1994 Leaf SLIDESHOW insert

I was reminded of the many hours spent in the dark during geography lessons at college when I saw this 1994 Leaf insert.
My geography teacher was a widely travelled gent and delighted in showing us his collection of snapshots. My dad had a slide projector. It was mind numbing process of 1 slide in, 1 slide out the other side. My geography teacher, at the forefront of technology, had a remote controlled carousel that held, what felt like, a thousand slides. How many pictures can you enjoy of Ayres Rock in different hues at sunrise, sunset or when it rains. It's lovely, highly significant to the Aboriginal people but after hundreds of slides it's still a rock. Is it me or do slides take the magic away.
He even tried a few times with mild success, of playing music while the slides rotated and clicked past. Sometimes it would come grinding to a halt with the occasional slide refusing to 'drop'.
So in 1994 Leaf produced a set of 10 Slide show inserts which tried to capture the real look and feel of a slide.The picture is printed on sheet of plastic film. I presume this is an attempt at nostalgia as slide projectors had been replaced by computers and video. More recently by DVDs, interactive whiteboards and PowerPoint presentations.
Perhaps in 10 years, maybe 20 there will be an insert that looks like an iPod. You can drag your finger across the card to reveal not one but many pictures of the player, perhaps it will play a video of the player in action. Within the realms of possibility?

Epic Journey of 1994 Flair

When I discovered these packs of e-bay way back in December 2008, without giving it a thought I bid, as you do now and again. I won but unfortunately the seller wanted to charge a rather astronomical price for postage to the UK. I tried very hard to negotiate but to no avail. So I was in a tricky position and then discovered that the parents of a friend (of a friend) were going to the US for a holiday and asked that they be delivered to a US address in Massachusetts. They were duly posted and I forgot all about them. Last week, a chance meeting with the mentioned friends, I obviously don't get out enough, the cards in question were bought up! I took a little drive to the parents house in London and low and behold these cards had been sitting there waiting for me to collect. Not only that but they had also purchased some other cards for me as well, which is pretty nice considering I hardly knew them. (Just a pity they were 2008 Topps.)
To cut this long story short...I now have in my hot little hands 4 packs of 1994 Flair in their cardboard jackets. The reason I had purchased these cards in the first place was due to the

distinctive packaging. Fleer appear to have tried very hard with the Flair range of cards and I wanted to be part of this effort. I have now cracked these packs and have shared the luxurious contents over at Pursuit of Red Sox.

As usual they are up for trade.

1994 Score Baseball Series 2 Hobby

I purchased five of these packs with the possibility of obtaining a Trot Nixon Rookie card.
There are 660 cards in the set, broken into two series of 330 cards.
There is a parallel set of Gold Rush cards. 1 is inserted into every pack.
There are inserts: 60 Boys of Summer, 20 Score Cycle, 10 Dream Team and 60 Gold Stars.
There are 13 cards per pack plus 1 Gold Rush Foil card.

Pack 1:

#344 Kirt Manwaring Giants

#358 Todd Zeile Cardinals

#370 Jose Vizcaino Cubs

#409 Ruben Sierra A's

#410 Jack Armstrong GOLD Marlins

#453 Jack Morris Blue Jays

#483 Mark Lewis Indians

#505 Dickie Thon Brewers

#544 Doug Jones Astros

#556 Darrell Whitmore Marlins

#567 Craig Paquette A's

#582 Damon Buford Orioles

#602 Luis Ortiz Red Sox

#623 John Roper Reds

Pack 2:

#386 Mike Devereaux Orioles

#396 Daryl Boston Rockies

#406 Robby Thompson Giants

#434 Bret Barberie Marlins

#502 Greg Swindell Astros

#510 Sammy Sosa Cubs

#532 Matt Brunson Tigers

#549 Norm Charlton Mariners

#551 Greg McMichael Braves

#555 Marc Valdes Marlins

#581 Kevin Rogers Giants

#643 Eric Wedge Rockies

#645 Manny Ramirez Indians

#647 Braves Checklist GOLD

Pack 3:

