Here's some more of the useless crap I got from Target this winter while I was bored to death waiting for the '09 products to come out. If only American Heritage or Mayo Football had been out (or if Heritage High Series hadn't been so annoying) I might have avoided this stuff. When you've got a serious pack ripping itch and you're standing in front of a card aisle filled with Updates & Highlights, Bowman Football and The Tale of Despereaux packs panic sets in and you buy stupid stuff. Target has had these blister packs on sale for a couple of months now with two packs of basketball cards and a memorabilia card for $5.99. This was actually one of the more sensible stupid worthless things I could waste my money on to tell the truth. I like basketball, my
Hawks are looking good for a playoff spot and you're getting a 'hit' in every package for 6 bucks. Ok, so the hits are utter garbage and you're buying two moldy old packs that didn't sell in the first place for full retail for the priviledge of pulling that garbage, but at least I wasn't buying $20
repack boxes.
I'm not going to admit to the exact number of these things I've picked up, but I will show off the first one, the best one and the worst hit I pulled. So now you know I bought at least three, which is more than enough to be able to mock me mercilessly.
Probably two thirds of the packages I've seen had the same two packs as this blister had: a 2007-2008 Bowman Draft Picks and Stars pack and a '07-08 Fleer Hot Prospects pack. The memorabilia card is wedged unprotected inbetween the two packs
2007-2008 Bowman Draft Picks and Stars
59 Jason Terry
124 Alando Tucker RC 0813/2999
16 Pau Gasol Chrome
11 Yao Ming
28 Zach Randolph
You know why I'm not really upset at Panini getting an exclusive NBA license? Because it means Upper Deck finally got smacked by some of their own
hubris, and because it means that Bowman Basketball is dead forever. Bowman Basketball is the lousiest, rottenest most worthless useless dog of a set ever. Five cards in a pack. One of the cards is a Chrome parallel. Base rookies are serial numbered and short printed 1:7 while Chrome rookies fall at 1:9 packs. All this for $2.99, the same price as Baseball and Football Bowman only with half the cards. To. Tal. Gar. Bage. Too bad, because the cards look decent. This pack isn't terrible, as I got a Yao, I'm a fan of Jason Terry from his Hawk days and the rookie I pulled actually made the team (although is recovering from
knee surgery now). It's still not a good product which is why this pack is on the front of most of these repack blisters.
2007-2008 Fleer Hot Prospects
5 LeBron James
10 Yao Ming
30 Jermaine O'Neal
SC-11 Walt Frazier Supreme Court
$2 off Spalding Elevation Basketball
Typical Fleer semi-premium type set with 4 cards in a pack for 3 bucks. I got tired of these kind of packs in 2003, but I can't complain about this one. King James, Yao and to top it all off a card of Clyde Frazier. Not bad. The coupon is expired though, so no new basketball for Dayf.
Here's the big hit hiding between the two packs:
2006-2007 Topps '52 Style Kurt Thomas jersey
Well that's pretty neat looking. It's got the retro '52 charm but is just different enough to not trigger the involuntary twitching I get when Topps reuses that same damn design for the 500th time. Kurt's not a star or anything, but he's had a
nice career as a power forward who can grab some boards.
Here's the best package I've gotten. The packs aren't great, but the hit was spectactular. I should have quit while I was ahead.
2007-2008 Topps Trademark Moves
48 Dennis Rodman
38 Chris Bosh
79 Jared Dudley RC 0668/1999
31 Shawn Marion
10 Tim Duncan
I hope Panini continues to put retired players into their sets, because that's one thing I've really liked from Topps the past few years. To be fair, Upper Deck did it too as long as you didn't mind that their retired players were Michael Jordan, Mike Jordan, MJ, Michael Jordan (23), Michael Jordan (45), His Airness and Michael Jordan. No Wizards allowed. The card of The Worm is nifty. Yeah, he
was is a flake, but he also focused on defense and rebounding in an era of scoring titles and ESPN highlights. So good for him. Every time I pull a Tim Duncan card I keep thinking he's one of the stars from the '80s. That shows just how much I hold his game in high esteem. The rookie card is decent as
Dudley is still on an NBA roster playing off the Suns' bench. I consider an NBA rookie card pull to be a success if the guy actually plays in the league. This mindset is from pulling literally hundreds of second round and free agent signing scrubs out of mid-'90s packs.
2007-2008 Upper Deck blaster pack
185 Carlos Boozer
JC-10 Jordan Chronicles
68 LaMarcus Aldridge
34 Jason Richardson
13 Rudy Gay
I've seen more and more of these skinny blaster packs in repack stuff. This is a half pack, not a real pack. I liked the Upper Deck basketball design better than the '07 baseball one. Taking out that border on the right makes the photo look much better. The pack is ok, there are some minor stars and a Jordan card. I hate Michael Jordan. I can't stand him. He's so freaking annoying and I'm tired of hearing about him. He lost that damn dunk contest in Chicago too, everybody knows it. Hey Panini - lay off the Jordans. It's a new era, do new things. Except for the Topps retired player stuff, keep that up.
