BBA: 5 best pack-pulled hits

 Well, I want to start this post off by thanking everyone who left comments on the last one. Despite what I thought, we were able to actually throw a lot of crap out and make some room in the garage. I am able to get to my cards, and there is a space for my mother-in-law to hopefully fit any crap she brings along in. I would like to have better access to my monster boxes, but I don't want to move anything until everything is brought over. 

Diamond Jesters recently started a Blog Bat-Around about your 5 best pack-pulled hits. I figured since I am still able to get to my binders and boxes that I would dig through them and figure out mine. 

For a few of these, I had to resort to not so good photos. Back in 2013 or 2014, I sold most of my autographed cards, and some of my best pulls were autographs, so I don't have access to the cards. Probably my best hit was a 2005 Bowman's Best certified autograph of Alex Rodriguez. Besides it being an A-Rod autograph, it was serial numbered to 100. It was good enough to get my photo on the Wall of Fame of Lakeland Sports Cards and Collectibles when I pulled it. Unfortunately, I really didn't have a phone then, and the few times from 2009-2011 I was back when I did, I didn't think to take a picture of it. The shop closed down at some point, and the photo of me and the card are probably dust in a landfill by now. Note some of the sweet in-person or ttm autographs around it in the photo. A 2005 Bowman Heritage Andrew McCutcheon ttm auto and a 2005 Grandstand Lakeland Tigers Justin Verlander in-person autograph. Should've kept the binders and sold my plasma for money or something. 

Number 2 is a 2003 Finest bat relic of Cal Ripken, Jr. It isn't a low-numbered or rare card, but it just looks amazing with the design and refractor technology, and Cal is one of the all-time greats. I don't pull good cards that often, but I actually pulled another Cal bat from a Gypsy Queen pack a few years later. 

I pulled this Ichiro All-Star game jersey relic from a 2007 Topps Update pack. It has his workout jersey from the 2007 game where he won the MVP award. If I put any belief in the claim that game-used cards have real jerseys in them, than this is a neat card. 

Number 4 is probably a 2003 Topps World Series Heroes autograph of Brooks Robinson. Another pull at Lakeland Sports Cards and Collectibles, the owner was probably more excited that I pulled it than I was. I would usually go there and dig through quarter bins, a dollar pack tote, and usually get a pack or 2 of new products. When I got the card, he was like 'Awesome! After just getting common stuff for the longest time, I'm glad you finally pulled something!'. To be honest, I was probably more thrilled to pull a jersey card of a common Ray or Tiger than I was from pulling the Robinson auto.  We have more autographs I regret selling. A 2003 Upper Deck vintage in-person autograph of Sparky Anderson and Hideki Matsui, and an in-person auto of Peter Gammons on a 2004 Fans of the Game insert. I do still have the 2004 Topps Grudge Match ttm autographed Mariano Rivera/Luis Gonzalez card. 

The last card is probably a 2008 Upper Deck Piece of History Mike Myers/Austin Powers pants card. It came from one of the first packs of the set that I purchased. The pack felt thick, but I didn't think anything of it, as fat packs usually screwed me over in the past. I got another few packs at Target again, and pulled a George Clooney 3 Kings relic and a Felix Hernandez/Carlos Zambrano dual relic, again from fat packs. I probably should've stopped getting packs, as luck usually isn't that good, but I probably got another 8 packs of the product, trying to pick the fattest ones I could find. I wasn't as lucky as the first times, but I did manage one last relic, a Justin Verlander jersey. 

There were a few ones that probably could've made the cut. a 2011 Topps Matt Kemp autograph, a 2011 Bowman Platinum Jason Heyward auto/jersey, and a 2017 Topps Mark Cahna 1/1 printing plate that netted me a ton of low-numbered Tigers/Rays/PC guys in a trade. But, this is a top 5, not a top 10, so I'l stick with it. 

If they would've included repacks, I could've fit a bunch in 1 spot. Back in 2003, I got a repack from K-Mart. It was an old-school one, as it came in a blister pack and the repacks were actually new-ish and not 1990 Donruss for 7 of the 8 packs. I want to say that I pulled an Andres Torres autograph from a 2003 Donruss The Rookies pack, next one was was a 2002 Upper Deck pack that produced a Lance Berkman Jersey. Next pack was a 2002 Leaf Rookies & Stars pack that I pulled a Joe Borchard jersey. I got the Borchard card autographed, so it and the Torres are no longer with me. Next pack was a 2002 Fleer Tradition pack where I pulled an Alfonso Soriano bat card. Best 4-pack stretch of non-guaranteed hit products that I have ever had. 

I finally had my first off day with more than 4 hours by myself in a little over a month. I straightened the house a little, finished putting the Rangers into TCDB, mailed some stuff at the post office, and finally watched some Futurama and South Park. The Rangers I put in (as well as the Blue Jays through 1993) left me needing just 131 cards to get to 100,000 on the site. Granted, there are somehow doubles in a few sets and I have 3 different 1994 Topps sets according to the site. Regardless, after I input the Bankee$ to the site, I will have more than enough to legitimately have 100,000, including any doubles. It will probably be just in time to use the site to dig out cards to get signed for my birthday game. 

I am off Monday and Friday of next week, and hopefully by Friday I will have the Blue Jays done or close to being finished, and we'll see how far I can get with the Bankee$. The good news is that there are cards in binders only up to 1993 or so with them, and the rest are in monster boxes, so I can just flip to the backs really easy, and they should be a a breeze to input to the site like that. Then it's just some USA cards, highlight cards, my special card/insert/parallel/refractor binder, and then my relic binder. At some point, I will probably put in my celebrity/president cards just so I can get an accurate tally on Allen & Ginter sets, and try to input all of my non-baseball Allen & Ginter mini cards so I can trade all of those away. 

I'm really hoping to get all of my cards into TCDB so I can get some trades going for my Ultimate Topps Project. I think by the time I'm done uploading, I'll have a complete Topps run from 1986-1999 and 2019-2023, with additional complete sets of '85 Traded, 2000, 2004, and 2006 Updates & Highlights, with a number of sets being within 50 or so cards from finishing. It will be fun putting the sets into binders one all of cards are in TCDB. Should be a fun few weeks ahead in spite of the mother-in-law stuff. At least the cards will be glass half full.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy