Burbs Bait

The wife and I had a big night planned this past Saturday in order to properly celebrate her day of birth - dinner at her favorite restaurant, a night out on the Northside of the city, a burlesque show and good times to be had by all.  However, as fun as that all sounds, the anticipation was killing her Saturday afternoon and she was feeling antsy.  Since antsy is pretty much my constant state of being as well and we had plenty of time before we had to get on the road, we both decided to make  a quick trip to the local Savers thrift shop to kill some time.

Thrift shops and secondhand stores are our favorite places to go when we're bored - after all, you can't do much damage to your wallet (unless you're REALLY trying) at such an establishment.

I have to say, this restlessness turned out to be a good thing for both of us.  First of all, her birthday celebrations were only enhanced by what seemed like nearly an entire wall of nothing but rubber ducks:

For those that may have missed that post, my wife collects these funny little quackers with the same fervor that I do baseball cards.  Therefore, this back wall, where Savers bags up all their miscellaneous toys in plastic wrap, was an absolute gold mine for her ever-growing flock of duckies.

I must admit, the collector in me quite enjoys finding new birds of a feather for her as well - I mean, look at those things, they're just plain fun.  I'm especially partial to the chromium water fowl, who doubles as a "magic 8-ball."

However, bath toys were not the only item that caught our eyes at this particular display.  No, no - clearly someone on staff knew that the "Burb Herd" was making a visit to their store, because they brought out the "Burbs bait."  Along with the bags of rubber ducks, there was an assortment of saran-wrapped, trading card goodness hanging from this wall of pure awesomeness:

Of course, I couldn't help but grab a little sample for myself - even though Savers tends to overprice their goods, more so than the local Goodwills.  In fact, I almost put them right back on the rack and walked away, but my better half thought I was being silly, so she snatched them out of my hands and made her way to the cashier's line in the middle of my waffling.  Bless her soul.  For five bucks a pop, I suppose it's still a worthwhile gamble to grab a pair of the dozen or so bags of baseball and football cards that were accompanying my wife's new favorite birdies.

It may have been her birthday celebration, but what could a little gift for myself hurt?  Clearly she had no objection.

At that point, neither one of us could wait to get home to rip into our new bounties.  So, we cruised our way back to the homestead so that we'd have a little bit of time to savor our new collection additions before it was time to get ready for our downtown shenanigans.

The cello-wrapped repack on the right was chock full of nothing but Topps Attax game cards, a set from which I had absolutely zero cards before this weekend.  Thus, this was a more than welcome sight, even if one of the Cubs included was the ever-douchey Matt Garza.  Still, a new Cubs card is a new Cubs card and I have always had a thing for game cards like Attax, MLB Showdown, Hot Button Baseball, etc.  In fact, I have an entire post dedicated to that subject.

Luckily the soul-patched, Matt Clement-wannabe wasn't the only Cub to be found lying in wait, ready to "attack:"

Along with Garza, we have former top prospect Tyler Colvin, hot and cold slugger Alfonso Soriano and the shiny, foil parallel of number 17.  It's pretty tough to see in the scan, but there's definitely a striking difference between the base and the foil cards in Attax.  Also, the foil parallels, while pretty, don't seem to be particularly rare, nor do they do anything to boost the player's desirability in the game itself.

They still look cool though; so, there's that.

Beyond the uniformed Cubs, this custom repack contained a fair amount of future and former Cubs within it's plastic-y confines:

The three cards at the top of this scan are also foil parallels (I pulled their bases, as well).  I've chosen to highlight mostly significant pieces from the Cubs of 2015-16, plus franchise-favorite Derrek Lee.  However, there were more than a few once-upon-a-time Cubs from further in the past, as well.  All in all, my oddball intrigue was significantly piqued by this "Attax Repax."  Bag one was definitely worth the price of admission.

Furthermore, if anyone out there happens to be working on a team set (or complete set) of this once off, mostly-forgotten, game set.  I have plenty of dupes and cards which otherwise do not interest me to go around.  Let me know.

