Repack Gold, Part 1

I envy people who catalog every pack as they open them.  Their level of organization is far beyond what I can muster.  Frankly, their level of patience is more than I can muster.  I like -- no, I need -- to open all the packs that I've bought, sort through them, see what I have, and pick out my favorites.  With this blog, I add the step of scanning in a bunch of cards from what I've opened to show off and write about.

By the time I get through step two of sorting, I've completely forgotten what cards came in which pack. And, I don't like organization so much that I have to put everything into spreadsheets.  At least not yet.  Perhaps that time will come, but I'm still sorting through all the cards (probably around 50,000 or so) that I had as a kid in the 1980s.

Anyway, that's a long introduction to the first of two posts to share what gold the $4 repacks held yesterday. There were some fantastic cards.  In fact, this entire post includes only Hall of Fame members (sorry, Mr. Clemens and Mr. Bonds! HA!).  These weren't the only HoF members I got -- just the ones I liked best.

First, two 1980 Topps cards that, while a little off center, have incredibly sharp corners (in particular for being repacks):

The Stargell is in such good shape with good, sharp corners that I actually commented out loud on it while sitting by myself in my basement/card room.  Both cards are ones I had as a kid, but these two are in much better shape than anything I had from 34 years ago myself.

Topps UK Minis are fairly common in the Fairfield repacks -- I always get some, and sometimes I even get a Mini Tiffany (like the Dion James one I passed along to the Chop Keeper in Idaho).  These five had two or three Nolan Ryans, three or four of Ryno trying to grow a mustache to look older, 5 Dale Murphys, 3 or 4 Wade Boggs, and 3 or 4 Roger Clemens, among others.

If you've read my nascent 1982 Topps Blog, you'll have heard the story about how much of a conspiracy freak Steve Carlton is these days (or at least was 15 years ago).  This is his 1987 Topps Traded set card, straight from the repack.

Cards from the late 1980s usually comprise at least 60% of the repack loose cards.  Fun oddballs like that Cap'n Crunch Robin Yount show up pretty regularly, though not with enough consistency to try to put the set together solely from the repacks.  Well, okay, you could do it, but you'll end up with a LOT of 1989 Topps commons to show for your efforts.

That said, this nice 1988 Fleer of Cal Ripken, Jr. just struck me as an attractive card of the Orioles Hall of Famer.  I have this set in a Gary Carter box, but I don't have many 1988 Fleer outside of that.

Finally, Mr. Barry Larkin.  This past week, I was talking by e-mail with a guy I met at the last card show I went to about a month ago, Von.  We have been discussing some trading, and I mentioned my lack of 1994 through 2007 Brewers (which, thanks to all of you has been filling up some lately!).  One of the things he said was, "It's strange but you don't see too many cards from that timeframe in the repacks."

Perhaps that avalanche is about to be unleashed.  This 1996 Topps Barry Larkin might have been the only 1996 Topps in the group, but there were also a few cards from a number of those 1994-2007 sets.  The tide might be turning, Von!

Hello, my name is Tony, and I am an Addict

It may come to that soon.  I have a serious addiction to those $3.99 Fairfield repacks with the unopened pack of Topps 2012 Update at the back.

I had to go to the store on the way home from work to pick up some Pepcid for our dog (seriously...she also takes Mucinex and Zyrtec, all encouraged by our vet...).  Of course, I went to Target.  When I got to the baseball cards, I looked at what was on offer.

It was all the usual stuff -- the base set Series 1 four-pack with an extra Power Player on the front, Opening Day, Heritage, leftover football, unopened sets, and 5 repacks like the one I mentioned above.  There were the other sports there too, I think, and then there was the $20 repack box of 20+ packs of baseball cards.

Like an addict, I needed a fix.  I looked around to see if anyone was looking at me, worried that someone would see.  I snatched up all five of the $4 repacks, the $20 repack box, two jumbo packs of Opening Day, and one of the Power Player packages.

To be honest, I think I like opening the repacks best.

What did I get?  Well, with that much being bought, I have a few things to show.  But let me start with just one strange card:

If my Google search/eBay search is correct (in other words, I'm probably entirely incorrect), then this card was given out at one of the National Conventions and maybe 1500 of them were printed.  People are asking -- and getting -- $9 or $10 for it on eBay.  Yet there it was behind a some 1989 Topps card in a Fairfield repack.

The other super cool thing is that these $20 repack boxes now guarantee a hit.  My hit isn't half bad, either:

This Divisional Artifact of Travis Hafner from 2007 is number 001 of 117.  Not bad at all.

I'll leave the rest of these repacks for the rest of the weekend -- there is some absolutely cool, crazy stuff in them -- but there was one card that absolutely got me angry.

Normally, I would have been ecstatic that I got this card.  I mean -- look at the Robin Yount tab above. There's no Cap'n Crunch Robin Yount to be found on that list.

