I guess it depends on what we're talking about... and our personal preferences. In regards to trading cards... I appreciate them in all shapes and sizes.
1887 N9 Allen & Ginter Flags of All Nations #NNO
I set an alarm on my phone (the auction was ending towards the end of my 6th period) and quickly entered a bid with about 10 seconds remaining. A couple of hours later, I checked and discovered I won.
This card might be small in size... but it's a pretty huge addition to my collection.
Next up are a few oversized cards that John over at Johnny's Trading Spot sent me back in early May...
1995 Bowman's Best Jumbo Refractor #89
This shiny Nomo measures 4" x 6" and is part of a ten card set that were individually inserted into specially marked Treat packages. John sent me the Gwynn earlier in the year... and I'm currently sitting on half of the set.
Next up is this 5" x 7" Jose Canseco:
1993 Stadium Club Master Photo #NNO
Topps also produced oversized Master Photo cards for their Dome and Toys R Us factory sets that featured slightly different designs and photos..
The bulk of John's care package were hundreds of Tony Gwynn cards that are in the process of being sorted and integrated into my binders. I'll show a few of these off in a future post.
In the meantime... there were two 3.5" x 5" cards that stood out from the rest:
This card celebrates Gwynn for having the highest batting average in the 90's (from 1990 to 1993) and was serial numbered to 10,000:
Can you guess who was #2 on the list? Click the link to find out. I never would have guessed that player.
1985 Donruss Action All-Stars #19
From 1983 to 1987 Donruss produced these oversized All-Star cards as a separate (oddball) issue. 1985 was Gwynn's first appearance.
The other Gwynn he sent me is the same size (3.5" x 5"), but was distributed as a box topper in hobby boxes of 1994 Donruss baseball:
1994 Donruss Dominators #1
According to Statmuse, Gwynn held onto that title:
Well there you have it. Five trading cards. One small. Four big. All of them are pretty darn cool as long as you don't get flustered by storing non-standard sized cards.
Feel free to leave your thoughts on small and big cards down below. I look forward to reading and responding to them.
Until then... thank you John for another generous care package filled with cool stuff for my collection.
Happy Monday and sayonara!
Extra Innings
I wish I would have opened John's care package a little sooner, because he sent me a bunch of Star Wars figures that would have been perfect for my May the 4th post:
It's kind of hard to see from this angle, but you're looking at an army of 2005 Star Wars Attacktix figures. If you're not familiar with these, they were part of an action figure game with the goal of knocking over your opponent's figures.
Here's a closer look at some of my favorite figures:
These figures were sold in booster and starter packs. I bought a bunch, but don't think I ever actually played the game. I'll probably add most of these to my Star Wars shelf in my classroom. However the next figures will be kept in my personal collection at home:
1977 Kenner Princess Leia
1980 Kenner Lando Calrissian
1980 Kenner Lobot
1980 Kenner IG-88
1983 Kenner Klaatu
The goal is to one day have a vintage Star Wars display like John's. I do have three shelves in my office dedicated to my Star Wars collection, but one is for my 90's and 2000's action figures. Another has my collection of 1990's Action Fleet ships. And the final one has a few of my Star Wars Lego sets. But one day... I'll have enough vintage figures to fill a shelf in my office. The bigger... the better.
16 comments:
I worked for a developer many years ago who was an engineer from a developing nation. When he came here his philosophy was “if some is good, more must be better”. He was usually referring to concrete. He would certainly agree with your title. Love the 1887 N9 Allen & Ginter Flags of All Nations!
That Allen & Ginter card of Japan is amazing! (GTT)
I used to wait until the last second to bid on eBay but then I found out about the Gixen sniping app. It is free and I highly recommend it. It is simple just put in the auction number and your max bid and it bids for you at the last second.
I like smaller cards, I don' really like larger cards. It is all about storage. I can put a mini card in a regular sleeve/page/case/box I can't oversized cards. Somewhere along the way I got a plastic box that was supposed to hold two stacks of cards with an insert that lifts out the cards, I have never seen another one. I removed the divider and now store oversized Red Sox cards in it. It is just the right size for 5x7s. I have one of those Oversized Members Only cards that is a hair bigger than 5x7 so it doesn't fit. It floats in the top of a monster box with a bunch of oversized team issued cards that don't fit in anything either. Complete oversized team sets I have in binders. For my Virdon collection I have a 6" binder dedicated to just oversized items. It is sorted by item size then team. It is a clunky system but I can't figure out anything better.
I guessed Molitar, Nomar, Puckett (in that order) for the number two spot. I have always thought of Piazza as a power guy so he wasn't even on my radar.
I always loved the Star Wars movies but I have never owned any of the toys. As a kid I spent any money I could come up with on GI Joe instead.
I love oversized cards! Topps Supers, 5x7's, Giants, Donruss Action All-Stars, Red Man Tobacco, postcards, love 'em all. Unlike most of the card collecting world, I'm not a fan of minis.
I like them, but they're just so difficult to store!
I collect them all!
Just got to find the right pages and they're all good. ... Except those stupid micros from the early '90s.
The Japan flag is cool. I picked up a Holland flag which I believe is from the same set.
The Nomo refractor is cool as well. I’m sure it was a hot card back in Nomo mania in the late ‘90’s.
You know I love that vintage A&G flag card :)
So hard to store the bigger cards, they frustrate me. Mini's at least fit in a binder. So for me, medium and smaller are better!
They fit perfectly three wide the wrong direction in a A&G mini page.
Great stuff from Johnny, especially the vintage Star Wars figures! I also have no issues with different sizes as long as there's pages for them. Congrats on the Japan flag pickup!
Congrats on the lovely Ginter. A piece of history.
The correct answer was my second guess, but I'm a fan, obviously. My first guess was #11 on the list.
Flag of Japan card...WOW!
Congrats on the Japan card. Glad it's the Hinomaru and not the Rising Sun Flag. Collecting pre-war Japan can be a bit dicey at times.
karsal - the more the merrier/bigger is better. i've used both of these as titles before... and probably will again :D
john l. - thanks gtt!
adame - i used to use a sniping app, but ended up deleting it. sadly... i got too addicted to shopping on ebay. my new philosophy is to add stuff to my list and if it's meant to be, i'll remember. there are special occasions (like this card) where i'll set an alarm, but it's not often. plus sometimes i'm in the middle of something (like driving) and i can't end up bidding. but once again... i just look at those times as "it wasn't meant to be". yeah... i remember piazza as a power guy too.
shlabotnik report - that's what makes the hobby great. different strokes for different folks. personally... i like them all :D
adam kaningher - yeah. i use different strategies. maybe one of these days i'll show them off in a post
johnnys trading spot - me too! thanks again for all of this cool stuff. next up will be those comedy cards you sent me
night owl - i wonder if the have stamp pages that would fit those micros.
jeremya1um - i'm guessing that nomo was indeed popular back in the mid 90's. congratulations on picking up the holland flag. i'd love to add the usa flag to my collection, but it's way too expensive
nachos grande - you're the inspiration for that purchase :D
matt - yeah... the larger cards can be a pain. i either put them in pages or use old flip flop boxes to store them in top loaders.
jafronius - love those vintage figures. can't wait to display them one day
brett alan - i definitely would have guessed puckett before piazza.
john sharp - thanks. huge (or small) addition to my collection
nick vossbrink - i actually have a pair of the rising sun flags in my collection as well. obviously not proud of that part of japan's history... but i collect it because it's a part of it nonetheless. that being said... this one (hinomaru) is my favorite.
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