2008 Upper Deck Timeline Baseball pack

Have heard varying comments about the 2008 Upper Deck Timeline Baseball series. However, was curious about the various card designs contained within the packs (basically a retro style design). As such, decided to get a couple of retail packs of the set. The retail packs contain 6 cards per pack and there are supposedly 2 insert cards in each pack (of course, with the caveat, "on average").



Ended up with the following in the first pack:

Commons
#88 - Burke Badenhop - Marlins rookie card
#36 - Jim Thome - White Sox
#9 - Mark Teixeira - Angels (yay, can add the card to my Teixeira PC collection)
#27 - Alex Rodriguez - Yankees

"Inserts"
#209 - Steve Holm - Giants - 2008 Top Prospects Rookie card
#172 - Max Scherzer - Diamondbacks - Rookie card

If going off the card designs, I have to say that I like the cards. The colours are good and the layout of the words/pictures works well. IMO, it's good to see some of the older style designs still working well (for example, the Scherzer card will the "floating head" in the bottom corner). However, I do see why many collectors have an issue with this series - there are just too many sets within the series.

Overall Score: 7/10 - designs and layouts are good but is building a set of this series really worth it?

2009-10 Cricket Box Break and Redemption Card

With the arrival of the southern hemisphere summer, Select have released their 2009-10 Cricket card set. In recent years, there has been a lot of discussion amongst collectors about the quality of the Select cricket cards. Whilst many were happy with the quality of their Football series, their wasn't the same amount of enthusiasm for their cricket series.

I have to say that I was one of them. After experiencing the various excellent Futera Cricket card series of the 90s, I felt that Select's attempts were not up to the same standard in terms of card design and variety.

However, after seeing what Select were offering for this season, I was impressed enough to buy a box from a case share on ozcardtrader.com.au. The box holds 36 packs which normally retail at $3.99 a pack. My box arrived about 2 weeks ago, and I ended up with the following inserts:

CA Foil Signatures (1:6 packs)
Michael Clarke, Callum Ferguson, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin

5000 Test Run Club (1:12 packs)
Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh, Matthew Hayden

Freshman (1:18 packs)
James Hopes, Ben Hilfenhaus

Masters Gem (1:36 packs)
Allan Border

Elite Signature Redemption (1:72 packs)
Shane Watson

Was very happy with the pulls I got - particularly the redemption card. A general search on the net will show pictures of the cards, but in general, I have to say that I'm impressed with the quality this season. The card designs are very good with good, bright colours. There is variety in the players features and there are just enough cards in each insert series to allow collectors to think "I can get the set".

Anyway, sent off my Redemption card and in about 1 week, I received the hand signed card back. Wasn't expecting it back that soon, but was very happy that it arrived - I ended up with card number 6 out of 300!

My overall rating: 8/10 - good release from Select. Hopefully they can back it up next season.

2007 Goudey baseball cards

Been quite busy for the past couple of weeks so haven't had much of a chance to post my pack breaks. Thought I better get back into the spin of things.

So, for today's pack break, I present ................

1 pack of 2007 Goudey baseball cards (retail version).

Now, I've heard a lot about this series but never actually had the chance to buy a pack. After having the chance to open a pack, I've got to say that I like the look of the cards; particularly the old style backgrounds and touched up photos. The set comprises 240 cards with Green/Red colour variations on the back. The pack has 8 cards in it.

Below is a picture of the cards I got:

* David Ortiz (Green Back) - 2007 was another one of Ortiz's big years (batting wise I mean) with the Red Sox's win in the WS. Definitely hasn't been able to recreate the same form recently.

* Justin Morneau (Red Back) - Probably one of my favourite non-Yankees/Rangers players. Too bad about his injury in the 09 season. Hopefully he'll be back in 2010.

* Torii Hunter (Green Back) - Interesting card since it was the last season that Hunter played with the Twins (after 10).

* Travis Hafner (Red Back) - Not really much can be said about Hafner. Started off with the Rangers but quickly went to the Indians. Am still trying to figure out what the background to the card is meant to be.

* Austin Kearns (Green Back) - Again, another one who not much can be said about due to injuries.

* Luis Gonzalez (Red Back) - Now recently retired, this card is interesting because it shows Gonzalez in the Dodgers uniform. He only played with them for 1 season.

* David Eckstein (Red Back).

* Jack Wilson (Green Back) - Wilson still hasn't recaptured the form he showed in 2004 with his batting although he is a good shortstop.

