2006 Upper Deck Future Stars

Here's another one of my $1 hobby pack purchases. This is the set with the misleading name, as in reality very few players in the set were actually prospects with bright futures ahead of them.

15 - Derrek Lee - Coming off of a 46 HR season, Derrek Lee had his whole career ahead of him... well, not really.

65 - Chris Carpenter - There's something bittersweet about pulling Carp cards for me as he's not very likely to play again.

59 - Jason Schmidt Purple 0409/1799 - Like many Upper Deck microsets, this one looks to have been paralleled to death.

WBC-1 - Adam Loewen World Future Stars - As we're now on the cusp of the third World Baseball Classic, can anyone honestly say they're excited about WBC-themed cards? I have nothing against the actual tournament, but I have had trouble finding any interest in these kind of cards. Loewen, incidentally, is an interesting case. He'll be competing for Team Canada once again this year, but it will be as a position player.

1988 Score Baseball

Spring training 2013 is in full swing. So, how about we take a look at a pack that is 25 years old? I wonder if it fits Night Owl's rule of vintage. I recently picked up a 10 pack repack at Target and pulled two of these beauties. This is the better of the two - take the phrase as you like.

A pretty clear celo wrapper by Score. The cartoon on the front is cute. And hey - they are all "photo quality". Take that phrase as you like. We are in line for 17 cards and a magic motion card. Oh boy!! The best card in the set is a Tom Glavine rookie prospect card. I hope I get one!

For those that don't know much about '88 Score - all the cards had the same design, but the set had six different color borders. It was a 660 card set and well.....let's just show the colors, shall we?

Purple was first in the pack. All the cards are grouped in the pack by color. Top card in the pack was a Ryno. Not bad, except he is a Cub. So by 2x3 Heroes guidelines, he sucks. Rules is rules, folks. The Presley card is a nice shot of the ball in flight.

Next is blue. It seems like Esasky & Anderson were posed in the same position, eh? Love the slight sight of specs on Cooper.

Red is following blue in the pack. If you look at the first nine cards, we have a theme. Either you are hitting or you are fielding your position. These "photo quality" cards lack "photo variety".

Green. First view of a pitcher's card in the pack. If you wanted to put a bet that the pitchers would be photographed mid delivery, I would not have taken it.

Yellow cards. If you remember the pack, we have 17 cards. So one of the borders colors in the pack would be shorted a card. Guess padding it out to 18 cards would have broken the bank at Score. Two nice pitchers in this pack with Orel and Viola.

The last border was orange. And holy crap - is that a fielder IN MOTION? Fire the guy who approved that image on the prospect card!

Here is the motion card I pulled. Scanned both sides for you. The card is referencing an event at Ebbets Field on 9/16/1924. And for the last scan, how about the card back?

The border around the team name matches the color of the front. Lots of small print on the back of the card, so get your reading glasses. Junk wax at it's finest.

2004 Upper Deck SPx

Here's another $1 card show find. I have to say that I really like this set. I'm sure there's no way I could have afforded it at the time of release, and I think the dealer that was selling these was just trying to clear shelf space for other products. It was tossed in a bin with packs of college hockey and WNBA, I think.

89 - Bret Boone - This set even manages to make Bret Boone look awesome.

111 - Jerry Gil Tier 1 SpXciting Rookies 0368/1599 - I just looked at Jerry Gil's Baseball Ref page and I am honestly speechless.

28 - Eric Chavez - Chavez is just pretending to throw.

84 - Derek Jeter - That guy.

2012-13 Panini Absolute Basketball Rak Pak

It seems like Panini cranks out a new basketball product every couple of weeks or so. Some of their stuff makes it to the big box retail shelves, and I've been on a bit of a daring basketball kick lately. I expected this pack to cost $4.99 like most rack packs, but I think I actually ended up paying close to $7. Yikes. Scroll on to see some completely non-scanner friendly images.

65 - Roy Hibbert - Hibbert is being guarded by LaMarcus Aldridge here. He an Aldridge were nearly teammates, but the Pacers matched the gargantuan contract offer thrown at Hibbert last summer by the Trail Blazers. Oh, and yes, this is a foilboard set.

23 - Zach Randolph - Yesterday's All-Star Game appearance was just the second of Randolph's career. He's played for too many lousy teams.

80 - Tim Duncan

37 - Chris Paul - First Clipper (in the Clippers era of the franchise) to be voted All-Star Game MVP.

94 - Thaddeus Young

5 - Dwight Howard All-Stars - This is a "rak pak" only insert. You get one in each pack, but no other inserts apparently. It's actually kind of refreshing to see a non-foilboard card show up.

28 - Deron Williams

85 - Ryan Anderson - If a young Doug Martsch was an NBA basketball player, he'd be Ryan Anderson.

43 - Gordon Hayward

1 - Kevin Love - Love is a young white dude from the Portland area, so of course he has a hipster beard. Of course.

18 - Derrick Favors - Fairly typical Panini card back, but they take the front photo and sort of put it through an Instagram filter or something.

53 - Eric Gordon

11 - Brendan Haywood - Haywood has been a bit of a journeyman in his career, so it's interesting to see him pop up in a supposedly classy Panini set.

34 - Joakim Noah

91 - Luol Deng - A pair of Bulls who are probably sick of answering questions about how much they miss Derrick Rose.

49 - Brook Lopez - It was funny to see Lopez on the All-Star team this year, when he nearly was cast aside for Dwight Howard on the Nets roster.

7 - Blake Griffin - I was hoping we were going to see Blake Griffin dunk over two Kias this year. Well, maybe not.

41 - Kevin Martin - I think this is a Photoshop job. Martin was one of the consolation trade pieces in the Thunder's move to dump James Harden because they couldn't afford him.

 
98 - Tayshaun Prince

56 - David West - West's numbers have taken a bit of a dip since joining the Pacers, but he's starting to get back on track.

 14 - Ty Lawson

71 - Serge Ibaka - Ibaka is one of the stronger defensive forces in the league.

2007-08 Topps Basketball Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  The NBA All-Star Game rages on at this very moment.  I've always been a fan of the game.  Yes, there's very little defense (unless it's close in the fourth quarter), but there's enough offensive showmanship to keep me entertained.  To celebrate the occasion, here is a pack of 2007-08 Topps Basketball!

But wait, didn't madding post a pack of this already?  Ah, but see, that pack was a Hobby edition of the release.  This is the good old retail version us common folk could pick up at a Tar-mart or Wal-get.  Does this mean we'd get any new insight into the set?  Does this mean we'd get to see different types of cards, like maybe an autograph or relic card?  Of course not, you ask for too much.  Just sit back and and enjoy the contents of the pack:

#109 - Randy Foye

#20 – Kevin Garnett

#68 – Kyle Korver

#47 – Andrei Kirilenko

This is a 135 card set.  The big rookies are Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Greg Oden, and some guy who plays for Oklahoma City whose name escapes me at the moment.  

#36 – Tony Parker

#110 – Andre Iguodala

#50 – Emeka Okafor

#GN16 – David Lee (Generation Now)

 
Topps was celebrating their 50th anniversary with this set.  I enjoyed the design as a whole.  Topps was definitely stepping up with the shots they were using.

#132 – Jared Dudley

#3 – Dwayne Wade (1957-58 Variation)

#120 – Spencer Hawes (1957-58 Variation)

 
Topps celebrated their 50th anniversary by creating variation cards with today's players.  Too bad they don't have a license with the NBA; I'd be interested in a Topps NBA Heritage set.  Here's some card backs for you:

Anyway, that's the pack.  Now back to the game.  Have a good week...thanks for reading!

2008 Upper Deck SP Authentic

Look for Letter Patch Signature Cards!? Okay!

48 - Justin Verlander - Nope.

83 - Brian Roberts - Nooope.

16 - Delmon Young - Nupe.

YSL1202 - Joe McCarthy Yankee Stadium Legacy - Nuuup. Nuuuuup.

MM-24 - Randy Johnson / Ken Griffey Jr. Marquee Matchups - Well, at least I can probably trade this to someone.