Four Quick Retail Packs of American Heritage

The main difference between Hobby and retail packs are that retail packs are at least a buck cheaper per pack, but the odds of pulling a chrome, relic, auto or patch are significantly harder. Chrome cards are 1:7 instead of 1:2 packs. Presidential Patch cards aren't that much harder at 1:44 instead of 1:36, but you know the vultures will have picked those out of retail before they even hit the shelves. There are a whole ton of odds for the relics and cuts and autos and such, just trust me that they are harder in retail. Still, they are about 33% cheaper for the same amount of cards, even if you will be getting mostly base cards. Here's four retail packs I picked up that turned out to be rather interesting. (* means I actually needed the card. wheee!)

Pack 1

55 Barbara Rose Johns*
66 Norman Rockwell
72 John C. Calhoun
101 The Landing at Plymouth Rock*
AC6 Jesse Ventura
70 Frederic Edwin Church
79 William Jennings Bryan
88 Tony Pastor

Not a heck of a lot I needed out of here. I did get a Celebrity card of Jesse the Body.

Pack 2

76 Robert Livingston
87 Joe Namath
94 J.P. Morgan*
100 Andrew Carnegie*

Uh oh...

I see blue...

Oh heck a redemption card...

A Certified American Celebrity...

Relic?!? They have redemption cards for Relics?!?

Jesse Ventura again! This goddamn better be a feather boa relic.

19 Amelia Earhart*
25 Winfield Scott*
36 Samuel Adams*

Ok, the irony of this pack? It was heavily searched. There are deep thumbnail grooves all over the Livingston card from where some assclown was feeling up the pack. I got a few cards I needed though. The redemption card kills me. It doesn't expire until 2012. I could be dead before I get my Jesse Ventura sportscoat swatch. I need a beer.

Pack 3

63 Frederic Remington*
74 Daniel Webster*
85 Buster Keaton*
104 The Constitution is ratified
AC9 Keith Olbermann
80 Henry Cabot Lodge*
90 Clara Bow*
57 Cesar Chavez*

This is one of the better packs I've gotten even though the Remington card is damaged. Lots of interesting characters in here. The Buster Keaton card will end up being one of my absolute favorites in the set, if not the favorite. "It Girl" Clara bow is pretty nifty too. There's also Daniel Webster of short story fame, union activist Chavez and right-wing bigot Henry Cabot Lodge. Then there's Keith. I know half of you out there like him and the other half despises him. You have to give him credit though, the man knows his baseball cards. He does not know, however, how to dress for a photo shoot to avoid looking like a dork on a trading card.

Pack 4

75 John Jay
83 George and Ira Gershwin*
78 Thurgood Marshall*
113 Completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad*
132 John McCain SP*
23 George Marshall
12 William Clark
2 Herriet Beecher Stowe
David Wright Topps of the Class card. No, really.

Ok, here's a tip: do not buy any of these packs from the Target on the corner of Johnson Ferry and Upper Roswell in Marietta. Some fucktard completely ruined the John Jay card scrubbing the pack with his nail. It's so bad I'm just throwing the sucker away even though I need it. I went back and checked the Barbara Rose Johns card and there's a scrape on that one too. Pack searchers don't infuriate me like they do a lot of other bloggers out there, but they can at least learn how to do it without destroying the damn cards! A nifty card of Thurgood Marshall saves the pack for me. Here's some interesting lazyness from Topps though. Here's the John McCain SP I pulled:

And here's another SP card I have:

Oy. Well, the set is so good there had to be a little of the Topps lazyness popping up in there somewhere.