Set Completion Carousel

I wanted to jog through a couple sets that I've recently completed, as well as a couple other sets I've started with help from near-complete starters.

Joy of a Completed Set: 1988 Fleer

It was way back during that innocent summer of 2019 that I got a partial set of 1988 Fleer from my buddy (Padrographs) Rod. Took me a few years piecing together the couple dozen or so missing cards, but I've now finally made that partial set into a complete set. (#188 Denny Martinez was the final card thanks to an accounting mistake on my part.) That gives me a 3-year run of Fleer, 1986 through 1988. I've also got '84, '90, and '92 complete. So I'm in the market for complete or near-complete sets of Fleer from '81, '82, '83, '85, '89, '91, and '93, working towards a goal Fleer Baseball run of '81 through '93 (when I stopped collecting as a kid). And I think the only Fleer Update set I've got is 1987, but I'd like to get more of those complementary sets, too.

I should salute '88 Fleer at least a little here, but what more can you say about '88 Fleer? I do like the set, especially for the checklist more than the design. You get some key rookie cards that some other companies missed out on, such as Edgar Martinez and Ron Gant, and the rookie duos with Mark Grace, and deeper cuts like Jeff King and John Burkett. Also endearing is the Reggie Jackson final tribute, his only real base card that year. While they printed a ton of the stuff, '88 Fleer still seems relatively scarce compared to the other mainstream baseball cards of 1988. Like, I'm not sure it's the best set from that year, but it at least feels less junky than Topps and Donruss, right?

Coincidentally, here's another set from 1988 that I've been trying to finish since I was at my old place (which is how I keep track of things these days-- And this month marks 5 years in the new house, so it's been a while)...

Joy of a (2nd) Completed Set: 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse

I overpaid a bit for this oversized card the other day, but it was the final card I needed to complete a second master set of 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse several years in the making. The story there is I ended up buying 3 boxes of the stuff (well, one was a partial box) to build my first master set and I ended up with enough dupes that it made sense to go ahead and take that second set to the finish line. Man, such a frustrating set to build! If you're thinking of going after the set, I'd warn you the boxes have horrible collation. Particular singles can be hard to find and tricky to search for. You're better off buying a completed set on eBay. Or hey, I don't intend to hang on to my second master set, so if anybody wants to trade, let me know. Master sets (159 cards including variations) seem to be going for around $150 on eBay. Along those lines, I also have a second near-master set of 1991 MusiCards available with all the variations and most of the promos that I should try to sell or trade one of these days.

New partial set to work on: Will's Cigarettes 1926 Wonders of The Past

I saw this neat tobacco mini set in a post by Nick Vossbrink back in 2020 and then set an ebay search for a cheap set. Finally a near-complete set (46/50) popped up and I scored it for just under $8 shipped. Really beautiful images on these century-old cards. I've seen at least one of these wonders in person thanks to my trip to Greece a couple years ago. Hopefully shouldn't be too hard to track down the 4 missing cards. Looking forward to paging these up.

1926 Wills Wonders of the Past needs:

14 Easter Island

42 The Colosseum

43 Trajan's Forum, Rome

44 Tombs by the Appian Way

New partial set to work on: 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites

I haven't been documenting my progress on the blog much, but these past few years I've been building all 3 refractor parallel sets to the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites trilogy (just 14 needs remaining). A bulk lot on ebay included one refractor I needed plus a partial 2004 base set, and I ended up with it for a solid price. While I'm mainly interested in the refractors, hey, the base cards are cool too. Might as well work on completing that.

2004 ATFF needs:

31 Ralph Kiner

35 Willie McGee

47 Bret Saberhagen

61 Mike Scott

93 Darren Daulton

94 Harold Reynolds

96 Pete Incaviglia

105 Cal Ripken Jr.

Only the Ripken might be relatively-pricey out of those names, so that's not bad.

One bonus tale of closure to go out on. Maybe you remember back in February I got a bunch more cool stuff from Rod including a near-complete minor league teams set of 1986 ProCards Phoenix Firebirds. The trainer card (Cliff Shidawara) got pulled for Fuji's consideration, but no worries as I was able to land a replacement on COMC for a buck. So now I've got that full team set to enter as overkill for my Chris D. Jones supercollection that already included the single.

