Repack Sunday

A couple of years back when I was doing these repacks fairly regularly, my best bet was my local Five Below store. The boxes were $4.99, came with 4 unopened packs and 100 miscellaneous cards, mostly junk wax. With baseball season underway and me back to semi regular blogging, I happened to be in the shopping center of said store the other day so I stopped in. I headed to the section where they used to be but didn't see any.

Bummer.

In fact, I didn't see any cards, sports or otherwise. I moseyed around the store for a bit just to see if they moved them somewhere else and sure enough, they were now much closer to the registers. I wonder if that wasn't some kind of loss prevention move.

Anyway, I almost overlooked them because the packaging had completely changed. And also the contents.

The packaging was now a plastic storage container instead of just the cardboard box. Nice, I like that change! But as you you can see from the picture, we're down to 2 packs instead of 4. This sticker was on one side of the cube. The other three sides showed 2 visible cards and one visible pack. Every repack in stock showed a pack of 2015 Topps Series One so I went with one that showed 2 cards of interest to me.

Along with the cards from the 2015 Topps pack, this is the newest card in the box. But it's not a regular base card. It's an All-Star card from the factory team sets that get put out as you can see by the American League logo.

I'm not sure if the other card showing was the guaranteed rookie in the box, but at least its a nice horizontal card. 

As I did last week, I'll show off some of the more interesting (to me) cards in some recurring categories, As noted on the packaging, I was guaranteed a card from each of the past 5 decades. Counting backwards, that gets me at least one card from the 70's, which makes me feel really old.

Barely squeaking in was this 1979 Ron Fairly card. And speaking of feeling old, this guy was born in 1939, debuted in 1958 and was still playing when I was born in 1978.

In addition to the Taylor Green above, these Jay Payton and Orlando Miller cards were also rookies in the box. That Payton cad could almost pass for one of those unlicensed non-Topps cards of today with its lack of logos.

As for the guaranteed Hall of Famer in the box, it could be any one of the four.

A pair of Dennis Eckersley cards, a Pudge and a Stan the Man puzzle card. Also added a nice Hall of Fame horizontal to the collection with another Carlton Fisk, this time playing first base.

Along with the HOFers, we have some Hall of Pretty Gooders. As defined last week, these are guys I would have put in my binders back in the day. And my criteria for that was they were listed in Beckett instead of being commons. This also shows a little variety in the set selection for the repack. Lots of junk wax, but some odd stuff like Classic, Fleer Superstars and Sportflics.

Guys with Cubs connections always jump out out at me and this pack featured a quartet of former/future Cubs to go with the HOF Ecks above.

And speaking of Cubs, this repack had the highest rate of actual Cubs that I can remember. Especially after basically getting shut out last week (one unlicensed "Chicago" card for those that don't remember) Out of 100 cards, I pulled 7 from my favorite team. Not a single one was new to me, although I will check to see if any of them are needed condition upgrades. 

As far as other collection keepers go, there were a couple of niche additions with horizontals...

...and one for the Ivy collection.

Before I get to the 2 packs, I almost forgot the guaranteed Chipz. 

Mr. Met is some salt in the wound that's still a little fresh from last year's post season. I didn't even want to mention the Cub killer Daniel Murphy horizontal above.

The first pack, as mentioned, was 2015 Topps Series One. The highlights include two horizontals and a gold Charlie Blackmon

The other pack was from one of the newer Triple Play incarnations. Two more horizontals and a Clayton Kershaw sticker. Meh.

A few final cards I thought were interesting but don't really have a category. I always thought the Greg(g)Olson battery would have been fun but that never came to fruition. These cards were back to back in the pile. Some repacker has a sense of humor.

And I know the 1988 Orioles were pretty bad. Didn't they start the season 0-21 or something terrible like that? But seriously, Donruss couldn't find a better Diamond King than Dave Schmidt to represent them? I don't recall who Donruss used in previous years off the top of my head but they couldn't use Eddie Murray? Cal? Heck, even Billy Ripken?

Edit: I went to the 1988 Orioles Baseball Reference page. There were a couple of options on offense but the pitching that year was terrible. I guess an 8-5 record with 2 Saves does make you the Diamond King on that pitching staff.

As usual, anything you see is up for grabs, with the exception of the horizontals and ivy cards

Repack Sunday

Earlier this week, I passed the card aisle in my local Target and couldn't help but take a peak at some of the 2016 issues on the shelf. Flagship. Heritage. Opening Day. Donruss. While I'm mostly a team collector, I really do enjoy ripping open packs.

But brand new product isn't in the budget right now although if you read the title, you can see I couldn't pass up a repack box, this one containing 50 miscellaneous cards and 4 unopened packs for $7.99. On some level, I know there's never really anything great in these but I always like the variety of cards you see, its a nice trip down memory lane and it usually satisfies that pack ripping itch.

When I ran this segment back in the blog's heyday, I had a few recurring themes for these boxes so I'll bring most of those back with maybe a few new ones. Let's see what the box had to offer and get to the part you're all waiting for, the pictures.

