I'm sure most baseball fans have no idea who Gerry Staley was, I certainly didn't before buying this card. Unlike the last couple of unknowns I've written about though, he was actually a half-way decent player. Gerry was pretty solid as both a starting pitcher and in relief throughout his 15 year career. 1953 was a great year for him, as he would go 18-9 with a 3.99 ERA, the second highest single season win total of his career (he never crossed the 20 win mark).

Gerry was selected to 3 All-Star teams in his career and finished in the top 30 in the league in MVP voting on 2 different occassions. He converted to a reliever for the last few years of his career and was part of the bullpen for the 1959 Chicago White Sox, who won the A.L. Pennant. All in all he had 134 career wins, 61 saves and a respectable 3.70 ERA. Gerry looks like a nice enough guy, but he did lead the N.L. in hit batsmen in both 1952 and 1953. He plunked 17 batters in 1953 alone!

Recently I was scouring the bargain bin at the local card shop looking for something different to rip for a change. I picked up a pack of 2005 Upper Deck All-Star Classics for $2.00, for no reason other than the fact that I'd never heard of this set before.


I absolutely loved the cards, and decided to pick up a 24-pack box. I had a couple of reasons for this. First, I've decided not to pursue 2008 Heritage as I'm still working on my 2007 Heritage set, plus Topps has turned me off a bit with all of the SPs and variations. Although I love the look of the '59 Topps cards, I realize that even after 3 or 4 hobby boxes of 2008 Heritage I'd be out over $200 and still probably be well short of the set. In stark contrast to this, 2005 UD All-Star Classics has a 100 card base set with no short prints. At 8 cards per pack and 24 packs in the box I'm almost guaranteed to get a complete set out of this, right? Best of all, I picked up this box on Ebay for about 1/3 the cost of a 2008 Heritage hobby box.

Another reason I was sold on this box was that there are 25 Legendary All-Star cards in the base set (the DiMaggio pictured above is an example). For someone who loves vintage cards and the heroes of yesteryear, these cards are absolutely outstanding, in my opinion some of the nicer looking modern cards that I've pulled since I got back into collecting.

Finally, the cards in general are just beautiful. They are printed on nice, thick, glossy cardstock and showcase the excellent and crisp photography that Upper Deck is known for. I also really appreciate the fact that most of the cards offer great in-game action shots. This was a plus for me, especially with the Legendary All-Star cards. Many of my original vintage cards show the players posing for a photograph and it was really cool to open each pack and see some of these legendary names in action.

Ok, enough of the justification for purchasing the box. Here's a breakdown of what you get in each pack.

Four base cards of players who were in the 2005 All-Star game (base set #'s 1-50)...


Two All-Star futures cards featuring up and coming talent (base set #'s 51-75)...


Two Legendary All-Star cards, the highlight of the product in my opinion (base set #'s 76-100)...

Pros: Well, I've already hit on the positive aspects of the product, but in summary great looking, high quality cards, very reasonable price, and a small set with no short prints. I also like the fact that Upper Deck included a thick cardboard filler in the packs that did not contain game-used cards to prevent pack searching. Two memoribilia cards per box on average is also a plus (I pulled this Dontrelle Willis as well as a Moises Alou):


Cons: My only major gripe is that at first, it seemed as though collation was going to be absolutely terrible. No more than 6 packs into the box my doubles pile was just as large as my set pile. Not a good sign at all. The cards were literally sorted in the exact same manner in each pack. After a few packs, you could look at the first card in the pack and know exactly which 7 cards were going to follow (6 if you happened to pull an insert).

At one point, there were two packs that were laying side by side right next to each other in the tray that contained the exact same 8 cards. This leveled off as I made my way through the box and didn't end up being a huge problem in the end, but I would've been pretty angry back in 2005 had I purchased 2 packs of this and ended up with identical packs. At the end, I had one pack to go and needed exactly 8 cards to complete my set. The final pack contained the exact 8 cards that I needed, so it seems as though Upper Deck sorted these cards so that you would be guaranteed to end up with a set if you purchased a 24-pack box. Turns out the collation wasn't so bad after all.

Suggestions: I can only think of one possible suggestion that would've made this box better. It would've been great if they had seeded game-used cards of the Legendary All-Stars, maybe seeded 1:24 packs or something like that.

Here's what I ended up with:

Base Set: 1-100 (Complete Set)
Doubles: 83 doubles (no triples, collation turned out to be pretty good after all!)
Inserts: 3 gold parallels (#'d to 499), 1 All-Star Classics Box Scores, 1 All-Star Classics Matchups, 1 Midsummer Classics, 2 Midsummer Swatches game-used cards, 1 All-Star Classics MVP and 2 Perennial All-Stars

Overall I think this is a great product at a great price. This box break reminded me of why I love collecting. Maybe these aren't the world's most desirable cards, but they were very affordable and put a huge smile on my face more than once while ripping through the packs.

If you like what you've seen here, I've already posted all 83 of my doubles in my Available for Trade post, just contact me if you're interested. I had also purchased a second 24-pack box of this stuff in case I wasn't able to complete a set with the first one, I've added that to the trade list as well...

