It Takes a Village

Twelve years ago, I purchased two wax boxes of 1986 Donruss baseball for $50.  It was a birthday gift to myself with the hopes of pulling the iconic Jose Canseco rookie card.  That didn't happen, but it did start a set build that continues to this day.

Recently Bo over at Baseball Cards Come to Life! helped me get two steps closer to completing this set:

1986 Donruss #601

I primarily remember Joe from his time with the Houston Astros, but I knew he was a Yankee too.  Sadly he passed away nineteen years ago at the age of sixty-one.  

1986 Donruss #638

Meacham's career was much shorter than Niekro's, but luckily he played during the first half of the Junk Wax Era.  In other words, he was featured on plenty of cards during his six years in the MLB.  That's why I definitely remember his time with the Yankees even though he was only an average fielder and a career .236 hitter.  The power of cardboard and childhood memories is legit.

With these two cards added to the set, I'm now only twenty-five cards away from completing the six hundred sixty card set.

Bo also sent me this 2011 Topps Update card of Cody Eppley:

2011 Topps Update #US97

If you asked me about this guy two months ago, I'd have no idea who he was.  But thanks to him being one of the final cards needed for this set build, he's become a familiar name.

The other card I needed was one of the Brandon Crawford cards in the set, but that arrived last week in a Sportlots order.  Here's a look at the completed set:

Thank you to the following bloggers for helping me complete this set:

Bo @ Baseball Cards Come to Life!

Chris @ The Collector

Greg @ The Collective Mind

AJ @ The Lost Collector

and retired blogger, Tom @ Angels in Order.

I appreciate all of your help with this set.  It feels great to cross this one off.  Honestly... I'm kinda on a roll.  I've got another Sportlots order on the way and a scheduled COMC shipment.  Both contain cards for another set that bloggers have helped me with this year.  I guess the old saying is correct.  It takes a village.

Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be receiving the cards from COMC until November, but as soon as it does I'll let you all know.

Don't worry about me not having enough content to write about.  There are three large care packages waiting to be opened... including two from John over at Johnny's Trading Spot.  Plus I made a huge purchase this weekend at the Branham Flea Market.  It helped cross off six sets I needed from the 80's, so stay tuned for those posts.

Until then...

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #181: Dime Box Cards

This year has been one of the best in regards to flea market finds, but after two poor outings in a row... I'm starting to think the hot streak is over.

Two weeks ago, I walked around the De Anza Flea Market and didn't purchase a single item.  A friend of mine made a big purchase involving hundreds of packs and as a consolation prize tossed me one.  I'll share its contents in a future post, because I'm too lazy to run out to my car.

Two weeks before that, I walked around the Branham Flea Market and had it not been for a guy with a dime box, I would have walked away with nothing again.

Although all of these items were purchased at the same time, it's easier to split them up into two categories...

Purchase #1a:  The Oversized Stuff  $3

They're a pain in the butt to store, but I will happily purchase any box topper I come across if the price is right.  Ten cents works for me.

Here are a few of my favorites:

2020 Topps Holiday Ornament #WHO-MB

Some of you might remember my metal Christmas tree.  Well I've slowly been accumulating some of the Topps Ornament box toppers from the past five years.  Just need a few more to decorate an updated version of it. 

2021 Heritage Box Topper #OB-VG

In the midst of preparing this post, Vladito was having a monster series against the New York Yankees.  Unfortunately he hasn't found the same success against Seattle's pitchers.

2011 Topps Lineage 1964 Topps Giants Box Topper #TG9

The 1964 Topps Giants is one of my favorite vintage oddball sets.  I'm a huge fan of the simple design and was very lucky to add the full sixty card set to my collection a few years ago.  I'm not building this box topper set, but I'll happily add affordable singles when I stumble across them. 

2013 Panini Golden Age Exhibit Box Topper #25

This is probably the least interesting card for the majority of you, but it's my favorite from the bunch.  I can't tell you much about Mr. Johnson that you can't look up on Wikipedia... but this card makes me think of my father who was a huge boxing fan in his youth.

