Yes, this used to be a regular Sunday theme for me earlier this year but my next couple weeks worth of Sunday posts are tied up with the Where Are they Now 2010 Pro Debut posts. Plus it is a holiday! I did sort of, kind of swear these off because I had been inundated with non-Cubs cards. But after the big purge, I happened to be out and about with the wife and kids and wandered into the local Five Below.
I wasn't even going to look at the cards they have but the endcap they kept them on changed and they suddenly appeared on a new and different endcap in front of me. And they were
full of repack boxes. But these were different looking. I thought for a split second that maybe they had not replenished baseball and instead got in some football cards with the season right around the corner and all.
Nope.
They actually had two different styles. Both had four unopened packs of cards plus another 100 random cards from across many years and styles just like the repacks you've become accustomed to seeing me open. But these two new styles had something different.
One promised 5 cards featuring Hall of Famers (above), while the other promised 5 cards featuring rookies. Now I'm sure that these were more or less the same exact cards from before. If I went back and looked at my previous repacks, I probably pulled at least 5 Hall of Famers and/or Rookies.
But curiosity got the better of me and I picked up one of each. Today, I have the Hall of Famers box. I haven't even opened the Rookies box yet because I didn't want to taint the experience of the HOF box. So once this posts, I'll dig into the other and post it next week.
A good surprise right of the bat, was that the 4 unopened packs were different from the ones I had previously gotten. For those that don't remember, it was consistently a 1989 Topps Jumbo cello pack, a pack of 2007 Fleer Flair and two packs of 2008 Upper Deck (usually a regular issue and an update).
Consistently.
This box contained a 1987 Topps rack pack, a pack of Opening Day and Topps Update from last year and an actual wax pack from 1988 Donruss. Ok, not spectacular, but something different is always cool too. And look, right on the front of the rack pack is Hall of Famer Cal Ripken already!
Flip it over and you have two Hall of Famers in Ozzie Smith and Bruce Sutter. And the chances are pretty good that former Pirates/current Tigers manager will end up there one day too. It is a shame that cards from the late '80s didn't hold their value because it sure was a good time for baseball. Check out the Hall of Famers from just one pack:
And how about some cards that would have been considered pretty good pulls back in the day:
The only downside to the pack was that there were no Cubs. But how about some future/former Cubs?
Let keep moving chronologically and see what 1988 Donruss had in store. It has been a while since I opened an actual "wax" pack so that was kind of cool. I did not scan the puzzle piece because it was a bad part of the puzzle that didn't really show anything but edging. How about two more Hall of Famers?
Andy Van Slyke and a Diamond King would have been pretty cool pulls back then. And I had eye black on the brain the other day because of
my Kerry Wood post so this Ken Phelps stuck out.
And for you professional wrestling fans, here is my babyface attempt to get a cheap pop from the home town crowd. For the blogosphere, the home town crowd seems to be Dodgers fans as they have blogs everywhere. This Fernando Valenzuela card might hit a mini collection quadfecta being a Dodger, a pitcher hitting, a bunter and stirrups. Too bad the jersey wasn't a throwback or dirty.
Moving on to 2012 Opening Day, we have a Fantasy Squad Joe Mauer insert and back to back Triple Crown favorite Miguel Cabrera Opening Day Stars lenticular card.
Also a pair of Giants, one to make fun of (Hey, Melky, what did you have to take to make that jump?) and one because he is a former Cub.
And finally, as far as the packs go, we have a fairly new pack, 2012 Topps Update. The Gold parallel of Pablo Sandoval was a one in five pack pull so not too shabby. And don't let the Gehrig scan fool you, it's just a mini, not something from the earlier rackpack.
As for plain ol' base cards, I pulled former Cubs catcher Henry Blanco and current Cubs pitcher Michael Bowden.
Getting bored yet? No? Good we because we still have the miscellaneous 100 cards to sort through. and hopefully 5 more Hall of Famers to find! Let start off with a Repack post staple, the oldest cards in the box, a trio of 1982 Donruss.
I scanned these two Mark Whiten cards because I was going to come up with something funny to say about two bats, two cards, two grand slams in the same inning. But then I realized I was mixing him up with Fernando Tatis and Whiten's claim to fame was 4 home runs and 12 RBIs in one game. Which is still impressive, but I got nothing.
Charles Nagy looks like he might have an idea though! He looks pretty excited to be on this card in some random part of the stadium.
These Rookies and All-Stars seem to be automatic in a repack box and I got two of each. The Larry Walker make me miss the Expos uniforms. Have the Nationals ever worn them or do they do Senators stuff when they wear throwbacks?
I vaguely remember somebody, somewhere was doing something with turtle necks as a mini collection (see Jack Armstrong below) but I can't remember. Speak up if you want it.
Oddball of the box goes to the Donruss Americana II card of Lynn Holly Johns. The highlights of her skating and acting career seem to have happened just before I was born so I guess that is a good enough reason why I haven't heard of her. Sorry.
Although it a close call with this mis-foil-stamped Alan Benes Stadium Club card. It may be hard to tell from the scan but the card photo on the front (and the information on the back) is for Alan Benes. The foil stamping is upside down and for Pete Harnisch.
On to my favorite part of the repack recaps, the future/former/current Cubs cards! And for once (although I didn't go back and research how many times it has happened), the current Cubs outnumbered the future/former Cubs. The Drew Hall was post-Cubs. The Randy Myers was pre-Cubs. And the Keith Moreland was post-Cubs as a player and pre-Cubs as an announcer.
After pulling just one Cubs card in the 4 unopened packs, it was nice to up the ratio a bit with 6 cards in the rest of the box. The Davis would do well in a snazzy eye wear competition/collection. And the Willie Wilson shows a nice catch at the wall. I like Dawson, but he looks a bit confused in this photo.
Alright, now the cards you've been waiting for, the Hall of Famers. By my count, I've already shown 9 Hall of Fame cards and that seems about on par with what I usually pull from these. With a heavy collation of cards from the '80s, I've gotten my fair share of Ripkens, Bretts, Younts and other stars since inducted into the Hall of Fame.
The following five cards were facing the opposite direction from the rest of the miscellaneous cards so I'm fairly certain these were the five meant to be the ones mentioned on the box. The first three, while Hall of Famers, were a little disappointing. I don't know what I was expecting, but yeah, what can I say, I was disappointed. No offense to dime boxes, but I probably wouldn't even buy these from one.
The last two, on the other hand, were pretty cool and I wouldn't have minded five from this set.
I had forgotten about this set as it came out a couple of years before I really got into cards but I used to see them at card shows all the time growing up. I would have to say, aside from the 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game set (one of my all-time favorites), it is one of the better types of these sets featuring cards of all retired players. The artwork is great but I didn't see a single (predominantly) Cubs player on the checklist. Yes, Alexander above was a Cub but not on this card. The whole set of 44 cards can be picked up for less than $10, probably even cheaper if you are a patient eBay shopper.
Not a bad box overall. I think I got over excited thinking about Hall of Famers when I should have known better, but the change in types of unopened packs was good.
Next time, the Rookies box!
