nukin' Duke off my list

When I posted about my big Hank Aaron refractor auto pickup last week, I didn't want to jinx it by saying anything, but I was excited to have another needed card for my set in the pipeline in quick succession, and now I've got it.

Edwin Donald Snider, The Duke of Flatbush! Ain't that a beauty?

Impressive career. The baseball writers made him sweat it out for a decade, but eventually voted him into the HOF in 1980. He passed away in 2011, but he was very generous with his signature, so there are a ton of his autographed cards out there (Take it from me.. I often searched through the vast ocean of Duke Snider autos on eBay looking for this card in the case of a poor listing potentially letting it slip by me. Relieved I can stop doing that now!)

With these two recent additions (coincidentally both numbered 10/25), I'm down to just 10 remaining 2004 Retired refractors to chase down, and many of those aren't big names (I'm predicting Bucky Dent will be the pesky final card.) I'd love to keep the progress popping right along, but chances are it'll be several months till another one I need pops up for sale. Scoring 2 from 2 different sellers in the span of just a couple weeks is basically unheard of for me, so thanks to the baseball card gods for this good fortune.

The base auto I previously had in my set (right) is now expendable, so if any of my Dodgers collecting trade buds want to offer me up something nice in exchange for it, I'm listening! Recent completed listings value it between $57 and $113. I bought it for $32.50 back in 2014.

Yep, been working on this set a long time. Excited to think the next one of these '04 Retired refractors I cross off will take me down to single-digits left. Light at the end of the tunnel!

Incoming Overload

Big haul of cardboard from the cardsphere received over the past couple weeks that I need to show off today. Some awesome mailings here that I feel bad for neglecting but mostly I've just been busy/lazy. In the interest of time, gonna try to keep it brief.

I'm a dummy and spaced on taking my turn during the BFG at Johnny's Trading Spot a couple Fridays back, but Johnny was swell enough to still send me over a little consolation prize. Needed all 4 of these for my newly kicked off setbuild of all the vintage Kellogg's cards.

Thanks, Johnny! You rock!

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Here's a surprise from Mr. Haverkamp doing his best to chop down my '79 needs. These bring me to 98.9% complete (8 cards left)!

Thank you, sir! Glad my return was what you were looking for.

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The Lost Collector felt the need to balance the scales a bit to thank me for the customs I sent him last time. He's a good dude. Cool to knock another need off my 1993 Topps Black Gold wantlist.

Thanks, AJ!

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Next is a package from Bru the Astros dude.

A complementary pairing of Gwynns and a shiny Padre prospect. Sweet!

Fleer Metal cards are seeing a resurgence these days... though I think that's mostly the basketball parallels of star players. Still neat cards!

Bru is always good for some assorted Padres.

Oh woof, I forgot I had volunteered to snag these 2018 Patrick Mahomes II cards Bru offered up on Twitter back around the Super Bowl. Mahomes is one of the very few guys in the NFL I still care about at all. He's awesome.

Thanks, Bru! I'll round up some good cards to hit you back very soon.

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Next up is Cards on Cards going nuts with the goods.

Dig the stamped Heritage and numbered Votto and Hosmer! Willie Mays currency may be expired, but its current value is holding steadier than the US dollar.

Legit basketball cards here highlighted by a Dirk relic! Yowza

Good stuff!!

Wow.. a terrific lot of cards from my Portland neighbor.

Thanks, Kerry! I'll round up some decent Cardinals for ya soon!

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Next is a bunch of cards from my other frequent local trading partner. Padrographs Rod dropped a couple boxes on my doorstep the other weekend.

Impressive assortment of RCs!

Too many baseball keepers to post, but here are just a few highlights!

Rod's boxes are always good for some interesting oddities. That Tony Evers custom is autographed.

Lots of music cards. Blood-splattered Kiss parallel? Yeah, why not! The MusiCards include a bunch of the relatively-scarce 2nd Series. I think there are some upgrades for my set in there. These days I'm down for pretty much any music cards, though 1991 Pro Set MusiCards is the main music set in my collection and anything else is just a bonus. Oh, but one genre I'm not into is country music. Just not for me.

