Cards Are Still Subjective

 Hello Friends!

Last post I wrote about the sets from the Junk Wax Era I didn't care for or outright disliked. Today is the opposite. I'm writing about sets from the Junk Wax Era that I like.

As with yesterday these are in no particular order

1986 Donruss Now the reason I'm showing two cards here is twofold. 1. I absolutely love Diamond Kings from that era, and 2. the backs of the regular cards are different from the DKs. 

The lines on the front are nice. Kind of in your face but not obnoxiously so.. 

1990 Bowman After the return of the brand in 1989, Bowman went a little more classic in design. Standard card size, A nice border and a nice image. I'd maybe like the player and team to be a bit larger, but those are small nits to pick. 

The back again went to the team splits. It was an interesting concept that was unique for the time. It couldn't be done on a card today with everyone playing everyone now.

1990 Leaf I honestly think this card is close to perfection. Love the photography in the set. I might lessen the rooster tail behind the logo, but that again is a small nit to pick. The backs are nice as well, with full stats on the back. I also like the presence of another small headshot on the back. 

1991 Stadium Club I really like this set, though in general, I've found Stadium Club to be difficult to collect over the years. I don't know if it's popularity, or print runs, or what, but I both like the cards and find myself unbothered to collect them. Yeah I know that makes no sense. 

Anyway.. Stadium Club has always had interesting photography I'm guessing that here we have Mike Fitzgerald and ol' Oil Can celebrating a win. 

The backs are unique with a photo of the players' Topps rookie card. 

1991 Studio Honestly, the whole run of Studio from 91-93 are some of my favourites. 91 and 92 especially with the photoshoot style pictures on the front. 

The backs were different. While you'd find little interesting factoids on cards dating back to the 50s, this one blended both baseball and personal life to show the person behind the meatsuit in the uniform, if that makes sense.. 

Speaking of 1992 Studio, here it is. Again, love the photography on the front. The logo is nicely tucked in the corner. 

The backs again have personal information and baseball information for the players. 

I'm not sure why, but this set almost feels more premium than some of the premium sets released in that timeframe. 

1992 Donruss This one may be divisive in some circles, but I have a soft spot for this set. It was the first one I started collecting when I entered the hobby. 1992 was a departure from what came before from Donruss. Different cardstock, a glossy feel and minimal borders. 

I've tried defining this set before and I almost want to say it's industrial. It doesn't blow you away, but it catches your eye and conveys what it's trying to convey. 

One thing I've always liked about the backs of Donruss is the contract status information. 

I know many people don't like this set, but to me it's great for what it is. A step in the right direction for Donruss after some disastrous sets

1993 Donruss It's funny.. This is honestly a set I forget about. Most of 1993 sets I forget about. I have had difficulty getting into this set for years, but it's honestly very clean. Nice photography, I like the nameplate and logo box the way they are. The brand logo is out of the way.. 

The backs are nice as well. A nice picture again rather than just a disembodied head. Overall a nice set that I'm going to have to set more serious about finding. 

1993 OPC This was O Pee Chee's first time creating a flagship set that wasn't a licensed reworking of the Topps set from that year. 

The team name on the front is interesting. The photography is a major step forward from the OPC Premier sets. 

The backs are nice as well. Stats, a little write up in both official languages of Canada and another headshot. I also like the team logo being put in the background behind the stats. 

1993 OPC Premier Premier seems to follow the formula the previous two Premier sets established. The photography was a lot better though. I like the OPC Branding on the card looking like a seal. 

The backs are standard Premier. The few stats it always showed for the previous season. Nice big photo and logo. This was the last OPC Premier set put out. 

So there you have it.. The Junk Wax Sets I like. Agree? Disagree? Calling for the men in the clean white coats to come take me away? (haha!) Let me know.. 

Cards Are Subjective

 Hello Friends!

I watched a video earlier by Baseball Replay Journal on YouTube about the 10 ugliest sets from the junk wax era. Some of the usual suspects were there.. 91 Fleer, 90 Donruss, 88 Donruss, 90 Topps.. But there were others that I do like that they considered ugly. Part of it was the mass overproduction, but some of them I just feel different about. 

I did voice my enjoyment for some of the sets they posted, but I also mentioned a few of my own. I don't get upset or attack people for their opinions on things like card asthetics.. Opinions are like assholes, afterall... We all have them.. (And I'll let you fill in the rest) 

So I wanted to take a look at the timeframe they used, 1986-1993. And I picked out my own... 

So let's take a look. These are in no particular order. 

1987 Fleer. I don't know what it is about this set. It's no ugly per se, but it's so boring. I think the late 80s Fleer in general had that problem. You'd have years like 84 with interesting photos, then other years like this where the border alone puts you to sleep. 

I don't mind the backs. They're readable. The hot/cold boxes remind me of Tetris.. 

1988 Donruss This set is one of those weird ones. I don't like it too much (I dislike 89 more, but didn't grab that one.. Derp) but I also have the set. 

This one.. Aside from the general darkness of the card, is the variations.. Oh GOD the variations.. 

Dot, no Dot, Inc. Inc , borders in different places, etc.. Some years to get the full master set, you're looking at almost 1200 cards.. WTF?!?

Backs are typical Donruss. I do find this year tough to read though. 

1989 Fleer.. As I mentioned, most late 80s Fleer I just can't deal with.. This year though, with the weird lines on the front and photo editing is just annoying. I think there's something like 4 variations of the Randy Johnson card shown here. 

