an ebay find

as a 1970's set collector (as in the "boring gray border" set from 1970) I could not pass up the opportunity to purchase the 1992 Baseball Card Magazine full panel cards portraying the 1970 design.

Finding these cards is difficult, let alone finding the panels in tact. I found a guy selling six of the eleven panels (the set has 8 cards per panel and is only an 88 card set) and I could not resist. I am still not sure if I am going to cut them (carefully) and store them as singles of keep the panels in tact.

For now I have cards numbered 25 thru 30, 39 thru 64, 73 thru 80 and 81 to 88 (uncut).

Here is my favorite panel because it showcases the only two Chicago Cubs in the set; Andre Dawson # 44 and Ryne Sandberg# 47. Pretty nice to have 7 HOF'rs and two future candidates on one panel.
The backs are equally interesting with "The Investment Advisor" (remember these were printed in 1992, back in the glut of the marketplace).

I like these cards and would like to complete the set if anyone knows of anyone with any of these cards . . . . I will keep on looking on ebay . . . because you never know what you may find there.

Where and how do I start ?

Three and a half months ago I started this blog and had no idea what, where, how or anything about the blogosphere, bloggers or the "new" hobby I had so loved way back when. Today I can honestly say I still have no idea of so many things but one thing is for sure - baseball card bloggers are some of the most generous people around !

Opening Day 2009 (yes April 6th) was a day to remember. The Cubs won and I received a "small" box of cards from Jim at gcrl . A say "small" as sarcastically as I can - it was a 400 count box filled with CUBS cards ! On the day the Cubs win I won too !




From Sandberg to Dawson to Wood, Sosa and Grace- so many swings and smiles to make my heart go beat beat beat. Did you notice the Sandberg and Dawson 1988 Leaf pop ups ? Upper left corner in photos (The ones with the outline around their torso).
Check out Sosa running so fast in his powerful stride that his helmet flies off (1997 Topps # 305) and Kerry Wood showing off his "secret" grip on the ball (2008 UD # 327).
Jim also sent some "vintage", heritage, tradition, archives and cards of stars from yesteryear. A batting champ (Madlock) a Hall of Famer (Jenkins) and half an all-star infield (Santo - Kessinger) plus a few Cubs that could have been somethings.

Did I mention that Jim sent a few cards . . .


So many more Cubs cards and so many 1991's from Fleer, Stadium Club, Topps, Leaf, and Studio 91; all for my daughters binder and did I mention some Cubs cards ? !

Something only a Rangers fan may find interesting; in the Fleer 1991 set, there is a pitcher named Jeff Russell and a catcher named John Russell - did they ever appear together as battery mates making a Russell Russell battery ?

Jim also sent a stack of O-Pee-Chee 1986 Cubs cards and several 1988 Pacific Trading (series 1) to get me closer to completing that set.

All in all, Jim sent me so many cards that as soon as I though I was getting organized, I have more to log in and store.

For me Opening Day 2009 will be remembered for the generosity of a blogger named Jim of gcrl the Dodger fan from Minnesota. Thank you !

Just a quick tease

I kept all of my promises . . . in regards to the card show I attended earlier today; most importantly the budget side of things. While the show was a bit of a disappointment, with only ten dealers, and way too many basketball, football, hockey and golf cards to go along with the usual over priced fake walnut framed cards; I was able to find some goodies and here is just a sample.

To satisfy my Chicago Cub sweet tooth:

three Mark Graces': swinging, squatting and snipping (the leather with his teeth I presume)

and a couple of Andre Dawson's: his sweet swing and one in an Expo uniform but it is Wrigley Field in the background right ? !

and from my "want" list three 1969 Topps All-Star Rookies (I like those gold trophies) ; there are two World Series champions (Koosman 1969 Mets and Unser with the 1980 Phillies) to go along with the "error" gold trophy printed on Boswell's card.

