Sox, Rox, and a Box

A couple weeks ago I saw a post on the TCDB forums called Please claim a baseball team. It was posted by Terry, a Dodgers collector who offered to send cards of every (other) team to anyone who wants them. I didn't partake at first. My goal is to reach 100,000 cards but I want to get there organically, not through a large lot purchase. And I definitely didn't want to take on a whole box of cards without sending something in return.

But by this time last week Terry still had a couple of teams available, including the Colorado Rockies. 

I decided to help him out and take this unwanted team off his hands, mostly for the '90s guys who passed through New Haven. Terry sent about 500 Rockies cards, which I've spent the past three days sorting, cataloging, and repackaging as a pay it forward to the only Colorado collector I know. Here are some of the keepers:

We'll see if Cooperstown is calling Larry Walker in just a few days. My fingers are crossed for him.

The cards were almost all from 1992-2006, so there was a handful of Walker but no Nolan Arenado. It didn't bother me any, since I was claiming this lot for former Ravens:

Pitchers and Petrick. Jamey Wright had a nice long career in the bigs.

Q! Gibby! Neifi! The Chrome card at the top left also counts as a Red Sox single. Bonus! :)

Todd Helton was the big draw here. The Finest and 40 Man inserts are awesome. (I snuck Garrett Atkins in at the bottom right to fill space.) Everyone keeps sending me mins; I should probably pick up some protective pages for them.

Some cool Colorado cards here, especially the top three. The Bryn Smith Leaf is missing foil on the front. But you know the rules...

Some short-term stops here (I didn't even know Gant and Relaford were Rockies) along with another Atkins and my second card of Mr. Laura Rutledge. 

We've got Todd Helton and Larry Walker.. now here's Todd Walker. I know nothing of Chris Martin the pitcher but I'm a fan of Chris Martin the singer. 

Some cool parallels/inserts from Donruss and Topps were also included. Many thanks to Terry for all the great Rockies cards!

When I updated my wantlist tabs at the beginning of the year, I was immediately contacted by two readers who offered to send me cards. Nick had some set fillers for me:

The Dime Box king did some serious damage to my 2019 Topps set. These are just the highlights.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see this Fernando Tatis Jr. RC in the stack!

Nick also included a nice stack of Red Sox cards: 

Legendary left fielders and horizontal heroes.

Some Holiday cards featuring Benintendi and Sale. 

 

A new Dustin Pedroia relic, a very cool Mookie Betts Wall Climbers insert, and some chromey cards.

Big Papi was well represented in the mailer from Nick. I now have 254 different David Ortiz cards, more than any other baseball player in my collection.

But that wasn't all the Ortiz. Let's check the back of that Johnny Damon stack...

Ohh! These are neat. They look like 2002 Topps but they are actually a 2003 Japanese release called Kanebo. TCDB lists this as a 54-card set, but Damon is obviously card #55. Shea Hillenbrand is #14.

Perhaps the gem of the group was this Buster Posey bat relic #d/99. It's fitting that Nick sent a pair of Posey cards (in addition to Koufax and Bryant) because he's one guy I often look for when I'm sifting through dime boxes. Nick, thanks again for the great cards! I'll get something out to you soon!

A couple other things came in the mail this week. After I used up most of my eBay bucks on the Warren Spahn auto I decided to spend the remainder on a box of basketball cards:

This sealed box of 1992-93 Fleer Ultra ended up costing me less than a blaster after the eBay bucks were deducted. I'm going to save this for a post about 1992-93 Fleer Ultra sets, since they all look the same. 


Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!



 
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A different kind of Hall of Fame post

The Baseball Hall of Fame voting is always a hot topic among fans and bloggers, and I usually enjoy sharing my thoughts on the eligible players. However this year's candidates don't appeal to me at all. I'll be glad to see Ted Simmons get his due, but his career was before my time (and I would have preferred Lou Whitaker and/or Dwight Evans). Marvin Miller is undoubtedly an iconic figure in the game's history and a deserving inductee. 

Derek Jeter is the headliner. He'll obviously be voted in, probably unanimously now that the "100%" seal has been broken. I never liked Jeter but you have to respect what he did on the field. Then there's the PED guys, Curt Schilling, and about a dozen borderline candidates. I've already shared my thoughts on these players in comments, so instead I want to celebrate another Hall of Fame class:

The 2020 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees were announced today, and Depeche Mode is (are?) among them. Many of my favorite bands from the 1980s were ignored by the Rock hall, until The Cure were elected last year. This year Dave Gahan, Martin Gore & co. get the call. Finally!

I've seen Depeche Mode in concert three times, twice on the Exciter tour and once for Playing The Angel. They are an absolutely amazing live band. It would be impossible for me to choose my favorite DM track; it changes based on my mood. The first one I heard, and the one they're perhaps best know for, is "Enjoy The Silence". Lately I've been playing the Black Celebration album and song. 

