1992 Topps Gruesome Greeting Cards

 

If you're visiting this site then you are a fan of trading cards and know that Topps especially has released their fair share of non-sports sets. I can only imagine that the success of Garage Pail Kids led them to "think outside the box" while continue to push the envelope and that led to these Gruesome Greeting Cards. These are your typical trading card size, however each card is a booklet, or a greeting card. A small dot of glue was placed on the inside to keep them closed inside the small 3 card cellophane pack. While I personally don't remember these in the 90's, when I ran across two sealed packs at a antique store I knew they had to go home with me.

I don't recall any trading card post needing a warning, however in today's culture some people may find these cards/images offensive. Please note that these are satire and are only being shared for entertainment/archival purposes.

As the wrapper states, included in each pack is 1 Scratch 'n' Stink card. These cards feature an image on both panels of the inside and have a place for you to scratch and sniff...if you dare! Unfortunately, the glue on this card was extra tacky and took off parts of the image. Bummer. (...and no, I have not scratched or smelled the card!)

Even those these cards were released in 1992, they have more a 50's or 60's vibe to be. I say this because I don't believe kids were playing with marionette dolls or puppets in the early 90's. I found this card to be a little harsh, but this is nothing when compared to the next card.

When I opened up this card in the car riding home from our vacation, I'm pretty sure I was speechless. Man...that's rough. I'm not sure if that's really even funny...and this comes from a guy that isn't really politically correct either. What's your thought on this card? Did Topps push that envelope too far?

I've seen these cards listed over at TCDB.com before, but only the front and backs are scanned, not the inside. I'm a little curious now as to what some of the other cards look like, especially after opening this pack. It's a small set at only 44 cards and they can easily be had for less than $15 on eBay.

2022-23 Panini Prizm Basketball Blaster Pack

Greetings!

Hope everyone is doing well and are fully recovered from the Holiday season and New Years.  It was a good time overall and it seemed to go by quick, but that's usually how it is, isn't it?

There is one Target I know of where the trading card section is within the Toys section.  I'm not sure why it's set up this way; it's a regular Target (no grocery section) but other regular Targets have the trading cards by the registers.  I'm not sure of the stats, but I'm guessing that if the trading cards are stashed away with the toys, there's better odds that ne'er-do-wells can pack search to their hearts' content.

I don't get to this particular Target often as it's by my dentist and I don't head that way unless I have to.  

Once time there was a ripped open blaster of Prizm with cards scattered about on the shelf.  No, I didn't take any cards, but I did snap pictures of all the cards that were left on the shelf.  

Anyway, I had an appointment this week, which leads to this post, since I still had the pictures on my Drafts folder.  This isn't a pack per say, but I think it counts.

The blaster had 6 packs, with 4 cards in a pack.  There were supposed to be 3 Green Wave Prizm cards per blaster.  Here's what the hooligans didn't take:

#128 - Kawhi Leonard

#14 - RJ Barrett

Yep, all of the images will be at an angle so that you don't get constant shots of me holding my phone.

#15 - Quentin Grimes

#120 - Mikal Bridges

There's 300 cards in the set, containing rookies, veterans, and legends.  Here's the checklist if you need it.

#260 - Trevor Keels (RC)

#278 - Ray Allen

It's the standard Prizm design.  How many of you can look at a Prizm card and instantly know what year it came from?

#119 - Jason Preston

#186 - Eric Gordon

Basketball cards look better when the player has others around him.

#235 - Kennedy Chandler (RC)

#232 - Scotty Pippen Jr. (RC)

I was "today years old" when I found out dad Scottie Pippen's birthname was actually "Scotty."  Until today, I kinda assumed that Junior couldn't be applied to "Scotty" since his dad spelt his name differently.  It's like if there was a "Shawn Smith Jr." but his dad spells his name "Sean."

#44 - Bojan Bogdanovic

#116 - Reggie Jackson

#56 - Anthony Edwards

#161 - Max Strus

I'm surprised the Ant Man base card was still here; I'm pretty sure he was considered a good player a couple of years ago.  Then again, maybe the thieves weren't worried about base cards.

#206 - Jaren Jackson Jr.

#170 - Deni Avdija

I'm assuming these are 2 of the 3 Green Wave Prizms, although I don't see any waves.  If these 2 are Green Wave Prizms, why weren't they taken also?  There's only 3 in the box!

#17 - Anthony Edwards (Dominance)

This was the biggest surprise of the leftovers.  Why wasn't this insert of one of the game's bigger stars not taken?  I still think Edwards was considered to be a good player a couple of years ago.  

Sorry, no backs this time, but it's Panini, you can imagine a close-up player picture, a team logo, a line of stats, and a paragraph of a game highlight.

Anyway, those are the cards.  17 cards were left behind, meaning we'll never know the 7 cards the hooligans deemed worthy.  I'll assume there were "hot rookiez" and inserts involved.

Have a great 2025, and thanks for reading!

2024 Topps Allen & Ginter Retail

Greetings!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (and Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate as well)!  Ol' Jafronius hosted the family at the Palatial Estate, and much merriment ensued.  Way too much leftovers!  Hope everyone got what they wanted too.

Last month the legendary Night Owl had a post detailing the contents of an Allen & Ginter blaster.  I like sampling the Allen & Ginter set (aka I want to rip something and there's nothing else on the shelf) but a full price blaster isn't for me, however, I have no issues with a Rack Pack.  I got one after a Target shift shortly after his post, but I was beaten to posting it by everyone's favorite Rebel.  No biggie, they also had standalone packs and I grabbed one of those as well.

6 cards for 3 bucks (or $3.50, I don't remember right now).  Let's see what I got:

#68 - Austin Riley

#7 - Luis Robert Jr.

