Another Garage Sale Mystery Bag

Last time I showed off a simple 25-card grab bag that only cost $0.50. This time the bag was a bit bigger, contained more than just hockey cards, and cost a few dollars more. Here's what this one looked like:

As you can see, it's all baseball and hockey, which is fine with me. Any baseball cards I acquire like this simply go into the black hole I call my lower desk drawer, as I still have all the non-hockey cards from my first big garage sale pickup in there.

Anyway, onto what was in this one. This next picture will give you an idea of the proportions of both the baseball and hockey cards.

From the looks of it, there's more hockey than baseball, but that's deceiving as you'll see in a minute. Here's a look at the hockey cards that came out of the bag: 

There were probably 50 cards from 2003-04 SPx in the bag, so I'm guessing whoever had these must have busted a box at some point. That said, I love these cards. The design is pretty sharp and I like the hologram use this time around. As a plus, there was the Kovalev gold spectrum numbered /50 and the two lasting impressions inserts. 

In addition to the SPx, the bulk of the hockey was taken up by cards from 1995-96 Zenith (which are pretty thick, hence there being deceivingly more baseball). I really like this set too, as the players really pop from the background.

This is pretty much indicative of the miscellaneous junk that made up the rest of the hockey in the bag. Interestingly enough, there was an auto in there, albeit creased right through the middle. My favorite of the bunch is the Vipers card. It looks like a team issue set from the late 90's. If you've never heard of them, they were Detroit's IHL team from 1994-2001. It's kind of special for me because I remember going to a bunch of games at the Palace of Auburn Hills when I was a kid. 

That's pretty much it on the hockey side of things. When it comes to the baseball, I don't know much at all about the cards. These are some that just stuck out to me. 

Overall, it wasn't all that bad, except for the fact that because all of the cards were simply rubber banded and thrown into a bag, the corners were downright horrible on most of them. Oh well, that's ok as I'm not looking to sell these or anything.

What do you think, was it worth it for a few bucks? I do because when it comes to garage sales, you never know what you might stumble upon.

Garage Sale Mystery Bag Results

Here's a sampling of the different sets included in the mystery bag:

1998-99 Black Diamond
Steve Yzerman
Ron Francis
Zigmund Palffy

1998-99 UD Choice
Andy Moog
Oleg Tverdovsky
Matt Cullen

1997-98 UD Choice
Petr Nedved
Rob Niedermayer
Kent Manderville
Alexander Selivanov

1995-96 Topps Stadium Club
Cliff Ronning
Zdeno Ciger
Keith Jones

And the rest (well, most of them).

I tried to get a scan of every different set included and got all but one, which was 90-91 Score and I'm sure we all know what that looks like. All in all, there was a nice mix of cards for only $0.50.

Garage Sale Mystery Bag

Garage sales are good in my mind for one reason and one reason only, never knowing what you'll find. This is another one of those things that is more than worth the sticker price, even if it's just to get kick out of not knowing what you have. 

This team bag is supposedly filled with 25 different cards. I know the front is this Eric Lindros and the back is a Steve Yzerman from 98-99 Black Diamond. Other than that I don't know, I haven't even opened it up yet, which is the fun thing about this post. You'll have to wait and see what's in there. 

I'll post the results in the next day or so...

Garage Sale Pickup

It's been a while since my last garage sale pickup. This one is not as impressive, but still pretty sweet. It was a Donruss Preferred tin filled with a stack of mixed cards from the 80's, 90's, and 00's, for only $2.

I've gotten a few of these tins in the past and they're pretty cool. They're also a good way to store a handful of top loaders. This is the second Roy/Brodeur tin I've added to my collection.

Here's a quick look at what I found inside:

Here are what I thought were the best cards to come out of the tin:

This Vladimir Ruzicka is from 1992 Pro Set Platinum. I really like the simpleness of this set, it's kind of different that there is no mention of a player name on the front of the card. 

This Bob Probert is from the same set and it shows him wearing the only third jersey the Wings have ever had. Other than that it's a great action shot, which is the case with most of this set. 

Fnally, this Patrick Flately is again from the same set. I like this one the most because it not only has a great action shot of a wrap around attempt, but becuase they isolate Flately in color while the rest of the photo is presented in black and white. 

There were about 20 more of these Pro Set Platinum cards and a bunch of Parkhurst cards. Not bad for only $2. Garage sales aren't the first place I'd look for cards, but you never know what you'll find, so don't count them out when it comes to finding hockey cards. 

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.

Awesome Garage Sale Pickup

Since I started this blog there is only one place I have yet to pick up cards, a garage sale. I've been to the box stores, card shops and even card shows, which are all well and good, but its always interesting to see what you can find at a garage sale.

You always hear of people finding hidden treasures and what not at these things. What I got may not be a hidden treasure, but it was definitely a steal for only $3.

Here were the major items in the box:

(1) Unopened box of 1993-94 Upper Deck Series Two Hockey

(1) Opened box of 1993-94 Topps Premier Series II Hockey

(1) Opened box of Roger Staubach's NFL Football

The rest was filled with random cards from hockey, baseball, football, basketball and other non-sports. I have no clue what any of it is yet, but hopefully there is something good.

I'll have an update once I sort through everything. Stay tuned...