1995-96 Topps Stadium Club Hockey

 

Hockey playoffs started and let's open packs. This is 1995-96 Topps Stadium Club hockey. The pack feature 10 cards. Topps decide to be trendy using the words extreme on it.

Every pack either comes with a checklist or membership sign up. I got part 1 of a checklist.

 

69 - Chris Pronger - six-time All-Star and one of best defensemen to play in the league. Was league MVP in 1999-2000 season along with two Olympic gold medals with Canada and part of Anaheim Ducks Stanley Cup winning team. A concussion in 2011 ended his career.

  

93 - Byran McCabe - played 15 seasons in the NHL

145 - Phil Housley - "The Housefly" is a 7-time All-Star is among one of top Americans to play in the league. Coached U.S. junior hockey team to a gold medal last year World Junior Hockey Championship. Currently assistant coach of Nashville Predators.

109 - David Oliver - journeyman spent 9 seasons in the NHL bouncing the majors and minors. 1995-96 is the only year he spent a whole season with NHL club.

  

115 - Jim Carey - 1994-95 lockout season brought bunch of rookie surprises and this is one of them. "The Mask" was one of two rookie goalies who wowed fans with impressive play. Won the Vezina Trophy in 1996 and got big contract out of it. He flamed out the following season and was gone three years later.

203 - Saku Koivu - rookie card of one of longest tenure captain of Montreal Canadiens before going to Anaheim Ducks. Former cancer survivor is a two-time all-star along with Stanley Cup title (2007) and multiple silver and bronze medals from the Olympics. Still playing to this day for the Ducks.

15 - Patrick Roy - one of greatest goalie to play on ice with multiple All-Star and Stanley Cup finals appearances, MVPs, Vezinas, and Jennings trophies. He's currently coach of Colorado Avalanche.

135 - Chris Osgood - one of Red Wings top goaltenders in the 90s leading them to Stanley Cup finals win three times. Currently ranked 10th in all-time wins.

112 - Stanislav Neckar - spent 10 years in the NHL

63 - Kyle McLaren - 12-year veteran spent time checking his opponents on the ice.

This pack got current Hall of Famers, two-three potential Hall of Famers, and one hot flameout.

DC Comics Justice League Chibis

I was torn between getting this pack of Justice League minis or a pack of the Hobbit themed ones. As you can see Justice League won out and I'm hopping for a Flash and Batman. So what did I end up pulling?

Well, the pack offered me the happy couple of Superman and Wonder Woman with Wonder Woman going to my wife. It was fun to pull a Green Arrow in the pack as he is one of the few people to have defeated Superman...kryptonite arrows didn't hurt either.

2014 Panini Donruss Rated Rookie Extra

Panini has revived the Donruss brand for baseball!  With the 2014 release, Panini offered the last 3 Rated Rookie cards of the base set as a wrapper redemption.  For every 24 hobby packs redeemed you received one 3 card pack.  It was only recently that the identity of the 3 players was released.

#201 Jose Abreu (White Sox), Masahiro Tanaka (Yankees) and Yordano Ventura (Royals)

2013 Topps Opening Day Rack Pack

Greetings...

40 years ago tonight, this happened:

I think it's safe to say that the majority of the APTBNL readership still consider Hammerin' Hank to be the Home Run King.

Anyway, back then, Opening Day started in early April.  Wait, what?  You don't have a pack of 2014 Opening Day on the site yet?  Yep, I haven't bought one yet...but I do have a pack from 2013!  But wait, that pack's already on the site!  But this one's not...it's a 2013 Topps Opening Day Rack Pack!

I got a pack of this when Target had them on sale over the summer, so I think this cost me $1.50.  Using this as a guide, I don't plan on buying any of this year's version until the summer again, so unless someone beats me to it, expect 2014 Opening Day around the All-Star Break.

Anyway, 24 cards come in the Rack Pack.  Let's see what I got:

#15 – Jim Johnson

#140 – Tyler Skaggs

#106 – Trevor Bauer

#17 – John Axford

 

Once again, the scanner ate the borders.  Let's just fly through the rest of the cards.

#120 – Alex Rodriguez

#142 – Jarrod Parker

#168 – Miguel Montero

#32 – Jered Weaver

#118 – Max Scherzer

#1 – Buster Posey

#128 – A.J. Burnett

#62 – Jason Kubel (550 / 2013)

#ODS-3 – Miguel Cabrera

#BF-3 – Jay Bruce

I do like them blue parallels.  Moving on:

#6 – David Wright

#132 – David Freese

#209 – Drew Storen

#49 – Grant Balfour
#175 – Brandon Phillips

#92 – Aramis Ramirez

#173 – Zack Cozart

#214 – Ian Kinsler

#21 – Yovani Gallardo

#181 – Neftali Feliz

 

Here are the backs:

Anyway, that's the pack.  If only they used different photos for Opening Day; maybe put those alternate uniforms and celebration pics here, then you'd have something.  Until then, I'll just wait for a sale or a repack box.  That's all for now...thanks for reading!

