Cardboard Cousins: 2008 Topps Trading Card History

 This was a set that used a variety of older card designs, both Topps and non-Topps. It's perhaps most notable for using some old Japanese card designs. Card #30 uses the 1966 Topps design. Like the actual #30 in that set, it features one of the most notable players to ever wear the Reds uniform.

Cards and vintage things: Matchbook Roundup

 Some highlights from various matchbook lots purchased over the last couple of months . . . 

Let's start off with a bang - my first playing-days Joe DiMaggio! He opened his San Francisco restaurat, Joe DiMaggio's Grotto, after his 1936 rookie year. This matchbook was produced in the 1940s.

George Blanda delivers for REA Air Express. This is what I wanted the Blanda card for. Hiring Blanda as their spokesman didn't stop them from going out of business in 1975. This was a cool get for me not just for the NFL connection but my grandmother worked for REA in the 1960s.

Here's another football-related matchbook. This one must have come from the Wisconsin area, right?

Nope, it's from a wire and cable company in Ridgewood, Queens. The Packers ended up going 8-8 in 1981. James Lofton was probably the biggest star on the team, with 1,294 receiving yards.

Here's a variety of fun matchbooks from the same lot, including a Peter Max Uncola 7Up, the long-forgotten Jack Nicholson movie Hearburn, and the restaurant owned by 1930's wrestling legend Howard "Hangman" Cantonwine.

All Dodger fans, and many baseball fans, know Abe Stark's clothing store for the famous sign at Ebbets Field - "Hit Sign, Win Suit".  Outfielder Carl Furillo won a free suit for preventing a lot of balls from hitting the sign.

Bill Zuber pitched for four teams between 1936 and 1947. After his baseball career he owned a restaurant in his hometown of Amana, IA for decades.

Here's my first Topps matchbook. They had several matchbooks advertising gum in the 1940s and 1950s.

Some patriotic matchbooks from World War II.

Matchbooks are an effective way to create a cultural snapshot of the 1940s-1970s, both the good, and the very bad. Look closely at this detail of a 1950s Tennessee State Parks matchbook.

Time Travel Football Trade

 If you haven't yet, you really need to get in on Diamond Jester's Time Travel Trades. The concept is very simple - to trade for a card on his list, simply send him an older one. This time I decided to pick off some of the vintage football that had been on the list for a while. I'm not jumping into vintage football like I did vintage baseball, but it's nice to have a few. Some of the best designs for Topps sets in the 1960s and 1970s came from football, rather than baseball. At some point I should try to get a card or two from the '62 Topps football set, it might be the nicest-looking vintage set from any sport.

Here is what I got:

Here are two Wonder Bread oddballs from the mid-70s, plus a baseball card I happened to need.

Four '69 Topps cards, including Joe Morrison, one of the two best Giants ever to have a name starting with "Joe Morris". Also the 1967 Philadelphia brand Giants team card, which notes that the team went 1-12-1 that year.

Finally, a '71 base card (love that design), a '71 game card, and two '72s.

Vintage backgrounds: Managers in 1965 Topps

 A couple of minor oddities found in the '65 set.

What happened to Dick Sisler that left him needing a bandage on his forehead?

Here's one for the car guys out there. Looks like a van under Bill Rigney's armpit.

1981 Topps Dwight Evans

 

The front: As someone who started following baseball in the mid-1980s, it seems weird to see Evans without a mustache. Looking at his cards, though, it appears 1981 was the year he decided his upper lip was missing something and started to grow one.

The back: Evans hit the walk-off homer off of the Mad Hungarian, Al Hrabosky.

The player: Dwight Evans was the regular right fielder for the Red Sox for most of his 20-year major league career. In 2,606 games he hit .272 with 385 HR and 1,384 RBI, and was a three-time All-Star. A fine defensive outfielder, Evans won eight gold gloves. 

The man: Evans was nicknamed Dewey by a minor league manager who nicknamed two other teammates Louie and Newie. The nickname stuck throughout his career. He is currently a Player Development Consultant for the Red Sox

My collection: I have 100 of his cards, from 1973 to 1992. I would be interested in trading for 1991 Studio #2.

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Jimmie Foxx

 Last time I got a question about how I put together these GIFs. First I take three photos of the card. As you probably know it can be difficult just to look at a Sportflics card and clearly see all three photos. That goes even more when trying to line up the photo with a camera. Once I get the three photos I upload them to a site called ezgif.com. It was just the first link that came up when I searched Google for a GIF maker but it works just fine. I click on "GIF Maker", and upload the three photos. The photos then come up on the screen with some options. The only one I change is to move the delay from 20 to 40 so the image doesn't whip by too fast. You then click "Make GIF" and you will get a saveable image. Any ideas for improvements to this process are certainly welcome!

Today's card is #2 in the set, legendary slugger Jimmie Foxx.

Some great photos here. The one in the Red Sox uniform, with a big crowd in the stands, really looks great in person. I wish I could find the photo online. There is also one in an A's uniform in spring training that shows his unorthodox swing. 

On-the-field trivia: Foxx made his major league debut at the age of 17, on May 1, 1925. He was a junior in high school at the time. (He was not a major league regular until the age of 20). In 1940 he became the youngest man ever (at the time) to reach 500 home runs, but a variety of maladies linked to a 1934 beaning would end his career soon after.

Off-the-field trivia: Foxx was a manager in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League in 1952; Tom Hanks's character in A League of Their Own was loosely based off of him. He died in 1967 after choking on some food in a restaurant, a year after his wife died the same way.

My collection: I do not have any playing-days cards of Foxx. Foxx's last solo card as a contemporary player was in the 1943 MP&Co set.

Tony Barnette on baseball cards

 Originally drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2006, Tony Barnette pitched for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows from 2010 to 2015. He returned to the US in 2016 and made his major league debut for the Rangers that year at the age of 32. He pitched for the Rangers from 2016 to 2018 and the Cubs in 2019, going 11-4 with 2 saves and a 3.53 ERA. He retired in 2020 and is now a scout for the Swallows. He kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"I’m in search of all my 2016 variations. I’m missing the 1/1 if it even exists. My favorite cards of myself come from Japan. Growing up south of Seattle, I watched and idolized Griffey Jr. I have his Bowman and Upper deck rookies and sheets of his cards. I got back into collecting in 2011, as my best friend is an avid collector. He has a room of his house dedicated to cards. We recently pulled an /50 Topps Chrome Luis Robert gold wave recently. That was an exciting rip. Project 2020 got my attention and I’m collecting the Trout and Griffey set. Any other card I like I will get as well. I really just enjoy the thrill of ripping packs. My daughters have grown fond of the rainbow foils."

Thanks!

More Cracked Bat generosity

 As if the Ballot Box wasn't enough, I got my latest pickpockets from A Cracked Bat this weekend. Here's the latest in what I've gotten from Jenerous Julie.

Looks like I was going with a theme of retired greats. It wasn't really intentionally, I just kept seeing cards I liked. My favorite is the DiMaggio with the War Bonds and Gem Razor signs. The shiny Gibson is pretty fantastic too.

I had forgotten about the pickpockets until it was a couple of days in. I don't know how a '62 Post was still around, or a shiny autographed refractor. Also, just a day or two before I was looking for a George Blanda card for a different post and realized I didn't have one. Serendipity! There is one of the all-time great faces in football, a man who played in the NFL through the age of 48.

Final Star in the Gallery

 Back when I got the '92 Triple Play box from A Cracked Bat, I mentioned that the only card I would possibly need is the Bobby Bonilla Gallery of Stars card, as it was the only insert that I didn't have already. Fortunately, the Diamond King had an extra Bobby Bo to send my way, and now it makes the decision very easy to leave the box shrink-wrapped for some future use.

Quite a nice-looking card. For a Met.

Cards are already coming in

 I'm still gathering all the cards from the Ballot Box giveaway and setting up PWEs for a big mailing some point this week. Meanwhile, I already got my return cards from The Angels, In Order. He sent me eight set needs from 2018 Topps, and a few from various Upper Deck sets. Half the '18s are Yankees, funny I still needed so many. Two who are remembered fondly (Gregorious and Holliday) and two who are not (Ellsbury and Bird).

1981 Topps Craig Chamberlain

 

The front: Simple but appealing spring training shot, with several players far off in the distance.

The back: Chamberlain's three wins were complete games. After a loss and a no-decision, he recorded another complete-game win.

The player: After Chamberlain's hot start he lost hist last three games in 1979. In 1980 he pitched in relief as a September call-up, and did not pitch in the major leagues again, though he had a minor league career that stretched through 1991 (six games for the Indians organization) and independent ball through 1995.

The man: Craig and his wife Kim own Chamberlain Real Estate in Los Alamitos, CA.

My collection: I have two of his cards, 1980 and 1981 Topps. I would be interested in trading for 1981 TCMA Omaha Royals #4.

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats Babe Ruth

 Time for a new series here at this blog. I've fallen in love with the Sportflics Decade Greats set so much I've decided to make a post for each card in the set. I love vintage and I love Sportflics, so I guess it shouldn't be surprising. This set actually has some really good photograhy; Sportflics often used photos of the greats that are lesser-known, at least these days when card companies rehash the same photos over and over.

I'm not going to re-hash the careers of these players, which are (or should be) well known to most readers. I'm also not going to debate whether each player really was the best at their position in their decade. I just want to celebrate these cards for what they are.

For each card I will show a GIF of the card with all three photos. In the more modern cards there were many cases where Sportflics was able to get two photos of the same play like they did in their contemporary sets. I will comment on the photographs as best as I can. I will also try to find some fun trivia on each player, and note the extent of my collection of that player (playing days cards only, so it will be just about all zeroes until we get into the '50s).

The first card in the set is legendary Yankees slugger Babe Ruth.

Two action photos and a headshot, as in the main Sportflics set. All black-and-white but the set will transition to color as it moves on to more modern players. 

I found a larger version of the follow-through photo - looks like it is Griffith Stadium in Washington, where Ruth ran to a wall and knocked himself unconscious in 1924.

The photo where he is starting his swing I don't recognize, and couldn't find online.

On-the-field trivia: Ruth was a renowned slugger, hitting more home runs than most MLB teams in several seasons. However, he was an excellent hitter beyond just the power - his .342 career average is 7th-highest since 1901. That high average came despite 1,330 strikeouts. When Ruth retired he was the all-time leader in that category - now he is not in the top 100. Ruth was considered an above-average fielder, but in 1922 he lost a fly ball in the sun, and after that refused to play in the sun field, playing either right or left depending on where the sun was shining that day.

Off-the-field trivia: The son of a German immigrant, Ruth spoke only German as a small boy, before going to a boarding school in Baltimore at the site of what is now Oriole Park at Camden Yards. An internationally-famous celebrity, Ruth appeared in ten movies as himself, most notably 1942's Pride of the Yankees, with Gary Cooper as Lou Gehrig. Ruth was diagnosed with cancer in 1946, and was one of the first cancer patients in the world to be treated with radiation and medication, a process which caused improvement in Ruth for a short while before he succumbed to the disease in 1948.

My collection: I do not have any playing-days cards of Ruth. Ruth's last solo card as a contemporary player was in the 1934 Goudey set.

Ballot Box Giveaway/Tradeaway Part VI: The Rest

 Rules reminder:

- I am only sending out cards via PWE
- US mailing addresses only
- Do make sure I have your current address if we haven't traded recently. 
- You can claim up to six cards for free (due to their thickness, Sportflics count as two cards) (six cards total, not six a day). A very few cards will be for trade only.
- You can claim up to fifteen cards by sending me one (or more!) card from my wantlists (same rules as last point)
- 15+ cards - less discuss a trade!

Here is the remainder of the cards, from the various sets I did keep. Today is the last day of the giveaway/tradeaway posts - feel free to claim anything in previous posts that has not been yet.

Here are the cards I already had from the '87 Donruss Rookies set. Interestingly I had just about all of the big stars, but needed most of the commons. Like the '87 Topps Maddux, the Maddux, McGwire and Bo Jackson cards here are for trade only.

I already had the Cardinals card from '87 Sportflics Team Previews, and two cards from '86 Sportflics Decade Greats - #6 Carl Hubbell and #24 Johnny Mize/Joe Gordon/George Kell.

Here are the mini cards from '87 Sportflics that I already had. My favorites are the ones with the team jackets. Card #s are 1, 7, 8, 13, 22, 37, 38, 52, 69, 73, 83, 129. The bottom card is the Yankees card from the mini set that came with the '87 Previews - card #7.

Finally, the 1992 Whitehall hologram card of Cy Young, and two football cards that were duplicated - Jordan Scarlett of the Lions and Jakobi Meyers of the Patriots (not listed as a Patriot on the card).

Ballot Box Giveaway/Tradeaway Part V: Traded Sets and Young Superstars

 Rules reminder:

- I am only sending out cards via PWE
- US mailing addresses only
- Do make sure I have your current address if we haven't traded recently. 
- You can claim up to six cards for free (due to their thickness, Sportflics count as two cards) (six cards total, not six a day). A very few cards will be for trade only.
- You can claim up to fifteen cards by sending me one (or more!) card from my wantlists (same rules as last point)
- 15+ cards - less discuss a trade!

The complete 1987 Topps Traded Set. Checklist here. Julie put the Maddux rookie card in plastic so it must be a Big Deal - so that card is for trade only. The rest are part of the regular giveaway/tradeway. I put out a few of the bigger names or interesting photos in the set.

The complete 1991 Topps traded set. I'm not opening the shrink wrap until something gets claimed. Checklist here. Key rookies include Ivan Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and Jeff Bagwell. Not Maddux-level but nice to have if you don't already.

Finally, 1988 Score Young Superstars I. Checklist here. Some prominent cards pictured below.

Ballot Box Giveaway/Tradeaway Part IV: 1993 Donruss

 No takers on the Sportflics? Come on!

I'm not opening the Triple Play box but I did open the 1993 Donruss Box. I did not beat the one-card-per-45-box odds on Donruss Elite, and I didn't even get a Spirit of the Game insert, but there were three of the Diamond Kings, two of which I needed. Two quite good ones too:

The rest of the contents are up for grabs. This was series one - cards 1-396. As I opened the packs I selected the best card from each pack and put them on top - that is what is in the photos below. As you can see the third insert was the Bip Roberts Diamond King. Rather than list out each individual card, here's a link to the TCDB checklist. If you want me to look for certain kinds of photos I'm happy to do that too - '93 Donruss wasn't quite the all-time-great set that '93 UD was, but there was a lot of good photography. Just claim the cards you are interested and I will tell you if they are available. Multiple claims on the same card is fine - there were plenty of duplicates in the box and I have plenty others in my existing trade boxes. (Note - there were no Piazza rookies, no Pedro or Gwynn either. I think all the other big stars in Series One showed up at least once.)

Rules reminder:
- I am only sending out cards via PWE
- US mailing addresses only
- Do make sure I have your current address if we haven't traded recently. 
- You can claim up to six cards for free (due to their thickness, Sportflics count as two cards) (six cards total, not six a day). A very few cards will be for trade only.
- You can claim up to fifteen cards by sending me one (or more!) card from my wantlists (same rules as last point)
- 15+ cards - less discuss a trade!
 

Ballot Box Giveaway/Tradeaway Part III: 1987 Sportflics

 Breaking up the entire 1987 Sportflics set, with the exception of #24 Cory Snyder. Here is the full TCDB checklist. Remember these are a little thicker so for mailing purposes I'm considering each Sportflic as two cards.

Rules reminder:

- I am only sending out cards via PWE

- US mailing addresses only

- Do make sure I have your current address if we haven't traded recently. 

