Flipping Repack Pulls

My latest COMC order is scheduled to arrive next week, so I should probably recap some recent TCDB trades and clear out the "to be posted" folder while I wait. 

This 1980 Topps Calton Fisk was one of 14 cards I received in a trade with supergajit. This is the fifth time I've swapped cards with Summer, which makes her the 11th member of my own personal "five timers club". I sent her a handful of Red Sox dupes, along with five cards from my recent baseball repack and four cards from the 2022 Sage pack that was included in a football repack I purchased earlier this year.

Here are the equivalent singles I picked out for my repack pulls. I never seem to get any Packers cards in my football repacks, so it was nice to fill some gaps in my collection.

Got some 2022-23 hockey singles in exchange for the Sage stuff. I'm working on a blog post about one of these teams, which will be published in early March. [hint: it's not the Devils]

Not every card I traded was pulled from a repack box, but they gave me enough to build the foundation for a worthwhile trade. Here are two such swaps, including my first one with nannema:

I shipped out three surplus Topps singles along with six basketball cards that didn't come from repacks in exchange for these three. It wasn't quite a 3-for-1 swap; another Hall of Famer was included but I'm holding that one for a fellow blogger 😉

Another stack of Sage singles plus some 2020 Leaf Draft from an older football repack, were sent to Clyntngrffn in a 2 for 1 deal. Here's what I received:

The Browns lineman is newest Hall of Famer Joe Thomas. McCaffrey was the big prize for me; I'm iffy on continuing my CMC PC now that he's a 49er but I couldn't pass up a Prizm parallel in a trade that offloaded lots of unwanted draft pick stuff. There was one more card involved in the trade:

I was happy with this trade and left positive feedback for Clytn.. but when I scanned Peterson for this post I noticed something:

Frickin' thing's creased. Grrr. Which one of you collects damaged cards? Do you want this one?

These next two deals were much better. My fourth trade with dheim1220 involved a couple cards from the baseball repack, plus six dupes from 2022 Topps, and two more basketball dupes. I received these:

If I'm going to build a set of 1994 Leaf I might have to give up on the idea of buying boxes of each series. Lofton is actually an upgrade from the single I pulled 28+ years ago.

The Panini Pedroia/Doerr was one I'd had on my want list for a while. The DK checklist is from 1992. I'm nearly finished with the '93 Diamond Kings insert set so I decided to try and finish its predecessor.

Perkins is an upgrade as well; a lot of my Fleer singles are off-center. The last two are Connecticut cards.


If you're new to TCDB and you have a lot of overproduction-era singles to unload (or you just bought a repack) you can definitely get some great stuff in exchange. In most cases, users prefer to trade similar era/type, so don't expect to get Panini Prizm or Topps Chrome for your '88 Donruss doubles.

If you're willing to receive "junk wax" you might be able to get extra cards for your newer singles. Here's a swap I recently completed with RDGKDHNC. I sent him five cards from the 2022-23 Upper Deck hockey packs I purchased at my LCS, plus three 2020-21 Upper Deck MVP singles.

Instead of an 8 for 8 trade I received 9 cards:

The last two are from 1991-92, which equated to one newer single. Not a hard and fast rule, but it usually works for me. (I was shocked my wife didn't have that Trevor Linden card already.) You'll probably see one of these cards again when I publish that NHL post.

I also shipped out some repack pulls to Matt for his Time Travel Trading.  That's one of three incoming deals I'll include in my next trade recap.


Thanks for reading!




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One For The Road

Today is the last day I'm on the payroll at my old job, and I received a small bonus for unused time off (which I'd scheduled for this upcoming Monday and Tuesday). So I thought I'd grab one last pack of cards.

Did I go to the card shop down the street and pick up a pack of brand-new 2023 Topps baseball? I did not. The place was closed yesterday and it's raining today.

Did I stop at my previous LCS (Target) and pick up some affordable retail offerings? Nope, the card shelves at Target have been a sad sight for so long I don't even bother.

