My Second Ever Father-Daughter Box Break: Garbage Pail Kids TV-themed stickers

In my last post I discussed my first ever box break with my now seven-year old daughter - a repack blaster I picked out a couple weeks ago. My second father-daughter box break was a blaster of Garbage Pail Kids... which I held onto until her official birthday. 

 
I was a GPK fanatic as a kid. I can still remember taking my $5 allowance to the corner store and coming home with 20 packs of Series 4 one stormy afternoon sometime in 1986. There are still remnants of GPK stickers on the closet door of my old bedroom in my mom's house.

My nephew (who was born in '86) shared my passion for GPK - and as he was buying back his childhood he found this book:

...which contains full-color pictures of every 'A' sticker in the first five series. My girls and I were fascinated by them, and I pointed out the ones I had in my collection (the ones I could remember, anyway.)  When my nephew saw us enjoying this book he decided to give us a copy for my birthday. For a few weeks afterward, my girls wanted me to "read" the book to them as a bedtime story!

That got my oldest daughter interested in buying some GPK of her own. She asked about the stickers in the book - the originals from the mid-80's. "Can we buy them, daddy?" 

"Sure we can." I said.

So I scrolled through COMC with her (starting with series 1) and let her pick out a handful of cards she liked - but I told her they couldn't be more than a dollar each. Here's what she picked:

1985 GPK Series 2 - Greaser Greg ($1.00) & Split Kit ($0.95)

1986 GPK Series 3 Barren Aaron ($0.92) & 1986 GPK Series 4 Melba Toast ($0.73)

 1986 GPK Series 5 Haunted Hollis ($0.75) & Jules Drools ($0.74)

She also picked this one (which was not in the book) for a very personal reason:

I picked out some that were personal favorites of mine from 30 years ago:

1986 GPK Series 3 Roy Bot ($0.95) & Dinah Saur ($0.98)
1986 GPK Series 5 Deaf Geoff ($0.75)

Those are all incoming from COMC. As for the new GPK we opened, this blaster was from a series called "Prime-Slime Trashy TV". For $10, we got four 10-card packs and bonus stickers from a 'Bathroom Buddies' series.

The cover depicts Series 1 original Tee-Vee Stevie

When I realized there were only four packs I initially had a bit of sticker shock; if you collected these in the 80's you'll probably remember that five-card packs used to cost 25 cents. Then I realized that if 2016 Topps baseball cards had double the amount of cards at ten times the 1986 price...they would cost $5 for 30 cards. That's pretty much what a jumbo/fat pack costs now, right? 

Unlike the old GPK cards these were not numbered 1a/1b, 2a/2b through the end of the series. These appear to be divided into multiple subsets, with no unifying number sequence:

I scanned all of the cards before my daughter took them back to her bedroom. Last I heard they were under her bed, but I don't know if she will stick them in a book (or her bedroom door) or keep them intact.

The green slime parallels are one per pack

My daughter was disappointed she didn't pull a SpongeBob card

As you can probably tell, these are supposed to depict specific shows and characters from the world of television. I got some of the references right away, but others baffled me. 

How many of these TV shows/personalities can you identify?



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My First Ever Father-Daughter Box Break (featuring 2015-16 Topps products)

A few quick notes before I start this post: my "star player" box blog series will resume next week with active baseball stars. Then I might do a post (or two) on football and basketball star base cards at the end of the week and save hockey stars for January - once my COMC order arrives mid-month I'll want to write a few posts about my purchases.

Also I've expanded my wantlist/current projects page, and I've added a former NFL tight end to the Debtor Hall of Shame. Now that we've got the housekeeping out of the way, let's get to the cards!

A short time ago, I was shopping in Target with the wife and kids. My six year old daughter has started to show an interest in my sports card collection (!!) and when we passed by the collectibles aisle she said out of nowhere "Daddy, when are you going to teach me about baseball cards?" Well that tugged at my heart; since I was her age when I started collecting I had to get her a blaster box.

While my girls looked at toys I picked out a repack: 20 packs (plus one relic) for $20.

