1987 Fleer grocery rack

1987 Fleer three-pack grocery rack [$8.00 each] - I could probably buy a Barry Bonds rookie for $8 if I looked hard enough [and I bought one at 'peak' prices during his juiced up home run years], but the idea of pulling a Bonds out of a pack [or maybe pulling a $1 Will Clark or Bo Jackson] is type of nostalgic thinking that gets me nickel-and-dimed in my collecting endeavors.

I have a paranoia of busting any pack from the last 30 years [probably the time frame from where I can afford to bust most packs] - but I takes my chances on this dusty piece of poop collecting dust.

There are three 17 card wax [actual wax] packs and 51 card per rack - with one Headliners insert per rack.

Pack one
#4 of 6 Rickey Henderson Headliners insert - likely 2009 Hall of Fame inductee; the card is probably worth a quarter or less [there is a 'fisheye' you can see on the card - the yellow dot you can see on the line going through his neck, behind his collar].
Baseball stickers - New York Yankees and San Diego Padres

#502 Steve Lyons - off-center or miscut, take your choice

#209 Tony Perez - off-center or miscut, take your choice
#191 Milt Thompson
#378 Dan Quisenberry
#8 Sid Fernandez - actually had a decent career, even though I vaguely remember him as fat and ineffective [not quite the case].
#298 Clint Hurdle - the current Colorado Rockies manager was once a Sports Illustrated coverboy as a top prospect.
#131 Dale Mohoric

#319 Andres Galarraga - I mimicked the Big Cat's wide-open stance during a junior high 'pick up' baseball game in PE and actually hit a home run. He fell of the face of the earth in 1992, but had a resurgence in 1993 that would last through the late 1990s. He actually finished his career a home run short of 400 [he has Mike Scioscia to thank for that] as he finished up his last Major League season with the Anaheim Angels.
#247 Ernie Camacho
#337 Floyd Youmans
#91 Vern Ruhle
#231 Cliff Johnson
#437 Greg Brock
#219 Jesse Barfield

#457 Fernando Valenzuela - at the end of the 1986 season, the 25-year old lefty [listed age on the card is 11-1-60] had a 2.94 ERA with 99 wins against 68 losses. Most telling or most predictive of what he would do in the 'second part' of his career was the number of innings he pitched from 1982 through 1986 as listed on the back of the card [285, 257, 261, 272 1/3, 269 1/3]. In 1987 he threw another 251 innings, before Fernando would face some mid to late career challenges as a professional.
#64 Jim Pankovitz

Pack two
Baseball stickers - Montreal Expos and Baltimore Orioles
#268 Chris Brown - R.I.P.

#544 Kent Hrbek - still probably wouldn't have been anything more than a baseball card 'minor star' in 1987. Current Minnesota Twins' first baseman Justin Morneau is putting up comparable numbers to Hrbek.
#161 Dan Petry
#611 Barry Jones - nice uniform number '69' as a rookie and/or a spring training invitee.
#482 Jim Traber
#574 Lee Smith - these cards are nice for their time, but fall short because of quality control issues.

#600 Matt Young
#40 Spike Owen
#123 Scott Fletcher

#618 Johnny Ray - swinging a sledgehammer. You can barely make out what is written, but it looks like 'The Kid' is written on the side.
#61 Bob Knepper
#392 Alfredo Griffin
#539 George Frazier
#436 Dave Anderson
#435 Marvell Wynn - this 'run' of cards are off-center/miscut
#109 Willie Randolph
#350 Paul Molitor - card is worth $0.15, but even less with a wax stain on the back.

At this point, I thought I would have been able to pull at least one 'decent' rookie card - and several star cards.

