Fairfield Repacks change with the times

I've always like Fairfield repacks, more for their entertainment value than anything else. I would pick one up here and there from Walgreen's for $4.99. Would I get $5 worth of cards? Sometimes. Would I enjoy the way I spent my $5? Almost always.

You're never going to strike gold with these things. Once in a while someone on Twitter will claim they got a Bryce Harper RC or something, but I don't believe most of that. Those types of posts are fake and just for likes.

Still, I never really considered myself to be a sucker when I bought these. I knew what I was getting. A year or two ago, you'd get 100 cards, an unopened pack, a few hall of famers, and maybe a little bit of trade bait. 

Now? Not so much.

For the first time in months, I came across one of these on Saturday at Walgreen's. There were three total, but I bought just one. Very non-flipper of me, eh? The packaging has undergone a few changes over the last few years. The preview window of the hero card is gone. I always liked that. It would help me choose which to buy.

You know what else is gone? It doesn't say how many cards are in the box. It used to advertise 100 cards. Then sometime last year it dropped to 80. Now? No mention.

Hits have gone from 1:4 to 1:8 over the last few years. The hits were never very good anyhow, but still fun to snag a random auto or relic at those odds.

For years these were $4.99, but when I rang them up at the counter, they were $5.49. The $.49 isn't a big deal, but still, there's price increase of 10% off the bat.

When I opened the box, the first thing I noticed? A lot of free space! The boxes are still big enough for 100 cards, but nooope. Guess how many?

80? Nope. 75? No.

51 cards!

That is a drastic decrease. Over the past year or two, these have gone from 100 cards to 51. Something tells me it's supposed to be 50 and I ended up with a bonus card by accident.

That's an enormous drop, if you ask me.

When you get 51 cards, do you know what else you get? More junk. I know, I know. These have always had junk. But I would say, what, maybe 50% was junk wax, and the rest were maybe cards from the last few years, or some oddballs?

I only got two cards that I would call recent:

Now to be fair, I was surprised to see a card from 1957 pop out. That is different. Usually the oldest card would be something from the late 70s. That was a welcome surprise. No creases, either!

Outside of the three above, the other 48 cards were all junk wax. And there were ZERO oddballs.

The pack was 2021 Opening Day, which shows that this was packed very recently. While I'd rather have this than a pack of 1990 Donruss, it still doesn't really make up for the emptiness that the box provided.

So that's that. Again, I know these repacks are often fairly lackluster, but now this feels like it's on a completely new level of rip-off. If that's how all these are from now on, I won't be rolling the dice anymore with Fairfield repacks. I'll keep my $5, happily.

These are a lot more 2021 than they are 2019, and that's sad.

Even repacks are turning into duds

Before cards disappeared from shelves, one constant to scratch the pack ripping itch were the Fairfield repacks that can be found at Walgreen's stores around the country.

Prior to the pandemic, they were plentiful. Always stacked five or six deep in the toy row. They had a clear window on the front, where you could choose your destiny. Alex Rodriguez 2012 Gypsy Queen or Topps Update Eric Hosmer rainbow foil?

Like everything else retail, the fun of these repacks has been sucked dry.

The windows that have you that glimpse are gone. Hits have gone from 1:4 to 1:8. Now, I never bought these for the no-name player hits, but I still enjoyed an autograph or jersey that could serve as trade bait...you know, before everyone defected to TCDB to trade. 

The other day I was at a Walgreen's in a neighboring town, and stopped in. Just like the one in my town, the card area was picked dry except for one lonely repack. So I did what any cardboard addict would do.

I bought it.

And let's just say, it was probably the worst repack I have ever bought. The oddballs were not existent. The "four guaranteed HOFers" didn't exist as they had in the past. It was literally a brick of church thrift store junk wax, without nearly anything interesting or of note.

Maybe I got a crappy one, or maybe these just are going this direction.

The best card of the bunch was probably this.

Maybe these will net me something on TCDB.

At least I got three cards older than me?

I'm not exaggerating, unfortunately. I know the eye can be in the beholder, but even the most creative of card minds couldn't find much to say about this turd sandwich of a repack.

I'm still glad I rescued it, and I hope that this was just an exception, as these are usually pretty fun.

Ending 2018 with a very 2018 repack

I have so many fun things to show off on my blog - great blogger mailings, my awesome online marketplace find, and a gift from one of my favorite pro players. And I'll get to those soon!

Instead, I bought one last Walgreen's Fairfield repack yesterday. As noted, we had been traveling for a week. So I stepped out to Walgreen's for milk, and decided to treat myself to a repack. When I checked out the toy aisle, there were four baseball repacks, but one stood out:

New packaging! To most of us, usually these are a dark green, like this one:

Figuring these have new packaging and thus, possibly more recent cards, I took a chance. I was right. This was full of some interesting 2018 cards.

Most of the 2018s were from Bowman, including a Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw. The Harper is 2016 Topps, of course.

There was also some 2018 Finest.

I was most pleased with the amount of 2018 rookie cards, including a sweet Miguel Andujar I didn't have, and a few other decent prospects.

There were also a lot of prospect cards from 2017, including Mickey Moniak and Tanner Houck.

