The Pre-Covid19 Card Collector

I've been a bad blogger lately, not posting much by my standards, and not reading as many card blogs as usual either. Sitting out contests, free-card giveaways, and bat-arounds. Just been riding lowkey on the hobby lately, I guess. I half-joked on Twitter recently...

You know how there are "pre-war card collectors"? I'm thinking about becoming a pre-covid19 collector. Kinda done with 2020 cards. Seems like a good cutoff point. Not into all the $20-per online cards and recon missions for Bowman blasters in the wild hunting for 17-year olds.

And I try not to be too much of a Rob Manfred hater, but really feels like the current sport known as Major League Baseball keeps getting further and further away from the game I fell in love with 30 years ago. And when we start seeing games again finally, it'll be further still. Perhaps painfully so.

It feels good to just kind of draw the line and "set free" baseball and baseball cards to go do their thing without me being too emotionally invested over it from here on out.

No baseball season this year? Fine, whatever.
Constant overpriced gimmicks from Topps? Hey, good for everybody who's into that stuff, but I'll hang back.
Extreme hype over the latest hot prospect? Best of luck to the kid, but I don't really care.

And sure, this is mostly just talk from me, I know. If/when the Padres finally see dividends from their young talent and sniff playoff contention, I'll probably get excited and watch some games. And I'll still collect new cards of my favorite active players (in that I won't, like, forbid traders from sending me current cards).. but for the most part, I'm going to half-assedly try to confine my collection to be pre-2020 cards.

Anyways, this is really just yet another "look what I got" post, so here are some recent pickups. All older stuff, though.. which I suppose goes along with my intention of not messing with current cards much anymore.

Basically I want the hobby to remind me of "the good ol' days".. carefree days of childhood. Reggie Jackson was my first real "PC guy" as a kid. I still have the Reggie cards I accumulated back then, and have added a bunch since returning to the hobby as an adult. He's not really a priority these days, as I consider the PC "good enough" as it stands without worrying about the endless stream of post-career cards. But once in a while a card'll catch my eye, such as when I saw this 1970 Topps Super on another blog recently. Had to track down one for myself. Great shot of the young slugger grabbing a heaping helping of lumber at the old Yankee Stadium.

The back is basically the same as his flagship '70 Topps card, but here's a pic. I believe this is my first 1970 Topps Super card, though I already had a couple 1971 Supers so I knew what I was getting into.

The other main guy I collected as a kid, at least for a while, was Garry Templeton. I've explained why before, and I'm always conflicted about ever repeating myself on this blog. Probably over 99% of readers either don't remember or don't care about hearing it again, but I'm always concerned there'll be one reader with a sharp memory saying to himself, "Oh great, Gavin is explaining why he collected Garry Templeton again.. [eyeroll]" But yeah, I was a kid in San Diego just getting into baseball/collecting. My good buddy Doug was already collecting the obvious choice (Gwynn), so I didn't want to copy him and looked elsewhere. Garry Templeton was the Padres' captain at the time and longest-tenured on the squad. Plus he had a fun name that reminded me of Charlotte's Web. So yeah, while my peers were collecting flashy guys like Strawberry and Canseco, I took the road less traveled. haha

This '76 Tulsa Oilers minor league team issue is Garry's very first card. I had been after it for a couple years, finally scoring it at a solid price a little while ago. It's not quite as awesome as the first card I landed from this set, but still pretty cool.

The back. Wow, .401.. impressive.

Garry hit .321 for Tulsa in 1976 before getting the call to St. Louis in August. Tulsa has been in the news lately, apparently a rough place for black people, historically. I wonder how Garry enjoyed his time there. Allow me to take a moment to say #BlackLivesMatter. Racism is fucking stupid.
There's my soapbox statement, lol.

Sneaking in a modern card, here's Kris Bryant's 2015 Stadium Club RC. This was on my Desperate Double Dozen wantlist for a long time. It got to the point where I didn't even care that much about owning the card anymore, but I was just looking for some closure, so I gave up waiting for anybody to trade it to me and took a look for it on eBay and ended up winning this one for a few bucks. Done and done.

