Buyback Franken-set: A Pair of Populated Pages & a Petrocelli

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.  Let's get on with it!

1970 Topps #81 - Dave May

I know Dave May wasn't a superstar or anything, but that is a nice looking 1970 Topps card if you ask me.  It's got a slightly blurry/dreamy kind of vibe to it.  I've really started taking a liking to this set in recent years, I'd love to slide this card into the franken-set binder.  In order to do so though...

...I'd have to bump Pete Redfern here.

Don't have a problem with that!

1974 Topps #124 - Bob Coluccio

I'll admit I don't know a damn thing about Bob Coluccio.  Not exactly the most exciting card that 1974 Topps has to offer.  Hey, they can't all be stars.  Maybe this one will at least plug a gap in the set?

Nope, George Mitterwald's 1977 card has been in slot 124 for a bit.

The Coluccio just isn't compelling enough to merit replacing Mitterwald.

1973 Topps #429 - Jim Fairey

Some nice palm trees in the background on this Jim Fairey, no way this photo was taken in Montreal!  1973 was actually Fairey's final Major League season, and he spent it with the Dodgers not the Expos.

Already had this Tony LaRussa in slot 429.  Not off to a great start today with respect to new numbers for the binder.

There's no way I could toss LaRussa in favor of Fairey.

1972 Topps #245 - Tommie Agee

Finally get a new number here, with "Miracle Met" Tommie Agee's 1972 Topps card.  Though he was only in his late 20s by 1972, Agee's career was already in sharp decline.  The 1966 Rookie of the Year never played another MLB game after 1973, just his age 30 season.  Of the '70s releases, 1972 Topps might be the toughest set to find buybacks from.  At least that's been my experience so far.  Happy to have Agee in the binder.

1979 Topps #219 - Roy Smalley

Roy Smalley looks like he's up to something here on his 1979 Topps card.  I know I made a mistake here.  When I thumbed to the appropriate page and looked in pocket 219 of the set I found this card standing in Roy's way:

Nothing all that spectacular if I'm being honest, but I much prefer the '75 Topps set to the '79 release.  So...

...I sent Roy Smalley off to the rejected box.  What I didn't realize at the time, and learned while typing up this post, is that 1979 was the pinnacle of Smalley's career.  He played every single game of the season for the Twins that year, 161 at shortstop and a single game at first base.  Smalley led the league in plate appearances and posted career highs in hits, doubles, home runs (24) and RBI (95) en route to his only All-Star selection.

Yeah, I'm going to have to right this wrong at some point.

1978 Topps #97 - Stan Bahnsen

With no disrespect to the man, Stan Bahnsen looks almost nothing like a professional athlete on this card.  The 1968 AL Rookie of the Year has one of the best nicknames in baseball history, "The Bahnsen Burner".  Love it.  Don't love this 1978 card nearly as much though.

There's no chance it's going to force Mike Cuellar here from the franken-set binder.

Sorry Stan.

1967 Topps #383 - Ken Henderson

Next up, outfielder Ken Henderson, who enjoyed a 16-year MLB career.  Ken played for 7 different franchises during that time, though his 8 years with the Giants were by far the most he spent with any one team.  This 2016 Heritage box-topper is a new number for the project as well at #383.  Welcome to the franken-set binder Mr. Henderson!

1976 Topps #276 - Mickey Scott

Mickey Scott looks a bit creeped out on his 1976 card here.  Scott went 3-0 in 33 appearances out of the 'pen in 1976.  Not a terribly exciting buyback I have to admit, but it's a great one for this project because it's a new number...

...and it completes a page!  After a long build-up it's nice to be getting to the point where I'm completing pages on a somewhat regular basis now.

Highlight of this page for me is undoubtedly the rookie card of Bill "Spaceman" Lee in the lower right!

1966 Topps #6 - Chuck Schilling

Here's a nice Topps Heritage box-topper buyback of Red Sox second baseman Chuck Schilling.  This is actually a "sunset card", as Schilling played his entire five-season MLB career with Boston between 1961 and 1965.  For the second card in a row here we have a new number for the binder...

...and a completed page!  I'm very pleased to have the very first page in the set completed at long last.  With four Nolan Ryans, a Pete Rose, and a Mark Fidrych 1/1 this has to be my best completed page to date.  I won't mind staring at this every time I open the binder going forward.

1966 Topps #298 - Rico Petrocelli

Here's the last card for today, and by far my favorite in today's post.  In fact, I picked up the small lot of ten buybacks you see today on eBay a long while back pretty much solely because I wanted this Rico Petrocelli.  I paid $9 and change for the lot, and was pretty pleased as I would've gladly forked out that amount for this Rico alone!

