1993-94 Topps Series 1 Basketball

With the NBA Finals looming (Game 1 is set for tomorrow night), we have plenty of basketball cards to show off here at the ol' pack ripping blog. Here's a blast from the past from the, er, past.

137 - Rumeal Robinson - Robinson was a lottery pick at the beginning of the '90s but had to settle for a journeyman role.

180 - Dee Brown - Does anyone own a fresh pair of Reebok Pumps?

21 - Terry Mills

162 - Sam Mitchell

128 - Stacey King - King was another former lottery pick who didn't have the greatest career, but no one is going to scoff at his 3 championship rings.

147 - Bill Laimbeer Gold - Topps was still doing the one-per-pack Gold parallel thing back then, and Bill Laimbeer was still playing his particularly annoying brand of basketball even though the Bad Boys were long past their prime.

16 - Derek Harper - This one is starting to show the signs of a mid-'90s pack whose cards were all stuck together.

177 - Alonzo Mourning All-Rookie Team - Zo is pulling off the teal look.

65 - Alvin Robertson

24 - Rick Fox - You can find Rick Fox on TV somewhere to this day, but I'm not sad that his card looks like hell because I hated the guy when he played. Just loathsome.

152 - Shaquille O'Neal All-Rookie Team - Magic Shaq is the best Shaq.

48 - Olden Polynice - Boxing out Patrick Ewing has never looked more fun!

1991-92 Skybox Basketball Series 1

NBA Finals start on Thursday featuring Warriors and Cavaliers in best of 7 series. After graphically awesome debut set Skybox put second set with more arty graphics on white borders. This is series 1 and pack consist of 14 cards. Time to rip....

 149 Alec Kessler - You have the Skybox basketball swoosh and arty graphics. On back of card picture enlarged from their previous square. There's the nostalgia part with Kessler wearing NBA Inside Stuff shirt which used to be on TV on Saturday mornings. He went to medical school to become orthopedic surgeon after his playing career ended. Died in 2007 of heart attack.

166 - Randy Breuer

 344 - Stay in School: Science - nothing screams 90s card collection than PSA on it. This one about Staying in School with science as subject. Back of card mention Alec Kessler and Dan Schayes involved in college science fields.

82 - James Edwards

239 - Jerome Kersey - passed away earlier this year from pulmonary embolism caused by a blood clot

2 - Duane Ferrell

205 - Dennis Scott - nicknamed 3D for his three point shooting he had infamous meltdown at his basketball camp

222 - Cedric Ceballos

290 - A.J. English

304 - Darrell Walker (Top Rebounding Guard) - interesting card. Look at how many Hall of Famers he topped

40 - Stacey King - had include back shot of the card because he's boxing a bag

201 - Michael Ansley

243 - Anthony Bonner

252 - Wayman Tisdale - became jazz musician after his playing career recording 8 albums. Passed away in 2009.

33 - Kelly Tripucka

This pack is a trip with lots of colorful shapes, swooshes, swirls, and stars on these cards. It also had 3 deceased players. Touch of death on this pack?

Who's ready for the finals?

2015 Topps Museum Collection Baseball

Today we have a pack (minibox) of 2015 Topps Museum Collection.




This is a hobby set that is sold by master box, each with a 4 miniboxes. Each minibox contains a pack.

I bought one minibox. Each minibox has one hit (auto or relic).

The last time I opened one of these I got a Billy Hamilton Triple Auto Relic Redemption. Surely I won't be so lucky today, but lets find out.

First, our base cards...



Roger Clemens



Lou Gehrig



Eric Hosmer



Bob Clemente

Cleary this set is big on old school players, if my pack is any indicator.

And now for my hit... I can see that is a thick card, so I'm assuming a relic...



Woah!!! One-of-one Edgar Martinez Game-Used Bat Barrel!!!! I've never pulled a game-used barrel before. Edgar is one of my favorite players of the 90's. This is a sweet card. I haven't decided if I want to keep or sell it but I will be able to recoup 3x the cost of the mini box if I decide to... so its tempting. But we will see!!!!

2015 Panini USA Baseball Stars and Stripes

Happy Memorial Day! This is pack of this year's Panini USA Baseball Stars and Stripes. Kris Bryant on the cover. Comes with 8 cards in a pack. This 100 card set feature players on Team USA National team.

73 - Matt Olson - currently in double-A Midland (A's affiliate)

66 - Lucas Sims - in single-A Carolina (Braves affiliate)

58 - Kolby Allard - still in high school. Expected to be drafted high in the majors

49 - Jameson Taillon - curently in triple-A Indianapolis (Pirates affiliate)

93 - Trea Turner - game used card numbered to 50. As for Turner the future Nationals player is currently playing for Padres double-A affiliate San Antonio til some time in June. Say what? How did this happen? Padres, Nationals, and Rays had three-team trade with Padres tossing player to be named later to Nationals. Turns out PTBNL is Turner resulting MLB making draft rule changes.

98 - Justin Garza - currently in college playing for Cal St. Fullerton. Once drafted by Indians in 26th round

98 - Tyler Naquin - former first round pick currently in double-A Akron (Indians affiliate)

96 - Tyler Beede - Giants 2014 first round pick in San Jose

That was decent pack of cards.

1996 Merlin Premier League Collector Cards

Well, the 2014/15 Premier League season is done tomorrow. My boys already secured the championship a couple weeks back. Just have tomorrow's games to settle the last team to be relegated, and one possible spot in the Europa Cup. Conveniently, the randomizer picked this pack from my scan folder of 44 different sets to be posted. Damn good timing. I have no dang clue where I found this. It may be a pack I found in an old dollar store bin. If there was every a statement of the junk wax era, this pack is it.

Look - they're "official"!!! I had never heard of Merlin's. In fact, there is no Wikipedia page about them. If you search the disambiguation of "Merlin", there is just a mention of the company:

Bought out by Topps in 1995. Topps kept the Merlin's name, though, as it continued to produce football cards. Anyway, we got 3 cards and a superstar standup. Let's have at it.

First out of the pack is the standup. Alan Shearer is pictured as a striker with Newcastle, where he spent the bulk of his career, also logging 4 years each with Southampton and Blackburn before finishing his career with the Magpies. Shearer is the all time leading scorer in the Premier League with 260 goals.

Graham Hyde with Sheffield Wednesday. Sheffield has been up and down between Championship and League 1 since they were relegated from the top tier in 2000. Sheffield Wednesday is one of the oldest football clubs in the world, founded in 1867. They also are the first English club to ever field an American when they brought over John Harkes in 1990.

A goofy caricature of Gary McAllister dressed in a Coventry City kit, a club he has just signed with for the '96 season. Scotland native, McAllister earned 57 caps with the national squad during his career. Fun fact: he shares a birthday with Jesus. You know his parents only gave him one present on Dec 25th.

Last card is Gunner midfielder David Platt. Platt was a bit of a journey man in Europe, playing with seven teams over a 17 year career. He spent time with the English National team and scored 4 goals in a World Cup qualifier in Feb 1993 against San Marino.

Card back. Recycled image way back in 1996. It seams with the numbers this may have been some kind of card game? Nothing talked about that though. Note the metric measurements and the space for the players autograph. I should send these in a TTM and ask them to sign the backs.

There was some ad card in the pack talking about 1997 Premier League sticker collection being released, but Blogger seems to hate the scan and won't display it. Oh well.