Overproduced Yet Underappreciated

Whenever collectors talk about their favorite sets of the 90's, 1993 Upper Deck usually receives a fair share of shoutouts... and rightfully so.  The simple design allows the stellar photography to shine... which is why it's hard to deny its greatness.

However with so many collectors focused on that set, it's easy to overlook another set from that year:  1993 Topps.  Back in August, I picked up two hand collated sets for $40 at the De Anza Flea Market.  When I came home I flipped through them to make sure they were complete... and while doing so, I was pretty impressed with what I saw.

Today, I figured I'd show off a few of my favorite singles and hopefully spread awareness for this cool set.

Let's kick things off with some awesome, well cropped action shots, since you know that's what I enjoy seeing on my baseball cards:

Topps also included a few candid cards, which included the famous "big bat" Puckett card...

And the Russian troika...

Bat rack enthusiasts will appreciate the Larry Walker card...

There's even a little Archives-esque posed shot with the Kaufman Stadium lights in the background...

And of course you can't leave out the most valuable card in the set...

I'll go ahead and wrap things up with this Lee Smith and Dennis Eckersley card:

I included this card more for trivial reasons.  As of right now... it's the only all-star subset card that features two hall of famers.  This will change if Fred McGriff, Roger Clemens, Larry Walker, or Gary Sheffield ever get a plaque at Cooperstown.

Well this wraps up my 1993 Topps baseball spiel.  What about you?

Thumbs up?  Down?  Have you ever given this set a second thought?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the set that usually gets lost in the 1993 Upper Deck baseball's shadow.

Personally... the Upper Deck is the clear cut champion.  But I feel like this set definitely deserves consideration for the #1 contender spot.  Well that's it for today.

Happy Throwback Thursday and sayonara!

Not So Local Card Shop

According to Google, the nearest baseball card shop is 13.8 miles from my doorstep.  The last time I shopped there was way over a year ago.  It's probably been closer to two or three years, but distance doesn't have anything to do with it.  It's their card prices.  I completely understand that they need to make a profit to pay the bills, but I have bills to pay as well... which is why I've been mostly a bargain hunter ever since I reentered the hobby a little over a decade ago.

One of the places I hit up for deals is an online card shop that's roughly 2,400 miles away from me.  A few days after my birthday, I checked out their inventory and found a few cards for my team collections, a few singles for my "sports card time capsule", a cool 1 of 1 for my hockey collection, and a great deal on this autographed card:

1998 SP Authentic Chirography #TH

Helton is one of the greatest players in Colorado Rockies' franchise history.  I was surprised at how little pack-pulled on-card autographs he has.  I was even more surprised to see the four dollar price tag on this card.

Next up are a trio of autographs for my team collections:

2013-14 Panini Rookie Anthology #179

2019 Gypsy Queen Indigo Autographs #GQA-MO

2016 Prestige Rookie Signatures Xtra Points Red #JRE

These three cards added $10 to the running total, which isn't exactly a great deal.  However there's plenty of upside for these three rising stars.

Here are a pair of singles for a project I'm currently working on:

2016 Leaf Trinity Patch Autographs #PA-DH1

2016 Donruss Optic Rookie Signatures #RR-KT

I purchased the Hudson for $7 and the Marte for $2, which brings my total purchase so far up to $23.

I'm planning on putting some cards (and possibly packs) into a box and sealing it up for one or two years... then opening it up and seeing how much their values have appreciated or depreciated.  As soon as I add a few more items to the box, I'll seal it up and write a post about them.

And finally here's one of those Vault 1 of 1 cards:

2010-11 ITG Heroes and Prospects National Pride Jersey #NATP-08

This card matched the Dakota Hudson as the highest priced cards in the purchase.  Like I mentioned in yesterday's post, I don't really buy many hockey cards anymore, but I really like Subban and his passion for the game.  When I saw this card, I thought it would contain a piece of his Team Canada jersey, but it actually features a jersey swatch from his from his OHL days with the Belleville Bulls.

There were three more cards I added to this order, which when you tack on shipping brought the price to an even $40.  At the time of purchase, I was really eager to pull the trigger and make this purchase.  However after breaking things down in this post, it doesn't quite look like a bargain anymore.

Oh well... too late now.  It's not like I can hop into my car, drive to this not-so-local card shop, and ask for a refund.  Wait.  Do local card shops even offer refunds to customers with buyer's remorse?  Probably not.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Canine Card Collection

When I first started blogging, I wrote about everything related to collectibles.  But over time, I noticed that my baseball related posts received the most views... which convince me to cut back on everything else.

These days, I'd say 95% of my posts feature at least one baseball card or a baseball related item.  In fact the last time it didn't was on June 21, 2019... when I wrote about my skateboards.  That's forty-seven straight posts that involved baseball cards in some shape or form.

Today the streak ends, because I wanted to show off two of my latest Bernese Mountain Dog trading cards.  But before I do, here are the awesome dogs that inspired me to start this collection:

Meet Mika and Chibi... the friendliest fur balls you'll ever meet.  One of them belongs to my best friend... and the other belongs to her sister.  Before I met them, I had no idea what a Bernese Mountain Dog was.  Now... they're my favorite dogs in the world.

Okay, let's check out some cards...

2018 Upper Deck Canine Collection #328

I found this card on COMC a few months ago.  It's from the Canine Collection ePacks.  I honestly don't know how these ePacks work, but this is an actual card.  So there must be some way to convert the digital cards into hard copies.  As soon as I saw this card, it reminded me of the sisters.

