Bo Knows

Some collectors focus on a specific player.  Others focus on a specific team, theme, sets, or everything in between.  The latter would describe me.  I love it all.

Sadly... this sometimes poses a problem.  You see... I tend to focus on two, three, maybe even four PC's at a time.  Pair that with poor memory... and it sometimes leads to certain collections sitting on the back burner for months... sometimes years.

Luckily there are bloggers like Bo (@ Baseball Cards Come to Life) who remembers and knows what I collect.  He sent me a PWE a while back and inside were some cards for two collections I haven't paid much attention to.

The first were two new additions to my Middle Finger PC:

1973 Topps #307

Back in August, sg488 and Bo pointed out this card which depicts Tito Fuentes giving Boots Day the finger.  Here's a closer look:

My eyes are nearly as bad as my memory... so I'll have to trust their judgement.  The other "middle finger" card that Bo suggested was this one featuring The Big Hurt:

1991 Upper Deck #246

I had seen this card a bunch of times over the years, but never noticed Frank's finger.  Not sure what his deal was... but this is the second card in my collection where he's flippin' the bird.  You can see the other one in my original post.

The other collection he targeted was one I started years ago... but hadn't added to it in over three years.  It's collecting cards featured in The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading, and Bubble Gum Book.  In 2021... I had 8 out of the 241 cards pictured in the book.

These two take me up to 10:

1961 Topps #100

1967 Topps #79

The book talks about Haddix being the only pitcher in MLB history to lose a perfect game:

While Morton is one of the three Bubba's highlighted:

Thank you Bo for the care package and for reminding me of two forgotten PC's within my collection.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #154: Smorgasbord of Stuff

If you're a fan of variety, then this post is right up your alley.  If you're only interested in sports cards... just scroll down to the 3rd purchase.

The De Anza Flea Market is held on the first Saturday of every month.  This is now the third month since it has reopened and they are still struggling to fill up with vendors and visitors.  I think part of the issue this month was the flea market took place on a holiday weekend, so hopefully next month will be better.

The good news is there were a bunch of new vendors who I wasn't familiar with.  five of my six purchases were made from people I've never seen before.

Purchase #1:  70's Map of Mariott's Great America  $3

I'm sure nobody else cares about this map, but this was easily my favorite purchase of the day.  The week leading up to the flea market, Bay Area residents were informed that Great America will be closing its doors sometime in the next eleven years.

This was the theme park I grew up at.  This is the theme park a lot of locals grew up going to.  In a nutshell... this was pretty sad news for a lot of people.

That's why I was super excited to see this folded up map sitting on this guy's table just waiting for me to buy it.  Without seeming too giddy, I asked him how much he wanted.  I couldn't hand over the three bucks fast enough.

The first thing I noticed is that The Demon (one of my favorite rides) wasn't on it, so I knew it was pretty old.  After some research, I discovered that the ride was originally called Turn of the Century, but it was modified and renamed in 1980... which means this map is from 1979 or earlier.

Sorry I blabbed so much about a map nobody cares about.  I'll try and keep the rest of the flea market finds brief and straight to the point.

Purchase #2:  The Famous Baseball Card Book  $2

The Great American Baseball Card Flipping,

Trading and Bubble Gum Book (1st Edition)

I already own two copies of this book (paperback & hardcover), but this copy's dust jacket is a nice upgrade.  Even if it wasn't, I still would have bought it for the price.

Purchase #3:  Pack of Predators  $1

2003 Top Trumps Predators Pack

No idea what this game is, but it's a pack of cards and the price was right.  Don't worry, here come the sports cards...

Purchase #4:  Bag of Cards  $10

This bag was sitting on a tarp partially covered by a paper fan among a bunch of oriental style home furnishings and fishing reels.  Luckily I took a few extra seconds to browse this vendor's stuff, because I never would have spotted the bag if I weren't standing right over it.

After pulling out a small stack of cards, it seemed to contain a mixture of new and old baseball and football cards.  The guy said I could have the bag for $10, which I thought was fair.  When I got to the end of the row, I sat down and pulled everything out to organize the purchase.  That's when I found this card:

1991 Topps #333 (2016 Topps 65th Anniversary Buyback)

I love me some rookie cards... especially when they are stamped as a buyback and depict a first ballot hall of famer.

I would have paid $10 for this card alone... even though it's far from being mint.

Honestly... I could have dedicated an entire post to the contents of this bag, but this post is dragging on long enough.  I'll trim the fat and share five other cards that caught my eye:

1975 Topps #400

There was a small stack of vintage football cards that were in top loaders consisting of three players: Fran Tarkenton, Franco Harris, and Bob Griese.

