pack pick results, with a twist

Ok, so this week's pack pick was super weak. I thought it would be neat to pick four packs from different manufacturers, from the same year. Oh well, blame it on lousy product...or my silly thinking. So I'm mixing it up a bit. The winning pack is featured today. I'll have something better in store for tomorrow. So, without further hesitation:

1992 Stadium Club. The SC line lasted quite some time, as I discovered when I got back into collecting. I always knew about it and had many cards from the first couple of years, 1991 to 1994. Apparently it lasted until 2003. I had no idea until I started getting some Jays from those years and being kind of amazed that it was still around. Topps tried to bring it back in 2008 but it seemed to fail quite miserably. Who knows? Maybe 2011 will be the return of Stadium Club? Anyway, enough talk, here is what we got:

Dibble goes into the 'guys from Connecticut' portion of my personal collection, along with the checklist hanging out in the bottom there. Yes, I collect checklists. I don't go out of my way for them but I do have them all in one place and it is a personal collection box. The Fielder 'Member's Choice' is cool too. I remember having these types of cards in '92 and we thought they were the greatest that SC had to offer. Turns out they weren't all that special because they were just part of the base set. Oh well. Decent pack, still a great design, with the full bleed photos and miles beyond the flagship set photography. Obviously though, that was the whole push of this set. Speaking of photos, what is up with Tim Wallach at the bottom there? What's that baseball tellin' you Tim? Amusing. Until tomorrow, with a better pack in hand.

pack pick thursday

Oh boy. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH boy. Who put all this junk wax into my scanner??

Ok ok, I did. This weeks pack pick comes in the form of four packs (wow, four companies...) from the year 1992. Yes, probably the most over produced year for baseball cards ever. Maybe 1991 is really king of that but 1992 has to be close. With the exception of the Donruss pack, I can't really consider any of this to be junk. Ultra and Upper Deck were both solid issues and would be worth it had they not made billions of them. Stadium Club also kinda falls into that category but I don't consider it to be as worth it as UD and Ultra. Donruss, well....its '92 Donruss, what do you want from me? I needed another pack from '92. As per usual, the pack with the most votes will be shown on Monday, with the second place being Sunday morning, when voting ends. Funny thing about these pack picks and Random Pack Mondays are that I don't open the packs until right before I have to scan and post them up. So even I have no clue what they hold, and when I find out, you find out shortly thereafter. Vote now!

random pack monday plus!

So here we are with this weeks winner of the pack pick vote, 1994 Topps Finest series 1. I wasn't really surprised that you guys picked this one as the winner, it's an awesome set. I remember when it first came out, hearing about how packs were going for something absurd like $10 a pack. CRAZY!!!!

Here is what we got, not too shabby really:

Tino Martinez, Juan Gonzalez, Wally Joyner, Darryl Strawberry? This pack would have been a goldmine in 1994. I also didn't know Tom Henke was a Ranger. At least I got a Jay out of it that I don't believe I have yet. And Bryan Harvey. I haven't seen a refractor from this set probably since it came out. I never bought these as a kid, ten bucks was way out of my price range for a pack of cards. Even though it was put out in 1994, can it still be considered 'junk wax'? I mean, where does that era end? Maybe basic stuff is 'junk', while sets like this are still considered to be worth it. No idea, I guess its all subjective.

Now. On to what I was talking about yesterday. As Can't Have Too Many Cards has already mentioned, today has a quite few birthdays:

Jackie Robinson, 1919.

Ernie Banks, 1931.

Nolan Ryan, 1947.

Brad Thompson, 1982.

Yuniesky Betancourt, 1982

...and this guy, also in 1982:

Oh wait. That's me in 1991. Yeah, I played some flag football for the town league that year. They took photos of the team and individually, and the individual ones came with the option to have made into cards. My "rookie" card. I've had this lying around since 1991 and gave it to my wife (then girlfriend) about 3 years ago. She wouldn't sell it for the world (well, maybe...), and considers it the most valuable card ever printed. Take that Honus! Well, its really a photo with a sticker back that has some info on it, like the team (Browns), height, weight, hometown, etc. Just like a real card! Kinda...

pack pick results

In an unsurprising 8 out of 10 vote landslide, 1994 Topps Finest is the clear winner for tomorrow's featured pack. I don't blame you, '94 Finest is a great looking set. Here is a breakdown of the results:

1994 Topps Finest: 8 votes
2003 Topps series 2: 1 vote
2005 Topps series 2: 1 vote
2002 Topps series 2: 0 votes (no love for '02)


In actuality, 2003 was a series 1 pack. I didn't notice I canned the wrong pack until it was posted up and I checked out the picture. Since I messed that up, I decided that the 2003 pack would be today's runner up. Here it is:

Kind of a boring wrapper design if you ask me. I'm usually all for minimalism but this is jus plain boring. Lets hope the contents do better.

