Memorabilia Monday: Photo Bombing

This week's edition of Memorabilia Monday features items that I received back in about 1987 or so.  I was at the height of my autograph-chasing days, and I had no fear in terms of sending cards -- even "expensive" cards -- through the mail to a player to try to get him to sign the cards.  I don't recall losing too many cards, to be honest, but there were a few times where the cards were returned unsigned.

In at least a couple of those instances in which the player did not sign the cards, either the player or his team (most likely some poor intern in the front office) was kind enough to package the cards up with a larger photo or postcard to at least have made my attempt at getting a signature pay off somewhat.

What you see below is what I got back.

This Eddie Murray is one of the team-issued postcards from the mid-1980s.  It was disappointing that Murray did not sign any of the cards that I sent, and it was similarly disappointing that the signature here is, at best, an autopen signing.

Kurt Bevacqua was the other side of the coin from Murray's disappointment.  Not only did he sign every single card I sent to him -- including one duplicate, I believe -- he even threw in an extra team-issued blank back 3x5 photo that he signed.  Gotta love the red sharpie too!

More disappointment from another future Hall of Famer.  Certainly, at his peak as a player, Ryno must have received far more mail than he could have ever hoped to sign and return. Getting back only an off-center team-issued blank backed photo with a stamped signature on it was very disappointing.  Perhaps this is the reason I never became a big Ryne Sandberg collector.

Another Hall of Famer, another stamped postcard.  This postcard is sort of cool for being one of those "he played for them? Really?" type photos, because no one really remembers Pete Rose as an Expo.  But, getting this postcard back after I somehow procured enough Canadian postage to get the cards I had sent to him back into the US was pretty annoying.  I never liked Pete Rose after this.

This one actually is from May of 2011.  I can date it exactly for a couple of reasons.  First, Mr. Lea passed away suddenly of a heart attack in December of 2011.  Second, his son -- whom I know through my job -- was kind enough to have his dad send me this photo card and a 1981 Topps card autographed to me...just because his son knew I really liked the old 1981 Topps card of Mr. Lea with the huge cheek full of tobacco. Mr. Lea had to be very proud of his son, because his son ended up as a law clerk for a United States Supreme Court Justice.

 
Another man who left this world way too early was the great Gary Carter.  Mr. Carter sent this postcard to me in 1985 -- probably in response to about my third or fourth envelope of stuff for him to sign.  At that time, he had stopped signing cards for free and asked for a donation for a cancer charity in honor of his sister (I believe).  I didn't have the cash to send him at age 14, but I did send him a letter expressing my condolences to him.  He sent me this postcard in response.  The world misses guys like Carter and Lea.

Then, there is the highlight of them all.  I couldn't swear an oath that this is a real Nolan Ryan autograph, but it does compare favorably to ones I have seen online.  He didn't sign any of my cards, but it does look like he was kind enough to sign a ton of photos for the Astros so they could respond to his fan mail with something nice.  If you did sign this, Mr. Ryan, I thank you.

Tales from the Repack, Part II

So, what else could these $4 packages of gold provide?  I mean, I got plenty of Hall of Famers, so what more could I ask for?

Well, each of these new repacks also came with Topps Chrome Orange on the front.  So, here are the 5 Orange Chrome cards I got:

A couple of Braves (though I wish Beachy didn't have to visit the Tommy-John doctor again) and some other very nice Chrome Oranges.  It's fun seeing these on the front of the repacks, because these cards still have a good audience looking for them.

Then, there was the random vintage cards.  I had a pretty decent number of 1976 Topps again.

And, for my tastes, what's better than two vintage Brewers?  I mean, I can only have dreams about having sideburns as cool as Pedro Garcia has in this photo.  Then, to get a Rico Petrocelli card?  I mean, Rico left the game early --- at age 33 -- but he was the prototype for the good hitting shortstop.  He hit 40 homers in 1969 (and only drove in 97 runs!) and was an all-star twice in his career.  He isn't a Hall of Famer, but he was a star in his day.  A great card to grab.

Finally, let's close with random fun cards that are the type that make card collecting fun.

My wife wants to frame this next to the JFK card.

A golden shower...

I have five of these.  Each repack had one.

Randomly inserted -- not in one of the packs.  Hmmm...

Yes, repacks are now carrying some of the inserts in them.  This one is humorous.
Dan Uggla would some day like to learn to hit 1/2 as well as Ryne Sandberg.

Weird.  Just weird.

Again, another repack loose card thrown in with the 1989 Topps.  

One of the worst colored cards I have ever seen.  Never, ever use purple/violet/mauve
for a card design.  It is horribly ugly.

That's the end of the repack fun for this week.  I know I will buy more. 

Repack Gold, Part 1

I envy people who catalog every pack as they open them.  Their level of organization is far beyond what I can muster.  Frankly, their level of patience is more than I can muster.  I like -- no, I need -- to open all the packs that I've bought, sort through them, see what I have, and pick out my favorites.  With this blog, I add the step of scanning in a bunch of cards from what I've opened to show off and write about.

