Baseball Card Sorting - Orphans and Mutts
One with a rather pointed label…
Most of this stuff really is just worthless junk, but some of it is worth saving. But since they don’t have any specific team identification, they’ll remain segregated to their own “team” collection. A box labelled “Orphans and Mutts”. Where oddball baseball card subjects will sit side by side with random, worthless, wax pack junk, that I will keep for reasons. Some of which I’ll explain here!
For example, how many 1992 Topps Match The Stats game cards are still around today? (Other than the ones still tucked inside unopened product.) Most people scratched them off, as soon as they flipped through the other 15 cards in the pack. Not to mention the whole theory of holding the cards against a Halogen lamp to read the correct answers under the grey scratch-off coating. Winning cards could be redeemed for 1992 Topps Gold parallels. But Topps was flooded with “winning” scratch-off tickets, so they had to fire up the presses again. This time, the Topps Gold cards were stamped with an additional “Winner” note, above the name plate.
Significance to hobby history (no matter how minor) is enough for me to keep one of these cards in my collection.
I’m bringing this up because I reached a milestone as far as the years long card sorting project goes, during the first week of September. To commemorate this, I wanted to write a story celebrating this achievement. After debating a story of a random team’s card highlights, I decided to highlight the keepers from an intended non-team! Originally, it was going to be a Whatever, but after I started I liked the idea of not doing a Whatever.
Though it’s still kind of like that…
Whatever…
In January 2026, I started the next wave of The Big Sort. There was four stacks of 5,000 count boxes, each sorted by team. Consisting of stars, hall of famers, rookies, inserts, parallels, and commons I liked. Ranging from the late 1950’s through 2025. Some in chronological order, some not. For a total of 26, 5,000 count boxes. Not all were completely full, but I’d estimate it was over 115,000 cards.
What needed to be done was combine the four separate stacks into one. Each team’s cards filed by year, and alphabetically by set. Daunting task, but it’s the only way to finally know what I have, and what I want to keep.
After about 8 months of off and off sorting (and getting rid of easy call duplicates and unwanted players), I whittled in down to 19, 5,000 count boxes. For a little less than 90,000 cards. All sorted by team, by year and alphabetically by set.
During the time I was doing this, I had to start up a new team sorted box. This one would include new cards acquired after I started in January. Plus I found more already in my collection, that had been overlooked. So these will need to be dealt with at some point.
Boxes of Top Loaders are another step that needs to be tackled, probably around 2,000 of them. All in various states of team-sortedness. Most of them will stay in Top Loaders, though some will be demoted to a positions among the Albums or Sleeves of the collection. Because I’m me, I also plan on making a written record of the cards that stay in the Top Loaders. Along with a range of sold prices from 130 Point. There’s a blank journal on a shelf in the office, just begging for a purpose. And it will be written by hand. I don’t need anyone telling me there’s an App that will do all of this for me. I don’t care. Some things need to be written by hand.
So there’s my winter card sorting project.
Once those segments are made whole, the final part of my decade long sorting project begins. Deciding what I am ultimately keeping, and where it goes. Through each of the sorting and narrowing cycles I’ve done over the last 20 years, I’ve developed a good idea of what the final version of my collection will be.
Slated for January, 2027, the 19 team sorted boxes will be combined with the team sorted albums. Albums will have my favorite cards from each team, filed by year, by set, blah blah blah… Other cards kept will either be sleeved or placed in a commons box. Since I will finally have everything in one place, I’ll able to better do the keep/get rid of verdict, since I didn’t really know what I had before. And after all this sorting, I’m interesting in ridding myself of a lot of this bulk.
What I’ll do with that is undecided at this point. A good amount of it will hit the recycling bin. It’s my way of creating scarcity, and I just want it gone. Some of this will be saved and re-sold in some way. In bulk, if someone is willing to make an offer. I’ve also been entertaining the possibility of doing a card shows again. Which I haven’t done since 1995. If I ever do, there will be a good percentage of my table dedicated to an actual Dime Box. 10 cents per card, with discounts for quantity.
But I’m a ways away from that.
This is the right time to do all of this because I’m never going to buy cards like I used to. Everything negative I’d expected to happen to the hobby after Fanatics takeover has happened. They’re choking out the LCS with high prices and low allocations, in favor of Breakers and Influencers. I read people complaining about Fanatics enough to know I’m not alone.
Because you can’t see stuff like this and respond favorably…
The reason why you aren’t able to buy a box of 2026 Bowman Chrome for under $500, is because these obnoxious twats are sitting atop a mountain of it. One of many events to break a ridiculous amount of product on the internet for the highest bidder. Not even hiding that it’s nothing more than gambling today.
This picture is everything that wrong with the hobby.
So yeah, the chances of a new huge quantity of cards arriving is very low.
Enough about that, this is about this…
After finishing up sorting the Yankees cards, the Orphans and Mutts Box was the last to be sorted. Instead of teams, these needed to be sorted by subject. And I didn’t really know what those subjects would be until I figured out what all was here.
While there wasn’t a large amount of them, I had saved several examples of Junk Wax Era wax pack promotional cards and checklists of interest.
1988 Topps - Glossy All Stars
1988 was my first real year of collecting baseball cards, and I saw A LOT of these. This is the example I kept, because of the terrible registration of the Yellow and Magenta plates. SuperAmerica gas stations sold 1988 Topps Wax Packs at 3/$1.29. Which was more than the 40 cent retail price, but the 9 additional cents was acceptable for convenience. I bought a lot of 1988 Topps at those gas stations.
1987 Topps - Spring Fever Baseball
You couldn’t but wax packs of Topps back then without offers to enter the Spring Training Sweepstakes.
I kept this one from 1987 Topps, plus a few from other years.
1986 Topps Traded - Checklist
During my earliest days of collecting, I really liked 1986 Topps. I’ve definitely cooled on it since, but it was a first favorite. I picked up an incomplete set of 1986 Topps Traded, at the first card show I ever went to. Missing about 30 cards (you can guess which ones), the rest of them were still in the little red box, for $1. Not a name among them, but for a penny a card, I loved it. Pretty sure the checklist is the only card from that box, I still own. It was important to me because it told me who was included in the set. Over the years, I’ve picked up all the cards I wanted from it, though I’ve never owned the complete set.
1989 Upper Deck - Star Rookie Checklist
1989 Upper Deck was Earth shattering to the hobby when it came out. The cards looked better than every baseball card that came before it. And that Star Rookie logo looked cool. Better than the Donruss Rated Rookie, better than Fleer’s Major League Prospects, or whatever Score and Topps called their prospect subset. My hopes were Upper Deck would continue this logo in future sets, to establish a tradition, but they changed it every year. The first one was best.
1990 Donruss - A. Bartlett Giamatti
Giamatti passed away from a heart attack in September 1989, after being named MLB Commissioner in April of 1989. His five month reign was notable as he had to deal with the Pete Rose gambling scandal, ultimately suspending Rose from Major League Baseball for life. He died eight days later. Giamatti was only 51 years old. I’m 51 years old. Seemed like he was so much older to me, in 1989. Giamatti (allegedly) was a heavy smoker.
And I’m… Yeah…
1990 Topps - A. Bartlett Giamatti
Both Donruss and Topps honored Giamatti with cards in their 1990 sets. Donruss ran the better photo, but Topps printed the nicer looking card. Those red borders are just too much for me.
1959 Topps Ford Frick
Frick served as MLB Commissioner, from 1951 through 1965. This card arrived in my collection as one of many lower grade, heavily discounted vintage singles, purchased from Mike’s Sports Cards in Englewood, Colorado, between 2005-2013. Mike collected quality vintage cards, and would sell the cards he upgraded for great prices. I bought a bunch of vintage cards from his store (before it closed), including the next two…
1960 Fleer Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis
Continuing the run of former MLB Commissioners, we have the very first one. Ruling over the game from November 12, 1920, until November 25, 1944. Which happened to be the day he died (at 78 years old). Not caring at all about the condition of this card, I’d always wanted something to represent Landis’ role in the history of the game. His first action was to deal with the 1919 Chicago White Sox gambling scandal, which became a large part of an overall effort to rid the game of illegal gambling. Eight players from the 1919 White Sox were banned from professional baseball, with ten other players also banned for gambling, over the following years.
