A Pair of Packs of Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks

Don't you just love alliteration? I couldn't resist when concocting catchy, captivating titillating title text. Okay, perhaps I should have resisted. And, I digress. Often.

In the last post, I talked about feeding my cardboard addiction and part of that feeding comes by way of two packs of 2014 Panini Prizm Perennial Draft Picks. I thought it would be fun to not only go through the list of players I got, but let's see where they are now**:

Matt Imhof (Draft Class) - Philadelphia - Lost his right eye in a freak accident* in June 2016. He retired at age 23, currently coaching college ball.

Sean Newcomb (Draft Class) - Los Angeles (Angels) - After bouncing between multiple teams in 2015 (including Arkansas Travelers). He is currently in AA ball for the Braves.

Max Pentecost (Draft Class) - Toronto - Has stayed with the Blue Jays organization, had several surgeries, and is now playing A+ for the Dunedin Blue Jays.

Jordan Luplow - Pittsburgh - Has remained a Pirates prospect, currently playing for Bradenton Marauders in A+ ball. In 2015, racked up several awards including All-Star and Player of the Week.

John Richy - Los Angeles (Dodgers) - Was part of the Phillies deal to send Chase Utley to the Dodgers. Still with the Philly organization, most likely on track to find himself in the 4th/5th pitching spot one day.

James Norwood - Chicago (Cubs) - Still with the Cubs club, playing in Myrtle Beach. His 4.75 ERA includes a couple of rough times of 7.00+ ERA outings plus a nasty 13.50 ERA back in 2014 in just 2 innings. As of 2016, he has brought it back down to 3.25.

Mark Payton - New York (Yankees) - Still with the Yankees, he batted .309 in 2016. In several articles, he is referred to as a "sleeper" prospect about to break out.

Malik Collymore - St. Louis - With St. Louis until mid-2015, he now plays for the Brewers organization. He had a very rough 2016, getting sent to Australia in hopes of building his game and confidence.



*Matt Imhof story/update: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/phillies-prospect-thriving-after-losing-right-eye-in-freak-accident-at-the-ballpark/
**Player info from baseball-reference.com, milb.com, and other sources.

Feeding the Cardboard Addiction

I left the office and headed out to lunch. I stopped at Walmart because I wanted to see if they had the charging/headphone adapter for my iPhone 7. They did not. Our Walmart has a Subway in it, so I figured I would just eat there since I was already in the store. And, you can imagine what happened next, I'm sure. I stopped by the cardboard aisle. I was just looking, though I had half-heartedly decided to pick up a pack of 2017 Topps since I hadn't busted any of that yet. I felt the pang. Do you get that pang? The one that whispers to you, "Hey... Over here... I'm a blaster box... I have cool bits of collectible cardboard in here..." It whispers, at first. Soon, however, it is screaming at you and you're helpless to resist. The cardboard habit pulls, tugs, and yanks at you, your wallet, your sense of duty... Duty? Yes, you see, the habit, the addiction, convinced me that I needed something for a post. "You don't want to write about what your already HAVE," it said. "You want something new to talk about."

I looked and there was a repack box. I loathe repack boxes, and yet my addiction prevents me from resisting them. "11 Factory Sealed packs inside," the label read. And, just below that, the ever-taunting proclamation: "INCLUDING 1 HOBBY PACK IN EVERY BOX!' A Hobby pack!? In EVERY box!? Oh, man... It's a Hobby pack. Do you know how much Hobby packs are by themselves? This was a blaster with 11 packs for $15. That's not great, but it's not bad, either... right?

I snagged one. I was at the checkout with it before I knew what was happening. The cashier, a family friend, commented, "Buying baseball cards on your lunch break, David?" Yes, YES! Yes, I was. And then I was grabbing lunch. And I wasn't eating it there because I figured I could grab the food, head back to the office and have time to bust open a pack before my break was over. Maybe even TWO packs...

I tilted the box upside down and it felt... wrong. Something wasn't right here. It made a different kind of noise. It didn't sound like 11 packs in a box sliding around. It sounded like something else. Something... plastic.. rubbing against foil. I know that sounds weird, but that's the only way I can describe it. I hurried back to the office, found a quiet spot and ripped open the box. Sure enough, a screw-down nestled itself among the packs. I actually thought it was a graded card at first, but the split along the top convinced me otherwise. Before I took it out, I examined the box... Sure enough. On the side of the box, it said, "LOOK FOR THESE SPECIAL BONUS CARDS..." There was Kris Bryant, Mike Piazza, Ken Griffey Jr, Mickey Mantle, and Cal Ripken Jr. Holy smokes.

The box whispered, "See? I told you to buy me. Now, why don't you come look inside?"

I did. The Hobby pack turned out to be Stars and Stripes... Meh, okay.  The screw-down? A 2015 Cal Ripken Jr insert. Look, don't get me wrong here: any Ripken is a good Ripken. But, a screw-down for a 2015 insert? I would bet the holder is worth more than the contents, not that "worth" has anything to do with why I bought the box to begin with. Still.

There are a couple packs of "Babe Ruth Collection," a few packs of "Triple Play," a couple packs of Prizm "Draft Picks," and a few other random packs. Yes, oh sweet addiction, you got me. I have 11 packs, including one Hobby pack. PLUS, I managed to score the bonus card (found in 1 of 4 boxes).

With the first phase of the addiction process over (the buying and initial bust), the next phase just as eagerly calls out to me... "Open us... Open...just...one... Come on, Dave... Just one..."

I bought a #Repack. Let's do a #ShowYourHits post

I spent the day with my wife and daughter, which means we went shopping. While in target, I decided to grab a repack box that had an auto'd card and four packs of wax.

