So Hot Set Gallery: 1994 Flair Hot Gloves

Die-cuts are back! The question is did they ever really go out of style. Well, they most likely did at some point. Everything in this world is cyclical, and that mostly includes bicycles, tricycles, and octocycles.

One of my favorite sets of the '90s was 1994 Flair.  It had a certain je nai sai quas, nom de plume, no je parle francais style to it.  The ultimate wrappings, the breathtaking thickness of the cards, and then to top it off as a one per box insert, ze HOT GLOVES.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of hot gloves? ....oven mitts? laser hands? matchstick fingers?

Well, in 1994, it was none of the above.  It were players with gloves so hot they were beyond golden; the ball was smokin' when it became entrapped within their leather.

Below is all 10 cards of the insert set shown in no particular order (though I'm sure an order can be created). Behold!

Barry Bonds: Glove so hot he made the ball a mini-sun.

Ken Griffey:  Glove so hot it burned down an outfield wall

Will Clark: Glove so hot the desert was an oasis.

Matt Williams: Glove so hot there was a fireball thrown to the dugout.

Don Mattingly: Glove so hot melted the spine off the nearest runner.

Kenny Lofton:  Glove so hot left a scorching streak in the centerfield grass.

Cal Ripken Jr: Glove so hot the harbor turned to steam.

Kirby Puckett:  Glove so hot they had to enclose it in a dome for protection.

Greg Maddux: Glove so hot it blinded the umpire with its glow.

Tim Salmon: Glove so hot that it became a special attraction at Disneyland.

Thanks for reading as the summer burns us all......

Behold the Set Quest Completed: 2011 Gypsy Queen, 1-350!

One of the more elusive sets to try and collect of the past half-decade, 2011 Gypsy Queen.  It entered the scene with an altered checklist, name derision, and a style derived from the vintage appeal of the Ginters and Turkey Reds of the world.   It was the replacement for 2010 National Chicle, an artistic endeavor that did not connect with collectors.  Anyone remember the uproar of the Babe Ruth/Chipper Jones card?  Anyone still here from 2010? Bueller?

In any case, I first encountered Gypsy Queen at a card show in 2010, it was $10 per pack.....I did not buy any.  I first bought some at a Best Buy.  They were selling rack packs at the retail price; there's some green in there, I like green things....like green borders and 4 leaf clovers and ecto cooler....and that might not be the point.  I bought some rack packs and was pleasantly surprised by the cards within.  Thus, began the tracking obsession in the area for 2011 Gypsy Queen.

I went to more Targets than I could count over the next few months to get card fixes, but they were always out of it.  Once the hype had died down a little, and hobby boxes were still $189 per box at the leading online retailers, packs had appeared again at my local Target.  This is when I discovered they're always 2-3 months behind the release date for non-base Topps products.  I bought 10 packs, thinking that would satisfy me.

But I have always been a set collector at heart; this foray into team collecting and strange and novel and disconcerting....I wanted all of the Queen, every single last beige card in all their ordered, numbered glory.
I searched ebay daily for boxes....and finally found a retail box, 24 packs of treasure for a less than retail price.  Who wants a retail box anyway?  It came, I devoured and reveled in the wrappers as their contents spilled onto my table, self-sorting into decade piles.  The details will probably be revealed later.....if I ever find the scans.  Suffice to say, best box ever? It just may have been.....

The quest was now in sight.  Target graced me with another box, this time I bought the remaining 18 packs from the box and started jumping up and down with glee as I opened a pack, scanned the cards.....got it, got it, need it, got it, mini, need it.....and threw them with conviction into the gestating 800 count white cardboard box.

Then, the want list was created....each number was a blight upon my consciousness.  I would not be satisfied until the strikethrough function was used with gumption upon each number in the spreadsheet.  The internet would now be scoured. Sportslots and COMC became my wingmen, laying aside the distractions of other card collecting pursuits to hone in the 301-350 card range for a reasonable price.  Those other cards would have to wait, they were commons easily found (except for the David Wright for some reason).

One card show visit was all it took to laid waste to nearly all the checklist, 1-300 was complete, all the insert sets (of the non Gypsy Queen variety) were complete, all the Phillies minis were complete....all that stubbornly remained behind were 6 cards, 6 cards until immortality could be achieved.  Like Thor trying to find a way back to his realm, I was sensing the presence of Valhalla.....the end of a journey in which we could part ways being satisfied that everyone had benefited and all the warriors would be properly rewarded.

Shown below are the final 6 and what I did to obtain them.  There were no unnatural acts, but there was much rending of limbs as my metaphorical collecting hands reached further than they ever dreamed.

Hank Aaron #318: was obtained from a 50 cent box at a card show.  I pounced on that more quickly than a lion cub on a dragonfly.

Hisanori Takahashi #311: was obtained from COMC.

Babe Ruth #338 was obtained from COMC.

Freddie Freeman #335 was obtained from ebay.  This one was the most difficult to find.  I swear that I almost a hired a PI to track this one down.