Okay, let's check out the rest of the dime box purchases...

Purchase #1b:  The Standard Stuff  $7

Here's a heads up... there wasn't a lot of baseball in this guy's dime box and the stuff he did have I wasn't interested in.  That being said, there were a bunch of other sports represented and some non-sports too.

I was a pretty diehard San Jose Sharks fan for their first thirty seasons, but I haven't really followed them, the sport, or hockey card industry in several years.  I'll still buy some Sharks, hockey autographs, and 90's inserts from time to time.  But if they started skating in the past ten years, I have no idea who they are.  That being said, I know that the Upper Deck Young Guns are popular among hockey card collectors.  At 10¢ each, I figured I'd grab every copy this guy had.

The same 10¢ rule applies to any shiny Pokemon cards I come across.  The hidden treasure in the box is political trading card of Mark Takano.  Never seen these before, but it's an interesting addition to my Japanese Pc.

There were a bunch of these Disney cards in the guy's dime box.  I picked up a bunch for one of my co-workers who is a huge Disney fan.  However I held onto a few including the Beagle Boys and Goofy cards above.

I was also happy to find a bunch of new Jon Jones cards for my collection:

I don't consider myself a huge MMA fan, but I did enjoy following Jones in the UFC Octagon.

Here are a few more singles I found in the dime box.  Honestly there wasn't anything too mind blowing in this guy's box... but I had fun flipping through it.  Hopefully he'll be out there again this Saturday.  If not... I'm hoping to find at least something card related to purchase out there.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Memoirs of a Hoarder: Catching Gators

Some athlete's deaths hit harder than others.  When I read about Mike Greenwell passing away on Thursday, it took me back to the late 80's.  There was a brief period in my life when I was opening boxes upon boxes of baseball cards purchased at my local Costco/Price Club.

1987 Topps #259

I was obsessed with mimicking the shops advertising in card magazines and building player lots of rising stars.  One of those guys was Mr. Greenwell.  As long as I can remember, I've had a deep appreciation for guys who hit for average and that's exactly what he did.

The days of hoarding his cardboard ended when I sold off my collection in the early 2000's, but I have a copy of his Topps rookie card sitting in my set.  I also found this card sitting in a box of cards labeled "cheap, cool cards":

1991 Fleer Pro-Vision #8

This single is on the blogosphere's hot list.  Just saw it pop up over at Diamond Jesters in his Greenwell tribute post.

But my favorite card of his is this on-card autograph I purchased back in 2013 when I was putting together the set:

2013 Topps Archives Fan Favorites Autograph #FFA-MG

Rest in peace Gator.  Although the bulk of your cards that once resided in my collection have moved on to other collectors or landfills, I still treasure these three cards.  They'll always remind me of that special period on my hobby timeline.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

A few weeks ago, I received a care package from Adam over at Thoughts & 🧦.  Like Matt over at Diamond Jesters, he's a fan of the Boston Red Sox.  I figured since I was honoring Greenwell, I I'd also use this post to thank one of Greenwell's fans.

Adam sent me a variety of cards, but I'm going to stick to the unique items in his care package.  Let's start with some Oakland A's and San Diego Padres cards from the 2000 APBA MLB game:

I feel like I've seen these floating around at card shows or flea markets, but I'm not sure if any have actually landed into my collection.

I definitely needed this card for my Gwynn PC:

2000 APBA MLB #NNO

Here are a pair of 70's Oakland Athletics buybacks:

1977 Topps #261

Phil Garner kicked off his career in Oakland, but I remember him more for his time in Pittsburgh and Houston.  That being said, I absolutely love adding 70's and 80's Oakland A's buybacks to my collection.

1979 Topps #224

I'm definitely familiar with Dave Revering.  His mid-season trade to the New York Yankees in 1981 led to him have a very rare card in the 1981 Granny Goose set.

Moving along, here are a pair of cards for a set I'm building:

2018 Sport Kings #14

2018 Sport Kings #17

Adam actually sent me a fairly fat stack of Sport Kings singles ranging for the 2018 to 2022 sets, but these were the two I was most excited about.

