This is a post I’ve been sitting on for a while. How do I write a blog post about the grandpappy of all trading card companies? Topps has been around since 1938, with roots in an earlier tobacco company founded in 1890. It’s either purchased and absorbed (Bowman) or defeated (Fleer) its oldest rivals. Panini… Read More Blast From the Packs: Too much Topps
I started the Blast From the Packs series to talk about my experiences opening actual packs of cards and essentially reviewing the sets they come from, but over the past month or so, the majority of my “allowance money” has been going toward purchasing single cards — colloquially referred to as singles — on eBay… Read More The Singles Mixer: My favorite recent baseball purchases
I won’t pretend to be an expert on using eBay, but I’ve been successful in the last month or so tracking down affordable boxes of old sports cards; grab bags of random packs of sports cards; and single cards of favorite players, including rookie cards (actually, they’ve mostly been rookie cards). I’ve learned a few… Read More Blast From the Packs: How I use eBay to buy sports cards
When I started this little experiment in purchasing sports cards from my past off eBay as a way to spur my writing muscles awake from a much-too-long slumber, I said to myself, “this isn’t going to be a big new hobby, it’s more of a writing exercise. Besides, I can’t even afford to buy cards… Read More I hate/love the trading card industry: A two-sided essay
Have you ever seen something like this in the trading card section or the toy section of a store and wondered what the hell it is? It’s usually between 5 and 20 bucks, and it purports to have a certain number of cards (usually between 30 and 80) and a pack or two, and sometimes… Read More What’s in the box? Checking out a Fairfield repack
When I was collecting sports cards as a kid, I collected each of the four major American sports at the time: Baseball, basketball, football (American style) and ice hockey. My interest in each sport would wax and wane with the seasons, but I would say most of the time, baseball and basketball jockeyed for that… Read More Blast From the Packs: Football then, football now-ish
I always loved the feeling of ripping open a fresh pack of collectible sports cards. I’d hold the foil package in my hands, turning it over and feeling the tightly packed stack of cards within. The best part was always that moment just before opening, just before the mystery and anticipation of what-could-be turns to… Read More Blast From the Packs: A memoir by way of the sports cards of my youth
