One More Pack

2015 Topps Platinum Hobby Box: Opened on 4/28/2016

April 28, 2016May 8, 2016GimmeSomeJimmyBreaks

This is my third box of 2015 Topps Platinum. Once again I’m hoping for a big hit or to complete my set. Here are the box details.

Product: 2015 Topps Platinum Hobby Box
Purchased: Online
Packs: 20 (5 cards each)
Promised Hits: Two Autographed Rookies, One Autographed Rookie/Veteran Patch, Five X-Fractor, One Refractor Parallel Rookie, One Platinum Die-Cut.
Base Set: 100 Veterans & 50 Rookies

First hit: Stefon Diggs Sapphire Refractor
Diggs Saphire

Second Hit: Rookie Auto Devante Davis
Devante Davis Auto

Third Hit: Jeff Heuerman Rookie Auto Pulsar Refractor 20/50
(Nice hit, too bad it’s not a bigger name.)
Jeff Heuerman Auto Pulsar

Fourth Hit: Maxx Williams Black Refractor 34/50
(This seems to be a bonus hit. Great looking card.)

Fifth Hit: Ameer Abdullah Die Cut (PDC-AA)
Ameer Abdulah DieCut

Sixth Hit: Jeremy Hill Veteran Auto Refractor 047/205
(Another pretty big hit here. I seem to have a mini Jeremy Hill collection going.)
$Jeremy Hill Auto Patch Refractor$

X-Fractors Rookies (x5)

$Rookie Xfractors$

Box Summary
20 Gold Parallels (No Duplicates)
20 Rookies (No Duplicates)
5 – X-Fractor Rookies
5 – Promised hits
1 – Bonus Hit (Maxx Williams Black #/50)
47 Base Cards (No Duplicates)

Set Completion Summary
BASE: 92% (138 of 150)
GOLD: 51% (51 of 100)
18 X-Fractor Rookies (1 duplicate)
11 Flame “Orange” Refractor Rookies
4 Die-Cut Platinum Players

On the 3^rd box I got a few bigger hits, but no Winston or Mariota, and unfortunately still no Buffalo Bills hit. It didn’t help much on finishing my base set as there was not one card I needed to complete the set, but a few gold cards I still needed. I guess a bunch more for trade. Like I said last time the thing I really love about these boxes is that there has yet to be a duplicate in a box. This is not always the case when opening boxes. I’m really enjoying this set and can’t wait to crack open my last box. I might have to make another purchase. As always if you are interested in any of these cards, hit me up.

1990 Topps Football – The Cards of My Youth

April 28, 2016April 28, 2016GimmeSomeJimmyBreaks

This past weekend I shelled out my 5 bucks and went to a card show for the first time since I was a much younger man. It was held inside a big building at a local fair ground. With many long tables laid out in rows, much like you’d expect. It was about half cards, and the other half was split between toys and die cast cars. It was an interesting experience.

What I found was most individual cards seemed to be overpriced. And I wasn’t there hunting for missing cards in my collection, I just wanted to see what was up and get back into the swing of things. I also took my girlfriend which turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I had an extra set of eyes and hands to look through things. I was looking for anything that I could add to my Jim Kelly collection. After about an hour and a half of searching I only found a pair of Jim Kelly National Treasures Signature cards, numbered to 5 at $200 each. It was a little more than I was prepared to spend and a little more than they are worth.

But I stumbled onto a box labeled “4 for a dollar.” After hunting through I found some 1990 Topps Football and bought 4 (Along with some other things I’ll post at a later date). It was the perfect purchase to reminisce about being a kid again. I would have been about 13 in 1990. The Bills were on the cusp of their first Super Bowl, I probably opened 100 of these packs back then. Today I open 4 more.

15 PICTURE CARDS – 1 STICK BUBBLE GUM

SCAN0096

The first pack was a little underwhelming. But here is an example in case you have forgot what 1990 Topps Football cards looked like. (Notice the 25 year old gum stain on the Allen Pinkett card)

The 2^nd pack started out as a low blow, I thought I was being taunted by the cardboard gods. Scott Norwood (with Bubble Gum stain), if only he’d had those arms raised at the end of Super Bowl XXV.

SCAN0099 SCAN0098

Here are some of the highlights from the 4 packs that I opened. There are a few interesting “Topps Super Rookies” and couple of running backs that you might recognize.

1990 Super Rookied

This was so much fun that I wish I would have bought ever pack that was there. It’s totally worth the dollar spent. Next time I’m buying all of the football packs in the box.

