My Craigslist Card Collection Purchase

During the summer, I like to keep busy... so I usually sign up to teach summer school. The extra money goes towards vacation expenses, school supplies, and of course my cardboard addiction.

Normally, I work with middle schoolers... but in the summer, my buddy and I like to switch things up and work with the little ones (4th graders to be exact). She teaches the language arts curriculum, while I cover the math. It's pretty much the same routine every year.

And every spring, I start stocking up on junk wax to pass out to my little kids. They love ripping open packs, even if 99% of them don't recognize the players. I'll usually teach a statistics lesson first to get them hooked... then use the extra packs as incentives for the rest of the summer.

Well I recently found this post on Craigslist and realized it had a little bit of everything and would be perfect for my summer school program. I immediately contacted the guy to see if he was firm on his price. After a little negotiating... I picked up everything you see below for $30.

1988 Fleer Baseball Wax Packs (x36)

1987 Topps Baseball Wax Packs (x6)

1987 Donruss Rack Pack

1988 Donruss Rack Packs (x2)

1989 Donruss Rack Pack

1986 Fleer Sluggers vs. Pitchers Set

1987 Fleer Baseball SuperStars Set

1987 Fleer Sluggers vs. Pitchers Set

1988 Topps Baseball Commons

1993 Action Packed ASG Series 2 Set

1989 Topps Baseball Rack Box (24 packs)

1989 Topps UK Mini Baseball Box (48 packs)

1991 Conlon TSN Baseball Box (36 packs)

1987 Topps Baseball Set (hand collated)

2000 MLB Showdown Starter Deck

2001 MLB Showdown Starter Deck

2001 MLB Showdown Draft Pack

The bulk of this purchase is going towards my classroom this summer. I'll probably bust the rack packs, since they're heavily damaged and are coming off the backing boards.

I might also use a couple of these items as prizes in the month long contest I'll be running this summer.

Plus, I'm going to keep the three Fleer "mini sets", the 1989 Topps UK Mini box, and maybe the 1991 Conlon TSN box.

Here are a few other items, I'm planning on keeping from this Craigslist collection:

Ultra Pro 8 Pocket Pages (x37)

Ultra Pro 2 Pocket Pages (x33)

1990 Baseball Wit Game (w/ 108 trading cards)

2000 APBA Board Game (w/ 30 cards)

The students have no use for odd-sized binder pages, so I'll be keeping those. It's nice to have a few of these in hand just in case I need them.

I've never seen this Baseball Wit game, but it comes with 108 trading cards. I'm debating on busting it or not. Either way... according to Beckett it has some pretty nice names in the set: Tony Gwynn, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Rickey Henderson, Nolan Ryan, and even Babe Ruth.

He also had a board game called "Super Stars Baseball". It was produced in 2000 and comes with 30 cards. The game is sealed, so I used Beckett again to help me with the checklist. This game is also pretty loaded with cards of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Cal Ripken Jr., and my personal favorite... Tony Gwynn.

I'm not sure what I'll do with the two games. Neither of them have any monetary value... in fact the whole collection is pretty much worthless... but the sealed board game is pretty cool.

1988 Topps Big Series 1 Set

1988 Topps Big Series 2 Set

1989 Topps Big Series 1 Set

1989 Topps Big Series 2 Set

1989 Topps Big Series 3 Set

I was pretty excited to see this binder in the lot. If you collected in the late 80's... then I'm sure you know about Topps Big. I remember seeing these in random places, but never picked any up. A few months ago, I considered buying some boxes just to finally grab some. Now I don't have to. Best of all... they're all in pages and were placed in this new binder.

Now all I need to do is hunt down the 1988 Series 3 set. This will be going on my bookshelf with my other binders. I'm sure I'll do a Set Spotlight on these sets sometime in the near future to give you all a better look.

In addition to these sets, he also had a bag full of flats:

1992 Lou Gehrig Wheaties Box

1992 Babe Ruth Wheaties Box

1993 Upper Deck Home Base Newspaper (x2)

1987 National Sports Collectors Convention Poster

1993 The Diamond Magazine (August - 3 issues)

1995 Daily News Brooklyn Dodgers Tribute Magazine

1992 Dino Cardz Promo Strips (x2)

Outside of the dinosaur cards, I'm sure none of these will interest the students. I'll probably give the two Wheaties boxes away as prizes... along with the magazines. The UD newsletter thing is pretty cool, since I've never seen this publication. The guy probably thought it'd be worth something one day, since it's the first issue in the first volume. I wonder if they ever printed a second issue. Maybe one of these days, I'll blog about it... since it has some interesting reading material.