That stack is just the traders

Would repack number two be just as fun, intriguing and productive towards my collection?  I mean, there's only one way to find out right?  Time to rip into that plastic wrap and find out just what hides within.

While repack number one was exclusively cards from Topps Attax, repack number two contained much, much more variety:

For instance, we have short-term Cubs Austin Jackson making his second appearance in this post, this time on a lovely, minor league, TriStar Obak single, commemorating his time with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees.  Long-time readers of this blog know that I have a thing for bush league cards of evenutal MLB Cubs; thus, this colorful oddball will make a swell addition to my Nothing Major binder.

Accompanying Austin, we have the oldest card in the pack, a well-weathered/loved "Kong" Kingman from 1976.  This card may have seen better days, but it's hard not to crack a smile when pulling honest-to-goodness vintage from an unexpected source.

Back to that Nothing Major concept, here's a pair of "cool" Dairy Queen Team USA oddities from 1992.  Honestly, before this pack-ripping experience, I had no idea that Topps and the eatery behind Dilly Bars had partnered up to honor USA baseball. I always enjoy a baseball card learning experience!

Both Barberie and Steenstra eventually graduated to the Big Leagues and worked their way over to the Windy City for a brief time, but didn't do much of note in a Cubs uniform.  Nevertheless, if minor league cards are desirable, cards that go back to even before a player's professional days are even more fascinating in my eyes.  These will be joining that Austin Jackson in the same binder.

Oh, look - more game cards.  While pack A was entirely made up of Topps Attax, pack B had a smattering of Wizard of the Coast's MLB Showdown, the original baseball card game of my generation.

While the company behind the ever-popular Pokemon cards tried to extend their influence into baseball, the product didn't generate nearly as much interest and eventually faded away.  That said, it's cards are among my favorite oddballs, with their (mostly) clean photography and deep, varied player selection.  I don't have too many cards featuring Todd Hollandsworth from his time as an extra outfielder with the Cubs, after all.

Those were definitely the highlights of the repack for me - there was a good amount of other less exciting base cards that fit into my Cubs collections, but nothing else that I would call "blog-worthy."  But, there was still plenty of trade bait that I though might be worth sharing on my little corner of the internet:

X gon' give it to ya, in the form of die-cut parallels from Upper Deck's bizarre and mostly superfluous X brand.  I don't know what the whole x-theme had to do with baseball, but it sure did provide us with some interesting die-cuts - DMX and Deadpool references not withstanding.

Also among the traders:

There were some oddballs, parallels and singles from rarely seen sets nestled along with the X's.  I have to say, my favorites out of these puppies are the Wonder Bread Canseco and the Topps T205 Doc Hoblitzell - on the latter set, if anyone has the Cubs' Dave Shean from that checklist up for trade, please feel free to contact me!

By the by, that Kevin Mailloux from Bowman Platinum on the bottom right is an x-fractor, as if segment of the post needed anymore x-themed content.  It's rather difficult to tell from this scan, but it's quite lovely in person.

The rest of repack number two was made up of unassuming base cards from the past fifteen or so years.  Notably, the accumulation was completely devoid of the ubiquitous junk wax that normally populates such a thing - so, that was pretty nifty.  Also, just a reminder, if anything in those last two scans catches your attention, it's yours if you let me know.

Thanks, Savers!

With that, we've reached the conclusion of my Savers experience.

In summation, I was able to add several new oddballs and minor-leaguers to my binders without breaking the bank, some decent trade bait to my stacks of enticement, and, most importantly, I was able to find some bonus birthday gifts for my wife at the very same time.  I'd say that's not bad for an impulsive trip, born out of pure, antsy boredom, to the local thrift store.

Of course, the ducks will soon be completely taking over our living area, but shelf space ain't all it's "quacked" up to be anyway...

...On that cringe-inducing note, I'll just see myself out.