1994 Action Packed WWF

Wrestlemania 30 is tomorrow and who's watching?  Who remember the brand Action Packed? The cards with round corners, "3D" printing, and claims of printed in gold. After football and NASCAR they armed themselves with WWF (at the time) license to print cards. The pack contain 6 cards. The cover is from Summerslam 93 when Lex Luger celebrating his win against Yokozuna via countout. Interesting note on back of the pack.

They offered second chance sweepstakes and one of items you must do to enter is supply your social security number. Old fashion way of ID theft.

29 - Tatanka - funny how his real name is on the "gold" printed signature. Was "undefeated" for over year and half til he met Ludvig Borga and made the loss column for first time ever. Turned bad guy in 1994 joining Ted DiBiase Million Dollar Corporation and stuck around til 1996. Returned around summer of 2005 til early 2007.

 

34 - Earthquake (Colossal Crushers) - John Tenta, my first ever favorite bad guy. When I started watching in 1991 I saw him sit on his opponent thinking it was coolest thing ever. He wound up WCW in late 1994 to 1997. Returned back to WWE in 1998 being part of Oddities wearing a mask name Golga. Sadly passed away from cancer in 2006.

 31 - Diesel (Colossal Crushers) - the wrestler known as Kevin Nash. He became champion in 1995 where he happened to be lowest drawing champion in company history. Went to WCW in 1996 along with Scott Hall forming revolutionary and successful New World Order group with Hulk Hogan. While there he played backstage politics (along with many) that sent WCW from top to the bottom that WWF bought them out. Made several returns to WWE but never that successful. Also one of biggest BS'er in wrestling.

 

6 - Ludvig Borga - Before making his way to WWF he was piling his trade in Japan under his name Tony Halme. He gave Tatanka his first ever WWE loss. Played the usual boo seeking anti-American bad guy. He left in early 1994 after suffering broken ankle. Was part of Finland parliament from 2003-2007 where he called then president a lesbian. He committed suicide in 2010. Even legendary good ol' Jim Ross didn't have kind comments about him.

33 - Bastion Booger (Colossal Crushers) - poor Mike Shaw getting saddled with another Wrestlecrap worthy gimmick. He played as a giant fat slob to perfection. He was gone by summer of 1994 and made one-time appearance in 2007. He died of heart attack in 2010. This pack is getting depressing.

35 - Mabel (Colossal Crushers) - this pack is officially depressing. Mabel went on as Viscera then to Big Daddy V. He passed away in February on a heart attack.

Depressing pack as four of six wrestlers passed away.

Who's ready for Wrestlemania?

1994-95 Fleer Series 2 Basketball

Here's the sequel to a pack I posted about a month ago. This one is three cards shorter and was half the price. There's a pretty good reason for that, I guess. One of the problems with stretching out a set into multiple series is the tendency to make a card for all of the good players the first time around. And now we're left with the leftovers.

261 - Larry Krystkowiak - His last name is so long that it's only partially covered by the weird metallic splash.

356 - Mark Bryant - A Blazer! At least there's something salvageable here. Bryant did most of the grunt work that other players might neglect.

278 - Bill Curley - As you can see, the design is exactly the same. Score one for consistency.

272 - Dale Ellis - He hoisted a lot of threes in his day, but it was probably nothing by today's standards.

257 - Corie Blount

242 - Tyrone Corbin - Corbin is currently the coach of the Jazz who, even in full rebuild mode, no one is currently excited about.

310 - Ledell Eackles

264 - Michael Cage - Awful and apparently short-lived unis.

366 - Sean Elliott - In the Series 1 pack, I pulled a weird Sean Elliott Pistons card, so it's comforting to see him back in Spurs black.

 390 - Checklist - This is documented proof of Series 2's crappiness.

 
365 - Henry Turner - I don't know... some guy? According to his stats, he hadn't played in the NBA in 5 years when this happened.

355 - Wayman Tisdale - Tisdale had a second career as a successful jazz musician after his playing days were over. He died way too young.

6 - Dikembe Mutombo Tower of Power - This is... noisy!

331 - Rex Walters

304 - Randy Woods

381 - Juwan Howard - Rookie Card alert!

338 - Geert Hammink - I can honestly say that I would have lost the bet on whether or not "Geert Hammink" was a thing that exists.

328 - Sleepy Floyd - Sleepy Floyd seemed to me like a product of the '80s, like other colorfully-named players World B. Free and Otis Birdsong. I am shocked to see that he was still playing in the mid-90s.