BA Benny's Pack Rip Cafe

2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Hobby Edition

2011-05-04T15:43:00.001-04:00

Hello all, Today the Pack Rip Cafe jumps on board with the Gypsy Queen craze I bought 2 packs at my LCS so here is one and the other one will be over on The Buffet.

2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Hobby Edition

First thing I noticed was how thick the packs were.

#46 Thurman Munson (Yankees)

#43 Matt Cain (Giants)

#3 Cole Hamels (Phillies)

Two Stars and one of my favorite Yankees of that era.

#113 Jose Bautista (Blue Jays)

#149 Adam Jones (Orioles)

#220 Tyler Colvin (Cubs)

All quality players here.

#240 Fausto Carmona (Indians)

#150 Kosuke Fukudome (Cubs)

Mini #110 Todd Helton (Rockies)

More quality players including a regular back mini.

Mini Bat Relic #FMRC-TM Thurman Munson (Yankees)

SP #344 Josh Beckett (Red Sox)

WOW! A Munson bat relic! My first hit of him, I couldn't be happier with any other Yankee hit (except Mantle maybe). A Beckett SP also is icing on the cake for a great pack. An extra card was even inside as I got 11.

Some Backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 10 11 extra card

Teams Represented: 9
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: n/a
Parallels: 1 (Helton mini)
Inserts: 0
SP's 1 (Beckett)

Hits: 1 (Munson bat)
Keepers for Me: 2 (Munson base and Munson bat card) The rest are for trade.

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 9 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, great artwork, good old school cardboard feel, I like the inclusion of the background artwork, no team logo.
Back Design: 6 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, good player factoid, no stats, only 2 colors.
Player Selection: 7.5 out of 10 Good, nice mix of quality players plus the legends.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 3 RBI Home Run to center field. A Hit, an SP, an extra card, what's not to like. I love the design and the feel of these cards. I am not the retro set kind of collector but this set has me tempted.

Head on over to The Buffet and see how the other pack was, although I can't see it being much better then this one.

Thanks for Reading!

1974 Fleer Real Cloth Basketball Patches

2011-04-30T15:57:00.000-04:00

Hello all. Today we have a few firsts for The Pack Rip Cafe. It's the first basketball offering, the first cloth sticker product, and first 1974 pack.

1974 Fleer Real Cloth Basketball Patches

Boston Celtics

The Shots #14

Washington Bullets

As you can see, the gum has really taken its toll on these stickers, the Celtics took the brunt of the damage. The stickers became completely detached from the backing while the Bullets is much better with just a few stains.

The Backs

The Shots card didn't take any damage.

The card is 1974 but for some reason the wrapper has 1969 on it. I assume that's when the licence agreement was made but I am not sure. I found a great write up on this set at The Fleer Sticker Project blog that describes the set.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards/Stickers: 3

Teams Represented: 2
Rookie Cards: n/a
Sub Sets: n/a
Parallels: n/a
Inserts: 1
Hits: n/a
Keepers for Me: 2 (Celtics and Bullets) Anybody who wants The Shot card can have it, first comment asking for it gets it from the freebie box.

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8.5 out of 10 Great team logos.
Back Design: 5 out of 10 N/A for the stickers, the "Shots" card back is pretty cool.
Player/Team Selection: 9 out of 10 Great, a legendary team and a team that has changed it's name works for me, only thing better would be the Knicks.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 2 RBI Single up the middle. 2 very cool cards for my team logo collection and being a 1974 product makes a solid hit. The condition keeps it a single.

Thanks For Reading!

1997 Topps Finest Hobby Series 2

2011-04-11T18:43:00.000-04:00

Hello all. Today we go with a higher end product from the 90's from Topps that has been born, reborn, changed, and is still around today in a premium form.

1997 Topps Finest Hobby Series 2

#180, C45 Walt Weiss (Rockies)

#207, C28 Todd Worrell (Dodgers)

#220, C29 Dan Wilson (Mariners)

Each card has 2 numbers, the main number first and then the theme number next. A duplicate card is a bummer right off the bat.

#248, C17 Robin Ventura (White Sox)

#231, C36 Kevin Seitzer (Indians)

Refractor #241, A30 Terry Steinbach (Twins)

#196, A35 Orlando Merced (Blue Jays)

The refractor is nice but it doesn't "refract" nearly as much as today's do but interestingly the back also has a slight refractor finish to it as well.

#271, A20 David Justice (Indians)

#235, A23 Eddie Murray (Angels)

#247, A24 Benito Santiago (Blue Jays)

#253, A14 Matt Williams (Indians)

#240, P27 Albert Belle (White Sox)

The Acquisitions part of series 2 are players whe were traded during the season. All cards in this pack were commons (bronze).

Some backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 13

Teams Represented: 8
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 1 (Steinbach refractor)
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me 2 (Murray and Steinbach refractor) The rest are available as usual.

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6 out of 10 Good in game pictures, nice chrome like finish when protective film peeled, hard to read players names, bland design, no team logo.
Back Design: 5.5 out of 10 So-so design, good in game player picture, team logo, good player info but hard to read due to some backgrounds, only previous years and career stats.
Player Selection: 6.5 out of 10 Decent, 1 HOFer and a couple of stars of the day.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Fly Out to right field. A refractor and Eddie Murray makes contact but not enough keepers, a design that doesn't grab me, and a duplicate gets an out. I really find the protective films annoying and too hard to peel.

Thanks for Reading!

1991 Fleer

2011-04-05T18:30:00.001-04:00

Hey again all. Today we go back 2 decades to 1991 here on The Pack Rip Cafe with a pack of Fleer Baseball.

1991 Fleer Baseball

#401 Ricky Jordan (Phillies)

#521 Gerald Young (Astros)

#245 Mel Rojas (Expos)

#469 Mike Devereaux (Orioles)

#626 Gary Wayne (Twins)

#32 afael Belliard (Pirates)

#212 Ramon Martinez (Dodgers)

#190 Ken Williams (Blue Jays)

#666 Andy Hawkins (Yankees)

#55 Jack Armstrong (Reds)

#342 Lance McCullers (Tigers)

#251 Tim Wallach (Expos)

#463 Dave Valle (Mariners)

#28 Curt Young (A's)

Team Logo Stickers (Cardinals Stats on back)

I love the old wrappers with the offers for card related stuff.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 15

Teams Represented: 15
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 1 (Stickers)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (Hawkins, Team Logo Stickers) The rest are up for grabs.

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6out of 10 Good pictures of in game action shots, bland design, no team logo.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, good player info, full career stats, player picture.
Player Selection: 6 out of 10 Decent mix of players but no big stars.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Pop Out into shallow right field. Bland design on the front and no big names make an out. A good back design, 15 cards, and 2 keepers put the bat on the ball.

Thanks for Reading!

2011 Topps Opening Day

2011-04-01T15:44:00.001-04:00

Hello all. I am back here on the Pack Rip Cafe after some time away due to being very busy at work and all the activity over on The Buffet but I now return and have a variety of packs to rip here for your viewing pleasure. I start today with the first 2011 product here on the Cafe. I am a big fan of the Opening Day sets and try to build them each year.

