Not quite dime-box goodies - Part 11

How about some more 1997 Donruss?

So, maybe I picked up a wee bit too many cards from this set. But, you have to jump on interesting cards when they're 12 for $1. This one provides a different view of the play at the plate theme, albeit with an unfortunate view of some anonymous player.

Staying in Texas, here's Juan Gonzalez rocking a throwback uniform. This card was #1 in the base set, and this is a great way to start the set.

What a nice view of the knuckleball grip.

A new Joe Carter for the PC.

It is a two way battle for which player has the least flattering facial expression while delivering the pitch. I'd give the nod to Appier, although scowly Avery is close.

I may never get tired of cards with players talking on shoulder-strain inducing cell phones.

Here's a photo that is framed perfectly, capturing both Surhoff, and the name on the bat barrel.

From a smiling photo to a not-so-happy photo. I'm not sure what Ellis is pointing at, but his expression indicates he's not pleased.

So, there's more from that box of cards I raided in January. I've got to get this done before I hit the Expo in 3 weeks time.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 22 - Part 2

With the much-needed delay to show off that gorgeous Posada auto, here's the other side of the repack.

2007 Chrome Carlos Quentin - Card on top

2008 Topps Michael Barrett - Looking back, I think I dislike this design more and more. Too much border. Why do I think I'll be saying that wehn I set my eye on the set building hockey products next year?
2008 Topps Prince Fielder
2008 Topps Asdrubal Cabrera
2008 Topps Ryan Garko

1989 Bazooka Tony Gwynn - A great way to wrap up a dull start to the side is with an oddball.
1990 UD Andy Van Slyke
2001 Pacific Jeff Suppan

2001 Fleer Tradition Bret Boone - That slide at second in the background looks painful.

2001 UD Vintage Gabe Kapler - Put aside for when I send a dose of Landeskogs on the way to clubhouse.

1990 Donruss Ruben Sierra DK - WOOHOO! A DK! Mind you, I probably have enough 1990 DKs to wallpaper a room. Don't care, though!

1991 Score Cooperstown Card Will Clark - I believe these were inserted into their factory sets.
1991 Score Dale Sveum
1990 Donruss Sandy Alomar Jr. RR
1991 Score Scott Sanderson

1990 Donruss Jim Deshaies DK - And another.
1990 Topps Sticker Bobby Thigpen
1990 Topps Sticker Don Mattingly
1990 Topps Sticker Steve Sax
1990 Topps Sticker Carlton Fisk
1990 Topps Sticker Gary Geatti
1989 Topps UK Mini Don Mattingly
1989 Topps UK Mini Robin Yount
1989 Topps UK Mini Roger Clemens
1989 Topps UK Mini Wade Boggs
1989 Topps UK Mini Cal Ripken Jr.

1982 Topps Joe Rudi
1982 Topps Roy Howell
1982 Topps Tom Griffin - It is always nice to find earlier 80s stuff in these.
2010 Topps Henry Rodriguez
2010 Topps Kyle Phillips

1979 Topps John Milner
1978 Topps George Hendrick - And even nicer to find a pair of 70s cards.

1992 Megacards Ruth - Extra Base Hits - The Obligatory Megacards Ruth that all us repack afficianados seem to be finding lately
1992 Fleer Tom Glavine

2004 Fleer Hot Prospects Hot Tandems Jim Thome Pat Burrell - There's a handful to type.

Pack of 1989 Fleer - Pat Sheridan, Dennis Rasmussen, Luis De Los Santos/Jim Campbell, Chris Gwynn, Tracy Jones, Frank White, Bruce Benedict, Al Leiter, Jim Deshaies, Dick Schofield, Jimmy Key, Gene Nelson, Jesse Barfield, Ron Jones - 2 Jays and 1 Expo highlight this pack

Pack of '12 Update - Pablo Sandoval AS, Yoenis Cespedes RC, Ramon Ramirez, Joel Peralta, Fernando Abad, Josh Hamilton GM, Craig Kimbrel Gold /2012, RA Dickey, AJ Griffin, Ernesto Frieri, Kris Medlen, Darnell McDonald - And a pair of Mets

And there we go with another repack.