The backs are alright. 

1991 Fleer Ultra.. I liked the idea of it. There's something missing though. I don't know if it's the solid grey borders on the top and bottom, or if it's the large logo reminding you what set this is.. Just doesn't hit right.. But again, I've completed this set... 

The backs are interesting in a way. The three pics of the player can be interesting. But there is something else I want to mention about this set.. 

The errors!! All of the errors!! For what was supposed to be a premium product they did zero quality control on it. 

1992 Score Honestly, I have a love hate relationship with Score in general. I don't know what it is. There's a lot I like about the cards but 92 is just odd for me. It might be the frame breaking.

Now the backs.. I think the stats could be a little darker colour.. I do like the writeups for the players, something that Score was famous for.. 

1992 Topps And really by extension, 1992 OPC. 

It's honestly a clean look, but there's that element of boredom again. Now, keep in mind I started collecting in 1992. This should have been in my wheelhouse. I have an OPC factory set and just what I need from the Topps for team sets and player collections. I just can't explain what I don't like about this. 

The backs are readable. Some of them have the fisheye style stadium photos as well, which I do like. They're missing from long-time players like Carlton Fisk, Gary Carter, and Nolan Ryan though. 

1991 OPC Premier The first attempt at a standalone set by O Pee Chee. It's... Ok? Some of the photography is either too close, too awkward, or just odd choices. 

Here's the back.. Big picture of the player. Big logo of the team. Big copyright logos. One line of four stats.. In a way it feels very slapped together in 15 minutes.. 

1992 OPC Premier If I mentioned the 91 set I have to mention the 92 set. It's another year of very questionable photography. Like this shot of Mark Whiten's back.. 

The only way you can tell really that this is a different set from 91 is there's the 92 after Premier. 

Otherwise, the photography is more awkward choices of either close cropping, weird decisions, or kneeling poses. 

And the backs.. Again, big picture of the player. Big team logo.. Big Year reminder.. Same one line of the same four stats..Big copyright logos.. 

The back seems better arranged than the previous year, but I'm still not a fan... But I have the full set... (Go figure)

Sportflics No specific year.. The whole run of them.. Kind of like the hologram phase we went through with collecting, the magic motion phase was something that maybe we could have done without. It's hard to get the angle you want for the photo, it doesn't scan well.. They're hard to sort through. 

Finally the backs.. Another instance of giant logos and tiny type... Not to mention, if you're taking a quick look to see the card number, you might get confused by the number in the baseball.. That's the uniform number.. The card number is on the other side. 

The players name isn't even large enough to be quickly noticed. 

So those are my choices.. I'll also mention that really, aside from 1993 Upper Deck, I'm not a fan of Upper Deck.. Most of 1993 sets are blanks for my mind. 

Agree? Disagree? Let me know! Just... Keep it respectful please. 

Card Show Days

 Hello Friends!

After a little bit of a break to get away from the weather, the card show happened yesterday. It was probably the busiest it's been. There were even vendors in the lobby.. 

I found one of the vendors I've built a rapport with that missed last show due to the weather. He handed me a box of 80s OPC to look through. Since I'm working mainly on 88, that's what I was looking at.. I also have 87 pretty far ahead. I'll try to get those next show. 

Anyway. the box was not organized by any stretch. It was slow going to find anything, so I asked the guy if he minded if I organized it for him. (I got the 88s mostly done) 

He said sure if I could find an open table somewhere.. So I holed myself up in the coatroom and sorted, pulling needs and Expos as I went. Did that until it felt like my head was cement. 

Went back in and handed the box back, told him what I got done and the stack I wanted to get. He asked what my price was for sorting services.. My reply, "How about the cards?" So I got 70 cards for the price of an hour sorting. 

I wandered around the show, trying to not run anyone over with my chair. A task made very difficult because, and I may be wrong with this, but it seems like people's spatial awareness goes out the window at places like this.. 

Found one other vendor I've purchased from before and got a few cards that I'll be showing.. 

Also had an interesting interaction with one of the vendors while I was sorting. I told them how I was surprised the vendor I was dealing with let me take the box of cards out.. She replied "It sounds like you built a rapport with them.. Come by my booth! Build a rapport with me!" That booth was Hogtown Cards 

I didn't buy anything from them, mainly because the only thing I might have been interested in was a 1954 Bowman set for probably a month's rent for me.. 

Anyway, I guess I should stop rambling and get to showing cards, eh? 

I saw 84 Donruss and I snapped them up.. I know I didn't have most of the Jays cards from it so it was an easy pick up.. Besides, if I end up buying duplicates, I can always send them elsewhere.. 

Clancy and Gott. I just remember Gott as a journeyman reliever, if I remember correctly, as a Dodger when I started watching. I didn't know he started with the Jays. 

Upshaw and Whitt! 

Joey McLaughlin... I see his pictures and every time I think he looks more like teacher. 

78 OPC!

82 OPC Expo!

These cards I got from another vendor I've bought from previously. I got this batch for what he was charging for the Stieb auto alone. This batch, of course, meaning all the cards minus the two OPCs. 

He tagged the Stieb at $25, gave it to me for $15. 

So the rest of the cards ended up being $10 

The next show is the end of May.. And if it keeps growing both in vendors and in traffic, they will have to find a larger venue.. But they want to make sure things stay on the upswing. They don't want to expand too early and fall on their face.