2011 Topps Opening Day

#102 Carlos Ruiz (Phillies)

#26 Gaby Sanchez (Marlins)

#194 Delmon Young (Twins)

Mascots #M-23 Rangers Captain (Rangers)

Opening Day Stars #ODS-4 Josh Hamilton (Rangers)

#138 Chris Young (D-Backs)

#212 Vernon Wells (Blue Jays)

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 7

Teams Represented: 6
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: N/A
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 2 (Mascots and Opening Day Stars)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 ( Hamilton ODS) The others are available.

MY RATINGS:

Front Design: 8 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, team logo, same as 2011 flagship with opening day logo, no foil.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, no team logo, good player info, full career stats, same as 2011 flagship.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, all quality players with some stars.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Single up the middle. A nice affordable pack with 2 inserts (one I needed) gets a hit.

Don't forget to leave your rating at the bottom of the post.

Thanks for Reading!

2007 Topps 52 Rookies (2 packs for the group break)

2011-02-12T18:42:00.001-05:00

Hello all. It's been a while since I posted a pack here due to time factors with my job, home life, and now the group break I am running over at The Buffet. Today I have 2 packs from that group break to share over here at The Pack Rip Cafe. I will be forgoing the usual format since these are for the break.

2007 Topps 52 Rookies

Pack 1

Michael Bourne RC (Phillies)

Delmon Young RC (Rays)

Alejandro De Aza RC Marlins)

Alex Rodriguez Road to 500 #486 (Yankees)

Danny Richar RC (White Sox)

Patrick Misch RC (Giants)

Pack 2

Chase Wright RC (Yankees)

Joe Smith RC (Mets)

Eulogio De La Cruz RC (Tigers)

Craig Stansberry RC (Padres)

Jorge Posada (Yankees)

Patrick Misch RC (Giants)

A couple of the backs.

There you have it, two more packs for the group break. Without all the detail I usually go into here, I will say that I like the overall design of this set and these two packs have to be an RBI Single in my book. These packs are included in the break counts.

Thanks for Reading!

1980 Cramer Baseball Legends Limited Edition Series 1

2011-01-24T19:16:00.000-05:00

Hello all. Today we go back to 1980 with a pack who's players go back way further. There were four 30 card series that were each released in 4 successive years. These are from series 1 in 1980. I believe Cramer Sports Promotions was the company that later became Pacific Cards and these had a Pacific logo on the back of the wrapper but is mentioned no place on the cards at all.

1980 Cramer Baseball Legends Limited Edition Series 1

#3 of 30 Rabbit Maranville (Boston Braves)

#4 of 30 Earl Averill (Cleveland Indians)

#5 of 30 Joe Dimaggio (NY Yankees)

#6 of 30 Mickey Mantle (NY Yankees)

A great start. I never heard of Rabbit but he is one of only a few who batted over 10,000 times. The two guys on the bottom were decent players in their day.

#7 of 30 Hank Aaron (Milwaukee Braves)

#8 of 30 Stan Musial (St. Louis Cardinals)

#9 of 30 Bill Terry (NY Giants)

# 10 of 30 Sandy Koufax (LA Dodgers)

#11 of 30 Ernie Lombardi (Brooklyn Dodgers)

Look at that, an extra card. I would say that there seems to be a pattern to the way these cards were packed, all in order. Ernie Lombardi is the only player in this back not in the hall of fame but if you look at his numbers, he probably should be. Nobody can complain about the players in this lot at all.

A couple of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 8 9 (Extra card)

Teams Represented: 6
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 3 (Dimaggio, Mantle, Aaron)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, very old school look, no team logo.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Fun design, good player info, great player tidbits career stats only .
Player Selection: 9.5 out of 10 Awesome, with 8 out of 9 Hall of Farmers you can't go wrong.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 2 RBI Single up the middle. I really like these cards for their old school look ans legends checklist. 3 great keepers and still other all time greats make this a real fun pack plus an extra card. Even with no parallels, hits, inserts or any other special cards this set is still great.

Thanks for Reading!

2010 Topps Chrome Football

2011-01-22T18:11:00.000-05:00

Hello again all. I as a Jets fan am getting excited along with fans of the other three remaining playoff teams for tomorrow's conference championship games so I will go with a pack of shiny NFL cards today.

2010 Topps Chrome NFL Football

#C157 Mardy Gilyard RC (Rams)

#C191 Jeremy Maclin (Eagles)

#C81 Clinton Portis (Redskins)

Refractor #C68 Walter McFadden RC (Raiders)

A couple of the backs and a checklist from the pack.

Not a bad pack but no cards from any of the final four teams.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 4

Teams Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: 2
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 1 (Refractor)
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 0 (All are in the freebie box so just email if you want any.)

Front Design: 8 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, love the chrome, good use of team colors.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, full career stats, good player info.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, all relevant players.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 7 yard screen pass on first down (Infield Single). A refractor and decent players makes this a positive pack. Chromes are one of my favorites so that doesn't hurt.

Thanks for Reading!

1996 Ringside Boxing Series 1

2011-01-21T18:13:00.001-05:00

Hello all. Today we go into the ring for the first pack of Boxing cards here on The Pack Rip Cafe. I have no desire to collect boxing cards but for 50 cents in the Vend-O-Pack machine so I grabbed them for a little variety here today. Any cards I am not keeping are in the freebie box so if you want them just shoot me an e-mail.

1996 Ringside Boxing Series 1

#13 International Boxing Hall of Fame Maxie Rosenbloom

#2 International Boxing Hall of Fame Willie Pep

#47 Tom Johnson

#35 Luis Ramon Campas

A card with the American flag is a nice surprise. The International Boxing Hall of Fame are inserts.

#36 Ralph Tiger Jones

#7 Alex Stewart

#11 Jorge Gonzalez

#R3 Melvin Foster RC

The Foster is a rookie card, hence the R in the number.

A couple of backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 8

Teams Represented: NA
Rookie Cards: 1 (Melvin Foster)
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 3 (Rookie and 2 International Boxing Hall of Fame)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (Johnson flag card)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 5 out of 10 Fair, Same background on most cards, not much in the way of action shots.
Back Design: 6 out of 10 OK, decent fighter facts, only one year stats and totals, too much blank space.
~~Player~~ Boxer Selection: 4 out of 10 Below average.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Second round TKO (Foul Out).e I haven't heard of most of these fighters and a bland design make for a bad pack. The flag card and an 3 inserts get it to the second round before the TKO.

Thanks for Reading!

2000 Pacific Prism

2011-01-19T20:02:00.000-05:00

Hello all. Today we go back to 2000 with a very interesting pack. If you like parallels this is the product for you. These are the versions I could find.

Pacific Prism Base Card

Drops Silver (print run of 799)
Holgraphic Blue sn'd /80
Holographic Gold sn'd /480
Holographic Mirror sn'd /160
Holographic Purple sn'd /99
Pebbly Dots (print run of 691)
Premiere Date sn'd /61
Rapture Gold (print run of 565)
Rapture Silver (print run of 916)
Sheen Silver (print run of 448)
Slider Silver (print run of 334)
Texture Silver (print run of 448)
Tinsel Silver (print run of 331)
Woodgrain Silver (print run of 331)

Lets see what I come out with. Be warned that they don't photograph too great. In person the have much more of a silver apperance and the background variations are more pronounced.

2000 Pacific Prism

#119 J. D. Drew (Cardinals)

This is the base version. The camera flash reflects all the colors in the holographic like background.

#54 Damon Easley (Tigers) Purple 74/99

Again the flash does some strange things with the purple background. The serial numbering is small and black just under the "2B"

# 123 Fernando Tatis (Cardinals)

Base version again.

