Super Bowl Prediction: 1987 Topps vs. 1995 Uxxxx Dxxx

Second Quarter. Giants have a field goal lead and a pack of 1987 Topps. The Patriots adjust after falling behind and counter with a pack of 1995 Upper Deck.


1987 Topps
293 Donnie Shell gum damaged
246 Doug Betters
112 Joe Montana
383 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
347 Leslie O'Neil RC
204 Steve Jordan
129 Freeman McNeil
1000 yard club 15 Bill Brooks
28 Pepper Johnson
32 Gerald Willhite
38 Rulon Jones
137 Marty Lyons
131 Al Toon
55 William Perry
96 New England Patriots

Joe Montana is an automatic Hail Mary bomb from Eli to Plaxico for 7. It's a shame Topps chose Joe having a drink and bullshitting on the phone for the photo on this card. Donnie Shell is also on the phone on his card. Get off the phone, you're playing football! If I may be so bold, I'd like to say the photography is crap. That is all except for Refrigerator Perry. That's one of the best cards of all time. Field goal for Fridge. The Giants have another card in this pack, Pepper Johnson. Pepper is actually a coach for the Patriots now, so I can't give him a touchdown. A field goal will work. The Leslie O'Neil rookie and Bill Brooks insert don't do too much for me. This pack would be a total disaster for the Patriots if they didn't make their presence known with a team card in the last card of the pack. That nullifies one of the field goals. Ten more points for the Giants' offense.


1995 Upper Deck
253 Junior Seau Electric Diamond
255 Garrison Hearst Electric Diamond
271 Bernie Parmalee242 Jim Harbaugh
240 Deion Sanders
134 Dan Wilkinson
102 Roosevelt Potts
18 Rashaan Salaam star rookie
32 Calvin Williams
59 Randal Hill

Junior Seau is a) a star b) is a current Patriot and c) hilariously just murdered Drew Bledsoe on the card, so this earns a TD for the Pats. Two more favorites of mine earn the Pats a field goal, Bulldog Garrison Heart and Deion Sanders. Seeing Deion in that Niners uniform makes me very sad. The rest of the pack is lackluster and I'm probably overrating the pack to be honest. Just four years removed from the brilliant looking '91 set the photos are starting to look dark and grainy. The Salaam rookie should probably cost the Patriots a touchdown just by himself, but that's now how the game works.

Score at the half: Giants 20 Patriots 17

Super Bowl Prediction: 1991 Topps vs. 1991 Upper Deck series two

A nice close game at halftime, just like the advertisers like it. The Giants pull out the 1991 playbook, while the Patriots go back to their first quarter strategy with a high series pack. Can Bellichick find the Namath?

1991 Upper Deck series two
240 Keith Millard
221 Harold Green
207 Eddie Brown
280 Mark Rypien
128 Albert Lewis
GB1 Barry Sanders Game Breaker
641 Kelvin Pritchett
535 Bill Fralic
485 Floyd Dixon
330 Chris Doleman
216 Leo Goeas
139 Derrick Fenner
91 Green Bay Packers

What are the freakin' odds of pulling two Barry Sanders Game Breaker cards from two different packs from two different boxes from two different series?? Touchdown for the Pats and it looks like the Giants don't make any adjustments at all during halftime. Too busy watching Tom Petty I guess. This set is a guilty pleasure of mine, there is literally nothing worth a damn in this pack but I love it anyway. The design is awesome, the colors are bright and the photos are great. Harold Green breaks a Ram tackle on one side of his card and leaps over another Ram on the back. Eddie Brown and Albert Lewis both have that "oh shit" look right before they get clobbered by a defender. Floyd Dixon shows what it looks like right after getting clobbered. Derrick Fenner leaps over a Patriot defender. Chris Doleman wraps up Ottis Anderson of the Giants. These cards are worth bupkiss, but I like 'em. They're fun. I wish a new set was half this fun. Three more points for the Pats for having three Falcons back to back to back. Doleman was eventually a Falcon so he counts. Plus there's the classic MAJIK card. Gotta love that.