So there you go . . just a bit of a tease from my card show adventure today. More later . . . I have a wifeless Saturday night to enjoy . . .

A CUBS extravaganza

Thanks to A Cardboard Problem my Cubs collection took a big boost today. Once again the generosity of fellow bloggers make me smile. The offer to send "free cards" of my favorite team was too hard to pass up and I just received a small box of 117 cards -all Chicago Cubs. Here is a picture of about half of them.

Yes, many of them are the over-produced mid 1980's cards but for his Cub fan one can not have enough duplicates of these (great for putting in team sets, team binders and year binders). Thank you ! An added note of interest to those who care; there were three Ryne Sandbergs, four Andre Dawsons, two Mark Grace and three Greg Maddux's.

There was also two 1981 Cubbies: Lenny Randle and Larry Biittner.

A small collection of Frank DiPino - a twelve year, 5 team journeyman who spent the middle of his career (2 1/2 years; 1986-87-88) as a Cub. DiPino's highlight was in 1989 going 9 - 0 for the St Louis Cardinals.

Two 1998 Fleer Ultra, my first cards of this set and nice cards they are.

And one cannot forget to mention two of the happiest Cubs ever, always smiling, always playing hard; Manny Trillo and Bob Dernier.

Thank Card Bandits and A Cardboard Problem . . .you have given this Cubs Fan much to smile about !

Night Owl Strikes Again

A few months ago when I first entered this blogsophere, it became rapidly apparent that I was incredibly naive as to what the hobby had changed into since I left this hobby over 20 years ago (actually I stopped buying any cards in 1987 but still followed along until 1991).

My favorite year in baseball was 1969 (go figure) and the 1970 set is my work in progress, thanks to my re-newed efforts I am now at 92.6 % complete. In my attempt to get "modern" I decided to try to collect some 1991 cards (the year my daughter was born). Night Owl was one of the first to catch on and sent me a few interesting 1991 Score Dream Team cards (among other prime samples).

I liked those Dream Team cards and put out a ask to see if I could complete the set (ok it is only a 13 card set but nonetheless my first set to start and finish solely upon the generosity of bloggers). Tim at 90s box breaks had a few I needed and kindly sent them to me and just the other day Night Owl sent me the last card I needed; the Ken Griffey Jr. So my first official complete set (sub-set) started and finished by bloggers is done - Thank you Tim and Greg.





But Night Owl has done it again. Knowing I like the Cubs and the 1970' set he also sent me this 1992 Baseball Card Magazine 1970's reprint of Andre Dawson. All I could say is WOW ! I did a little research and found that this set has only two Cubs (Ryne Sandberg being the other) and totals 88 cards. So naturally I am on a new quest - to complete this much larger set that will compliment my 1970 original set with a more modern look.


The back of this card (I did not scan for no good reason) tries to duplicate the 1970's feel with the bio and paragraph of info on the upper left and a cartoon in he upper right. Instead of traditional statistics these cards gave "investment advise". On the bottom of Dawsons card it reads: "A real bargain is Dawson's 1977 Topps, which is priced at just $ 60. There's no question that this card is a perfect long-term and short-term investment value". I guess that was the state of the hobby back then . . . for me the value is in the fact he is in a Cubs uniform and reflect the 1970's set.

Thanks to Night Owl, he struck again, and now I have a new adventure.

A Cubs Cornucopia

As you may remember, I attended my first card show in over 17 years yesterday, and to my surprise I was able to find some real bargains. About the tenth table I visited, I noticed a sign that read "20 cards for $ 1.00" and it caught my eye. What was most interesting is that the cards were sorted by TEAM. I naturally looked through the CUBS stack, found 40 cards and walked away incredible happy. Here are some of my finds in this bargain find:

Maddux bunting ('91 UD), Dawson ('92 Leaf) eyeing to throw someone out and a Jenkins ('83 Fleer) ready to take the mound. If that was not enough I also found:

more "modern" players with some great photography in sets I hardly knew existed. I really like the Brooks Kieschnick, top row right ('96 Topps Gallery), with his right leg cocked to stride and left cheek full of chew and the Kerry Wood, bottom row right (2000 SP Authentic). Derek May, Carlos Zambrano, Moises Alou and Aramis Ramirez were also great additions to my find. But that is not all . . . I also found this "vintage '63 Fleer of Mark Grace.

