It's been a long, busy and successful year, in everything except one area of Life which you, dear Reader, might be particularly fond of: the enjoyment of Baseball Cards. Of course success in economic endeavors is great for obtaining more Baseball Cards. But ultimately there is something even more important than money in the enjoyment of Baseball Cards, which is simply Time, itself. Without time to sit down and casually paw through a stack of Baseball Cards, turning a few over, sorting them some, etc., solely obtaining them can become rather hollow. And when one is hundreds of miles from their card collection, even Free Time is not enough for a little Baseball Card relaxation.
Lately when I have found myself particularly missing Home, and the Baseball Cards therein, I end up drawn once again into a store I don't otherwise really care to visit. One completely full of corporate junk products with the prices set at: Maximum, and also full of already sick people trying to figure out how to make themselves feel better while busily shedding their germs: Walgreens.
A touch harsh, yup, but riddle me this: who goes to Walgreens for fun? I do, that's who. I can easily tune out those aforementioned concerns as I make a bee-line straight to some quick, EZ relief of my symptoms, too. So as it turns out, I must thank Walgreens for hooking me up with what should be a basic staple of American life, in my not humble at all opinion: cheap Baseball Cards.
It has been an interesting year for me in that regard at least, with a variety of Baseball Card experiences on just 3 or 4 visits to the mini box store, which has been a plus compared to visiting the Big Box store options lately.
My go-to @ Walgreen's is that there Baseball Collector's Edge box, generally of 50-ish loose cards and one sealed pack. It rarely disappoints, completely. Eat your Wheaties, cuz them things are tougher than they look, and let's "rip" one...
Well we're not off to a good start, even though I quite like this card and already have copies permanently enshrined in 2 collections — a complete set of 2024's "The Neon," and also one in a nascent City Connect collection of Rockies cards. This one is letter perfect for that still under construction page, for one of the best CC unis. But I don't really want year old cards in my repack products.
So this repack began with four cards a year old; oddly, two from Series One and two from Series Two. I concluded the repack packer was being careful in disposing of recent cards, even when I pawed straight into more '24 -
I lost all desire to own any more Topps Holiday after a few years, and that has just never rekindled. Perhaps this card will make an exception to that rule, as I also keep a few Sunglasses cards from any pile of cards I have. Maximum Neon could use at least one bling-out on a binder page, I guess, and Holiday Neon is None-More-Neon.
Year old Baseball Cards though, that's not what I want to see in a repack, silly rabbit. Fortunately, those stopped at 5 cards, and amidst the swirling Donruss & Fleer junkwax, the nuggets began to appear:
2001 Bowman
Another good Sunglasses card? Or a good Eye Black card? Albeit one with a live Baseball, incoming.
This card, with its odd half-shadow lighting, won't make an eventual best-of 2023 Heritage High Numbers for me, but I scanned it to remind myself that Kimbrel might could mebbe qualify for a page of 9 uniforms, 9 Topps designs now after reaching the team total in 2025. We'll see.
and boom goes the dynamite
Or maybe the fuse just sputtered, there in a failed-foil scan. Anyhow, that's Jose Bautista, who's future was so bright there in 2005 Topps Updates & Highlights that he had to, yup, wear shades. That there definite year-end Best Sunglasses Card winner has an intriguing card back, too:
which reveals that after 75 MLB games with 4 MLB teams across 2 seasons,
Jose Bautista had not yet hit a Home Run.
He must not have been lucky enough to face Paul Foytack, I guess.
&, I quite like the always-sunny-at-Topps optimistic prescience here, with Topps Card Back Writer confidently calling career-so-far .190 hitter Bautista a "crucial component" and in Pittsburgh "to stay." Next stop, Hall of Very Good.
see what I did there?
I have to wonder what Hitting Coaches might say about that card. A keeper though, bright, and just so ... live, as in Baseball, being played. I did begin to worry, however, that this card might be the duly required Hall of Famer card in a repack, in the mind of the repack packer person. Because I would likely fail a question on Tony Fernandez's HoF status, voting in the affirmative.
This repack, though, seemed to be leaning into this HoVG trend -
this is from one of the years of the Gallery 1.0 product(s), as distinct from the 2.0 revival beginning in 2017; the earlier iterations are a set of checklists I have zero experience with, card-in-hand. This card didn't yay-or-nay me much, though I like the camera's perspective point. The back however,
Another sometimes seemingly required inclusion in a repack is a taste of, Oooohhhhh, Shiny....