Just 2 Packs of 2014 Gypsy Queen

I guess I could have posted the second part of the repack, but something new and shiny was on the shelves at the LCS, and I'd be a bad card guy if I didn't sample it. Just a sample, since I'm a Heritage guy this year.

Plus, when you make a 1:157 pull from one of the packs, it is worth sharing.

Pack 1:

My first GQ card of 2014 is:

Michael Wacha

Wilmer Flores - Mets content on my second card. WOO-HOO!

Robinson Cano - Long live Photoshop!
Whitey Ford

Bryce Harper - N174 insert.

Matt Harvey - Not only another Mets card, this Met is from the SP portion of the set, and he's wearing an alternate Los Mets uniform. Beautiful!

Ozzie Smith Mini
Tim Hudson
Hisashi Iwakuma

Kyle Seager - And here are the backs. Pretty typical GQ.

That's a really nice first pack, expecially if you fall into the category of a Mets, Cardinals or Mariners fan. Fortunately, I fall into the category of the former.

Pack 2:

Nolan Arenado - Decent enough start here.
Justin Verlander
Patrick Corbin
Adam Wainwright

Jorge Posada /49 Red Parallel Auto - WOW! A parallel of someone who really doesn't have too many on-card autos out there. And despite it being a Yankee, and I being a fan of the Jays and Mets, Posada was always someone who I really couldn't muster a lot of venom towards. It's always nice to pull a very likely keeper card from a pack. Yankee fans, I can be had, but this one will need some significant goodies in return. Especially since the cheapest one on ebay is $163.78 CDN. Although mine had a slight ding in lower left corner, that's a minor complaint about a cool card and auto.

And yes, I do need to clean my scanner.

Don Mattingly

Jon Lackey Mini

David Murphy - Another Met! Man, these 2 packs were really New York intensive. 3 Mets and 3 Yankees out of 20 cards.
Shane Victorino
Ryan Wheeler

There was some nice stuff here, but after the Posada pull, they were dwarfed by it. It is a shame, since that Harvey was a really nice addition to my Mets collection.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 22

Time for one of my favourites. 100 cards and 2 packs (2012 Update/1989 Fleer, as usual). Or 100 cards including the contents of the 10 packs. Or some mixture thereof.

2010 Topps Ichiro - The visible card on top of the pack.

2012 Topps Orlando Hudson - My favourite photo in this side of the repack - the O-Dog turns 2.
2012 Topps Jason Heyward
2012 Topps Craig Kimbrel
2012 Topps Cory Luebke
1989 Topps Steve Balboni

1992 UD Mike Remlinger - With an honourable mention going to Mike Remlinger blowing a bubble.
1990 Topps Kevin Gross
1990 Donruss Jesse Orosco
1992 UD Scott Kamienicki

2009 Heritage Chris Perez - An unexpected appearance of Heritage!
1993 Topps Tim Hulett

1992 Topps Kids Mark Grace - I have not come across too many cards from this set in my repack purchases. It isn't my first, but it might be my second. Both times, I think it would be way too much fun to bust a box of this stuff.
1990 Donruss Bill Buckner
1991 Score Junior Felix
1992 Stad. Club Greg Myers
1992 Stad. Club Craig Biggio
1993 Topps Rich Schied
1991 UD Jeff Ballard
1987 Topps Bob Kearney
1989 Donruss Ramon Martinez
1990 Donruss Atlee Hammaker
1988 Topps Keith Atherton
1987 Topps Bill Campbell
1990 Topps Ken Griffey

2009 Heritage Aaron Harang - 2014 Heritage might be the most beard intensive Heritage set around. The plus from that is that it does look like actual facial hair, as opposed to a chocolate milk stain.
1988 Fleer Frank Williams
1988 Fleer Jim Deshaies
1993 UD Bill Kreuger

1993 UD Indians CL - 1993 Upper Deck. Even our checklists are awesome.

1993 UD Frank Bolick - Expos content.
1992 Topps Wayne Rosenthal
1993 Donruss Jim Eisenreich
1994 UD Gregg Olson
1997 Topps Cal Eldred
1988 Fleer Randy Myers

1993 OPC Premier Frank Bolick - It's a Frank Bolick hot repack!
1991 Topps All-Star Glossy Len Dykstra
1991 Topps All-Star Glossy Will Clark
1991 Topps All-Star Glossy Andre Dawson
1990 Topps All-Star Glossy Kirby Puckett
1990 Topps All-Star Glossy Benny Santiago
1990 Topps All-Star Glossy Mark McGwire
1990 Topps All-Star Glossy Ozzie Smith
1990 Topps All-Star Glossy Ryne Sandberg
1990 Topps All-Star Glossy Terry Steinbach * 2
1990 Topps All-Star Glossy Tony LaRussa
1990 Topps All-Star Glossy Ruben Sierra - I've got to have close to a complete set of 1990 glossies by now, and I don't think I've pulled any outside of repacks.
2010 Topps Braves History

So, there's 50 cards.

Am I Blue?

Nope, but this relic is:

I've wanted to add a Nordiques blue relic to my collection for some time, and now I've got one!

I just hope that's a ketchup stain on the second swatch, though.

Not quite dime-box goodies - Part 10

Meet the Mets! Namely, some of the ones I picked up from the 12 for a dollar bin.

Another one of these "How did I not have this card?" moments. A Met. A Diamond King. I had to have had this one in my Mets binder. But, since it was 8 cents, I could take the risk. It turns out I did, but I didn't. I had the Donruss, but this one was the Leaf card. Long live the lanceur!

And here are some more bilingual cards! Lanceur! Voltigeur! These are my first 1994 O-Pee-Chee cards in my collection.

It is always hard for me to pass on any Heritage base.

This card was the most disappointing addition to my collection. Close up, and looking directly towards Nomo from home plate, his wind-up seems far less spectacular.

And to wrap it up, here's Todd Hundley. I'll confess to being out of the loop as to what HR record Hundley broke. It was the record for most home runs by a catcher is a season. Todd's time at the top of the leader board lasted only a handful of seasons, as Javy Lopez passed him by 1 in 2003.

2014 Adventures in Repacks: Part 21

Ye Olde Surprise Box from Ye Olde Dollarama. And actually, a pretty nice card contained within. The contents were a goalie pack, a rookie pack, a superstar pack, and a pack of '99 Upper Deck.

Let's go!

Olaf Kolzig cards are always welcome in the mask binder, based on his always fun Godzilla theme. But my favourite might be the very basic Nicola Riopel mask, which is perfect for the Moncton Wildcats.

I'm not sure if the guaranteed rookie card is the Brad Boyes or the Clarke McArthur. Either way, they fall way behind the Tkachuk for its great use of the horizontal format.

None of these were my guaranteed superstar in that pack, but there's a 5th card on its way to the mask binders.

And my Superstar card makes it 6.

Of the 10 cards in the UD pack, 8 of them were base. All were very bland photos for an Upper Deck set. But, 8 base cards out of 10 means 2 inserts. Let's check them out.

Kariya on the Canucks? I don't remember Paul playing there. *turns card over*. Oh. Steve Kariya.

That's like finding out you're attending a Frank Stallone film festival.

But this one is a beautiful addition to my collection. They fell at a rate of 1:23, so it is a really nice grab from a repack, and  the foil on the card looks even nicer in person. It's definitely better than I'd expect from a repack, even though these packs really couldn't be searched to find these types of inserts.

Plus, it is always fun to bust stuff that you didn't bust at the time.