Great box. Joe! Your Puckett, Clemens and Mattingly look dead centered and clean. Take some pics without the sleeves so there isn’t any glare. Guessing folks here will weigh in on if they might 10.
@jordangretzkyfan said:
Great box. Joe! Your Puckett, Clemens and Mattingly look dead centered and clean. Take some pics without the sleeves so there isn’t any glare. Guessing folks here will weigh in on if they might 10.
Thanks Chris!
Heading to bed now after a disappointing loss by the Wild.
Will take some better pics tomorrow before the Vikings game.
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
@jordangretzkyfan said:
Great box. Joe! Your Puckett, Clemens and Mattingly look dead centered and clean. Take some pics without the sleeves so there isn’t any glare. Guessing folks here will weigh in on if they might 10.
Top right corner on Puckett is bad.
Upper left edge on Mattingly shows white.
Thoughts on Cal and George?
Finally, it appears both Tony and (especially) Gary have "extra" material on the top corners. Otherwise (top/bottom centering aside) they appear "perfect" will PSA punish me for this?
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
I have opened a few boxes from a 86 vending case and they’ve all been terrible. Those look great for 86s. It’s was a case I got from Sid at Ultimate collectibles that he bought from a collection and was wrapped by BBCE. All boxes are FASC. I do have some concerns that this was not actually a sealed case but it was cheap. Point is. Those look great for 86.
Like others have mentioned, I miss the past when members would do “The 12 Days of Christmas” rips. It was always a fun boost of childhood nostalgia around the holidays. So with that in mind, here goes my 12 Days of Christmas rip which will begin tomorrow. I tried to have a little something for everyone while staying mostly true to my obsession with the 80s. You will find something from the 70s, 80s, and 90s in baseball with a little football and hockey sprinkled in.
@jordangretzkyfan said:
Like others have mentioned, I miss the past when members would do “The 12 Days of Christmas” rips. It was always a fun boost of childhood nostalgia around the holidays. So with that in mind, here goes my 12 Days of Christmas rip which will begin tomorrow. I tried to have a little something for everyone while staying mostly true to my obsession with the 80s. You will find something from the 70s, 80s, and 90s in baseball with a little football and hockey sprinkled in.
Can't wait! I definitely miss ssollars annual rips, inspired me to rip some stuff this Christmas. Might have already gone overboard, and might add some more (I have a 78 vending box that keeps tempting me) ... but its all getting ripped! I dont have the same patience as others, so probably shredded over a couple nights. 😁
First up….a 1991 Topps Baseball Vending Box. This year features the rookie of Chipper Jones and early cards of Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey, Jr. What I love about this set is the photography. For the 40th anniversary of Topps baseball, they decided to up the in action and professional shots within the set. This set step changes the prior decade of bland portrait shots and standing batters box pictures. The action shots remind me of some of the great angles and images from 1973 Topps. Here we go…
Nice clean vending pattern. For those less familiar with vending, the cut of the card sheet grain should flip every 5-7 cards creating this wave pattern in an untouched box…
@baz518 said:
Can't wait! I definitely miss ssollars annual rips, inspired me to rip some stuff this Christmas. Might have already gone overboard, and might add some more (I have a 78 vending box that keeps tempting me) ... but its all getting ripped! I dont have the same patience as others, so probably shredded over a couple nights. 😁
The 76 cello has a chance at a Payton based on the top card.
Here is an example of the great photography in the 1991 Topps set. Unique SI cover-like pose for Santiago, leaping DP from Duncan and Weiss, plays at the play for Manwaring and Fisk…
Here are the stars and rookies that don’t make the grade. The Boggs and Clemens images are iconic. Just beautiful…
The key three all made an appearance, though Griffey was just his AS. This is emblematic of the centering for 95% of the cards. So tough to find 50/50 centered gems…
This was the only candidate for PSA 10 out of 500 fresh cards…
My last real big year collecting. I loved the 1990 card offerings. So many prospects and rookies that we all followed hunted and traded. The Eric Anthony and Zeile cards really bring me back! Loved the Donruss versions too.
Thanks for sharing!
John
Conundrum - Loving my unopened baseball card collection....but really like ripping too
Always loved this year as a kid. The prospect crop was fantastic to an aspiring young collector. Out of the gate, Gregg Jefferies was THE card to pull, along with Sheffield, Sabo, Ventura and Abbott RCs. Each year Topps would release the base issue a few weeks before Christmas. My LCS would always hold a few packs for each of their top customers prior to Christmas. Living in Michigan, I nearly lost my mind as a kid when my second of four packs contained the Jim Abbott’s #1 Draft Pick in his U of M uniform. The card is still one of my favorites to this day.