 

Nine Inch Nails were also elected. I'm less of a NIN fan but they (and by "they" I mean Trent Reznor) spawned a lot of great tracks. I remember when "Head Like A Hole" got regular airplay on MTV. The Downward Spiral was a masterpiece, and With Teeth had "Every Day Is Exactly The Same" and "The Collector", either one of which could be my personal theme song.

Trent Reznor introduced The Cure at last year's HOF ceremony, and I'll be interested to see who introduces him this year. 

My favorite NIN track might be the instrumental "A Warm Place", which feels like a perfect song for the ending credits of earth.

The Notorious B.I.G. was also part of this years Hall class. I was never much of a hip-hop fan but I did get down to some Biggie once in a while.

 

Bringing this back to sports.. the Pro Football Hall of Fame revealed their latest list of inductees including Bill Cowher, Jimmy Johnson, and Paul Tagliabue. The centennial class includes many great players from before I was born. I know of Harold Carmichael, Donnie Shell, and Alex Karras but I never saw them play. Actually, I did see Alex Karras play Webster's dad. Does that count?

My knowledge of pre-1980s football players isn't nearly on par with my knowledge of baseball history. I spent the first eleven days of this month trying to find the best way to spend $41 in eBay bucks and almost all of my searches were for vintage baseball cards.

I strongly considered these two pre-war singles. Neither are HOFers but I could tell you more about them than about Bobby Dillon (and he was a Packer.)  These cards are still available, because I chose to spend my free money on an autograph of a Hall of Famer:

This Warren Spahn autographed 8 x 10 arrived today. I was able to negotiate the price down a bit, to $27.50 + tax. I've wanted a Spahn auto for quite a while, but his on-card signatures are shaky (understandably so) and most of the cards I've seen were from the end of his career when he started to resemble Max Patkin.

I chose this classic image of a young Spahn mostly because of the Boston Braves hat. There was one from his Milwaukee days that I considered but I liked this pose a bit better. That one came with a COA from PSA, while this one was guaranteed by a shop in Las Vegas called Play Ball - which is no longer in business. (Hopefully not due to fraud!) I did compare this signature to other Spahn autos and it looks legit. I'm not an autograph expert though-and I probably wouldn't have purchased this were it not for the cash back bucks.



I've got a couple more maildays to share before the big game on Sunday. Some are purchases and some are very generous care packages. Stay tuned ;)


Thanks for reading!

 


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Completed Set - 1992-93 Upper Deck McDonald's Basketball

I've completed my first basketball card set, thanks to some recent TCDB trades. I'm getting really annoyed with the whole scene at TCDB and I'm probably done trading there for a while. McDonald's has done plenty of sports card promotions over the years. The first (and only) one that I collected was the 1992-93 NBA set.

These were 3-card packs that came with a purchase of.. I don't know. A happy meal? I doubt I was still buying Happy Meals when I was 12. Anyway, it's a 50 card set and each NBA team is represented. Here are cards 1-9:

This might be my favorite UD design of the early 1990s. I love the team colored stripe leading to the logo on basketball. If this were a flagship set I definitely would have bought a box or two. The extra LJ is available - though one card is scratched and the other is dinged. (Yay TCDB!)

Cards #10-18 feature some of my all-time favorite players. Getting the Dumars was a struggle; I traded for it but the user sent me a Fleer Drake's Dumars instead (he let me keep both.) Let's note the teams that have only one card in this set: Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver...

Cards #19-27 include a pair of Nets. Ron Harper was the last card I needed. It has a bum corner and some slight water damage. I'll have to replace at least a handful of these. Milwaukee is the only one-card team here.

Cards #28-36. Charles Barkley must have been in between teams, he's not featured on Philly or Phoenix (and I know he has no issues with McDonald's.)

The Knicks, Magic, Sixers, and Kings have only one card. Here are the rest of the veterans:

Cards #43-50 are "Future Force" rookies:

This is why I wanted to note which teams had just one card in the set. Nearly every team has two cards including a rookie except for the Hawks, Mavericks, Knicks, and Timberwolves. Until counting these I didn't realize the T-Wolves had no veteran in this set.

Unlike the McDonald's hockey sets of today there aren't a bunch of rare inserts/relics that fall 1:100,000 packs. There was only one card to chase, and I somehow held on to it:

TCDB pricing has this MJ hologram listed at $11.50, and I watched a box break video on YouTube where the breaker kept hyping the possibility of pulling this card. It's not that rare, or valuable, but it must have been fun to chase back in the day. Apparently there were some ten-card team sets for the Celtics, Bulls, Cavaliers, Lakers, and Magic. I might try to grab a few of those singles, too.


Have you collected any McDonald's cards, or other food issues?


Thanks for reading!


