A Pretty Great Repack Box

After I returned my bike, I planned to just get something cheap to break the fiddy dollar bill I got in return so I could re-deposit half of it.  My first four packs of 2015 Topps weren’t very good though, and the dupes were already starting to pile up.  So I bit the bullet and grabbed pretty much the only other thing of interest to me that Target had: a $20, 20-pack (plus bonus) repack box that was almost completely devoid of junkwax.

Here’s the breakdown:

One 1991 Score

Three 2012 Panini Triple Play

One 2013 Bowman Platinum

Three 2014 Topps Series One 8-card blaster packs

Two 2014 Topps Series One 12-card retail packs

Four 2014 Topps Heritage

One 2014 Topps Heritage Jumbo rack pack (20 cards)

One 2014 Gypsy Queen

Three 2014 Topps Series Two 12-card retail packs

One 2014 Allen & Ginter

Bonus Item- Three loose 2014 Topps MLB Chipz

It sounds like a pretty lame bonus, but it turned out to be significantly better than expected.  Take a looksie, won’t you?

Poker chips are a somehow apt metaphor for pack-bustin’..

Turns out that gold-bordered glow-in-the-dark Tulo is actually pretty rare and reasonably valuable.  A run through the very few sold listings had them going for $5-20 a pop (with Jeters in $50 range), depending on the player.  The only two gold borders up for the bidding at the time were a Travis d’Arnaud Gold/Glow-in-the-Dark and Jose Reyes Gold/Blue, which sold for $13.01 and the opening bid of $9.99, respectively.  So this seemingly silly, innocuous bonus item was probably the hit of the box.  But this little repack had more going for it than just the bonus.  Much more, as you will see below.

Every once in a while, the gamble pays off..

Hit #1!  Yeah, there’s more on the way.

Flagship inserts..

Seein’ red..

Great name, one of only three Cubs, Bonifacio is #’ed 1282/2014, and Keppinger is 228/2014..

Topps Series One proved much more interesting than Series Two even without the sweet Zack Wheeler relic.  Better inserts, and the Target Red parallels aren’t something I see much of, even if there weren’t any huge stars.  Cosart, JD, and the series dos Hoz aren’t too bad though, and everyone is at least pictured (Cosart became a Marlin at the trade deadline) on teams that should trade easy enough.

Princert, Altuve base mini, Cuddyer SP, Choice RC..

GQ was meh, as it usually is.  But I never buy it anymore, so it was nice to find a pack in there.  It’s a meh that tastes a whole lot better when it costs $1 than when it costs $3.

Alen Hanson Top Prospects, Gary Brown base, Richie Shaffer chrome..

Bowman Platinum is the shiny version flipside to GQ’s old-timey style pointlessness, but it has been fairly forthcoming with the marginal prospect autographs & such for me, especially in 2012.  I don’t buy at full price anymore either, but it also makes for decent repack filler.

Mercifully, the only junkwax..

 

1991 Score wasn’t terrible, as junkwax goes.  A RC of a solid player who had nice, lengthy career that included a couple monster seasons and a stint with the Cubs & a couple late career Hall-of-Famers is the best you can really hope for in a pack like this.

Heritage base..

My resemblance to Holmberg is kinda uncanny..

The repack was heavily weighted towards Heritage, which is another product I’d never normally buy on its own, but am quite happy to get in numbers in a repack.  Despite my snarking to liven up the uneventful rack pack in my first post in ages over at APtbNL, that’s probably what ultimately made me decide to keep the repack while I was wandering around Target desperately trying to find something cheaper.  The McCutchen is fantastic.

Heritage inserts/SPs/parallels..

Outside of the red Yadi (my only complaint about this box is all the damn Cardinals inserts!), there wasn’t really anything all that special in there.  Just low level inserts & a trio of highly trade-able SPs.  I’d already pulled my hits before I got to them though, so it’s cool.

From the rack pack..

