The Christmas Haul

As most of you probably read just before Christmas, my in-laws bought a collection for me for Christmas. I've gotten through a lot of it already. I spent a bunch of my time in the week after Christmas pulling cards from sheets, stacking up binders, triaging sheets to determine which ones to keep and which ones are too crumpled, curved, or stained to keep.

So, my home office is a bit of a mess right now. I still have almost 40 binders to go through, but that's much better than the nearly 100 I started with.

Having gotten through 60 or so binders already, though, I've started to accumulate some interesting items. As always, if it isn't either a Milwaukee Brave, a Milwaukee Brewer, or a player collection item, then it's available in trade.

First off, there was a bind of the Upper Deck Hologram MVP set from 1992. It was accompanied by a familiar visage:



Griffey collectors -- I assume that you guys count this as a Griffey item for your collections, right? It's so limited in its release -- just 216,000 of them!  Here's what the cards look like:

I will admit that these hologram sets look far better than I expected in the scan. In the binders, these things just looked like a bunch of cheap mirrors. As a checklist, though, this is a pretty good set -- two Ripkens, Robbie Alomar, Bagwell, Boggs, Bonds, Brett, Clemens, Eckersley, Griffey, Maddux, Molitor, Puckett, Ozzie Smith, Frank Thomas, Sandberg, and Nolan Ryan are all in there. Anyone need one of these other than the Molitor or the Bill Wegman?

Another group of cards in a binder together was the 1992 Score Superstars set. 

Granted, this set isn't exactly rare, but it's not a set that I have run across with any regularity. I suppose it's that the vendors don't bring these cards because they aren't rare and don't sell well, meaning I never see them. If you need something from this set, let me know.

Okay, it's time for comic relief.



I haven't the foggiest idea which cards this "certificate of authenticity" applies to. As you can see, my predecessor in interest in these cards bought his 500 "Rookie/Superstar" cards from Sears & Roebuck in mid-1993.  

I seriously doubt that those same cards have the same minimum catalog value of $100 now.

Basically, these binders are organized in one of two ways. A number of binders are just players, sorted by name. Many others are "factory" sets -- I don't think he used that term correctly -- sorted by team and then alphabetically by player name within each team.

The third type of binder, though, has been my favorite. It contains the smaller sets -- like that Score card above. And, it also contains this one:



Perhaps he paid the $100 to get this card from BTS -- I don't know. No matter, though -- I really like this 1990s "Archives" reprint of the 1953 Topps set. That was the first Topps set to feature players identified as Milwaukee Braves. As with most sets I own, I haven't decided about busting this one up for distribution and trading or whether I'll keep it intact.

Other interesting, random finds:

The previous owner bought and tore up (and apparently loved) those Dover reprint books. I've gotten a ton of pretty cool reprints from these binders, including a recycled portrait:




Man, Hassan tobacco must have been pretty lazy just to recycle the same portrait that Piedmont tobacco used for its cards. Don't they realize that this type of activity will be used as an excuse by card makers for the next century for recycling photos?

Ducky Medwick was always one of my favorite players to read stories about as a kid because, I mean, ducky! And, I loved the story about the 1934 World Series: how Medwick slid hard into third base on a triple, leading Detroit fans to pelt him with garbage. As a result, then-Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis ordered that Medwick and Tigers third-baseman Marv Owen be benched for Game 7 of the World Series. As Medwick's Wikipedia biography mentions, Medwick is the only known player to be thrown out of a game for his own safety.

In addition to tons of those Dover reprints, there are a bunch of these player sets from Front Row. Now, unfortunately, I don't have the Derek Jeter autographed card -- at least that I've found at this point. But, I do have a bunch of these cards. Most of them come in sets of 5 to 8 cards with a certificate of authenticity:



On the left is the Hal Newhouser set serial numbered to 2000 (because one card was autographed) and on the right is the one for Frank Thomas -- 11,028 out of 30,000.

