One Wild Repack and a Bunch of Randomness

I've collected a few random bits of information and knowledge I've been looking to drop strategically in various blog posts, but instead I'm going to tack them on all at once to this here repack box post.  In other words, this post is going to be all over the place.

Being a Griffey collector, it is not in my best interest to break packs and repacks in search of my guy's cards.  As I've stated before my strategy should be to stick to COMC, eBay, card shows and trades.

But I am also a hopeless pack breaker; so in a trip to Walmart for little travel-sized shampoos and beef jerky for our recent cruise, I broke down and grabbed a repack box.  It turned out to be different from any I'd encountered before.  Was it worth it?  You be the judge:

 

These were the best of a rack pack of Heritage that was also included.



This is not the first pack of these I've gotten in a repack.  The Votto has deckled edges on the top and bottom which I can only assume is a parallel.





There was also a rack pack of 2009 Upper Deck.  Sadly there were no Ken Griffey Jr #855 SP's in there.  Still, not a bad haul.





And I've never been gaga about GQ, but these are some nice cards.



Before we get to the nice surprise from this box, here is what the obligatory metric ton of Topps packs yielded:



I have like 50 of that Matt Holliday card now.  And that's a sweet Nolan Ryan.
Heck, I even like that Josh Reddick non-rookie.  Great picture.



Big Hurt, Linceum and B Wilson on the same card, and Jeff Hamilton in Texas.



The two remaining packs in the box were something I've never encountered before: Upper Deck Team-Exclusive Jumbo packs.  Each contained a large quantity of various previously-manufactured card styles featuring popular players from a single team.  I don't know how many teams Upper Deck made these for, but I got two, one for the Red Sox and one for the Yankees.

Here's the Red Sox pack:



Cy Young, Boggs, Yaz



These are smooth and shiny, leading me to believe they were printed just for these packs.





Lotta this guy.



As you can see, it seems like a simple "best of" that Upper Deck threw together possibly to sidestep their licensing issues.  The textures don't quite match some of the original cards (such as the Masterpieces) so I'm wondering if these are all reprints.  Yet I found nothing on the cards to indicate that fact.

Check out what came in the Yankees pack:



DiMaggio, Gehrig, Ruth, Mattingly





These are just awesome.



Pretty impressive, no?  I want ten more packs like these.  They were a blast to open and finger through.  If anyone comes across a Mariners one, please save it for me.  I'll pay you money.

Last but not least: YES, I pulled a Griffey:

I already have a couple of this one, but a duplicate Griffey is better than no Griffey at all.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with that repack.  I'll definitely be looking out for another with Team-Specific UD Jumbos, that's for sure.

Moving on, my friends got married on the aforementioned cruise.  They had their rehearsal dinner at the legendary and very spicy Tujagues (pronounced "two jacks") restaurant in the French Quarter.

Now, we're no strangers to celebrity in New Orleans especially with this Hollywood South movement going on (I've already been an extra in a couple of movies myself), but in the private room at Tujagues was a celebrity endorsement I never expected to find:



I toasted The Man with a Canadian Club on the rocks.



Stan was born in Donora, Pennsylvania, the same birth place as both Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr.  This was providence.

Baseball is not popular here unless it is of the high school or college variety.  We are very much a football town even back when the Saints were the 'Aints and we all wore Schwegmann bags on our heads, so you can imagine my surprise when I came across this great signed screen print of Stan the Man.  While I was the only guy at the party who seemed to give a damn, it reminded me that I should always expect the unexpected when I go Downtown.

More randomness: Nachos Grande had a Topps Tribute box break a few weeks ago.  I took the Mariners (and was given the Astros) in the hopes of pulling one of the very few Griffeys in the set.  I ended up with a single card:

While there was no Griffey this time, this base card is a beaut.  Reminds me of a Flair Showcase refractor.  I'm glad (and lucky) I got to see one in person.

Ooh, I got these for a dollar each at Winn-Dixie:



The pic is sideways, and Blogger wouldn't allow it to NOT be sideways, so there ya go.

 Lance Moore is a great young wide receiver with the Saints who tends to produce in clutch moments.  He is also a big fan favorite down here.  You might say he's the Ron Kittle of New Orleans Football.
Last but not least, as promised, I framed that uncut sheet of Mother's Cookies father/son Griffey cards:

This is not archival quality or anything, just a big poster frame I had lying around.  Still it turned out pretty good.  Even my wife likes it which is rare for baseball card stuff.

OK, that's it for now.  Hey, is everybody enjoying the new Arrested Development on Netflix?  We just finished epsiode six.  It seems to be getting better with every show which is good because I was starting to get worried after the first few.  It's never too late for a nu start......