But that said, I was able to find some keepers among the Country Gold cards. Hard to say no to a Toby Keith Rated Rookie, a couple old-school Legends, and some nice looking (and talented) ladies.

And a full, unopened retail box of Yo! MTV Raps cards! And not just that, but the relatively-scarce Series 2 ("Update")! I've completed the set (bought it complete on eBay), but I still need an ad insert and possibly upgrades, so chances are I'll rip at least a few packs of these one rainy day not too far from now.

Thanks, Rod! Your generosity is always very appreciated!

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Last one for today.. and I'm rushing to finish the post, so forgive the uncropt photos.

Did a quick little PWE trade with reader David G. hooking me up with several needs for my '88 Fleer set.

And a long-time Desperate Double Dozen need! 2004 Fleer Tradition #234 Brooks Kieschnick. There are tons of cards from Brooks' days as a Cubs prospect, but I prefer his second act as a two-way player in Milwaukee.

Thanks, David! Hope to trade again soon.

Ok, I think I'm caught up for now! Thanks for stopping by.

2004 Topps Retired Hank Aaron Refractor Autograph

Boom!

Extremely happy to check Hank Aaron off my list of needs for the 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition autograph refractor set that I've considered my #1 highest priority collecting goal for the past several years. 

Going by purchase price, this Hammer is the third best card in my collection now. (And top Retired card.)

Yeah, I overpaid and the signature isn't even that clean-- it's a 2004 signature that looks more like his present-day signature-- and it's an awkward photo (what is going on??).. but I don't care. I welcomed this card into my house like a newborn baby being brought home from the hospital! Huge name I no longer need to worry about anymore (Seriously.. he has no vintage Kellogg's cards for some reason, so he won't be a factor in my latest setbuilding venture.)

A true legend. You gotta love Hank Aaron if you're a baseball fan.

More gratuitous glamor shots to help you fully soak in the majestic essence of the card...

Just 11 more cards to go and this dark shiny beast of a set will finally be finished. My rate of scoring new pickups for this project has slowed way down in recent years-- not that I'm not still searching as obsessively as ever!-- but maybe if I'm lucky I'll complete it within the decade.

I already had the base autograph from a while back. I'm torn on whether to throw it on eBay, put it on the trading block, or just hang onto it. (Once I "upgrade" to the refractor, I typically part with the base auto; I don't feel the need to have both.) I think the signature is better on the base (though neither are an A+), and it's cool having 2 Hammers, but we'll see.

The refractor is #/25 while the base isn't serial-numbered but has an announced print run of 50.

I used to have another base Hank auto like this one, and I "supertraded" it to Tony Burbs a few years back as the main card in a package to score an Axl Rose auto. Maybe I'll hang onto this base Hank as an "ace in the hole" for a possible future supertrade someday. If you happen to have something really cool/$$$ that'd be a great fit for my collection and seems like it'd be a fair swap, feel free to get in touch about feeling out a deal.

Michael Jordan PC

Michael Jordan and his cards are suddenly super hot right now thanks to The Last Dance miniseries on ESPN. I'd like to watch it, but we don't get that network. I'll probably track it down one of these days somewhere, but for now I just see whatever the reaction chatter on Twitter is about.

I'm not a big basketball collector, but I've got a little Jordan PC. And I need a quick/lazy post, so here it is.

Ooh, these are in top-loaders. The Tar Heels card was scored back in my Listia days.

More cards. I like that Team USA one. Think it was in a lot of those things I got from a(n entire) dimebox purchase at a card show a few years back.

Some more. Any of these worth anything? Probably no hidden gems to make me rich, but oh well.

Whoops, looks like a dupe snuck in. Better put it on eBay asap!

This is a little boxed set from Nike I picked up for a few cents at a card show last year. 

R.I.P. Little Richard.

