Odds & Ends

My mind seems to be a bit frazzled lately, understandably.  In some respects I'm finding it hard to focus within my hobbies, so let's just embrace that and go with a random post for today featuring a bunch of odds & ends. 

First of all, it's Star Wars Day for those of you who aren't aware (May the Fourth Be with You!).  Let's take a look at a handful of favorites from my admittedly small Star Wars card collection...

I love buybacks, and I love Star Wars, so of course I love Star Wars buybacks.  These were included in a 40th Anniversary set a couple of years back.  I don't seek them out much if ever anymore, but I did accumulate a dozen of them including this classic R2-D2/C-3PO card.

Since I also love acetate cards, I'm draw to the Topps Star Wars High Tek releases.  I'd never bust a box of this myself as it's relatively expensive, but I do grab singles off of COMC (or at least did...) from time to time.

I love this one because, while it's not generally considered among the franchise's best films by most hardcore fans, I really do enjoy Return of the Jedi.  We had a home-recorded VHS version when I was growing up and my brothers and I watched it dozens of times.  This card reminds me of that epic scene from that film with Jabba the Hutt making the protagonists walk the plank in the desert.

Since I enjoyed Return of the Jedi so much, I'm one of those fans who isn't bothered by the Ewoks at all.  In fact, I'm not too proud to admit that I own both made-for-TV Ewoks movies from the '80s in my Amazon video library (and have watched them both within the past year).  This "Logray" auto was a cool, cheap pick-up off of COMC back in the day.

Last Star Wars card for today, I promise.  This riff on the '80-81 Topps basketball design is a great homage to some of the villains of the franchise.  Anyway, that concludes our brief look at Star Wars.  I may watch one, or two, or three of the films from the original franchise tonight as a tribute.

Side note, I'd really like to pick up a copy of the Larry Bird/Magic Johnson RC from this set someday for my Cardboard Keepers collection, but wow is that card in demand!

Moving on...

Here's another of those Helmar Polar Night art cards I picked up last summer.  These don't draw many views or much reaction in their own posts, so I figured I'd lump this one in here to get it cleared out of my scan folder.  Love the old school catcher's gear.  I'm telling you, Helmar makes some absolutely beautiful and vibrant cards.

What else?  Well, I've been using the increased amount of spare time that comes with sheltering in place to make amazing progress on organizing and condensing my collection.  It's something I started long before this pandemic, but have really been able to fast-track.  My ultimate goal is to have every card in my household scanned, added to my inventory on TCDB, and neatly sorted to where I can locate any card instantly.  It's a tall order, but it's a marathon not a race, and I'm enjoying the process.  In fact, as great a feeling as that accomplishment will be, there will be a little disappointment mixed in if I ever do get there.

The process has forced me to confront quite a few "I'll get to it some other time" projects that I'd been procrastinating on for a long time, which has been cathartic I have to say.  For example, I recently went through a childhood baseball card album I had featuring my star player cards.  The binder itself was in pretty rough shape after many years of storage in my parents' basement, but I finally went through it.  I chucked some cards that were absolutely beat, as well as the binder and sheets themselves, but I was able to salvage quite a few awesome cards and re-welcome them into my collection proper:

I loved this card back in the day.  Sure, McGwire's true recognized rookie card came back in the 1985 Topps set, but he was pictured with Team USA on that card.  It was his 1987 release where we got our first glimpse at the slugger in Oakland A's green.  When I was ten years old I figured this card would make me rich someday!

Sportflics (or SportFlix, as noted here) made some really off-the-wall cards in the year or two before I wrapped up collecting for the first time.  I absolutely loved them.  This card takes me back to sitting on my buddy Shawn's bed on a summer day with our cards spread around negotiating trades.  I actually would really like to finish this particular insert set, if memory serves it's only six cards in size.

Even though they don't scan so well, I also adore these Cyclone Squad inserts.

