Oddball & Robin

Over the course of my work day today, I churned out 19 pages of information over 8 hours outlining all kinds of concepts of construction contracting law relevant to international readers considering working in the United States.  To say that I am a bit drained mentally is a bit of an understatement.  It's the most I have written in one sitting in as long as I can remember.

Then, to top it off, my wife and I went to a charity fundraiser barbecue and beer tasting at Piedmont Park in Atlanta.  It was an indoor/outdoor event, and the humidity must have been about 99.7%.  We got there early and ate enough to fill us up, tried a few beers, and then got out of there.

It's been a long day.

So, I'm kind of mailing this post in a bit by digging into the eBay well some.  The last time I talked about eBay, I had about three days worth of stuff that I had bought.  Thankfully for my wallet, I have slowed down some and tried to be very particular about what I am getting.  What that means is that I have purchased oddballs that I have problems finding on other websites.  I will start, though, with an item I have had since 1989 because this one makes me laugh.

The very young looking Ed O'Neill -- now of Modern Family fame -- made an appearance on a Brewers Schedule in 1989 separated only by a beer from Robin Yount.  I'm just surprised that I haven't seen this schedule on eBay labeled with O'Neill rather than Yount.

Okay, on to the oddballs.  The first item is one I had never heard of before getting back into collecting even though it is from 1981.  It's the All-Star Game Program Insert.  I don't understand why these are included in the PSA "Master" sets for players, but they are.  I found a group of three team sets from 1981, 1984, and 1985 for less than $12 total.  I had not seen many others previously, so I snapped them up where I could.

Here's the 1981 Yount:

Along the same lines, here is a stamp from the 1983 Fleer Stamp set.  I'm not sure if they were going for the philatelist crossover angle or something, but they thought that a bunch of stamps would be a good idea. Here's Robin from 1983:

Another weird "collectible" I picked up on eBay was an item I have known about since at least 1982 if not 1981: Perma-Graphics Baseball Player credit cards.  If only they had a credit line attached to them...anyway, here's the advertisement from Baseball Digest selling the 1982 Superstar Credit Cards:

I think I have wanted these cards ever since:

And, just so you know, these are the regular and the gold "All-Star" cards from the 1982 Perma-Graphics set.  Interestingly, I believe that these were created in association with Topps.  Here's my proof:

While Wikipedia agrees with me, I like my evidence better.

Okay, more oddballs.  How about a 3-D Sportsflics-like disc given away at a convenience store?

Yup, 7-Eleven in the house.

Anyone for a 1990 Publications International sticker?  Why not:

Okay, how about a cheaply printed insert card from Topps Magazine in 1990?

The only thing to make that card scream "early 1990s" any more would be to put a pair of Zubaz on Yount. Maybe Defgav with his gif-ing abilities can make that happen.

Then there are all the random "Star Company" sets.  Their set names -- Nova, Stellar, Millennium, Star -- are pretty cheesy...I mean, they are so cheesy that even a native cheesehead like me thinks they are cheesy. Here's a "Nova" card, which is one of the 11 cards that comprises set #66 of the 500 total sets printed, supposedly.

Finally, anyone for a fully unlicensed Broder?  I don't have a clue what a Broder would look like, so I very well might have been misled about this, but it's a cool card anyway.

I'm thankful that I'm now in the position where I have pretty much all the base set cards for Robin's career at least through 1990.  After that point, it's anyone's guess as to what is "base set", what is "insert," and what is "oddball."

All of these, though?  They are definitely, at the very least, ODD.