Switching to non-sports, I was pretty excited to score this Axl Rose rookie-- at least I think it's his earliest trading card.. correct me if I'm wrong.

It's a promo for the 1991 Brockum Rock Cards set, though funny enough neither he nor Guns N' Roses ended up having a card in the actual set. For better or worse, I consider GNR an all-time favorite band of mine. And especially since I've started my 1991 MusiCards blog last year, I've been more interested in music cards.

Yeah, in general, I've really been enjoying opening my card collection up to non-sports cards in recent years.. again, using cards as a way of reconnecting with stuff I loved as a kid.. first with Ghostbusters cards, Goonies cards, then Pee-Wee Herman cards (post forthcoming), and more recently MST3K cards (post also forthcoming) and music cards.


Let's close today with a really old card..

My interest in old-timey aviation is pretty much limited to Howard Hughes (post forthcoming later this week, hopefully), but I ended up stumbling upon this neat "playing days" Amelia Earhart card and had to pull the trigger.

1936 Carreras Famous Airmen & Airwomen #25. She has at least a couple earlier cards, so no "rookie card" top-loader for this one, but still super cool to have an Amelia Earhart card that was printed before her tragic disappearance the following year.


In conclusion..

Love this quote from the otherwise terrible Topps-produced Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987). Like this guy stuck in a bad movie, I'm deciding to leave mankind to its folly and retire here. Into this world of memories.


...I mean, not really.. But I think it's best if I try to focus on pre-2020 cards and stop worrying about the current state of things.
Thanks for stopping by.

Topps Retired Triad 3 - Tippy, Baines, Davey

More Topps Retired autos acquired in my neverending quest to collect 'em all. These here are all from 2005, the Return of the Jedi of the Retired trilogy of sets.

Hey, here my first Retired printing plate. Normally I don't mess with them at all (my negative feelings towards stickergraphs being a big reason), but this one popped up too cheap to deny. I think the seller forgot to mention in the listing title that it was a plate or 1/1, so that might have kept the price down to be comparable to what the base autos typically go for.

Since my collection of Retired autos is already a "frankenset" of base and refractors, figured adding a autograph plate to the mix would be cool.

Tippy Martinez was a reliever who came up with the Yankees in the mid 70s, but spent most of his career with the Orioles. His best season was probably 1983, helping Baltimore win it all that year as their closer.

And this Harold Baines base auto was cheap enough to justify, though these days I try to focus on refractors since I like them so much more.

As a "big Hall" guy, I was glad to see Baines in the HOF, though there are several more-deserving players still on the outside looking in.

Check out the front and back photos... The White Sox sure went through a lot of uniforms back before deciding to stick with what worked so well for the Raiders.

Refractor time! Last card today is Davey Johnson.

Davey is best known as manager of the '86 Mets, so it's no surprise the write-up is centered on that. As a player, he was a 4-time All-Star and won a couple rings with the Orioles ('66 & '70).

Wow, and Maryland native Harold Baines had 3 different stints in Baltimore during his career so I guess this post turned out to have a theme of notable Orioles of the past.

That's all for this time. Thanks for reading.

A Relapsed Roundup

Ashamed to admit it, but I've had a relapse.

The nail-biting. I was a chronic nail-biter for my entire life up to 2 or 3 years ago when I finally kicked the habit. ...For the most part. I'd still sometimes cheat and nibble on a nail or two once in a while, but the vast majority of my nails were full and glorious just as the good lord intended.

But yeah, in the past month or two I've fallen off the waggon, with only one or maybe two of my nails currently in respectable condition. But I'm calling myself out on it here and am going to give my damnedest to be strong from here on out. I could probably point to covid/America-related stress as a main factor in driving me back to riding the white rhino but I'm not making excuses and take full responsibility for my actions.

