The Final Four - COMC Comes Through

With all of the recent changes in the sports card industry (and my dwindling interest in baseball) it seems like a good time for me to announce my retirement from baseball card collecting and blogging at the ripe old age of 41. I'm not going to stop collecting cards forever but I do plan to complete as many card sets as I can by the end of 2021 and then I'll stop actively buying trading cards. I might continue passively collecting - but the days of spending multiple hours per day on this "hobby" are coming to an end. 

I've published 496 posts here at The Collector so I'll squeeze out four more and stop at 500. I've also got one more post planned at The 1993 which will be my 45th published post at my sister blog I'm ashamed of myself for not even getting close to 93 posts. After that I'm probably going to wrap it up. 

Again, if the mood strikes I might post a little more here and there. But it wouldn't be about cards - and I doubt anyone wants to read random musings about my everyday life, like how my co-worker has had several "dentist appointments" this month which are secretly job interviews and only a couple of people in the office know this. And tomorrow I have an actual dentist appointment - which I have to leave early for. Can't wait to tell 'em why.

Also I've been listening to a lot of Chvrches lately and I'm really bummed because they are playing a show in my hometown of New Haven!! Good bands never come to New Haven anymore!! And tickets are only $40 or so. Problem is, the show is on a Thursday. In December. :/

While I'm on the subject I've been having this dream of hearing them play "Death Stranding" outdoors at like 4 in the morning, and Office Girl is with me and we're like Nick and Norah at the Where's Fluffy? show and it just feels like bliss. I bought two Chvrches CDs this summer and "Death Stranding" isn't on either of them and this is a huge oversight on my part. I must download this song immediately.

See, I'm much more interested in discussing music, but every time I do I get the same "that band/artist/song sucks" response so I'm not going to do that. This is a sports card blog, after all.



At the beginning of April I requested COMC ship 32 cards to me. And they did so - four months later.

These two legendary 49ers quarterbacks were the last cards I needed to complete the 1987 Topps set. Joe Montana cost 85 cents and Steve Young set me back $0.69. There are a handful of singles in this set that I wouldn't mind upgrading, though not as many as the condition-sensitive '86 set. It's another reason why I won't be able to completely stop collecting cards on December 31, but I'm going to do as much as a I can to tidy up my set builds - even if they're complete.

2015-16 Donruss basketball is finally complete, thanks to these two rookies. Kelly Oubre cost $3.75 I'm still amazed that I was able to get the Nikola Jokic RC for less than that while Martin was a more manageable 60 cents.

I have now completed nine basketball sets, though only six of them have enough cards to qualify - and this is the only one released after 1993. 1992-93 Topps Archives will soon be the tenth completed set, and then I guess I'll try working on those starter sets Bo sent me.

One more set filler for today. I'm still trying to collect all of the 2017 Topps Heritage inserts though I will probably have to give up the Game. Aside from those, I only need four more:

Three to go. 

Thanks for reading!



~

What kind of collector are you?

I think I've asked this before. There are certain bloggers who are definitely one type of collector. Collecting Cutch, The Lost Collector, and Nachos Grande have impressive single-player collections. Night Owl, Too Many Verlanders, and Cards on Cards concentrate on one or two teams. Of course player collectors can be team collectors and team collectors can be set collectors, and so on. 

 

I've never been able to narrow my focus. By now you probably know what teams and players I collect. I've got an entire 3-row shoebox for my Brett Favre collection, another for Peter Worrell, and another row or two for other favorite players. My Ikea bookshelf holds five full binders of Boston Red Sox base cards, three full binders of Green Bay Packers (plus the start of a fourth), and five binders of New Jersey Devils. 

The rest of the binders on my bookshelf are for complete sets. Not all of them, of course. According to TCDB I have 196 complete sets. Adding factory sets to the total pushes me over 200. Some of these are very small, five-card insert sets. Heck, TCDB counts this as a set - and I have all one of the cards. 

Over the past few months I've realized that certain parts of the hobby are no longer enjoyable for me. I doubt I'll ever buy another hobby box of.. anything. I'll never have a PSA membership again. COMC and the Beckett Marketplace have annoyed me (and I might be adding Sportlots to that list.. we'll see.) Investing in the latest prospects and budding superstars has been an absolute disaster. 