Here were the stars and rookies that didn’t make the grade…
This guy was not even on anyone’s radar in 1990, but is now the best RC in the set…
No Abbott in this box, but there were 4 candidates for PSA 10. Very excited that one of them is the Chris Sabo RC…
Thank you for sharing this with us, as always! Some really great looking cards in this set. My favorites are that Eric Davis, Strawberry, Grace, Sabo, and Jeffries…always have wished they’d included Griffey in the base set. I’d imagine his Future Star card would have been great looking, thanks again!
Looking forward to some wooden borders! Been a blast from the past so far... I had forgotten how truly epic the photography was in the 91 set. I also remember being so hyped for the 89 set... after they brought back Olympic Team cards in the 88 Traded set, I was super pumped about them bringing back Draft Pick cards. Especially the Abbott! I never really understood the colored borders of the 90 set, but always loved the "color match" cards like the Grace and Griffey. Also love following the 1990 Topps blackless threads out there.
@UFFDAH -- the 76 should be the highlight, I'd say about a 80% chance for a Payton. I have high expectations for all the vintage packs... good chance for a couple Joe Cools and a "Magic"-al "Bird" too 😉😁🤞🏻.
Baz - thanks for sharing your memories. Always love hearing what others were feeling during the same timeframe. Cannot wait to see the success of your rips!
Day 4: 1987 Topps Baseball Vending Box
This was the first set I went all in on as a kid. Five iconic RCs with Bonds, Larkin, Bo, Palmeiro and Will the Thrill. The McGwire card in his first A’s uniform was a staple of the 80s too. I love every time I open this set.
Here were the stars and rookies that miss the mark for grading…
Pulled 3 of the key 6, but all were off center as is typical for 90% of cards from the 80s…
There were 4 candidates for PSA 10. Righetti AS being the best of them…
Thanks to all those who continue to follow and comment!
The centering on the Gwynn and Mattingly look pretty good. Dinged corners? I had a really nice Ryan that had a surface dimple - it's like hitting the lotto and then realizing that the ticket is expired.
You guessed it….corner curls on Gwynn and Mattingly. I always start with centering, since that is a quick way to eliminate 90% of cards from the 80s. Then check corners of the centered cards, which eliminates half of those. Then look at edge chipping which wipes out half of those and then last look for print defects and the dreaded surface dimples/ pimples. After all that, you have between 1-2% that even have a chance at a PSA 10. Then you just have to hope you get a grader that has seen a card older than 1995 to have any chance at a few dimes. But the fun of ripping is still worth it to me 🤣
Doesn't Ruben Sierra just look powerful on his card? Man, I was so excited to get that card and to watch him play for the Rangers. So fast, so strong. He was one of those guys that as a kid I just KNEW would be in the Hall of Fame someday. He was always great to watch.
kevin
A slight departure from baseball for the next two days to add some variety of 80s sports. As a Michigan guy, it does not get any better than pulling Barry Sanders rookies for me. The Lions were the laughingstock of the NFL for decades until Barry came on the scene and single handily made them a playoff contender. It was a shame they never surrounded him with adequate talent. He will always be the best RB in NFL history to me. All due respect to Jim Brown, Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith, but Barry walked away from the all-time rushing title by his own choice after having to contend with 8 defenders in the box his entire career. No player has done more offensively with such little talent around him. If you haven’t watched Barry’s top 50 plays on YouTube, you should go do that now.
1989 Pro Set and Score are arguably the greatest HOF rookie loaded sets of all-time with maybe the exception of 1961 and 1986 Fleer basketball sets. This is such a fun year to rip!
If money/value weren't part of the equation, 1989 Pro Set is probably my favorite football set. I may have opened more of those boxes than anything. I remember one weekend in high school when I had plans with a young lady and she canceled and I was in a bad mood, I was hanging and loitering in stores with friends instead and discovered these and it was like wow, these are different. Nice distraction. 😄 As much as it possibly could be.
Picked this up at a Chantilly Show and have tried to make getting the autos a project. But will be expensive to finish. Thanks Warren and Boomer for being affordable.
This, along with the 1979 Topps baseball vending box, are the two I have been looking forward to the most. I have not ripped very much of this product over the years, so it is like I’m looking at many of these cards for the first time.The rookie crop this year is fantastic with Brett Hall, Brendan Shanahan, Pierre, Turgeon, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Bob Probert. I am excited to see what lies within.
