Repack Hits?

Who knew? 

As I recently teased on Twitter, I bought a few of the drug store variety repack boxes over at Walgreen's on Monday. I was only going to grab one as my reward for running errands that actually involved said drug store, but they happened to be on sale ($3.99!) for some weird reason, so I bought all three that were on the shelf. As those who are familiar with these sorts of dealings know, there is a supposed 1:4 "hit" ratio on these boxes. I have to say that I was surprised that two of these boxes contained what some would call "hits", and not entirely worthless ones at that. Stolmy Pimentel is a young pitcher who hasn't received a ton of big league playing time so far, but he has a fun name!

And Randy Wolf... seriously, Randy Wolf? To be honest, when I saw an old minor league auto fall out of the first box I opened, I was expecting some long forgotten player name I could barely pronounce who hadn't so much as sniffed the big leagues. Wolf may not be Halladay or Hamels, but he spent 16 (!) years in MLB, so I'm sure someone will enjoy this.

Now, not everything was on the "hit" level, but there were some interesting parallels to be found, including a couple of (retail exclusive?) purple refractor prospects from 2013 Bowman Platinum.

Jonathan Schoop has proven to be a pretty good player with a strange last name.

Nineties gold! This is like, I don't know... shiny grunge?

David (not Daniel) Murphy on a Target exclusive parallel.

Unfortunately, I did not need this retail Heritage parallel card of Jon Lester, though there are a ton of these that I do need from this set as well as similar cards from other years. Stupid collection.

I have no idea how these HTA stamped cards were originally distributed (packs? factory set? thrown at random passers-by?) I don't think I have any Cardinals like this, unfortunately.

The font is so hard to read on these 2015 Bowman cards that I originally read this prospect's last name as "Prank", which got my hopes up for nothing.

Of course, the bulk of the boxes were mostly full of pesky base cards. Nomar was the shiniest of the bunch. A small handful of Cardinals were found, but there was nothing that ticked any boxes in my collection. These will all get distributed in future trades.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy your long holiday weekends, everyone. Don't blow off any of your digits.

The Box That Rocks

I decided to reward myself after a hot afternoon of running errands.

After having a bit of good luck with the 100 card repacks they often carry at the local Walgreens, I decided to check to see if they had anything on the shelves on Saturday. This is usually the only baseball-related item they ever carry, and it's always a mystery as to whether or not they'll even have it. I imagine the demand for this stuff is pretty low, as it sits squarely in a toy section at a 24 hour drug store that seems to be designed for people who forgot to get a gift for their significant other's son/daughter/niece/nephew and is trying to save face at the last minute. (Skittles, while great, is not a great gift.)

These are usually the same type of repack that you might see at target, hanging on a hook, encased in a hard plastic that is impossible to open with your bare hands. After some fussing with scissors (or a knife if you dare) and using your steady hands to pull out the cards without damaging them on the jagged plastic edges you just created, they can be a bit of a bear to open. This time around, I noticed that they are now using cardboard packaging (good) but have upped the price tag from $3.99 to $4.99 (not so good.) Nothing eye-popping was showing on the front of the pack, but the packaging promised a "hit" in every fourth box. Whatever that means. Anyway, let's take a gander at some of the more interesting cards I found.

Bowman Chrome is apparently "going live" this week, so in honor of one of the most useless annual sets, I present to you one of the most useless players in the game on a Bowman Chrome card. Okay, fine, Phillips has had a nice career, but he's kind of just a clown these days instead of a clown who can hit.

I have a soft spot for all things '86.

I probably would've gotten detention for saying "Clutterbuck" in class in 1989.

This Gwynn card was beat up and creased, which means there's a good chance I owned it at one time. I was 10 years old when I used to take all of the change I could find in the neighborhood up to the local card shop (also a barber shop for some reason) and get my grubby mitts on as many 1986 cards as possible.

I wouldn't have expected a set named Legacy to be one of the Fleer's most metallic designs.

Here's a random insert card from Upper Deck's last year of licensed MLB cards.

Early Manny being Tribey.

I don't get this design at all. Did Piazza play every position in the game or is this a growth chart incorrectly marked by baseball positions instead of numbers?

Such a classic design. I don't mind at all that there were a few sets that use the same design with different border colors. (Highlights, The Rookies, Opening Day... am I missing anything?)

Hey, there were cards from another country in this box. In good shape! More, please!

I don't remember ever sending in my wrappers and cash for one of these sets, but I'm sure somewhere deep down I have a repressed feeling of deep regret over this.

This is one of those cards from the annual Topps All-Star team set, which looks a lot like the factory team sets produced for each team. This has a metallic stamp for each league and also reminds me that I need to track down any of the Cardinals that ended up in these sets over the past several years.

I might actually need this one!

I don't have any recollection of this 1993 Upper Deck Diamond Gallery set at all, but seeing as it was a factory sealed set with a stated print run, I imagine that it cost a fortune at one time. And now it's a $7.99 Buy It Now with free shipping and no takers.

Not actually the guy from Homeland, Walker was one of the few that existed in the dark Cardinals era where they actually tried out stove tap caps, Pirates style. Hey man, the '70s were crazy, or so I hear.

Leaf! So... exotic!

When Did Repacks Get Good?

Value in a blind grab blister pack?

I've read a number of things about repacks lately and was finally bored enough in a Walgreen's to buy something I usually know better not to. I tend to stay far away from the type of repacks that offer nothing to random chance, as in the ones that don't contain actual factory sealed packs. Something about the luck others have had lately and the strange card on the front that caught my eye made me plunk down $3.99 for a sharp plastic blister pack of 100 cards, and I wasn't disappointed at all.

The card that caught my eye, of course, is the Mickey Mantle All-Star Topps Heritage card, done in the style of 1961 Topps. At first, I thought this might be a short print that I was probably missing from the 2010 Topps Heritage set, but those cards actually say "Topps News" at the top instead of Sporting News. A little research while waiting in line led to the discovery that these cards are from some sort of promotional set that has to do with the 2011 National Convention. In any case, this isn't your typical dime box card and, even though I haven't figured out if I'm keeping it or not, it made the entire purchase worthwhile.

The rest is just gravy. Here's a sampling:

It's The Hawk, on a blue '87 Donruss card.

I'm pretty familiar with all of the rack pack All-Star Glossy inserts from '80s Topps cards, but I'd never seen this one before.

I'm not sure what this was doing in the middle of the pack. Usually the flashiest cards are facing the outside of the package in order to entice prospective buyers who can't decide what kind of toothpaste they want. Like me! There is a less than perfect corner to this card, but otherwise I'm really surprised to see an insert from Harper's rookie year set.

Whoa! An actual card for my collection. And it's serial numbered.

Hmm... weird mid-'90s card from a set I'm not familiar with.

I wonder how much a pack of 2005 Fleer Showcase would run you these days.

The newly elected Hall of Famer wants you to look at his eyes, man. Or he's flipping us off. I'm not entirely sure.

I have no idea who Dave Goltz is, but it's a sharp cornered card from 36 years ago. That has to count for something.

Poorly cut Captain Hank thinks this pack is weird.

Here's a trio of excellent pitchers, with only the guy on the left still at it today. (This card is only two years old.)

There was actually a second, equally as rare National card hidden in this pack. This is officially crazy.

How about a dazzling Wizard card that I actually needed for my collection?

Um... I like O-Pee-Chee.

Derp.

Crap After a Crap Game

Can a repack box ease the pain of a playoff loss? You know the answer!

They have a single baseball card product for sale at the local neighborhood grocery superstore, which happens to be those 3 packs and a "memorabilia card" blind buys. Just about anything could have been in this box, but most likely it won't be Derek Jeter or Albert Pujols. I almost never buy these sorts of things - I tend to go for the ones that give you packs and only when I can at least tell what a few of the packs will be. The one time I remember taking one of these sorts of things a ride, I did fairly well with my relic card. It was David Wright.

To dispense with the suspense, here was my prize: a Marlon Byrd jersey card from 2004 Topps Finest. I was highly amused that the card came in a very used looking top loader that someone had written the year of the card on. I'm guessing Fairfield did a bulk buy of someone's (or some shop's) collection and didn't bother to swap out the top loaders or remove them altogether.

Marlon Byrd doesn't exactly strike me as the most collector-friendly player, but aside from being choosy about the player, this is a pretty nice looking card. I don't often buy Finest cards and I'm not sure if I own any from 2004. Nevertheless, this is up for grabs if anyone is interesting.

Pack 1 was a 2010 Topps Series 1 retail pack. I think this is my first time seeing this Willie Stargell insert.

I'm sure I have a handful of this Adam Wainwright base card, but it was nice to see a Cardinal card at least.

Pack 2 was a 2012 Topps Heritage retail pack. The problem here is that I have the entire base set and have more doubles from this one than probably all other Heritage sets combined. I do need something like 33 of the SPs, but this Jason Bay is unfortunately not one of those 33. This is up for grabs as well, along with a ton of non-SP base cards.

The less said about Pack 3, the better. This is one of those Pete Rose 2012 Leaf packs that no one is talking about these days. You can see a pack of this stuff opened right here. I am throwing these ones up on Listia unless there are any Rose fans or fans of this set out there.

What Boredom Does: A Repack Story

Yes, the above image means that I spend $5 on yet more stuff I didn't need. It's a shame, really. When I walk into a drug store with no sports cards worth having, I should probably just take whatever bit of cash is burning a hole in my pocket and stuff it in a jar or something. Anyway, here are the dozen or so cards that were inside the pack that were of the most interest to me. And no, there was no memorabilia card. I'll save you the suspense.

It's sad when a player's signature is more legible than the actual block letter printing. It didn't scan well, but even to the naked eye these are hard cards to read.

This would have been pretty awesome in 1992. Is there much of a market for Jose Canseco cards anymore, even for just his notoriety?

Cards of The Hawk have never been in high demand. This is probably worth 10 cents today and 20 years ago was probably worth 10 cents.

It's a card from the unattainable set. It looks awesome!

This year's Topps Archives set does not make me like the 1980 design anymore.

Weird. There were actually two 2012 cards in the pack. I'm quite sure that this pack has been sitting on the shelf taunting me since Series 1 was brand new.

Cards like these were just there for the purpose of mocking all of the amateur artist/sports fans in classrooms everywhere.

What a goofy uniform. I want to see the Rangers wear these as a throwback.

Nolan Ryan gets the "final tribute" treatment here, more of a rarity these days than it was 20+ years ago.

At one point, the floundering career of Fernando Valenzuela took a tour stop through my home town of Portland by way of the visiting AAA team he was trying to make a comeback with. This card was actually produced a year or two after that happened. I have no idea what Fernando did after that day in Portland. Someone told me he was briefly a Cardinal, even.

Viola looks like he is reminiscing about the best breakfast cereals he's eaten in his life.

Wow, this is... wow. Any fans of badly miscut oddball cards?

The three promised "vintage" cards are always from the late '70s, in my experience. Such was the case this time, with a trio of 1977 Topps cards presenting themselves.

Could anyone tell a '70s ballplayer and a modern day hipster apart if they stood side by side? (Assume that the baseball player isn't wearing a baseball uniform, of course.)

Will R.A. Dickey lead a knuckleballer revival? Or will those wacky goofballs go the way of the Knuckle Brothers, Niekro and Niekro? I like to ask open-ended questions here.