Now the moment of glory is upon us...

Well... it should have been a moment of glory if some of the steam hadn't been taken out by the postal Gods.

If you will indulge a quick mini-rant: Where do you (USPS and Canada Post) get off coming up with these ridiculous shipping rates? Under normal circumstances I would have been able to protest strongly when somebody charges me $26 for a box of 36 packs and a couple of rack packs, but this becomes moot when I get the box and it actually says $26 was the actual shipping! So kudos to the seller for speaking the truth and charging me not a penny more than actual shipping and boo to the USPS for using this ridiculous price for their "Priority" mail. I put it in quotations because in exchange for this premium price you get service of an amazing 6-10 business days to Canada.

Seriously, that much money and it could take 2 weeks? Thanks for nothing there as I could probably have walked it across the border in that time. I would be remiss of course if I didn't leave some bile for my local Canada Post, as they can't allow the USPS to have all the fun. Their contribution included levying duty upon me (because I don't pay enough tax in this country as it is on... everything) and then of course tacking on a $5 handling charge for the privilege of them handing me my box.

For those keeping score at home, the shipping on a $12 box and $32 worth of rack packs (decent prices) was an impressive $26US + another $7.92 Canadian for duty and "handling" for an impressive $36.54 Canadian or thereabouts. Needless to say it didn't get things off on the right foot, but enough of that, the box and racks were at least fun to open so we'll get to that thankfully. (My thanks for your indulgence)

So here it is in it's glory:
Even with all the aggravation, this is a lovely sight. It's always fun to look at them and speculate on what could be inside. So of course to begin I put my focus on the 1982 Fleer racks.
So inside each of those grocery racks were contained 3 wax packs with 15 cards and one sticker each.

So of course the question is: Did I pull the Ripken?

Well... in a word, no.

However these packs did not lack the star power, no my friends, these packs contained the likes of Rickey Henderson, Nolan Ryan, Carl Yastrzemski, multi-player cards with Fernando Venenzuela and Mike Schmidt and... through the power of 80s collation, duplicate copies of the following:

Carlton Fisk
Very cool, and indicative that most of the cards here were actually pretty nice looking examples of this set, which is good since they are pretty notorious for the blurry pictures, so when you have something crisp looking it's a nice bonus.

Tom Seaver
Again, another nice looking card of a HOFer, one can never complain about that.

Joe Morgan, in late career Giants regalia.

Bruce Sutter
How can you not love this photo with that sweet trophy? Add in the general confusion/semi-consciousness Bruce has going here, and you have yourself a winner in the picture taking department.

So obviously my verdict with the Fleer is: Still wish I had pulled a Ripken, but I did pull quite a few star players and Hall of Famers so I can't protest too much, plus it was a fun group to open which was definitely needed after the way we started with this rip.

Since this post is going pretty long with all those pictures I'll save the 1988 Topps Football for next time. Gotta leave some suspense.