Feeding the Habit: Spring Training Edition

March was the last big pack-busting month of the year for me until November. At least that's what my budget is telling me. We'll see what willpower has to say about all that. You can guess why November is pegged for the return to digging for gold in earnest. I'll be employing the ultimate attention grabber, the game depicted on these little cardboard addictions, as my distraction for the itch.

Spring training baseball, however, seemed only to fuel my desire for busting packs, without providing enough of a distraction to slow me down. So March was another big month for Feeding the Habit. As usual, we'll start with the repack finds. Let's play...

1976 Topps Nate Colbert MON #595
1978 Topps Rowland Office ATL #632
1979 Topps Joe Zdeb KCR #389
1980 Topps Tug McGraw PHI #655

It was a particularly good month for Random vintage from repacks. These were all '70s needs, and a really nice Tug McGraw upgrade from my overly-played-with childhood copy.

1999 SkyBox Premium Barry Larkin CIN #87
1996 Score Barry Larkin Star Struck CIN #362
2002 Upper Deck Barry Larkin CIN #714
1991 Score Barry Larkin Dream Team CIN #888

The star of the month was Barry Larkin, who seemed to show up in just about every repack.

2002-03 Upper Deck UD SuperStars Greg Maddux ATL #16
1998 Score Cal Ripken, Jr. Interleague Moments BAL #257
2000 Pacific Paramount Green Chipper Jones ATL #21
1999 Topps Stars Two Star Scott Rolen PHI #44

But there was also a nice variety of fabulous Hall-of-Famers (current, future, and potential) from my collecting dead period. Just enough to keep me addicted to 1990-Donruss-infested repacks.

1995 Score Zenith Jim Edmonds CAL #73
1998 Topps Finest Eric Davis BAL #93
2005 Bowman's Best Red Scott Mitchinson #129 (41/199)
2009 Bowman Chrome WBC Prospects Brad Harman Australia #BCW60

Lots of shiny this month, including an autograph "hit." Rare for my type of cheap repack mining.

2002 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks & Prospects Ricardo Rodriguez LAD #BDP149
1998 Donruss Preferred Wilton Guerrero LAD #112
1989 Upper Deck Juan Bell LAD #20
1998 Fleer Tradition Update Carlos Perez LAD #U47

Got some shiny Dodgers, too, as well as others that were new to me.

2003 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Hideo Nomo LAD #60
1997 Score Select Hideo Nomo LAD #29
2000 Upper Deck Adrian Beltre LAD #140

I was surprised to also land a couple of great Nomos that were new to me, as well as a Beltre.

1988 Fleer Glossy Bob Welch LAD #529
1990 Bowman Tiffany Rick Honeycutt OAK #450

Another thing that repacks are great for is glossy/tiffany cards. Honeycutt is the first Bowman Tiffany that I've seen, and I dig it. So, he's pictured with the A's... but he'd just finished a stint with the Dodgers, he would become a longtime (and current) Dodger pitching coach, and the picture on this card was taken at Dodger Stadium. Good enough for me...

2012 Topps Gold Kyle Blanks SDP #261 (530/2012)
2012 Topps Allen & Ginter J.J. Putz ARI #167

Here are a couple of nice cards from packs within repacks. If there's any card in the 2012 Topps set to have the gold version of, it's Blanks. What a great-lookin' card! Meanwhile, J.J. (I'm a D-Bag... I mean, D-Back so I must be a) Putz is, of course, sporting a Grip...

1993 Topps Stadium Club Rick Sutcliffe BAL #246
1987 Fleer Rick Reuschel PIT #619
2001 Fleer Platinum Denny Neagle COL #155
2008 Upper Deck Goudey Cole Hamels PHI #144
1999 Topps Chrome Pete Harnisch CIN #388

...as are these fine refugees from the repack populous. Happy to give 'em a real home, even if it's only a cardboard box.

