1992 was a monumental collecting year for me. At the time I was attending community college and working at the card shop down the street from me. Things were pretty "normal" until that day when my LCS received their shipment of Fleer Ultra baseball.
1992 Fleer Ultra #277
As soon as I laid eyes on that green marble and graph paper design (on the back)... it was love at first sight.
I bought several boxes of each series and went on a mission to build the complete 600 card base set. I'd had built hand collated sets before, but at some point I set out to build the four insert sets split among the two series too. This was a hobby first for me.
In addition to the attractive design, I was also intrigued by Tony Gwynn being the poster boy for this product.
1992 Fleer Ultra Gwynn Autograph #6
Anyways... back then I accepted the fact that I'd never own the ten autographed Gwynn inserts, but everything else was fair game. And within a year or so, I had completed the master set... or so I thought.
Many years later, I discovered I was missing two cards and both featured my favorite player of all-time: Tony Gwynn. Recently I crossed one of them off of my wantlist:
1992 Fleer Ultra A Salute to the Children of Casa De Amparo #NNO
I have no idea where these cards were distributed, but according to the card back, it salutes the children of Casa de Amparo which is an organization that helps abused, neglected, and abandoned children.
After cutting back the past two years on big dollar purchases, I have been targeting very specific cards for my collection. This was one of those cards. It popped up on eBay back on November 8th with a BIN price of one dollar (plus $1.50 shipping) and I couldn't pull the trigger fast enough.
Sadly, I still need one more card to complete this thirty year project...
It's a card that was handed out at the Fleer stockholders meeting back in 1992. As you can see... it features Mr. Padre and Paul Mullan who was Fleer's CEO at the time. This card will pop up from time to time, but it sells for more money than I'm willing to dish out. At this point in my life, I've learned to be patient.
So for now... I'm just happy with taking one step closer to completing this master set.
Today's question of the day...
Have you ever discovered a set in your collection wasn't complete after decades of thinking it was?
I've encountered this issue with a few sets recently, but this is the first time it's happened after so many years. Part of me is a little bummed... but then again... it gives me one more white whale to chase down.
That's it for today. Happy Thursday and sayonara!
13 comments:
Back in 2014 I did inventory on the 1970s sets that I thought were complete, but I realized that they were not... and several of the cards didn't look familiar so who knows if they were ever actually complete
https://shlabotnikreport.wordpress.com/2014/04/14/that-which-was-wrongly-thought-complete-let-it-truly-be-whole/
That always seems to happen to us set collectors. You always find a set somewhere that you once thought was complete and wonder what little gremlin snuck in a took it.
I'm not chasing those other Gwynns in that set but I salute you for doing so! I'm sure I've run into the same issue where I thought I had something complete and was actually missing one or more cards.
Also, targeting specific cards you really want is a great way to build a collection you truly love so keep at it!
too often.
I have always collected oriole regional sets since the 70's.I thought I had them all till about 6 months ago ,I saw a card from 2004 Maryland lottery set featuring 50 Oriole cards on someones blog.Now I am having a hard time tracking down the final 2 cards #49,50.
All the damn time.
Oh dang, that is cool and I had never heard of that Paul Mullan card before. It will be fun to go chase after that!
My friend and I found one of those Casa De Amparo cards on the ground back in the 90s. Wrote about it in my blog's 1st year: https://baseballcardbreakdown.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-worst-condition-card-i-own.html
Great find, Fuji! Unfortunately, I feel like I frequently run across this phenomena, especially when I am working on Ray Lankford cards. There are so many oddball and off-the-radar cards from the 1990s.
That little girl doesn't look too happy.
I don't set build, but I'm always finding entire sets/hidden portions of sets that I never knew existed...and thanks to this post I have another one with those "Salute to the Children" inserts. (Gonna need one for my "cards with kids" mini-collection!
shlabotnik report - i'm almost scared to go and look through my completed topps sets from the 70's for that exact same reason. although part of me knows that my ocd would have forced me to double or triple check when i acquired them
crocodile - those darn gremlins. by the way... i'm excited to read and comment on your blog posts.
dennis - i wouldn't normally go crazy chasing down these kinds of cards either, but they're gwynns and the 1992 ultra set holds a special place in my collection
johnnys trading spot - sad but true
sg488 - never even heard of these lottery cards, but i wish you the best on tracking down #49 and #50
night owl - on a positive note, it gives us something to collect and work towards
sumomenkoman - i had no idea who mullan was either until i discovered this card.
defgav - i'm wondering if your blog post was the one that opened my eyes to this card. hmmm...
the snorting bull - like i responded to night owl... on a positive note, its these cards that give us the thrill of the chase.
jon - lol. very true. i wonder how many photos they took before settling on this one.
nick - last time i checked the seller had a few more. then again... you're really lucky with those dime boxes. maybe you'll stumble across one in the near future.
Well now I've discovered 2 cards that I want for my collection!!
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