Bonus Packs!

When I bought some cards recently (See post "Some Vintage Baseball") I received some bonus cards and some BONUS WAX PACKS. Now these packs are from the early 1990s the JUNK WAX years so they might not have much of anything of any real value. Two of them I'll probably sell, trade, or maybe open to see what is in them, the other I'll probably keep as is. Anyway here they are:

 1990 Upper Deck Foil Pack

The 1990 Upper Deck Set contains 800 cards and the only key cards are the Sammy Sosa RC and a Nolan Ryan Card #734 6th No-Hitter. There are two variations of this card one with a banner that says 300th Win on bottom right corner and one without the banner. The variation 734A without the banner is rarer and apparently worth more than the 724B banner version. Fun fun fun.

 1990 Donruss Wax Pack

The 1990 Donruss Set contains 716 cards. As with the tradition started in 1982 cards 1-26 are the Diamond Kings subset, with card 27 being the DK checklist. Then cards 28-47 are Rated Rookies cards. Again the Sammy Sosa Rookie card in this set is a Key card as well as an error RC card of Juan Gonzalez. Oh an the Puzzle is of.. Carl Yastrzemski.

Next up is the 1989 Topps Set it contains 792 cards. Key cards are RCs of Craig Biggio, John Smoltz and Randy Johnson (I think I've got that one somewhere, or did). The kicker on this pack, and the reason I just might keep this pack and keep it sealed is it is majorly miscut.

1989 Topps Wax Pack - Miscut

So campers and Knooknicks what should I do with these packs? If the process wasn't soo expensive I'd consider sending the Topps pack to get graded as some sort of packaging error. There are at least 2 reasons I won't the first as I said it is expensive (and you should send several items to be graded not just a single solitary pack). The second I don't like having things entombed in plastic. They grade and entomb comics as well as cards, I can understand the cards but comics? Comics are supposed to be read also, not just looked at. I like the "feel" of things in a collection, even if you put them in plastic sleeves or binder pages you still have a sense of their feel. Slab them up inside the plastic and they lose some of their character.

1968 Topps Baseball

 

Card 278 Checklist 4th Series (for cards 284-370)

I was going to make this a post about just one card I had gotten recently (Jim Brewer), but I figured I'd talk about the whole set for this particular year. 1968 Topps Baseball. I think I had a ton more of these things when I was a kid than I do even now with buying what seems like a ton of them one or two cards at a time every few months. I'm not sure exactly which year was the first year I personally ripped open a trading card wax pack, but I do recall 1968 as being one of the first years I remember having cards from. I think 1970 or 1971 was the first year I personally opened a pack, or "bought" one. When you are a kid your "purchases" are usually really your parents or an older sibling "buying" the item for you while you wait impatiently to rip open whatever package it is you are about to get. I also recall that for the '68 cards the background pattern for some of the cards was really funky. the detail in the pattern of the dots or splotches seemed to vary. I couldn't decide if they were going for the look of a cork bulletin board or burlap sacks.

 298 Jim Brewer Dodgers

The most recent '68 card I've acquired.

114 Ron Swoboda Mets

Yes my card is cut off like that on the bottom (miscut)

 159 Don Kessinger Cubs

 235 Ron Santo Cubs

Ron also appeared on card #19 in the 

Insert Game cards Topps Released in 1968

(That is for another post)

While I'm mentioning Ron Santo Cards

1971 Topps 220

 1973 Topps 115