A '60s buyback of a popular player from my favorite team featuring the great oversize All-Star Rookie trophy?  Yes, please!  I'm very pleased that Topps was wise enough to place the buyback stamp on the right side of the card here and not obstruct that beautiful trophy graphic.  I've definitely seen others where that is not the case.

Larry Herndon stands between Petrocelli and franken-set glory.

But gets booted from the binder, no questions asked.  I'd be a fool to keep this card in the franken-set while that amazing Petrocelli sat in the rejected box.

Not a bad lot at all today.  Four new numbers for the project have me sitting on the precipice of 600 cards in the franken-set, and even where there were conflicts I made a couple of improvements, most notably the Petrocelli.

Tune in next time to see if I can cross the 600 buyback threshold.  Thanks for stopping by!

Franken-set Progress: 599/792 (75%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 64/792 (8%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 456
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,119

May the Fourth Be with You

Would you expect anything less on Star Wars Day here at Shoebox Legends than...

...Star Wars buybacks!  I know, how predictable.  What can I say?  Star Wars and buybacks, two things I enjoy, combine to make these cards irresistible.  They were inserted into last year's 40th Anniversary set.  I haven't picked any up in a long time, or even looked for any for that matter, but the four in tonight's post bring me to eleven in total which is a decent little collection.

Blue milk!

I plan to watch the original trilogy over the weekend to celebrate, beginning with Episode IV later tonight (assuming this Bruins/Lightning game doesn't go to triple overtime).

How about you?  Are you a fan of the Star Wars films?  If so, have you landed any notable Star Wars cards lately?

For those of you who just aren't Star Wars people, don't worry, I'll be back with some sports related content tomorrow.  May the Fourth Be with You!

Buyback Franken-set: Tekulve!

Just one buyback tonight for the franken-set project, but it's a good one!

1977 Topps #374 - Kent Tekulve

Yup, it's the great Kent Tekulve!  This is actually the second buyback of Kent's to be considered for the project.  The first was his '87 Topps Phillies card though, and I'm sorry but Tekulve is a Pirate.  So, in a way this feels like the first.  Love the photograph on this one too.  The facsimile autograph is perfectly placed, and so too is the buyback stamp for that matter.

As if all of that wasn't enough, it's also a new number!  595 down, less than 200 to go, welcome to the franken-set binder Kent!

Franken-set Progress: 595/792 (75%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 64/792 (8%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 450
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,109

eBay Blaster!

Earlier this year I took advantage of an eBay seller who had a large number of cards listed, most of them at a buck each, and offered free shipping if you purchased 20 cards or more.  Well, I did exactly that, and today I grabbed and scanned a "blaster's worth" to show off here on the blog.  Let's see how I chose to spend $20 with this seller...

It's hard to go wrong with a new Yogi Berra card of any type, but a Starting Lineup card in sepia tone where he's donning the tools of ignorance is especially great.  Not a chance I was leaving this one behind for someone else to scoop up.

I've written multiple times of my love for the Finest Refractors of the early to mid '90s.  This seller had quite a few available from the 1994 baseball release, and I decided to grab both Jeff Blauser...

...and Xavier Hernandez.  I know, not the most exciting names in the annals of baseball history, but I rarely run across these refractors of any player, even a common, for this price so it was an easy decision to toss this pair into my cart.  I recently landed a refractor of a HOFer from this same set, but that's a story for another day.

There were a few autographed cards to be had at the one dollar price point.  The majority of them were in-person or TTM autographs, but at a dollar I'm willing to take the gamble in some cases.  This '84-85 OPC Maple Leafs goal leader card is kind of cool.

Too bad I didn't have this card in hand when I did my Stat Kings post on the '83-84 season a while back.

I also snagged this Dave Barr, for obvious reasons.  One more card down in my quest to accumulate as many '89-90 Topps/O-Pee-Chee autos as I can manage!

I debuted a PK Subban Exclusives parallel from this same seller on the blog last night, but Subban wasn't the only one I managed to pick up in this lot.  Also landed this gem of recently retired future HOFer Daniel Sedin.  A nice bench shot from Upper Deck here.

I couldn't leave this Tyler Seguin parallel behind either at the 99 cents price point.  The Stars are far from my favorite team, but Seguin is a legit sniper and may have a shot at the HOF himself someday if he stays on his current goal scoring pace.

I picked up a few '72 Topps baseball cards in the order as well.  They're not players or teams that I collect...

...and I don't really have any immediate plans to work on this set, as much as I'd absolutely love to complete it someday.

The real reason I grabbed these?  Well, they're all relatively high numbers, and I know from reading blogs and talking to other collectors that high-numbered '72s can be tough.