I can count on one hand the number of  high-value rookie cards I don't own that I truly, legitimately would like to buy before I die. I'm not even counting legends like Ted Williams or Wayne Gretzky, who are well out of my price range. And I'm not counting players like David Ortiz or Barry Sanders, who have affordable - but bland - rookie cards.

While I was doing my sports card soul-searching I thought about how I would answer the question What kind of collector are you? If you'd asked me a year or two ago I'd say that I'm now a low-end collector, like Dime Box Nick. Once I started going to card shows again I rediscovered the joy in pouring through dime and quarter boxes. One time I picked up nearly 200 dime cards. But then the dealers' inventory shrank, the pandemic hit, and my space dried up. Storage boxes and penny sleeves have doubled in price - and I'm almost out of both.

Within these dime boxes (both in person and online) I found the seeds of some set builds. Once I accumulated enough singles I augmented my purchases by trading on TCDB for more set fillers. Trading my duplicate cards from completed set builds to fill in other set builds sparked even more joy. 

As of this year if you asked me What kind of collector are you? I think I'd say I'm a set builder.

But here's the problem. I've got over two dozen incomplete sets in the works. Some are five-card insert sets. Others are suddenly a lot more expensive to complete than they were when I started them just a couple years ago. And as I approach my 500th post dedicated to sports cards I'm also approaching a crossroad: should I break up my great big set builds? If so, which ones?

Thankfully, not every set build is as daunting as the 1956 Topps set.

These 1989-90 Fleer basketball singles arrived in a trade with TCDB user Tigerfan22. I'm now just six cards away from completing the set - though three cards from previous trades need to be upgraded.

I made a trade with user Driver8k for four of these and he threw in three more - the team action and Record Breaker cards were a nice bonus. Holmoe was part of the trade with Tigerfan, while Walker was a replacement for a 1986 Topps football card he couldn't find (which I was only trying to upgrade anyhow.)

There are always more set builds to focus on further down the line. These five Prizm cards bring me to one-third of the 2015 set (100/300). 2019 Score isn't an official set build yet but thanks to Driver8k I'm at 27% completion (119/440).

I've got more set fillers on the way from TCDB and Sportlots - and I just made a fairly major purchase on eBay. Over the next few posts I will have more to share about the joys and challenges of trying to complete all these sets, culminating in my 500th post celebration later this spring.

Thanks for reading!


~

86, 87, 88

The mid to late 1980s was a fascinating time for the NFL. Or maybe it's fascinating to me because it was just before I became a football fan. The USFL collapsed in 1986, replenishing the NFL's talent pool. Bo Jackson was selected #1 overall by the Buccaneers but he didn't sign a contract with the team. Bo was re-drafted in 1987 by the Raiders, making his debut in a chaotic season disrupted by a player's strike. The 15-game season included a month's worth of games played in part or in full by replacement players. It was wild. 

I wasn't even aware of football until 1988. I didn't see Lawrence Taylor snap Joe Theismann's leg like a twig until several years later. I missed Bo vs. Boz, Scab-ball, Randall Cunningham seizing the means of production, and Doug Williams' record-breaking Super Bowl performance. 

 
My introduction to football was through 1988 Topps cards. After spending the summer ripping open packs of Topps (and Donruss, Fleer, and Score) baseball cards I was falling for football in autumn, popping in to the local WaWa for cello and rack packs. Even though I had at least a hundred singles I still asked for - and received - a factory set for Christmas.

I was eight years old at the time, so naturally I opened it and handled the cards until they were wrecked. And so several years ago I purchased a wax box from Kruk Cards and completed the '88 Topps set all over again.

Two years ago I purchased this Jerry Rice rookie card on my birthday which prompted me to build the 1986 Topps football set. Nearly completing this set prompted me to fill in the gap with 1987 Topps. I'm still missing 230 cards from this set  - and one from 1986 - but I've been itching to compare the three sets.

If you flip through these cards in a nine-pocket page you'll notice that Topps followed a basic outline on their checklists - though they didn't always stick to the plan.

Each set starts with a Super Bowl recap and seven Record Breakers cards. In 1986 Topps the Record Breakers come before the Super Bowl card, and in 1988 there are only five Record Breakers.

The team hierarchy is based on the prior season's standings (just like Fleer baseball sets), so the Super Bowl champion goes first, their vanquished opponent second, conference finalists are next, and so on until the end of the set where you'll find the worst team followed by three checklist cards. 