 
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NFL Sunday Double Header - a TCDB trade and a boxed set

I wanted to open a new pack of cards to celebrate the Pack returning to the playoffs for the first time in three years.. but I didn't have the urge to go to Target for retail blasters. Instead I'll unpack an old team set and show off some Legends of the Green & Gold. 

This set was released in 1997, after the Packers' third Super Bowl victory. Back then I gobbled up any Green Bay item I could find. This set is opened, but I've kept it in a safe place away from my main card collection. Now that I've got some 4-pocket pages I think I'll scan 'em up here and store them with the rest of my irregular-sized cards.

But first I have a TCDB trade to discuss. I rarely write about TCDB trades because I make bunches of them and they are usually 5-10 cards each so that I can fit them in a PWE. (Also, there's just not enough time to scan and discuss every trade. I've had to double up on blogger thank you's as it is.) That said, I have to make an exception for TCDB user Noy.

As most of you know, I've been working on the 1986 Topps football set. I've got over 100 dupes due to a lot I purchased on eBay and a few TCDB trades that brought in condition upgrades. Most of the 44 cards I offered to Noy were in good shape, including a Bernie Kosar RC and a Walter Payton Team Leader card. But a few were off-center or otherwise flawed. Which is why I only asked for 30 cards in return:

I picked eight Packers and a couple of non-Packers Prizm singles. Allen Lazard is GB's #2 receiver although RB Aaron Jones has more receptions. These two RCs were the big-ticket items of the trade. 

14 of the 30 cards I received were 2019 Topps baseball set fillers, some of which were dinged. This is not Noy's fault, I've had quality control issues with 2019 Topps cards all year, from all sources. The stack included Cody Bellinger, Brock Holt, and a dozen guys that aren't worth mentioning or scanning. 

Here's the rest of the trade. Until recently (like three months ago) I never knew that the Red Sox once had a Dutch pitcher named Win. How cool is that? Oh.. I forgot. Wins don't matter anymore. He'd have to be called Fip or something to impress the Sabr crowd, lol.

These cards alone would have been a fair exchange for my stack of 1986 dupes. However, Noy must have seen the 44-30 card count and decided to even things out by sending a surprise batch of cards from my wantlist.

Some Sox, a Shooty, and an upgrade of the Quake Series card that I've had in my collection since 1990. You may see that Wally Joyner RC again when I post my Angels' All-Time team - which I've decided to restart four weeks from now in time for Spring Training. (29 days 'til pitchers & catchers report!)

Here's a couple of Spring Training photos, something Upper Deck was known for in their flagship sets. I miss their baseball issues almost as much as I miss Topps football and hockey sets.

More unannounced cards from Noy, bringing the total to 53. Now I feel bad that I sent my rejected set fillers. I will have to make it up to him in a future trade. Thank you Noy!


Now let's get back to the Pack. There are 20 cards in this boxed set, including a checklist:

 Coach and General manager(!) cards. 

Upper Deck included some players who contributed to the team's return to glory - but weren't exactly legends:

This is more like it:

LeRoy Butler is a finalist for this year's Hall of Fame election. He's up against some other strong safeties including Troy Polamalu, Steve Atwater, and John Lynch - and judging from this picture LeRoy appears to be a long shot. Hopefully he'll get in to Canton one day.

There's no doubt about Brett Favre's legendary status. It must have taken the selection committee all of two seconds to debate his Canton candidacy.

Don Majkowski and Lynn Dickey were also Packers quarterbacks. The '2' on the Majkowski card is missing some foil. I have to assume it was always missing, but the scan on TCDB shows the 2 is intact so maybe I wrecked it somehow?

Here's a pair of prolific pass catchers. If Upper Deck were releasing this set today Donald Driver would have to be included. Of course if this set were released today Panini would be producing it and the backs would have no text or information other than the player's name. 

Bryce Paup played five seasons with Green Bay and made one Pro Bowl. Ted Hendricks equaled Paup's Pro Bowl total in his lone season with the Packers. This checklist is baffling.

The rest of the cards are legit Packer Greats. Willie Davis and Ray Nitschke were two Hall of Fame defensive stars of the Vince Lombardi era. (not featured in this set: Vince Lombardi.)

Cards number 1 and 5 feature Hall of Famers Forrest Gregg and Willie Wood (not featured in this set: number 15, Hall of Famer Bart Starr)

We'll close out this set with Paul Hornung biting his lip and Don Hutson holding a coin. I know Hutson played a long time ago, but did Upper Deck not have any photos of his playing days? Or at least his Hall of Fame Ceremony?

Also, Jim Taylor was excluded along with Starr, Lombardi, and Jerry Kramer among many others. The cards themselves are really nice. I just wish that Upper Deck, Topps, or another card company still had a license to produce a complete 100-card set documenting the 100-year history of the Green Bay Packers. I guess this oversized yet undersized set from 1997 will have to do. 


Thanks for reading. Enjoy the games today, and GO PACK GO!!!

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