Summer Trading Recap

I haven't been very busy on the blogs for a couple of months. As a reader, I've been having trouble with comments, so most bloggers haven't heard from me for a while. Jon outlined his problem with his comments going to spam, but I have a completely different problem: I can't even leave a comment. On my computer, on my phone, using Chrome, using Firefox, when I click to leave a comment, nothing happens. I can't even bring up the box to type in a comment. So I've been lurking in the shadows of other people's blogs and leaving comments infrequently, when I can.

But my own blog has been pretty silent, too. I haven't had time to do research for some of my series. I've been busy with my collection, but I explained a couple of weeks ago that I've been busy building some junk wax sets. I don't think people are too interested in my chronicling my 1989 Score set build as those cards come. So I have been neglecting my blog this summer. Let's catch up on the cards I added to my collection this year, aside from the bulk junk wax set building lots.

 

Lots of rapid-fire pics and little commentary ahead.

 

Two separate PWE trades from 49ants brought me some 1994 Finest set help and a couple of All-Decade players who do not yet have a full page in my binders. The world needs more Alan Faneca cards.

A trade with stdolan provided an All-Star project need in Hoot Evers, a set build need (Defensive Wizards), and a cool food issue of Billy Williams.

Users jfcard, robschaar, and sqc5193 offered up some more All-Decade players who are somewhat harder to find. The last two Steve Hutchinson cards I needed to fill my binder turned out to be his rookie card and a commemoration of his Hall of Fame induction. It's kind of a poetic pairing.

All of these cards came from OfficerZero, who came through with some more All-Decade players, a couple of Packers, some college uni Heisman winners, and some BYU alumni.

 

More college uni Heisman cards, plus BYU GOAT receiver Austin Collie, a throwback All-Star need, and a pair of ROY adds with Tommy Agee and Herb Score from kee1975. Thesouthpaw got into the fun with a handful of BYU players, another Heisman winner, and some Green and Gold.

Both cory79 (1st pic) and gregman1000 (bottom 2 pics) offered up some more BYU players, a few Cubs, some Rookies of the Year, and some 90s set help. 

 

The oddballs gregman1000 sent me are incredible. This is one of my favorite Ty Detmer cards. It's so unlicensed it even has a disclaimer on the back that says, "Not For Trading." The perforated TCMA Rookie of the Year cards were completely unknown to me.

We'll finish up the BYU-heavy portion with deadhead11's all-Saints trade, featuring three former Cougars (Taysom Hill and Colby Bockwoldt on the Total card) and a need from the Power House set that I'm chasing. Fellow Cougar fan twpjrk hit me up with a trade proposal, saying he needed to find a good home for this Max Hall auto. It's numbered to 25 and I was very happy to take it.

 

Users sfurukawa, andersonadams1, NR78, and nozzlemaster all sent a fun variety from my wantlists.

I traded with two fellow Packer collectors. The first four pictures show my return from bizzork, including stacks of wax needs and a bunch of Packers. The next three are from dmbramer, who traded me a pair of Jordy Nelsons, a rare Kevin Mawae with the Jets, and a handful of former Cougars, most of whom were drafted by the Pack. Also, the Topps Total card says it's Brady Poppinga, but that is actually Al Harris.

 

We'll end this with one of--if not the--biggest trades I've even made on TCDB. I swung a deal with tenlbpain that sent over 200 junk wax cards in either direction. It was glorious. Not one card was older than 1987 and only a couple newer than 1995 (and those were 1996).

I'm not even sure that includes all the TCDB trades I've made this summer. There were a lot. Those trades and the organization of all the incoming cards kept me busy with the hobby, even if I wasn't making any purchases or keeping up the old blog.

Swimming in Some Junk Wax

In my last post, I shared my newly acquired 1993 Topps set. I also mentioned my goal to retroactively complete one set from each year that I was actively collecting. The first step in achieving that goal is to select the sets I'm going to build, of course. I already have a complete 1996 Score set and I've been working on 1994 Finest--both thanks to Dennis. 1993 has been taken care of. By my recollection, my first pack of baseball cards came in 1989, so I'm starting there.

