Have you seen the latest installment of the 1975 Topps worst-to-best countdown? My goodness, five episodes in and I guess everyone's bored to death of it. Probably an overreaction on my part, but after averaging 280 views on this series it was suddenly down to 135 yesterday! I know it's just a bunch of head shots, but check it out if you haven't.
OK, sorry, blogger's lament there. Moving on.
One of the craziest transformations in cards over a period of time has got to be the evolution of the Pacific brand. A lot of what I hear about Pacific is related to cards that look like the one above, stuff that came out in the second half of the 1990s.
Or stuff like this:
I can handle that kind of Pacific in small doses. Not many of their primary sets do much for me. Too much pointless bling. But I'll enjoy a crazy insert or parallel or two.
Something that's more my speed is earlier Pacific, when it was known as Pacific Legends.
I received all of these Pacific Legends cards from Jeff of Wax Pack Wonders. A very nice send to help me boost my set chases.
It's difficult to believe that these cards came from the same company as the later '90s cards. The card's design for these are pretty drab, I've whined about gray borders many times. But the subjects are so much more appealing to me than Ben Grieve or Geronimo Berroa. Give me those legends for all-time, not for five years in the '90s!
Granted, I'm not super familiar with Buddy Lewis is (nor why his eyes have been outlined like that), but if he's in this set he had to be good!
I also claimed a couple of Pacific Legends cards from Diamond Jesters' latest Time Travel post. Koosman eluded me during the giveaway at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts so it's nice to see it finally come home.
It's safe to say I'll have all these Legends sets completed before I attempt to try to complete any late '90s Pacific set. But I have to hand it to the company. After churning out legends sets into the early '90s, it suddenly started catering to the Latin market, using current players and bilingual text. That found an untapped retail source and they rode it for everything.
But that's for another blog, or rather Twitter site.
Aside from those '90s Dodgers (gimme), I will stick with what's more my speed. I got a few other cards from Jeff besides the Legends.
A couple of Mother's Cookies Dodgers. These are also from the '90s but so, so much different.
Best of all, some cards to aid my 1986 Fleer completion quest. Just 26 cards (of mostly stars) away.
I also claimed some non-Pacific cards in that Time Travel trade.
I'm so sick of the 1987 design that I have a difficult time even being interested in the OPC set, but these two are too much fun.
And finally a 1965 Topps card because who doesn't love those? The Twins from this set seem pretty accessible, considering they were a World Series team that year.
OK, that's it for tonight. Kind of short and sweet, but there's plenty of recent content on here ... and a decade-and-a-half of archives.
Comments
Their last flagship set in 2001 is quite difficult to complete as they really limited their production of packs and there was no factory set (looks like they knew the end was near.) Somehow I own a complete set and it’s surprisingly a nice set, with very readable foil and a bevy of action shots. It really resembles Stadium Club in the 1990’s.
Twenty-plus years later... my opinion has completely turned around. I won't say I love those gold foil cards... but I appreciate their photography and creativity. And I absolutely love the Pacific Legends sets. I own all three of those series and have them housed in 9-pocket pages (which is something I reserve only for my most favorite sets).
And I only learned of that OPC Vida Blue with Oakland just a few weeks ago. "87 OPC baseball is rather intersting to me in that there were a few transactions I had forgotten about like Dennis Lamp to Cleveland. He was a final cut that spring and caught on with Oakland later that summer.