1991 Topps
384 Gary Zimmerman
648 Philadelphia Eagles
501 Broderick Thomas
22 Pepper Johnson
330 Hoby Brenner
637 Houston Oilers
120 Mark Duper
109 Jarvis Williams
16 Lawrence Taylor
1000 yard club 1 Jerry Rice
594 Leroy Hoard
300 Thomas Everett
172 Mark Carrier super rookie
74 Bill Romanowski
282 Norm Johnson
69 Tom Rathman

Another loaded pack for the Giants. First card out of the pack is Gary Zimmerman who just got elected to the Hall of Fame. Not one but two Giants in the pack including LT. Touchdown city. Topps must have been feeling the heat from Pro Set and Score by this time because this is a big improvement on their other sets. The photography is a little better, a little clearer and has more action shots instead of players hanging around the sidelines. Leroy Hoard running over the Jets and Randall Cunningham diving for a touchdown against the Giants are two good looking cards. Jerry Rice is the insert card and any Rice is good. Two TD's for the Giants.

End of the third Quarter, Giants 34, Patriots 27

Super Bowl Prediction: 1999 Topps vs. 1996 Collector's Choice

The Patriots are down a touchdown in the fourth quarter and they need to step it up. Bellichick pulls out a curveball, an old pack of Collector's Choice to help out Brady and company. The Giants have their own trick up their sleeves, they abandon the cardboard for a high gloss foil stamped late 90's pack of Topps.

1996 Collector's Choice
100 Charlie Garner
126 Wesley Walls
38 Stantley Pritchett Rookie class
96 Drew Bledsoe
17 Pete Kendall Rookie Class
M12 Emmitt Smith MVP
S7 Morten Anderson sticker
197 Leslie Shepherd
157 Mike Sherrard
247 Phillipi Sparks
217 Chris Calloway
297 Scott Mitchell
300 Tony Bennett
323 Leroy Hoard

This is my favorite Collector's Choice set. It comes pretty close to the '91 set for looks. Plus the pack has 12 cards plus two bonus cards, wheee!The photography is pretty sweet, there's lots of neat shots here. Sparks is leaping for an interception, Calloway's getting mugged by an Eagle, Sherrard has a great "I didn't do it" look on his face and Bennett signs autographs (in full uniform) for the kids in some neighborhood. The Patriots get a Bledsoe card in this pack which is immediately nullified by three straight Giants. Sherrard has a "Signed by Broncos" label though. I have to give a TD to the MVP card of Emmitt and an awesome sticker of Morten. Hell, I'm giving the Patriots a 2-point conversion since the sticker shows holder Dan Strysynski as well.

1999Topps
288 Keenan McCardell
356 Checklist
195 Glyn Milburn
303 Leslie Shepherd
249 James Jett
194 Ted Johnson
341 Donovan McNabb SP RC
306 Terence Mathis
276 Trent Dilfer
299 Robert Brooks
218 John Avery

Donovan McNabb short print rookie! Freakin' Sweet! That's worth two touchdowns at least. The rest of the pack ain't so great. The design is kind of ugly and there's not much in here other than Donovan. Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson looks real mean though, he knocks out one of McNabb's touchdowns. The Giants have one last trick up their sleeve. Terence Mathis is one of my favorite Falcons of all time, plus he went to the Super Bowl the year this set came out. That's worth a last minute field goal to win it for the Gnats. Hey, I calls 'em as I sees 'em and Topps was just better in these pack breaks. So if the cards are correct we'll have a barn burner today with New York giving Boston another complex with a last second field goal. Bet on it! Old crappy wax is never wrong!

FINAL SCORE: Giants 44 Patriots 42

Ted Johnson sez: WE WUZ ROBBED!!!

1987 Topps Hockey

As promised, I will now bust 3 packs of 1987 Topps Hockey cards. And without further delay...

