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By Joey Abna<br>
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The first autographed card I ever pulled from a pack didn’t come from a wax box; it came from a metal can. In 1997 Pinnacle issued football cards in a foil pack that were sealed in a can like beans or corn. My local K-Mart stocked these things like a grocery store stocked canned veggies. Just about every time I passed by the display I would grab a can or two.
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The funny thing is I bought these for the cans more than the cards that were inside. I didn’t really like the design of the cards but the cans were cool and they looked great stacked up on my dresser or anywhere else I could get away with displaying them. I still have four of these cans on display in a cabinet and one of them is still sealed. I also have a set of the opened cans in a box in the attic.
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It was these oddball cards in a can that yielded my first ever autograph card out of a pack. According to the side of the can the approximate odds of pulling an autograph is 1:251 cans. I really don’t remember how many cans I bought but it might be close to two hundred. The cans didn’t go over too well in my town so I was able to get a bunch of them marked down for clearance.
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When I opened the can and the pack that yielded the autograph card I had to look twice to make sure I was seeing what I thought I saw. It was a Jim Kelly Autograph card. I was really surprised to get an autograph from a pack. I normally didn’t have great success pulling the tougher cards. But this time luck was on my side. Jim was one of my favorites; I first started following his career when he played for the Houston Gamblers of the USFL. This card would have really been cool if it would have had a picture of him in the Gamblers uniform.
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We remember many of our “firsts” like cars, kisses and well, you know. I can remember the first card shop I ever visited. Which just so happens to be the first place I bought a Mickey Mantle card at when I was a teenager. I have already told you about my first autographed football and now you know about my first autographed football card pull. This Jim Kelly Autograph was my first auto from a pack and will always be in my collection.
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<i>Joey Abna is a longtime collector who loves to blog about cards. He collects cards, figures, pins, photos and just about anything else relating to the players and the games they play. His favorite aspects of collecting are busting packs and searching through 5,000-count boxes at card shops and shows. Joey blogs about the hobby on <a href='http://Blog.SqueezePlayCards.com' target="_new">Blog.SqueezePlayCards.com</a>.</i><br>
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<i>The opinions offered in this column do not necessarily reflect those of Beckett Media.</i>