Went into Wal-Mart for some supplies and stopped by the card aisle (well, ya can't just go in there and walk by it now, can you?). The only thing that appealed was this three pack rewrap box hanging on a peg hook. It had these UD Diamond Collections pasted on the back of a 2007 Topps Opening Day and a 2006 UD Masterpieces. Although heavily covered, the Masterpieces pack was an interesting mix too and will probably show up here in a few days. (Especially since there seems to be a drought of APAD posts lately.)
59 Jason Giambi - These would be nice cards if they hadn't been beaten up when the pack was turned and glued to the back of the others and sealed in the box. They're all a little wavy and this one took the worst of it. It ended up with roller marks and a couple angled notches in the side.
64 Bobby Abreu - (pre-Yankees). The last name above the "Diamond Collection" gets lost in these, I think. This one's nice with the red and bronze.
92 Colby Miller Freshman Class - Hasn't made it past AA ball yet. Spent 2008 with Marlins affiliates.
FG-IS Kaz Ishii GU - Imagine that! A jersey in a $6 repack retail box. A dinky little swatch, but nice looking card....
43 Hideo Nomo - Started with Dodgers, then went through four teams in four seasons until ending up back in LA.
77 Ichiro - Ichiro completes the "base cards of players whose names end in vowels" subset of this pack.
AS-HB Hank Blalock game card - I never know whether these are keeper cards or not. Usually I keep 'em and they stay in the dupe box forever.
Another nice design from Upper Deck. Too bad the Wal-Martization process beat 'em up so bad.
#1 - Babe Ruth, Yankees. King of the Bronx Bombers.
#26 - Sandy Koufax, Dodgers. Brooklyn's Ace.
#11 Bucky Dent - Yankees. Newer Yank meeting a bigger crowd at the plate, like his counterpart above.
#40 - Mike Piazza, Dodgers. OK, technically not a New York card. But it's really a 2007 card of a Padre in a Dodger uniform who was a Met most of his career. Call it 6 degrees of NewYorkdom.
59 Jason Giambi - These would be nice cards if they hadn't been beaten up when the pack was turned and glued to the back of the others and sealed in the box. They're all a little wavy and this one took the worst of it. It ended up with roller marks and a couple angled notches in the side.
64 Bobby Abreu - (pre-Yankees). The last name above the "Diamond Collection" gets lost in these, I think. This one's nice with the red and bronze.
92 Colby Miller Freshman Class - Hasn't made it past AA ball yet. Spent 2008 with Marlins affiliates.
FG-IS Kaz Ishii GU - Imagine that! A jersey in a $6 repack retail box. A dinky little swatch, but nice looking card....
43 Hideo Nomo - Started with Dodgers, then went through four teams in four seasons until ending up back in LA.
77 Ichiro - Ichiro completes the "base cards of players whose names end in vowels" subset of this pack.
AS-HB Hank Blalock game card - I never know whether these are keeper cards or not. Usually I keep 'em and they stay in the dupe box forever.
Topps Opening Day is the Wild Irish Rose of baseball cards. Whereas "Wild I" is a cheap, stripped down, imitation of actual wine; Opening Day is a cheap, stripped down, imitation of an actual baseball card set. Nonetheless, packs of Opening Day are standard for these re-wraps, and it comes as no surprise that two packs of the '06 edition were found in this one.
Bonus pack? No fair. The old bonus packs had a clear wrapper so you could see what you were getting. Oh well, let's rip:
These are pretty dang nice! Only ten cards in the set too so a couple of blasters should get you most of it. I must emphasize the should part. You could end up with two of the exact same pack. I haven't seen a checklist anywhere, so I'm not sure who are cards 4-10. These are also inserted into regular Wal-Mart packs at 1 in 4 packs. The backs have a canvas look to them and give little personal tidbits about the players. Manny Ramirez loves classic cars (really?), Cameron likes to fish and now is a fish, and Ryan Howard was a trombone player. Yeah Ryan! Fellow trombone player! Although to be honest I played trombone as a stepping stone to tuba, but brass players gotta stick together.
