Back In The Good Days

This blog used to be cooler, and more interesting.  We would have various different ideas for blog posts to hopefully keep the readers engaged.  Or at least I thought we did.  We also used to be a we.  I think it’s safe to say that Andy is retired from the blog.  But that’s not what this is about.

No, instead I’m trying to reminisce about the days when I had time to run group breaks.  I tried to do a couple bigger ones a year, if possible.  It was all really an excuse for me to open some boxes (which is one of my favorite things about this hobby) while not being stuck with all of the leftovers I don’t collect.

I do still have plenty of leftovers because I never had enough clout to fully sell out, so if I ever get enough time to organize myself and feel confident in trading on a regular basis, I’ll try to offer some of those up to the group again.

We also used to hit some pretty big time cards, in my opinion.  Still, the cards I most cared about were those that could go in my collection, such as these from my long forgotten Upper Deck multi-box break of yore.

Not a terrible design – I like the name along the side

**By the way, I was wrong about the captions.  They look wrong in draft mode, but post the same as always once live. Captions will be back!**

We’ll start our journey back in time with their answer to Topps Total.  40-Man was a 1,000+ card set that not only included everyone from each roster…

Not a great design – needs some color in those bars

…but also subsets such as this studio shot to help pad out the set.  If that weren’t enough, there’s also a one-per-pack parallel.  Needless to say, my needs are still plentiful.

Never been more ready to bat

I bought the Retro because it had players I collect and also because the packs came in a collectible tin lunchbox, which was unique and an extra fun surprise.  You can tell Greg is thrilled.

A Guaranteed hit indeed

There were several different inserts, as to be expected in the product.

More products should use jersey numbers

But, as to be expected, I didn’t hit any from my guys.  I rarely did.  Still came away with three cards I needed from the box.

I used to cut off some of my scans on the side.

Powerdeck was one of the cheapest boxes, but also one of the most fun.

It’s okay, but can you put it in a computer?

Sure, you have the normal, traditional, boring cards such as these.

I guess you could, but nothing would happen, except some creases.

I mean there’s really nothing special here, is there?

Now this can be put into a computer

The big draw was with these card-sized CD-ROMs.

Probably safer to do so in a slide out tray, mind you

They came in these little mini sleeves, which was a great touch.

Still technically possible.

Has anyone tried to play these in their computer yet?  Let me know how it went, if so.

Per the grass stains, this is at least second pitch

This budget product, Collector’s Choice-esque if you will, provided a lot of inserts for others, but sadly only one card for my binders.

That looks like a face of someone who was Hit By Pitch

Another super cheap box break was Upper Deck Victory.  I’d say this was the most fun of them all.

And, I guess the face of Clutch.

There are a bunch of color parallels, and a pseudo card-game look to it.  Again, I came out somewhat surprisingly empty-handed.

A player so big, he has to crouch to fit on a card

Last, but not least was Sweet Spot.  I always wanted to open a box of that and pull one of those signed baseball suckers.  Sure, I got a less-than great signature for that hit, but it was still a blast and it’s fun to hold one in person.

Those were great memories.  I really hope I can build some more with all of you sometime soon.