Slow Down, You Move Too Fast

I was sorting through a stack of cards, sorting by year so that I can put them into their appropriate Angels binder. The stack was upside down so I could see the year. The year the card was issued is usually in tiny print on the back side of the card.

I saw the photo and immediately though, "Oh cool! A new Jim Abbott card that I've never seen before. And he's at Anaheim Stadium!"

Then I turned the card over to see the front.

I probably have a dozen of these already.

Seen them a million times.

Often I get caught up in the accumulation, the collecting. Rip a pack, pull the Angels and stick them in a binder without paying attention to the beauty of these little cardboard gems.

I need to slow down sometimes and look at the backs of cards, read them, soak them in.

Do you ever catch yourself trying to accumulate what you need and not paying attention to the details?

1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack Box Rip

Picked up a box cheap on ebay, it's always fun to rip a box full of foil packs.

Thirty-six packs, six cards per pack, 216 possible cards, 225 card base set plus inserts of nine All-Star Scratch-Off cards and five Mascot Madness cards.

I actually like the green/yellow 1994 design much better than this 93, but the 1993 box was cheaper so I went with it. I'm considering picking up that 94 box though.

Out of the 36 packs, 6 packs had duplicate cards within. In a pack of only 6 cards that really stinks.

Pulled almost a team set of Angels, just missed out on the Salmon Glow Stars card.

Pulled seven Hot Shots redemption cards.

Too bad I didn't rip this back in '93, I would have easily been able to get all 12 Hot Shots cards which are part of the base set (not a separate insert set) and available only by redemption. Which is screwed because it makes it really hard for the set collector to finish the set.

This is the real reason I bought the box; I wanted to finish this Scratch-Off insert set.

I pulled one complete set of 9 cards, with only 2 duplicate cards in the box.

Now THIS is what really irked me.

I only needed to pull 5 Mascot cards, and as you see I pulled a whopping 9!

Only 6 of them were of that freaking BJ Birdy, and 5 of those came CONSECUTIVELY! I only needed 1 out of 5 to be Youppi!

Ah well, it was a fun rip regardless.

Below is the checklist of what I need to complete the set

(Also found under the Other Want Lists tab at the top).

3 BENJI GIL
10 ALOMAR (HOT SHOTS)
11 BONDS (HOT SHOTS)
12 CANSECO (HOT SHOTS)
13 CLARK (HOT SHOTS)
14 CLEMENS (HOT SHOTS)
15 GONZALEZ (HOT SHOTS)
16 GRIFFEY (HOT SHOTS)
17 McGWIRE (HOT SHOTS)
18 RYAN (HOT SHOTS)
19 SANDBERG (HOT SHOTS)
20 SHEFFIELD (HOT SHOTS)
21 THOMAS (HOT SHOTS)
37 SALMON (GLOW STARS)
43 BAGWELL
46 DRABEK
53 STEINBACH
55 ALOMAR
59 MOLITOR
60 OLERUD (need 2)
70 ELDRED
74 SMITH (GLOW STARS)
78 SMITH
81 GRACE
92 STRAWBERRY
93 GRISSOM (GLOW STARS)
96 HILL
114 GRIFFEY
155 JOHNSON
123 GOODEN (GLOW STARS)
136 McGRIFF (GLOW STARS)
138 GWYNN
142 DAULTON (GLOW STARS)
153 GONZALEZ (GLOW STARS)
160 RYAN (need 2)
161 CLEMENS (GLOW STARS)
171 MITCHELL
172 ROBERTS
184 JOYNER
186 FIELDER
191 PUCKETT (GLOW STARS)
195 PUCKETT
200 McDOWELL
204 ABBOTT (GLOW STARS) (need 2)
205 ABBOTT (need 2)
207 KEY
221 McCARTY CHECKLIST
222 BONDS CHECKLIST
223 GONZALEZ CHECKLIST
224 GRIFFEY CHECKLIST
225 THOMAS CHECKLIST

 MASCOT MADNESS - 5 YOUPPI