The problem:  I just bought the damn thing on COMC yesterday.

Oh well.  Now I have one for my Brewers set.

Completed Trade with The Chronicles of Fuji

I grew up a half hour outside of Milwaukee, and I am still a huge Green Bay Packers fan.  Yet, I really don't care too much for football cards.  I mean, don't get me wrong -- one of the coolest things I have in my collection is the Brett Favre Stadium Club rookie that one of my college friends gave me, saying, "Hold on to this card, dude -- he is a great QB and you'll be glad you have it."  I've kept it, and I know it has some value, but the story makes me keep it as much as any dollar figure it might be worth.

San Jose Fuji's parents, despite being native Hawaiians, met in college in Wisconsin, and Fuji wisely chose to cheer for the Green Bay Packers as a result.  So, when I told him I had a police set from 1984 with BUCKY SCRIBNER in it, Fuji couldn't resist trading for it.

The Brewers cards that came from San Jose to the ATL were well worth the Packers set.

Let's start with the card that has the most value of any in this package:

Look at that beauty!  And it's an autographed insert as well! On card and everything.  That was the first card out of the package, and it put a big smile on my face.  When I come up with anything remotely as cool as this to include as my "calling card" in trades, I am absolutely going to get them made.  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all.

There were Brewers cards in the package too which, after getting an autographed Fuji, were a bit of a let down.  Yeah, they go into the player collections or the Brewers binders (still in progress), but they are not Fujis.

Let's start with the Younts:

2002 Topps Gallery Heritage GH-RY

1992 Topps Gold Winner

I needed both of those, so they are greatly appreciated.  Then, we have the addition to the Paul Molitor collection:

2001 Topps

Next, 2 Geoff Jenkins to add to that collection:

Some Prince Fielder:

Big Richie Sexson:

Ben Sheets, with whom the question always was "What if he could have stayed healthy?"

With Richie Sexson

Jeff Cirillo -- including an Upper Deck Black Diamond numbered 538/1500 and a Bowman Chrome!

A few guys whom I never remembered playing or whom I simply forgot played with Milwaukee:

Michael Brantley.  Don't remember him

Dionys Cesar, who never made the big leagues and probably got this card to underscore the
pathetic drafts that Bud Selig oversaw in the late 1990s

Devon White.  I certainly remember him, but I did not remember his roaming around the
outfield in 2001 for Milwaukee in his final Major League season

Okay, three more guys I definitely remember, all on cards I definitely needed:

Greg Vaughn

Tony Gwynn Jr.

Ron Belliard

Finally, the climax.  Other than the Fuji insert, the two most excellent cards in the package were these two -- a relic and an on-card autograph:

Big goofy looking Corey Hart on a little, tiny 2012 Allen & Ginter Relic

Bill Hall

All in all, that was one excellent envelope of cards, Fuji.  Many thanks for your kindness.  Let's do it again soon!

Thanks Fuji!

Winning stuff? Really? This Doesn't Happen Often to Me

I usually do not win stuff. Trust me on this.

But, today alone, I won not one but two different prizes on the intertubes.

First, big time thanks to JediJeff at 2 by 3 Heroes because I was lucky enough through the random number generator to win this super cool Paul LoDuca autographed Hometown Heroes Card:

Many thanks to JediJeff for the contest and congratulations on the two-year anniversary!

Then, this afternoon, I was checking in on Facebook and happened to see this post from Bowman:

And, as a result, I will be the owner of one of these autographed Bowman Chrome cards of up-and-coming Padres starter Matt Wisler:

So, that's pretty cool too.

Maybe I need to buy a lottery ticket tonight...

The Last of the eBay Splurge

The last of my major eBay splurge from earlier this month all arrived within the past week or so.  I am happy with all of the purchases, though obviously I would have preferred to spend less money than I did, but things like that happen sometimes.

So, what do I have to show tonight?

First off, I found at a reasonable price a mug that I should have just stolen from one of the many break rooms in the offices and factories I worked in as a teenager and college student:

This coffee mug was one of a nearly yearly giveaway from Maxwell House Coffee of a Brewer coffee mug. As with many of these useful-type giveaways, most of them end up actually being used for their intended purpose -- here, drinking coffee, obviously -- rather than on a shelf somewhere.  This one looks pristine and did not cost more than about $6 or $7 with shipping.  It's a nice oddball add to my Yount collection.

Then, I hit a milestone.  I bought my first 1 of 1 Robin Yount card.  It's one of those Topps Vault money grabs, to be sure -- one of the blank backs -- but it is a gorgeous card nonetheless.  It's the Topps Tribute blank back:

This is the item over all others that I really liked but which I really had hoped to pay far less.  But, on the plus side, I paid less than $75 for a unique Robin Yount card with a hologram authentication and everything.  It's better than paying $390 for a signed sticker with a piece of cloth and a piece of wood embedded in the card, in my opinion -- based almost entirely on price alone.