#126 Tony Gwynn (Padres) Rapture Silver

Here is the Rapture Silver version. Same silver like color with a different grain.

#132 Freddy Garcia (Mariners)

Back to base version.

A couple of the backs.

All the backs look the same.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 5

Teams Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 2 (Easley Purple /99 and Gwynn Silver)
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (Easly, Gwynn)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, awesome colorful holographic like backgrounds, no team logo.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, fair player info, good layout, one year stats.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, 1 HOFer.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Double down the line. I really like these cards and love the backgrounds. Anybody who likes chasing rainbows will have a field day with this set as there are many different colors and background variations of each card.

I am going to find a player to chase a rainbow but it wont be a superstar as they can be costly. Stay tuned to The Baseball Card Buffet for more of these and a chance to get some yourself in the near future.

Thanks for Reading!

NASCAR 2008 Press Pass VIP Retail

2011-01-14T20:30:00.000-05:00

Hello all. Today the Pack Rip Cafe offers up it's first foray into a pack of racing cards. I picked up 5 packs of assorted racing cards from a clearance sale and decided to show this one. I usually pick a pack, open it, take pictures regardless of the contents and post the pack here. This time I opened all five and picked one to show off. You will see why I picked this one. (This pack was the last one I opened)

2008 Nascar Press Pass VIP Retail

#58 AJ Allmendinger (Red Bull #84)

AJ is an up and comer on the Nascar circut who should continue to make some noise in the 2011 season. A nice shot of him in victory lane after winning the All-Star race qualifier.

#40 Chip Ganassi (Owner)

Ganassi has had many championships in open wheel divisions and 2 Indy 500 wins by cars he has owned. Now he is trying to continue that success in Nascar.

#DB-MK Double Burner Matt Kenseth (Dewalt #17)

Race Used Fire Suit and Glove sn'd 071/100

Sweet! A dual hit. While the picture doesn't show it that well, the glove swatch shows some real wear from use on the wheel of Matt Kenseth's Dewalt Tools Ford. I love this card, its my first firesuit relic in my limited Nascar collection. These packs should have 4 cards but I guess the hit drops it down to 3.

The backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 3

Teams Represented: 3
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels:
Inserts: 1 (Dual Relic)
Hits: 1 (Dual Relic)
Keepers for Me: 1 (Dual Relic) The others are up for grabs. No trade needed, just ask.

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Good pictures, A small sampling but I like what I see.
Back Design: 6 out of 10 Nice design, good factoid about the driver/owner, good pictures, no career stats is a bummer.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good

FINAL OVERALL RATING: A Win by 1 car length (Solo Home Run). Two great and different types of relics along with two other good cards give this pack a win. I may have to go back and get some more of these.

Thanks for Reading!

Hidden Treasures (Baseball)

2011-01-10T17:32:00.000-05:00

Hello all. Today the Pack Rip Cafe ventures into the re-pack world with a pack of Hidden Treasures. I am not sure of the year for this pack but the back mentions that redemption cards expire at the end of 2008. As you can see on the wrapper this is part of the "Worlds Greatest Card Chase" and you can uncover All kinds of Babe Ruth stuff or vintage stars or relics or autos or diamond tickets. Lets see what I have uncovered.

Hidden Treasures

1990 Donruss #295 Steve Bedrosian (Giants)

1990 Donruss #341 Lloyd McClendon (Cubs)

1987 Donruss #137 Daryl Boston (White Sox)

There is a big start. I guess the Ruth is at the back of the pack.

1987 Topps #1 Roger Clemens Record Breaker (Red Sox)

1988 Donruss #251 Gary Ward (Yankees)

OK. Lot's of hidden treasure in that pack.

The backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 5

Teams Represented: 5
Brands Represented: 2
Years Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 1 (Record Breakers)
Parallels: 0Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (Clemens, Ward)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: NA
Back Design: NA
Player Selection: 3.5 out of 10 Poor, after Clemens there isn't much.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Foul Out behind first base. Not much to say about all 5 cards from the junk era.

Thanks for Reading!

2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Value Pack

2011-01-07T19:55:00.000-05:00

Hello all. Today I go with another 2010 Bowman product in the form of a "Value" rack pack. I will preface this post with the fact that I am not a prospector so the odds of me being very happy with this pack are not great. I also don't think $5 for a dozen cards is exactly a "value" but I know this product is not cheap going in and I figured since a lot of people collect this stuff, I would buy one pack for the sake of this blog and maybe I will get lucky with some Mets and Yankees prospects for the team collections. As always, any non-keepers for me are up for trade.

2010 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Value Pack

The top half of the rack pack has 8 regular cards while the bottom has 4 cards including the 3 promised chromes.

#BDP67 Tommy Manzella RC (Astros)

#BDP59 Drew Stubbs RC (Reds)

#BDP102 Ryan Kalish RC (Red Sox)

#BDP39 Fernando Salas RC (Cardinals)

Four RC's right off the top. I figured there would be some RC's so that's always a plus. I don't know any of these 4 so that's a minus.

#BDPP85 Ryan Bolden (Angels)

#BDPP22 Nick Longmire (Cardinals)

#BDPP14 Addison Reed (White Sox)

#BDPP77 Josh Sale (Rays)

Surprisingly I recognize a prospect. Josh Sale has some serious buzz as he enters the Rays system.

Chrome #BDPP83 Delino DeShields (Astros)

Chrome #BDPP20 Blake Forsythe (Mets)

Chrome #BDP24 Chris Nelson RC (Rockies)

I like the shiny's and a good Mets prospect for the collection. DeShields name may sound familiar since his father (Delino also) played for 13 seasons for 5 different Major League teams.

And in between the chromes was this card.

#USAR-2 Cole Billingsley game used jersey (Team USA 16U) sn'd 719/949

I was quite surprised when this jersey card popped out. I am happy to pull a jersey hit but a 16 year old high school player is not exactly my idea of a big score. This card does fit into my American flag collection though so I will keep it unless somebody really wants it and has an interesting offer.

Some backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 12

Teams Represented: 10
Rookie Cards: 5 ( Stubbs, Kalish, Salas, Manzella, Nelson)
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 3 (Chromes)
Inserts: 1 (Billingsley jersey)
Hits: 1 (Billingsley jersey)
Keepers for Me: 2 (Forsythe, Billingsley jersey)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good in game shots on most cards, Nice layout, team logo.
Back Design: 6.5 out of 10 Typical Bowman design, good info, team logo, only 1 year stats.

Player Selection: 4.5 out of 10 Below Average, I know a few but not many.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 2 RBI Double in the gap. A jersey card makes a solid hit and a chrome Mets prospect makes it even better but I can't go more then a double on this one.

Lets hear your ratings on this pack.

Thanks for Reading!

2010 Bowman Chrome

2011-01-06T19:13:00.000-05:00

Hello everybody. Things have been busy around here lately so I haven't posted a pack rip here on the Cafe since 12/18 but today I return with the first pack of 2011 and it's some shiny chrome goodness.