BASEBALL

1950 Bowman
1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 9, 93, 94, 95, 96, 98,
100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 107 ,108, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181, 182, 183, 184, 185, 187, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198,
200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 224, 225, 226, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252
 

1959 Topps (any condition!)
8, 10, 11, 13, 27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 36, 37, 38, 40, 42, 43, 45, 47, 49, 50, 54, 57, 58, 68, 69, 75, 76, 77, 89, 94,
102, 104, 105, 106, 115, 119, 125, 128, 129, 134, 138, 143, 147, 159, 163, 164, 166, 178, 180, 183, 192, 199,
212, 218, 219, 222, 223, 224, 227, 229, 249, 250, 251, 260, 270, 271, 280, 284, 295,
300, 306, 308, 317, 324, 325, 329, 330, 338, 345, 360, 362, 364, 375, 380, 382, 388, 389, 392,
400, 402, 408, 412, 413, 417, 423, 438, 441, 443, 445, 448, 449, 450, 455, 457, 461, 463, 464, 467, 470, 471, 483, 494, 497,
503, 507, 508, 509, 514, 515, 518, 519, 520, 521, 525, 526, 527, 528, 529, 535, 537, 538, 539, 540, 543, 544, 546, 547, 551, 554, 555, 556, 557, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 567, 569, 570, 571

1978 Topps (condition upgrades - NM or better only please)
23

1982 Topps (NM-MT or better only please)
Complete

1986 Topps Traded
Complete

1987 Topps Traded
Complete

1992 Topps
Complete  

1993 Flair
Wave of the Future Inserts:  4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 17, 19

1994 Upper Deck All-Star
Complete 

2007 Goudey
209, 210


2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces
Complete

2008 Upper Deck
Complete

2011 Topps Legends Variations
Series 1 - 5 (Lou Gehrig), 20 (Honus Wagner), 25 (Carl Yastrzemski), 44 (Rogers Hornsby), 50 (Mike Schmidt), 80 (Jackie Robinson), 90 (Yogi Berra), 93 (Frank Thomas), 100 (Stan Musial), 102 (Christy Mathewson), 135 (Dale Murphy), 150 (Hank Greenberg), 198 (Johnny Bench), 199 (Ozzie Smith), 200 (Ty Cobb), 209 (Roy Campanella), 219 (Thurman Munson), 247 (Ernie Banks), 250 (Mel Ott), 271 (Babe Ruth), 293 (Harmon Killebrew), 315 (Jimmie Foxx), 330 (Phil Rizzuto)

Series 2 - 355 (Bob Feller), 375 (Andre Dawson), 393 (Jim Palmer), 405 (Ryne Sandberg), 425 (Johnny Mize), 435 (Pee Wee Reese), 450 (Mickey Mantle), 460 (Robin Roberts), 480 (Roberto Alomar), 490 (Duke Snider), 505 (Greg Maddux), 510 (Hank Aaron), 516 (Tom Seaver), 530 (Sandy Koufax), 570 (Bert Blyleven), 590 (Juan Marichal), 600 (John Smoltz), 626 (Nolan Ryan), 640 (Eddie Mathews), 645 (Bob Gibson), 650 (Frank Robinson), 651 (Eddie Murray), 660 (Brooks Robinson)

Update Series - US4 (Carlton Fisk), US18 (Joe DiMaggio), US31 (Paul O'Neill), US38 (Roger Maris), US42 (Frank Thomas), US58 (Bert Blyleven), US59 (Rickey Henderson), US154 (Babe Ruth), US207 (Frank Robinson), US229 (Roberto Alomar), US230 (Al Kaline), US238 (Darryl Strawberry), US258 (Monte Irvin), US260 (Ty Cobb), US309 (Jimmie Foxx)

2011 Topps Chrome Atomic Refractors (#'d /225)
8, 19, 21, 35, 54, 70, 103, 117, 128, 138, 151, 173, 174, 197, 198, 217 

2012 Topps Archives
SP:  201, 202, 205, 208, 210, 213, 218, 219, 220, 222, 223, 224, 226, 228, 230, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 240

2015 Topps Stadium Club
18, 27, 32, 38, 41, 50, 51, 71,
116, 117, 118, 122, 125, 130, 134, 159, 166, 181, 189, 199,
216, 227, 228, 231, 255, 263, 269

2015 Topps Chrome Update
Complete



HOCKEY

1971-72 Topps
2, 3, 9, 18, 20, 23, 26, 33, 40, 45, 48, 49, 53, 56, 57, 60, 62, 64, 70 (Gordie Howe), 71, 72, 75, 77, 80, 82, 88, 89, 90, 95,
100, 111, 112, 114, 126, 127, 130, 132

1972-73 Topps
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 20, 22, 24, 30, 31, 34, 41, 45, 49, 50, 53, 54, 55, 57, 59, 60, 61, 64, 67, 70, 73, 74, 83, 85, 90, 92, 94, 96,
100, 101, 102, 113, 118, 119, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127, 130, 134, 136, 137, 139, 140, 143, 147, 148, 150, 152, 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 167, 171, 172, 173, 175, 176