2016 Topps Gypsy Queen MVP Mini #MVPM-FT

2012 Topps A&G World's Greatest Military Leaders #ML-8

2019 Topps #100

2001 Pacific Paramount Sample #NNO

This Maddux is a mystery.  Pacific didn't release a Paramount baseball set that year and when I searched Beckett and COMC, this card didn't pop up.  Not sure the story behind it, but according to this eBay listing... it's rare.

Rounding out the scans are two memorabilia cards...

In an age where condition is valued by everyone from flippers to grading card companies... it is hard to imagine someone tossing stacks of cards into a bag and dumping them at the flea market for $10.  But I'm sure glad they did.

Purchase #5:  MJ Rookie Card  $6

1994 Collector's Choice Silver Signature #661

Although I didn't know the guy who sold me this card, he was set up with some of my buddies.  He had a few dollar boxes, but there wasn't really anything that stood out.

I found this Jordan in his display case.  It was a little more than I would typically spend.  But I wanted to buy something to support him and this fits my collection.

Purchase #6:  Heritage Error Cards  $5

After tossing the MJ into the backpack, I walked over to my buddy's booth.

He showed me a stack of 2021 Heritage that contained a few wrong back error cards.  I like this kind of stuff and wanted to support him, so I picked out six of them.  He originally wanted $2 per card, but he settled for a crisp five dollar bill.

If you're trying to wrap your brain around who is paired with who, here's a breakdown:

A.  Guerrero (front) / Hader (back)

B.  Riley (front) / Eflin (back)

C.  Arenado (front) / Yelich (back)

D.  Hader (front) / Guerrero (back)

E.  Eflin (front) / Riley (back)

F.  Turner (front) / Sanchez & Kilome (back)

First off... these aren't rare.  There are plenty of listings on eBay at very affordable prices.  But they are a little mysterious.  Typically Topps changes the code at the bottom for variations.  Yet all of these have the same code as the regular base cards.  If anyone knows the story behind these, feel free to comment on them down below.

Well that wraps up another trip to the flea market.  Sorry it took so long to get this post published.  I'm still playing catch up after a very busy start to the summer.  I'm hitting up another flea market on Saturday, so hopefully I'll have some more finds to write about next week.

Until then...

Did you have a favorite amusement park when you were a kid?

Do you have multiple copies of the same book sitting on your bookshelf?

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

If I Could Turn Back Time

A large percentage of my life has been spent sitting around collecting and organizing cards.  That's why it is thoroughly embedded into my personal history.  It also explains my preference to read card blogs and watch videos about collectors building 70's baseball card sets, reminiscing about 80's rookie cards, and discussing 90's inserts they once pulled.

So it shouldn't shock anyone that I also enjoy flipping through old issues of sports card magazines.  In fact, I've been thinking about starting a blog series where I take a trip back in time and take a quick peek into some of these issues.

My collection of old Beckett Baseball Monthly consists of twenty to thirty issues, but only two were June issues.  I decided to go with the older of the two for this post.  Let's go back to 1993...

Beckett Baseball Monthly

June 1993 

Twenty-nine years ago, Beckett decided to put Jim Abbott on the cover of their price guide.  I figured they were capitalizing off of his amazing no-hitter, but that didn't take place until several months after the publication of this issue.

I'm guessing this issue was produced in April or May and the editors wanted to capitalize on Abbott's arrival in New York.  Bo Jackson was featured on the back cover:

He was returning from a hip replacement surgery and collectors were eager to see him back in the batter's box.  On April 9th, 1993 he returned to the diamond and in the bottom of the 6th against the New York Yankees, he pinch hit for Dan Pasqua.  The second pitch he saw, he launched over the right field wall.

Let's take a peek in between the covers.  Instead of walking you through it page by page (sorry, I don't have the time or patience to scan 132 pages), I decided to feature specific things that caught my eye and organize them by topic.

First up... a pair of advertisements:

I don't remember buying or eating Hostess Baseballs, but I've managed to add a few of these oddballs to my collection.  Here's a closer look at the Rickey:

1993 Hostess #23

The front design is kind of boring, but the back of the card isn't too shabby.

1993 Upper Deck is one of my favorite sets of the decade...

It's kind of a shame that they focused so much attention on the Mays Heroes inserts, instead of the set's greatest strength: photography.

Back in the late 80's to mid 90's, I picked up the current issue on a regular basis.  One of the first things I'd flip to was their Hot and Cold lists:

According to the readers, Frank Thomas was the hottest name in the hobby and Jose Canseco was the coldest.  In 1993, I was on a break from the hobby... so I avoided hoarding cards of David Nied and Cal Eldred.  Sadly this break also kept me from purchasing any 1992 Bowman either.  Which leads me to the price guide portion of the issue...

Just look at all of those "up" arrows.  And if you look a little closer, you can see that the iconic Mariano Rivera rookie card once booked for only "25¢".  Twenty-nine years later, I still don't own that card.