1960 Fleer Clark Griffith
Griffith was added to the collection alongside Landis. Two of several 1960 Fleer cards purchased at Mike’s. Again, the condition isn’t stellar, but acceptable because of the subject. The $1 each price was certainly within reason… Clark was a former player, then manager, then owner of the Washington Senators. He’d slowly been buying up shares of the Senators, from an ownership group that needed money to keep running the team. By 1920, he’d purchased 44 percent of stock in the Senators, and agreed to voting rights to another 40 percent, bringing him to an 84 percent stake in the team. Which he controlled until his death in October, 1955, when he was 85 years old.
Clark Griffith didn’t have any of his own children, but he and his wife adopted several children of relatives. Including Calvin Griffith, who (along with his sister, Thelma Hayes-Griffith) acquired ownership of the Washington Senators, after Clark’s death. Five years later, Calvin led the Senators all the way to Minnesota.
His card has since been promoted from the Orphans and Mutts box, to a new home in the Twins binders. An unacceptable oversight that should have been addressed years ago.
2012 Panini Cooperstown - Ban Johnson
Panini Cooperstown was a fun set, held back by Topps monopoly on the baseball card market. Had Panini been allowed to print photos with team names and logos, I would have spent more than a few packs of it. So much good history was covered and blurred out, but a photo like this could appear as/is. Ban Johnson founded the American League in 1901, and controlled it until 1927, when the owners forced him out.
2019 Topps - 150 Years of Professional Baseball - Bud Selig
And I’d REALLY appreciate never seeing this guy on another baseball card ever again.
1961 Topps 5th Series Checklist
While you’d love to have a mint condition, unmarked checklist from this era, I kind of enjoy the idea of picking up a vintage marked checklist. Because you can see how close a previous owner was towards completing the set. This one amused me. According to whomever marked it, the only card they have from the 1961 Topps 5th Series, was this checklist card. Not the most promising start to your set. No wonder you gave up and sold it. Eventually to me, during the final few months of Pal’s Sports Cards. For $2.
2013 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions - Mystic Mountain
That same store sold me a few packs of Goodwin Champions, from various years. Usually when I was just looking for something to rip, and they seemed like the most interesting option. Had no idea what Mystic Mountain even was, but it’s a cool image. According to the Googles, it’s a pillar of gas and dust, found in the Carina Nebula, by the Hubble Space Telescope. Cool.
Easily half of the Orphans and Mutts box was non-baseball Allen & Ginter cards from 2006-2024. Buying packs and boxes of Allen & Ginter will give you almost as many non-baseball cards, as it does active and retired Major Leaguers. So those go in this box, to be figured out later. A good amount of these cards will likely end up in an album, because they have value in reading about the subjects presented. Same goes for much of this list.
2006 Allen & Ginter - Captain Jack Glasscock
Glasscock was indeed an actual player, and not someone made up to sell cards (Topps has done this, so there is precedent). Captain Jack -or Pebbly Jack- was a shortstop, who played for 17 seasons, between 1879-1895. The teams he played for no longer exist in their most recently known form. They read: Cleveland Blues, Cincinnati Outlaw Reds, St. Louis Maroons, Indianapolis Hoosiers, New York Giants, St. Louis Browns, Pittsburgh Pirates (well, there’s one!), Louisville Colonels and the Washington Senators (Not the same team as the one owned by Clark Griffith). I’m not adding Glasscock to the Pirates collection, so he will anchor the future Allen & Ginter portion of the Orphans and Mutts album.
2013 Allen & Ginter - Abe Vigoda
Which will absolutely include Abe Vigoda.
Because it has to.
2010 Allen & Ginter - Area 51
And while we don’t fully know what goes on inside Area 51, it does have its own card!
2022 Allen & Ginter Get That Bread - Italian Sub
I know I’ve mentioned this card before, because I absolutely love a good Italian Sub. Allen & Ginter doesn’t only include non-baseball players in the base set, complete insert sets are made of all sorts of different things. Like this set of sammich themed cards.
Another Allen & Ginter gimmick is the mini-card, patterned after the original Allen & Ginter brand tobacco cards of Captain Jack Glasscock’s day. Parallels of the base set are included as a pack insert, but they also include several special mini inserts sets that have been made for animals, food, holidays and a bunch of other wacky things.
I debated including some of the cooler Allen & Ginter mini cards I’ve picked up over the years, but it would have made this story too big. I may write a stand-alone Allen & Ginter mini card Whatever, at some point.
2011 Allen & Ginter Ascent Of Man - Prokayotes
Which wouldn’t include any Prokayotes, because they were featured on a full sized Allen & Ginter card.
2016 Topps Ad Card - Bunt
You instantly lose me when you start offering Digital Trading Cards.
I will never buy a jpeg, and do not understand anyone that does.
Anybody has a positive experience buying and selling those NFT’s from a few years ago? That trend died quickly…
As it should have.
1971 Topps Coins Checklist
None of my 1971 Topps cards are in great shape, thanks to the fragile black borders.
However, the coins checklist (unmarked) is one of my nicest.
1991 Leaf Header
1991 Leaf is a Junk Wax Era guilty pleasure. And I’ve always loved this unnumbered base card. That silver baseball above the logo, on an appealing black, white and silver design really works for me. Overall, had the photos been crisp and clean throughout the base set, it would rank a lot higher. But there’s a lot of muddiness dragging it down.
2009 Upper Deck A Piece Of History Historical Moments - First Photograph
Upper Deck got into the history game over the last couple seasons, before their license was revoked by MLB, with their A Piece Of History sets. The typical assortment of 200 of the top stars and rookies at the time, the base set also included 50 cards of historical moments. Thanks to this card, I now know the basic story behind the very first photograph ever taken (in 1826).
No matter how much you can’t tell what this even is, I appreciate this card far more than pulling yet another Jonathan Papelbon.
2008 Upper Deck A Piece Of History - Dictionary
Why, just the year before, I learned about the first published Dictionary. By Samuel Johnson, in 1755. A card I definitely want more than yet another Mark Teixeira.
Perhaps this was an attempt to compete in the market established by Topps Heritage, back in 2001. A line that would be featuring a new insert set for 2008…
2006 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks - In Cold Blood Murders (Clutter Family)
News Flashbacks are a small set of insert cards highlighting events from the year the set is honoring. For 2008, that would be 1959 Topps. Paired with a set of Baseball Flashbacks, honoring top players from that season. That gimmick carries on today in Topps Heritage. Personally, I love these cards, and wish they appeared more frequently than one per box. And I really love seeing a dilapidated old farmhouse, on a baseball card.
See, I didn’t know this…
2006 Topps Declaration of Independence - Benjamin Franklin
As interesting as those cards were, Topps committed a horrible misfire with the Declaration of Independence (and United States Constitution) sets. They’d started running series of insert sets to honor Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa in 1999, with sets of cards dedicated to the amount of home runs they hit. Producing one card for each number. Same photograph on all of them, only the number changes. Later, Mickey Mantle and Barry Bonds got the treatment, with hundred of identical cards, only the home run number changing.
So why not do it with historical documents? Same exact picture, different facsimile signature on each. It’s one thing to have multiple same cards polluting low quantity packs, featuring baseball players, but when I buy a hobby box, I don’t want 10 cards with the same picture, but a different reproduced autograph, of people who signed the constitution. It would be something else if the cards had any historical information to them, but the card backs are just a puzzle of the actual document. Give me a brief bio of said founding father. Not just his name on the same picture as 56 other names. Something… Anything… This was a low effort drag on the 2006 flagship and Chrome sets.