Pack 1

Grant Fuhr - Oilers
Tom Barasso - Sabres
Dennis Maruk - North Stars
Doug Bodger - Penguins
Ron Dugay - Rangers
Kirk Muller - Devils
Luc Robitaille RC
Charlie Simmer - Bruins
Mike Bossy - Isles
Anton Stastny - Nords
John Anderson - Whalers
Neal Broten - North Stars

Washington Capitals Sticker
1 piece of petrified gum

Pack 2

Joe Mullen - Flames
Aaron Broten - Devils
Stan Smyl - Canucks
John Tucker - Sabres
Tony Tanti - Canucks
Wayne Gretzky - All Star
Marcel Dionne - Rangers
Tom McCarthy - Bruins
Doug Jarvis - Whalers
Bob Carpenter - Kings
James Patrick - Rangers
Dan Quinn - Penguins

Petrified gum

Pack 3

Paul Reinhart - Flames
Clark Gillies - Sabres
Christian Ruttuu - Sabres
Bob Smith - Canadiens
Bob Brooke - North Stars
Craig Laughlin - Capitals
Reed Larson - Bruins
Ulf Samuelsson - Whalers
Brent Ashton - Red Wings
Brian MacLellan - North Stars
Terry Rustkowski - Penguins
Shawn Burr - Red Wings

NJ Devils Sticker
Petrified gum

In other packs I pulled :

(1) 2nd year Roy
(2) 3rd year Lemieux

Messier, Goulet, Yzerman, Dionne, Wendell Clark, Bourque, Ronnie Francis. Oates RC, Hextall RC.

I was able to add a ton of vintage cards to my PC so naturally I was very pleased with the box. Sure the centering wan't great on alot of these cards but I don't care. This box was definitely worth the $165 I paid for it. Plus it was a great trip down memory lane. Hey, where else could you take a trip in a time machine for under two-hundred bucks?

Stylin' and profilin'

Coming back from a college hockey game tonight (watching the ol' alma mater battle to a 3-all tie. It was crap as they should have won, 3-2. The other third goal should have been called off), I stopped to drop off a friend at Wal-Mart, which is where he parked.

Far be it from me to pull into a Wal-Mart and not go check the inventory. Turns out there were two boxes of the TriStar Prospect Plus blasters. I avoided, however, as I need just three base cards for the set and wasn't into spending 20 bucks on the blaster. I looked at some of the silly and goofy things, but wasn't about to spend $4 on something that would end up in the trash.

So I opted to try something else. Like a couple retail, $1.99 packs of WWE Heritage III!


The front of these packs offer the following:

• Bubble gum in every pack!
• Look for: Ringside Relics, Magnets or Allen and Ginter Superstars!

The pack front also features John Cena holding the WWE title belt. It's funny, because his catch phrase is "You can't see me!" However, anyone looking at these cards sure can see him!

The gum is also different, I see. No longer will we have to worry about all of those stains on the cards as Topps has made it more fan-friendly and put it in its own packaging:


So, let's crack open these packs and see what we can come up with!

Pack 1:

79 Pat Patterson
The first intercontinental champion, even though he was basically handed the belt!
85 Kamala
Where's Kim Chee?
Ric Flair magnet
Apparent mojo? Whoooooooooooo! The Nature Boy! Whooooooooooooo!
67 Mickie James
57 Undertaker

Pack 2:
35 The Miz
49 Chavo Guerrero
16 Domino
8 Hardcore Holly
Hell yeah, a real bad-ass. They don't call him hardcore for nothing!
25 JBL

Pack 3:
61 Melina
71 Brian Pillman
Flyin' Brian!
7 of 12 - Mr. Kennedy Allen and Ginter
Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiister Kennedy! Kennedy!
41 Shelton Benjamin
75 The Freebirds
Bad Street, Atlanta, GA!

Overall thoughts: I like that Topps actually has some old-school looking cards for this set. Really king of cool. I don't buy many n0n-baseball packs, but I'd be tempted to buy a couple hobby packs of these to see what I could pull. I'm a WWE fan (well, some of it), so these are pretty wild. And as an old-school wrestling fan, seeing the stars of yesteryear is kind of cool, too.

I picked up a NASCAR pack for laughs, too. I'll open that in the next day or two and post.

Sox Or No Sox: 2-2-08

Let's play America’s favorite game, Sox Or No Sox.

The rules are simple. We take one unopened pack of baseball cards that was randomly selected by yours truly. We then go through the pack card by card looking for those pesky to find White Sox cards.

Our player in tonight's game is another 2004 Fleer Tradition pack. The pack contains 10 cards and features a very busy looking wrapper. Very cool. Let's begin.

#1: Wes Helms – 261 - Brewers
I don’t remember Wes being on the Brewers. I guess that has something to do with the Brewers switching to the National League.

