An Attempted Run at Area 51

My memory isn't what it used to be.  That being said... I still remember watching Ichiro Suzuki receive a standing ovation from players and fans at the Tokyo Dome as he walked off the field as a player for the final time in his career back in March of 2019.

Since then it's been a waiting game... since there was no doubt in my mind that he'd be a first ballot hall of famer.  And as we all know... the wait is sort of over.   Last Tuesday he got the call from the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but now Ichiro and his fans must wait another six months for the Class of 2025 Induction Ceremony which will be held on July 27th in Cooperstown.

Until then you can expect at least two or three posts celebrating Ichiro's career.  Today's post focuses on his Topps flagship base card run.  It's not complete, but it's darn close.

2001 Topps #726

2002 Topps #225

No Topps base card run could be considered complete without his rookie card.  It took me twenty-three years, but I finally acquired a copy last summer at the flea market.  Unfortunately, I'm still looking for his 2001 Topps Traded & Rookies card.

2003 Topps #100

2004 Topps #10

His 2004 and 2005 Topps base cards are two of my favorites.  Both feature attractive action shots.

2005 Topps #400

2006 Topps #225

2007 Topps #400

Topps dropped the ball on Ichiro's 2007 base card.  What could have been one heckuva "play at the plate" card ended up being a zoomed in... cropping disaster.

2008 Topps #320

2009 Topps #300

2010 Topps #125

Topps redeemed themselves in 2008 with a nice photo of Ichiro and his iconic "samurai" pose.

2011 Topps #200

2012 Topps #537

2012 Topps Update #US272

On July 23, 2012... the Seattle Mariners shipped him off to the New York Yankees where he'd play the next two seasons.  Unfortunately Topps didn't have a contract with him, so Ichiro didn't have base cards in their 2013 and 2014 flagship sets.

2015 Topps Update #US396

2016 Topps #700

In 2015, he signed with the Miami Marlins as a free agent and returned to Topps in time for their Update set.

2017 Topps #699

2018 Topps #157

2018 Topps Update #US100

In March of 2018, he'd return to play for the Seattle Mariners for about a month before transitioning to a position in their front office.  The following season, he'd play his final two MLB games for the Mariners in Japan for the 2019 MLB Opening Series.

Ichiro has one of those "legends" variation cards in 2019 Topps flagship and another in the 2019 Topps Update set, but I haven't tracked either of those down yet.  In fact, I haven't really gone out of my way to obtain any of the Topps flagship short prints with the exception of this card:

2020 Topps #363

I'm not sure if this card fits into Dime Box Nick's Into the Sunset category or not... but it's an Ichiro Topps flagship base card (albeit a legend variation) that happens to feature statistics from his entire MLB career:

This is one of my most recent Ichiro purchases.  I had been waiting for this card to pop up on eBay for a reasonable BIN price.  Then last month, one came up for auction and I wound up being the highest bidder ($14.75 + $1.25 shipping).

I will continue to look for reasonably priced Topps flagship variations of Ichiro, but who knows when I'll be fortunate enough to land another one.  In the meantime, if you like these sorts of things... I encourage you to check out Reds Card Collector.  His Ichiro collection is super impressive.

Well that's it for now.  I'm a little behind on blogging, but I do have another Flea Market Find post in the works.  Hopefully I'll get it published on Thursday.  I have another trip to the flea market planned for Saturday and I'd hate to start piling up posts.  But we'll see how things play out.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #162: A Binder Full of Cards

It's officially flea market season.  Last weekend... I hit up the De Anza Flea Market with my brother and his wife.  The weather was nice (cool and sunny).  In fact... it might have been too nice... because it lured the largest crowd in years.  That's a good thing for vendors, but I wasn't a fan.  Large crowds mean more people.  More people mean less personal space.  And less personal space means I'm trying to rush through things in an effort to get out of there.

Anyways... you're not here to listen to me complain.  Let's show off my purchases...

Purchase #1:  Baseball Card Binder  $35

Walked up to a booth and noticed a guy flipping through a binder of cards.  The vendor also had some action figures and video games, so I checked them out and waited to see if the guy was going to buy the binder.  He didn't.

After he left, I walked over, picked it up, and opened it.  Here's what I saw:

The first few pages were filled with Aaron Judge cards... followed by eight to ten pages of Derek Jeter cards.  Here are some of the highlights:

As much as I dislike the New York Yankees... I love collecting Derek Jeter cards.  I didn't take an official count, but I'd say I added at least sixty new ones to my collection.

The vendor mentioned that the binder belonged to a family member who is a New York Yankees fan.  That makes sense, because the vast majority of the cards in the binder were Yankees.

Included in the pages was one of those World Series team sets that Topps produces:

2009 Topps New York Yankees World Series Set

I thought about breaking it up for the Matsui and Jeter cards, but in the end I kept it intact.

The vendor marked the binder with a $50 price tag, but after flipping through about 15 pages, he told me to make an offer.  Then I saw this page:

At that point, I knew I wanted the binder.  I have a pretty nice Ichiro collection, but I didn't own his Topps rookie card.  So I tossed out a $30 offer.  The seller countered with $35 and now I own this card:

2001 Topps #726

I love this card so much.  I even took the extra time to scan the back:

Overall the binder mostly contained inserts and base cards, but there were a few other rookie cards I didn't own:

1994 Bowman's Best #29

2007 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects #BDPP12

2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects #BCP25

Actually... I own a copy of that Freeman, but this is my first raw copy.

