Updating the Want Lists: 1991 Topps

I've been going back and forth on collecting this set for a while now.. Until I got a large chunk from sandyrusty a while back I was content on getting just the Jays/Expos/Canadians and leaving it at that. 

Between the pile I got from sandyrusty and the pile I bought in the big box o' cards, I'm 30 cards away from completing the set.. 

Again, I will post the cards I still need. 

Nolan Ryan. #1

George Brett Record Breaker. #2

Cal Ripken Jr Record Breaker #5.

Chris Hoiles White Inner Border Variation. #42

Frank Thomas #79

Dwight Evans. #155

There is one that has an error: 1982 162 games led league

The corrected version is Tied For League Lead

John Smoltz #157

Tony LaRussa #171

Tony Gwynn #180

Matt Williams #190

Dennis Eckersley #250

Mark McGwire Error card. #270

The error is in his 1987 Slugging Percentage. Listed as 618 when it should be .618

Kirby Puckett #300

Chipper Jones #333

I don't expect to find this card easily.. 

Larry Walker #339

Ideally I'd like to get three copies of this card. Set/Expos/Canadians

Cecil Fielder All Star #386

Ken Griffey Jr All Star #392

Carlton Fisk All Star #393

Barry Bonds All Star #401

Sammy Sosa #414

Kevin Appier Corrected #454

Correction is: 1990 Omaha Stat Line Included..

Eddie Murray #590

Edgar Martinez #607 

Checklist #656

Error lists Vincente Palacios as card #433

Doug Drabek White Border Variation #685

Efrain Valdez Corrected #692

Birthdate: 7-11-66, Two Lines of Text

Barry Larkin #730

Randy Myers Corrected #780

Correction: 19 Career Losses. 

Updating Wantlists: 1992 Donruss

Going through the boxes of cards I received recently I had a pile of 1992 Donruss. I was hoping that I would be able to get everything I needed from it, but I did get a bunch of wants out of the way. 

Today I'm going to post the cards I need still. 

Wil Cordero. I need one for my Expos Binder. I have one for the set already. 

Eddie Zosky. I need two copies of this card, one for the Jays Binder and one for the set. 

Ryan Klesko. 

Danny Tartabull All Star 

Roberto Alomar All Star. I need two copies 

Craig Lefferts

John Barfield. Once Upon a Time I had this card.. I lost it though

Alex Fernandez. 

Scott Bankhead

Jeff Bagwell

Checklist

Another Checklist

Keith Miller

Candy Maldonado. Again, I need two copies of this card. 

Once I complete the set, I'll worry more about the Jays/Expos/Canadians out of this for the binders. 

If by chance anyone can help me with these cards, Let me know! 

Collect a Books

I recently acquired a few boxes of cards from a local collector looking to offload some of it. Part of me wants to do something like what CrazieJoe has been doing on his blog, but, I wanted to be a little more original than to copy another's idea.

So instead I want to highlight some weird and wonderful things out of it as I come across them.. Maybe even some completed sets as they complete.. Who knows?

Anyway, today I'm going to cover the Collect-a-Books baseball set.. There were three "sets" produced in 1990 with 12 players in each. The players were a mix of 1990s players and Hall of Famers.

All of these players were featured in Box 1. There is some pretty decent star power there with Griffey, Henderson, Smith, Ruth, Gooden, etc. 

This is the inside of the Robin Yount one. For each it has their information and position, etc. 

The middle has their story and accomplishments 

The last two pages inside have their stats until 1989 and a quote from the player. 

The back of the book has a cartoon of the player and a little write up 

Banks, Yaz and Sierra were the other three from the first box. 

The second box has Aaron, Williams, Stewart, Gwynn, Mitchell, Walton, Spahn, Clemens, Brett, Mattingly, Ryan, and Strawberry. 

Box Three has Davis, Feller, Grace and the ones pictured below. 

Quite the little oddball set. I ended up getting two of each box, and a set of the Football ones. 

Loot Locker

I decided to try out the Loot Locker thing after reading about it in another blog a while back. 

I received it in the mail today. Let's take a look, shall we?

I received four packs of cards in the box, plus some top loaders and penny sleeves. 

The first pack is Bowman Chrome. 

We have a a couple Rangers here with Darvish and Mazara. Really it's a Chicago and Texas heavy pack here. 

The A.J. Reed autograph was a nice surprise, though it's not someone I collect. Really, nobody here I collect so... 

Two packs of Topps Chrome.. (Much shiny apparently in this box.. )

All World Series participants.. What are the odds of that?

The Lackey card is also a refractor 

The Patented Ryan Braun pose rears its shiny head here. 

The Adrian Gonzalez perspectives card is rather odd.. The dirt is textured as tiny boxes, but only in front of the plate and the batters box.. 

Non-Shiny! Also, Non-Licensed.. 

I think these may be my favourite cards though.

The cards feel odd in hand, almost like a hardened canvas. I find the font size a little too small for my liking on the back as well. It may be my eyes, or it may be just a little too small.. I don't know. 

