Wal-Mart $9.99 Value Pack: Two Packs of 2006 Topps series two Retail

Pack #1
Toby Hall
Jake Peavy
Aaron Cook
Craig Monroe
Jason Schmidt
Tim Stauffer

Pack #2
Lew Ford
Sidney Ponson
A.J. Burnett
Magglio Ordonez
Ervin Santana
Cardinals Team Picture

Gene Rayburn: "Dumb Dora was so dumb..."

Audience (in unison): "HOW DUMB WAS SHE?"

Gene: "She was so dumb, she opened up two retail packs of 2006 Topps series two and didn't say [BLANK]."

(Celebrity panel writes their answers down while the porno-groove Match Game theme song plays in the background.)

Gene (sticking his long, skinny microphone into the face of the pinhead contestant): "OK, Dumb Dora was so dumb, she opened up two retail packs of 2006 Topps series two and didn't' say....."

Pinhead Contestant: "MEH!"

Gene: "Charles Nelson Reilly, what did you write down?"



Gene: "That's a Match!"

2004 Fleer Legacy Baseball

This Fleer Legacy product boasts one of the smallest sets I've ever seen, 60 cards. Actually, the checklist that came in the pack also includes #61-75, a Rookies subset, as well as a 15-card "Hit Kings" insert set.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
14 Carlos Delgado
34 Randy Johnson

HK 4 Mike Piazza Hit Kings

48 Hideo Nomo
15 Chipper Jones

Grade: B
This is a very attractive set, with huge swaths of color framing each player. The only drawback to the design is the decision to put some of the personal stats all around the corners on the backs of the cards, making them very hard to read. The design also isn't very slick about hiding the place reserved for game-used relics. Still, I like it. The player selection could have been a little better, but with 60 veterans, you aren't going to pull many duds.

1991 Stadium Club Series 2

Ok, I've already given you my big Stadium Club story, let's just bust open this series two pack. It can't possibly be as good as the first one, CAN IT?!?!? (this is called foreshadowing, folks. All the cool writers use it)

543 Mo Vaughn $4.00^
465 Albert Belle $1.50
595 Ed Nunez 20¢
548 Chuck Knoblauch $2.75^
576 Luis Gonzalez $4.00^
388 Jeff Bagwell $11.00^
517 Tim Hullett 20¢
598 Checklist cards 301-400 20¢
Stadium Club BARS ad
365 John Smoltz 20¢
457 Junior Felix 20¢
452 Mark Whiten $1.25
432 Ernie Riles 20¢

WHERE THE HELL WERE THESE PACKS IN 1991 WHEN I COULD HAVE USED THEM? This pack has just about every good rookie from series two, including the only two that book anymore. Plus I got John Smoltz, who bestows automatic win to every pack he's in. The rookie cards all have the exact same picture on the front as on the back. Mo's card is on the front and the back! Whoooa... All except for Luis Gonzalez who somehow has his 1991 Topps debut card on the back, which is labeled as 1990 debut just to make things more confusing. Since the price guide mention got a lot of comments, I am shamelessly pandering to my audience and listing the book value next to the cards. This time I'm using the November 1991 Beckett (the one with Bo in a White Sox uni on the cover) for my reference. Look at all those up arrows! I wonder how many people bought the Mark Whiten for a buck fiddy and left the 20 cent Smoltz on the counter. I pulled 3 of the top five cards out of this set according to that guide. Bags at $11 is the top card obviously, and Luis and Mo are in a three way tie for third. Can anyone guess the other two cards?

Hint: #2 on the list booked for 9 bucks and played for a team in this year's World Series.

Another hint: You'll never figure out #5 unless you look it up in your Bo Beckett even though he was in the top 5 in NL Rookie of the Year voting in '91.

1983 Fleer Wax Pack

Keeping in time honored tradition, this mid-eighties Fleer pack is filled top to bottom with headshots. Hell, in this pack of 15, there are only 2 cards that I wouldn't consider a straight up headshot-- and, even then, I'm being awful generous to Mr. Pacella. Besides these 2 Twinkie pitchers, there isn't anything close to action photography. But, still, you have to appreciate how excited Hal McRae is in this photo-- although, I guess it is with good reason: he had a monster year in '82. Per usual, I'll leave it to an old Hall of Famer to clean up this pack-- Yaz saves the day as the last card pulled. Game 2 of the Series is about to start and for those of you not keeping track at home, I pulled 1 Red Sock and 0 Rockies... just kidding: Go Rockies!

