A Whale of a Sort

Summer break is over.  Technically I don't need to report until Thursday, but I've been working in my classroom since early last week.  It takes me a few days to set up my classroom and prep the first three weeks of lessons.

Not teaching summer school forced me to dip into my savings.  Outside of that... it was pretty amazing.  I'll have a recap post posted by the time students arrive on the 17th.

Today's post is a continuation of the Sunday Sort.  Last weekend I opened up three packages from Rod over at Padrographs and sorted everything into categories.  Phase two (which is the focus of today's post) is to sort and integrate the Tony Gwynn cards he sent.

But before we get into that, here's a Gwynn I recently purchased on eBay:

1992 Fleer Ultra Commemorative Promo #NNO

I have been trying to add this card to my 1992 Fleer Ultra master set for years.  It was handed out at the 1992 Fleer stockholders meeting and features Fleer's CEO back in the day.

The back talks about Gwynn and how he signed over 2,000 cards which were inserted into packs of 1992 Fleer Ultra.

I thought this card completed my run of 1992 Fleer Ultra Gwynn cards:

Unfortunately... while looking up this Mullan/Gwynn promo, I discovered that Gwynn also has a 1992 pre-production sample as well.  There are actually nine other sample cards I need to find, but I'm up for the challenge.

Okay.  Let's get to the Gwynns from Rod's care packages.  He sent over 200 Gwynns.  Obviously I don't have the time to scan them all.  In honor of Mr. Padre's jersey number, here are 19 cards that were added to my Gwynn PC...

1984 Fleer #301

Technically, I already have a copy of this second year base card.  But completed sets get priority over player or team collections. 

1992 Padres Police #NNO

1992 Padres Police #NNO

1993 Stadium Club Members Only #538

1994 Donruss Commemorative Anniversary #10

While originally sorting through all of the Gwynns, I thought this was his 1984 base card.  But upon closer inspection, it's from an insert set celebrating their ten year anniversary.

1995 Leaf 300 Club #13

1995 SP Championship Die-Cut #90

1996 Bowman's Best Mirror Image #7

One of these guys is not like the others, but there was a time when I thought Ben Grieve would end up being a superstar.

1996 Leaf Statistical Standouts #2 (#'d 1939/2500)

1996 Pinnacle Aficionado Slick Picks #15

1996 Topps Master of the Game #MG12

1996 Topps Gallery #147

1999 Fleer Tradition Diamond Magic #5DM

1999 Pacific Invincible Sandlot Heroes #17

2000 Fleer Focus Pocus #2FP

2000 Topps #240a & #240d

Much like the commemorative promo card above, I have been trying to complete the five card subset of 2000 Topps Gwynns for a few years.  Split between the two series, Topps highlighted the careers of ten players with a Magic Moments subset.  Each player received five cards that were short printed, which is why set builders may or may not consider their set complete with one of these singles.

2001 Fleer Tradition Grass Roots #13

2003 Topps Record Breakers #RB-TGW

If you've ever wondered how long it takes me to integrate and scan a large stack of cards into my personal collection, this Gwynn sort will help paint a picture.

1994 Donruss Commemorative Anniversary #10

Obviously sorting a few hundred cards usually doesn't take too much time, but thanks to the 90's... I had a lot of trouble figuring out which year some of these Gwynns were produced.  A card might say 1993 in the copyright area, but actually be listed as a 1994 card.  This also forced me to move some cards around in my collection.

Another delay I encountered were late 80's Topps and Donruss variations.  Holy cow.  Why did I ever decide to collect these?  Anyways... looking for missing periods, apostrophes, or asterisks with a magnifying glass took longer than expected.

Toss in a few breaks here and there... and this Sunday Sort took close to five hours.  This is by no means a complaint.  It's just an observation.  There are still seventeen stacks of Gwynns that I still need to integrate into the collection, but I needed to wrap things up and write this post.

Unfortunately... I couldn't stay awake last night and ended up falling asleep before I could finish, so this edition of the Sunday Sort gets to be published on a Monday morning.

Thank you Rod for these awesome additions to the Gwynn collection.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Rickey Loves Relics & Retirement

Back in early April, I received a text message from Greg over at The Collective Mind.  His LCS had recently acquired a huge Rickey Henderson collection and he shared a pair of photos with cards that were available for purchase.

The collection was very impressive and I could have used almost everything in the pictures.  However at the time, I hadn't done my taxes... so I decided to shop conservatively.  I ended up picking two $25 cards:

2010 Topps Sterling Legendary Leather Relic #5LLR-5 (#'d 09/25)

2010 Topps Sterling Stats Relic #SSR-5 (#'d 08/25)

I don't usually spend $25 on relic cards, but these two took me on a trip down memory lane. 

