Somebody Call the Police!

Because there is a team up in Green Bay who is giving everyone they meet a beat-down! 

The Renaissance of Aaron Rodgers has been really fun this year. The offense is putting points on the board like crazy. I know the team took a lot of heat this off-season for not providing Rodgers with more weapons. I admit that I wasn't too enthralled with the Draft Day strategy, but I was actually more worried about picking up a decent linebacker after watching what the Niners did to the D in the playoffs. The team did neither of those things during the draft. Rumor has it that Rodgers himself was none too happy, but I'm hoping that he is starting to "trust the process" a little more after these earlier successes. I hope the team is treating Jordan Love as a long-term project, and they have convinced Aaron that there is no plan to play him at any time in the near future. My mother is a Utah State alum, so I've seen plenty of Jordan Love over his college career and I will attest that he needs a lot of work before he is ready to take the reins of an NFL offense.

Regardless of what the future of this team is, right now they are fun to watch. To commemorate my current excitement level with this team, I want to post about my latest Packers purchase. I recently found a seller on eBay who has a bunch of the Packers Police sets for sale. These are some of my favorite cards of the Pack, even though I didn't have many before. I don't know of many teams that do this type of set as consistently as the Packers do, so this seller had a few different ones to choose from. I would have liked to get some of the sets from the early '80s, but the seller seemed to have priced them at a little more of a premium. Instead, I opted for a four-year run that for me spanned my 8th-11th grade school years.

1996:

This team won the Super Bowl. After spending about three years getting my heart broken in the playoffs, I was finally able to see my team bring home a championship. I don't have many Mike Holmgren cards, and this is definitely the first time that Ron Wolf has been added to my collection. I think the same can be said for Earl Dotson and Craig Hentrich. I love that Earl Dotson photo.

1997:

And this team lost the Super Bowl. But since this set was printed the year following the victory, the Lombardi Trophy is featured prominently in the set. It even got its own card. If I am to judge the roster by the checklist of these sets, then George Koonce, Wayne Simmons, Keith Jackson, Chris Jacke, and Ken Ruettgers were the keys to the Super Bowl win. They were in the 1996 set but were replaced the following year by Frank Winters, William Henderson, Dorsey Levens, Santana Dotson, and a trophy. That roster then lost the Big Game. Coincidence? I think not. (Actually, I think I would rather have the latter four players on my team than the guys from the year before, but that's just my opinion.)

1998:

I think this is my favorite look of the police sets I picked up. There were several newcomers to this set: Bernardo Harris, Adam Timmerman, Ross Verba, Brian Williams, and Tyrone Williams.

1999:

When I first saw this set, I thought, They were sure leaning hard into the new Millennium, futuristic design. That was before I noticed the "Into the Millennium" stripe running up the left side of the card. The most notable newcomer in this year's rendition is Coach Ray Rhodes. This is my first Rhodes card. There were two new faces that I'm glad to see (Ryan Longwell and Marco Rivera, who I really loved when they were on the team), one I'm not so happy to see (serial rapist Darren Sharper), and one that I really don't have any feelings for (Vonnie Holliday).

These police sets are some of my favorite oddball cards, so picking them up for a little over $5 shipped apiece was a no-brainer for me. Now let's hope the 2020 Packers squad can keep speeding up the field and assaulting the end zone before the police show up and book 'em all.

Secret Santa Comes with Some b(ase)b(all)cardz

One of the reasons I love the Secret Santa is that it offers an opportunity to give to and receive from people I have never dealt with before. That was the case on both ends, as I had never dealt with my giftee (Tim B., of the dormant "I Love the Smell of Cardboard" blog and current Twitter "CardpocalypseNC") and my Secret Santa. My Secret Santa this year was Mr. Stadium Fantasium, who goes by the name bbcardz in the cardsphere.

The package arrived on Monday, just two days before Christmas. Perfect timing. Inside were some unopened products and team bag of goodies.

 

The unopened products were a pack of 2018 Archives and 2019 GQ, plus a cellophane pack of 1990 Pro Set with 4 cards in it. I don't know where these would have been distributed back in the day.

I went ahead and opened these packs. The one card that stays in my collection is a GQ Wil Myers. This Coming Attraction Walker Buehler was a pretty good find, too.

When I first opened the package, I gave the cards a quick glance and then was distracted by my kids. It wasn't until I returned to them later in the week to log them into TCDB that I realized just how extraordinary this package was.