Jeff sent the mojo on this one. Every now and again you hit a unicorn of a box. Much like my golf game, the occasional birdie is what helps me coming back knowing there is a chance to find success. From the very first pack, these cards were coming out exceptionally clean. 3-4 cards in each pack of 12 were centered. Here is the Gretzky from the first pack. Not centered well enough for a 10, but looks like a solid MINT 9…
Seriously, how cool is vintage wax?!?!?
Here are the stars and rookies that missed being sub worthy…
Here are the key rookies that missed the centering needed. Still gorgeous registration, corners and edges though…
The cut pattern on the sheets was fairly consistent. Here are the common candidates for PSA 10…
Take a look at these two blazers that will be subbed…
Speaking of hockey royalty in PSA 10 worthy condition…
A top three player of all time…
When it rains it pours. In this case, three times all within 5 consecutive packs…
One of the top rookies in the set in dead centered, spectacular condition…
The first Hull RC I pulled made my day, since it looks like a clean PSA 9 candidate…
Then when these two Hull RCs appeared, I wasn’t sure which looked better. Needless to say, all will get subbed…
By far the best box I have ripped in a long time. Makes me think I should be ripping more hockey! Thanks for following and all the comments 🙂
Back to baseball for the rest of the rips. This one goes out to our esteemed member Joe and his affinity for this set. I can only hope to do as well as he did on his recent rack box rips. Typically, 1986 Topps and vending do not agree with each other given the chipping prone black edges. We will see…
Comments
Great looking cards. Any nice Sandburgs?
Great box. Joe! Your Puckett, Clemens and Mattingly look dead centered and clean. Take some pics without the sleeves so there isn’t any glare. Guessing folks here will weigh in on if they might 10.
Thanks Chris!
Heading to bed now after a disappointing loss by the Wild.
Will take some better pics tomorrow before the Vikings game.
Not one Sandburg in the box. 😞
"Ryne Sandberg"
Top right corner on Puckett is bad.
Upper left edge on Mattingly shows white.
Thoughts on Cal and George?
Finally, it appears both Tony and (especially) Gary have "extra" material on the top corners. Otherwise (top/bottom centering aside) they appear "perfect" will PSA punish me for this?
Sorry, if I had gotten one, I would have spelled it correctly. 😉
For the Jim Rice fans out there.
Dallas?
SandbErg is very tuff to find centered and even in a 9. I don't know why.
I have opened a few boxes from a 86 vending case and they’ve all been terrible. Those look great for 86s. It’s was a case I got from Sid at Ultimate collectibles that he bought from a collection and was wrapped by BBCE. All boxes are FASC. I do have some concerns that this was not actually a sealed case but it was cheap. Point is. Those look great for 86.
On the Ripken, is that a surface bubble by the “L” in Orioles? The Brett and third Rice look great!
No "bubble" on Cal.
Any thoughts on the extra cardboard on the Gwynn and Carter?
Henderson's tough too. Anyone know where Rickey is on the sheet?
He's on the right hand side of the sheet, so along the edge. Might have something to do with it.
kevin
Like others have mentioned, I miss the past when members would do “The 12 Days of Christmas” rips. It was always a fun boost of childhood nostalgia around the holidays. So with that in mind, here goes my 12 Days of Christmas rip which will begin tomorrow. I tried to have a little something for everyone while staying mostly true to my obsession with the 80s. You will find something from the 70s, 80s, and 90s in baseball with a little football and hockey sprinkled in.
Looking forward to sharing this holiday cheer!
looking forward for all of your twelve days!
This is awesome. Can't wait for the 79 and 80 vending boxes.
I have anxiety just thinking of how much sleeving that is going to be.
Sounds great!
Can't wait! I definitely miss ssollars annual rips, inspired me to rip some stuff this Christmas. Might have already gone overboard, and might add some more (I have a 78 vending box that keeps tempting me) ... but its all getting ripped! I dont have the same patience as others, so probably shredded over a couple nights. 😁
Love it - can’t wait!
First up….a 1991 Topps Baseball Vending Box. This year features the rookie of Chipper Jones and early cards of Frank Thomas and Ken Griffey, Jr. What I love about this set is the photography. For the 40th anniversary of Topps baseball, they decided to up the in action and professional shots within the set. This set step changes the prior decade of bland portrait shots and standing batters box pictures. The action shots remind me of some of the great angles and images from 1973 Topps. Here we go…
Nice clean vending pattern. For those less familiar with vending, the cut of the card sheet grain should flip every 5-7 cards creating this wave pattern in an untouched box…
The 76 cello has a chance at a Payton based on the top card.