All right. Here's the jersey card that had me dancing in the streets:
2005-2006 SP Game Used Edition Kevin Willis Authentic Fabrics Jersey
Wait, what? I built up this card like it was a Joba Superfractor and it's
this?? HEY. I watched Willis kick ass at the Omni in the '80s, and this card has a Hawks logo on it, even though the jersey swatch is from the Spurs. This is my favorite hit, not yours. What else did you expect from a repack crapper?
Now that you are thoroughly underwhelmed by the best hit, just imagine the horrors I have awaiting for the worst. Actually, don't imagine it, just look at it right now:
2006-2007 Bowman Sterling Sergio Rodriguez Autograph
I was kind of surprised to see a Bowman Sterling card in there. I guess it's not that bad a card, and Madding at the very least would be happy with it.
Sergio is actually logging minutes on the Blazers' bench. But great googely moogely, just look at that terrible signature. This thing rivals Gellman's favorite autograph stinker,
Chris Johnson. Plus it's a holographic sticker auto on top of some weird Chrome texture. And yes, there are autographs in these repacks, just expect terrible ones like these.
Thank Jesus that Heritage is a little over a week away. I need to be spending my money on something I actually collect instead of buying more of these things, even if the Willis is in my top five pulls for the year so far.
59 Jason Terry
You know why I'm not really upset at Panini getting an exclusive NBA license? Because it means Upper Deck finally got smacked by some of their own hubris, and because it means that Bowman Basketball is dead forever. Bowman Basketball is the lousiest, rottenest most worthless useless dog of a set ever. Five cards in a pack. One of the cards is a Chrome parallel. Base rookies are serial numbered and short printed 1:7 while Chrome rookies fall at 1:9 packs. All this for $2.99, the same price as Baseball and Football Bowman only with half the cards. To. Tal. Gar. Bage. Too bad, because the cards look decent. This pack isn't terrible, as I got a Yao, I'm a fan of Jason Terry from his Hawk days and the rookie I pulled actually made the team (although is recovering from knee surgery now). It's still not a good product which is why this pack is on the front of most of these repack blisters.
2007-2008 Fleer Hot Prospects
5 LeBron James
Typical Fleer semi-premium type set with 4 cards in a pack for 3 bucks. I got tired of these kind of packs in 2003, but I can't complain about this one. King James, Yao and to top it all off a card of Clyde Frazier. Not bad. The coupon is expired though, so no new basketball for Dayf.
Here's the big hit hiding between the two packs:
Well that's pretty neat looking. It's got the retro '52 charm but is just different enough to not trigger the involuntary twitching I get when Topps reuses that same damn design for the 500th time. Kurt's not a star or anything, but he's had a nice career as a power forward who can grab some boards.
48 Dennis Rodman
I hope Panini continues to put retired players into their sets, because that's one thing I've really liked from Topps the past few years. To be fair, Upper Deck did it too as long as you didn't mind that their retired players were Michael Jordan, Mike Jordan, MJ, Michael Jordan (23), Michael Jordan (45), His Airness and Michael Jordan. No Wizards allowed. The card of The Worm is nifty. Yeah, he 
2007-2008 Upper Deck blaster pack
185 Carlos Boozer
I've seen more and more of these skinny blaster packs in repack stuff. This is a half pack, not a real pack. I liked the Upper Deck basketball design better than the '07 baseball one. Taking out that border on the right makes the photo look much better. The pack is ok, there are some minor stars and a Jordan card. I hate Michael Jordan. I can't stand him. He's so freaking annoying and I'm tired of hearing about him. He lost that damn dunk contest in Chicago too, everybody knows it. Hey Panini - lay off the Jordans. It's a new era, do new things. Except for the Topps retired player stuff, keep that up.
All right. Here's the jersey card that had me dancing in the streets:
Wait, what? I built up this card like it was a Joba Superfractor and it's this?? HEY. I watched Willis kick ass at the Omni in the '80s, and this card has a Hawks logo on it, even though the jersey swatch is from the Spurs. This is my favorite hit, not yours. What else did you expect from a repack crapper?
I was kind of surprised to see a Bowman Sterling card in there. I guess it's not that bad a card, and Madding at the very least would be happy with it. Sergio is actually logging minutes on the Blazers' bench. But great googely moogely, just look at that terrible signature. This thing rivals Gellman's favorite autograph stinker, Chris Johnson. Plus it's a holographic sticker auto on top of some weird Chrome texture. And yes, there are autographs in these repacks, just expect terrible ones like these.
