A Mystery Stash of Cards

Supposedly this box held a 1992 Topps factory set. I say supposedly because I got it out to sort it and page it up but as soon as I opened the box, I noticed things weren't on the up and up. There were a decent amount of 1992 cards missing, replaced by some random cards from the early-to-mid 2000s. While I was sad that the set was missing cards, I was happy that I got some mystery cards.

2002 Upper Deck 40-Man? Ok sure. Jay Bell looks like a science teacher with those glasses. Also, I had no clue that Lenny Harris was still in the majors in 2002.

A couple random cards from 2004 Upper Deck Vintage. This was the last year for the Vintage line and the only year where they didn't attempt to rip off an old Topps design.

Some 2004 Opening Day. So far, I'm really digging this hidden stash of cards. Check out the leg kick on the D-Train!

Normally I don't really go for game cards like these but these two from the 2000 MLB Showdown set are super cool. It's not often that I've found a card of Fred McGriff in a Devil Rays uniform, nor do I come across many Jay Buhner late career cards.

Mid 2000's Donruss? Donruss from this time is super tough to find so imagine my excitement when I found these.

More mid-2000's Donruss, this time a pair of Reds from the Team Heroes set. LaRue and Kearns were part of the miserable 2003 Reds team that lost 93 games and went through three managers in the first season of Great American Ballpark. Both these guys would be gone from the Reds by the end of 2006.

A couple of Bowman cards of Johnny Damon and Jim Thome.

Mid 2000's Fleer. I honestly had no idea Fleer Ultra was still being produced at this time. I remember the Fleer Futures cards from seeing a ton of theme when I worked in a card shop in 2003.

And to finish this up, I'll show off a few more cards in rapid fire form. First this Bazooka Chipper Jones. I could be wrong but when Bazooka was produce at this time, didn't in come with bubble gum?

Next, an SI for Kids Jake Peavy. 

Topps Gallery Raul Ibanez from 2003. Apparently this is of the rainbow refractor variety.

And then there was this, the "big hit" if you will of the mystery cards. This is a 2001 Royal Rookies Miguel Cabrera. Now, while Cabrera isn't exactly someone I collect but he is one of the biggest stars of the game and to find an early rookie card of his forgotten in a pile of cards that's been sitting in my garage for two year is pretty awesome. Oh, in case you are wondering what became of the 1992 Topps cards, I picked out a good pile of cards that I knew I didn't have and wanted and the rest went into a Goodwill donation bag. I hadn't really planned on building the set anyway.

You've Got Mail #58: Ain't Nobody Got Time for Cardboard (aka Secret Santa 2016) - Part 1

Where to start.

I suppose I could start by thanking Matt from Bob Walk the Plank for organizing and running the whole Secret Santa deal. I guess I could also thank my Secret Santa, that being Andy from Ain't Nobody Got Time for Cardboard. He dropped a package on me the likes of which I'm still in awe of. It had so much stuff, in fact, that I'm going to have to split it up into two posts. This particular post will feature the hits that were thrown in.

Here's the lone football relic card, a basic A.J. Green card. Nothing wrong with this at all, as a matter of fact I actually kind of like it. It's not a basic plain white swatch, no it's a basic black swatch. I think it fits in rather nicely though with the orange and black color scheme of the card. I'm hoping that Green has good comeback next year as he ended the season on injured reserve and this was the first year with less than 1000 receiving yards

Chris Gruler was, at one time, a promising pitching prospect for the Reds, even being rated #77 in pre-2003 rankings by Baseball America. However, injuries constantly derailed his career before it even began. He spent four seasons in the Reds minor league system, never advancing above low-A Dayton and only appearing in 25 games over the course of those seasons. I think a fun article one of these days would be to go through the cards of Reds prospects that never reached the majors and see just how far each of them got.

When the Reds were hot from 2010-2013, Chris Heisey was a formidable fourth outfielder with some good pop off the bench when needed. However, he got too expensive for a Reds team that fell from grace pretty fast after 2013. He was traded off to the Dodgers for Matt Magill, a trade that amounted to more than a salary dump than anything. This is a really nice looking card and anything Gypsy Queen I definitely enjoy.

These were probably my two favorite relic cards included in the package. I really like the look of the Kearns card, not to mention its got the pinstripe going down the left side and the blue on the sides gives it a pretty unique look. Speaking of unique looks, the Paul O'Neill card has a pretty unique way the jersey piece is put in the card. O'Neill's stint with the Reds seems to always get forgotten about so getting a card like this is nice in the grand scheme of things.

A couple cards with plain grey pieces, not that there's anything wrong with that. Scott Rolen has never officially retired, unless I missed something somewhere and felt like a steal when the Reds got him from Toronto in 2009.

To close out the hits, this orange parallel signature of Tony Cingrani, who has one of the most illegible autographs I've ever seen. Seriously, it looks like the number 3 and a squiggle afterwards. Oh well, it's still a really nice card.

That's just part one of the awesome cards Andy sent over, part two with all the parallels and other craziness will be coming up in a few days.