Out of all of these items, I only plan on keeping one thing... this 1987 poster from the 1987 National Convention:

It's an 11" x 14" poster, printed on matted paper and features some of the greatest baseball players of all-time. I wonder if they had all of these guys at the National signing back in the day. If so... can you imagine collecting autographs of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Joe DiMaggio all on one poster?

Unfortunately... it has a small tear along the top and a couple of slight creases along the sides. It doesn't bother me though. Later on today, I'm going to Michael's to buy a frame. This beauty is going up on my wall.

I never made it to the National Convention held in San Francisco back in 1987. It's probably because I wasn't driving yet... and most of my buddies were too cool to collect cards. Hopefully the National will make its way back to The City, because if it does... I'll definitely be there.

Oh... speaking of card shows... check out this flier for a 1989 card show at the Moscone Center:

Can you believe the prices? Maury Wills for $4? Mark McGwire for $10? The most expensive autographs were $15. Those were the days.

Okay... today's question of the day is:

You're traveling back to 1989 and you're attending this card show with $25 in your pocket...

Which players' autographs are you going to chase down?

I have to go with Mays and Henderson... Mays is one of the greatest players of all-time and Henderson is one of my favorite players of all-time.

I'd probably use the leftover dollar and buy a pack of 1989 Upper Deck.

Anyways... recapping my purchase. It may not be a great deal... but I have no regrets. Sure there weren't any huge hits... but it was sort of a smorgasbord: stuff for my students... some items for my contest... and a few PC items for myself.

Enjoy your Saturday everyone... I'm headed out to buy a frame for the poster... and then I might bust a few packs of Conlon. Sayonara!

PC Addition - Ryan Miller Autographed Puck

Yesterday was one of those "win some... lose some" days. In baseball... both of my teams lost... again. It's almost like the Padres and the A's are the same team. They both have great pitching... but they can't hit if their lives depended on it. Sadly my two teams combined for 6 hits and zero runs in their losses to the Astros and Tigers.

Thankfully... the San Jose Sharks beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-2 in overtime. It was a pretty good game with amazing goaltending. The Kings definitely showed the Sharks that they weren't going to lay down for them and that this could turn out to be a great series.

Aside from the first period, my stomach was in knots the whole game. Both teams were in attack mode... but neither could slip it past the goalies. Quick & Niemi both had strong games. And the game only got better in OT. That's when it seemed that both teams were content on going all out on offense... which led to some nice offensive attacks.

Ultimately... the Kings aggressiveness led to skaters being out of place... and the Big Pavelski made them pay for it.

They'll meet again tomorrow night at the Shark Tank... where hopefully they will take a comfortable 2-0 lead in the series.

Across the country a few hours earlier... my favorite non-Shark took care of business himself. Ryan Miller turned away 35 Philadelphia Flyers shots and shut them out as the Sabres have taken a 1-0 lead in that series. I became a Miller fan after watching him lead Team USA to a silver medal in the Vancouver Olympics.

Some of you might remember the autographed 8x10 photo of Miller I picked up with the gift code I won from The Daily Dimwit's contest. If interested you can check it out here.

Well about a week later Steiner Sports had an amazing sale where they offered three autographs for $99 (+ $8.99 shipping). One of those autographs was a puck signed by last night's star:

The silver ink really stands out on the black part of the puck. I'm in the process of deciding how I want to display this gem in my office. The puck came inside of a nice felt bag and included this COA from Steiner Sports:

I won't reveal the other two autographs yet... but they were definitely nice PC additions... especially for the price. In fact... I sort have been on a shopping spree with Steiner these past few weeks. In addition to this one... I placed two more orders for a total of seven autographs purchased in less than four weeks. This past order will probably be my last, since I've pretty much run out of room in my office.

What about you...

Do any of you buy autographs off of Steiner Sport's website?

If yes... what have you purchased? If no... why not?

Have a great weekend everyone... Sayonara!

PC Spotlight #13: 1991/92 San Jose Sharks Cards

The San Jose Sharks season starts in just under two hours. If you're a fellow Sharks fan, then you know the regular season is practically meaningless. Sure you have to play good enough to get into the playoffs... but in San Jose... we're hungry for the Stanley Cup.

This is the seventh season in a row that they've earned a playoff spot. In fact the Sharks have made the playoffs in twelve of their past thirteen seasons. And each year... the result is the same. Agony and defeat... not only for their teams... but their fans too.

Like I mentioned in Sunday's post... I'm not going to get my hopes up... only because it just sets me up for more heartache. Instead... I'm going to cheer on my team and hope that this is the year things are different.

So before I get to the point of this post... I want to wish the San Jose Sharks and all of their loyal fans... the best of luck. Go Sharks!

Now onto the cards. Here's my small collection of 1991/92 San Jose Sharks cards. They're practically worthless to most people, but they're priceless to me. I've had these cards in my collection for the last twenty years.

