What the ?

Stopped at the purveyor of blue parallels and bought a pair of the $5 36 packs (what do you call those things anyway?  Rack packs?)

I thought I'd do a side by side comparison.  Let's see which pack is better, shall we?

Let's start in the bottom compartments:

Ummm, tie

Tie

Tie

Tie

Grr, let's try the top compartments.

Tie

Tie

 Sigh, tie

Really?

So, ya.  A full one fourth of these packs, which were back to back on the hanger, are the exact same.  I guess let's compare the rest

Both of the "retirement" guys.  Tie

This will represent the rest of the base cards.  Angels versus non Angel.  Advantage Pack 2.

Blue Parallels.  Ummm, guess I like the throwback Sox unis.  Advantage Pack 1.

Duh.  Pack 1 takes the lead.

Really?  Even when they're not the same, they're the same.

"The Professor and Maryann...."  Red sparkly parallel vs. Super Veteran, tie.  Griffey vs. Power player.  Pack 1 wins.

I bought some

Yeah, I bought some Series 1.  I needed milk and a few things anyway, so I just got them at the red parallel store on the way home.  I bought two of the $5 36 card packs.  I won't bother with a product review, I think it's all been said.  I'll just post a couple thoughts on each pack


Pack 1:

Got two Angels.  Got Mike Trout in my first pack of the year.  That's promising.

Two former Angels.   That "Future Stars" thing on Segura there looks like a 1989 card.  And did I miss what was going on with Carlos Villanueva there?  His uni isn't retro, but apparently his facial hairstyle is?

I got a hit.  Game used! woohoo! (sarcasm).  Anybody collect Marlins?  Anybody?  I generally don't like inserts.  This pack had a "The Future is Now" (Boring), a "Upper Class" (eh), but I kinda like the "Super Veteran" thing there.  Then again, that's stolen from 1983 Topps, which is right in my wheelhouse.

Lime green?? boo.  And Peavy there isn't a base card.  "Power Players"?

Pack 2:

2 more Angels.

I like this red sparkly parallel.  Its redder in person.  The one insert I did like the last two years was the 1987 and 1972/71 minis.  But this thing?  eh.  Pack 2 was less exciting.  Another "The Future is Now" and another "Upper Class".  If anybody wants an insert, let me know.

Query

Returning to the land of the living here in Junk Wax land.  So I'll do a quick post with two tangentially related ideas.

I recently won a couple of auctions on eBay (hint: that's the link), which showed up the other day.  Guess how much I paid for these guys:

There's a slight paper loss on Mr. Hamlin there. 

And there are the lightest creases that I literally have to hold in the light just right to see.

So how much did I pay?

For 53 year old cards?



52 cents.

Combined.

I'm pretty happy with that.  Not exactly Dime Box, but I'll take Quarter Box.


And now for idea number 2...
I won an auction on eBay back on December 10.  I just now realized that I never got it.  How long is too long to say anything?  Is it too late to ask about the card?

"Hey, I won an auction forever ago......"

Running 101-102 fever here in the land of Junk Wax, so no real post.  But don't forget everyone that postage goes up tomorrow.  So if you can, go out and buy some forever stamps today so PWEs can keep flowing around the blogosphere.

Need some picture, right?

594

Frankenset #594

I decided at some point along the way that team cards should have priority in my Angels frankenset. 

Card #594 is the Angels' team card from 2007 Topps.

2007 Topps is kinda like 1971 Topps..without the character.  Just black and dark.  What's funny to me about this card is the wall in front of the players.   The front row is just heads.  No real symmetry either.  Who was running the show here?

Vladimir Guerrero was clearly the star of the offense in 2006.  But Juan Rivera (.310/.362/.525), Mike Napoli (.228/.360/.455), and Orlando Cabrera (.282/.335/.404) had pretty good years too.  Ervin Santana led the team in wins and John Lackey was second in wins and first in ERA, but Jered Weaver came up in May and was the best pitcher on the staff. K-Rod had 47 saves out of the pen.

Okay Tom, because you asked.....

Been silent for awhile.  Eh, that's the way it goes.

P-town Tom of the excellent (although misguided..Cubs? really?) blog Waiting 'til Next Year sent a PWE my way.  The first group of cards

had some very cool, and new to me 1987 Fleer (oddball?) Angels.  Back in high school Wally Joyner was a big deal, and his rookie cards were all the rage for awhile.  That Brian Downing will of course be headed off to the Downing PC.  If I didn't see the name, I'd think that was Ryan Howard on that Bowman refractory thingy. 
(Side note: I took the two pictures on Grant Green's BaseballReference bullpen page.  <patting self on back>)


But he posed a question a to me.