Catch Me if You Kenseth

Whenever I feel the itch to rip packs, I like to make my way to the local Dollar Tree.  That way, I can satisfy my urge without doing too much damage to my poor, little wallet.  Plus, every once in a while, I end up with some cards that fit in somewhere within my collections or something pretty cool.  I think I'm the only one buying trading cards from this particular establishment, but I digress.

A couple of nights ago, this want struck and so I moseyed on over to the dollar store to see what the pickins were.  Usually, there's nothing but a hefty helping of various repacks products and out of date entertainment cards; however, this time, a nearly new gravity feeder, chock full o' 2014 Press Pass packs caught my eye:

I'll almost always pull the trigger on cheap NASCAR product, seeing as my racing collection is still relatively tiny.  When I picked up this particular pack, it felt unusually thick and heavy.  After examining a couple of others from the feeder for reference, my tactile instincts were confirmed.  Was it possible that there was a hit in there? Or was it just one of those psych-out, thick slabs of blank cardboard?  For a buck, I was ready and willing to take this gamble.

Also, I assure you that I'm no pack-searcher.  This pack very first one that I grabbed out of that gravity feeder.

Unfortunately, the base cards were not particularly intriguing and provided me with no new names for my All-Time Drivers Collection, so I won't bore you with those.  However, as it turns out, the very last card in the pack was definitely of interest:

My very first NASCAR hit!  And it comes from Dollar Tree of all places.  I'm not lucky enough to pull many hits from pack purchases; so anytime I do, it's a cause worth celebrating, much like Matt Kenseth is celebrating his victory in the 2013 STP 400 at Kansas Speedway.  As an extra bonus, the tire rubber relic is numbered 11/50.  Neat!

Also, I think the universe is telling me to start a Kenseth PC.  In my NASCAR collection, I have two (IP) autos, one relic and all three are of the Wisconsin native.  Maybe universe, maybe...

I've been lucky enough to meet the guy a couple of times.

Furthermore, in addition to my lucky pack find, I purchased one of those aforementioned repack products, as well.  I threw this into my proverbial shopping cart to serve as a pallet cleanser, just in case my tactile instincts were horribly incorrect and I needed a little pick-me-up.  I could have opted for baseball, or football, or multi-sport; but, this time, I decided to try something a little different:

A re-pack of packs - I don't think I've seen one of these before. 

Plus, right on top of this set of two, unopened packs, was this sampling of Collegiate Collection, featuring the University of Arizona:

These cards always tempt me for a couple of reasons:  A) I have a noted affinity for cards which feature pro athletes in their minor league or collegiate apparel and B) the diverse subjects included in these products affords me the opportunity to pull some track athletes for my newly-declared runner collection.  After all, the sources for the latter reason are quite limited.

So, how'd I do here?

It wasn't a rip-roaring success, but I did come across one card that intrigued me.

Before leading the Arizona Wildcats to three College World Series titles and earning his way into the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Kindall signed on with the Cubs as a bonus baby in 1956.  This flawed system damaged many a young career, forcing prospects into the Bigs well before they were ready.  No one since 1920 with at least 2000 at-bats has a lower career batting average than Kindall's .213, so it seems he was yet another victim of this policy. 

Despite this, Mr. Kindall was able to carve out a decently long, nine-year career in the Majors, with the Cubs, Indians and Twins.

But enough about Jerry Kindall, whose Arizona Wilcats card will slip comfortably into my Nothing Major binder, what about that second pack of cards that was promised within the cello wrapping of the re-pack?

Blah.  Soccer cards... this doesn't even come close to moving the needle for me.  Although, I can appreciate the inclusion of the Italian language on the foil packaging - you don't see that too often.

While I clearly have no use for these World Cup cards from 1994, perhaps I could find someone who does.  Recently, at the school I work at, I discovered that there must be a student who collects soccer cards, as I found this little number, lost on the computer lab floor:

It's been sitting on the corner of my desk ever since I came across it, last week.  Perhaps, if anyone ever actually claims it, I'll dump this pack of World Cup cards from 20+ years ago on them, as well.  I mean, what collector doesn't love free cards of their favorite sport?