1989

My options are Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Score, and Upper Deck. Stupid oversized Bowman is not an option. I'm not a fan of gray Fleer, either. Topps is okay, but it's not my favorite. Upper Deck is a solid choice, and probably the set most collectors would want. However, I don't have much from that set, so that isn't a great starting point.

That leaves Donruss and Score. Donruss has a couple of advantages. Of all the 1989 sets, I think I would most like to see pages of Donruss together in a binder. And it has all the major 1989 rookies, most notably Ken Griffey, Jr. Score is also a pretty decent-looking set to me. Its major advantage, though, is the fact that I've busted a box of 1989 Score within the past three years and had a large stack in my possession already. I hadn't even entered them into my collection because I hadn't figured out what to do with them, but they were there. Plus, the only 1989 packs I ever opened at the time they were released were Score. I still remember my six-year-old tongue trying to figure out the name "Luis De Los Santos" from his '89 Score rookie card. So there is an element of sentimentality involved, too.

In the end, I chose to build with the cards I had rather than accumulate even more 1989 cards and duplicates that I'm not sure what to do with.

So I'm building the 1989 Score baseball set. I'm currently sitting at 72% completion, with 448 of 660. Some are in current/pending trades right now. I'm adding my set needs to my wantlist page here on the blog.

1990

Set design is a major factor when I'm considering a set build. After all, I want to enjoy looking at pages its cards when I've finished. 1990 isn't the best for looking at. I don't love Fleer or Score. I detest Donruss (though it would have been the easiest, based on the number of cards I own). But I've always appreciated Topps. 

 

And there is some sentimental value, too. I have a memory of holding a pack of 1990 Topps (which included Doug Dascenzo and Doyle Alexander, if I remember correctly) while my family visited Devil's Kitchen up Payson Canyon. I guess my parents must have gifted me a pack at a gas station on our way.

As of a few weeks ago, I had only a small stack of maybe 100 cards of 1990 Topps still in my collection, but I wanted to collect it. I jumped on eBay and found a vending box. I'd never gotten a vending box before. I even had to research a little to understand exactly what it was. I may be the only one who needs this explanation, but just in case: a vending box was sold as a box of 500 loose cards (not in packs). The cards could be loaded into vending machines. It wasn't a box of sealed packs or a complete set. I picked one up for $10 and made a major dent in the set.

 

 

TCDB has already come through with a bunch of needs through trades. As of right now, I have 615 of 792 cards for 77.7% of the set.

 

1991

 

1991 Topps is a classic and I've always loved it. I bought a lot of it, one pack at a time, at the one convenience store in my hometown. But I also got a lot of Score and Fleer. In fact, I have opened a box of both of those sets in the recent past. Call me crazy, but binder pages full of yellow-bordered cards just sounds like a beautiful thing. *Pauses to listen to bloggers hit the floor after fainting.*  

 

 

And I think I was right. This looks good to me. I picked up another box of 1991 Fleer wax for cheap off of eBay, and my set is getting close to finished. As of this writing, I have 696 of 720 cards, or 96.7%.

1992

 

Now that you have all recovered after hearing me profess my desire to see all the yellow together, let me drop another bombshell: 1992 was a tough year for me to decide on a set. The problem? It's twofold. Fold #1: I don't have a lot of 1992 cards lying around. For some reason, I just don't. Fold #2: I think 1992 was a good year for card design. Yes, I like 1992 Topps. And Upper Deck with its great, interesting photography. And Fleer's green borders. And I've always liked the blue stripes on Donruss. Score is even okay, but not the one I would choose.

I strongly considered Upper Deck because I could spend hours looking at the great photos. I still might do it someday. But after deciding to build 1989 Score, 1990 Topps, and 1991 Fleer through trades and box breaks, I decided to take the easy route in 1992. For less than the price of any unopened 1992 product, I found a factory set and decided to do this all in one fell swoop.