The 1963 Fleer set is one of my all-time favorites (see my wants list) and to find a Mark Grace is nice bonus. One other nice discovery is this 1979 Dave Rader.Rader spent only one year in a Chicago Cub uniform (1978) and was runner-up to Jon Matlack for ROY honors in 1972. A fine defensive catcher, spent 10 years in the majors and had a lifetime BA of .257 with 30 homeruns. A one year Cubbie and now he is in my collection.

My favorite card I found in this bargain bin is this 1995 Flair of Sammy Sosa (I know, steroids, steroids, steroids) but this is a card I had never known about before yesterdays show and I really like it. The Flair could appear on my trade lists very soon (hint hint).

So that is just a small sample of what I found in this team bargain box. Next month I will hit this dealer first and stock up with more Chicago Cubs cards and continue adding to my cornucopia.

My first card show in 2009

. . . to be perfectly honest, I went to my first card show since 1991 (yes that is right, 17, seventeen years ago). I had been itching to find a local show since I started this blog and finally found one fifteen minutes away in a small hotel.

I did the smart thing and printed out my "needs" list, added a few notes and ventured out. Promising myself to stick to a budget, keep my "needs" in mind and not succumb to buying the latest and greatest. I think I did ok . . .

here is a summary of what I picked up:
a) 5 Topps All-Star Rookie cards from the mid 1970's (all "needs" and set me back just $ 1.00)

b) a starter set of 25 cards from 1991 called Studio 91 of Fleer; not sure how many are in the set but I am looking for 1991's so this was a good find ( $ 2.00 for all 25)

c) in my quest to complete my 1970 set, I found a nice guy who had quite a collection of "vintage" cards - I picked up 17 cards, including a Juan Marichel, Brooks Robinson and the "Seaver Wins Opener" from the NL Playoffs (all for $ 15.00)

d) I saw a box marked 20 cards for $ 1.00 all sorted by team. How could I resist ? ! I picked up 40 Chicago Cubs; including two Andre Dawson ('92 Leaf, '90 UD), a '83 Ferguson Jenkins, a 1995 Flair Sammy Sosa (never heard of Flair before today and really like this card), a 1978 George Mitterwald, a 1979 Dave Rader and a few Maddux's, Sandbergs, Zambrano's, Lee's, Soriano's, and even a Vintage 1963 Mark Grace (1998 Fleer) . . . a great pick up of 40 cards for only $ 2.00 !

I will be scanning several of these finds and sharing more with you but for now I just wanted to let everyone know that I survived my first card show in seventeen years, stuck to my budget and found some real good deals (I think). It is now time for me to put away my "needs" list and tend to the "honey do" list . . .

Jim Rice - Congratulations !

Congratulations to Jim Rice on his election to the Hall of Fame on his 15th and final time on the ballot. He deserved it !

From his electric rookie year in 1975, blasting 22 HR’s, 102 RBI’s and a .309 batting average and coming in 2nd in the ROY award to none other than teammate Fred Lynn to his career numbers of 382 HR’s, 1451 RBI’s and a career average of .298.

Rice was the American League MVP in 1978 and an eight time all-star. His election to the Topps All-Star Rookie team of 1975 and now to the Hall of Fame class of 2009 – Congratulations are in order. Rice was indeed one of the most feared batters of his day and deserves to be inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

As an aside, Ricky Henderson also was elected but that was a gimmie. Maybe next year will be a Cubs year with Andre Dawson or Lee Smith entering.