Packs, packs, and more packs!

If there's one thing that I wasn't looking for at the most recent card show, it was unopened packs. Not to sound like a braggart or anything, but I've got maybe 25 or 30 different unopened packs, as well as half a dozen overproduction era boxes stashed away for a rainy day, all blog material of course, so there was absolutely no reason for me to pick up anymore... or so I thought!

Seeing as how this was one of the super mega giant shows, there were dealers there from near and far, many of whom hadn't set up there before. One of those first-timers was a guy who had an obscene amount of unopened packs, all of which were priced at either fifty cents or a dollar. He had sports, and he had non-sports, probably more of the latter than the former. There was plenty of "junk wax", but also plenty of newer things as well, from Dinosaurs Attack! to packs with Aaron Judge on the wrapper (sorry, I don't know what set those were from).

I didn't find this guy until I was about three hours in, and by then I was already more than a little weary, so much so that I almost didn't stop at his table, despite the impressive spread -- but there was no one else there, and after having been elbow to elbow with people for the previous couple of hours, the thought of being able to look through something without having another guy rubbing up on me was just too darn appealing to pass up. Even so, I wasn't planning on looking through everything, but that plan was tossed out the window after I found the above two packs of RockCards... then I knew that I wasn't going anywhere until I saw every single pack!

Until just recently I never realized how popular MusiCards were. I remember seeing somebody post something about them on Twitter a year or so ago, and then all of sudden they were all over the blogs. Wish I would've known some of these fans of the set when I was a kid, because back then I don't recall ever seeing anybody other than myself buying them. Since Gavin wanted one of the promo cards, I'll probably be opening these up sooner than later, that way he doesn't have to wait to long to get it.

It was kind of funny/eerie that I would find a pack of Tek World cards, as I had just been reading an old TV Guide the night before, a TV Guide that just happened to feature an interview with William Shatner about the upcoming premiere of Tek World. Kind of strange, huh?

These were gotten for, Matt. And I'm not showing them to be like "look how great I am because I bought something for somebody else", no I'm just showing them because they're part of the overall purchase, plus Matt already knows about them, so I'm not ruining any sort of surprise or anything. As I already told Matt on Twitter, I tried to get him some packs from the Power Rangers movie as well, but they felt like they were bricked, and I'm not about to take a chance on something that's likely already ruined. This guy had a bunch of Saga of the Dark Knight packs that appeared to be suffering from the same problem, which is too bad, because I would've bought all of those. [Note to Matt: I know I've already said it, but I will try to get these out to you sometime soon]

 

I'm pretty sure that I've never opened any 1992 Pro Set before, and I had no idea that Pro Set ever came in jumbo packs, so I kind of had to get this one... too bad it was the only one that he had!

I've seen some singles from this set before, but had never really thought about the actual set, meaning that I didn't know if it came in packs, or was just one of those sets that you'd buy as a whole... obviously they came in packs! I don't know if I actually needed these or not, but like some of the other stuff in this post, they'll at least make for some good blog fodder.

Initially I was going to be done with what you've already seen, but as I was wrapping up my search, the dealer came around the table with two handfuls of packs and started trying to find space for them. I was immediately drawn to one group of packs that he had in his hand, so before he could even start, I said "Can I please see those", to which he replied with a hearty "You sure can!".

These are what caught my eye! I hadn't seen a pack of these since I was probably eight or nine years old, and didn't really think that I ever would again. It's certainly not the greatest set ever, but seeing them again brought back a ton of nostalgia, so I had to have some. He had brought out like twenty packs, and I briefly thought about getting them all, but soon settled on ten. Still wonder if I should have gotten them all though?

I soon learned that some guy had pulled out a bunch of packs earlier, but didn't have enough money to pay for them, asked the dealer to hold them out and he would come back and pay for them, and as of a couple of hours later, still hadn't come back, so the dealer was putting the packs back out for sale... and I just so happened to be standing there when he decided to do so (things like that never happen to me)!

