YES It's...a tease. Dangit. Right team. This guy has showered with Strasburg.

More non-named Strasburg pitchers. His last name starts with "S". Maybe if I grab a ball point pen...

2007 Topps Flashback Fridays

Hey all - it's Jeff. When I hit a card show this past weekend, a dealer was selling packs of these cards at 2 for a buck. It was only later that I realized why both packs I bought had the same five cards. And you can see for yourself when I show you the wrapper. So without further delay, let's take a gander at Topps 2007 release called "Flashback Fridays".

It starts off pretty well with an old timey pack design, even if it is celo. But notice at the bottom. This is a starter set with cards 1-5. So that's why both packs were the same. A quick search through the tubes of the net tells us this is a whopping 25 card set that would be released in waves. I can say I never even HEARD of this set, and being that it was only 25 cards and lasted just one year, most people probably haven't either. And the cards?

Oh
my
eyes!

That is one brutal looking card. Again, the net says they are based on the 1933 DeLong Gum cards. Maybe it's the really bright white that makes these hard to handle. Ok - so card one is Howard.

Jeter in spot 2.

Junior going third.

Tejada in the clean up spot.

And the hot seat playing Wright taking the back of the starter set pack. And how about the backs?

Very simple. The silhouette in the upper right is a nice touch. The back makes reference to a different tip on each card. Hmmm - not sure how blurbs about Griffey's career is a "tip".

Anyway, there ya go. Go hunt and find yourself a pack to rip.

1997 Topps Screen Plays

I thought for sure I would be the first one to review a tin of this product but it turns out  R.N. Coyote reviewed a Screen Plays pack back in March of 2011 but I don't think anyone would mind seeing another pack of it.  As a huge fan of Sportflics from the late 80's these Screen Plays packs are like the high end of "motion action" cards. 

While these were expensive packs when they were released and you only get one card per tin you were at least able to know exactly which card you were going to receive as the player is prominently displayed on the opposite side. 

When you open the tin you first get a sort of checklist card that lists the players available and also explains the Kodak process used in creating the cards.

Looking at the checklist 15 years later they did a pretty good job picking players and I imagine that Hideo Nomo card is worth a pretty penny to Nomo's enthusiastic collectors. 

Removing the checklist you get your one card which is just sitting on the filler loose which was a little surprising to me.

And here's the card in action...



Now that the excitement of your card pull has slowed down you can move onto the next stage of this product which is displaying your card.  The first step is to remove some of the filler material [which is pre-cut from Topps].

And then you can position the tin cover so that everyone knows you love the Yankees or...

...to show your pull.

Although the "Premium" cards have a higher book value, the Jeter is put at about $12.00...and you can get a pack of your own for as little as $5.00 online on eBay.

2005 Press Pass Football

I have a soft spot for college football cards. I can never bring myself to buy NFL cards anymore (I gave up when I spent my last fiver on a box of Pro Set like a desperate junkie) but I am a big fan of the college game. I found this little number in one of those Target bargain boxes, I can only assume, since it has the familiar $1.59 price sticker on the back.

B26 - Terrence Murphy Blue - This must be some sort of parallel, as is often the case with the Press Pass and HIT stuff. I can't see the stated odds on the wrapper because of the aforementioned price sticker, but this is probably something of the more common variety. I had never heard of Murphy, who apparently caught 5 passes with the Packers before retiring due to the discovery of a spinal issue. Yikes.

BN 23/25 - Mike Williams Big Numbers - Mike Williams was one of the guys that tried to buck the early entry requirements for players leaving college football for the NFL. He floundered when he finally got a shot at the NFL until his college coach Pete Carroll signed up up with a two year gig in Seattle. He hasn't played this year, however, and is a free agent.

15 - Anthony Davis - Not to be confused with the unibrow guy, this Anthony Davis was drafted by the Colts but didn't make it in the NFL.

2 - Brock Berlin - Finally, it's Brock Berlin. He was a Rams backup for a couple of seasons but didn't really make an impact in the pro game.

It's a nice touch that different photos are included on the back. It seems like a lot of these types of sets get lazy with photo selection.

1991 Jimmy Dean Signature Edition

Greetings!

Hope everyone had a great week and is ready to have a great weekend.  I'm happy all the political TV ads are over with.

Here's another quick post, from the miscellaneous cards I have been encountering in the reorganization project...1991 Jimmy Dean Signature Edition!

Yes, that Jimmy Dean...learn something new every day.

It was a 25 card set inserted in the (I assume) various Jimmy Dean products.  Here's the checklist, borrowed from the interwebs:

1          Will Clark        

2          Ken Griffey, Jr.

3          Dale Murphy   

4          Barry Bonds    

5          Darryl Strawberry        

6          Ryne Sandberg

7          Gary Sheffield  

8          Sandy Alomar, Jr.        

9          Frank Thomas 

10        Barry Larkin    

11        Kirby Puckett  

12        George Brett   

13        Kevin Mitchell 

14        David Justice   

15        Cal Ripken, Jr.

16        Craig Biggio    

17        Rickey Henderson       

18        Roger Clemens

19        Jose Canseco  

20        Ozzie Smith     

21        Cecil Fielder    

22        Dave Winfield  

23        Kevin Maas     

24        Nolan Ryan     

25        Dwight Gooden

Again, not a bad group of superstars from 1991.  Here's what I got:

#17 - Rickey Henderson
#21 - Cecil Fielder

Here are the backs for those who are interested:

Once again, MLB does not recognize the existence of this set, therefore Cecil looks like he's wearing pajamas. Not sure if Rickey approves.

Also, it appears that the Jimmy Dean folks created the set without the assistance of a major card manufacturer, as I do not see another logo anywhere on the card.  Big Cecil's signature was too big to include a factoid, I guess. Finally, I don't know why the stats on Fielder's card alternated between black and red (and Henderson's card did not), but props to Jimmy Dean for including the stats from his year in Japan...looks like he enjoyed Japanese pitching that year.

That's the pack...enjoy your weekend!  More later...thanks for reading!

2012 Upper Deck Golf

Greetings. I'm Jeff, the newest contributor to this site. Hopefully you read and/or follow me at my regular haunt of 2x3 Heroes. I have decided to join this gang of misfits, since who doesn't like ripping open anything and everything, right? So let's jump right in with a brand new product: 2012 Upper Deck Golf. Picked this up from Target.

Pretty straight forward wrapper with very little in the way of words. Four cards in the pack. Let's see them.

The "veteran" of the pack - Zach Johnson. Bit busy of a design. You can't go wrong with the golf ball dimple look, but is that some flowing river behind him? Golf club head? I bet it's pasta noodles. The backs show the same image (without the funky flow foil) and some stats.

As I said, this is the veteran of the pack, by means of his 7 tour victories. And 1.8 million in winnings during 2011. Barilla pasta for this guy.

Card two is the pack rookie - John Mallinger. While he has been on the tour for 10 years, he has not a single title to his name. And the poor guy only made 179k last year. Ramen noodles again for dinner, Johnny!

Next is Matt Kuchar. I think I may have heard his name in the background while over at my brother-in-laws house during dinner. But at least he has 3 victories in his 12 years on the tour and banked over 4 mil in 2011. Matt hires a chef to hand craft linguini in his house through some electric pasta machine purchased at Brookstone.

Last would be our hit of the pack, in that the blue parallels are seeded 1:2. Robert Garrigus had a break out year in 2010, nabbing his first title after 13 years on the tour and earning 1.5 million in 2011. Interesting fact: Robbie attended community college. So while his winning can afford Prince spaghetti, I am sure he buys the store brand.

Per the pack, each box should have one relic hit. With that knowledge, since the relic pack would be the best of the box, I am calling this pack the worst pack of the box. If you think otherwise, let me know.

1994 Panini Baseball Stickers

1994 edition of Panini's popular stickers sold in conjunction with their MLB sticker album.

Packs contained 6 stickers and sold for about 49 cents a pack.

The set also included 16 foil stickers honoring 1993 award winners and World Series action.

#23 Cal Ripken, always cool to pull a Ripken.

#133 Doug Strange

#73 Tom Gordon.

Remember when Gordon was a Royal?

Seems so long ago.

#107 Mike Bordick

#91 Kent Hrbek

#124 Omar Vizquel.

Holy Cow, and to think that he could STILL be playing!

2006 Upper Deck Series 1

2006 was probably the last year that I really enjoyed the Upper Deck base set design. This pack was part of a deeply discounted repack cube I bought last month. I believe it was $3 for what would usually retail at $9.99 or more. The plastic cube had taken some damage but the cards inside were fine.

261 - Geoff Jenkins

470 - Corey Koskie - Photoshop is for suckers. Upper Deck would just swap the logo out and leave you with an unblemished image.

62 - Jorge Julio

309 - Hideki Matsui (Caption contest, anyone?)

53 - Bernie Castro - The sad thing is that Castro was clearly posing with his "new" team, the Padres here, but he had already been sent elsewhere before the set came out.

300 - Tom Glavine

 78 - Johnny Damon - Johnny Damon cannot be tamed!

403 - Eddie Guardado - "Everyday Eddie" was coming off of a very effective season with a truly terrible 69 win Seattle team. Of those 69 wins, more than half of them (36) were saved by Guardado.