Better Than a Pack of Ginter

A jumbo sized pack break featuring a little known Rangers slugger on the wrapper.

While all the cool kids have been rushing out to get their grubby mitts all over the Allen's and Ginter's pack's, I decided to plunk down a cool $3.50 for some 10+ year old product. For about the price of a single brand new pack, I was able to purchase 7 packs of some moldy old Upper Deck. This is actually one of the better designs if you ask me, and I recently opened a pack over at APTBNL if you're looking for more.

Pack 1:
459 - Greg Norton
161 - Tim Crabtree
135 - Tony Batista

109 - John Rocker - This guy held a Reddit AMA (basically an open forum "ask me anything" online interview) the other day and it went about as well as you'd expect.

B-JG - Juan Gonzalez Game-Used Base - A b-b-b-base? According to the back of the card, this base was used during the 2001 All-Star Game at Safeco Field. It doesn't mention what connection Juan Gone had to the base, but he was a starter in the game so it's possible he touched it at some point.

484 - Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey Gallery - There's a bunch of these in the 2002 Upper Deck set.

50 - Jason Karnuth - I don't remember this guy at all, but apparently he made a few appearances in 2001.

Pack 2:
358 - Livan Hernandez
332 - Tom Goodwin

306 - Fred McGriff - It's a little sad to see the Crime Dog in a Cubs uni.
166 - Manny Ramirez
140 - David Segui
114 - Danys Baez
243 - Luis Sojo

GH4 - Mike Piazza 2001 Greatest Hits - These inserts fall at a 1:14 ratio according to the wrapper. I know I've traded with some Piazza fans before. Any takers?

Pack 3:
128 - Kazuhiro Sasaki
102 - Felix Martinez
76 - Olmedo Saenz

239 - Mariano Rivera - The All-Stars from the previous season had a silver logo on their cards which is, unfortunately, very difficult to see.
213 - Joe Mays
187 - Luis Ordaz
482 - Ken Griffey Jr. Griffey Gallery

Z4 - Sammy Sosa Big Fly Zone - These inserts are also a 1:14 pull. I imagine there's less interest in Sammy Sosa than Piazza at this point.

Pack 4:
313 - Corey Patterson

287 - Mark McGwire - Big Mac had already played his last game at this point, but if I recall there were several more years worth of tribute cards to come.
261 - Ken Caminiti
439 - Jason LaRue
413 - Turk Wendell

387 - Al Leiter - Just a nice and interesting looking shot.

476 - Kazuhiro Sasaki World Stage - These look like a bit of a precursor to the World Baseball Classic and all of the sets and inserts it has spawned. Sasaki was dominant as the Mariners closer during the days when the Mariners were a threat.
42 - Junior Guerrero

Pack 5:
391 - Matt Lawton
365 - Jason Schmidt
339 - Chan Ho Park
111 - Einar Diaz
85 - Homer Bush
59 - Larry Barnes

295 - Bobby Bonilla - Legend has it that a late spring training injury to Bobby Bo is what paved Albert Pujols' path to the major leagues. I've heard people try to debunk that tale, though.
34 - Jason Phillips

Pack 6:
206 - Cristian Guzman
180 - A.J. Hinch
154 - Rob Bell
317 - Tony Womack

291 - Dustin Hermanson - Hermanson was a back end of the rotation guy in St. Louis after pitching for the Padres and Expos previously.
265 - Jason Marquis

499 - Albert Pujols Season Highlights Checklist - It's always nice to get an early Pujols card.

473 - Pedro Martinez World Stage

Pack 7:
127 - Aaron Sele
101 - Joe Kennedy
75 - Jeremy Giambi
177 - Neifi Perez

ALJ-CR - Cal Ripken Jr. AL Centennial Anniversary Jersey - Wow! This is an amazing pull for a pack that cost me 50 cents. Ripken stuff is highly collectible to this day, though I'm sure that's no big secret.
16 - Luke Hudson
475 - Tony Batista World Stage

Up For Grabs: The Ironman

I'm decommissioning my "superstar" binders after something like 25 years of collecting. Let's be honest, though, these binders have by and large been collecting dust since the early '90s aside from when I either pull them out to add some newer cards of players that were already in there or remove something to send to someone. They're a pain to keep around when I am no longer interested in collecting for "value". I am going to be purging cards of these players, mostly Hall of Famers, and offering them up on the blog. What doesn't get claimed will either get filtered back into the storage boxes portion of my collection (with Bip Roberts and the like) sorted by set or possibly jettisoned to an auction site like Listia.