#379 Tim Raines White Sox

#393 Cecil Fielder Tigers

#422 Dave Justice Braves

#447 Karl Rhodes Cubs

#477 Kevin Reimer Brewers

#488 Mike Lansing GOLD Expos

#517 Brooks Kieschnick Cubs

#539 Tim Salmon Angels

#562 Russ Springer Angels

#595 Darrell Sherman Padres

#616 Turk Wendell Cubs

#630 Darryl Kile No Hitter Astros

#653 Dodgers Checklist

Pack 4:
#331 Frank Viola Red Sox

#387 Erik Hanson Mariners

#397 Pat Kelly Yankees

#407 Dave Winfield Twins

#430 Bill Swift Giants

#492 Kevin Young Pirates

#503 Chad Kreuter Tigers

#513 Bo Jackson White Sox

#583 Paul Quantrill Red Sox

#533 Dave Nilsson Brewers

#603 Larry Luebbers Reds

#614 Carlos Delgardo Blue Jays

#616 Turk Wendell Cubs

#618 Raul Mondesi GOLD Dodgers

Pack 5:

#332 Ron Grant Braves

#361 David Segui Orioles

#410 Jack Armstrong Mariners

#440 Mark Whiten Cardinals

#495 Rafael Palmeiro Rangers

#506 Matt Davis Yankees

#514 Dennis Martinez Expos

#514 Dennis Martinez GOLD Expos

#545 Scott Leius Twins

#566 Bobby Munoz Yankees

#574 Jeff Granger Royals

#596 Steve Scarsone Giants

#618 Raul Mondesi Dodgers

#655 Yankees Checklist

The biggest disappointment about these packs, besides the fact that there was only 3 Red Sox, was the GOLD RUSH cards. I understand that these were released 15 years ago however the Gold Rush cards stuck to the card next to it, not unlike in the past when the gum stuck to cards. It then tore the foil from the surface. You can see on the Dennis Martinez card, that is not a bad scan, that is the little flecks of foil missing and in this case stuck to Bobby Munoz. This was the best Gold Rush Foil card, others were much worse. I did like the checklist idea, which was satellite photos of the stadiums long before Google Earth. Also the Manny card and his 'Fresh Prince' haircut is a beauty.

So should I complain about an average set made 15 years ago, probably not.

1994 UD All-Time Heroes

In the last trade I made, with Matt from Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius, he sent these two cards which really caught my eye. They looked familiar.
I have gone from a collector who; 'collects all the baseball cards he can lay his hands on' through to 'picking a specific team such as the Red Sox, a specific set, 1980 Topps and a specific player, Jacoby Ellsbury' to now 'collecting cards that are oddball, eye-catching cards or that look vaguely interesting'.
These cards were inserts from the 2008 Upper Deck Timeline set based on the 1994 UD All-Time Heroes Card Design. Flipping through my 1994 folder I stumbled across one card #189 Bill Buckner from the UD All-time Heroes set. A very quick search of the internet produced some of these cards for sale and surprisingly a 100 cards from the 225 card set on e-bay UK! Check out the auction here.
The set is very impressive not just for the names available in the set but also for the iconic images on the cards.
These four cards of Mickey Mantle and Willlie Mays, Jimmy Piersall's backward home run, Bill Mazeroski running through a mob of spectators and Lou Gehrig at Yankees Stadium on 'Lou Gehrig Day' are perfect examples of the quality and content.

I never thought it was likely that I would own a Babe Ruth card, but now I do.
Ted Williams is just one of the names available on the completely black and white set of baseball cards. Nice photography and not a shiny, refractors, game used in sight.

1994 UD All-time Heroes

I really liked this set in both the 2008 Timelines and the original 1994 set. I decided to collect both..

1994 UD All-time Heroes

Here the cards I still need to complete the 225 base card set.

107 cards needed:

1, 9, 12, 20, 21, 22, 25, 30, 34, 35, 40, 44, 47, 57, 62, 66, 68, 73, 79, 88, 93, 95, 96, 98, 101-125, 135, 140, 143, 147, 150-178, 182, 186, 187, 188, 195, 199, 200, 202, 204, 206, 208-225

2008 Timelines UD All-time Heroes Insert

The cards I still need from the 50 card insert set.

47 cards needed:

131-135, 137-143, 145-179.

(which means I have three of these cards 136, 144 and 180.)