#119 Hal McRae
#123 Don Slaught
#654 Padres/Yankees Checklist
#563 John Butcher
#276 Jim Wohlford
#622 John Pacella
#621 Jack O’Connor
#655 Indians/Blue Jays Checklist
#426 Jim Clancy
#58 Rick Dempsey
#382 Ken Griffey
#384 Dave LaRoche
#156 Larry Christenson
#140 Rufino Linares
#200 Carl Yastrzemski
Blue Jays Sticker

2004 Upper Deck Diamond Pro Sigs

These packs of cards seem to keep getting slimmer and slimmer. Maybe this is why I don't buy Upper Deck.

Let's tear in.

13 Jerome Williams
64 Greg Maddux
43 Edgar Renteria Gold Parallel

58 Vladimir Guerrero

70 Mark Mulder
6 Larry Walker

Grade: B
The Vlad is nice. My only comment on the design comes from my fiancee: "It looks like their legs are cut off."
Yeah, I guess the design could use some work. Personally, anything without a real background usually rubs me the wrong way.
From the card numbering, I'm guessing this is one of those sets that's deceptively difficult to complete, small, but lots of hard-to-get stuff. I'll be staying away from any future packs.

Wal-Mart $9.99 Value Pack: 2006 Topps series one Rack Pack

I can't even remember the last time I opened up a Rack Pack. It should be noted; however, that for much of the late-90s and early-00s, The Hobby stopped making Racks.


The calling card for the '06 Topps Racks is that each of the three compartments contains a vintage buy-back.

Base:
Felipe Lopez
Jarrod Washburn
Shawn Estes
Huston Street
J.T. Snow
Dave Roberts
Joe Table
Preston Wilson
Jeff Weaver
Brett Tomko
Jason Phillips
Ichiro Gold Glove
Bobby Abreu Gold Glove
Ryan Howard NL ROY
Bobby Cox
Francisco Liriano (RC)


Inserts:
Declaration of Independence Signers: Oliver Wolcott (1:4)

Mirrors:
Barry Bonds Bullshit Waste of Space: #674 (1:2)

Buy-Backs:
'85 Duane Kiper
'86 Bob Bailor
'89 Pirates Team Leaders

According to the Beckett Annual, the Pittsburgh player depicted on the 1989 Team Leader card tagging Tony Gywnn is Al Pedrique. I still think it looks like Jay Bell. What do you all think?



Since I already had a complete set of '06 Topps, once again all cards (except for the Oliver Wolcott insert) are available for trade.

1991 Stadium Club Series 1

Moreso than 1989 Upper Deck, I remember '91 Stadium Club causing collectors to completely lose their minds over high end premium card sets. That may not actually be the case as my memory is probably somewhat skewed. I've always been more of a Topps guy. I dismissed Upper Deck when it first came out and didn't pay much attention to it. A dollar for a pack of cards? Madness! By 1991 I also had more money and a driver's license, so I was able to hit the card shops more often and see the craziness first hand. It was amazing how batshit insane people went for this set. Granted, it was fantastic looking for the time. The photos were great and it was a stroke of genius to market the set as Kodak quality. I remember a few dismayed shop owners who proudly displayed the cards in their front window only to have them fade from the sun after a while. The backs were pretty neat too, with their weird BATS rating system and the coolest thing ever, a picture of the player's Topps rookie card. This set got real expensive real quick, and while I liked it it was out of my league. I bought one pack at the time at Atlanta Sports Cards for the kingly price of five dollars for one pack. (What is it with me and 5 dollar packs?) I eagerly opened it up and looked through the cards. The best card in the pack was - and I am not kidding about this - Teddy Higuera. The shop keeper who had just sold me on a pack of cards for five dollars proceeded to laugh in my face. "Wow, that pack really sucked!" I passed on a second pack. The last laugh was by me as I ended up picking up most of the set in common bins for less than a penny a piece a few years later. I found a couple of boxes of this stuff selling for a tenth of what I paid in '91, so I picked up a pack of series 1 and 2 for a buck. Here's what I got:

101 Lou Whitaker
220 Barry Bonds
177 Eddie Murray
200 Nolan Ryan
Stadium Club Membership offer
235 Tom Browning
5 Will Clark
42 Lee Smith
80 Randy Milligan
280 Rex Hudler
274 Robin Ventura
291 Shawn Abner