Here is an example of the great photography in the 1991 Topps set. Unique SI cover-like pose for Santiago, leaping DP from Duncan and Weiss, plays at the play for Manwaring and Fisk…
Here are the stars and rookies that don’t make the grade. The Boggs and Clemens images are iconic. Just beautiful…
The key three all made an appearance, though Griffey was just his AS. This is emblematic of the centering for 95% of the cards. So tough to find 50/50 centered gems…
This was the only candidate for PSA 10 out of 500 fresh cards…
Always loved the photo on the Weis card!
Too bad the Chipper is off center. The Thomas looks good! Great photo of Frank!
great set the 91 set is at least you got a chipper jones in the box.
Day 2: 1990 Topps Baseball Vending Box
Trip down memory lane. Remember when these were can’t miss prospects?
I had forgotten the set starts off with a multi-card tribute to Ryan’s 5000th K. Great looking design…
Here are all the key stars that miss the grade…
All of the big rookies made an appearance (Griffey’s second year), but none are centered 50/50 and worth subbing…
Only two candidates for PSA 10 in the whole box. The Sweet Lou is perfect, but I will likely throw Wally back in the pond…
My last real big year collecting. I loved the 1990 card offerings. So many prospects and rookies that we all followed hunted and traded. The Eric Anthony and Zeile cards really bring me back! Loved the Donruss versions too.
Thanks for sharing!
John
Day 3: 1989 Topps Baseball Vending Box
Always loved this year as a kid. The prospect crop was fantastic to an aspiring young collector. Out of the gate, Gregg Jefferies was THE card to pull, along with Sheffield, Sabo, Ventura and Abbott RCs. Each year Topps would release the base issue a few weeks before Christmas. My LCS would always hold a few packs for each of their top customers prior to Christmas. Living in Michigan, I nearly lost my mind as a kid when my second of four packs contained the Jim Abbott’s #1 Draft Pick in his U of M uniform. The card is still one of my favorites to this day.
Here were the stars and rookies that didn’t make the grade…
This guy was not even on anyone’s radar in 1990, but is now the best RC in the set…
No Abbott in this box, but there were 4 candidates for PSA 10. Very excited that one of them is the Chris Sabo RC…
Thank you for sharing this with us, as always! Some really great looking cards in this set. My favorites are that Eric Davis, Strawberry, Grace, Sabo, and Jeffries…always have wished they’d included Griffey in the base set. I’d imagine his Future Star card would have been great looking, thanks again!
4 pretty good cards that are 10 candidates!
Barry is always nice to find!
Great action shot on Sabo.
Looking forward to some wooden borders! Been a blast from the past so far... I had forgotten how truly epic the photography was in the 91 set. I also remember being so hyped for the 89 set... after they brought back Olympic Team cards in the 88 Traded set, I was super pumped about them bringing back Draft Pick cards. Especially the Abbott! I never really understood the colored borders of the 90 set, but always loved the "color match" cards like the Grace and Griffey. Also love following the 1990 Topps blackless threads out there.
@UFFDAH -- the 76 should be the highlight, I'd say about a 80% chance for a Payton. I have high expectations for all the vintage packs... good chance for a couple Joe Cools and a "Magic"-al "Bird" too 😉😁🤞🏻.
Baz - thanks for sharing your memories. Always love hearing what others were feeling during the same timeframe. Cannot wait to see the success of your rips!
Day 4: 1987 Topps Baseball Vending Box
This was the first set I went all in on as a kid. Five iconic RCs with Bonds, Larkin, Bo, Palmeiro and Will the Thrill. The McGwire card in his first A’s uniform was a staple of the 80s too. I love every time I open this set.
Here were the stars and rookies that miss the mark for grading…
Pulled 3 of the key 6, but all were off center as is typical for 90% of cards from the 80s…
There were 4 candidates for PSA 10. Righetti AS being the best of them…
Thanks to all those who continue to follow and comment!
The centering on the Gwynn and Mattingly look pretty good. Dinged corners? I had a really nice Ryan that had a surface dimple - it's like hitting the lotto and then realizing that the ticket is expired.
