1992 Wild Card Box Break 4 Pack Rip

     I ripped open four packs from my 1992 Wild Card Box.   The third pack in, I pulled this:
   

This is Herschel's base card from the set.  This card already resides in the Hoard, as well as being uploaded on the TCDB, but it was still cool to pull.

In addition to Herschel's card, I found three Hall of Famers, and one of a guy who was very similar to Walker, but for injuries and other reasons, never lived up to his potential.

The Pro Football HOFers are:

Derrick Thomas, who played his entire career for the Kansas City Chiefs.  He was considered one of the best pass rushers of all time.   Sadly, he lost his life from injuries sustained in a high speed car crash.   He was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2006.

Next is:

Another guy who spent his whole time in the league with one franchise.  Howie Long, the great defensive end with the Raiders. Long made 8 Pro Bowls, was Defensive Player of the Year and was elected to the Hall in 2000.

Then I got a prolific quarterback, who like Walker, spent a long time in a league other than the NFL.

Warren Moon, who was highly decorated coming out of college, yet went undrafted by the NFL, went into the Canadian Football League, and led his Edmonton Eskimos to five straight Grey Cup(their Super Bowl) victories.

Moon went on to a long, successful stint with the Houston Oilers.  He was elected to the Hall in 2006.

Finally, I pulled a guy who was built like, and played, in a very similar way to Herschel.

That is:

Marcus Dupree was a huge running back with blazing speed, just like Walker. He actually broke Walker's national high school record for touchdowns by one, with 87.

Dupree's college recruiting was a national spectacle, just as Walker's had been.  Marcus decided on Oklahoma, after being courted by Heisman winner, Billy Sims.

Like Herschel at Georgia, Dupree had a brilliant freshman season in 1982, but he clashed with head coach, Barry Switzer, who wasn't happy with Dupree's weight gain and lack of conditioning.

Marcus transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi, but because he violated NCAA rules, he was told he would have to sit out the rest of the '83 season, plus the '84 season.

At that point, Dupree entered the USFL, again mirroring Walker's career path.  He played with the New Orleans Breakers, and had several good games, and was popular with the hometown fans as a southern guy who made good.

However, when the team transferred to Portland, Dupree became injured more often, finally sustaining what many believed was a career ending knee injury.

Marcus worked hard to get into shape after being out of football for several years.  He lost 100 pounds, and the L.A. Rams decided to take a chance on him.

The card above shows him during his time with the Rams.  He showed some flashes of his past talent, but by then, it was nearing the end of the road.

Barry Switzer said in his book, Bootlegger's Boy, that Dupree was the best running back, talentwise, he had ever seen, better than Sims, Walker, Jackson or anyone else.

After seven packs, I still haven't found any striped wild cards.

Herschel Hoard Reaches Card #800 2006 Donruss Elite Throwback Threads TT-45

    This is the 800th different Herschel Walker card in the Hoard:

   

The milestone card is a 2006 Donruss Elite Throwback Threads card featuring both Herschel and Daunte Culpepper..  It features a game used swatch from each player and is serial numbered to 30.

This example is #02.

1992 Wild Card Box Break 3 Pack Rip

   I ripped open 3 more packs from the '92 Wild Card box I bought.   No Herschel cards, but I pulled these three, including first, a checklist from the Series 1 set:
   

The checklist shows that Herschel Walker is card #63 in the set.  The back of the card shows how the mail in redemption for striped cards was supposed to work.

The next card is the #1 surprise redemption card.  You could mail this card in for a "surprise package", though I have no idea what that was, and despite trying to find an answer online, could find no one who redeemed one.

Lastly, the best player pulled from the packs was:

2005 Topps All-American Gold Chrome #51

     

This is the Gold Chrome version of Herschel's #51 card in the 2005 Topps All-American set, featuring college greats.

Walker has at least 18 cards in this set, including autographs, refractors, xfractors and super fractors.  Not to mention, printing plates.

I currently have six of those cards in the Hoard, including three autographed.

The gold chrome, like the regular chrome version, is serial numbered to 555, which you'd think would make it easy to find.  However, I have not seen the gold chrome until recently.

1992 Wild Card Box Break Hunting for Herschel Stripe Cards

     I recently purchased a factory sealed box of 1992 Wild Card Series 1 football cards from my buddy Don on EBay. (seller id ewinglex). He's a recommended seller, especially for cards of this era.

     I got some Herschel Walker Wild Cards from him before, which I have previously posted about.  He had a full box available, so I thought it would be fun to pick it up, and see if I could get lucky and pull a Herschel card that I might not have in the Hoard.

    The Wild Card companies gimmick, which I've also previously discussed, never took off, and the company soon went out of business. However, single player and team collectors still hunt them, especially the striped "wild cards".

     Most feel the 1,000 stripes are the hardest to locate, but that wasn't the case with me in regard to Herschel Walker.  I found two of his 1,000 cards fairly quickly on the secondary market, but I am missing several of his lower numbered striped cards, especially in the subsets, such as Stat Smashers and Running Wild.

     Anyhow, I thought it would be fun to crack a pack a week and see what I find.  So every Monday, I will reveal what I found in that week's pack.

      Here is how the box looked before opening:

         Here is the first single pack I opened:

       From this pack, I found no striped cards.  Most were common players, with  Darrell Green and Steve Atwater being the most famous players of the base cards, save for one.

       That player is:
   

      Check back to see what I find in pack # 2, Monday, January 20th, 2020.

2019 Panini Contenders Draft Picks Collegiate Diamond Ticket #41

   

I was able to add another card from this series to the Hoard.  This example is the Diamond parallel from the 2019 Panini Contenders Draft Picks Collegiate set.

This parallel is numbered to just 15.  This is card #2 in the run.