What's in the Box...?

It’s been kind of a lousy week for me. I shared in my last post a bit about our sick pet rat, and I’m sorry to say that the news from the vet was not good. Idgie has a brain tumor and will not be with us much longer. But she’s been doing pretty well considering, slowed down physically, but not mentally. So, I’ve been glad for distractions and my mood led me to do something I probably wouldn’t have normally done. But it turned out to be a pretty nice pick-me-up on an otherwise depressing day.

There is a comic book shop near our apartment with an antique/consignment area. I stop in every now and again to look for cards, but rarely find anything worth picking up. It’s that cross-hobby problem, I think, where you tend to overprice stuff that is outside of your realm of expertise. You see it a lot in antique stores. This shop had a factory set of 1990 Score priced at $35 that is a pretty good example of this. So, when I found an 800-count box marked “’70s Vintage Baseball, $20,” I was suspicious. And when I opened it up and thumbed around and found mostly 1982 Topps and early ‘80s Fleer commons, I almost put it back. But then I tried from another part of the box and turned up a vein of stars cards… Rose, Morgan, Reggie, etc from ’82, ’79, and ’78 Topps, I figured I might as well pick it up and give myself something to do.

The box was arranged by team, with stars cards arranged by player at the end. With a cold beer and some Riff Trax on the TV, I sorted them by set and came up with a decent stacks of 78, 79, 80, 81, and 83 Topps, as well as 81, 82, and 83 Fleer. With almost no dupes!

As for my “hits…”

There were a few ’83 Topps cards in the box as well, including this nice pair of HOFers.

The bulk of the cards were 1982 Topps, which is a set I am now on my way to building. Here is Johnny B and George Brett… I love that Brett card, with him preparing his bat.

A pair of second-to-last year Yazes.

REGGIE! And the last Ozzie as a Padre card.

And a pair of Brewers from the World Series team.

  

I also got a nice starter set of 1979s, a set I’m eager to start on so I can chase that Ozzie Smith RC.

That is, I believe, Munson’s last card. And I already had a copy of that Fisk, but it’s still pretty sweet.

BIG REDS! Looks like photos taken from the same game.

I managed to put together a smaller stack of 1978s, too. Here we have another Munson and a big Willie McCovery from his second tour with the Giants.

I also found four 1976 Topps traded cards, a set I have yet to begin.

I found just one card from my 1981 wantlist in the box, but snagged some decent dupes, including this Gibby RC and a Bench All Star.

I found 12 (!!!) cards I needed for my 1980 set, including this BALLER Gary Carter. The Schmidt is a dupe, but still a great card.

If anyone is in need of 81-82-83 Fleer, I can probably help you out. I got a huge stack of ’81s, including these beauties (which I might actually need to hold on to).

Some ’82s. This Rod Carew photo also appears on his ’82 Topps In Action card.

And a smaller stack of ’83s. This was the year they finally solved their printing issues, and with a clean design and sharp photos, it makes for a very nice set.

This alone would have made this worth the twenty bucks. But I still have yet to get to the three BIG HITS…

First up is the newest Hall of Famer… in this debut issue. I wouldn’t have voted for him, but I’ll certainly never scoff at adding a HOFer RC.

So, I certainly won’t scoff at adding THIS HOFer RC. Even my deeply-held hatred of the Cubs cannot put a damper on this find. It’s the best-looking of his RCs, in my opinion.

And then, for the BIG BIG HIT…

Kaboom! Hidden among the commons was this all-time classic. It’s a bit soft-cornered and off-centered, but a definite upgrade from the Henderson RC I had in my ’80 set. This card alone might have been worth the money and it ranks easily as my greatest in-a-random-box find.

So, this leaves me, fellow traders, with a few fresh new wantlists to post and some nice stacks of early ‘80s stuff up for trade. If anyone is interested in starting a 1980 Topps set, I’ve got plenty for you, including many stars. I also have a fair amount of 1981 Topps. I’d also be open to trading my old Henderson RC, which, as you can see below, isn’t in great shape. I think it got wet at one time…

… anyway, I’ve got several new wantlists up and will be posting new lists soon for 1993 and 1995 Topps. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Cleaning out the basement, Rob Dork, & and a BFG Contest!

This past weekend was my first wedding anniversary. To celebrate, we went north, to Door County (for those unfamiliar, that would be the “thumb” part of Wisconsin). On the way, we stopped at my parents’ house in Manitowoc. My old man has been in the process of cleaning out the basement for, oh, about 10 years now, and finally got me to go downstairs and check through the boxes I had there to see if there was anything I wanted not to be thrown out or given away. Before I get to the meat of this post, I wanted to share one item with everything. Just to show how WAY COOL and TOTALLY DUMB I was as a little kid.

Hell Yeah!! That’s TOPPS MAGAZINE, fools! With free baseball cards inside (they were long ago removed)!! But there’s also that odd image down in the lower right…

Oh! Of course, that would be the former Cincinnati Reds’ fire-baller Rob Dork. Well-known for his terrible complexion and devil beard. Here he is on his 1992 Topps card, holding a baseball that he has signed, “Rob Dork.” Why wouldn’t he? It’s his name, after all.

