It's time for another filler post, er, I mean Pack Skirmish! This time, my last coupe packs from the discounted 2015 Stadium Club blaster will be matching up against the junkiest of the junk wax that Topps has to offer.
The first challenger is 1988 Topps.
GUM CHECK: It's good! Let's give it a point for pure, pink gum. Cracked, but otherwise still in fine condition. I ate the whole thing, ain't gonna lie. No ill effects. Took me back to my carefree days as a kid.
Since Stadium Club only has 5 cards to a pack, they'll have to fight off multiple junk foes. Cueto here feels no pressure, and fends off Neil Allen, Lee Mazzilli (creased inside the pack), and a micro appearance of Jack Clark.
Tied at 1.
Oh, it's a mano-y-mano matchup of future Padres. Current third base coach Glenn Hoffman vs. current closer Fernando Rodney. Man, I can choose between this pair of Friars. Pass!
Josh Harrison is pretty good, squeaking past an Astros onslaught. SC 2, Topps 1.
Wil Myers gold parallel.. nice card of a guy I collect, but I already have this one (thanks again, SCC), so it'll probably end up with Marcus. Since it's a dupe, I'll reluctantly give the point to the trio of decent names. Well, Maddux might be a decent name due to Mike's brother, but close enough. 2-all tie.
It's a BATTLE ROYALE as we close out the last cards of each pack. Pads in the Hall Sparky Anderson and Ozzie Smith, not to mention cardsphere gold Tim Wallach.. but damn, that's a fine looking Puig card with the So Cal sunset in the background. I had been hoping to land that card for my collection for a while now.
It definitely came right down to the wire, but Stadium Club wins by the skin of its teeth. Exciting!
Bout 2: Stadium Club defends its title vs. 1989 Topps.
Nasty! GUM CHECK: It's no good! Gum dust! Not edible. '89 Topps loses a point right out of the gate. It's 0 to -1. I threw away that Mark Williamson card too. It's gonna be an uphill climb for the flagship.
All-Time Cardinal favorites Lou Brock and Tom Herr team up to knock down JJ Hardy and redeem the disappointing gum. We're back to no score.
Ah man, where was Roger McDowell during the previous Pack Skirmish post when a Seinfeld theme was unsuccessfully forced?! The Candy Man and Eric The Red (slight water stain on the left?) are also hard hitters, but that shot of Elvis stealing second is just too awesome. Stadium Club up 1-0.
Meh, Hrbek is always fun to pull I guess. Let's give the point to Topps. 1-1 tie.
Oh wow, a Luminous diecut of a dude I collect.. nice! That's good enough to beat a HOFer and a couple other solid players. SC 2, Topps 1.
And this is it! Topps wheels out Frank Tanana and a couple Rangers scrubs. No match for Mr. Andrew McCutchen!
Stadium Club handily wins this one. Topps could never recover from the gum debacle. Congrats, SC.
And for the highlights from the other packs in my Stadium Club blaster? Well, there weren't any, really. Just a couple dudes I passively collect, Darvish and Pujols. Overall it wasn't a very exciting box. The Alex Gordon insert was the best card, with the Puig and McCutchen also being keepers for me. But hey, the price was right, and lots of collectors are working on this set, so it's always good for trade fodder.
It would be impossible to find packs of MLB baseball cards that interest me less than 1988 and 1989 Topps, but hey, even so, I still love ripping packs, so this was fun. Plus I pulled a few "pack fresh" PC guys who might be upgrades for me. And it's always nice to run into a Wallach for the Wallach Guy. BTW, I was privately racing him to 1000 copies of any particular card. Sadly for me, he won recently by reaching 4-digits with Wallach's 1982 card, meanwhile I'm still at 350-ish cards of 1990 Upper Deck Marquis Grissom like a chump. I keep hoping for a huge lot to hit eBay and help me take a big stride, but no dice.
Thanks for tuning in. See you next time!
I don't know... 1989 is pretty damn junky, but these days I would question whether Panini Triple Play (I'll let you pick between 2012 and 2013) might not be "Junkiest of junk"
ReplyDeleteI agree with that. It is normally impossible for me to keep any sort of unopened pack around for more than a day, but I've got a couple stacks of Triple Play packs sitting around that aren't even tempting to me.
DeleteHey, with Triple Play at least there's a shot at pulling non-game-used "Real Feel" relics of stuff Panini bought at a sporting goods store. And the stickers and temporary tattoos are kinda cool, I guess. So there's at least some "chase" there. With 88/89 Topps, there's nothing at all to get excited about other than sentimentality. I started collecting in 1990, so I miss out on that too.
DeleteThere's no way Alan Ashby loses to Josh Harrison, especially if Ashby's got backup.
ReplyDeleteCutch is unbeatable.
ReplyDeleteI'd definitely pull the trigger on one of those discounted Stadium Club blasters...if my Target ever carried discounted Stadium Club blasters.
ReplyDeleteThe only discounted blasters I've been seeing lately are 2012 (I think?) Goodwin Champions, and I can't bring myself to grab one.
DeleteNice "Background Brave" with that Andrus TSC.
ReplyDeleteWasn't active for any of it except the two boxes of '89 that I bought at the time, I'd have to put a few of the late 80's Donruss & Fleer deeper and lower in the "junk pile" than '88 Topps. Maybe 'cause I just broke three boxes of '88 last year and have had the D&F in the trade boxes for years....
ReplyDeleteHa, looks like I've hit on a hot button topic that would make a good post in its own right. The way I see it, '88 Donruss has RCs of Roberto Alomar and Mark Grace.. Fleer has Grace and Edgar Martinez. Topps has none of these desirable rookie cards. As for 1989, one word: Griffey. Topps flagship fails again here. And so for me, Topps claims the junkies of junk crown.
Deletedang... that puig and andrus photos look sweet.
ReplyDelete