Joy of a purchased complete set: 1985 Topps Goonies

The Goonies has been an all-time favorite movie of mine since I was a kid, though somehow I never had any of the cards Topps put out back in 1985 until just recently snatching up the whole thing on eBay. It ran me "a blaster and a half" shipped, so I figured it was the best option, though I usually like to put some work into setbuilding since it's more satisfying to go through the ol' collecting-by-hand process. There are 86 base cards plus 15 stickers-- but there are 7 sticker back variants, so it's actually 22 stickers for a "master set".

The set starts off with a few basic character cards.

 Thanos rookie card!

Cardboard perfection, right here!

I've got a bone to pick with this card, though. That skeleton isn't just some unlucky miner, that's Chester Copperpot, a reclusive scavenger hunter who went missing in the 1930s while looking for One-Eyed Willy's treasure. Chances are Topps had this set in production several months before the film was released, so I guess you gotta cut them some slack for a mistake in the plot here and there.

So yeah, after the character cards, the base set recaps notable moments in the plot. Man, that waterslide scene looks like fun. It's been too long since I've been to a waterpark.

Another clear indication this set was produced before the film's release is The Rockin' Octopus gets a card (and also a sticker), yet this scene was cut from the theatrical release (but alluded to at the very end). Must have really confused kids ripping these packs in 1985! "What the heck? I don't remember seeing this in the movie!" The scene was later included in the "edited for TV" version and included as a special feature bonus on the home video release.

One-Eyed Willie.

A pretty girl in her underwear.

Surprise... It's Mama! (which I thought would be funny following hanging out with One-Eyed Willie and ogling a pretty girl in her underwear... )

Gotta love Sloth in his Superman getup.

A look at the backs.

Oh yeah!

After the story cards, there are a few behind-the-scenes cards. The Map in Jeopardy image is from another deleted scene in a convenience store.

Now we're on to the stickers.

The backs form a puzzle.

A wax wrappers was included with the set. Normally I don't bother adding wrappers to my sets, but if you're going to include it, sure, I'll take it. But now I'm OCD about it and had to track down the other wrapper-- the packs came in 2 different wrappers-- or I'd feel like my set was incomplete.

Not in-hand yet, but here's the pic from the listing.

So now I feel like I've got a respectable Goonies card collection. Goes well with my Joey Pants auto custom overlay I made a while back, and of course the jewel of my Goonies stuff...

..my display with certified autograph cards of the four main Goonies. It's tough to get a good photo of it due to the glare on the glass, but yeah, love it.. always makes me smile to walk past it.

I just watched The Goonies again a few weeks ago (though I ended up not following through with my plan from 2018 to watch it every St. Patrick's Day), and I still love it. But I realized my biggest problem with it is when the end credits begin, the Cyndi Lauper theme song starts up at the chorus, which I think is cheesy and makes everything feel rushed. I really wish they would have started the song at the beginning. If I had the technical know-how, I'd make a simple "fan edit" of the movie splicing in the deleted scenes and having the end-credits song queue from the top instead of in the middle. That'd be awesome.

Anyways, speaking of theme songs sung by Cyndi Lauper... the next non-sport card set from the 80s I'm working on is 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse Fun Pak, another neat one that-- in contrast to the low-hassle Goonies set-- is a tricky beast with mysterious variations and ostensible short-prints. A true master set is 159 cards deep (though the listings on eBay claiming to be master sets will usually omit some of the variations). If anyone happens to have any available for sale or trade, I would love to track down my last 4 needs and will reward you generously for any of these: sticker flipbook #7, sticker flipbook #24, sticker flipbook #33, skull mask (flatter top crack on right variant). [#24 and the skull mask might be pending trade.]

Thanks for reading!

Baseball Cards in my favorite movies

As a card collector, it's always a little thrill when baseball cards make an appearance in a movie or TV show I'm watching, and if you're reading this blog, chances are you feel the same.

As far as I know, nobody has really put together a definitive list of cards in movies/tv. And this post definitely won't be definitive, but here are 3 of my all-time favorite films that also just so happen to feature cards for a brief moment.

First up is The Goonies.

Chester Copperpot was a card collector? Stumbling upon a beat-up old Lou Gehrig card might be exciting for Mikey here, but it's just a 1973 Topps base card of the all-time grand slam leader. In that condition, that card would likely be worth under a buck.

And yeah, I've mentioned that one before on the blog (this past St. Patrick's Day), but here are a couple others. Next up is Stand By Me. I recently whipped up a (digital) couple custom cards for the movie and shared them on Twitter.

Stand By Me takes place over Labor Day weekend, 1959. The film came out 27 years later in 1986. It's now been 32 years since it hit theaters. Crazy to think about! Here are a couple customs I made in the style of 1959 Topps subsets.