I managed to snag a 2016 Bowman Michael Brantley, so score one for the Tribe fans! Wahoo!!  I also snagged a few inserts along the way, so I'm sharing those here, too.

We have a Charles Brewer auto card (that was the auto that came with the box) that arrived in a penny sleeve. Do we still call them penny sleeves? I do because that's what they were called when I was a kid. They are probably more like dime bags now. Er, never mind.

We also scored a 3000 Hits Club Kaline and a 500 HR Futures Club Fielder. The Trevor Story Youth Impact is a fine specimen of chrome, but you can't tell it in the scan. We round things out with another cool bit of chrome in the Scouts Top 100 , Gleyber Torres.

The rest of the cards were standard pack cards from various brands/sets, but all were from 2016. At least the repack box wasn't full of junk wax from the late 80's/early 90's, right?

Repacked Repack Bustin My Wax Ovahere

The other day, I mentioned that I had bought a $2.99 blister pack of wax packs.  Turns out, it was a repack of someone else's repack. Top that off with two "Hidden Treasures" repacks from Tristar, and one might think I hit some sort of cosmic trifecta of repack-ed-ness.  One would be wrong. Mostly.

I do have one correction: There were two packs of 2005 Topps, two packs of Tristar Hidden Treasures, and two packs of 2006 Opening Day (I had previously said those were 2005. Bust out the noodles, folks. David's getting a whippin' tonight).

First up, 2005 Topps packs. The first one features George Kottaras (Padres), Ricky Barrett (Twins), Jody Gerut (Pirates), Chris Volstad (Marlins, Draft Pick), David Ortiz (Red Sox, Gold HR Derby 0238/2005), and Chris Carpenter (Cardinals, Sporting News).  Oh yeah, there was a checklist, too. Bonus.

The next pack of 2005 Topps includes Jared Weaver (Angels, Draft Pick), Jose Guillen (Nationals), Heath Totten (Dodgers), Jason Kendall (A's), Willy Taveras (Astros, Sporting News), and Ryan Garko (Indians, Futures Game).  WAHOO! Pulled a Triber! Sweet!

The next two packs are the 2006 Opening Day with bonus SI Kids card in each pack.  We have Lance Berkman (Astros), John Smoltz (Braves), Jimmy Rollins (Phillies), Brian Roberts (Orioles), Bartolo Colon (Angels), and Brandon Watson (Nationals).  The SI Kids card is Shannon Stewart.  There is also the "Work Hard, Get Cards" insert and some 6-year old gum, should anyone want some gum that has been wrapped since  2006.

The second pack of 2006 Opening Day includes Tom Glavine (Mets), Freddy Garcia (White Sox), Hong-Chin Kuo (Dodgers), Derrek Lee (Cubs), Rocco Baldelli (Devil Rays), and Richie Sexson (Mariners).  The Si Kids shows Marcus Giles (Braves) coming in on a slide. And, of course, "Work Hard, Get Cards" and some broken gum...

The Tristar Hidden Treasures packs (there are the ones where you could win the Honus Wagner) are supposed to have 5 cards per pack. I guess I got lucky. Yeah, that's it. I have a Todd Jones (Astros, Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion), Tim Pynz.. Pnyz... Narcolepsy... Pyznarski (Padres, Future Stars), Eric Plunk (A's), Wally Joyner (Angels), Greg Gange (Twins), and Ivan Rodriguez (Rangers). I pulled SIX cards out of a 5-card pack. Dude, that takes major talent. Or poor collation. Whichever.

And the last of the repacked repack packs of repacked cards gives us Kurt Stillwell (Royals - How is he? Oh, He's Still Well. Sorry, couldn't resist.), Dave Henderson (A's, my namesake player. You would think I'd collect all his cards, wouldn't you? You'd think wrongly.), Tony Scott (Expos, in all the washed glory that was Topps '85), Gerald Young (Astros), and Todd Stottlemyre (Blue Jays, keeping himself busy playing one-handed catch in his rain slicker). Oh, I see. The last two are reversed. Figures.

Oh, I would love to sit here and tell you that I will never, ever, never, ever buy another repacked repack... But, we all know I'd be lying. I'm a cardboard addict. And, at $2.99 for six packs... That's a whole cheaper than other addictions. Plus, I did get a Triber out of it... And a couple gold cards... And some gum.

Repacked Repack for $2.99

I had to stop by the local discount store to pick up some antifreeze for my mother's car. While in tere, I stopped by the end of the aisle with cards.  I saw a 6-pack repack for 6 bucks and almost bought it.  Then, I noticed a different section of repacks for $2.99.  Six packs for three bucks!? Can't pass that up.  So, I didn't.  I also grabbed a Clark Bar.  If you have never experienced the awesomeness that is a Clark bar, you need to at least once.  Of course, they used to be made in Pittsburgh, so I grew up eating them.

In any case, this repack ended up being a repack of a "Legends" repack. The stock card header was cut and the UPC was covered with another UPC.  It smells of dirty card shenanigans. Guess I'll find out when I bust open the packs.  Here's the kicker:

The pack were arranged so that you couldn't tell it was basically two of each kind of pack. There are two packs of 2005 Topps Opening Day, two packs of 2005 Topps Updates & Highlights, and two packs of Tristar Hidden Treasures - what are repacks in and of themselves!

Holy smokes, I hit the trinity of repackdom - a repacked pack in a repack blister of a repack blister. My head can't take it anymore.

I ran out of time to open and post them, so consider this a teaser... Coming next post: Busting the repacked repack...