A Pack Of 1978 Topps

I’m not real sure why I bought this.  I have a complete set of these.   It was given to me as a X-mas present in the late ’80s.  It was probably the best X- mas present I got that year.  I guess it is kind of cool to be able to bust a pack from the year you were born.  Not so cool if you were born after ’88 but pretty cool if you were born before the ’80s.  Any ways this pack was kind of a dud but here it is …….

The Good

A couple of Cubs that I already have a couple of doubles of and a sweet Rollie Fingers.  You can’t go wrong with getting a Rollie Fingers!

The Bad

The Ugly

If anybody needs these for a set or an upgrade in condition for a set let me know.  They will all be for trade except for the Cardinals, they will be added to a pile and sent to Isaac later this week.

3 Packs Of 1981 Fleer And A Contest

I picked these up off thEbay for $5.95.  The oldest packs I can remember opening was 1983 Topps.  I bought a damaged box back in 1986 for less than what the new boxes were going for, it was damaged but it was cheap.  These are officially now the oldest packs I have ever opened.  This record will only remain for a few days as I am expecting a pack of 1978 Topps any day now.  I have had this blog for a few months now and had never done any pack breaks.  Truth is I haven’t opened any real interesting packs that deserved a post.  I don’t know if these do, but they are the oldest packs I have ever opened, so in my book they are worthy.

Pack 1 Highlights

#434   Willie McCovey   (Hall of fame class of 1986 and he has his own cove!)

#13      Keith Moreland   (He played his first full season for the Cubs and had a post season Avg. of .364!)

#7        Tug McGraw         (Fresh off the Phils World Series win in which he went 1-1 with 2 saves!  He also had bastard son named Tim!)

Pack 1 Lo-lights

# 58   Enos Cabell

#333  Tom Hausman

#527  Dick Davis

#328   Ray Burris

#130   Gary Weiss

#233   Mike Torrez

#476   Jim Lentine

#141   Manny Mota

#270   Carney Lansford

#227   Butch Hobson

#471   Al Cowens

#589   Steve McCatty

#385   Enrique Romo  (No relation to Tony)

#439   John Montefusco

Pack 2 Highlights

#494   Jerry Mumphrey   (He played for the Cubs between 1986 and 1988, he batted .3o4 in ’86, .333 in ’87 and in ’88 he only had 9 hits in 66 games.  He should of retired in ’87!)

#433   Jack Clark                  (4 time All Star and quite possibly responsible for the Cards losing the ’85 World Series!)

#57     Nolan Ryan               (Once totally kicked Robin Ventura’s ass!  Oh yeah he also threw 7 no-hitters.)

Pack 2 Lo-lights

#263   Rick Matula

#438   Rennie Stennett

#12      Dickie Noles

#332    Bill Almon

#550   Tom Herr

#8         Larry Christianson

#327   Pete Falcone

#528   Ted Simmons

#599   Floyd Bannister

#206   Hector Cruz

#499   Barry Evans  (No relation to Bob)

#22     John Vukovich

#594   Dave Heaverlo

#201   Dave Collins

Pack 3 Highlights

#545   Keith Hernandez    (1979 Co-MVP with Wille Stargel, starred in a great Seinfeld episode and some great commercials.  No play for Mr. Grey!)

#540   Leon Durham           (Known as “The Bull”, he made me cry myself to sleep in 1984)

#145   Andre Dawson          (1977 ROY, 1987 MVP, 7 time All Star, Hall of Fame class of 2010?)

Pack 3 Lo-lights

#149   Dick Williams   (Hall Of Fame class of 2008 )

#154   Ron LeFlore

#614   Tom Paciorek

#244   Bob Horner

#611   Larry Milbourne

#289   Larry Harlow

#368   Jim Rooker

#304   Tim Blackwell

#19      Garry Maddox

#195   Doug DeCinces

#364   Phil Garner

#298   Steve Dillard

#15     Lonnie Smith

#335   Jeff Reardon

These were easily worth $6 to open.  I pulled 3 Hall Of Famers and 1 that should be real soon.  All of the lo-lights are up for trade or grabs if you need them for a set, just let me know.

The Contest

Fleer did something I think is pretty cool, on the back of these cards they included thier career average or ERA in a large circle so it is easy to see what they have done up until this point.  Only three players in the pile had a career avg. better than .300  after the 1980 season.  If anyone can name them I will send you a couple of GU cards I have lying around that I don’t want, chances are you won’t really want them either, but you’ll get them regardless.  I’ll also include the three cards of the players, same deal, you probably won’t want them but you’ll get them.