You guessed it….corner curls on Gwynn and Mattingly. I always start with centering, since that is a quick way to eliminate 90% of cards from the 80s. Then check corners of the centered cards, which eliminates half of those. Then look at edge chipping which wipes out half of those and then last look for print defects and the dreaded surface dimples/ pimples. After all that, you have between 1-2% that even have a chance at a PSA 10. Then you just have to hope you get a grader that has seen a card older than 1995 to have any chance at a few dimes. But the fun of ripping is still worth it to me 🤣
Doesn't Ruben Sierra just look powerful on his card? Man, I was so excited to get that card and to watch him play for the Rangers. So fast, so strong. He was one of those guys that as a kid I just KNEW would be in the Hall of Fame someday. He was always great to watch.
kevin
Day 5: 1989 Pro Set Football Box
A slight departure from baseball for the next two days to add some variety of 80s sports. As a Michigan guy, it does not get any better than pulling Barry Sanders rookies for me. The Lions were the laughingstock of the NFL for decades until Barry came on the scene and single handily made them a playoff contender. It was a shame they never surrounded him with adequate talent. He will always be the best RB in NFL history to me. All due respect to Jim Brown, Walter Payton and Emmitt Smith, but Barry walked away from the all-time rushing title by his own choice after having to contend with 8 defenders in the box his entire career. No player has done more offensively with such little talent around him. If you haven’t watched Barry’s top 50 plays on YouTube, you should go do that now.
1989 Pro Set and Score are arguably the greatest HOF rookie loaded sets of all-time with maybe the exception of 1961 and 1986 Fleer basketball sets. This is such a fun year to rip!
Barry is a unicorn and there will never be another one like Barry. It doesn't even matter that he's not the all time leader.
A trip down memory lane every time I rip one of these boxes. Here are the legends of the game…
This set has so many rookies in it…
I always liked that Pro Set included coaches cards in this series. I think this counts as Jimmy Johnson’s rookie…
This set had a ton of variations and errors. Notice that BENGALS is in all caps as an error…
Some of the HOF rookie cards…
And pulling 2 of the big 3 is always nice. Especially when I doubled up on Barry. Too bad none were centered well enough to submit…
Good luck!> @jordangretzkyfan said:
As Charlie Brown used to say; "RATS!"
that set had some serious centering issues.
Hard not to love the Atwater card though. Dude was a bad bad man.
If money/value weren't part of the equation, 1989 Pro Set is probably my favorite football set. I may have opened more of those boxes than anything. I remember one weekend in high school when I had plans with a young lady and she canceled and I was in a bad mood, I was hanging and loitering in stores with friends instead and discovered these and it was like wow, these are different. Nice distraction. 😄 As much as it possibly could be.
Picked this up at a Chantilly Show and have tried to make getting the autos a project. But will be expensive to finish. Thanks Warren and Boomer for being affordable.
Day 6: 1988 Topps Hockey Wax Box
This, along with the 1979 Topps baseball vending box, are the two I have been looking forward to the most. I have not ripped very much of this product over the years, so it is like I’m looking at many of these cards for the first time.The rookie crop this year is fantastic with Brett Hall, Brendan Shanahan, Pierre, Turgeon, Joe Nieuwendyk, and Bob Probert. I am excited to see what lies within.
I'm looking forward to the results on this one. 1988 Hockey has a very fun and unique design.
Jeff sent the mojo on this one. Every now and again you hit a unicorn of a box. Much like my golf game, the occasional birdie is what helps me coming back knowing there is a chance to find success. From the very first pack, these cards were coming out exceptionally clean. 3-4 cards in each pack of 12 were centered. Here is the Gretzky from the first pack. Not centered well enough for a 10, but looks like a solid MINT 9…
Seriously, how cool is vintage wax?!?!?
Here are the stars and rookies that missed being sub worthy…
Here are the key rookies that missed the centering needed. Still gorgeous registration, corners and edges though…
The cut pattern on the sheets was fairly consistent. Here are the common candidates for PSA 10…
Take a look at these two blazers that will be subbed…
Speaking of hockey royalty in PSA 10 worthy condition…
A top three player of all time…
When it rains it pours. In this case, three times all within 5 consecutive packs…
One of the top rookies in the set in dead centered, spectacular condition…
The first Hull RC I pulled made my day, since it looks like a clean PSA 9 candidate…
Then when these two Hull RCs appeared, I wasn’t sure which looked better. Needless to say, all will get subbed…
By far the best box I have ripped in a long time. Makes me think I should be ripping more hockey! Thanks for following and all the comments 🙂
All I can say is WOW what a box!
Cam Neely looks PERFECT!
Wow! The results did not disappoint. Super clean pulls, can't ask for better than those. Happy to help!
I appreciate the symmetry here. Well done.
Day 7: 1986 Topps Baseball Vending Box
Back to baseball for the rest of the rips. This one goes out to our esteemed member Joe and his affinity for this set. I can only hope to do as well as he did on his recent rack box rips. Typically, 1986 Topps and vending do not agree with each other given the chipping prone black edges. We will see…