With that, I've exhausted my supply of dollar store trading cards.  Not bad for a late night, dollar store purchase, I'd say.  Does anyone else regularly stop at the Dollar Tree for baseball cards?  If so, what's the best find you've scored from such an establishment?  Please feel free to share in the comment section below.

Dollar Tree - easy on the wallet, heavy on the fun.

Back to the Well Again

On my most recent post, I blogged about my experience with opening a few hand-made re-packs from the local Goodwill thrift shop.  There were a few cards of note to be had within the cellophane packages and they were definitely a more intriguing rip than your standard pack of Topps Update or what have you.  All in all, I wouldn't have been opposed to pulling the trigger on another one if I got the chance.

Well, that chance came pretty quickly; although, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.

You see, my fiancee works in management for Goodwill and I had to pick her up from work yesterday evening.  Of course, I was just a tad bit early, so I wandered the aisles in search of some cool records, technical running gear and more cardboard treasures in order to kills some time.  While I struck out on the first two items on my list, I wasn't so unfortunate on bullet point number three:

Score! Another one of those re-packs and, from what I could see from the outside, it certainly appeared to be made up entirely of SSPC cards.  Hot damn - these don't turn up in my neck of the woods very often. 

Combine that incentive along with my fiancee's employee discount and the bonus 20% off that came with Customer Appreciation Day and I'd have been a fool not to take this item home with me.

Let's see what I got:

Okay - that Jim Colborn is an absolute classic; how have I not seen this one before?  That snarl, the bug eyes, the silent movie villain mustache, the seventies Brewers uniforms... this cardboard rectangle has everything!   Colborn came up with the Cubs in 1969 and spent three seasons on the North Side until being traded for Jose Cardenal (another man with funny follicles); thus, this phenomenal portrait will slide nicely into my Cubs of Another Color binder.

 

Beyond Colborn, there was nearly a complete collation of the Brewers team set from the 1975 SSPC checklist.  Also, from what I can see, there was a fair amount of overlap in men who played for both the Brewers and the Cubs in the mid-70's:

Two more to go along with Colborn into the Cubs of Different Color collection.

Here we have Bobby Darwin on the left and Pete Broberg on the right, sporting a sweet turtleneck and a garbage bag, respectively.  Okay - I know it's a windbreaker, but tell me it doesn't look like a garbage bag.  Anyway, Darwin, the former Twins outfielder, was on the downswing of his career and spent just the 1975 part of the '76 campaign in Milwaukee.  Eventually, he ended his MLB career with 11 games for the 1977 Cubs.  Meanwhile, Broberg was a journeyman reliever who was teammates with Bobby both during their Brewers stints and with those '77 Cubs.

Apparently, the SSPC photographer scheduled to work with the Brew Crew was late to the shoot or bad a scheduling, since all of these photos appear to take place at dusk or later.  They're so washed out by the flash.

There was one actual Cub card to fall out of the pack, this single George Mitterwald - back up catcher extraordinaire.  The most interesting thing about this card is the placement of the George's number in the middle of the C on his batting helmet.  I mean, of all the places to identify one's equipment, why there?

This too hails from the '75 SSPC set, as did the nearly complete assortment of Twins that were also included in the re-pack.  Unfortunately for me, my greatest SSPC need comes from the 1978 edition; so, if anyone happens to have an extra #251 of Cubs backstop Mike Gordon, which I need for my Cubs All-Time Roster Collection, let's talk trade.  Please?

At this point, I'd reached the end of the SSPC content of the Goodwill re-pack.  However, I wasn't too disappointed because the rest of the baggie was made up of another, similarly designed and equally as fascinating set:  TCMA's Baseball History Series - the 1950's from 1979:

Of course, these share a similar design largely because SSPC was a TCMA venture.  That said, the photography in the latter set is so much more fascinating and eye-catching.

Both of these men may be Dodgers in these beautiful spring training shots; but, both have Cubs connections as well.  Russ Meyer, better known as "Monk," debuted in the Majors with Chicago in 1948 before moving on to much greener pastures in Philadelphia and Brooklyn.  Additionally, Bobby Morgan spent a few years backing up Pee Wee Reese at shortstop before ending his career as the Cubs starter at second base in 1957.

