Pack Break: 50-Card Mystery Pack from Target

This is the fifth and final part of the $7.99 value box I got from Target. In addition to the four sealed packs, there was this 50 card "mystery pack" that was nothing more than a plain white cardboard box inside the value box package. Last time with one of these there was mostly junk other than a few cool looking early 90's cards. I expected the same this time and that's pretty much what I got. 

You can't expect anything great from these and I thought it was fun just to see some of the old card designs again. A lot of these cards were ones I remember seeing as a young kid, so that's kind of neat. Here's a look at nine of the 50 cards. 

Not a bad looking group of cards if you ask me. The first two (Linden and Belfour) really bring me back to the mid 90's when I was young and collected cards for the fun of it. Those are two sets that I remember having a ton of back then. There were even some more recent cards mixed in like the Okposo and Doan. The Kurri is pretty sweet looking too. I always liked the look of that Parkhurst set, even back when I was a kid.

Pack Break: 2015-16 Artifacts

This is the last pack from my Target value box and the first pack of 2015-16 that I've opened. This was the pack visible through the outside of the box. Its nice that they featured Pavel Datsyuk again even though he hasn't been all that dominant of a player the last couple years. He's actually been on the front of quite a few packs over the years.

There were only five cards in this one and they all happened to be base cards. Nothing wrong with that as Artifacts usually has a nice looking design. I hadn't seen this one before now and I have to say I kind of like it. The foil logos in the middle look great and the overall color scheme is neutral enough to work with any teams colors. The only thing I would change is the white background toward the bottom of the card. It would look nicer with anything other than plain white.

None of these fit into any of my collecting projects, so they're all available if anyone is interested. For now they will just go into the traders box with everything else. I've got one 'pack' left to show from the value box, that being the 50-card mix they throw in with the four packs. As expected there wasn't anything great in it, but I will still show it off just for the variety of cards that you can find in those things.

Pack Break: 2014-15 Fleer Ultra

The third pack to come out of the Target value box was 2014-15 Fleer Ultra. This is another product that I haven't opened before, so I've done pretty well as far as that goes with this box. I wasn't even sure what this set looked like before opening this one. This time there was only six cards with likely a very small chance at anything spectacular. 

Again all I could hope for was something for my side projects. Turns out my luck ran out with this pack as none of the cards really fit into any of my projects. That's ok though, it was still nice to open another pack of something new to me. The set isn't all that bad looking, but I will likely just stick to looking for singles from this set from now on. 

That's three down and one more to go. I'll try to get the cards from the last pack scanned and ready to post as soon as possible. I had forgotten how much fun it can be just to open a few simple packs of cards. I'm not going to go crazy and buy a bunch now as these few will fill my pack breaking needs for the foreseeable future.

Pack Break: 2013-14 Score

The second pack to come out of my Target value box was from 2013-14 Score. I'd have to go back to check for sure, but I think this is the first time I've opened any of this stuff too. Again, I went into this pack thinking I would be happy with any Red Wings or goalie cards. With 12 cards per pack, the odds of getting at least one desirable card were pretty good.

While there ended up not being any goalie cards, I did mange to pull a card of Damien Brunner. That one is definitely the keeper of the group. I liked him when he was in Detroit and remember him most from an overtime goal against the Ducks in the 2013 playoffs. Other than that the two other nice ones were a RC of Vladimir Tarasenko and a Score Black parallel of Andy Greene. The other non-base was a Gold parallel of Tanner Glass.

Not bad for another pack of Score. There are some nice looking cards in this set, especially the black parallels. Everything other than the Brunner is going into my traders pile. I really have no use for any of those cards and I'm sure there is a better home for them out there. Plus, it helps cut down on space needed for storage if I skip over these kinds of cards.

Pack Break: 2012-13 Score

The first pack from my Target value box was 2012-13 Score. It's kind of funny that two of the packs in the box have Pavel Datsyuk on them with all the news lately about him retiring from the NHL. That's too bad because he was one of my favorite payers. Anyway, this pack has seven cards and I'm not sure I've opened any of it in the past.

