2010 Panini Gridiron Gear

The NFL playoffs are here, and there's a borderline unwatchable Wild Card game going on right now between two teams that are never in the playoffs, the Bills and the Jaguars. Here's a pack of football stuff I got at a card show for a buck to distract from the ugliness.

13 - T.J. Houshmandzadeh - Former Seahawk and Oregon State star (along side Chad Johnson). Better double check that spelling.

61 - Dallas Clark - I now realize that I am going to recognize a lot more players in a nearly 8 year old pack of football cards than I would with anything from the current season.

19 - DeAngelo Williams - Williams was coming off back to back 1000 yard seasons and had former Oregon star Jonathan Stewart backing him up for much of his career.

48 - Matthew Stafford - Just checked... Matthew Stafford is still the starting QB in Detroit. It's been awhile (since 2009!)

20 - Tony Gonzalez NFL Nation (007/250) - Here's an insert card, and it's a serial numbered one of a soon-to-be Hall of Famer.

250 - Victor Cruz - Here's a rookie card from before Cruz's endzone dances were made famous. Is a Victor Cruz rookie card worth anything these days? COMC appears to be down at the moment, or else I would check.

117 - Heath Miller - Another well-known long time tight end.

139 - Josh Freeman - Freeman hasn't appeared in an NFL game since 2015, so you'd have to assume that he's done. He spent the better part of four seasons as Tampa Bay's starting QB.

1992 Sears Craftsman Collector Cards

When you can't have all the tools in the world, the next best thing is to have trading cards of them.  Although Sears sold the Craftsman brand to Stanley, this "valuable, limited edition set" has withstood the sands of time.  These were only available in the hardware departments at Sears stores and is the only card in America to include Craftsman Workingman's Gum.  Yum, how could I not pass this pack up for APTBNL??!!  Cards come 12 to a pack including the Jeep Wrangler game card....Boo, so there are actually only 11 tool cards.  I know you are all dying to see what is inside, here we go.

It looks like the 110-card set is broken up into subsets: Dyno Saws, Forever Tools, Workshop Wonders....etc.  Some cards come in a horizontal format while others are in the vertical format.  I actually own that Mechanic's Tool Box.  Score!

This tool box is a little smaller...maybe this is the one I have.  Sadly, this 25-year old pack did not yield me any prizes.  I suspect this was a ploy to get you to actually send in your address to them so they could get you on their mailing list.

Here is what the backs look like. They give you specifications of the tool, plus some tips from actual users so you don't cut your fingers off.

The gum is actually still soft....must be all the preservatives in this Workingman's Gum.  They must have suspected that people would continue to buy these packs well into the future so they wanted to keep the gum as fresh as possible.

Thanks for stopping by!

1987 Topps Football

NFL playoffs coming up and let's go back to 30 years ago with this pack. Comes with 15 cards and stick of gum. Let's rip....

98 - Craig James - ugh this guy. He worked for ESPN after his career ended. Have hand in Texas Tech firing Mike Leach which will bite him later on. Ran for Texas Senate and lost. Reportedly the voters in panhandle of Texas majorl voted against him as they never forgot about him on getting Leach fired. Worked for FOX Sports only to get fired.

72 - Joe Jacoby - one of top All-Pro tackle in the league. Should been elected in Hall of Fame already.

361 - Buffalo Bills - Jim Kelly taking a snap and about to hand it off. They went 4-12 in 1986. They made the playoffs for first time since 1999.

147 - Barry Redden

392 - Jeff Davis

371 - Charles Romes

21 - Brad Benson

 97 - Tony Eason - Patriots starting QB who led them to Super Bowl 20 only get destroyed by Chicago Bears. Eason got pulled without completing a single pass in the Super Bowl.

 

7 (1000 Yard Club) -Walter Payton -  insert card of the late Hall of Famer Walter Payton being party of 1000 yard club. I love it!

370 - Darryl Talley - that's the gum stain on back of the card after being stuck there for 30 years.

135 - Mark Gastineau - Whoo! A Jet and a legend as well. Part of New York Sack Exchange. Should have been enshrined in Canton right now.

258 - Bret Clark

146 - Eric Dickerson - another Hall of Fame player wearing his famed goggle glasses.

201 - Allen Rice

369 - Bruce Smith - third Hall of Famer in this pack. One of best defensive player in the league. That's third player (counting team card with Jim Kelly) who would become part of their Super Bowl teams. Maybe all I need is Kent Hull and Shane Conlon to complete it.

180 - Kansas City Chiefs - featuring QB Todd Blackledge who end up as NFL draft bust. Chiefs went 10-6 with trip to playoffs losing to NY Jets in the first round. Blackledge started 8 games that year only get benched during middle of the season.

