Awesome Athletics #1: Jim "Catfish" Hunter

I've been an A's fan for as long as I can remember. My older brother introduced me to baseball and took me to games on a regular basis. Growing up in the Bay Area, you were either a fan of the A's or a fan of the Giants. Anyone else didn't matter. For whatever reason, we attended A's games 95% of the time and so that's where my love for Finley's green, white, and gold originated.

This new series will focus on my favorite current and former Athletics. I'll include cards from my A's PC, which include autographs, memorabilia cards, and rookie cards.

First up.... Jim "Catfish" Hunter. I'll be honest... I can't remember ever watching Hunter pitch. But I remember hearing stories about his ability to win big games for the A's (his postseason record with the A's was an amazing 7-2 with a 2.57 ERA) and of course his perfect game against the Twins in 1968.

He pitched for the Athletics for 10 seasons. In that time, he won 161 regular season games, had a 3.13 ERA, and made the all-star team 6 times (2 more times w/ the Yankees). He also won the Cy Young award in his final season with the A's (1974). That year he led the league in wins, ERA, and WHIP.

The following year, Hunter became the highest paid pitcher in baseball when he signed with the New York Yankees. Luckily, I was only 3 years old at the time, so I didn't have any anger towards his move from the green & gold to Yankee pinstripes.

In 1987 he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He chose to have no team insignia on his HOF plaque, because he wanted to be remembered for his accomplishments as both a Yankee and an Athletic. Three years later, the A's retired Hunter's number (27).

On September 9th, 1999 Jim "Catfish" Hunter passed away at the age of 53. Although eleven years have passed, Mr. Hunter's contributions to the Oakland A's will always be remembered.

Question of the day: Do you collect anyone who played before you were born? If so... who and why?

Set Showcase #3: 1999/00 Fleer Ultra "Parquet Players"

The art of set building... it can be stressful and frustrating when you can't find the cards you need... yet exciting and rewarding when you finally finish your set.

Right now... I'm in the process of building six sets. Three of them are baseball... one football... one basketball... and one multi-sport. So if you have any of these products laying around... PM me:

1984 Topps baseball set (need 39 cards)
1972 Topps A's team set (need 7 cards... all high #'s)
2002 Fleer Fall Classic "HOF Plaque" set (need 18 cards)
2008 Score Select football set (need 5 cards)
08/09 Topps Signature "Black Facsimile Autograph" basketball set (need 62 cards)
1995 Classic Assets "One Minute Phone Card" multi-sport set (need 5 phone cards)

Cards from all of these sets are fairly easy to find, so it's just a matter of coughing up the money. But, I'm too cheap and won't dish out full book value, so it may end up taking me a while.

So... when I find a cool insert card that I like, I'll sometimes find someone on the internet selling a complete set. It saves me the time and also a ton of money. I know... I don't get the thrill of completing the set... but I figure I have enough on my plate with those other sets already.

That's what happened when I strolled across Kobe Bryant's 99/00 Ultra "Parquet Players" insert card. Without sounding like a freak... it was "love at first sight". The card's design really stood out to me, because of the player's photo (taken from above), the parquet floor (reminds me of 08/09 Topps Hardwood), and the team emblem (jumps out at you with a wooden background).

Set: 15 cards (1:72 hobby/retail packs)

Hall of Famers: 6% (Scottie Pippen)

Future Hall of Famers: (Shaquille O'Neal, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant... and maybe... Paul Pierce)

Rookie Year Inserts: 13% (Elton Brand & Baron Davis)

Obviously, the player selection is a little sub-par... however back in 1999 these were some of the hottest commodities in the hobby. It's not Fleer's fault that Jason Williams and Keith Van Horn would turn out to be role players (at best)... And who would have guessed that Stephon Marbury would go crazy?

The set still has some of the game's greatest players of all-time and (in my opinion) has a solid design. Throw in the fact that these were tough pulls (one out of three boxes) and to me... it's a keeper.