But on with the post.. One thing that sucks about essentially having no nails is it makes it harder to open packages! And there's been a good amount of that going on here lately as we're about to see in this trade roundup post. It's gonna be a big one. Lots of solid cardboard coming my way since I last did one of these posts.

Kerry had just sent me a great package that I think I featured last time, but then I hit him up on his group break of 2019 Topps of the Class (a kooky, less familiar relative of Topps Big League). From the teams remaining when I picked, I went with the Washington Nationals.. mainly looking for mah boi Juan Soto, but I also PC the other two guys in the team set: Macks Scierzor (sic) and Trea Turner. Funny enough, I got shutout with that pair, but ended up with (3) Sotos. In his case, I don't mind adding doubles or triples (I'm such a prospector/investor!).

When Kerry opened folks up to pick another team if they wanted, I first decided to go with the Mariners. But while I was typing my comment, somebody else swooped in and grabbed 'em! So I spoke up for the White Sox instead. Abreu is a PC guy, Kopech is a decent RC, and Moncada is another of those "young stud" types that I don't mind squeezing into my collection.

Kerry was nice enough to also include one of the Mookie Betts ad-type cards that came in every pack of the stuff, plus he kindly shared one of the few Goldschmidts he pulled for himself.. Plus he surprised me with a needed puzzle piece! Down to just one more to finish off the Yaz puzzle from 1990 Donruss. Check my wantlist if you can help.

Big thanks again for the awesome break, Kerry!

-   -  - --o

Next is..

..Nate from The Bucs Stop Here surprising me with a trio of Kellogg's needs. These are beauties, with Manny's big smile and a pair of young "stoner" Candymen.

Thanks, Nate! I'll try to hit you back with something nice soon.

 - - - ---o

Here's my second trade with reader David G. serving me up another helping of '88 Fleer needs. Love checking them numbers off'a the ol' wantlist.

Thanks, David! Unfortunately my well is running dry for the 2005-2011 era Cardinals you like in exchange, and with my trader bud Kerry being the recipient of the majority of decent Cardinals cards that blow across my trade box, I may have to scramble to send you back something you can use, but I'll see what I can do!

-                -     -   -  - ---o

Next up is an exciting one! Who would have thunk that during a crazy pandemic like this that I'd have another in-person encounter with a fellow cardblogger I hadn't met before, but sure enough it happened the other weekend. The Diamond King was a popular blog back before I was on the scene and he was slowing down as I was ramping up. And now after a few years off, he's back with frequent posts. Turns out he lives just outside the Portland metro area up in Washington, not a bad drive away from me. He saw on my wantlist that I had a few overproduction era sets that I'd kinda like to have in my collection but they're arguably not even worth the cost of shipping them. And well, he happened to have a couple such sets he didn't need, and so he graciously decided to drive them over to me for free!

The '91 Score and '91 Upper Deck were expected, but the '87 Topps was a wonderful surprise. These are sets I've wanted in my collection if just for sentimentality if nothing else. I sure ripped a ton of Score and UD in 1991 but never did I get close to completing a set. Very cool to have them all now-- and sealed factory sets, at that! I may have to leave them that way and instead scroll through the set on TCDB someday instead. And I've got a strong appreciation of 1987 Topps as any other typical collector, but attempting a "setbuild" for that junk legend is daunting just thinking about all the postage it would cost rustling up all 792 cards in that wooden framed behemoth. But now... as Fuji would say.. "Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!" Got it all! One of these days I need to thumb through these to admire the set and just double check that every card is in there (as I do with any non-sealed complete set I receive because I'm OCD like that I guess).

And surprise.. there was a bonus little case of '84 Donruss needs at the bottom of the bag. Noice! I'd really love to knock out this set soon finally. Trades are of course very appreciated, though I might cave and do a Sportlots order to scoop up the final couple dozen I'm missing one of these days.

And... in our brief doorstep chat, he mentioned he's been itching to dig through a heap of cards again as soon as card shops reopen and card shows start back up again. Ah yes, it's a feeling many of us collectors are feeling these days!