Tommy Hanson #306 was obtained from ebay as well.  There's something about Braves cards, apparently.

Lastly, Miguel Cabrera #327 was obtained from COMC and I only had to sacrifice 1/6 of my lifespan to be able to hold it (that's how it is with shortprinted cards of triple crown winners).

And so ended the journey, the set quest is complete, the cards sit as a trophy to the concepts of noblility, honor, and righteousness.  All hail.....

Set Gallery: 1996 Denny's Grand Slam Insert Set

I think about breakfast a lot.  What I'm going to eat for breakfast, when I'm ultimately going to have breakfast in the morning, how much I'm going to eat so that I can maximize the time between breakfast and lunch and get the most out of the morning.

Ironically, I don't really like most breakfast foods.  I don't eat eggs and their omelette cousins or bacon or sausage or cheese or yogurt or anything too buttery.  That doesn't really leave me with a lot of options; I have established a routine of two bowls of cereal and milk at home.  While on the road, it could be french toast, home fries, or the always ubiquitous chocolate sandwiches.  Once can't be too picky in some places, you know?

I am thinking about breakfast right now....as in how many hours do I have to last until I can have one. I'm still up at this hour (1 am in the morning) for a few reasons. First, sleeping doesn't come naturally lately.  Second, I decided to write a blog post for the first time in awhile. Third, the A's and Angels are currently in the 18th inning and I'm not going to sleep until the 20th at least.  How many games have you seen enter the 20th inning live? If I knew about this earlier, I would have gone to the stadium for a 6 hour game....it would have been much better than the rest of my night involving painful turf burns.

Denny's is still around and it still does breakfast, but there's no more cards with the breakfast.  This discourages me from going to Denny's.  I do have a strange tradition, though.  Whenever I drive to southern CA, I stop for a meal at the Denny's in Bakersfield.   It's close to halfway between the Bay Area and greater Los Angeles area, so it works.

Shown is not the run of the mill, pay 79 cents with a grand slam meal Denny's cards that were inserted into any typical pack in 1996.  These are the GRAND SLAM (you have to write it that way, it's an unwritten rule with many exceptions) inserts....rarer beyond your imagination....inserted 1:56 packs....ok, not that rare.  There's also the Artist Proof versions...inserted 1:360 packs....the only difference having an artist proof symbol in the lower left corner.  Sometime you just have to embrace the foil stamped, holographic parallel that screams for attention with its own special logo.

Behold the gallery! They all have GRAND SLAM in big holographic letters on the left, a player image on the right....and fireworks. Lovely, lovely fireworks....but only the boring, non-colorful kind. Couldn't they have found an image of fireworks with copper chloride or something?  It matters not....here's to the GRAND SLAM insert set....'96 style (sans the reigning NL MVP)

UPDATE: 19th inning!

Checklist:

1 Cal Ripken, Jr.

2 Frank Thomas

3 Mike Piazza

4 Tony Gwynn

5 Sammy Sosa

6 Barry Bonds

7 Jeff Bagwell

8 Albert Belle

9 Mo Vaughn

10 Kirby Puckett

A Master Set Completed (Almost): 1995 Fleer Team Leaders Card Gallery

Since I'm in the mood for sharing cards lately instead of general pontification about random cards and lamenting the fate of the erstwhile team of my fandom, here's a neat little gallery of an insert set I've recently completed after years of searching.  This set is the 1995 Fleer Team Leaders set.

They, of course, look nothing like the infamous 6 design wackiness of the 1995 Fleer base set.  They are shiny; they are black; they are foily; they are sublime.   Each card represents one team (back in the days of 28 teams) with a hitting leader on one side and a pitching leader on the other side.  I randomly chose which ones to show for each card.

As for the master set  part of this, I somehow now have the whole base set plus all the insert sets except for one trailer. That would be the 1995 Rookie Sensations set.  These were only inserted in jumbo packs or magazine packs or whatever they were called in 1995.  Anyone have any of these?  Anyone care to get rid of them?    In all seriousness, this brings me so much closer to my first master set (at least I think there are, unless there's some stealth parallel I haven't heard about).  The plans are to use it to wallpaper the pathway to the whirling vortex of animated perspectives.  Then, 1995 Fleer can finally fulfill its ultimate destiny.

The Phillies Cards of the 1970s: They have been Binderized

Sometimes one reaches a milestone in the collection that is definable and jubbily all at the same time. I have completed my 1970s Phillies binder. I now have all Topps cards (and the SSPC team set) from the 1970s, completing all major issues from 1970-1979.

The last cards to track down were, of course, from the high number series of 1972 Topps. I don't know how people are trying to collect that set, just getting the 6 or so that I needed for the Phillies team set at a reasonable rate was challenge enough.

What were the cards of significance that filled in those last pages of the binder and closed that wantlist forever (or until Kellogg's and O-Pee-Chee cards are added)?