A nice mix of old and new here with Ty Cobb and Shoeless Joe Jackson and a couple rookies making an appearance. 

I did notice one interesting thing on the Jackson card though.. In the fine print, it says:

"Shoeless Joe Jackson is a trademark of the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society"

I'm intrigued.. 

That Chris Davis is not too bad of a card though again, not a player (Or Team) I collect. It is available as well.

Overall, I think I'd order it again, though it wouldn't be a regular thing for me, if only because $20 plus $10 shipping plus exchange made this purchase close to $40 Canadian. 

Stuff in the Mail

Not long ago I received an e-mail stating that someone had a bunch of Expos and Jays cards they wanted to get rid of. I naturally said I'd take them because even if there are duplicates, I can find another collector who will take some.. 

After sorting through the cards, I have a few that are new to me, a few duplicates, and a few I already have earmarked for another collector.

Some 1991 Score I didn't have. I've been going back and forth on this set for so long that I don't know if I'll ever make a decision. Oddly enough the Jeff Kunkel, while a Ranger, is still a card I needed if I want to complete the set.. 

From the looks of it, the Farmer, Hall, and Rojas cards were all taken at Wrigley. 

There are a couple duplicates I ended up scanning here, as I have multiples of Candaele and Foley. The others I wanted two of as I am trying to complete the sets as well as have the cards for the team binders. 

The Youmans card in the middle has tape on the top of it. As long as I don't try to remove it I'm fine with it.. I was forewarned that some of the cards may not be in the best of shape. 

A few completely new to me cards here with the Bell and Youmans. The Ducey is going into my Canadian Binder. I already have one for the Jays Binder. 

A Topps 1991 and a Topps Micro that is actually a Cracker Jack release. 

I like the 1992 Score cards. I always found them interesting. 

More 1992 Score plus a Triple Play and a Stadium Club Expo. 

Alfredo Griffin in his Jays return. I like the Gold Colbrunn in the middle. 

Cliff Floyd and Sean Berry make appearances as well. 

I hadn't had an Ultra card from 94 until now. Tavo Alvarez and Gabe White make appearances in their rookie or early years. 

Wil Cordero in the Acid Trip set and Robert Perez in a less psychedelic set.

Thank you Peter at Baseball Every Night !

Trade Recap

With October finished, I may now have a little more time to devote to writing. 

I'm behind on writing about some cards I received from different sources, so I'm going to work on that today.. 

First I received an e-mail from John H mentioning he had some Jays for me. I was able to find some cards he needed and we swung a deal. 

I'm slowly getting 1992 Donruss completed.. It's funny that it's the first set I really started but I'm still trying to complete it so many years later.. 

Luke Hetherington played in the Toronto system until 2007, making it to Dunedin. He played in Evansville and Lake Erie of the Frontier League and Sioux City of the American Association. He ended his career with the McAllen Thunder of the North American League .

Aaron Mathews made it as far as Las Vegas for the Jays. He also played in New Orleans for the Marlins before finishing his career with the Somerset Patriots in the Atlantic League.

Jacob Butler made it as high as New Hampshire for the Jays before going to play for St. Paul in the American Association and New Jersey in the Canadian-American Association.

Marc Rzepczynski is currently on the Washington Nationals. He's appeared in the Majors with Toronto, Cleveland, St. Louis, Oakland, San Diego, and Washington. 

The Terrmel Sledge card is interesting as well. The fake ticket inside the card is even printed in both French and English for that authentic Canadian feel. 

Thank you for the cards, John. Aside from the Van Poppel, these are all from the time that I was not collecting. 

Also Chris from The Collector contacted me about the Blake Swihart card I had pulled from a repack box. He sent a nice little package to me for it. 

A Carlos Delgado Minor League card as a member of the St. Catharine's Blue Jays. A couple shiny cards as well here with Roy Halladay breaking through the block wall and Carlos Delgado doubtless getting ready to hit a home run. 

The Carter card is a Fleer Greats of the Game card and sums up Joe's career quite nicely. 

This one's a little all over the place, with Expos, Jays, and Canadians. Those Topps Stars cards are... Interesting... No stats or anything, but ratings compared to the rest of the league in different categories. 

The Randy Johnson is the "Cards Your Mother Threw Out" insert version. 

The Sizemore there is an unslabbed version, so it's going into my Expos binder. 

Bottom Row of Vlad to go along with a Larry Walker. 

The Fergie Jenkins ended up being a duplicate, but I'm sure I can find someone who can use it. 

We have a couple cut cards here, with Pedro unleashing a fireball from his feet and a Vlad shiny. 

The way the Morrow looks from the scan it's almost like he blew up the background. Looks like confetti falling around him. 

Also love the Fleer sticker.

This however, was amazing. Love it. 

I really don't know what to say about it. 

So that's really part one of the trade catch ups.. I hope to do part two sometime this week. Maybe even tomorrow.