Pack Wars Breakdown!

Things have been slow here at Waiting 'til Next Year headquarters due to two main factors: I watch more Cubs baseball when they're playing well AND I'm still sorting through my estate sale find from a couple of months ago. I dare say I'm almost done and packages will start being shipped out early next week.  Woo-Hoo!

Meanwhile Gavin, the terrifically talented custom creator and curator of Baseball Card Breakdown, dropped an unexpected package on me the other day. I follow just over one hundred different blogs, but I read Gavin's any time I see a post show in my blog roll feed. He's always coming up with something cool to blog about and I know someday Topps (or another company) is going to swoop in and steal him away from us.  But until then we all get to benefit from his creativity!

 I'm a big fan of the sepia chrome cards and I love the Luminescent Triumvirate card of Kerry Wood. The only question now is if I should make the effort to track down the Sosa and Grace that go along with it. For the time being, this one will find a home in my Kerry Wood binder, as the 461st different card in my collection of Kid K.

Man, Dexter Fowler is a great fit for this team. When the entire baseball world thought Dexter signed with Baltimore I was so stressed about who was going to play center field and who was going to lead off.

 Then he showed up to Cubs camp in Arizona and surprised everyone. His smile is infectious and he seems to be a great teammate. This autograph overlay is just awesome and I couldn't be happier to add this Gavin creation to my relic and auto box. I thinking I'm smiling as big as Dex right now!

And now on to the pack war.  Lots of pictures and little commentary folks, because there are lots of cards!

I mentioned that I would like the wrapper from one of Gavin's pack breaks and I'm glad he remembered. The thickness of the Ryno pack is about the same as a 1991 Fleer wax pack and 2015 Topps Series 2 pack combined. I'm hope I'm right!

 Schwarber Smash! He's rehabbing his knee, but even so, a bunch of wax covered stickers are no match for Schwarber! 1-0.

 Rizzo on a leader card versus Bedrosian without the beard? Where's the beard? Seriously? 2-0.

 Starlin, minus the bubble, takes out Tom Browning. 3-0.

Hammel-time! Not even a failed prospect, like Ricky Jordan, can defeat Jason Hammel! 4-0.

 Hendricks has been dealing as of late. Solid #5 for the Cubs rotation!  5-0.

 Miggy Mon, #WeAreGood, against future Cub closer Mel Rojas and his powder blues. Meh. 6-0.

 Chris Coghlan floating through the clouds! 7-0

 Seriously? Jake Arrieta versus Gary Wayne. It could be John Wayne and Arrieta wouldn't even flinch. 8-0.

 Lester is finally starting to live up to that contract. Belliard was known for weak contact. 9-0.

 I think Ramon Martinez would have been a good challenge for Anthony Rizzo. But Rizzo is the face of the franchise. 10-0.  By the way, I needed all of these Series 1 Cubs!

 Soler's bat is starting to come around, which makes me smile. Dude has serious offensive potential. Even Ken Williams, past GM of the White Sox, could recognize that. 11-0.

 Another Arrieta!  Hot pack!  12-0.

 The Reds won the World Series in 1990, so it's not surprising that I get 2/5 of the their starting rotation in one pack. It's also not surprising this pack has been all Cubs so far. 13-0.

 Goose!  Enough said. 14-0.

I'm not a fan of Clark. I like how the Cubs use him in the public, but I wish he was more like Orbit, the Phillie Phanatic, or Pirate's Parrot. Pity point to the Fleer pack, because it's been a while since I sent a card to the Tim Wallach blogger. 14-1. There goes the perfect game.

It's time for 2015 Topps Series 2, but the Gavin pack already has this thing sewn up.

 A Met? Gross. History of Wrigley. Neat! 15-1.

 I'm building the Wrigley Insert Set, and now am down to five cards, plus an extra Sandberg for my player collection of him. Here's a link to the want list. Ryno wins. Every. Time. 16-1

 Sweet Swinging Mark Grace! 17-1. Odd, Grace wore #17.

 Rizzo doing his thing and a former Cub in Ryan Flaherty. Rizzo! 18-1

 Whoa. Unexpected match up here! I love Russell, but I'll never turn down another Bryant. 18-2.

 Cool Mike Trout insert. 18-3.

 Custom Bryant in the Hostess design against a Padres buyback? KB gets the win, and it's not even close. 19-3

Here's the back for those of you who are interested.

VOGELMONSTER!  Woo-Hoo!  Man! What a great photo of him, and I'm a huge fan of the '89 Upper Deck set!

Move over Griffey, there's a new #1 in the house!

Gavin puts such effort into his customs.  This one will be treasured for sure!  Thanks, Gavin!

Last match-up:

 I'm working on the Conlon set and went to check this one off when I found it had no number on the back.  Turns out to be another custom from Gavin!  Ha!  He got me!  Schoendienst, Burdette and Hammerin' Hank versus Crush david, Moreland, and Man Bear Puig. The win goes to the Conlon because Hall of Famers are cool.

Final score: 1,354,641 to 3. I think the '89 UD VOGELMONSTER may have broken the score board.

Thanks for the great stack of cards, Gavin.  I've been working on a package for you and it'll hit the post office sometime next week!