12 Days of Christmas Day 9 - Starting Lineup

One of my favorite gifts to unwrap on Christmas morning was a Starting Lineup figure. It didn't take long for me to spot them under the tree, unless my mom got creative and put them in a box before wrapping them.

Some of the players I had in my toy box included Tony Gwynn, Roger Clemens, Alan Trammell, Dan Marino, Warren Moon, Joe Morris, Bernie Kosar, Mike Singletary, Danny Manning, and many more. Those are all long gone, but I still have about 80 unopened SLU figures in my collection. Here's the complete list:

football (27)

• 1988 Eric Dickerson
• 1988 Neil Lomax
• 1989 Art Monk
• 1989 Vinny Testaverde
• 1989 Bubby Brister
• 1989 Ickey Woods
• 1990 Deion Sanders
• 1990 Christian Okoye
• 1990 Jim Everett x2 
• 1990 Don Majkowski
• 1993 Sterling Sharpe 
• 1995 Brett Favre (x2) - This was included in my Secret Santa gift from CaptKirk.
• 1996 Robert Brooks
• 1997 Mark Chmura
• 1998 Antonio Freeman
• 1998 Brett Favre
• 1998 Reggie White
• 1998-ext Peyton Manning
• 1999-00 Dorsey Levens
• 1999-00-ext Donovan McNabb
• 2000-01 Brett Favre
• 2000-01 Antonio Freeman
• 2000-01 Kurt Warner
• Bart Starr HOF Legends
• Vince Lombardi HOF Legends

baseball (12)

• 1988 George Brett
• 1988 Ozzie Smith
• 1988 Bret Saberhagen
• 1988 Robin Yount (x2)
• 1988 Tim Raines
• 1992 Frank Thomas
• 1993 Ken Griffey, Jr. -  This is the first one I kept unopened - I thought it would be worth a lot of money if I preserved it. 26 years later, the price hasn't changed.
• 1998 Nomar Garciaparra
• 1999 Pedro Martinez 
• George Brett Cooperstown collection
• SL2 Sammy Sosa
• SL2 Robin Yount Cooperstown

hockey (29)

• 1993 Patrick Roy (bilingual) - The backing teases Canadian basketball fans with an ad for the 1993 NBA series, stamped with "Not available in Canada."
• 1993 Ray Bourque (bilingual)
• 1993 Ed Belfour 
• 1993 Brett Hull 
• 1993 Jaromir Jagr
• 1993 Mario Lemieux
• 1994 Mike Richter
• 1994 Arturs Irbe
• 1994 Pavel Bure 
• 1994 Teemu Selanne (bilingual)
• 1995 Martin Brodeur
• 1995 Dominik Hasek 
• 1995 Theo Fleury
• 1995 Pavel Bure
• 1996 Patrick Roy
• 1996 Joe Sakic
• 1996 Brendan Shanahan  - The only Whalers figure ever made.
• 1996 Scott Mellanby (bilingual)
• 1996 Stephane Richer - This is my newest addition; I cheaped out on a 1989 Randall Cunningham but got this from the same seller for about a dollar after using eBay bucks.
• 1997 Zigmund Palffy (trilingual)
• 1997 Keith Tkachuk
• 1997 Jason Arnott x2
• 1998-ext Theo Fleury
• 1998 Bobby Clarke Legends (bilingual) I bought this one at a shop in Canada.
• 1999-2000 Mike Dunham
• 2000 Wayne Gretzky (Oilers - raising cup) 
• 2000-01 Mike Grier
• 2000-01 Damian Rhodes - The only Atlanta Thrashers figure ever made.

At one point I tried collecting one figure for every NHL team, but I didn't quite get there and so I sold or opened a few of them.

basketball (7)

• 1988 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• 1994 Hakeem Olajuwon - My sister in law took me (and my nephew) to a store in CT that had hundreds of SLU figures. I picked out this Hakeem, which cost $20 at the time. 
• 1996 Damon Stoudamire
• 1997 Reggie Miller
• 1997 Kerry Kittles
• 1997 John Stockton
• 1997-ext Keith Van Horn

misc. (4)

• 1989 Baseball Greats Eddie Mathews/Hank Aaron
• 1997 Classic Doubles Brett Favre/Bart Starr
• 1998 Classic Doubles Scott Stevens/Martin Brodeur
• 1999 Classic Doubles 1999 Brett Favre college/Brett Favre GB

Did you collect Starting Lineup figures? If you have any now, are they sealed or open?


