Star Wars Buybacks!

With the release of the Star Wars 40th Anniversary set a while back, I learned that Topps included one-per-hobby-box buybacks of the original Star Wars cards.  I believe these were included as box-toppers, similar to what they do with the buyback cards in Topps Heritage baseball, but don't hold me to that.

Anyway, as a lover of buybacks and Star Wars, I obviously found these intriguing.  They seem to do surprisingly well on eBay, but with enough hunting I've managed to land a few of them on the cheap, and today I have my first pair to share:

First we have everyone's favorite droids in R2-D2 and C-3PO.  You can see the Star Wars 40th Anniversary foil logo stamped on the buyback in the lower right there.

The other one I have for today features the classic scene where the "good guys" are honored after destroying the Death Star.

Laugh at me in the comments if you will, but these made for some interesting additions to my Star Wars cardboard collection in my opinion.  Have you Star Wars fans picked any of these up yourselves?

Buyback Franken-set: Crossing 700 Thanks to 1990 Topps!

Today's post is unique in that all ten candidates for franken-set induction come courtesy of the very first baseball set I collected as a kid, 1990 Topps.  Recently a seller on eBay had a 10-for-$4 buyback special, with the ability to tack on unlimited additional buybacks beyond the first ten for 40 cents each.  I cleaned him out of his '90 Topps buybacks, plus grabbed a few others, and ended up with 28 in total.  Here are the first ten...

1990 Topps #636 - Jesse Orosco

Jesse Orosco played for what felt like forever, and racked up a ton of appearances out of the bullpen along the way.  More than any other pitcher in baseball history as a matter of fact.  In 1990 he got the call 55 times, and finished with an ERA under 4.00 for the third consecutive season.  My first #636 buyback, Jesse is in!

1990 Topps #659 - Greg Cadaret

1990 was Greg Cadaret's first full season pitching in the Bronx, as he arrived in trade during the 1989 season (the trade that sent Rickey Henderson to Oakland).  He'd make 6 starts for the Yankees in 1990, and appear another 48 times out of the pen.  Cadaret finished with a 5-4 record and an ERA of 4.15.  This is not my first #659 buyback...

...as I had another Yankee pitcher from the year prior in that slot already.

Gotta stick with Al Leiter over Cadaret.

1990 Topps #673 - Joey Meyer

If you're not familiar with Joey Meyer, you can hardly be blamed.  He was a flash in the pan guy, whose MLB career began in April of 1988 and finished after the 1989 season completed.  He could hit the ball a country mile, and had quite a bit of success as a power hitter in the minor leagues.  Ultimately, he struck out too much, and thus only mustered two seasons at the game's highest level.  Because this is a nice high number card Joey makes the set without contest.

1990 Topps #716 - Steve Balboni

1990 was just about the end of the line for Steve Balboni, who is better remembered as a slugger for the Royals in the mid-'80s.  Steve hit 17 home runs in 116 games that season.  After missing the 1991 and 1992 seasons he made a comeback attempt with Texas in 1993, but it was over after two games.  At #716 this buyback makes the binder as well, on a nice roll here.

1990 Topps #545 - Kevin McReynolds

Kevin McReynolds had a good year in 1990, it was the fifth straight season where he'd eclipse the 20 home run plateau, and he finished the season with an OPS over .800.  No competition for this one either, McReynolds has slid into the binder.

1990 Topps #638 - Jeff Montgomery

Jeff Montgomery was a solid reliever who lasted 13 seasons, and was named an All-Star on three occasions.  He's enshrined in the Kansas City Royals Hall of Fame.  No competition for this card either as far as the franken-set goes, this post is really providing a lot of new cards for the binder.

1990 Topps #423 - Fred Toliver

After finishing the 1989 season with the Padres, Fred Toliver actually didn't pitch in the Majors in 1990, 1991 or 1992.  He finished his career with a 12-game stint served with the Pirates in 1993.  A boring card to be perfectly honest, but he's saved by the fact that this is my first #423 buyback.

1990 Topps #460 - Mike Scott

Mike Scott finished second in Cy Young voting in 1989, just three short seasons after actually winning the award.  He declined rapidly after that though, largely due to injury, finishing 9-13 in 1990 and then retiring after two appearances in 1991 to the tune of a 12.86 ERA.

Had this nice 1972 Al Downing in the binder in slot 460 already (including bonus handwriting in the upper right corner)...

...and there it will stay.

1990 Topps #522 - Mike Dunne

Mike Dunne went 0-3 with a 5.65 ERA for the Padres in 1990, after they took him from Seattle in the rule 5 draft late in 1989.  Doesn't seem like a wise pick in retrospect, but hindsight is 20/20 of course.

This '75 Gary Sutherland stands between Dunne and the franken-set binder.

No way I can choose this card over the '75.

1990 Topps #43 - Dante Bichette

Last card for today features a young Dante Bichette.  Dante would peak around the middle of the decade with the Rockies, and most notably had a monster 1995 season where he finished second in NL MVP voting.  We've got some competition here as well...

...in the form of a 1987 Gene Michael.

I'm going with Dante though.

Nice progress today with six new numbers for the binder.  I'm also up to 32 buybacks and counting now from the 1990 Topps set.  Best of all, I've now evaluated over 700 total buybacks for this project, pretty incredible.

Franken-set Progress:  447/792 (56%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  260
Total Buybacks in Collection: 707

Buyback Franken-set: Vintage Run

Today's buyback franken-set post is vintage-heavy, with every one of the ten cards featured originally from 1969 or earlier.  Let's (hopefully) add some nice older buybacks to the binder here!

1969 Topps #135 - Tommy Davis

A smiling Tommy Davis kicks off today's post.  Davis was well past his days of winning NL batting titles here, but I'll gladly accept a Pilots buyback any day.  The binder was lacking a #135 buyback as well, so I'm glad to have this one even though it features a hat-less player.  Speaking of which...

1968 Topps #439 - Luman Harris

...there are so many cap-less photographs in the 1968 Topps set.  That fact was really hammered home as I processed through a few buybacks for this post.  Lum Harris here...

...finds some competition for the franken-set in the form of a '75 Ed Brinkman.

The hat-less player manager loses.

1968 Topps #272 - Ray Culp

A little better.  Still no cap to be seen, but at least it features a Red Sox player.

Enough to displace this '71 Tommy Helms?

Nope.

1968 Topps #407 - Gary Kolb

A truly awful card of Gary Kolb, who batted just over the Mendoza Line in his relatively short career.

Again we have a contest...

...and again the player with the hat stays in the binder.

1968 Topps #260 - Jim Wynn

When I said I prefer hats in my photos, I didn't mean this.  Jim Wynn, who was coming off his first All-Star selection in 1967, could crush a baseball.

This '88 Vince Coleman buyback is already in slot 260.  Hmm...power vs. speed...

Power wins.  As I type this up I actually don't like this choice in retrospect.  At all.  The good news is that it won't matter shortly.

1968 Topps #93 - Tony Cloninger

One last '68 for today, and it's a proper one too with a hat and no airbrushing.  Tony went 24-11 for the Braves in 1965, and once hit two grand slams in the same game!

Mike Phillips' '76 release was in slot 93 of the binder already.

He really can't compete against a pitcher who hit two grand slams in the same game though.

This one happened to fall on a page that I'd already completed.  You can see Mike Phillips in the upper right there.

Here's how it looks now, with Cloninger taking his place.  Not a bad page at all, though as I noted previously I need to do something about those back-to-back Sonny Sieberts.

1964 Topps #127 - Aubrey Gatewood/Dick Simpson

You can't see his name thanks to the buyback stamp, but the player on top is pitcher Aubrey Gatewood.  Aubrey made a total of 68 appearances, mostly in relief, over the course of four seasons.  Dick Simpson lasted seven seasons at the MLB level, and finished as a career .207 hitter.