Aside from the Pro Set, there were just two other football cards included. One was legendary Reggie White, commemorating his 133rd sack to become the league's all-time leader. I didn't realize that it happened against the Bears, which makes it just that much cooler to me. The other was a 1991 Pacific Flash Card. The front of this card is a math addition problem, the back a football card. I've seen these cards before, but I discovered when I added this Ed West to TCDB that I previously didn't own any.

There were a few Cubs base cards that I didn't have. I especially like Zo making a catch in front of the Ivy.

Santa didn't kill my 1993 Hostess set needs, but he left it on life support. These cards, besides being some of the top names of the 90s, are four of the final six cards I needed for the set. I only need Gary Sheffield and Kirby Puckett to finish it off.

Javy Baez was the focal point of this package. All of these cards were new to me. Heritage Chrome cards are always cool to me. When I first looked through these cards, I pegged the Chrome as my favorite of the package. It was when I examined these next cards more carefully that I realized what I had here.

At first I thought this was a 2002 DK base card. When I flipped it over to find the card number that I noticed this:

The gold "SAMPLE" stamp. I don't know much about this Sample set, but it apparently included every card in the set. There were also silver stamps with gold logos, gold stamps with gold logos, and silver stamps with silver logos to go along with the gold stamp and gold logo. Samples are always cool to me, though.

I only bought one pack of GQ this year, but I remembered that the box toppers this year were Chromed. I didn't register at first that this shiny GQ Baez was a box topper. Very cool! The Fortune Teller minis are a great insert set, and I didn't have the Baez, so this was already a great card. Once again, it wasn't until I was trying to log it on the database that I noticed this isn't a base insert. This is an Indigo parallel, numbered 152/250. Whoa! That's a nice upgrade.

The last card in the package was this 1969 Leon Wagner. When I was logging this one, I noticed what great shape this card is in. Look at how sharp those corners are! This card is half a century old, and you could put an eye out with them! Not only that, but there's no paper loss or creasing anywhere. This is a beautiful addition of a relatively forgotten All-Star Game MVP who doesn't have too many cards out there.

So a close examination of these cards revealed a sample card, a box topper, a numbered mini parallel, and a 50-year-old vintage in beautiful condition. I'd say bbcardz knocked this Secret Santa package out of the park. A million thanks to you!

A Big Box of Randomness

Back when I started this blog, I didn't want it to turn into a "look what I got" blog where I just showed off my new acquisitions. Then I got active in trading, and it was all I could do to keep up with publicly thanking my trading partners and showing off what they sent me. I've decided recently to try to do less just showing. But this is something that I have to show.

I came across an auction on Sportlots for a Priority box of stuff. The description mentioned vintage cards and stamps, but didn't give too many details. After two days, there were no bids, so I put one in for $.25. Nobody else bid and shipping was $8, so for $8.25, I awaited to see what kinds of things I might get.

It turned out to be an interesting buy.

This is about half of the 1985 Topps USFL set. I'm not sure what to do with these cards. I think they're pretty cool. I've always been interested in leagues like this. The NFL/AFL merger is the sport's most historic event, in my opinion. I really got behind the ill-fated AAF earlier this year. The USFL fascinates me. The upstart league was able to draw Heisman winners like Herschel Walker, Doug Flutie, and Mike Rozier out of college. Future Hall of Famers like Steve Young, Jim Kelly, and Reggie White got started here. If some of those big names were included in this starter set, I might consider building the rest of it. With so many key pieces still missing, I'm undecided. This picture represents the names that I recognized as future NFLers. Kelvin Bryant was the USFL MVP one year.

The stamps were 1972 Sunoco. I already had a few of these. I have to say I'm happy with these additions. There are lots of Hall of Fame names here. This is a really big set, so I'm impressed that with just a sampling, I got some great players. They are shown here two cards to a penny sleeve, so you get an idea of the size.

These are from 1969. They're Four-in-One inserts. I can't say that I know too much about them, but it appears that four mini cards, from different teams, came in one card. Thus, they are exactly 1/4 sized. All the cards I received are Steelers. I'd never heard of any of these players, so I had to do a little research. Some of them, like Dick Hoak, Clendon Thomas, and Bobby Walden were Pro Bowlers in their career. Andy Russell actually made 7 Pro Bowls. Roy Jefferson was coming off a 1st Team All-Pro season this year with Pittsburgh. Earl Gros won a championship in Green Bay with my Packers before heading to the Steelers. Since none of these cards came together originally, I have to wonder what happened to their card mates. Was the seller a Steeler fan?