No stats since I haven’t cataloged any of my 1990 cards yet. But these were really fun. Took me back to a much simpler time and brought back some good childhood memories. Love opening these packs. My only complaint; only one Buffalo Bill, a gum stained Scott Norwood.

Upper Deck e-Pack: 2 Big Updates

April 22, 2016April 27, 2016GimmeSomeJimmyGeneral

It would figure that only moments after I post about Upper Deck e-Pack that a couple of major updates would come out.

First is the addition of 2015-16 MVP Hockey to the available packs to buy and cards to collect. It was released with 8 cards per pack at $2.49 each, and a Silver Script parallel comes at 1 per 3 packs. Other features include a 1-200 base set (where 101-200 are SPs) and then two parallels, Silver Script and Super Script.

Also there are a few other things included, Colors and Contours, Territory, Rookie Redemption, #1 Draft Picks, Autos, and Jersey’s. And once again they’ve included the combine cards feature that I think is the greatest feature introduced into the hobby in years. This time it’s a little more, 20 base cards combine to make a green parallel that can be sent in a physical form.

epack-mvp

So of course I bought a few packs. I’m not going to go through each card I got, most are base. I’m not sure how I feel about it but with 4 packs I got 3 of the same player. This is great for chasing a green parallel but not great for collecting a set.

epack-mvp-desharnais

Quick Breakdown of my 4 packs.
Base 1-100: 27 (4 duplicates)
Base 101-200 SPs: 4 (1 Rookie)
Parallels: 1 Silver Script

epack-mvp-faulk

The second big update is that on May 4th Upper Deck e-Pack will include Series 2 Hockey. This is big for me because this will allow me to chase the Jack Eichel Young Gun that I’ve been chasing in the physical cards for quite some time. I’m a big fan of the Upper Deck e-Pack service. I’m glad to see it expanding to other sets. I’m sure I’m going to spend way too much money on these digital cards. But that’s a different discussion, for another time, I have to go open one more pack.

If you’d like to set up some trades or just expand your friend list. You can find me on http://upperdeckepack.com at username: GimmeSomeJimmy.

4 things I love about Upper Deck E-pack (And three things I hate)

April 20, 2016GimmeSomeJimmyGeneral

www.upperdeckepack.com
I’m sure you’ve read posts about this service before, but here is my take. It’s a relatively new service (Since January) from Upper Deck that allows users to digitally build sets, combine cards, trade with other users, and even have them shipped in physical form. It has some great features and some pretty big pitfalls. To simplify e-Packs, you can buy (you are given 3 free base cards per day) packs, boxes, and cases and open them digitally. Each card is scanned so you can see front and back of the card and all the cards are the same as the real cardboard you can buy in your local store. Here are a few examples of the cards I own.

UD Game Jersey, GJ-SR

4 THINGS TO LOVE
1.) Instant access from any device with an internet connection. This lets you access your cards, purchase cards, trade cards, and combine cards from anywhere.
2.) Trading with 100’s of people from around the world makes it easy to find trading partners and make trades. It’s also rather simple to offer, counter, and accept trades once you get used to it.
3.) While you can’t get the base cards sent to you, just about any other digital card can be sent to you in the physical form. It can also be transferred to your COMC.com account.
4.) Combining base cards to create a foil card! You can collect 10 of one player and combine them to get a foil version that then can be sent in a physical form. This is by far my favorite aspect of the E-Packs. I wish I could trade my 23 of the same base cards from 1989 Pro Set for a couple of better cards!

Silver Foil Board 21 (Brian Gionta)

There are also two digital only sets that can combine for a short printed card.

Instant Impressions (25 cards combined to get Jack Eichel)

Code to Greatness (25 cards combined to get Connor McDavid)

3 THINGS TO HATE
1.) One of my main complaints is the ease at which you can purchase. If you connect a credit card to your account you are two clicks away from purchasing cards and opening packs. You can see where someone with a slightly addictive personality could spend some crazy cash on digital trading cars.
2.) As with any of online trading forums you have some people trying to take advantage of others. Some of the users have hundreds of thousands of cards. I’m not sure if they are spending thousands of dollars or cheating the system, but I often get trade offers that make no sense at all. My CTG cards for two base cards is not an acceptable offer. I’d love to see a card count of number of cards that exists in the whole system. It would allow for an easy comparison and less sketchy trades.
3.) I’m not sure how this will hold up over time. You can’t exactly keep you collection in a shoe box. Will some new technology come along in the 5 years that makes this obsolete? Remember etopps?

