Of cardboard collation anomalies …
From the Desk of Olds …
Picked up one of those half-price Blaster boxes of 2008 Stadium Club Baseball during a Tuesday-night Target stop and had quite an unusual run — one perhaps unseen before during my 20-plus years of collecting.
Sure, we’ve heard the stories about mispackaged cards — packs full of autographs, or packs carrying extra cards or (gasp!) packs that were short.
But this one was something new, something unusual. Perhaps it’s not earthshattering, but definitely something that I don’t recall seeing before.
I got five straight packs — 25 consecutive cards — all with horizontal photos. All of them — from Manny Ramirez (above; and where is the umpire, anyway?) to Ryan Braun, Prince Fielder, Greg Maddux, Johan Santana and so on — horizontals.
Every. Single. Card.
Sure, it’s easy to say “I had the same” with 1960 Topps or 2009 Topps Heritage — sets with just horizontal designs — but Stadium Club is a set that has its fare share of vertical and horizontal cards (obviously to help showcase the photography).
But five packs — including all of the First Day Issue cards — to be all horizontals?
It amazed me. And the remnants of the box — three packs along with two more Blasters (19 packs total) — yielded just more 12 horizontal cards.
Right up there with this run for me would be an infamous 1989 Donruss pack that had every card inside miscut — in order — so the chain of cards connected one to another when they were placed side by side.
Do you have any unusual pack tales to tell?
Let us know.
Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball and Beckett Graded Card Investor. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an e-mail to him at colds@beckett.com.