#2: Brooks Kieschnick – 234 - Brewers
This would be a Milwaukee favorite pack. Never heard of him. He has a cool sounding name though.

#3: Matt LeCroy – 135 - Twins
There’s something wrong when you’re a designated hitter before age 30 and not a household name.

#4: Kelvim Escobar – 174 - Angels
A year later, he would be involved in the controversial dropped third strike in the playoffs.

#5: Jose Valentin – 119 – White Sox
The White Sox player who set the team record for single season home runs by a shortstop and dropped everything else.

Halfway through the pack. One White Sox card. No trap cards and a few of the Brew Crew. 5 cards left to go. Let’s see if we can another White Sox card!

#6: Larry Bigbie – 425 - Orioles
An SP card of an Oriole. Kevin will be proud!

#7: Julio Lugo – 314 – Devil Rays
Julio looks like a pitcher on the card.

#8: Jeff Bagwell – 368 - Astros
A Bagwell is always a welcome sight.

#9: Ivan Rodriguez – 3 – Marlins
A Lil’ Pudge World Series card! Very interesting.

#10: John Lackey – 56 – Angels
John had a 19-20 career total at this point.

OK, our pack opening is complete. Not that bad. A Jose Valentin White Sox card. No trap cards. These cards look meh. They remind me too much of 1990 Fleer. Meh.

So, that’s ½ point for each card in the pack. +2 for the White Sox card.

Final score: 7 points

One White Sox card in this game, we’ll look out for more next time on Sox Or No Sox.

A Hard Habit to Break

One of the guys on the Beckett Hockey board posted this picture at Christmas. I totally loved it so I saved it and want to share it with you guys. Every time I feel like my hockey card addiction is totally out of control, I look at this picture and I always smile!! What a great holiday card haul!!! If memory serves, there are about 24 boxes! Its a card collector's wet dream for crying out loud. By the way, if the original owner of this picture sees this, please don't get angry with me as I put it up in tribute to you.

Now, onto new business. I will be busting some vintage hockey packs tomorrow afternoon and the results will be posted right here. (No, no, not there....here!!) Fair warning, if I should hit a Roy 2nd year card or a Lemieux 3rd year card, there may be tears and girlish screaming on this side of the screen. Luckily my brother has been instructed to use chemical sedation on me if I get too out of control.

So meet me back here tomorrow...

2007 Topps Turkey Red

I bought this pack of Turkey Red thinking that I was really desperate for something new to open. Then Thorzul goes and shows me I don't even know the meaning of the word. This pack was discounted to three dollars instead of the typical four or five for hobby packs. Plus the dealer gave me the Mickey Mantle box topper advertisement poster to boot, not a bad deal. I was still apprehensive about it though, as a set builder I hate the fact that the short prints are impossible to get and I didn't want to waste money that could go to 2008 product. I couldn't resist the poster though so even if the pack sucked I still had that to put on the front of my Turkey Red binder.

110 Daisuke Matsuzaka RC
150 Ken Griffey Jr.
141 Kevin Kouzmanoff RC
186 Yovani Gallardo RC
95 Derek Jeter
180 Miguel Cabrera Turkey Red back SP
23 Adrian Gonzalez
19 Mickey Mantle & Casey Stengel

Well this is a pretty goddamn good pack at first glance. Griffey, Jeter, Mantle plus three good rookies. Problem is when I was ripping, all I saw was, "have it", "have it", "got three of them", "Ditto"... Hell, three cards out of the pack I pulled my very first pack rip. That's why this set irritates me, I haven't bought that much of this stuff but the set is so small every rip is doubles city. At least I have some nice cards to trade, plus the Griffey, Jeter and Mantle paintings by Dick Perez are freaking gorgeous. The Dice-K painting... not so much. Dude looks like Gomez from Charles Addams' cartoons. Still a nice rookie. So I was bunmmed at getting no SPs once again, when I looked at the back. Miguel Cabrera Turkey Red back! Kick ass! I got one I need at least. If anyone out there covets any of the others, make me an offer.

2003 Hamtaro

Cabin fever. Off-season madness. Call it what you will. When a man is driven to purchasing 2003 packs of something called Hamtaro, you know that the opening of the 2008 card season could not come any sooner.

Let's tear in.

