He Who Comes Out At Night

Just before Halloween rolled around, which by the way was a pretty rainy day in these parts, I received a surprise Halloween goodie bag from Night Owl. A guy going by the moniker of "Night Owl" sending out cards for the spookiest holiday of the year, that makes all the sense in the world. Well to me it does at least. Let's see what he included in this scary good package.

(Side note: Excuse some the glare in some of the pictures please. I was testing a new photo set up since my usual set up was unavailable.)

I've started collecting cards of hall-of-famers, "fan favorite" type players, and other such things recently. It's nice to have a little diversity here and there. Getting these to add in these Steve Carlton and Randy Johnson cards to the newest part of the collection was very nice.

Here's a nice combo of Hall of Famers (Hank, Ozzie, and Warren Spahn) and a a dude who seemingly pitched forever in Charlie Hough. I remember being fascinated with Hough's stats as a kid and wondered how someone could hang around the big leagues that long and wasn't a big name pitcher. Also, on the Warren Spahn card, the picture looks like a reversed negative. Not sure if that's some sort of unintentional error on the part of Topps or if it's some sort of parallel version.

Here's a nice slew of buybacks. My buyback collection is slowly growing. I really dig the Bob Stinson card.

As was the case with an N.O. package, it also hit my various team collections, especially with these two really cool Expos cards.

Conlon cards are fantastic. Here's some old-timey Indians and a St. Louis Browns card.

80s Indians cards including some of Len Barker, who's one of the "fan favorite" type players I like to seek out cards of here and there.

Of course, the highlight of any package from Night Owl is the vintage he includes. No package would be complete without a Hostess card. George Foster looks so annoyed in that shot it's not even funny. Of the two 1973 cards, I think I like the John Lowenstein card the best simply because of the background.

There were also a number of Reds cards included, including my first card of Reds prospect Shed Long, who the Reds need to add to the 40-man roster this year to avoid losing him in the Rule 5 draft.   There was also a Homer Bailey rookie card and the sooner the Reds get out from his albatross of a contract the better. He won a total of exactly 1 game last year. Yes, one 1 game for a guy due over $20 million this upcoming season.

To cap off the Reds portion, there were these Joey Votto cards as well. All three are new additions. One of these days I need to figure out how many Votto cards I actually have. There's got to be a decent number.

As I mentioned earlier, that was a scary good package from Night Owl. Also, as I mentioned, I tried a new set-up with the photos this time. It didn't come out as well as I'd hoped but I'm working on some adjustments to it.

Back Packs: 1991 Donruss Series 1 Jumbo Pack

Oh, 1991 Donruss. This may very well be one of the most overproduced and least valuable sets ever made. However, as I've mentioned before, it's a product that is special to me as it's the first pack of cards I ever opened. I had gotten a rack pack of these as a gift when I was a kid because of good grades on a report card. I remember sitting in a drive-thru of a Hardee's looking at the cards and seeing Hector Villanueva and Scott Chiamparino staring back at me.

I snatched up this particular pack during a flea market trip back in the winter for a mere 25 cents. This is series 1 which I've always been a fan of. Series 2 and the green borders? No thanks. Anyway, here are the highlights of this 40 card behemoth.

A double dose of everyone's favorite curmudgeonly catcher, Carlton Fisk. I've heard stories of Fisk not signing autographs or even taking pictures with people when approached but not exactly sure how accurate those tales are. I'll keep the base card but the highlights card goes into the bin of the expendables.

One of the things I like about 1991 Donruss is the photography and this is a good sampling. It ranges from packed stadiums to spring training. Yes, I know the backgrounds of the photos are blurred out but really, do you want to see an ad for Jerry's Bail Bonds behind Charlie Hough? I'm sure Jerry and his bail bonds business wouldn't mind.

Palmeiro was the sole Diamond King I pulled out of the pack. Does anyone else but me find it a little redundant that Panini puts Diamond Kings in the basic Donruss set but also issues a set called Diamond Kings? I'm showing off the Maddux card just because Palmeiro needed a friend.

Bobby Bonilla was the Grand Slammer insert card that I was promised on the wrapper. Too bad it couldn't have been someone I actually somewhat cared about. I could be wrong but I don't think I have the Gary Carter card, at least until now. I sort of enjoy getting cards of Gary Carter, especially when he's not featured in a Montreal uniform.

I'll wrap this up with a few notable players in Andres Galarraga and Jeff Reardon. I find it interesting that the background isn't blurred out on Reardon's card but it is on every other card I've shown here. I'm guessing probably because it was a posed shot with hardly anyone in the stands?

Anyway, there are the highlights from a jumbo pack of 1991 Donruss Series 1. I'm sure everyone has seen these cards millions of times and so have I, but still it was pretty fun opening a pack from the product that got me into collection the first time around.

Back to the trade packages later this week!

The Thrift Store Trio - Part 2

Back again with the final two bags I picked up from the thrift store. An observation before revealing the contents though ... the bag on the right is half the size of the bag on the left but yet they were the same price. Personally, I would think that the smaller bag would be cheaper but it's the thrift store so anything goes.

First up, the bigger bag:

Here's the best card that came out of this bag, this Manny Ramirez rookie card. Pretty nice looking card and I've always liked 1992 Pinnacle.

