Burgers & Baseball Cards

Hope you weren't expecting a post about late 70's Burger King cards... although I'll try to dig one up at the end of this post if you did.

Today's post is about a recent blogger meetup.  A few weeks ago, Jim over at cards as i see them reached out to me and let me know that he was headed out to California.  We've discussed grabbing IN-N-OUT burgers at least a couple of times in the past.  Well we finally made it happen.  One day after work, I picked him up and took him to Stevens Creek Sports Cards.  I didn't buy anything, but he made a pretty cool purchase.  Don't want to spoil things for his readers, so I'll keep my lips zipped.

Before we left the shop, he made a cool suggestion to take a photo of our wallet cards to document our meetup:

Gwynn and Garvey were teammates for five seasons in San Diego from 1983 to 1987.  It was nice that this was an opportunity for them to get together on a cardboard level.  That 1974 Topps card has been in Jim's wallet on two separate occasions.  At the shop he told me about the first time he slid the card into his wallet.  It was back in the mid 90's when Mickey Mantle passed away.  He had seen Bob Costas talk about Mickey being his wallet card.

At some point, he gave Garvey a breather.  But in 2015, Gavin @ Baseball Card Breakdown introduced his wallet card idea to his readers and Jim put him back in the billfold.

My wallet card hasn't been around quite as long.  I picked Gwynn's 1995 Skybox Emotion card as my inaugural wallet card back in January of 2015.  Two years later, I swapped it out for the 1986 Topps card you see above.

It's been six years and while we're still in January (which is the month I've chosen my wallet cards in the past), I figured it's time to show off my new wallet card:

1992 Topps Kids #53

There were four potential replacement cards.  The 1985 Topps Gwynn that I received from Johnny last week was one option.  There was also Gwynn's 1987 Topps base card which I considered back in 2015.  And there was this little curve ball:

1981 Fleer #574

There's a story behind this card that's worthy of its own post.  I'm thinking that it'll be the fourth and final wallet card... in the sense that when I swap out the latest Gwynn... Rickey will be carried with me until I enter the ground.

However for now... the cartoonish Topps Kid card will be keeping me company.  I ultimately decided to go with this card, because collecting cards keeps me in touch with my childhood... and this card is as childish as it gets.  It's not often I can track down the source of a specific card, but I know with 100% certainty that I pulled this card out of a pack in 2017.

Sorry I got a little sidetracked.  Let's get back to Jim.  After hanging out at the card shop we drove to IN-N-OUT where we ate dinner and talked about cards and the community.  Regardless of whether it's a fellow blogger or just another collector, it's always fun to hang out and talk about the hobby.

We also exchanged care packages.  Half of the stuff he gave me I'm going to hold off on writing about until this weekend or next week.  But I will share the other half of the items which were donations to the Oakland A's and Damaged Card PC's.

Let's start off with some pins from the late 80's (and possibly early 90's):

UNOCAL 76 Oakland A's Pins

Based on an internet search, I think the two pins on the left were produced in 1989.  I couldn't find any information on the last pin, but one eBay vendor has it listed as a 1991 pin.  Regardless these are very cool.  I have a sandwich sized bag full of pins representing several different Bay Area teams.  One of these days I'll have to go through and organize them.

He also added these three A's cards:

1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes #214

I've debated on putting together a Bert Campaneris collection, but just haven't gotten around to it.  Maybe one day.  Maybe not.  Either way... this card has a home in my collection.

2005 Leaf 4 Star Staffs #FSS12

Not familiar with this set, but gotta admit it's pretty cool.  This card celebrates the pretty famous (at least in the Bay Area) 2002 Oakland A's pitching staff.

2022 Topps International Trading Card Day #NTCD-20

Pache was one of the only things I really looked forward to in regards to the A's in 2022.  His .166 batting average kinda summed up how that went.  Based on his facial expression... even he knows things got ugly last year.

Let's move on to something a little more positive.  Here are two potential candidates for the Damaged Card PC:

2017 Topps Update #US50

2020 Topps Gallery #107

The reason I say "potential" is because there's limited space in that collection and I'm probably only five 9-pocket pages away from filling the binder.  That's why I'm pretty selective about which cards I add to the collection.  Back in 2019, the Bellinger would automatically get slid into it.  As for Lux, he's going to be the Dodgers starting shortstop this season.  If he has a big year, I'll put him in.  Until then... Cody is in... Gavin is out.

Thank you Jim for the cards.  It was fun meeting you and hanging out.  Hit me up the next time you're in the Bay Area and maybe we can check out a flea market or card show.

By the way... Jim is the 6th blogger I've had the opportunity to meet.  Here are the other five:

Brady @ St. Louis Cardinals Cardboard

Ryan @ Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko

Dan @ The Other World

Rod @ Padrographs

Greg @ The Collective Mind

I've been talking to my friend in Portland about visiting her and her family.  If I'm lucky, I'll be able to finally meet Gavin @ Baseball Card Breakdown, Kerry @ Cards on Cards, Kevin @ The Diamond King, and Cardboard Hogs and add four more to the list in the next year or so.

Nick over at NJWV is another blogger I'd like to meet as he sometimes comes out with his family to the Bay Area.

If there are any other bloggers out there who plan on taking a trip to Northern California and are interesting in getting together, hit me up and I'll buy you some IN-N-OUT.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Oops.  Almost forgot.  Here's that Burger King card I promised...

1979 Topps Burger King #16

I've always had a soft spot for cheap slabs of vintage cards featuring hall of famers.  I picked this up before the pandemic off of 4 Sharp Corners for less than the price of a Whopper with cheese.