What am I doing buying a repack?

I would think that the peak season for repacks is mid-summer through the end of the year.

Collectors who are addicted enough to check out what is stacked on store shelves the whole year (eyes looking squarely at me), are probably bored at the year's offerings by this point. Series 2 has come and gone, the thrill of Topps base is dead, Heritage is but a memory and A&G doesn't appeal to everyone. Unless you're a Chrome junkie, then a repack is looking pretty good around late August.

None of this explains why I bought a repack late last week, while still residing in the trippy pleasant haze of this month's release of 2015 Topps.

My card-collecting appetite is still geared toward the main course for the year. Why am I dealing in leftovers?

Well, it's very simple actually.

Around here, 2015 Topps is only at the big box stores, which are way out THERE. I have to drive through traffic, and several miles in the case of one Walmart. Meanwhile, there is a little Rite Aid a half-mile from work and during the crazy busy work day that I endured last Thursday, a little trip to the local drug store to buy cards was the break I needed.

Besides, I like the idea of cards at drug stores (even though there really are no drug stores anymore). The 10-year-old in me supports this idea. I would like to see cards sold in as many places that are not Walmart and Target as possible.

So that's why I reached down and pulled a repack box from the bottom of a display rack in front of the counter. It was right next to some rack packs of 2014 Topps Series 1 and Series 2 because Rite Aid apparently isn't cool enough to have 2015 Topps.

The repack box yielded nothing that will get anyone excited. But as usual, I enjoyed it.

There was a fair amount of O-Pee-Chee. Expos O-Pee-Chee is the best kind of O-Pee-Chee.

As I said before, upgrades are one of the best parts of repacks. This 1985 Steve Carlton is an upgrade over the '85 Carlton I pulled out of the complete-set box I bought in '85. I just showed that card on the '85 Topps blog. Here it is:

I've settled for that significantly off-center Carlton card for 30 years! One $4.99 repack took care of that.

Look, it's a Braves-style tribute to Dodger Stadium! This is my first knowledge that a Jeff Wetherby played baseball as he appeared only in 1990 sets and I didn't collect much that year.

This is where all the Heritage cards go in the fall. They disappear off the store shelves and migrate to repacks. Heritage really should be around through Christmas. Even if I'm not collecting it, it's fun through the whole year.

You guys! Sammy Sosa bunts!

Major late '90s psychedelia. This card did not scan anything like it looks. In real life, the background to this card is gold. But you could play with the card all day as it changes appearances depending on how it is tilted.

Lots of good fun. I only wish I liked the player on the card better, which is a general problem with late '90s cards.

Another foreshadowing card.

I don't know how 2000 Fleer Ultra knew three years ahead of time, but all of the incriminating evidence is here. Randall Simon biding his time, staring intently out onto the field, with bat in hand.

A sausage race is about to begin, isn't it?

If nothing else, a repack gives you, the reader, a break from 2015 Topps. Not that you should need a break from a product that isn't even a month old.

Which makes me ask again, what am I doing buying a repack?