Closing out with some oddballs and baseball cards. The '91 Upper Deck is a card I pulled as a kid, a treasured highlight of my O.G. collection. The mini Little League card was something I made a few years back for no real reason. Technically the Bo and Frank Thomas shared cards are from those respective PCs, but plucked them out for the photo op... both Broders gotten cheap at card shows.

That's it. Nothing worth much, but it's a respectable little collection for someone such as myself who doesn't really collect basketball. Would love to score an autograph sometime, but won't be anytime soon.

Kellogg's Kickoff!

When I was a kid first getting the hang of baseball card collecting 30 years ago, I'd spend way too long at the local card shop looking at cards. I'd stare at nearly everything in the glass cases and on the shelves, slowly making my way around the store. Then I'd dig through the box of commons on the counter and maybe pick out a couple bucks worth of cards that grabbed me. Sometimes I bought a pack or two. And once in a while I bought a card from behind the glass.

The first real "PC guy" I ever had was Reggie Jackson. I probably liked him since he was one of the few baseball players I was familiar with even before becoming interested in the sport. Hey, I always loved Naked Gun!

The first vintage oddball that ever caught my eye at LCS was this 1974 Kellogg's Reggie Jackson. I thought it was pretty crazy that this one curved card got it's own clamshell case (or whatever you call these types of cases).

My memory of those days is often blurry, but I have a pretty distinct memory of this. The card was on the top shelf of the glass case to the left of the cash register. I had seen it many times before, among likes of early Tom Seaver and Nolan Ryan cards in the display. I don't remember how much it cost, but I want to say like $10 or somewhere around there. Not super expensive, but not cheap either. But yeah, I finally bought it that day. I remember the shop owner explaining to me that the card was supposed to be curled like that, as it helped the 3-D effect pop. I've since come to realize that was bullshit, but still, I've always been cool with curled Kellogg's cards thanks to that. I know lots of collectors (especially those who pulled them out of cereal boxes as youngsters themselves... notably the cardsphere's own Night Owl) get really bothered by curled and/or cracked Kellogg's cards, but I don't have a problem with them. Maybe I'd feel different if I was collecting back then.

So anyways, not that I really needed more cards added to my ample wantlist, but as of today I'm officially kicking off setbuilds for all Kellogg's baseball card sets from 1970-1983.

It won't be easy and I'm sure it'll take several years; if I ever complete it, it'll be among my greatest collecting accomplishments. But bottom line is I love these cards and I want them all, so might as well come up with wantlists and hope traders can help me fill holes here and there, and perhaps by the time I retire I'll start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and be able to finish the run before I die.

I'm giving myself a couple big "cheat codes" to get through these sets faster:

#1) Cool with Curl & Cracking
Again, these early 3D cards are infamous for curling and/or cracking. Don't care. I'm being "condition insensitive" for these builds-- any condition accepted. If you gave me a choice between cracks and no-cracks, sure I'd take the no-cracks, but I'd still happily take cracks if that's what's available. And between flat and curled, I'd probably choose flat.. but as I say, curled Kellogg's don't really bother me. I find them endearing, even! Perfectly flat Kellogg's cards seem wrong to me.

#2) Vacation from Variations
I plan to pay no mind to the many variations found in Kellogg's cards, which are often just very minor text differences on the back.. a stat off by one digit, stuff like that. Nothing too exciting worth chasing down, as far as I can tell. If I end up with both examples of a variation, cool-- but at least as I begin this project, I'm just looking for 1 card for each number in the checklist. Not doing the "master set" thing this time.

As for other parameters I'm setting for myself:
- Not working on the football sets right now, though I may decide to add them to the mix down the line, so feel free to send any my way if you want.
- Not working on any sets released after 1983. I know Kellogg's continued to offer cards from time to time over the years, but (at least for now) I'm only worrying about the run of baseball sets from 1970 through 1983.

So now let's check out how my run for Kellogg's baseball cards is looking at today's inception.