The design's alright to me.  Some folks say it's too similar Gypsy Queen; since Topps stopped GQ, maybe they're trying to merge the two...?

#226 - Reggie Jackson

#200 - Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Chrome)

There's 350 cards in the set, with the last 50 cards short-printed.  The Vladdy is a Chrome, which appears to come 1 in 8 packs for the retail release.

#218 - Sheryl Swoopes (Mini)

#SOS-19 - Sky (Stars of the Show - The Westminster Kennel Club)

Every pack comes with a Mini, while the doggie cards come 1 in 4 packs.  Not sure how far back they go with the doggie cards; I think it would have been cool to see the very first Best in Show winner.

Here's some backs because New Year:

Anyway, that's the pack.  I set this up to publish on New Year's Eve, so I hope everyone enjoys their New Years celebrations...may 2025 be better for you all than this year!

Happy New Year, and thanks for reading!

2024 Parkside Indycar

 

Known for producing women soccer cards, Parkside produced Indycar's first set since 2008 (Rittenhouse). Released in their hanger pack form there are 25 cards in each pack. Being an Indycar fan I bought up alot of these packs through their website. Here are the 25 cards.

82 - Alex Palou - race winner subset. One of five wins Alex Palou take on his way to the 2023 Indycar championship. Palou would go back-to-back repeating as Indycar champion in 2024. It's his third Indycar championship in four years for him.

116 - David Malukas - Indianapolis 500 subset. It was wild 2024 season for Malukas. Originally suppose to drive for McLaren he suffered a broken wrist in the offseason. McLaren release him from his contract without driving a single race for the team. Meyer-Shank Racing put him in the seat starting at Mid-Ohio and finished the season with them. A.J. Foyt Racing signed him to drive no. 41 car for 2025 season.

97 - Santino Ferrucci - one of my favorites for being ballsy and unapologetic about it. He finished 3rd at 2023 Indy 500. With Foyt Racing hooking up with Penske Racing in a technical alliance he had the most successful season in 2024 with a stunning pole at Portland and finished 9th in the standings.

119 - Devlin DeFrancesco - It's "Dammit Devlin!" for many mistakes he makes during the race as well buying a ride at Andretti. After sitting out 2024 season he manage score himself a ride with RLL Racing in 2025. I'm sure money got exchange for the ride.

50 - Conor Daly - after being unceremoniously dumped in middle of 2023 season he had a Indy 500 ride in 2024 where he finished 10th. Then he season expanded with one race at Dale Coyne then five races at Juncos-Hollinger. He did a good enough job he recently named the full-time driver for JHR along bringing the team much needed sponsorship money for 2025 season. Hard work pays off.

RE-1 - Streets of St. Pete - racing events insert set. St. Pete race in the first race of the Indycar season.

7 - Pato O'Ward (foil) - paralllel foil set. Pato is the most popular and top selling driver in 2004 season. After a winless 2023 season, he would take 3 wins and finished 5th in the points standings. One of his wins would come a month after the race ended when they found out Penske Racing manipulated push-to-pass system and disqualify the original winner Josef Newgarden. Pato who finished 2nd inherited the win.

93 - Indianapolis 500 (foil)

PP-BP - Benjamin Pedersen - Pit Pass insert set

MM-70 - Scott McLaughlin - Marquee Moments insert set

132 - Alexander Rossi - after two seasons at McLaren 2016 Indy 500 winner will be driving for Ed Carpenter Racing in 2025

105 - Will Power - another favorite of mines. Two-time Indycar champion and 2018 Indy 500 winner. Was in contention for the championship in 2024 but his seatbelts failed at the final race of the season. It's another line of championships lost in the final race for him.

160 - Katherine Legge

156 - David Malukas

146 - Christian Lundgaard - after scoring his first ever win (Toronto) in 2023 he went winless in 2024. He will drive for McLaren in 2025 season. Just hope he doesn't get hurt during the offseason.

1 - Alex Palou

49 - Conor Daly

145 - Jack Harvey

6 - Soctt McLaughlin - former Australia Super Car champiion Scotty Mac added 3 wins, 5 poles (one of them at Indy 500), and finished 3rd in the standings in 2024 season.  He's an early favorite to win the 2025 championship.

76 - Josef Newgarden - I was at this race. It's the best race I've ever attended. Sadly its Indycar's last race at Texas Motor Speedway and most likely to never return to the track. Indycar got a street race at Arlington driving around Jerry World and Rangers stadium in 2026. They went out with a bang.

INXT-KS - Kyffin Simpson - Indy NXT insert set. Indy NXT is the final step before going up to Indycar. The Barbados driver upgrade to an Indycar ride driving full time in 2024 for Chip Ganassi Racing finishing 21st in the standings. Thanks to his money he retained his ride at Ganassi unlike Linus Lundqvist who is way better driver than him.

67 - Tom Blomqvist - sports car driver was way out of his league in Indycar. Originally a full time ride he got pulled after a series of poor drives and crashing in the first lap of this year's Indy 500. He will drive for Meyer-Shank Racing sports car team in 2025 season.

70 - Marco Andretti - the grandson of legendary Mario Andretti only drove at Indy 500. He's also champion of defunct SRX series.

4 - Scott Dixon - "The Iceman" is a six-time Indycar champion and currently 2nd in all-time wins (57). He's also known for being the master of the fuel save strategy that have netted him many wins and leaving plenty scratching their heads how much did he save. Have won at least one race for 20 straight seasons. That's a big time streak.

8 - Pato O'Ward
.
This set been a huge hit. Hope Parkside puts out another Indycar set next year.