I really HATED these cards in 2006.
My feelings have not changed in 20 years.
1991 Bowman - Colin Powell
Powell came out of 1991’s Iraq war as a rock star. He was everywhere and beloved for his leadership qualities. By the time the Iraq war’s sequel was released in 2003, Powell destroyed his credibility by parroting the Republican party’s lies to the American people, contradicting his own statements about Saddam Hussien’s arsenal. But the oil companies and their spokesman, Dick Cheney, wanted war, and the Bush II regime was eager to comply. Powell simply went along with the program, and we all know how that story ended.
2008 Upper Deck Presidential Predictor - John McCain & Barrack Obama
Of course Upper Deck had to throw their hat in the political hoopla of the day, with an insert set of Presidential Predictors. Highlighting the top candidates for the 2008 Presidential election, as creepy looking caricatures over baseball images. While I do not own them, look up the cards for Fred Thomson (as Babe Ruth) and Rudy Giuliani, as they are hilarious.
2009 Topps Obama Pack
Of course Topps had to go even further, producing a 90 card set of images celebrating Barrack Obama’s campaign and victory. But the public had quickly burned out on the celebration. My ex purchased a few of the packs at the close-out price of 25 cents each, at the local 7-11. Somehow I ended up with them in the Orphans and Mutts box after the division of assets. So I guess she was right, I didn’t give her back everything of hers when I cleaned out the apartment.
It absolutely wasn’t intentional.
2009 Topps Obama - Political Hardball
Why did Topps feel the need to remove the White Sox logo from Obama’s jersey? They put this photo on enough cards (Upper Deck did as well) with the logo intact. Annoyed me because it is a somewhat iconic photo, and should have not been altered. Topps has the license to print the logo after all…
1980 Topps Checklist
So let’s look at a checklist from the 1980 Topps set. Even if the year wasn’t printed on it, I would have immediately said it’s from 1980, because of how it looks.
Returning to baseball subjects of the Orphans and Mutts box, we have the oddball Team USA players. Typically these are of young prospects that are assigned to the collection of whatever parent club signs them. But there are exceptions…
1985 Topps - Rod Dedeaux
What do you do with a card of Team USA’s manager? Where does that go? Well, it stays here. Guess I could add it to the Dodgers since he kind of looks like Tommy Lasorda, if you ordered him from Wish. That being said, I really liked the layout of the 1985 Topps Team USA cards. They’re different enough from regular 1985 Topps, to stand out, yet they fit in perfectly with the 1985 Topps flagship design.
2008 Upper Deck USA Baseball - Cody Satterwhite - Jersey
There’s a handful of Team USA jersey cards from 2008 Upper Deck. Those were always the hit whenever I bought packs. None of the names were recognizable, so it was a let down to pull them. Satterwhite never made the major leagues, and it was only now that I looked him up (which is something I need to do for the other 6 Team USA jersey cards), to find out he first signed with the Detroit Tigers. Then logged minor league time with the Mets, Angels, Orioles and Nationals, with a season in Japan.
So Satterwhite might just find himself lumped in with Tigers cards. Or he may just stay in the Team USA portion of the Orphans and Mutts box.
Cards commemorating the World Baseball Classic are a similar issue. While they’re typically already Major League stars, you have outliers who never played for a North American team, and wonder why exactly are they deserving of a card?
2009 Bowman World Baseball Classic - Chunhua Dong
Too bad that gold foil on black never scans well, I’m only including him for his name.
But who exactly is this for? And why are you including something so few would care about in a wide release? Give Dong’s spot to a player who may garner interest from the audience you’re selling to.
2009 Topps Chrome World Baseball Classic - Yen-Wen Kuo - Refractor
Well, it is serial numbered out of 500… Still, as a box hit, this was VERY disappointing. I never bothered to look it up until now, but I learned Kuo was only 20 years old on this card. He’d actually signed as an international free agent with the Cincinnati Reds, as a 19 year old, in 2008. The Reds released him in 2009, and he went on to play 15 seasons in the Chinese Professional Baseball League.
But no one cares around here… The only documented sale of this card was $1.69, taking place a year and half ago.
2017 Bowman World Baseball Classic - Tomoyuki Sugano
A better case for inclusion could be made for Sugano. He was an absolute stud pitcher for the Yomiuri Giants, from 2013-2024. More notable than Chinese players who will only play in China. Sugano came to Major League Baseball in 2025, signing with the Baltimore Orioles. His numbers in Japan were far more impressive, but he wasn’t terrible here. Tomoyuki signed with the Colorado Rockies for 2026, and has actually had a better year, given how pitching in Denver goes.
On a side note, 2017 Bowman is my favorite Bowman design of the 2010’s decade. I don’t know what you’d call that circular logo burst thing in the corner, but I like it.
Let’s move on to a completely different gender!
2024 Topps Women In Baseball - Jessica Mendoza
Mendoza works for ESPN as a baseball analyst.
Which is cool and all, but for a Women In Baseball card, I would have much rather included my 2022 Allen & Ginter Chrome card of Rachel Balkovec. Problem being, that card has a secure spot in the New York Yankees collection, as she managed the Yankees Low A team in Tampa, Florida, for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. In January 2024, Balkovec was hired by the Miami Marlins to be their Director of Player Development. She continues in that role today.
Honorable mention for a card I don’t own (and wouldn’t fit in this box anyways) would be an 2021 Topps Archives autographed Kim Ng. She was the Marlins General Manager from 2020-2023, and is currently the commissioner for the Athletes Unlimited Softball League.
Pretty cool that Miami is so open to hiring women for top positions that had only been open to men.
1994 Ted Williams Baseball Card Company - Maddy English
Wish I would have paid more attention to the Ted Williams Baseball Card Company, during their brief (1993-1994) run in the baseball card market. While they featured very few major leaguers, their attention to the history of the game went underappreciated by me. English played 8 seasons for the Racine (Wisconsin) Belles, at third base. The All American Girls Professional Baseball League was heavily dominated by pitching, making English’s career slash of .171/.264/.206 looking far worse than it actually was, given the context of the league.
1994 Ted Williams Baseball Card Company - Rube Foster
In addition to giving the Women of Baseball a spotlight, the Ted Williams Baseball Card Company also gave attention to some names from the Negro Leagues. Rube Foster was a Negro Leagues pioneer, as a player, manager and executive. Foster was a pitcher from 1902-1917, and manager from 1905-1926, with the Chicago American Giants. In 1920, he founded the Negro National League with 6 other midwestern ball clubs. But 1926 saw Foster unravel, as he was institutionalized for delusions and paranoia. He never recovered and died in 1930, at 51 years old. Foster’s Negro National League folded a year later.
Recognizing his prominence to the early Negro Leagues, the National Baseball Hall of Fame finally recognized him with induction, in 1981. The first representative of the Negro Leagues elected as an executive.
2005 Upper Deck Classics - Buck Leonard
The Negro National League II started up in 1933, after Rube Foster’s league disbanded in 1931. Buck Leonard starred for the Homestead Grays, in the new league, from 1935-1948. Paired with legendary catcher, Josh Gibson, as a devastating combo for the Grays. Buck Leonard batted an incredible .344/.450/.583 over 14 seasons. His Negro League career ended at age 40, a little short of a decent chance at the Major Leagues, after integration in 1947. He declined an MLB contract in 1952, because he felt he was too old, and didn’t want to embarrass himself. However, Leonard played in the Mexican League from 1953-1955. Hit as well as he ever did, despite being in his late 40’s.
He and teammate Gibson, were elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1972.
1992 Donruss Triple Play - Hall of Fame
There is a card showing a room inside that very Hall of Fame. Kind of an odd shot to include, until you notice the wall on the right side of the picture, is lined with enlarged Donruss Diamond Kings cards. Nice Flex guys, you’ll still go bankrupt in six years…
And if you look VERY close, there’s an Expos home jersey in the far left of the display case. It looks to be a display of current baseball history, so I’m trying to figure out what significant Expos achievement would have taken place at a home game, in 1990-91. It can’t be from 1992, as the Expos rebranded their uniforms for the 92 season.