Was happy to find a nice, mint 1989 Fleer Nolan Ryan in the binder.  He's one of the players I'd love to complete an '80s run of at some point, and this was a hole I needed to plug as far as that endeavor goes.

Ditto for this '84 Ripken.  I actually purchased this at an antiques store in Putnam, CT somewhere between 25 and 30 years ago.  I can still recall how excited I was on the drive home to have a copy of this one.

I do not recall the origins of this Fleer card, however.  I think I'm getting close to having most of Cal's '80s cards from the major producers in my collection at this point.  I'll have to do a formal tally once I finish my organization here...

I've talked numerous times about my love of 1994 Stadium Club here on the blog.  Like my all-time most nostalgic set, 1990 Topps, I can totally understand how some collectors would not be very into this design.  I was 12 years old though when this set hit shelves in the summer of '94, and I couldn't get enough of these.

Not much to say about this one, except that 1990 Leaf was a great set.  I am trying to reduce the size of my collection these days, so I have to really prize a set in order to try completing the entire thing.  To me, 1990 Leaf falls just short of that threshold, but I do hang onto Red Sox cards and stars from the release for now anyway.

Next up, a couple of cool subset cards salvaged from my Rickey Henderson pages.  Even back then as a kid some obsessive qualities were present, as I'd organize my cards by player within the binder, alphabetically by last name.  Then within each player's section they'd be organized by year, then by brand alphabetically, then by card number.

Always been a fan of Rickey, so these two (which are in fine shape) were no-brainers to adopt into my adult collection here.

As was this one, a 1989 Topps Traded card that signifies Rickey's return to Oakland after his stint with the Yankees!

Just a regular old base card here from a mid-'90s Score release.  Despite my drastic reduction in collection size, I still find it hard to part with any Griffey card that's not a double.

One more from '94 Stadium Club!

See prior comment about Griffey cards.

A 1997 Pinnacle Nomar Garciaparra here.  This would have probably been one of the last cards I acquired as a kid.  I was a freshman in high school when this set came out, and had pretty much put sports card collecting behind me for the next ten years.

Loved me some Will the Thrill back in the day.  I actually still have a decent-sized player collection of his, which I'm about halfway through entering on TCDB.  It's mostly cheap singles like this one, but I do have a couple of autographs and relics in the mix too just to spice it up and give it a little variety.

Always liked the image Topps chose for his '93 flagship card.

Here's one from later on, with the Rangers.  Like the Nomar above, this would have been acquired just as the sun was setting on my childhood baseball card collecting days.

Who else remembers what a big deal the foil ROOKIE pennants on early '90s Fleer Ultra were?  Maybe it was just me, but among my buddies these held a premium as far as trading went.  When I came across this one featuring HOFer Mike Mussina it made me chuckle.

I recall quite a few of these Upper Deck Comic Ball cards being around in our card boxes as kids.  While they don't do a whole lot for me now (Topps Kids is a way better set in that realm), I had to hang onto this one featuring The Texas Express.  Also, I guess this counts as half a Red Sox card due to the cartoon portion?

That's a wrap as far as the cards I held onto from that particular portion of that binder.  Let's see, what else...?

From the "What was I thinking?" files, here's a slabbed 1979-80 Scoring Leaders card.  I picked this up a year or two ago because I was on a run of adding new Gretzky cards to my collection, but in retrospect this was a silly purchase.  It ran me less than $20, but thanks to Topps' decision to black out the names on all the cards in their '80-81 release and make them "scratch-off" it's not a set I'm all that fond of.

I guess you can't really go wrong with a PSA 9 Gretzky that pays homage to his amazing rookie season, right?  I mean, he's the GOAT!  Honestly though, when I get restocked on bubble mailers and feel better about frequent trips to the post office I'll probably sell this card off and put the funds towards something I'll enjoy more.

Speaking of the GOAT, there are some that feel French phenom Kylian Mbappe is or will be the greatest soccer player in the world.  Mentioned in the conversation anyway alongside names like Pele, Messi or Ronaldo.  When cleaning through my "other sports" box I came across two of these Panini Instant World Cup cards from the tournament where he really became a household name among soccer fans back in 2018.

