Completed Set - 2020 Topps Update

 

This set does not seem to be a favorite of collectors...which is probably why I was able to find some. I found a couple of hangers at Wal-Mart and paid $59 for a box at my LCS. Add in a couple of jumbo packs and I was able to finish the set...and have a decent size stack of dupes.

So if anybody out there is doing this set and wants to trade...let me know what you need and I'll see if I have it.

Thanks for reading!

What I'm listening to while I post this:

John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers - A Hard Road

1993 Ted Williams Baseball (Part 2)

 Here's the other 5 packs of 1993 Ted Williams Baseball as promised...

Pack 1

The backs of some of the cards (in this group Rogers Hornsby "Rajah" and Jimmie Foxx "Double X"), feature commentary by Ted.

I have to admit the Juan Gonzalez and Jeff Bagwell cards look so out of place in this set.

 

Pack 2

This group has one of Ted himself.

A few posts ago I showed off a 1976 Hostess Hank Aaron that quite a bit of wear on it. I have a Buddy Bell card from that same set that looks just as loved.

Pack 3

The backs of the cards also display the player's full name. You may not know that Maury Wills' middle name is "Morning", or that Bert Campaneris' first name is Dagoberto.

My favorite card of this group is obviously the Tiant.

Pack 4

Two Don Baylor's in one pack. Awesome. And with the Yankees...even better.

According to the backs of the cards, Lou Gehrig is proclaimed the best first baseman ever and Oscar Charleston was considered by New York Giants' manager John McGraw as the "best player in baseball, period."

Pack 5

Earl Weaver's confrontations with umpires are legendary. He was ejected from almost 100 regular season games in his managerial career...three times he was ejected from both games of a doubleheader and twice before the game even started!

I love this Yaz card. These were the pajamas uniforms that the Red Sox wore when I started watching them back in the 70's.

Now presenting the pogs that I have no idea what to do with.

I got quite a few dupes out of the ten packs...at some point I'll put up a wantlist.

Thanks for reading!

What I'm listening to while I post this:

Black Flag - In My Head

Blog Anniversary!

It was actually yesterday but its been 8 years since my first post. 2013 was my most active year as far as posts go, so although I don't think I'll post as much as I did that year (172 posts), I've already beaten last year's total (0 posts). 

I hope everyone is having a good weekend and Happy Anniversary to me!

What I'm listening to while I post this:

Kid Rock - Rock N Roll Jesus

1993 Ted Williams Baseball (Part 1)

I'm one of the few fortunate people to have not just one, but three card shops within driving distance, so it takes some of the sting off of the fact that you can't find cards at Target or Wal-Mart.

I've been going to one of the card shops weekly to buy supplies (i.e. plastic card cases). One of the recurring themes from my blog is the constant attempts to get organized. I have a lot of my cards in storage because they take up too much space and I do want to get rid of the ones I don't need. Part of the process of organizing is to determine which cards I don't need.

So since I've stated that I don't have enough room in my living quarters to store all of my cards, what else did I buy other than supplies?

More cards!

On the counter they have a display of dollar packs. Usually it's 1988 Donruss or 1990 Pro Set Football or something like that. Before I looked at the display I had noticed a empty box in the trash of 1993 Ted Williams Baseball. I thought to myself I would have liked to have bought that box. It's a set that I have some of, but not a lot. But lo and behold, there sitting in the dollar display box were the packs! I bought ten, and I will do two posts of five packs each.

According to Beckett, there were 119, 988 boxes produced in 1993 (which comes out to 9999 cases).

There are twelve cards in a pack plus a card with two POGs on it. According to Baseball Card Pedia, packs were $1.59 each. I don't remember ever seeing this release, however I had started college in the fall so I don't think I was going to shows at that point.

Pack 1

It is a 160 card set that focuses mostly on retired players, although there are a few cards of Juan Gonzalez and Jeff Bagwell (I suppose to attract collectors that may not have been interested in a set of  just older players).

It also features players from the Negro League and the All American Girls' Professional League ("A League of Their Own" had been released the year before).

Pack 2

Minnie Minoso had a card in the 1977 Topps set celebrating the oldest player to get a hit. He got a single off of Sid Monge of the California Angels during the first game of a doubleheader on September 12, 1976. Rich Gossage got the complete game win for the White Sox. (Yes, that's right...he started 29 games in 1976.)