1972 Topps Rookie Stars Tom Hutton (and two non-Phillies): This marks Tom Hutton's 3rd appearance on a rookie stars card, having previously appeared in 1967 Topps and 1969 Topps as a Dodger.  By 1972, he still qualified as a rookie since he had not yet reached the rookie eligibility benchmark (having only made 58 plate appearances in two previous seasons).

The 1972 season would be his first full season in the majors, in which he played 1st base and outfield with .260 AVG, 4 HR, and 38 RBIs and a good batting eye with 56 BB vs. 24 K. He would stay as  a Phillie until 1977.

Have you noticed that this title of this card is sort of non-descript? Rookie Stars AL-NL is as generic as it can get.  This is strange because all the other 1972 Topps Rookie Star cards are set up by team with either two or three players per card.  Check out Carlton Fisk's rookie card for the most famous example.  It might as well say "rookie stars who fit into a category (position), but we didn't put positions on any pf the other rookie stars so we couldn't put that in the title."

1972 Topps Willie Montanez: Willie Montanez is here featured in a rookie cup card back when it was the striking giant trophy on the front.  He finished 2nd in the ROY voting in 1971, leading the league in sacrifice flies with 13.  Ok, that's probably not the reason why he finished 2nd in the voting, though he was one of only two rookies to receive votes in the NL (besides the winner Earl Williams). 

Montanez hit .255/.327/.471 with an impressive 30 HR and 99 RBI, finishing 2nd on the team in OPS and overall power production (behind Deron Johnson).  He never was able to replicate that production as a Phillie and was traded to the Giants for Garry Maddox.

And with the completion of the 1972 Topps set, so ends the quest to fill in the 1970s binder.  It's only time before more space is made for other reasons to accommodate variations and other sets besides Topps.  The work of a collector is never done, and conversely, neither is the enjoyment.

Finally! A Bowman Set is Complete by Hand Collation

Sign up for my one of a kind (that I know of) group break.  Get some great cards and here me speak live on video!  Four slots remain.

I don't know how many times I've mentioned this on this blog (probably too many to count), but I am a Bowman collector of a medium order.  In other words, I have been collecting the sets from the beginning of the modern era of Bowman (1992) until the creation of the confusing numbering systems (2005).  I have bought a couple of the sets because they were the most cost effective ways considering what else comes in a box (such as 1994, 1996) or because pack prices are so expensive that it would not be worth it to buy a box for the purpose of getting a set (2001).  

I am in the process of collating 1997, 1998 (well, not after this post), 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005.   I know they all look the same, but they each have their own personality.

1997: The progenitor of the red and blue, proud and bold and chromily inspirational: the patriarch

1998: Then & now features, sideways signatures, and very sticky: the restless toddler.

1999: Very dark and shadowy with stealth rookies and shaded borders: the schoolyard bully.

2000: Silver shine, retro/future parallel, little star power: the middle child

2001: haughty, expensive, given to chroming with curves: the stepping-out teen

2002: largest one series offering since 1996, but the borders are stripey, less mature than 2001: the wannabe primary school student

2003: museum framed portraits with a look to the future, full of friction: the almost adjusted freshman in college

2004: silky smooth, but leaves out the corners, feels like a shortened checklist, the smoothness does not cancel this: the proverbial promise maker

2005: loves to show off and hogs the spotlight, only really wants to be the best Bowman set it can be: the overachieving family member

In any case, here are the last three cards I acquired to complete the 1998 set.

Wade Miller:  Rookie of the Reading, PA product who was a good mid-rotation starter for the Astros for a few years.

Fred Mcgriff:  in the original Devil Rays uniform; they were very strange and the Crime Dog didn't take to it very well the first year with the 2nd lowest OPS+ of his career.

Brian Rose: was once traded for Mike Lansing.

Those are the cards that allow me to call myself a Bowman collector in full.  Before, I was merely a struggling one.  One set down, 7 more to go....plus the draft picks and prospects sets from 2002-2005 (but we're not counting those yet).

Set Completion: 2009 Topps Allen and Ginter

Sometimes patience does pay off. Finally after years of searching, the cave of wonders! Or in this case, the final cards needed to complete the 2009 Topps Allen and Ginter base set (with shortprints) and the one per pack National Pride set. (I also have the cabinet card set in hand, I have a problem with wanting 8x10 cards). I'm finally ready to bring on this year's version and not a moment too soon. Can you feel the washed out color palettes, mini cards, and whimsical card subjects? Can you feel it?

Set Completion: 1987 Topps

A journey has been completed. My first large hand collated set in years has been completed. The internet really is a lifeblood for random common cards.

This is the last card I needed: 104, Billy Sample. I don't think I've ever seen this card before or recall watching him play. That is only fitting because he has been the gaping black hole preventing the end of the pursuit. Talk about a 9 year career in relative obscurity (any Rangers fans disagree?)

One journey ends, but others must continue, please see my wantlists here. I would love to trade. Just be patient with me. My inventory is really not that large.

Anyone else looking to complete this set of 1987 Topps; I have many extra. Bring me your wantlists and I'll see what I can do.