Speaking of the Newhouser autograph...

Front Row was quick to remove the logo from the hat, but they didn't care as much about leaving the name on the uniform.  Here are a few more random players from those sets:



Lots of Hall of Famers...and Dan Melendez...the Dodgers 1992 Second Round Draft pick out of Pepperdine University who never quite overcame injuries and the bias at the time against slick-fielding, lighter-hitting first basemen who hit .260 with a .350 OBP.  

Now, the Kaline, Clemente, Ryan, and Yaz cards are not autographed -- obviously, for Clemente, it was a complete impossibility to have signed the card without time travel being involved. Instead, they have a metallic gold inlay in the card providing a facsimile autograph.

Also, the Leonard and the Dandridge cards have me thinking that I should do a mini-collection of Negro League cards. The problem with that idea is trying to find the cards to create a checklist, I suppose, and the lack of contemporaneous cards to a great extent. So, I am going to hold on to the Leonard and the Dandridge cards to give myself time to think about it.

But, anything else you see here is fair game. Even Dan Melendez or the next card:



Because Todd Steverson actually made it to the major leagues for a grand total of 30 games and 51 plate appearances in 1995 and 1996 (with Detroit and San Diego, respectively). Steverson was the Blue Jays first round pick in 1992 out of Arizona State, and his cousin is former Tiger Ron LeFlore. Steverson played in Mexico in 1997 and eventually managed in the Oakland farm system for a few years as well.

Okay -- a few more cards. First, two "Playball U.S.A. Cards":



Both of these are parts of larger sets, so let me know if you need them.

I was quite pleased to find this next group of sets. It looks to be a fairly complete set of the TCMA "Greatest Teams" cards from 1987, including the 1957 Milwaukee Braves:



Going with the Braves were:



One card from all the different teams right there. I picked Poosh Em Up Tony over Babe Ruth for the 1927 Yankees, and who doesn't love a man named Granny? Also, was that Johnny Evers card using a photo from his playing career or from his dotage? Otherwise, these all appear to be fairly contemporaneous photos from around the time that the team was together.  

So, does anyone need one of these sets?

Finally, let's go to the fun and the random.

The fun:

Because Don Mossi and his ears and ugliness are always fun.

And the random?



Is anyone a Robbie Gordon supercollector who needs this die-cut card?

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you want anything in this post that I'm not keeping.

Trade Bait from the Card Show

As I mentioned Wednesday, I went to a card show a couple of weeks ago two days after Christmas. I hit the jackpot as far as Paul Molitor cards were concerned.  With the smaller show, though, I had a bit more money that I'd budgeted available for me to spend. 

So, before I left the vendor who had those Molitor and Yount binders, I checked out what else he had. In the middle of his table, he had a bunch of random small sets for the low price of just $2 each. There were a ton of minor league team sets -- none of which really caught my eye. The seller and I had a good laugh about how even minor league sets were overproduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s while I flipped through those.

I stopped, though, when I started finding some cards that interested me.  For instance, I knew for a fact that I needed both of the cards below for my player collections:



While the Cooper might show up somewhere in a dime or quarter box -- and maybe I could have waited out life for that to happen fortuitously with the Carter -- I very well might have agreed to pay $2 for these two cards together.  Instead, I got the complete 33 card set for $2. So, if you're looking for that elusive Bill Buckner card, or the George Foster, or the Tony Armas...or, more likely, George Brett, Rod Carew, Johnny Bench, Steve Garvey, Carlton Fisk, Pete Rose, or Mike Schmidt -- well, let me know you want it.  The link above is to the Trading Card Database set listing, so take a look.

Another of the $2 sets was a set that really had nothing for me. It is a ten-card set from Corn Flakes/Kellogg's and Sportflics in 1992. Of course, I am drawn to food issues and oddballs like a moth is drawn to a bright light, so I picked it up.