I'm sure a lot of you could care less about Beckett, but if you're wondering the set currently books at $100 (when I bought it... it booked for $150). Kobe books at $30, but all of the other major stars are listed between $12 and $15. Beckett has the two rookies at $20 (Brand) and $25 (Davis), but you can pick these up from COMC for $3.50 and $7.50 respectively. In fact, COMC has singles of Van Horn, Jamison, Pierce, Walker, Marbury, Williams, and Hughes for under a $1 each.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any recent sales of this stuff on eBay... but I picked up the whole set for around $25.

Anyways... here's today's question of the day: Do you think Paul Pierce will end up being a member of the NBA's Hall of Fame?

Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Fuji's Flea Market Finds #3

When: Saturday, Sept. 4th & Sunday, Sept. 5th

Where: De Anza Flea Market & Capitol Flea Market
What: 45's, Tecmo Bowl NES game, pack of cards, 1972 A's Pennant, & 2 McFarlane's
How Much: $18.25 ($21.75 if you include the pennant holder from the card shop)

This weekend I went to two flea markets in two days. The De Anza flea market is on the first Saturday of every month, while the Capitol Flea Market is open every weekend (& possibly on a few weekdays as well).

Two flea markets... two very different environments.

Day 1: I attended the De Anza flea market on Saturday. It's located in Cupertino (home of Apple) and has a variety of venders. Some people sell antiques, while others sell scrap booking supplies. Most of the stuff there is either new and clean or kept in good shape (unless it's very old and collectible). This is my favorite flea market, because there's a toy dealer (former collector) who sell his stuff really cheap. I try to find him first, so I can get the main purchase out of the way.

1st Purchase: Barry Zito McFarlane & Shaquille O'Neal McFarlane (both new in package) for $5

I was pretty stoked about getting these, because up until now, I only had two McFarlane's in my collection (both Ichiro Suzuki's). He had a bunch (like McGrady & Lebron), but these were the only two he had from teams I collected. He's going to look for more when he checks his storage, so hopefully I have a few more to show off next month.

2nd Purchase: A pack of 1994 Flair baseball (series 1) for $.25

This might be the steal of the weekend. A guy had a box of loose wax packs (mostly early 90's junk wax), but laying on top was a pack of 1994 Flair baseball. He wanted $.25 a pack or 5 for $1. Since I couldn't find anything else worth picking up, I just grabbed this one.

I love the packaging of these products, which contains three layers. The cards are first sealed in a clear wrapper/pack. The pack is put into a nice cardboard slide box, which is then wrapped in cellophane. It's one of the coolest packaging designs in card collecting history (obviously my opinion).

Now for the good stuff. As I slid the box open... Mr. Ripken's Hot Numbers insert was laying right on top staring at me. I was stoked, because I love this insert set... In fact, I just posted about it less than 2 weeks ago. A $25 card for $.25... can't beat that. The rest of pack was nice too. I found an Eckersley and Steinbach for my A's PC and a clean looking Kirby Puckett. The base design is amazing with it's dual picture and nice gold foil text. The colors really stand out and the card stock is thick for it's era.

3rd Purchase: a 1972 Oakland A's World Series Pennant for $10

Here's my most expensive purchase of the day. He originally wanted $15, but I told him I'd pass. It has a couple of stains (below the word "champions" and at the tip) and has a slight crease (at the bottom left tip), so I was only willing to pay $10. As I was about to leave, he told me he'd give it to me for $10 without the cover (which was beat up and cracked) and I accepted.
Later, I went to my local card shop and picked up a pennant holder for $3.50... so I actually payed $13.50 in all. Either way... I'm stoked because the A's are my favorite team and this is a huge piece of their history.

Day 2: On Sunday I woke up early, so I decided to head out to the other flea market I like. The Capitol flea market is completely different from the De Anza. De Anza's flea market is held in the parking lot of their community college and is very clean. The Capitol flea market is located at a nearby drive-in theater and is pretty dirty. In fact most of my friends refuse to go.

Most of the dealers sell garbage and I promise you I'm not exaggerating. You really have to dig through barrels and bins to find stuff. However, on a good day you can find hidden treasures. I guess today wasn't a good day, because I only picked up 3 things for a total of $3.

