TWIB: Credit Cards, Controversial Cardboard, and my Puckett Phase

Good afternoon sports card collectors.  Welcome to another edition of This Week in Blogging.  This week's buffet plate is loaded, so let's dive in before things get cold...

#1:  Credit Card Addiction

My father warned me about the dangers of messing with credit cards when I was a kid.  I didn't listen and had to learn the hard way.  Back in the 90's, I found myself in a big pile of debt.  I spent five years paying it off and it was one of the greatest life lessons I ever learned.

1981 Perma-Graphics Credit Cards #19

These days, the bulk of my credit cards look like the Rickey you see above.  Last Sunday, Gregory reminded me of this set I bought a few years ago when he showed off his Keith Hernandez over on his blog:  Nine Pockets.  Here's a look at the set in its entirety:

These credit cards might not earn you any bonus points, but they won't leave you with a pile of debt either.

#2:  Controversial Cardboard

2005 Topps Turkey Red

Topps included Tony Gwynn in their 206 set this year.  On the surface, this isn't too shocking.  However I thought Jongudmund made some interesting and thought provoking arguments on his blog .394 this past Monday regarding Mr. Padre and a card with tobacco roots.  If you haven't read about it already, I encourage you to check it out.

Sorry... I don't have a copy of the 2020 Topps 206 Gwynn, so I decided to use another tobacco inspired card of him instead.

#3:  Incredible Iwamura

2008 Topps Silk #243 (#'d 44/50)

This postseason has made me accept the fact that I'm oblivious to almost anything related to the Tampa Bay Rays.  Thankfully, Jeremy listed his Top 5 Rays Moments back on Monday and recapped important events in their franchise history.

In his post, he made me realize how important Akinori Iwamura is to Rays' fans.   I have a bunch of his cards sitting in my Japanese Athlete PC, but I thought the above card was perfect for this post, since his putout against the Red Sox in Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS sent the Rays to the World Series.

#4:  Lemonade Stands and Penny Cards

1960 Topps #35

Dimebox Nick has inspired a fair number of posts on this blog.  He shows off some of the most unique cards and has some of the most interesting card stories in the blogosphere.  Earlier in the week, he showed off his Top 5 Whitey Ford cards and the card seated in the #1 spot was his 1960 Topps card which was given to him by his father.

Now any card passed down from father to son is a cool card in my book.  But to top it off, Nick's father purchased it from some kids with a lemonade stand.  This sent me on a trip down memory lane as I remember setting up a lemonade stand in front of my house as a kid with some friends.  And guess what.  We sold cards too.

By the way, the 1960 Topps Whitey Ford shown above is the latest autograph addition to my collection.  Picked it up last Saturday off eBay for $30 (+ $6.56 in taxes and shipping).  The seller didn't show a scan of the card back and I failed to ask about it, but I'm pretty sure the price reflects the condition.

#5:  Better Than a Blaster

When it comes to fellow bloggers, I feel like Shoebox Legends and I share similar interests when it comes to collecting.  One of the things we have in common is an appreciation for bargain priced graded rookie cards.  A few days ago, he wrote about his recently purchased graded Kirby Puckett rookie card and I was truly envious.  Shane seems to find the best deals on slabs.  He's also really good at flipping cards for profits and using that money to buy more cards for his collection.

1985 Donruss #438

After doing a little digging, I discovered that I own my own graded copy of that card.  I purchased mine ten years ago on COMC for $12.  Back then... I went through a Puckett phase.  Here are a few of the other collectibles in my Puckett PC:

1985 Fleer #286

1985 Topps #536

1985 Minnesota Twins Postcards #NNO

2003 Sweet Spot Classic Greats #CG-KP

1984 Fleer Update #U-93

The autograph and 1984 Fleer Update set me back a few bucks, but the pair of cellos packs and the slabbed postcard were all purchased for less than the price of a blaster box.

There were actually two more blog posts I was going to feature in today's post, but this one has dragged on long enough.  But my plan is to write about each of them this week, so stay tuned.

Until then, here are a few questions to keep you busy...

What are some of your favorite controversial cards and/or Tampa Bay Rays sitting in your collection?

If you're a team collector, have you ever went through a phase where you collected a player outside of your team(s)?

Okay... that wraps things up another edition of This Week in Blogging.  Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Classic and Colorful Cardboard

Today is National Color Day.  Yup.  Just another day to celebrate something and in the case of this card blog... it's an excuse to show off colorful cards.

While flipping through my binders looking for colored refractors, I noticed that the Classic cards from the late 80's and early 90's also featured colorful borders.  And since Classic cards don't receive the same amount of hobby love as refractors, I decided to focus on them for this post.  Don't worry, I'll probably run with the refractor idea next year.

For now... feast your eyes on my Classic rainbow:

Honestly... I didn't pay a lot of attention to Classic cards when they were in production.  Yes.  I wanted the famous Bo Jackson card that Nolan Ryan is holding.  But when it came to spending my hard earned money, I spent it buying packs or boxes.

