I essentially fell off the wagon, because the price was too good to pass up. Fifty packs for $19.97 is a pretty tempting deal and when you buy two or more combos the shipping is free.
At this price, you'd expect to see a bunch of Junk Wax Era packs, but they only represented about 30% of the packs they shipped. Half of the packs were from 2012 to 2017. There was even a pack of one of my all-time favorite products: UD Masterpieces.
Here's a breakdown of the packs Walmart shipped me:
1988 Donruss (x3)
1988 Topps (x2)
1989 Bowman (x2)
1989 Donruss (x2)
1989 Topps (x2)
1990 Fleer (x2)
1990 Topps Traded (x2)
1990 Upper Deck (x1)
1991 Fleer (x2)
1991 Upper Deck (x1)
1991 Fleer Ultra (x6)
1992 Donruss Series 2 (x1)
1992 Upper Deck (x1)
2005 UD MVP (x1)
2007 Topps Series 2 Rack Packs (x2)
2007 UD Future Stars (x10)
2007 UD Masterpieces (x1)
2007 Topps Update (x2)
2007 Upper Deck (x2)
2008 Upper Deck Series 2 (x1)
2008 Bowman Chrome (x1)
2008 UD Baseball Heroes (x1)
2010 Topps Update (x1)
2012 Topps Update (x2)
2012 Allen and Ginter (x1)
2013 Topps Series 1 (x1)
2013 Topps Series 2 (x1)
2015 Topps Archives (x5)
2015 Topps Series 1 (x5)
2015 Topps Series 2 (x5)
2015 Topps Update (x5)
2016 Topps Series 1 (x5)
2016 Topps Series 2 (x5)
2017 Topps Series 1 (x5)
2017 Topps Series 2 (x5)
2017 Topps Update (x5)
Now my count could be off, but I checked my addition three times and it seems like Walmart shorted me one pack. Not cool Walmart. Not cool.
Honestly... it's not a huge deal. This purchase provided over an hour's worth of entertainment and I did managed to pull this Mark Teixeira jersey card:
2007 Upper Deck S2 Game Materials #UD-MT
Outside of that and a few Oakland A's and San Diego Padres commons I may or may not have needed... the only card that I was really happy to add to my collection was this Andrelton Simmons rookie card:
2012 Topps Update #UD232
But like I said... if you're looking for some cheap entertainment... you might want to give these Walmart fifty pack bundles a shot. You never know... but you might end up pulling a Jim Thome memorabilia card or a Mookie Betts rookie card from your packs like Dennis did.
Speaking of Dennis, he held a contest involving some unopened packs over on his blog. To participate all you had to do was hang out during his live stream and watch him bust packs. It was a lot of fun to gather with other collectors and talk shop.
I ended up winning five packs of 2006 Topps hanger packs:
I ended up winning five packs of 2006 Topps hanger packs:
In addition to the packs, Dennis hooked me up with a stack of Oakland Athletics:
Plus a bunch of cards for my Japanese PC:
And a nice stack of inserts, buybacks, autographs, and a jersey card:
Since there weren't five cards that stood out from my Walmart packs, I figured I'd create a Top 5 list with the cards Dennis sent me.
However, before I begin, here are some honorable mentions:
My fanfare for memorabilia cards is no secret and both of these were new additions to my Seahawks and A's collections. The Aoki is one of those Throwback Thursday online exclusive cards and when it came down to picking my Top 5, this card was close to swapping spots with #5 on this list. Speaking of #5... here are my five favorite cards from Dennis' care package:
#5: 2012 Panini Prizm #RNA
I miss seeing Aoki wearing an MLB uniform, because he was a solid hitter wherever he played. At 37 years of age, he's still playing in Japan and hitting over .300.
#4: 1978 Topps #298 (75th Anniversary Buyback)
I enjoy adding vintage buybacks of Athletics to my collection... especially when they're players I rooted for back in the day. Rickey Henderson, Dwayne Murphy, and Armas formed a solid outfield for the Athletics back in the early 80's.
#3: 2000 Paramount End Zone Net Fusions #18
I was stoked when I saw this card in one of the team bags Dennis sent. It's an insert with a faux net embedded into the card.
#2: 2014 Topps Update Gold #US230
It's been six seasons since Suzuki has played with the Athletics, but he's still one of my favorite players in the game. I'm always glad to add a new parallel of his to my collection.
#1: 1999 SP Authentic Chirography #EC
Chavez is a fan favorite among A's fans. The guy was one of the best fielding third basemen during his career and had a pretty solid bat. He's also one of the best players to never make an MLB All-Star team.