- You can claim up to six cards for free (due to their thickness, Sportflics count as two cards) (six cards total, not six a day). A very few cards will be for trade only.

- You can claim up to fifteen cards by sending me one (or more!) card from my wantlists (same rules as last point)

- 15+ cards - less discuss a trade!

Need an image for this post, so here is my first ever attempt at a GIF. I plan to do some more Sportflics posts in the future so am trying to get the hang of these:

Ballot Box Giveaway/Tradeaway Part II: Mini League Leaders

 Yesterday the hockey set got more action than the baseball sets. Maybe the baseball sets will have better luck today. You can still go back to previous days or wait until the end to decide which cards to claim, if you prefer.

NOTE RE 1992 TRIPLE PLAY: Speaking of baseball sets that may or may not spark interest - I was looking into the 1992 Triple Play set and it turns out there is only one insert set, five cards and I already have four. If even one person is interested in Triple Play cards I'll gladly open up the box, but if not I'd just as soon keep it in the shrink-wrap. (On a related note, does anyone have 1992 Triple Play Gallery of Stars #1 Bobby Bonilla for trade?) I do plan on opening the 1993 Donruss box as I am more likely to need some of the inserts there.

Rules reminder:
- I am only sending out cards via PWE
- US mailing addresses only
- Do make sure I have your current address if we haven't traded recently. (Hey, "Brett Alan", I still need your address from my Free Card Friday giveaway in August.)
- You can claim up to six cards for free (due to their thickness, Sportflics count as two cards) (six cards total, not six a day). A very few cards will be for trade only.
- You can claim up to fifteen cards by sending me one (or more!) card from my wantlists (same rules as last point)
- 15+ cards - less discuss a trade!

Here are the three mini league leader sets, with links to their TCDB checklists, and photos of some of the more interesting cards. I have a lot of these to trade already, particularly '86 and '87, so if something is claimed ahead of you, check out my tradelist to see if there are more available.

1986 (Full set available)

1987 (Full set available)

1988 (Already claimed - 1-2, 7, 13-14, 16, 21, 27, 30, 41, 44, 58-59, 61-63, 67, 69-70, 72-73, 75-77)

Ballot Box Giveaway/Tradeaway Part I: Glossies/Quakers/Hockey

 Here is the first of seven (probably) posts where I offer up cards from A Cracked Bat's generous Ballot Box contest.

A few rules:
- I am only sending out cards via PWE
- US mailing addresses only

- Do make sure I have your current address if we haven't traded recently. (Hey, "Brett Alan", I still need your address from my Free Card Friday giveaway in August.)

- You can claim up to six cards for free (due to their thickness, Sportflics count as two cards) (six cards total, not six a day). A very few cards will be for trade only.

- You can claim up to fifteen cards by sending me one (or more!) card from my wantlists (same rules as last point)

- 15+ cards - less discuss a trade!

Speaking of trades, one long-time trading buddy claimed most of the cards from three of the sets. Two of them are posted today. There's still plenty of good cards left though.

1988 Topps Glossy Send-Ins. Most are claimed now, but still nine cards left including a few Hall of Famers. The names can be hard to read. They are: Ruben Sierra, Mike Scott, Cal Ripken, Jack Clark, Shane Rawley, Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Jose Canseco, Paul Molitor.

1986 Quaker Chewy Granola. A few cards were claimed from this set but there is still plenty to go around. You should be able to read these names in the photos, especially if you click on the photo to open a larger version.

Finally, the one hockey set Julie included. None of these were claimed but this is not a full set. This is the 2019/20 SP Authentic Hockey set. The set checklist is on TCDB. What Julie sent was the base set, cards #1-100, minus the following numbers: 5, 8, 19, 20, 35, 51, 65, 70, 79, 82. In the photo below I picked out players I had heard of. Joe Thornton is a name I remember from a long time ago. Check out his long gray beard - that has to be one of the best beards in sports!

Contest win for me. Free cards for you?

