1994 Milwaukee Wave Promo Pack

This pack was likely received as an arena giveaway. It's one of those things that my parents find in a shoebox when they're doing some cleaning, and they give it to me when they stop over. There's not too much mystery about what I'll be getting, as with the cello wrapper two of the three cards are visible. Let's tear in anyway.

Top to Bottom:
#27 Victor Noguiera

Noguiera is arguably the best indoor goalkeeper of all time. He led the Wave to a string of championships and finals appearances in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

#9 Eloy Salgado


Coupon for 40 Cents Off One Palermo's Pizza (exp. 7/31/1994)

I'm pleased to report that Palermo's Pizza is still around and doing well in Milwaukee. In fact, they made good by sending me a coupon for a free pizza when I sent them this photo of unacceptable pepperoni distribution/volume last year.


All in all, not too surprised about the contents of the pack. Multiple copies of the two player cards floated around my house, as my siblings and I all probably got the same pack upon entry. Maybe Mom and Dad, too. Yeah, the only reason I remember Salgado is because of this card. I don't think I've ever seen any of the other cards in this set.

2008/2009 Topps Match Attax Football

Hello again!

Hot off the presses is the new series of Topps Match Attax.

We don't like change here in the UK, so this new series is very similar to last years, except this year there is a whopping 425 cards (326 last year) to collect and they come with a blue back (Red last year)

The inserts are;

Star players 1 in every 2.3 packets

Man of the match 'Rainbow' foils 1 in every 5 packets

100 club rainbow foils 1 in every 100 packets

plus they succumb to the 'limited special insert'. An Autograph insert of Fabregas Card of which there are only 100.

To coincide with the rise in everything due to the credit crunch the price is now 40p a packet (up from last years 35p). Still 6 cards per pack though.

Pack 1

Steve G Liverpool Rainbow foil Man of the Match

Edwin Van der Sar Manchester United

Ricardo Vaz Te Bolton Wanderers

Peter Halmosi Hull City AFC

Marek Cech West Bromwich Albion

Michael Essien Chelski

Pack 2

Gary Cahill Bolton Wanderers

Robin Van Persie Arsenal

James Morrison West Bromwich Albion

Didier Digard Middlesborough

Phil Bardsley Sunderland

Fabricio Coloccini Newcastle

We are on a short break at the moment for some international matches. Which is a big relief for some teams such as Newcastle and Tottenham who have had their worst starts to the season for decades. While other 'unfashionable' teams like Hull City have had a blistering start. Fulham I'm sad to say are just above the relegation zone - but it is a long season.

Some packs of these will be going out to the usual suspects.

Hope you enjoyed.

A Pack(et) A Day: 2007/08 Topps EPL Match Attax Extra

Wrapping up my grab bag are five packets of 2007/08 Topps Match Attax Extra. TMAE was an 83 card update series featuring new signings and new players. There are two inserts: Club Captains (4:5/packs) and Rainbow Foil (1:5)

Two Pints of Lager and Five Packets of Stickers

Like I mentioned before, The Hobby in Europe consists mainly of cheap base sets (which double as CCGs) and stickers. I loved the old Panini baseball stickers from the 80s and if there's one thing from the 80s I wish the powers that be would bring back, it's stickers.

It's been about 20 years since I've opened a pack of stickers, so imagine my excitement when John in the UK sent me five packets of 2007/08 Merlin EPL stickers.

The set consists of 648 stickers, and like the sticker sets of the 80s, it came with a matching album for you to paste the stickers in. Each packet comes with six stickers (one of which is oversized).

A Pack(et) A Day: 2006/07 Magic Entertainment Shoot Out Update & Panini EURO2008

The other two packets of soccer cards sent to me by John in England.



Yes, I fully realize that I'm ripping English football packets while wearing a Celtic kit.

A Pack(et) A Day: 2007/08 Topps EPL Match Attax

APAD's new contributor, John in England (a.k.a. "jackplumstead"), sent along a care package stuffed with soccer cards. A couple of months ago, I spent two weeks in Ireland looking for some of these things, and was unsuccessful. A couple of months later, some guy in England who I've never met before, sends me a pack of Panini Euro2008, a pack of 2006-07 Magic Box Shoot Out Player Update, five packs of 2007-08 Topps Match Attax, and a Match Attax Fulham team set.

Damn it feels good to be an APAD contributor.