As a quick aside, asking a dealer at any kind of collectibles show to hold some stuff for you, and then not coming back to pay for it, is a prick move... so don't do it!

Oh, and there were more than just WrestleMania packs being put back out, this flaky buyer had obviously cherry picked the boxes, because there weren't any other examples of these packs when I went through the boxes -- so except for some of the WrestleMania packs, and a few from newer baseball sets that I didn't recognize, I ended up buying the rest of what was being put back out...

I'm not familiar with this set at all, and I'm intentionally not looking it up, I want to be surprised! Five cards for a buck was a bit much, but since there was only one, I figured it was worth the chance.

Collector's Edge... YES!!!!!!

Check out that groovy reflection of my hands and phone! I'm not familiar with this set either, and these were the only packs that I second guessed myself on, so hopefully I won't hate the design.

And last but not least, a golden ticket! I wish that there would've been some more of these, but one pack was better than nothing... thanks flaky buyer!

So, not a bad haul, eh? I would've bought more had some of the packs been only $0.25, namely those of the New Kids on the Block and Rocketeer variety, but I really only wanted those for the stickers, and paying fifty cents for a sticker didn't seem like a very good deal. I'm sort of wondering now if I should've asked the guy if he'd sell them for a quarter a pack, provided I take them all? I guess if I ever see him again, and he still has the packs, I'll give it a go, as I don't think that it would be considered an insult to make such an offer.

I always see people say that they got something "for the price of a blaster", or a "blaster and a half", which is all fine and good, but I don't really know what the going rate of blaster is these days? $15? $20? If they are in that range, I guess I can say that I got these for the price of a blaster, because the 28 packs set me back $18. And I may not know how much a blaster costs, but I'm fairly certain that none of them come with 28 packs, so I think as far as buying packs goes, this turned out to be a pretty good purchase.


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Climbing back into the card show saddle

Up until two weekends ago I hadn't been to a card show since February, that's seven months for those of you playing along at home. I realize that for some of the folks reading this that might not seem like a long time, especially for those of you who aren't fortunate enough to have any card shows in your area, but for me it is a long time, or at least it is since I got back into card collecting.

Before this stretch, the longest I had gone in the last 8 or 9 (or 10) years, was five or six months, and that occurred just last year. It's no coincidence that these "long" stretches have come so close  together, as my interest in cards has begun to wane a bit, well, actually wane might not be the right word, let's just say that card collecting hasn't been as important to me in recent months as it had been in the last few years.

I can tell you that this past summer (April through last week), other than blog about cards, and trying to keep up with everyone else's blogs, I've hardly done anything with actual cards in months. I started a sorting project sometime earlier this year, and haven't gotten back to since the weather started getting really nice. I tend to spend a lot of time outside doing things, rain or shine, but this past summer I really outdid myself, in terms of work and play. I've been trying to venture outside of my comfort zone a bit, which sometimes leads me to places that I technically shouldn't be, but oh well, I'm not getting any younger, and there's still plenty of things that I'd like to do while I can.

I've spent a lot more time exploring local areas (forgotten areas?) this past summer as well, which combined with some of the things that I've found while doing so, has made me become a lot more interested in the local history -- something that I hadn't been interested in though my first couple of years living here. I'll probably do a post or two on this at some point, which I think a few of you might be interested in, especially some of the old baseball stuff.

But it hasn't been all fun and games though, there's been plenty of sweaty backbreaking work to be done as well (even mucked up my back a few months ago), not that I really mind, as it certainly provides for good exercise... and there's no such thing as getting too much exercise!

So anyways, cards! As mentioned, the last show that I went to was back in February, one of the big super mega 190-table affairs. If hadn't been one of those, I probably wouldn't have made the trip. Two weekends ago was another one of the giant shows, and even though I wasn't overly excited about the prospect of doing so much driving, these shows only occur twice a year, so I felt sort of compelled to go -- if it hadn't been one of the big shows, I most certainly wouldn't have went.