There was also this weird Ozzie Smith oddball card. Have no idea what it's out of but it reminds me of something that you might find out of the Wacky Packs.

More basketball cards? Again, not really a basketball collector so if anyone wants these (along with a bunch of other basketball cards I've got lying around from this era), feel free to let me know. The Payton may wind up with my defunct teams binder.

There was a good smattering of football commons mixed in with everything as well. Reggie White with the Eagles is pretty cool.

Some more 1992 Pinnacle. The more I think about it, the more I think I like having Charlie Hough cards. The dude pitched forever (1970-1994) and although his stats won't get him into the Hall of Fame, the fact that he hung around that long is really cool.

And now, the last pack:

The last pack was all over the place. First there these 1992 Post Cereal cards

Then there were these two Donruss Coca-Cola Nolan Ryan cards

These two cards were apparently produced by Score but I have no idea what set they are from. If anyone has any info on them, feel free to leave a comment.

This bag covered all four major sports. These were the best of the football cards in the batch ...

Followed by some more basketball. There were also three early 90s Stadium Club hockey commons that I forgot to scan.

Then there were these two random 1974 Topps Reds cards of two guys I've never heard of but they just might make the frankenset. Otherwise, they'll be part of a new project I'm working on.

Then we had some Studio cards. I like the Fred McGriff one with him balancing the bat. Hrbek's expression in the 1991 card looks like he was kind of caught off guard.

The last of the good baseball cards included. 

Trying my luck at the thrift store was pretty fun, although as I described the scene in part 1, it wasn't great. There's a big Goodwill store a few minutes down the street from the seedy thrift store where I got these so I think I'll try there next time.

1993 Team Stadium Club Team Sets

A quick post tonight as it's late and I feel like crap after fighting with my allergies all day.

This was among the interesting things I found while sorting a box full of commons the other day. These appear to be some sort of Stadium Club special issue from 1993 called Team Stadium Club. I'd forgotten about these until I opened the box and saw the box of these sitting there. Then I remembered, I had picked these up as part of a massive haul at a yard sale this past spring. The giant yellow dots are old price tags that were put on these ages ago. You can barely see the price ($3.50) and for the record, I did not pay $3.50 a piece for these packs. I think the whole box of these team sets turned out to be 75 cents total.

I picked out the Marlins and the Rockies to go through. There were other teams included (White Sox and Braves were two of the others) and each team had two packs. Breaking into the plastic, I felt like I was unearthing some national treasure as these things were sealed up tighter than Fort Knox. I had to bust out some scissors to open the blasted things but here's what was inside once I finally broke in.

First, the Marlins ...

A few interesting guys here in Hoffman, Conine, and Everett. Pretty cool that there is a Trevor Hoffman card included. I'd honestly forgotten that he had played for the Marlins. 

Two veterans here in Charlie Hough and Dave Magadan. I was at a Reds game one time as kid with a childhood friend of mine and his dad when Magadan was playing for the Astros. He lined a foul ball right in our direction, we both ducked and my friend's dad barehanded this scorching liner as a keepsake. Unfortunately, I don't have any cool Charlie Hough stories but cards of him are always nice as the dude seemed to pitch forever.

Two more solid players here in Benito Santiago and Walt Weiss.

For the record, here's what the backs of the cards look like ...

Pretty simple but the text with the players name is a tad to cartoonish for me.

On to the Rockies ...

A nice solid triple threat with Bichette, Galarraga, and Castilla. I definitely think the Rockies win here with much more pop in their lineup

Eric squared! I barely remember these two playing for the Rockies.

Girardi I remember as a Rockies player but Brad Ausmus? Had no clue he ever played for Colorado. Guess you learn something new everyday!

I think to close this out, let's do a quick poll .... who had the better roster starting off with, Florida or Colorado? This will be based on the players included in these packs so here's the full rundown:

Colorado Rockies:
David Nied
Quinton McCracken
Charlie Hayes
Byrn Smith
Dante Bichette
Scott Aldred
Alex Cole
Roberto Mejia
Jeff Parrett
Joe Girardi
Andres Galarraga
Daryl Boston
Jerald Clark
Gerald Young
Bruce Ruffin
Rudy Seanez
Darren Holmes
Andy Ashby
Chris Jones
Mark Thompson
Freddie Benavides
Eric Wedge
Vino Castilla
Butch Henry
Jim Tatum
Steve Reed
Eric Young
Danny Sheaffer
Roger Bailey
Brad Ausmus

Florida Marlins:
Nigel Wilson
Bryan Harvey
Bob McClure
Alex Arias
Walt Weiss
Charlie Hough
Scott Chiamparino
Junior Felix
Jack Armstrong
Dave Magadan
Cris Carpenter
Benito Santiago
Jeff Conine
Jerry Don Gleaton
Steve Decker
Ryan Bowen
Ramon Martinez
Bret Barberie
Monty Fariss
Trevor Hoffman
Scott Pose
Mike Myers
Geronimo Berroa
Darrell Whitmore
Chuck Carr
David Weathers
Matt Turner
Jose Martinez
Orestes Destrade
Carl Everett

So, who do you think had the better roster? Leave your thoughts in the comments.