Thanks for reading!


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Day of Giving

Today is a big day of gift giving here at The Collector. My daughter's birthday party is this afternoon and before the party starts I'm going to the post office to mail a pile of packages for my card collecting friends (and one eBay buyer.) A handful of cards I planned to send out were being held at COMC and, since they included a Secret Santa gift, I had to request shipping on these the week before Black Friday. 

It's a relief to finally be able to send these gifts out because I received my Secret Santa gift on Monday. CaptKirk42 of the blog Curly W Cards drew my name out of the hat and sent three wrapped packages (I'll save the largest one for a future post..)

Before opening these two packages I'd assumed that one would be a retail fat pack of new product like 2019 Topps Update or something and the other would be single cards.

I assumed incorrectly. Both packages from Kirk were loaded with cards from all of my favorite teams, including the Devils team set from 2019-20 O-Pee-Chee..

..and Devils cards from back in the days when they actually won a few games.

Six Red Sox, including a serial-numbered Matt Barnes auto...

And a bounty of Brett Favre cards! 25 in all! I haven't had time to check how many are new to my collection, but my guess is that three or four of these were needs.

These Chrome cards are fantastic! I remember buying as much 2004 Bowman Chrome as I could find that year - which wasn't more than a few packs here and there.

So many cool cards here, including the 2004 Bowman's Best and Fleer Showcase. I definitely did not have that Standing O football in the middle.

Kirk also sent a Brett Favre Starting Lineup figure, which is timely given my recent posts.

Brett Favre is by far my largest player collection, but the only PC I prioritize ahead of him is..

I had gone months without adding any new Peter Worrell cards until recently, and it means a lot more when they're part of a care package. Kirk, thank you so much for this very thoughful Secret Santa gift!

Here are some of the hand-picked singles I received in the COMC shipment. Normally I would make this a second post but there's so much going on I didn't want to drag it out.

I prioritized thicker cards since I have an abundance of thick top loaders sitting in my closet. The Clemens Museum Collection was $0.37 - cheaper than a flagship set filler of a nondescript Braves reliever! The Banks Museum single was $0.46 - cheaper than a Topps Big League set filler of a failed Yankees prospect! The Soto copper parallel was $2.25.

Two more exquisite singles, which I bought previous to the Chara and MacKinnon. Staal cost me $1.44 but if I'd waited until the BF sale I could have grabbed it for under a buck - as I did with the Subban relic. The Pedroia patch was the most expensive item in this order at $6.20.

These were the only other cards that cost $4 or more. I was especially thrilled to add an Aaron Rodgers relic to my Packers PC for just $4.75. The Soto Heritage RC cost $4.48. I was busy hunting down his singles during the World Series. If I had the cash to buy high-end prospect autos he's the one guy I'd go "all-in" on right now.

The rest of my keepers, including another Favre. The Green foil at the bottom right is Sean Doolittle. I've wanted an Oakland A's card in that color for a while, and Doolittle is one of a handful of Nationals players I've cheered for recently. I was very happy Kirk's Nationals won the Series this past year. Hopefully they can bring back Steven Strasburg and/or Anthony Rendon to defend their title, but even if they lose a big-name free agent I wouldn't count them out next year ;-)

 

Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!


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Christmas Cards from Billy and Mark

'Tis the season for giving, and the blogosphere has been busy spreading cardboard cheer. Billy (Cardboard History) mailed out a mountain of goodies recently, and I was on his "nice" list:

Getting a Christmas card from a card blogger reminds me of the first giveaway I did. :)

Of course this card had smaller cards tucked inside it, including an Alex English for my 1988-89 Fleer set build, and an Aaron Rodgers Panini Certified Cuts card I didn't have. Some local flavor here too: the Knicks, the Nets, and the UConn Huskies are represented.

Billy wrote a very nice message inside, and made it clear that he was not my Secret Santa - which would have been weird because he was already my S.S. two years ago!

My Secret Santa is not a blogger, but he is a veteran blog reader and commenter (and a Red Sox fan) Mark Hoyle sent me a stuffed bubble mailer on Monday. There were some old Sox inside:

Oooh a non-card item. Is it me, or does Yaz look like he's posing at a camp site?

Tony C! Nice little run here. Unfortunately I bought a copy of the '69 at the Milford card show in March. Anyone collecting vintage Sox or building the 1969 Topps set? I'd be willing to trade my extra copy.

Mark included some sealed packs. You can't find these on the shelves at Target. (I wonder if he has a pack stash?) The '89 Topps baseball yielded three more Red Sox..