---

The Hobby over there is a little different than it is over here. For one thing, "sports cards" as we know them in this country don't really exist. There are no autographed cards, no game jersey cards, and no $100 lotto-packs. Instead you'll find a lot of what we had in this country 20 years ago: cheap base sets and Panini stickers.

2007/08 Topps Match Attax is actually a CCG; but despite this, it's pretty comprehensive -- which is more than what you can say about most baseball card sets these days. The set has 360 cards (18 players for each of the 20 EPL teams) with 40 of those (two for each club) designated as "Star Players." Each of the Star Players are printed on foil-board and are short-printed at the rate of 1:2/packs. In addition, there is a sixty-card (three per side) insert called "Man of the Match." MotMs are 1:5/packs.

There's also one other difference -- a big one if you ask me -- between European and American sports cards: cost. Each six-card packet (and that's what they call them over there, "packets") cost only 35p. That's about $0.65US.

Unfortunately, I opened all five packs packets and collated them without duly noting (as I usually do) what each individual pack packet had. So here's what I got in all five:

Base: 29 of 360 (8.06%)

short-set: 28 of 320 (8.75%)
Star Players: 1 of 40 (1:2) S. Bywater

Insert:
1 Man of the Match (1:5) C. Ronaldo

I received, perhaps, the worst possible Star Player and the best possible MotM insert.

First, the worst: Stephen Bywater started last season as the #1 goalkeeper for newly-promoted Derby County. Derby finished the 2007-08 season with a record of one win, eight draws, 29 losses and a goal differential of -69 -- the worst in the 16-season history of the EPL. Bywater was loaned out to Ipswich Town during the January transfer window, which in footy-speak is the equivalent of being sent down to Triple-A. "Star Player?" Ha!

On the other hand, Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player on the planet. There is no better card to pull out of a pack, errr..., packet of Match Attax than a Man of the Match of Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro.

CRISTIAN-JO RONALD-JO!!!

1994 Upper Deck World Cup Football USA94

This will be the last of my soccer for the time being and what a pack it is. The World Game came to the US of A in 1994. There are a few thing I remember about this World Cup.

1. England were not there.
2. Indoor football - a first for a world cup
3. It was really hot.
4. and Alexi Lalas!

Yes Alexi Lalas. The Ginger, long haired, goatee bearded, musician. What a character. What a player.

There was 210 cards in the set with some inserts 3D holograms, International All stars and Postcards from Pasadena. The last two inserts were a way to make collecting the set more interesting for those countries not at the World cup. Another notable feature was that they were bi-lingual. They came in English/German, English/Spanish and English/Italian. If memory serves me correctly they cost £1.99 a pack.
There were three USA squad members who plied their trade in England at the time- John Harkes, Roy Wegerle and Juergen Somer. Also members of the squad were Brad Friedel and Claudio Reyna, they were part of Soccer America?

I will bust two packs.

Pack 1

UD1 'Postcard from Pasadena' Brian Laudrup Denmark (Who were not at this World Cup.)

156 Aitor Beguiristain Spain

168 Terry Phelan Republic of Ireland

36 Frank De Boer Netherlands (with twin brother Ronald.)

57 Jan Eriksson Sweden (Who never actually went because he was injured.)

54 Dunga Brazil (Captain of the winning country, possibly better know for a having a fight on the field with team mate Bebeto in the 1998 World Cup.)

Pack 2

19 Gianluca Paglica Italy

102 Stephane Chapuisat Switzerland

81 Michel Preud'Homme Belgium (Belgium Man-I just want to be swadding well rescued Ford! )

247 An odd card with a crying Paul Ince on the back- just to remind the English they weren't there I suppose.
14 Eric Wynalda USA! USA!

WC8 Enzo Scifo Belgium (An impressive hologram insert card.)

An interesting set of cards that I'm not sure set the world of card collecting on fire.
Again if your interested in some packs I have about 8 more.

Hope you enjoyed.

2008 Panini Championship Soccer

The first football (soccer) post went down quite well so I thought I'd do another but Thorzul beat me to post another Premiership pack after the first round of the competition.

However there is life outside of the Premiership. The second tier of the football competition called 'The Championship'. The three teams relegated from the Premiership at the end of the season join 'The Championship' and the first three teams from the Championship join 'The Big League' (and usually go straight back down again).

The teams may not be as well known but as just as eagerly supported as the teams in 'The Premiership'. Whereas in the Premiership it is won by one of 'The Big Four' (Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal). The Championship is much more evenly contested and well over half the teams have realistic possibility of gaining promotion.