I said that I wasn't looking forward to the drive, which is true, but I've also been skipping the monthly shows because I didn't feel like getting up crazy early, only to then put in a long drive. But the day of reckoning arrived, and I was up at 3am (woke up at 2), left at 4:30, and got to the show at about 6:15. About 1/3 of the 100+ dealers were either already set up, or still setting up when I arrived, and didn't take long for the other 2/3 to show up and get their wares set up. And of course there were already plenty of patrons in attendance, some of whom had already been there for almost an hour.

I spent about four hours at the show, and realized later that I only bought stuff from four different dealers, so much for spreading the wealth, huh? Had the weather not been so nice that day, I probably would've stayed longer, but it was in the mid to upper 90's, and I really did want to try and get home as early as possible, because OUTDOORS!

As per usual, I'll be spreading out my purchases across multiple posts, but not all in a row though, as I do have a few non-card posts in the works.

First up will be the stuff I got from Jim, who dare I say, is the most popular dealer at the Nashville shows. And for good reason as well, his prices, and the stuff that he has access to is beyond equal. Believe it or not, there are people that go to these shows who will only buy from him, which seems a little weird, but it's not my place to say anything, so...

Jim was still setting up when I got there, but was already being swarmed by deal seekers. I've seen it many times before, but I'm always amazed by the deals that are being made even before everything is set up. I mean people will be dropping hundreds of dollars, and he's only put out three boxes. His "sick hitz" boxes are really popular, and tend to be decimated within a few minutes of being put on the table. O of course am waiting for his bargain boxes, which he is equally well known for, although this time I was a little dismayed to see that were only two 3200 ct boxes of 5/$1 stuff, two 3200 ct dime boxes, and two 3200 ct 2/$1 boxes -- everything else was vintage, high end, and high end vintage.

I could tell right away that the dime boxes weren't going to be very good, so I quickly switched to the 5/$1 boxes, which is where everything that you'll see today came from. He must've recently bought somebody's prospecting collection, because there was an awful lot of rookies from the last few years in these boxes, which meant plenty of Bowman, and if you've ever come around here before, you probably already know that rookies aren't my thing, especially those of current players.

Baseball wise, there wasn't a whole heck of a lot there of interest to me, but I was still able to find a few things. There were about twenty copies of each of the Mantle cards, probably should've gotten a few more of the vertical one. I've already got one of the gold Helton's, but what's one more. Still haven't looked to see if I needed the Kaline or not. I don't like the newer Diamond Kings sets, but I didn't have the Ichiro, I think it's a parallel of some sort too. And twenty cents was probably too much to pay for an A&G Maris base card, but they're probably aren't too many cards from that set that I would want, and I was there, and it was there, so I grabbed it... very cool card BTW!

I hate to keep saying "normally" or "usually', but normally Jim's boxes are a wellspring of 90's inserts, especially those of the basketball and football variety, not this time though, Steve here was the ONLY 90's insert that I saw in those bargain boxes. And to my knowledge there wasn't any basketball period, new or old. Considering how much neat stuff that I've gotten from Jim over the last 4 1/2 years, I figure he's entitled to have an off show or two, and not finding a bunch of 90's inserts isn't the end of the world, besides, I did make up for it a little bit through two of the other dealers I bought from later in the day.

Did you know that Prizm Draft Picks was a thing? And did you know that this Prizm Draft Picks has mascot cards in it? Oh, and did you know that the LSU Tiger was called Mike? I knew none of these things! Obviously these are both parallels, pink shimmer and blue? Nice looking cards though. If there wasn't a 1/1 in play, I'd probably try and build a Duck rainbow, but since there is a 1/1 out there, I will instead be content to try find a few more cheap copies of the base and other parallels.

Picked up a few color matching (save for Andre Johnson) Prizms from the last few years too. The Woodhead is #'d to /75, so that's something, though I think I like the Alex Smith the most.

Jim's boxes may not have been the best for me this time, but I did find a number of things for other people, which was nice. I also grabbed this 1992 Topps Mike Bielecki blank front for whoever wants it, he's a Brave if that helps. I love me some blank backs, but blank fronts don't do much for me, so it's available if anyone wants it.

