1986 Fleer Cello

I recently bought some Yount cards on eBay from a huge Yount collector who's slowly paring down his collection. As a little add-on, I picked up this cello pack that the Yount guy was selling with Robin featured on the front. To me, this doesn't represent something different, but I understand the completist mentality. I bought it with the intent to open it, as '86 Fleer is a set I don't have too much of.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
506 Robin Yount

214 Reid Nichols
181 Andy McGaffigan
41 Tito Landrum
234 Lance Parrish
192 Mario Soto
64 Dennis Lamp (Man, that is one area of growth! That dude shaves after lunch, then has to do it again before washing his hands for dinner. Thickness.)

509 Bruce Benedict
448 John Russell
8 Mark Gubicza
93 Rafael Santana
45 Darrell Porter
565 Mike Mason
261 Randy St. Claire (That's a sweet-ass Starter jacket. One might even say it's worth being killed over.)

Los Angeles Penant Sticker
Oakland Sticker
104 Brian Fisher
484 Cecil Cooper (Cooooooooooooooooop!)

197 Juan Agosto
196 Max Venable
29 Cesar Cedeno
242 Lou Whitaker
178 John Franco
62 Cliff Johnson (Speaking of jackets, Canada was representin' on the outerwear, eh?)

530 Milt Thompson
441 Greg Gross
13 Charlie Leibrandt
83 Danny Heep
36 Brian Harper
573 Wayne Tolleson

That was fun.

2013 Panini USA Baseball Champions

Out of the three packs I busted for $3.50 each at the card shop I go to - this was the best one with an autograph pull; it looks like Jake Barrett is currently a closer for the Visalia Rawhide, a minor league affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

#77 Blake Swihart
#100 Bubba Starling
#6 Tyler Anderson
#64 Nick Franklin
#22 Shawn Green
#JBR Jake Barrett - Stars and Stripes auto serial #'d 367/855
#109 Alex Dickerson
#113 Nolan Fontana

2013 Topps Opening Day

Opening this pack, I realized that you can give any player a nickname with little to no thought. Just take the start of their first name, add the beginning of their last name, throw a hyphen in there, and PRESTO! Instant nickname! Let's see how this works.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
198 Ryan Howard (Ry-Ho. Futuristic, would fit in well with the Voltron crew or the Thundercats.)

155 Brandon Crawford (Bra-Craw. Kind of Neanderthal, maybe a little too Broseph-y, but it has potential.)

22 Felix Hernandez (Fēl-Her. Suggestive, a little TOO suggestive.)

BF-18 Darwin Barney Ballpark Fun (Dar-Bar. A new desert available at Dairy Queen in limited test markets.)

183 Fernando Rodney (Fer-Rod. Too many -Rod nicknames as it is, plus no one wants to think about a furry shaft.)

212 Pablo Sandoval (Nope, already has quite the nickname.)

81 Miguel Cabrera (Mig-Ca... oh,forget it.)

Never mind, bad idea, it only works out like 10% of the time.
Gotta say I like these cards, though. Although Topps probably heard how much we liked it when their OD product is designed without the foil player names, then decided on difficult-to-read light gray. Why do we even bother?

2013 Topps Archives pack break recap

I picked up a pack of the new 2013 Topps Archives [$4.50 each from a card shop] - to see what the cards look like.

I grew up collecting 1990 Topps but out of the retro designs within this product, I probably like 1985 Topps the best - followed by 1982 Topps, 1990 Topps and 1972 Topps.

#5 Allen Craig - 1972 Topps
#92 Ken Griffey Jr. - 1982 Topps
#143 Jake Odorizzi - 1985 Topps
#197 Chris Sale - 1990 Topps
#83-BH Bryce Harper - 1983 Topps All-Star
#78 Johan Santana - 1982 Topps
#141 Adam Jones - 1985 Topps
#151 Jason Motte - 1990 Topps