Pack Break: 2009-10 Panini Adrenalyne XL Basketball

These are new to me. I haven't even heard of them before! Wal-mart had a box of these out for 98 cents a pack! What are they? They appear to be Panini's version of Topps Attax, but for basketball. In my 5 seconds of research, it appears they've just released at least 3 other Adrenalyne soccer sets for a couple of European soccer leagues and the upcoming World Cup. And for all I know, there might be more. Bowling maybe?

There's 6 cards in the pack and that's it. The only info I could find was on the back of the box which had something about an album and playing mat. I imagine there are starter kits or something out there but Wal-mart didn't have anything else.

Just like with Topps Attax (I've only seen baseball), there are three numbers on the front which are probably used to play against your opponent's card. Offense, defense and.. star power?

Isn't that uniform sweet? I've seen the Spurs with their's too. Kinda dumb though because the english uniforms don't say The Mavs or The Spurs on them. I've also seen the Seattle Mariners with their Marineros uniforms which I found out were for a Latin appreciation day.

I like that they put rookies in the set. I don't thing Topps Attax had any rookies.

All the card backs look the same with just an activation code which must mean you could play other 9 year old kids online.

Box Break: 1993 Action Packed All-Star Gallery Baseball, Extras For Trade!

I've been looking to buy a box of Action Packed for a long time now. And back in December, Kruk Cards was having a sale on some of their eBay auctions and it was 30% off of an already cheap price, so I bit! I love what I got too.

All of the Action Packed brand cards that I've ever seen were made the same patented way. 1 piece of card stock folded over and the ends meet in the middle of the back of the card. The player image on the front is raised, just like I've seen on Topps Embossed from the 1990's. Because of the way they're made, it's pretty hard to find even pack fresh cards that would grade a 10. Most of them have a little foil blemish, or a bit of white showing on the black rounded edges. So keep that in mind if you're wanting any of these.

7 cards per pack. 24 packs per box. 24-karat leaf cards randomly inserted (I pulled one). I got really close to 2 full sets. So after the 1st set and keeping 1 of each extra hall-of-famer for my hall of famer collection, that leaves me with quite a few doubles. These cards are cheap so hit me up if you want anything. I'll even trade 1-for-1 for anything on my set needs list. Whatever. Here's a list of what I've got available with the team they're representing for you team collectors:

3 Bob Gibson [stl] pictured

11 George Kell [det] pictured

19 Vern Law [pit]

20 Virgil Trucks [det] pictured

21 Mel Parnell [bos]

22 Wally Moon [stl]

23 Gene Woodling [nyy]

25 Mark Fidrych [det]

26 Elroy Face [pit] pictured

28 Dick Groat [phi] X2

29 Cesar Cedeno [hou]

30 Bob Horner [atl] X2

33 Gil McDougald [nyy]

34 Roy White [nyy] X2

35 Bill Skowron [nyy]

36 Mickey Lolich [det]

37 Minnie Minoso [chw] X2

38 Billy Pierce [chc]

39 Ron Santo [chc] pictured

40 Sal Bando [oak]

41 Ralph Branca [br. dodgs]

42 Bert Campaneris [oak]

43 Joe Garagiola [stl?]

45 Frankie Crosetti [nyy]

47 Maury Wills [lad]

48 Sam McDowell [cle]

49 Jimmy Piersall [bos]

50 Jim Lonborg [bos]

51 Don Newcombe [br dodgs]

53 Wilbur Wood [chw]

54 Carl Erskine [br dodgs] pictured

55 Chris Chambliss [nyy]

56 Dave Kingman [nym]

58 Bud Harrelson [nym]

59 Clem Labine [br dodgs] X3 X2

60 Tony Oliva [min]

61 George Foster [cin]

62 Bobby Bonds [sfg]

63 Harvey Haddix [pit]

64 Steve Garvey [lad] pictured

65 Rocky Colavito [cle] X2

68 Al Oliver [mon]

70 Al Rosen [cle]

72 Curt Flood [stl]

73 Willie Horton [det]

74 Rico Carty [cle]

75 Davey Johnson [atl] X2 pictured

76 Dave Kessinger [chc]

78 Bobby Shantz [phi a's or kc a's]

79 Herb Score [cle]

80 Boog Powell [bal] pictured

81 Rusty Staub [nym]

82 Bill Madlock [pit]

83 Manny Mota [lad]

84 Bill White [stl]

All from this scan are on the list above.

Here's an example of the back. I had always thought Garvey was in the hall until just recently!

And finally, we have the 24K gold foil insert. Not too much of a difference from the base set except the card number on the back is 12"G" and the foil on the front is... pure gold! I like this one so it would be tough for me to trade it away.