 

I must've made a happy noise of some sort when I came across these, because the guy next to me turned to see what I was holding, saw what it was, then rolled his eyes and went back to pulling out cards of prospects -- that's okay guy, you keep hoarding cards of little boys, and I'll keep grabbing cards of folks who've actually done things! By the by, this set was new to me, it's called Pieces of the Past, and was put out by a company called The Bar(?) back in 2017. The cards are really quite pretty in person, got a really nice texture too. I definitely wouldn't mind finding some more of these, provided their cheap of course.

Past greats on new cardboard, it doesn't get much better than that! Well, maybe past greats on old cardboard, but you what I mean. I tried to scan these multiple times, the scanner couldn't handle the Dickerson and Sayers, so instead you get a wonky photo.

SLU cards are not something that see here (or even back in Portland) very often, this probably the third or fourth that I've found in the last five years, because of this, and because it's Bart Starr, I had to get it.

I have multiple copies of this '84 Payton, but I don't mind owning another one. I grabbed the Jim Plunkett, because Jim Plunkett! It's from the 2017 Classics set, which I don't particularly care for, and it's one of those faux blank back parallels, which I really hate, but still... it's Jim Plunkett!

Who doesn't like cheap autographs of questionable authenticity? Although, for the record I did compare these to "authenticated" samples, and they do seem to match up. Plus who's gonna bother forging signatures of these guys, it's not like they're autos are going to be commanding top dollar or anything! I already had this same Craig Morton cards signed, I think I paid a quarter for it last year at a show, his prices must be going down, because this one was only twenty cents. Nick Fotiu had a pretty solid career, but I picked it up more for the neat card than the autograph. Apparently Tim Cheveldae was a Bruin at some point, so I guess I'll see if Marc wants him, if not, he'll be looking for a happy home elsewhere.

Even counting the stuff that wasn't shown, aka the stuff for everyone else, this was by far the least that I had ever purchased from Jim, but again, I picked up some neat cards elsewhere, so it all evened out in the end. I did mention too that he had some vintage stuff, but I was really only looking for a few specific guys this time, so other than one card for a friend, I didn't get any vintage from him either -- although I did get a few of those elsewhere as well.

For those interested, Friday's post will feature another portion of my purchases, and don't worry, it'll be considerably shorter in length :)


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Trading Ken for Neil... with Rod!

I've read a lot of talk in recent months about the lack of new blogs being started up, having not been around during the blog boom, I can't personally attest to the validity of these claims -- but if those who were around during that time say so, then who am I to argue?

If true, I suppose the lack of new blogs being started is a bad thing, but if I'm being honest, it's not really something I think about, or have ever thought about for that matter. Those that are perturbed by the lack of new blood might be wondering why I'm so unfazed by it? Well, the answer to that is actually quite simple, even after five years of reading blogs... I'm still finding one's that are new to me!

In fact, just in the last month alone I've started following three more blogs, all of which are well established, and already known by everyone... except for me!

One of these new to me blogs is Padrographs, and before anyone says anything, yes, I know that you already know of Rod and his blog, but I didn't! Actually, that's not entirely true, I had heard people mention him, and his blog, on more than few occasions in recent years, but just hadn't ever gotten around to seeing what he was all about, which as I've quickly learned, has been my loss.

Besides some minor personal connections that we seem to have, Rod has also come up with one of the best ideas for a frankenset that I've seen so far, that being his autograph frankenset. Not only is it fun, but it also provides for plenty of variety, which is something that I'm always looking for, whether it's my collection, or someone else's.

Apparently this frankenset of his is somewhat fluid, with cards getting pushed out from time to time, said cards are then put up for trade, which is where I come in. Some weeks ago while reading a post from someone else, I noticed a 1972-73 Topps Neil Johnson staring at me from their blogroll. There isn't a lot of vintage basketball being shown on the blogs, so this image was a bit of an attention grabber. A quick glance told me that the image was originating from this blog that I've been meaning to check out, but just hadn't gotten around to doing so, Padrographs.