Wow. Not sure you could do much better than the four cards before the advertisement. Check out Sweet Lou's Baseball-reference page and look at the similar batters section. It's a who's-who of Hall of Fame arguments. Eddie Murray is the shiz-nite as Master Shake would say. Barry is looking smarmy as hell in that fake Olan Mills portrait. The Nolan Ryan tuxedo card was the one people were really going berzerk for. I never understood it, because tuxedoes look ridiculous to begin with and a Rangers cap and Nikes don't help. The second half of the pack comes down to earth a bit, but Will Clark, Lee Smith and Robin Ventura (wisely keeping his distance from Ryan) are pretty dang good in their own right. Hell, if I had gotten Will the Thrill in that pack 16 years ago, I would have been happy enough to go for that second pack. If I had gotten this exact pack I would have soiled my shorts and opened a box. I dug up my old Beckett from September 1991 (The one with Dave Justice on the cover) and The Nolan books for 10 bucks and rising, Will is $2.50 with an up arrow and the rest range from 20 to 90 cents. Frank Thomas was the big seller at 18 bucks a pop. I don't see any of them listed in a recent Beckett, just the Bagwell and Gonzalez rookies. Gotta make room for the new Topps Triple Threads listings I guess.

1988 Pacific Eight Men Out

I went to the card shop to see if Topps Series 3 was out yet, but sadly it has been pushed back again. It's now set to arrive on Halloween, but I'm not holding my breath. I checked out their dollar box of oddball packs and found this. Today seemed like a great day to open this pack so I grabbed it. This set came out the same year as Pacific's Legends set and is based on the movie. About a quarter of the set is of actual players from the Black Sox, let's see if we pull one. A Shoeless Joe card would be sweet.


59 Kid Watches Eddie
67 Judge Kenesaw Mountain Racist
56 Kerr wins Game Six
39 The fix is on
65 Sign the petition
35 Hugh and Ring comfort Kid
109 Happy Felsch
90 Adolfo Luque
79 Judge Bastard Commissioner of Baseball
12 John Cusack as George Buck Weaver
72 The Trial

Not too bad, one player from each world series team, and a good assortment from the movie. I'm not thrilled about pulling two Kenesaw Mountain Landis cards, I'm not too fond of him as you can probably tell. Yeah, yeah, he saved baseball, cleaned up the sport, blah blah blah. He also made damn sure Oscar Charleston and Josh Gibson would never have a chance to play in the majors so saving the league was a Pyrrhic victory as far as I'm concerned. The John Cusack rookie card more than makes up for ol' Sourpuss though. That sucker's going to PSA. I'll send it off right after I watch my DVD of Tapeheads. Mmmmm... Chicken n Waffles.

Ya know, Kenesaw would make a great Halloween mask. BOO! You're banned from baseball!

More from the Reading Haul

I have something really special for next week but for right now it is 1991-92 Stadium Club hockey. They printed enough of these to blot out the sun after Baseball's Stadium Club Series I.

Here we go. Damn, no gum in these!

Carey Wilson
Wes Walz
Kjell Samuelsson (Flyer!)
John McIntyre (Former New Kid on the Block?)
Calle Johansson
Hall of Famer Paul Coffey
Ad for The Hockey News
Zdeno Ciger
Grant Ledyard
Future Hall of Famer Steve Yzerman
Mike Ramsey (Miracle on Ice!)
Two Winnipeg Jets! Paul MacDermid and Scott Arniel

Grade is a B+ because of Yzerman, Coffey, and the Jets.

Will post photos later.

Wal-Mart $9.99 Value Pack: Three Packs of 2006 Topps Opening Day

Continuing with our Wal-Mart Value Pack, here's three packs of Topps' 2006 Contractual Obligation Product: Opening Day.

Pack #1
Nick Johnson
Zack Greinke
Melvin Mora
Joe Mauer
Chien-Ming Wang
Tim Hudson
SI For Kids Khalil Greene (1:1)
One individually wrapped slab of Stale Gum

Pack #2
Mark Prior
Steve Finley
Livan Hernandez
Randy Johnson
Jeremy Bonderman
Alfonso Soriano
SI For Kids Tadahito Iguchi
Another wrapped slab of Stale Gum

Pack #3
Lance Berkman
Mike Sweeney
Jorge Posada
Jimmy Rollins
Carston Charles Sabathia
John Smoltz
SI For Kids Manny Ramirez
More gum

Just like the 2004 Opening Day pack I opened yesterday, 2006 Opening Day has the same design as regular Topps, only with cyan colored foil stamping. Unlike the '04 pack I opened yesterday, each '06 pack comes with one of 25 Opening Day exclusive SI for Kids inserts and a stick of bubble gum.