These days, I'll target specific Classic singles for my player collections on Sportlots and will pick up hall of famers when I find them in dime boxes.  What about you?

What are your thoughts on Classic cards?

Is there a particular design or colored border that you like more than any other?

And since it's National Color Day...

What's your favorite color?

Happy National Color Day and sayonara!

Perfect Timing

Sometimes... timing is everything.  I've been sitting on this post for well over a month.  I thought about combining it with other posts like when I wrote about my signed Tony Oliva rookie card back in September.  Ultimately I made the executive decision to hold off and publish it today to kick off the 2020 World Series.

Plus it's the twenty-ninth anniversary of this fantastic play...

1992 Tuff Stuff World Series Sheet #1

Isn't it awesome?  Okay, technically the anniversary was yesterday and the card design is average at best.  But that photograph is perfect.  Literally... the timing and position of the photographer was perfect.  

In fact, you can watch the actual play here:

It took place in Game 1 of the 1991 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and Minnesota Twins during the bottom of the fifth inning.  I'm sure most of you don't have time to watch then entire game, but you can click here to skip to the 1:52:45 mark to see the actual play.

Although I remember rooting for the Braves during this World Series, I don't actually remember this play.  However after seeing this card, I doubt I'll ever forget it.

The card itself came out of this issue of Tuff Stuff:

Tuff Stuff Magazine 1992 January 

Ryan over at Japanese Sumo Wrestling Cards and Menko sent me a package back in August containing a few issues of Tuff Stuff Magazine and this one was included.

Here's a look at the rest of the 1991 Tuff Stuff World Series sheet:

Greg Olson might have gotten the upper hand on the play and walked away with one heck of a photograph, but Dan Gladden and the Minnesota Twins walked away with the Game 1 victory.

1991 U.S. Playing Cards All-Stars #4D

A week later Kirby Puckett hit one of the biggest home runs of his career and forced a Game 7.

1991 U.S. Playing Cards All-Stars #AH

The next day, Jack Morris pitched a ten inning shutout and the Minnesota Twins won their third and most recent World Series title.

Hopefully this year's World Series will be just as exciting.

Although I was hoping to see the A's and Padres slug it out... it's pretty cool to see the two teams with the best records face off.  Based on my original rankings, I should be rooting for the Rays.  However, I barely know anyone on the team and I really do like guys like Kershaw, Buehler, and Betts.

The bottom line it doesn't really matter who wins.  Neither are the A's or Padres... and thankfully neither are the Yankees or Astros, so let the best team win.

What about you?

Who are you rooting for?  Who do you think is going to win?

I'm predicting the Dodgers win in six games... but I'm hoping it goes the full seven with Mookie hitting a perfectly timed walk off home run to win the series.

That's it for today.  Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Gum Stains and Denny's Cards

With the World Series scheduled to start tomorrow, my plan was to break down the series by featuring cards from each team.  Sadly... upon further inspection, I don't have as many Tampa Bay Rays as I originally thought.

Another thing that screwed me up was I didn't find out who the Rays would be facing until after 9pm last night.  Who schedules these games?

Anyways... congratulations to all of the Dodgers bloggers out there and the pair of Rays supporters I know of.  I'll give you my thoughts on the 2020 World Series tomorrow.

Today I'll be recapping on a pair of PWE's I opened up over the weekend.  First up is a card I mentioned in my post on Saturday...

1987 Topps #125

Chris over at The Collector opened up some packs of 1987 Topps football last week and pulled this hall of fame rookie card.  I think normally Chris would have held onto this card, but fortunately it had this gum stain on it:

That's right... I said "fortunately".  I'm all about gum stains.  He sent the three other cards with gum stains too... along with some Packers and A's cards that were perfectly clean:

Thank you Chris for this nice addition to my wax/gum stained rookie card collection.  And the Marcus Allen is already sitting in my Damaged Card PC binder.

The other PWE I opened was sent by Daniel over at It's like having my own Card Shop.  He reached out to me on Twitter... which is a social media platform I still don't really understand or utilize and offered me some Denny's Star Wars cards.  Thankfully I have just enough Twitter skills to be able to hit reply.  A few days later, voilà...

As you can see... he also threw in a few A's cards like Chris.  But the main card I wanted was this beauty...

2018 Denny's Solo #NNO

The lovely Emilia Clarke plays Han Solo's girlfriend, but honestly... I'm more familiar with her role as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones.  My friend actually had to point out that Qi'ra was Clarke during the movie.  Regardless... this is a beautiful addition to my Star Wars collection.

Thank you Daniel for hooking me up with these restaurant cards.  I think it's pretty awesome that Denny's decided to have a trading card promotion again... after the huge success they had in the 90's with their baseball holograms.

Okay... I seriously need to wrap things up and get ready for my home room class that's starting up in less than thirty minutes.

Happy Monday and sayonara!