I actually REMEMBER doing this. It was in school when I was in fourth grade, with Mr. Marinello as a teacher. I don’t recall WHY I did it. Evidently, I had some beef with Rob Dibble that led me to deface his picture on the cover of a magazine. Dibble had a number of incidents during the 1991 season, including heaving a baseball into the bleachers after a save and hitting a woman. I had to look this stuff up, so I can only assume that had something to do with my little artwork here. Odd thing is, as an adult I’ve long held the opinion that Dibble was a pretty tremendous dickhead (a “dork,” if you will). I guess that opinion has deeper roots than I thought.

ANYWAY. I didn’t come here today to tell you about Rob Dibble. I came here today to tell you about a contest. It’s been a while since anyone in the blogosphere held a BIG FUN GAME. I’m going to call this one the BASEMENT FUN GAME. That’s right, all the crap I hauled out of my parents’ basement is up on the block. I’ve got 13 BIG BASEMENT FUN prizes up for grabs.

Here’s how I’ll do it… I’ll do an official entry post on Wednesday at 5 pm central time. The first 13 people to comment will get a spot. I’ll start the contest later on in the week. The names will be randomized and each prize will be assigned a number. Pick a number, steal a prize, or pass to the back of the line. You can only pass once and prizes can only be stolen twice. I’ll give you 24 hours to make a choice (and please, contact me so I have your email for the game, mine can be found in the ‘complete profile’ link).

A word on these prizes… they are all things that I actually took out of the basement. And the circumstances around those basement boxes means it’ll be an interesting kinda game. I moved out of the house in 2000, so everything is at least that old. It’s stuff that I haven’t bothered to take out for my current collection, so it’s not exactly Cadillac material. On the other hand, it’s stuff that has survived numerous purges over the years (this was not the first time I was called on to get rid of some of my shit in Manitowoc), so it’s all – for whatever reason – stuff that I have yet to toss in the trash. And, of course, it’s been a basement for nearly two decades, so some of the stuff isn’t exactly in pristine shape (although none of it is damaged too badly).

It’s mostly baseball and football stuff, with a tiny bit of hockey thrown in. So, all in all, none of these prizes is gonna make your year, but it’ll be a fun bunch and I think some lots will inspire some spirit stealing and strategizing.

Anyway, check back for the entry post and SHARE this with others. If we fill all 13 spots, I’ll toss in some bonus stuff with each prize based on your interests (if I can meet them).

Now go to it, you dorks!

Getting Organizized

There are days when collecting feels like a burden. Cards pile up like papers in an inbox, trades come in that need to be posted about, wantlists need updating... It can get to feeling more like a chore than like fun. But, since I've really gotten back into this card thing, I've had this idea in my head that all those bad feeling would go away if I could just get organized. Or organzized, as Travis Bickle, one of filmdom's biggest losers, tells Betsey in the coffee shop. 

I've made an effort to devote all of my free time (Jesus, now as I type this, I can only hear the words in DeNiro's voice-over... it's freaking me out, man) to getting things into order so I can relax a bit more. First up are my sets. I've bragged here in the past about getting binders cheap at Goodwill, but I'm off that kick now. I need ORDER and SYMMETRY. So, I splurged a bit and got some quality Ultra-Pro 3-ringers. 

My God, they are beautiful all lined up like that.

And then there's those damn duplicates that I've had to pour over when putting together trades. Well, no more trouble there...

Dupes! By year! In order! Please, if you need anything from those years (74, 80, 81, 88, 89, 00, 01, 11, 13, 14 update, 15, 16, 16 update, 17), please hit me up! It's all Topps baseball base (and that 1974 box is actually football).

But what about everything else? If it ain't Topps base or Brewers, I had no system! It was the wild freaking west! 

Oh my yes, this 3,200 count monster box. See how nicely it fits my assorted cards by team (anyone wanna trade?) and then my Topps base years that are still too slim for want-listing? This soothes me oh so much.

I'm still not done, of course. But I've vowed to put some larger projects off (figuring out my several thousand rando Brewers cards, for example), but I'm in a better place. I know what I need and I can more easily find what others need. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go shave my hair into a mohawk.

...to forget about life for a while: Reflections on a Great and Awful Weekend

GET HIGH ON BASEBALL!

That was the message on a wrapper of 1992 O Pee Chee that I recently opened. And it kinda lined up with a thought that was already on my mind about this collecting thing of ours. Hobbies are distractions from real life. Perhaps the most important thing about a hobby is that it is not that important at all. In proper doses, I think it is very important to devote time to matters of little or no importance. Many hobbies, card collecting included, are multi-sensory experiences. You sit and look, you sort the cards by hand, you SMELL that old cardboard (who among us couldn’t tell 1993 Upper Deck from 1989 Donruss by smell alone?). I prefer to do my sorting with a podcast running or in front of ball game on the TV, adding an audio elements to the experience. You let these things overtake you and you can forget about what you need to forget about for a while. Someone getting high – from basement stoners to your grandpa and his old fashioneds – is probably looking for a similar escape.