By the time I get through step two of sorting, I've completely forgotten what cards came in which pack. And, I don't like organization so much that I have to put everything into spreadsheets.  At least not yet.  Perhaps that time will come, but I'm still sorting through all the cards (probably around 50,000 or so) that I had as a kid in the 1980s.

Anyway, that's a long introduction to the first of two posts to share what gold the $4 repacks held yesterday. There were some fantastic cards.  In fact, this entire post includes only Hall of Fame members (sorry, Mr. Clemens and Mr. Bonds! HA!).  These weren't the only HoF members I got -- just the ones I liked best.

First, two 1980 Topps cards that, while a little off center, have incredibly sharp corners (in particular for being repacks):

The Stargell is in such good shape with good, sharp corners that I actually commented out loud on it while sitting by myself in my basement/card room.  Both cards are ones I had as a kid, but these two are in much better shape than anything I had from 34 years ago myself.

Topps UK Minis are fairly common in the Fairfield repacks -- I always get some, and sometimes I even get a Mini Tiffany (like the Dion James one I passed along to the Chop Keeper in Idaho).  These five had two or three Nolan Ryans, three or four of Ryno trying to grow a mustache to look older, 5 Dale Murphys, 3 or 4 Wade Boggs, and 3 or 4 Roger Clemens, among others.

If you've read my nascent 1982 Topps Blog, you'll have heard the story about how much of a conspiracy freak Steve Carlton is these days (or at least was 15 years ago).  This is his 1987 Topps Traded set card, straight from the repack.

Cards from the late 1980s usually comprise at least 60% of the repack loose cards.  Fun oddballs like that Cap'n Crunch Robin Yount show up pretty regularly, though not with enough consistency to try to put the set together solely from the repacks.  Well, okay, you could do it, but you'll end up with a LOT of 1989 Topps commons to show for your efforts.

That said, this nice 1988 Fleer of Cal Ripken, Jr. just struck me as an attractive card of the Orioles Hall of Famer.  I have this set in a Gary Carter box, but I don't have many 1988 Fleer outside of that.

Finally, Mr. Barry Larkin.  This past week, I was talking by e-mail with a guy I met at the last card show I went to about a month ago, Von.  We have been discussing some trading, and I mentioned my lack of 1994 through 2007 Brewers (which, thanks to all of you has been filling up some lately!).  One of the things he said was, "It's strange but you don't see too many cards from that timeframe in the repacks."

Perhaps that avalanche is about to be unleashed.  This 1996 Topps Barry Larkin might have been the only 1996 Topps in the group, but there were also a few cards from a number of those 1994-2007 sets.  The tide might be turning, Von!

The Last of the eBay Splurge

The last of my major eBay splurge from earlier this month all arrived within the past week or so.  I am happy with all of the purchases, though obviously I would have preferred to spend less money than I did, but things like that happen sometimes.

So, what do I have to show tonight?

First off, I found at a reasonable price a mug that I should have just stolen from one of the many break rooms in the offices and factories I worked in as a teenager and college student:

This coffee mug was one of a nearly yearly giveaway from Maxwell House Coffee of a Brewer coffee mug. As with many of these useful-type giveaways, most of them end up actually being used for their intended purpose -- here, drinking coffee, obviously -- rather than on a shelf somewhere.  This one looks pristine and did not cost more than about $6 or $7 with shipping.  It's a nice oddball add to my Yount collection.

Then, I hit a milestone.  I bought my first 1 of 1 Robin Yount card.  It's one of those Topps Vault money grabs, to be sure -- one of the blank backs -- but it is a gorgeous card nonetheless.  It's the Topps Tribute blank back:

This is the item over all others that I really liked but which I really had hoped to pay far less.  But, on the plus side, I paid less than $75 for a unique Robin Yount card with a hologram authentication and everything.  It's better than paying $390 for a signed sticker with a piece of cloth and a piece of wood embedded in the card, in my opinion -- based almost entirely on price alone.

On the other hand and in the vein of my Mat Latos 1/1 Turkey Red blank back, I saw another Topps Tribute blank back that I was shocked to see lagging well below $20.  Once again, I just knew that this card should go for far more than that.  Once again, it did not.  As a result, I am now the proud owner of a Topps Tribute 1/1 Blank Back of none other than the Ryno -- Ryne Sandberg:

Since Sandberg spent most/all of the time that I really got to watch the Brewers in the National League, I never felt any problem with cheering for him and for the Cubs.  So, I always liked Sandberg.  I have never actively collected his cards, but I liked him as a player.  It reminds me of a story.

I had an aunt that lived in Chicago until about 1992 (she passed away just before Christmas, and her funeral was on my birthday...ugh), and she was a huge sports fan -- and, in particular, she was a huge Cubs and Bears fan.  She loved those Cubbies in 1984 in particular, and even bought my mom and I tickets to go to the Cubs "baseball card" day in August of that year.  It was my first trip to Wrigley -- and it would be my only trip there until 2007 -- and the Cubs finished off a four-games-in-three-days sweep of a key series against their NL East rival New York Mets.  I know it was the game in the box score because I recall vividly that Walt Terrell was pitching for the Mets.  Sandberg stole a base in that game, drove in a run, and generally made things happen.

I'll never forget that day, but not for Sandberg.