Pack Stash In a Can

Before I started blogging the term "pack stash" was foreign to me. I'd kind of seen it in action as my brother-in-law would often buy a box of hockey cards, open four packs, and then do something else for a while. Sometimes he would take an entire week to open all the packs in the box. I couldn't imagine having unopened packs in my house longer than a few hours.  

Funny thing is, I actually had a pack stash when I was much younger. Ever since I started going to card shops I wanted to recreate the layout in my own card room. In 1988, when Topps baseball cards were everywhere and magazines advertised bulk lots of star players, I displayed my star cards in piles on a brown bookshelf (which is still at my mom's house). Then I would place labels on the shelf in front of the stack: Bo Jackson 50c, Roger Clemens 35c, Jose Canseco $1, and so on. 

Some time in 1993 or early 1994 I got the idea to recreate that - and I now had some wax boxes to display in my "store." I held back as many packs of 1993 Flair baseball and 1993-94 Score hockey as I could, until reality set in. There were no customers coming to my attic room just to purchase packs from one of two half-empty boxes I had for "sale." And so after a few weeks (months?) I cracked them open, finally revealing a Pierre Turgeon Franchise insert and a Mike Piazza Wave of the Future insert. 

Fast forward to 2020. We're all quarantined with limited access to new sports cards. Those of us who venture into the sports card aisle at Target or Wal-Mart have been shamed for purchasing "non-essential" items. COMC and Burbank Sportscards are closed, as are hundreds of other hobby shops across the country. 

A pack stash would really come in handy at a time like this. But I haven't been disciplined enough to keep cards unopened in over 25 years. 

Or so I thought...

While rummaging through my closet for summer clothes (and things to sell on eBay) I uncovered this: 

A stash of twelve 1997-98 Pinnacle Inside cans. 

Most of them were opened years ago. The Marino and Nomar cans came from Dennis, while the hockey cans belong to my wife. 

The cans I purchased in 1997 and 1998 remain intact..

...which means I technically have a pack stash. 

I was never really tempted to open these because the sealed cans were more interesting to me than the cards. The players and teams depicted on the outside of these cans fit my PC at the time, and opening them would be akin to cracking open a Starting Lineup or McFarlane figure. 

That said, I've considered opening those figures for reasons I won't get into here. Perhaps it's time to consider taking a can opener to my "packs" and add a few cards to my collection. 

I did a quick eBay search and found that a sealed Brett Favre can such as this sold for over $20 on eBay. I won't add a link to the listing since no one clicks on those anyway :p

Sammy Sosa items are suddenly red-hot again thanks to the upcoming ESPN doc Long Gone Summer. This Limited Edition can includes an additional insert. That's got to boost the value a bit, no? I couldn't find any of these cans listed on eBay so there's only one way to find out. 

What would you do with these five sealed cans - Sell 'em, open 'em, or keep 'em as is?

Thanks for reading!




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Christmas Cards from Billy and Mark

'Tis the season for giving, and the blogosphere has been busy spreading cardboard cheer. Billy (Cardboard History) mailed out a mountain of goodies recently, and I was on his "nice" list:

Getting a Christmas card from a card blogger reminds me of the first giveaway I did. :)

Of course this card had smaller cards tucked inside it, including an Alex English for my 1988-89 Fleer set build, and an Aaron Rodgers Panini Certified Cuts card I didn't have. Some local flavor here too: the Knicks, the Nets, and the UConn Huskies are represented.

Billy wrote a very nice message inside, and made it clear that he was not my Secret Santa - which would have been weird because he was already my S.S. two years ago!

My Secret Santa is not a blogger, but he is a veteran blog reader and commenter (and a Red Sox fan) Mark Hoyle sent me a stuffed bubble mailer on Monday. There were some old Sox inside:

Oooh a non-card item. Is it me, or does Yaz look like he's posing at a camp site?

Tony C! Nice little run here. Unfortunately I bought a copy of the '69 at the Milford card show in March. Anyone collecting vintage Sox or building the 1969 Topps set? I'd be willing to trade my extra copy.

Mark included some sealed packs. You can't find these on the shelves at Target. (I wonder if he has a pack stash?) The '89 Topps baseball yielded three more Red Sox..

..but the non-Sox selection was bleak. Van Slyke and Wells were the closest thing to 'stars' I could find. At least the Skybox basketball pack had a Hall of Famer..

Wes Unseld was one of four Bullets in the pack. My favorite card here has to be the Nuggets logo. I like this design more than the 1990-91 Fleer set...

..but there was a lot more star power in that one. Is there a better card I could have pulled than this Michael Jordan? I think not. 

Jordan and David Robinson were far from the only NBA legends I received: 

 

Vintage hoop! Every time I see Dennis Johnson I think of that famous steal by Bird.

 

These 1979-80 Topps cards would make a nice 9-pocket page. The Alex English Rookie Card and Rick Barry are my favorites here. The Gail Goodrich is my first New Orleans Jazz card.

ABA cards, including Kentucky Colonels. Seattle just got an NHL expansion team and it's only a matter of time before the NBA returns. Is Louisville a viable option for a 32nd NBA franchise?

Bing! More stars from 1975-76 Topps, on the NBA side. I've never seen a Pat Riley card from his playing days. These are all fantastic cards but one of these two dozen singles really stood out to me:

Boom! Two all-time greats on the same card and two different poses for each player. This Kareem/Oscar card is in fantastic shape, too. It would have been perfect for the Milwaukee stop on my Sports Card Tour. 


Mark, Billy..thank you both for your generosity! I am very pleased with my cardboard gifts :)


I'm going to try and wrap up my Nostalgia post this weekend so that I can get my 200th post in before Christmas. Hope your Secret Santa has been good to you all!


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