Damn

Damn.

That's what my wife said when a rather large box from P-Town Tom landed on my doorstep a few weeks ago. It was warned by Tom ahead of time that this would include a load of junk wax and while it did, I'll try to spare you most of that (1990 Donruss, 1989 Topps, etc.) aside from a few interesting cards I pulled out to share. I'll take a break from the yard sale cards and show some of the highlights. The main point of this will be to touch on some of the more cool stuff that was included in the box. 

First off, some oddballs. I gave a recap of the K-Mart cards in my last post but Jimmy Dean produced a handful of different sets from 1991-1993, including this Barry Larkin card from the initial offering. From what I can remember, these were found in boxes of frozen breakfast sandwiches. The set itself was a 25-card set with the top stars of the day.

One of my new favorite things is getting cards from the early to mid-80s, especially for Reds players I'm not familiar with like Sheldon Burnside, who is featured on the 1981 Fleer card. That's a set I really don't have a whole lot of and doesn't seem to pop up in singles bins very often. I do see 1981 Donruss but not much of 1981 Fleer (or 1981 Topps for that matter). 

1982 Topps! I'm still waiting to get some time to dig through the box of 1982 cards I have. Probably at some point too I might start building the set but not sure. Despite the fact that Concepcion and Soto were holdovers from the 1970s Reds teams, the 1982 team was the only team in Reds history to lose 100 games (61-101) although this year's squad is in contention to be the second team to do that.

Speaking of Reds from the 1970s, there were some unexpected vintage cards which are always appreciated. 

Here's something I was really excited to find ... a 1986 Donruss Paul O'Neill rookie card. This is a card I didn't know I was searching for until I actually had it in my hands after pulling it out of the box. After looking it up, it appears this is his only official rookie card, aside from a 1986 Fleer card that he shares with Kal Daniels. O'Neill's first Topps card didn't show up until 1988.

Here's a bunch of miscellaneous cards that really don't fit any other group. First there are some cool 1953 reprints and then a handful of early 90s stuff.

Early 2000s stuff is something I don't have a lot of either. I've always like both of these Topps sets, especially the 2000 one which came in right around the time that I started to fall out of collecting. The last actual set I remember getting cards from when my initial foray into collecting ended was the 2001 Topps set and so getting cards from this time is really something cool, especially when it's late career Barry Larkin cards like this.

The background on these Metal cards are pretty cool.

A couple of the 60 Years inserts from the 2011 set. 

And finally, a few newer base cards, including two Todd Frazier cards, one 2011 RC and one 2013 with the Rookie cup on it.

Of course, being the multi-faceted team collector that I am, Tom sent over a boatload of Indians cards as well. Here's some more vintage, including Fred Kendall with both a serious mustache and a serious catching glove. Paul Dade looks unimpressed.

I mentioned 1981 Topps earlier and here are a couple Indians from that set, pitcher Wayne Garland, who kid of looks like my friends dad, and first baseman and future Tribe manager Mike Hargrove. The highlight of the Indians season that year was hosting the All-Star game, which turned out to be the first baseball related thing that happened after the mid-season strike was settled.

More 1982 Topps. 

There were also a nice dozen of 1980 Topps cards from the Indians, only one of which was a duplicate. Among these, a few interesting notes. First, look at the Rick Manning card and tell me that isn't the exact same picture on his 1982 card from above. Also, note the card of David Clyde, which just also happens to be his sunset card. Clyde was a pitching phenom for his hometown Rangers that flamed out after the 1974 season. He pitched one game for Texas in 1975, injured his shoulder, and didn't resurface in the majors until 1978 with Cleveland, with whom he spent the 1978 and 1979 seasons and then was out of the majors again. 

Some mid-80s fun. I'm curious what pipe that is behind Broderick Perkins.

As with the Reds cards, I also tried to skip over the majority of the junk wax cards but I couldn't resist showing these off. I always forget about Jeff Shaw but he was a pretty decent closer for the Reds and Indians. However, the one card that got me here was the manager card of John Hart, who managed the Indians for a whole 19 games at the end of the 1989 season but was the general manager for the Indians run of dominance over the AL Central in the 90s.

More of the Metal Universe cards. I like how the backgrounds are different on these compared to the Reds cards as they definitely have a more industrial feel, for lack of a better term. 

And now, to put a bow on this mega box from Tom, a few Indians randoms including a team card from 2011 Topps, a Sandy Alomar Jr All-Star Heroes card, and Jim Thome enjoying a refreshing bottle of water, which is what I need after going through all these cards. I appreciate Tom sending these over and I hope it helped him clear out some room in his collection. I know it definitely filled some holes in mine.