These are sort of like the Topps NOW of the World Cup, limited in print run to however many Panini sold at the time.

It's been absolutely crazy what Mbappe's cards have been selling for lately.  I've heard that the Michael Jordan documentary is leading to spikes in card prices for some of the other "greatest players" in their respective sports.  I don't know if that's the cause or not, but I do know his cards have been selling for absolute bananas prices.

While I'm holding onto these two (and they're not all that valuable yet anyway), I did part with four other Mbappe cards recently as part of two separate but equally awesome "eBay flips".  I'll have those posted to the blog soon, and believe me the results are pretty incredible.  Right up there with my recent maneuver that led to the Michael Jordan RC even!

This post is getting long though, and I've got to wait for some of the cards from those flips to arrive in the mail anyway, so for now we'll call it for today and leave you in suspense on that front.  Thanks for stopping by.  Until next time...

Draft Folder Dump!

Just some random cards tonight, pick-ups from over the years that I've only recently scanned and added to my organized collection.  There's no real theme here other than these all being entered into my collection at around the same time.

Grabbed this '71 Topps out of a dollar box a long while back.  I'll pretty much grab any HOFer from this set in this shape for a buck or less.

Yup, that's an "I'll never need to upgrade" condition '71 in my book.

I grabbed this '72 Topps common for 99 cents from a seller who offered free combined shipping on additional auctions.  Picked it up largely because it's somewhat of a high number, and someday I may just be crazy enough to take a run at this set.

One of the more frustrating collecting quests in my time since returning to the hobby has been these yellow parallels from the 2009-10 Upper Deck Champ's hockey release.  There are just 100 in the set, but they're pretty damn rare with just a one-per-box insertion ratio.  Despite keeping my eye out for these on eBay, COMC, and in person over the years, there are still several cards from this parallel set that I've never even seen.  Not sure I'll ever be able to finish this based on scarcity alone, but I'm not waving the white flag just yet.

If memory serves this Will Clark came from a quarter box.  What can I say, I was a big Clark fan as a kid, and I enjoy the GQ "Framed" parallels.  I'd drop a quarter on this card any day of the week and twice on Sunday!

Up next here is a trio of '61 Topps cards that I paid just a dime a piece for.  Why so cheap, you may be wondering?  Well, that's a decent tear on the left border of that Gene Mauch above...

...and Winston Brown's card I'd say speaks for itself.

John Schaive is probably the best of the three condition-wise, but he's got some healthy creasing in the upper left too.  For a dime though I'm game for nearly any early '60s or older card that I don't already have, as a placeholder card if for no other reason.

Don't remember where this one came from, but I believe it's an image variation.  I know they're gimmicky, but I'm a sucker for these when I can find them cheap.

Always loved speedster Kenny Lofton, couldn't pass up his Donruss Rated Rookie for a mere quarter.

I don't think I need to explain why I picked this card up, do I?  1970 Topps at its finest.

Here's a random '52 Topps card, purchased just because it's in great condition and was only $6.  I'm under no delusion that I'll ever complete a '52 Topps set, but it's so iconic that I like to have a handful of examples in my baseball card collection at least...

Just two more cards here, a pair of autos, then I'm calling it a night.  I don't think this Nick Johnson autograph would excite many baseball card collectors, but it sure makes me smile.  This on-card autograph is now certainly one of the highlights of my small collection of Norwich Navigator baseball cards.  This was the AA franchise that played in a brand new ballpark about 20 minutes from my house growing up.  There aren't a ton of Navigators cards out there, and extremely few autographs.  Pumped about this pick-up!