Drawing a blank, and that bothers me…
2012 Panini Cooperstown The Village - The Landmark Inn
I think this is one of my favorite cards in the Orphans and Mutts box. That Victorian style hotel, with a distinct color palate, behind falling snow, is such a great image. This is from a 10 card insert set of photos of Cooperstown Village, with many of them taken behind light snow.
I really want this insert set!
Time to get back to cards about cards…
1984 Donruss Checklist
During the Junk Wax Era, I really wanted a complete set of 1984 Donruss. Budgets and money earmarked for cards were a lot different back then, so I didn’t really pursue buying one. A factory set was still selling for close to $200, in the early 1990’s. If you could find one…
In 1989, I bought a lot of about 1,200 1984 Donruss commons (none of the stars, rookies or Twins cards included) for around $30. My plan was to build the set by hand, so I’d need to start picking up the missing parts. Having the commons would be a big help. The following year, I went to Twins Fest to look for stars. Mattingly and Strawberry were the big stars, and I didn’t want to drop between $50-$75 for them, until I was closer to the set. But I found a table with a quarter box, where I picked up stars like Cal Ripken, Rickey Henderson, George Brett, Robin Yount and many others, for an unbelievable discount. Cal Ripken’s 1984 Donruss wouldn’t sell for a quarter the following year…
I never got close to finishing the set, when I gave up on it in 1993.
But the 2005 move back to Denver changed my collection. Mike’s Sports Cards in Englewood had a lot of good vintage (and slightly newer than vintage) cards, that didn’t sell as fast as the new release products. When I expressed interest in finally buying the cards I wanted 15 years ago, he said he’d give me a good deal. One of the first things I bought was that long wanted 1984 Donruss Factory Set. Demand had fallen a bit from the Junk Wax Era, but Factory Sets were still hard to come by. There was one in a display case for $150, but he knocked $25 off since no one else had shown interest. A few weeks later, I added another 1984 Donruss Don Mattingly rookie card from his case. $40, because it wasn’t perfectly centered.
As far as the partial set I started in 1989? I still have many of the commons. Just because of the significance, some of them will be allowed to stay in the permanent collection.
How about some more recent in-pack advertising?
2018 Topps - Ad - Silver Pack
This card, inserted in packs of 2018 Topps Series One, did a really poor job of explaining their upcoming Silver Pack Promotion. The card pictured is just a base, not what the Silver Pack cards are. It also doesn’t explain that the FREE CHROME CARDS only come when you buy a Hobby or Jumbo box. I remember not really understanding what this card was telling me, when I opened my first 2018’s from the local Targets.
As a side note, now that it has aged a bit, and I have follow ups to measure it against, I think 2018 Topps may be my favorite flagship design in the history of Topps baseball. The first Topps flagship set since 1985, that lives in an album and pages, in my collection.
2019 Topps - Ad - Silver Pack
Topps didn’t make it clearer that next year, either…
2020 Topps - Ad - Silver Pack
Or the following year…
I’ll blame Covid for completely messing up the Update Series, but as a whole, 2020 Topps is a really bland set. I consider it exhausting to look at because of the muted colors and lame design, but 2021 Topps would make that even worse…
By 2023, I’d stopped my routine of buying a Jumbo box of each Topps series to build the set. I hated 2021 Topps so much that I was cold to the 2022 set (though it was an improvement). By 2023, I just wasn’t interested at all anymore.
2004 Bowman Chrome - Uncirculated Card Redemption
Back to my mid-aughts visits to Mike’s Sports Cards, he also had a decent supply of Bowman Chrome boxes from 2004. I was buying them for $75 each until they were gone. (Miss those days, compared to the Fanatical mess buying Bowman is, 20 years later.) This would have been in the summer of 2005, so all of the Uncirculated online redemption cards were expired. Pretty short deadline, when the product wasn’t released even 6 months prior.
Did anyone ever do anything with The Pit? Seemed like it was overambitious for its time…
2006 Bowman Originals - Checklist
I will definitely be keeping this checklist… In late 2006, I’d asked Mike at Mike’s Sports Cards what he did with all his commons. He told me that a guy in Wyoming would drive down and buy them, whenever he had enough for it to be worth his trip. His guy owned a few retail stores up there and would put together packs of 100 cards, and sell them at his stores for $5 each. Basically, an independent Fairfield. Mike said if I put together twenty 5,000 boxes, he’d give me $100. Or .001 cents per card.
Which pretty much started the big sorting project I’m still working on today.
By spring 2007, I’d put together roughly 100,000 cards, and drove them up to his shop. Now what I should have done, was add that $100 to that week’s card budget and bought something really cool with it. So I added that $100 to that week’s card budget and bought something I thought would be really cool… A box of 2006 Bowman Originals, for $250. Six packs with 2 encased autographed buyback Bowman cards in each pack. I’d never opened a product like this, at a price point like this. The box showed autographed Albert Pujols and David Wright cards, which sold me. I’d figured the box would have one superstar auto and a bunch of filler. Which would make sense. Now who would that Superstar be?
Dontrelle Willis.
By far the biggest name in the box. The other 11 autographs, if you added their resale value together, it amounts to slightly less than what that checklist card is worth. Which I will forever keep as a reminder of the time I went card stupid. At least I got rid of 100,000 commons…
There was a Clayton Kershaw base card in one of the packs. Today that sells for about ten times what the Dontrelle Willis buyback autographed card does. So it’s not complete garbage.
And I was a Dontrelle Willis fan.
2009 Donruss Americana - Joyce DeWitt
The same ex-girlfriend responsible for leaving four 25 cent Obama packs behind, was also a fan of the 2008 Donruss Americana set. She said I could have whatever doubles she didn’t want, so I took a stack of about 30. The cards were supposed to be of Hollywood celebrities, but there were far too many cards of “He appeared in two episodes of Survivor, in 2003” and “She was a backup dancer in an En Vogue video, in 1994, and spells her name with two $ signs.” to be taken seriously as a Hollywood celebrity set.
But hey! Joyce DeWitt!
2009 Donruss Americana - John McGinley
Scrubs is another guilty TV pleasure of mine. McGinley’s Dr. Cox character is straight from a cartoon, and Zach Braff’s character is so flawed that you want to him fail, but for some reason it all works. I’m looking forward to season two of the reboot. Even though Jordan ruined her face with too much plastic surgery. She used to be kind of hot…
Because my mind is now drifting off into TV Land, I have to mention a new-ish show that caught my attention while putting this story together.
The Twins were on Sunday Night Baseball, a few weeks ago. Every commercial break had an ad for the upcoming season two release of The Paper. A sequel/spinoff of The Office, with the same format. I liked the Office, though it seemed to devolve into “look at these wacky people, doing wacky things!” After watching Season One of The Paper, I think it has a more coherent purpose as a show, than The Office did. These wacky characters are trying to resurrect a dying newspaper. With that theme being what is driving the show, letting the characters be wacky around it. As of writing this, I haven’t started Season Two. Though I will have likely watched all of it before I finish this story.
Since I know my limited audience follows my entertainment picks very closely, I would recommend The Paper. (Since it’s on Peacock, they don’t have to worry about language. It’s refreshing to actually hear fucks and shits, in situations where those words would normally be used. We all have jobs, we all hear/use those words on a daily basis, not a big deal.)
Continuing my detailed knowledge of celebrity gossip…
2010 Upper Deck Celebrity Predictor - Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes
But Upper Deck couldn’t put the names on the cards… Other than continuing the Predictor theme, with the same creepy caricatures, as 2008’s Presidential Predictors, it wasn’t really clear what they were predicting. The card backs feature a brief and amusingly snarky write-up about the unnamed -yet familiar- celebrity. I think since the cards were perked, you’d rip them apart when the celebrity couple broke up.