Overall I think the pros outweigh the cons and I’m going to optimistically keep my eye on it. Hopefully Upper Deck will continue to grow the positives and remove the negatives. I’m currently working on a complete foil set (10 copies of every base card, 5 copies of every young game) If you are looking to increase your trading partners or just make a new friend to chat cards and sports with, you can find me on the Upper Deck E-Pack site at the username GimmeSomeJimmy.

Let me know what you think while I go open one more pack.

2015 Topps Platinum Hobby Box: Opened on 4/14/2016

April 16, 2016May 3, 2016GimmeSomeJimmyBreaks

This is my second box of 2015 Topps Platinum. I’m hoping for a big hit or to complete my set. And as few duplicates as possible. Here are the details.

First hit: Jeremy Langford Auto Patch
JeremyLangfordAutoPatch

Second Hit: Rookie Auto La’el Collins Sapphire Refractor #053/150
Traded
*Note added 5/3/2016, I’m using this image to show cards I no longer have available.

Third Hit: Jeremy Langford Sapphire Refractor
Not a fan of having the same player show up in the same box. It would be great for a Bears fan.
$JeremyLangfordRefractor$

Fourth Hit: Rookie Auto P.J. Williams
PJWilliamsAuto

Fifth Hit: Tom Brady Die-Cut Platinum Player (PDC-TB)
TomBradyDieCut

X-Fractors Rookies (x5)
$RookieXfractor4-14$

Box Summary
20 Gold Parallels (No Duplicates)
20 Rookies (No Duplicates)
5 – Xfractor Rookies
5 – Promised hits
48 Base Cards (No Duplicates)

Set Completion Summary
BASE: 91% (137 of 150)
GOLD: 43% (43 of 100)
13 X-Fractor Rookies (1 duplicate)
11 Flame “Orange” Refractor Rookies
3 Die-Cut Platinum Players

On the positive side I pulled a couple of nice rookies. Jameis Winston and Buffalo Bills RB Karlos Williams.
Winston Williams

So again no big hit, but if you need or want any of these hits, please let me know and we’ll work something out. But I’m getting really close to completing the base set. (See my In Progress Sets for details) One thing I love about these boxes are that there has yet to be a duplicate in a box. I’ve opened many boxes in the past where you get 3 and 4 of the same card and none of the ones you need all in the same box. Topps Platinum is getting an A+ for variety of cards, now if I can just get a nice big hit. I guess I’ll have to open one more pack.

Kobe’s Farewell

April 14, 2016May 13, 2016GimmeSomeJimmyGeneral

Kobe Bryant
5-time NBA Champion
2-time NBA Finals MVP
3rd on the NBA all-time scoring list
18-time NBA All-Star
11-time 1st Team All-NBA Selection
4-time All-Star game MVP
2-time Olympic Gold Medalist
20 seasons on the Lakers
81 points in a single game (2nd most in NBA History)

I’m not a basketball card collector but I’ve always been a Lakers fan. I grew up near Buffalo, NY, no NBA team. So I picked the Lakers as my team because as a kid I loved Magic Johnson. When everyone else had Air Jordan’s I was wearing Magic’s Converse. “Showtime” was what I thought basketball was about. When I played I preferred the spectacular pass to a teammate over scoring myself. So I naturally became a Kobe fan when he was drafted by the Hornets and traded (for Vlade Divac) to the Lakers.

Kobe was going to the NBA about the same time I was going to college. I feel like I’ve spent my entire adult life watching him and rooting for him. Loving the 5 NBA championships (Remember I’m a Bills fan so any Championship win is a big deal to me) and suffering a little bit over the last few years of injuries and horrible teams. Over his career Kobe Bryant has been a bit of a polarizing figure. Some questionable off-court actions led many to hate him. But his talent, competitiveness, and tenacity cannot be denied. I could go on and on and on and on about Kobe Bryant. But I as I sit here watching his last game, with his streaking shooting and trademark scowl, I can’t help but be thankful I’ve had the honor to watch one of the best ever play for the last 20 years.

It’s been an interesting season with going away gifts from each stop on the schedule. This game isn’t going well. He’s shooting 7 for 20, and has 22 points at the half. But everyone is out to see him finish his career. From Jay Z to Shaq to Jack are all there to say goodbye to a legend. Even ESPN’s coverage include and “Kobe’s Farewell” watermark in the corner of the screen. And the commercials during the game feature Kobe. It’s all pretty cool to see.

Here are a couple of Kobe cards I got in the past year. Both from some Panini Black Friday packs I bought online. Here’s to you Kobe Bean Bryant. Thanks for keeping me an NBA fan all these years.