Here's the only San Jose Sharks base card produced by O-Pee-Chee in 1991-92. It previewed their upcoming jersey and showed their roster.

This is the 1991/92 O-Pee-Chee Premier team set. These were suppose to be the company's higher end product. I originally thought that these were going to be more scarce too... but history has shown that OPC let the printing presses run longer than most had hoped.

Next up is my 1991/92 Upper Deck Series One team set. Upper Deck dropped the puck on this set, because it lacked captain Doug Wilson. However... they made up for it by including Arturs Irbe in the second series. One of these days, I'll track down the other half of this set.

Oh... how I wish Pro Set would come back into the card market. I know most of you would are probably shaking your heads in disgust... but I loved their early 90's products. Out of my four 1991/92 Sharks team sets, this is by far my favorite.

It featured amazing photography and a decent card design. If only they hadn't overproduced 99% of their products.

Last... but not least... I want to show off my 1991/92 Score Canadian Sharks header card and my 1991/92 Score Rookie-Traded Sharks team set. Some may think the header card is cheesy... but I like it, because the focus of the card is on the Sharks' iconic logo.

Score also created a nice 20 card Sharks subset inside of their Rookie/Traded box set to go along with a massive 25 card Sharks set they inserted into bilingual & Canadian packs. I'm missing both of the 25 card sets, but the other one is hanging up on my office wall:

Here's to the San Jose Sharks organization and their 20th anniversary. I was a huge fan when the team went 17-58-5 in their inaugural season... and I'll be a fan whether or not you bring the Stanley Cup home to San Jose.

Tonight's question of the day:

What do you think of early 90's Pro Set products?

Have a good evening... I've gotta go get ready for the first game of the season. Go Sharks!

Early 80's Basketball + eBay = One Happy Collector

A couple of weekends ago, I picked up a bunch of vintage baseball, basketball, and football cards. It was one of my coolest purchases... and it led me to search for more older cards.

I headed over to eBay and found a set of 1981/82 Topps basketball. I've been a fan of this set since the early 90's, because it's older yet affordable.

How affordable you ask? Well I picked a complete 198 card set for $13.15 (+ $7.95 shipping). Yep... that's the complete 66 card base set, along with the East, West, and MidWest sets.

If you're not sure what I'm talking about. Topps released this product regionally (East, West, & MidWest). Cards numbered 1 through 66 were inserted into packs of all three regions. In addition to those 66 cards, Topps produced 44 additional cards for each region. In other words... 132 extra cards.

The most expensive card in the set is the Kevin McHale rookie card which was only available in the East packs. It currently books in Beckett for $20. The set includes early 80's cards of other superstars like: Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Julius Erving. And if you're a Detroit Pistons fan... it also contains rookie cards of Rick Mahorn, Vinnie Johnson & Bill Laimbeer.

But I've left out the best part... I won the auction for $21.10 (including shipping), but that's not what I paid. I had $10.02 in eBay Bucks to spend... so my final price for this sweet early 80's basketball set was $11.08.

I know that people have their share of eBay horror stories... but right now I have nothing but positive things to share.

Today's question of the day:

What's are some of your favorite older (say early 80's or earlier), yet affordable sports card sets?

If you're looking for a baseball set and love the 70's, I encourage you to hunt down a 1976 SSPC set. It has 2nd year cards of Robin Yount and George Brett, along with a bunch of HOFers. You can check out the review I did a few months back here.

You can pick up complete sets of this 35 year old product for under $50 on eBay. It may not have the flashiest design, but if you appreciate old school photos of baseball players from a different generation... this is a sweet set at a great price.

I look forward to hearing what older sets you think are great bargains. Happy Tuesday everyone... Sayonara!

Celebrating: San Jose Sharks 20th Anniversary & NHL Playoffs

Last night wrapped up the 20th regular season for the San Jose Sharks. They won the Pacific Division for the fourth straight year with 48 wins and 105 points.

The San Jose Sharks are easily my favorite sports franchise. Yeah... I a huge fan of the Packers, Seahawks, Padres, A's, and Lakers... but none of them are from my hometown: San Jose, California.

I've been a fan of the Sharks before I even became a hockey fan. I remember the first season, I didn't even understand the rules of the sport. I only knew that the goal was to shoot the puck into the net.

Here's a ticket stub from one of my first Sharks' games:

This was during The Cow Palace Era... since construction on the San Jose Arena was completed until 1993. Over the years... the San Jose Arena has been referred to by a couple of names: Compaq Center & HP Pavilion... but Sharks fans know it as The Shark Tank.