2010 Bowman Chrome

#30 Justin Upton (D-Backs)

#USA-6 Marcus Littlewood (Team USA)

#BCP200 Everett Williams (Padres)

All three backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 3

Teams Represented: 3
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Set Within The Set: 1 (BCP)Parallels: 1 (Team USA)
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (Littlewood for the American flag)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good in game shots, Nice chrome shiny factor, team logo.
Back Design: 6.5 out of 10 Typical Bowman design, good info, team logo, only 1 year stats.
Player Selection: 4 out of 10 Below Average, Upton is the only name I know.
Misc: Cards have that lousy chrome curl that has plagued Topps this year. This pack is not as bad as some but still not flat by a long shot.
FINAL OVERALL RATING: Pop Out to third base. Like many other companies, less product for the same price sucks. 3 cards down from 4 last year is a 25% decrease at the same price. Two players I never heard, curled cards, and not enough cards makes this pack an out.

Thanks for Reading!

Happy New Year!!!

2010-12-31T23:59:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year to all. I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and successful 2011. May all your packs contain hits and SP's this year.

Thanks to all of you who have visited The Pack Rip Cafe in 2010 and keep coming back for more pack rips in 2011.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

2010-12-25T10:55:00.001-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from BA Benny's Pack Rip Cafe

Check out my Christmas Post on BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet.

1991 O-Pee-Chee Premier

2010-12-18T17:43:00.000-05:00

Hello all. I was visiting the Vend-O-Pack and there was one lonely pack sitting in one of the rows amongst some bad non-sports stuff. It looked like it was being punished being isolated from the other baseball packs so I had to liberate it from the machine. (Being 50 cents didn't hurt either)

1991 O-Pee-Chee Premier

#79 Fred McGriff (Padres)

#10 Mike Boddiker (Royals)

#40 Howard Farmer (Expos)

#71 Jimmy Key (Blue Jays)

#12 Barry Bonds (Pirates)

#87 Chris Nabholz (Expos)

#57 Kelly Gruber (Blue Jays)

Kind of fitting that a pack of cards made in Canada had more then half Canadian teams (4 of 7)

A couple of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 7

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

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6.5 out of 10 Good on field photos, nice design, no team logo.
Back Design: 6 out of 10 OK design, colorful, not much information, big team logo.
Player Selection: 6 out of 10 Fair, after Bonds and McGriff it's so-so the rest of the way.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Fly Out to shallow right field. One keeper and a fair player selection doesn't get it done for me. The set does have some appeal to me though.

2010 Panini Rookie and Stars Football

2010-12-14T17:42:00.002-05:00

Hey all. I was in Rite Aid today picking up some stuff for the house so I checked the card rack while I was there. They had only one baseball (a value re-pack which I grabbed) so I grabbed a couple of football packs. I was very happy when I opened one of them so I decided to go back to back posts with NFL packs. You'll see why.

2010 Panini Rookies and Stars

#108 Louis Murphy (Raiders)

#134 Danny Amendola (Rams)

#105 Chaz Schilens (Raiders)

#8 Tony Gonzalez (Falcons)

#42 Brandon Marshall (Dolphins)

#136 James Laurinaitis (Rams)

#78 Davone Bess (Dolphins)

#35 Josh Cribbs (Browns)

#75 Thomas Jones (Chiefs)

#1 Beanie Wells (Cardinals)

#91 Drew Brees Game Used Jersey (Saints)

That's right, a hit! If you count also you will see 11 cards, not the usual 10 as promised. My lucky day.

A couple backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 10 11 (Extra card)

Teams Represented: 8
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 1 (Brees Jersey)
Hits: 1 (Brees Jersey)
Keepers for Me: 1 (Brees Jersey)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6.5 out of 10 Good pictures but I prefer the background from the in game pictures, good design, team logo.
Back Design: 7.5 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, good use of team colors, only last year and career totals for stats, good player factoid from 09 season, team logo.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, young talent and veterans.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Touchdown in the second quarter. (Solo Home Run). The jersey card from one of my favorite teams gets it into the end-zone. No other keepers hurts a little but a Brees jersey card rocks!

Thanks for Reading!

NFL 1996 Pacific Crown Royale

2010-12-11T17:13:00.001-05:00

Hello again all. Today I go NFL with a pack from Pacific. The odd part is that the die-cut are the base cards and in this pack the regular shape is the insert.

1996 Pacific Crown Royale

#CR-86 Scott Mitchell (Lions)

#CR-54 Brett Favre (Packers)

The old school team logos are great looking.

#CR-92 Charles Way (Giants)

#CR-56 Kevin Hardy (Jaguars)

Charles Way was a big fan favorite here in NY. He was a fierce lead blocker who was very good at catching passes out of the backfield.

NFL Regime #NR20 Drew Bledsoe (Patriots)

A couple of the backs.

Over all a cool looking set. The die-cuts look great and are quite sturdy. I couldn't find a check list to check for rookies so I am not sure. Hardy may be a RC and Way also but I can't say for sure.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 5

Teams Represented: 5
Rookie Cards: ?
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 1 (Bledsoe NFL Regime)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (Charles Way)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7.5 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, in game photos, great die-cuts, good foil work, old school team logo.
Back Design: 6 out of 10 Nice design, no team logo, good player factoid, no stats
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, All good players and 1 sure to be HOFer.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 12 Yard First Down Pass (Single). I very much like the fronts of these cards plus 1 keeper makes a first down. With 3 of the 5 cards being QB's it had to be passing.

Thanks for Reading!

2005 Topps Bazooka Hobby Edition

2010-12-08T17:22:00.000-05:00

Back today with another Bazooka release from Topps circa 2005. As usual, any non-keepers are available.

2005 Topps Bazooka Hobby Edition

#26 Kerry Wood (Cubs)

#186 Felix Hernandez (Mariners)

4 in 1 Sticker #11 of 12 (checklist) Victor Martinez, David Wright, Justin Morneau, and Jason Bay

Mini #60 Lyle Overbay (Brewers)

Gold Chunks #88 Carl Pavano (Yankees)

#159 Brad Wilkerson (Nationals)

#199 Jeremy West RC (Red Sox)

#167 David DeJesus (Royals)

A piece of very stale gum, although bigger then the usual size.

Some backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 8

Teams Represented: 11
Rookie Cards: 1 (West)
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 2 (Gold and Mini)
Inserts: 1 (4 in 1 sticker)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (4 in 1 [Wright] and gold Pavano)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6 out of 10 Decent in game pictures, nice design, no team logos, some players in wrong team uniform.
Back Design: 6 out of 10 Nice design, colorful, no pictures, no team logos
Player Selection: 6 out of 10 Good but not great.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Infield Single. Two keepers with one being Wright plus one insert and two parallels just ekes out a single.

Thanks for Reading!

1995 Topps Bazooka

2010-11-28T12:58:00.001-05:00

Hello again all. Today we go back to 1995 with a pack from the Bazooka series from Topps. I actually got this pack in a trade package from The Troll.

1995 Topps Bazooka

#6 David Justice (Braves)

#18 Ryan Klesko (Braves)

#96 Jay Bell (Pirates)

#101 Mickey Tettleton (Tigers)

#51 Tim Wallach (Dodgers)

Game rules card/spinner

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 5

Teams Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 0

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6.5 out of 10 Decent standard style pictures, no team logo or colors.
Back Design: 3 out of 10 Not good at all, mostly about the game and little about the players, no team logo.
Player Selection: 4.5 out of 10 Average. The check list for this set is decent but not in this pack.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Strike Out swinging. Pretty bland set with more concern for the game on the back then the players. This pack had a boring group of players. I have seen better from this set but not here today.

Thanks for Reading!

