Pack Wars: '15 Opening Day vs. Zippy Zappy RePack

I believe this is my third episode of Pack Wars in succession, and all of them have been fueled by the super generous blogger, Zippy Zappy.

This time around we have a 2015 Topps Opening Day pack versus an Asia Edition Bowman ZZ RePack.  This should be interesting!

Round 1: 

Cargo versus a chrome refractor of the retired Adrian Cardenas.  Would you believe this is my fourth copy of this Cardenas card?  A point for Opening Day for bring purple back.

OD = 1
ZZ = 0


Round 2: 

An injured Cliff Lee pitted against a shiny Starlin!  Easy decision here!

OD = 1
ZZ = 1


Round 3: 

 The battle of the horizontals!  I think I had Ian Kinsler on my fantasy roster the last four seasons, but I was able to snag Kipnis this year in the draft, which has turned out to be a stellar move.  So, in recap . . . Not Jason Kipnis against Kyle Freakin' Schwarber!  OD takes a punch to the gut on this one.

OD = 1
ZZ = 2


Round 4: 

I feel like I should know more about Oswaldo Arcia, but I don't.  Carl Edwards, Jr. has been a regular in these Zippy Zappy repacks, but this All-Star card with him on the Hickory Crawdads is the bee's knees!

OD = 1
ZZ = 3


Round 5: 

More purple versus an Asian Edition Carl Edwards, Jr.!  Holy Smokes!  They're like regular Bowman cards, but they're not. I'm really digging the charcoal-ish border.  I think I shall dub these Jet Lag Parallels. You know, because I'm sure Zippy Zappy suffered through some serious Jet Lag to bring these back to the States.

OD = 1
ZZ = 4


Round 6:

I am NOT a Papelbon fan and I really hope Theo doesn't trade for him in the next two months. There have been rumors.  Ugh.   This would be an easy win for just about any card, but a Eloy Jiminez Jet Lap Parallel makes this a no-doubter!

OD = 1
ZZ = 5

Round 7:

Man, Gallardo was traded to Texas in the middle of January and the release date for Opening Date was a good ten weeks down the road.  I guess it takes more than ten weeks to print and package new product?  Another Jet Lag Parallel and this time it is of flamethrower Dylan Cease.  These Jet Lag parallels are all going straight to the Cubs binder!

OD = 1
ZZ = 6

This was a pretty lopsided victory for the Zippy Zappy repack, but I guess that's because ZZ really knows my collecting tastes!  Congrats on another victory, Zippy Zappy!

Speaking of my tastes.  I like family restaurants:

 

I've never seen these before.  Pretty neat!

Here's the remainder of the cards from the paddle yellow envelope which were NOT repacked:

 Another fabulous Carl Edwards, and this one is numbered to 25!  Man, I just want to put a little bend in his bill and clip those laces hanging off his glove.

 The blue border chrome autograph of the aforementioned fire baller!  What a beautiful card.  I may have to turn into a Dylan Cease super collector now, because this is a nice start on a rainbow.  Bwhahahahaha!

 And lastly, a Dexter Fowler autograph from Panini Prizm.  

  The whole no license thing doesn't bother me here, because I'm much happier not being subjected to the Astros' logo.  I sure do hope the Cubs bring back Dexter for another go around in 2016. He's really done a nice job at the top of the order.

Zippy, thanks for such a thoughtful package!  You hit on a bunch of different threads within my collection AND gave me plenty of blogging material in the process!  I'll have something I think you'll like out to you before too long.  Thanks again!

ZZ Pack Wars Vol. 2: Star Wars vs. '92 Stadium Club Members Only Cello Pack

 Zippy Zappy really unloaded on me in that last package.  I still have enough material for two more posts after this Pack War between a 1992 Topps Stadium Club Members Only cello pack and his Star Wars jumbo re-pack.  I picked the cello pack out of a 6 for $5 bin at a card show earlier this year. Knowing that I hit at least one Cub when making the purchase was a definite bonus.

I'm feeling a little squirrely this morning so I'm going with a different scoring system.  Hold on to your hats!