Celebrity Boxing I Would Like To See

I was convinced by Mario that the Bonaduce Vs. Canseco fight was going to be the fight of the century.  I paid my $9.99 to check it out.  9 under card fights later the aging warriors made it to the ring.  Canseco was dressed to the nines and smoking a electronic cigarette in the ring.  Bonaduce looked like he wanted to beat his ex-wife, but at least he looked like a fighter.  They both pitter pattered around for three minutes before it was sent to the ringside judges, who were obviously at a different ring than the fight was.  It was ruled a majority draw.  Pretty anticlimactic!  The next bout was announced before the last fight.  Apparently Lindsay Lohan’s dad will be fighting once they find him an opponent, maybe Macully Culkin’s dad will be available.  Also I think I heard them mention a bout between Greg “The Hammer” Valentine and Tito Santana.  The audio was horrible so don’t quote me on that.  This all got me thinking who I would like to see go at it in the ring…….

Tiffany Amber Thiessen        Vs.            Dustin Diamond

Dyson                                    Vs.                    Oreck

Bernie Brewer                 Vs.            The San Diego Chicken

Or the grand daddy of them all

Mario                       Vs.                    dayf

O-BAM-A!!

So I got suckered into buying a blaster of this stuff.  I mainly bought it out of curiosity.  I also kinda dug the high school basketball card.  The set consists of 90 base cards, 1 sp, 18 stickers with foil parallels, and a pup redemption card that probably won’t show up until we have the next president.  The basketball card is probably the only reason I even checked these out, I didn’t realize it was a 1/192 short print until after I got home.  Apparently I got 1 out of the 192, lucky me!  Most of the cards are pretty boring, but a few caught my eye.  The first one was the first pitch card.  This caught my eye because of obvious reasons, but also because they air brushed  the Sox logo out of the card.  The eTopps A&G card has the full logo on it, why doesn’t this one?  The U.S. President Barack Obama card is #1 in the set and is an Inauguration Day 2009 parallel.  I really hope Topps doesn’t think they’re doing us a favor by stamping some foil on the cards and calling them parallels.

I did some checking on Ebay and the basketball card is selling for around $20 to $30.  I’m tempted to sell it but it was the only card I really cared to get.  I think I will keep it for now but if it starts to go up anymore I might just have to sell it off so I can afford a box of  ’09 Topps.

I Like Mail

My mailman rarely makes it to my house by the time I leave for work.  So it’s great when I can come home and find a package or two waiting to be opened!  Tonight was no exception.  Steve from Wait till next year was kind enough to send over two great cards from my want list, two cards that were on my I didn’t even know I wanted list,  two great cards that I already have, and a Poo-Holes.

The two from the want list are the Sutcliffe RC and the Dave Stewert RC.  Sutcliffe was the inspiration for me to become a pitcher in the Little Leagues.  Someday when I complete a few of the sets and player collections I’m already chasing, I think I’ll add Ol’ Sutty to the list of things to collect.  Sutcliffe inspired me and Stewert Scared me.  He was one scary dude when he was on the mound.  Back in my early teens I was a closet A’s fan.  I always bled Cubbie blue but I thought it would be OK to root for an American League team.  It now goes against everything I believe in but I fell for the Bash Brothers, The Eck, Rickey, and Dave Stewert.  When I pitched I always tried to be as intimidating as Stewert was.  I’m pretty sure he did a better job of it!

The two I didn’t know I wanted  are the Mitch Williams RC’s.  He was by far one of my favorite players when he played for the Cubs.  I was even rooting for the Phils in ’93, but we all know how that ended.  It’s good to see him on the MLB Network as an analyst minus the ape drape!

The two I already have are the Grace and Palmeiro.  This is the problem trying to trade with collectors of the same team.  If I didn’t already have them I would be stoked to get these as they are both great cards.  Luckily I have a 3 yr old son who I have started a pile of Cubs cards for.  These will be going to him, I just hope he doesn’t do anything stupid and become a Cardinal’s fan!

That brings me to the last card.  I know Pujols is probably going to be one of the best of this generation and quite possibly one of the greatest of all time, but he is still a damn Cardinal!  I’m thinking this might be like an old maid card for Cub’s collectors.  Maybe Steve got it in a trade and wanted to get rid of it, and now I’m the old maid.  Maybe the next trade I make with Mr. Applebaum or if I complete a trade with Wrigley Wax I’ll make them the old maid.

Thanks again Steve for the great cards, yours finally went in the mail today.

My Neck Of The Woods

Here’s a little article that was in the local paper a while back about the monthly card show in all it’s glory!!!  I just found it online today.  Let me know if this sounds at all familiar?  Freeport Journal Standard.  Go Pretzels!!!

The Pete Rose Set Brought To You By Kenny Goldin

It has arrived!  I now have in my possession 10 sets of  the 1985 Topps Pete Rose subset with autos.  To all those who were able to get one with me they will be mailed on Tuesday.  Ever since I saw this set I wondered why I had never seen this before.  I am by no means a baseball card expert, but I am the kid from school who did every report, science project, and speech about baseball and baseball cards.  I still have piles of books from when I was a kid that I used as research.  I’ve gone through these and there is no mention of this set.  I talked to a dealer at the card show last week who had two sets and looked at me as if I was full of shit when I asked him about the auto.  I have learned a little more to the mystery since I have received these.  Originally these were distributed by Renata Galasso, Inc.  This was the main distributor for Topps in the late ’70s to the early’80s.  These could of been purchased through their mail order catalog.  Originally these did not include an auto.  So who do we have to thank for this great Pete Rose autograph.  The one and only Kenny Goldin.