I wanted some football cards to open today while I watched all the games with playoff implications so I got this 4 packs and an auto thing for $9.99. The distributor on the back is MJ Holding company and there's a web address on there too. So, four packs and a draft pick autograph. Looking at what is offered on the front There's about nine bucks full retail value for the packs and a 2008 Hit autograph in there. Let's see what is actually in there...
Swap the Chrome for a Legends pack and that's pretty much what's on the package. I'm happy about the low series pack since that's the one with Matt Ryan. Upper Deck, eh... Topps, eh... Legends is very interesting. There could be another autograph in there and hey, Legendary players. Let's start with the Hit pack and go on to the 2006s from there.
W00t! Got the Matt Ryan! The pack is a success! As for the rest: Hawkins was a 4th round pick of the Titans and has 4 catches this year. Sam Keller didn't get drafted and sign with an Arena League team. Too bad they just suspended the 2009 season. Brandon Flowers is a second round pick of the Chiefs and plays cornerback when he's not touring with the Killers. Brink was a 7th round pick who is on the Texan's practice squad.O'Connell was the third round pick of the Patriots who now has to look up at Brady and Cassel. Eh, I got the Ryan. Everything else is packing material. Next.
The Ryans rookie with the little foil stamp on it confused me. I'd never seen on of them before. They fall 1:10 packs so they can't be that rare. Not a bad pack, Three decent rookies, a couple of defensive backs and the Concussion Queen.
This was an odd pack, all quarterbacks and running backs. Even weirder is half the base cards have the position stamped in capital letters (LT, Johnson and Westbrook) and the others are all in lower cases. I tried to scan the foil, but you see how well that worked. LT's card is cool, but the Rex Grossman card is hideous. He looks like a flailing turkey. The Favre looks good though and Hackney is still hanging around the league holding the clipboard for the Broncos. Ok, now for the pack I'm really looking forward to:
Steve DeBerg? Steve DeBERG?? STEVE DEBERG?!? Oh my God.....
7th round pick of the Bengals (probably simply because he was a Bearcat), cut in training camp, signed by the Panthers for their practice squad, dut again and is now on the Patriots' practice squad. Not quite the McFadden, Flacco and Ryan autos shown on the front. The card was also put in the package with no protection whatsoever, so the top right corner and bottom edge has dings.
I really should know better by now, but This Fairfield box sucked me in yesterday. It's called 7th inning stretch because there are 7 Unique baseball items per box! WOOHOOO! Get it... Seventh inning... seven items... ahem. Well, for fifteen bucks they better be unique. Anyway I bought it and opened it and now I have become a warning to others. First, let's see what's promised in the box:
This is like the seven dirty words you can't say to a Joe Collector without them frothing at the mouth like an evangelical preacher listening to a George Carlin routine.
Bah, no Braves. Well, it was 1990. Dave Justice was about it from that year. There's a few stars in here though. It looks like there's a lineup for the AL and the NL. I think the AL could take 'em though. This may be something I have to bust in a future post. It's kinda weird to get a KMart set out of a box from Target. Time to move on to the second item.
Upper Deck is a major manufacturer to be sure. And the pack is sealed all right! This is a series one pack out of a blaster. I can tell from the lack of a UPC code on the back and the fact there are only 8 cards in the pack. Let's open 'er up and see what's in there:
Definitely a pack for a Yankee fan. Hey Eric, Rudy's yours if you want him, I've already got Mr. 9/11. There are three Yankee logos on the card so it should be right up your alley. I've been pulling Ian Kennedy rookies like mad lately. is he any good or what? 0-4 in ten appearances this year with an ERA over 8. Blech. He pitched well for Scranton though and he's only 23 so who knows. Ok, time for the good stuff:
The infamous plain white Fairfield envelope! What secrets are hidden inside?
A 2001 Pacific parallel of Robert Person? Really? Wow. Oh wait, it's serial numbered.
A Robert Person Pacific Premeire Date parallel card numbered 3/36. This is supposed to be valued at $15 or higher. Really? Let's check the only price guide I have that would contain listings for this set, my 2002 Standard Catalog of Baseball cards. Let's see, Let's see... 2001 Pacific... Robert Person is valued at 10 cents... Premiere date parallels are 25-50X listing for star cards. Is Robert Person a star? I think it's time to be moseying along...
Dice-K! Not a bad rookie, it looks kind of different though. Aha, it's from the 2007 Topps team set of the Boston Red Sox. The card is numbered BOS1. Still pretty good, it's a variation I don't have yet. Ok! The next card is really thick! Let's check out the JERSEY CARD!!!
...
Well, they called the Pujols card all right. This Pujols is from the National Packtime giveaway in 2006. Another neat variation of a star, but I have this set already. Well, this box has been pretty hit or miss so far, with a double helping of miss. Last item in the box is the bulkiest. Let's check out this big ol' slab of plastic.