..but the non-Sox selection was bleak. Van Slyke and Wells were the closest thing to 'stars' I could find. At least the Skybox basketball pack had a Hall of Famer..

Wes Unseld was one of four Bullets in the pack. My favorite card here has to be the Nuggets logo. I like this design more than the 1990-91 Fleer set...

..but there was a lot more star power in that one. Is there a better card I could have pulled than this Michael Jordan? I think not. 

Jordan and David Robinson were far from the only NBA legends I received: 

 

Vintage hoop! Every time I see Dennis Johnson I think of that famous steal by Bird.

 

These 1979-80 Topps cards would make a nice 9-pocket page. The Alex English Rookie Card and Rick Barry are my favorites here. The Gail Goodrich is my first New Orleans Jazz card.

ABA cards, including Kentucky Colonels. Seattle just got an NHL expansion team and it's only a matter of time before the NBA returns. Is Louisville a viable option for a 32nd NBA franchise?

Bing! More stars from 1975-76 Topps, on the NBA side. I've never seen a Pat Riley card from his playing days. These are all fantastic cards but one of these two dozen singles really stood out to me:

Boom! Two all-time greats on the same card and two different poses for each player. This Kareem/Oscar card is in fantastic shape, too. It would have been perfect for the Milwaukee stop on my Sports Card Tour. 


Mark, Billy..thank you both for your generosity! I am very pleased with my cardboard gifts :)


I'm going to try and wrap up my Nostalgia post this weekend so that I can get my 200th post in before Christmas. Hope your Secret Santa has been good to you all!


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Secret Santa?

With the blogging retirement of Secret Santa host Matt (Bob Walk The Plank) earlier this year, there hasn't been any mention of a gift exchange (to my knowledge, anyway...maybe someone mentioned it on Twitter?)

Since we're now in November I thought I'd ask...would anyone like to participate in Secret Santa 2018?

Additionally, would anyone like to host Secret Santa 2018? If there are 20 bloggers willing to participate and no one else has volunteered to host...I will host it. 

Please share your thoughts in the comments. We'll try to hammer this out by the conclusion of this weekend. 

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A Smashing Secret Santa Gift

Red Sox Nation has been well-represented in the sports card Secret Santa exchange hosted by Matthew Scott at his blog Bob Walk The Plank. As luck would have it, I was assigned a fellow Red Sox fan to buy a gift for and a different Sox fan to buy for me.  

Matt, author of the blog Diamond Jesters, sent me some Sox cards, some set fillers, and some presents to open. (side note: I think this is the fourth or fifth Matt I've met on the baseball card blogs. Matts are more abundant than Red Sox fans!) He also included a card:

..with a very thoughtful message inside. Is everyone doing that? I didn't include a greeting card in mine; just a handwritten note akin to "Here's your Secret Santa Gift. Enjoy!" Anyhow.. Matt sent some junk wax-era Red Sox:

 

and some 2016 Topps cards I needed:

These are the "presents" he sent so I'd have something to open:

 

I'm psyched that GPKs are back on the shelves, they were a staple of my childhood. This Battle of the Bands set was new to me, and something I knew I'd enjoy. Since I'm much more familiar with 2016 Topps, I opened that first:

Another John Lackey. Figures. Which means that I only got two (more) cards I needed: Kela and Cabrera. The Tyler Chatwood in the top left corner is a shiny rainbow foil parallel thing. But for some reason the code at the bottom of the card back is the same as the base card code. Topps is so frustrating.

Now the moment you've all been waiting for...the Garbage Pail Kids. Here's pack one:

Green 'puke' parallels are one per pack. There are also 'phlegm' parallels and 'fool's gold' parallels, which are much tougher pulls. My daughter immediately recognized TV Tom, as it resembles a classic GPK character.

The Barfin' Billie card got me thinking...is there a Smashing Pumpkins card?

Yes, there is a Smashing Pumpkins card. And it was in the second pack. And it's everything I would expect it to be: angry bald Billy bashing the other Pumpkins (poor James Iha!)

This Billy Corgan card is one of my favorite next-gen GPKs - and the best pack-pulled GPK I could hope for, since this Jennifer Lawrence card was part of an online-only set of Oscar Nominees:

  

I kind of miss the original Garbage Pail Kids characters, but I have to admit it's fun to see entertainers I like (and don't like) get the GPK treatment.

