Closing out 2016's Scans with Cards from Cards on Cards

As I sit here this rainy, stormy Saturday morning -- the counties just south of Atlanta are under a tornado watch, for crying out loud -- I can't help but feel that American life has changed greatly in the past couple of days.

Yes, Topps is now incorporating social media handles -- here, Tulo's Instagram account -- on the backs of its 2017 flagship baseball cards.  These are truly dangerous times in which we live.

With this post and other than my COMC and eBay wins, this post will finally finish off the scans I made in 2016. There are still a couple of packages that I have to post that I did not get around to scanning until after the new year.

Today's cards come from Kerry at Cards on Cards. Kerry is one of the #SuperTraders, and I believe that is what led to this package. Thing is, though, that this one hit a few real softspots in my 1980s needs.

1986 Fleer Traded

By 1986, things had settled in for collectors and everyone had started to expect shenanigans from the card manufacturers to hold rookies back from inclusion in their main sets to put into traded sets. That, or the companies would put guys on dual-rookie cards and then give them their own cards in the traded set. These were well-established games that Topps and Fleer (beginning in 1984) would play.

So, to see Plesac, Sveum, Nieves, and Robidoux in the Fleer and Topps traded sets in 1986 was no surprise (Deer had cards in the main sets as a Giant). But, as a 14-year-old kid who made money cutting lawns and being a local-league umpire during the summer, my funds were limited as to what I could afford to buy. I chose to buy the Topps Update set rather than Fleer -- so all of these were new to me.

And a Base 1986 Fleer

Not sure how I didn't have two of these already. Now I do, and the entirety of 1986 Fleer can be crossed off my want lists.

1985 Topps Traded

Topps Traded was always -- and remains -- easier to find than Fleer Traded from the 1980s. At least it feels that way to me. I thought I had ordered this card on multiple occasions from Just Commons, but then it never arrived and I got one of those notes that their online inventory was not correct. Kerry took care of that for me, so I got to cross another team set off my list.

1988 Fleer

Strangely, these two guys together were hardly classic relief. I say that because most closers tended to be right-handers. Also, I think Plesac still had his braces on his teeth at this point. 

Once again, however, this card finished off another team set. 

1991 Topps Glossy Rookies

 

These glossy insert cards of first the All-Stars (appearing only in rack packs, I think) and then the Rookies were always fun to get. I would go through the rack at the grocery store to find the All-Star that I needed for my collection (since they were visible, I was not pack searching!). Maybe I should have kept some of those unopened.

No. No chance.

1995 Stadium Club

The 1990s in baseball cards are full of the jaunty graphics that ESPN2 tried to use to get the kids to watch their network. I think ESPN2 was the downfall of ESPN. It caused the company to stop focusing on the "S" for Sports and focus more on the "E" for Entertainment. Plus, it gave us Keith Olbermann in a leather jacket.

*involuntarily shudders*

2001 Topps Archives

In 1983, Topps reprinted its iconic 1952 set thanks to the huge interest in cards like Mickey Mantle and Eddie Mathews going stratospherically high -- a Mantle sold for over $4,000 in 1982, after all! Then, in 1991, the 1953 set got reprinted followed 3 years later by the 1954 reprint.

Why did that stop and the reprints of cards from 1988 start? 

Was it just the cost of trying to get clearance from former players and players' estates to reuse their images? Was it just too much work to do that? All those are plausible reasons, I suppose. But part of me would much prefer a 1957 reprint set over reusing the design for modern players. 

That might just be me, though.

More Recent Cards

Well, damn. The storms are starting to pick up a bit here and the light just flickered. So, I'd better finish this up before I lose power. This is nuts -- it's mid-January and we're having a weekend of thunderstorms and highs around 70 degrees.

I'd write-up something about Callix Sadeaq Crabbe, but that name is cool enough. From the Virgin Islands, high school in Stone Mountain here in the Atlanta area, and a 39 plate-appearance career with the Padres in 2008. He's now the proprietor of Crabbe-ology. 

Many thanks go out for the great cards to Kerry. 

Cards From The Other World

A few weeks back, I had a little extra time at work one morning to enjoy my second cup of coffee and casually read through some blogs.  From time to time, I scroll through other blog rolls to try to find new blogs that I don't otherwise read.  In that way, I finally came across a long-time blogger, Dan from The Other World.  

Dan was in the midst of a spring cleaning of sorts.  He put out a call on his blog for people to claim a division.  Seeing no one had grabbed the NL Central, I commented and asked for them.  Then I forgot about that.  

Somewhere around mid-May, a box showed up at my house from Dan. Having forgotten about my comment, I started going through the cards. The first team I saw were Cardinals, and I thought to myself, "did someone send these to me as a joke? Or a mistake? Was I hacked?"

Okay, I really didn't think I was hacked. 

Then the light bulb went on, finally, and I recalled everything. Thankfully, the cards that Dan sent to me are very memorable and filled some big gaps in my collecting.

Such as, early 2000s Bowman:

Any package that contains a Callix Crabbe (middle name: Sadeaq) has to be a good one.  Crabbe was selected out of junior college by the Brewers in the 2002 draft in the 12th round.  He got a brief chance to play in the major leagues when the San Diego Padres selected him in the 2007 Rule 5 draft. He failed to impress, and his career went back down the minors after that.  But come on -- Callix??

Strikingly, all of these minor league guys got chances to play big-league baseball.  Salome got three at-bats in 2008, Pember got a start in his four appearances in 2002, Komatsu appeared with St. Louis and Minnesota in 2012, and Logan Schafer is still in the Brewers system.  Of all of the minor league guys, Mike Adams may have had the longest career -- 3 years in Milwaukee, parts of four seasons in San Diego, parts of two seasons in Texas, and two years in Philadelphia before coming to the end of the road at age 35 last year.

There were other cards that I needed for PCs and the team collection as well.  Such as one final Bowman -- a Lucroy rookie:

A couple of Greg Vaughns -- a Fleer insert and a Flair checklist:

And even a Rickie Weeks 2011 Topps Update All-Star card:

The two biggest highlights from Dan, though, came in small packages:

The Braun framed A&G relic is interesting. I had one of these already, but the swatch of fabric in the card is pure white.  This one is gray.  I'm calling that a short-print variation.

I am joking, by the way.

The other card is a pink mini Parallel of Mike Fiers -- serial numbered out of twenty-five!  

Dan, thank you very much for the cards.  I'll do my best to distribute those Pirates, Cardinals, Reds, and Cubs around the blogosphere and, more to the point, I promise that this weekend your return envelope will be filled!

Thanks for being patient.