Thanks for swinging by, folks. Hope you're enjoying playoff baseball. I've got the deciding Cubs/Brewers game on as I type. With the Padres out, I'm rooting for whoever's gone the longest without winning (so, not the Dodgers). I'd love to see a first-time champ this year.

RodPost

Got to meet up with Padrographs Rod at the last card show. He graciously hooked me up with a whole bunch of cards, partially as a prize in a recent multi-winner contest he ran.

I picked this Votto relic out of the available prizes Rod had still available when my turn came up. Joey's been having an off year, but I still think he's pretty cool and hope he rebounds.

I can always count on any box from Rod to include a bunch of Padre prospects. Got the likes of Tatis Jr and Luis Urias in here.

Wow, five Topps Now cards! Since these things run a few bucks each, it's always a treat to be surprised by one in a blind card package, much less five.

Hey, speaking of 5, it's my 5th wedding anniversary! Go me and my wife!

More neat Pads... green xfractor, Wingenter auto, Fleer sticker, and a couple Meija customs.

A bunch more dudes I collect.

I've got a gathering of Panini Beach Boys cards that could be considered in the loosest sense of the term to be a "complete set" but I'm always happy to throw some insert needs into the mix to bolster it up a bit, and these "On the Record" and "Etchings" inserts are probably the most interesting of the non-hit inserts in that product, so I was happy to find them in the box.

Rod is also usually good for a few pretty ladies in his lots for me.

Both myself and Bo were bestowed with copies of this same Jeff Pendergraph card by Rod recently, each #'d /499. Ha, I won't reject a Blazers hit, though for the record, I don't collect Christmas-themed cards other than 12/25 and 12/24 serial-numbered cards.

SPEAKING OF BASKETBALL!!!!!
Thanks to a recent Fuji post, I just recently learned that Kawhi Leonard attended my alma mater SDSU. It kinda blew my mind. I must admit that I don't really follow college sports, and even blocked the words "SDSU" and "Aztecs" from my Twitter feed (which must be why I didn't know). But that said, I do collect a handful of notable players who go onto greatness as fellow San Diego State alumni, and after the Raptors magical, improbable run this year, I think I need to add Kawhi to the short list of NBA guys I collect. So to all my trader buddies who do basketball cards (ie, Billy, Kerry, Doug), please consider me an outlet option for all you excess Kawhi cards. Thank you.

Rod also hooked me up with a near complete set of 1988 Fleer. It's a "want" as part of a long-term goal of mine to go for a run of flagship from that period. It's missing 100 or so cards, which are now listed on my wantlist. The bunkwax (sic) truth is that this set can be bought for $10-15 shipped on eBay and it'll likely cost me more than that (just in postage) to round up the remaining 100ish cards for this set. Oh the cruel irony of the overproduction era haunting the hobby even still. But I don't mean to complain. This partial set includes plenty of the best cards, including the Mark Grace RC, a card I coveted as a kid in the early 90s.

Rod took note of my love of glow in the dark stuff and included a small box of glowing temporary tattoos.

The box is about the size of a matchbook, with each of the "4 Glow Tattoos" (on one sheet) being about the size of a dime.

Here they are in action. Cool!

He also gave me a shirt, which seemed a little strange at first. But it's a shirt from the library system he works for, and as far as my personal interest in it..

It glows, baby!!!

The back side too.

I'm currently undecided if I'll rock this shirt from time to time, or just file it away as a collectable, but either way, big thanks to Rod for thinking of me and scoring me one of these.

I'm not a big reader, I must admit, though coincidentally I did receive a new book today which I'll feature in a future post (it's autographed). The current book I'm reading is on my phone-- the SABR Nuclear Powered Baseball collection, which is basically just the SABR bios for all the players featured (and pre-war players referenced) in the Homer At The Bat episode of the Simpsons. I'm currently in the middle of Harry Hooper's entry. I typically read a few pages while riding on the Max most mornings. Before that I read Ball Four.

Again, my gratitude to Rod for the cards n' such. Always great to see him, and I appreciate all the neat stuff he gifts me.

