That Old Sinking Feeling, Brought on by . . . Card Shows?

The pandemic had a negative impact on my collecting. I know people in the hobby have talked about this ad nauseam, but something happened while everyone was shut in at home last year. At first it was exciting. More people were joining the fold! But soon it wasn't as fun as inventory began to sell out and prices began to skyrocket. For a low-budget collector like myself, that budget squeezed tighter and tighter. Eventually, my card budget started shrinking because I wasn't finding cards to buy, anyway. Stores shelves were barren. I went from May 2020 to around August 2021 without seeing a single pack or blaster of baseball or football cards in my regular retail stores.

 

It was becoming clear that the hobby wasn't gaining a ton of new collectors, either. Sure, there were some whose time at home rekindled an old passion (obsession? addiction?) and they found that card collecting was a great way to fill the time. Some new blogs were even born! But for many folks, it was just a side hustle. The booming market opened a big opportunity to buy and sell for profit. Now, I'm not against selling cards and business transactions. I've sold on eBay. I've set up tables to sell at card shows. I like to feel like when I buy, I'm getting some monetary value as well as sentimental value in the transaction. But prices kept soaring and every card person that I interacted with outside of the blogs was obsessed with all the high-end stuff that I would most likely never touch.

 

Regardless, I still love the hobby and my collection. There are a lot of people with a lot of cool, highly valuable cards that I appreciate. But I'm not sure I would trade my collection for those. If I did, I might sell off those valuable cards for the money to buy a lot of the smaller dollar cards that I want. After all, I've spent years refining my interests and curating my collection.

I've created projects for myself that I find fulfilling. Like my refractor, Frankenset for example. I don't know anybody else who has done a multi-sport refractor Frankenset. But I love refractors and it makes sense to me. I think everybody reading this understands where I coming from here.

So when things started opening up again and a card show was announced, I jumped on it. And it was fun. It was crowded and stuffy, but there were some great tables and I got to talk to some people I hadn't seen for a while. I already posted about that show; it happened back in March of this year. Then I found out that shows were planned for every 3 months. I was ecstatic. I'd never seen card shows happen so regularly!

 

The next show rolled around in June.  I bought a table of my own for this one and tried to sell. I thought I had a niche--I had dime boxes. There are never any dime boxes at card shows I attend. The only one I've ever seen is mine. I figured with all of the cards marked in triple and quadruple digits, some dime box gems might help people out.

 

But the atmosphere had changed completely for this one. Pokemon tables outnumbered the sports tables. At one point, I had a buddy watch my table and I made the rounds as a customer. As I wandered, I picked up that Pokemon was where the money was, which explained the proliferation of tables. I don't know how many conversations I overheard about $1000 eBay sales. Forget dime boxes; I couldn't find cards for less than $1. All of the cards you have seen so far have come from the June show. Most came from my one friend who sold them to me for a quarter apiece. Meanwhile, I had exactly one person stop at my table and leaf through the boxes. I made zero sales.

It turned out to be a less than satisfactory experience, but not completely fruitless. Unless you count my -$50 net profit on my table. I was able to find some good cards for my collection.

This $2 numbered auto of an All-Decade performer was probably my favorite find of the show. But in all, the experience disappointed me so much that I put off writing about the June card show until December.

 

Then, the September show rolled around. This one I attended as a consumer only. And it was more of the same. No cheap cards in boxes to dig through. Everything was in one-touch cases. Everybody was scrolling through eBay to price their $500 cards and bragging to each other about how much they sold a card for the other day. I found only one table that had something for me.

You'll notice the pictures above are of cards in pages. See, that's what I bought. Pages. One seller had a binder with 54 good Ultra Pro pages in it. It was marked for $20. Moreover, every page contained nine cards. I flipped through the binder and found nothing spectacular, but a lot that could bring me some enjoyment in sorting and quite a few collection fits. These nifty early Fleer team stickers. Some had puzzles on the back, others had these Laughlin World Series reprints on the back. They're fun, but any of the above stickers are available for trade.

 

I asked if he would take $15 if I left the binder, as I was more interested in the pages. It turns out, he would. We struck a deal, and I walked away with 54 pages at 28 cents a pop. Or, if you rather, 486 cards at 3 cents apiece. Either way, I got a steal.

So I walked away happy with my purchase, but once again unhappy with the overall feel of the show. I really can't complain about these cool 1978 Dover Reprints, though. Perforation marks on the edges and all, these are just neat little cards.

The rest of the post will get picture-heavy as I show what else was hiding in those Ultra Pro pages. Then I'll return to my card show thoughts.

