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.

Random Rips

There are three places that sell cards in town, besides Wal Mart, K-Mart and the, well, that is it. The three are two memorabilia stores, one which sells packs of Topps of various ages, and a few old Donruss and Fleer packs from the 1980s, the other a store specializing in football.

But the other is a pawn shop. I never would have thought to look there until I saw an Upper Deck banner, and stopped by. They have a huge selection of old cello (post-wax era) of all four sports. So every once in a while I stop in to pick up a few packs from my between-collecting eras to get an eyeball on card sets I have never seen in person before.

First up, a jumbo of some '05 Bowman. I think. The "highlight" if you will, is a thick goldish Felix Pie, my second thick, goldish Felix Pie out of two jumbos. Bowman has such ugly designs, but always has the first card of prospects it seems.

Next up, a pair of packs of '07 Bowman Heritage, which yielded a shiny thick Manny...

and an autograph of a guy named Blake Johnson. Never heard of him, but an auto is pretty cool anyway. I like the Bowman Heritage, despite what I just said about Bowman designs.

Then it was time for some Select 1996. The highlight of these ugly ass cards was a gang rape of one Ken Griffey Jr, one of my favorite players when I was a kid. Goddamn these are ugly cards. I was not collecting in 1996. If I was, this might have done it for me.

Then on to a pack of Donruss 1995, the highlight being a Tom Gordon. It is only a highlight because he played for the Sox for a little while.

The it was time for some more modern stuff, in the form of a jumbo of 2003 Topps. I pulled a Robby Cano, which despite being a Yankee, is a rookie, and rookie cards are always cool.

Holy cow! Another Felix Pie!

And a shiny Chrome Shane Victorino. I didn't know he played for the Dodgers. Me likey. A chrome of a player I have heard of. That almost never happens.