I was surprised how many cards I had from the inaugural Kellogg's set, 1970. Some of them are in good shape, too. The Matty Alou had been in a top loader, so it's the flattest of this bunch. But it already had a crack in it. I freed it and it can curl if it wants to. I seem to have a dupe of Ollie Brown. And while it may seem I have a dupe of Richie Allen, one of those is considered "for the PC" and the other "for the set", but I am keeping them both in the set for now. Yeah, it might not make a lot of sense, but file that under the old "my collection, my rules" motto. Let's say in this instance, the non-cracked version is the PC card.

My 1971 cards are also highlighted by Dick Allen.. and it's one of my favorites as it's (I believe) the only mainstream trading card from his playing days featuring a real photo from his season in St. Louis. Technically it's in my Dick Allen PC but "on loan" to the setbuild. Hopefully I'll get a dupe (cracked is fine, like Tovar and Siebert flanking him here) to dedicate to the set.

1972 features the only BIG name I've got in early 70s Kellogg's, Willie Mays. It's an error variation, and is quite beat up.. but not as bad as the Nate Colbert that looks like it might've been kept on the dashboard of a 1972 Buick Skylark for much of the 70s. I have a better condition copy in my Nate Colbert PC (Yes, unlike my Dick Allen Kellogg's cards, Nate's cards stay in the PC. Why? Who knows. That's just the way I'm doing it for now.) While I say I don't really mind cracking on these cards, even I will admit that the Billy Williams doesn't have much eye appeal thanks to the massive crack going through his face.

Seems 1973 is the redheaded stepchild of these Kellogg's sets. They decided to take a break from the 3-D thing and just do standard cardboard. I appear to only have this one Bobby Bonds card, but the funny thing is I bought a little starter lot of these years back to get the Dick Allen (which, oh, is still in the PC.. see, I'm all over the map when it comes to "PC vs. setbuild"), but apparently I've traded the rest away over the years before deciding to start collecting Kellogg's.. including trading the Dave Kingman to ARPS in 2015.

Soft spot for the 1974 design thanks to the aforementioned Reggie Jackson I bought as a kid.. (which I'm keeping in the PC for now). These 3 cards aren't in great shape, but hey, all HOFers!

Not much to say about 1975. Cracks a' plenty.

They switched up the design in 1976, apparently celebrating the bicentennial with red, white, and blue.

Only one lonely 1977 Kellogg's card in my collection.. and technically I think this belongs to my Bill Madlock PC.

1978 featuring the awesome rarity of Goose on the Pirates.

Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time for eating cereal that doesn't come with free baseball cards inside. Now we come to the first instance where I have too many cards from a year to try squeezing them all into the photo. Looks like I've got some dupes (Gaylord, McCovey), but again, some of these duplicates might have a home in PCs, but for storage reasons (curling), it's just easier to keep them all together for the time being.

This Jim Palmer will be an experiment. It's totally flat with not a crack to be found. But I'm taking it out of the toploader and letting it be "free-range" with my other '79s. I'll check in on it in the future to see if it curls and/or cracks. I sort and store them roughly from flattest (on the bottom) to most curled (on top).

I damn near have a complete set of 1980 Kellogg's! Several dupes in there, too. Like many cards in this post, most of these were included in the lot of Kellogg's I picked up at the monthly card show last year. Just missing 6 more cards.

In 1981 they went ahead and made the cards standard 2.5" x 3.5" size, though the yellow-overload turns off some collectors. I'm almost halfway there with the '81 set (28/66).

1982 here. The Nolan Ryan is in really good shape.

Finally, 1983 saw the streak of yearly Kellogg's baseball cards come to an end. The narrow design gives these guys a bit of a tobacco mini feel to them. Another sharp Nolan.

Anyways, as I was saying, I'd like to work on collecting those old Kellogg's sets. 

Oh yeah, I better share the link to my wantlists!..

My Kellogg's wantlists

If you have a moment to check that link and happen to have any available cards I need, I'd love to hammer out a trade. Thanks and have a great weekend.