Here's the rest of the pack-including Taylor Swift, Daft Punk, and Sonic Youth. Awesome!

Matt, thank you so much for this Secret Santa gift!

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I'm Thankful For....My COMC Find of the Month (and other things)

I purchased about 75 cards during COMC's "Autumn Sales Event" - most of them were low-end set fillers but I did splurge on two $10+ cards. 

This was not one of them.

I spotted this 1952 Bowman Ralph Kiner card while shopping for someone else. There were no condition notes on this card - or another one which I purchased from the same seller (I'll show that off once it's in hand.) 

Although Bowman cards are less valuable and prestigious than their Topps counterparts, there aren't many commons without condition notes on COMC listed at less than $5.00. 

There are no Hall of Famers available in any condition to be had for under $5.00. 

So I'm very thankful that I was able to snag this Kiner card for only $4.25.

I'm also thankful that Black Friday is just around the corner, and I'll have a steady stream of new cards arriving at my door. Not sure what will land first - my Blowout Cards order, or my Secret Santa gift. Either or both of those will make a great bridge to the 500+ cards arriving from COMC sometime in December.

Once that colossal order arrives, I'll have some Christmas cards going out to...

Jon, for sending me a big box of basketball cards earlier this year
Paul, for winning my 50/50 Great Trader Giveaway
Matt, because I need to prepare for battle (more of a small skirmish compared to JBF bombs)
my Secret Santa recipient
and Corky, for creating not one, not two, but four custom cards for me.

I'm thankful for blogger friends with a background in Graphic Design and a passion for pasteboards. And I'm thankful for those of you who read and comment on my blog, and to the baseball card blogosphere at large for making me feel at home in this community. I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving (unless you're Canadian, in which case you've already celebrated.) May you all find some fantastic Black Friday deals on cards.. or not cards.

This has nothing to do with Thanksgiving but I wanted to share it anyway. Enjoy!

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Counting Stars (and a surprise mailday)

I had an idea for a series of posts that combine two of my favorite things: cataloging my cards, and discussing star players. But before I start, I have some mailday deliveries to discuss.

A.J. (of the blog The Lost Collector) sent me a dozen Red Sox in exchange for the half dozen Yankees I sent him:

Some nice Nomars and a few SP Prospects I've never seen before.

A Carl Pavano auto, an SI for Kids Ortiz, and a very cool Fisk, plus some 2016 Topps Updates. 

Very cool stuff. Thanks for the trade A.J.!

I also received another package today, a box from Billy Kingsley. I guess this means I'm his Secret Santa. Billy, if you're reading this... should I open the box, or wait until Christmas? 

Thanks in advance. I'm sure I'll be thrilled with my 'present'!


Now.. let's start counting stars.

Don't worry, the music selections will improve

My base card collection is sorted thusly: all PC teams go in shiny, clean binders. This includes Red Sox, Devils, Whalers, Packers, my 700+ card Brett Favre collection, and my wife's 250+ card Brendan Shanahan collection. (Some of my complete/near complete sets are also in binders.) 

All of my commons from 1970-now are in binders as well -- alphabetical by city (Anaheim, Arizona, Atlanta...) then chronological within each team. I try to leave a space or two per team for the inevitable junk wax repacks my in-laws will buy me for Christmas.

All of my base cards of Hall Of Fame players automatically go in my "star player" storage box.

yes, even Larry Murphy

But what about retired stars who are not Hall Of Famers (like Jeremy Roenick, for example). What do I do with them?

I have been sorting this way for about a dozen years, so if a player was a star/superstar during his career then I keep him in the star box regardless of HOF status. Many such players are simply ineligible for various reasons, or they are still on the HOF ballot.

There's some gray area there, which I will get to in my 'active player' post - as in, how do I determine who is a star player? I might need your help with that, if you'd like to share your thoughts.


I'm going to go through the box tonight - starting with baseball - listing each player and counting how many base cards I have of that player (super thick commons from sets like Triple Threads, Exquisite, and The Cup are not included. They take up too much space.)

In my next post I'll have a complete tally of all my Baseball Hall Of Famer base cards. It has been a backburner goal of mine to own one card of each HOF inductee (not counting executives or Negro Leaguers - unless there are affordable cards easily available.)

After that I'll make a similar list for retired players who are not in the Hall, and then the fun will really start when I attempt to tackle active players. I'm already having an internal debate about which current players are worthy of the box, and which players should be demoted to the binders - but I want to hear your thoughts! 



Hope to see you back here tomorrow. This should be fun.



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