Sentimental Sundays: The Return

These are always fun posts for me. It's been over a year, but I'm bringing back this series where I take a look at some stuff from my childhood.

I've got a shoebox plus a binder filled mostly with cards from my first go-round with the hobby (1990 through 1993). There are also a few cards from when I dipped my toe back in circa 2012, before I dove back in full-steam in 2013. I think it's about time I assimilated all these "old" cards into my current collection (sorting them into PCs, setbuilds, or in some cases, casting them into the wasteland of my "for trade" boxes). But first I thought I'd feature a good chunk of them here on the blog for posterity. So that's gonna be the meat of these next few installments of Sentimental Sundays.

Here's the earliest Beckett I ever had. (and one of only 2 that I still own.. I'll have to show the 2nd one in a future Sentimental Sunday.) I remember I was very happy that I was able to land it back then. Probably the fastest Beckett to ever sell out. This was the pinnacle of the baseball card craze, at least for me. It's a classic sports photo.

And here it is again, this time in card form. I had a decent little Bo Jackson PC back then, but I think I picked the best 2 cards to hang onto.

Let's check the Beckett..

The "Bo Jackson FB/BB" card had risen to $10 in its commemorative Beckett. I'm pretty sure it climbed even higher on the strength of this issue. An anecdote I like to tell is how during the height of the card's hype, my LCS was selling the Bo alone under glass for $25, and on the shelf, the entire 1990 Score set that included it for $23.99. (Ok, my memory's not good enough to remember the exact numbers for sure.. but it was something ridiculous along those lines.)

While we're at it, let's look up the '87 Topps Bo...

Holding steady at $4. Not bad. Funny that Jamie Moyer and his 15¢ RC would go on to outlive all these guys in the MLB (though Julio Franco, just getting on the board at 10¢, gave him a run for his money).

Here's a solid lot of 1990 cards of John Smoltz. Probably not worth even a buck combined these days, but still nice to have. I remember I was pretty swept up with the 1990 Donruss errors back then, like this MVP subset card with Tom Glavine erroneously pictured, or all the All-Star cards that had the "recent major league stats" on the back rather than the correct "all-star game performance" or whatever. I still wonder if Donruss purposely put out all those errors to build buzz in the wake of '89 Fleer's "F-face" card and sell more packs.. or if their QC department was just really sloppy that year.

Here's a rare instance of my early "prospecting" paying off. Pretty sure I pulled all 3 of these here 1990 Moises Alou cards from packs myself. The '90 Score is the only one listed in the Bo Beckett (25¢.. I think it's more or less held that value.) I like Moises, but don't really full-on collect him.. probably because my main memory of him as a player is throwing his glove down in disgust after Steve Bartman's crowd interference.

Speaking of the Bartman, can't have a Sentimental Sundays post without showing some non-card/non-baseball items too..

Let's check out this folder of stuff I've labeled "Silly". I remember buying this plastic Simpsons thing (what is it.. a placemat? As a kid, I taped it up on my wall) from a toy store (can't recall the name.. not Kaybee, not Toys R Us... I wanna say the name started with a P.) While I was big into the Simpsons ever since the first season, I never had a ton of merch to show for it. I did have a bootleg Bart shirt I bought for like $5 at Kobey's (San Diego's biggest Swap Meet). Also had (still have?) a floppy-frisbee disc I think I've showed on the blog before at some point. And like a single pack of cards. And now I own seasons 1 through 14 on DVD, if that counts for anything.

Some clippings. God, I love the Far Side. And Winnie-the-Pooh and tropical Bugs. And if you click on it to enlarge it, there's some funny stuff to read in that newspaper column. I sure must have gotten a kick out of it as a kid to cut it out and save it.

Santa at the Zoo coloring book cover. Got a lot of mileage out of that coloring book as a kid.. had to hang onto the cover at least. As for the Banquet frozen dinner box? Well, I just thought the picture of Tony Stewart was hilarious. Whenever I see it, I do a funny, high-pitched voice saying, "Yippie! Yippie do, yippie dee. Yippie for me!!" This isn't too old.. circa 2007. I wonder if this is worth anything now. Any Tony Stewart fans want to trade me for it?

"Yippie do, yippie dee. Yippie for me!!"

I ate a lot of these frozen dinners back in my bachelor days. Thanks to my wife, now I get fresh-cooked meals. In a pinch, though, I still happily chow down a Banquet Chicken Fried Beef Steak Meal. A 99¢ frozen pizza with a side of frozen peas was also a staple of my single days.

Sorry this isn't really very legible, but here's my rough draft outline of my "Weezer vs. Mr. T" website from July 2001. I should probably just throw this away, but I guess I've got some hoarder tendencies, and hey, gotta love the old-school style of printer paper with the holes on the sides. Don't see this very often anymore. Hell, even when I used it to sketch out a silly webcomic, it wasn't really used anymore, but I think I had some leftover from my grampa and I kept it around for scratch paper.

That's gonna do it for today. Hope you enjoyed. I'll have more nostalgic stuff next Sunday. Have a great week, guys. Thanks for reading!