30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Saturday, February 27, 2021

TWiB: Scorpions, Saito, Stone Fingers, Soccer, and Storage Boxes

Yee haw.  Baseball is back.  Sure it's only Spring Training... but it's better than basketball or even following my beloved San Jose Sharks who have flirted with .500 the entire season, but haven't been able to hold my attention.  I guess I'm still adjusting to the new and not-improved era of Sharks hockey.  I'll still support them by wearing my jersey and collecting their cards, but I'm ready to focus my attention on baseball.

Okay... let's kick another This Week in Blogging post off with a minor league card of his Airness...


#1An Expensive Minor League Card

1991 Upper Deck #SP1

On Monday, Ryan over at This Card is Cool showed off a really cool jersey card of Michael Jordan from his days with the Scottsdale Scorpions.  Back in the mid 90's, I was one of those collectors who chased his baseball cards.

2001 UD Prospect Premiers Heroes of Baseball Dual Jersey #J-JJ

It took me awhile, but I finally added my first and only memorabilia card of MJ back in 2010 that also happens to have a Scorpions swatch.


#2Super Saito!

Greg over at Night Owl Cards showed off the COMC haul he recently received and included were some Takashi Saito cards.  He mentioned him being a pretty big deal during his two years with the Dodgers and he wasn't kidding.  You should check out his 2007 stats.

2008 Topps Silk #NNO (#'d 44/50)

Saito has gotta be one of only a handful of players who had a lower career ERA in the MLB than across the Pacific in the NPB.


#3Stone Fingers

No idea how or why Toby Harrah received that nickname... but it's an attention grabber.  He was featured in a post I read over on The Shlabotnik Report this morning and it reminded me of when I was a kid.  Back in 1982, Harrah hit .304 with 25 home runs... which made an impression on the ten year old version of me.

2013 Tristar Signa Cuts Bronx Edition Red #NNO (#'d 1/5)

Although I mostly associate him with the Texas Rangers and Cleveland Indians, I just couldn't pass up this terrible looking cut signature of his.  I found it at a card show back in 2019 for a buck.

Looking back at that card show haul reminded me of another really cool purchase I made:

2019 Chrome Negative Refractor #203

I purchased this card off of a dealer for $20.  These days regular Chrome rookie cards of Tatis sell for $80 to $100 on a regular basis.  This card is over $500 now.  Crazy times people.  Crazy times.

Anyways... getting back to The Shlabotnik Report... if you enjoy learning interesting 70's baseball trivia, please check out his seriesThe 1970's: A to Z.


#4Another Interesting Collection

The Best Bubble has some of the most interesting mini collections around:  Bubble Blowing Cards, Athletes Balancing Bags and Balls, and Marlboro Man Advertisements just to name a few.

2017 Archives Fan Favorites Autographs #FFA-BV

On Monday, he showed off some cards from his Fans In The Stands collection.  It's so cool and unique.  Anyways, outside of the famous Mark Jackson Hoops card (which I don't own yet)... this Yankees fan was the only card that came to mind when thinking of fans.


#5Creative Design

I just wanted to give P-Town Tom over at Waiting 'til Next Year a huge shoutout for his custom storage box.  If you haven't seen it, please head over to his blog and check it out.


#6Entertaining Errors

Matt over at Big Blue Cardboard showed off an interesting error card this week... where Panini placed a David Wilson sticker-graph on a Rueben Randle card.

I just happened to be watching a Tony Gwynn Jr. card featuring his father's autograph earlier in the week on eBay.  Due to collecting cutbacks, I let it go.

2006 Exquisite Collection Dual Rookie Signatures #55

However I did grab this one a few years ago off of COMC.  If you're bored, I wrote a post about this goof in further detail five years ago.


#7An Entertaining Soccer Card Post

Are you a soccer card collector?  Head over to A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts to check out his Kaka card.

2013 Topps MLS Kit Relic #KIT-CW

Outside of the occasional San Jose Earthquakes autograph or memorabilia card, I don't really chase soccer cards... but I do enjoy watching them play at Avaya Stadium (when there's not a pandemic).


#8Football Card Blog Bat-Around

1975 Topps #525
1975 Topps #60

Ryan (SumoMenkoMan) is hosting a "Living" Blog Bat-Around over on his blog.  For details, please click either of those links or you can read my response post from Thursday.


#9Leaving Your Collection Behind

Dime Box Nick gave his readers something to think about this week, when he wrote about what would happen to his collection if he had to leave it all behind.  It's something I've thought about on numerous occasions.

And it's one of the reasons, I've started to clear out some of the stuff cluttering my place...


Last week, I threw this collection on Craigslist for $100 and three different people reached out to me within an hour.  The only interaction I had was with the first guy... and I immediately accepted his $70 offer.  He was happy... I was happy.  That's what I call a win/win situation.

Yesterday, I listed some boxes of basketball cards for $400 and sold them this morning.  However I'll hold off on showing the photos until I've actually completed the sale on Monday.

As for the rest of my stuff... I'm going to slowly move duplicates of sets and graded cards I've accumulated over the years.  No... I'm not dumping my collectionBut do I really need ten 1992-93 Fleer Ultra Shaquille O'Neal PSA 10 rookie cards? 

That wraps up another This Week in Blogging post.

Feel free to throw down your thoughts on Spring Training, MJ's baseball cards, custom storage boxes, selling sports cards, or collecting soccer cards down in the comment section below.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

21 comments:

The Diamond King said...

Wow, I wish I was near San Jose, I would try to take a bunch off your hands! And as for ten PSA 10 Shaq RCs, if only I had enough to trade for them, I'd take them off your hands!

The Diamond King said...