After clicking on the post, I quickly got up to speed, and found out that this signed Neil Johnson card had been part of Rod's autograph frankenset, but had been replaced by something more desirable, and was now up for trade. I knew instantly that I wanted the card, but didn't know if Rod would be wanting to trade with someone new, thankfully he didn't mind, and less than a week later, I had Neil in hand!

Pretty neat, huh? Rod didn't want to know was being sent, it just had to be an autograph for his frankenset, one who's number he didn't already have. After a quick search, I settled on a 1972 Topps Ken Henderson that I got signed via TTM a few years ago, I still liked the card, but I liked the signed Neil more, so off went Ken. Plus, exchanging a '72 for another '72 just seemed appropriate.

As for Neil, he played pro ball for seven years, four in the NBA, and three in the ABA. Had his best season during the 1970-71 campaign, his first with the Squires, in which he averaged 12.7 ppg, to go along with 8.6 rpg, all while shooting 52.6% from the field. He played in his only ABA All-Star game that season as well.

Neil was also involved in an altercation with Warren Jabali, that has become somewhat infamous, the only problem is that there's at least three different versions of what actually happened floating around out there, so which, if any, are the correct version? Most people seem to site the version that was covered in Loose Balls, but if you've ever read that book, you probably know that there are some inaccuracies within it's pages, and a few other stories that questionable at best. There aren't a lot of books out there about the ABA, so it's unfortunate that one of the few is so shi poopy, but there's nothing that can be done about it at this point.

Thanks again for the trade, Rod! Hopefully some more good stuff will end up getting pushed out of your frankenset, because I have quite a few more autographs that I wouldn't mind trading :)


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Rolling in Roby's

I don't know if other bloggers do this or not, but I will often try and predict how well a certain post, if not all posts, are going to go over with the reading audience.

From the initial idea, to the "writing" of, and all the way up until the moment that the publish button is being clicked, a prediction can be made -- and you know something? Even after four years of blogging, I still can't predict what is, or isn't, going to generate interest!

A perfect example of my inability to predict successes and failures, occurred just a couple of weeks ago when I wrote about starting a Reggie Roby collection. I truly didn't think that too many people would be clicking on this one, it was long, rambly, and most damning of all... it was football related! But to my great surprise, this post about a punter who's been retired for over twenty years, actually generated interest, on the blog, and on Twitter.

Aside from the positive reactions, the post also yielded another unexpected (and unplanned)outcome, which was... cards in my mailbox!

I didn't ask for any assistance in the post, but within mere hours of it going live, I had two people offer to help with this new collection. Having blogged for awhile now, I know that I shouldn't have been surprised by this, but I still was nonetheless.

Normally if I were to receive two different packages, I would show them in two different posts, but since the contents in both of the packages I received are for the same collection, I thought I'd go ahead and combine them into one post.

Going by the order of their arrival, Greg, from The Collective Mind, will be going first. I said that I was surprised by people offering to send help with the new collection, which I was, but I wasn't surprised to see Greg among those offering, after all, it is what he does. There are very few who can match his generosity, and I am grateful to have been the beneficiary of said generosity on multiple occasions now.

According to the back of this card, as of 1990, Reggie's 43.4 yards per punt average placed him 8th on the all-time leading punters list. His average wound up dropping to 43.3, and as of 2019, he is tied with Sean Landeta for the #52 spot on that list. As an interesting aside, the top 19 spots on that list are all occupied by guys who have played since 2000.

Love this card! Colbey was setting this one aside for me at the same time that Greg's was in the mail. I'm hoping to still get that one from Colbey though, as I would like to have another one (or more) to put in the Dolphins section of my team binders.

Would you believe me if I told you that until this PWE arrived, I had never seen a single card from the 1992 Skybox set? Well, it's true, this set is completely new to me. And by the looks of it, it would appear that I missed out on a pretty neat set.

The back of Reggie's 1992 All World card mentions him leading the NFL in 1991 with 45.7 ypp, that would be his only year of doing so. There's also a nice action shot on the back, which would've made for a more interesting front:

See!