Technically, I only need one more card... but Sport Kings created variations for Cobb and Payton.  The good news is neither of these cards are rare.  It's just about being patient.

He also sent me a stack of Japanese baseball players:

You're looking at almost the entire 2006 Upper Deck World Future Stars Japan team set.  I'm pretty sure I have the Dice-K which is the only card missing from the scan.  It's also nice to add three Japanese pitchers who played on playoff teams this season.  Although Yoshinobu's team is the only one still around.

Let's move along to a galaxy far, far away:

2024 Topps Chrome Star Wars Refractor #4

Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the most interesting characters in the Star Wars Universe.  Adam included a few of these refractors, but this one was my favorite.

I was also surprised and excited to see this slide out of the padded envelope:

2022 Topps Chrome Black Star Wars Autographs #AB-MBJ

Based on my memory, Ranzar Malk only appeared in one episode of The Mandalorian.  However I am very familiar with the actor who portrayed him.  Mark Boone Jr. played a major role in Sons of Anarchy, which is a top 20 television show for me.  I've also seen him in Momento, Batman Begins, and The Last Man on Earth.

I'll wrap things up with the final three hits from the care package:

2002 Donruss Studio Private Signings #143

I wasn't familiar with Mr. Pena and his tenure in Oakland.  According to his Baseball Reference page, he never pitched for them.  I've added him to the Men of Mystery section in my Oakland A's PC.

2008 SPx Rookie Signatures Silver #131

On the other hand, I'm very familiar with Mr. Blevins.  He played seven seasons in Oakland and was a key piece of their bullpen in the late aught's and early 2010's. 

1994 Signature Rookies Tetrad Autographs #XCII

I just commented on Johnny's post about my history with Signature Rookies back in the 90's.  There's a good chance I pulled a copy of this card at some point back then.  If I did, I would have recognized this name because Adam Hyzdu was with the San Francisco Giants organization and briefly played in San Jose.  Although I haven't dove into collecting every single athlete born in San Jose, if I do this card will be part of it.

Thank you Adam for sending me this very generous care package.  I don't have a ton of Red Sox or Virdon cards, but I will try to dig up some stuff for your collection.

Quality Customs (& Customer Service)

A few weeks ago, Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown showed off some cards he purchased from a fellow custom card creator and retired blogger:  Mark @ Stats on the Back.

The stuff he showed off was super impressive, so I visited Mark's online store and added a bunch of items to my cart.  Gavin had mentioned that he used a promotional code and received free shipping, but when I tried it... it didn't work.

No biggie.  When you want something bad enough, you're willing to pay for shipping.

The first item I added to my cart was this set of Beastie Boys cards:

When it comes to any Beastie Boys trading cards, I'm typically willing to open up my wallet as long as the item is reasonably priced.  This was definitely the big ticket item in my order, so $8 for this trio of customs was a no-brainer.

The rest of my order were singles picked out of his awesome dollar bins:

He has dollar bins for decades running from the 50's through the 80's, along with a special section of current stars.

I was very excited to see his interpretation of my all-time favorite baseball card:

I also picked up a few other cards for one of my friends and another card for myself that I'll share over the holidays.

But before I close out this post, I want to show off some generous bonus items that Mark included in the order.

First off, he included these two awesome cards:

One of my favorite cards in the 2009 Goodwin Champions set is the Ichiro Suzuki card.  The card on the left is Mark's version of this card.  The other card is so iconic... it needs no explanation.

If these two freebies weren't enough, he also refunded me the seven dollars I paid for shipping.  This was a surprise and a very kind gesture.  It's customer service like this that makes me want to head back over and place another order.

If you're interested in supporting Mark and purchasing some of his custom cards, click here.  I'm not sure if there's an expiration date, but if you spend $10 or more, feel free to try and use his FREE10 code to receive free shipping.

Well that wraps up today's post.  I just received my COMC order, another custom card purchase, and a pair of blogger care packages, so I've got lots of material for future posts.  Now I just need a little more free time.

Until then...

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!