Also, I don't know if I ever knew Toby Harrah was called Stone Fingers, but he did have 29 errors one season!

Brett Alan said...

I got back into collecting after a long absence when I got a free box of junk wax cards through FreeCycle. The box had a copy of that MJ Upper Deck card...clipped from a magazine! Like, not a card, just a clipping of a picture of the card from some Beckett or something. I guess that must have been a really big card back in the day. (All the other cards in the box were real.)

The Lost Collector said...

I hadn’t even consider Jordan might have baseball Jersey relics. Cool!

Love decluttering and moving bulk on FB, Craigslist, etc. Mine always sell and I feel great after.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

BASEBALLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!! Man I wish I was close by, I'd have grabbed up those bb cards.

Nachos Grande said...

Nice selection of topics/cards. I didn't know (or think) about Jordan and baseball relics, kind of neat even if I never got into basketball!

sg488 said...

I love spring training wish was there,I pulled the 91 UD from a pack I am happy with that ,I would love more custom storage boxes ,for oversize ,minis ,graded cards.If you have something you want to get rid of i'm all for selling ,the only soccer cards I have is a set from the 60s and George Best is the only player I am familiar with.

Nick Vossbrink said...

That 1991UD MJ was hot shit when I was in Jr High. Is definitely on the list of cards form my youth I'd love to have still (said list is basically ALL the iconic cards from 1985-1991 so it's not that interesting)

I don't actively collect soccer though I do grab some pre-war and if a card of any favorite players comes across my lap I'll snag it.

night owl said...

Jordan's baseball experiment basically happened when I was collecting, so it's lost on me, just as soccer cards are lost on me and selling cards are lost on me (I like the money but, man, the time and effort).

Now, watching spring training? I am there in my chair.

night owl said...

*wasn't

Matt said...

I swore I had like 5 of those MJ minor league cards and I can't find a single one!!

P-town Tom said...

Thanks for the shout out about the custom box. I'm getting a lot of use out of it and it's holding up great!
These are definitely crazy times when my least favorite chrome parallel is pushing $500. Wow!

Jeff B - Wax Pack Wonders said...

Just unloaded probably 6000 or so commons. I've sold before, but decided to just donate this group to the thrift store.

Chris said...

I know I had that 1991 UD Jordan and maybe a couple more of his baseball issues in '94-95. That was probably the last time I had friends in my neighborhood who also collected cards.

Going back to read Nick's post now but that is something I've been thinking about. I started selling some high-end PSA singles of my own - but that's just to raise some cash for the 1956 Topps set. Condensing/completing is step one. Good luck with your sales, I know your customers will be very happy with cards from your collection.

Fuji said...

the diamond king - i would have gladly given them away to any blogger who wanted the garage collection. it was mostly stuff i picked up from these mystery bags i opened and bits and pieces of collections that have accumulated over the years. honestly... the most valuable stuff were the marvel trading cards (which are kinda pricey right now). oh and thanks for the tidbit on harrah. that would be a good way to get that nickname

brett alan - the 1991 MJ insert was very popular and was fairly easy to pull, so there are a ton floating around out there. I used to see them in dollar bins all the time. these days, they sell for over $25... which is kind crazy.

the lost collector - the only way i could afford to add a jordan jersey to my collection was to go the baseball route. as for shedding weight/clutter... it's awesome!

johnnys trading spot - i would have gladly given them to you.

nachos grande - upper deck definitely looked into the future with that 1991 insert. as for his baseball relics, the main reason i bought that card was because his baseball memorabilia cards are much cheaper than his basketball stuff

sg488 - i'm familiar with george best too. i think i learned his name from a pro set card or something.

nick vossbrink - the 1991 mj is probably at it's peak value right now. they sell for over $25 on ebay. oh... if i found any pre-war soccer, i'd hold onto that too. not even sure i've seen a prewar soccer card.

night owl - yeah... i'm sure there are people who enjoy selling on eBay, but it's not the way i want to earn a living. i will say the craigslist thing is fairly simple if you're trying to move lots of stuff and don't want to deal with shipping

matt - if you're referring to the 1991 ud insert, you look harder, because they're at its peak value and you could get some nice set help in return

p-town tom - considering how rare the negative refractors are... it's probably undervalued compared to the pink, regular, sepia, and prizm refractors.

jeff b - i've donated to goodwill hundreds of thousands of cards over the years and if nobody would have offered me a reasonable price, i would have taken the collection there again.

chris - i really should take inventory and see which jordan baseball cards i'm missing from the mid 90's. best of luck on your 1956 topps set.

SumoMenkoMan said...

That is so cool that some guy got a sweet deal on all those 5000-count boxes and you got to clear a space for yourself. Win-win! Just read about Bald Vinny....cool story!

Bo said...

Yeah, I would have totally bought that for $70 if I didn't live 3,000 miles away from you.
I was watching a Yankees-Rangers game from 1985 recently. Harrah had been on the Yankees in 1984 and played pretty badly for them. He came back with Texas and was heavily booed by the Yankee fans.

Jongudmund said...

I think I live the furthest from you out of the regular commenters here, so that's why I didn't answer your Craigslist ad.

It must be the season for it though. I sold some cards this week for the first time in absolute yonks. I'm surprised PayPal didn't flag it as suspicious activity - money coming in!

Jon said...

Wow, that'll clear some space! Congrats on being able to move so many at once.

Peter K Steinberg said...

Really excited for spring training baseball. I don't follow the fall and winter sports so it's nice to have something to watch and listen to.

Nick Vossbrink said...

I've blogged about a few. This is a fun set. https://njwv.wordpress.com/2020/03/31/1934-players-cigarettes-hints-on-association-football/