Last intact card in the set wins?
Well, looking at the checklist, one of the couples are still together…
Because I have nothing better to do this afternoon, I’m going to figure out which couple stayed together the longest, after their card was released.
Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes - Divorced July 2012
Jennifer Aniston & John Mayer - Broke up March 2009
Justin Timberlake & Cameron Diaz - Broke up 2007
Megan Fox & Shia LaBeouf - Ended in 2007
Chris Martin & Gwyneth Paltrow - Divorced July 2016
Anna Kournikova & Enrique Iglesias - Still together, since 2001
Nick Cannon & Mariah Carey - Divorced 2016
Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart - Broke up in 2013
Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie - Divorce filed in September 2016, finalized in December 2024
Paris Hilton & Cristiano Ronaldo - Ended 2009
Hmmm…. Anna Kournikova & Enrique Iglesias are the 2010 Upper Deck Celebrity Predictor winners! And the only celebrity pair that is still together, 16 years later. It’s kind of cheap that Upper Deck included so many pairings that were already finished. In the cases of Fox & LaBeouf, Timberlake & Diaz, well over two years later.
I’ve never been interested in celebrity, and didn’t even know who a few of these people even are. So I started feeling really stupid googling past relationships of celebrities. Happy to move on…
2008 Topps Co-Signers - Martin Castillo - Autograph
Nothing against Castillo, he has a nice and clean signature, and I’m sure he’s a great guy. But I don’t buy a box of baseball cards for a boxer’s autograph. Not when Topps Co-Signers was a higher end box, that you are buying specifically for the hits.
That doesn’t work for me, brother…
2010 TriStar TNA Impact - Hulk Hogan & Dixie Carter
Tucked back in the Orphans & Mutts box was about a Blaster’s worth of 2010 TriStar TNA Impact cards, that hadn’t yet made their way into the Pro-Wrasslin box. Dixie couldn’t look more excited by this, and Terry couldn’t look more bored. Just keep thinking of all that money you’re making off the mark, brother… Neither of these two having one ounce of concern for the damage they are doing to the company.
1991 Topps 1990 Major League Debut - Checklist
The Major League Debut box sets were a cool idea. Every player who appeared in their first Major League game, would get a card. The checklist would be numbered in chronological order, by first games. The checklist card itself listed the players by date.
So it was informative on multiple levels!
1993 Classic - Puzzle Piece
What is this supposed to be? It was in a pack of 1993 Classic Best, so what’s on the back…
Well, unfortunately this was the only piece of the puzzle I ever saw. That’s a pretty decent roster of 1993 prospects signing for the plaque, Jeter alone is significant. Seeing as 500 pieces were put together, you have to wonder how many puzzle piece were printed. Obviously, no more than 500 complete puzzles could be put together, but was that set up as 500 of one card printed, and 75,000 of the other 8 pieces? This was Classic we’re talking about… But had it been only 500 of each of the 9 cards, that would have made this project pretty difficult, due to how they’d be scattered all over the country.
Yeah… But it’s Classic…
Doubtful more than 500 people were buying it nationwide.
However, I was one of them…
1993 Classic Collectors Club
But I never joined the C3… I bought the Brien Taylor autographed card from Coaches Corner for $10, before he destroyed his shoulder. Now I had everything I wanted, that their package was offering.
Although, I wish I had a Classic Collectors Club Presidential Membership Card today…
That’s guaranteed ’tang!
2013 Topps - Million Dollar Chase
Didn’t bother looking into this in 2013, so I don’t know what was involved. As soon as I found out you wouldn’t be trading cards online, then receiving them in the mail, like in 2010-2011, I was out. But I’ll keep one for memory’s sake.
Think I need a little more Allen & Ginter in my list right now…
2007 Allen & Ginter - Ferris Wheel
Like a card of a Ferris Wheel!
2009 Allen & Ginter - Electron
And an Electron!
2013 Allen & Ginter - Pele
And Pele!
One of then funniest collectable ads I’d seen was for a soccer ball: “$250 negotiable. Soccer ball signed by the legendary Pele. Or a guy named Pete.”
When I pulled this card in 2013, I wondered what years Pele’s career spanned. I know nothing about soccer, but I knew the name. So I figured this would be a good chance to see some sort of biographical information about him…
Dick move Topps.
Googles tells me there was a corrected version of this card printed, and the “Missing Text” version is more rare. But it took a long time and a lot different searches before I found images of this card with the correct text on the card back. And only graded copies for sale. Call me insane, but I’m thinking the corrected version has less copies out there.
And this had to be intentional.
2008 Allen & Ginter - Billy Mitchell
If I didn’t know anything about this guy, I’d immediately assume he was a pompous douche bag, or sleazy salesman, from the picture alone.
But I’d already seen the movie.
And it’s a great movie.
In summary, Billy Mitchell has the record for top score in Pac Man and Donkey Kong. His record is challenged by an unknown (Steve Wiebe), but instead of meeting the challenge, Billy is all weaselly and gets his way because of his name. There’s a lot more to it than that, so if it interests you, then you should absolutely go watch it. Great movie.
On March 3rd, 2013, Laura and I stopped by the 1up Bar, on Colfax Avenue, in Denver. She wanted to play Skee-Ball, I needed some Pac Man.
They had an enlarged, autographed Billy Mitchell card, hanging on the wall above the video games.
Now he’s an even bigger douche!
Along with an enlarged Twin Galaxies Arcade 1984 Video Game Tournament flyer, from Ottumwa, Iowa. An event attended by one Billy Mitchell. Twin Galaxies still exists as an official video game record keeping entity. Though they no longer have the arcade in Ottumwa. If it were still there, I’d definitely make the effort.
2009 Allen & Ginter - Steve Wiebe
The following year, Topps printed an Allen & Ginter card for Steve Wiebe, sitting in front of his Donkey Kong machine. The story is complete.
Except for Billy Mitchell, it wasn’t. In the years after the movie took place, he’d come under increased scrutiny for his video game scores, and methods used to obtain those scores. Specifically, in that he used emulators to break scoring records. In 2018, Twin Galaxies announced their investigation concluded that Mitchel did use an emulator, and his scores were removed from the official Guinness World Record books. (Twin Galaxies is recognized by Guinness as the official record keeper for video games.) Lawsuits were filed, and Mitchell’s scores were reinstated in 2024.
However, Billy Mitchell is still banned from participating in Twin Galaxies contests.
So it took a few more years than expected, but the movie has a happy ending!
1994 Major League Baseball 125th Anniversary Jersey Tag
Not a card, but folded over and placed inside a Top Loader since the day it was detached from my Montreal Expos home jersey. Which was ordered via catalog, from a shop in Cooperstown, New York. Was a big fan of MLB’s 125th Anniversary logo. The gold patch looked so cool on the backs of that year’s on-field caps, worn by all teams except the Cincinnati Reds (the first recognized National League franchise). They used a gold patch of the 1869 Reds team.
You remember, the team that won 92 games in a row… Think that speaks more to the competition of the day, than the skill of the 1869 Cincinnati Reds.
Inside the folded tag.
1996 Topps Laser - Checklist
Packs of 1996 Topps Laser came with a slightly oversized checklist card on the top and bottom, to protect the fragile laser-cut cards protected. Years ago, I wrote a story about the set, in honor of my cat. We had to put him down in 2018, due to old age and illness. In his day, he loved to chase the laser pointer. So this was my tribute.
2013 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions - Bam Margera
I still enjoy watching Jackass videos every once in a while. Usually to counteract overexposure to current events of the day. Nothing calms you down after hearing demented insanity, then watching people flinging themselves into poo. It’s pretty much the same thing… Still, I never needed to watch Bam Margera beating up his overweight father. You don’t want to wish it on a person, but you have to view the effects he eventually faced for all the drinking and drugs. Karmic payback for the millions of dollars made from beating up your father, just for laughs.
