30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, January 8, 2022

Saturday Night Five: The 364 Day Old Mystery Box

Back at the tail-end of 2020, I placed an order on everyone's favorite Online Dime Box.  One of the items that I purchased was this fifty card, multi-sport mystery box:


Well... three hundred sixty-four days after receiving the mystery box in the mail... I finally opened it up.  Before I show off the contents, let's talk price.  The BASEBALLCARDSTORE.CA sold these for $5 each and promise a random assortment of fifty trading cards which obviously breaks down to 10¢ per card.

Let's see if this is something you might be interested in.  I figured I'd show off my five favorite cards, but before I do... here's a look at the other forty-five:


As promised, there's a lot of variety in the box.  There were baseball, basketball, football, hockey, racing, golf, and Olympic cards included in my box.  There was even a certified hockey autograph thrown in.


I was pretty impressed with the variety in regards to older and newer products.  One might expect a box filled with Junk Wax Era cards, but this box includes a few cards from each of the past four decades.


In addition to the autograph, there were a few inserts and parallels tossed into this box as well.  That Alcantara in the #9 spot is a very shiny Prizm parallel and the Wayne Gretzky in the #1 spot is some kind of National Hockey Card Day giveaway.


If you're were looking for a breakdown by sport, here are the numbers:

Baseball: 21 Cards
Basketball: 6 Cards
Football: 6 Cards
Hockey: 10 Cards
Racing4 Cards
Golf: 1 Card
Olympic: 2 Cards


And rounding out this post, here are my five favorites in no particular order from this fifty card mystery box:

1992 Score #800

There was a time when Manny was one of the most entertaining players in baseball.  Unfortunately... not everyone liked the guy.  Me?  I loved watching Manny being Manny.

1980 Topps #280

Oldest Card in the Box
San Diego Padre
Hall of Famer
Well Cropped Action Shot

1991 Impel US Olympicards Hall of Fame #62

Any card that commemorates one of the greatest moments in United States Winter Olympic history... is a winner in my book.

1990-91 OPC Central Red Army #19R

I couldn't stand Sergei Fedorov back in the 90's.  But now that he's no longer lighting the lamp against the Sharks, I can sit back and appreciate this rookie year insert.

2019 Topps Update #US189

Ohtani?  Oh heck yeah.  I'll happily add a new card of his to my collection whenever I can.

What about you?

Any cards from this fifty pack catch your eye?

Would you consider purchasing one of these fifty card mystery boxes?

Unfortunately... they are currently sold out.  But if they ever restock these, I'll probably toss another one into the shopping cart.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

18 comments:

Jupiterhill said...

I think the Manny card is my favorite, but that Harry Gant one is good too (my family was a big fan of the Skoal Bandit). I've never purchased from the site, but I've heard a lot about them on TCDB and if I ever thought about buying some cards, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase from them or even get a blind buy like this. Very cool for showing these off.

Nachos Grande said...

Interesting idea to be sure. I don't collect much besides baseball (and super old original Allen & Ginter cards) so the mixed sport lot wouldn't be for me. Still, always fun to open something like that!

The Lost Collector said...

Looks like a fun pack. I like the Harry Gant the most.

Billy Kingsley said...

I don't think I would do it...too many football and baseball. The Steve Grissom card is my favorite, mainly because it's one I don't have and it's a cool shot.

Elliptical Man said...

Looks like you got plenty of 'nice to have' cards. So it's probably a decent deal. But I've made my feelings about them known enough.

Jason Verrett signed a football for the winner's prize in a local pick 'em contest his rookie year. I finished second.

LOL at McGee being in an A's uni on his NL batting champ card.

Peter K Steinberg said...

That is a really nice assortment of cards and your top five are pretty solid. But I doubt I'd buy one. If I could be guaranteed 50 baseball cards I'd think differently.

Dennis said...

Baseballcardstore.ca is awesome, though I haven't bought from them since they've changed how they're selling cards. That looks like a fun 50-card mystery lot, though!

sg488 said...

I love the Waters stiff arm card,and sure for 5 bucks i would give it a shot.

Nick said...

I'd consider it if there was a baseball-only lot - just can't get myself interested in cards from other sports. Definitely some fun variety there though. Don't see Trout and/or Ohtani pop up in many dime boxes!

night owl said...

I only buy grab bag things if there's nothing else that floats my boat and the baseball dime box store hasn't run out of stuff I like enough for me to turn to those.

Anonymous said...

1980 Topps Perry
1988 Score Mattingly
1989 UD Ozzie
1987 Donruss Wallach
1991 Donruss McGee

gregory said...

That Soviet Sergei Fedorov card is my favorite of the bunch, as I've got fond memories of collecting that 1990-91 hockey set during my youth. Fun assortment of cards in that fifty pack, overall!

The Snorting Bull said...

I think mystery boxes/packs are always fun. Always limited expectations though. A had a few favorites cards in these packs, but I will stick with two for my comment. First, I love that 1991 Donruss Willie McGee card on the A's celebrating his 1990 National League batting title. Definitely a unique accomplishment to win a batting title playing in the other league. Second, is the Carter Capps card. I met a guy through my blog a few years ago who lived in Mt. Olive, North Carolina. The guy was disabled with cystic fibrosis, ended up dying due to complications. While he was still with us, he was a huge fan of Mt. Olive College's sports teams, which are DIII. Most famous alum is Carter Capps. I spent time helping him collect Carter Capps cards. Very fulfilling side project for awhile.

Jafronius said...

Mystery boxes are cool but I personally wouldn't know what to do with Racing and Golf cards. Unless they were well known, they'd be filler cards in a trade package.

Matt said...

Those are interesting to say the least. I think it's worth it.

Daniel Wilson said...

Fun stuff, but I'm probably only going to do it if it's a baseball only package.

SumoMenkoMan said...

It certainly has a nice mix of cards and a lot of people you wouldn’t normally collect. If it had a variety of non-sports and mix of fringe sports, I might hop on it. Thanks for sharing!

Fuji said...

jupiterhill & the lost collector - the gant is some sort of broder. honestly not familiar with him, but i do enjoy broders.

nachos grande - at one point they had fifteen card baseball mystery packs for a buck. i bought a few of these that i'll show off at some point.

billy kingsley - email me your address and i'll send you the grissom. have some monster truck cards i can send your way as well

elliptical man - i'm a third of the way to filling a 9 pocket page of that mcgee. love that card for that reason.

peter k steinberg - i've bought 15 card mystery packs from their website before and they're only a buck.

dennis - i just noticed that a lot of the cards are free... all you have to pay is shipping. one of these days i'll look through their inventory

sg488 - i wanted to see if they mentioned who watters victim was on the back of the card and noticed it's a promo card.

nick - can't promise they still have them, but they did have baseball only mystery packs in the past

night owl - at the time, they had run out of stuff for me. that's why i tossed this and some of the dollar mystery packs into the cart

anonymous - the mcgee just missed the cut

gregory - it's a great looking card. he was my buddy's favorite player and he was a wings fan... so i really didn't like federov and couldn't stand the wings.

the snorting bull - the capps is yours if you want it. shoot me an email with your address and i'll toss it in the mail this weekend.

jafronius - most of the cards will be taken into my classroom and used as examples for my civil rights leaders trading card project

matt - i found a few cards i wanted... plus there's the entertainment value. i think it was worth it too

daniel wilson - once upon a time they had a 15 card mystery pack with only baseball cards. and they were only a buck, so less than a dime each

sumomenkoman - they don't break the bank and they're entertaining. i'd probably buy another one if they ever restock them.