Ok, here we go, I can deal with this. Way back when I did set reviews (remember those? I think I'll be bringing that back soon), and collecting Topps base sets, I ranted on how much I liked 2003 Topps. I can't put my finger on why I dig it so much but I do. So we got a pair of Carlos' on the Royals in Beltran and Febles, a checklist, two first year guys who I've never heard of (yes that includes the Jay), a Thome, and a father and son duo in Bob Boone and Aaron Boone. Now thats a pack! Well maybe not but it is pretty uncommon to get a father/son combo in a pack unless you're buying up '88 Topps and getting Cal Ripken and his father's manager card.

Tomorrow will be the regularly scheduled Random Pack Monday but there will also be a second part to the post that involves the most valuable rookie card ever produced, according to my wife. WHAT CAN IT BE??? Stay tuned...

pick yer poison round 2

Here we go with another round of pack pickin' fun! This week we have to choose from:

1994 Topps Finest Series 1
2002 Topps Series 2
2003 Topps Series 2
2005 Topps Series 2

Yes, I went with the series 2 theme. The pack with the most votes will be opened up for Monday's random pack and the second place will be opened up Sunday morning. Polls close Sunday morning. Vote now for the one you want to see here on Monday!

pack pick results

So the results are in. The voting for Monday's pack has closed and the results are:

1984 Topps- 4 votes
1997 Topps- 2 votes
2000 Topps- 3 votes
1987 Sportflics- 3 votes

1984 Topps is the winner and will be shown on Monday. We have a tie for second between the Sportflics and 2000 Topps. How do I remedy this? Well, how about I do them both up right now? Lets start with:

1987 Sportflics. Score before it was Score. I may have opened up one of these when I was younger but I really have no idea. So we'll call it something new that I've never opened. Lets see what we got:

These don't scan particularly well. We got a (from left to right) Pedro Guerrero, Bruce Hurst and Cecil Cooper. Also in the pack was a redemption/send-away thingie for team logo pins and two team mini-flix of the Dodgers and Orioles. This set is quite interesting, Sportflics always have been. They tried to bring them back I think in the late 80's/early 90's but I'm not sure they were successful.

Next up is the 2000 Topps:

Definitely a pack I've never opened, as we see 'then home run king' Mr. McGwire on the front here being that he was all the rage in 2000. Lets see the contents:

Decent pack. A Jay, Bret Saberhagen (who I've always known to be a Royal but looking at the back he's played for a couple other teams), Tim Raines and a Vlad. I've never heard of either of the draft picks on that card and hey, we got an insert! A Power Players Albert Belle (odds 1:8 packs). A checklist too. 2000 Topps is an interesting issue. Its all vertical, front and back, which is unusual for Topps but I think I really like. Reminds me of early Fleer stuff. Well, mid-80's to early 90's Fleer stuff.

That about does it. Was this a good idea? I like the idea of Random Pack Mondays and even more I like the voting on which you'd like to see. I like to make things interactive. Plus its better seeing and reading about something you chose to be written about. More fun that way. So I think I'll keep this idea going. I'll post the packs to pick from on Thursday, end the voting on Sunday morning, rip open the second place pack and save the winner for Monday. Sound good? Until tomorrow, when 1984 looms above us. Did I get the Mattingly rookie? We'll just have to wait and see...

toss me the ball, grandma!

Is it just me, or does Steve here look like someone's grandmother? He looks like an old lady! I apologize to all of Mr. Trout's fans for this observation but I felt it needed to be said. Maybe its just my warped sense of reality, I don't know. I pulled this out of a lackluster pack of 1986 Topps yesterday.

Speaking of packs, be sure to vote on which pack you'd like to see opened up for Monday. Use yesterday's post comments to cast your vote if you have not done so already. Its easier to keep track of if its all done on one post. I'll end voting by the time I wake up on Sunday morning. Maybe what I'll do is bust open the runner-up and save the winner for Monday. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Vote now!

pick yer poison

My lot of packs came in today. Some really random stuff (including a pack of the following: 1992 Collector's Edge football, 1991 Fleer basketball, 1991 Upper Deck basketball and 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces baseball, go figure) but all in all it was mostly Topps baseball. I opened up a few of the packs and got nothing of note. I did mention that I would let you, the readers, pick next Monday's random pack. Here are your choices:

2000 Topps series 1, 1997 Topps series 1, 1984 Topps and 1987 Sportflics (collector's edition apparently). The 1984 should hold something good but I've never opened up 2000 or 1997. Sportflics (I don't know why I picked it) should be.....entertaining....

Anyway, leave a comment on which one you'd like to see opened up for next Monday and whichever gets the most votes gets revealed. If a pack gets no votes, it will be out of the running and will be doomed to a box that I will probably just open up later. Vote now!