My top 5 card pulls

I've never had the magic touch when it comes to packs. I have had a hot streak or two when it comes to getting good cards, but I see the trade lists of some collectors and it's quickly very humbling. Of course, I'm probably dropping a fraction of the greenbacks they are, but still. Let's look at my top 5 pulls from packs I've opened:


1. 2005 Topps Cracker Jack Alex Rodriguez Secret Surprise Signatures mini autograph -- This one actually has a good story to go with it. Cracker Jack was one of those sets all the set collectors seemed to love to put together, it had about the right amount of parallels -- plus you knew you were getting something other than just base set cards in each pack because of the "pack within a pack" that held either a mini parallel or a game used or auto. The 2005 set also included some nice short print cards that were harder to get, so I bought a bunch of it. Most of what I bought was retail. In fact, I pulled better cards out of retail than I did out of a hobby box. About 4 days after getting nothing great out of that hobby box, I bought 4 packs of retail Cracker Jack at a convenience store on a weekday. I sat in my car and opened them and, I think in the third pack, this beauty of an on-card auto presented itself. I'm neither a Yankees fan (been a Red Sox fan since the mid-80s) nor an ARod fan, so my initial reaction leaned more toward "Oh man, I wonder how much this is gonna book" rather than "WOW, what a card to cap my collection." I was also just concerned about getting it home and into a screwdown holder without dinging it in any way. I do appreciate it when the athlete's signature is somewhat legible and not some of the scribble you see outta some guys. I wasn't disappointed when the Beckett pricing came out and I found the card is limited to 100 copies and booked $250-300. Now it's up to $350. I was hoping to turn it into some nice Roger Maris or Lou Gehrig or another high-end card or two via a trade, but the right deal hasn't come along yet. I just hope he can drive the book value higher. Or maybe I'll end up selling it. Who knows.



2. 2000 Press Pass Tom Brady autograph -- one of three good Brady cards I had at one point in 2000. I think I traded this one when it booked at $20 and Tom was just a backup 6th-rounder behind Drew Bledsoe. The one pictured isn't the one I had, as far as I know....just an example of the card. The other 2 good Brady's I had were a Pacific Paramount parallel of his rookie card #d out of 240 (I think) and, in the box of 2000 Upper Deck Encore football I received for joining the UD Collector's Club for one year, I pulled his Encore RC SGC graded at a 96. I traded all 3 before Brady hit it big, which is nauseating.




3. 2002-03 Topps Tim Duncan auto game-used all-star shooting shirt #d 1/25 -- I've actually pulled two Duncan game-used cards #d/25, but this one was autographed. This one came out of a jumbo pack of Topps bought at my favorite card shop -- Al's Sports Cards in Brookwood Plaza on 29th Street in Topeka, Kansas. I was killing time there on a Saturday morning a few years ago and bought some packs. This one was in the middle of the jumbo pack and came as a big surprise. I also pulled the Brady as well as the Yao Ming and Amare Stoudemire RCs I mentioned in my last card post from packs bought from Al. It's hard to match the feeling of turning over that big pull like the ARod or this Duncan. I later traded this Duncan for a group of good cards, but I don't recall the specific deal at this point. Must have been OK, because I don't remember it.


4. 2001-02 Private Stock Mario Lemieux game-used 1987-88 Penguins jersey -- I was on a hockey kick in the spring of 2002 when I decided to buy a box of Private Stock from another card shop in Topeka that I don't think is open any longer. You had to like the promise of a jersey per pack that Pacific offered with the Private Stock product. I ended up getting a Vincent LeCavalier patch, a nice Paul Kariya jersey card and, in the best of the packs, this Super Mario yellow swatch from a jersey he wore in the 1987-88 campaign. At the time it booked around $150, if I remember right, as it was Mario and a short-print. I think it's dropped some since then. Still a cool card. I always liked how Pacific and Donruss, to some extent, would tell you when and where their jerseys came from. Donruss used to include a picture of the jersey on the back of the card, too. Still have the Mario to trade, too. As well as a few other jersey cards from that box.


5. 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Vince Carter game-used UNC jersey, shorts and warmup triple -- this was in the full height of Vinsanity, coming off his dunk contest win and his Olympic dunk over France's Frederic Weis (video at left in video links). Fleer was inundating its products with VC everything. I bought a box of Fleer Greats of the Game from Dave and Adam's Card World in hopes of pulling the Pete Maravich or Larry Bird college game-used jersey cards. I ended up with Hakeem Olajuwon and Jerry West autos and this triple Vince Carter game-used card. It wasn't serial numbered but I later found it was limited to only 75 copies, so I can't say I was disappointed. It has since been sent on to another trader's collection. I ended up trading the aforementioned Kariya jersey as part of the deal for the Maravich jersey (another white whale I've gotten hold of) and also got the Bird Indiana State jersey in another deal, so in the end it worked out.

Honorable mention: