One Card Post - Dufex Burt

What:  1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection Parallel #356 - Adam Burt
Where: COMC
How Much?:  $.97

Why?:  Picked this one up all the way back in 2015, but just plucked it from my card chest for posting last night.  Perfect timing, as it's been a while since I showed a nice Whalers card here on the blog.  The 1994-95 Rink Collection parallels are among my favorites of the '90s.  I'll never complete the set as they're somewhat scarce and demand a pretty penny, but that doesn't stop me from slowly plucking away.  I think Adam Burt here brings me to a dozen of them and counting...

Huge Progress with 1971-72 Topps

Having completed the run of 1980s Topps hockey sets, I'm really making an effort in 2018 here to work towards that same goal with the '70s run.  I've already completed three Topps sets from the decade in 1973-74, 1974-75 and the iconic 1979-80 release, leaving me with seven to go.

Of those remaining seven sets, the one I'm pursuing with perhaps the most vigor is '71-72.  Like many hockey card collectors, I just love this design.  The bold "bubble letters" used for the team name, the bright colors, and the inset circle for the photograph that harkens back in some sense to 1959 Topps baseball; it's just great.

Admittedly, not every card in the set is a winner.  Like just about every set from this era, there's some airbrushing going on and some less than interesting choices as far as photographs go.

Overall though, I think it's a real gem.  When I began the year I had a respectable 36 cards from this set, with a few HOFers among that group.  With 132 cards on the checklist, that put me at just over 1/4 of a complete set, not bad but still a lot of work to do.

Well, in one of my very first card purchases of 2018 I was able to really fast-track this set build.  A trusted seller that I've purchased from many times before had a whole bunch of these listed on Sportlots as "EX" condition for 50 cents a card.  You often times don't get to see a photograph when buying on Sportlots, but since I'm not overly concerned with condition at this stage, and have had good experience with this seller in the past, I went for it.

In the end I added an impressive fifty cards to my set in one fell swoop!  With two exceptions that I paid 75 cents for, each and every one of them cost me just 50 cents.  At this price I added close to 40% of the set to my binder for what amounted to $28 shipped.

The cards are in great shape too now that I've got them in hand, certainly as good if not better than the three dozen I had previously.  A few of them, like Denis DeJordy here, suffer from the very common centering issues with this release, but overall most of them shine even there.

I'm not going to show all fifty cards here, but I've picked ten favorites from the group instead to keep things reasonable in terms of post length.  You had to know one or two Golden Seals cards would make the cut!

Ron Ellis' edge chipping made him the roughest of the fifty I received in terms of condition, but honestly even this one is more than acceptable for my set build.

This card of the under-rated Jean Pronovost was one of two that I shelled out a whole 75 cents for.  Fine by me, it's just about mint!

That could not have worked out any better.  If anything I'm kicking myself for not getting a serious jump start on this set sooner.  With these in hand I'm just about at 2/3 complete now.  True, I've still got some big names left including Bobby Orr, Ken Dryden's RC, and the second-year Bobby Clarke, but my binder looks a whole lot better now than it did a few weeks back!

I'll certainly be picking up more of these as the year goes on here, provided I can stay focused.  My want list is updated for this set too, so if you have any of these kicking around that I need I'm highly interested in trading!

Buyback Franken-set: Mistaken Identity

Just one buyback today, one I hand-picked recently off of eBay.  Check it out!

1985 Topps #497 - Gary Pettis

Yup, the "infamous" 1985 Gary Pettis card!  This one's looked upon fondly by collectors due to the fact that Gary's younger brother is actually pictured.  I've always found the card to be amusing for that reason, and when the opportunity presented itself to add a copy to my buyback franken-set for less than $2 shipped, I jumped at it.

Best of all, I didn't have a #497 buyback prior to this, so Gary slid right into the binder without contest!

Franken-set Progress:  531/792 (67%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  428
Total Buybacks in Collection: 959

A Double Dose of Shlabotnik Sox & Soccer

Today seems as good a day as any to start the process of catching up with all the great folks who've sent me cards over the last month or two.  It's pouring rain out, and I actually had a free hour to scan, so here are the contents of a great PWE that I received a few weeks back from Joe Shlabotnik, proprietor of The Shlabotnik Report...

We'll start off with a nice injection of Topps Heritage cards for my Red Sox collection.  From the 2016 set, third baseman Josh Rutledge.  Josh actually signed a deal with the Giants this off-season.

From last year's release I received a trio of new-to-me Sox in the form of Rick Porcello...

...the team card, which prominently features my favorite player on the current roster, Xander Bogaerts...

...and the mistake that was Pablo Sandoval.  I believe this one and the Rutledge that I led off with are both from the High Numbers releases.  I don't typically pay much mind to the Heritage set each year, but I do enjoy slowly accumulating the Red Sox team sets from each release so these are certainly appreciated.

Joe's always good for an oddball or two in each PWE it seems, and this time around was no different as I was the recipient of this Derek Lowe MLB Showdown game card.  Never played the game, probably due to the fact that I was in my mid-20s when this was printed up, but I'll never turn down a good oddball.

I appreciate that Joe seems to be one of the few collectors I interact with who also enjoys a good soccer card.  Over the years he's contributed more cards to my random soccer binder than anyone else.  This one's from a Topps MLS release.  While I don't follow the MLS, I enjoy the occasional New England Revolution card given that they play their home games only about thirty minutes from my house.

I like this one even more.  I was aware that Topps had released a Stadium Club set for MLS, but until now had never held one in hand.  Very similar to the last Stadium Club Premier League set minus the foil.

My favorite two soccer cards of the PWE though were from Topps Attacks, which again is some type of game that I don't play.  The pair I got in this package were both players from my favorite club, Liverpool.

Even better, one of them was my very first card of Mohamed Salah, who's been the offensive star of the team this year.  He's already scored 21 goals in Premier League play this season, just two off of Harry Kane's league-leading pace.  Salah's just 25 years old, and is definitely in the mix as far as best offensive players in the world.  Very pleased to finally add a card of his to my soccer collection!

Before I even had a chance to post the contents of that last PWE, which admittedly took me some time, Joe hit me up with another one!  When I removed the three-pocket page that Joe and I use to exchange cards from the envelope and took a look, this fantastic Tim Wakefield card was staring back at me.  What a great minor league card from Tim's time with the AAA Buffalo Bisons.  I'll happily accept a minor league card of just about any MLB star, but doubly so for a guy who was a star for my favorite team and is one of the more well-known knuckle-ballers in the history of the game.

This envelope had some nice early '70s additions to my Sox collection, starting with Don Pavletich's '70 release here.  A previous owner drew what looks to me like a coffee bean in the lower right corner, but that doesn't bother me and this is a more than acceptable filler card in my eyes.  I might upgrade it someday, but then again I honestly might not.

Got a couple new Yaz cards this time around.  From 2016 Topps Update, a 3,000 Hits Club insert.  I'm on record as stating that Topps inserts have pretty much bored me across the board for years now, but this one's not awful at least.  I like the idea of an insert based on all the players to achieve a certain statistical benchmark like 3,000 hits.  As far as the execution of that idea?  Well, I don't hate it, which is about the most positive thing you'll hear me say about a recent Topps insert.

This one I like a bit better since it's got a nice vintage feel to it.  First I'd seen of these Baseball Legends inserts from Allen & Ginter.  An insert set worthy of collecting if you ask me.  Flagship could learn a thing or two from Allen & Ginter, at least in the insert department.

Side note, I'm still working on the painstaking process of transferring the electronic cataloging of my collection from Zistle (RIP) to The Trading Card Database.  At this stage of the process, with about 5,000 total baseball cards transferred over, Yastrzemski is in 9th place for baseball in terms of most cards of a given player.  Not really surprising, but I like that I can see those kinds of statistics on The Trading Card Database.

The last PWE had an MLB Showdown card, and this one did too!  I have a feeling the way this photograph is cropped would be somewhat polarizing if you asked a group of collectors to vote on it.  Personally, I kind of like the wide cropping with the ball just having come into frame heading towards Garciaparra, but I can just as easily see how some folks wouldn't care for it.

There are certain sets where Joe has single-handedly set me on the path to completing a Red Sox team set through PWEs over the years.  1975 SSPC comes to mind, as well as the mid-2000s Topps Total releases.  One card closer for the 2005 release with this one in hand!

The 1970 Don Pavletich above wasn't the only vintage Red Sox card in this envelope, as I got two more early-'70s needs in the form of a '72 Marty Pattin...

...and a '73 Rogelio Moret.  I was somewhat amazed that I had copies of neither of these, but then again once you get earlier than 1974 you really start to see some holes in my collection as far as Topps flagship sets go.  Definitely appreciate this pair!

The last card of today's post is certainly the most random.  Thanks to the TCDB I learned that this is a 1994 Bon Air Fire Engines card.  I love getting some cardboard representation of Rhode Island, the little state that I was born in and call home today, in my collection.  Hope Valley is a region of our state near where my wife and I got married, and where she works today as a teacher, so this one has a nice personal touch as well.

Joe, thanks for these great cards and apologies that it took me so long to get them posted.  You're first on my list for getting some return cardboard out the door here, hopefully as early as this week!

Buyback Franken-set: Big Hurt

Tonight's buyback franken-set post starts off with some "star power" in the form of a HOF slugger.  Let's get down to it...

1996 Topps #229 - Frank Thomas Star Power

Coming out of the gate strong with The Big Hurt!  Frank Thomas was easily within the top 5 elite hitters in the game in the mid-'90s, being named an All-Star every season between 1993 and 1997, and winning the American League MVP Award in 1993 and 1994.  Certainly deserving of a spot within the "Star Power" subset in 1996 Topps.  Very happy that this buyback from the 2016 Topps program makes the franken-set binder as my first card #229!

1989 Topps #143 - Mike Campbell

On the other end of the spectrum, here's a super boring '89 Topps Mike Campbell.

This Jerry Grote has had a solid hold on slot 143 for some time now...

...and it certainly won't be ousted by Campbell.

1988 Topps #127 - Jim Gott

Next up, Jim Gott rocking one of the many flavors of Pirates uniforms of the era.  The Phillies actually just named Jim a bullpen coach this past November.  Once again we've got some competition for the franken-set here:

A nice '64 Topps buyback courtesy of 2013 Heritage.

When I don't really have a strong connection to either card, a Heritage buyback is going to win nine times out of ten.

1993 Topps #126 - Bob Ayrault

I have to admit, when I ran across this card I had zero recollection of Bob Ayrault.  I guess I can see why, as he lasted just two seasons at the Major League level.  How's it look for Bob in terms of the franken-set?

Not too great, as he's pitted against a much nicer Phillies buyback...

Just wasn't meant to be for Bob.

1984 Topps #663 - Johnnie LeMaster

Next up, and '84 Topps buyback of Giants shortstop Johnnie LeMaster.  Johnnie looks like he has the same body build here that I did in seventh grade.  663 is a fairly high number, so I figured LeMaster may have a shot at the binder, but it turns out...

...that Fred Lynn's "Turn Back the Clock" subset card from 1990 Topps is already sitting in that slot.

As much as I'd love to shuffle that Lynn over to my 1990 Topps buyback binder, I just can't choose the LeMaster over it for the franken-set.

1984 Topps #623 - Ron Washington

Hah, another 1984 buyback of another middle infielder with a slight build.  Ron Washington is better remembered as a coach than a player, at least by folks in my generation.  This powder blue Twins uniform makes the franken-set, as I'd yet to run across a #623 buyback until now.

1973 Topps #76 - Doug Rader

There's a Houston Astros uniform you don't see every day!  Doug Rader seems to me to have been a somewhat under-rated third baseman.  During his prime years it wasn't uncommon for him to hit between 15 and 25 home runs while driving in 80+.  He was good with the glove too, in fact at the time this card was printed he was in the midst of a run of five consecutive Gold Gloves.

This Tim Foli already occupies slot 76.  Could have gone either way with this one.

In the end I stuck with Tim Foli due to the Expos uniform and those shades.  I have to admit though that I wasn't as familiar with Doug Rader when making that choice as I am now, and could easily have gone the other way in retrospect.  Maybe one to revisit someday...

1976 Topps #572 - Rich Coggins

Here's a '76 Topps Rich Coggins buyback from the 2015 promotion with a less than flattering photo.  Tilted photograph, disheveled uniform, and nothing even close to resembling a smile...

...yet I still like it over this '89 Atlee Hammaker buyback that was resident in slot 572 previously.

Coggins is in, Hammaker is out.

1978 Topps #154 - Cecil Cooper

Really like this '78 Cecil Cooper buyback.  This set overall isn't very high on my list of favorites for whatever reason, and I recognize this is a dark photograph to say the least, but I just enjoy it.  Cooper batted an impressive .312 in '78 too!  This card would've been an imposing match-up as the franken-set goes, but thankfully it doesn't come down to that is it's my first #154 buyback.  Welcome to the binder, Cecil!

1973 Topps #32 - Fred Norman

Last card tonight is a great one indeed.  I've always been one of the many baseball card collectors who gets a kick out of Fred Norman's '73 release.  Those Padres unis are just fantastic, and look at that roaring, wild crowd!  This is one I've been looking forward to owning in buyback form for a long time now, but does it make the binder?

Tony Gonzalez here forced his way into slot 32 just last batch.  Can he hold onto the spot, or is he going to be ousted after just a week or so of residence?

The franken-set binder can be a cruel beast.

Getting closer and closer to a thousand total buybacks here, may even cross that threshold by the end of the month!

On an unrelated note, life has been chaotic here at Shoebox Legends headquarters lately, as evidenced by my lack of consistent posting.  If you've sent me cards, are waiting on some from me, or are even just waiting for a return email, I apologize for the delay!  Bear with me and I promise to be back on track soon.

Thanks for stopping by my little corner of the internet, as always!

Franken-set Progress:  530/792 (66%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  428
Total Buybacks in Collection: 958