It appears he applied his Goldin touch to these sets and had Pete Rose autograph a handful of these sets and then resold them through The Score Board.  Personally I think the guy is kind of a douche bag, but I guess I do have to thank him for putting this little set together.  It is a great set.  There are some great moments in time capture on baseball cards in here.  There are some great Ron Lewis paintings included in here too.  Cards 1-3 feature a decades worth of stats each.  Numbers 4 through 90 feature a Q & A session on the back along with a little blurb about what the card is.  91 through 120 have puzzle pieces on the back displaying all of Rose’s regularly issued cards.  The only complaint I have is that some of the cards in my set are off centered a little bit and Kenny Goldin had a part in this, otherwise it is worth every penny.  Speaking of “worth” Beckett tells me this set without the auto is worth $15.  All cards except #1 book for .25, #1 books for .50.  Here’s a question I always had with Beckett pricing, if there are 120 cards worth .25 how in the hell can a complete set only be worth $15?  Anyways here’s a few gems from the set…..

I can’t help but wonder if his bookie is on the other end of the line.

What’s Cooler Than This?

This!

This can be had from the Texas Rangers MLB Shop for a mere $19.99.   I think he might look good next to my McFarlane Kiss figures.

Card Show Review

This past Sunday was the world famous Freeport monthly card show.  There are usually between 7 to 10 dealers there.  I arrived half way through the show and took my usual once around.  I noticed the one dealer who is liquidating his collection was there.  I stopped and talked to him for a minute.  He was trying to sell his stuff by the table.  He had three tables set up.  One had some decent mid 80’s cards.  There was a binder on that table that I was looking over, he told me to make an offer on the binder.  I didn’t really want the binder but he said he would let it go for $40.  I noticed a page of Boggs RC and a page with half Mattingly RC and half Gwynn RC, so for $40 it wasn’t a bad deal.  I was going to think it over for a minute but I was definitely thinking about getting it. Another one of his tables was full of Cubs and Sox stuff.  Some real nice stuff and some not so nice stuff.  The third table had some unopened packs and boxes and a few high end vintage cards.  He wanted $300 for that table.  By the time I had finished my lap I headed back.  When I got closer I noticed some one had bought both tables.  Then I saw the check he wrote.  He managed to take both tables for $350.  He also wheeled out a cart full, and I mean full, of mid to early 80’s Fleer and Donruss.  I was slightly pissed because I was going to pick up the one binder,  which also had 2 or 3 pages of the 1983 Topps Super Vets that Mr. Applebaum is looking for,  Sorry Brian!!!  This left me with the middle table full of Cubs and Sox cards.  I started to flip through a binder of Cubs partial team sets from ’73 to ’85.  It also had several pages of Ryno, Maddux, and Dawson.  So to make a long story short I grabbed a handful of Cubs from the ’50s, a sweet looking Bert Blyleven RC, and the Cubs binder and offered him a $50 spot, He countered with $65 and I gave him $60.  For the price of a mid-level box of todays cards I was able to walk away with just under 1000 Cubs cards from the mid ’70s to the mid ’80s.  After sorting through the binder I have over 100 doubles from the team sets, 27 ’87 Topps Rynos, a slew of ’89 Donruss Maddux’s, and a mess of oddball doubles.  If anybody is looking for any of this stuff let me know because I’m looking to trade.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the Nolan Ryan card that shows just how much of a bad ass he really is!!

’86 Sportflics In All Their Glory

Sportflics may very well be the first high end set available and it made its debut in 1986.  As far s I can remember, neither hobby shop in town carried this set.  The only place in town to get them was the discount grocery store Food Bananza.  Lucky for me my parents were cheap skates who loved a bargain.  I can remember these selling for more than a buck  pack.  When most guys were giving you 15 cards for 35 cents, these guys gave you 3 cards for more than a buck.  Then again most guys gave you a flat piece of cardboard with a picture on it.  These guys gave us motion cards with three pictures in rippled beauty!   On the advice of my daughter I recently won a box of these on Ebay for a little less than $15.  She was entranced with my only lonely survivor in my collection.  I always thought that they were pretty damn cool myself so there wasn’t much convincing needed.  The box was 36 packs with 3 cards each.  Out of these packs I pulled 12 count ’em 12 Tony Gwynns, 11 Ernest Riles, and 11 Mike Moores.  34 cards out of 108 were of the same three people.  I also have 6 or 7 of  a few other players.  Gwynn books for $1 so I guess I should be happy?  I was hoping to pull a couple of the Sandbergs or a Canseco, or maybe even the ever elusive Robin Yount error.  No such luck!  Since these cards are extra sturdy I let the kids help me open them.  By the end of it all my daughter was able to recognize Tony Gwynn and Ernie Riles.  The fun we had opening these was worth way more than the cards, and really that’s the way it should be!!!