It's strange to say this, but if I'm really craving cards the best value in the area is... Walgreens.

One last repack on the shelf. They have others behind the counter, along with some Topps Archives baseball. But I'm not looking to spend $26 on newer stuff. I want something I can trade. For some reason, the active users on TCDB love "junk wax" commons, especially baseball.

You probably know the deal with these repacks - 50 to 60 loose cards, plus a pack or two. $6 a pop. Let's see if this was a wise choice or if I should have picked up one of these instead.

Not a bad start with an '81 and an '82 (hey, Vida!) The last time I bought one of these repacks, the oldest card came from 1985 Topps. This Dick Howser glossy insert is morbidly fascinating to me. He was selected to manage the AL All-Stars in 1986 after leading the Royals to the World Series in '85... but by the time this card was pulled from packs in '87 Howser had passed away from a brain tumor. The 1986 All-Star Game was his last official game as a manager. 

On that somber note... let's dive into the heart of the overproduction era. Whenever I buy a repack - whether it's a current box or one of those old cubes they used to sell at Target (man I miss those) - I like to group each card by year, just to get an idea of what to expect for the next one.

1988 picks up where 1987 left off - with Larry Parrish. If I'm going to get two of the same card it might as well be a Red Sox single. The '88 Donruss Larry Sheets was already in my trade box. No idea how I'll offload both of 'em. There are some sets I saw way too much as a kid that I kind of miss, like '88 Topps or any of the first three Score sets. '88 Donruss is not one of them I loathe '88 Donruss.

Same with '89 Topps. Traded singles like the Terry Kennedy here are slightly better. My countdown of the 100 Greatest non-Hall of Famers is giving me a new appreciation for stars like Clark and Quiz. I also appreciate that they're not '89 Topps cards :P

Here's Terry Kennedy again, in the 1990 batch. If '90 Fleer wasn't such a basic set I'd be tempted to build it. I somehow have 103 of the 660 cards.

Hey, there's some actual Hall of Famers in the 1991 batch. Plus an off-cut Kevin Mitchell. 

When I said that these commons move quickly on Trading Card Database I wasn't kidding: Lonnie Smith, Dave Righetti, David Cone, and Joe Orsulak have already been traded. And I made sure my trade partner knew the Orsulak was stained on the back before finalizing the trade. She didn't mind.

The rest of the '90s here. As the former proprietor of a 1993-themed blog I'm disappointed in the single card showing from that season. Ron Karkovice is in a pending deal, we'll see what happens there. "Tuffy" Rhodes and two Expos infielders round out this group.

Not all the cards were from '80s and '90s sets...

This is everything from the past five six years. Fortunately I didn't have any of these - not that I plan to keep any of them in my PC. Anyone need any of these before I offer them up on TCDB?


Every repack is supposed to come with at least one sealed pack. Football boxes usually contain Leaf Draft, Sage, or other college/draft pick product. This baseball repack yielded two unopened packs..

Noooo! Not 1988 Donruss! Ugh, how am I going to trade away any of these?

Not counting these godawful things (which I did open because I'm hardwired to open packs) I pulled 52 loose cards. Four of them were keepers, which you'll see on the top row. I switched them out with four 'traders' which are on the bottom row:

Balboni was the oldest card in my last repack. Let's see if I can find new homes for all 52 82 cards in this stack. If you see anything you need, let me know and I'll set it aside for you.

 

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

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A Completely Arbitrary Repack

This past Saturday I received a surprise package from Brian, author of Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary.  Apparently I'd won a contest at the end of 2019 by correctly guessing Brian would choose 1974 Topps as his next setbuild. My prize for winning this completely arbitrary contest was a repack box with a 1974 Topps Cecil Cooper showing: 

If I ever went anywhere interesting this would make a great wallet card.

This custom-made repack was loaded with Red Sox - and there was more than one hit included:

The Bernie Carbo autograph (in the '74 Topps design) is my favorite here.
 