I guess I can go ahead and cross 1992 Upper Deck off the list (note to self: make a list!).

One thing that I've noticed since deciding to start this collection... Topps was way behind when it came to using action shots of Reggie. Just look at every non-Topps card in this post (I'm counting the back of the All World as well), and you'll see what I mean.

Hey, it's my first Reggie as a Redskin! Looks weird to see him with anyone other than Miami, but he did recover from his down season (injury) in 1992, to give Washington two solid years while he was there.

Thanks for doing what you do, Greg! The selection was really great.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Next up are the cards that were kindly sent by, Robby, the proprietor of Detroit Tigers Cards and Stuff, although he's much more active on Twitter. I haven't had the good fortune to have had much contact with Robby as of yet, so his offer to send some Roby's kind of caught me off guard, in a good way of course.

Looks like I can now cross 1990 Pro Set off of the eventual list! The Pro Bowl card is one of the two Reggie's that I started with, but getting another one works out really well, as I needed another one to fill the empty space in my team binders that was created when I took the card out to start this new collection. Although, for the record, if I'm ever somewhere and happen to find a few more cheap examples, I'll probably get those too... I really love that card!

Have you noticed yet what I was saying about everyone but Topps using action shots? Now I'm kind of curious to know when Topps first started doing good by Reggie, hold the line for a sec while I go look it up....................................... you still there? Okay, good! Looks like Topps gave Reggie an action shot for the '92 Stadium Club, and then didn't do so again until 1994, which must've been when they finally got the memo, because it appears that he is in motion on most of his cards that year.

Oh man, I had forgotten all about the original Pinnacle cards, can't remember the last time I saw one of these black beauties! Also, notice how even Pinnacle knew to show Reggie in action.

This is what happens when you don't have a list, and two people send stuff right around the same time, not that I mind getting a duplicate though, I'm sure that I'll eventually end up have a page of duplicate Reggie's in the Dolphins section of my team binders... which works for me!

And the capper of Robby's PWE... this beautiful Topps Gold! It's been awhile since I last had one of these in hand, apparently I had forgotten just how vibrant the gold is in person (now if it could just look like that in the scan). I feel like I now need to start collecting another player or two from this era, just so I have an excuse to pick up a few more of these :)

Thank you for reaching out, Robby! Even though you've sidestepped my questions about I can send in return, I will be figuring something out, and will be returning this act of kindness

Seeing as how these two gents finished off my 1993 Topps needs, I thought I'd take a quick look at the two cards together...

... awesome!

Thanks again to both of you for the cards! With the help that was provided, I'm down to needing only 127 more cards... my new goal is to try and get that number to under 100 by the end of the year :)

[Collection update as of 10/5/19: I bought his '95 Finest refractor on COMC this morning for a whopping $0.65!]


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COMC Shuffle #29

Another week, another ten seven randomly selected cards from last year's COMC hoard!


1971 Milk Duds

I was surprised to see some reasonably priced Milk Duds boxes at last weekends card show, first time I had ever seen any at a show. I saw them almost right after I got there, and they were still there four later when I left. I observed many (at least to me) interesting things at this show, which I'll cover in future recap posts, but given the condition and price, I don't know how those boxes didn't sell while I was there -- I believe they were below eBay prices, and even the many flippers that were in attendance didn't touch them. Makes me wonder if these boxes are even more of a niche item than I previously thought?


1999-00 Upper Deck HoloGrFX AuSOME #37AU

I liked Tony Battie, but that is some weak-ass defense!


1960 Topps #259

I don't have a lot of want to send out TTM requests anymore, but it might be nice to add a couple of autographs to my "Telstar Four" collection, and from everything I've read, George is quite generous with his signature (this card would look great signed). It's certainly something to think about.


2013 Panini Golden Age Playing Cards #2D

New additions to my Golden Age insert sets have really slowed down this year, which is okay, because I'm not entirely sure that I'll be trying to finish those anymore. I still like most of them quite a lot, but once I lost the want to build sets... I really lost it!


