Pack Break: 2006-07 UD Power Play

The third pack from the 15-pack value box was from 2006-07 UD Power Play. Its one of the lower end products from Upper Deck that I've bought a few packs of in the past.

Pretty much your standard low end release. Nothing really special with the overall design of the cards, its pretty simple, which is probably a good thing for this set. 

Its got a full color team logo in an upper corner and the set logo in the lower right hand corner in silver foil. The player name and position sweep up to the right from the bottom left, also in silver foil. 

The prospects cards, which fell one in four packs, offer something slightly different. These are horizontal with the same sweeping theme from left to right. Now the player name and position is in white. 

Overall, not too bad with a decent player selection although the one prospects card happened to be a bust. Based on this and a few past packs, I would buy more of this product, for the right price of course. 

Cardboard Creations: 79-80 OPC Part I (Redux)

Well, I decided to go a different direction with my 79-80 OPC custom set. I didn't like working with the powder blue background on all of the cards so I decided to go with team colors for each of the new design that I created. Here's a look at nine of them.

I started this set just like the 84-85 OPC by recreating the card design with Inkscape. This allowed me to change the colors, team logos and text very easily, hence the way I switched from the powder blue to the various team colors.

I tried to come up with a variety of pictures, but it seems like those with the butterfly stance seem to frame the best within the picture window on the card (i.e. Miller, Rask, etc.). For whatever reason, those cards just seem to look the best.

Pack Break: 1991-92 Ultimate Draft Picks

This pack was the second I pulled from the 15-pack value box. Its from a set I had never seen before: 1991-92 Ultimate Sports Hockey Draft Picks. Its one of those sets without an NHL or NHLPA license.

 

There is not much going for this at all. Three of the cards don't even say anything about who the player on the front of the card actually is. And the whole double image thing on the first card is just terrible. 

I'm also not really a fan of the folded back corner of the cards, it just looks cheap to me.

I guess you can't really expect much from a set you've never even heard of or seen before. At least there were some NHLers though, if not for them this set would have been total crap. 

This was by far the worst pack of the 15 in the value-box, it got much better after this one. One bad one from a 15 pack mix is not bad. 

Pack Break: 1990-91 Bowman

I was at Target the other day and came across this value box of packs. There were 15 packs for only $9.99. I was hesitant at first, but thought it was a good deal at less than $1 per pack.

All you could see were the two end packs, both of which were from 2006-07 so I thought it might not be that bad. Oh, and there were four cards blocking any view of the sides of the packs too. 

I opened the box and the first pack I pulled out from the middle was 1990-91 Bowman, very old school, at least to me. I consider it old school because it was from before I ever even got into hockey cards. 

Lemieux, Oates, Gartner, not too bad for less than a dollar. Just to clarify the Lemieux was the one "glossy" card in the pack. 

For being 20 years old, the design of these cards is not all that bad. The colors on the border are a little bright, but its simple, I like that. Just the little Bowman logo and some text on the bottom, not bad. 

The best thing about this pack was that it contained 15 cards, something pretty much non-existent in the hobby nowadays. Of the 15 cards, I guess you could call it a decent selection. 

The picture selection and quality is not the best in the world, but hey what can you expect for 1990? By the way, there is something wrong with one of these cards, see if you can find it.

Garage Sale Pickup Breakdown: Non-Sport

In addition to the hockey, baseball, football and basketball cards in the garage sale box, there were quite a few non-sports cards that I've never seen or heard of before.

Here are some of examples of the various non-sports cards:

1994 Flair Power Blast #3

Lost In Space Reprints #20

1982 Magnum P.I. #1

1995 Fleer Ultra Spider-Man #68

1995 Flair Marvel Holoblast #1

1995 Skybox Star Trek #2

Here is the non-sport breakdown by set: 

(25) 1995 Flair Marvel

(13) 1994 Flair Marvel 

(47) 1966 Lost in Space Reprints /1966

(66) 1982 Magnum P.I.

(10) 1995 Fleer Ultra Spider-Man

(8) 1995 Fleer Ultra X-Men

(16) 1995 Skybox Star Trek

I'll admit, I had no idea any of these sets even existed. I took me a little while to figure out what they even were. I'm only 21 so the Lost in Space and Magnum P.I. were before my time and I was never into any of the marvel stuff or Star Trek. 

A few things about these cards: 

1) The 66 Magnum P.I. cards are the complete set. Cards 1-22 are the main set, then the remaining cards form a large puzzle with the pictures printed on the back. 

2) The Lost in Space cards are limited edition reprints of the original 1966 release. The only difference is the back of the cards, where the originals were colored on the back and the reprints are plain text.

Well, that wraps up the entire $3 garage sale pickup. I'd say it was more than worth the $3, given the possible value of some of the cards I found in the lot. I ended up with approximately 2100 cards in all. Now I just need to figure out what to do with all of these non-hockey cards in my hockey card collection. 

Garage Sale Pickup Breakdown: Football & Basketball

The biggest find from the garage sale box was a football card. It was one of the older looking cards in the nice snap-down cases.  I think this John Elway Topps rookie card would be considered the "hidden treasure" of this lot.

  

Here is the rest of the football broken down by set:

(60) 1996 Fleer Goudey

(1) 1995 UD Collector's Choice

(8) 1994 Action Packed

(41) 1994 Roger Staubach's NFL Football

(2) 1994 Upper Deck

(2) 1994 Skybox

(1) 1994 Topps Finest

(12) 1993 NFL Gameday

(3) 1993 Classic Images

(1) 1993 Pinnacle

(1) 1993 Topps

(2) 1991 Pacific

(3) 1990 NFL Pro Set

(2) 1990 Topps

(2) 1984 Topps

After football, basketball was the lowest on my priority list. The best card I could find with this one of Magic Johnson from 1987-88 Fleer Stickers. 

