Road Trip!

Last Friday my wife and I spent the day up in Northern New Hampshire. Her mémère is buried in Gorham, NH and a couple of times a year, we go up there to visit her grave and my wife decorates her headstone. After we do this we go to North Conway and spend the rest of the day there going to all the small shops and country stores we have time for.

Yes, we brought the dog.

It really is beautiful up there, but in this picture you can't tell because it is......ahem....raining. When we went last summer it was 100 degrees and sunny. This time is was somewhere around 60 and crappy. But even though the weather did not cooperate this time, we still enjoyed the day.

So why am I telling you all of this?

There happens to be a small card shop in North Conway. It's actually mostly comic books and video games with a smattering of cards. And like most small card shops, the prices are way too high to really justify me buying anything. But off in the corner, there is an open monster box where they have....

...homemade repacks.

We stop at this shop everytime we head up that way and I buy a few of these. They are a dollar a piece and I ended up buying five of them this time, because the last time we went there was a lot of good cards in them.

I was going to post the contents of all five, but instead I'm only going to show one of them. The reason is that they were all the same. Not the same cards, but the same order. The last 3 cards of each one were 1990 Donruss, the few before that were 1987 Topps, etc. It was like he had eight or so piles and just picked a few from each one. So that was disappointing right off the bat. I like a little variety in my repacks, homemade or not.

So here's what they had to offer:

2009 Topps Update Ben Zobrist AS (Rays)
2009 Topps Update Trevor Hoffman AS (Brewers)
2009 Upper Deck Alex Gordon (Royals)
2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Cliff Lee (Indians)
1991 Topps Terry Steinbach (A's)
2006 Topps National Baseball Card Day Albert Pujols (Cardinals)
1991 Topps Jason Grimsley (Phillies)
1989 Topps Daryl Boston (White Sox)
1989 Topps Fred Toliver (Twins)

1987 Topps Eric King (Tigers)
1983 Topps Junior Kennedy (Cubs)
2008 Topps Baseball Checklist
2008 Topps Darin Erstad (Astros)
2006 Topps National Baseball Card Day Advertisement
2006 Upper Deck National Baseball Card Day Dontrelle Willis (Marlins)
1986 Topps Frank Pastore (Reds)
2009 Upper Deck Casey Blake (Dodgers)
2009 Upper Deck Daisuke Matsuzaka (Red Sox)

2009 Topps Turkey Red Daisuke Matsuzaka (Red Sox)
2009 Topps Update Mike Sweeney Gold Parallel (Royals)
2000 MLB Showdown Jason Varitek (Red Sox)
1985 Topps Ron Cey (Cubs)
1985 Topps Milt Wilcox (Tigers)
1989 Classic Cris Carpenter (Cardinals)
1989 Pro Cards Rusty Tillman (Phoenix Firebirds)
1989 Pro Cards John Wockenfuss (Toledo Mud Hens)
1991 Fleer Ultra Bob Geren (Yankees)

1991 Fleer Ultra Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd (Expos)
1990 Fleer Braves Sticker
1987 Topps John Stefero
1987 Topps Eddie Murray
1987 Topps Steve Garvey
1990 Donruss Alvaro Espinoza (Yankees)
1990 Donruss Rafael Belliard (Pirates)
1990 Donruss Tom Gordon (Royals)

Meh.

Each of the five packs had the Jason Varitek card and the National Baseball Card Day Advertisement. I also got a 1990 Fleer Team sticker in each as well. So not so much fun this time.

I'm sure I need a couple of these (probably the '85 Fleer and 2009 Upper Deck), but overall a ringing disappointment.

I also bought this overpriced card.

It was a dollar, but I'm sure I'd find it for a dime or a quarter at a card show (if I could find one there). All of the Red Sox I saw were at least a dollar, even cards from the junk was era. Eeewwww.

We'll be going up there again in the winter, so hopefully my luck will be better next time.