Bill Madlock is listed on the Dodgers, even though he spent only parts of 3 seasons with them (the end of 1985, all of 1986, and the beginning of 1987) and was never an all-star with the team (he was an all-star once with the Cubs in 1974 and twice with the Pirates in 1981 and 1983). Once again, if you're looking for any of the cards in that set, let me know.

The next bunch of cards up for grabs is hardly a rare set, but it's one I've never had in my hands. 

Here's the checklist for that set from the back of the King's card:

Disappointingly, I received two Bucky Dents and zero Jim Spencers. But the rest were there, including the great photo variation of Hall of Famer Rich Gossage:

Goose looks far less intimidating there -- without the massive fu-manchu mustache and with a smile instead of a snarl on his face. 

Still, if you're interested in some or all of that set, let me know.

The last two $2 sets were insert sets from the late 1990s.

The first one is the "Sandlot Heroes" insert set from the 1999 Pacific Invincible set. The set I got includes both variations for each player, so I have both of the Chippers, the Madduxes, the Ripkens, the Big Hurts, the Jeters, and the Piazzas, to name a few. If you need something from this insert set, let me know.

The second one is visually far more jarring than the first...

At first, I thought this might be Derek Jeter's first appearance here on Off Hiatus, but then I realized that I've posted his cards a few times before through repacks, other trade bait posts and in the 2014 Gint-A-Cuffs.  Still, I have never laid my paws on any of the 1999 Pacific Invincible Seismic Force insert set before this show, and now I have the entire set available for trade -- even if it does look like the same players are in each of these two insert sets.

And Finally

A video highlighting the 15 stupidest lottery winners (by one person's account) is probably appropriate for me as well. 

You see, during most of 2015, I didn't buy any unopened packs. This was a conscious decision for me. I'm not much of a set collector right now -- maybe I will be in the future, but I am not currently as chasing all the Milwaukee Brewers cards and oddballs I don't have is more than enough for me to chase. So, I find my money can be better spent loading up on COMC and Just Commons orders (I made my first order just before Christmas...spent $80 and got over 400 cards in the package...) rather than buying and ripping packs.

But, I wanted a special birthday gift -- something a bit out of my ordinary card sorting.  

So, I bought a hobby box of....

Bowman Draft. I mean, after all, the Brewers are rebuilding, so Bowman sets will be providing me with my hope for the future. The one guy I'm really rooting for is Demi Orimoloye, as I have mentioned before, in that I'd love for the Brewers to have the first African-born major leaguer in the Nigerian-born Orimoloye. I'm not going for an official PC for him until he gets to the majors, but I'm going to try to set myself up to make the PC in the meantime -- trying to get two cards for him from each set and the like.

Now, since it was a hobby box, I've got a ton of those cards available for trade as well. I didn't make much effort to differentiate between refractors and normal chrome cards unless they were colored differently.  Here are the inserts and my one autograph:

For inserts and that "Bowman Initiation" card -- which I think is a case hit -- it felt like every other card was an Andrew Benintendi card. I'd have happily traded the Benintendi Initiation for a Trent Clark Initiation card, but I am guessing that one of the Red Sox fans out there would love a little Woo Pig Sooey in their lives.

Of course, I see Walker Buehler's "Fantasy Impact" card, and think -- man, I wish that the Brewers had picked just ONE of the Vandy Boys so I could have had an excuse to have a minor leaguer PC. Oddly, one of my college roommates has the last name of Buehler and is a Vanderbilt grad as well. He even has his own Wikipedia page for his renown as an "all-time great" in Magic: The Gathering.  So, there's that.

Anyway, let me know if you have interest in any of the cards I've shown or mentioned here that aren't Brewers or Gary Carter. If we've traded before, well, then the cards are yours. If we have not traded before, that's cool too -- the cards are yours and I look forward to trading with you.

Be sure to e-mail me after staking a claim here as well to let me know your e-mail address and your mailing address.  Thanks for reading, and enjoy your weekend.