2009 O-Pee-Chee presented by Upper Deck

Hey all. I'm back with a pack of 2009 O-Pee-Chee presented by Upper Deck as the wrapper says. These came 6 cards per pack.

2009 O-Pee-Chee

#166 Felipe Lopez (D-Backs)

#550 Moments Jonathan Papelbon (Red Sox)

#191 Ryan Madson (Phillies)

#192 Hideki Okajima (Red Sox)

#330 BLACK Bordered Jake Peavy (Padres)

#434 Jody Gerut (Padres)

Three backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:

Total Cards: 6
Teams Represented: 4
Rookie Cards: 0
Parallels: 1
Inserts: 0
Hits: 0
Keepers for Me: 0 (All are up for grabs)
MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 6 out of 10. Simple classic design, nice position in baseball logo, no team logos,OK photography.
Back Design: 5 out of 10. Decent write up on player, full career stats, team logo,  black and white with one color border, good layout.
Player Selection: 4.5 out of 10. OK player mix, some stars.

FINAL OVERALL RATING: Pop Out to shortstop.

An OK product that tries to capture the old school look with the modern parallels and such. Seems boring to me.
I will be doing another one of these packs on A Pack To Be Named Later in the next day or so so check to see if is any better then this one. They are also running a cool 90's wax contest so get on in.

Thanks for Reading!

2007 Topps Flashback Fridays

Welcome back to BA Benny's Pack Rip Cafe. Today I have a  Starter pack from the 2007 Topps Flashback Fridays set. This was a 25 card set that HTA shops gave out. These starter packs had cards 1 thru 5 and then each subsequent card was given out week by week until all 25 cards were issued.

2007 Topps Flashback Fridays

FF1 Ryan Howard (Phillies)

FF2 Derek Jeter (Yankees)

FF3 Ken Griffey Jr. (Reds)

FF4 Miguel Tejada (Orioles)

FF5 David Wright (Mets)

The backs

A back closeup.

BY THE NUMBERS:

Total Cards: 5

Teams Represented: 5

Rookie Cards: 0

Parallels / Refractors: N/A

Inserts: N/A

Hits: N/A

Keepers for Me: N/A

MY RATINGS:

Front Design: 7 out of 10. + Cool art background, nice design. - No team logos or colors.

Back Design: 6  out of 10.+ Nice write up on player's career, good layout. - No team logo, no picture, no stats, no color.

Player Selection: Very Good. All good players.

FINAL OVERALL RATING:
Hard hit single. Hard to rate a starter pack since they are all the same. I liked putting the set together so naturally I like the cards. It was like an insert set without having to by the packs.

Thanks for Reading!

2008 Topps Finest (Hobby Only) pack 2

Hello again all. I am back with a pack of 2008 Topps Finest (Hobby Only) for the Cafe. This is pack #2, pack #1 is featured on A Pack To Be Named Later as my first contribution to a cool spot out here in Blogoland. That pack rated a single, lets see if this one can do better.

2008 Topps Finest

#56 John Smoltz (Braves)

#65 Grady Sizemore (Indians)

A nice start, a future HOFer and a solid player.

#21 Chase Utley (Phillies)

#FM-ROH Finest Moments Roy Halladay (Blue Jays)

An all-star and a sweet insert.

#153 Chin-Lung Hu (Dodgers) AUTO

A hit! Not a player I collect but a great on card auto.

Three backs.

BY THE NUMBERS:

Total Cards: 5
Teams Represented: 5
Rookie Cards: 1
Parallels / Refractors: 0
Inserts: 1
Hits: 1
Keepers for Me: 0 (all are up for trade)
MY RATINGS:
Front Design: 7.5 out of 10. +Very shiny, good photos, nice design. - No team logo, cards curled a little.
Back Design: 7 out of 10.+ Nice write up on player highlight from 2007, good layout. - No team logo, no picture, only one year stats.
Player Selection: Very Good. All good players with a two future HOFers,
FINAL OVERALL RATING:
Triple down the line. An on card auto, 2 future HOFers, a nice insert, no keepers.

Hope you liked it. Tell everybody what you think. Check out pack #1 on A Pack To Be Named Later.

Thanks For Reading!

2006 Upper Deck Series Two

I am back today with a pack of 2006 Upper Deck Series Two. These come with 8 cards per pack.

2006 UPPER DECK Series Two

#891 Jason Bay (Pirates) Checklist

#835 D'Angelo Jimenez (Rangers)

#901 Macay McBride RC (Braves)

#984 Brian Wilson RC (Giants)

#528 Corey Patterson (Orioles)

#653 Jason Bulger RC (Angels)

#720 Kyle Farnsworth (Yankees)

#584 Eduardo Perez (Indians)

Some Backs

BY THE NUMBERS:

Total Cards:  8

Teams Represented:  8

Rookie Cards:  3

Parallels:  0

Inserts:  0

Hits:  0

Keepers for Me:  1 (Farnsworth, the rest are up for grabs)

MY RATINGS:

Front Design: 5 out of 10. OK team logos, can't read player names very well, simple layout, ok photography.

Back Design: 7 out of 10. Nice write up on player, full career stats, nice team logo, good layout.

Player Selection: 3 out of 10. No Mets, one so-so Yankee, few other stars except Bay, 3 rookies I don't know much about after 4 years.

FINAL OVERALL RATING:  Foul Out on first base side.

Overall not a very exciting pack. One Yankee keeper and a couple of  notable players leave little to be excited about.