I needed these Cubs, including the two Mark Grace rookies and the two Gracie oddballs.

Speaking of oddballs, they were the best thing about this purchase. I'd never heard of this 1989 Pacific Crossed Bats set before, but it was fun to find half of the set in the pages.

There were a lot of oddballs. These are for my collection, but I did pick up some more of the Baseball's Best (bottom photo) that I have for trade. If you're looking for Mattingly, Boggs, or Greenwell, let's trade!

The early to mid '80s were well-represented with some fun cards.

Boxed sets and stickers are fun.

The first half of the '90s was fun, too. It wasn't quite as well-represented, though.

Some fun rookies. I'm only planning on keeping Sutcliffe from this group, though. Maybe Larkin. The others are available.

As we round the corner into this century, there are sets that I had never seen or had very little in my collection. These were good grabs.

 

These are a sample of the newest cards in the binder, aside from 2017 Topps and Bowman that mostly went into the trader box.

So while I will continually be disappointed by the absence of cool dime or even quarter boxes that I see you find at your local shows, I was able to find one table that brought be a ton of fun for a great value. But in large part, I had a sense of, "these aren't my people and this isn't my scene," at the September show.

Now fast forward to December. This past weekend, the Utah County Card Show came around once again. Let me show off everything I bought there:

There you have it. I made two rounds around the room. I glanced at a few tables and flipped through a couple of shoeboxes. Literally no card was less than a buck or two. No base to be found anywhere. I found a few that I may have considered, but then recalled my recent COMC purchase and thought why settle for cards that are here when I can hand-pick cards for similar prices? I thought about the mess in my card room and decided that I didn't need to buy anything right now; I'll be better off getting myself organized first. So I left. And after listening once again to late-teen, early 20-somethings congratulate themselves on their insanely priced sales and flips while seeing three tables devoted to $55 blaster boxes (That's where they all went!) discouraged me to the point that I plan on skipping the next show. It just wasn't fun. I'll choose the cards I really want from online sources to complete my projects. And I'll hang out on the blogs with people who think a little more like me. Like collectors.

Rookie of the Year Spotlight: Gary Peters

Some of the collections I have been working on over the years are starting to get filled out and my goals are being reached. As a result, I'm starting to slow down a little when it comes to acquiring many cards for some of my mini-collections. Now that the collection is feeling more and more complete, I wanted to start showcasing the cards I have, player by player.

 

One such collection is my Rookie of the Year collection. I love collecting players who have won the award as the top newcomer in each league. This wasn't born of hot rookie hype and the desire to prospect. Rather, I became fascinated thinking about the careers of guys like Eric Karros, Jerome Walton, and Tim Salmon, who experienced varying degrees of success but may not have become superstars. I thought it would be fun to have a collection that chronicles the individual career journeys of rookie stars--whether they burned bright and flamed out quickly, regressed to the mean, or wended their way to Cooperstown.

 

My goal has been to fill a binder page for each player who won the award in my lifetime and to fill a row for older players. I may expand that later as I expand my vintage collection. The ultimate goal of my binder is to show a card from every different uniform the player wore, from fresh-faced rookie to grizzled vet. This series is to commemorate each Rookie of the Year's career and show my collection of their cards. I have a randomized list of winners that I use to determine the order of these posts, but for the second time in a row, I'm going away from that order. Today we highlight

Gary Peters

From 1959-1962, Gary Peters did some stints on the Chicago White Sox roster. He saw very limited action in those seasons, accumulating just 21 innings in 12 appearances. When 1963 rolled around, he was four seasons past his Major League debut, but still maintained rookie status. That first full year, Peters appeared in 41 games, starting 30 of them. He struck out 189 batters and posted a very good 1.04 WHIP. He led the league in FIP, HR/9, ERA+, and, of course, the only of these stats that would have really mattered back then, ERA. He also held his own at the plate; he batted .295 with 3 home runs in 81 at-bats. When the Rookie of the Year voting was settled, Peters received 10 first-place votes to beat out teammate Pete Ward (6 votes) and Jimmie Hall (4).

For most of the next six season, Peters was solid. He paced the AL with 20 wins in 1964, and his 1.98 ERA and 0.98 WHIP were tops in 1966. He earned All-Star nods in 1964 and 1967. He started to slip a little in 1969, when he led the league in a different category: Earned Runs. Following that season, the White Sox sent him (with Don Pavletich) to the Red Sox for Syd O'Brien, Gerry Ganeski, and Billy Farmer. He spent three years in Boston, but his career was winding down. The statistics tell the difference in the pitcher he was early in his career with Chicago compared to later on in Boston. In 11 seasons with the White Sox, Peters registered a 2.92 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, and 115 ERA+. In his final three years with the Red Sox, those numbers went to 4.23 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, and 89 ERA+.