2016 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions - CM Punk
Picked Punk up at a card show a few years back.
Because it’s CM Punk.
2016 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions - Bret Hart
Bret came from a pack. He never had a match with Punk, but if they did, it would have been an all time classic.
2016 Topps Archives Bull Durham - Nuke LaLoosh
Thanks to this movie being one of about six in the MLB Network movie rotation, I’ve seen it far too many times. But it’s still a good story, and well done for its era. Makes sense that Topps decided to honor it with an insert set in the 2016 Topps Archives brand. Because it’s Topps, they decided the best way to present this set would be to have the two biggest stars NOT appear in the base set! So a set of cards honoring Bull Durham, does NOT include Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) or Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon). However, there’s a twist… Both Costner and Sarandon appear on special autographed 2016 Topps Archives Bull Durham cards. So you have to pay hundreds of dollars for the uber-rare autographed version, in order for the set to make sense
This has irritated me for a decade.
2018 Topps Archives The Sandlot - Ham Porter
Two years later, another MLB Network staple got the Topps tribute… Funny, but looking up the reported sale prices between the two movie card sets, The Sandlot has a much stronger following. Could be the lack of star power (beyond Tim Robbins) with the Bull Durham set, or The Sandlot has more appeal to the broader collector market today. Either way, I found that interesting.
2001 Topps Ad - Merchandise
Planned on unfolding this and scanning it opened, so you could see the assortment of T-shirts and hats and stuff, Topps marketed for their 50th anniversary, in 2001. But they put a drop of glue to keep it closed, for some stupid reason, and it tore when I tried to open it.
Great… Now I totally ruined the value…
2001 by far wan’t the first time Topps placed offer for branded merchandise inside packs.
1989 Topps Store - T-Shirt
1989 wasn’t the first time either… Not the first year the offers were on cards either. For years, the offers were printed on the wax pack wrappers. But the 1980’s saw them transition to advertising cards. This one is selling one of four styles of Topps T-Shirts. With postage, it’s $11.20 for a High Quality Puffy-lettered T-Shirt! I don’t remember if the other three styles were Puffy-lettered or not. I also am not sure what Puffy-lettered means here. Does that refer to the art, or to the patch/decal/whatever attached to the High Quality T-Shirt?
1989 Topps Store - Card Pages
Topps was also selling pages to store Topps cards in. At first, they seemed like a good deal for the time, until you read the second sentence under the offers. I was really only looking at Offer 2. “Enough to hold a complete set of 792 Topps Baseball Cards.” Cool, 88 pages for $10.70. My memory of buying supplies in the late 1980’s, was around $10 per 100 pages. But these would be delivered to your home. There’s value in that. (Early 1990’s Sam’s Club had the big deal, with 250 Ultra Pro pages for $19.97. And Jose Canseco on the box!)
Now, the second line tells all: “To get 44 Plastic Sheets…” Well now, that price no longer looks as good. That also means Topps expects you to put your set in pages, back to back. Fitting 18 cards per page instead of 9. But they have the Topps logo on them!
I used to be completely against this, but as I’m trying to condense my collection, I’m starting to think it may be a good idea. The albums I’m planning on putting together would be filled with cards that aren’t exactly sought after. The odds of me going through them, specifically to look at the card backs isn’t very likely. And if there’s a particularly interesting card back, I don’t have to cover it up. Something I’m debating as I continue to deal with the out of control collection.
1986 Donruss The Rookies Checklist
This one’s a keeper for sure. Learning about card collecting in 1988 was a far different beast than learning about it in 2026. I relied on the monthly magazines to learn about past sets, and which ones I wanted to look for.
Card shows took place in major metropolitan areas, nearly every weekend. And I went to lots of them in the Junk Wax Era. Specifically in the late 1980’s, you’d find many tables selling commons for 5 cents each. Singles from insert sets would soon take over the space previously reserved for set builders. In the early days, I was looking for singles from sets I liked. More for commons than specific stars. Because buying commons would give you more cards that you liked, instead of fewer cards you that really liked.
1986 Donruss The Rookies was a set I really liked. The green was really appealing, and the set had a lot of cards I wanted. But they were way expensive. Remember what the Jose Canseco from the set sold for in late 1988? Just as I did with 1986 Topps, I never did get the full set, but I did (eventually) buy all the singles I wanted from it. The Checklist being among the first. Along with Allen Anderson, Steve Lombardozzi and Al Newman. Three current Twins, but Newman is shown with the Montreal Expos. A bonus I didn’t recognize at the time.
I hadn’t yet learned much of anything about the Montreal Expos.
Other than their stadium reminded me of a toilet.
How about we learn about some other stuff, via Baseball adjacent Cards!
2015 Topps Baseball History - Martin Luther King Jr.
From an insert set pairing notable baseball accomplishments with historical events. History in blue, baseball in red. I liked this design, and it was a way to bring a theme used in the Topps Heritage line. That had the Baseball Flashbacks, tied to the News Flashbacks.
2011 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks - Cuban Missile Crisis
In September 1962, the Soviet Union tried to park a bunch of nuclear missiles in Cuba, and the world was suddenly close to nuclear war. With everything going on today, you have to wonder if we’ll see the equivalent of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, sometime soon. Wise and intelligent men resolved it back then, without escalation. The dementia-ridden, criminal blundercunt in charge today would just brag about himself with absolutely unbelievable lies, make ridiculously insane threats and then shit his pants and stain the couch.
We live in the dumbest timeline.
2024 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks - Busch Gardens
I’ve been to Busch Gardens!
2023 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks - Daylight Savings
Every year I read more stories about how we’re going to cancel Daylight Savings and I’m tired of it. Pick an hour and call it good. I’m getting too old to keep screwing up my internal clock twice a year for no logical reason. After years of working the overnight shift, I have zero sympathy for you daywalkers whining about it being dark at 8am.
2012 Topps Heritage News Flashbacks - Alcatraz
Because it would cost too much to keep it running, Robert F. Kennedy ordered it closed. The last inmates were relocated, in March 1963. And his son is a grotesque piece of shit.
For 2009, Upper Deck came up with a huge set of cards to commemorate the 20th Anniversary of the company. It would include players from all four major sports, with cards of major events, trends, celebrities and other stuff that took place between 1989 and 2009. The set would be distributed through all 2009 Upper Deck sports releases. The sports cards are what you’d expect, but where this set shined was bringing all of the things you forgot about.
2009 Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective - I Love You Email Virus
I never knew I needed a card commemorating the I Love You Email Virus, until I saw a card commemorating the I Love You Email Virus. Pulled this from a pack and fell in love with the card. Doubtful I had even thought of the I Love You Email Virus, since a week after it was a thing. And Upper Deck made a card for it.
I miss Upper Deck.
2008 Topps Update - Take Me Out To The Ballgame
Not part of any particular insert set, Topps printed this card to recognize the song’s 100th birfday. That’s cool. What I didn’t know, was this card was inserted at a rate of 1 in 72 packs. Had no idea it was that rare. Guess it should have been a clue that I only got one of them, instead of one per pack. Like all of those David Wright, Stay in School cards. Which did come one per pack. The Becketts back then actually listed that Wright card as selling for $2. No one ever paid $2 for that card. You got one in EVERY pack.
It’s also not allowed in the Orphans and Mutts box, so it’s not included in this story. You can find my last copy in a sleeve, in the New York Mets box. I’ll sell it to you for $2.
1992 Donruss Diamond Kings - Checklist
Donruss promoted their long running Diamond Kings subset to its own Insert set, in 1992. Which was a logical progression. Which annoyed a lot of collectors who made it a point to collect the Diamond Kings cards from each years Donruss set. Now you only get four of them in each box. Imagine how much of a let down it would be when one of those four was a checklist.
Speaking of Donruss… Or of Panini owned Donruss…
2018 Panini Rated Rookie Pack
The other day, I got a couple of these mailed to me unsolicited, and I wondered why. Then it struck me, Panini still owes me a couple of autographs… Well, I better log into my Panini account for the first time since I entered those codes, and see what’s going on.
