I spent Christmas money on packs and packs and packs....

Hi!

I bought a bunch of packs of baseball cards today with Christmas cash.  Wanna hear about it?  Here it goes.....

Got a box of 2012 Topps for ya here:

Lots of horizontal cards, which I like.  Check out the ball on that Josh Hamilton for example.....

Erick looks to be turning a double-play.  And that Kyle Blanks is a beautiful card I saw on another blog just yesterday I was very excited to pull.

Also some sparklies:

I don't actually know who any of these guys is.  Trade fodder, I guess, but they look really cool.  I also got some AMAZING inserts:

My second Koufax insert in so many days.  And some other guy who apparently played for the, wait lemme check.....ah, Yankees apparently and was quite good at baseball.

Plus:

Who doesn't love Barry Larkin?

And:

I think Paul Molitor doesn't get enough respect.  Possibly because he is Canadian.  Well, that is anti-Canuckism, and I won't stand for it.

Also, this was a Mr. October-heavy day because you only get one patch card per box, and mine was:

with a young picture of the man himself.  Really enjoyed this one.

I bought a repack box too.  It yielded:

Another card of that Mackey Mintle guy.  According to Beckett he was very popular at some point.  And a sweet double-play pic on the other card.

That Rirruto is tiny, and flippin' sweet.  And the Harmon Killebrew will also find a spot in the binders.

Have I mentioned that I've been amassing quite the collection of presidential cards?  Well......

This beast will make a nice addition.  And it's #16 - isn't that cute?

I also got 3 older packs, one of '88 Fleer:

Can't argue with a Kittle.  And here's the back of that sticker:

I've seen a lot of sticker cards in my time, and they're usually just trivia or even a blank back.  This one is like a real card.

And here's the last pack.  It was '89 Fleer:

 

WHAAAAAA!?!  The second pack-fresh Griffey in so many days!  This hasn't happened since high school!  And a rookie no less, in mint condish,  I am one happy camper.  Plus you have Will the Thrill who graduated from my high school (many years before me, of course), and Smoltz who I pulled from a 2012 pack just yesterday.

These were my favorite cards in the lot.  The Mantles, Koufax and Reggies were also pretty sweet.  And I was crazy excited over that Kyle Blanks.  All in all, a great pack break.

Practically all these are up for trade as per usual when a card doesn't have Griffey on it.  I have lots of others too.  Maybe I should make a list.

Happy Friday!

I bought packs today! Now, who are these guys?

Wanna see a noob open packs of cards?

I was a heavy collector in the mid-90's, but I haven't bought many packs in the last 13 years.  Maybe one a year, just to see how the card designs evolve.

However, I've been reading a lot of baseball card blogs recently, so I decided to try my hand.  I picked up 2 repack boxes of 10 packs each, some other mixed packs, and a Beckett (Lord help me, yes, I bought a Beckett).  Both the boxes looked pretty much like this:

Junior's face on the front made me feel at ease to pull the trigger on this purchase.  I was also very excited to see 2 packs of '89 Donruss:

Oh my God Oh my God Oh my God.....!

Oof!  That hurt my heart.

Keep in mind I only want Griffeys, with a few exceptions.  Most of these cards are fluff to me, and I have no idea who the hot rookies (or most of the all-stars) are these days.  I'm a little embarrassed.

I must say that these Goodwin Champions packs are insane.  I want more.

Ozzie, Ripken, Ryan, Jeter all in the same 2 packs?  Frickin' A!   Then there's Peggy Fleming?  Bobby Orr?  And Michael Jordan?!  These must be worth a fortune! 

I was also intrigued by the surfer.  And I saw CC Sabathia pitch this past season on TV, so I was like "I know him!  Keeper!"  I also got a tiny Eli Manning card (we love the Mannings down here in New Orleans) and a tiny Steve Carlton, who I also know and like.

Oh, and this:

BOO-YAH!  That's it.  Emotionally, I'm done.  I can stop here.  But for the 2 people that may someday read this, here's the rest of what I got and my feelings towards it.  Most of this is up for trade.  In no particular order:

 

I don't know any of these guys.  But all of them are listed in the ol' Beckett.  By the way, I forgot how much I hate looking up cards in Beckett.

This is one of the coolest cards I've ever pulled from a pack.  I looked for a serial number, but there was none.  Still, very sparkly.

This guy I know.  And I was very pleased to see team photos back on baseball cards!  How you like that?  Too bad it's the Padres and not a Griffey-having team, but still.  Makes me optimistic about future packs.

I know who Ichiro is.  He's the guy with one name. Score!

 

This is a reproduction of a rookie card that is not particularly old and of a guy I've never heard of.  I was a bit let down here.  I'll be watching more baseball this season, so I'll get to know these characters.  Still, reprints.  Woo!

I still don't know what to think here.  And they were numbered like 2,432.  How many of these things are there?  And WHY?

These are from a pack of Panini Cooperstown.  I loved these cards, and I will probably buy another pack in the future.  Curious to see how modern they get.... Check out my Honus!

This pack was Bowman Platinum.  There are only 4 cards per pack, so this is the whole thing.  I have heard of two of these guys, and one I have many, many rookies of from 1993-94.  Neat cards, but dude, look at the inserts listed for this pack in Beckett.  I want those!

I found a lot of the 2011 Topps photography kind of blah, but I liked all the faces in the crowd in this picture.

 

This is a tiny little new card made to look like 1987 Topps,  I thought it may have been a cool insert.  It was not.  Still, look how tiny!  I want the Griffey!

 

I've never heard of this fellow either, but he seems like a nice guy.  I looked at the checklist on the back and all the amazing names that this card could have ended up being.  That's kind of a tease, dontcha think?  I had to be one of the Votto guys?  Anyway, Go Reds.

Great picture.  In 2005 we evacuated for Hurricane Katrina to Houston.  While we were up there my uncle got us club tickets on the 1st base line to an Astros game in this very park.  And wouldn't you know it?  They played the Reds!  Yep, I got to see Griffey play baseball one time.  He didn't do anything amazing, but it was incredible.  I shed tears.  This card made me happy.

This looked like an amazing insert and was very shiny indeed.  Plus I've heard of this guy's dad and think he's probably good, too.  I admit, I thought I had a few bucks worth of cardboard here for trade fodder.  Really, though, it's not much.  Still, cool card for the binder.

The card I got most excited about here is the Tiger, but I know I've seen the other guys' names floating around the blogsphere, so here ya go.  God, I suck.

These cards have little codes on the back that you enter on the Interwebs for.....getting things?  I'm not sure what.

I was shocked to see two of my favorite pitchers from back in the day still pitching.  And in glamour shots, no less.  I was also unimpressed with Upper Deck's photography.  They used to be amazing.  The card on the right, Beckett says, is a three dollar bill all day long.  



Sorry.



   

 

 
This is one of my favorite pulls from all these packs - Koufax's no-no. 

This experience reminded me just how little Beckett can dictate the value of something.  Still, I would trade pretty much anything I got tonight for a few sweet Griffeys.

P.S.  I didn't bother opening the '90 Donruss packs.  Just a waste of time.  I have a wax pack and 2 rack packs showing Gary Carter on the front of one.  Any suggestions for them?

[Note: since I posted this I ended up opening the '90 Donruss in search of the John Smoltz MVP with the picture of Tom Glavine.  No luck, but I did get 2 more Griffey DK's and a card of the baseball commish.  Not all bad....]