Score is a pretty basic low end set with some parallels and simple inserts. There are some autographs, but I'm sure the odds of hitting one of them are not very good. I would have been happy with a Red Wing and/or a couple goalie cards from this pack.

Well, I think I did pretty good with this one. I got Pavel Datsyuk for my Wings collection and two nice cards for my goalie collection. The base set is not too bad for this version of Score, although I think the conference name at the bottom is kind of a pointless addition. It would look better without the extra words below the picture.

Overall not a bad way to start off this particular value box. I got some nice cards for a couple of my side projects and the rest will go into the traders pile for now. That's another thing I need to get back to, I have so many extra cards that don't fit into any of my collecting projects. None of it is really worth trading so I'll have to think about what I want to do with all of it. For now its just taking up space in my man cave.

Pack Breaks: $7.99 Value Box from Target

It's been a long time since I've opened a pack of cards. The last one I bought was a single pack of 14-15 MVP all the way back in August of 2014. The one before that was all the way back in May of 2013. So packs are something that I just haven't been all that into lately. 

That kind of changed today when I decided to pick up another value box from Target. For $7.99 I got four sealed packs and 50 random cards. I went back through my posts here and I bought the exact same thing way back in November of 2012. 

The pack you can see here is 2015-16 Artifacts. The other three included 2012-13 Score, 2013-14 Score, and 2014-15 Fleer Ultra. Not a bad mix considering sometimes these mix packs have things from the 90's and early 00's thrown in. I know for a fact that I've never opened any packs of the Fleer Ultra or Artifacts so that's nice. I'm not even all that familiar with those sets having been in and out of collecting the last two years. 

Then there is the 50 cards. Last time that was a mix of mostly early 90's junk with a couple newer cards thrown in. I'm expecting the same here, but hoping to at least grab a few cards for some of my side projects. I'll get everything scanned in here soon and I should be able to get the results posted soon.

Pack Break: 2014-15 Upper Deck MVP

The last time I bought a pack of cards was well over a year ago. I've kind of forgotten what it was even like to open one at this point, so it was nice to finally get one after all this time. The other day I was at Target and wandered down the card aisle on my way out. I happened to see packs of 2014-15 MVP for just $0.99 so I figured why not? 

Here's a look at what I got:

Nothing spectacular, but not a bad pack overall. I really just bought it to get a feel for the design of the set. The base cards are decent, but are lacking a bit by not having any type of foil on them. That is something I always associate with the MVP sets I collected in the late 90's. The silver scripts are a good example of what I mean. Back then, the base cards would've used bronze foil for the logo and trim. 

Pack Break: 2010-11 Upper Deck Series 1

Here is the last of the regular packs from my Meijer mystery cube. I've busted plenty of packs of 2010-11 Upper Deck Series 1 before, but you can never go wrong with a pack that can potentially yield a Young Gun rookie card.

Here are the listed odds for this pack: Young Guns (1:4), 20th Anniversary (1:4), 20th Anniversary YG (1:48), Brodeur Missing Link (1:5000), Hockey Heroes (1:12), All-World Team (1:12), All-World Team SP (1:120), UD Game Jerseys (1:24), EA Super Stars (1:8).

Here's another look at the wrapper:

And here's a look at the eight cards inside:

Well, no Young Guns this time, but I did at least get the Hockey Heroes header card that can help me complete the Steve Yzerman version of the set for my Red Wings Collection. I even pulled the portrait card a while back, so I should be pretty close to having all of them now. 

There was nothing special among the other seven cards. In fact, I think I already have copies of most of them so these are all going right into my traders box.

Pack Break: 2009-10 MVP

Let's get back into the packs that came out of the Meijer mystery cube I bought recently. The fourth pack I opened was from 2009-10 MVP, which I have opened several of in the past. I never got anything spectacular and expected more of the same here. 

The main draw for any of the MVP sets has been the script parallels, and in this case there are golds numbered to 100 and supers numbers to 25 like previous iterations. Not sure if you can even get these from retail pack though, anyone know either way?