Pack three
Baseball stickers - Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees
#492 Julio Cruz
#282 Greg Minton
#543 Neal Heaton - I remember from my formative years of baseball watching, this guy learning a particular pitch back in 1990 that allowed him to have enough first-half success to be named to the National League All-Star team that season.
#280 Roger Mason - I remember him as a 'reclamation' project back in the early 1990s.
#622 Don Robinson - I remember his reputation as a hefty, good hitting pitcher.
#74 Rick Burleson
#562 Leon Durham
#594 Jim Presley
#395 Jay Howell
#128 Pete Incaviglia - more fisheyes? Incaviglia is probably the Matt LaPorta of the 1980s. LaPorta is an up-and-coming power hitting prospect with the Cleveland Indians.
#265 Juan Berenguer
#69 Dave Smith - R.I.P.
#393 Moose Haas

#533 Allan Anderson - I can only laugh when I pull two of the same card and of Anderson of all people! I remember him as a retread common in early 1990s sets.
#533 Allan Anderson
#449 Alejandro Pena

2008 Score Football Rack Pack

This was supposed to be posted earlier this afternoon but I watched 5 minutes of the New Orleans/Carolina game and almost fell into a coma. Damn, the NFL can be boring as hell. I was nice and refreshed by my nap though and had the energy to write up a huge pack of Score cards for A Pack A Day. I'm going to say it right now, I like Score. I've always liked Score. Even when they were pretty boring, I still liked them. I regret terribly that there isn't a Score Baseball set to collect right now. Score was always that safe, simple set I could fall back on when everything else in the card business got insane. This is the same for Score Football. I haven't collected much football this year, but I've bought several jumbos of Score. For the price of your average Upper Deck hobby pack you get a huge wad of cards, including several rookies and inserts. Gotta love that. I'm talking about Jumbo rack packs though... regular 7 card dollar packs are pretty boring. 30 card Jumbo packs are good, but they still don't beat the huge 52 card Rack packs. Let me open one and you shall see for yourself:

Top half:
392 Steve Slaton Rookie
Unknown Bears Rookie lost to history
79 Marion Barber
31 Marshawn Lynch
83 DeMarcus Ware
34 Paul Posluszny
85 Greg Ellis
35 John DiGriorgio
10 Joey Harrington (BLECH!)
128 Joseph Addai
182 Tom Brady
135 Bob Sanders
188 Ben Watson
140 Maurice Jones-Drew
192 Drew Brees
143 Reggie Williams
263 Chris Chambers
313 Jevon Kearse
228 Javon Walker
282 Maurice Morris
236 Kirk Morrison
290 Marc Bulger
243 Reggie Brown
Oakland Raiders Tattoo
276 Patrick Willis Gold Zone parallel #85/400
YS-5 Calvin Johnson Young Stars

There was also a Bears rookie in this pack, but I gave it away in my football contest and I don't remember what it was anymore. So basically two rookies per half unless you get a glossy parallel or something. This means the rookies are slightly short printed, but still very gettable. The base cards are a delightful mess. the borders are weirdly angular and have a slightly marbleized look using team colors. There's also a team and brand logo, the player and team name on the bottom and ROOKIE on the sides if applicable. The photos are uniformly action shots showing the player from their head to their waist. Not bad looking at all. The backs mirror the front with a bio, personal info and stats that unfortunately max out at 5 years. The cards are a little busy but don't look all that bad. Both halves of the pack also have a few insert cards in them. this half had a Gold numbered parallel of Patrick Willis that looks pretty nice, a Calvin Johnson Young Stars card that looks almost like it's a drawing, and a tattoo of the Raiders. Three tattoos actually, there's a tattoo of the team name, the shield logo and a helmet all on the small sized card. If my child showed up in front of me wearing Raiders tattoos, I'd seriously consider where I went wrong as a parent, but the concept of tattoos themselves looks like a fun idea.