The other autograph, not nearly as exciting.  Remember the failed experiment that was Allen Craig, Red Sox fans?  Over his first four seasons in Major League Baseball, with the Cardinals, Craig won a World Series, and was even selected as an All-Star.  The Cards then dealt him to Boston (along with Joe Kelly) midway through the 2014 season, and boy did he ever plummet.  In a season and a half in Boston, Allen batted .139 over close to 200 plate appearances.  His slugging percentage was below the Mendoza Line in his time with the Red Sox.  Unreal.

This on-card auto courtesy of Topps Five Star cost me just a couple of bucks, and it's kind of a fun reminder in my collection that although ownership has made a lot of great moves the past couple of decades, they certainly weren't all winners.

That's all for now, thanks for stopping by!

COMC Blaster - Black Friday Haul!

I really cut back on spending during 2018's Black Friday sales promotion over at COMC last year, because I'd recently landed one or two pretty big, significant singles that I'll show here in the coming year.  I still managed to grab a couple dozen cards or so though, and in fact had enough to assemble one of my patented "COMC Blaster" posts from that weekend's pick-ups alone...

The highlight of today's post gets us started.  In 2015, Allen & Ginter contained buybacks to celebrate the set's 10th anniversary.  Collectors could pull both standard-size stamped buybacks, or framed minis.  I'm not as into these as I am the various Topps flagship/Heritage buybacks, but when I happened upon a framed mini buyback featuring the rookie card of my favorite current player I simply could not resist.

Ah, there we go, looks a little better rotated like this.  I wish Topps would've moved the "!0th Anniversary Issue" foil buyback stamp just a hair lower, since the "10th" is kind of covering up the RC symbol, but what can you do.

While most of my COMC purchases tend to be for pocket change, or maybe a dollar or two, I stepped up to the plate and paid the seller's $7.25 asking price in this case.  That may seem steep to you, but Xander Bogaerts is really the only baseball player that I sort of actively collect, and this is easily one of the more rare and obscure rookie cards I've seen of the Red Sox shortstop.  In fact I had never seen one before, and haven't seen another one since.either.  I don't think Topps released print runs for any of these, but I would not be shocked if this was the only copy of this card in existence.  At a minimum, it's one of the few.

Well, that knocks out more than a third of today's virtual blaster based on price, but let's see what else I was able to add to my collection with the remaining $13 in store credit...

Surprise, surprise, more 2014 Topps Finest X-Fractors.  Luis Sardinas here, while not a player I'm familiar with, was low-hanging fruit at 45 cents.

As I've mentioned before, I've decided I'm all in now on trying to complete this 100-card set in X-Fractor format.  JR Murphy here?  Not exactly a household name either, but gets me one card closer for 57 cents.

Here's a recognizable name after a couple of duds, recent World Series champion David Price!  55 cents was all it took to add the lefty starter to this project.

Ugh.  The one downside of set collecting is the "need" to acquire some guys you probably can't stand.  Such was the case with Aroldis Chapman here, but at least he was the cheapest of these that I landed here at 46 cents.  Moving on...

My favorite of today's batch of X-Fractors by far is this Chris Sale, featuring a uniform that I thought was ugly the first time around but that looks kind of interesting amid all this color.  Chris cost me a hair more than the others I'm featuring here, at 74 cents.  I didn't pick up both the Sale and Price cards at the same time on purpose or anything, but it's funny that it worked out that way.

Taijuan Walker rookie card, 53 cents...

...Erisbel Arruebarrena (there's a mouthful!) rookie card, 52 cents...

...and former slugger Prince Fielder for an even 50 cents.  These 8, plus another 5 I grabbed that weekend and already showed in a previous post, really have me getting there.  I'm up to 31 of these shiny beauties now, out of 100 in the set.  That number's a bit deceiving though since I've been nabbing most of the cheap ones and still have names like Harper, Trout, Kershaw and Jeter to go.

While nowhere near as exciting as the card that led off today's post, I snagged this Museum Collection Xander Bogaerts because it was available for just 47 cents.  Always feels good grabbing cards from somewhat high end releases for mere pocket change.