Round 1:

+10 Members Only: Cubs jackets are uber-cool
+10 Zippy Zappy: Bowman Chrome Cubs prospect (+10), in photo-shopped uniform (-5), with last name made for beat writers to have fun with in future sports columns (+5)
 

+10 Members Only: Hall of Famer! (+20), but it's a Cardinal (-10)
+20 Zippy Zappy: Psychedelic vintage (+15) with palm trees in the back ground (+5)
 

+25 Members Only: Hall of Famer (+20) capturing one of the most beautiful swings in the history of the game (+5)
+20 Zippy Zappy: Cubs first legitimate pitching prospect under the Theo regime (+15) who was just promoted to AAA (+5)

+5 Members Only: Kevin Gross? Meh.  Mustaches are glorious. (+5)
+5 Zippy Zappy:  Mini! (+10)  Marco is not longer a Cub. (-5)

+5 Members Only: I'm not a big fan of still shots, but this card is beautiful.
-50 Zippy Zappy: Justin Bieber? Wow, ZZ takes a big hit with this one.  NOT A FAN OF THE BIEBS.

+30 Members Only: Hall of Famer (+20) with switching hitting double action shot (+10)
+67 Zippy Zappy: Bushy eyebrows x1 (+7), mustaches x4 (+5) on vintage x4! (+10)

+27 Members Only: Great action shot of a Hall of Fame (+20) pitcher mid wind-up (+7). Mustache (+5).  Why does baseball not have more teams with green in their uniform? (-5)
+43 Zippy Zappy: New Ryno for collection (+25), hall of famer (+20), Starlin +3, unlicensed product (-5)

+15 Members Only: Crime Dog and Sheff sharing a card in Padres garb?  Yes, please!
+14 Zippy Zappy: Rizzo (+4) and my first Fowler in a Cubs uniform (+10)

+35 Members Only: Member of the Hall (+20), celebration shot before they were popular on cardboard (+5), scoreboard with information information in background (+5), scoreboard mustache (+5)
+20 Zippy Zappy: Blue parallel (+10), orange parallel (+15), no longer a Cub (-5)

+25 Members Only: Beautiful George Brett Card, celebrating (+5), Hall of Fame (+20)
+20 Zippy Zappy: Gioskar Amaya is being converted to catcher and one of my favorites when I visited Kane County x2 (+10).  Possible new PC?

+3 Members Only: Cool rainbows on the sleeves.
+20 Zippy Zappy: Mendy!  He's one of my faves x2 (+10)!  Free Mendy from AAA!

 -10 Members Only: Mickey Morandini tried to fill Sandberg's shoes the second time Ryno retired. I never gave him a chance.
+5 Zippy Zappy: All duplicates, but all Almora.  Good prospect, but you'll find him way down my personal list.

-5 Members Only: Really poor centering vertically of the 1990 saves leader
+5 Zippy Zappy: Vintage (+10) with boring gray border (-5)

+20 Members Only: Hall of Fame player.
+15 Zippy Zappy: Desperately needed 80's team sticker!  Woot! 
 

+0 Members Only:  Bip! (+5)  But, there's only one. (-5)  I would have preferred a Bipping!
+50 Zippy Zappy: Purple VOGELMONSTER!  Ahhhhhhhh!

Let's tally up the scores.  Based upon match-ups, the Zippy Zappy packs went 7-6-2.  That's pretty close.

In terms of points, the Stadium Club Members Only cello pack managed 195 points before the last round and found itself only behind 19 points to the Zippy Zappy pack. So, a Hall of Famer certainly could have boosted its chances for a win, but Bip Roberts is not a member of The Hall.

VOGELMONSTER came up clutch and captured the win for the Zippy Zappy repack: 246 to 195. 

Thanks for the cards, Zippy Zappy!

Pack War - Zippy Zappy Style!

It's been quite some time since I last hosted a pack war on my humble little blog, but Zippy Zappy sent me a boat load of cards and I've been sitting on some unopened packs for a while.

So, let's do this!

I'll try to keep the commentary short, and I'm going to keep score off to the side.  Feel free to play along and see if you finish with the same final score that I do.  Sounds fun, no?

The Zippy Zappy pack is a Star Wars jumbo pack, but I have a hunch I won't find any cards of Luke or Vader. I have two packs of 1994 O-Pee-Chee which I think should match up well in quantity. 

Here we go!

A different Dave Roberts than the one I'm familiar with versus Pudge.

Welly!  He's a former Peoria Chief, but he was just traded to Seattle. Bryan Harvey was a member of my fantasy league team back in '91. He was a stud that year.

