Repack - Bang or Bust? Part 1

Last week I teased a repack break. The box had 15 packs containing 212 cards total.  Was the break a bang or bust?

As I've said before, any card I don't have is a card I need. So I'll be sort of happy if the box yields a lot of cards I don't have. Beyond that, I'm happier if I get a card that I can add to my reference book. I'm even happier if I can get a Phillie or post 1994 Astro card I don't have. And just if happy if I can get a player I collect.  I'm going to evaluate the box pack by pack in roughly the order they came out of the box.

1993 Triple Play

I remember buying a lot of 1992 Triple Play even though it was clearly designed for kids. I kind of liked the bold graphics. 1993 Triple Play, although still aimed at kids, was too bland for me and I didn't buy much. Consequently, of the 12 cards in this pack, I 'needed' 10 of them.

This card is a bang on two counts, it's a Phillies card I didn't have and it's a subset card I didn't have. Schilling is apparently beating a new glove into submission. I haven't figured out who that is on the back.

And another subset for the reference book.

There were really no inserts in this set but there was a game card. I already had one featuring Darrin Dalton of the Phillies. But I'd rather have a non-Phillie card in the reference book.

The card folds open to reveal a scratch off game. 

Overall, I'd rate this pack as a 'bang'.

1993 Upper Deck

There was a time that I didn't like 1993 Upper Deck much, but now I like it a lot. 15 cards in the pack and I needed 11, so clearly a bang. No great players in this pack but some good photos.

This kid must be at least 25 years old by now.

1989 Topps

I have this set completed, so I didn't expect anything here. Let's just call it a bust, but interesting to see this package again. 29 cards for  79 cents. Along with the Spring Fever Baseball contest, Topps was selling tee shirts.

I wish I'd have bought that Style E shirt although it would probably be a rag by now.

1988 O-Pee-Chee

I've picked up plenty of O-Pee-Chee cards in repacks over the years, but this is the first pack of this product I've ever seen.

Here's one of the problems of opening up 29 year old baseball cards with gum. The gum took off most of Mike's face.

I didn't have any of the 7 cards in this pack, so rate this a bang. Plus I pulled a few players I collect, including the above Hershiser card and Bret Saberhagen. Although I have nearly the complete 1988 Topps set, I don't have the Topps cards of these two.

1993 Ultra

One of the so-called "Super Premium" sets of the early 1990s. I like this set but it's a frequent find in repacks and I only pulled 3 (of 14 in the pack) that I needed. So this pack was a bust.  Just to remind you of what these cards looked like.

Glossy, full-bleed printing front and back. 2 photos in the back but a scarcity of stats. Just a little gold foil on the front.

1988 Score

Another set that loads up repacks. I have nearly the entire set although I'm pretty sure I never bought a pack when new. Of the 17 cards, I only needed 3, so call this a bust.

This was the first year for Score. As the new kid on the block, they brought a colorful card back, complete with a color photo and full career stats to the table. A bit ahead of their time I think.

1989 Topps

A regular 1989 Topps wax pack. A complete bust.

1991 Stadium Club Series 2

The set that started the "Super Premium" trend. "Produced with Kodak Technology". I needed 11 of the 12 cards from the pack, so a total bang. As with the 1993 Upper Deck, no great players but some good photos.

Stadium Club had two gimmicks. One was a system of stats called BARS. I can't claim I ever paid much attention to it. Every pack had a card to explain the system. The other was a copy of the players Topps rookie card on the back. I always liked that in this set. They did it again in 1992 but it didn't work as well since we'd seen all the rookie cards in 1991. Topps should try this again with a current Stadium Club issue.

I collect George Bell. Unlike a lot of cards the design element works pretty well with vertical and horizontal cards.

An Astros rainbow jersey and a good photo at 3rd base.

I'll get the rest of this box done later in the week.

Repack Madness 2015 - Part 2

This is another repack from early in 2015 which I got around to late in the year. This was one of those Fairmont boxes with 10 packs of cards in it.

2009 Upper Deck Spectrum Blue #95 Ian Kinsler

This is a product I didn't buy much of (one blaster with 35 cards) because I really didn't like it. There were only 120 cards in the set and usually when I find a pack of this in a repack I have all the cards in the 5-card pack. This was unusual in that I "needed" all 5 cards. This was the blue parallel.

Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective #406 George H. W. Bush

This was the 5th card in the pack. This 2500-card set was scattered across all of Upper Deck sets in 2009.  Someday I will have a complete set of presidents found in baseball card packs. I already had Mr. Bush, but snagged his VP, ole' what's his name.

2012 Triple Play #124 Albert Pujols

2012 Panini Triple Play was a horrible set. The art work and no team logos was enough to turn me off but this pack made me realize how horrible it is. I hadn't really looked at the checklist before. This card is a puzzle card. There are 9 cards in the puzzle. The front of each card is exactly the same except for the number, the back is a section (1/9th of the card). Maybe if they did one player like this, OK. But there are 16 players given this puzzle treatment. That's 144 cards of a 300 card set. Who would want this?  There aren't any other cards from this pack worth the effort to upload, except this.

