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 Cards on Cards

Recently, Madding from Cards on Cards sent me a great envelope full of Brewers cards. Through the years, despite my own personal grudge begotten by the heartbreaking loss in the 1982 World Series, nearly 100 players have appeared both for the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals in their careers. 

Indeed, I have three of them as player collections -- Ted Simmons, Cal Eldred, and Bob McClure all donned both the Brewers blues and the Cardinal red. And, that "grudge" I have held is irrational -- after all, without the huge blockbuster trade after the 1980 season between the two clubs, I'm not sure that the Brewers get to that 1982 World Series.

Still, despite all that overlap, the envelope from Madding featured just one Cardinal-turned-Brewer that I scanned in:

Braden Looper began his career in the St. Louis system as the 3rd pick overall in 1996 out of Wichita State -- 5 picks before a Brewers draft flop that I highlighted recently, Chad Green.  He reached the majors quickly when the Cardinals turned him into a reliever in 1998. That offseason, he was traded to the Florida Marlins with Armando Almanza and Pablo Ozuna in exchange for Edgar Renteria. 

He was the closer for the Fish in 2003 when they won their second World Series title. Then, the Mets signed him for two seasons before he returned to the Cardinals in 2006. After a season in middle relief, the Cardinals turned him into a starter for two years before, finally, at the age of 34, he signed with Milwaukee and served as their nominal top of the rotation pitcher on an absolutely horrendous starting staff supported by a great offense (a TEAM FIP of 4.84 for a team that finished 80-82). His last appearance in the majors was on October 2 for Milwaukee, picking up the win in St. Louis.

Other than Looper, the great thing about the cards that Madding sent my way is that I needed nearly all of them. I guess those Want Lists help! 

But, then again, who needs a wantlist when you get a complete team set of 1990 Panini stickers?

That's almost as much sticky goodness from Italy as you'll get at your local gelato shop.

Madding also sent me quite a few Brewers from many of the Heritage sets that I missed out on or haven't seen in the wild myself.

It would have helped all of us collectors if Topps hadn't decided to put out the Heritage sets on a basis that puts the card as having the design from thirty-nine years before. Why not an even forty? 

I can't answer that question. My incredibly limited understanding of copyright law doesn't get me to an answer -- perhaps they simply realized that they needed to reuse their own designs from yesteryear in a way to make sure that their competitors (remember competition?) couldn't use them. Maybe. 

Finally, Madding sent me some nice new stuff too -- refractors and inserts and parallels for PCs!

All of these cards were needed for my player collections.

Madding, thank you very much as always for the great cards. Now, have the Cardinals trade the Brewers a couple of minor league pitchers for Aramis Ramirez and Adam Lind!

Mini Box Break with Cards on Cards

In my final catch up post from packages received in 2014 or near the very beginning of 2015, we have the results of a 2015 Topps Mini box break that Madding from Cards on Cards. I didn't get anything outside base card from the Minis, though I needed a lot of those for either the team collection or player collections. Here are those:

Yeah, as cool as it was to fill in some gaps, these cards scanned in really don't inspire tons of excitement because, after all, they are just another Topps base set parallel. And, I think all of us are ready for the white-bordered sets of the past several years -- as in, what, the last 6 sets? -- to exit stage left and make room for something a bit more inventive.

With my box break not yielding anything noteworthy, Madding was kind enough to throw in some additional cards, all of which were cards again that I needed either for player collections or the Brewers team collection:

Madding, thanks for these cards that you added in to the mini cards, and thanks for running the box break!