Then the next day I saw a comment from him on another blog again mentioning the hankerin' feelin'. Then I had the idea to offer him the big stash of cards I was putting together to sell. Over time I accumulate a lot of "non-keepers" from various sources and I like to thin them out from time to time. In the past, I've dumped a couple big boxes on Billy Kingsley because even though he doesn't really collect baseball, he doesn't mind adding some Cardboard History to his collection and/or getting more tradable cards added to his TCDB account. But Billy has asked not to be sent cards for the moment due to his added health sensitivities. And since we're looking to buy a house hopefully sometime in the not too distant future, I wanted to clear out the cards sooner rather than later. So anyways, I emailed the DK about the boxes I had available and gave him a price much lower than I would have shot for on eBay or elsewhere, but was happy to pass them along to another cardblogger while also saving myself the chore of selling/shipping. I figured they'd make a good fix for the "dimebox dig" thrill, the likes of which I'm lucky to get whenever Rod or Zippy dumps their unwanted bulk cards on me.

So anyways, yes, he was v. down for it, and ended up swinging by that afternoon to grab the box. (He decided to just stick to the "all baseball" box, so I've still got some hockey, football, basketball, WWE, and other various/non-sport that I'd like to shed before I have to pack up and move my collection to a new house. So maybe give me a shout if you'd like to maybe discuss a transaction for a bulk lot of non-baseball cards.)

But back to the cards, DK was gracious enough to find this trio of big names I needed for my big run of Kellogg's sets I recently kicked off. Wow, damn nice of the guy! And these cards are in great shape, as are the others Nate sent me from earlier in the post. Ha, when I announced that I was collecting vintage Kellogg's sets and *gasp* I was up for any conditioned card I'm needing.. well, I figured I'd become a receptive dumping ground for your guys' cracked-to-hell Kellogg's beaters that you couldn't in good conscious trade or attempt to sell or anything, you were just kinda stuck with forever. But NOPE, people have been graciously sending me "gradable" condition specimens such as these. I'm surprised and grateful!

Thanks a lot, DK! Awesome to have a new-to-me local collecting bud. We all should do another meetup one of these days when things are back to normal. I was hoping to lure Fuji into a big meetup sometime in summer when he's up in Portland visiting his friend, but now with the current situation, that might have to wait a while.

-     -   - ----o

The post is still chuggging along! Next up is a surprise padded mailer from Jeremy at Topps Cards That Never Were Dreamt Up Before Now. (Personally, I think that name is too long and he should shorten it down a little. lol) What secrets will be revealed in Jeremy's batch of cards?

We've struck early 90s Black Gold! Queue the song!

Nice lot here highlighted by some big Winners and everybody's hero Gary Carter. (See, you can enjoy the hobby in ways besides spending $20 per every Trout/Griffey base card you buy or hunting for Jasson Dominguez 1st Bowman cards like they're Golden Tickets! lol)

Not only that but also this healthy bunch of 2011 Topps parallels! This frankenset project of mine seems to have slowed to a crawl in recent years, as the year 2011 gets father and farther in the rearview, but this lot breathes some life into that zany setbuild. Cards to specifically shout-out here include 2 appearances of the star of recent ESPN special, troubled pitching great Roy Halladay, plus another HOF hurler in the glorious Tom Seaver legend variation.

So cool! Thanks so much, Jeremey! Made my day. I'll work on getting a return out to you soon.

-    -   -  - ---o

Last one for today is a package from the incredible Julie.

Ha, I hadn't opened the mailing until drafting the first part of this post, and wouldn't you know it-- More Kellogg's.. and in excellent condition, at that! (that's just a glare on ol' Scrap Iron there) LOL. Perhaps instead of "A Relapsed Roundup" I should have titled this post "Kellogg's Krazed" or somesuch, haha.

I think she just sent these to be nice, but maybe I asked for them in a "pocket pickers" event she did? I'm not sure. Regardless, very appreciated! At this rate, those Kellogg's setbuilds of mine are gonna be completed sooner than I could have dreamt a month ago (and in better condition than I ever anticipated!).