 

And 1992 Fleer looks pretty good together. Though I never did much collecting in 1992 as a kid, I still have one very vivid memory. My grandma and grandpa went to a Native American Pow-wow every year and they took me a couple of times. On one occasion (I'm going to guess it was 1992), we stopped at a little barn and bought some fresh peas and corn. They were selling little blisters of team sets, and they bought the Texas Rangers--because Nolan Ryan and Juan Gonzalez were two of my favorites--for me. That day is actually one of my favorite childhood memories. That scores some points for Fleer.

With these decisions, I've spent the past six weeks wading drowning swimming in junk wax heaven. TCDB trades have been plentiful. And it gave me a reason to update my trade lists with lots of overproduced cards to trade for other overproduced cards. I'll have more on the trades later, but I've been busy with this influx of cards and loving it. I feel pretty optimistic that at this rate I'll be able to complete these sets before the year is over. If you are dying to rid yourself of any 1989 Score, 1990 Topps, or 1991 Fleer, check out what I need and send some my way!

A True Feel-Good Collecting Story

A few years ago, I decided that I needed to have one complete set from every year that I have ever actively collected cards. Since my collections have always had a football-first focus, I was looking for football card sets from 1988-1999 and from 2012 carrying up to the present. It was just a few months ago that I acquired the last cards I needed for a complete 1998 Fleer Tradition set and completed that run.

If anybody is interested, here are the sets I chose to retroactively finish for each year of my youthful collecting days:

• 1988 Topps
• 1989 Topps (and Traded)
• 1990 Action Packed (and Rookie Update)
  
• 1991 Pro Set Platinum
• 1992 Fleer
• 1992 Ultra
• 1993 Fleer
• 1993 Skybox Impact
• 1994 Collector's Choice
• 1995 Collector's Choice
• 1995 Upper Deck
• 1996 Donruss
• 1996 Select
• 1997 SPx
• 1997 Upper Deck
  
• 1997 Zenith
• 1998 Fleer Tradition
• 1999 Pacific Paramount
• 1999 Upper Deck HologGrFX

I wasn't a huge baseball collector back in those days, except for 1991, when the convenience store (the only one in my town) stocked Topps and Fleer cards. I would pick up a few baseball packs here and there as a kid, but my money typically went toward football. But after completing my youth years run of football, I thought it would be fun to do the same for baseball.

Which brings me to my story.  Last month, I visited Platinum Sports and Music in Provo, Utah. I don't typically use the names of card shops in my blog, but this one deserves a shout-out. The owner, Steve, is a pretty good guy. He knows who I am and we talk when I come in. When I have my kids, he gives them quarters for the gumball machine.

Anyway, I stopped by in June and noticed a stack of 1993 Topps factory sets on the shelf. He told me they had found a case of them in a storage unit and I asked how much he was asking for them. He had me look up the prices on recently sold sets on eBay, and we found a range. He offered up a price that was about $5 lower than the low end of the range. I had sort of decided that I wanted to complete Upper Deck for my 1993 set, but this was a good price and it kept me from having to chase down a Jeter rookie for that year. I took it.

I noticed the box he gave me wasn't factory sealed, but I didn't think too much of it. I took it home and put it on a shelf, waiting to crack it open as a Father's Day activity. There were 10 Gold cards and 3 Black Gold cards included, so there was a little bit of surprise involved. Of the three years that Topps made a gold foil parallel in the early 90s, 1993 was always my favorite, so I did want to see if any fit into my collection.

I was disappointed when I opened my box. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't. But when I opened the box, it was obvious that it was not in its original factory state. There were about 50 cards that were not in the brick of cards going through the box. Instead, they were perpendicular to the other cards and shoved into the gap between the ends of the other cards and the box. I pulled them out; all of the Gold and Black Gold cards were there. Some commons and some prospects were there. Derek Jeter was there. And ALL of them had severely dinged corners.

