Saturday Morning Musings

I woke up a little too early for my daughter's soccer game, so here are some random thoughts scattered about in my brain.

For about a week I deliberated over spending another $20 on a PSA-graded card for my growing 1970s hockey card collection. It was a player from the Montreal Canadiens dynasty that I didn't have, but I preferred a different year's card that wasn't available. This one was a NM-MT 8 and slightly off-center on both sides. Fair price, but I knew that if I settled for the '72 I'd have less incentive to get the '70.

So I spent the money on something else.

I wasted no time inspecting the flaws of this '55 Bowman Johnny Podres. Just added it to my cart as soon as I saw it. Probably won't send for it until Spring, but when I do he'll have company:

Bing! Managed to squeeze this into the budget after a round of COMC challenges got me to $21. This will be my fourth 1933 Goudey card; I really didn't think I could afford another one in this condition. But I made an offer of $17.75 and it was accepted.

You're probably saying to yourself that no matter who that Montreal guy was (it's Yvan Cournoyer btw) that there's no way a slabbed single from the '70s would be a better value than these two. And you'd be right. But I know that once I get the Bing Miller I'm gonna wanna send it to PSA. Even if it comes back a 2.5 I'll be happy.

We've all collectively decided that sports card price guides are irrelevant*, right? If you're interested in buying a card and you're not sure if the price is fair, you just check recent sale prices of that card. That's what I do. 

*unless Night Owl has an article in said price guide.

But... what about Startling Lineup figures?  How on earth am I supposed to shop for a "vintage" SLU when I don't know what I should be paying for them? I'm primarily thinking of 1988-90 SLUs; just about anything after 1992 is $30 or less.

I had this Frank Viola figure on my eBay watchlist a few days ago. The shipping was very reasonable ($4.00) and the bid price was very low with hours remaining. I didn't buy it, because a) there are 9 SLU figures on my tabletop display and two of them have this exact left-handed pitcher pose. And 2) it's been so long since I've bid in auctions that I forgot when it ended and never placed a bid.

The final sale price was $5.99. Based on the rate of inflation, this is actually much lower than the original buyer paid for it at Wal-Mart 33 summers ago:

That's encouraging... I guess? But that got me thinking: I have boxes of unopened SLUs in my closet. If they're not going to appreciate in value, why don't I just open them? The cards might be worth more than the figures at this point. 

Here's an auction for a Rex Chapman Starting Lineup card:

Here's one that comes with a toy:

As you probably know, my basketball card collection is primarily focused on the late 1980s-1990s. The players I grew up watching and collecting. There's a small part of me that questions this: you already had these cards. Why collect them again when you can collect something new?

Because I kind of can't collect new basketball cards. The market has made that far too difficult.

The completist in me knows that I should have more Stephen Curry cards than Dell Curry cards.

Steph is an all-time great, still in his prime (amazingly) and he has over 11,000 different cards. His dad Dell was... Sixth Man of the Year once. There are less than 500 different Dell Curry cards.

I have just eight cards of the Golden State superstar and thirteen cards of Pops. Not surprising, but certainly not balanced.

My card count is even lower for younger stars like Jayson Tatum, Ja Morant, Joel Embiid, and Luka Doncic. I have eight cards of these players. Combined.

Okay, but I don't really watch basketball. I check the standings and I'll watch a few minutes of Bucks-Celtics here and there but I'm a very casual fan. The sport I pay closest attention to is football. Logically, I should have far more cards of the NFL's young stars in my collection. Right?

Uhhh..

I have three Patrick Mahomes cards in my collection. This is the only base single I have, and only because I completed the 2019 Score set. I've got more cards of his dad though (don't we all?) 

Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts, Justin Jefferson... single digits. Low single digits. I was lucky to snag a couple Allens out of a dime box before he became an MVP-caliber QB. Otherwise I'd have maybe two. Justin Herbert is not represented in my collection. Neither is Joe Burrow. This is unacceptable.

And it's all Panini's fault. 

Every time I'm eager to shop for new football or basketball cards I'm thwarted by the scarcity of retail packs/blasters and the price point. If that doesn't dissuade me, the card designs will. There's such a sameness with Panini sets - the designs rarely change and the card backs are uninspired. 

And what's their flagship football set? Do they even have one? Prizm is the most popular, and I like their parallels but there's no way I'm paying $60 for 24 of these ugly things, even if four of them are shiny:

This is a 2021 Prizm card. Lord only knows when the 2022 edition will drop. Probably after the 2023 season starts. And yeah, their parallels are pretty but there's just too many of them. Here's a Trevor Lawrence card I considered buying:

$60 seems reasonable, right? Maybe? (I take back what I said about Beckett. Still need you, lol) But... there are 35 parallels in 2021 Optic. 35!! That's 30 too many. I don't need all those bells and whistles, I just want a rookie card, dammit. I'd prefer Joe Burrow but his boring base Optic RC is almost $60 itself. Sigh..

I decided to scrap my story. It was a tough decision, because I know it was good and I never, ever say that about my own work. I was eager to find out what people who didn't know her/them would think, but my current co-workers never gave me any feedback and I got reprimanded by my mid-ass manager for sharing it on company time. She's just not as cool as G, not even close.

There were six chapters left to write. The goodbye chapter would have been next. The last two chapters were half-done and exciting. It was the three in the middle, 13-15, that I dreaded. I didn't want to write them, so I didn't. But without those, the story is incomplete. It is what it is. They're not worth the time anyhow.

 

This past Monday I was in the kitchen at work when the girl I'd been avoiding entered. She's been here for more than two months and she seems nice. I call her Sid the Kid or LLB in my mind, because I thought her style resembled something out of an LL Bean catalog. But what do I know about fashion?

She said "good morning" and asked me if I'm a New Jersey Devils fan. I told her I was. She'd seen my shirt (which was actually my jacket) and told me her brother went to one of their games recently. I really didn't want to.. but in my mind I knew I had to.. ask if she liked hockey. So I did, and she does. This was the first actual conversation I'd had with LLB.

Contrast that with the reason I've gone out of my way to avoid her. The subject of my scrapped memoir.

I knew that girl for a year, and towards the end of that year she asked me (in the context of asking other things)  "Do you like sports?" In my entire history of breathing oxygen on this planet I don't think anyone has ever asked me that.

Guys.... am I... a sports fan?

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the Wild Card weekend!


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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!



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