In their 20 years of existence, the Sharks have made the playoffs 15 times. In 2003-04, they finally reached the Conference Finals, but lost to the Flames over 6 games. Last year, they were swept by the eventual Stanley Cup Champions... the Chicago Blackhawks. It pains me to even write about it.

But this year is different... it's special.

This season has proven to be the ultimate challenge for the Sharks. If you go back to January 13th, the Sharks had dropped their 6th game in a row and were 21-19-5. The loss to the last place Edmonton Oilers was quoted by Coach Todd McLellan as possibly "the worse (loss) one yet".

That night Coach McLellan also stated the following:

"I’m the leader of this team. I’m the coach, and it’s my responsibility to make sure that they’re prepared to play,” McLellan. “After that, it becomes an individual’s responsibility. And, right now, I’m not doing a very good job. So, they need to step up a little bit. I need to a better job and find better buttons to push."

And that's when things started to turn around for the San Jose Sharks. They went on to win 9 of their next 10 games... and 17 of 20.

Since January 13th, the Sharks' record is 27-6-4.

Another thing that makes this season special is the competition. If the Dallas Stars can beat the Minnesota Wild tonight... then Dallas will secure the 8th seed in the playoffs. What's so great about that? Well... it would mean that all five Pacific Division teams will make the playoffs.

I'm not sure how many times all five teams from one division have made the playoffs in the same season... but it sure would be sweet. It also shows you how competitive the Pacific division is. The Sharks had to play each of their division rivals 6 times each.

But if you're a fellow Sharks's fan, then you know that the regular season doesn't matter. The Sharks have routinely made the playoff in eleven out of the the past twelve seasons... each time being knocked out before reaching the Stanley Cup Finals.

This is the first year, I'm not going to let their late season success make me feel optimistic... because it only leads to more heartache. Nope... instead I'm going to appreciate the fact that this season the Sharks have provided an amazing season for their fans.

Several key Sharks players reached key milestones...

January 17th - Patrick Marleau plays in his 1,000th NHL game.

February 19th - Devin Setoguchi scores his first NHL hat trick against the Avalanche.

March 24th - Joe Pavelski scores his 100th career NHL goal against the Kings.

April 8th - Joe Thornton scores his 1000th NHL point against the Coyotes.

The San Jose Sharks organization did a great job celebrating their 20th season. They honored former players by plastering their names around the Shark Tank and playing highlight videos for their fans.

They produced 20th Anniversary bobble heads of some of their fan favorites. Here's a picture of the Jeff Friesen bobble head my ex-girlfriend bought for me:

I also picked up their 20th Anniversary yearbook, which features some of the Sharks legends on their cover:

As usual... the yearbook had player profiles. But in honor of their 20th Anniversary, the paired former players with present players. And as luck would have it... they paired two of my favorite players of all-time together: Jeff Friesen & Devin Setoguchi

So tonight... the NHL will release their playoff schedule and the regular season will be nothing but a thing of the past. I'm not going to get my hopes up... but how awesome would it be for the San Jose Sharks to finally get over the hump and celebrate as Stanley Cup Champions in their 20th Anniversary season.

Win or lose... I'll still be a fan. But I'm not going to lie... when the Packers won the Super Bowl, I was stoked for weeks. If the Sharks win... I might be celebrating for months.

And rightfully so... because it would cap off the perfect season. Because... if they win... that means they'll most likely have to go through a division rival (hopefully the Ducks... I hate them!)... the Detroit (arguably their biggest playoff rival over the years)... and if destiny takes it's course... the best team in the league: the Vancouver Canucks, who are the only team to have 50 wins this season (actually 54 wins) and they had an insane goal differential of "+77". The Canucks scored the most goals this season in the league and allowed the least. They definitely have to be considered the favorites... which is fine with me. Remember what I said earlier... less expectations... less heartache.

So today's your chance to carve your prediction in stone:

Who do you think will bring home the Stanley Cup Trophy this year?

How far do you think the Sharks will go?

And in celebration of their 20th Anniversary:

Who is your all-time favorite San Jose Shark?

Well... you know who I'm pulling for... but I'm a realist. If I were a betting man... I'd have to say the Canucks are going to beat the Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals.

I do think the Sharks will make it back to the Western Conference Finals and push the Canucks to the limit (maybe even surprise them).

As for my favorite Shark of all-time... I'm going to cheat and pick 2: Jeff Friesen (past) & Devin Setoguchi (present).

Jeff Friesen is one of the nicest players I've ever had the opportunity to meet. He was always willing to sign autographs and would even stand around and chat it up. Owen Nolan was actually my favorite for years, but a bad autograph signing experience changed that and Jeff easily replaced him.

As for Devin... I like him because he's part Japanese... and I collect Japanese players.

Well... sorry for the crazy long post. Hopefully I didn't bore anyone and waste a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Sayonara!