More "Tales from the Repack"

I feel like it is a good thing that I took time away from collecting.  The 1990s must have been a very confusing time to be a card collector, what with MLB and MLBPA handing out licenses to anyone with a computer graphics card installed on their computers.  But, all those licenses led to some very interesting cards being printed.

Now, I like the recent Topps efforts. I tend to like the simple looks that their last few base sets have had. Maybe that's the "new card" halo effect -- and it certainly helps that technology advances have made printing super high quality color cards much, much easier.  You can't go wrong with the vivid colors on cards these days.  It even makes a scrub like Cesar Izturis in the 2012 Topps Update set look good in Brewers colors - especially when the card comes from an unopened pack on a $4 repack.

I wish, though, that I had been around to start grabbing the Topps Heritage cards from the very beginning. My repack bounty included two Heritage cards:  the 2012 Alex Avila and the 2001 card from Mark Grace based off the simple, beautiful 1952 Topps card design:

Weird scan -- the card doesn't have amber or red waves on it.

A final strange highlight to me was the unopened pack of the 2012 Panini "Triple Play" comic cards.  I felt like their lawyers forgot to add the standard movie/novel disclaimer to the pack:

I'm not complaining, but in reality any resemblance of the card below to representing Derek Jeter is purely coincidental.  Companies could use this drawing to pitch their products and Jeter wouldn't be able to sue for the company using his image.  

But hey, Derek Jeter's name is on the card.  It must be worth money!