Six Pack Break: 1991 Upper Deck Baseball

Last month, Brian over at 30 Year-Old Cardboard posted a bunch of needs for his Darryl Strawberry player collection. He had a stack of unopened '91 Upper Deck baseball packs and was trading away a pack per card! This post was perfect for me because I love junk wax, err.. any wax for that matter, AND I have a couple of hundred Strawberry doubles stashed away for moments like these (to trade). I'm surprised I was only able to find 2 on the list. That's ok though because Brian also ended up claiming something from my trade bait post so in the end I came away with 6 whole packs. Here are the results:

Pack 1:
69 Dan Peltier Top Prospect
70 Greg Blosser Top Prospect
104 Felix Fermin
118 Steve Olin
217 Hubie Brooks
244 Cecil Fielder
291 Joey Cora
321 Scott Fletcher
385 Dennis Martinez
476 Jaime Navarro
483 Dave Lapping
506 Joe Orsulak
545 Bo Jackson
673 Matt Nokes
692 John Farrell
Indians Sticker


I just learned two things about Bo when I checked out his Wikipedia page. First, I didn't know he won the Hiesman Trophy in '85. Second I didn't know he played semi-pro basketball before returning to baseball after his injury.

Pack 2:
46 Sandy Alomar Jr. Indians Checklist
96 Bobby Thigpen Save Master
128 Jay Buhner
194 Carney Lansford
235 Tim Wallach
267 Lenny Dykstra
268 Bill Spiers
309 Milt Thompson
397 Steve Frey
407 Bob Kipper
452 Dwight Smith
569 Juan Agosto
582 Scott Sanderson
617 1917 Revisited
697 Wayne Edwards
Pirates Sticker


This 1917 Revisited card is perfect for my retro and alternate uniforms collection. I've lots of cards with players wearing these but not this team shot. Let's see how many names I can remember. I see Ivan Calderon... Ozzie Guillen I think... and Tim "Rock" Raines!

Pack 3:
50 Top Prospect CL
89 Kenny Williams
137 Brook Jacoby
185 Wally Backman
203 Lance McCullers
210 Raphael Ramirez
225 Travis Fryman
310 Bob Melvin
366 David Cone
464 Oscar Azocar
495 Bill Long
525 George Brett
526 Greg Vaughn
654 Alex Cole
674 Rafael Novoa

Some more powder blues. And yes, that is a giant piece of cat hair that he's running from.

Pack 4:

68 Kurt Miller Top Prospect

71 Reggie Sanders Top Prospect

103 Mackey Sasser

119 Alfredo Griffin

216 Doug Jones

243 Jim Leyritz

292 Bill Wegman

322 Dan Plesac

384 Adres Thomas

477 Marquis Grissom

482 Rex Hudler

507 Dana Kiecker

544 Kirby Puckett

672 Reggie Harris

693 Tim Leary

Pirates Sticker

Did you know Reggie Sanders played with a steel plate implanted in his ankle? It prevented him from making clean pivots as an infielder in the minors before he was moved to the outfield.

Pack 5:

49 Roberto Kelly Yankees CL

90 Marty Barrett

138 Candy Maldonado

184 Jody Reed

202 Bob Garen

211 Donnie Hill

224 Dwight Gooden

311 Luis Salazar

365 Steve Avery

463 Omar Olivares

496 Mike Jackson

525 George Brett

526 Greg Vaughn

653 Trevor Wilson

673 Matt Nokes

Indians Sticker

I wanted to show this one because of a little pet peeve of mine. Can you guess what it is?

Pack 6:

64 Brook Fordyce Top Prospect

75 Len Brutcher Top Prospect

123 Cory Snyder

200 CL

213 Jack Howell

239 Lenny Harris

296 Mickey Tettleton

326 Gregg Olson

380 Kevis Gross

478 Marty Clary

481 Lee Guetterman

511 Casey Candaele

540 Randy Ready

668 John Wetteland

688 Stan Javier

Indians Sticker

I love scotch. Scotchy, scotch, scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly. How now brown cow how now brown cow...

6 packs, 3 Indians stickers, 2 Pirates stickers, and 1 pack with no sticker. Curses Upper Deck!

And that is that! If anyone noticed, this place has a new look, hope it's ok. Plus I am officially back on the real internet, and not the mobile phone internet. It almost made me cry tears of joy. Going from blogging from a phone to a business class cable service is... nice! So things should be picking up around here.

Barter: Care of Roll Out the Barrel

What a sweet weekend! I've learned not to get my hopes up when looking for new releases at Wal-Mart and Target. When I first heard about the full blasters of the '09 Topps dark parallels, I was super giddy. I never did find any on the shelves. Probably a good thing too since I see them as a gimmick now instead of a must have. I picked up a small lot from eBay though and that got the curiosity craving out of me. Same thing with Obak. Never saw any gravity feeds. Once I saw a blaster but those are HUGE rip-offs. I still own zero Obak. I'll buy a hobby box one day, maybe for my birthday. I just worry about them selling out. I have no idea how many of the limited hobby boxes remain. Anyways, back to my point, I walked into Target today hoping for my first '10 Topps, but not hoping too much. I could see the double wide gravity feed a mile away! I STILL didn't allow myself to celebrate since I've been duped by empty feeders before. Yes! It was almost empty but that was good enough for me!

