Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Imagined cards that don't exist and ignoring cards that do

More cards from my recent COMC shipment.


I love these "What If?" cards-that-never-were from 2002 Donruss Originals. They imagine if Donruss was putting out current baseball cards in the years prior to their debut in 1981. You can see Reggie is in the dreamt up '80 Donruss design, while Brock and McCovey give you an idea of what '78 Donruss might've looked like. The Lou Brock photo is particularly awesome.


They even have imagineered backs with stats that would have been current for those years' cards. Too bad these things were tough pulls and often run a few buck each, as I would love to put this insert set together someday. If anyone happens to have any of these available, I'd be interested in talking trade. Looks like there are 27 cards in the '78 design, 25 cards in the '80 design, and 23 "What If?" "The Rookies" cards using all even-year designs from Donruss cards of the 80s. Typing up this post made me want to go look for more, and yep, my next COMC order has been started now.


I bought a complete 1976 SSPC set a few months back, but it had a couple cards with creased corners in it. These upgrades take care of that. The dudes are Buzz Capra and Dick Sisler, if you're wondering.


I also picked up a few cards for my '57 Topps setbuild. I'm now scratching at nearly 3/4 complete (74.1%).. and if I give up going after the unnumbered checklists and contest card inserts (all far more expensive than my desire for them would justify-- seriously like $200 for an unmarked checklist!) and only go after the 407-card base set-- as I'm leaning toward doing-- then I suppose I'm over 75% complete now.
[...]
Ok, I've made it official and adjusted my wantlist removing the checklists and contest cards from my completion formula (plus one minor printing error card I had on the list). Woo! Thanks to the new math, I'm now up to 75.68% complete (308 out of 407 cards).. That's good for 2 milestones: 3⁄4 complete, and down into double-digits with cards-remaining (99). I'll just treat those other cards as extraneous inserts, much like I did with the creepy embossed inserts when I was building my 1965 Topps set, and ignore them. Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments, as I'd be curious what other collector's think. I suppose it's the difference between a "base set" and a "master set".


Jumping to the 90s now, I realized I didn't have many '92 Bowman cards in my collection, and so I snagged a couple cheap guys I collect.


And another Julio Franco need... 1990 Topps Top Active Career Batting Leaders. Last month I got a Rickey from this this neat set from SCC, and ended up looking for others I could use from COMC at a good price, pulling the trigger on Julio here. And the shiny 1992 Panini sticker is an addition for my Dave Henderson PC.


Let's close with this old thing. 1963 Topps Bazooka - All-Time Greats #23 Jimmy Collins. Last year, I pulled a Willie McCovey Bazooka All-Time Greats insert out of Heritage, and since then I was curious about landing an original one of these things. Looks like Bazooka put out All-Time Greats in '63 (like the above) and '69 (like the McCovey I pulled), so not quite the same, but close enough for me.


I don't collect Jimmy Collins or anything, but this was the cheapest Bazooka All-Time Great I could find on COMC ($3), no doubt discounted due to being miscut. But hey, works for me.

More from this order left to show off another day. Thanks for stopping by.

10 comments:

  1. You're making a smart decision not to pursue the '57 checklists. I don't plan on pursuing the '56 checklists and I didn't consider them part of the official set.

    The Donruss Originals inserts are neat, I think I've only seen a couple of them and (checking my TCDB..) I don't currently have any.

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  2. Those Donruss Originals are really cool. I worked in a card shop back during that time and I don't remember those at all. I need to load up on 1957 Topps as well at some point, it's such a great looking set.

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  3. I didn't know those '78 What-Ifs existed because there are no Dodgers in the checklist. I might have to get some of those as they're all players from my childhood.

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  4. Those 78 Donruss cards are wonderful and suggest the hilarious conclusion that Donruss momentarily lost their minds in 1981.

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  5. Those "creepy" 1965 Embossed inserts were fun to collect even though I haven't made my way to a '65 base set build. I have some left over if you want me to send them your way. Do you have any '65s left over from your set build. That's my next project!

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    1. While I love vintage, those '65 embossed cards I find to be really ugly.

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    2. Ugly they may be, but when you're looking for a vintage subset to build, it's not a bad one to try. A couple tough ones, but none that are impossible.

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    3. Sorry, I traded away my '65 dupes a while back. I think I've only got a couple now. But yeah, it's a great set. As for the embossed inserts, I don't mind picking up guys I collect here and there, but can't say I'd like to work on the set.. but thanks for the offer!

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  6. Wow. Unmarked checklists sell for $200? I guess should pay more attention to vintage unmarked checklists.

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  7. Have yet to "officially" jump into '57 too. That set is getting popular. Probably skip the checklists too.
    Those Originals are cool. I've seen them very sporadically, but never many to start collecting them.
    Aw man, I think I need both those Francos...

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