My best guess is that somebody discovered this unsealed and searched through it to make sure it contained the Jeter rookie and the special cards before they sold it. But then they carelessly put the cards back in the gap and they jostled around and got damaged. 

So now I had a problem. I bought the set, but I opened it. It had been close to a month because I had saved the box before opening it. I was considering taking it back, but I knew that many people would say, "You've had it for three weeks and you've opened it and you want to return it now? With the most valuable card in the entire set badly damaged? Get lost." Knowing that they had an entire case of factory sets in the store, I thought it was worth trying my luck to get this one replaced. I took it back in, but Steve wasn't there. I explained the situation to one of his employees, who got him on the phone. Steve told him to replace it. So he grabbed another set off the shelf and handed it to me.

Happy ever after, right? Well, the story doesn't end here.

The new box was factory sealed. It had a different seal on it, too. It had a stamp saying it was "Exclusive to the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club." I didn't think much of it until I opened the set.

There I found, in perfect condition, the Jeter Rookie Card.

And I noticed the gold stamp. These were part of a special, parallel set. I looked it up on eBay. The factory set of this version was selling anywhere between $250 and $800. I had paid $40. I didn't feel right about this, so I went back in the next day. Steve, the owner, was there and saw me enter with the box. He said, "Now, I know that one was factory sealed." I explained that, yes, I was the one who brought back the other set the day before. Now we had a completely different problem. If he had been the one to pull the set off the shelf and hand it to me, I would have been okay with it. But it was his employee, who I could tell knew nothing about cards (not unusual because the larger portion of the store is a music store) who gave it to me. I showed him my discovery and said I appreciated his trying to make the damaged set right, but I didn't feel good about such a discrepancy in value in my favor.

He said, "Oh, you know those usually sell for a lot more?" Well, yeah, that's why I was there. He replied, "I'm sorry about the damaged cards. I appreciate you coming in, but I can't think of anyone better for that set to go to."

So instead of the 1993 Topps Flagship set, I ended up with the 1993 Topps Colorado Rockies Inaugural Edition set. And this card--the real Jeter rookie in the set (not Shawn)--which has had recent eBay listings sell for $120 to $300, is somehow in my collection.

As for the extras in the box, here are the Gold and Black Gold included. Barry Larkin was the best gold player, but my favorite gold card was the bottom left of the top photo, Bernardo Brito. I remember watching him play for the old Salt Lake Buzz when he was a prospect for the Twins. "Brrrrrito!" was by the AAA team's best slugger, but he never had much of a Major League career. After hitting .219 in 40 games over 3 seasons in Minnesota, he took his bat to Japan. I don't know how his career went after that. The Black Gold cards were a bit more interesting; I pulled a ROY collection fit in Eric Karros and the Redemption card for all four parts of the Black Gold set. (Most of the redemption cards were for parts A, B, C, or D. This was the ABCD redemption card.) I wish I could still redeem this thing. The stated odds on the box for an ABCD redemption card were 1:25 boxed sets.

I appreciate Steve for being willing to let me exchange the damaged set in the first place, let alone for allowing me to keep the harder-to-come-by, more expensive set. He says, "It's all about Karma here." Whatever the reason, I feel like he went above and beyond in customer service and I became the beneficiary of an unexpected boon.

I Received 5% of Night Owl's 5,000 Card Giveaway

And it was pretty great. Actually, I don't really know how accurate that number is, either. To tell the truth, I didn't count to know if there were exactly 250 cards. And I don't know how many he sent other people. All I know is that I received a large envelope from upstate New York and I enjoyed going through it immensely.

There was a good variety. This pic shows the cards divided up by decade, plus some football and non-sport cards. I think Night Owl was glad to have someone like me who would gladly accept some random football cards in the package. More on that later.

Greg made sure to include some Cubs for my collection. There's a nice Coca-Cola food issue there and my first Topps Super 70 on-demand that I particularly love.