As you would have noticed, I didn't pull any inserts in the pack I bought and gather they can be a bit hard to come by. Was a bit disappointed that I didn't get any cards of Yankees or Rangers players, but am still reasonably happy with the players that I got (particularly Morneau).

Story for today .... 3 packs of 2009 AFL Select Champions cards

Well, I bought a reasonably large pile of card packs today (about $20 worth) and will write separate comments on each pack. However, the first story/comment I want to write about today is on the 3 packs of 2009 AFL Select Champions cards that I bought. For the non-Australians out there, AFL stands for the Australian Football League (the game is also known as Aussie Rules - google it and you will soon learn about the game).


The grand-final of the AFL was held last week between the Geelong Cats and St. Kilda. Geelong ended up winning their 2nd premiership in 3 years.


Anyway, I've been collecting this set since it was realised earlier this year. Primarily, I was collecting the commons out of the set and any Sydney Swans inserts (since they are the team that I go for). The packs retail for $2.95 and in them, you can get a variety of cards. A standard pack will have 7 common cards and 1 holographic guernsey card. The other inserts available are Gold Foil Signature cards (64 in total or 1 per 6 packs), Star Gem cards (32 in total or 1 per 18 packs), Superstar Mascot Gem cards (16 in total or 1 per 36 packs), Draft Rookie cards (16 in total or 1 per 36 packs) and Double Trouble cards (6 cards or 1 per 108 packs).


Prior to today, I had only been able to pull 1 Double Trouble card (of the Carlton team). However, when I went to the shops today and bought a variety of cards, I asked the shop assistant whether they had any packs of 2009 AFL Select Champions left since I didn't see any on display. He came back later with the last 3 packs they had. I wasn't expecting much from the packs (was hopeful for 1 Swans card), but I got a bit more than I expected.


Each pack that I opened had an insert in it!


I got my Swans insert (a Star Gem card of Brett Kirk), but also got 2 Double Trouble cards! Not only that, but the Double Trouble cards that I got were of the two grand final teams (Geelong and St Kilda). Here's a picture of the 2 cards if you are not familiar with the series.



It's days like this you've got to love collecting :-)

Way too many 2009 Donruss Americana packs

Through browsing a couple of trading card sites, I saw a pack I was interested in opening. It was the 2008 Donruss Americana II set. Unfortunately, after looking around the shops, I could only find the latest Donruss Americana series (2009 edition). Luckily though, I was able to buy a large number of retail packs cheaply (19 packs for about $30).

Donruss Americana is a celebrity trading card set. The 2009 edition contains 5 cards per pack and the ratio of inserts is (according to the back of a pack): Private Signings (100 cards) numbered to 500 or less; Star Material/Materials Silver Proofs/Gold Proofs (100 cards) numbered as low as 25 or less; Cinema Stars/Materials/Materials Silver Screen (24 cards) numbered as low as 25 or less; Hollywood Legends/Materials (26 cards) numbered as low as 25 or less; Co-stars Materials/Silver Screen/Golden Era (16 cards) numbered as low as 50 or less; TV Stars/Materials Small Screen (23 cards) numbered as low as 50 or less; Movie Posters/Combo/Triple/Quad Materials (65 cards) numbered to 500 or less.

The retail packs traditionally don't have has many inserts as the hobby box sets so I wasn't really expecting to pull any inserts. However, somewhat surprisingly, I pulled 3 inserts:

Jill-Michelle Melen - Proof card numbered 156 of 250 (she's a comedienne in case anyone was saying "who?");

Barry Bostwick - Proof card numbered 242 of 250 (probably best known as the Mayor from the tv show, Spin City); and

Edward G. Robinson - Hollywood Legends card numbered 779 of 1000 (a veteran of over 100 films).

Although I would've liked to get the 2008 set, I think the layout of the 2009 set is better. The colour of the card really stands out and is consistent across all the cards in the set. Good to see a bit of info on the back of the card about the celebrity portrayed. The smooth texture of the card is good too (although it can make the cards slide around abit if you stack them on top of each other).

Donruss did well in mixing up the celebrities included in each pack. I think there was only 1 pack where I really was going "who are all these people?". In terms of how easy it is to collect the commons in the set, I ended up with 32 doubles/triples. This slightly high number might have been a result of the fact that I bought loose packets and they may not have come out of the same box. For the meantime then, it looks like I'm going to be doing a bit of trading to get the remaining commons I need.