I support a team called 'Charlton Athletic', a London club like Fulham, Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham. Who until recently were a premiership team but were relegated two seasons ago.

The cards are produced by Panini, an Italian company, who also produce a wide variety of football stickers.
These are 35p a pack for 5 cards. You can also buy an attractive binder with 9 pocket sleeves to keep your cards in.
There are no inserts, short prints, parallels or super dynamic ultra special shiny cards. Just your 288 base cards ( about 12 cards per team.)It is fairly easy to collect the whole set or your club of preference.

Pack 1

89 Gary Borrowdale Coventry City

21 Wes Hoolahan Blackpool (a beautiful bright orange strip)

128 Sylvain Legwinski Ipswich Town

166 Sylvan Ebanks-Blake Plymouth Argyle

15 Billy Sharpe Sheffield United ('The Blades')

278 Darren Ward Wolverhampton Wanderers

Pack 2
150 Lee Croft Norwich City (love that green and yellow strip and great nickname 'The Canaries)
193 Joe Murphy Scunthorpe United
202 Paul Hayes Scunthorpe United
54 Gavin Rae Cardiff City (losing FA Cup team)
16 Michael Jackson Blackpool (no not that one, a different one)

Pack 3

180 Neil Mellor Preston North End
6 Rohan Ricketts Barnsley

211 Michael Tonge Sheffield United (cockney rhyme slang for something going wrong-as in 'It's all gone Pete Tong')

62 Yassin Mountaouakil Charlton Athletic(Come on you Reds)

109 Boaz Myhill Hull City (Premiership new boys)

Hope you enjoyed. There are a few Americans playing in the Championship (and a few Canadians as well).

Again if you want any packs just drop us a line and they are yours.

Feed the Yak and He Will Score

Today was the first real day of Premier League action over in England, so I've decided to rip one of the packs sent to me by our UK correspondent, John.

I chose this pack because it has a player from Everton, my favorite team, on the wrapper. They played today, but their 2-1 lead would not hold and they lost 3-2 to Blackburn. Will Mikel Arteta (the guy in the blue shirt at lower left) help produce a better result?

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
Michael Carrick - Manchester United (Part of the Champions League winner last season, but not one of their major stars.)

Mehdi Nafti - Birmingham (Tunisian international.)

Gareth Bale - Tottenham

David Nugent Man of the Match Parallel - Portsmouth (Part of the surprise FA Cup-winning side.)

Fernando Torres - Liverpool (First bona-fide superstar in the pack! Fernando scored the wininng goal for Spain in Euro 2008 this summer, as well as scoring the winning goal for Liverpool today.)

Gary Speed - Bolton (Don't know too much about him, other than that he joined Sheffield United in the middle of last season. With a last name like that, the emmer-effer better be fast.)

Not a bad pack at all, despite no Toffees. I'll leave you with a look at the backs of the cards, which include nice logos.

2007/2008 Topps Match Attax

Hiya, I'm John from the UK. I asked Ben if I could join in-so here I am. Although I am a baseball card collector, I thought I would do my first post on something very English- Premiership football (soccer to you).

I would think there are maybe some of you who view this site who are interested in soccer. I know that Thorzul follows Everton and I've seen Chris Harris wear a Fulham shirt. Besides the fact that three of the bigger clubs are owned by Americans.

Manchester United by Malcolm Glazer,

Aston Villa by Randy Learner and

Liverpool by George Gillett and Tom Hicks. Who have incidentally fallen out over the running of the club.

Fulham has the largest contingent of American born players-Eddie Johnson, Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra and Brian McBride.

There are 360 players to collect. There are some parallels to collect called Star Players and Man of the Match. They cost 35p (70cents) a pack. It's also a card game with defense and attack points. (beats me?)

Onto the cards.

Pack 1

Hayden Mullins West Ham

Robert Malcolm Derby County

Liam Ridgewell Birmingham

Tal Ben-Haim Chelsea

Victor Anichebe Everton

Michael Johnson Derby County

Pack 2

Frank Lampard Chelsea 'Star player'

Luke Moore Aston Villa

John O'Shea Manchester United

Philippe Senderos Arsenal

Ryan Nielsen Blackburn Rovers

Michael Ballack Chelsea

So there is my first post done. No big players except maybe Lampard, Senderos and Ballack. If your interested in any packs just send a message and I'm sure I can send some out.

Hope you enjoyed!