2013 Panini Pinnacle Clear Vision Complete Game Nolan Ryan TEX #CV21
2013 Panini Prizm Rookie Autographs Shawn Tolleson LAD #RST

On to the current stuff, which for me includes 2013 Panini products. You may recall that I got a Mariano Rivera "Complete Game" card last time I fed the habit. Now this one makes a lot more sense. I also had my redemption filled for this Shawn Tolleson autographed job. It looks better than I'd expected, though the sticker aspect kinda sucks.

2014 Topps Heritage 1965 MLB Draft Nolan Ryan NYM #65MLB-NR
2014 Topps Heritage Red Hanley Ramirez LAD #437

Speaking of Nolan Ryan, his was one of the cooler cards in my three packs of Heritage so far. I'd been worried because I wasn't sure I was going to be able to afford to dive into Heritage yet, as much as I was jonesing. But my Aunt Irene's generous birthday gift saved the day, and I'll be busting a hobby box slowly throughout April. Thank you Aunt Renie!

2014 Panini Donruss Hall Worthy Derek Jeter NYY #2
2014 Panini Donruss Power Plus Joe Morgan CIN #9

I will not, however, be busting much more than the three packs of Donruss that I've already ripped into. I don't hate 'em, but I don't love 'em. And I can't afford 'em, so they're off the radar as far as pack busting goes. Too bad, because I have really liked the inserts that I've pulled. (By the way, if anyone wants my wrappers for the wrapper redemption, let me know. No way I'm making it to 36 packs, or whatever it is.)

2014 Topps Opening Day Blue Hyun-Jin Ryu LAD #213 (676/2014)
2014 Topps Opening Day Stars Yasiel Puig LAD #ODS-15

Fortunately, Opening Day is cheap. So I'll probably come pretty close to building the set a pack at a time. I've had some really nice luck so far, from the perspective of a Dodger fan. Tip o' the cap to Nick, for his advice on how to get the 3-D scan to look spiffy. You don't want to see my original vertically-scanned version.

Opening Day also threw me the biggest curveball of March:

2014 Topps Opening Day Mascot Autographs Pirate Parrot PIT #MA-PP

The autograph of a guy or gal in a parrot suit (or some completely unrelated designated signer). Well, the way I collect, I want a little bit of everything. So this certainly brings me one step closer to that.

End transmission.

Feeding the Habit: 2014 So Far...

I'm still trying to figure out this blog thing. Upon its launch, I had Feeding the Habit posts up for each Card Night of busting packs. That proved to be a terrible idea. I quickly fell behind with all of the scanning and writing, plus there just weren't always cards worth showing. It all became rather pointless.

Well, I've gone too far again. This time, in the opposite direction. I've waited so long that I'm about to bombard you with a gazillion cards that have popped out of packs for me in the first two months of the year. Fortunately for you, I'm gonna be economical with the "literary" portion of the post.

First up, the repack finds. Let's play...

What am I hoping to uncover among the junk wax jungle to be found your standard repack?

2002 Topps Archives Don Newcombe BRO #90
2004 Fleer/SkyBox Autographics Shawn Green LAD #54
1988 Topps K-Mart Memorable Moments Pedro Guerrero LAD #11

Dodgers that I still needed.

1999 Bowman's Best Al Leiter NYM #64
2007 Topps Finest Brandon Webb ARI #34

Shiny (though dusty) pitchers.

2005 Fleer Tradition R.A. Dickey TEX #204
2007 Topps Heritage Jake Peavy SDP #352

Non-shiny pitchers.

1987 O-Pee-Chee Dan Quisenberry KCR #15
1996 Topps Chrome Randy Johnson SEA #43

Alternate versions of pitcher cards I already had.

2002 Topps Ten Jim Edmonds STL #179
1997 Pinnacle Ozzie Smith STL #122

Cool (coincidentally Cardinal) non-pitchers.

1994 Upper Deck Greg Maddux ATL #320
1994 Upper Deck Kirby Puckett MIN #325

Hall-of-Famers that slipped through the cracks back in the day.