This was the best of weekends and the worst of weekends. I went on an overnight to Chicago with my wife to see Billy Joel play Wrigley Field, and spent most of yesterday wondering around the city. I had a great time and brought back some great stuff from some awesome little shops we found. But, of course, I had to keep checking the news and Twitter and followed along with what was going on in Charlottesville. Nazis were marching around like the world owed them something and one of them tried to murder a bunch of people with his car just because they had the courage to stand up for actual morality and justice. And the president hardly cares, mumbling some bullshit that the white nationalist crowd took as a yet another embrace of their support. This is heavy shit, man, and it had me down. Even those images of Nazis writhing in pain after being maced didn’t cheer me up. Well, maybe a little.

But the odd thing was that when I got home, all I really wanted to do was write a post about the stuff I’d snagged in Chicago. It was like the world had gotten too real all of the sudden and I needed an escape. I needed my fix. I needed to get HIGH on BASEBALL, even if just for a little while. I’ll stop talking about things that matter now. Let’s spark it up.

BILLY JOEL! I enjoy his music enough but my wife, raised on Long Island just like the Piano Man, is a HUGE fan. It was a good show and I had a good time, but Erika had a straight-up BLAST. We sat up in bleeders at Wrigley, but had a pretty decent view. And it was a hell of stage set-up, with lights, video boards, lasers, fireworks… the whole bit.

We went out to a Wrigleyville bar after the show. The place was so swamped with Joel fans that no one was even paying attention to the Cubs game on the TV. Which was fine by me, since they won that night and my Brewers lost (their sixth in a row).

The next day, we went to the Lincoln Square neighborhood to visit a friend. It was a charming little area. We stopped at Quake Collectables, which had dozens of bins of old action figures for sale. I dug through a Starting Line Up bin for about 20 minutes before coming away with two pieces to add to my small and mostly dormant SLU collection.

First up is Randy Johnson. They had a number of the older, late-80s pieces (lots of football and basketball, too) but they were mostly in pretty rough shape. I was thrilled to find a Johnny Bench, only to pull him out and see that he was missing an arm and most of a shoulder. These newer pieces were pretty well intact, however. This was after SLU upped their game a bit on the detailing. I think this pose is actual one made specifically for The Big Unit.

Next we have Greg Maddux, posing next to the baseball that the actual Greg Maddux threw to me at old County Stadium back in 1998. This one isn’t as convincing. It barely looks like Maddux and his glove, cap logo, and pants stripe are all way too big. At 2 for $5, it was still worth it.

I also snagged this aforementioned pack of 1992 O Pee Chee at the shop, a product I had never opened before.

It was a only a buck!

I won’t go through all the cards, but here is what would probably be considered the star of the pack. Yawn.

Brent Gates played seven years and placed 6^th in ROY voting in 1993.

Juan Bell was briefly a Milwaukee Brewer.

Alex Fernandez was drafted in the first round by the Brewers in 1988 but didn’t sign. He was a decent starter for a number of years and won a World Series with the Marlins in 1997.

Here is a backside. This was the first year that Topps went with the white card stock, taking away most of the appeal for the OPC set (which always used white stock) outside of the Canadian market. The backs do have a little extra sheen to them, clearly a different stock than the normal Topps issue. This was the last year before OPC issued their own unique set.

 

We also stopped at a very cool record shop, Laurie’s Planet of Sound. I wasn’t terribly interested in the records, but they did have a great selection of hard-to-find DVDs. I picked up a couple of sets of old Sexploitations films from the 1960s and 70s – a genre of motion pictures that I absolutely adore. This post is edgy enough for a card blog, so I won’t share any more details.

I also picked up a few non-sport packs of a 1993 National Lampoon set that I had no idea existed. The card market was crazy wide-open back then and this set followed a MAD Magazine set issued in 1992. The cards feature a number of Lampoon covers, including this famous one…

Maybe even more upsetting is this one, a Rockwell-esque scene of some kids trying to set a homeless man on fire…

The set is one of those that you really need to collect in full to understand. The stories on the back don’t always line up with the front image and are continued from card to card. Some fronts also require adjacently-numbered cards to make sense. I pulled the right half of this set first and had no idea what to make of it. Even together, it doesn’t really work…

The writing is also microscopic in some cases. Check this out...

Surprisingly, there were some cards that might fall into player collections. I found this Pete Rose cover from 1988, referencing Rose’s suspension for shoving an umpire.

And then this Reggie Jackson comic from January 1982, the same month he signed with the Angels.

Worth noting that has GOT to be the only Jackson card that shows him getting brained by a whiskey bottle and features the word “fuck.”

Anyway, that’s all I have for now. But I’ve got some fun stuff coming up later in the week, including the continuation of my TTM count-down, a HUGE new addition to my collection, and some of my BFG winnings.

Take care, everybody.