First, here's a look again at the wrapper:

Here's a look at what was inside:

As expected, nothing spectacular, but I did manage to at least get one of the MVP Rookies. I have to say this is one of my least favorite MVP base set designs. I wish they would've never switched to including the silver signatures on the base cards, what was wrong with the way it used to be? Would you prefer the base cards to have nothing but the MVP logo?

Pack Break: 2008-09 Collector's Choice

Time for pack number three from my recent Meijer mystery cube. This time it is once again UD Choice, although here is it back to being called Collector's Choice and is exactly ten years newer. I've posted at least one pack of this stuff before and it went pretty well with a Choice Reserve rookie card of Darren Helm for my Red Wings collection.

Since I didn't get around to posting the stated odds that time, I will do that now. Here's what you can get from these packs: Subsets (1:1), Parallels (1:1), CupQuest (1:6), and Stick-Ums (1:18). Nothing too spectacular, but it's just right for an entry level product.

Here's another look at the wrapper:

And here's a look at what was inside:

Well, I got the expected parallel card with the Choice Reserve Fedorov and the expected subset with the Boston 3 Star Selections. Along with that there were three base cards, two of which are goalies so that's cool. Then I managed to hit one of the Stick-Ums that come 1:18 packs. Now if only it were one of the Red Wings this pack would be perfect.

Pack Break: 1998-99 UD Choice

Time for pack number two from the Meijer mystery cube. This one is once again from the late 1990's and comes from the 98-99 edition of Upper Deck's Collector's Choice set. Actually scratch that, at that time it had been changed to just "UD Choice" instead. 

There are six cards per pack and there were several "inserts" to chase after. They included Bobble Heads (1:4), Star Quest Blue (2:1), Star Quest Green (1:7), Star Quest Red (1:11), Star Quest Gold (/100) and Choice Reserve (1:6). 

Here's a look at the wrapper:

Now here's a look at what was inside: 

As you can see I ended up with the two Star Quest Blue cards as stated on the back. Then there were three regular base cards and the one World Junior Showcase card. Gotta love those old Tampa 3rd jerseys shown on the Ysebaert and the picture on the Sakic base card is just awesome even if it does get a bit blurry.

Pack Break: 1997-98 Limited

This was the oldest pack that came out of my recent Meijer mystery cube. I've never opened a pack of this stuff as far as I can remember, so its kind of neat to at least have something different this time around. Apparently this is the "most limited NHL base set in the hobby to date" according to the wrapper. 

The back of the wrapper lists the different subsets including Counterparts, Double Team, Star Factor, and Unlimited Potential/Talent. Apparently there is a Limited Exposure parallel set numbered to 25 each. Finally, there are the Fabric of the Game inserts that fall 1 in 5 packs. These things were printed on either canvas, nylon, or wood.

Here's a look at the wrapper:

Now here's a look at what was inside:

I wasn't even sure what this set looked like until I opened the pack. I ended up with five of the counterparts cards where the front has a silver foil finish and the back is just glossy. After all, these make up half of the 200 card base set, so I guess this would be pretty common.

Pack Break: Meijer Mystery Cube

Recently I posted a 100 card jumbo rack pack from Target. That didn't turn out so well, but it was still fun to open. Now its time for another one of these retail grab bags, one that was a bit more satisfying. This one came from Meijer and included the following inside a nice card-sized storage cube: 50 assorted cards, 5 random packs, and 10 bonus sticker packs.

The five packs included the following:

     - 2010-11 Upper Deck Series 1
     - 2009-10 MVP
     - 2008-09 Collector's Choice
     - 1998-99 Collector's Choice
     - 1997-98 Limited

The ten bonus sticker packs were made up of:

     - 2009-10 Panini NHL Stickers (x6)
     - 2008-09 Panini NHL Stickers (x4)

I've busted most of these same packs before from previous repacks, but never the 1997-98 Limited, so it's kind of cool to get something new there. The stickers are also a new thing for me. I was never really into them so I haven't ever busted a pack of them, until now. I even got two different sets between the ten packs, so that's even better.