On the other hand and in the vein of my Mat Latos 1/1 Turkey Red blank back, I saw another Topps Tribute blank back that I was shocked to see lagging well below $20.  Once again, I just knew that this card should go for far more than that.  Once again, it did not.  As a result, I am now the proud owner of a Topps Tribute 1/1 Blank Back of none other than the Ryno -- Ryne Sandberg:

Since Sandberg spent most/all of the time that I really got to watch the Brewers in the National League, I never felt any problem with cheering for him and for the Cubs.  So, I always liked Sandberg.  I have never actively collected his cards, but I liked him as a player.  It reminds me of a story.

I had an aunt that lived in Chicago until about 1992 (she passed away just before Christmas, and her funeral was on my birthday...ugh), and she was a huge sports fan -- and, in particular, she was a huge Cubs and Bears fan.  She loved those Cubbies in 1984 in particular, and even bought my mom and I tickets to go to the Cubs "baseball card" day in August of that year.  It was my first trip to Wrigley -- and it would be my only trip there until 2007 -- and the Cubs finished off a four-games-in-three-days sweep of a key series against their NL East rival New York Mets.  I know it was the game in the box score because I recall vividly that Walt Terrell was pitching for the Mets.  Sandberg stole a base in that game, drove in a run, and generally made things happen.

I'll never forget that day, but not for Sandberg.

Memorabilia Monday: Mickey Mantle Minor League Card

First things first -- thank you to everyone who perused my trade bait post yesterday.  I had two people put in claims for the Matt Harvey refractor in the space of 30 minutes, so that was a bit stress-inducing, but hopefully everything will be okay there.

A second point -- I know I have only been blogging about my collection for about 2 months now, but there's a former SABR member in me who really enjoys the baseball history side of things.  I mean, when Bill James Revised Historical Baseball Abstract came out, I counted up references to different books and tried to find cheaply as many of his source materials as I could so I could own them.  It's made my two recent moves more difficult to have 400 pounds of baseball books to lug around, but I enjoy reading about baseball a ton. With that eye and love for history, I decided I wanted to take on the task of blogging the 1982 Topps Set (and maybe the other two as well...so long as people are still blogging 10 years from now), likely including the "Traded" set as well.  It's just getting started, but it is located at http://1982Topps.blogspot.com (see the tab above for the link as well).

Finally, I'm being lame this week for memorabilia Monday.  I'm only posting an insert from the October 1984 issue of Baseball Cards magazine of Mickey Mantle:

  

It has some discoloration, and it's pretty bent up from the years it spent being unloved in storage, but this card was at the very beginning of the "pre-rookie" rage that took place just before the complete junk wax era of the late 1980s.  Collectors in the mid-80s discovered the cards that TCMA had been putting out for minor league teams and drove the prices for those cards sky high.

I think Bob Lemke was responsible for creating these cards for Krausse Publications and Baseball Cards Magazine.  This was likely the start of his work that he carries on today in creating custom-made cards that never were but perhaps should have been -- like a Mickey Mantle minor league card from 1950.  

Sunday Trade Bait #2: Nobody Likes My Cards

Last week's trade bait was, I thought, pretty solid.  Some serial numbered cards, some reasonably short-printed inserts from popular sets, etc.  No matter -- it took the big Golden Sombrero from all of you.  Now, it's not too late to look there and claim something, but let's try some different stuff today.

If you would like to claim a card or cards pictured here, just comment in the comments section below to claim it and then e-mail me your address so I can send it to you.  In return, all I want are cards falling into one of the following categories:

1. Anything not listed on my Robin Yount Collection list that is a Robin Yount card/item
2. Any Brewer card from between 1994 and 2007
3. Any Brewer card from 2008 to the present that is not a Topps base, 2008 Opening Day, 2008 A&G, 2008 Goudey, 2011 A&G, 2013 A&G or 2014 Heritage.
4. Any Brewer insert from any of the manufacturers other than the Topps inserts from 2009 to the present.  If you have some of these, please ask me whether I need it.  Sorry -- my want lists are works in progress.

Okay, enough of the rules/lists/begging.  Here is the trade bait for this week:

The 2014 Heritage Box Topper

Austin Jackson Topps Heritage MINI insert, SN/100

CLAIMED!

2008 Topps Heritage Box Topper with Joey Votto rookie

Carlos Beltran Chrome SN/999

Jordan Zimmermann Chrome SN/999

Stephen Strasburg Chrome SN/999

CLAIMED!

Paul Goldschmidt SP Logo variation

Michael Wacha In Action Variation

2008 Mickey Mantle Opening Day White border SN/2199

Joe Mauer 2009 Topps Chrome Orange Refractor

2012 Topps Cut Above Die Cut Insert of Nolan Ryan

Chipper Jones 2008 Topps Heritage Refractor

So, that's about the extent of it.  Please take these cards off my hands and send me nice stuff.

Thanks.