You've Got Mail #55: Waiting 'Til Next Year

Everyone's favorite blogger from P-Town, Tom, was doing a cardboard clearance of sorts recently. I happened to be the beneficiary of some his unwanted cardboard of both Reds and Indians, to which I was elated. While I won't show everything that was included, because if I did, you'd be here until next Tuesday reading this, I'll hit the highlights.

Here are some cards from the early 2000s in the form of 2002 Diamond Kings and 2000 UD Ionix. The number of sets that were out back then was mind boggling and most, if not all of the sets like these, I'd forgotten about. The Diamond Kings cards are everything you expect them to be with the artistic look and the white border. The most interesting thing that I noticed on these is that the artist is not Dick Perez, it's someone named Tano, which I couldn't find any information on after a quick search. Perhaps someone out there knows about this mysterious Tano?

UD Ionix is a set I barely remember as it showed up at the tail end of my initial collecting barrage. Come the late 90s/early 2000s I wasn't into cards as much as I had been before as I was in high school and I started working so cards sort of fell to the background. These cards are pretty cool though with the filmstrip deal at the bottom. The backgrounds seem very busy though with weird designs behind the players and being red on one half and white on the other. Regardless, I'm very happy to add these to my collection, especially considering they're of two of my favorite players from the era, Aaron Boone and Sean Casey.

These horizontals are really nice, the Larkin card especially with the big MLB logo in the background and the All-Star Game stamp on the front. However, the card I really want to talk about there is the managers card with Buck Rodgers and Tony Perez. One of these two didn't make it through the 1993 season. I'll give you a hint, it wasn't Buck Rodgers. Perez was hired to replace Lou Piniella who departed for Seattle after the 1992 season. After 44 games and a respectable 20-24 record, Perez was given the boot and replaced with Davey Johnson. To this day, no one is really quite sure what happened to cause Perez to be unceremoniously canned but as far as I know, this might be the only card that shows Perez as the Reds manager. In 2001, he got a second chance as manager of the Marlins going 54-60 in 114 games at the helm.

Since word has gotten out that I collect the Indians as well as the Reds, people have been more than happy to dump off their unwanted Indians cards to me and I've been more than happy to accept them. Everything from 1980s Sportflics cards to 2016 Heritage minors was included. With the Ramirez Donruss rookie, I think I now have every Manny rookie card there is to be had from the 90s. 

Now the three really, really cool things that were in this package. First, this from the 1981 Perma-Graphics credit card line. At first, I though it was some sort of membership card to a fan club or something. It's definitely a really cool oddball from a season where the Reds missed the playoffs despite having the best overall record in the National League.

Finally, my two favorite cards of the package. First up this Tony Perez card from the 1992 Kellogg's All-Star line. These would come out of boxes of Corn Flakes and I clearly remember having the Willie Stargell and the Mike Schmidt from this set as well. Sure, it didn't scan all that great but you'll just have to take my word for it that it's an awesome cards. Seeing this card (still in it's wrapper by the way), has inspired me to eventually chase down the other nine cards from the set, especially the two I had way back when. Oh, the times I wish I still had my childhood collection. 

Then there was this, a Nap Lajoie card from the 2014 Panini Hall of Fame 75th Anniversary set. The Crusade cards were an insert set in the product and came in many different colors and some, in fact, were die cut. The blue cards were just the basic cards of that insert set and I'm just happy to have it. I don't care that its not one of the colored parallels, it's just a nice card of a turn of the century star that you definitely don't come across every day. I might actually take this card and stick it in a penny sleeve and top loader and drop it in my box of "good stuff".

A big thanks to Tom for clearing out his closet and sending these my way. These were some great additions to my collection.

You've Got Mail #20: Great Sports Name Hall of Fame

Early last month, Tim from the Great Sports Name Hall of Fame blog reached out and asked if I would be interested in a trade. Not being one to turn down a trade offer, I gladly obliged. A few weeks later a big envelope arrived at my door loaded with lots of fun stuff.

First up, we have Headliners! There are two Jari Kurri figures, Martin Brodeur, Wayne Gretzky, and a Matt Williams. I had to rescue the Brodeur from the clutches of my wife who absconded with it as soon as it fell out of the package. I showed the rest of them to her and her exact reaction was "screw that! Brodeur is the only one that's important!" I had a few of these as a kid at my grandparents house but never saved them when we were cleaning out the house after my grandfather passed a few years ago. These are super cool and I may pick up some more up they're cheap at a flea market or yard sale.

My how the Reds have changed. I remember when Kearns and Dunn were predicted to be centerpieces of the Reds outfield for years in the mid 2000s. More often then not, these three were the primary outfielders for the Reds. Kind of strange that the swatch from Kearns would be next to Griffey's picture though. Also, look at the lineup on the card, that got to be from at least 2003.

Here are couple nice Bengals jersey cards. I think my favorite of these two has to be the Jordan Shipley card.

Speaking of the Bengals, here are few early-90s Bengals. The Munoz card is probably right at the tail end of his career. Now, he appears in commercials for a local furniture store.

Sweet! My first wrestling card received via trade! This looks like it could have been from a magazine. Judging by the photo (and the size of Crush's mullet), this is probably from sometime in 1993. This one goes right into the wrestling binder.

