The Evolution of Pack Attack

My love of trading cards began somewhat unceremoniously back in the winter of 1999. My wife was pregnant with our third child (a boy), I was working as a store manager for this God-forsaken nationwide truck stop chain.... putting in 100 hours a week (literally), and my nerves were shot all to hell.

One day, as we were doing inventory on the backstock of my truck stop, I came across a large box of unopened packs of basketball, baseball, and football product from the 80's and 90's. In order to liquidate them, we marked everthing down to a dime a pack and set them by the register.......a high volume point of sale. However; after several days of being picked through by the young neighborhood boys, who obviously knew what they were looking for, the remaining packs didn't sell. Soo, in order to get them out of my inventory and off the counter, I bought what was left. I figured, if nothing else, I could re-gift them as birthday presents and Christmas gifts.

While sitting at my desk and taking a long overdue break, I decided to see what was in those weird wax packs............man those were the days.........and I'll never forget the first pack I opened........

And, believe it or not, I've almost got this set completed.

Well, unbeknownst (my word of the day) to me, I had just been exposed to the condition known as Pack Attack.

It became a part of my everyday routine......

1. smother my 5 hour old hot dog with ketchup, mustard, and relish.

2. buy the biggest energy drink in the cooler.

3. lock the door to my office and hope they forget I'm alive.

and

4. crack open the next pack in the box

Before I knew it I was hooked............and it became a craving.

Little did I know, there was an entire society of poor saps just like me who lived for the daily joy of cracking a wax pack of cardboard. It wasn't till later on that I realized that there was actually information on those things........and PICTURES!!!!!!!

Before I knew it, I was searching the phone book for people who sold these glorious things and started going to meetings on weekends where grown men ACTUALLY sat at long tables and sold these packs out of pre-packaged boxes.

Now, eight years later, I'm video streaming youtube for fellow card sharks, I'm going to card shops on the weekends, I'm saving up for the once in a lifetime trip to the National, and I'm still cracking packs.

Soo, I decided to start blogging about my "obsession"........(that's what my wife calls it)

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!