More shiny. The Aurora insert is really nice. I'm interested to see where JBJ will sign - and when.

Lots of guys who aren't Red Sox anymore. I think Benintendi will break out in Kansas City.
 

Some Packers oddballls and a Ted Williams stamp. It's not every day that I add a new Packer to my collection but this is definitely my first card of Emmitt's brother Emory Smith (he's not even listed on Pro Football Reference) The Ken Ellis is a Wonder Bread issue, and the David Whitehurst comes with a COA. As promised, the repack came with a sealed pack - BBM Diamond Heroes. I haven't opened it yet. 

Brian, thanks again for the surprise repack!

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About ten days ago I placed an order on the Beckett Marketplace. I was on the hunt for some missing All-Time Teams players and found a seller who offered free shipping with just a $12 purchase. I filled my cart with 17 cards totaling $22.60 - a third of that ($7.50) was for a 1969 Topps Reggie Smith single listed as "Near Mint-Mint" - and placed my order. Usually I get an email within a day or two if any cards were out of stock - which was apparently an issue with other collectors who bought from Mac's Collectibles. 

I didn't get an email that anything was out of stock, and I didn't get an email that my order had shipped. A week after placing the order I emailed Mac's and asked them for an update. I got no response. Today the entire $22.60 was refunded without an explanation. Just an FYI for those of you who shop on the Marketplace - unless you're buying from Burbank or 7th Inning Stretch, proceed with caution. 

Guess I'll have to fill those All-Time Teams needs through TCDB trades...

Thanks for reading!



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Mystery Packs from the Baseball Card Store

Recently I ordered some hockey, basketball, and football cards from the Baseball Card Store. I didn't have time to search through their baseball cards so I went back a few days later and placed a baseball-heavy order, then requested shipping on the whole lot. The box arrived two days earlier than expected.

 I'm going to stretch out the contents of my box over several posts. Today I'll show off the mystery packs available at BBCS. These are 15-card grab bags at the same dime-a-card price, but the selection is as random as a repack. There's even more of a surprise since you can't see the front-facing card when ordering these.

If you're interested in ordering from BBCS but you find their search option tedious I highly recommend ordering some of these mystery packs. I ordered five.. and I received six:

 

I was very pleased with the front-facing cards. The Jordan is a team set issue. Any MJ for a dime is a nice surprise.

 

I ended up with two Jordan cards. Aside from these and the Drew Brees, everything else fit a set build or PC. Pacioretty and Young are Connecticut guys. 

The hockey pack was a free gift/replacement for one out of stock card. Above and beyond, IMO. Here are the highlights:

Nice mix of stars, HOFers, and fan favorites. Older stuff and newer stuff. A perfectly good repack.

The basketball repacks were exceptional, though that could just be because I don't have as many NBA cards as other sports. You be the judge:

Two inserts and a parallel of '90s stars. I love that Dikembe Rejector. Smits is a need for my Hoops Decade set build. 

 

 Look at all these stars! I had mistakenly ordered two copies of the 1991-92 Upper Deck Drexler and pulled a third copy out of the repack. If anyone is collecting this set or Clyde "The Glide" let me know.

 

The football packs were interesting. I noticed a pattern right away. Here's every card across the three packs:

As you can see., each repack had one card..

..from one of these sets: 1986 Topps, 1991 Pro Set, Topps, Ultra, UD, Wild Card, 1994 Score Gold Zone parallels..

..2006 Topps Chrome (my favorite of the newer sets), 2012 Panini R & S, 2012 Topps...

2014 Bowman Chrome, 2014 Topps Chrome mini, 2014 Topps Play 60, and 2015 Panini Stickers. 

There was only one very slight difference..

.. a very slight difference since all three of these green-bordered cards depict Patriots. I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the football packs, especially compared to the basketball. That was until I cataloged my new cards on TCDB and noticed that the 2012 Topps Kam Chancellor is his rookie card.