Here's a really cool Devin Mesoraco RC. Despite losing nearly all of last season to a hip injury, he's still one of my favorite players on the Reds. I just hope they don't decide to send him out via a trade this summer. The darker background on this (I'm guessing it's a foil background), really makes him pop out, almost like a 3D effect.

Speaking of foil, these nice hockey cards were included for my defunct teams collection, two Whalers and a Jet. Even though they scanned like crap, this was the best I could do as the picture I took of them wasn't that much better. You'll just have to believe me when I say they look much better in person.

I about fell over when this awesome vintage Killebrew card fell out of the package. I love vintage cards of any player and getting this a trade is awesome, especially since its a pre-Minnesota card for Killebrew. 

Thanks Tim for the great trade package! I know it's taking me a while, but I'll get something out to you when I can.

You've Got Mail #18: Highly Subjective & Completely Arbitrary

I'm trying to spread out the trade posts with the other stuff I have planned for March but the fact that the trades keep coming in I've got to try to keep up somewhat. This nice PWE from Brian of Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary (my first official trade partner when I launched this blog) arrived at the tail end of the week a while back.

This PWE was stuffed full of random Reds goodness plus a bonus Bengals card. Since there were nine Reds cards, I'll cover them in batches of three. First up we've got the trio of Adam Dunn, Terry Lee, and Ryan Wagner. Of these three, Dunn definitely had the best Reds career. Wagner was a decent pitcher but never really stood out in a sea of mid 2000's Reds teams with horrible pitching.

Cool! Some Score Gold Rush ... and of Tony Fernandez, which is even better. Fernandez held down the hot corner for the Reds in '94, his only year with the Reds, after Chris Sabo headed to Baltimore as a free agent. Milton was a big free agent signing for the Reds and was pretty much a bust from day one. Kearns was a solid outfielder and I always love some Topps Total!

Our final trio, Billy Hamilton, Scott Williamson, and Ken Griffey. The more I see it, the more I like last year's Bowman, even though I'm not a prospector at all. The photo is just great too, with Hamilton in mid flight trying to rob a fly ball. The Williamson card is my first Topps Gallery card and  it's just as nice in person as I've seen it on the blogs. Finally, new cards of members of the Big Red Machine are always welcomed.

There was one football card in the envelope, this framed parallel of Jeremy Hill from last years Gridiron Kings set. This was in the same vain as the Diamond Kings set although Panini can actually use team names and logos since they have an NFL license. 

Thanks again Brian for another great PWE! The Twins stack is slowly growing for you and will be going out soon with my next wave of Super Trader packs.

Fun Finds From the Flea Market #2

Since it was a nice weekend and the family and I had nothing planned today after celebrating our son's 3rd birthday yesterday, we decided to hit up the flea market. It'd been a while, last fall to be exact, since we'd been out there. There were a handful of outdoor vendors and the inside vendors were only about half full. However, I did manage to find a few good deals. Sorry if the scans are a bit off, my scanner was acting funny today.

First up, I stopped by one of my usual guys. Normally, he has a small booth but has since moved his whole brick and mortar store to the flea market and I was quite impressed and a bit overwhelmed at what all he had. I checked out some of the cases he had and was able to secure the Jari Kurri card for a few bucks. I'll definitely be back and get some more stuff from him next time. While I was there, he mentioned that a long time dealer at the flea market was closing down and today was his last day. More on that in a bit.

There were a lot of booths with Funko figures and assorted figures but I just happened to spot these old Starting Lineup figures at one of them. The Claude Lemieux figure was only a couple dollars but the Chris Sabo was well over ten dollars. However, I managed to talk the guy down to half price on it since he was just wanting to get rid of it. Yeah, these were my most expensive purchase of the day, but they're well worth it as I'd really like to start collecting these here and there.

Next stop was another of my usual vendors which has a healthy mix of wrestling collectibles and baseball cards. They had a giant tub of old just wax sitting on the floor and when I asked how much the packs were, the guy was like "how about five for a dollar". Sold! I picked out ten packs and paid up. He offered me a price on the whole tub but I have exactly zero room for a giant plastic tub filled with junk wax packs unfortunately. I'm saving these for future articles.

Final stop was the aforementioned store that was closing down. While everything had pretty much been picked through and the place looked like Cindy Lou Who's living room after the Grinch stole all of the Christmas decorations, I asked the guy if he had any cards left. He scrounged a few up but mentioned someone had come along a few weeks ago and cleaned him out. This was all that was left, the two singles and the box you see above. I asked how much for all and he gave me a more than reasonable price.

The box was only about half full but and was nothing but 1980 Topps football. Not really a major football collector but I did find a few gems below:

There were quite a few duplicates in there as well but I wasn't all that disappointed, especially when I found that Terry Bradshaw card in the mix. I've earmarked some of them for a few trade packs down the line, the rest I've yet to figure out what to do with.

I spent just over $20 today but judging by the crowd and the limited selection of vendors today, I probably won't be back until warm weather kicks around late March/early April.