Quite possibly my only keeper from the entire box came out of the rack pack, so that helped too.

Captain Marvel Jr. insert and Giancarlo base mini..

Finally, main event time.  Allen & Ginter is consistently the best, most fun product Topps puts out every year (though 2014 had some legit competition for once, in the form of Finest and Stadium Club).  I’ve pulled a few hits & some rarer minis & other such nonsense (sea monkey card, flower card, World’s Biggest Mini SP) over the years, but the following, while not all that extraordinary, might still be my best pull to date.  Easily top-3.  Feast your eyes…

Kipnis Everdeen..

This Jason Kipnis is the first auto I’ve pulled out of retail in seven years of buying Allen & Ginter packs & blasters, and it is a beaut.  The funny thing about this outstanding repack box is that I had just started carrying that Prosperity Bean TJ sent in my Nerd Week prize pack that very morning.  Maybe it’s legit, maybe I’m just a superstitious and cowardly lot, I dunno.  I’m mostly just happy to have pulled some nice stuff out of a repack after the disaster that was January’s Greatest Chase repack/turd.

Anyway, that pretty much wraps up this post.  Let me know if anything strikes your fancy, and thanks for stopping by.

That Old COMC Order…

Better get these posted up, since my ginormo 123 card order got here a few days ago and will be scanned soon.  Plus there’s another good-sized order I’ll be having shipped before Christmas!  I’ll see about getting the trade bait added onto it’s proper page after I finish (this could mean tomorrow or 2018, I don’t know).

In other news, I have at least three packages going out over the weekend as well, possibly more.  Now then, onto the pretty pretty card pictures.  Huzzah!

Iconic minis, Agent Zero, Japanese stickers, a set completing starlet, and some numbered Cats..

None of these are for trade.  The Kenn/Cat is a red parallel #’ed /50, the Fusion is to /150.  The 1980-81 style Arenas is part of a booklety-type thing, except his was missing.  I have a Chris Paul that’s all together though, so I’ll go into more detail whenever I get CP3 scanned and posted.  The COMC pics don’t adequately describe it.  Kosuke and Tuffy aren’t too exciting to look at, but I didn’t even know there were stickers like that made in Japan.  Finally, Selma Blair completes my PopCardz relic set, but that too is another post for another time.

A tire swatch, a shiny Vlad, a super thick and transparent (and I guess die-cut) 'Twoine, The Sarge, Vitters, a great player with a lame patch, Gale Sayers, and a '60 high number..

Only The Sarge is for trade.  Ed is my second ’60 high number, which is pretty good considering I’m just barely into double digits overall.  I say maybe die-cut on Antoine Walker because the five tiny squares at the bottom and the three near the top are holes that go clear through the card, which is patch card thick.  Love that tire swatch; trying to at least one of every single type of relic card in existence.  The Vlad is from the golden age of shiny cards.  In fact it doesn’t so much shine as glow.  It’s a lost art.  Topps just doesn’t have it, and every attempt I’ve seen Panini make at shiny is downright atrocious.  Papi’s patch really is lame.  It’s hard to say for sure that it’s even a patch.  Vitters only set me back about $.75, if I recall correctly.  And Gale Sayers… well, it’s GALE SAYERS, what more need be said?

Horford & some guy, a couple swatches of maybe the most underrated player ever, old school Wiz Rip, Brook & some guys, a giant floor swatch, Gallinari, and J-Rich

All of these are for trade.  I think the theme here is underrated.  If you keep offering up any of these guys for as little as this, I suppose I will feel compelled to take them every time.  There’s just a certain price point for some guys.  The Hawks are probably all going to Dayf unless someone else wants to make an offer on them.  I’ve got a mess of stuff for him already, so if he doesn’t come over and outright demand them, it’s probably not a big deal.  Anyway, have at thee.

