A Quick Life Update

Now that state testing and my friend's surgery are in the rear view window, I can start focusing on a few other things like dental work, end of the year field trips, grades and graduation, and of course summer break.

The dental thing is a work in process and won't be complete any time soon.  I have a few old fillings that need to be replaced, but the main thing involves getting an implant to replace the tooth I had extracted a few weeks ago.

I'm also scheduled to go on two field trips in the next two weeks.  They'll be the first end of the year field trips for our students in three years.

1990 Donruss #627

I'm excited about going to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, but am trying my best to get out of chaperoning the Raging Waters field trip.  As for grades and graduation, they're part of the job.  Things will be a little hectic around the classroom the last few weeks of school.

1990 Donruss #229

1990 Donruss #399

However at the end of the tunnel, summer break will be waiting for me.  I have a few quick road trips to Oregon and Southern California as well as a handful of baseball games planned.  Plus my buddy is promoting a card show at the Santa Clara Convention Center in August, so I'll be setting up again as a dealer.

In the meantime, I have plenty of cards to write about on the blog.  I literally have a stack of care packages piling up in my office.  Lack of time is the issue.  That being said... seeing them brings a smile to my face.  It's like looking at a bunch of presents sitting under the tree at Christmas.

I apologize to those of you who sent me these packages and are waiting for a blog post.    The good news is I started chipping away at the stack this weekend.  I decided to go with the oldest one, which was a PWE that Elliptical Man sent to me back on April 12th.  It contained these six cards...

2022 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-16

I was lucky enough to pull this card out of one of the blasters I opened last month, so this is a duplicate.  That being said... duplicate or not... I will happily accept any and all trading cards featuring Stomper.

Next up are four Shinjo cards for my Japanese PC...

Tsuyoshi's MLB career wasn't very eventful, but a quick peek at his Wikipedia page shows that he had an awesome NPB career as a player.  Last October he accepted the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters managerial position.

The final card in the six pack was this heavily creased mid 80's football card...

1986 Topps #195

Minniefield was a 4x Pro Bowler during the 80's...  and was a member of the NFL 1980's All-Decade Team.  He's also the latest member to join my Damaged Card HOF binder.

Thank you Elliptical Man for another generous PWE.  Sorry it took so long to tear into it and scan the cards.

Chris:  The 2012 Topps cards are yours.  Just need some time to get it packaged up.  If you see this post, please email me your address.

Bo:  Haven't gone through the 2018 Topps and compared it to your wantlist, but I will.  Maybe this weekend?

As for the rest of you...

Any fun summer plans?

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!

The Green Monster

What's the longest you've ever sat on a post?  Well... this post was written and published back in September last year.  That's when I was trying to clear out my card show haul box... which was filled three months prior to that on June 26th, 2021.

That's when I found this 2002 eTopps card of Shawn Green sitting in a dealer's 5 for $1 bin at the Bay Area Sports Cards & Collectibles Expo:

2002 eTopps #24

For those who aren't familiar with eTopps cards, they were the 2000's version of the online exclusive cards Topps floods the hobby with today (or at least back in September of last year).

Collectors could purchase cards from the eTopps website and have Topps store them until they were ready to have them shipped.  In the meantime, the collector could add the card(s) to their online portfolio and trade them with other collectors like stocks.

Based on their website, I'm pretty sure the IPO (initial player offering) took place back on 06/20/02 with a price around $7.  According to production numbers... 4,438 copies were created and sold.  Since this is a weird number, I'm guessing these were made to order (like Topps Now).

What's not weird was the timing of the release.  Less than a month earlier on May 23rd, 2002... Green set MLB record for total bases in a game when he smacked four home runs, a double, and a single against the Milwaukee Brewers in an afternoon game at Miller Park.

Here's a breakdown of his six at-bats:

• Top of the 1st: Double (off Glendon Rusch) 1 RBI
• Top of the 2nd: Home Run (off Glendon Rusch) 3 RBI's
• Top of the 4th:  Home Run (off Brian Mallette) 1 RBI
• Top of the 5th:  Home Run (off Brian Mallette) 1 RBI
• Top of the 8th:  Single (off Jose Cabrera)
• Top of the 9th:  Home Run (off Jose Cabrera) 1 RBI

At the end of the day, he was 6 for 6 at the plate with 6 runs and 7 runs batted in as the Dodgers spanked the Brewers 16 to 3.

And since I'm so invested in this post... here's a deeper look at Mr. Green and the impact of this monstrous game on his season...

This had been the 46th game of the season for Green.  He entered it with a .238 average and 5 home runs.  He exited it hitting .265 and 9 home runs.  That game also kicked off an impressive hot streak where he hit four more home runs with a .444 batting average over the next four games.  It also turned his entire season around as he would never hit below .265 again that season.

Getting back to the card itself... I don't make a habit of picking up eTopps cards.  The holders make storing them bulky... unless you of course bust them out and set them free.  However for 20¢, I just couldn't pass this card up.  And I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to write a post about it... even if I had to wait eight months to publish it.