Here are some hits for my All-Star MVP and Rookie of the Year collections. Dustin Pedroia on the bottom is a box bottom cut out from 2009 O-Pee-Chee.

Speaking of 2009 OPC, N.O. sent a handful of those to me, but none were base cards. They were all the black-bordered parallel. I didn't have any of these before, so it was kind of cool to see them come in.

These six were just what I needed for my All-Star project. I now have cards of 1190 of the 1909 players who have been MLB All-Stars through the years.

These two made nice additions to my Frankenset. I couldn't NOT include Patrick Mahomes, Sr. in action.

Of all the football Night Owl sent, these two best fit in my collection: a Press Proof parallel of a former BYU Cougar and a shiny insert of All-2000s running back Curtis "My Favorite" Martin.

These cards didn't quite fit in my collection but were notable anyway. Those Panini Black Gold cards are THICK. I have a few of them and I think the shadow box effect is really cool on them.

Here are some interesting cards that just didn't quite fit in my collection, but I was still happy to receive them. The A&G Thunderlips (AKA, Hulk Hogan) and Fishing Lures cards already had TCDB offers before I even finished putting all of these on my tradelist.

Finally, some entertainment cards that Night Owl sent my way. These are the first Musicards I've ever owned. None of these are artists I have ever really listened to and some I've never even heard of (I'm looking at you, Bonham.). If I had to choose a favorite artist from this bunch, I'd have to go with Huey Lewis.

So thank you, Greg, for letting me take part in your massive 5,000 card house-cleaning giveaway. I don't know how many other lucky bloggers received football cards in their packages, but I was happy to take some on. I am sure, however, that everybody who got something enjoyed it as much as I did. A great variety of great stuff here, indeed.

Rookie of the Year Spotlight: Justin Verlander

 

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

Justin Verlander

Justin Verlander's Major League career got off to an inauspicious start in 2005. He started two games for the Tigers, pitched 11 innings, and allowed 9 earned runs. He came back to Detroit's rotation in 2006 to strike out 124 batters en route to winning 17 games and posting a 3.23 ERA (good for 7th in the AL). He ran away with the AL Rookie of the Year award, taking all but two first place votes (Minnesota's Francisco Liriano and Baltimore's Nick Markakis) and finishing 70 points ahead of second-place finisher Jonathan Papelbon, who saved 35 games for the Red Sox. Besides winning ROY, Verlander finished 7th in the AL Cy Young balloting and even garnered some MVP votes.

Since then, Verlander has put together a first-ballot Hall of Fame career as a generational starting pitcher. During his time in Detroit, he received six All-Star nominations. In 2011, he took home the AL pitching Triple Crown with a 2.40 ERA, 24 wins, and 250 strikeouts. He also led the league with a minuscule .920 WHIP across 250 innings. He won the Cy Young Award unanimously that year and became just the 10th pitcher to win the Cy Young and MVP in the same season (the first to do it since Dennis Eckersley in 1992). 

He was traded to the Houston Astros in 2017 as part of their pennant push, and saying it paid off would be an understatement. After arriving in Houston, he pitched in five regular season games, going 5-0 with a 1.06 ERA and 43 strikeouts. He posted an incredible 8.6 SO/W ratio for the Astros before winning ALCS MVP and helping the team win the World Series. Then he just seemed to get better, finishing second in the Cy Young voting the next season before winning his second award in 2019. Tommy John kept him out all of 2021, but he has come back strong in 2022 with a 2.03 ERA and an AL-best 10 wins as the All-Star Break approaches.

This is the first spotlight that has come up of an active player, so this career wrap-up is incomplete. Incomplete, yet impressive. As of this writing, he has led the league in ERA once, strikeouts five times, WHIP four times, innings pitched four times, and wins three times. He is the current active leader with 3,103 strikeouts and currently sits and #16 on the all-time leaderboard.

The scans above don't show all of the Justin Verlander cards in my collection, but the ones I didn't show are all part of set builds. These are the ones that are part of my Rookie of the Year collection, enough for a nice, even, double-bagged page.