1994 Carolina League 50th Anniversary All-Time Set

I've been emailing with Alex T. (the reader who kindly traded me the George Brett and Robin Yount rookie cards recently). He's an interesting dude whose collection is focused on older minor league sets. This post will take a look at a set Alex gave me a tip on: 1994 Carolina League 50th Anniversary All-Time Set (sometimes also referred to as being from 1995). As many of the cards in the customs revue from my last post show, I get a kick out of seeing my favorite players in unfamiliar uniforms. This set features several PC guys of mine in their minor league duds. Right up my alley! Luckily there was one for auction on eBay for a solid price and I ended up winning as the lone bidder.

Young Yaz and Stretch.

Carew and Bench. So weird seeing Bench in anything other than a Reds uniform.

Speaking of strange sights.. Howbout Teke without his trademark glasses?! Also here are li'l Dave Parker, Barry Bonds, and Ron Gant.

And the rest. I'm torn between keeping the set intact or perhaps trading off the non-PC guys.

Solid, simple backs with stats and an occasional highlight mentioned. Including nicknames is a nice touch.

So there you go. A fun minor league set with a few big names.

Breaking a 2015 Topps factory set, with several highlights and lowlights

My monthly "black friday stockpile" box for October is a 2015 Topps factory set. Breaking a set isn't as exciting as a hobby box, since (unless there are some random bonus parallels or something) you know what you're gonna get. But still fun. And I couldn't pass it up for the price.

This set came with a bonus Nolan Ryan medallion card. Not super interesting, but I'll take it.

"Dreams" is a song by Beck, released on June 15, 2015, the lead single from his tenth album, Colors.

2015 Topps has a dreamy feel to it and is possibly the most colorful set Topps has put out since 1975. Let's check out some highlights.

Here we go! This trio of Cubbie rookies covers the price-of-a-blaster I spent on the whole set. The other 700+ cards (counting the rookie variations) are just gravy!

The main reason I wanted to buy the set is I had no luck scoring a Kris Bryant Topps rookie that I wanted for my PC. Now I've got it, plus the factory set image variation too. Kris had a down year, so it'd probably be easier to find his cards now than last November when I bought this (I'm still looking for his 2015 Stadium Club RC, FYI), but I'm still happy with the purchase. For one thing, great to also get a Javier Baez rookie card after his MVP-caliber season has hyped up his cards. And apparently this is a scarcer variation that lists his position on the front as 2B (the more common version lists him as SS).. score!

Among the other top cards in the set are a pair of sliding Trouts and Sox Future Stars.

I like the design of 2015 Topps.. especially in hindsight with the crap that they've put out since, making it look better by comparison.. and I wrestled with the decision to keep the set intact rather than split it up into my PCs and funnel the remainder into my for-trade box(es). But then something happened that helped make the decision easier to go with the latter...

The hell?! A big chunk of the set was miscut. After over 60 years making baseball cards, you'd think Topps would have worked out the kinks by now, but nope. I already had the Harper, so that's no big loss, but I think I needed the Springer, so that one hurts. When these started popping up, I panicked a little that the Bryant might be miscut (I didn't "pull" that one till the end of the set).. though thankfully it was fine. But yeah, probably about 30-40 cards were noticeably off-center top to bottom.

Anybody out there collect miscut cards? Because I've got a bunch available. I know JediJeff does, but that S.O.B. has owed me cards since last year, so I'm not exactly anxious to build a trade package for him right now. :P
Hey, technically speaking, modern miscut cards are a lot more scarce than properly cut cards!

Here are some more "lowlights" of the miscut cards, though these aren't as bad as the other three.

I wonder if one reason Topps has gone the little-to-no-borders route lately for flagship is there's less chance of noticeable miscuts.

And we'll close out with a few more highlights. The playoffs have been great so far. I don't really have a horse in the race, so I pretty much just root for the underdog. I suppose I'm hoping for a Brewers/Indians WS, seeing as those are the longest championship droughts, but we'll see how it shakes out.

So there are some highlights from a factory set of 2015 Topps. If anybody's still building this set, please get in touch about a trade since I've got most of the set available (other than plucking out a few PC guys and notable RCs) and would like to clear it out so I'll trade heavily in your favor. Just make it worth my shipping cost.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

breaking my 1991 Topps Traded set

When I drastically slimmed down my collection a few years back, one of the few sets I held onto from my original collecting heyday was my 1991 Topps Traded factory set. I was a sucker for those USA cards of sure-bet future stars. What a great investment opportunity!

But these days the set is single-digits shipped on eBay. Swing and a miss as far as my cardboard retirement fund. But there are some cool cards in there. I figured I'd free it from its green confines and let these cards out into the world.

I picked out a dozen best/favorites I want to hang onto. Let's take a look at 'em.

I always though Bagwell was a fine looking gentleman, but damn this is an ugly card. Not quite out of his awkward phase when this photo was snapped, apparently. Still, it's a nice card to have. Jeff should eventually get himself into the Hall.

Aw, one of the several USA Team kids! Charles Johnson had himself a solid MLB career, featuring a few Gold Gloves, a couple All-Star selections, and a shining performance in the '97 World Series with Florida.

Cobra! Love Mr. Dave Parker. That's a big shirt and tight pants.. a combo you don't see much these days.

The only (kinda) still-active player in the set? I was never much of a Giambi fan, but even with the PED stuff, he's still a pretty likable fella.

Jeffery Hammonds had a few solid years.

There ya go. I haven't checked "book value" but I bet this is the top card in the set. Maybe neck-and-neck with Giambi (or should I say no-neck and no-neck?), a hair above Bagwell. If Pudge can juke the steroid allegations, he's headed to the Hall.

I've had a love/hate relationship with Luis Gonzalez since he came up, but you gotta respect those career numbers. But like his teammate Jeff Bagwell, sure was an ugly duckling when he was a rookie.. yikes!

Crime Dog! As a Padre! And not a super-common junk wax card! Love it.

Mo Vaughn. His nickname was Hit Dog, according to b-r? He's not related to Fred McGriff. But Charles Johnson is. Mo is related to Greg Vaughn, though. Had some great years in the 90s, but chronic knee injuries cut his career short.

The young man on this baseball card is in no way recognizable to the Phil Nevin I remember rooting for as a Friar, 1999-2005. I don't recall if he's been accused/admitted to juicing, but I'd be shocked to find out he was clean. Still, got himself a place in my heart as a bright spot on my team during a down stretch.

Hey, a horizontal card!.. and the only actual Hall of Famer in the lot. Unfortunately, his best years didn't come in San Diego, but was nice to see him succeed elsewhere.

Ok, yes, Garry Templeton was my favorite player for a while when I was a kid, but the real reason I'm drawn to the card is unrelated. Ya see, I've been watching The Wire lately-- yeah, a little late to the game-- and in this photo, Garry looks just like Stringer (Idris Elba), which I thought was pretty cool.

Good lookalike, right?

Ok, those are the destined-to-keep dozen from the set. Now, every card besides these is going to my trade stack. A couple Braves are on their way to Johnny's Trading Spot and a couple Astros are en route to Remember the Astrodome. If you need any other cards from the set, feel free to get in touch about a trade.