Friday, August 6, 2021

A lotta Alous

Catching up on some incoming cards. 


I stumbled upon a lot of 2005 Topps Chrome refractors (seller was breaking up a partial set in chunks of 20-25 cards) and I ended up winning the auction for just a few bucks. I'm a sucker for a shiny card, what can I say. Larry Walker was my main interest here.. glad to add another card from his St. Louis days, underrepresented in my collection. Gavin Floyd was another PC need. The cards of Rondell White, Moises Alou, and Tim Salmon are ticketed for my 9-pocket PC binder.. dudes I don't really collect, but maybe collect just a little.

The rest of the lot is available for trade. Just let me know if you could use any of these '05 refractors.

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Back to the Alou...


Check out this trifecta I've achieved of 2005 Alou refractors! All with the Giants, coincidentally. Sadly, Felipe Alou was not included in 2005 Topps Retired so a brotherly trifecta isn't possible, but his son Moises slots right in with uncles Jesús and Matty. Of course Moises isn't an auto and the one-touch is just for show, as he's now in a page near the front of in the 9-pocket binder.


I've now completed Moises Alou' page since starting this draft. Looks pretty good. The three 1990 cards are from my childhood collection-- one of the few prospects I was "big on" as a kid who actually went on to a solid career. If not for missing two prime years to injury, may've had a strong HOF case. (b-r stats) His 39.9 career WAR tops Harold Baines' 38.7, for what that's worth.

Bottom left is a card made of metal-- I figure bottom left is the most structurally sound pocket for a heavy card like that. Center square is my only Moises auto, picked up in 2017 while smitten with colored-bordered parallels of the 1986 Topps design (big improvement matching team name color to lower border, though the player name in white would be more readable). A couple fun Pacific cards on the right. If I had to give one card here the boot, it'd be the top Stadium Club card. Wouldn't mind swapping that out for a Marlins card (1997, his lone championship) or a Cubs card (the Bartman incident is probably what first comes to mind when I think of Moises. That and peeing on his hands for toughness. Well, I don't actually think of the act of him peeing on his hands, rather just the fact that it was something he apparently did.)

But back to the trio of '05 Alou refractors...


Topps slighted Matty on the back, withholding any red ink stats despite a batting crown in '66 and leading the league in a few other categories in '69.

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Ok, that's all the Alou for today. Now a quick trade recap.


Finally did my first TCDB trade of 2021 thanks to user "hershey" proposing a swap. He sent me a few cards I needed for my Ghostbusters II setbuild, plus a needed Dan Walters card.

Looks like user "bronnerea" set his collection to private on TCDB, meaning I just moved up the leaderboard for several of my PCs. With 25 of 42 Dan Walters cards, I'm now his #1 collector on the site. So that's kinda cool.

I still need eight base cards to finish off 1989 Topps Ghostbusters 2, but at least now I've completed the sticker inserts.


Here are the backs of the 11 stickers. 10 form the puzzle, and one to show you what it looks like. This is a very familiar promotional image for me because I had a real, large puzzle of it when I was a kid. In fact, I still own the box...


I remember putting it together at least once as a kid. All the dark background pieces made for a boring puzzle, honestly, but still a decent way to pass time back in the pre-internet days. I seem to recall the last time I attempted to put it together, one of the dark background pieces had gone missing. I ended up throwing away the rest of the pieces, but hung onto the box for miscellaneous storage since it's cool (used to keep cassette tapes in it until getting rid of them a while back).


Looks like it ran me (or more likely my mom) $5.99 at the corner Longs drugstore.

Hey, speaking of the Ghostbusters, I had been thinking I didn't hang onto any of my childhood Ghostbusters guys, but then stumbled across Peter Venkman in a box of my old stuff the other day. I was inspired to take him into the backyard for a little photoshoot.




Look out, Dr. Venkman! There's ectoplasmic activity afoot.

That's it for today. Happy Friday, everybody.

9 comments:

  1. Cool that all the Alous are with the Giants.

    Great Ghostbusters toys. I had so many as a kid, and loved pushing in their arms to see their hair pop up or their eyes bulge out. I really wish I still had them!

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  2. That fan favorites auto is really great. I put heavy cards down in the bottom left pocket as well, and have never had any issues in all of the years that I've been doing it.

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  3. I'll try to remember Dan Walters, when going through old boxes. You neverknow, there might be one you need.

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  4. That Alou trifecta is cool. Funny you mention the dark background pieces with that Ghostbusters puzzle. I've had a Star Wars puzzle sitting on my dining room table that's been only half finished for the past year. The problem? All of the dark background pieces. The incomplete puzzle is more of a table top decoration these days as I haven't sat down to work on the puzzle since the end of 2020.

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  5. Yes, a Cubs Alou is definitely needed. Excellent Alous as well!

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  6. Beautiful Refractors and autographs! I totally remember those movie poster puzzles--my brother and I did a number of them and then my mom got the clear glue you could get to dry them in place so we could display them. Oddly enough one of them I remember us doing is one of the Police Academy movies.

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  7. Hmm. I wonder if there's a refractor of Felipe's manager card form 2005 Topps.

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  8. My dad still mentions the "peeing on his hands" thing whenever Moises Alou gets brought up. Guess that's gonna be his lasting legacy for at least one person!

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