Here is the rest of the basketball broken down by set:

(1) 1995-96 Skybox

(17) 1993-94 Upper Deck

(3) 1993 Classic Images

(1) 1993 NBA Hoops

(12) 1992-93 Topps

(1) 1992-93 Upper Deck

(1) 1992-93 Fleer

(4) 1991-92 Upper Deck

(1) 1991-92 Star Pics

(1) 1990-91 NBA Hoops

(38) 1987-88 Fleer

(2) Limited Edition Commemorative Cards

All in all, I came away with just under 2000 sports cards for only $3, not bad at all. There are some cards that may be worth some money (i.e. Elway, Bonds, etc.) so that's kind of cool. Aside from the hockey cards, I really have no use for any of the other three sports as I do not want or need to get into anything more than hockey at this point. 

If anyone is interested in any of these cards or wants details on which cards are part of each set, leave me a comment and I can get you the information and scans if necessary. 

Up next: non-sports breakdown...

Garage Sale Pickup Breakdown: Baseball

After going through the hockey cards from the garage sale box, it was onto the baseball cards. I've never collected baseball at all so all of these are new to me.

Here are some of the highlights:

1987 Fleer Barry Bonds RC

1994 Upper Deck Michael Jordan RC

Here is the rest of the breakdown by set: 

(21) 1999 Topps

(3) 1996 Topps

(2) 1994 Donruss

(2) 1994 Fleer Ultra

(7) 1994 Bowman's Best

(8) 1994 Donruss Triple Play

(14) 1994 Score

(16) 1994 Pinnacle

(34) 1994 Leaf

(1) 1993 Topps Stadium Club

(1) 1993 Leaf Studio

(1) 1993 Fleer

(2) 1993 Leaf

(2) 1993 Topps

(4) 1993 Bowman

(14) 1993 Fleer Ultra

(17) 1993 Upper Deck

(24) 1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes T202 Reprints

(86) 1993 Flair

(7) 1991 Donruss

(1) 1990 Upper Deck

(17) 1989 Upper Deck

(4) 1983 Topps

(2) 1982 Topps

(1) 1979 Topps 

All together, I ended up with 303 baseball cards. I don't know anything about any of these cards except that I have the Bonds and Jordan RC's. Other than that, I have no idea what any of it is worth. 

If anyone is interested in any of these cards or wants details on which cards are part of each set, leave me a comment and I can get you the information and scans if necessary. 

Up next: football and basketball breakdown...

Garage Sale Pickup Breakdown: Hockey

I've finally gotten around to sorting through all of the hockey cards in the garage sale box from my previous post. I think I did pretty good with hockey, let alone the other sports, for only $3.

Here are some of the highlights:

1990-91 OPC Premier Sergei Fedorov RC

1991-92 Upper Deck Teemu Selanne RC

1984-85 OPC Dave Andreychuk RC

Here is the rest of the breakdown by set:

(433) 1993-94 Topps Premier
(345) 1993-94 Leaf
(80) 1993-94 Donruss
(38) 1993-94 Upper Deck
(34) 1994-95 Fleer Ultra
(24) 1994-95 Donruss
(14) 1993-94 Topps Stadium Club
(12) 1993-94 Fleer Ultra
(12) 1994-95 Topps Premier
(1) 1992-93 Upper Deck
(1) 1993-94 Parkhurst

All together, I ended up with 998 hockey cards in addition to the unopened box of 1993-94 Upper Deck Series 2. Take any of the rookies in this lot and they could pay for the $3.

I'm up in the air about having these three cards graded. I've never had anything graded in the past and wonder if it is even worth it. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with grading?

Up next: baseball breakdown...

Box Break: 1993-94 Upper Deck Series 2

I finally got around to opening the 1993-94 Upper Deck Series 2 box from my earlier garage sale pickup. For all intents and purposes this box was free as the guy threw it in just to get rid of it. Can't beat that, now let's take a look at what was inside.

The Numbers:
Cost: $0
Packs: 36
Cards per Pack: 12
Total Cards: 432

Base: 323

The base cards are actually pretty decent for the mid-nineties. They have the obligatory Upper Deck logo in the corner and the team and player names across the bottom. I do like the use of the team colors for the border too, it gives the set a little variety.

SP: 36

In every pack was one of these SP's. They're pretty simple with the team name in silver foil across the top and the player name in the bottom left. The off-center silver line is interesting and its nice to see the SP logo rather than the UD logo in the bottom right. 

1994 World Junior Championships: 62

These fell about two per pack. They showcase US and Canadian World Junior players from the 1994 tournament. It's a simple design with the year and tournament name in gold foil on the left and the player name in the lower right. Some NHLers, a lot of no-namers. 

All World Juniors: 10

These showcase players from the 1994 World Junior Championships as well on teams other than the US and Canada. Another simple design with the year and set name in gold foil and the player and team across the bottom. Again, a few NHLers and a lot of no-namers. 

Silver Skates: 1

This was the big insert set of this release with stated odds of 1:30 packs. I only got this one featuring Joe Sakic, but its still a pretty nice looking set. I like the die-cut top and the silver skates logo in the bottom right corner.  

Overall this was a good break, granted there was little variety. It was worth it just for the nostalgia factor as these were from the time around when I just got into hockey cards.