Speaking of which... Even though this pack is less than a year-and-a-half old, and each slab of bubble gum is individually sealed (for your protection), this did not prevent each stick from shattering like a wine glass at an Ella Fitzgerald concert when dropped onto a table from a height of 12-inches. And before you ask, no, I'm not eating it.

Again, since I don't collect Opening Day, all these cards can be had for the price of an SASE.

For Andy

Here's that '89 Bowman wrapper you wanted to see. I found this pack in the dollar box today and decided to snag it. I'm not opening it right now because I already have a backlog of stuff I want to post. Maybe next month.

Wal-Mart $9.99 Value Pack: 2004 Topps Opening Day

I picked up one of those $9.99 value packs at the Wal-Mart today. If you've ever picked through the Wal-Mart baseball card aisle, you've seen these things: 10 random packs all packaged in a clear plastic box.

In this particular box a got:

One pack of 2004 Opening Day
Three packs of 2006 Opening Day
One Rack Pack of 2006 Topps series one
Two Retail packs of 2006 Topps series two
Two Retail packs of 2006 Topps Updates and Highlights
One Fat Pack of 2006 Upper Deck Series one & two (combo)

First up, '04 Opening Day.

Edgardo Alfonzo
Trot Nixon
Johnny Damon
Curt Schilling
Bill Mueller
Erubiel Durazo

As much as I liked the design of '04 Topps, the Opening Day version is butt-ugly. Gray borders with cyan colored foil stamping. Yecch.

If you're a fan of the Sawx, this is the pack for you. Three Sawx (Nixon, Damon & Mueller) and a guy who, by the time Opening Day 2004 came around, was a Sawk (Schilling). If anybody wants these cards, you can have 'em for an SASE.

1986 Fleer Wax Pack

I was pretty excited to find this pack for $1.50; remembering it as a pretty classic looking set. Sure it wasn't the crisp '85 Fleer set, but it was before the red, white & blue mess of 1988 or even the pinstripe debacle of 1989. The one thing I apparently forgot is how bland the photography is on this set-- 11 of my 15 cards are headshots. Besides not having a bona fide star, this pack was straight boring-- in fact, the only card I'm going to even bother showing is the Famous Feats Lajoie sticker. This is a subset that I really wouldn't mind collecting; 22 cards with a classic "Heads Up" feel, but still 21 years old.

#245 Tim Burke, RC
#581 Brett Butler
#267 Floyd Youman, RC
#573 Wayne Tolleson
#36 Brian Harper
#83 Danny Heep
#13 Charlie Liebrandt
#441 Greg Gross
#530 Milt Thompson
#62 Cliff Johnson
#178 John Franco
#242 Lou Whitaker
#29 Cesar Cedeno
#196 Max Venable
#197 Juan Agosto
Minnesota Twins/Nap Lajoie #21/22

1981 Fleer Baseball

For a stick of 26-year-old gum, this piece looks to be in pretty good shape. A thin film of gum dust covers the surface, enough so that for the half hour following the pack's opening, my fingers glistened with a white powdery substance, making it look as if I were A) Working as a crust tosser in a pizzeria; or B) Slinging rock on the side (Well...at least more rock that I usually sling.)

I've never opened a pack of cards older than I am. This still holds true, but I'm cutting it closer than ever before. These cards turned out to be in beautiful shape. The backs of the cards are crystal clear and provide a lot of great minor league stats. The whole prominent batting average and ERA thing is a bit annoying and unnecessary, but is still a valiant attempt in a debut set. Now that their only competition wasn't PAL, Charms, and Swell anymore, Fleer really did a nice job.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
445 Al Holland
64 Alan Ashby
294 Bruce Sutter (Posing with a bat. Lovely.)

165 Charlie Lea
450 Johnnie LeMaster
66 Denny Walling
299 Dick Tidrow
363 Willie Stargell

255 Doyle Alexander

638 Carl Yastrzemski -- "400 Home Run Club"
259 Charlie Spikes
125 Rick Sutcliffe
324 Mike Jorgensen
4 Bob Boone
482 Dan Schatzeder

Grade: A
Without giving too much away, this pack was full of real characters, enough for a mini-tournament on my personal blog, which will probably start to run later this week. Three Hall of Famers and a lot of great poses made for a pretty cool pack that didn't disappoint me in the least.

