Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Crackin' Wax - 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads

In the quest to fill in the gaps I picked up a lot of 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads packs.



Donruss made this set for just two years - 2004 and 2005. The cards have a little gloss on the front, which means that sometimes they are sticking together in the packs. They also inserted thick cardboard spacers into several packs, possibly to thwart pack searchers?

The top is the spacer, the bottom stack is a stack of all the cards in a regular pack.

 The checklist was full of base cards featuring retired veterans in vintage unis. Who could forget the memorable Mariner years for Rickey Henderson? Ok, that was a little funky...
As you might guess, the set also features current players in throwback threads! What a cool concept!


Oh... but just those two guys? I guess so. Why call your set "Throwback Threads" if you're not going to feature . . . throwback threads?

 Cool - some more Hall of Famers!
Um.. ok, that's not a Throwback Uniform, but Schilling is pretty good!
Uh, what? Why?? I get that the "hit" version of this card would have a cool relic or something, but what is the point of a set called Throwback Threads and a subset within that set called Throwback Collection that makes no reference to anything remotely throwback-like?



These were actually pretty cool - they are a little bit thicker than the others, with a kind of plastic credit card kind of weight to them. They are all arbitrarily numbered:
Seems unnecessary. I like it! The Tejada card numbered to 70 was identical in every way to the others, it's not like they got refractor-y or gold foil or anything like that. Again... kind of unnecessary, but ya know, kind of fun anyway...


The Century Stars insert featured Ryan, and guys like Ken Griffey Jr as a Red, David Wells as a Blue Jay, etc. etc.

Overall, this was a cool concept for a set that Donruss just didn't try that hard to make good.

9 comments:

  1. I liked Throwback Threads for the really nice patch cards. To this day I still search for Pirates from this set.

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    1. I think this was a cool design and I liked the ideas behind it - if they just called it Donruss Threads I maybe would look at it more favorably.
      Would it have been that hard to find photos of all of the players on the checklist wearing a throwback uni? They probably wore throwbacks less often then, but it still seems a bit lazy.
      I should look up some of the patch cards, I didn't hit any in these packs.

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  2. I bought the same lot a few weeks ago for our box break with Matt, and didn't hit any relics either. Which probably explains the very low price

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    1. Whoops - I may have just sent you and Matt doubles in that case... sorry guys!

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    2. no problem !
      and there it was : http://thecardpapoy.blogspot.fr/2015/03/box-break-part-ii-french-return-with.html

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    3. oh, that's... kind of hilarious actually, because I also bought a box of 2013 Hometown Heroes (I haven't opened that yet, though).
      See, the Frank Thomas card had a throwback jersey featured... Throwback Threads should mean throwback uniforms! /rant

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  3. I love those randomly numbered 'game' cards! They remind me of the 1968 set that I just started hunting down. I didn't even know those modern day ones existed...maybe it's time to start another hunt.

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    1. I think there is an older (1910's? 1930s?) set of game cards that Donruss emulated for the #'d cards, but I can't remember what it was called.
      Speaking of the '68 set, do you have a wantlist built for them yet? I might have a couple you could use...

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    2. The original set is the "1914 Polo Grounds Game" - there's a complete set on eBay for a few thousand dollars... run of the mill guys like Mathewson, Honus Wagner, etc etc...

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