An unfortunate necessity, Maury, BJ, Pettitte is already claimed, I think V-Mart is too, Carlos Lee in his days on the South Side, Buchholz (was he claimed too?), Atkins on the Rocks..

Have at these too.  They are all for trade, or were.  Pettitte was claimed by zee Dimwit, I think Baseball Dad got V-Mart, and I want to say Buchholz was claimed too, but I don’t know for sure.  If you claimed it, speak up, otherwise I’m listening to offers again.  Cardinals, bleh.  But we Cubs fans need to have some around for our Missouriable rivals.  It’s a symbiotic thing.  Better to send ’em to someone who will inexplicably cherish them than make kindling out of them I guess.

The Marlins last hope get a fanbase, Iceman, Addai, a fellow headcase, Amar'e, Mr. Kardashian, and some card backs..

Reyes is bound for Wicked Ortega country, Amar’e was claimed by Plaschke ages ago, but the other four are available.  I despise all that the Kardashians stand for, but that Odom is just a good looking card.  It’s also hilarious.  Listed as a Laker, pictured with the Heat, and the back says the jersey swatch is from his time with the Clippers.  I’d like to believe the floor came from his high school, lol.  Does Vince Young still have fans or collectors?  Do the Colts?  Also, there’s the back of the Antoine Walker card.  Yup.

That’s it.  No more pretty pictures and even more incoherent than usual babble for tonight.  Feel free to stake your claim on any of the available cards you like.  And as always, thanks for stopping by. 🙂

*BAMF*

Trade Bait Preview

I finally got some stuff shipped from COMC.  Here are a few scans.  First up some stuff that may be to Shot Not Taken‘s liking, since I’m way overdue on trading with him again.

The Happy Warrior and Mike "Quicksand" Pyle.. I believe the former is already a done deal.

A “scan/picture doesn’t do it justice” Allan Houston & a high end Gallinari #’ed /99..

NBA Legends.. I assume Ray won't want Gervin, but the Frazier may be to his liking.

Amare 2-color (I'm calling patch; the white part is slightly raised) & Nets Brook Lopez/Ryan Anderson/Chris Douglas-Roberts triple jersey..

I didn’t forget the rest of you though.  There’s plenty more good basketball stuff to be had too (especially if you’re a Hawks fan).  Baseball is more most bloggers thing though.  Well, I might be able to hook some of you up too.  Have a looksie:

Shawn Green, Maury Wills, Rick Ankiel..

Not a Cardinals fan, obviously but as Night Owl has eloquently noted a time or two, having something around to trade with your rival team’s fans is never a bad thing, even if neither one of you will ever understand why the other would ever willingly support such a loathsome team, lol.

V-Mart and the Sarge bat cards..

Buchholz & Astro Andy..

And that will do it for now.  Shoebox Legends has dibs on Clay.  Let me know if you see something you like, and remember, this is only a preview.  There are quite a few more where these came from.  And I’m slowly getting drawn back into the trading thing, so there’s a fair chance you will get your cards before the world ends next December, haha.

Until our next..

COMC Order #3

Now we segue out of vintage with a little last hurrah and into something a little… smaller, with this here quickie post.

1969 topps Deckle Edge Jim Fregosi, Maury Wills, and Jerry Koosman proving vintage never goes out of style.

Ah, wonderful affordable vintage.  I am slowly putting together this set.  I believe this brings me to five now, with Kessinger and Santo.  It’s a good one to collect if you aren’t concerned about condition.  Even the best players won’t set you back that much, and there are lots of big names of the day and Hall of Famers to be had.  The set is only 33 cards (plus a couple different player-same card number variations, proving topps has been pulling that s*** since at least the late-1960s!), so there isn’t a lot to track down.

Not quite minis in an official sense, but the slightly smaller than average size makes for a handy transition to the minis portion of our program, which we will start to cover in the next Check Out My Cards post.

PS: Still no winner in the contest yet. Go down a few posts and keep guessing!

Until our next…