2010 Topps Update Jumbo Rack Pack

2010-11-24T17:18:00.001-05:00

Hello all. Things around The Cafe and The Buffet have been crazy busy so posts have been sparse but I found a little time to show off this Topps Update Rack Pack I scored last week. To save some time I am not going to type every card out but all cards are pictured so you can click on them to enlarge the images.

2010 Topps Update Jumbo Rack Pack

A Strasburg but I still haven't gotten the stupid #661 out of any of the packs I have opened so far.

I like the All-Star subset this year, It fits in with the overall set design unlike in some years past.

Has anybody noticed that they seem to place all the horizontal cards together in the packs? All the base cards above are available for trade.

4 of the inserts. More Tales of the Game Spahn, Attax Dunn, Turkey Red Johnson, and Peak Performance Weaver. It's kind of a bummer when I still need so many of the TR inserts and I pull a double. These 4 are also available.

The keepers for me. A Vlad, Grandy and Ike along with a CYMTO I needed and a MCG for the Mantle collection. The Kearns Gold is great too but he just looks a little funny in a Yankees uniform. I got a 1994 Cliff Floyd with the MCG code.

And now a surprise..........
.
.
.
.
.
.

Andrew Bailey 2010 All-Star workout jersey card. (A's)

A Hit!! It's always fun to get a hit from a loose pack but I don't collect this particular player or team so he's up for trade too.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 35 33 (due to relic)

Teams Represented: 20
Rookie Cards: 4
Sub Sets: 3 (All-Star)
Parallels: 1 (gold /2010)
Inserts: 8
Hits: 1 (Baily Jersey)
Keepers for Me: 6 (3 players, 2 inserts, 1 gold /2010)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, full career stats, good use of team colors, player picture, good factoid about player.

Player Selection: 7.5 out of 10 Good, Nice mix of stars and rookies.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: RBI Triple into the right field corner. A fun pack to open, a hit, some inserts I needed, gotta be a big hit.

Thanks for Reading!

1993 Flair Premier Edition

2010-11-15T18:43:00.001-05:00

Hello again Pack Rip Cafe readers. Today I return with a pack of Flair from the year of it's inception, 1993. This was a high end style card set without the killer high end price.

1993 Flair Premier Edition

These packs were actually shrink wrapped little boxes with a clear sealed pack of 10 cards inside.

#255 Bernie Williams (Yankees)

#243 Dave Winfield (Twins)

#93 Howard Johnson (Mets)

Three keepers off the top! I always forget that Winfield played for the Twins until I get one of those cards.

#300 Checklist

#234 Jim Deshaies (Twins)

#224 Darryl Hamilton (Brewers)

#213 George Brett (Royals)

Brett is the king of this group and shares the top with Bernie Williams for the pack. I don't like when the checklist cards are included in the numbered set as I would rather have more player cards. This is the last of 3 in the set and may be the fanciest checklist I have ever seen.

#40 Joe Girardi (Rockies)

#138 Barry Bonds (Giants)

#29 Hal Morris (Reds)

The Bonds is a nice card. I am not the biggest fan of his but his spot in baseball history, good and bad, can't be denied.

A couple of backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 10

Teams Represented: 8
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 1 (Checklist)
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 6 (Williams,Winfield, Johnson, checklist, Brett, Bonds)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Quality action photos, very glossy, fancy foil work, no team logo.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, good action, photos, foil used on the back as well, not complete career but a dozen or so for the veteran players, very glossy, good player factoid, team logo
Player Selection: 8 out of 10 Great. Several legends and a few all-stars added in.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Bases Loaded 3 RBI Double down the line. Six of ten keepers (even if one is a checklist) equals 60% in what was in it's day a high end product. While I am not sure if I would want a whole binder of these, they do stand out when mixed in a player collection page with a variety of different cards.

Thanks for Reading!

2007 Upper Deck Future Stars

2010-11-08T22:47:00.001-05:00

Hello all. Tonight I have a pack of 07 Future Stars Baseball.

2007 Upper Deck Future Stars

#99 Ryan Zimmerman (Nationals)

#65 Johnny Damon (Yankees)

#38 Dontrelle Willis (Marlins)

#89 Chris Duncan (Cardinals)

A couple of backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 4

Teams Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (Willis and Damon, the other 2 are up for grabs)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7.5 out of 10 Good pictures, cool futuristic design, sharp contrast, no team logo.
Back Design: 6.75 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, only up to 5 years stats, no pictures, some wasted space.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, all quality players. Ironic that this pack of Future Stars doesn't have one rookie card in it. I am not complaining, just an observation.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Lead off Single into right field. 2 of 4 keepers and a nice looking cards scores a hit.

Thanks for Reading!

2009 Goudey

2010-11-04T18:47:00.000-04:00

Hello again all you Pack Rip Cafe readers. Today I present a 2009 Goudey for your viewing pleasure.

2009 Goudey

Notice the 8cards per pack.

20th Anniversary Retrospective #762 Mike Schmidt (Phillies)

4-in 1 (red) #35~83 Span, Jones, Ramirez, Fowler

Blue back mini #22 Jason Bay (Red Sox)

#192 Mike Aviles (Royals)

#151 Cole Hamels (Phillies)

#180 Troy Glaus (Cardinals)

X X

This is where the last two cards in the pack should be but it appears we have been shorted 2 cards in this pack. Bummer!

Some of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 8 6 (2 cards missing)

Teams Represented: 8
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 1 (4-in 1)
Parallels: 1 (mini blue back)
Inserts: 1 (20th Anniversary Retrospective)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (Schmidt)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good artwork, decent design, old style design, no backgrounds, no team logo.
Back Design: 6.5 out of 10 Decent layout, Only up to 5 year stats and career totals, only 1 color printing, cool old school look and feel.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, 1 HOFer and a good mix on the others.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Pop Out to third base. 2 missing cards kills a chance for a hit. Only one keeper from a not so great insert set doesn't help either. The fact that it's Mike Schmidt gets wood on the ball but it isn't enough. I will be contacting Upper deck to see if they will make good on the missing cards.

I really have grown to like this set a lot, this particular pack just falls a little short.

Thanks for Reading!

1995 Topps Stadium Club High Number Series

2010-11-02T18:03:00.000-04:00

Today we go back to 1995 here on the Pack Rip Cafe with a pack of Stadium Club

1995 Topps Stadium Club High Number Series

#568 Brad Clontz (Braves)

#552 Otis Nixon (Rangers)

#572 Dustin Hermanson (Padres)

#607 Tony Phillips (Angels)

#548 Ray Durham (White Sox)

Extreme Corps #519 Paul O'Neill (Yankees)

Trans Action #623 Vaughn Eshelman (Red Sox)

Extreme Corps #523 Joe Carter (Blue Jays)

Extreme Corps #509 Barry Bonds (Giants)

#563 Edgardo Alfonzo (Mets)

#598 Jim Dougherty RC (Astros)

#599 Jaun Acevedo RC (Rockies)

#565 Andy Pettitte (Yankees)

Some backs

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 13

Teams Represented: 12
Rookie Cards: 2 (Acevedo, Dougherty)
Sub Sets: 4 (Extreme Corps x3 and Trans Action)
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 4 (Alfonzo, Pettitte, O'Neill, and Bonds. The rest are available.)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, good use of foil, borderless, team logo.
Back Design: 4 out of 10 poor design, only one year stats, text goes in all different directions, no team logo, fair player info,
Player Selection: 6.5 out of 10 Average, some good, some so-so.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Infield Single. The four keepers and a few other good players scores a hit but the backs and other bad players keeps it a small hit.

