Getting Meta With 1988 Pacific Baseball Legends

Before heading to Ukraine I recorded myself opening a bunch of packs I had on hand and saved them to post over the year that I would be away from easy access to trading cards.  I found that I had made two videos for packs of 1988 Pacific Baseball Legends about five months apart and in those videos I said mainly the same thing for each pack.  So I've spliced the two videos together and I hope you enjoy me getting a little meta with some packs from 1988.

My Obama 2012 Pin Collection

A little while ago I shared a sample of my [not baseball card related] patch collection.  Along with patches, I also collect pins with a majority of them being political pins which goes nicely with my political card collection.  Although I'm about as liberal as Republicans think Barack Obama is, I'm an equal opportunity pin collector with the respect to presidential or congressional campaign pins.  I think Michelle Bachmann is certifiably insane but there I was at the Minnesota State Fair braving the Republican Party tent to try to get one of her pins.

For Christmas my father gave me this unassuming box.

Which was filled with all the campaign pins that the Obama/Biden campaign issued during the 2012 election.  

If you donated money at a certain level you were able to receive all of the pins designs that were used in the campaign.  This included both the common pins that you often see and some harder to find ones that were specialized to specific demographic groups...such as "Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders For Obama," "Nurses For Obama," and voters who speak Hebrew.

Along with that special interest group which make up slightly more than half of the population.  

They also had two variations of the Latino buttons with Spanish signo de admiración.

Here are a few more buttons from the box that I enjoy starting with this one as a screw you to the birthers.  

This one was the standard pin of the 2012 Obama logo. 

And of course The Bidenator gets his own pin too!

If Biden gets one Bo gets one too!

And here are three that are just general "Vote Obama" type.  I really like the italics font used in this first one.  

2012-2013 Panini Champions League Stickers Pack #1

Here is the first pack 2012-2013 Panini Champions League Stickers a.k.a. the only cards/stickers I've found in Ukraine.  These were a little less than a dollar a pack and you get five stickers per pack.  Here's what I pulled:

My first sticker is of Toni Kroos, a midfielder for FC Bayern Munchen [Location: Munich, Germany]. 

#382 Toni Kroos

And here's the reverse side of the sticker before you peel off the front side.  

Next we have Alex Sandro, a defender from FC Porto [Location: Porto, Portugal]. 

#18 Alex Sandro

My next sticker is of a player who only needs one name apparently...that is Jonas who plays forward for of Valencia CF [Location: Valencia, Spain].  Not exactly Pele in the name recognition department.  His full name is Jonas Goncalves Oliveira for those keeping score at home.  

#405 Jonas

My next sticker is a super shiny team sticker for Juventus F.C. out of Turin, Italy but you can call them Juve for short.  Founded in 1897 they are the most successful team in Italy.  

#336 Juventus Team Sticker

My last sticker is of Ezequiel Lavezzi who is a forward for Paris Saint-Germain FC [Location: Paris, France].  Originally from Argentina, Ezequiel was on the 2008 Gold Medal winning team.  

#63 Ezequiel Lavezzi

UPDATE: Topps Is Selling T-Shirts Now

UPDATE:  Since I complained about their shipping costs in my original post it is only fair that I mention that currently Topps has free shipping on apparel in their online store.
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Topps sent me an e-mail today commanding me to "PROVE YOUR FANDOM" by buying some of their new t-shirts to go along with their new web page.

Okay, I'm game...I'll take a look and I will admit some of these are very nice.  This Bob Feller shirt below is my personal favorite but the $28 price is a bit too high plus the INCREDIBLE SUM OF $13.05 TO SHIP UPS GROUND we are over $40 for a single shirt.  And to compound the mistakes they, of course, don't seem to offer tall or extended sizes either.   Did no one in any meeting possible mention that could be something you might want to offer?