30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, January 13, 2020

Jealous, Not Jealous

Whenever I see YouTubers or blogs receive free boxes of cards to review or give away, there's always a small part of me that wishes card companies would send me free stuff.  On the other hand, I lack the writing skills, free time, and motivation to create interesting and unbiased reviews.  So it's probably a good thing that I don't receive free products to review.

Luckily there are plenty of people out there who are talented enough to get the job done.  Back in the day, I loved reading Wax Heaven's reviews.  Nowadays, I head over to Sport Card Collectors when I want to see box breaks and read reviews.

In addition to writing reviews, Sport Card Collectors also hosts a bunch of contests where he gives away cards from his breaks... as well as supply prize packages from BCW.


Last month, I lucked out and won one of them.  As much as I enjoy winning free cards, I've gotta admit... receiving free supplies is just as coolBCW hooked it up with one of their trading card supplies combo packs, which includes the following items:

  • two shoe boxes
  • six packages of top loaders (a variety of sizes)
  • six magnetic card holders
  • three packs of penny sleeves

You can purchase these supply combo packs on BCW's website for $47.99.  They also sent me a 2019 Topps Archives Signature Series card of Ed Kranepool:


Outside of playing for the New York Mets and being a fan favorite among their fans, I didn't know much about him.  In my defense, I was only seven years old when he played his final game in 1979.  My brother would take me to Giants games back in the 70's, so there's always a chance I got to watch him play at Candlestick back in the day.

Thankfully a few Google searches revealed that he's one of the original 1962 Mets and he spent his entire 17 year playing career with the franchise.  I also discovered that once upon a time, he was the franchise leader in hits, singles, doubles, total bases, extra base hits, and runs batted in.  Guys like David Wright and Jose Reyes have passed him up over the years, but he still gets to brag about being the Mets' all-time leader in games played.


Before wrapping up this post, I want to show off the back of this autographed buybackGum stain for the win!  Back in the day, gum stained cards were considered sub-par pieces of cardboard.  However... with each passing year, I've grown to appreciate them more and more.  


Thank you Sport Card Collectors for all of your great product reviews and contests!  And thank you BCW for offering up this very generous prize package!  I've been using your supplies for years and will definitely put this supply combo pack to good use.

Okay readers, here's your question of the day...

What's your stance on gum stained cards?  Do you consider them to be sub-par pieces of cardboard or cards with character?

Share your thoughts down below.  Happy Monday and sayonara!

18 comments:

Matt said...

Congrats on the win! I never really minded gum stained cards, although other kids I traded with at the time would be pickier.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

Gum stains. Topps even tried to reproduce it as a variation, but it didn't fly (thank goodness). You couldn't even tell they were "stained"

Commishbob said...

I'm not bothered by gum stains of the backs of cards. I have some in my sets. Gum residue/gunk on the front comes off with a soft cloth but I never mess with the backs.

When my friends and I used to venture over to Shea Stadium we didn't usually cheer for the Mets, but we all were Eddie Kranepool fans. We called him 'Stretch' because, I guess, we thought all first basemen should be called that. I really like that card. Cool addition to your collection.

GCA said...

I wondered if bloggers still got free boxes. Haven't seen that in a while. I'd love a box of stuff to review, but I'm afraid they'd already have read my blog and hear me complain too much so they wouldn't do it.

Gum stains make vintage cards more authentic. Unless the image is obscured by gunk, I don't consider them much of a downgrade.

gregory said...

Back then the stained card was a nuisance, especially if it was a star player. But now if I'm building a set of cards from the wax pack days, I'll try to keep at least a couple of cards with gum stains or wax stains on the back. That way I get the full nostalgic experience when I'm flipping through the binder.

CaptKirk42 said...

One time I got a free box (around Dec 2015) to review from Upper Deck it was Hobby box of 2015 Upper Deck CFL Football. They were trying to get rid of some review boxes and have a handful left over. I did a 2 post review of it (plus a trading post to try to get rid of the cards I didn't want to keep (still have most of them). I guess they didn't like my review I haven't gotten any more free products to review from Upper Deck. Haha.

Links to my blog review:
Part 1: https://captkirk42.blogspot.com/2016/01/2015-upper-deck-cfl-football-box-break.html
Part 2: https://captkirk42.blogspot.com/2016/01/2015-upper-deck-cfl-football-box-break_3.html

I forget if it was for this review or some other link exchange post from a company where after seeing my post the rep emailed me with some suggested changes to the post (I complied with the suggestions even though I didn't like the idea). I think it was for some other link though not this review.