Bottom half:
64 Dhani Jones
18 Michael Turner
72 Braylon Edwards
25 Demetrius Williams
78 Terrell Owens
30 Trent Edwards
82 Anthony Henry
194 Deuce McAllister
204 Eli Manning
119 Andre Johnson
173 Chester Taylor
127 Peyton Manning
181 Chad Greenway
296 Drew Bennett
248 Ben Roethlisberger
300 Warrick Dunn
321 Keith Bulluck
262 Vincent JAckson
312 Justin McCareins
227 Drew Carter
Matt Ryan Donruss Decals
HR-4 Darren McFadden Hot Rookies
F-1 Tony Romo The Franchise glossy parallel
176 Robert Ferguson glossy parallel
391 Harry Douglas
337 Sedrick Ellis

Anyone following this blog or my own blog closely knows I have had a bit of an existential freakout over my favorite team, (or former ex-favorite team) the Falcons this season. This pack was a bit of a shock to my system. First of all was pulling the Joey Harrington card. Just hearing the words Joey and Harrington in the same sentence makes me a little queasy. Lions fans know of what I speak. So pulling that card was unpleasant. Then I got the Michael Turner card though. I had completely forgotten that we had traded for him, and I was a bit stunned seeing him in his Falcons minicamp uni. That kind of perked me up a bit until I saw with horror Warrick Dunn in a Tampa uniform. Yeah, I've seen piles of cards with Warrick in a Bucs uni, but I loved Warrick as a Falcon (and hate the Buccaneers) so it still threw me for a loop. finally I got the Matt Ryan sticker card and my emotional rollercoaster went off the rails. I can't stand Matt Ryan, or rather, I can't stand the pick of Matt Ryan, but it is completely impossible for me to hate a sticker card of any kind. I think when it is all said and done and I finally wuss out and embrace my Falcons once again, this sticker will be the turning point. I mean, if Matt Ryan is good enough to be on a sticker, than he can't be that bad. But not yet. I may have watched the last half of the game last week, but they are on a bye this week so I can hate them one more weekend before I go crawling back.

Two more rookies in this pack, Sedrick Ellis and Falcons receiver that I never heard of before Harry Douglas. Harry had a big catch last week, so I guess he's good. There were two glossy cards in here, too bad glossy cards are useless. They look exactly like base cards, but don't have the pleasing matte finish. The glossies are kind of slippery to be honest. Also there are glossy parallels of insert cards too which is kind of daft. Who is going to collect a parallel of an insert? I don't remember anything like that since the Gold Medallion days of Fleer Ultra. The Franchise and Hot Rookies inserts are both suitably gaudy. They also have that feel of a drawing like the Calvin Johnson card. These have to be photos, the helmets and shadows look too real, but Donruss did something to the images to make them really look like sketches. I really like it as it reminds me of the olden days of Diamond Kinds and artsy checklists from Upper Deck. The pull of the pack has to be the Ryan though. I mean, COME ON. It's a sticker! That right there was worth it. This is fun stuff for five bucks, a hell of a lot more fun than a lot of blasters I've opened recently.

A (Third of) Rack Pack of 1988 Score

In the goodie-bag he sent me last week, Dave in Michigan sent me six cut-up rack packs. (He says that this is how he received them in a trade with someone else.) I've never seen, or heard of any dealer cutting up rack packs and selling the individual compartments. But hey, you see something new everyday.

Each full '88 Score rack contained 50 base cards, one rack-exclusive Young Superstar insert (which was inserted in the middle compartment), and three of those Magic Motion Trivia cards.

This third of a rack pack I will bust is from the top. It has 17 cards and I'm not certain if it will yield a Magic Motion.

1990 Fleer Rack Pack

I really liked this set when it came out, and even now the cards still look pretty nice. Taking a lead from the 1988 set, these cards are predominantly white and have a nice gloss to them. It's a very clean design with a solid color border. On most cards, some part of the player protrudes through the top of the frame, giving the cards a nice 3-D sort of look to them.

Let's rip this whole thing all at once.

First a shot of the "before".

You can see a "Super Star Specials" card showing featuring Nolan Ryan and Mike Scott, as well as a card for Rich Yett. I didn't have enough room to show the third section of the pack.

Here's the whole pack.

Section 1:

636 300 Strikeout Club - Ryan & Scott - Our first HOFer right there
243 Cris Carpenter - the original model, no "h" in his first name
490 Dave Clark
201 Ron Darling
190 Mickey Tettleton
530 Carlton Fisk - man I have been pulling this HOFer like crazy!