I have no idea what the legit value of the Chancellor RC is, but the cheapest copy on COMC is currently listed at over $5

Not a bad pull from a blind pack of dime cards. Perhaps next time I'll order some baseball packs.

Have you had any recent success with mystery packs, grab bags, or repacks? 

Thanks for reading!

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A Repack and a Pancake Stack

I had planned to post part two of my Target break today... until I got Stacked!

I've seen this calling card before on the blogs, and until yesterday I did not know the identity of the Pancake King. Based on the generosity of a certain blogging legend I should not have been surprised.


Before I reveal what Wes sent my way, here are the highlights from the basketball repack I picked up. I shy away from baseball and hockey repacks since there's a greater chance I end up with a stack of dupes (although if I ever see those long-ass 200 card repack cubes again I'll pick one up because they are awesome.) The Walgreens by my last job had football repacks and it's probably a good thing I changed jobs or I would have bought them at least once a week.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that basketball repacks are my safest bet. Let's see what $5 got me: 

A couple of Charlotte Hornets (including Grandmama) and a couple of Craig Hodges cards, plus a Tim Hardaway RC get this repack started.

Reign man! Was Shawn Kemp fun to watch or what? The two cards from 1992-93 Ultra will help my set build, and the Frank Johnson Topps card makes me want to order a retro Suns jersey.

More star power here, including an Olajuwon for my PC, another Coleman, a red-haired Rodman, and a C-Webb with a Shaq cameo. 

I can add these three to my PC stacks as well. 

Best of the rest, including a pair of Blazers. The Zach Collins card was in the window; I picked this over a Dwayne Bacon Optic RC incase Kerry can use it. 

 

Here's the guaranteed pack. What could I possibly pull out of this product?

Yup. Bland AF. But hold on...there's one more card in here:

Nice! I'm not sure if this is a $1 card or a $10 card. Either way it's probably the best card I could have pulled from a 5-card pack of Panini Complete

Now let's see what Wes hit me with...

A bounty of Brett Favre cards! 4 of these are needs and 4 of these are dupes. 

Three more, including two serial numbered cards. The Bowman Chrome is SN'd to 500. I'm now at 739 different Favre cards, with another five sitting in my COMC inventory. Doesn't look like I'll get to 1,000 by the end of the year unless I buy a big lot off eBay or make a ton of trades in the fall. 800 looks doable though. 

There was one other card in the bubble mailer... 

Hello, Shanny! My wife and I have a binder full of Brendan Shanahan cards, but we don't have any autographed singles. National Treasures cards are some of the nicest looking Panini releases in their too-brief time as an NHL licensee.

Wes, thank you again for the fantastic additions to my PC! It's great to know you're still lurking 'round the blogosphere.


Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!


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Collecting...while collecting

For those of you who don't know, I am a collector (I can hear you mumbling duh, we're all collectors..) What I mean is, I took a job as a file clerk almost six years ago and they promoted me to debt collections. Basically, I call people with medical or gambling debts and ask them for money they almost never have while making a part-time salary with no benefits or insurance and barely scraping by myself. Oh, the irony!

Our office was near the end of a busy road, about 50 feet away from where the road becomes a highway on-ramp. Next to our office, on the corner, was a 7-11. 

When I first started working there, the 7-11 sold baseball cards. That is, they had one box of 2013 Topps Heritage on the counter. $3 a pack. I bought at least one, perhaps two packs. Pulled nothing good at all, and didn't buy any more. When that box was gone, 7-11 never sold cards again. Which is probably for the best, since they got enough of my money already.

At times the attorneys would send me down the street to deliver subpoenas to the local banks. There were four on Park Avenue, and we did business with three of them (It turns out that a fifth bank is being built on the site of our old office.) In between these banks was a comic book store, which I have mentioned in this post and possibly others. For as long as I've been popping in for penny sleeves and a Mountain Dew Throwback they've carried packs of Topps baseball cards - and only Topps baseball cards. 