I was expecting at least 10 packs from the junk wax era - and a crappy relic of some team USA player who never made it above double-A. I only got two junk wax packs (both 1991 Studio) and three packs of Triple Play I didn't care for, but we did pull the coveted 'real feel' jersey card:

Yusss!

To my surprise, every other pack was from 2015 or 2016 Topps or Topps Heritage. And the relic was not a nobody at all - unless you consider 15 year MLB veteran and 2-time All-Star Shawn Green a 'nobody'.

This is the holder it came in. I've yet to find a screwdriver to jailbreak the thing.

Here's a sample of the 1991 Studio, including a Ken Griffey, Jr with a dinged corner.

 Simple, yet informative card backs.

Did you know Cecil had a son?

I actually didn't mind the prospect of junk wax because I wanted my daughter to open the packs and look through the cards without me freaking out that she'd bend the corners. (I'm 90% sure the Griffey was already bent, it seems the Studio packs took a beating.)

We laid the packs out on the floor and divided them up. I let her open the Studio and Triple Play. I opened most of the 2015 Topps (one of my faves) and we split the Heritage in half.

I got the 2015 Heritage jumbo pack in the box window, which was a total dud. These are the "highlights":

Best of the worst. At least the Goldschmidt is a high #.

The 9 packs of 2015 Topps Series 1 were a lot of fun to open, for a couple of reasons:

My daughter pulled an Eric Young gold parallel, and she knew it was a special card. Later when she got a Pittsburgh Pirate in her pack she assumed that was special too, based on the border color. That's when I explained the difference between insert cards and regular base cards.

There's a difference. I guess.

Sox in my box!

The Ortiz free agent 40 is a dupe :/

Overall, I think 2016 Topps Heritage was the best of the bunch:

Whenever we pulled pull a star player I'd explain to my daughter that "he's the best player in the game" (Trout) or "one of the best" (Harper). So when she pulled the Ichiro card I told her "he's an all-time great player, but he's going to retire soon."
She replied "Why, cause he's really old?"

Lol...yes, dear. Because he's really old.

The purple chrome parallels were one per pack. I spared her the ethics lesson on A-Rod, and only  told her "he's another all-time great player" - but I did tell her about Jose Fernandez, and how he died in a boating accident a couple months ago. This refractor is #d/567.

Santiago Casilla hot box! I pulled one of his cards in each Topps product. Somehow he didn't make it into 1991 Studio. Maybe because he was 11 years old?




Tomorrow I'll post the box of Garbage Pail Kids she picked out for her 7th birthday - and a few classic cards from the original GPK series. 



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Stuck In the Middle: My Retired Baseball Greats base card collection

In my last post I showed off some of my base cards of Baseball Hall Of Famers. Now I'll list my base cards of retired greats who were considered stars in their playing days but are not enshrined in Cooperstown. 

Some of these players have not been retired for the requisite five years, while others are on the ballot and may one day be elected. 

Some have legendary statistics but are being excluded for different reasons - as I discussed in an earlier blog post. They won't be excluded here.       

Here are some of my favorite base cards of these retired superstars...



Don Mattingly was a PC player back in the day.

So was Sammy Sosa.

1992 Fleer Ultra was one of my favorite sets as a kid...but 1993 Ultra might be even better.

 Trois Expos (how about that outfield, Mike Matson?)

 

Bo!

Mo!

Jeff Bagwell in his ZZ Top days. He's knocking on the Hall Of Fame doors, and I think they'll let him very soon. I hope his plaque will show off this sweet beard.

A pair of pre-Papi cards from 1998 - Bowman Chrome & Bowman's Best. These are the oldest David Ortiz cards I own, for some reason I do not have either of his 1997 Fleer RC's.

 

Jeter and A-Rod in their rookie seasons. My vote for best baseball uniform of all-time goes to the mid-90's Mariners. What's your favorite?

 

 Le Big Mac.

 

 Barry Bonds was a hard player to root for. This 1994 Flair card is a lot more likeable.

I knew a guy in high school who called himself "the biggest Gary Sheffield fan you'll ever meet." He even wore a gold chain with Sheff's #10.