Pack Skirmish: Seinfeld Edition

I've finally rented through Seinfeld on DVD and am watching the end now as I start drafting this up. I originally watched the show back in the day when it was on, and then scattered repeats in syndication over the years, but haven't hit it in order since the original run. My wife isn't a big fan, so it's been an activity for the evenings she's out at grad school.

This doesn't have much to do with a pack war, but maybe we'll pull a Keith Hernandez or Roger McDowell or something loosely related. Al Newman, even. Wouldn't that be great and tie this post together?! Fingers crossed!

Today we'll be pairing off junk wax against the last 2 packs of the discounted 2015 Bowman blaster I picked up a month or so ago.

Let's do it!

The first challenger is 1991 Fleer, packing a bright yellow punch.

Oh right, the foil names on these Bowman cards don't show up very well. Probably not the best product for this. Oh well. That Brewer guy vs. Jay Howell. No score.

A Giant vs. Rosario. No score. Oh, and looking at the edge of the photo, we learn that previous Brewer was Matt Garza.

Here we go.. Eric Hosmer vs. Rock Raines. Gotta go with Raines. Hopefully HOF voters get him in on this final chance on the ballot coming up.

Hough is tough enough. 2-0 Fleer.

Smoltz has this one easily. 3-0 Fleer.

No score.

No score.

Yawn. No score.

Eh, let's get Bowman on the board here. Fleer 4, Bowman 1.

Too close to call.

Bonus point for Fleer's surplus of cards and a sticker.

Final score: Fleer 5, Bowman 1. Congrats, Fleer.

Next up...

Bowman asks for another shot. 1987 Topps takes that challenge.

The gum was very crumbly. Gotta admit I ate a tiny piece of it for old times' sake. As the saying goes, "If it's brown, put it down. If it's pink, it's ok, I think." It was fine, though I didn't want to tempt fate eating the whole thing.

Blarf.

Hey, that's Mike Trout! Suck it, Traber. Bowman up 1-0.

The name Chico is always good for a point. 1-1 tie. Also, Chico sounds close to Bosco. Bosco!

Johnny Ray always gets "We Didn't Start The Fire" stuck in my head. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Topps 2, Bowman 1.

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray, South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

I remember as a kid thinking how did a light-hitting second baseman make it into this song. I mean, sure, he led the league in doubles a couple times and often hit around .300, but he's hardly on the same level as Joe DiMaggio! LOL

Hey, it's the surgery guy, Dr. Thomas Jonathan. Point! 3-1

That's a great Floyd Rayford card, but gotta give it to the A's kid, in the spirit of this Seinfeld edition of Pack Skirmish.

"It was shrinkage, Jerry!"

Topps 3, Bowman 2.

Hmm.. this is tough.. shiny insert vs. Willie Wilson. I guess Appel just barely squeaks by. Tied up at 3.

It's Tiger vs. Tiger. But what's this?...

Oh man, the gum managed to damage through the card to the front. That's crazy. Immediate disqualification for The Bergman. Point to Bowman.

Gotta give it to the former Padre. Wisler's doing ok for the Braves these days, picking up the win yesterday. Bowman taking a good lead, 5-3.

Hey, it's not Keith, but teammate Sid Fernandez is close enough. Were this not Seinfeld Edition, Altuve would certainly take this round. But it is. Topps inches back, down a point, 5-4.

Oh, the good times they shared!

Bowman is tapped out. Topps keeps on swinging. Up off the mat to end in a 5-all tie.


Here are the highlights from the other packs in the Bowman blaster that I opened earlier:

A shimmering mini of Eric Jagielo. He went to the Reds in the Chapman deal and has been struggling in AA this season.
Those grey parallels are among the most boring ever, but hey, I won't say no to a numbered Nick Castellanos card. He's having a great year, hitting .340 so far.
And the best card of the blaster, the diecut Francisco Lindor #'d /99. Last year's AL ROY runner-up is having himself a very nice 2016 season, too.

That's it. I'll admit this was a clunker of a post. Sorry. I'm just gonna dump this out midday Saturday where not many people will see it.
But thanks for making it thru! Hope you're having a nice weekend.