It's Embarrassing

I'm pretty organized... until I'm not.  There's a special place in my office where I put things like side projects, eBay and flea market purchases, and other random items like blogger care packages get added into the stack.

Over Spring Break, I started tackling some of the packages.  There were a couple of boxes from John over at Johnny's Trading Spot and Woody over at Sports Card Forum.  I sorted those cards, but they still need to be scanned and documented.

Last week, Reader X commented on a post that reminded me that he sent me a box back in January that I've been sitting on for far too long.  Well I opened it up and was blown away.  Like John and Woody's cards, they've been sorted... but not scanned.

Stuff is piling up, so I'm making their packages... along with padded envelopes from Dennis @ Too Many Verlanders, Bob over at The Best Bubble, PWEs from Jeremy at Topps Cards that Never Were and Adam at Thoughts and Sox, Ryan's advent calendar, and three new packages I received from Rod at Padrographs a priority on this blog.

I would take a photo of this stack I've built, but honestly it's embarrassing.  The fact that I have stuff dating back to last year that still needs to be documented is embarrassing.  It's time to sit down and hammer out some thank you posts.

I'm gonna kick things off with a twenty-seven year old item that I never knew existed.  But before I get to it, let's start with a cardboard appetizer:

1996 Zenith Mozaics #20

This mid 90's insert featuring dufex technology and my top two favorite baseball players of all-time were inserted at a rate of 1:10 packs.

The third player featured is Wally Joyner who spent four seasons with the Padres from 1996 to 1999.  He was their starting first baseman all four seasons, but I'm a little surprised that Pinnacle chose him over Ken Caminiti who won the 1996 NL MVP Award.

Okay.  Time to show off the main course:

1999 Salvino's Baby Bammers

Now I'm familiar with Salvino's version of a Beanie Baby.  But until I saw this staring at me from the bottom of Reader X's care package... I had never seen one packaged like this.

Every Bammer I had ever seen prior to this was sold individually and free from a carded back.  I love it!  It's items like this that I'd never buy... but I'll proudly display.  Unfortunately I don't really have any wall space in my office.  That means... I'll be taking this into my classroom and hanging it up there.

Can't wait to see how long it takes for one of my students or colleagues to see it and comment.  When they do, I'll say I'm proud to have a teddy bear version of my favorite baseball player and some guy named Wally.

Thank you Xavier!  Sorry it took me four months to open up your care package.  Hopefully it only takes me a few weeks to hammer out the highlights from the rest of your box.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #188: A Classic Set & A Fidrych Food Issue

Spring Break has come and gone.  I already wrote about my road trip.  Now it's time to recap my trip to the De Anza Flea Market that took place two days earlier.

The flea market itself was a little less crowded than usual.  I'm guessing some people were traveling or spending time with their families over Easter weekend.  Luckily there were still plenty of vendors with collectibles.

Here's my haul...

Purchase #1:  Bin of Star Wars  $30

1977 Topps Star Wars

I've documented the significance of this set to my hobby history on numerous occasions.  I've also mentioned that I own a complete set with stickers.  Normally I wouldn't waste my time grabbing a box of duplicates, but sentimentality trumped frugality.

Haven't had time to decide if I'll start a second set build, but even if I do... there are plenty of duplicates to help others who are trying to complete this set.

Purchase #2:  Piece of Art  $5

2008 Rittenhouse Batman Archives Sketch Card #NNO

Not sure if this is Catwoman or Batgirl, but for five bucks I don't care.

I found this card a few vendors down from the couple with the Star Wars cards.  A gentleman was selling two 3,500ct. boxes worth of cards.  He had some pretty cool stuff like Barry Bonds and Buster Posey rookie cards, but his prices seemed a little high.  On the other hand, his asking price for this piece of original art was more than fair.

Purchase #3:  Odball Birdie  $1

1977 Hostess #46

The vendor had a binder of 80's and Junk Wax Era singles that I flipped through quickly.

Towards the middle was this random Hostess card of Mark Fidrych.  I was very surprised to find this card staring back at me.  He said I could have the whole binder for $20, but I was really only interested in this card.  I think we both walked away happy with the dollar sale.

Purchase #4:  Dollar Box Magazine  $1

Mad Magazine March 1959

Found another new vendor.  This guy had a magazine box filled with dollar vintage magazines from the 50's, 60's, and 70's.  There were probably fifteen to twenty different Mad Magazine issues sitting in the box, but this was the only one that really caught my eye.  It's pretty beat up, but it's also sixty-seven years old.

Purchase #5a:  A Classic Board Game  $30

Before I show off my favorite purchase of the day, I want to explain some details behind the purchase.  Some of you might remember a lady who was selling off her deceased husband's collection.  Last summer she sold me a 1990 Leaf Series 1 set and some San Francisco 49er oddball issues.  I have also purchased some cheap sets and an unopened box of 1989 Bowman from her on separate occasions.

Anyways, she was back and she brought her sons.  There were a few items I was interested on their table, so I gathered them up and worked out a package deal (so ignore the price tags).