One month after he pitched his final game of 1972, the Red Sox released him. That was the end of Gary Peters' career. In total, he won 124 games, recorded a solid 3.24 ERA, and struck out 1420. He received MVP votes in three seasons and two total All-Star nods. A career WAR of 28.4 was solid, but definitely not enough for serious Hall of Fame consideration.

 

So why am I breaking by order to highlight Peters today? Because The Diamond King posted this card as one of his Flash Freebies a couple of weeks ago. I needed a Peters card depicting his stint with the Red Sox, so I claimed it. It wasn't until I received the card that I noticed this was a buyback. You have to look closely for the gold stamp in the corner. Thanks to DK, the Gary Peters section of my ROY collection is complete!

I should also take a moment to mention the two newest members of the ROY club (and players I intend to chase): Randy Arozarena and Jonathan India. At the time of their announcement, I owned one card of Arozarena, but it was part of a set build. I have collecting to do for the new guys.

A Wild Mess of a Card Set

Wild Card was a brief blip in card history, debuting in 1991 and lasting for three years. The brand had a couple of trademark features: a border of multi-colored numerals and the "stripe" chase cards. Last week, when I found blasters of a new product called Wild Card Matte, I wondered how much this new incarnation would look like the old one. The logo was the same, at least.

I could tell right away that it wasn't anything approaching a major release. It wasn't even as big-time as Leaf; the manufacturer appeared to be "IPL" (Individual Player Licensing, apparently). The lack of a logo on Trevor Lawrence's helmet told me that there would be no team licensing in the product--pro, college, or otherwise. But when Leaf revived Pro Set this year, it closely mimicked the old set. I was curious. And when I saw the base set had 70 cards and each box contained 40, I figured I could at least build the set while satisfying my curiosity. I picked up three blasters.

This will be a scan-heavy post as I show you all 120 cards I pulled, pack by pack.

 

Box 1, Pack 1

The top photo shows base cards. The bottom photo shows two inserts. There were two inserts per pack, without fail. The base cards are nice. They're glossy and thicker stock, definitely not flimsy. The inserts didn't scan well at all. Greg Rousseau--on the left--is from the Weekend Warriors set and Jaylen Waddle is an X-Plode card.

For each pack, I'm going to list the players and their draft results.

• Penei Sewell--1st Round, Lions
• Devonta Smith--1st, Eagles
  
• Rondale Moore--2nd, Cardinals
  
• Trey Lance--1st, 49ers
  
• Jaelan Phillips--1st, Dolphins
  
• Sam Ehlinger--6th, Colts
  
• Justin Fields--1st, Bears
  
• Elijah Moore--2nd, Jets
  

 

Box 1, Pack 2

A new insert set shown here: Javonte Williams on a Rookie Heat. As I go through the players and their draft results, I find there is already one duplicate here. I won't re-type a player's info if I have already done so. Pay attention to the attrition you see as the duplicates pile up.

• Jamie Newman--UDFA, Eagles
  
• Kyle Trask--2nd, Buccaneers
  
• Greg Newsome--1st, Browns
  
• Micah Parsons--1st, Cowboys
  
• Tylan Wallace--4th, Ravens
  
• Travis Etienne--1st, Jaguars
  
• Mac Jones--1st, Patriots
  

 

Box 1, Pack 3

The inserts are Elijah Moore (Rookie Heat) and Davis Mills (Weekend Warriors).

• Andre Cisco--3rd, Jaguars
  
• Jaret Patterson--UDFA, WFT
  
• Greg Rousseau--1st, Bills
  
• Michael Carter--4th, Jets
  
• Tyson Campbell--2nd, Jaguars
  
• Trevon Moehrig--2nd, Raiders
  
• Kadarius Toney--1st, Giants

 

Box 1, Pack 4

 Inserts of Najee Harris (Weekend Warrior) and Rondale Moore (X-Plode).

• Caleb Farley--1st, Titans
  
• Kylin Hill--7th, Packers

Here we are, the last pack of the first box still, and already six of the eight base cards are repeats. There are still more to come as we move into the other two boxes.