Watching high-end breaks on YouTube in the late-aughts lured me back into the hobby and Topps Sterling was one of my favorite products to watch.  Boxes were usually player or statistically themed and 2010 was the final year of the initial product run.

That year each box cost collectors around $250 and contained only two packs: a mystery pack (with one framed parallel or a cut signature card) and a themed pack (with three base cards and two hits).  In other words it was a high dollar gamble and not a product I would ever consider opening.

On the other hand, I was very excited to add these two game-used jersey cards to my Rickey Henderson PC for about the same price as two 2026 Topps Series 2 value boxes at Target.  I also offered to send him $25 to cover shipping and reward him with a finder's fee, but he insisted on only accepting $10.

As a bonus, he tossed in this Rickey relic card:

2021 Topps Tier One Legends Relic #TTLR-RH (#'d 019/149)

2021 Topps Tier One is another high-end product.  These one pack boxes were also originally $250.  However instead of six cards, you only received three: 2 relic cards and 1 autograph/autographed relic.

In May, Greg sent me a few more Rickey Hendersons.  Two were for my Topps Base Card Run:

1995 Topps #559

2001 Topps Traded #T77

I'm down to these six:

Technically I already own copies of his 1980 and 1981 cards.  However the second year card is part of my 1981 Topps set and the rookies fall into one of three categories:

#1:  Part of my 1980 Topps baseball set

#2:  Graded Rookie Card

#3:  Signed Rookie Card

He also tossed in a pair of 2013 The National promo cards:

2013 Leaf National #N-RH1

It looks like this year's National Sports Collectors Convention will be held in Chicago again.  I'm not going.  In fact, I've never gone.  Not sure I ever will, but never say never.

The final cards in Greg's care package were customs created by his friend Eric (EricD3043 on TCDB):

I'm super jealous of collectors with the ability to create custom cards like these.  

My personal favorites are the 1965, 1978, 1979, 1980, and both of the 1960 customs.  Great job Eric!

Thank you Greg for going out of your way to grab those two high-end Rickey relics... and for giving me a bonus one to boot.  And congratulations on your retirement!  After dedicating the past 22+ years to that school district, you've earned some rest and relaxation.  Hope you get to spend some quality time with your girlfriend, cars, collection, and card room!

  

Happy Thursday and sayonara!

Free Samples

Costco is insanely crowded in my area on the weekends.  That's why my brother and I hit up the business center as soon as it opens every 2nd Saturday of the month.  It's a routine and it's never failed us.  We're in and out within twenty minutes.  No fighting for parking.  No long lines.  No traffic jams getting out of the parking lot.  But there's one huge downside.  No free samples.

Oh well.  Can't have it all.  Luckily today, I came home to four samples sitting on my office desk:

1995 Select Certified Sample #50

1995 Select Certified Sample #89

The first two are mid 90's samples from Pinnacle that were included in Reader X's January care package.  Sorry about the five month delay Xavier.

Next up are a pair of early 2000's Donruss Diamond Kings samples:

2002 Donruss Diamond Kings Silver Sample #073

2002 Donruss Diamond Kings Silver Sample #077

Both of these were part of a care package that John @ Johnny's Trading Spot sent me back in March.

As much as people enjoy their Costco samples, I'm not gonna lie... I prefer the cardboard versions 100x more.  I was fortunate to have worked at a card shop in the late 90's, so I had access to a bunch of different promo cards.  One of these days I'll sit down, organize them by sport, manufacturer, and year... then slide them into 9-pocket pages.

For now, they're going into my promo box... which trumps my Athletics box.  But don't worry... Xavier and John sent me plenty for that PC.  Unfortunately, I'm a little strapped for time.  So for today, you'll just have to settle for these samples.

Thank you Xavier and John!

I know it's been awhile, but here's your question of the day:

Do you get excited for free samples at Costco?

Do you get excited for promo cards?

If you said yes to both, which do you prefer more?

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Rough week for baseball fans.  First Ted Turner, now Bobby Cox.  Thoughts and prayers are with their families, friends, and fans.  Both played instrumental roles in my baseball fandom.

1991 Face to Face #668

Turner in the 80's by provided me and millions of others with Braves baseball on TBS.

2010 Topps Tribute Relic Auto #TAR-BC2

And Cox for managing one of the most entertaining teams of the 90's... which we enjoyed on TBS.