Here's the main thing I wanted:

1987 Classic Baseball Board Game

When these board games were originally released, I was too busy opening boxes of 1987 Topps Baseball purchased from Costco.  I could buy three of them for the price of one of these board games:

Unfortunately, I completely missed the boat on ever owning the iconic Bo Jackson card featuring him wearing his Auburn football gear while holding a baseball bat.  By the time I realized how cool and popular this card was, card shops were jacking up the prices for the single and toy stores had sold out of the actual board games.

Well after almost four decades, I'm happy to finally add this board game to my collection.  It's still sealed with the original Toys R Us price tag, so I'm not going to open it up.  That means I'll still be hunting down a set of these cards.

Purchase #5b:  An 80's Box Set  $8

1988 Score Rookie & Traded Set

Plenty of us collected during the Junk Wax Era, so we remember when this set was a pretty hot commodity.

It's cooled off over the years, but it still contains some cool rookie cards.

I already have graded copies of three of the key rookie cards, so I'll just keep this set housed in the factory box.

Purchase #5c:  A Stained Set  $2

1986 McDonald's All Star Team Set

I added this set to the stack for pure nostalgic reasons.  Back in 1986, I remember going to McDonalds with my friends and receiving an Oakland Raiders or San Francisco 49ers card with each purchase.  The idea that I could get a complete set of 30 cards for less than the price of a Happy Meal was too hard to pass up.

Unfortunately this set seems to have been sitting in a box with some french fries, because they feature some staining.  Phil Simms took the brunt of the oil, but if you look closely to at the backs of the Montana and Payton, you can see some discoloration along the bottom edge:

I had offered the sons $35 for the three sets, but they countered with $40.  That seemed fair.

As I was about to leave, I was looking at some knick-knacks on one of the brother's tables.  It started a conversation that eventually led to one more purchase.

Purchase #6:  Atari Stickers  $5

1982 Atari Lenticular Discs

The gentleman who sold these to me had no idea what these are or where they came from, but that didn't matter to me.

I grew up playing Pac-Man and Defender on my Atari 2600 and was immediately interested in them.


Purchase #7:  Another Damaged Set?  $20

1998 Champions of Golf The Masters Collection Factory Set

Much like the 1988 Score Rookies & Traded set, there was a time when this set was pretty popular.  I have always wanted one of the Tiger Woods cards found in this factory set.  Unfortunately this set has a history of bricking and sliding around in the box, so I'm not sure if I'll be opening it up anytime soon.

Well that wraps up another trip to the flea market.  There's another one coming up this Saturday.  Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates and I'll have the opportunity to walk around, get some fresh air, and walk away with a few new finds for the collection.

Until then...

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

I'm a TRU Kid

When I was a kid back in the 70's and 80's... Toys R Us was the greatest retail store in (my) existence.  I only got the opportunity to go there a few times a year on special occasions like finding a birthday present for a friend.  But when it happened, it was like thirty minutes of pure happiness.  Action figures, video games, and model kits were my favorite sections, but I'd make sure to spend time in the Lego, board game, and bicycle areas as well.

By the late 80's and early 90's, they also became a source of sports cards.  They collaborated with Topps to produce their popular Baseball Rookies boxed set from 1987 to 1991.

1993 Topps Toys R Us Factory Set

Then in 1993, they teamed up with Topps again and produced a special Stadium Club set featuring young baseball stars from the era.  That year I had walked away from the hobby to focus on college, so I had zero interest in purchasing this set at the time.

However fast forward thirty-three years and I found myself purchasing this set at the De Anza Flea Market for five bucks.  The key to this purchase was the set of 5x7 Master Photos that was included in the box:

1993 Topps Toys R US Master Set #NNO

Scan of Card Back

1993 Topps Toys R US Master Set #NNO

I feel like these twelve oversized cards are worth the five bucks alone.  But Toys R Us also included a 100 card box set as a bonus.  Here's a peek at some of the bigger names from that set:

In an era where blaster boxes containing seventy-two cards will set you back $25 at Target, I feel like boxed sets from the 90's like this one are a better bargain.  But that's just my two cents.

Don't worry... I'm not hating on current sets.  Heck I'm building a bunch of Topps sets from the past few years.

One of them is the 2023 Topps flagship baseball set.  John over at Johnny's Trading Spot recently sent me over 200 cards for my set build:

I originally scanned a few nine-pocket pages with highlights, but I've misplaced them or accidentally deleted them.  Anyways... this huge lot left me with only needing ten cards (which I'll just grab off of Sportlots) to complete the Series 1, 2, and Update sets.

Thank you John!

Greg over at Night Owl Cards also sent me some set help:

These four cards completed my 2025 Topps Holiday base set:

Greg also passed along some A's and Padres cards that John had originally intended for me:

I'm guessing they were originally intended for the huge care package that John sent me a few months ago that included the above 2023 Topps cards.  I'm still in the process of sorting it, but as soon as I'm finished I'll be showing off some of the goodies from that box.

Thank you Greg and John for helping me out with these set builds!  And thank you to all of you who took the time to read this post.

Today's question of the day:

Were you a Toys R Us kid?

Do you have any fond memories of shopping there when you were a kid?

If so, please share them down in the comment section below.  I promise to read and respond to all of them.

Until then...

Happy Sunday and sayonara!