Aaron Judge Joins a Memorable Pack Opening at Alaska’s Hubbard Glacier

Some pack openings stay with a collector for reasons no price guide can capture. At Alaska’s Hubbard Glacier, a pack from a 2026 Topps Series 1 box yielded an Aaron Judge card that its owner dubbed “The Hubbard Judge.” The card may be worth about 10 cents, by the collector’s estimate, but the setting turned it into a keepsake for his personal collection.

A box aboard the Ovation of the Seas

The trip came together through Darcy, the collector’s wife, who booked their Alaska vacation and made sure a box of 2026 Topps Series 1 cards came along. Their itinerary included salmon, the Iditarod trail and gold panning. The card opening took place from the balcony of Royal Caribbean’s Ovation of the Seas as the ship circled Hubbard Glacier, giving passengers on both sides a view.

The glacier sits in Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve, with ships approaching through Disenchantment Bay. The article describes roughly 300 to 400 feet of the glacier’s top as visible above the water. From the balcony, the collector was struck by the vivid blue ice and the scale of the scene. His gold pan produced only a tiny trace—about 0.01 microns, as he put it—so the Judge card became the trip’s more lasting collectible find.

That distinction says a lot about how collectors remember a card. The first pack delivered a familiar name, but its personal value came from the place and moment attached to it. The collector follows Aaron Judge, and the card will go into his own collection regardless of its modest estimated market value. Just Collect has also bought a larger Aaron Judge collection featuring multiple rookie autographs and one-of-one cards, documented in a separate post.

Cards for the dogs—and fellow passengers

Collecting is a family pastime in this household, with Max, DJ and Parker included. Darcy and the collector buy cards for their three dogs, and DJ has developed a reputation as a serious collector who uses his nose to select packs. A few cards from the glacier box are headed for the dogs’ collections, giving them a small piece of Alaska to add to their hobby.

The trip also offered a chance to share the pack-opening fun with other passengers. Cruise guests sometimes hide small rubber ducks for others to discover; the collector borrowed that spirit and left cards from the box in public spots around the ship. He joined a Facebook group and posted photos so other passengers could join the search. One card, a Mookie Betts, was placed with a menu at the buffet. Whether anyone spotted it is left open, but the idea turns an ordinary card into a small discovery for another fan.

It’s a playful extension of a familiar collector habit: keeping an eye out for sports cards in unexpected places. Here, the cards weren’t an accidental find but an invitation to share the excitement. The article asks readers to name the most unusual place they’ve opened a pack and invites them to share whether their pets collect cards, too.

More pack-opening plans

The Hubbard Glacier rip joins another outing the company hopes to repeat. Just Collect owner Leighton opened a pack of 1984 O-Pee-Chee baseball cards with Monte during a Yankees game. Their stated goal is to pull a Don Mattingly rookie card fresh from a pack in the Bronx; if they manage it, the collector says they’ll write about the result.

The article also points readers toward Just Collect’s collection buying and appraisal services. The company says it has purchased collections for more than 20 years and is working toward buying one from every U.S. state, with Alaska among the states it still hopes to cover. Its stated buying range includes vintage sports and non-sports cards from 1879 to 2009, along with select modern cards.

Collectors can contact the company to discuss a collection or request an appraisal. The options described include visiting its office, meeting the owner in a public place near New York City, finding the team at a card show, or arranging a visit for a valuable collection. For mailed appraisals, the company says evaluation is free and, if the owner decides not to sell, it will pay to ship the cards back using insured two-day FedEx service. Readers can also consult the company’s buy list and newsletter for information about collections, shows, podcasts and cards for sale.

That service information sits alongside a reminder that collections often carry personal history as well as cardboard. Just Collect says it works with both vintage and modern collections, including non-sports cards, and aims to give each collection careful attention. For this collector, though, the trip’s standout card is a modest Aaron Judge with an unusually vivid backstory: the first pack, the glacier’s blue ice and a balcony at sea.