2014KobeF 2014KobeB

2015KobeF 2015KobeB

Late Addition
Okay, I don’t know what to say about this game. I just couldn’t go to sleep on this game.

Kobe now has 56, the Lakers are down 1, under a minute to play. Kobe with the jumper, 58 points and the Lakers lead. You couldn’t write a better ending to the Kobe story. The crowd is electric. Jazz miss, foul Kobe. He will go to the line for two shots. Makes them both, 60 points tonight. (Most in the NBA this season) Lakers Win! That is how you go out #24!

2015 Topps Platinum Hobby Box: Opened on 4/12/2016

April 13, 2016May 2, 2016GimmeSomeJimmyBreaks

I have been looking for a new set to collect. After grabbing a couple of retail packs of 2015 Topps Platinum at my local Target I chose this one. A couple of things attracted me to this set. I might be in the minority but I like the design, focusing on the player with great action shots and a smoke treatment to the team logo. And you can never go wrong with silver. It’s a small 150 card set (plus a 100 card gold set with thick stock) which makes it easy on my compulsive need to complete sets. So I searched online for the best deal and bought a few boxes.

Product: 2015 Topps Platinum Hobby Box
Purchased: Online
Packs: 20 (5 cards each)
Promised Hits: 2 Autographed Rookies, 1 Autographed Rookie/Veteran Patch, 5 X-Fractor, 1 Refractor Parallel Rookie, 1 Platinum Die-Cut Rookie.
Base: 100 Veterans & 50 Rookies

First hit: Rookie Auto Trey Flowers

Second Hit: Justin Hardy Auto Patch

Third Hit: Tyler Kroft Sapphire Refractor
$TylerKroftRefractor$

Fourth Hit: Rookie Auto Austin Hill Sapphire Refractor #112/150
$AutsinHillAutoRefractor$

Fifth Hit: Eddie Lacy Die-Cut Platinum Player (PDC-EL)

X-Fractors Rookies (x5)
$RookieXfractor4-12$
Box Summary
20 Gold Parallels (No Duplicates)
20 Rookies (No Duplicates)
5 – Xfractor Rookies
5 – Promised hits
48 Base Cards (No Duplicates)

Set Completion Summary
BASE: 51% (77 of 150)
GOLD: 25% (25 of 100)
8 X-Fractor Rookies
11 Flame “Orange” Refractor Rookies
2 Die-Cut Platinum Players

Along with the few packs I already acquired (4 hobby, 4 retail hanger boxes) and this box I’m now getting closer to completing another set. If anyone is interested in any of these hits please let me know and we’ll work something out. Thanks for reading, now go open one more pack.

Welcome to One More Pack

April 12, 2016April 14, 2016GimmeSomeJimmyGeneral

Welcome to “One More Pack” a card collecting blog. Let’s start with the name. If you are like me, you have a hard time opening just one pack. Or for that matter, doing one of anything! Every time I crack open a pack, I just want to open another.

Next, let me introduce myself. My name is Jim and I’ve been collecting cards off and on for 30 years. I collect mainly football cards, with a little hockey thrown in. My person collection leads off with Hall of Fame Quarterback of the Buffalo Bills, Jim Kelly. But extends to the rest of the Bills and anything Buffalo. I’m doing my best to organize and catalog my entire collection, but it’s a long and tedious process and opening new packs and boxes is way more fun.

And third, I wanted to give you a little direction on what you’ll be reading here at One More Pack. I will have three different types of posts. Pack and box break posts, Jim Kelly card posts, and what will hopefully make me stand out, reports from actual card shops. Yes they still exist.

Because everyone likes lists…

Goals

Connect with other collectors. Create new friends and new trading partners
Complete some of the sets that I’ve been working on
Show off my current collection
Highlight brick and mortar card shops
Post at least 3 times per week

Types of Posts

Pack or Box Breaks (Posts and Videos)
My Personal Buffalo Bills collection
Reports on Brick and Mortar shops
Random ramblings of a middle-aged card collector

About me

Set Collector
Jim Kelly card collector
Buffalo Bills card collector
Buffalo Sabres card collector
Buffalo sports card collector

I’m always looking to make new connections, please tell me what you think of this blog, my collections, or anything else you want to chat about in the comment sections and you can always interact with me on social media and various trading card websites.

Twitter: @GimmeSomeJimmy
Ebay: gsjimmy24
COMC.com: GimmeSomeJimmy
Topps Apps (Huddle, Bunt, Star Wars Card Trader): GimmeSomeJimmy
Upper Deck e-Packs: GimmeSomeJimmy
Various trading sites: GimmeSomeJimmy

Opening another one...