Paul Lindblad and his blacked-out cap were previously holding down slot 127.

Not anymore though.

1967 Topps #75 - George Scott

Here's one that I'm really pumped about.  An awesome All-Star Rookie buyback of the man who racked up countless All-Star appearances and Gold Glove awards, and is a member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame.  It's a good thing slot 75 was empty, as this card would have obliterated anything in its path anyway.  It would take something really nice to displace George here from the binder, I expect this one to be around for a long time.

1961 Topps #119 - A's Big Armor

Here's another nice one I snatched up cheap many months ago now.  Like most collectors who are into vintage, I love the combo cards that Topps included in their '50s and '60s sets.  They're not the easiest cards to find in buyback format though, thus tend to demand a premium, so I was happy to grab this one for just a couple bucks on Sportlots.  Best of all, #119 is a new number for the project, so into the binder it goes.

1958 Topps #260 - Frank Malzone

Here's the last buyback for today, perhaps my favorite (though I could almost go with any of the final three).  I don't buy a lot of single buybacks on eBay.  Typically it's not worth the trade-off in shipping costs, considering most of the buybacks I've picked up for this project have cost dimes and nickels.  In this case, I simply couldn't resist though, and even with shipping I shelled out less than $5 for this beauty.

This allows me to right the wrong I committed earlier in the post when I chose this Jim Wynn card over Vince Coleman.

Ah, much better.

That was a successful grouping if you ask me.  The '68s were largely under-whelming, but the cards that did make the cut were very solid additions to the project.  With my next post I'll be crossing the threshold of 700 total buybacks in my collection and processed for this project.  Pretty crazy...

Franken-set Progress:  441/792 (55%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  256
Total Buybacks in Collection: 697

Whaler Ink from Douglas!

My small hiatus from the blog just so happened to coincide with a few surprise envelopes/mailers showing up here at Shoebox Legends headquarters.  As a result I'm a bit behind in thanking folks, and more importantly returning fire.  Today I begin the process of digging out with a small batch of Whalers goodness I received from my buddy Douglas of Sportscards from the Dollar Store.

In the lead-off spot is this odd Patrick Poulin first round draft pick card.  I'd never seen nor heard of this particular release before, but it turns out this card has more going for it than just a sharp tux!

It's actually signed by Patrick in silver pen on the reverse!  I received ominous copy number 666 of 667.  I'm assuming Arena Holograms didn't last long in the trading card game, but I'm certainly glad they produced this gem for Douglas to locate and send to me more than 25 years later!

There were a few other Whalers I needed included in this particular mailing, including a nice full-bleed Robert Kron from 1994-95 Donruss...

...and a card I can't believe I didn't own a copy of previously, Scott Young in glorious Hartford green courtesy of 1990-91 Bowman.

Here's a mid-'90s Topps card, I really wish they still had a license to produce NHL trading cards.  I'm not sure if that 1995-96 NHL Rookie stamp below the foil Topps logo makes this a parallel of some sort, and I can't check at the moment as the Trading Card Database seems to be having some technical difficulties.  Either way, I appreciate this addition to my ever-growing Whalers collection.

One Bruin made its way into the package as well, a nice Big Z from last season's O-Pee-Chee set.  Without looking, I believe this may be my very first card from that release, period.  What can I say, I just don't buy much current-season product anymore.  Nice to have the set represented in my collection at least.

Lastly, the big card of the package, a sweet on-card autograph of Blaine Stoughton!  Blaine was one of the better players for the franchise in the early days.  Blaine actually transitioned with the team from the WHA to the NHL, and scored at least 40 goals in each of the first four NHL seasons for the Hartford Whalers (topped 50 in two of those years!).

A solid autograph to say the least, thank you very much for the cards Douglas!  I actually have a card set aside that I've been meaning to send you as a token of my appreciation for the fantastic Verbeek stick relic you laid on me a while back.  I will do my best to find the right size mailer and get this off to you before I leave the country on vacation next week!