I really wish the cards were whole. The full 4-in-1s featuring these players also included Hall of Famer Larry Wilson, former Packer Boyd Dowler, and other notable names such as Earl Morrall, Alex Karras, Roman Gabriel, and Don Meredith.

I received the entire 1982 Kellogg's set. I'll be honest; I never even knew that Kellogg's made these cards. This is probably my favorite thing in the box. It's a great pickup with some good names.

Here's my dilemma. All of them came in the original full panels. I'm leaning toward keeping them this way, as opposed to separating the cards. The problem is that they're so old that it seems they might fall apart at the perforation any moment. What do you think?

A graded Vinny Testaverde 1988 Topps rookie! My retirement is set! Seriously though, this thing will be freed and added to my 1988 set. I'm pretty sure it's in better shape that my current Vinny. Yeah, I'm that guy, upgrading the cards in a 1988 set.

These are some real oddballs. If you can't tell from the picture, they're pins. Two are obviously sports related--Chris Miller and Jim Harbaugh from 1994 Action Packed--while the other two don't seem to have any sports connection at all. Either way, I'm not interested in hanging on to any pins. Does anybody want any of these?

This was the most interesting find of the box. This oddball is so odd that it wasn't even listed in TCDB. I've learned they are a Notre Dame issue from 1989. There were three separate sets, divided by eras. This is the complete 22-card set of 1903-1932. The other two sets also contain 22 cards, and run from 1933-1963 and 1964-1987. I don't have any of those. I'm still undecided about what to do with these. My only interest in Notre Dame cards would be adding to my Heisman collection. However, the first Heisman wasn't awarded until 1935, after this era. On the other hand, Knute Rockne and the "Gipper" are characters in one of the greatest football legends and there are few cards to represent them. Since the set is complete in hand, I would hate to break it up, but I have little interest beyond the two cards. More decisions.

I had no idea what was coming in this box, but I figured for a quarter plus shipping it was worth it to find out. It totally was. I received

• a partial USFL set
• 1972 Sunoco Stamps
• 1969 4-in-1 minis
• a graded 1988 Topps
• some pins
• the 1982 Kellogg's football set, and
• the 1989 Notre Dame 1903-1932 set.

Of these offerings, I previously had only a handful of Sunoco Stamps and an ungraded 1988 set. The rest were things I had never seen/heard of/owned. And I daresay that I won't see some of things again.

National Baseball Card Day Left Me With Some Decisions to Make

On Saturday, I took my oldest son to the card shop for some free cards.  We each got a pack of Topps National Baseball Card Day promos.  The two cellophane packs had Miguel Cabrera and Christian Yelich on top.  I offered them to my son and let him choose.  As I expected, he chose Miggy.  As a Cubs fan, I'm not a big Yelich guy, but I don't think I could have hand-selected a better pack than the one I got.

El Mago and King Fish are probably the two I cards I would have wanted most in the set.  Pete Alonso had a good chance of winning Rookie of the Year and becoming a PC player.  The reigning (and potential repeat) NL MVP and the Best Lefty Ever? are a strong supporting cast.

The LCS we visited was having a warehouse sale with a ton of (mostly) junk they were trying to get rid of.  There was even a bin of free stuff.  I thought about picking up some old Becketts for a buck apiece, but decided that I could find better ways to spend a very limited budget.  I did find some random oddballs in a bin marked "2/$5" that I thought would be worth the money.  They all left we with decisions to make about my collection, though.

First up is this Post Cereal set.  The envelope contains the entire oddball set.

They're postcard-sized cards.  One side is full-bleed action shot (no logos, of course).  The checklist is pretty great, as you might expect from a set that used only 16 of the top players of the year.  A sextet of Hall of Famers is shown here.

The other side looks more like a traditional card front and back.  There is a fold in the middle to make these cards into a little booklet.  So that leads me to the first decision: How should I store these?  I see three options.

1. I keep them in the envelope they came in.
2. I put them in a photo album to act as a binder.
3. I fold them in normal-sized cards and put them in my oddballs binder.