That's fun pack to rip with three Hall of Famers (four counting Jim Kelly on Bills cards) and two-would be ones. My final piece to show is the 30 year old stick of gum.

1986 Topps Football Stickers

So this is my maiden voyage on posting to the legendary A Pack To Be Named Later, and it's an oldie but a goodie.

I busted a stack of 1986 Topps football yearbook sticker packs. The short of it, I bought the album last year in hopes of putting the stickers in the album with my daughter. Ambitious, given the stickers are 30 years old and not exactly being sold on the shelves of Target. But I built the album with my dad and maybe 30-40 trips to Hooks Drugs with my allowance money, so I wanted to relive the dream with my first-born who is in a sticker phase.

The album has pages for the then-28 teams in the NFL, a Topps All-Pro centerfold, Super Bowl Highlights featuring the 1985 Bears romp over New England, and a look at the NFL leaders on the back page. The sticker set has some of the big names like Walter Payton, Joe Montana, Dan Marino and (rookie) stickers of Steve Young, Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Bernie Kosar, Boomer Esiason and Andre Reed. One glaring omission from the sticker series was Jerry Rice, which salvaged these from being a couple hundred bucks.

So I pulled the trigger on a stack lot and here's what we got.

First, a look at the front and back of the album.

The packs themselves were all open, which is most likely a product of 31+ years of sitting around in poorly sealed packs, but whatever. The stickers came five to a pack, and it made it really easy to open.

So let's dig in.

#90 - Eddie Lee Ivery - running back for the Packers. He was the feature back for the Pack back before the team adopted Brett Favre and made their run in the 90s. I would get several of these. Each team would get two featured stickers.

#119/269 - Brian Hansen and John Harris - this is where I began to notice the sequence of how the stickers would be assembled from a dual standpoint. Saints and Seahawks were paired, so if I was to complete the Saints page, I would be building the Seahawks at a similar rate. The sticker numbers are also set 150 numerals apart. It actually made the build a little easier.

#49/199 - Ron Jaworski/Bob Thomas - another thing I noticed on these stickers is that the yearbook gives a lot of love to kickers and punters. Not the most flattering photo of Mr. Thomas, nor the best hand placement for Jaws, either.

#229 - Joe Klecko - lineman for the Jets. He had a very, very good career for the J-E-T-S and was in his stride for this set. He has an All-Pro sticker in the middle of the book, as well.

#175 - Rulon Jones - lineman for the Broncos. He was and is the only Rulon I have ever heard of, and I remember having his '86 Topps card and trying to figure out his first name. Rulon had a good run with the Broncos, a team I saw little of living in the Chicago market growing up.

Here's a look at the Jones sticker in the album, with a couple others added to the page. Notice in 1986 John Elway wasn't considered a star enough to warrant a featured sticker. Warren Moon, Reggie White (as a rookie) and several of the Chicago Bears choices were also smaller stickers - the Fridge was given star billing over the likes of Mike Singletary, Jim McMahon and Richard Dent.

Along with all of the fun info and old graphics inside the album, there are these options back when times were much simpler and cards (and stickers) were much easier to acquire. Get a load of these offers. Especially this one on the bottom of the back inside cover.

What a deal, even back then! To know now what we could have known back then, it would have been well worth it! Doing the quick math, you would have had to spend $5.00 on stickers back then, plus their $8.00 for the order. Anyone wanting to get a 1986 Topps set now for $13 (and getting the stickers to boot!) you'll get a set missing at least the Rice, Young, Montana, Marino, Elway, Payton, White, etc. etc. etc.

If anyone needs some stickers for this, I'm open to trade or sell. We have a good amount of extras as 1980s collation was evident in these packs. All told, we busted 100 packs and I am still short the Walter Payton, Louis Lipps, James Lofton, Billy Johnson, Kevin Mack, Lionel James, Carlos Carson, Howie Long, Ken Hill/Tony Collins, and John Turner/John Stallworth stickers.

2017 Panini Donruss Optic Football

 It's been awhile since I stopped into my LCS.  I ended up picking up some great singles and decided to try a couple packs of Optic Football.  Short and sweet with only 4 cards per pack. Panini did a great job with the packaging.  There's no way you'll miss those packs. 

 I ended up with 4 players that will not be seeing the post season for one reason or another.  Enjoy.

 My hit was this blue prizm #d to 149 of Carson Palmer.

 And I actually got a 5th card.  Anyone tried Panini's Blitz app?  I've deleted all my Topps digital card apps and have no desire to bother with Panini's.