Editor’s Blog: First Pack, Old Pack, National Impressions, Prime 9

Topps says the #5 redemption card in its PRIME 9 promotion for Series II is Mike Schmidt.

The company has released an image of the card that collectors can bring to their participating local card shop and redeem it for an exclusive limited edition Topps Chrome Refractor as part of the weekly program.

Redemption cards can be found in Series 2 Hobby packs (1:18) and Jumbo packs (1:5).  Each card is denoted by a Week number (1, 2, 3, etc.).

he “PRIME 9” thus far…

Week 1 (July 19^th) Johnny Bench, Catcher (redemption card #1)

Week 2 (July 26^th) Albert Pujols, First Base (redemption card #2)

Week 3 (Aug. 5^th) Jackie Robinson, Second Base (redemption card #3)

Week 4 (Aug. 12^th) Derek Jeter, Shortstop (redemption card #4)

Week 5 (Aug. 19^th) Mike Schmidt, Third Base (redemption # 5)

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It’s been two weeks since the National Sports Collectors Convention.  I found out tonight that auction companies sometimes make some whopper sales during the show, most of which you never hear about.  We’re talking amounts that most of us might spend over the course of our collecting lives being dropped on a Wednesday afternoon.  Sometime soon, we’ll delve a little more into that.

You’ve (hopefully), gotten our take on the goings on in Chicago.  Ken Karrson, who writes a sports collecting column for a newspaper in Northwest Indiana, dropped in on Saturday and offered a quick take in last week’s column.

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Do you remember your first pack of baseball cards?  Mine were football…but I don’t remember the first one.

Some of us have vivid recollections of the first time we peeled back the wax.  Some can even remember the first player they saw emerge.  Now that’s impressive.

The number of kids who can remember those packs as actual “wax” packs and making trips to “corner stores” is disappearing as time marches on but here’s a nice piece from South Coast Today’s Jonathan Comey about what for him are great–and very sharp memories.

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One collector refers to the ripping of vintage wax packs and the availability to put those expensive pack busts into online video as “pack porn”.  He’s right, of course.  You can’t get enough of them, if the pack is old enough to potentially hold a very nice old card.

While there’s some regret about another vintage pack having its life terminated, the voyeur in us can’t resist seeing the cardboard escape from its tomb. Here’s a “silent rip”:

About Rich Mueller

Rich is the editor and founder of Sports Collectors Daily. A broadcaster and writer for over 35 years and a collector for even longer than that, he's usually typing something somewhere. Type him back at [email protected]