The Young and Lee are from 2018.

There were even some 2018 Topps team set cards!

Of course, what is a repack without Barry Bonds?

Some of my more recent repacks had some newer Topps packs, but we're back to junk wax here with a pack of 1992 Donruss. No, I didn't pull a Ripken auto.

While I didn't get a 1:4 hit, hard to complain about this repack. The new Andujar RC almost makes it worth it on it's own, plus it had a lot of star power with Harper, Trout, Kershaw, and some top tier prospects.

Not a bad way to end 2018! Happy New Year to you all. If you're going out, have a fun and safe evening!

A repack dud

I don't really like complaining about the $4.99 Walgreen's repacks. I know what I'm getting when I buy them...about 95% junk. But usually I find at least get a few fun cards that are worth the price of admission. Rarely can one be chalked up to being a total stinker, but that's what happened earlier this week.

I made the Walgreen's trip to get some milk, and of course checked to see if they had any of these, as they've been out of stock. They had ONE. Seeing all the Harper RCs and other gems being pulled out of these on Twitter, I figured it was a sign I should fork over my $5 and buy it.

I should have known it was a bad sign when this was the card in the window:

Fun fact: Chase Utley still plays Major League Baseball! I had no idea until he announced his retirement earlier this year. This is one of the red/white/blue Prizm cards, and admittedly that looks pretty cool. I like the card, not the player.

Now I will interrupt the complaining for a second to mention that the best part of the repack was that there wasn't a pack of 2013 Triple Play or 1990 Donruss. It was actually 2015 Topps Series One! That is a massive victory! While I didn't pull anything of note, I'll take my chances every day with a pack like this versus what is usually in there, so I gotta say, that was a welcome change. I just hope the crappier cards I got aren't a result of slightly better packs going in these.

As for the pack, a Yankee and a Michael Morse insert. What a world where Michael Morse was in an insert set just three years ago!

 

I'm not joking when I say these were the three best cards. I'll always welcome two HOFers for my son's binder.

These other four cards were about the most noteworthy.

Unfortunately, really nothing else. A lot of 2013 Topps, and none from the team sets like usual. No rookies or oddballs either.

It's ok though! This isn't going to deter me from buying these again. On the whole, they are usually fun and provide some good entertainment value and a few keepers along the way.

However, I just might decide to drive the extra 10 minutes to Target for milk for the foreseeable future.

Repack reward

On Friday evening, I ran a quick errand to Walgreen's. We had ordered a pizza that I was going to pick up, and on the way I stopped in the store to pick up milk and a bottle of seltzer. As usual, I swung by the toy aisle, and noticed three baseball repacks. One had Ken Griffey Jr in the window, one had David Wright, and the third had a Devil Ray I didn't even bother checking to see who it was.

I decided against snagging one, as I just didn't feel like dropping $5 that could go toward a newer release if I ever made my way to Target.

I went to check out, entered my phone number to get my Balance Rewards, and the cashier said, "Would you like to use your points?"

I asked how many I had, and she said, "You have $3 off." Luckily no one else was in line, and I said, "Uh, I'll be right back."

I dashed off to the toy aisle and grabbed the re-pack with Griffey on the front. While I didn't feel like spending $4.99, $1.99 sounded pretty good.

I know what you're thinking. That fate led me to this re-pack and it would contain something amazing.

Well, it didn't. It was a pretty standard repack, and even perhaps a bit more unspectacular than previous ones. It wasn't horrible, but contained a lot more junk wax than usual, which is saying a lot because they usually have a ton.

It only had a two Yankees, which is generally low for a repack.

Here are a few memorable cards. The Ripken is pretty neat - I hadn't seen a card from this set before.

 

 

The weirdest card was this 2013 Topps Brad Ziegler. It looks ok on the front, but check out the back.

That's not a blank back...it's a no back. It's half a card! This card clearly was never adhered to the proper back, so it's a very thin, paper card. Pretty cool!

Was this repack worth the $2? I'd say so. But I'm definitely glad I didn't drop $5 on it.

Repacks do grow on (Dollar) Trees

Yesterday, I showed off the unexpected Andre Dawson/Vlad Guerrero insert I pulled in a Dollar Tree 30-card repack. I bought seven of the packs, and here are a few more highlights that are a lot more what you’d tradionally expect to get in this type of product.

First off, the best “window card” – the card showing through on the packaging – was a 2016 Bowman Masahiro Tanaka. While this is a dupe for me, it’s a lot easier of a choice for me to snag this card versus someone I’ve never heard of.

This Wil Myers card was also a window card, and I also received this same card in another pack.

There were a few Dodger cards through, and these were two of the cooler ones. The Crawford is one of the foil variations, which isn’t a terrible thing.

Glossy! Nearly each pack had a 1988 Fleer, and each was the glossy version.

A few cards from a time I didn’t collect, and didn’t recognize either card’s design. The Rollins is from 2007 Topps.

Gum stains were plentiful as well. If this were more recent Heritage, these would be worth something.

Diecuts in a repack are cool!

 

Lastly, HOFers! Unlike Fairfield repacks, these don’t guarantee X number of HOFers in each pack. However, there was no shortage. I’ll add these to my son’s HOF binder.