Guess I won’t be seeing that Edward Cabrera Red Prizm autograph… His other autographs, numbered or 99, sell for between $5-$10. The other card I was due, a 2022 Panini Obsidian Mark Vientos base auto comps to about $5.
I consider the replacement to be fully adequate.
Without knowing anything about it, I ripped the pack open to reveal a Ronald Acuna photo variation, a Gleyber Torres, and someone named Shohei Ohtani. Whoever that is… The second pack had the identical three cards inside. After opening them, I looked them up. I could have possibly sold the sealed three card packs for between $300-$500, because there are potential Ohtani autographs in some the packs. I’ve seen one Reddit post from someone who pulled an autograph from one of them.
When 2018 Donruss came out, there was a wrapper redemption program attached. You could send in some wrappers and they’d send you an additional three cards for the set. I don’t know if these three were left out of the 2018 Donruss set or something. I never bought any of it.
1997 Score - Lucite Holder
You know, Panini also owns the trademarks for the long-bankrupt Score company. So maybe I should order up a couple of those Guaranteed Scarce Screw-Downs… They’re only $7 each, so a much better value than the Topps pages…
No wait! The back side is offering a Pinnacle Icon. And you can order an Icon for only $43.49.
Think I’d rather have 179 Topps branded album pages.
1992 Fleer Update - Checklist
Bought a total of three 1992 Fleer Update sets. Because I remember reading that it was the lowest production number on a Fleer Update set since 1984. No idea if that was true or not, but they were hard to find. All of them were broken, but most of the good singles were lost in my May 2000 apartment burglary. I’ll keep a checklist card for the memories…
2008 Topps - Kazuo Uzuki
A short print in 2008 Series One Topps packs, (1 in 72) Kazuo Uzuki wasn’t a real player. The card back claims he is a Japanese high school baseball pitcher, with a 104 mph fastball. There’s even some made up quotes from anonymous baseball scouts and management, talking Uzuki up. The photo is of an actor Topps hired specifically for the card. The name they chose roughly translates to “first son of April”, to give it away as an April fools joke.
Sports Illustrated did it better with Sid Fynch, back in 1984…
1995 Action Packed - Max Patkin
The Clown Prince of Baseball was honored with a three card subset, in the 1995 Action Packed Minor League release. A former minor league pitcher in the White Sox system, his career ended by an arm injury. He eventually became a one man barnstorming clown act, at minor league baseball games. Patkin claimed to have performed at over 4000 events, between 1950 and 1995, when he retired. Max Patkin died in 1999, at 79 years old.
Topps also left him out of the 2016 Archived Bull Durham set. Which is a shame, he appeared in two scenes. One shows him doing his act on the field, the other was in a bar after the game.
1990 Topps The Simpsons - Bart TV
There’s a handful of these 1990 Topps The Simpsons cards in the Orphans and Mutts box. I will be keeping them all, but wanted to highlight this particular card because of the Binky cameo. Matt Groening’s Life In Hell books were a massive influence, back in high school.
1991 Impel Marketing GI Joe - Serpentor
I don’t remember ever buying any, but there’s about a packs worth of these cards in the box. I’m thinking the pack was thrown into a third party deal (think Fairfield today) and I got them that way. They’re pretty nice looking for their time, and appear to be based off the Marvel comic series, more than the television cartoon.
1990 ProSet MusiCards - Dread Zeppelin
I was kind of interested when I heard ProSet was coming out with a set of cards honoring current musicians. Then I remembered that the stuff I listened to wasn’t likely to appear in any set. Not like they were going to honor Dr. Demento, no matter how much they should. I found a healthy bin of singles at the local Shinders, and flipped through to see if there were any worth my nickel. I bought a few, not because I was a fan. Maybe familiar with a song or two. Dread Zeppelin was picked up for the Elvis impersonator gimmick, which I found funny. Tried listening to their music and quickly moved on…
1994 Ultra Beavis & Butthead - Life Sucks
A card misfiled after writing my 1994 Ultra Beavis & Butthead story, a few years ago. It has since been returned to its friends in the Beavis & Butthead album.
2017 Topps MLB Network - Matt Yallof
I really need to finish this set. It was the driving force behind wanting to buy any 2017 Topps packs. I needed a set to commemorate the channel my TV was set to, for much of the last 15 years. I have about half of the set today, but chose Yallof to represent because he’s on the Sunday afternoon Big Inning show. Where four games are shown at once, in quarters of the screen. The volume is played for the game in the most interesting situation. When a specific game isn’t on, Yallof talks about the games going on. It’s a nice all-in-one way to keep up with that day’s games. But I think he spends the time where his microphone is turned off, drinking. He sounds drunk, getting less coherent as the afternoon goes on.
2005 Topps Archives - Dr. Jim Beckett
Yup, that Beckett… Topps gave him a card in the 2005 Topps Archives release, which is reasonable. While not one of the first names you’d think of for a figure in baseball history, but at least in the card collecting circles, he’s one of the bigger names of the last 50 years. According to a write up in a Beckett baseball magazine (where else would it be?), he’s shown in a Roberto Clemente Pirates jersey, because of favorite player/team.
2002 Topps Total - Checklist
From the box I’d always wanted to rip, done in Delaware, in 2019.
1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection - Redemption Card
Not sure why five players in series 2 of 1994 Pinnacle needed to have redemption cards for their Museum Collection parallels. None of the five were with new teams, and all have basic base cards. All five subjects would be considered commons, so I’m not sure what caused it. Wonder if it’s like the rumor about why the last few cards of 1988 Donruss are somewhat short printed? (Allegedly, a forklift ran into a stack of printed sheets, damaging most of the last few on the sheets. Never believed that since there are SO MANY 1988 Donruss cards, there would have needed to be a fleet of forklifts, ramming pallets for days, to make any sort of dent in that production run…)
I pulled two of these redemption cards from packs of 1994 Pinnacle Series 2, but I didn’t redeem either of them. I don’t remember which player this specific card would have gotten sent to me, but the other redemption card has a home in the Expos binders. Because that card was good for a 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection Kirk Rueter card.
Which I really wish I would have redeemed…
1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection - Kirk Rueter
This is from a recent ebay sale. I’ve never seen this card in person, and it’s one of my most wanted Expos cards. Because the amount of people who would have redeemed it is very small, there’s almost no copies of this card in existence. Looking at the ebays, I’m seeing one for sale for $99.95, and another for $125 (though an email just arrived, offering it to me for $112.50). Funny thing is, this picture is from an auction where the final sale price was $1.79. Either the seller didn’t know what they had, or no one looking for this card was aware of it.
I will be more vigilant, because I really want this card for the Expos collection.
1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection - Checklist
The next season, Pinnacle decided they needed to give the Museum Collection parallel treatment to their checklists. Seems wasteful, but looks pretty cool.
When it comes to stupid parallels of checklists, nothing comes close to 1998 Topps Finest…
1998 Finest - Checklist
So here we have a basic 1998 Finest checklist card. Now, why Topps decided this set needed checklist cards is beyond me. When you’re paying $5 for a 4 card pack, getting a checklist is maddening. That’s lower than a base common from any team…
1998 Finest - Checklist - No Protective Film
Then you have a really stupid parallel. Same card, just without the protective film covering the front of the card. For that parallel, the card backs are also debossed, to match the front. There’s even a Refractor version of this checklist with the protective film. But I have no idea who that is for.
Part of me wants it, just to complete the stupidest rainbow in card collecting history.
2000 Kmart Opening Day Set Promo Card
The four major card manufacturers banded together to produce a set to promote buying cards at Kmart. Each company chose 8 players, then printed cards using the Kmart Opening Day 2000 theme. They were inserted at a rate of one in five packs, of each of the products listed on the card. I have a few of them. They’re nice looking. Kmart was a good place to buy cards at retail, until around 2010. Then their card aisles slipped into untended messes.