1974 Topps Milt Wilcox CLE #565
1977 Topps Frank White KCR #117

Random vintage, usually good for at least an upgrade.

1993 Leaf Ray Lankford STL #297
1996 Leaf Brian McRae CHC #109

Aesthetically pleasing cards (can't go wrong with that Wrigley ivy).

1978 SSPC Yankees Diary Mickey Rivers NYY #13
1986 Topps Stickers Nolan Ryan HOU #24

Oddballs!

1999 Topps Todd Stottlemyre ARI #356
1993 Upper Deck Robb Nen TEX #687

And, of course, mini-collection hits, including the biggest, best and most favoritest: Getting a Grip.

1998 Bowman's Best Dan Reichert KCR #188
1993 Score Select Rookie/Traded Jeff Reardon CIN #135T

Unlike Rollie Fingers, Jeff Reardon agreed to shave his facial hair to become a Red. Was it worth it?

1991 Upper Deck D.J. Dozier NYM #3
1990 Topps Glossy All-Stars Cal Ripken BAL #16

The mini-collections are not judgemental. Whether you played 25 big-league games or 3,001, you use a Doughnut or wear a Turtleneck, and you're in.

1996 Fleer Ultra Robby Thompson SFG #571
2000 Fleer Tradition Mickey Morandini CHC #326

And that's why you can't beat repacks.

Of course, it's the beginning of a new year, and that means busting into a new Topps flagship set. I avoided looking at all of your posts about these out there. I enjoy seeing the cards for the first time when they break out of a pack and into my hot little hand. Believe it or not, I managed to be quite successful at avoiding unwanted previews (though it was impossible not to have had the Puig image burned into my retina long before the cards hit the shelves).

2014 Topps 75th Anniversary Buybacks 1971 Topps Gary Nolan CIN #75
2014 Topps 75th Anniversary Buybacks 1974 Topps Paul Lindblad OAK #369

That said, I had seen these before, though without the little foil stamp. These were the two buybacks to come out of my hobby box. Not bad. The Nolan is odd because it's not only pretty badly miscut, but there appears to have been a piece of tape affixed to the top of the card at some point. Really gotta dig the Lindblad card for its patterns and lighting and angles and colors and sense of motion. Yum. Pretty sweet that they're both pitchers, too.

Speaking of sweet, what did you get for Valentine's Day? I came home to find not only a card and chocolates from my beautiful and brilliant wife, but one one of those 72-card Topps hanger boxes! You really have no idea how lucky I got when Cathy came into my life. Imagine pulling a quad auto/relic Ruth/Cobb/Robinson/Mantle card in a pack. My wife is better.

2014 Topps Yellow Bryce Harper WSN #100
2014 Topps Yellow Dustin Pedroia BOS #166

These were the two yellow parallel cards to show up in that hanger box. To paraphrase Whitey Ford, we got us a coupla Charlie Hustles here!

While it's 2014 for Topps, it's still 2013 for Panini (at least it is for me). That's a good thing because last year was the year that they really made me take notice. There was a lot that I liked among their 2013 releases.

2013 Panini Pinnacle Clear Vision Complete Game Mariano Rivera NYY #CV10
2013 Panini Prizm Red Pulsar Aroldis Chapman CIN #152

That said, this Mo card is a bit of a mixed bag. Shiny, transparent, nice picture, excellent subject... but "Complete Game"? I know it's all just part of a parallel thing, but still, it's just plain jarring to see. Mo started ten games in his rookie season, completing none. End of the Mariano Rivera, starting pitcher, story. Meanwhile, gaudy though they may be, Panini's Prizm Pulsars really work for me. Especially when you get the kind of color synchronicity that you have here with the Reds' Cuban Missile.

2013 Panini Cooperstown Signatures Whitey Herzog MG STL #HOF-WTY (599/699)

I'll finish with this, the second autograph that I've pulled from this set. Pretty exciting, especially since I dig manager cards.

Whew! Made it. Maybe monthly is the way to go with Feeding the Habit posts...

End transmission.