On the left, we have Giants legend and Cubs after-thought Bobby Thomson taking some practice hacks before a spring contest.  Meanwhile, to the right, we have a much less known player by name the of James "Dusty" Rhodes.

Rhodes was a spare-part outfielder throughout the fifties for the Giants, even following them to San Francisco for his final year in 1959.  More importantly, at least to me anyway, Dusty's first experience in pro ball came courtesy of the Cubs, who signed him to his first contract in 1947.  However, he never spent any time on the Major League roster for Chicago.  On that note, this card will look quite nice in my Coulda Been a Cub binder.

That did it for the Cubs and Cubs-related content, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate some top-notch photography otherwise.  Here's just a small sample of the classic, posed photos used by TCMA for this retrospective set, as modeled by (clockwise from left) Jimmy Piersall, Jerry Priddy, Jack Banta and Bill Miller.  I'm especially fond of the old-school water tower in the background of that Pri

One might say that it makes for a "Priddy" background. ba dum tiss.
 

All in all, I'd say that this pack-ripping experience was just as good, if not better, than my last Goodwill raid.  After going through such a long gap without finding any trading cards on the thrift store shelves (let alone those worth the dinero), I'm now two-for-two.  So, that's pretty cool.

In summation, I ended up with a few new Cubs oddballs for my Cubs of Another Color collection, a new single for my Coulda Been a Cub binder and a whole mess of trade-fodder that's infinitely more eye-catching than the junk wax that re-packs normally produce.  Not to mention, it was just fun to rip and sift through.

Furthermore, after this last purchase, I also earned a free, five dollar coupon for use on any purchase.  Here's hoping the steady flow of cardboard gold continues to flow through the Orland Park Goodwill!

Goodwill Goodie Bags

Very rarely do I walk into a thrift store and find anything worth laying down my hard-earned money... at least when it comes to baseball cards, anyway.  Far too often, when the local re-sellers even have any in stock, it's large amounts of 1989 Topps and 1990 Donruss crammed into water-stained boxes that haven't been opened since 1994, which smell musty and dusty.  On top of that, the vendors usually have no idea what they're dealing with and price these large amounts of cards for a price that I wouldn't pay for a new blaster.

Of course, there are always exceptions.

Every now and then, I'm lucky enough to come across a stash of cards or sports memorabilia that actually piques my interest.  I've found Nippon League T-Shirts, semi-rare SGA sets and super-cheap autographed baseballs, among the other non-descript souvenirs.  This past Saturday, I came across another potentially interesting purchase:

Here we have some hastily-fashioned re-packs  from the local Goodwill - someone (or someone's mother) clearly donated a good amount of cards from their childhood.  At two bucks a pop, I decided to take the dive on these three Goodwill goodie bags for a few reasons.

1. Pack one was filled with cards tucked in top-loaders - someone clearly thought these were worth protecting.
2. Pack two featured a few unfamiliar basketball oddballs on top - I don't often buy basketball cards, but oddballs always pique my interest.
3. Pack three was stuffed to the gills with thick, brown cardboard - aka vintage cards.  Definitely worth the gamble.

I was itchin' to "rip some wax" anyway and these re-packs seemed much more intriguing than Update or any other current release... cheaper too.  Thus, I snapped them up without much hesitation and headed home to set these cards free from their cellophane prison.


Pack One:

Okay - so, I just inherited some poor 90's kid's junk wax Carlton Fisk collection.  I'm sure this child thought they were going to be able to finance their college experience with these base cards of the sure-fire Hall of Famer; but, we all know how that story ends.  Oh well.  At least I got a bunch of top-loaders out of the deal - that alone makes the financial transaction worth it.