Thanks For Reading!

2008 SP Authentic

Back again with another pack today. After the last pack (91 Leaf) was so bad I had to come back with another and hope it was better. I will try with this pack of 2008 SP Authentic. Five cards per pack only leaves only a few chances.

2008 SP Authentic

#82 Ryan Zimmerman (Nationals)

#29 Joe Blanton (A's)

#55 Alex Rios (Blue Jays)

Three nice players already beats the last pack.

Marque Matchups #MM-21 Hanley Ramirez/Pedro Martinez (Marlins/Mets)

#77Dontrelle Willis (Tigers)

Nice, a Met and a Dontrelle, two keepers for me.

      While I am not a big SP collector due to it's price, I have to say this was a pretty good pack. All very good players, an insert, two keepers for me, and  real nice clean looking cards. I will rate this pack a Two RBI Single with an advance to second on the throw home.

Let me hear your rating!

Thanks For Reading!

     

1991 Leaf Series One

Welcome again to the Pack Rip Cafe. Today we go back to 1991 and open a pack of Leaf Series One. These came with 15 cards plus one more with 3 Harmon Killebrew puzzle pieces.

1991 Leaf Series One

1991 Leaf Series One

#163 Len Dykstra (Phillies)

#168 Barry Larkin (Reds)

#245 Pete Harnisch (Astros)

#250 Kevin Brown (Rangers)

#255 Junior Naboa (Expos)

#260 Paul Marak (Braves)

As a Met fan, it will always be Lenny Dykstra. I know somebody who may want the Larkin.

#199 Kirk McCaskill (Angels)

#204 Pedro Guerrero (Cardinals)

#149 Travis Fryman (Tigers)

#154 Duane Ward (Blue Jays)

159 Mark Knudson (Brewers)

#164 Tom Brunansky (Red Sox)

Not much to say about this group.

#169 Scott Sanderson (Yankees)

#175 Chris James (Indians)

#251 Milt Culver (Tigers)

Killabrew Puzzle Pieces 4, 5, 6.

A no big deal yankee and some shiny puzzle pieces.

Over all not a very good pack at all. No inserts, bland cards, no Mets and one  two season Yankee.

My rating is a pop out in foul territory behind the catcher. The only reason it's that high is that the Yankee had a decent winning record record in NY over the 2 seasons (28-21) and a .533 winning percentage over a 19 year career. Also 14 different teams were represented. The rest are available if anybody wants them. Tell everyone what you think in the comments section.

Thanks for Reading!

2010 Allen & Ginter (Hobby Edition)

Welcome back to the Pack Rip Cafe. Today I figured I would go with what is hot right now, a pack of 2010 Allen & Ginter Hobby Edition. I don't buy much of this product but I have jumped into a case break over at Long Fly Ball to Because to try and grab some Mets goodies. There are still spots open so check it out.

2010 Allen & Ginter (Hobby Edition)

#255 Robert Scott (Black Yankees)

#121 Francisco Rodriguez ( Mets)

#167 Dan Haren (Diamondbacks)

A good start with a Negro League player and a Mets player.

#14 Shane Victorino (Phillies)

#298 Jorge Cantu (Marlins)

#120 Nick Swisher (Yankees)

A Yankee and 2 stars.

#LO18 Lords of Olympus mini Eros

#TDH56 This Day in History Jimmy Rollins (Phillies)

The two inserts.

    I am not a huge fan of the non baseball subsets in the Ginter products and that probably is why I don't by much of it. I do like this years look very much as the background color makes a nicer card to me. Over all I think this pack is so-so and I will rate it a walk only because I got 2 keepers, K-Rod and Swisher and they added some Negro League players. The others are up for trade. Let's hear your ratings in the comments section.

Thanks for Reading!

A Pack Of 1993 Pinnacle Series 1

   Welcome to BA Benny's Pack Rip Cafe. Today I will feature a pack of 1993 Pinnacle Series 1 that I scored from the Vend-O-Pack machine as I like to call it. It cost me 75 cents and there are 15 cards in this pack. I grabbed a few of these so I will save some for down the road.

1993 Pinnacle Series 1

#90 Tom Glavine (Braves)
#95 Omar Vizquel (Mariners)

#2 Cal Eldred (Brewers)

#289 Now and Then Tony Gwynn (Padres)

#161 Dean Palmer (Rangers)

#309 Hometown Heroes Darryl Strawberry (Dodgers)

#10 of 10 Team Pinnacle Joe Carter AL & Larry Walker NL (on back)

#110 Ken Griffey Jr. (Mariners)

#181 Bud Black (Giants)

#179 Dale Valle (Mariners)

#201 Chuck Finley (Angels)

#18 Eddie Murray (Mets)

#199 Ron Darling (A's)

#231 Walt Weiss (Marlins) Expansion Draft

#235 Bryan Harvey (Marlins) Expansion Draft

These cards have a nice simple design with just a little foil to dress them up a bit and I like the photography of mostly in game action shots. In a time where there weren't so many insert sets, the subsets numbered in the regular checklist are nice. An interesting thing too is that the wrappers have different players on front and different offers/information on back.

I got 3 packs with 3 different fronts and backs.

I got 4 keepers out of this pack. Murray, Gwynn, Griffey, and Strawberry. The rest are up for grabs.

Rating: I will rate this one a infield single. The 4 keepers are great players and a few others as well plus an insert with 4 others in subsets gets this pack the cheapest of hits, but at least it's a hit.

Thanks for Reading!