Seemed worth it to grab these four, all in pretty immaculate shape, for a buck per.  Someday in the future if I decide to bite this set off, I'll thank myself for the foresight that I had here!

No, the Berra card that led off the post is not the only Starting Lineup issue that I have for you today.  I also grabbed a pair of goaltending superstars from the 1996 hockey release in Patrick Roy...

...and the great Dominik Hasek!  While I don't actively collect him per se, Hasek was one of the most dominant goalies in the game during the time that I was really becoming a fan as a kid, so I always enjoy picking up some of his cardboard when I can.  I have a feeling this set is somewhat rare too, less than a third of the set is even available at all on COMC, and neither of these two are.

Another thing I'm a total sucker for are the Legends variations that Topps included in their flagship set for a few years there.  As a general rule I'm grabbing any and all of these that I don't yet have if they're available for under a dollar as Robbie Alomar here was.  One of my favorite cards in today's post for sure.

I've been a fan of the Authentic Moments subset from the Upper Deck SP Authentic release for years now.  I wish Upper Deck would make an entire base set of cards like this, where the photographs are dated and associated with specific games/moments in time.  This one pays tribute to Austin Mathews' very first NHL game, where he scored an amazing four times.  I'll probably never land his Young Guns rookie card (super expensive and not very high on my list either), so this is a nice alternative.

In case you can't tell by this point, I was kind of just aimlessly browsing around the seller's inventory looking for anything that caught my eye or seemed like a decent deal.  I've said it before, but we're living through some great times as collectors when you can sit on your couch at home with an iPad and "dig through dollar boxes".  What attracted me to this one, besides the fact that Eichel is one of the league's many bright young stars, is that the background in the upper portion of this card is clear acetate.

There weren't a ton of Red Sox cards to be had, but I did grab this 2008 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects card of Boston backstop Christian Vazquez.  He's been the everyday catcher for the club so far in 2018.  I wish he could manage to hit above the Mendoza Line, but the reality is the lineup is stacked and he provides a ton of value on the defensive side of the ball.

1965 Topps #219 - Bob Meyer

Closing things out for today, of course I checked to see if the seller had any buybacks available!  While it takes a relatively special flagship buyback to get me to shell out a dollar or more, I'll pick up just about any Heritage box-topper buyback that I don't already have for a dollar.  That's basically the only explanation for why I picked up a buyback of career 2-12 pitcher Bob Meyer.

Turns out it wasn't a new number, as I already had this '75 Ed Herrmann in slot 219.

Meyer and his flat-top are off to the rejected box for now.  Still happy to have this one though.

1969 Topps #502 - Minnie Rojas

Next up, a Heritage buyback from this year's release.  I've actually picked up quite a few of these in lots, as well as some decent star singles, but haven't had time to digest many yet for the franken-set project.  Not much star power here, as Rojas was a reliever who lasted less than three seasons in Major League Baseball.  Does he make the binder in slot 502?

Off-center Joe Torre has a thing or two to say about that!

Sorry, Minnie!

1992 Topps #150 - Roger Clemens

Finally, here's one I had no qualms about throwing into my virtual pile.  Clemens' iconic 1991 card is pretty much a dream buyback for me, but in the meantime this 1992 buyback isn't too shabby either.  Roger was coming off a Cy Young season here, and I like the photograph and cropping job on this one as well.  While The Rocket isn't exactly one of my all-time favorite Sox, this is still a strong contender for the binder.

Being a #150 buyback, it's not surprising that Roger's competition is another former star of the game in Bobby Bonds.

In this case I just plain like the Clemens cards better.  The Bonds card is certainly a decent buyback, but it's just been over-matched in this scenario.

That's an even 20 cards there, and at 99 cents per we've got a running total of $19.80, so I'll call it there.  As is the case just about every time I do one of these "virtual blaster" posts, I'm reminded of just how much more satisfying my hobby purchases tend to be when I'm hand-picking the cards I desire rather than leaving it up to the "Cardboard Gods".

Would you have grabbed any of these yourself for a buck?  Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.  Either way, thanks for stopping by!

Franken-set Progress: 594/792 (75%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 64/792 (8%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 450
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,108

One Card Post - Time

What:  2016-17 Upper Deck #355 - PK Subban (Exclusives Parallel /100)
Where: eBay
How Much?:  $.99

Why?:  This one seemed like a decent pick-up when I hand selected a large lot of dollar cards from an eBay seller earlier this year.  A relatively rare parallel of a guy who's a finalist for a Norris Trophy this year, and who's already won one previously, felt like a solid add at 99 cents.

Wish I had time for more, but time is something that seems to be in short supply of late, so it's this or nothing for now...