Boatload of Blasters

Back in August, I opened up two blasters of Allen & Ginter and pretty much had my fill of the product.  But that's the thing about addiction.  There's temptation hiding behind every corner.  This time temptation took the form of a bargain too good to pass up.

Two weekends ago, Target had 2018 Allen & Ginter blasters on sale for $12.49 each and I happened to be sitting on a 20% off coupon.  If that weren't enough... Target Redcard holders get an additional 5% off every order.

I ended up grabbing six blasters.  The damage after factoring in taxes was $62.22 delivered.

The bargain hunter in me knows that even at that price, I can add a really nice autograph or vintage hall of famer to my collection.  But the collector addicted to busting packs convinced me this was too good of a deal to pass up.  The question is whether or not I made the right decision.

Well... it's no surprise that I didn't pull $62.22 worth of cards.  I knew that going into this purchase.  The four stacks at the top of the photo are the base cards sorted by hundreds.  Haven't decided if I'm going to build the set or not.  At the bottom are the minis and the inserts.  I was happy to see at least 5, maybe even 10 cards that will eventually be entered into my Player PC Binders.

My favorite was this mini of Roberto Clemente:

In addition to the inserts and minis, I also pulled three decent rookie cards:

Unfortunately... I didn't pull a single Ohtani out of the 48 packs.  No Andujars either.

On the flipside... I did manage to pull this nice Paul Goldschmidt framed autograph:

After factoring in this autograph and the entertainment value, it makes things a little less painful.  And as crazy as this sounds... waking up on a Sunday morning knowing full well that there are a boatload of blasters waiting for you to tear into was practically worth the purchase price alone.  It brought back childhood memories of waking up early on Christmas morning.

Well that's it for today.  In addition to these six blasters, I also purchased a few 2018 Sportkings blasters that I'll open up eventually.  Plus I have a bunch of Black Friday boxes that are still sitting in my office as well, so stay tuned.

Until then...

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

A Productive Saturday Morning

Today is the third Saturday of the month, which means that people are setting up at the Branham High School Flea Market.  A quick peek at my schedule reveals that this was probably my last chance to hit up a flea market in 2018.

Unfortunately life had other plans and I wasn't able to go.  But that's okay, because this morning I woke up at the crack of dawn and started building care packages for fellow bloggers.  After a few hours of organizing my recent COMC haul and digging through various boxes in my office, I was able to cross off everyone on my Hit List except for Brady over at St. Louis Cardinals' Cardboard.  Here's a peek at the packages before I headed to the post office:

Here's a list of bloggers I shipped packages to:  Chris @ The Collector, Ryan @ Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko,  John @ Johnny's Trading Spot, Tom @ Waiting 'til Next Year, Greg @ Night Owl Cards, Woody @ CCW, Gavin @ Baseball Card Breakdown, Bru @ Remember the Astrodome, Jim @ Cards As I See Them, Julie @ A Cracked Bat, SCC @ Sport Card Collectors, Steve @ 1975 Baseball Cards, plus one more for the blogger I drew for this year's Secret Santa exchange.

Brady... I have a package for you, but I'll hand deliver it to you in January at the Serramonte Mall Show.

The rest of you... hopefully all of these packages arrive in time for Christmas.  In the meantime, check out these three custom cards created by Jeremy over at Topps Cards That Never Were:

As you might expect, these are all cards that Topps could have created, but chose not to.  But that's okay, because Jeremy took care of it.

Hey Jeremy... one of the fourteen packages in the picture above belongs to you as well.  Happy holidays and thank you for these awesome customs!

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

A Quick Twenty-three Minute Break

It's the most wonderful time of the year.  Yeah.  Not really.  My students are turning in projects today and tomorrow, which means that I'll be up to my neck in scrapbooks for the next few days.

But let's keep it real.  Not even my loving mother wants to hear me whine.  Grading projects are part of my job description.  And my job pays the bills and allows me to buy sixty-six year old trading cards like this:

1952 Red Man #AL23

So as soon as I'm done publishing this post, I'm gonna suck it up and get back to work.  But before I go, I want to give a quick shout out to Tom over at The Angels, In Order.  He's the one who listed this Williams on eBay last month.  I wonder how many other eBay purchases I've made have been off of fellow bloggers.

Well... time to knock off a few more projects before I head home.

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

I Love the 80's: Baseball Card Sets

The 80's are my jam.  They're part of my reminiscent bump in regards to great memories with friends, life lessons, and of course trading cards.  That's why when Kin over at Bean's Ballcard Blog wrote about his Top 5 sets and baseball cards of the 80's, I was stoked to sit down and create my own lists.  Today I'm going to focus on my favorite sets.  As for my favorite cards... I'll get around to ranking them in a future post.

I initially thought it was going to be a walk in the park, but it ended up being quite the challenge.  There are a few sets that set themselves apart from the pack.  However after selecting my Top 3 sets,  there were a bunch of sets in the running for the 4th and 5th slots.  To remedy this issue, I decided to create a Top 10 list instead.