 

Box 2, Pack 1

Inserts of Najee Harris (Rookie Heat) and Kyle Pitts (Rookie Heat). It's hard to see in the scans, but you may notice that the Rookie Heat and X-Plodes come in different color variations.

• Chazz Surratt--3rd, Vikings
  
• Jay Tufele--4th, Jaguars
  
• Pat Freiermuth--2nd, Steelers
  
• Cade Johnson--UDFA, Seahawks
  
• Patrick Surtain II--1st, Broncos
  
• Terrace Marshall--2nd, Panthers
  
• Jevon Holland--2nd, Dolphins

 

Box 2, Pack 2

Inserts of Jamie Newman (Weekend Warrior) and Travis Etienne (X-Plode).

• Elijah Mitchell--6th, 49ers
  
• Dyami Brown--3rd, WFT
  
• Joseph Ossai--3rd, Bengals
  
• Jaylen Waddle--1st, Dolphins
  
• Sage Surratt--UDFA, Lions
  
• Trevor Lawrence--1st, Jaguars
  
• Ian Book--4th, Saints
  
• Paulson Adebo--3rd, Saints

 

Box 2, Pack 3

Two X-Plode inserts of different colors: Patrick Surtain and Greg Rousseau.

• Rashod Bateman--1st, Ravens 

Only one new base card in this pack.

 

Box 2, Pack 4

Well, that makes two packs in a row with a yellow (gold?) Rousseau. And a second Rookie Heat Kyle Pitts in this box, though they are two different colors.

• D'Wayne Eskridge--2nd, Seahawks
  
• Joe Tryon--1st, Buccaneers
  
• Jaycee Horn--1st, Panthers

Final Box . . .  

 

Box 3, Pack 1

 

The two inserts are Greg Newsome (X-Plode) and another Najee Harris Rookie Heat Blue (See Box 2, Pack 1).

 

Aaaaand, a pack full of duplicate base. So 9 of 10 cards in this pack I have pulled already, including on insert, right down to the color variation.

 

Box 3, Pack 2

Inserts here are Rashod Bateman (Weekend Warrior) and Justin Fields (Rookie Heat). I'd probably be way more excited about the Fields pull if I didn't have such strong feelings about the Bears.

• Feleipe Franks--UDFA, Falcons
  
• Amari Rodgers--3rd, Packers
  
• Trey Sermon--3rd, 49ers
  
• Brevin Jordan--5th, Texans

 

Box 3, Pack 3

Inserts of Trevon Moehrig (X-Plode) and Kadarius Toney (Weekend Warrior).

• Zach Wilson!--1st, Jets
• Javonte Williams-2nd, Broncos
  
• Eric Stokes--1st, Packers
  
• Dayo Odeyingbo--2nd, Colts
  
• Jeremiah Osuwu-Koramoah--2nd, Browns
  
• Shaun Wade--5th, Ravens

 

Box 3, Pack 4

The inserts make this a Rashod Bateman hot pack! Here we have a Weekend Warrior (2nd one this box) and a Rookie Heat.

 

For the base, I turned the duplicates over so you could see what the backs look like instead of getting a second or third (or even fourth!) look at the front. The back quality leaves a bit to be desired. Being unable to mention any teams hamstrings the write-up and the little bit the backs do say is riddled with typos. But new base cards in the last box are

• Kyle Pitts--1st, Falcons

and that's it. Phillips was already pulled before, I just failed to turn the card over.

 

So those are my pulls. After three boxes that gave me 96 base cards, I'm still 16 shy of completing the base set. Not good. Even the inserts were duplicated within the same box. 

 

While I like the look of the cards, I can't say much else for the product. It's super confusing. If you've read Matt's post about his break over at Cards Over Coffee, you may have immediately noticed that his box produced cards with a white background. Apparently there is a Wild Card Matte White and a Wild Card Matte Black. But the base set we were pulling in our blasters differs from the actual checklist. Apparently, the hobby base set is only 22 cards, all serial-numbered. The larger base set is only available in retail blasters. I think. And it appears that stripe parallels do exist, but I don't think they were available in blasters.

I think I may try to complete the set. I averaged 18 new base per box, and I'm missing only 16, so maybe I am crazy enough to try it again. Then again, do I want to spend $90 in blasters for this product? Then again, there are still some available at Wal-Mart. Then again, why are they still available when everything card has been disappearing before I even see it on the shelf? We'll see where I land after this riveting conversation with myself.

And Matt, since you have white and I have black, I would love to swap a Kadarius Toney for your Zach Wilson. Two Toneys, in fact, because I'd love to send the Weekend Warrior Toney your way.