I'd also like to give a shout out to Chris Harris, whose comments on the Pac-Man posting on Thorzul Will Rule prompted me to re-watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas tonight. The shennanagins of Hunter S. Thompson and his associate Dr. Gonzo and their philosophy of willfully-ingest-anything-and-everything inspired me to ignore all of the earlier advice, not to mention my better judgment, and attempt to chew this piece of gum.

Verdict: This can no longer be considered gum. The speed with which it crumbled in my mouth was simply staggering. If you don't happen to have a pack of 1981 Topps available, you too can still manage to duplicate this incredible feat.
Step 1: Acquire a piece of chalk.
Step 2: Insert into mouth.
Step 3: Chew.
Step 4: Run to bathroom sink and clear entire contents of mouth into said sink.

"Is this not a reasonable place to blog?" --Hunter S. Thorzul

Pack Tease #2

So I've noticed there's been a gum party going on around these parts, and I thought I'd like to join in. I've been saving this pack for an extra-special occasion, and now's a good a time as any. There's a 26-year-old piece of gum inside, and the way that emmer-effer's sliding around in there, I just know it wants to get out. Curiosity will get the better of me tonight, I can feel it. There's a slight chill in the air following an unusually warm weekend. See you all here later tonight.

DONT CHEW THE GUM

Fellow blogger Scott saw the awesome contents of my '87 Topps Football pack and was so inspired that he stated he might chew the gum in his own pack. I thought it was a joke until he stated it again in his '89 Bowman pack review. I just want to state for the record, DON'T DO IT. Those things aren't Twinkies, those chalky sticks of gum were never meant to be consumed after a certain period of time has elapsed. The time it takes for the factory to seal the wrapper and place the packs in the box is about the shelf life on that stuff. If you don't believe me, here's visual proof:

Does that look chewable to you? Go ahead and click on it to get the full visual impact. After a certain period of time the molecular structure begins to change and it transforms into something not of this world. Kind of like Melvin Junko in The Toxic Avenger after he takes a dive into the vats of Toxic Waste. (warning: link is skeery and gory in case your work don't like that stuff) Yeah Melvin is a hero, but do you really want to chew on him? If that doesn't convince you take a gander at what it did to the card:

That's not gum damage, that's a whole new lifeform devouring that card like the kids on the raft in Creepshow 2. You want that in your mouth? Even the new gum in Heritage packs goes south rather quick, look at this stuff from a box of Heritage I opened a couple years ago:

That gum is hermetically sealed in plastic, and it's still turning all sorts of funky colors. If you're still not convinced that such an innocent little pink stick of gum could be so evil, here's one more bit of evidence: a 1988 pack of O-Pee-Chee.

120 Kirby Puckett
149 Ken Howell
175 Kevin Bass
181 Mariano Duncan
189 Bob Dernier
87 Casey Candaele rookie cup
82 Dion James

That thing is stuck tight to Kirby like the critter on John Hurt's face in Alien. It's even turned the color of The Blob. No, not the good version with Steve McQueen, the cheezy 80's remake version. Look at that mess! THE GUM HAS BONDED MOLECULARLY TO KIRBY. Nope, it couldn't decide to eat Casey Candaele, it had to go after the only good card in the pack. Let's do our best to try to save Kirby.

Well, it looks like Kirby will live and he didn't even lose a limb, but he will have the scars from this terrifying encounter forever. He got off easy, one of the other cards in this group of O-Pee-Chee packs I bought a while back was completely devoured by the monster gum. I'd post a scan, but it turned sentient and escaped. Heed my warning, and DON'T CHEW THE GUM!

1989 Bowman

More from the Reading 5 packs for $5.

The pack is real wax. This is awesome. Back to being 9 I go...

Paul Assenmacher
Joel Youngblood
Dave Henderson
Frank White
Dick Schofield
Mike Macfarlane
Ted Williams Sweepstakes
Randy Bush
Walt Weiss, Rookie of the Year baby!
Mike Sharperson
Glenn Braggs
John Smiley
Gary Gaetti

A rough pack. Nobody even resembling a Hall of Famer (except Ted Sweepstakes). I don't even know if it is worth taking the stuff off the scanner to scan these.

Now I am going to try chewing the gum.