I will sort through the 50 cards and pick some to show off in an upcoming post. I will also go through all of the packs and likely put together a post for each one of the five, then two summary posts for the two sets of sticker packs. Hopefully I can get to all this by the end of the week, but only time will tell.

Pack Break: Target 100 Card Jumbo Rack Pack

We were out shopping at Target yesterday and of course I wandered down the card aisle on our way out just to see if there was anything that would catch my eye. Normally I only look for the repack boxes because I love opening packs. I found myself with two options: a 10 pack mix box for $11.99 or a 100 card jumbo pack for $4.99. 

Since I've done several of the mix boxes in the past, I thought I would do something different and go for the jumbo pack. I knew not to expect much, but it did say on the front that it would contain five rookie cards and a memorabilia card in every third pack. 

Let's just say I got what I expected: a bunch of junk. But that's not the point, it was something I hadn't opened before and its always fun to look through a bunch of 90's cards and see the names that you grew up watching on television. 

Instead of scanning everyting, I thought I would pick a top five and leave the rest to your imagination. Think lots of 1990-91 Score and 1990-91 Bowman to get an idea.

The first one was my favorite from the pack and features former Islanders goaltender Tommy Salo. This was the only Black Diamond card I got and one of the newest ones in the pack. The best part is the fisherman jersey, love those things.

The next one is a bit older coming from 1992-93 Upper Deck, but features an awesome action shot of the great Patrick Roy with the Montreal Canadiens. I know I've seen this one posted on other blogs before, but it's still nice to see again.

The third one was one of the promised rookie cards featuring former Ducks center Sean Pronger, brother of Flyers defenseman Chris Pronger. Nothing special about this one, other than it's shiny and one of the newer cards in the pack.

The next one is a minor league card, similar to this one I posted back in November. It is a team specific card featuring the Victoria Cougars with a generic player and an artist's rendition of a cougar on the front of the card. The back has some basic info about the team like the team colors, current coach and GM, as well as NHL alumni.

The last one features three things that should not go together: hockey, mullets, and tuxedos. This one shows former first round pick Glen Murray. I don't know much about the set other than it was produced by Arena Holograms, Inc and the back is all in French.

Have you ever given in and bought one of these kinds of packs? Even when you knew that you would most likely get nothing but junk from it? I think they're kind of neat just because I get to see a lot of the cards and players that got me started on collecting.

Pack Break: 50-Card Mystery Pack from Target

Time for the fifth and final part of the $7.99 value box I got from Target a while back. In addition to the four sealed packs, there was a 50 card "mystery pack" that was nothing more than a plain white cardboard box inside the value box package.

There's nothing to show as far as a wrapper of odds of whats inside, so let's just get right to the show and tell. Here are nine cards of the 50. Nothing spectacular, which was expected, but there were some nice looking cards from the early to mid-90's. 

I always liked the UD painting cards or whatever you want to call them, so it was kind of cool to get one I didn't already have. The Roy is a nice close up of his Habs mask, so that's kind of neat too. The other one that stuck out was the one in the middle. It's a minor league set and doesn't even feature a specific player, just "The Bull" of the Belleville Bulls. 

Overall, this value box wasn't so great, but I knew not to expect much going in so no harm done. On the plus side, I kind of got it for free because the $8 plus tax it cost me was a gift.

Pack Break: 2010-11 Adrenalyn XL

This is the fourth pack I got in the $7.99 value box from Target. It was the most unexpected of the bunch. Usually I expect to see things like UD, OPC, and MVP among other low end stuff, but I never thought I would get a pack of something other than true trading cards. 

While I do have two of these in my Howard collection, I consider those to be part of the Miscellaneous category and not any of the regular categories (i.e. base, inserts, parallels, etc). As far as what I could get in this pack: Special Cards (1:2), Extra Cards (1:8), Extra Signature Cards (1:8), 30 Ultimate Cards (1:23).

Here's a look at the wrapper:

 

And here's a look at the 6 cards I got:

As you can see, I didn't manage any hits here, just six of the regular cards. At least I was lucky enough to get one of the ten Red Wings included in the set. Other than that I don't really care for these, and that's mostly because I have no clue how the "game" works with these things. Have any of you ever tried playing the actual game with the online codes?

