Let the Digging Begin

Remember the massive, huge mega haul that my mom dropped on me a while back? Well, I finally have some time to start going through it. I started with the most manageable items, two small shoeboxes.

I figured the easiest way would be to sort by sport and then go from there. Here's how it looked after one box. There was football (and a lot of it) with baseball and basketball. I didn't take a picture after the final sort but I ended up with a bunch of other random cards as well. Anyway, I'll focus on some of the baseball keepers here.

Starting off is some 2002 Upper Deck Vintage. I always liked these cards and at one time, way back when, I actually had the whole set. It's rare that I come across these in the wild but anytime I see these, I must keep them

This card is a curiosity. I didn't know that Post Cereal (with the help of Topps) was still producing cards in the early 2000s. Looking up Post Cereal cards on TCDB, it appears that this was the return set as they had previously stopped in 1995. In 2001, there was also a 8-card set featuring members of the 500-HR club. Post and Topps would keep going until 2003 when the last set was issued.

It's an unwritten rule that there must be early 90s stuff in any collection I acquire. I don't have a lot of 1992 Score so I'll gladly take these.

So far, I'm finding stuff in here I wasn't expecting. I was planning on a lot of late 80s/early 90s cards from Topps, Fleer, Donruss, etc. Not cards from the 2001 Sunoco set. Between these 4 and the Indians one I got in a trade from Julie a few months ago, I stand at 5 of the 12 cards in the set, so just about halfway.

I was always a fan of the 1994 Pinnacle set with the great photography and the minimalist design. Heck, I think some of those early Pinnacle sets were great. The picture on the Devon White card is just awesome.

1992 Fleer was never really one of my favorites but with these four, I might slowly be warming up to it. One thing I always did like about the set was the use of the full team logo at the top of the players' name. 

I always thought Jeff Shaw was a underrated as a reliever, especially when he was with the Reds in the late 90s. He formed a two-headed monster of the back-end of the Reds pen in 1996 at the set-up man to closer Jeff Brantley. He took over the closer role when Brantley was out with various injuries in 1997.

Some more early Pinnacle cards. I always liked the black borders on these.

Yes, those are Upper Deck MVP cards that I found. Like I said earlier, the more I dig in there, the better it gets.

I remember Fleer Tradition cards from when I was working in the baseball card shop. I always thought they were pretty neat. 

And finally, some Topps from the 2001 set (another set I like) and 2002 Opening Day. I'm still not sure how I feel about 2002 Topps design.

Digging through these boxes and pulling out all these cards hit all the sweet spots for me ... cards from my youth? Check. Cards I always liked and forgot about? Check. Weird oddball cards? Check. And another thing, writing about these cards was plain and simply fun. And really, you can't ask for a whole lot more than that.

As for the rest of the non-baseball stuff, that's coming up in part 2 shortly.