That Goo Has Mystique

I always like to pick up a pack or two of discount hobby packs when I'm in my home town, visiting the parents. And one of my favorite to buy is 2006 UD Update. I guess I'm hoping to find that Pedroia rookie, and I've whittled away most of the packs in stock at this point. Was this time a success?

Here are the highlights from 3 packs. Some short prints and an auto. I dig the Soto. Not much going on with the auto besides a cool name. Colter Bean played a few innings for the Yankees and a ton in the minors.

But this post is about to have more mystique, Fleer Mystique, that is. This LCS has a few packs of Mystique from 2000 and 2003, and I've scored a nice pull off these in the past.

So, what did I pull this time?

Some shiny base cards of some good players. Well, that's dandy. And what's this?

So, in case you haven't ripped any Mystique, they randomly insert these mystery cards. If the wrapper wasn't enough packaging, they offer you yet another chance to bust open a card. These sparkly coatings are stickers that you peel off on both sides of a card that's some sort of insert. So let's get to peeling.

Oh, that looks like a Ripken. Awesome for a Ripken collector, right?

Oosh. Not so awesome. The sticker left goo all over my Ripken. I was freaking out because this is a card I actually needed for the PC, and it's a cool one. But what to do about the goo? I was thinking about getting out the lighter fluid, which is the best way to remove sticker residue (technical term: goo) from top loaders and such. Then I started just rubbing at it, and the gunk balled up and fell off.

After a few minutes of rubbing, I was covered in little balls of gunk, and my Ripken was finally clean. It's still sticky, but even a sticky Ripken is a good Ripken. Now, I'm left wondering why the hell Fleer thought this was a good idea. I guess I'm just glad Topps never got their hands on Mystique's sticker gunk technology.

By the way, any of these cards are for trade, besides the Soto and Ripken.