Up next will be the 50 card mystery pack, so stay tuned...

Pack Break: 2010-11 Upper Deck Series 1

Time for the third pack from the $7.99 Target value box I picked up over the weekend. I've busted a few packs of this stuff and I think even a blaster at one point. There's at least a chance of getting another Howard for my collection, or worst case any old Wings card.

We're back to 8 cards per pack on this one. As far as what I could possibly get out of this pack: Young Guns (1:4), 20th Anniversary Regular (1:4), 20th Anniversary Young Guns (1:48), Brodeur Missing Link (1:5000), Hockey Heroes (1:12), All-World Team (1:12), All-World Team SP (1:120), UD Game Jerseys (1:24), EA Super Stars (1:8).

 

Here's a look at the wrapper:

 

And here's a look at the 6 cards I got:

No Young Guns here, but I did manage to hit two inserts in the same pack, so that's pretty cool. The combined odds for those two are (1:8) and (1:12). Does that mean the odds of getting both of these in the same pack are (1:72)? I was never good with probability in school. Regardless, it's better than getting nothing but base, right?

Pack Break: 2010-11 OPC

Time for pack number two of the four in the $7.99 Target value box I picked up recently. This was one of the packs showing through the front of the package, so I at least knew what it was before I bought it. While OPC is not my favorite set in the world, there is usually a chance at a Howard card or always a chance for a random Wings card for my PC.

This time there are only 6 cards per pack. As far as what I could possibly get out of this pack: Rookies and Legends (1:2), OPC Signatures (1:432), OPC Souvenirs (1:1080), In Action (1:72), In Action SP (1:720), Retro and Rainbow Parallels (1:8).

Here's a look at the wrapper:

 

And here's a look at the 6 cards I got:

How dumb is that, I get two checklists in one pack of six cards? The Marquee Legend of Dale Hawerchuk is pretty cool looking, although I wish they would've matched the Jets logo on the card with the one he was wearing at the time. Other than that, I don't have much to say about this pack. Better luck next time I guess.

Pack Break: 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 1

This was one of the four packs that came inside the $7.99 value box from Target that I posted here yesterday. It was actually one of the two "mystery" packs that I could not see from the outside of the package. You can never really go wrong with a pack of UD Series 1, so not a bad start to the box. 

As usual, there are 8 cards per pack here. As far as what I could possibly get here: Young Guns are (1:4), UD Game Jerseys are (1:24), and All-World Team is (1:12). It also says Box Break Inserts are (1:4), but I'm not quite sure what that means in this case.

Here's a look at the wrapper:

And here's a look at the 8 cards I got:

Right off the bat, I hit a Young Gun, which is pretty cool considering the odds, but then I look at who it is and it's not as impressive. Noting against Specner Machacek, but I just don't know anything about him other than he played for the Thrashers.

Other than that, nothing spectacular, although I really like the pictures on the Varlamov and the St. Louis. And did you happen to notice the horrible mis-cut on the Brian Lee?

Pack Breaks: $7.99 Value Box from Target

I was out at Target this afternoon doing some Christmas shopping and as usual made a quick trip down the card aisle at the front of the store. Nothing really stood out to me until I found a new kind of value pack, at least one that I haven't gotten before. 

It's got four packs plus 50 cards. Maybe not the best deal for $8 knowing I got at least the one OPC pack and a pack of Upper Deck Series One that I could see through the other side. The part I was interested in was the 50 mystery cards. I know it's probably all junk, but you never know and that's kind of neat. 

There were five or so of these things on the shelf, but for $8 I figured one was probably enough. The other two packs ended up being Adrenalyn and another UD Series One. I will be busting these here shortly, so look for the results here in the coming days.

Any of you guys get one of these before? I mean specifically this setup, the four packs plus 50 cards? And what do you think in general of these things? I like them if the price is right, but it's usually you're going to get a lot of junk, so they can really go either way.