Happy 20th Anniversary Mr. Green!  That was one monstrous day on the green.  It'll be interesting to see how long this MLB record will stand... and who will break it.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

Sad, Annoyed, and a Tad Bit Satisfied

My friend had surgery last Wednesday so I took a half-day and picked her up.

They were running a little behind, so I had an extra hour to kill.  As luck would have it, there was a card shop located a few miles away.  So I headed over there to pick up some storage boxes.  I was very fortunate to hit up the local distributor and stock up on different supplies right before the pandemic hit.  In fact, I have enough top loaders and plastic slider boxes to last for years.  Sadly they had just started selling cardboard boxes in bulk lots only.  At the time...  it wasn't too big of a deal, because my LCS always had them at a reasonable price.

But I made the mistake of waiting until I actually needed some to grab some.  This is what I discovered...

Now I'm not sure exactly what that price was in 2019... but I know for a fact that I didn't pay $1.75 for a 200ct. box.  Holy cow!  The bargain hunter in me sobbed when I saw this sign, while the collector who waited until the last minute to buy storage boxes was annoyed.

Some collectors probably would have walked out and figured another way to store their cards.  Unfortunately, my OCD requires sets destined for my personal collection to be housed in brand new boxes.  So I picked out twenty (a variety of sizes), but avoided the 200 and 300 count boxes.  Figured there was no way I could justify spending $1.60 for boxes this small.

Card supply prices are ridiculous, but it's not the card shop's fault.  That's why I figured I'd support them and buy some actual cards.  The best bargain I could find was this...

It's a 1000ct. TCG box (never heard of these) filled with baseball cards for $9 (with a 10% discount)...

Free time is a luxury I don't really have, so I won't be counting these anytime soon (seems to be slightly longer than a 660ct. box).  Instead, I'll spend a few extra minutes to scan ten of my favorites from this mystery box...

#10:  1992 Score #489

Play at the plate with the Kid in a Dodgers uniform sets the tone for about half of this box, because there was a nice stack of Junk Wax Era cards.  Not surprised, but not displeased either.

#9:  1990 Donruss #390

Love him or hate him, Belle was a beast.  It's not worth anything, but I'll happily add another one of his rookie cards to my collection.

#8:  2018 Topps Home Run Challenge #HRC-KB

I never pulled any of these in time to actually participate in the challenge, but kudos to Topps for inspiring collectors to interact with the game.

#7:  1989 Score #322

Did you really think I wasn't going to include at least one well-cropped action shot to this list?  Plus... check out that unibrow on the back.  The back is also proof that Score had some of the best card backs in the late 80's.

#6:  2018 Topps #183

Thumbs up to whoever at Topps decided to use this photo for Matt Kemp's card.

#5:  1996 Pinnacle Denny's #18

Here's your random baseball card fact of the day.  Cecil Fielder launched eleven grand slams during his career and Tony Phillips was on base for seven of them.

#4:  1990 Topps #210

This card was a very pleasant surprise.  The guy at the LCS warned me that this box was filled with commons.  He wasn't wrong.  On the other hand, there were a few hall of famers tossed into the box like this Sandberg, which is the latest addition to my Topps Base Card Run Project.

#3:  1988 Fleer #518

As an A's fan, I should hate this card.  Hershiser dominated them in the World Series and took home the MVP Award.  I did a quick COMC search for 1988 Orel Hershiser cards and discovered card companies hooked him up that year.  But I still think this card is one of the best looking.  It's almost like Fleer knew the Dodgers were going to win it all, so they dedicated the set's colors to them.

#2:  2018 Topps #68

If this photograph of Hamilton doesn't do anything for you, then you and I have very different tastes in cards.

#1:  2017 Panini Donruss #190

How much do I enjoy collecting Tony Gwynn cards?  Well... I chose this Panini logo-less card as my favorite card in this mystery box.  

So there you have a $9 LCS mystery card box.  What do you think?  Worth the price?

Personally, I was satisfied with the purchase.  After sorting the box, I pulled forty-three cards for my collection... which comes down to about 21¢ each.  Only a handful of those cards are worth that much, but after you factor in the entertainment value... I don't have any regrets.

Plus there's the storage box...

Due to the tape damage, my OCD prevents me from using this box for sets.  But that doesn't mean, I won't use it to transport cards to shows or something.

And don't forget... there were over 500 other cards that I'll offer up to people or take to my classroom for next year's Civil Rights Movement trading card project.

Not going to list every single card, but here are fourteen sets that I have reasonable sized stacks of:

1989 Score, 1990 Donruss, 1992 Score, 1993 Bowman, 2011 Bowman Chrome, 2012 Topps, 2015 Topps, 2016 Finest, 2018 Topps Gypsy Queen, 2018 Topps, 2021 Topps Allen & Ginter, 2021 Topps Archives, 2021 Topps Heritage, 2022 Topps Heritage

If you're building any of these sets, send me an email with your set needs and maybe I can help.  As long as you don't mind PWE's, I'll send them your way for free.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!