Thanks for Reading!

2004 Upper Deck Yankees Classics

2010-10-27T19:25:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-25T20:11:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-19T17:40:00.002-04:00

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

2010-10-14T19:18:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-13T17:02:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-11T17:59:00.000-04:00

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

2010-10-10T14:33:00.003-04:00

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!

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces

2010-09-14T18:40:00.000-04:00

Today we get artistic here on the Pack Rip Cafe. We have some Masterpieces from Upper Deck circa 2008.

2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces

#65 Jorge Posada (Yankees)

A keeper off the top. Notice the detail of the fans in the background.

#94 Ryne Sandberg (Cubs)

The appearance of a low camera angle is a nice touch.

#18 Alfonso Soriano (Cubs)

The detail on the face really shines on this one.

#81 Ichiro (Mariners)

The sharpness of the arms and uniform make this one sweet. Too bad I messed up the left side by accident. Doh!

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 4

Teams Represented: 3
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (Posada and Ichiro)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Great artwork, nice design, textured like canvas, no team logo.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, good player info, One year stats and career total, a good write up on a career achievement and that's the year stats they feature.
Player Selection: 8 out of 10 Very Good

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 2 RBI Single into right field. Two out of four keepers and the fact that this set has really grown on me. I never thought I would miss Upper Deck and they do a lot of stuff that stinks but the Masterpieces sets were great.

Thanks for Reading!

2000 Topps Gallery NFL Football Hobby Edition

2010-09-09T18:05:00.001-04:00

Hello all. In honor of opening night of the NFL football season I have the first football pack here on the Pack Rip Cafe to feature today. I did one of the 2000 Topps Gallery Baseball back in early August and was very pleased with them so when I saw the football version in the Vend-O-Pack machine I had to grab one.

2000 Topps Gallery NFL Hobby Edition

#90 Keyshawn Johnson (Buccaneers)

#83 Steve Young (49'ers)

Steve Young looking like he is hitting Rice in the end zone.

#20 Eddie George (Titans)

#55 Tim Biakabutuka (Panthers)

Eddie George powering forward!

#96 Errict Rhett (Browns)

Apprentices #163 Lavernues Coles (Jets)

A Jets Rookie card, SCORE!

A couple of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 6

Teams Represented: 6
Rookie Cards: 1
Sub Sets: 1 (Apprentices)
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (Coles)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Great pictures, mostly on field action shots, nice design, textured borders like artwork, no team logo.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, good player info, gallery notes has interesting player facts, another different factoid related to the picture on front, only 1999 stats (broken down by each month).
Player Selection: 8 out of 10 Very good, all stars on their teams, 1 HOFer.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Extra Point (or a Single in baseball terms) A Jets rookie and great looking cards in general make this pack a hit for me. I am very impressed with this product as I hadn't seen this particular year before just like the baseball I ripped a while back.

Thanks for Reading!

Contest Over At Drew's

2010-09-09T09:12:00.002-04:00

Check out an Obak based contest over at Drew's Cards for a chance to win said Obak cards. He also has a great blog so your time will be well spent.

2009 Bowman Hobby Edition

2010-09-08T18:27:00.000-04:00

Today the Pack Rip Cafe presents a pack of 2009 Bowman.

2009 Bowman Hobby Edition

#10 Ichiro (Mariners)

#210 Jonathan Niese (Mets)

#106 Yovani Gallardo (Brewers)

A nice start with 2 keepers off the top.

#BP49 Abraham Almonte (Yankees)

#BP76 Pat McAnaney (D-Backs)

Gold #56 Jacoby Ellsbury (Red Sox)

Another keeper and a star on a gold parallel.

Chrome #BCP83 Seth Garrison (Red Sox)

Chrome #BCP31 Luis Sumoza (Braves)

#83 Justin Duchscherer (A's)

#155 Chris Young (D-Backs)

As usual the chromes look very nice.

Four of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 10

Teams Represented: 8
Rookie Cards: 1
Sub Sets: 4 (Prospects and Chrome Prospects)
Parallels: 1 (Gold)
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 3 (Ichiro, Niese, Almonte, the rest except the gold are available)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good pictures, veterans have in game photos and prospects are posed pictures, simple design in Bowman tradition, no team logo.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice layout, good player info through the Resume, Skills, and Evolution categories, team logo, only 08 and total stats.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, a mix of prospects and veterans.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Bloop Single over first base. 3 keepers and a decent mix make this pack a hit.

Thanks for Reading!

2001 Topps Series 1 Hobby Edition

2010-09-07T21:36:00.000-04:00

I'm back after a busy weekend with a pack of 2001 Topps here in the Cafe. This was the 50th anniversary for Topps cards.

2001 Topps Series 1 Hobby Edition

#241 Travis Miller (Twins)

#274 Jeff Brantley (Phillies)

#165 Andy Benes (Cardinals)

#100 Derek Jeter (Yankees)

Gold #222 Hector Carrasco (Twins) sn'd 0586/2001

#230 James Baldwin (White Sox)

#4 Garret Anderson (Angels)

#65 David Cone (Yankees)

#283 Ricky Bottalico (Royals)

#254 Jose Vidro (Expos)

A couple of backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 10

Teams Represented: 8
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 1 (Gold sn'd /2001)
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 3 (Jeter, Cone, GOLD)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8.5 out of 10 Good pictures, all in game action shots, nice design, good border color, nice gold foil for 50 years, team logo.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, full career stats, player photo, nice write ups about player, good player info, no team logo.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good, all players had/have good long careers.
FINAL OVERALL RATING: 2 RBI Single into left field. A great layout on both sides, 3 keepers including a gold makes it a hit. I very much like this set and may have to try and build it down the road. The trend of Yankees and no Mets continues but that's ok.

Thanks for Reading!

2008 Upper Deck X

2010-09-03T19:08:00.000-04:00

Welcome to another pack here on The Pack Rip Cafe. This go around will be a 2008 Upper Deck X that I picked up at a dollar store for , you guessed it, a dollar.

2008Upper Deck X

#67 Hideki Matsui (Yankees)

#18 Derrek Lee (Cubs)

Xponential #X-JC Joba Chamberlain (Yankees)

# 46 Lance Berkman (Astros) Die Cut

#17 Carlos Zambrano (Cubs)

#31 Edison Volquez (Reds)

The insert, die cut, and base backs. The Xponential is embossed so the light reflects oddly and creates the appearance of lines that aren't really there.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 6

Teams Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 1 (Die Cut)
Inserts: 1 (Expontial)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (Matsui and Joba, the others are available except Berkman)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6.5 out of 10 Good pictures, all standard batting or pitching in game shots, decent design, no team logo.
Back Design: 5 out of 10 Plain design, only last 3 years of stats with career totals, has team logo
Player Selection: 7.5 out of 10 Good, all well established stars on their teams.
FINAL OVERALL RATING:Single up the middle. It seems I get many more Yankees then Mets when I do these packs here on the Cafe but thats ok. While I find the base set to be average in design, I love the Xponential inserts and the die cuts are ok too so with the 2 keepers and good players across the board, I have to give this pack a hit.

1995 Pinacle Zenith

2010-09-01T20:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome back Cafe readers. Today I have a pack of 1995 Pinacle Zenith to display for your viewing pleasure.