You're a champ, Julie! Thanks for hooking me up with the cards (and promises of more to come!). I'll try to find something to return the favor if I can find something that'd be a big hit with you since I know you discourage folks from filling up your home with cardboard, which I totally respect while also wanting to return the favor with the gift of cards back to you!

Ok, that's going to wrap up this post. Thanks for reading and have a great weekend! Be safe and keep cool.

ignorable filler post: 1991 Cardboard Dreams #8 Michael Jordan

Oh man, I just did a post featuring my Jordan PC, but I forgot about this one.

Like with all the cards in the oddball 1991 Cardboard Dreams set, the artwork is in the range of "better than the average person could do, but not necessarily great."

And here's the back. Cute (?) doodle of a helmet-less Jordan taking a cut for the Pale Hose.

Here's where I'd normally do some research/writing about the subject of the card, but at this point there's nothing more I can say about Michael Jordan that hasn't already been said. A very, very good basketball playing man. Possibly would have eventually been good at baseball had the '94 strike not thrown a wrench in his rapid progress.

With that out of the way, now's the time in the "ignorable filler post" where I ramble about whatever. Ooh, these posts are fun for me. Just spew out whatever I'm feeling at the moment.

I've seen a few bloggers saying that during this health crisis, they are reluctant to trade because they don't want to have to go to the post office to mail cards. Well, please allow me to present a reminder plug for the Definitive Guide to Shipping Sports Cards Safely and Cheaply I did back in 2018. It's got you covered for the best ways to send out packages (and PWEs) without ever having to step inside a post office. Check it out! Maybe some of you old-fashioned guys were reluctant to get on board back then, but now with the whole virus thing, perhaps you're ready to take the plunge and stop waiting in line.

In my MJ post, I mentioned I'd like to add an autograph at some point. 

The closest thing I've got currently is a Dennis Rodman stickergraph I picked up years back, mostly because of its 12/25 serial numbering. It's not much for penmanship, but still a neat card in my Christmas Card collection. I couldn't find it mentioned while searching my blog's archives, so either I never got around to posting it, or Blogger's search function wasn't working properly (which happens sometimes).

Hey, that's a good segue to rant about Blogger for a bit!

Ok, when I first started drafting this post a week+ ago I had plenty to rant about, because I had been forced onto the "New Blogger" and it suuucks. But then I eventually figured out how to revert back to the old Blogger and everything's good for now. But if you're tempted to click the "Try the new Blogger" button.. don't. Or if you do, be sure to then also click the button to "give feedback" to Blogger to tell them how much the new version sucks so hopefully they go back to the drawing board and fix all the issues (issues that the new version created that are "fixed" by the old version) and hopefully all us Blogger-cardbloggers don't get forced into permanently using the terrible new version. I really hate it. It's like blogging with one hand tied behind your back.

With the hobby being bonkers right now (mostly MJ and Project 2020 lifting the waters), figured I'd give another shot at selling my all-time best pull, a 1/1 Ken Griffey Jr auto. Optimistically asking $5k but open to hear offers or intriguing trade propositions.

I baked a cake. ...Actually, my wife baked it, but I frosted/decorated it. It says "Yay 2020". It's sardonic.

It's gone now. Eaten in 3 days. Surprisingly I haven't noticeably put on any weight during this crisis even though I haven't been to the gym since mid March. Been riding my bike a few times a week, though. That's something.

I'm not much for sports video games, but the one I've always loved is Bases Loaded 2 for the original Nintendo. I've been playing through a season this year (not quite the real thing, but it's something!) and the other day I hit a walkoff dinger in the bottom of the 10th. Woot! Left a lot of guys on base, but managed to come out on top.

Oh! There's been a baby bunny stopping by our backyard recently. Super cute.
I call it Moon Child due to the white marking on its forehead.

Speaking of cute critters, looks like we've got a line on a new puppers finally, but it'll be a few more weeks till we get it since it's not old enough to leave its mama yet. No rush! Hopefully that all works out.