I hadn't bought any until this year. Mostly because this was the first time that a) they carried the current year of flagship, and b) I actually liked the set enough to collect it. (Did not like 2017 at all, already had '15 and '16 nearly complete.) On at least a half-dozen occasions I bought multiple packs of flagship (series 1 and 2) for $2 a pop. It wasn't quite an LCS, but it was close. 


Then, one month ago, our firm went through some major changes. One attorney (my boss) retired, another left to work at another firm. The remaining attorneys (plus one new guy) relocated to a town that under any other circumstances would be too far out of the way. Alas, I'm still here, and I've been exploring my new surroundings when I have the time.

There is no convenience store, nor comic book shop. I miss them every day. There is a pizza place (I've been there once so far) and a Dunkin' Donuts right across from the office, so at least I'll get my junk food and caffeine fix.  But...are there cards nearby?

In the plaza with the pizza place there is a Dollar Tree - or at least there will be; the sign said "Coming Soon - 4 Days" about three days ago. There is also a Walgreens next to the Dunkin' Donuts. Their prices are...not as good as 7-11, which had 2/$3 energy drinks. Those same brands are 2/$5 at Walgreens :/

But I was bored - and thirsty - today, and so I explored because the weather was too nice not to. The Dollar Tree was still not open, and so I tried the Walgreens again. As I approached the toy aisle I thought Wouldn't it be great if they sold cards?

They do.

These were the last two Football repacks hanging on the shelf; there was one baseball box with Felix Hernandez facing, but I've got more than enough of whatever was in it.

I know this is not the best way to spend $10 on sports cards - and if I keep sinking money into my own version of gambling I'll end up like one of those debtors I'm forced to call. ('m being facetious here, I have never nor will I ever spend beyond my means.) But, as a collector, I thought I'd give it a shot since it's not every day that I have access to packs of cards.

Box #1 grabbed my attention right away. Christian McCaffrey is one of the few non-Packers I pay attention to, and though I was certain it was a Leaf Draft Pick card I figured it was better than the Bills team card (Wasn't going to buy that pack at first, but then I thought a comparison post would be fun. So here we are.)

Was I wise to pick both packs? You be the judge.

The McCaffrey pack yielded so many 1989 and 1990 singles I thought about recording an episode of Let's Remember Some Guys.

In fact 63 of the 76 cards in the pack were from 1989 to 1993, and only a couple of them were HOFers.

Mike Webster played for the Chiefs?

Here's the best of the rest.

Send it in, Jerome! I guess that 1:4 "hit" is supposed to balance out the "junk"?

Box #2 contained considerably less overproduction-era cards. Of the 75 cards, only 43 were from 1988 to 1994, and five of them were HOFers.

No autograph in this one, but there were some parallels you don't see every day:

These 1999 Collector's Edge Triumph Galvanized parallels scan horribly, even when I lighten the scan. If you still can't see them they are Michael Irvin, Champ Bailey, and Morten Andersen. These cards were at the back of the box, and each is numbered to 500. Bailey was a rookie in '99, which might explain why the only copy on COMC is listed at $12.

Champ makes another appearance in this pack, along with the first Arena League card I've ever owned (I'd rather have AFL and WLAF cards than those old Collegiate Collection cards any day.)

Box #2 also yielded the oldest card I've ever pulled from a repack:

This 1978 Topps Brian Kelly card is scratched and has a tiny crease, but it is one year older than the previous oldest repack pull in my collection, Graig Nettles:

Overall this repack wasn't a total kick in the junk..but you know what was? 31 NFL teams were represented within these two repacks - including both Houston franchises. The only two teams that did not have a card were the Patriots..and the Packers.

It just so happens those two teams play each other this weekend. I had to root against Los Angeles in two sports last Sunday. This Sunday I have to root against Boston.

 Go Pack Go!


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