1, 2, 3, 4...I declare a pack war

Last month my youngest son and I were reading over some blogs when we came across a couple of bloggers having a pack war.  It was William from Foul Bunt and Drew from Drews Cards.  My son asked what a pack war was and once I explained it, he said he wanted to do it sometime.

Over the weekend, we went to Walmart and I offered to buy a blaster so we could have our own pack war.  He asked if we could both buy a blaster and play for keeps.  Hey, who am I to deny my kid the opportunity to buy cards I can steal from him.  *Maniacal laugh...*

For our pack war, he bought a blaster of Allen & Ginter and I bought a blaster of Bowman Platinum.  Each has 8 packs so we matched up pack for pack.  We decided the best card in each pack (based mostly on my subjective opinion) would win the pack.

Here is a look at how the war went down...

Round 1

Billy Hamilton refractor vs. Brandon Phillips SP mini

I was going to give him the pack because of the SP, but he said shiny was better so Pack 1 goes to me.


Round 2

Yasiel Puig base card vs. Vikings Martial Mastery

We had a brief argument over this one because he kept saying that in a real war, a viking would beat a Puig. Poor naive boy.  Anyone knows a Puig can beat a horde of Vikings.  Dad 2, son 0.


Round 3

Jurickson Profar base card vs. Anthony Rizzo.  He didn't even argue about this one.  Score one for the Rangers.  Score one for Dad.  Dad 3, son 0.

At this point I'm starting to feel a little guilty because he's insisting that I take the packs for the rounds I've "won".


Round 4

Taylor Guerrieri refractor vs. Kris Medlen black bordered mini.  Hey, mini-me finally scores a pack.  Dad 3, son 1.


Round 5

Somehow, I messed up the scan, so you'll have to take my word for what we pulled.  I had a gold parallel of David Price from Platinum and he pulled a Venus insert.  I let him win the argument that a planet beats a Ray. Dad 3, son 2.


Round 6

Kyle Zimmer Cutting Edge Stars vs. Josh Hamilton mini.  I knew as soon as I saw the Hamilton mini that he won the pack.  My son is 11 and doesn't have any of the cynicism of an adult so Hamilton was his favorite Ranger and still remains one his favorite players. As he looked at the Hamilton, he said, "Dad, someone wrote on the back of this one."  He handed it over.

I looked at it closer.  Then I flipped it over...

Boom!  Holy cow.  I told him what he had...an A&G Bats back mini, hand #'d to 25.  These are inserted 1:272 packs in retail and he pulled one of his favorite player!

I pushed all the packs at him and said when you get a card that good, you automatically win the war, every single pack included.  He was so happy and I got a big kick out of the smile on his face.

Just for the sake of doing it, we opened our last two packs to see what would have happened.

Round 7

Tim Lincecum Ruby parallel vs. Andre Eithier Across the Years.  I hate to pick a Giant over anyone, but it's a 1:20 insert so we gave the win to me.


Round 8

"Michael" Stanton Best Bowman Players of All Time insert vs. Will Clark base card.  C'mon, this is a no brainer.  Giants uni or not, Will is my favorite player and my son knows it so this round went to him.

Overall, we ended up tied 4 packs apiece, but I gave him all the Platinum cards to go with his Ginter cards based on the excellent Hamilton mini.

I have to say, incredible pull or not, this was a lot of fun and I'm sure we'll be doing it again soon.  Maybe when Chrome comes out because everyone knows I love some shiny goodness.