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New Box Break: 1999 Pacific Aurora

I've managed to wait over a full month since receiving the 1999 Pacific Aurora box for Christmas...but now that's it is February it's time to rip the box open!

Speaking of opening boxes, I was hoping to do a group break in February but I'm not sure if the interest is there right now.  Would you be interested in such a venture?  If so, feel free to discuss products and/or price points that I should look at!

Now, enough chatter - let's rip open that beautiful box.

The box contains 36 packs with 6 cards per pack.  I wish all baseball card boxes came with 30+ packs...it makes the opening process so much more fun.

According to the pack wrapper, we can expect the following:
Pennant Fever (4:37)
Complete Players (299 serial-numbered sets)
Kings of the Major Leagues (1:361)
Styrotechs (1:37)
On Deck Laser-Cuts (4:37)
There are also a few numbered parallels that are possible.  Other than that though, it's a box chock full of base cards.  As a set collector, I like "no frills" boxes sometimes...or, better yet, boxes like this where an insert card is actually something kind of special.

Now, it's time for the first two packs out of the box.

Pack 1:
38.  James Baldwin

71.  Craig Counsell

89.  Jeff Montgomery

110.  Orlando Cabrera

143.  Scott Rolen

173.  J.T. Snow

I don't think I've ever seen any of these cards before.  As someone who happens to love the quirkiness that Pacific was known for, I've been looking forward to opening the box for quite some time...and through one pack I'm not at all disappointed (even though there's nothing quirky to be found so far).  The cards are printed on a thicker than usual card stock which makes the baseball cards feel a bit more premium.  The design is pleasing enough, I like the team logo on the front.  It'll take a few more packs before I'll be able to determine whether the background colors are random, team specific, or in some other pattern.

The back of the cards are interesting in that some are oriented vertically while others are oriented horizontally.  It appears the orientation of the card is entirely dependent upon the secondary photo that Pacific used on the back.  It's unique, and while not something I want every set to do, it seems to work fine for this particular set.  I might change my mind on that though when I have a stack of 200 cards to sort through, we'll see I guess.

Pack 2:
39.  Mike Caruso
72.  Todd Dunwoody
88.  Jeff King
153.  J.D. Drew

198.  Alex Gonzalez
Pennant Fever:  16.  Tony Gwynn

I always liked Pacifics simple "rookie" designation on their cards.  It's certainly better than the large rookie card logo that Topps has been using lately.  I also pulled the first (of most likely four) Pennant Fever cards - and it's of none other than the box (and pack) poster boy, Mr. Tony Gwynn.

Comments

  1. If you decide to trade any of these, I don't have any Giants from the set and would be interested in them. Let me know!


    Adam

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  2. I would say 36 packs in a box is the perfect number!

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  3. This has always been the strangest-looking design to me. Like it was slapped together using an old visual design app from the mid-90's (which I guess it could very well have been). I think the diagonal name is off-putting.

    And yet I crave anything Griffey that comes out of this box!

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