The other cool thing included in this purchase was a complete run of Joe Torre Topps manager cards:

1978 Topps #109

Did you know that he's the only person in MLB history to have 2,000 hits as a player and 2,000 wins as a manager?

Okay... I spent enough time on this purchase.  Moving along...

Purchase #2:  March Graphic Novel Trilogy  $10

These three books are about the life of Congressman John Lewis, who played a key role in the civil rights movement.  I already own hardcover copies.  But when I saw this set of paper back copies for $10, I grabbed it for my classroom.


Purchase #3:  Puffy Stickers $1

1983 Funmate Norris Division

Saw this sitting in a guy's dollar box.  Don't normally seek out puffy stickers, but I thought the North Stars sticker was pretty cool.  Worst case scenario, I pass this along to my buddy who is a Blackhawks fan.

Well that wraps up another trip to my local flea market.  Thanks for coming along on the ride.  I know I didn't buy a lot this time around, but there's always next time.

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

Starting Another Run

A little over a decade ago... I decided to put together a complete run of Steve Carlton's Topps flagship base (and traded) cards.  Next up was Thurman Munson.  In 2022, I completed the Steve Largent run.  A month later, the Tony Gwynn run was finished too.

After putting it off for far too many years... last month I decided to start another run.  This time, the subject is The Man of Steal.  Before Gwynn, Rickey was my favorite baseball player.  In fact... had he not been traded to the New York Yankees back in December of 1984... there's a chance he still would be.

Ultimately, he'd return to the A's in 1989 and help them beat the San Francisco Giants in the World Series.  Unfortunately by then... there was no way he unseat Mr. Padre.  But he'd settle comfortably into the #2 spot which is where he has remained ever since.

Over forty years after becoming a fan... I'm now making a point of completing his run.  Considering all of the teams he's played for over his twenty-five season career... I've quickly discovered this is going to be a lot tougher than anticipated.

Let's start off with what I have...

1982 Topps #610

As of right now, his 1982 card is the oldest in the run.  This is a chance to explain one of the guidelines I've created for myself... which is that the cards in these base card runs are not part of a set or set build.  Rickey's 1980 Topps rookie card is the perfect example.  I own a complete set of 1980 Topps, but I'm not willing to pull it out for this project.  The same thing applies to a few other cards in this project: his 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1995 cards.

1984 Topps #230

1985 Topps #115

1987 Topps #735

1988 Topps #60

1989 Topps #380

1989 Topps Traded #48T

1990 Topps #450

1991 Topps #670

1992 Topps #560

1993 Topps #750

1994 Topps #248

1997 Topps #96

Over the span of Rickey's career... Topps produced a staggering twenty-nine flagship regular (non-subset) base and traded cards.  As of today, I currently have thirteen in possession, plus three sitting in a box over at Sportlots, and hopefully four more are on their way to my Sportlots box.

Assuming these seven eventually arrive safe and sound, I'll be down to nine cards.  Here's a look at the ones I need:

The four cards highlighted in red were purchased over three weeks ago and haven't arrived... so I'm starting to think I'll need to purchase them again.

His rookie card will set me back a little, but I'm not too worried about that card.  Living in the Bay Area, I'm hoping to find an affordable, lower grade, raw copy for a reasonable price.  Not sure what the deal is with his 2002 and 2003 Topps Traded cards.  If I'm lucky, I'll have to pay $15 for the 2003 card.  Outside of his rookie card, that's about the most I want to pay for a card in this project.

Sadly... that puts me in kind of a bind, because his 2002 traded card currently sells in the $50 to $80 range.  NO WAY WILL I PAY THAT KIND OF MONEY.  Anyone know what the deal is with that card?  Anyways... maybe the Hobby Gods will help me out and I'll find it lingering in a dime box or quarter bin.

If not... this might be one of those projects that take years... possibly decades to finish.  That's kind of a bummer, but let's wrap things up on a happier note.

Back in December, Gavin showed off this gorgeous custom of Rickey's rookie card on his blog:

Hold on.  My scanner does not do this card justice.  Here's a photo of the custom:

Is this card awesome or what?  It actually looks way better in person.  And it's absolutely perfect for a St. Patrick's Day post.

Anyways... when he first showed it off... I asked him he was planning on selling it.  He didn't reply to my comment... but eventually this card showed up in my mailbox with a note thanking me for supporting his 1991 MusiCards Blog.

He signed the back... and noted that this is a one-of-a-kind custom... and his 1st Green Super.  Can't wait to see what other Green Supers he produces.

He also used the scraps from this custom and a Canseco reject to produce this one-of-a-kind card:

The Green Super was put into a magnetic and will eventually be added to my A's shelf in the office, while this Gold Super will be added to my Sports Card Smorgasbord binder which contains all of the other customs I've received from him and others over the years.

Thank you Gavin for these welcomed additions to my Rickey collection.

Happy St. Patrick's Day and sayonara!