Each team has roughly 11-15 cards, starting with a Team Leader card. The fronts feature action photos, which are otherwise nonexistent in these sets. Each team's rushers, receivers, and defensive stars are listed on the back, along with the game-by-game results of the team's season. Helpful information in the pre-internet days. 

I enjoyed looking at these as a kid, and I still do. You can see which teams were on a roll before fading out of a playoff spot, which teams were overmatched, and which teams absolutely dominated the opposition.

The 1985 Bears were pretty good.

Once I had the complete 1988 Topps set I began to notice the positional pattern. For the most part, Topps issued each team's cards in this order:

Quarterback, Running Back, Running Back,  Wide Receiver, Wide Receiver, Tight End, special teamer, Offensive Lineman, Defensive Lineman, Defensive Lineman, Linebacker, Defensive Back

There were variations based on a team's strengths and weaknesses, but this seemed to be the outline. Now that I have three years' worth of cards (and a comprehensive checklist of each thanks to TCDB) I can dig a little deeper. 

• The Chargers only had one defensive player in the 1986 set. How bad was the San Diego defense in 1985? They ranked 25th out of 28 teams in points allowed. Atlanta had the NFL's worst defense in '85.
  
  
• The first Eagles player in 1987 was not a quarterback. I've seen examples of a defensive rookie out of sequence before, but they're usually stashed at the end of the team set, not the beginning.
  
  
• I only noticed one team set in this three-year span that did not include a quarterback: the 1988 Chargers. Dan Fouts had retired after the 1987 season and I guess Topps didn't want to guess who would replace him. Mark Malone was San Diego's starter in '88 - but he was already in the set. 

Let's have a little fun with numbers. In the 1986 and 1987 sets there are 352 regular cards (the 1988 set has 354 such cards.)

179 players appear in two of the three sets, including legends like Fouts, John Stallworth, and Donnie Shell who retired in 1987 as well as former USFL stars like Jim Kelly and Herschel Walker.

Not all of these players appeared in consecutive sets. Steve Grogan and Ed "Too Tall" Jones appear in the '86 and '88 Topps sets but both are absent from the '87 edition.

138 players appear in all three sets. Among these are big names you'd expect, like Bruce Smith, Eric Dickerson, Dan Marino, and Lawrence Taylor. There are also some lesser-known players who appear in each set, such as Larry Kinnebrew, Pete Mandley, Brian Hansen, and Garin Veris.

Who's Veris? You gotta switch off Veris.

I didn't collect as much in 1989, and the Topps football set didn't interest me then or now. I do remember buying a few packs of 1990 Topps football, though I'm not a fan of that set, either. In 1991 I bought some rack packs at a department store in Cooperstown, of all places. The cards never made it home however; I must have lost them or left them somewhere in town.

As I mentioned before on this blog, the first football card I ever saw was from the 1985 Topps set. For the longest time I didn't like the black borders and block name along the side but I do occasionally pick up some '85 Topps cards on TCDB. One of them was included in a PWE I received today from user frankgifford.

Steve Bartkowski's sunset card.

In case you missed it, I'm hosting a PWE Swap Meet here at The Collector now through December 28. If you've got 4-15 football cards to trade, send 'em to me and I'll send you an equal amount of cards for your collection plus you'll get an entry into a random drawing for a mystery box of baseball cards, football cards, and trading card supplies. 

What was your first football card set?

Thanks for reading!


~

4 Pack Break - 1987 Topps Football

Let's open some 33 year-old wax packs. 

 

I earned enough eBay bucks to shop for some set fillers - but not enough for a vintage card. One seller had packs of 1987 Topps football for $3 apiece, discounted to $2.55/ea if you purchase four or more. After using my eBay bucks this lot cost $4 total, which works out to a buck a pack ($1 + $3 shipping.)

The first football cards I saw on store shelves were 1988 Topps, and I bought several packs at the time. I can't say that this purchase was an attempt at "buying back my childhood" because I never saw '87 Topps anywhere. So this is the first time I've ever opened any football packs older than '88.

Obviously with the Jerry Rice RC in 1986 Topps I couldn't pick up any unopened wax to boost that set build. There aren't any high-value cards in 1987 Topps but there are still some key cards I need including:

• Jim Kelly RC
• Randall Cunningham RC
• Charles Haley RC
• Herschel Walker RC
• Doug Flutie RC
• Walter Payton sunset card*
• Joe Montana
• Jerry Rice 2nd year
• Dan Marino
• Steve Young 2nd year
  

*Payton had a Record Breaker card in 1988 Topps but not a proper base card

Pulling any one of these cards would be a win. I'll also note any Hall of Famers, stars, and Packers.

Let's get 'rippin. Here's pack 1:

Off to a great start here with a second-year Bruce Smith and a Boomer Esiason. Mossy Cade will go in my Packers binder since I already have one in my set. J.T. Smith was one of my favorites as a kid. And I was just telling my wife how much I love the old Falcons uniforms, specifically the red helmet.

There are 16 cards in each pack so I'll have to break these up into two scans. Here's the second half:

I'd forgotten about the 1000 Yard Club glossy cards. Four more chances to pull HOFers like Payton, Rice, Eric Dickerson, and Steve Largent. The Donnie Shell (HOFer) has a dinged edge and the Steve Jordan is wrecked. I knew at least one card would be gum-stained, but I wasn't expecting surface bubbles.

Pack 2, first half:

Here's one of the three HOFer rookie cards in the set: Gary Zimmerman. Charlie Joiner also has a bust in Canton. James Wilder was a childhood favorite because he appeared to be the only decent player on the Bucs and I liked the orange creamsicle uniforms.

Second half:

I remember Joe Morris from his Starting Lineup figure. (I think I had a Marcus Allen, too.) Sadly the Allen card is the bubbled one in this pack and has to be discarded. Mark Lee with Christmas colors is interesting. All the other Packers in the set have a properly yellow background behind their name.

Pack 3, first half:

Doug Flutie RC 😎 That's one I can cross off the Top Ten wantlist. Super Bowl cards kicked off the 1987, '88, and '89 Topps sets. Half a Jerry Rice card is better than none, especially when he shares it with the host of Touchdown Trivia.

Second half...aww, sh!t:

Dave Jennings hot pack. Including the Brian Hansen that's three punter cards. When was the last time it was even possible to pull three punters from a pack? That's not why I'm annoyed. You see that card at the bottom right? That's one of the three HOFer RCs in the set. One of the Top Ten keys...

..and it's wrecked. I don't mind a little gum stain but this card (like the Allen and Jordan) have surface bubbles on the front. They're hard to see in the scan but you can see the gum damage on the front underneath Haley's name:

That's the risk of buying 33 year-old wax packs. Oh well :/

Last pack. Let's see if the third Hall of Famer RC is hiding in here...

Two Hall of Famers in Andre Tippett and Kellen Winslow. Mark Malone took over for Terry Bradshaw in Pittsburgh, but that was before my time. I remember him from ESPN. Which blogger collects cards of players on a phone?

Second half:

Another Joe Morris insert. Figures. No HOFers here, though I do have a bit of a Neil Lomax PC. Also, I'm very relieved that the bubbled/gum stained card in this pack was a checklist. 

Overall this was a fun rip. I got 42 new cards for my set build, plus some glossy inserts and a handful of traders.

Now.. who would like to eat this gum?

Anyone? There's a Charles Haley rookie card in it for ya. 

Oh.. I see we have a volunteer. Jon, do the honors:

 

Thanks for reading!


 

~

Quick PWE post

 So it turns out I do have some pink cards. At least a half dozen.

These two were in a fat pack of 2019 Topps Chrome I purchased at Target. I miss purchasing packs. And Target. Tried going there a few weeks ago and the line at the register extended all the way to the back of the store. I don't need mystery flavor Mountain Dew and 2020 Topps Archives badly enough to spend my whole Saturday standing in line.

And why would I spend $20 on a handful of cards when there are so many generous bloggers sending me care packages? Three PWEs arrived in my mailbox today, and I'm keeping my promise to thank the senders via blog post.

 

Adam (Infield Fly Rule) emailed me about a week ago offering help with my 1993 Leaf set build. He sent seven cards-almost all Marlins and White Sox, as you can see. The outlier was Royals shortstop Greg Gagne.

More 1987 Topps football set fillers courtesy of Elliptical Man. I will be busting open some packs of these this weekend :)

 
Jon of the Pennysleeve blog contacted me to ask a couple questions about my Devils collecting. Once I answered his "card related email" he sent these two Adam Henrique Progressions plates from 2013 Panini Fathers Day. These are from the Inked set, and there are just five copies of each. I would not have known any of this info without Jon's note explaining them.