Somebody commented on the tweet that he remembered the older brother's room having some cards/memorabilia on the walls. I had been meaning to give it another watch, and sure enough, I paid close attention to to that scene and found some baseball stuff.

Looks to be a '58 Mantle all-star and the corner of a '60 Yogi (but hey now, the film takes place in 1959.. count that as a goof, I suppose.)

As a collector, it's a little painful to see a vintage Mantle with a pushpin in it. That would be a cool movie prop to own, though.

Among the '50s rock & roll bands is a photo of what seems to be a Yankees hurler. Looks like Whitey Ford to me, but couldn't say for sure.

Now here's an obscure one from The Sandlot.

Shoutout to Matthew Prigge for snapping these shots and tweeting them a few months ago asking if anyone could identify the mystery card.

With the tip that it was likely a Pacific Legends card, I went sleuthing and was pretty excited to track it down after several minutes of searching...

1989 Pacific Baseball Legends 2nd Series #205 Mel Harder. Not a name you hear much these days. He was a 4-time All-Star, but his career was finished before the Topps era. By the looks of the photo, it's from his coaching days. Not sure of any significance of the card's selection for the film, probably just an "old-looking" card that the prop master happened to have access too. Of course, it's another "goof", as the movie takes place in 1962, so a card from 1989 doesn't make sense. Ol' Mel was still kicking when the picture came out in 1993, as he lived to the ripe old age of 93, passing in 2002.

I watched The Sandlot again recently, keeping an eye out for more cards.

There are several other cards on the walls in the clubhouse. In this shot, looks like there are 4 cards from 1962 Topps visible, with the Lou Brock rookie in the lower right being the most identifiable.

And I hadn't noticed it before, but early on, when the step-dad is eating breakfast, there's a box of Post Sugar Crisp featuring 7 baseball cards ready to be cut out. Looks like 6 of these shouldn't be too hard to identify, with only one obscured. Anybody want to give it a shot? I've already picked out Maury Wills up top. Looks to be 1962 Post. I'm assuming this is a specially created prop, not a true vintage Post box, but I couldn't say for sure.

I actually started drafting this post at the beginning of the month, and it gave me the idea to create a big list of baseball cards in movies and tv. And so over these past 2-3 weeks, that's something I've been spending a lot of time on. The list is now up on a separate page on the blog, linked in the sidebar. Check it out: The List of Baseball Cards in Movies and TV

Let me know if you can think of anything I missed!

Watching the Goonies

The Goonies is a top 5 favorite movie of mine. The original Star Wars trilogy, Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, and The Goonies.. that's my list. Closely followed by Ghostbusters, the Back to the Future trilogy, Flight of the Navigator, the Indiana Jones trilogy.. yeah, I guess I like fun 80s adventure flicks.

You might have to remind me next year, but I'm trying to start a tradition of watching The Goonies every St. Patrick's Day. Because why not. I sort of "live tweeted" this tonight, but let's get a blog post out of it, too.

Truffle Shuffle with a wallet card appearance.

I don't have a good reason for watching this on 3/17, but it's a very green movie in parts, for what that's worth.

The old Lou Gehrig card they find is 1973 Topps #472. In that condition, it'd probably be under a buck on COMC. But we get what they were going for. The prop master should have gone with a Goudey.

I didn't even notice it till this most recent viewing. But yeah, between being featured in both one of my favorite movies and my favorite TV show (The Simpsons "muttonchop Yaz"), it's no surprise 1973 Topps is my all-time favorite set.

Such an all-time crush on Kerri Lee Green in that movie. Included her in my "Pretty Girls" custom set a couple years back.

We visited the actual Goonies house in Astoria, Oregon back in 2013, the day I proposed. Good times!

My favorite display piece in my card collection is this Goonies picture adorned with 4 certified autos. I haven't been able to add any more Goonies autos in the years since putting this together, but maybe someday.

Not sure if it counts, but I've added a handful of Andre the Giant cards to my collection, at least. Here he is at the end of the classic "Goonies R Good Enough" music video (Part 2 of it, specifically).

Anyways. Great movie. Thanks for reading.

Picking up some laundry from the card show

Ok, let's crank out the last of my card show pickups. I'll lead off with the most expensive card I bought at the show:

My first laundry tag! Pretty neat. Wish the "M" in "Majestic" could have squeezed in there, but still a great addition to my Gavin Lux PC.

Here's the only other card I paid more than a buck for at the show. Cal Quantrill is the Padres #2 prospect and I didn't really have any nice cards of him, so this fit the bill. I love shimmer refractors. This orange one is #'d 6/25. The back mentions he's a fan of Game of Thrones.. oh man, what a good/brutal episode last night. I love the show but I want it to hurry up and end.