Base Card Hero said...

Free stuff is always good. You can never have enough supplies.

I have a small stack of gum/wax stain 1991 Topps. I thought it would be cool to get a set, but that probably won't happen. I'll just save them for when I find someone with decent progress on the set.

night owl said...

I barely notice gum stains on the back. When I did my 1975 Topps blog, a couple times a commenter would say "shame about the gum stain on the back" for one of my scans, and I'd be like, "oh, there's a gum stain?" Who cares.

LOL, I'm too honest for reviews of free boxes. One box and that'd probably be it for free product.

bbcardz said...

It would be my dream to get review boxes of Topps baseball flagship product. I would love to see blog posts about how other bloggers obtained review boxes.

I love Sports Card Collectors contests. I won a BCW sorting tray and a 2017 Topps Heritage George Springer auto.

As for gum stains, I prefer my cards to be stain-free. I'm glad Topps removed the gum from flagship product.

Nick Vossbrink said...

I was going to say, I don't think the free boxes go to guys who write unbiased reviews. Most of the guys writing reviews seem to be parroting sell sheets and I can't bother to read those blogs.

Also I don't care at all about wax stains. Gum stains only bug me if they're sticky.

Steve at 1975BaseballCards.com said...

Congrats that 75 is a nice win. I prefer without gum stain but like others wrote it’s not bad and adds authenticity.

Nick said...

I love gum stains because they could only exist in the time and place in which they do. Could you imagine today's "breakers" flipping out over a gum stain?

SumoMenkoMan said...

Wow, congrats! I don’t mind gum stained cards. Adds to the story for sure.

sg488 said...

When collecting in the 70's,I had more of a
problem with wax stains than gum stains ,I hated them both.

Chris said...

Congrats on winning this prize pack! New supplies are one of those things collectors always use (but we'd rather spend our money on new cards) so it must be handy to have free top loaders and storage boxes! The Kranepool auto is very nice, too. I wouldn't normally keep a gum-stained set filler in my collection but I have to admit it does make me nostalgic for the first few years I collected.

gcrl said...

You mentioned Mario's reviews back in the day. I also enjoyed reading those posts, but I recall one blogger having a real issue with them related to a conflict of interest. Real blog drama ensued. These days I just go to cardboard connection to see images of card designs and checklists of new releases. And I don't mind gum stains

Fuji said...

matt - so you were the kid we'd trade our gum stained cards to ;)

johnnys trading spot - i remember those variations. never pulled one though. i wonder if they smelled like gum. if so, that would have been cool

commishbob - i remember trying to use my mom's pantyhose to try and get the gum/wax residue off of my cards. she wasn't happy about that

gca - other than sport card collectors, i don't know if any other bloggers receive boxes to review. i'm guessing its not cost affective for the card companies

gregory - it's funny, these days i actually smile when i see a wax/gum stain on my 80's or older cardboard

captkirk42 - wow the rep contacted you and suggest changes? not sure if i could do business with them after that. then again, that's probably why i don't get offered free boxes

base card hero - the 1991 gum/wax stained set would be really cool. or even a gum/wax stained frankenset from a variety of years

night owl - they've always stood out to me, but i'm less bothered by them these days. in fact in certain regards, i embrace them. and your honest reviews... would make the best reviews. well... at least to us, the consumers

bbcardz - congratulations on winning a springer autograph. i'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. i'd love it if topps inserted gum into their packs again ;)

nick vossbrink - i think in order for them to continue to receive free boxes, they have to be a little unbiased. if the reviewers were brutally honest, the card companies wouldn't send any more cards. but i think sport card collectors does a good job. he'll definitely point out flaws. and mario had no problems calling out card companies back in the day

steve at 1975baseballcards.com - totally agree. it adds character

nick - i'd love to see today's breakers flipping out over stains.

sumomenkoman - thanks. definitely adds character

sg488 - i didn't like them when i was a kid, but i've grown to appreciate them

chris - with each passing year, gum stains bother me less and less and i appreciate them more and more. not sure if time will have the same affect on you or other collectors though

gcrl - wow. i missed the blog drama. as for mario's reviews, i liked that he kept it real. don't think the card companies always appreciated it though

Matt said...

Congrats on the win! Glad you enjoyed!