 

Jon, Adam, Brendan... thanks for the great cards!

It has been brought to my attention that I have a talent for predicting sports outcomes. So congratulations to LeBron James and the Lakers on winning the NBA Championship. You're next, Dodgers :)

Thanks for reading!



~

A pink Paige and other random scans

I've been trying to get my scan folder organized so that I can keep track of new cards that come in and who sent them to me. Unfortunately I may have made a bigger mess out of them as I've misplaced the scans of cards I received from Tom (The Angels In Order) and Dennis (Too Many Verlanders) Perhaps I forgot to scan the cards in the first place, I'm not sure. 

not a recent arrival, just a tribute

Sometimes I'm in the mood to simply enjoy the cards that come in and place them in my collection without scanning and discussing them. Of course I email the sender a "thank you" but I should be more proactive about posting these care packages on the blog. That's one reason why I need to get organized. 

I really don't have a good excuse as to why I can't find those scans but I can find scans of recent TCDB trades.

I traded 24 dupes from 2017 Topps (plus seven other cards) to TCDB user Lugnut80 in exchange for 17 set fillers. The Chase Utley is my favorite of this group.

This is the fourth Al Toon RC I've had and they're all off-center. I give up trying to upgrade this card, it's good enough. Technically I'm no longer working on the 1988-89 Fleer basketball set, though I'm happy to trade for singles I need - just in case. The Cavs and Mavs logo cards are not part of the regular 1991-92 Upper Deck set; these are from the Spanish version.

These 2015 Panini Prizm cards were the main reason I offered Lugnut a surplus of cards. Hoyer and Edelman had a rough game last night - but my Packers didn't 😎

Tomb on Tcdb sent these eight cards in exchange for a couple Yankees, an Ichiro, and some 1992-93 Fleer Ultra basketball dupes. He mentioned the Aguirre sticker had soft edges but I'm less picky about the condition of the stickers, which always seem to be miscut, off-center, or wax stained. 

The Rookie at the bottom left is UConn alum Donny (not Donyell) Marshall, while the Mark Price and Lee Smith were replacements for cards tomb reported as damaged. The Rick Mirer is kind of random, it was on my wantlist to replace a damaged copy in my collection.

Speaking of random...

Here's a scan of a 'bucket list' card I don't own (and probably never will.) I must have mentioned this on the blog before because it's in my "unsorted" folder of blog topics. It's a great card, but far too expensive for something that doesn't depict a player. I'm adding it here so I can delete it from my folder.

The "Pocket Rocket" Henri Richard, another Hall of Famer we lost this year - almost a dozen by my count. I mentioned this on Commishbob's blog. I don't own this card, though I do collect Canadiens from their dynasty years. Mostly 1970s as they're more affordable.

Here are some cards I do own, thanks to TCDB user Shaggy69:

These 1987 Topps singles are really crisp. I've been adding a bunch of these lately thanks to trades - and the generosity of one Elliptical Man - and I'm about add a bunch more thanks to an eBay purchase I made yesterday. Stay tuned for that..

Two more for my 1989-90 Fleer set build (which is also going to get a major boost soon) and three more 1987s. The Gerald Madkins at the top right brings my 1993-94 Fleer Ultra set build down to just three cards. 

Or two if I decide to crack this open. This was sent to me in a prior TCDB trade without any indication it was encased. I tried selling it at the height of MJ mania earlier this year but didn't get a bite.

I've become much more committed to set building than team or player collecting over the past year or two, as evidenced by my never-ending quest to acquire PSA-graded copies of all 396 cards in the 1984-85 O-Pee-Chee hockey set.

Pat Flatley is my newest addition. I'm down to just 59 needs. If only I could pay $5 for each of them, like I did with "Flats" here.

Since this is a random post I'm going to mention Paige Spiranac for a second. Before wrapping up my final COMC order I considered adding one of her cards to my cart. I decided not to, because.. 

This is the card in question. It's alright I guess. But those grainy colors don't appeal to me at all.

This is Paige Spiranac in color. This would have been a fantastic card, especially this month. Thanks for nothin, Topps. [Perhaps I should have posted this on my 1993 blog based on her birth year. Oh well.]

Now that I've cleared out some random scans and photos I shall endeavor to keep up with all the care packages from fellow bloggers. Tom, Dennis, thanks again for the great cards!

Thanks for reading!



~