Random Rips

I hit the pawn shop-with-cards store the other day, to find some random rips, to delve into the dusty boxes on the bottom shelves to see what I could find. One of them was something called Metal Universe from 1999.

I had to get some. It was destined to be awesome, with a name like Metal Universe.

So I found a shady spot and ripped (along with some other things to be posted later.)

I roffled when I got the pack open. What the hell? I thought. Why? What the hell was going on in the world of baseball cards when I was otherwise engaged?

First the back of a Matt Morris. The blue stuff is a reflection of the back of the embossment on the front. Just wait...

The scan does not do it justice. These things are all shine, and mostly ugly. Both rows of "rivets" are embossed, as is the last name across the top. The full name on the bottom is embossed, but lighter. The name "plate" across the top is smooth, the bottom is meant to look like brushed metal, I guess.

But the best was yet to come. I pulled a bunch of insert type cards, the backs of which left me stunned. After reading them, I didn't know what to say. Really. Scroll down and read them;

A Cory Koskie Building Blocks insert.

Darin Erstad's "Caught on the Fly" card, complete with weird angry fly at a typewriter. Typewriter? Really? In 1999?

The front, with an even bigger fly.

And last but not least, an "MLPD" card of Chipper Jones. I liked Chipper Jones back in the day. Reading the back of this card though, makes me sad.

The front is quite possibly one of the worst cards I have ever seen. It is really this dark. Yes, it is a crappy scan, but it is do dark I thought it was some kind of printing error when I pulled it.

I was left dazed and confused. Who were these marketed to? They are the antithesis of those damn "stay in school" cards that used to turn up in backs back in the day. They were made by Skybox, by the way. I did pull a couple Red Sox, so that was great, to broaden the scope of my collection a bit.

I have to go put them away now, before the sun comes out and they blind my children.