Last week I was fortunate enough to win one of the biggest contests this year, The Cracked Bat Ballot Box. The cards came yesterday in a huge box. My winnings were a lot more than expected. Not only was each week's winner in there, but the "losers" for many weeks as well. I guess they had good lawyers who got the courts to overturn some votes.

Here's a look at the full haul from Jenerous Julie:

Wow! That is a lot of cards! Below is a closer look at what I got. Also, you may remember Julie writing that the winner may choose to part with some of his winnings. Yes - there is quite a bit that I will be passing on to others in giveaway or trade, so keep reading!

First, here are the keepers for me.

A common theme among the cards was '80s boxed sets. Here are three that I needed all or most of the cards. I loved the Sportflics Decade Greats cards so much that I actually voted for them over the vintage cards. I'm very excited to get these. There's also a Sportflics Team Preview set which is great - I love all things '80s Sportflics. Also an '87 Donruss Rookies set. I'll do posts on each set a little later on. The sports erasers are going to be for the kids, though splitting three erasers two ways could get dicey!

I didn't vote for those '61 Fleer cards but I'm sure glad to get them! I also like the incongruity of the Whitehall set with holographic cards of players who would have died well before this technology even came about. I'll have posts on each of these sets as well.

These will go in my football card collection I've been passively accumulating cards for. I don't have any recent cards so this large chunk of 2019 Donruss Optic is very nice to have.

So are these 2020 Panini Contenders, with NFL stars in college jerseys (I guess they have the college license but not the NFL license). Nice to have my first cards of Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley, I guess. The Giants are terrible now but maybe someday these guys will be better? "Fun" fact - the Giants are winless this season against teams that have names.

In 1988 Score had two series of Young Superstars. I have all of Series I (the McGwire package) but none of Series II (the Mattingly package). I've never seen a card of Mattingly bunting!

The Score Series I also kicks off the giveaway/tradeaway portion of the contest winnings. I hate to break up complete sets but I am not going to post offices right now so am only doing PWE trades. So for the Score set above and anything below, if you want me to hold an entire set to trade to you, let me know by tomorrow. Otherwise I will start doing giveaway/tradeaway posts tomorrow.

In this box are the full 1986, 1987 and 1988 Topps mini-league-leaders sets. Why am I highlighting Rick Reuschel, one of the lesser-known stars in these sets? Because his '88 is the only card I still needed in any of these sets. (Though I've thought I've completed it a couple of times already; should probably double check one more time . . .). The rest of the cards will be in a giveway/tradeaway.

I already have the '87 and '91 Topps Traded sets, so these will be part of the giveaway/tradeaway posts, again unless someone wants to claim a full set and wait a while. 

Some more for this category: 1988 Topps Glossy send-ins; 1986 Quaker Chewy Granola, and 2019-20 SP Authentic Hockey. Will break them up unless someone wants to claim a whole set.

I will be breaking up the complete set of '87 Sportflics, the one Sportflics set I've already completed. Why? Because I needed the Cory Snyder variation - I had the error version (top), this one has the correct version.

These wax boxes present a bit of a conundrum. I've already completed the '92 Triple Play and '93 Donruss sets. Should I bust open packs of a set I've already completed to see if there are inserts I need? I think I will unless someone gives me a good reason to keep them as they are or send them packs. 

Hey Gavin - check out Julie's perfect pull-tabs! Jose Canseco was the biggest thing in baseball in '89. I can't imagine there will be any demand for me to open the packs in these. I actually have an unopened wax box of '89 Score already. I even tried to get Al to trade for it last year - no luck. There's a silver lining to the Topps box, though . . . 

The box bottom cards! These were all needs for me, I now have 13 of the 16 cards in that set.

Starting tomorrow, Free Card Friday, I will be doing a week of posts with cards available for free and for trade from Julie's Ballot Box. If you want to claim an entire set for yourself, let me know before tomorrow, otherwise I will start breaking them up. [UPDATE - or partial sets if you want a significant amount of one set.] Otherwise, if you want to claim individual cards, please do wait until they are posted over the course of the next seven days. Thanks and good luck! And thanks especially to Julie for this fun contest!