The next card was part of a complete set I purchased off of eBay:

2019 Allen and Ginter Collectible Canines #CC-18

By now you've probably seen this insert set.  I was originally hoping to pick up this single at a flea market or on COMC for under a buck.  Eventually, I discovered it was much more cost effective to just buy a complete set.  I'm not as big of a fan of the photo used on this card, but the number of Bernese Mountain Dog trading cards out there is limited, so beggars can't be choosers.

The third and final card for my Berner PC is a card I've shared on this blog before:

2017 Goodwin Champions Canine Companions #CC-44

This super thick card is a manufactured patch that is absolutely gorgeous and part of a tiered insert set.  Bernese Mountain Dogs were part of the "working" dog tier, which were inserted into packs at a rate of 1:271 packs.  When you consider that there are twenty different dogs in this tier, the odds of pulling this card are pretty tough.

Well that's it for my canine card collection.  I'll go ahead and wrap up this post with some Sharks I recently received from Bo over at Baseball Cards Come To Life!.  He had inherited a giant hockey collection over the summer and offered to send me some of the San Jose Sharks:

When I look at all of the teams I actively root for, the San Jose Sharks are one of my most beloved franchises.  I've been a fan of them since the beginning.  And I've collected their cards the entire time.  However I've definitely cut back on making hockey purchases the past few years.  There was a time when I'd actively trade my baseball, football, and basketball cards to get my hands on Sharks cards.

But much like my viewership... my interest in collecting hockey cards has declined over time.  That being said... it was nice seeing some of these familiar faces and card designs.  The mid 90's were definitely the peak of my hockey card fanfare.

Thank you Bo for these Sharks cards!  I've added you to the growing list of care packages I need to build.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

The Pride of the Yankees

There are tons of classic baseball movies that I've watched and enjoyed over the years... but one stands out more than the others:  The Pride of the Yankees.  It's about some guy named Lou Gehrig.

I can't remember the first time I watched this film, but it was definitely during the 70's when I was a little kid.  It would pop up on the television every now and then and I never grew bored with the story.  And as much as I dislike the New York Yankees, I couldn't help but grow up admiring The Iron Horse.

Today I'll be showing off some of my favorite Gehrig cards as part of a contest entry.  Brian over at Collecting Cutch has asked his readers to write about one of our favorite sports movies, while connecting them to baseball cards in our collection.  If you're interested in participating, click here for details.

Okay, let's check out some cards...

#1:  2007 UD Masterpieces Box Topper #MP-6

If you've never seen one of these framed and matted box toppers, you're missing out.  They're gorgeous.

This card happens to capture Gehrig standing in front of his teammates and a sold out Yankees Stadium on the day he delivered his famous "Luckiest Man" speech back on July 4th, 1939.  After watching The Pride of the Yankees and listening to his humble speech, I can't imagine any baseball fan not having a soft spot for Mr. Gehrig.

#2:  1976 Topps #341

This is probably my favorite card of Gehrig.  Well... at least out of the ones I own.  I love the black and white action shot combined with the red, white, and blue The Sporting News subset design.

As a bonus, Topps gave collectors Gehrig's entire career stats on the back.


#3:  1989 Topps LJN Baseball Talk #21

Before I added the actual 1976 Topps card of Gehrig, I bought this oddball issue.  If you're not familiar with these cards, they were made to be used with a handheld record player produced by LJN back in the late 80's.

Collectors who owned both the record player and this card... could listen to Mel Allen, Lefty Gomez, and Hank Greenberg talk about Gehrig.  Here's a YouTube video posted by DaClyde which captures the audio:

If you listen to the entire video, you're treated to a clip of Gehrig's famous speech.


#4:  2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection Career Legends Relics #CL-LG2

This is hands down my most valuable Lou Gehrig card.  Last year, I entered one of Colbey's group breaks and was fortunate to walk away with this card and a few other cool Yankees relics.

The card features a piece of a game-used bat used in a MLB game.  However the way Topps wrote up the COA on the back doesn't guarantee that the bat was used by Gehrig.


#5:  1972 Kellogg's All-Time Baseball Greats

This is my second favorite Gehrig card sitting within my collection.  It's hard not to love the combination of 70's Kellogg's lenticular cards and baseball legends.

The card back lists some of Lou's career highlights which includes his special day at Yankees Stadium.

This post wouldn't seem complete without featuring at least one Cal Ripken Jr. card, since the two will forever be associated with each other.  Here's a relic card featuring soil used at Oriole Park at Camden Yards during the season Ripken broke Gehrig's 2,130 consecutive games played streak record:

1996 Fleer Ultra Diamond Dust #NNO

I think it's interesting that collectors often talk about the 1997 Upper Deck Game Jerseys as baseball's first memorabilia cards.  However if you consider game-used dirt to be a form of memorabilia, these technically came first.

I'll wrap things up with a card that I don't own...

2009 Panini Americana Movie Posters Memorabilia #64

I've recently updated my wantlist and have included this card, since it's definitely one of those cards that stirs up fond memories of my childhood.

Thank you Brian for motivating me to write this post and for offering another contest on your blog.  Now I think I'll go and watch The Pride of the Yankees for the umpteenth time.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

2018 WTHBALLS Stars of 1940 #NNO 5x7 Box Topper

I found this card sitting in one of my folders and had to include it into this post.  It was a gift from a fellow blogger who preferred to remain anonymous and it came with a bunch of other really cool cards that doubled as a board game.  If interested, you can read more about it here.