Current cards with a little bit of vintage

In a few years cards from 2020, 2021, and maybe 2022 are going to be as plentiful as junk wax and will be turning up everywhere, as the flippers find it difficult to unload all those base cards and commons. 

I picked up a lot of 250+ for about ten bucks - it popped up on my radar because of a couple of vintage oddballs that were thrown in.

Most of it was from four brands that the owner presumably bought boxes of, flipped the best cards and didn't know what to do with the rest. There were about 50-75 cards each of:

- 2020 Topps Update. Boy, the reverse-backgrounds issue is annoying

- 2021 Bowman/Bowman Draft. The major league set is OK, gives another card for the league's regulars. The minor league cards will be more interesting in a few years when some of them start panning out.

- 2021 A&G. The non-player cards really aren't very good. Not sure which is worse, actors who were never close to being stars or instagram "celebrities". I personally wish the inserts were less biology-themed (lots of animals and plants) and had more historical/cultural themes.

- 2021 Heritage. I've never been quite on the '72 design bandwagon like a lot of other vintage fans. However the original set had much more photo variety than this one.

So my initial thoughts aren't that positive but I am sure I will find things to enjoy about them.

Fortunately this wasn't just a commons lot, there were plenty of stars within.

Here are some other cards that stood out to me. From the Matt Olson card I learned that he learned about baseball from his sixth grade teacher - Jeff Francoeur's mom. The Pettitte card is a serial numbered card #29/50. There are now retired cards of 21st century minor stars like Mark Buehrle. Too bad they got a bad photo that looks like he showed up to the park hung over. Most of the "In Action" cards aren't very dynamic. The Miguel Rojas card is a nice exception. And as a Star Wars fan I was glad to have a couple of "Far Far Away" cards even if they aren't actually Star Wars cards.

There were a few cards that were not from the pandemic era. Some junk wax of course, can't avoid that. Two really fun cards though in the Wes Chandler and Pedro Ramos. Ramos is my first vintage Kahn's card (1964). 1986 Topps football was the first sports card set I collected. I had several of those 1000 yard club inserts but not this one.

From the back of the Chandler and Ramos cards, I learn that Chandler got a third of his 1,199 yards in two games against the Seahawks, and that Kahn's was the Weiner the World Awaited.

But most interesting of all to me was these three 1977 RC Cola cans. Not really baseball cards of course but certainly related. Bert Campaneris, Mike Hargrove and Bill Madlock.

I was intrigued by a price tag on one of the cans. I couldn't see what it was in the eBay photos. Turns out it is Fred Meyer. Not a defunct brand like I was hoping, but still pretty cool as it's a regional brand we don't have in NY. (Two of the bottles have Oregon deposit information, though the eBay seller was in Florida.)

Here are the front of the cans. There are a few differences in the cans as you can see.