But before I share my list, you should know what I based my selections on.  There were three main factors:  front card design, rookie star power, and personal nostalgia.  Out of the three, the card's design was the main thing I considered, but the other two were used as tie-breakers.

With that out of the way, let's get to my Top 10 Baseball Card Sets of the 80's...


#10:  1982 Topps

This set proves that the 80's were loaded with awesome trading card designs.  I'm a huge fan of the Hockey Stick set design and the use of bright colors like pink, light blue, purple, lime green, and orange.  And the In-Action cards are simply fantastic.


#9:  1983 Fleer

I enjoy simple and plain... which is the best way to describe the 1983 Fleer design.  Plus it contains one of the strongest rookie card classes from my childhood.


#8:  1980 Topps

The 1980 Topps baseball card design is solid.  The white borders paired with the colored banners compliment each other really well, but honestly without the Rickey Henderson and Dave Stieb rookie cards this set would probably be on the outside looking in.

Both of those guys hold a special place in my collection.  Henderson was my favorite player before Gwynn came along.  Stieb is the only MLB player to attend the same high school as me.  And both of their rookie cards feature awesome photographs which will always earn bonus points in my book.


#7:  1984 Fleer

Another simple, plain, and attractive set.  Growing up I favored the 1984 Topps and Donruss counterparts, but like your trusty baseball glove this particular design has improved with age.


#6:  1985 Topps

This is another set that has become more attractive to me in recent years.  Don't get me wrong, I loved this set as a kid.  I couldn't get enough of the amazing rookie class.  But eventually I lost interest in this set.  In fact, in 2016 I ranked my all-time favorite Topps designs and this set didn't crack the Top 15.  As a point of reference, the 1982 design was ranked #13 and the 1980 was ranked #11 on that list.  Today this design trumps both of them in my book.


#5:  1981 Fleer

1981 Fleer was the first complete set of cards I ever owned and it was a gift from my parents.  I'd sit around and sort the cards by positions, then build all-star teams, and wrap things up by putting them back into team sets.  I repeated this process many, many, many times.

In regards to personal nostalgia, this set is in a league of its own and that's why I couldn't leave it out of my Top 5.  And honestly... the design isn't too shabby.  I know most collectors prefer the Topps' hats over Fleer's balls, but I'm okay being in the minority on this one.


#4:  1985 Fleer

In terms of design, this is my favorite Fleer baseball set design of all-time. I enjoy the way the gray and team colored borders are paired up and go together with the team logo in the upper left-hand corner.  This set might not have played a huge role in my childhood, but like the 1985 Topps set, it features a really great bunch of rookie cards.

Before I get to my top three favorite baseball cards sets of the 80's, I wanted to show off two honorary mentions that just missed the cut:


Honorary Mention #1:  1987 Fleer

When it comes to plain and simple, nobody did a better job of it in the 80's than Fleer.  I really like how the card design transitions from light blue to white... with a solid blue stripe at the bottom.  Combine that with the team logo and you've got a nice design.  Plus the 1987 rookie card class was one for the ages.


Honorary Mention #2:  1984 Donruss

If there was a charity case on this list, then this set would be it.  The one thing that really stood out after building this list is that I'm not as big of a Donruss fan as I thought I was.  Don't get me wrong.  I truly enjoy every Donruss design from 1982 to 1987.  However none of them cracked my Top 10.

1984 Donruss is the only one I even considered and that's because I opened a lot of this stuff when I was younger.  People always say that this product was much more scarce than its Topps and Fleer counterparts, but that wasn't the case in my area.

Okay... let's wrap things up and check out my Top 3 sets of the 80's...


#3:  1989 Upper Deck

Iconic set.  Awesome design... although I do enjoy the 1991 design a tad bit more.  Four hall of fame rookie cards.  This is a truly awesome set.


#2:  1987 Topps

Five years ago, I ranked the 80's Topps designs and this set came in 8th place.  Five years later, it's my 2nd favorite set among all of the major manufacturers.  For years, this set was a negative reminder of when I stopped collecting for fun and started collecting for financial gain.  That hasn't really changed, but these days I choose to embrace the truly beautiful wood grained design, awesome rookie class, and the fact that I've opened up more 1987 Topps baseball than any other trading card product in existence.

And the King of the 80's Baseball Sets title goes to...


#1:  1983 Topps

This set is one of my favorite card designs off all-time.  Plus it contains my all-time favorite athlete's rookie card.  And if that weren't enough to put this set atop my list, I also opened up a bunch of this stuff back when I was eleven years old.

Well there you have my favorite baseball sets of the 80's.  If you're wondering... I did consider Score and Sportflics sets, but neither company cracked my Top 10.  As for things like Kellogg's and Mother's Cookies... I decided to leave them out of the equation since they're oddball/regional issues.

Maybe one day I'll create a Top 10 list for those as well.  In the meantime, I've got to start putting together my Top 5 list of 80's baseball cards, which I hope to publish in the next week or so.

Until then...

What is your favorite 80's baseball card set?

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!