See the list at the end of the post for details. If you've traded with me recently (or a bunch of times) just let me know and I will set any/all of the cards aside for you. If not, just mention that you're interested in the cards and arrange to send me something for them. I have want lists available on the sidebar, and even if you can't find something there I always have a home for Cardinals, Trail Blazers and University of Oregon alumni.

I remember being a huge fan of the glossy All-Star cards, of both the send-away variety and the kind (like this one) that came one per rack pack. Topps sort of tried to revive the latter concept in 2007 but the All-Star inserts looked nothing like the originals.

This is a man who needed a cap at all times.

I was never a fan of Ripken's. I was a big Ozzie Smith fan, so it was hard for me to see that there was any other shortstop better than the Wizard. I am not going to try to make that case today.

Lots of close-up head shots on these cards. Not my favorite thing in the world.

This is much better. I also have the iconic 1992 Topps card if there's anyone out there who still doesn't own his card.

I have frequently raided my Ripken stash to trade with others since I started this blog, so there isn't quite the variety that I have of some players.

Extreme!

The list:

1992 Donruss MVP #BC1
1987 Topps #784 [6 available]
1993 Topps #300
1988 Fleer (SuperStarSpecials w/ Bill Ripken) #640
1990 Upper Deck #266 [2 available]
1990 Bowman #255
1989 Topps All-Star Glossy #5
1995 Topps Stadium Club (Extreme Corps) #510
1994 Topps Stadium Club #373
1990 Topps #570 [2 available]
1990 Topps (Record Breaker) #8 [2 available]
1990 Topps (All-Star) #388 [3 available]
1990 Fleer (Players of the Decade - COR) #624b
1990 Donruss #96 [4 available]
1990 Donruss (All-Star COR) #676a [2 available]
1988 Topps (Orioles Leaders w/ Eddie Murray) #51 [4 available]
1991 Score #95 [2 available]
1991 Donruss #223
1991 Donruss (All-Star) #52
1990 Score #2
1988 Score #550
1987 Topps (All-Star) #609 [4 available]
1991 Topps (Record Breaker) #5
1991 Score (The Franchise) #849 [2 available]
1987 Donruss #89
1988 Donruss #171 [5 available]
1988 Donruss (Diamond King) #26 [2 available]
1988 Donruss (Ripken Baseball Family w/ Bill + Cal Sr.) #625
1989 Topps #250 [4 available]
1991 Fleer #490 [2 available]
1989 Donruss MVP #BC-15
1992 Topps #40
1992 Score #540
1990 Donruss MVP #BC-18 [2 available]
1990 Topps Kmart #20
1988 Topps UK Mini #61
1988 Donruss MVP #BC-1 [2 available]

Reaching Deep Into the Archives

I've been feeling rather uninspired lately. Even though I have plenty of material to go through, I was just having trouble coming up with something to fill up this space. (This is the best way to start a post, isn't it?) I'd talk about something topical like the MLB Draft, but I have no idea who any of the kids are that got picked and therefore have no basis on which to analyze how the Cardinals did or how any of it went. The NBA Finals are going on, but a post about that would be very short and look something like "I hate the Lakers. The end." The Stanley Cup Finals seem like they've been pretty entertaining, but my hockey knowledge generally ends with mid-'90s EA Sports games.

Instead, I reached into the old oddball binder and pulled out this 1989 Topps box bottom 4-card panel. I have several of these: a couple from '89, some '88 and even a mini 2-card 1987 Topps panel. All of them are pretty beat up. They're scratched like crazy (they did make up the bottom of a junky pile of wax packs) and there are some creases here and there. This is the type of thing that I have no idea what to do with now. It's not Cardinals-related, it's not in good shape at all, but I have a hard time just tossing it. There should be a market somewhere for abused but worthless treasures.


Anyway, I ended up choosing this panel because it was clearly the best as far as player selection. When Jim Rice is your weak link, you know that you have a pretty solid group of ball players. I had an irrational dislike of Cal Ripken growing up, but I always liked Nolan Ryan and Mike Schmidt. Does anyone dislike Mike Schmidt?

Totally the Same Guy

***

Not that this has anything to do with anything, but I'm not holding my breath in anticipation that Topps Heritage is coming out tomorrow. I'm not seeing any evidence of live cards on eBay, and I did overhear these guys at the local hobby shop saying that it had been pushed back until at least the first week of March. If any actual cards hit the blogs/auction sites/whatever, I'll then consider making the trek to a store. Until then, I'm not spending another dime on cards.

Unless, of course, Heritage doesn't come out before the next card show comes to town...

Or, er, if I run across some of last year's Heritage in the $1.59 section like a certain someone found...