2004 Upper Deck Yankees Classics

   Hello again Cafe visitors. Today the Cafe has a Yankee flavor (same as over on the Buffet today) with a pack of Yankees Classics from Upper Deck.

Upper Deck Yankees Classics

#65 Tommy John

#32 Jim Bouton

#85 Tony Lazzeri

#52 Phil Rizzuto

#87 Times Square

A couple of the backs.

All great cards of Yankees from several different eras. I'm not sure why the Times Square card but it will fit nicely in my cards about New York collection.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 5

Teams Represented: 1
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 5

MY RATINGS:

Front Design: 7.5 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, full stats.

Player Selection: 8 out of 10 Great

FINAL OVERALL RATING: RBI Double. I can't lose being a Yankees collector so this pack is an automatic hit for me.

Thanks for Reading!



NFL 2010 Score

     Hello all. Today in honor of Monday Night Football I bring a pack of 2010 Score NFL cards. (Go Giants!)

2010 Score NFL

#33 Lee Evens (Bills)

#90 Knowshon Moreno (Broncos)

#160 Bernard Berrian (Vikings)

2 Very good receivers and an up and coming RB.

#280 Ronde Barber (Buccaneers)

Hot Rookie #18 Colt McCoy (Browns)

#364 Jordan Shipley RC (Bengals)

Glossy #14 Matt Ryan (Falcons)

All good players, the glossy parallel (Ryan) and rookie card (Shipley) come one per pack while the Hot Rookie insert come in 1 out of 6 packs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 7

Teams Represented: 7
Rookie Cards: 2
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 1 (Ryan glossy)
Inserts: 1 (McCoy Hot Rookie) 
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 0 (All are up for grabs.)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Very good pictures, nice design, team logo, team colors used.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, good player info, last 5 years stats and career totals, team colors used.
Player Selection: 8 out of 10 Very Good, all relevant players with stars and notable rookies.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Rushing First Down (RBI Single in baseball terms). I really like the design on this set especially at the cheap price of $1. All good players and an insert to go with the guaranteed RC and glossy parallel.

Thanks for Reading!

1996 Signature Rookies T-96 Old Judge

      Hello again Pack Rip Cafe readers. Today we rip into a Signature Rookies T-96 Old Judge pack from 1996. These pack come with a guaranteed autograph card and one insert.

1996 Signature Rookies T-96 Old Judge

#9 Travis Driskill (Cleveland)

#37 Kelly Wunsch (Milwaukee)

#15 Jay Kirkpatrick (Los Angeles)

#22 Kerwin Moore (Oakland)

Offer card for 5 card Griffey Jr. set

Jr. Hit Man #J1 Ken Griffey Jr. (Mariners)

The offer card is standard size so you can see the T-96 size next to it.

#36 Don Wengert AUTO hand sn'd 4730/6000 (Oakland)

A couple of backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 7*

Teams Represented: 5
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 1 (Griffey Hit Man)
Hits: 1 (Wengert Auto)
Keepers for Me: 1 (Griffey Jr. The rest up for trade.)
* Looks like they count the offer card as one of the seven cards per pack stated on the wrapper. All packs have either that offer card or a checklist. I have opened a few of these and they are all the same way. (Lame!)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6 out of 10 All posed pictures, solid color background, appear to me non-licenced by MLB.
Back Design: 6 out of 10 OK design, classic look, plain. 
Player Selection: 2 out of 10 Poor. I only ever heard of Griffey Jr.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: RBI Single . The auto has to get a hit and the Griffey adds the RBI but the lack of any other players I ever heard of and plain design hold it too a single, not great considering there is an on card auto.

Thanks for Reading!

2001 SP Authentic

   Hello all. Back again with an offering from 2001 in the form of SP Authentic. I never saw these cards so I was looking forward to ripping these when I found this lone pack in the Vend-O-Pack machine. 

2001 SP Authentic

#1 Troy Glaus (Angels)

#27 Jermaine Dye (Royals)

A slow start.