(I'll do my best trying to describe each of the cards, as they are almost completely non-verbal.)
Top to Bottom:
006 Sticker (What appears to be a mouse and a hamster, the latter of which is holding a sunflower seed. Speaking of which, have you ever owned a hamster? My younger sister did, and feeding time for that thing was high comedy. Those critters have no off switch, they just keep stuffing whatever you give them into their cheeks. Hilarious.)

002 (Some sort of angrier-type rodent powering a railroad hand-cart, while a locomotive filed with creatures cruises by in the background. What looks to be a baby is being towed in the foreground. She has a horn.)

010 (An act of racial hegemony is depicted here. A large group of carefree, bourgeois hamsters are living out their middle-class existence while outside, the angry-type rat suffers a more Dickensian fate, all of his worldly possessions bundled up in a hobo's sack tied to a shovel. He truly embodies the spirit of the working poor.)

016 (A group of hamsters frolic in a tree. One is in a sock or, perhaps, a sleeping bag. Sunflower seeds are the currency of this strange community. They own dogs despite their much smaller and less-threatening size.)

013 (Well, maybe it's not a dog. I'm not sure. Sunflower seeds are the hammer and sickle of these socialist rodents. Asian-type rodents do all of the sweeping.)

SR002 Chrome: (It's bedtime for Snoozer. The back of the card fills in some of the blanks.)


Yes, it was a sock. And no, the fun is not over yet.
The backs of these cards can be turned into a fun, interchangeable village. Here's how I organized mine:

Okay, so there are train tracks that end abruptly and fractions of houses, but that's life in Hamtaro Land. This was easily the best product of 2003.

Oh, and if anybody runs across this and wants to pay me for writing stuff like this, you can get in touch with me here.

2006 Topps Opening Day

When you're a cheap schlub like me, you just can't say no to Legends repacks. Here's the first two packs of a six-packs-for-five-dollars purchase:

Pack 1:

40 Jorge Posada
21 Lance Berkman
63 John Smoltz
43 Jimmy Rollins
15 Brian Roberts
57 Bartolo Colon
22 of 25 Ichiro/Johnny Damon Funny Photos
If I was playing "O's or No O's?" I would be in good shape. I've gotta enjoy Brian Roberts while I still can. I've always liked Lance Berkman, even if BerkMan is a lame name for a superhero. As far as Bartolo Colon, I can't help but wonder how many immigrant laborers died to make Bartolo the Giant's uniform.

Pack 2:

143 Bryan Bullington RC
151 John Koronka RC
146 Walter Young RC
41 Albert Pujols
109 Paul Lo Duca
139 Ryan Garko RC
19 of 25 Manny Ramirez/Ronnie Belliard Funny PhotosThis pack is just crammed chock-full of Rookie Cards. However, I also have to call B.S. on Bullington - I have his 2003 Topps Draft Pick card. Koronka has one of the most hilarious Dugout screen names ever, in Koronkadonk. Walter Young...my god. That guy's ass has its own congressman. As an O's fan, I can tell you that people were always trying to compare him to Frank Thomas just because he was a giant black guy who hit home runs. The difference is that Frank Thomas is actually an athlete. I would like to say, however, that I appreciate the use of brown in the Orioles' color scheme in this set. It harkens back to 1988 Topps in a way.

2007 Topps Turkey Red Baseball

I'll break up the Topps '52 monotony (this is not a slight, however, as I have another in the works) with some more Turkey Red. I know, I swore the first pack of this would be my last, but what the hell.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
120 Manny Ramirez

55 Josh Hamilton RC
32 Andruw Jones

9 Josh Beckett
TRR-TH Travis Hafner Game-Worn Gray Jersey

6 Corey Patterson
23 Adrian Gonzalez

Grade: As an elementary school teacher, I am all-too-familiar with grading systems. My school, in particular, has foregone the A, B, C grading scale in favor of numeric grades. Really, it's all the same shit to me, but here's the demarcation: 4 - Advanced, 3 - Proficient, 2 - Basic, 1 - Minimal.
I suppose a relic card makes this a 4. It's also a Red Sox lover's dream, but that I ain't. I've got more on Manny Being Manny, if you're so inclined.

I swear, doc, this is my last pack of the stuff...honest!