Fairfield Baseball Repack

Fairfield: These are guilty pleasures but with how hard it is to find cards these may be a breath of fresh air.  Found this is at a Walgreens which had a ton of them for $4.99.  Eckersley is a PC guy and Hall of Famer so this was a fun pull.  

This box contained cards from the 80s, 90s, and 2000s and we'll start with the former.  Love that '88 Fleer design but Stanley had a rough year in '87 losing 15 games.  All these are the usual suspects you expect to find in repacks.

These were some designs I didn't remember from the 90's and 200s but I'd stepped away from collecting at the time.

Great photo on this Jim Abbott even though the Yankee uni taints it some.

About 2/3 of the cards were from the 90s.  Doesn't mean there weren't stars to be found.  

There was a pack of 1992 Series II Donruss in the box that yielded some nice cards. 

And we get some recent cards as well.  Not so much in the way of star power but some guys who had some solid years in the league.

Overall this is only a small sampling and there were a few more minor Hall of Famers running around in the box.  There was more variety than I expected which was nice.  I think I had a max of four cards from any single set.  I still find it fun.  Actual junk wax era packs would be a bit more exciting because you know you might find bigger names but these still have their place. 

I was surprised to see some Bowman and it was fun looking them up to see what they did which wasn't much.  That said who else had no clue that Tyler Colvin had seasons with 18 and 20 home runs? I really don't remember this guy.  We'll end it with PC guy Vince Coleman.  This was a fun find.  I won't search these repacks out per se but at this price point I can see me picking up more at some point.

BREAKDOWN:
95 – Total Cards
62 – 1990s
22 – 1980s
11 – 2000s
1 - Duplicate
1 – 1992 Donruss Series II Pack

Random Wax: 2019 Contenders Football

2019 Contenders Football: I've had this one queued up for a while now.  It's a favorite design of mine and I'm a Contenders fan as a whole.  It'll be interesting to see what the Saints look like in the post Brees era.  Always tough seeing one of the greats of the game move on especially for his former team.

Plenty of great receivers here though who in 2019 could have thought Hopkins would now be a Cardinal and the Houston franchise would be in such disarray?  As a reminder the Section/Row/Seat correlate to the player's Weight/Height(FtIn)/Jersey number.

Also it's doubtful anyone would have picked the Bucs to win a Super Bowl within two years.  With Tom Brady at quarterback no less.

This design just pops for me.  I know folks get tired of the ticket format it uses each year but this one with the the big circle around the logo is a winner for me.  

Definitely some good inserts.  The cards tend to have a lot of white on them so I prefer the colored jerseys best.  Hardman Jr. is doing alright with the Chiefs having caught 41 passes last year.  Another fun pack.

BREAKDOWN:

22 – Total Cards

2 – MVP Contenders

1 – Winning Ticket

1 – Emerald Parallel

1 – Rookie of the Year Contenders

Random Wax: 2020 Gypsy Queen

 2020 Topps Gypsy Queen:  This is a pack I picked up last year.  It is a Fortune Teller hot pack of sorts with two of these minis.  Both are pretty good names as well which never hurts and both are off to good starts this season.

I do like this design.  The base cards didn't have the biggest names but overall a good pack.  

Five green parallels in this pack.  Abreu is off to a slow start but has been so good for the White Sox in his career.

Pretty good pack though not spectacular and a good way to start the weekend.  

BREAKDOWN: 
24 – Total Cards
5 – Green Parallel
4 – RC
2 – Fortune Teller

Asajj Ventress The Black Series 6 Inch Figure

 Asajj Ventress: Had this gal on pre-order for some time and was very happy when she showed up.  She's a cool character in the Star Wars universe and great looking figure.  As a big Star Wars guy I can't get enough of the Hasbro Black Series 6" figures.  The majority are so good and fanboys like me love 'em.

I don't know if there is a definitive Asajj Ventress look but this one is similar in styling I've seen with her character before.  This one is based on her character in the animated Clone Wars series. She is also a main character in the book Dark Disciple which is a good read. Beware there are spoilers at that book link.

I like the look from the back with the bare portion.  