#18 Freddie Garcia (Mariners)

#69 Preston Wilson (Marlins)

So-so.

#44 Greg Maddux (Braves)

A great player, too bad it's the Braves.

A couple of backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 5

Teams Represented: 5
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 0 (All are up for grabs)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6 out of 10 Good pictures, OK design,  no real background, no team logo.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, factoid about player's 2000 season, only up to 5 years stats and career totals.
Player Selection: 5 out of 10 Average with Maddux being the only stud of the bunch.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Foul Out behind the catcher. Maddux is the only reason the bat even hits the ball.

A note on yesterdays pack of 98 Sports Illustrated, if you like them go check out Colby's group break over at Cardboard Collections. He's busting a box of them along with a box of 98 SkyBox Dugout Axcess and a box of 2007 Fleer. His breaks are always fun and very reasonably priced so get on over there.

Thanks for Reading!

1998 Sports Illustrated Presented by Fleer

    Hello again all. Today I rip a pack of 1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated. They seem to be subtitled World Series Fever as well.

1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated

#50 Ken Griffey Jr. (Mariners)

#106 Vladimir Guerrero (Expos)

Two superstars and both keepers for me. Great start.

#141 Ivan Rodriguez (Rangers)

# 136 Matt Williams (D-Backs)

 Two more stars. I never new Williams played in Arizona, did you?

Sports Illustrated Cover #6 (Lou Brock) Cardinals

#338 Jose Cruz Jr. (Blue Jays)

The SI Covers is a cool subset.

A couple of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 6

Teams Represented: 6
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 1 (Sports Illustrated Covers)
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (Griffey and Guerrero, the rest are up for grabs.)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, very glossy, no team logo.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, good pictures, team logo, full career stats.
Player Selection: 8.5 out of 10 Great, A HOFer and possibly 2 more.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 2 RBI Single into left field. Two great keepers and a good mix of players overall make this pack a run scoring hit.

Thanks for Reading!

2009 Topps Chrome Hobby Edition

Hey all. Today I continue the chrome trend with a pack from 2009 Topps Chrome.

2009 Topps Chrome Hobby Edition

#201 Fernando Martinez RC (Mets)

#120 Curtis Granderson (Tigers)

09 World Baseball Classic #W35 Jin Young Lee (Korea)

#165 Jim Thome (White Sox)

A couple of backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 4

Teams Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: 1
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 1 (World Baseball Classic) 
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (Martinez, the others are available)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design but the 09 style didn't look as sharp in the chrome format to me, team logo.
Back Design: 6.5 out of 10 OK design, a little plain, no team logo or picture, good player info, full career stats.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, 1 rookie and 2 very good players.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Bloop  Single  1 keeper with 2 other notable players gets a hit.

Thanks for Reading!

2010 Topps Chrome Hobby Edition

    Hello all. I am glad to be back after 22 straight days of work and overtime replacing telephone poles after a couple of tornadoes game through parts of New York about 4 weeks ago. I come back with a new release in the ever popular Topps Chrome 2010.

2010 Topps Chrome Hobby Ed.

 #204 Tyson Ross RC (A's)

#210 Brian Matusz RC (Orioles)

Two Rookie cards off the top.

#22 David Wright Refractor (Mets)

#152 Nick Markakis (Orioles)

 The refractor looks great as always.

A couple of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 4

Teams Represented: 3
Rookie Cards: 2
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 1 (Wright Refractor) 
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (Wright)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7.5 out of 10 Good pictures, chrome always looks good.  
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, full career stats, good use of team colors, player picture, good factoid about player.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, 2 stars and 2 rookies.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: RBI Single up the middle. Any time I get a Mets refractor it has to be a hit plus Markakis gives it an RBI. I am annoyed by the curl in these cards though. This happens all too often with chrome cards and by now they should have figured out how to eliminate that.

Thanks for Reading!