1995 Pinacle Zenith Edition

#55 John Olerud (Blue Jays)

#75 Mike Mussina (Orioles)

A great start with 2 all stars.

#78 MoisesAlou (Expos)

#108 Wally Joyner (Royals)

One of many teams Alou played for.

Rookie Roll Call #1 of 18 Alex Rodriguez (Mariners)

#105 Travis Fryman (Tigers)

As usual, the camera doesn't to the A-Rod insert justice. These fell at one per 24 packs so I am stoked that it's a player I collect.

A couple backs and the one of the checklists included in every pack.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 6

Teams Represented: 6
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 1 (Rookie Roll Call)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 2 (A-Rod Insert and Olerud, the rest are available)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, I like the yellow brick road look, no team logo.
Back Design: 5.5 out of 10 Fair design, average player pictures, interesting concept on the hit location chart but not good enough to carry 75% of the space on the back, no team logo
Player Selection: 7.5 out of 10 Good, 1 sure to be HOFer and a good mix of stars.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Single flared over the shortstops head. A sweet looking insert at one per 24 and the Olerud plus a cool front design make this a hit.

Thanks for Reading!

1986 Fleer Baseball Star Stickers

2010-08-30T19:36:00.001-04:00

Hello all. Today I have some stickers to open here on the Cafe. They are 1986 Fleer Baseball Star Stickers and are the same size as standard cards and are fairly rigid so they look and feel a lot like regular cards.

1986 Fleer Baseball Star Stickers

No# Royals team logo

#64 Kent Hrbek (Twins)

I collect all teams logo cards so I was gaurenteed at least one keeper out of this pack.

#48 Ron Guidry (Yankees)

#78 Keith Moreland (Cubs)

One of my all time favorite Yankees.

#23 Gary Carter (Mets)

#9 Dennis Boyd (Red Sox)

Does anybody remember why they called him "Oil Can"?

The Royals team logos and Gary Carter backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total ~~Cards~~ Stickers: 6

Teams Represented: 6
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 1 (Team Sticker Royals)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 3 (Royals, Carter, Guidry)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7.5 out of 10 OK pictures, great design, no team logo.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, good blue, black, and white color pattern, full career stats, no team logo.
Player Selection: 7.5 out of 10 Good, all relevant players to the 80's.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Single up the middle. Half keepers and good players on the non keepers makes this pack a hit. I very much like the design of these cards and wish they did a full card set in this style.

Thanks for Reading!

1983 Donruss Hall Of Fame Heroes

2010-08-28T21:25:00.001-04:00

Hello all. Today I have a pack of 1983 Donruss Hall Of Fame Heroes coming out of it's wrapper just for you all to see. There is another one to see over at A Pack To Be Named Later.

1983 Donruss Hall Of Fame Heroes

#43 Mickey Mantle Puzzle card (Yankees)

#33 Carl Hubbell (Giants)

#12 Lou Boudreau (Indians)

#2 Walter Johnson (Senators)

#36 Bob Feller (Indians)

#26 Bill Dickey (Yankees)

#16 Hank Greenberg (Tigers)

#6 Jackie Robinson (Dodgers)

Mickey Mantle Puzzle Pieces (#'s 49, 50, 51)

A couple of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 9

Teams Represented: 6
Rookie Cards: n/a
Sub Sets: n/a
Parallels: n/a
Inserts: 1 (Puzzle)
Hits: n/a
Keepers for Me: All!

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 9 out of 10 Great pictures drawn by Dick Perez, Excellent layout and design.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, simple yet fitting for the card style, great write up on the player, can't go wrong with red, white, and blue.
Player Selection: 9.5 out of 10 Great, all HOFers.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: 2 RBI Double down the line. I love this set and I have decided to try and build this 44 card set as well as the puzzle. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Check out the other pack over on A Pack To Be Named Later and a more detailed description of the set over on BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet.

Thanks for Reading!

2004 Fleer Inscribed Hobby Edition

2010-08-27T18:53:00.000-04:00

Welcome again to BA Benny's Pack Rip Cafe. Today I have a pack of 2004 Fleer Inscribed Hobby Edition for you all to enjoy. I got these in the mail for subscribing to Sports Card Girl's newsletter. If you believe her or not as far as her collecting passion or if you think it's just a gimmick to sell cards, you can't go wrong with a free pack of cards.

2004 Fleer Inscribed Hobby Edition

#9 Andruw Jones (Braves)

#39 Scott Posednick (Brewers)

#19 Magglio Ordonez (White Sox)

#64 Brett Boone (Mariners)

#34 Jeff Bagwell (Astros)

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

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, all action shots, the player portion of the pictures has a nice gloss, small team logo.
Back Design: 6 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, only last 5 years of stats plus total, a bit plain.
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Fly Out to deep left. I really wanted this pack to be a hit as I love the fronts on these cards but no keepers, inserts, hits, parallels, rookie cards, and only base cards make it an out.

2006 Fleer Hobby Edition

2010-08-26T21:05:00.000-04:00

Hey again everybody. Today The Pack Rip Cafe offers up a pack of 2006 Fleer (Hobby Edition) for your viewing pleasure.

2006 Fleer Hobby Edition

#202 Todd Jones (Tigers)

#287 Kevin Mench (Rangers)

#66 Rafael Furcal (Dodgers)

#253 Trever Hoffman (Padres)

Not a bad group of players to start out the pack.

#32 Danny Haren (A's)

Lumber Company #LC-3 Alex Rodriguez (Yankees)

#59 Jeff Francoeur (Braves)

Not to shabby of a trio. The Lumber Company inserts are very nice looking.

#348 Craig Monroe (Tigers)

#127 Claudio Vargas (D-Backs)

#382 Mark Buehrle (White Sox)

Three pretty good players to round out the pack.

Two of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 10

Teams Represented: 9
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 1 (Lumber Company)
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (A-Rod, the rest are up for grabs)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7 out of 10 Good pictures, all game action shots, team logos, old school type of design.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, large team logo, only up to 5 years of stats, old school type of design.
Player Selection: 7.5 out of 10 Good mix of established players.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Infield Single. A nice mix of players, a great looking insert keeper, and a design I like squeaks out a hit.

Thanks for Reading!

1987 Topps

2010-08-25T18:37:00.000-04:00

We are going back to the 80's today here on BA Benny's Pack Rip Cafe. Today we have a nice wax pack of 1987 Topps to rip open.

1987 Topps

#34 Jose Rijo (A's)

#404 Doug Zisk (Mets)

#196 Randy O'Neal (Tigers)

I love when you get a player on another team you didn't know they played for. I remember Rijo as a Reds player, not an A or even the fact he cane up with the Yankees.

#560 Glenn Davis (Astros)

#249 Jim Pankovits (Astros)

#309 Mike Young (Orioles)

Glenn Davis is the only player of these three I remember. He was a great player for the Astros before ending his career with the Orioles.

#32 Tim Leary (Brewers)

#500 Don Mattingly (Yankees)

#750 Steve Trout (Cubs)

Can Never go wrong with a Donny Baseball card even though I have several of these already.

#218 Sparkey Anderson (Tigers)

#697 Ed Lynch (Cubs)

Turn Back The Clock #312 Reggie Jackson (Yankees)

The Turn back the Clock subset was a favorite of mine. If I remember correctly, Reggie Jackson's base card for the set was him on the Angels.

