Card Shop Fun, Pt. 3

To start, I'd like to begin with a note of advice. Never walk anywhere near any type of mall two days before Christmas. I came quite close to getting hit a couple times by crazy mall drivers! But I got to have a nice Jimmy John's lunch with my dad, who suggested a couple interesting topics for future posts (look for them soon!). 

On that note, we're onto the second half of my card shop breaks.

This post has more on what exactly you're looking at with these cards.

Without further ado, here's card shop packs 9 through 12.

Pack #9

Pack #9 contained mostly post-junk wax cards, but nothing near a Jose Reyes rookie or anything. Still, there were some good ones. I especially like those "Rookie Flashback" inserts that Fleer issued in '02; it's neat to see a guy's rookie card pictured with a current card of his. 

I pulled a couple PC hits with the Mike Stanton and Todd Hollandsworth cards seen above as well. Those '90s Pinnacle cards have a certain aura to them that I enjoy.

That's the most blue I've ever seen on one card. 

One of my older Beckett magazines from around 2004 has a list of what was #1 on the "hot list" a decade ago. Apparently, #1 on the "hot list" in 1994 was a Ben Grieve rookie card. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Pack #10

Pack #10 was mostly '93 Upper Deck again, but I'm not complaining. It's a great set!

"John Cummings" is the real name of Johnny Ramone, guitarist for the Ramones. (I've mentioned them before.) Mr. Ramone was quite the baseball fan (specifically, a Yankees fan) and also a card collector from what I've read about him. I had no idea that there was actually a baseball player named John Cummings.

How can you not like a card of a guy trapped in mid-air? It took a minute for me to realize that this was Francisco Cabrera, the guy who hit the walk-off single in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS. I didn't even know he was a catcher.

Picturing players on checklist cards are always fun. Unfortunately, this one's got Roger Clemens on it. Ick!

A neat addition to my "short term stops" collection with former Mariner and current MLB Network analyst Harold Reynolds as an Oriole.

Pack #11

Another Steve Howe card for the ol' PC. Pinnacle had some decent offerings in the junk wax era that often go overlooked, such as this one from 1992.

Ooooh, another of these neato "Idols" cards. I love this sentence from the back of the card:

"Much like "Catfish" Hunter, Scott [Sanderson]'s success sterns from pinpoint control and excellent command of his pitches."

Aaaaaand that's the last time anyone compared Scott Sanderson to Catfish Hunter.

More examples of Upper Deck's fantastic photography. It's just a shame that a shot that great was wasted on some guy named Melvin Nieves, who played on four teams in a seven-year career and posted a .231 career BA.

Pack #12

1986 was the last great set that Topps put out until around 1996 or '97. These leader cards are probably the best I've seen since the '70s. They're simple, but they're neat.

There's bad airbrush jobs, and then there's BAD airbrush jobs. This is a BAD airbrush job. I haven't a clue who Tyrone Hill is, but look at that Yankees logo on the card on the right! The old-time "N" has somehow gotten changed to an oddly-shaped "H". I feel like I'm trying to read hieroglyphics when I look at that jersey. 


Never mind, it has been brought to my attention that the uniform Hill is wearing on the card on the right is his high school uniform (which looks an awful lot like a knock-off Yankees uniform). Thanks to hiflew for the info!

No! Please no more 1990 Donr...oh, a Bernie Williams rookie? I guess that one's all right.

That just about does it. Wraps it all up, locks it away. You know, if you think about it, we're not really done. I mean, look at...Oh, look at me. I'm ramblin' again. (I needed some sort of Big Lebowski reference!)