Well that's it for today. Thank you Dennis for the very generous care package and for inspiring me to pick up two of those Walmart bundles. Both provided me with tons of entertainment.
Happy Saturday and sayonara!
That was a heck of a package from Dennis.
ReplyDeleteDennis can bring the goods!
ReplyDeleteI saw Walmart included 1989 Bowman. I enjoyed the design of those cards, but I wish they weren't over-sized and difficult to store.
Thanks as always for the nice write-up, Fuji! Sorry your Wal-Mart packs didn't give you much to celebrate. I'm glad you liked your stuff, though!
ReplyDeleteAlso, thanks, JTS and Tom! I got an '89 Bowman in mine as well and didn't pull the Griffey, and I decided against putting some of those in trade packages because of the weird size like you mentioned.
I've looked at others unveiling their $20 Walmart deals and I have to say I'm not impressed. I think it's mostly because I've already opened way too much of what Walmart is offering.
ReplyDeleteThank goodness that Prizm card spelled out Aoki's first name in it's entirety and didn't just write "Nori". I don't think the anglos ever realized it but by shortening his name they did him a great disservice. Norichika roughly translates to something like "the emperor's judgement" or something cool like that. Nori just means glue or dried seaweed :P.
ReplyDeleteGreat cards sent by Dennis! I'm still on the fence about getting some of those Walmart packs, mainly because of the feast or famine buyers have been reporting. Sorry you didn't get a better group, but it didn't seem like a total rip off...other than missing one pack (probably one of the dollar store packs), you did get a Jersey card and some entertainment from opening the packs. But then again, if you were trying to save money, then dropping 40 bucks on cards would put you in that mindset.
ReplyDeleteI ordered a few of these are different times, and really enjoyed it. Yeah, lots of dollar stores, but both times I got some really solid other packs that were fun to open. These aren't for people looking for a bunch of big hits, but provide a night's worth of entertainment for the cost of a blaster. I'm not going to order any more, but the few I did were very good.
ReplyDeleteGreat cards from Dennis. Sorry your combo wasn't a bit more fun for you. My combo was all about the fun. For the price I was able to just enjoy. Nothing spectacular in my pull either but I did receive cards I'd never seen before which was excited.
ReplyDeletePeople were/are still going crazy for these over on Blowout Forums. I myself have never been interested as I'm not a big fan of repacks, but to pass an hour or two opening packs for $20, it doesn't seem too bad
ReplyDeleteReally cool stuff, that Kitna is nice, haven't seen one of those before.
ReplyDeleteAwesome...those sound like a great deal and a good hour spent!
ReplyDeletejohnnys trading spot - that's for sure. dennis has been very good to me over the years. that being said... you have too.
ReplyDeletep-town tom - i'm actually going to eventually bust open all of the junk wax. hoping to pull some hof rookie cards ;)
dennis - whenever we buy unopened stuff, it's going to be a risk. i knew it going into this purchase and still bought it. the good news is it provided me with over an hour of entertainment. thanks for all of the cool bonus cards. it was fun to sift through your package as well
night owl - in terms of value, it's definitely hit or miss. but if you're just looking for some wax pack therapy, it wasn't too bad of a deal.
zippy zappy - love me some nori (dried seaweed) ;)
jafronius - yeah... the title of my post was just me being dramatic. i honesty don't regret the purchase. it was pretty fun ripping all of those packs
the lost collector - you and i are on the same page. it was fun, but i'm probably not gonna order these again.
bulldog - the value might not have been there, but it was fun busting open all of those packs. helped me take my mind off of things.
chris p - i kinda wish i was more into the forums. it'd be fun to see what other people pulled, but honestly i barely have time to read everybody's blog posts
rosenort - yeah, i really like that kitna. it's kinda like a manufactured relic card.
sumomenkoman - if you're looking for some cheap wax to bust, then it's a pretty good deal.
I was looking at this on Walmart since I'm curious now ... looks like they're all out of stock (even the hockey ones). This looks like fun and I might just have to order one of these if/when they're ever available again.
ReplyDeleteEven though I have seen 50/50 on those Walmart repacks i am still kind of intrigued by them just to give them atry
ReplyDeleteadam - i saw that too. i hope they end up restocking these... just in case i need another pack fix
ReplyDeleteparts of my past - i didn't pull anything special, but i had a blast opening packs. plus... it gave me cards that i can use for care packages