One of the lucky "13"

I think it was about a month or so ago now, that Oscar, who can be found over at All Trade Bait, All The Time, ran his Lucky 13 contest. With the slew of games going on around the same time, I considered myself rather fortunate to have been selected by the randomizer, so that I may join the field of 13 participants.

After everything was said and done, I ended up with the unopened packs lot:

I believe everyone gets the gist of what this post is going to contain, so I don't think much buildup is necessary. Let's tear open some packs, shall we?

Going oldest to newest, we start with the 1990 Donruss:

I believe everyone is a more than familiar with this set, so I just scanned two of my favorites. Gregg Jeffries might be the reason I have never had any interest in prospecting (at least when it comes to cards). I can just vaguely remember as a wee lad, hearing older kids and guys at card shops talking about how great he was going to be. Well, we all know how that worked out, don't we? There were other names that collector's bandied about at the time, thinking they were going to get rich off, but Jeffries is always the one I remember most. Thankfully, even as a tot, I never got interested in anyone's future potential (value), and Jeffries is likely a big reason why. As far as the Ripken goes, it seems like it has been a really long time since I have seen that particular card, and I just can't get over how much he looks like Brooks Robinson in that image. I think it's mostly the pose that's creating the likeness, but either way, I find it kind of amazing.

1991 Donruss:

I didn't think I had to scan all of these packs either, so I just pulled my two favorites again. Thigpen, because we share the same birthday. And Oil Can, well... because Oil Can, that's why! Still one of the greatest nicknames ever.

2012 Panini Triple Play:

I don't think anyone needs to see these, but here's one anyway. I chose this one just because I don't think the depiction on this sticker could look any less like Clayton Kershaw if they tried. I'm not going to lie, when I saw this pack in with the bunch, I may have uttered an obscenity in conjunction with Oscar's name. Sorry about that, Oscar :)

2017 Topps jumbo pack:

Since there were quite a few cards in this pack, I only scanned about half of it. This being my first in-person experience with the 2017 series, I didn't think the design of this set is quite as bad some people have said, and there are definitely some really nice photo choices as well. The finish on these is pretty good too, although you'd never know it with these bad scans.

The horizontal portion of the pack.

And the inserts. I thought when I first saw the wood grain of McGwire, that it was going to be my first pulled buyback, but unfortunately it was just one of the Rediscover Topps inserts. My only real complaint about these fat packs would be in the placement of the cards within the packs, meaning inserts in the middle, horizontal cards grouped together, etc. It just seems like it would be a little more fun if the cards were actually mixed up a bit, that's all.

2017 Topps Archives Jumbo pack:

I really dig this set, a lot! [spoiler alert: more 2017 Archives sometime in the near future]. Of the three designs used, the 1960 is my favorite. I think I got a pretty darn good grouping here, including the highly desirable (at least for the moment) Judge RC.

You get one of the Rookie Star inserts in every pack. I really like the Bazooka cards, from what I've seen, I think Nolan Ryan might be one of the more common ones.

I realized once I started putting this post together that I forgot to send a thank you email, which hopefully won't be held against me. So, Oscar, thank you for the cards, and for even letting me have the opportunity to be a part of your game. Since I don't open packs very often anymore, this really was a treat. I haven't been very good about sending stuff out in the last couple of months, but I will try to have something in the mail for you within the next week or two.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.