Oldest card in the box:

1984 Topps Charlie Moore

As far as "old" cards go, this is probably one of the newest I've pulled. I usually get something a few years older, maybe a first or second year Donruss or Fleer, maybe something from the 70's. Nothing spectacular here although it was a tip top condition. And even though the Brewers are now NL Central division rivals to my Cubs, I find the old glove/hidden MB logo so clever that it is one of my favorites. I think they still use it occasionally but it would be nice to see that come back full time.

Newest card(s) in the box:

2015 Topps Ryan Howard, Adrian Gonzalez and Ian Kennedy

A three way tie with this trio of 2015 Topps. Nothing special here although I'm glad to see this box hasn't been sitting around on the Target shelf for years or anything,

Most copies of one card in the box:

1988 Topps All-Star Matt Nokes

In the dozens of repacks I've bought over the years, I don't think I've ever failed in getting a box with at least one duplicate. I think my record was 4 of one card and I've gotten duplicates of several different cards in one box so two copies of one card isn't terrible.

Most represented set(s):

2000 Topps and 2014 Topps

At four cards each, this is a tie between 2010 and 2014 Topps. The tie goes to the group with the Rookie Cup and future Cub, Rey Ordonez.

Speaking of Cubs...

Former/Future Cubs:

When all was said and done with the 50 miscellaneous cards, there was not a single current (at the time of the card's issue) Cubs player. However, the 3 cards above all feature players with Cubs ties, either before or after the card depicted. Rick Reuschel and Dennis Lamp were former Cubs while Todd Hundley was a future Cub.

Hall of Famer(s):

2006 Topps Rookie of the Week Tony Gwynn

Often, the repacks are chock full of junk wax era Hall of Famers. Not this time as I only came away with this solo, non junk wax Tony Gwynn card. I guess the repackers felt that one insert is better than multiple junk wax base? And I wonder what the Tonys are looking at over there?

Hall of Pretty Good:

The above group of guys all had very nice careers, full of highlights. Without looking, I'd assume these particular players each played in multiple All-Star games. Kid version of me would have put all of these guys in my binders back in the day when the main qualification involved being listed in Beckett (as in, not a common). Hmmmm, sidenote to self, maybe start a Hall of Pretty Good frankenset....

Smallest card in the box:

2008 Topps Heritage T205 Mini
David Ortiz

That was easy as it was the only mini in the box. The caption is bigger than the card.

Largest card in the box:

1990 Best Jack Voight

This card measures very slightly above your standard 2 1/2 x 3/12 baseball card and I do mean slightly. Probably miscut and the only reason I noticed was because it stuck out a bit when I held the cards in a stack. It also pulls double duty as the oddballiest card in the box because the rest of the cards were fairly standard flagship issues.

On to the 4 unopened packs.

Pack 1: 1990 Upper Deck

Steve Sax Collector's Choice, Dave Winfield, Rick Reuschel

Quantity here, not quality. The largest pack by far with 15 cards, but with a pretty underwhelming selection. The Collector's Choice art cards were some of my favorites as a kid and Steve Sax is a Hall of Pretty Gooder. Dave Winfield is a Hall of Famer and Rick Reuschel was a former Cub, playing against the Cubs with what looks like Hall of Famer Greg Maddux (a pitcher) batting.

Pack #2: 2013 Bowman Platinum

2013 Bowman Platinum Cutting Edge Stars
Albert Pujols

The smallest pack coming in at just 4 cards. Three cards weren't worth scanning. The Cutting Edge Stars die cut have odds of being in 1:10 packs so I guess I had that going for me. At least Albert Pujols had moved on from the Cardinals by then...

Pack #3: 2013 Panini Hometown Heroes:

2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Jody Davis

The lone Cub in the entire box and I can barely call this unlicensed Jody Davis a Cubs card. More like Chicago, NL. Also, this whole pack had dinged corners and were weirdly warped so they don't lay flat.

Pack #4: 2014 Topps Opening Day

A Topps Rookie cup and a Rookie Card.

The only two horizontal cards in the whole box.

And a Cardinals insert. Definitely the most "productive" of the four packs in terms of noteworthy/scannable cards (5 out of 7) but still leaves a lot to be desired.

These last two cards caught my attention but for different reasons. The Pujols card is numbered #TB2 on the back and after a little research, it appears that it came from a Back to School set through Target. There are a couple that sold recently on eBay for more than I paid for this whole box so that could be a nice flip. Perhaps another repack is in my future.

This Jerry Reuss card made me stop when flipping through the cards. No offense to him, but he just looks a lot older than your standard Major Leaguer. On closer look, maybe his hair and 'stache are more blonde than gray/white but still. After some quick math (born in 1949, this card is a 1986 issue), how can this guy pictured be 37 years old? I'M 37 YEARS OLD RIGHT NOW! 

That wraps up this edition of Repack Sunday. I forgot how much work scanning and cropping is but it was nice to crank out a post again.