Not to mention, there was one compelling Carlton card contained within:

Here we have a single from the team-issued, 1992 SGA set sponsored by Kodak, which was given away to Comiskey Park patrons at some point that summer.  As I said, I love oddball cards and this certainly fits under that umbrella.  Fisk will probably be stashed in a PWE at some point, but it still made for a nice change of pace.

Speaking of which:

Randomly, the last card in pack one was this TCMA oddity featuring Roger Maris from their "The 1960's" set.  That was completely unexpected.  The homerun king framed with a shot of the terraced roof at old Yankee Stadium?  That's a recipe for a nice card, right there.

Moving one, here's pack two:

 First off, the cards that inspired the purchase to begin with.

As I mentioned earlier, I tend to let Bulls cards filter their way to me through trades; however, these over-sized novelties struck my fancy.  At the very least, I had to find out more about them.

Sponsored by NutraSweet, the full-set was distributed to United Center attendees before a contest from the 1989-90 season, with 10,000 sets produced.  At any rate, the most coveted card is obviously Michael Jordan and it is by far the most valuable.  Of course, the Jordan was not included in the re-pack, though it did include nearly all of the other cards, including my very first card of Scottie Pippen!

While the NutraSweet version of "Air Jordan" may have been held back by the donor, they missed the 1992-93 Fleer Ultra NBA Jam Session edition of "His Airness."

While this subset of Ultra that ranked the league's best dunkers isn't nearly as "off the beaten path," any time I can add a new Jordan card to my collection is a good time.  Not to mention, it alos provided me my first card of Horace Grant as a Bull.

The rest of pack #2 was made up of mostly baseball from the early 90's... specifically 1993..  My favorite find in which was this early in his Cubs career Sammy Sosa.  Coincidentally, Slammin' Sammy was celebrating his 48th birthday that same night... and now I feel old.

The rest of the baseball portion of the pack was almost entirely Donruss & Triple Play from the same year, as modeled by former Cubs reliever Bob Scanlan and almost-Cub outfielder Marquis Grissom.  In regards to the latter, that is the most glorious follow through on a pop-up in the history of baseball cards.

There were a couple of slightly more interesting cards, as well, including that shiny Topps Gold Tom Candiotti (good thing I know a few Dodger collectors) and Dave Hollins from the "Round Trippers" subset in '93 Fleer.  Whoever donated these cards was a VERY active collector in 1993.

That wraps up pack two, where the NutraSweet Bulls were the definitive highlight.

Now, let's wrap things up by ripping into that vintage-centric pack three:

As you can see from the future/former Cubs players above, a wide swatch of Topps cards from the seventies were crammed into this ball of cellophane.   In addition to what you see above, there were even a few '72's and '73's to go along with them.  In short, this pack was a vintage gold mine - definitely not a stash I would expect to find on the shelves of my local thrift shop!

As an added bonus, while there were no George Brett or Robin Yount rookies included in the old-school stack, there was one semi-iconic card of the decade to be uncovered and close with a bang:

 

The infamous Herb Washington - the only exclusive pinch-running specialist in baseball history and, thus, the only man to be designated as such on their baseball card.  This is easily one of my favorite non-Cubs cards of all-time.

As a longtime competitor in track & field, I've always been fascinated by the sprinting star's career in Major League Baseball and I'm overjoyed to finally have this notable card in my possession.  What a nice surprise!

 105 appearances without a single at-bat, but only 31 stolen bases

Thus concludes my Goodwill re-pack ripping experience and, overall, I'd say I'm quite satisfied.  I don't regret dropping the money and that's usually all I can ask for from such purchases.

All in all, I was lucky enough to find some sweet Bulls oddballs which provided a nice boost to my Bulls All-Time Roster Collection, some other intriguing baseball oddities and a hefty pile of seventies treasures, including my coveted track star turned baseball player.  This ripping experience put the "good" in Goodwill.

Though. as satisfied as I am with these finds, I am still curious as to what the best surprises have been uncovered at local re-sellers.  Blogosphere - what have been some of your favorite discoveries at such locations?

It just goes to show you, one man's trash is another man's treasure... except for 1990 Donruss, the only thing that set is good for is kindling.