#772 Harold Baines (White Sox)

#501 Craig Lefferts (Padres)

#427 Ed Nunez (Mariners)

Harold Baines had a 22 year career with five teams that began and ended with the White Sox.

#157 Danny Darwin (Astros)

#14 Dave Stewart (A's)

Spring Training Sweepstakes card

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 17

Teams Represented: 11
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 1 (Turn Back The Clock)
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 4 ( Zisk, Sparkey, Jackson, Mattingly)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7.5 out of 10 Good pictures (some posed and some action), nice wood grain design, team logo.
Back Design: 7 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, good player info, gallery notes has interesting player facts, Another factoid related to the picture on front, only 1999 stats (broken down by each month).
Player Selection: 7 out of 10 Good. Most of these players had established lengthy careers.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Single over second base. 4 keepers and a good selection of well known players in their era. I also was a fan of the wood grain design of this classic set.

Thanks For Reading!

2005 Topps Updates and Highlights Hobby Edition

2010-08-23T15:47:00.003-04:00

Hey all. Today I have an Updates and Highlights Hobby Edition pack from 2005 Topps. This is one of two I have ripped. Check out the other one over at A Pack To Be Named Later.

2005 Topps Updates and Highlights Hobby Edition

#UH12 Woody Williams (Padres)

Prospect #UH92 Ervin Santana (Angels)

RC #UH226 C.J. Smith (Orioles)

#UH36 Ryan Langerhans (Braves)

#UH48 Shawn Estes (D-Backs)

#UH77 Jeff Cirillo (Brewers)

Home Run Derby #UH197 Carlos Lee (Brewers)

2005 All-Star #UH194 Chris Carpenter (Cardinals)

Prospect #UH91 Homer Bailey (Reds)

Postseason Highlights #UH130 Roy Oswalt (Astros)

Some backs

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 10

Teams Represented: 9
Rookie Cards: 1 (Smith)
Sub Sets: 4 (Prospects, Postseason, All-Star, and Home Run Derby)
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 0 (All are available)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 8 out of 10 Good pictures (some posed and some action), team colors represented, good use of foil.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, team logo on some cards, full career stats, good layout.
Player Selection: 6.5 out of 10 Good, decent prospects and all-stars.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Fly Out to center field. Some good players and nice design are not enough to over come no keepers or true superstars.

Check out the other pack over on A Pack To Be Named Later, I think it might be better.

Thanks for Reading!

2004 Yak Pack

2010-08-19T17:42:00.002-04:00

Hey again all. Today I have kind of an odd pack to feature here on the Pack Rip Cafe. It is called a Yak Pack. These were repacks of cards from assorted years and brands. It appears they were used to promote a calling service for long distance company. Also featured is Rollie Fingers on the wrapper to promote a contest inside to win a trip to the World Series with him in 2004. That is the only reference to a year so I am assuming that is when they were released. I am not sure if other players were featured as well.

2004 Yak Pack

1982 Topps #726 Amos Otis (Royals)

1991 Score #369 Jeff McKnight (Orioles)

1998 Leaf #126 Darryl Kile (Astros)

Amos Otis had a nice career with the Royals. I like the design on the 98 Leaf.

1984 Topps #259 Sparkey Anderson (Tigers)

1982 Topps K-Mart #24 of 44 Pete Rose (Reds)

1981 Fleer #112 Don Sutton (Dodgers)

1984 Topps #441 Bob Lillis (Astros)

2 cool manager cards and a Rose fit into my collecting goals and Sutton was one of the underated greats.

For some reason they made the wrapper much taller then the cards.

Here are the contest / adds inside the pack.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 7

~~Teams~~ Years Represented: 6
Rookie Cards: 0
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 3 (Rose, Anderson, Lillis)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: N/A
Back Design: N/A
Player Selection: 6.5 out of 10 Good

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Single. 3 of 7 keepers with a good player selection make this pack a hit. I didn't know this was a repack since it was behind the glass of the Vend-O-Pack machine so I am glad they at least had some good players inside.

Thanks for Reading!

2002 Topps Series 2 Hobby Edition

2010-08-18T18:45:00.000-04:00

Welcome back to the Pack Rip Cafe. Today we are back to baseball with a pack of 2002 Topps. I grabbed 2 of these out of the Vend-O-Pack machine a while back. I will do one here and one over on A Pack To Be Named Later.

2002 Topps Series 2 Hobby Edition

#486 Kyle Farnsworth (Cubs)

#447 Scott Speizio (Angels)

#551 Ugeth Urbina (Red Sox)

#493 Mark Johnson (White Sox)

No great shakes on the first four.

Prospects RC #679 Chris Tritle (A's)

#445 Orlando Hernandez (Yankees)

#524Terry Adams (Phillies)

Ho Hum, well at least a Yankee for the book.

#471 Brady Anderson (Indians)

#633 Jermaine Dye (A's)

#432 Erubiel Durazo (D-Backs)

I do like these older sets when I see players on teams I didn't know they played on. Dye and Anderson in this group.

A couple of the backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 10

Teams Represented: 9
Rookie Cards: 1 (Tritle)
Sub Sets: 1 (Prospects)
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 1 (Hernandez)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7.75 out of 10 Nice in game pictures , nice design, team logo, not a great color for the borders.
Back Design: 8 out of 10 Nice design, team logo, good player fact, full career stats, easy to read print, same not so great color for the borders.
Player Selection: 5 out of 10 Fair

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Pop Out to third base. No Mets, inserts, parallels, or hits. One Yankee puts the bat on the ball but not much comes of it. Not a great pack overall.

2009 Topps WWE

2010-08-16T18:38:00.000-04:00

Hello all. I am back with my first non-baseball pack here on BA Benny's Pack Rip Cafe. I picked up some WWE Wrestling packs for fun from the 2009 Topps set. They are very similar to the baseball design. I don't collect wrestling except for a very few of my favorites so I didn't figure to get any keepers from these. Let's take a look.

2009 Topps WWE Wrestling

Jillian

Chris Jericho

ToppsTown Ted DiBiase

Legends of the Ring Junk Yard Dog

Ringside Relic Ted DiBiase Event Worn Shirt

All five backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:
Total Cards: 5 (Should be 7 but relic packs have 5)

~~Teams~~ Wrestlers Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: ?
Sub Sets: 0
Parallels: 0
Inserts: 2 (ToppsTown and Legends of the Ring).
Hits: 1 (Event worn shirt)
Keepers for Me: 0 (All are up for trade)

MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7.5 out of 10 Good pictures, nice design, same as 09 baseball
Back Design: 5 out of 10 OK design, not a lot of info, no stats lot of blank space .
~~Player~~ Wrestler Selection: 7 out of 10 Good.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Lead off Triple. A hit of a heavily promoted wrestler and an insert of a great wrestler from my youth (JYD) Makes this a great pack. Jericho is a future HOFer too. No keepers for me keeps this from being a home run.

2008 Topps Jumbo Series 1 and 2010 Topps Jumbo Series 2

2010-08-13T16:22:00.001-04:00

Hello again all. Today I have my first video pack rips on the Cafe. I figured since I was doing a video, I would do two packs. Here we have a 2008 Topps Jumbo Series 1 and 2010 Topps Jumbo Series 2 for your viewing pleasure.

Here are the inserts and hit from the 2 packs.

The hat patch is sharp looking. All but the Marris, Wright, Bay, and Munson are available for trade.

I hope you enjoyed the video.

Thanks for Watching!