She's pretty posable and the two lightsabers offers different options for posing.  I will say the plastic piece on the front of her "skirt" was key in helping her stand up in some of these poses.  Is that cheating?

Again this is a fun and good looking figure.  My grandsons get to play with her so I needed to grab some shots before she got carved up by a Wookie.  

Mail Day: Trade with J's Sports Cards

J from J's Sports Cards on Twitter reached out for a trade and I want to show off the great cards he sent. This one really caught my eyes and of course looks like a real auto at first glance.  The Topps Through the Years cards are fun and I like that they also show off newer cards like this.  

I wasn't a fan of '86 Topps but I do like these retro cards with legends and current players.  I like that Aaron photo as well.

Plenty of fun cards including these Red Sox legends that include a Career Stats Clemens variation.

More legends.

That Pedro card is a diecut which is really cool.  I really like the design on the Clemens All-Star card.  We need more like that.

A couple of Braves show up on this League Leaders card.  I like that you don't have just the top two or three leaders on the front.

Some sweet Ozuna cards.  I was very happy the Braves resigned him in the offseason even if he'soff ot a slow start this year.  The Unleashed are an insert I didn't think I'd like but they are pretty cool.  

Devers is off to a great start this year for the surprising BoSox.

Wanted to show these great cards off and these aren't even all of them.  I'm very happy J reached out and with the cards he sent my way.

   

2021 Leaf Draft Football Retail Blaster

 2021 Leaf Draft Football: NFL draft starts today so this retail blaster is perfect for this morning.  These come with a complete 50 card set as well as two autographs.  Where else do you kick this off except with this guy who is the presumptive number one pick tonight.  I hope he does well in the NFL but you just never know.

The fronts are fine design wise and have the Leaf vibe to them.  The lack of logos is of course no fun but for these boxes you're rolling the dice on the autographs. 

We'll see how my two go.  They aren't first round guys but should go somewhere in the draft on Saturday.  This year is definitely the year you' hoping for an auto from a quarterback with so many expected to go in the first round.  The autos came in the top loaders you see here though they weren't in penny sleeves.  The hobby blasters come with three autos but I doubt you can find them for what you pay for these at retail.

The backs have some generic information.  I'd prefer their college stats but it is what it is.  The set comes in a box within the blaster.  Lawrence is the first and last card in the set which can make for some dings which I found on the back of his All-American card.

The All-American cards make up the last 11 cards of the base set and I really like the design.  This box definitely isn't something I'd normally go for but it was there so I said "why not".  There's some fun with these.  I wouldn't grab a second one but it was funning taking a chance.

BREAKDOWN: 
52 – Total Cards
2 - XRC Autographs

2021 Donruss Baseball

 2021 Donruss Baseball:  Was able to grab multiple packs of these at the same time I snared the Prizm basketball I showed off Friday.  I, like many, am not a big fan of the lack of logos so this is always a tough sell for me.  Doesn't mean there aren't cards I like but I sigh a lot thinking how much better it'd be with logos.  I did grab a relic in this pack and it was a star player so big bonus there.  

The design is a little different this year but I don't mind different.  The photos are good and I like the color but it seems to missing something (other than the logo).  Almost too much of the primary color.  Maybe something to break it up.

We have a couple nickname variations here on the first two cards.  The backs are the pretty standard and boring backs we expect from Donruss.  Doesn't seem like the different variations are as hard to pull as you see with Topps.  The list (and photos) of the various variations can be found here.

I do enjoy the inclusion of retired greats on these Retro 1987 inserts.  There are three red parallels per pack.

The Diamond Kings aren't doing it for me.  I'm okay with purple but it doesn't seem to work here in my opinion.  The Dominators are nice inserts.  And of course we have the Rated Rookies to show of the young players.

Just showing off the back of one of the Retro 1987 inserts.  I would have preferred career stats but that is asking a lot.  Even without the team logos this was a fun pack.  I'll show off the others I picked up throughout the year. 

BREAKDOWN:
30 – Total Cards
6 – Retro 1987
3 – Rated Rookie
3 – Diamond Kings
3 – Holo Red Parallel
2 – Player Nickname Variation
1 – Dominators
1 – Retro 1987 Materials