1997-98 NBA Hoops Frequent Flyer #6

I wouldn't say that this one of the best 90's insert sets, but I still like it quite a bit... maybe in my top 25?


1972-73 Topps #175

This was for the total rebounds on the season, not rebounds per game. If it had been rpg, Wes would've been #2, as he averaged 17.6 to Kareem's 16.6, but Kareem played five more games than Wes, and therefor was able to best him by just 10 total rebounds.


2014-15 Panini Prizm Blue and Green Mosaic Prizms #173

Hey, it's Kareem from the same era as the previous card, but with more shine!

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the reason that there's only seven cards in today's post, is because that's all that was left in the Shuffle folder -- meaning that the post ended earlier than usual, and that the series has come to an end as well. It was a fun series, and I still like the concept for it, but I think it's run it's course. It was a good way to show off my COMC cards, but creatively, it's been a lot more limiting than I had anticipated, so with that in mind, I'll be coming up with a new way to show this this year's cards... good thing I've got about two months until their arrival (I'm gonna need it)!


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Pack Sampling: 1998 Collector's Edge 1st Place

Earlier this year, Andy, from Stadium Fantasium, ran a contest in conjunction with the Rose Bowl. It was a multi-tiered affair, which allowed for multiple winners (these are the best kind of contests IMO). I didn't think that I would do too well, what with the not paying much attention to current sports happenings and all, but it sounded fun, so I entered, and wouldn't you know it... I actually won something!

I don't remember what place I came in, but I did do well enough to get one of the main prizes, as well as two picks from the long list of secondary prizes, one of which was used to get today's pack of 1998 Collector's Edge 1st Place.

I hadn't ever heard of the 1st Place line before, and still don't know anything about it, but I saw "pack" and "Collector's Edge", and that was good enough for me.

1998 saw the big Leaf/Manning draft, so I would imagine that a pack like this could yield plenty of interesting things, although with only six cards in the pack, one has to work a little harder to find said interesting things. From a personal standpoint though, when it comes to a pack like this, I'm just happy with getting the opportunity to open one -- especially since I have never done so before, and the odds are pretty low that I'll ever come across any more.

The first card out of pack... and I've never heard of him! A quick search of the old interwebz tells me that he was drafted by the Oilers in 1990, made a Pro Bowl in '96, and played his final season in 1998, with the Carolina Panthers, which just so happened to be their inaugural season.

Not a hit per se, but I always enjoy coming across Jeff Blake cards. He was one of the few players that I actually tried to keep up with during the 90's, and if he didn't have so many darn cards (well over a thousand), I'd probably actively seek out his cards more often.

The backs certainly have a lot going on, but I like it. The notes here mention Neil O'Donnell's signing, which is a bit funny because, well, you'll see why in a second.

If hadn't been for series of injuries, David LaFleur probably would've been a more familiar name, but as most of us know, things don't always go as planned.

See! The pack told me what was coming #PropheticPack. Unfortunately Neil was stuck to the back of David LaFleur, the results of which can be seen at the top of the image, but no worries...

... because there was another Neil right behind the damaged Neil! It's been long time since I last pulled two of the same card from a pack, I don't really mind it in this instance though, as I was a fan of his, and now I can add the undamaged copy to my team binders.

Woot? This is kind of a weird looking card, to me it would've been a little more visually appealing had the logo been centered properly, the logo being bigger wouldn't have hurt either, but no matter, I'll still be keeping it. Don't know if anyone cares or not, but flipping it over reveals that it's a...

... checklist! Even after a brief search, I still don't know if this is supposed to be an insert, or if it's just part of the set? I did see that COMC has individual cards with this number that feature both the Chiefs logo, and the Seahawks logo, but again, I don't know if that was intentional, or if it's an uncorrected error of some sort.

This wasn't too bad of a pack overall, ended up with three keepers, and had fun opening a pack from a set that was new to me -- can't ask for too much more than that! Many thanks again to Andy, not only for the fun contest, but also for adding this pack to the list of prizes.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.