 

I dig those orange Orioles throwbacks Raffy's sporting on this 2005 Leaf card. (And did I mention I used to collect Sosa cards?) PEDs or not, there's nearly 1,200 career home runs between these two.

 

 I saw Todd Helton play for the double-A New Haven Ravens a time or two.

 

Why are there two Mark Teixeira cards in this 2011 Topps Heritage set? And how did I end up with both of them? (true story: my bff once mispronounced Tex's name. He called him "Max.")

 

A pair of Rockets. I won a pack war game with the Tri-Star prospects card; the pot went to the holder of the oldest prospect. How about this guy? He was born in 1962.

 Has there ever been a cooler home run celebration than this?

We'll end with this iconic Derek Jeter card from 2015 Topps (can a card from last year be called 'iconic' yet?)

Here's a complete list of every retired star player in the box, and how many cards I have of that player. (please note: this list does not include inserts, parallels, rookie cards, memorabilia, autographs, graded singles, Red Sox cards, etc...)


Jeff Bagwell (18)
Barry Bonds (18)
Roger Clemens (7)
Prince Fielder (9)
Nomar Garciaparra (5)
Vladimir Guerrero (20)
Roy Halladay (5)
Todd Helton (16)
Trevor Hoffman (13)
Bo Jackson (7)
Joe Jackson (1)
Derek Jeter (15)
Chipper Jones (10)
Jeff Kent (6)
Don Mattingly (54)
Mark McGwire (10)
Mike Mussina (15)
David Ortiz (3)
Rafael Palmeiro (9)
Tim Raines (5)
Manny Ramirez (7)
Mariano Rivera (6)
Alex Rodriguez (14)
Ivan Rodriguez (16)
Pete Rose (2)
Curt Schilling (25)
Gary Sheffield (12)
Sammy Sosa (49)
Mark Teixeira (7)
Jim Thome (15)
Larry Walker (10)


Now for the fun part!

Some of those players are all-time greats and belong in the box, if not the Hall Of Fame. Tim Raines cards were in my binders for years, and I promoted him when it started to look like he'd be elected to the HOF (then again, I did the same thing for Jack Morris.) I dont think anyone reading this would dispute Bonds, Clemens, Jeter, Rose, or A-Rod. But what about the other players? Are there any names on this list that you don't consider star players?


On the other side of the coin, there are some statistically comparable players who have been left out of the box. I flipped through my binders last night and realized that I have no good explanation as to where I drew the line. That's why I need your help...

The following 44 players are in my commons binders at the moment - but they're all borderline Hall Of Famers and/or were considered star players during their career. For your consideration:

• Albert Belle
• Kevin Brown
• Jose Canseco
• Joe Carter
• Will Clark
• David Cone
• Johnny Damon
• Eric Davis
• Carlos Delgado
• Dwight Evans 
• Cecil Fielder 
• Steve Garvey
• Jason Giambi
• Juan Gonzalez
• Dwight Gooden
• Tim Hudson 
• Torii Hunter
• Andruw Jones
• Kenny Lofton
• Fred Lynn
• Edgar Martinez
• Fred McGriff
• Jack Morris
• Dale Murphy 
• Graig Nettles
• John Olerud
• Dave Parker
• Andy Pettitte
• Jorge Posada
• Scott Rolen
• Bret Saberhagen
• Johan Santana
• Lee Smith
• Alfonso Soriano
• Darryl Strawberry
• Miguel Tejada
• Alan Trammell
• Fernando Valenzuela
• Mo Vaughn
• Omar Vizquel
• Billy Wagner 
• Lou Whitaker 
• Bernie Williams
• Michael Young

  Do any of these names jump off the screen (and into the box?)


There are also a handful of players who were stars before my time, and therefore I don't feel as qualified to determine their proper place: Vida Blue, Bill Freehan, Frank Howard, Jim Kaat, Mickey Lolich, Minnie Minoso, and Bill Skowron could be considered 'minor stars' but I think Gil Hodges and Roger Maris are star player box worthy for sure. What say you?
 



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