At one point I just searched for cards of players I collected as a kid, almost certainly owned as a kid, but haven't managed to add back to my "adult" collection yet.  Such was the case with this great 1988 Score Nolan Ryan, a nice mint copy is now mine for just 49 cents!

To pair with it, the "No Hit KING" card from 1990 Leaf for 51 cents.  These aren't going to help any with my retirement plans, but at an even dollar for the pair they sure pack a lot of nostalgic fun into my Black Friday package.  Speaking of which...

For a while there as a youth, there was nobody that I collected with more fervor than Will Clark.  I had at least a couple of copies of his 1987 Donruss RC back then.  While I grabbed a graded copy of this card shortly after returning to collecting, I never managed to track down a raw one, and I rectified that during this sale for just 49 cents.

It's been all baseball so far, so how about a couple of hockey cards?  I paid $1.21 for this 1994-95 Stadium Club Pat Verbeek card.  Why would I do that?  Well, if you look along the left border of the card, just above Verbeek's name, you'll see a "1st Day Issue" stamp on Pat's thigh there. 

These parallels are one of those cases from the '90s of cards that have really retained their value, and you'd be hard-pressed to find even common scrubs for less than a buck.  Star players can command a pretty penny.  Since Pat is one of the more under-rated players in the sport's history, and since I aspire to one day have the greatest Hartford Whalers collection on The Trading Card Database, I couldn't leave this one behind at a pretty steep discount like this.

Contrary to the Verbeek, these one-per-pack Electric Ice parallels from Upper Deck have not remained all that valuable, but I always liked the very sparkly foil that Upper Deck used on the ones in the '94-95 set.  Aside from that, I was a big Owen Nolan fan growing up, and I love the photograph here with the great look at the Nordiques' fleur-de-lis shoulder patch.  A nice grab for 53 cents if you ask me.

We're heavy on the Xander Bogaerts cards today.  This Purple Refractor from 2017 Topps Chrome is sort of jarring, and I wouldn't count it among my favorite cards, but it's serial-numbered (to /299) and was on sale for just 80 cents.  More than enough to get me to bite on it, increasing my Bogaerts count by another card.

Every so often when I'm bored I'll see what Star Wars cards may be available for cheap coin, and during the promotion I ended up with a pair of them.  Nien Nunb was one of the more memorable bit/background characters from the original films, and on top of that I'm a sucker for all things acetate, so this Topps Star Wars High Tek card joined the collection for 63 cents.  If I were more focused I'd have grabbed another 2014 Finest X-Fractor instead, but where's the fun in focusing all the time?

The other Star Wars card I grabbed was from last year's Black & White set featuring scenes from the very first film, Episode IV:  A New Hope.  This one's a Sepia parallel, which I don't really care about.  I just love the full-bleed photo of Vader at the controls, and thought it was a fun card to grab for just 50 cents.

Here's the final card for today.  I've mentioned this enough times now that some of you are probably getting tired of hearing it, but man do I love those early Bowman baseball sets.  As a kid I had two cards from the '52 set that my dad bought me from an antiques store a couple of towns over from where we lived, and they were among my most prized pieces of cardboard.  I actually still have that pair to this day, and in recent years have been looking to add some others from the set when the price is right.  Such was certainly the case with this beautiful Gil Coan, mine for the unbelievably low cost of just $2.88.

I love everything about this one, Gil swinging away in horizontal format in front of a clapboard fence.  Just look at the glorious purples featured in that sunset sky behind Coan.  These cards are truly little works of art, and I could not add this one to my cart fast enough.  I've got 16 of these under-sized beauties in my collection now, and while names like Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays will probably prevent me from ever completing the set, I hope to pick up many more of them during my lifetime.

Well, that takes us to $20.08 as far as today's running total goes.  A shorter post than most of these, due in large part to the fact that the Bogaerts buyback sucked up over $7 in funds, but some great additions nonetheless.  Hope you saw something you found interesting, thanks for stopping by!