1973-74 Topps
Complete

1974-75 Topps
Complete 

1979-80 Topps
Complete 

1982-83 O-Pee-Chee
7 (Bourque), 10, 16, 18, 19, 22, 24 (Bourque SA), 26, 32, 35, 38, 47, 48, 52, 56, 65, 66, 79, 84, 86, 87, 89, 92, 95,
105 (Fuhr RC), 115, 119, 120, 124, 132, 136, 143, 147, 152, 154, 157, 164, 174, 176, 187, 188, 190, 191, 195, 197,
201, 210, 211, 215, 216, 226, 228, 230, 231, 234, 239, 245, 248, 249, 251, 256, 257, 258, 259, 261, 263, 279, 280, 286, 287, 290, 297, 298, 299,
304, 305, 306, 307, 310, 317, 318, 321, 322, 323, 326, 328, 331, 332, 333, 334, 337, 339, 341, 343, 350, 351, 352, 353, 359, 363, 371, 374, 375, 379, 380 (Hawerchuk RC), 384, 386, 387, 390, 393, 394, 395

1984-85 O-Pee-Chee (Mint Please!)
3, 61, 285, 286, 308, 335, 345

1985-86 7-Eleven
Complete 

1985-86 Topps
Complete

1986-87 Topps
Complete 

1987-88 Topps
Complete

1988-89 Topps
Complete  

1989-90 Topps
Complete 

1990-91 O-Pee-Chee Premier
Complete

1990-91 Score
Complete 

1991-92 Ultimate
Complete 

1992-93 Upper Deck
Wayne Gretzky Hockey Heroes:  Header, 15, 16, 17

1993-94 Upper Deck SP Inserts 
Complete

1994-95 Parkhurst Missing Link
18, 21, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35, 36, 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 70, 73, 77, 86, 87, 90, 93, 96, 99,
102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 112, 114, 115, 120, 123, 125, 126, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 146, 149, 150, 156, 160, 161, 162, 167, 169, 170, 172, 173, 177, 178 

1994-95 Topps Finest
7, 10, 18

1994-95 Upper Deck SP
35, 76, 93, 102, 105, 110, 132, 160, 166

1995-96 Topps Finest Refractors
Complete


1995-96 Upper Deck
65, 82, 133, 161, 172, 187, 188, 225, 230, 235, 247

2001-02 Topps/O-Pee-Chee Archives
Complete 

2008-09 Fleer Ultra
Complete 

2008-09 O-Pee-Chee
Complete

2008-09 Upper Deck
Complete 

2008-09 Upper Deck Legends Masterpieces
Complete 

2011 Upper Deck Stanley Cup Champions
Complete

2013-14 Panini Prizm
202, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 224, 225, 228, 229, 230, 231, 233, 234, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 242, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 253, 254, 255, 256, 258, 260, 262, 265, 266, 267, 268, 270, 271, 272, 273, 276, 277, 279, 281, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288, 291, 292, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300
 



NON-SPORT

2016 Topps Star Wars High Tek Blue Rainbow (#'d /99)
1, 6, 8, 9, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 71, 74, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, 95, 97, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112

Unfortunately, if you had to summarize Maurice "Mickey" McDermott's life in a few words, you'd most likely go with something like "promising young pitcher who never realized his full potential and eventually became a complete drunk". Even so, I've always had a soft spot for Maurice McDermott for one reason. Collecting cards as a kid, I had only two truly "vintage" cards in my small collection. One of them was a 1950 Bowman Maurice McDermott purchased at a local antique shop. Although I knew virtually nothing about him (you couldn't exactly Google someones name back in 1990), in my eight-year-old mind I had built him up to be larger than life, a hero on the mound. Turns out I wasn't entirely accurate...
Mickey had his first major league tryout at age 13, for the Brooklyn Dodgers. When he was signed by the Boston Red Sox at age 15, part of the negotiations included two truck loads of Ballantine Beer for his father. Talk about a simpler time in the game, no need for high priced agents and media coverage, a few thousand bucks and some truck loads of beer settled this one.
After an interesting career in the minors (including throwing a no-hitter in which he lost), McDermott finally broke into the majors in 1948, appearing in a mop up duty role a few times before eventually being sent back down. He would get his first start with the Red Sox when fellow teammate Ellis Kinder was pulled after an inning because he was too drunk to pitch. I'm starting to see a pattern here, maybe Mickey was doomed to become an alcoholic.
Here we see him on the cusp of his greatest season, a 1953 campaign in which he would go 18-10. Eventually drinking became a problem for McDermott, ending his career and causing problems in his personal life. He hung up the cleats with a 69-69 career record and never really developed the skills he exhibited as a youngster.
Turns out he released a book shortly before his death in 2003 called "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cooperstown". The guy was a huge drinker, by many accounts a great storyteller and personality, and was friends with people like Satchell Paige, Mickey Mantle, and even Jack Kerouac! I just picked up a copy on Amazon for $5. I can't wait...