2013 Bowman Platinum Prospects #BPP16 Archie Bradley

This product was pretty pricey in 2013, about 65 cents/card retail. I guess this is the best card in the pack. Bradly was called up in 2015. He was 2-3 with a 5.80 ERA for the D-Backs. 

2014 Bowman Prospects #BP73 Jacob DeGrom

The way Topps gets minor league cards into their sets is to call them prospects and make the prospects cards not part of the main set. Bowman came out in early May in 2014, and De Grom was called up in mid-May. He was 9-6 with a 2.80 ERA for the Mets in 2014 and named the NL Rookie of the Year. He had a better year in 2015, was an All-Star, and was 3-1 in the playoffs as the Mets went to the World Series.

2014 Topps #543 Alexander Guerrero

There were two packs of 2014 Topps in the box. No especially notable cards except for this one. I like a lot of moving parts in a baseball card. You don't see 3-player cards that often.

2014 Topps Update #22 Kendrys Morales

I also like cards of batting players where the ball is in the frame. Is the ball coming or going? Since Morales eyes seem to be looking toward the field and not at the ball, I think he's already hit this one.

2014 Topps Update World Series Heroes #WSH-FV Fernando Valenzuela

Outside of some cards in 1998, this is the first post-career card of Valenzuela I've seen. I pulled 4 of his cards in 2015.

2014 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Black #21 Rafael Palmeiro

There was one pack of A&G. The mini in the pack was this so-called black-bordered card.

2014 Topps Heritage #439 Jose Fernandez

One happy fella for sure.

2014 Topps Heritage Baseball Flashbacks Juan Marichal

I'm always happy to pull a card from a repack that I can put in my reference binder. I didn't see any of this insert set in 2014.

I'd say this was another successful repack. Of the 84 cards in the box, I needed 49 for a 58% success rate, just about the same as Repack Madness 2015 Part 1. And the reference card makes it even better.

Repack Madness #2

2014 may be over but I still have to deal with the boxes of repacks I bought in 2014 and just left laying around. I want to get these cataloged and put away before the new cards start coming out.

This was a Fairfield repack that I bought back in June. It promised "4 packs, 50 cards plus BONUS".  I had opened the box back then but I'm not completely sure what was the bonus. It was some extra cards which I'll identify below. The 50 loose cards were a wonderfully diverse group of cards. Usually repacks with loose cards are larded up with 1989 Topps and early '90s Upper Deck. Not that there weren't some of these cards but still lots of different stuff. Altogether there were 90 cards in the box and I needed 50 of them.

2012 Bowman Platinum #45 Mariano Rivera

One of the packs was 2012 Bowman Platinum. I didn't buy much of this so I needed all 4 cards in the pack. The other cards were Evan Longoria, Mark Teixeira, and Cory Spangenberg. The other 3 packs were 2012 Topps, 2012 Topps Opening Day and 2012 Topps Update. There were cards I needed from all the packs but nothing special from any of them except this.

2012 Topps Update #85 Jacob Diekman

Diekman's been an important part of the Phillies bullpen for the past 2 years and this is the first card of his I've seen.

1982 Donruss #78 Paul Molitor

I never mind some 1982 Donruss, especially when it's a player I collect like Paul Molitor.

1985 Topps #227 Danny Darwin

I also don't mind 1985 Topps. 1985 was the first year as an adult that I bought baseball cards but I didn't buy many, and only Topps. I'll complete this set someday. Did you know that Darwin pitched for 21 years and that his nickname was Dr. Death?

1991 Toys R Us Rookies #29 Greg Vaughn

I have 19 of the 33 cards in this set and everyone of them I've gotten in a repack.

1991 Ultra #330 Jose Uribe

Fleer's first attempt at a premium level card. There were 3 in the box, all of which I didn't have. I didn't know until I got this card that Uribe died in 2006 in a car crash.

1991 Upper Deck #207 Jose Uribe

There were 2 Uribe cards in the box that I needed. Some day I will finish these early 1990 Upper Deck sets through repacks.

1992 Upper Deck Comic Ball 3 #129 Jim Abbott

Upper Deck published these Comic Ball sets in the early 1990s. This is only the second one I've ever seen. The other was a Nolan Ryan from the 1991 set. A combination of baseball players and Warner Bros. cartoons, how can you go wrong?

1993 Fun Pack #176 Andres Galarraga

Another early 1990s attempt by Upper Deck to crack the kid's market.

1995 Donruss Top of the Order #220 Pete Schourek

This is the 3rd card from this 330 card set that I've pulled from a repack. With only 3 cards it's impossible to tell how you play the game. The cards originally came in 10-card "starter packs". I see a box with 80 starter packs on sale on eBay for $99.99. No thanks. But I was able to snatch up the 6 Phillies cards I needed (one of the three I already have was a Phillie) for a reasonable price.

2000 Topps Chrome #196 Roy Halladay

These early Topps Chrome cards tend to get kind of of tacky over the years. This one wasn't too bad. I imagine if you've had one of these in a 9-card album page for the past 15 years I might be hard to get out today.