Pack Break - 2006-07 UD MVP Hockey

So now it's time for my first post about breaking some packs open. I was able to pick up a cheap pack of 2006-07 Upper Deck MVP Hockey cards from the shop earlier (all of about $1). I didn't collect hockey cards when I was younger but ended up buying the pack because of curiousity (and because of how cheap the pack was).

For those who aren't sure what the pack looks like, a pic of one is below. Supposedly there is an insert or rookie card in every pack (then UD throw in the usual caveat - "on average"). There are 8 cards per pack.

So, in light of that info, here are the cards I ended up pulling (with a little bit of info):

#76: Milan Hejduk - so the first card is of the Avalanche's prolific goal scorer. Too bad the card isn't of him shooting for goal.

#349: Martin St. Louis - Hmm .... instead of getting a bit of info on the Tampa Bay star winger, UD stuck a checklist on the back of his card. Still, reasonably good pic of St. Louis going down the ice.

#179: Jamie Langenbrunner - I think this series of cards was released around the same time Langenbrunner re-signed with NJ., so in that way, the card is interesting .... (and the crowd images in the background that don't really show much interest in what's going on).

#174: Zach Parise - Ah, another NJ player. Parise started with NJ the season before and now he's one of NJ's best attacking player/goal scorer.

#192: Brendan Shanahan - This card would have been released around the time Shanahan moved to the Rangers. He only stayed at the club for 2 seasons.

#62: Michael Handzus - This card is interesting enough for being of Handzus during his time with the Blackhawks. After being injured, he played less than 10 games for the club before signing with the Kings.

#175: Brian Rafalski - This must really be a pack for NJ cards. A good defensive player for NJ, Rafalski really looks focused in the pic. The crowd in the background is another talking point .....

#112: Ilya Kovalchuk - So this must be the insert card. UD have put the Thrashers star as an International Icon. Card design is good, but was the only card in the pack not to have an imprint of the player's signature.

A pick of the cards pulled is below:

So there you have it. A bit of a long post, but I thought for my first pack I would write about each card. Might buy another pack of the cards since they are so cheap, but really can't see myself collecting the series.

The Beginning .....

Welcome to my new blog!

I've decided to enter into the world of blogging to describe to the world my trading card search. I've recently got back into a hobby that I first commenced in the late 80s and early 90s. Back then, there were many trading card shops around the place and they all seemed to sell every single variety of trading card you could think of. Of course, there were the sport cards on baseball, basketball, football (every variety) and every other sport imaginable. Then there were the cards on tv shows and movies, cartoons, etc. The card companies would often even throw in a little something extra into the card packs - often it was gum (of some sort) - but you might have also got a sticker or some other thing that you would find great amusement in.

To think - you saved up all your pocket money to go down to the shops and buy a pack or two of trading cards. You knew that you could place them in the card folders that you bought, take them to school or the shop, and either trade them with your friends or proudly show the latest card you had acquired. Although you were always hoping to find a "rare" card (based on the description on the card packet), you were equally as happy to find that elusive common card to finish your set.

Well, like so many hobbies, the enthusiasm amongst the public for trading cards began to diminish somewhat in the late 90s. I put my cards in a box and stacked them in my cupboard. I just couldn't bear to part with them - after all, I enjoyed the hobby but it was getting more difficult to trade the cards.

Skip forward a decade or so, and in the midst of cleaning, I decided to open up the trading card box and take a look at the cards I had collected. They certainly brought back some memories. Out of curiousity, I then started to take a look on the internet to see what had happened to the world of trading cards since the 90s. Well, I was glad to see that there were still many out there who collected trading cards of all different genres. Even better, I saw that people were writing blogs on packs/boxes they had opened or cards they had traded/bought.

So, here I am now. After seeing many places on the internet selling trading cards or putting collectors in contact with one another to trade their cards, my enthusiasm for card collecting has come back. I'm not one to go out spending huge amounts of money on trading cards (particularly the boxes). I enjoyed the time when a couple of dollars would get you a couple of packs of cards.

Therefore, this blog will describe my re-discovered adventure of opening packs of trading cards. It might only be a pack or two a week (with the occassional 'cheap' box), but I want to do two things primarily with this blog: (i) describe to everyone the excitement of opening a pack of trading cards, and (ii) along others to see what cards they might be able to pull from a pack of cards before they buy them.

Regardless of whether you are interested in trading cards or not, I hope you can take a look at this blog and join in the adventures that will (hopefully) follow .....