Pitcher-At-The-Plate.
Keeper.
1997 Pinnacle
Pop-Up.
Sunglasses.
'nother Keeper.
1992 Pinnacle
This card is moving me into acceptance of a conclusion that of all the 1990s sets of Baseball Cards that might still exist in an unopened state, the one I might most want to peruse pages and pages of its cards, said set might just be this one. Mesmerizing. Classy.
This is a Public Service Announcement:
1993 Fleer Ultra is not aging well.
oh well. I was way looking forward to scanning this one, as it is around an 8.5 on the Oooohhhhh, Shiny scale, in-hand, which is quite impressive, particularly on a sunny day. Sometimes they scan fabulously, sometimes they don't.
Otherwise the other stick-in-my-head aspect of this card will be the set name from whence it came, 1995 Pinnacle Select Certified. I would have to wonder what a Marketing 101 textbook would comment on that mouthful.
But the Pop-Up page will need an Oooohhhhh, Shiny rep, so into the collection it goes. Repacks are so good for the side collections, such as:
OK, quiz time:
How long has it been since you held a 1994 Stadium Club Baseball Card in your hand?
I'll bet you didn't know that last name there, straight off the DYMO•Tape machine about which youngsters are like, what's a DYMO•Tape machine, well on that cool facsimile of DYMO•Tape the faux impressioned plastic letters are actually embossed onto the Baseball Card as part of the printing. A Deluxe Baseball Card, in the sky. I did not remember that, not having held a 1994 Topps Stadium Club Baseball Card in my hand since, 1994.
Pop-up Hot Pack.
Sunglasses Hot Pack.
Manager - Dave Roberts, foil-fail scan strikes again
'nother keeper.
TOPPS
2005
I like 2005 Topps a little more every time I see it.
However I think it might be a long time before I discover another Baseball Card with not one but two hitters in a batting stance, even though this is the second one I have scanned for you recently.
Overall the repack packer had come through for me, with a respectable quantity of collectable Baseball Cards, for MY collection(s), anyway. I had not pulled an actual Hall-of-Famer Baseball Card, but I liked the optimism that Dave Roberts will "get the call" one day, which seems likely, to me.
My eventual memory of any of these little overly-glued, rectangular boxes will often depend on what actual sealed pack is included. Here, it was a re-run, same as my last $6 "Collector's Edge" purchase before this one -
Again. Not my hope & dream when I successfully open/destroy one of these boxes, but the pack is sealed and a small portal back in time to 1988 -
1988 style
a favorite name from my youth, still going strong from Vintage, on into Junk Wax
Should I put a card of a Pitcher wearing a Batting Helmet in with the Pitchers @ Plate cards? Decisions, decisions.
Maybe the blue uniform on a blue plaid (did I just type that?) Baseball Card isn't a problem, after all, when you are at the Stadium nice and early on a sunny late morning. NY Mets - Donruss Card Miner nailed this one. A great First Card upon opening the pack.
now that's how to MVP Baseball Card
yet more Hall-of-Very-Good action
this repack packer's got skillz
did I mention liking these MVP cards?
Both, in one pack!
Wait.
The Braves and the Dodgers both play in the National League.
Which can have only one MVP.
(googles)
& What about George Bell and Andre Dawson, 1987 MLB MVPs?
do their 1988 Donruss Baseball Cards say MVP on them too?
I was told there would be no homework assignment.
88 Donruss, strikes again.
the pack tries to make amends...
all of the above, and a Diamond King
(what's up with those blue, green & yellow diagonals doh?
I'm not sure suprise color spaghetti helps out, on this design)
but wait, there's more
got racing stripe? New York, Mets.
Were these things created in suburban Chicago, or deep in NYC?
88 "Plaidurday" Donruss Mets Team Set? Hmmm.
Ha!
Now you can't ever unsee this Baseball Card, either.
Were they the M&M's back then?
And there's _that_ digit? Don't see that every day.
How much do you think the guy wants for that pair of white pants there in the back?
And where's his customers?
but wait, the train is still here in the HoVG station...
the Giants & Giants though?
and finally, the Last Card is reached, another famous name:
however that was not an opportune day to take a Baseball Picture Card photo; RJR has better Baseball Cards than that one.
1988 Donruss. They just don't pack 'em like they used to.
Rescued.
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