Pack grade: D

Target Value Pack (One Memorabilia Card, One Pack, and 25 Cards)

I'll follow the lead of dayf by posting my opening of one of those "Value Packs" that promises one memorabilia card. I've been running into some pretty sour luck lately opening loose old packs that Target scoops up, so I figured, "Hey, at least I'll get one good card, right?" My hopes for the game-used card are not high. Let's just say that it probably won't be a Hall of Famer.

This is one of those situations where I've ended up buying something I normally wouldn't buy, if not for the blog. Like I have done before, I am recruiting some help for this lovely item. Guards, bring in the pack!

Well, they do a good job of doing as they're told, but these guys don't have too much to say. Basically they're following the directive of this guy:

Grand Moff Tarkin! (Out of focus like a mug!) But he doesn't have one of those hovering droids that are used to give people shots with giant needles. And he doesn't seem the type to like getting his hands dirty. He has a trusty blaster at his side, but that will damage the cards. What will he do?

Ahhh, he seems to have a captive. It's the Beast. We might be mixing mythologies here, but who cares? When this captive X-Man was being brought to the opening area, someone was heard to remark, "Where are you going with this...thing?"

Well, at least he has a giant hand, good to rip this blister pack open, albeit at gunpoint.

It also looks like these guards are not fronting on maintaining the integrity of these cards. Word on the street is that they are planning on sending something off to BGS to get graded one this mission is completed.

The Beast has done his job. Lucky for the Moff, the good people at Fairfield (the guys who chose 25 crappy cards to include in this package) were kind enough to include an entrance ramp to help with the extraction of the cards.

When Beast sees the stinker of a promised memorabilia card, he suggests getting the heck out of there. Grand Moff Tarkin, however, holds steadfast: "Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you underestimate its quality."

Not quite, Tarkin. I don't think I could have pulled a poorer card from this pack. Plus, one of its corners is all shot to hell. Let's see what else is in here.

Let's allow Beast to tear in.

Top to Bottom:
2005 Fleer Rookies Classic Clippings #116 Ryan Rabrun
1994 The Sporting News Conlon Collection #1155 Sammy Hale
2004 Upper Deck #39 Miguel Tejada
1991 Upper Deck #507 Dana Kiecker
1989 Fleer #509 Melido Perez
1989 Topps #623 Fred Toliver
2007 Topps #CHC11 Derrek Lee
2007 Topps #CHC12 Mark DeRosa
2007 Topps #MIN6 Boof Bonser
1987 Topps #324 Dave Palmer
2007 Fleer #56 Jarrod Washburn
2007 Topps #CHC10 Mark Prior
2006 Upper Deck #152 Travis Hafner
2007 Fleer #211 Hanley Ramirez
2007 Fleer #154 Geoff Jenkins
1978 Topps #256 Joe Altobelli
1987 Fleer Update #U-99 Luis Polonia
2007 Fleer #244 Cliff Lee
2007 Topps #CHC4 Jacque Jones
2003 Donruss #315 Ruben Quevedo
2007 Fleer Ultra #74 Brad Lidge
1986 Fleer Update #U-41 Scott Fletcher
2006 Fleer #416 Chad Billingsley
1986 Fleer Update #U-75 Joel McKeon
2007 Topps #NYM2 Jose Reyes
2006 Bazooka Rewind #BR-JB Jason Botts (Game-Used Bat)

Not great, but I expected as much. As a Brewers fan, I'll keep the Jenkins. Maybe the Toliver will help me complete my 1989 Topps set. A Melido Perez is always an added bonus. I'm surprised that something as old as the Altobelli manager card snuck into this thing. And to top it off, I must be receiving my punishment for being so hard on the Cubs as I received four of what must be their team-set cards.

If anyone's interested in a trade, everything but the Jenkins, Toliver, Altobelli, and the Botts bat card (Jason Botts Every-Flavor Bats?) are on the table. You can get in touch with me at bill13boehm@yahoo.com. I'll take anything interesting in trade, not limited to cards.

Oh, and there's the 2004 Upper Deck First Pitch pack, too:
143 Andruw Jones
44 Barry Zito
58 Rocco Baldelli
5 Miguel Cabrera Star Rookies
27 Mark Teixeira Star Rookies
Spell and Win Letter C

Wow, vast improvement. I'll hold onto Cabrera and Teixeira. Pretty nice cards. If you're interested in Jones, Zito, and Baldelli, those are on the trading block as well.