I'm really excited for '10 Topps. The base design leaves a lot to be desired coming after last year's. But I do love most of the inserts, except for the "when they were young" set. I can't wait to get into the "million card giveaway". I'm hoping I can use it to trade for at least a handful of singles towards my '69 Topps set. We'll see.

I'm also really going to enjoy the NFL Playoff double-header with my Dad today. And the wife has her own agenda today so she doesn't have to sit through two whole torturous games. Hooray!

Ok, I'm sick of your jibba-jabba! This IS a trade post after all, didn't you know? No, I don't have any scans of '10 Topps. It's mostly '09 T.. where are you going?!!

Last month I posted my first trade bait post, which worked out pretty well and I'm happy with the results. I think that post now sets the bar for hits on this blog. I'm not sure but I think that post caught the eye of Ed from Roll Out the Barrel because of my considerably large set needs, and he needed to unload some extras. Without expecting anything in return, he sent over a much appreciated amount of help towards those sets. I don't like getting something for nothing though. I've never been able to forgive myself for winning a card on eBay for a penny with free shipping, even though the seller was asking for it, right?! Anyways, I was really grateful and sent over some Brewers in return. I scanned 1 card for each set or group that were sent over.


Ed sent several Ichiros, and I don't think I owned any of them yet until now. This is the '09 Turkey Red #TR96. Ichiro is by far my favorite player in the league today. And as of right now, he is the only active player of any sport that I have a player collection of. I plan on picking some more players this year though.


Jeff Weaver '09 Topps Updates & Highlights #UH115. I'm still getting Jeff and Jared constantly mixed up and can't tell one from the other. Cardinals, Angels, Dodgers.. which one is where who whatzit? Red Sox?


#176, this is one of my favorites from the '08 Upper Deck Heroes set. This one might now be much rarer than the rest of the set since I'm sure so many Yankees and Red Sox fans cut it in half the moment they saw it. I like the Sox, but as more of a fan of the game, this card featuring 2 of the greatest hitters of my lifetime is magic.


'09 Topps #40 Carl Crawford. Seeing this card up close helped me understand why this card ranked highly with so many other collectors. It is really a great shot.


Finally, we have an '09 Topps Allen & Ginter Jamie Moyer #68. I had no idea this guy is still on the Phillies roster. I thought he was retired! He should be fun to watch if he plays this year.

That wraps it up. Just the tip of the iceberg of the cards that Ed sent. Check out Ed's blog at Roll Out the Barrel. Thanks Ed!

Breaking News: Classic Topps Wrapper Wall Graphics

These look pretty interesting. Topps has partnered with LTL Prints to release some larger than life wall graphics featuring Topps wrapper designs from the last 60 years from Baseball, Basketball, Football AND Hockey! They range in size from small enough to slap on your laptop to up to 7 feet tall! They're being released sometime today, check them out!

50¢ Drexler

Man, I have been so out of it lately. I've meaning to post some Drexlers for the last week and a half, but have been avoiding it because even a five card post can take forever whilst mobile blogging. I've been dreading it! I don't want to dread blogging, so I'm going to try more little blog bursts, like this one! Here. Have a card..


2008-09 Upper Deck Lineage #14 Clyde Drexler

This Lineage set brings back so many good memories of ripping foil when I was 10 years old. The 1991-92 Upper Deck basketball debut cards really seemed extra special when compared to the hoops and skybox sets out at the time.

I picked this one up with some others from sportlots.com for 50¢.

2009 Baseball Card of the Year: The Winner!!

Happy New Year!

We'll, when I started this thing, I had bigger and better things imagined for my Baseball Card of the Year feature. But with 2 hiatuses since September and internet access cut from our budget (crazy huh?) and now blogging from my phone with it's tedious limitations, well.. my head hurts.

So I'm just going to wrap this up. Since I started in September, I only nominated 5 cards. Here they are:

1. Topps #559 Esteban German
2. Topps # 124 Reed Johnson
3. Topps # 7 Mickey Mantle
4. Topps Allen & Ginter # 18 Clyde Parris
5. Topps #614 David Murphy
   

I had never decided on how the winning card would be decided, whether by vote or contest, but I don't think I have enough readers yet to pull something like that. It would be just embarrassing if no one voted or entered. Almost like that contest I had during the summer where I only had two entrants (hi Mom!) and flipped a virtual coin to decide the winner.

So I've decided on taking away all the rest of the fun from you and just plain picking a winner myself. I'll count this as a victory. 1 point me, 0 points readers. He-he. Keep your eyes open for opportunities to even the score.



Anyways, I decided that Topps Allen & Ginter #18 Clyde Parris is my favorite baseball base card of the year that I personally own. While the other nominations were all selected on their photography, this one won because of originality. I hope to see a lot more historical baseball cards based on lesser known histories. More mainstream cards featuring the Negro Leagues and maybe some other countries' leagues. The Japanese leagues have a long and rich history which most of us know next to nothing about. I think Tristar did a great job covering minor league history with their Obak set, but they just lost their license so who knows if we'll see anything like that again.