On the opposite end of the spectrum...

Oh man... I'm sure glad I wasn't one of those collectors who dished out that kind of cash for a Brien Taylor autograph.

1992 Topps Gold #793

I picked up my copy in 2019 for $10 on COMC... which still seems a little overpriced.

Let's take a look at the values of the hottest and coldest player's key rookie card values...

I never would have guessed that Canseco's famous rookie card would still book for $60 by the time 1993 rolled around.

1986 Donruss #39

Then again... it trips me out to see current completed sales on eBay going for $10 to $20.  Pre-pandemic, I found a copy at the flea market for $2.  A year earlier, I picked up a copy for less than a buck at the Tristar Show.

The Big Hurt's key rookie also booked for $60:

This price makes much more sense as Thomas had become one of the hottest players in baseball.  In fact, he'd go on to win the AL MVP Award at the end of the season... and again in 1994.

1990 Leaf #300

These days, raw copies sell in the $10 to $20 range too which is a pretty steep discount from the mid 90's.  But there's one card of his that has soared in value over the past three decades...

Usually collectors shake their heads when they hear the words "collecting" and "Junk Wax Era", but if you were fortunate enough to target these No Name rookie cards (or Mariano rookies) back in 1993... then you hit the jackpot.

Let's switch gears and focus on a pair of articles.  These were the two I was most interested in:

When I took a break from the hobby after building a master set of 1992 Fleer Ultra baseball, Insert Mania was partially to blame.  The funny thing is... these days I enjoy collecting all of those 90's inserts.  Maybe thirty years from now I'll be collecting all of the silly inserts Topps and Panini produced these days.

My favorite article is about Dave Parker...

In a nutshell, this article highlights Parker's career while covering his "forced" retirement.  Although he had been working out and felt like he still had something to offer, no teams signed him.  As a result he failed to make the 3,000 Hit Club or eclipse 1,500 RBIs.

1974 Topps #252

And sadly, he's still waiting for his call from Cooperstown.

At least he has some company...

Not sure if the comic was a monthly thing, but this issue had one honoring Roger Clemens and his twenty strikeout campaign against the Seattle Mariners on April 29, 1986.

1986 Donruss #172

1986 Fleer #345

1986 Topps #98

It was the first time in MLB history that a pitcher struck out that many batters in a nine-inning game.  A decade later, Clemens would repeat the feat.  Since then Kerry Wood and Max Scherzer have also joined the club.  Randy Johnson also struck out twenty batters in nine innings, but depending on who you talk to... it may or may not count... since the game went eleven innings (Johnson didn't pitch in the 10th or 11th).

Another one of my favorite segments in Beckett Baseball Monthly was Readers Write.  Each month Beckett would publish a bunch of letters from readers and collectors.

Here's one that I found interesting:

The author has a pretty cool first name, but that's not what got my attention.

1986 Topps #690

I can't believe it took me thirty-six years to discover that Ryne Sandberg's 1986 Topps card is missing the Topps logo.

This issue of Beckett also opened my eyes to this little tidbit about Vida Blue:

According to the article, Blue had a lucky hat that he wore in 1974, 1975, and 1976.

1975 Topps #510

1976 Topps #140

1977 Topps #230

 

That means there's a chance his lucky hat is pictured on all three of his baseball cards from 1975 to 1977.  Sadly on April 16th, 1977...  he was forced to change hats due to discoloration.  Not sure if the hat had anything to do with it, but he did lead the American League in losses that season.

In the spirit of Father's Day, which is just around the corner, here's a cartoon that was included in the issue:

Seeing this inspired a special Father's Day post that I'll be publishing this weekend.

The main article in this issue was dedicated to the College World Series.  Unfortunately, I was too lazy to scan all nine pages.  However if you're interested, here's a list of MLB players (back in 1993) who were College World Series alumni:

I'll go ahead and wrap up this copy of Beckett with a pair of ads for two West Coast cards shows that took place that summer:

If I could turn back time, I'd definitely suffer the long lines for a chance to meet iconic legends like Y.A. Tittle, George Mikan, Muhammad Ali, Sandy Koufax, and Roy Campanella.

Here is today's question of the day:

Were you collecting back in 1993?

Any favorite memories from that year?

Like I mentioned earlier... I was on a hiatus from the hobby that year.  The card shop I had worked at in had closed down in 1992 and was a little burnt out after Fleer Ultra master set build.  Plus I had just transferred to San Jose State and was focusing on getting my degree.

Sadly... there aren't any specific memories that stand out from that year.  I did attend a Beastie Boys concert held at a small venue, but can't remember if it was that year.

Well that wraps up another post.  Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it

Happy Wednesday and sayonara!