Here are some more Padre-centric cards.
The Gwynn is a "Before They Were Great" insert.
Luis Urias is cool.
Surprised to see Hunter Renfroe sent down to AAA, as his 20 taters are second on the club to Wil Myers' 24.
Fernando Tatis, Jr. recently got promoted to AA, impressive for an 18-year old. Padres made a good deal getting him from the White Sox for James Shields.
Jhoulys Chacin has been a solid starter for San Diego this season.

Here's the only football card I bought on the day. (Didn't even find any good football trade fodder [specifically kept an eye out for NY Giants cards for SCC].) It's my second John Matuszak card. I like him because he played Sloth in The Goonies.

These might seem like standard 2016 Topps cards at first glance, but they're actually the New Era cards. I regret paying way too much last year for an ill-fitting Padres hat I rarely ever wear just so I could get a pack of exclusive cards. I pulled the McCutchen, Stroman, and Posey in my pack. I ended up selling the Posey for a few bucks to recoup some of the money. Fast forward to the show and I bought these for a dime each. Cutch and Stroman are dupes available for trade, if anybody needs them.

Hey, howbout that eclipse today, huh? That was kinda cool. Anyways, on the topic of blacked-out stars, let's close out with this.. a sweet cache of 2011 Topps black Walmart parallels of big names. I believe these were also from the dimebox. Even picked up an extra Stanton at that price so I can have one for the PC and one for the 2011 Topps parallel frankenset.

So there you have it. Also grabbed some trade fodder, not pictured, some of which should be hitting mailboxes soon. It was definitely a good show for me and I came home with a lot of quality cardboard, even though my main dealer guy wasn't there.
See ya next time.

Goonies Never Say Die, Nor Do They Stop Blogging

I start a new job tomorrow so expect my posts to be fewer and further between for at least a while. Maybe I'm being overly dramatic-- I've made similar statements in the past when things got busy for me, and apart from one month when I made a concerted effort to post less, it wasn't much of difference-- but this is different and may mark an end of an era for Baseball Card Breakdown. Time will tell, I guess. But even if my posts become more sporadic, I don't plan to call it quits anytime soon.

Recently, one of the cardsphere's best bloggers, Dimebox Nick, published a "smell ya later" post (ok, it might have been more eloquent than that) saying he's stepping away from his blog, at least for a while. That one really stung, as Nick's has always been a dependable, comforting voice in the hobby. So I'm sorry to see it come to this and hope after a brief hiatus, he comes back feeling recharged about expressing his feelings regarding cardboard. Regardless, thanks a lot for everything, Nick.

Anyways, these past few weeks of unemployment were fun for me (except for the part about not earning money, and the demoralizing task of searching in vain for a new job [the job I ended up getting was through my wife]), mostly spending quality time with my dog and making custom cards. I've been selling some on eBay, and while they don't fly off the shelves or command a big price tag, it's been nice bringing in a little extra flowage to put towards cards. If only I could ratchet it up enough to where I was consistently grossing around $100 per day I could probably skate by without needing a day job. But I'm nowhere near that, so it's back on the chain gang.

But onto the featured item for the blog today, it's another custom overlay, this time for my burgeoning collection dedicated to one of my all-time favorite films, The Goonies.

Joey Pants! Since putting together my framed Goonies autographed cards piece, I've been looking to add more cast members to the collection. (This one won't be going in the frame, however.)

Finally landed a Joe Pantoliano in my price range of under $10 shipped. Cool thing about this is it's on-card. Most of his certified auto cards are stickergraphs, and Joe has a big signature and little regard for staying within the boundaries of the sticker, so his sticker auto cards usually feature a "chopped" partial signature. Not an issue with this one. It's also a neat clear acetate card. Still though, it wasn't cool enough looking for me to not print out a custom overlay to make it into a Goonies card.

Here's the real card..

Kind of a gross picture of him carrying a bloody grocery bag. I'm not sure what the story behind that is. I assume the photo is from his role in the Sopranos, but I've only recently started Season 2 and his character hasn't been introduced yet, I don't believe.

So yeah, I'm happy with the overlay, and knocking another name off my Goonies auto list.

Hey, last call for my big 700th post contest! This evening (2/21) I'll be closing the entry period, so go jump in with a comment ASAP if you haven't yet. Then I'll sort out all the entrants and list them out in my next post in a day or two, then figure out a good way to randomize them out to select a winner.

Last bonus entry opportunity! In the comments below, be the first to guess my favorite Joe Pantoliano movie besides The Goonies. As a hint I will say that it's quite different from the Goonies.. not a comedy or family film. (UPDATE: Matthew Scott correctly guessed Memento. Good flick.)

Thanks as always for reading!