I do miss Kmart. If you couldn’t tell by my recent stories of Kmarts past…
2012 Leaf Heroes Of Baseball - Doug Harvey
Harvey was a Hall of Fame Umpire, who worked games in the National League from 1962-1992. He was constantly ranked as one of the best umpires in the game.
2005 Topps Archives - Eric Gregg
And then there’s Gregg, consistently voted as one of the worst umpires… Everyone points to his umpiring performance in the 1997 NLCS, when he called the plate. Livan Hernandez of the Marlins, struck out 15 Atlanta Braves batters, with Gregg calling pitches a foot out of the zone as strikes. Being someone who will always hate the Atlanta Braves, I loved it. But I had to admit his work in the game was pure bullshit. I just think he needs to find pants that cover his nipples. His run in the National League lasted from 1975-1999, when he resigned (with 21 other umpires) over a labor contract dispute.
Eric Gregg died in 2006, after suffering a stroke.
1985 Topps Garbage Pail Kids - Potty Scotty
This was a new arrival (from Nerdin Out in Rochester, MN), after I wrote my Garbage Pail Kids story a few years back. Potty Scotty rules.
2023 Topps Chrome Garbage Pail Kids - Barbie Q - Black Refractor
Applying 2023 technology to a card from 1986. Like Potty Scotty, Barbie Q arrived after my story, so wasn’t filed with the rest. I was a blaster hit from one of the Targets, when they had no baseball of interest. Don’t know nor care about the value, but I love Black Refractors. They always look good. Even when applied to a cartoon.
It’s also numbered 9 of 99, so that’s a thing.
And man… That is a terribly unfunny comic strip…
It may even be worse than the ones they wrote in the 1980’s…
1993 Topps Black Gold - Winner - A/B
Just like what I didn’t do with the 1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection Redemption Card, I didn’t redeem this either. Should have, if for no other reason than it would have added cards to my various PC’s that I still don’t have. Pretty sure I can see Delino DeShields, Marquis Grissom and Larry Walker in tiny reproduction form. That’s three Expos right there! You know there’s a Ken Griffey Jr. somewhere, and I’m almost positive Kirby Puckett made the set…
Oh well, I still have this…
And this…
1993 Topps Black Gold - Winner - C/D
Hey! Those are the exact same 22 cards! Shenanigans!
1995 Fleer Rookie Set Exchange Card
Think I redeemed this one? Guess again! It wasn’t because I wasn’t paying attention… I actually bought this card out of a quarter box, years after it had expired. Looking at the list of players who made the set, I think the unredeemed redemption is worth more…
Need a Rudy Pemberton?
I don’t.
Couple of interesting notes about the back of the card…
4. “If for any reason the ’95 Major League Baseball schedule is changed in any way, Fleer reserves the right to postpone or terminate this offer without further obligation.” Well, 1995 Fleer Baseball Cards were likely printed during the 1994-95 Players Strike, seeing as they hit the market before the strike was settled. So Fleer had to cover themselves in case of the unknown.
6. “Odds of winning a set are approximately 1 in 150 packs.” That’s about 1 in 5 boxes. No wonder I never pulled one, and I went through a lot of 1995 Fleer. For unexplainable reason.
Too bad they didn’t come up with a gimmick like Bowman did…
1997 Bowman Guaranteed Value
From 1996-2000, Topps ran a promotion where you’d mail this card back, along with $5, to get a serial numbered certificate. That certificate, combined with a complete set of that year’s Bowman, could be mailed back to Topps for $125. Their way of “guaranteeing” the set would have value in the future.
I’ve never heard of anyone that took part in the program, but if you did, taking the money was smarter than saving the set. None of the complete Bowman sets from 1996-2000, sell for more than $50 today.
1991 Stadium Club - Club Membership Offer
Stadium Club was a massive success for Topps in 1991. Not only had wax packs inflated to prices never seen, but they sold a ton of these Club Memberships. I didn’t join, but there was enough of those Charter Member sets floating around the secondary market, to know that a big buncha people did. And I’m glad they did. Those additional sets rest comfortable with my 1991 Stadium Club set, that cost me a lot of Perkins wages to put together.
2010 Topps - Ad - Million Card Giveaway
I’ll never stop singing the praises of Topps’ Million Card Giveaway promotion, back in 2010. But I won’t here… This isn’t a card that came in a pack, but part of a retail package of 2010 Topps Update. It was something like 5 packs, three Million Card Giveaway codes and one of those exclusive Chrome Refractors. Bought a few of these deals. Pretty sure it was a WalMart thing. I loved it because I got more Million Card codes, and I always seemed to get Stephen Strasburg exclusive Chrome Refractors.
Would’ve liked the Ripken…
2010 Topps Tales Of The Game - 1952 Topps River Dump
Cute image, but Topps didn’t dump uncut sheets of Mickey Mantle rookie cards in the Hudson.
What they did was clear out a warehouse of unsold cases of packaged 1952 cards, in 1960. They were loaded onto a garbage scow to be dumped offshore. Either in the Hudson River or Atlantic Ocean. Despite ruining tens of millions of dollars in cards, you have to think that’s not cool to just dump in the ocean. Granted it’s basically paper that would disintegrate rather quick, but still…
2010 Topps You Sketch It!
We’re out of ideas… You draw a card for us!
Honestly don’t remember, did any sketched cards appear in a 2011 Topps set? Pretty sure I never saw any, so I guess that none of the returned made the cut… “Please note that any sketch cards submitted become the property of The Topps Company, Inc., and cannot be returned.” Yeah, I get why that is. But I’m not cool with creating something and turning it over to a company to do with as they please.
2021 Topps History Of Topps - All Star Rookie Cup
Topps loves to boast about its history. Making full insert sets based off their spin on baseball card history. This one is innocuous enough. The Topps All Star Rookie Cup does have a legacy as a legit award in baseball. So I’m okay with it. They buttered me up by putting the bowling trophy front and center.
2021 Topps History Of Topps - MLB Exclusive License in 2009
Yeah… About that…
I guess the winner writes the history. Bud Selig's inexplicable decision to terminate the license of Upper Deck was the first nail in the hobby coffin. Since 1981, Topps had competition. And in many years, that competition simply put out better product. In 2005, Selig revoked the MLB license from the company that would become Panini. In 2009 it was Upper Deck. The market didn’t decide those companies weren’t viable, they were producing innovative, quality content. People were buying those cards. They had an audience. But one guy decided, with very little knowledge of the hobby, that only one company should exist.
Where are we 15 years later?
Someone is making a metric fuck-ton of money, and the collector has suffered ever since.
Let me grab my pen, I’m feeling inspired…
Been several years, but I can still draw Bob.
I think I deserve an award…
1972 Topps - Commissioners Award
Simply love the subset of cards of baseball trophies, that found space in the 1972 Topps set.
2015 Topps Coupon - 50 cents off
Topps, bribing me isn’t going to work…
Writing this story made me feel sadder than I expected. I’m looking at nearly 40 years of collecting baseball cards, by removing the baseball cards. This made me look at things I hadn’t thought about for years, in regards to card collecting. Some good memories of times that will never return.
For years, I evolved with the hobby. But the Fanatics evolution is the one that took me out. I’ll eventually go back to picking up some singles again, But nowhere near what I used to. I’ll buy a little retail here and there, because I have to. Don’t think it will ever fully get out of my system.
But the fun is gone. It’s too expensive to buy anything but the lowest level retail. Which is nothing but overprinted bloated garbage. That is, when you can even find it in the store.
The Breakers have plenty though.
Your LCS doesn’t, because it can’t compete.
Just kidding… Your LCS has gone out of business in the wake of Fanatics.
Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.
2010 Topps History Of The Game - First MLB Game in Japan
This story would have been 6 and a half stars, if it was written in the Tokyo Dome.
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