Donnie, Cub fans hardly new ya!  Ed Sprague has two World Series rings and an All-Star appearance.

 Gutierrez is a former Cub and Dave Rader's glove appears to be HUGE!

I was a big fan of Geo when he played on the north side of Chicago.  J.R. Phillips given name is Charles Gene Phillips.  How do you get J.R. out of that?

Wrinkly vintage.  'Nough said. 

C.J. Ewards just recently decided to go by Carl. This just in: Eddie Murray was a damn good ball player, but looks weird in an Indians uniform.

A chrome Justin Steele.  Man, I love my Cubs pitching prospects.  Sammy owned a boom box and played it obnoxiously loud in the crowded Wrigley locker room. Who destroyed Sosa's boom box is a mystery to this day.  It's no grassy knoll, but it's still fun to think about.

 Villanueva is now buried behind that Kris Bryant guy on the organizational depth chart.  I always enjoyed watching Jay Bell play shortstop.  He was a smooth operator.

Refractory Blackburn versus a guy who won 27 games in 1990 for the Athletics.  Why do I know these oddball statistics off the top of my head?

Jake Stinnett has the makings of a good number three pitcher.  Ramon is Pedro's older brother.

Zagunis hasn't played one inning at catcher this year, but he is tearing it up at Myrtle Beach with 0.434 OBP.  When I think of defensive catchers Benito is at the top of the list with Pudge Rodriguez and Johnny Bench. 

For the record, all the matches have been pretty easy for me to pick a winner until the one above. 


Another lefty prospect pitted against a guy who deserves to be in The Hall.  Rock.  Great nickname!

Karros played really well for the Cubs in 2003. But . . .   Kyle. Freaking. Schwarber.  (Oh, and Jake Stinnett.)

Green on green is not a great combo for '75 Topps.  Kirby Puckett played for Bradley University in P-town!

Definitely a better looking '75, and John Jaha says, "Haha!"

A mustache-less Mike Greenwell.  WTF?  Dylan Cease is back from TJ Surgey and reportedly hit 98 on the gun.

A Bowman paper Justin Steele versus the all-or-nothing swing of Mickey Tettleton.  Nice match-up for this Cub fan. 

One of these cards goes into the trade box under "2 by 3 Heroes" and the other fills a vacant slot in the first page of one of my Cubs binders. 

 Ahhh!  An all Cub match-up!  One day I learned the Cubs signed Guzman as a free agent, then I realized it wasn't Juan Guzman and I was NOT happy.

I got bipped!  Is Duda that good?  I've been ignoring the Mets for a couple of years now.

Holy Cow!  A Mike Olt minor league All-Star card versus a Barry Larkin?  Man.  I may be the only who favors the non HOF player in this match-up.  But, hey.  It's my blog!

Bipped again!  By none other than Eric the Red Tiger?   Love me some Starlin!

Vogelmonster versus the rest of the second O-Pee-Chee pack which includes a checklist a near Hall-of-Famer in Trammell and two recently inducted Hall-of-Famers!  Wow.  I talk a lot about the Vogelmonster on this blog, but I think he may have bit off more than he can chew!

That's the end, folks!  There were twenty-four match-ups in all and here's what I have for a final score:
Zippy Zappy Star Wars = 13
1994 O-Pee-Chee = 11

Another win for the re-pack master, Zippy Zappy!

I was actually fairly pleased withe O-Pee-Chee cards.  I had some really good players and some nice photographs, like the Benito Santiago.

If you're curious how I voted, here's the winners for each round:
1. Pudge
2. Harvey
3. Sprague
4. Rader (ZZ)
5. Soto (ZZ)
6. Vintage (ZZ)
7. Murray
8. Steele (ZZ)
9. Bell
10. Welch
11. Stinnett (ZZ)
12. Benito
13. Rock Raines
14. SCHWARBER (ZZ)
15. Puckett
16. John Jaha says Haha!
17. Cease (ZZ)
18. Steele (ZZ)
19. Sticker (ZZ)
20. Cubs Celebration (ZZ)
21. Rizzo (ZZ)
22. Olt (ZZ) beats Larkin; sorry Nahos Grande!
23. Castro (ZZ)
24. Trammell, Biggio, and the Big Hurt

Thanks for the great re-pack, Zippy Zappy!  I have a couple of more Zippy Zappy themed pack wars planned.  Hold tight!