Finally, a RAK Pack!

 

A #CrackinWaxMailDay (x2) finally lands me a coveted @CrackinWax RAK Pack! 

 

I've entered a bunch of box breaks this year, as mentioned in this space quite a few times. There just hasn't been a whole lot on the shelves for me to buy, and card shows have not been an option. One of my goals for pretty much this entire year was to get my hands on a RAK Pack (Random Act of Kindness? Random Assortment of Kards?) from Crackin' Wax. I wanted this for me because I thought it would be... fun, I guess? You see, you can't just go and buy one of these. You actually have to be a (lucky?) loser if you want to get your hands on one. These are distributed to people who end up with a cardless spot in a break, a fate that's really wished upon no one. The types of breaks that end up with zero cards for your team slot (including random team(s) depending on the break) are not generally the type of breaks that I jump into with both feet. There's another, less humiliating way to get one of these, however. If you don't get a "hit" with your break slot, assuming the break has expected/guaranteed hits, you get entered into a random drawing where one person wins a prize from a prize wheel. The prize wheel contains a few different options, including store credit and a couple of rare prizes that remain mysterious (at least to me.) It was through this method that the random.org gods not only shined on me, but also saw fit to steer the prize wheel towards the RAK Pack.

What did I get in my coveted pack? Let's take a look.

Has Baseball Card Vandals taken a stab at this yet?

Walker Buehler is excited about something! Or mad? I'm not sure.

If I went around wearing a sleeveless shirt that was a constant reminder of how to do my job, I'm not sure what kind of life I would have.

The Klubot seems fully functional here.

Well, this was a surprise! Of course, when you look at the pack wrapper and realize the pack is "just for you", you're never quite sure what that is going to mean. I had never seen one of these 2020 Topps Heritage tattoos before, and with good reason. Apparently there's only a 200 print run on these. Both Goldschmidt and Christian Yelich have an uncorrected error where it says Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the back with his actual card number, but that's just fine with me. (More on Vlad Jr. later.)

Does Ultra Pro make pages for these Gypsy Queen Fortune Teller cards? It seems like they have a size for everything these days.

Finishing off the trio of Cardinals is Edmundo Sosa, who looked all of 12 in 2015.

I believe I mentioned recently that I'm amassing quite a collection of custom cards of bloggers, breakers and other card people. I even have a few autos, like this one!

These are healthy sized packs, unlike some of the stuff Topps puts out these days.

Kyle Seager may not be Kyle Lewis, but that's okay. This is a random assortment of cards, you guys.

Speaking of random, I have no recollection of this particular player.

Even Upper Deck gets invited to the RAK Pack party!

The final card is this K-Rod Allen & Ginter insert from way back in 2009.

I did enter a few breaks over the past couple of weeks, but due to some things with timing and interest (and luck!), there wasn't a whole lot to post about.

The third wave (series) of 2020 Topps 206 is finally out. This whole set is a minor league affair, and there's only one Cardinals-affiliated player in the set. There are a slew of parallels to be found, but I ended up with just two of the base Nolan Gorman cards.

I also entered a 2019 Topps Gold Label break, as Gold Label is always going to tempt with its relative affordability and very slick looking cards. I think (?) the Blue Jays may have been held pack from purchase so they could be assigned as a random team, in which case I was the lucky beholder of the Jays spot.

I ended up with two different (Class 1 and Class 2) Vlad Jr. cards from the break. I've had quite a bit of luck pulling his cards since last year, while I've only ended up with a couple of Fernando Tatis Jr. cards from the same year. If I could time travel to last year, I would swap most of my Vlad Jr. cards for comparable Tatis Jr. cards, but if that were actually possible I should be thinking about more important issues. Also, I still need cards of both dudes from the Heritage high number set. In fact, those are the only two cards I need from that set. That's just not good luck.