1st Purchase: two 45's for $1

I'll be honest, I'm not sure why I wasted my money... since I don't even have a record player. I think it was because I was caught up in the moment and both of these records stirred up memories of the 80's.

The first 45 is Pat Benatar's Hell Is For Children. I remember growing up thinking this song is so cool, because Benatar is bad ass. She thinks that hell is a place for kids. Eventually, I discovered that it was about child abuse. I'm still embarrassed to admit that. Either way... one of the classics.

The other 45 is from one of my favorite bands of all-time: The Police. It's far from being one of my favorite songs, however it's one of their most popular (especially during the 80's). Synchronicity was the first album that I bought of The Police and after that I was a fan for life. These days, I actually prefer listening to their earlier stuff... but it's hard to forget my roots.

2nd Purchase: Tecmo Bowl (NES) for $2

This is hands down my favorite NES game of all-time. I still have my system stored somewhere in my garage (and I actually think I have this game already). However when I saw this in a stack of other NES games, I had to pick it up. I'm not going to go into it anymore, because this item will be featured in a future post.

On that note, I'll leave you with today's "question of the day". What's the best steal/deal you've gotten at a flea market or swap meet?

Anyways, I hope everyone is enjoying their Labor Day weekend. Stay safe!

Blog Trade #1: Shot Not Taken

Last weekend, while in the midst of wrapping up my contest... I made a deal with Raymond over at http://shotnottaken.wordpress.com/. He runs a really cool blog that covers everything from mail days to box breaks.

By the way Raymond... let me know if you're ever willing to trade that Alex Ross autograph. Battle of the Planets was one of my favorite cartoons when I was growing up... and Alex Ross is one of the greatest comic book artists of our time.

Anyways back to the trade. It was a straight up... one card for one card deal.

I sent him my 2008 TNA Cross the Line "Autograph" of Alex Shelley:

And he sent me his 09/10 Crown Royale "King of the Court jersey" of Kobe Bryant:

Thanks Raymond... I appreciate the smooth transaction. So here's today's question of the day: Which bloggers have you traded with before and had success with?

Cheap Cool Cards #3: 1996 UD "TV Cel" John Elway

Card: 1996 Upper Deck "TV Cel" #6 John Elway

Beckett Value: $10

COMC Price: $2.50

Here's another acetate card that I added to my collection a fews ago. Up until a few weeks ago, I had never seen one of these before. But I was browsing COMC for deals when I came across this card for $1, so I picked it up.

After some research, I discovered that these were redemption cards that Upper Deck sent out if you sent in a winning predictor card. Do any of you remember these? I loved this gimmick that UD used to interact with collectors. The premise was simple. Predictor cards were inserted into packs. Each predictor card had a player with a specific goal. These Elway TV Cel cards were the prizes for one of two different predictor cards.

The first predictor card required that Elway pass for 350 yards in a game. The other required him to have 30 completions in a game. He accomplished both feats, so if you had either of these predictor cards, you could send them in for the TV Cel card above.

I never pulled any of the 1996 UD "NFL Predictor" cards, but I did participate in their "Crash the Game" program, which is similar to the "Predictor" program. I'm not an expert, but I think they're generally the same concept. One difference I noticed was that the Elway "Predictor" card was over the course of the season, while the "Crash the Game" cards had specific goals for specific games.

It's been over 15 years, but I think that when I sent in a winning "Crash the Game" card... I was sent a specially marked "Crash the Game" set. Did anyone else participate in this program? Do you remember the prizes?

I also know that there were different versions of the "Crash the Game" cards. For example in the 96/97 NHL Collector's Choice "Crash the Game" series there were silver and gold cards. The gold cards were tougher to pull. I'm assuming that you received a special gold set if you sent in a winning gold card, but once again I'm not 100% sure.

I'm not a big fan of most of these "Crash the Game" designs, however the concept was cool. I'm not going to lie, every time I pulled one I was excited because I knew I might win something. With the 1996 NFL UD "Predictor" cards, not only did the collector get the thrill of seeing if the player would win them something, but the actual prize turned out to be a sweet acetate card.

And if you've read my posts before... then you know that I Love Acetate!

Thanks for reading... Have a great weekend.