This was not a set I would have been interested in at the time as I wasn't too engrossed in sets that featured (at the time) a lot of players that I hadn't heard of or were particularly intrigued about. 

Pack 3

I do enjoy seeing the inclusion of some of the players from the Negro Leagues. Unfortunately my collecting habits in 1993 did not give me much exposure to players from this league.

Dotty...now there's a name that you don't see much. The only person I've known with that name was my grandmother, but it was spelled "Dottie". She also went by "Dot", short for Dorothea. 

Pack 4

Its only pack number 4 and I'm already starting to get duplicates. 

This pack included a Roberto Clemente (Etched In Stone) subset card inserted 1:9.

Pack 5

(I accidentally deleted the scan of the first half of this pack and since I'm typing the text of this post on a tablet, I'm not going to drag out my laptop to rescan it.)

I've always been a fan of the Oakland A's uniforms.

And here are the pogs from all 5 packs. I never got into these.

Next post I'll show off the other 5 packs. See you then!

What I'm listening to while I post this:

Weezer - The Red Album

2020 Bowman Platinum (Box 2)

As promised, here is the second box I bought a few months ago while I was Christmas shopping. A rare find on the shelves of Wal-Mart. Haven't seen any cards on the shelves since. Even the Pokemon and Magic displays are getting kind of thin.

First up are the base cards.

The cards still are quite shiny although the scan doesn't represent it very well.

A few more base cards and then the prospects start with Deivi Garcia of the Yankees.

Just like before...I have no idea who any of these players are.

The chartreuse parallels are Jesus Luzardo of the A's and Ryan Garcia of the Rangers.

 The auto is Andy Pages of the Dodgers.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of "How To Spend 45 Dollars on 23 Cards Of Mostly People You Don't Know Without The Wife Knowing".

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Hank Aaron (1934-2021)

 

This is one of the first baseball cards I ever got. I'm sure this came from the bottom of a box of Twinkies because I don't remember my mom ever buying us anything else. She also wrote the first letter of my name on the card too. I've had this card for almost 45 years and it's a thing of beauty.

The back is even better.

Rest in peace, Mister Aaron.

2020 Bowman Platinum (Box 1)

Hello everybody...long time no blog. There isn't anything wrong with your computer...this is actually a new post from me.

Like most collectors, I have witnessed empty card aisles at Wal-Mart and Target for pretty much all of 2020. However, recently I happened to find two lonely boxes of 2020 Bowman Platinum sitting on the shelf. I don't normally buy this product but after scanning the area to make sure it wasn't a mirage or a setup, I brought them to the self service register (that doesn't take cash) to purchase. 

They were $44.95 a piece...for 23 cards. Yikes! That's why I don't buy these.

So I brought them home...where they sat unopened for awhile so I could finish opening my box of 2020 Topps Update (another stellar purchase). 

The box proudly states that there are 2 Chartreuse Parallels and 1 autograph card inside! Whoopee!

So let's get the shrink wrap off and take a look inside.

Looks like a package of small expensive Pop-Tarts.

Here's the first card:

Here's the back...not bad. I've always enjoyed reading the backs of cards. Some issues I can't read the back because the print is too small or the color selection leaves something to be desired. 

Here are the rest. There were ten base cards and ten prospect cards.

Here is the back of the prospect cards. Unfortunately the black font on a grey background is unreadable to me unless I have a light shining right on it. I'm sure you would need 20/20 vision in order to read this without a 100 watt bulb over your shoulder. I used to have 20/20 vision...three decades ago.

Here are more of the prospects...which I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I know none of these people.

And the last prospect plus my two charreuse parallels.

And the autograph is...

Ryan Jeffers. 

Like all of the other prospects...no idea.

Does your initials count as your signature? If somebody asked him to "sign here and initial there", would he do the same thing twice? I need to know this.

I would have to say this was pretty underwhelming for 45 bucks. I will take a page from many a YouTube commenter and sarcastically say "I don't see the value."...which loosely translates into "I can't flip this for four or five times what I paid for it." Apparently there seems to be a growing number of people who think that Topps or Panini or whoever are in business to make them money. From someone who bought a lot of 1991 O-Pee-Chee-Premier I can tell you that is definitely not the case (no pun intended).

At the beginning of the post I mentioned I bought two boxes. Next post...the next box!