"...could you explain why Wade Hinkle gets 2 Bowman cards in 2013.  Is he that good?"

So I will attempt to explain that now.  The first thing I did was go look up who Wade Hinkle is. He was a 27th round pick of the Angels in 2012 out of Kansas State University. 

To get 2 Bowman cards, I would think you would have to be unique.  There were 96 players who qualified for the batting title in the 2013 Midwest League.

Of those 96 qualifiers, 35 hit .270 or better.

Of those 35 qualifiers who hit .270, 10 hit 13 or more Home Runs.

Of those 10 qualifiers who hit .270 with 13 homers, 4 hit 30 or more Doubles.

Of those 4 qualifiers who hit .270 with 13 homers and 30 doubles, 2 had less than 90 strikeouts.

Of those 2 qualifiers who hit .270 with 13 homers, 30 doubles, and less than 90 strikeouts, only 1 stole a base.

Yes, the only batter who qualified for the 2013 Midwest League batting title, and hit .270 with 13 homers, 30 doubles, less than 90 strikeouts, and more than 1 stolen base is the immortal WADE HINKLE.

So there you go Tom.  Wade Hinkle is unique.  He was the only player in all of baseball to accomplish that feat.  So Bowman gave him 2 cards.

But I bet Tom knew that.  Wade Hinkle was a visiting player in Peoria a couple of times last year.

Insert Clever Title Here

(You ever run out of good titles?  I did)

So last month I offered up some of my overabundance of junk wax cards to Mark over at Collector's Crack.  He was interested so I made up a package of Brewers and Packers to send him.  (Yes, I have football cards too.  If you want some 80's football, especially 1981-1982 let me know!).  I sent them off with my usual "you can send back whatever you think its worth" message.

When I got a return package I thought I was stealing.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again - bloggers as a whole are so generous.  Let's take a look at some of the goodies:

Minis!  (They're not 75's so they don't get the N.O. treatment).  I have very few of these, maybe even just the one Mike Trout I've acquired I think.  I didn't realize how many different back variations of these things there are.  The Conger and Abreu cards in the top row are different backs.

2013 Heritage.  I know Topps is beating the retro design thing into the ground, but I really like these.  1964 is a real solid design I think.

Chromy goodness.  2010 was actually a pretty good design.  I know the Chrome cards curl, but I like them anyway.  And look - Kendry Chrome parallelness.

Oh yeah, there was football in there too.  Julius Jones goes from starter in Dallas to backup somewhere else to out of the league.  Shocker

Chromy football.  Everyone loves to pick on Romo.  He's not the problem in Big D.  The GM is the problem.  Felix Jones goes from starter in Dallas to backup somewhere else to... wait, what?

And there was another card (well there were more than just one, but I wanna talk about one specifically) in the package that just..... You ever see a card and just immediately call it a favorite?  I did that.  I appreciate all the cards in the package.  Really.  But one card....  I've never collected for value.  "Hits" don't really intrigue me.  I just collect what I like.

I like this!  I'm not 100% sure what it really is.  Insert in 2010 Topps Chrome I think?  Seriously, if this was all I got back, I still would have been more than happy.  Tony Dorsett was my first (along with Danny White I suppose) childhood favorite player.  Ask my mom who Tony Dorsett is.  She'll say "The guy running all over my son's wall" as a kid.  I don't know if I'll ever get the actual Tony rookie card, but this card is really sharp.

I think I'll need to go peruse the want lists over at Collector's crack again.  I need to even this up.

Thanks again Mark.

Card Numbering Take 3

Okay, I have one last post in my ongoing series of posts about Topps' numbering systems.  1978-1979 was the first I noticed, then 1983-1984.  Finally we come to 1989-1990. 

team card/manager

There are a few less exact matches

pitchers

more pitchers

Through 1991

middle of lineup guys

but there are plenty of near misses to make it apparent Topps was re-using a template of sorts.  Other close ones are 17/16, 42/43, 68/65, 129/130, 190/187, 216/215, 243/244, 270/272, 332/334, 362/363, 455/458, 576/575, 602/603, 632/635, 649/650, 679/675, 708/705, and 761/762 (1989 first in all pairs).  In fact, I think there more pairs overall in 1989-1990 than in the other years.

That's all the coincidences I've found so far.  I don't know why I find that interesting, but I do.