Here's a weird picture I took last week.

Don't look down.

I bought a Garfield card. Can you guess why?

Snipped from my 8th grade yearbook. Coach Love was a sweetheart PE instructor. Lost an ear to cancer, which was kinda creepy for us kids at first, but we all grew be fans of the guy pretty quickly.

I've got regret over not being a part of my 8th grade Sports Card Club. Don't recall being aware of it at the time. I wonder if any of these guys still collect. Maybe one or two of them have even browsed my blog at some point? Only guy I could name off the top of my head is Clayton, the kid in the back far left. Don't know the teacher.

Back to the topic of video games, my wife and I play 2 games together on a somewhat regular basis: Dr. Mario and Wario's Woods (both SNES). We're pretty evenly matched, with her winning Dr. Mario about 60% of the time, and me winning Wario's Woods about 60% of the time. In a very rare occurrence, we tied in Wario's Woods the other day and I had to take a photo. It's just the first or maybe second draw we've ever had.

My latest sketch card. I made this for mr. haverkamp. It's supposed to be Dan Gladden on the Giants. I probably shouldn't have used a blue pen, but let's pretend it's a throwback Seals uniform or someshit.

It glows in the dark a little.

I'm generally not the type of person who takes pictures of their food, but a couple recent deserts creations of mine warranted it. The first one is cookies n cream ice cream with a brownie bite and some Froot Loops. The second one is an oatmeal cookie sandwich with pistachio pudding filling. Both very tasty.

Thanks for reading this ignorable filler post!

Hoyt! Hoyt! Hoyt!

I did some photoshop work for a Hoyt Wilhelm supercollector back in 2017 and then he ghosted me when I was expecting some neat Hoyt stuff promised my way in return. A bummer, but it happens.

Then after nearly 3 years of radio silence, Brett finally got back to me earlier this year, apologizing for life n' such putting my haul on the backburner. But in a glorious resolution to the story, he finally hooked me up with a fantastic package to knock the socks off a Hoyt collector such as myself.

We start off with an autographed postcard from Hoyt's swansong in Los Angeles. Nice!

Now we enter into a string of glossy 8x10s. Like with the postcard, this would be cool enough as is, but the fact it's signed only ratchets up the coolness more.

Another autographed photo. Big signature on this one, the last of the signed items here.

Print of a different shot from Hoyt's Dodger days.

And an action shot from Wrigley.

Awesome photo of a pair of baseball greats tipping their caps.

Another terrific print featuring Hank Aaron.

I'd better start doubling up these photos or the post will get huge.. but yeah, a couple nice White Sox 8x10"s.

Here we've got a press photo featuring Hoyt's son, plus a hometown newspaper feature that Brett helped provide some photos and information for from 2017.

Not sure how legible these photos are, but here's the article in case anyone wants to try zooming in to read it.

Very cool stuff!

But for this card collector, what I was most excited about was the set of custom cards Brett created...

This is a comprehensive batch of cards examining Wilhelm's life.

From his early amateur days, to his 21-year MLB career, through his stints as a minor league coach, it's all covered here.

The cards were not cheap for Brett to make, as he worked with a printshop to have them printed up, but he was gracious enough to honor my request to acquire a second set to give to fellow Hoyt-head, Nick from the Dimeboxes blog. I just wouldn't have been able to enjoy the cards to the fullest knowing my buddy Nick was left out of the Hoyt lovefest. But it all worked out and I was able to surprise him with his own set.

Here's a peek at the incredibly informative backs. Lots to digest here, and I still need to carve out time to read through them all.

Brett, huge thanks for the Hoyt mega-mailday! This stuff dwarfs the moderate work I did photoshopping a few pictures, so I'm in your debt.. Just let me know if I can ever lend a hand with anything for you.

Any fellow Wilhelm Warriors and Hoyt Hounds should be sure to check out Brett's new Hoyt Wilhelm Online Museum blog and corresponding Hoyt Wilhelm Fan Page Twitter account.