1997 Score Cleveland Indians

I'm a sucker for an unusual pack, in fact, that's pretty much my thing. So I picked one of these up. These packs contain 5 cards out of the 15 card Indians team set. The team set cards are like the '97 Score base set, except these have red foil on the bottom, have "Team Collection" printed on the back and are numbered "x of 15". I'm glad I pulled Brian Giles rookie since I have a few of his from the regular set and this one will stand out.

Here's what I got:

#2 Jack McDowell
#4 Dennis Martinez
#9 Sandy Alomar Jr.
#13 Jeff Kent
#15 Brian Giles [rookie]

Pack Stats:

What it cost me: $ 2.25
Beckett NM/MT worth: $3.80
Insert odds I beat: none
Most valuable card: Brian Giles [rookie] @ $2.00

2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces pack 2

I was hoping to eventually pull these presidential cards out of my favorite set, and here they are in my second try. These cards document them throwing out first pitches during their presidency.

Here's what I got:

#62 Luis Aparicio
#63 Stephen Drew
#75 Richard Nixon
#76 Bill Clinton

Pack Stats:

What it cost me: $ 2.99
Beckett NM/MT worth: $5.60
Insert odds I beat: none
Most valuable card: Bill Clinton @ $2.50

Favorite Card of the Week [1.18.08-1.24.08]

Michael Jordan had always been a pinnacle pull when I was a kid opening my '90-'91 Hoops packs.. and that has never changed and never will. Michael Jordan will always be the best card you can pull out of any past, present or future basketball card pack. It's exciting to see more and more MJ cards come out in current sets, including autographs!

If you think you own this card, you probably don't. The one you most likely have is numbered #282 and worth just a little less than this one. This one is from Fleer's '96-'97 European set which had a few more cards in the mix, making this one numbered #312.

1996 Topps Laser Football

When I saw this pack before I opened it, It looked like the cards were going to be oversized, but it had 4 regular sized die cut cards sandwiched between 2 oversized checklist cards to protect the die cut cards. These are my first laser cards so I'm happy.

Here's what I got:

#12 Brian Mitchell
#19 Neil O'Donnell
#37 Henry Thomas
#42 Willie McGinest

What it cost me: $4.25
Beckett NM/MT worth: $1.00
Insert odds I beat: N/A
Most valuable card: #19 Neil O'Donnell @ $ .40

2001 Upper Deck Minor League Centennial

This sure is an interesting set. It's chock full of hall of famers sporting their minor league uniforms in old grainy photos, along with prospects of '01 to fill the 100 card set. And if you're lucky, you'll find a Michael Jordan Minor League Memorabilia Card. When I pulled the Ozzie Smith, I was surprised to see he played for the Hawaii Islanders of the Pacific Coast League. I'm from Portland, OR so I grew up with the Portland Beavers PCL team. And I've never heard of the Islanders.. it turns out they became the Colorado Springs Sky Sox in 1988. The road trips for the Islanders must have been hell.. but it'd be worth it to play minor league ball in freakin' Hawaii, and it turns out that, along with Oz, Barry Bonds and Tony Gwynn did just that.

Here's what I got:

#14 Jason Hart
#27 Jamal Strong
#53 Bill Hall
#79 Pat Strange
#81 Ozzie Smith

What it cost me: $3.00

Beckett NM/MT worth: $2.25
Insert odds I beat: N/A
Most valuable card: #81 Ozzie Smith @ $ .75, #53 Bill Hall @ $ .75

1996-97 Fleer Basketball Series 2 European pack 2

Here's what I got:

#166 Minnesota Timberwolves
#204 Samaki Walker
#212 Terry Mills
#213 Otis Thorpe
#215 B.J. Armstrong
#256 Dontae Jones
#264 Lucious Harris
#291 John Stockton

What it cost me: nothing!
Beckett NM/MT worth: $1.00
Insert odds I beat: N/A
Most valuable card: #291 John Stockton @ $ .30

Scan!!!

The pics of the cards I post will be much better now that I finally ventured out into the world and picked up a Visioneer OneTouch 9420 high-res flatbed scanner so I can start using actual scans of my cards rather than stock photos off the internet. Oh and I can scan squished fruit too..