441 Alvaro Espinoza - one of the last all-field, no-hit middle infielders
566 Steve Lake - missing his parrot!
308 Rafael Palmeiro - looking quite fit and trim from his first go-round with Texas
591 Dale Murphy - looking a bit sad and/or confused


614 Jeff Robinson
389 Tim Belcher - do you think he ever tried to say his own name while belching, or did he just try the alphabet like the rest of us?
161 Bob Melvin - that .279 OBP at the bottom of the card suggests that perhaps he would be better off as a manager...hmm...


234 Rafael Ramirez - hey it's our second Rafael of the pack!
3 Jose Canseco - a decent pull for 1990, although dampened by his injury-shortened 1989 season.

Dumb sticker thing

Section 2:

504 Rich Yett
203 Sid Fernandez - big grin and bonus high-pants action!


186 Bill Ripken - ahh, the lesser brother
535 Shawn Hillegas
456 Don Slaught
572 Bruce Ruffin - he never lived up to the hype with Philly but he had a great season or two with the Rockies late in his career
313 Nolan Ryan - here's Ryan's proper card, and another HOF pull


589 Oddie McDowell
620 Frank Williams
396 Jeff Hamilton
179 Brian Holton
228 Glenn Davis - hurt terribly by playing in the Astrodome, although once he got out as part of the Curt Schilling, Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch trade to Baltimore, he couldn't hit anymore.



23 Bob Welch - a solid pitcher at this point, just about to have the best year of his career
538 Ron Kittle - the .378 OBP and .556 were somehow not enough to keep him in the majors for long


421 Chris Hammond - this is the guy who disappeared after 1998 only to resurface in 2002 as a relief ace. He had 3 excellent years in 2002, 2003, and 2004 before fading and retiring for real after 2006.
Stupid sticker thing

Section 3:

473 Mike LaValliere - sure he had a .406 OBP, but only a .400 SLG.

369 Juan Berenguer
164 Mark Parent
447 Don Mattingly - hell yes! Any pack with a Mattingly is a good pack. I loved pulling this card at the time.


220 Juan Agosto - one of the top relievers in MLB at the time
146 Claudell Washington - a decent player at the end of a long career
95 Duane Ward - an early card for a guy who would go on to be an important part of the Blue Jays championship teams in 1992 and 1993
640 Major League Prospects: Rudy Seanez & Colin Charland - Charland never made it to the majors but Seanez is still going strong.


397 Lenny Harris - an early card of the guy who would become MLB's pinch-hit king.
299 Drew Hall
352 Mark Langston - sporting an Expos uni after the trade that brought the Mariners, in part, Randy Johnson
115 Jeff Montgomery
135 Jack Howell
371 Carmen Castillo
League Standouts No.4 Jose Canseco - wow if you're a Canseco fan, this was the rack pack for you.


Idiotic sticker thing

Back in 1990, this would have been a pretty good pack, except for the fact that there aren't many rookies in it. But there are stars aplenty with two Ryans, two Cansecos, Mattingly, Murphy, and a handful of other lesser stars.

I still really like this set. If I had to pick my favorite feature, it's that the color of the border is a good match for the colors of each team. On lots of other sets (notably my binky 1988 Topps) the colors are are a good match for some teams, a so-so match for others, and a lousy match for many.

1987 Donruss Rack Pack (Section 3)

Here is the 3rd and final section of the 1987 Donruss rack pack:

633 Spike Owen - showing on top

502 David Cone - heck yeah, an awesome rookie card from the set!



514 Benny Distefano - I never knew if his last name was pronounced "Di-STEFF-ano" or "Di-ste-FAN-o"

380 Andy McGaffigan - the ball is coming RIGHT AT YOU!



247 Carlton Fisk - Wow, another HOFer. This rack pack is looking pretty awesome.



116 Scott Garrelts - Rocking the eyeglasses

599 Kevin Mitchell - For a brief period in 1989-1990, this was a very desirable card



467 Jerry Willard - in 1986 he had 161 ABs in 75 games. I guess that's a lot of late-game substitutions.

334 Ron Karkovice - How weird to get both White Sox catchers in the same section. Somewhere, Steve is DYING!

201 Steve Trout - The back of the card reminds us that the Cubs signed him to a 5-year deal starting in 1983. Oops.

151 Ernest Riles - The back of the card says he made a strong bid for ROY in 1985. I beg to differ.



162 John Cangelosi - Another White Sox player, and Steve dies a little more. He is really squatting here (Cangelosi, not Steve. Well, maybe Steve is squatting somewhere. I have no idea.)



560 Ed Olwine - yet another rookie in this pack

315 Jamie Moyer - Holy crap: another rookie pitcher, and another really good one. Moyer recently tied for 12th all-time in most wins by a left-hander.

428 Ruppert Jones - that's one too many P's for my liking.
Clemente puzzle pieces 10, 11, and 12.

So, let's tally up this section. We've got one HOFer in Fisk, three other players who were stars for at least part of their careers (Cone, Mitchell, and Moyer) and a whole mess of rookie cards (Cone, Distefano, Mitchell, Karkovice, Olwine, and Moyer...that's 6 altogether.) Can't complain about that, folks.

I got 3 White Sox but I also got 2 Cubs. Maybe Steve made it through this one.

2007 Topps Series One Rack Pack

I don't even know why I'm opening this pack, I already have almost a shoebox full of doubles and a complete set. It's Topps though, and you can't have too much Topps. I wish this was a 2006 Rack pack, at least those had Vintage cards. Last years racks sucked. Who cares about a 12 card All Star set? If they weren't going to do the whole 22 card set like they used to, why do it at all? Topps has abandoned Rack packs this year in favor of copying the Fat Pack that Upper Deck uses.

Left pack:
AS7 Chase Utley All Star
106 Ryan Garko
330 Ryan Howard
204 Juan Rivera
163 Dave Roberts
301 Derek Jeter Gold Glove
139 Prince Fielder
182 Ramon Ortiz

I have passed on this very Chase Utley card in the local card shop's 50 cent bin probably 20 times. I guess it was the right choice... The pack also nets a Prince Fielder and the wrong 2007 Topps Series 1 Derek Jeter card.

Middle pack:
142 Trot Nixon
47 Ben Broussard
283 Drew Anderson
144 Jack Wilson
285 Stephen Drew
212 Richie Sexson
225 Robinson Cano

Kids, how would you like to pull... a Richie Sexson card!
Meh.
But the TV gave the impression that...
We said meh.
M-E-H. Meh!

Right pack:
205 Cory Sullivan
126 Daryle Ward
6 Edgar Renteria
194 Edwin Encarnacion
233 Houston Astros
crummy checklist
167 Royce Clayton
158 Noah Lowry

Great Googely Moogely, if I thought the last pack was meh, what can I say about this? Not even Edgar makes up for a team card and a checklist. And Daryle Ward?? Super Meh.

Ok, that was sort of painful. Back to the bland squidgyness of '06 Updates and Highlights next. At least I have a shot at a Mickey Mantle home run card or something.

1983 Topps Baseball Rack Pack Section 3

Alright, the conclusion of this trilogy. Will this final third be an epic monument to collecting, akin to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, or will this disappoint, like Back to the Future: Part III? The suspense must be ended now.

Let's tear in:

Top to Bottom:
350 Robin Yount (Always good.)
593 Broderick Perkins (So very, very yellow.)

641 Billy Sample
282 Reggie Smith
218 Roy Howell (Well, that takes the cake for least-popular 1982 Brewer.)
470 Greg Minton (The 'stache says '70 porn star wannabe, the 1982 ERA of 1.83 suggests the skills to direct. What do you think?)

709 Jimmy Sexton
598 Dwayne Murphy (Ahhhhh! The glare!)

442 Brian Downing
647 Bobby Mitchell
341 Doug DeCinces
408 Rudy May (Remember the '80s, when the Yankees didn't automatically buy all of the best players?)
603 Joe Morgan
434 Dennis Lamp (Quite a patch of growth. Impressive.)

564 Sid Monge
130 Dave Stieb
644 Joe Lefebvre
55 Mookie Wilson
463 Gaylord Perry (What better way to end the racker than a cheating-ass pitcher who looks like everyone's favorite uncle? And look at the lovely powder-blue Mariners uni. While it's quite fashionable here in Milwaukee to wear retro Brewers stuff in this style, I forget just how many teams had alternate powder-blues. Let's see...Brewers, Cards, Phils, Mariners,Twins, Braves, Jays, Expos...am I forgetting anybody? I'm sure readers will let me know.)

Grade: B-
It's all Yount, bolstered a little bit by Morgan. Mookie always looks great on cards, you can just appreciate his unique combination of hitting ability and quickness. A lot of other scrubs, although I'm left wondering how popular Stieb might have been had he played for a U.S. team. I'll just throw that out there for you to discuss.

1983 Topps Baseball Rack Pack Section 2

Judging from the "coverboy," the second third of this pack ought to be pretty stellar.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
200 Rod Carew
528 Jamie Easterly
220 Dusty Baker
361 Super Veteran Nolan Ryan
496 Tom Veryzer (Had he played in the 2000s, would he have been caller "Veryzer Wireless"?)

151 Super Veteran Bruce Sutter (Awesome, lots of love in this pack for Sutter!)
557 Rick Honeycutt
535 Manny Trillo
41 Jerry Turner
209 Mike Moore
36 Super Veteran Rollie Fingers
14 Frank LaCorte (Nearly missed being the guy who wrote Angela's Ashes.)
585 Jose Cruz
437 Rick Sweet (His card is so sweet, I can't show it now.)
648 Jeff Burroughs
231 Super Veteran Fergie Jenkins (Holy batch, that's four Sup-Vets!!)

409 Marvis Foley (Probably spend a lot of time hitting the clubs with Jim Kern.)

Grade: A-
This is close to the perfect pack. Only one of this year's hot rookies could have pushed this up to an A. Fingers remain crossed for the final third.

1983 Topps Baseball Rack Pack

I, too, will take a cue from dayf, except I will go to more extreme lengths to abide by the original charter. Yes, those were sweltering days back in early July of 1776, and the forefathers of A Pack A Day had envisioned something other than the monstrosity this once-great land had become. From the National Archive emerges a hallowed rack package of 1983 Topps. Shall the Great Ryne of Sand-berg appear henceforth, of will the Earl of Boggs grace us with his visage? Only time will tell, as a mere one-third of this pack shall be opened on three successive sundowns.

These truths we hold to be self-evident, thusly we tear in.

Top-most to Bottom-dwelling:
316 Paul Splittorff
342 Atlee Hammaker
216 Tony LaRussa (I wasn't prepared for someone still "active" to come out of this, but what the hey?)
145 Don Sutton (Sweet late-season pickup by the '82 Brew Crew.)

772 Jim Kern (Pimpishly defiant. Possibly a relative of Kevin Federline.)

242 Joe Nolan
512 Doyle Alexander (Always seem to get him in old packs.)
49 Willie McGee (How was this guy not given a card number that was a multiple of 10 after 1982?)
592 Shane Rawley
504 Don Werner
778 Rich Hebner
339 Roger Erickson
316 Paul Splittorff (Oh no...)
342 Atlee Hammaker (OH NO...)
216 Tony LaRussa (OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!)
407 Bruce Sutter All-Star (Ahhhh...sweet redemption.)

684 Rafael Landestoy
479 Charlie Hough (and I'll puff, and I'll blowwwww your house down!)

Grade: C
Batch! (My new curse word.) Nothing gets under my skin like intra-pack doubles. Sutter saves this pack from abject disgrace. The Sutton is nice. I'd still like to see a little more oomph from the las two sections of this card show purchase.