What are you thoughts?  What would you do?  I want to have them in my binder, but I'm hesitant to fold them.

The second item that I picked up was a trio of hologram cards in a hard display case.  These are all guys I collect, including David Robinson, though I don't actively collect basketball.  So I figured to get these three cards for $2.50 was probably a reasonable purchase.  These are 1991 Arena Holograms and each card has a print run of 250,000.  That's all I know.  Does anybody know anything else, like where they came from?  I have a decision to make about these cards.  They have all been removed from their encasement, but now I have to decide whether I want to complete the set.  With these 3 cards, I'm 60% there--only Joe Montana and Frank Thomas remain.  Should I finish it and keep it with my sets, or should I just let these join my player collections individually?

My last pickups were these two Score portfolio-type binders.  I glanced inside and saw that both contained 1998 Pinnacle Mint cards and coins.  I picked up both of them, thinking that I collected enough late-90s players to make the purchase worthwhile.

When I got the binders home and examined the contents more closely, I discovered a few things.  First, for each player included, there was a base card with the coin and a bronze parallel.  I also learned that this was nearly a complete set of cards, coins, and bronze parallels.  There are only 30 players in the entire set, and I have 22.  Now it's decision time.  Do I go ahead and complete the set(s), or do I keep what I want and use the rest as trade bait?  Normally, I would complete this set without hesitation, but the cost of the coins is a stumbling block for me.  I looked on COMC and found that each coin is $1-$8.  That's a steep price to complete a set that I just stumbled upon and never intended to chase.  And, of course, the missing cards are the big names: Bonds, Griffey, Jeter, Ripken, etc.  On the other hand, what a cool set and what an opportunity to have so much of this complete already!  What would you do?

So I didn't spend my money on Topps to get the extra Bryce Harper NBCD card, but I found some really interesting odds and ends.  But I'm left with some decisions to make about my new finds.

1. How should I store the Post postcards?  Fold them?  Keep them in the box?
2. Should I pick up the last two cards in the holograms set, or should I keep the 3 I have in my player collections?
3. Should I finish the Pinnacle Mint sets (coins, base, and bronze parallels) or break the partial set apart and use some for trade bait?

I really want to hear what you would do.  Leave me some advice in the comments!

7-Up and Cupcakes: An Oddball Post

During our city's annual celebration week, I took my kids over to the park and we caught a reptile show.  Afterward, I wandered around and looked at the vendors.  Lo and behold, I caught sight of a vendor who I've known from the local card shows.  I picked through his dime box and found about ten cards, but I was more interested in a bunch of sets on shelving unit.  Some of them were marked buy one get one, some were just discounted.  I ended up getting one of those sets.  I didn't know much about what I was seeing, besides that I needed to have it.

It was a 1985 7-Up Chicago Cubs set.   There are 28 cards in the set, so I'm thinking the entire 25-man roster, manager Jim Frey, and a coach card.  I'm not sure who the 26th player was; I'm thinking there were a couple of players floating back and forth from the minors and were both included in the set.  I love the completeness of this checklist, though.  Guys that were by no means superstars, or even starters, got cards here.

That's not to say that the superstars were lacking, though.  We have a staff ace and three Hall of Famers, including newly inducted Lee Smith, here.  The Ryno card was on the top of the shrink-wrapped set, so the corner is bent.  It is the only such corner in the entire set.  I keep imagining a bullpen of Eck and Smith, though.  I was too young to get baseball when they played together with Cubs, but how about a couple of the greatest closers in the same pen?

There were some other good players on the team, too, even if guys like Bowa, Lopes, and Cey were past their prime.

I even like the photography.  If I had heard about a 7-Up oddball from the mid-80s, I would have pictured a lot of bat on the shoulder, posed shots, but the photography is top-notch.  I still have no idea where this set came from.  Does anybody know?  It's a pretty great oddball set.

Let's not stop the oddness here.  I just recently got back on the trading horse at TCDB after turning off trade proposals in January to fix my scattered, inaccurate tradelists.  One of the trades I've completed this month came from nwcardsupplies, and he provided me with some oddball set help.

I don't know how many Hostess Baseballs I ate as a 10 year-old to get these cards, but I recently decided to go back and finish the set.  Nwcardsupplies got me within 8 to 75% completion with this trade.

Two transactions, 36 oddball cards, 2 junk food produced sets in one post.  I have to wonder how much sugar fueled this post.