The day I inherited a blogger's collection

It all started with an email.

A couple months ago, Tony, author of "Wrigley Roster Jenga" and a longtime friend of the blog, reached out to me on an otherwise ordinary afternoon asking if I'd be interested in taking some cards off his hands. He wanted to free up some space in his house and asked if I'd be up for meeting somewhere in the suburbs since the two of us actually don't live far from one another. I said something along the lines of Sure, I'd be up for that -- which was a massive understatement considering the excitement already pouring through my head.

The next day, Tony and I met up at a roadside oasis (don't worry, we wore masks!), and he bequeathed everything to me. From what I can understand, this was Tony's entire collection aside from the treasured pieces of his Cubs project(s). And while I knew from the picture in the email that it was a lot of cards, I don't think I realized just how many cards there were until I saw them in person. There were six(!!!) 3200-count boxes and a couple other smaller boxes of random stuff all together. They filled up the entire backseat of my car, and let's put it this way -- I needed a gosh-darn hand truck to get 'em all up the two floors to the apartment. There was that much.

And so I wheeled the hand truck into my room, plopped down on my bed, and dug in.

I'd like to note that, although I did put together a small box of Cubs stuff for him, Tony didn't ask for a single thing in return for this amazing act of generosity.

I should also note that this all took place right in the middle of my quarantine at a time when I was itching for some sort of card project...and this sudden development sure took care of that. I'm somewhat of a sorting fiend: it astounds me that people can get bored organizing their cards. I can do it for hours -- I credit my lifetime of dime box hunting for building up my stamina. Even for me, however, sorting through Tony's cards turned into a two-day project, because I just couldn't get through it all in one night (though I sure as heck tried).

The final numbers are as follows: it took me about a week just to sort the stuff I needed from the stuff I didn't need, and I ended up keeping about two 3200-count boxes' worth of what Tony gave me -- and believe it or not I'm still a long ways away from having everything filed away in my binders even though this fateful day happened over two months ago now.

This is by far the most cards I've ever acquired at once, and it's the first time I've ever inherited someone's collection -- one of the first thoughts that hit me was what if there's a Trout rookie in there?

The answer, of course, is that I'd give it back to Tony, but I was admittedly a bit worried about finding some big ticket item mixed in with everything. Could be kinda awkward. Although perhaps that's just a reflection of my own paranoia, because I'm always worried leaving something I need and/or might one day be able to use in a dusty box under my bed. There weren't any Trout rookies, but I did find a few pre-stardom goodies I'm betting Tony stashed away a while ago.

Good news: I was able to find a fellow local collector to take what I didn't need from Tony's donation, thanks to a Next Door-ish-type app, and he was quite excited about getting them -- bad news: I still have way too many boxes of baseball cards under my bed.

Many of the boxes appeared to be organized by team, and what made this all so fun was that I literally had no idea what I'd find inside each passing stack of cards.

Sometimes a Topps Tribute card would pop out right after a brick of '92 Fleer -- such random surprises were paradise for a dime box fanatic like yours truly.

There were even some oddballs sprinkled in for good measure -- we're talking monumental stuff like sausage-ish mascot renditions of Dick Allen, and cards like the Schwarber that were given away with New Era hats, which is good since I haven't bought a baseball cap in twenty years.

(And yes, that Fathead ad qualifies as a David Wright card in my book.)

According to the backs, these Cuban League greats were giveaways at a card show in Puerto Rico(!!!), which leaves me wondering how they ended up here in suburban Illinois.

I'm not sure where/when Tony got all these reprints, but MAN were there a lot of these things in his boxes.

This was perfect since I'm admittedly one of the last reprint fanboys out there, but these were doubly good since they're not your dead-horse T206 Wagners and '54 Aarons -- these go back to brands like Old Judge and names like Arlie Latham, back to forgotten times when you could get baseball cards with your loaves of bread (like the Waitkus reprint from your friends at Tip Top Bread!).

Unsurprisingly, a sizable chunk of the cards Tony gave to me were Cubs, since he and I share a fondness for the North Siders (though Tony's Cub collection absolutely dwarfs mine).

Looks like Tony was a yearly customer for the retail team sets I see at big box stores almost every year -- though I'll obviously take any new Cubs and/or Rizzos, I'm especially fond of team-set cards like the other three in this scan that feature completely different (and sometimes better) photos than their Flagship counterparts.

I still can't decide whether or not I consider playing cards as actual baseball cards -- I always have to resist the urge to start playing War or Blackjack or something.

But I guess if that David Wright Fathead thing is a card, then these kinda have to be too, right?

A few of Tony's extremely well-done Cub customs slipped into those boxes as well, and I hope he doesn't mind me showing them off here!

I decided against buying this Cubs Old Style set at the flea market a few years ago, and I've been kicking myself for that ever since.

Guess my subconscious knows best though, because apparently it was just making me wait until Tony came along way later and just gave the whole thing to me -- lots of big greats (Ernie Banks) and somewhat forgotten names (Charlie Root!) here, but my favorite of the lot is easily that "Tip of the Cap" Billy Williams centerpiece.

This was one of the first things I plucked out of Tony's boxes when I sat down on my bed, and at first I thought it was just a cool magazine...

...complete with a full page devoted to a whopping 44 different stars of the '70s.

(O if I only had a time machine!)

But toward the end of the magazine I discovered the real hidden treasure -- entire uncut pages of '78 SSPCs!

I guess the "27 Full Color Photo Fact Cards" inset on the front should've given it away, but I honestly didn't even know '78 SSPCs were issued in team-specific magazines like this. The '78 SSPCs seem to be way more scarce than the '76s, and you can probably count how many of the former I previously owned on one hand. To suddenly fall into so many more '78s (and all Cubs at that!) was nothing short of a jackpot.

And while I continue to be an absolute nightmare with a pair of scissors -- I would've been the kid who cut the Hostess cards all wrong in the '70s -- I can't begin to describe how FUN it was to free these gems from that 40-year-old magazine.

And I guess since my mind seems to function in lists...

And since this post as already gone on longer than I intended...

I've decided to undertake the near-impossible task of culling Tony's collection into my ten favorite cards...

And believe it or not, everything you've seen so far was an also-ran on that list -- pretty darn awesome also-rans that deserved a spotlight on the blog, of course, but still also-rans...

And so after that most triumphant offering of cards, it's time to reveal my ten favorites from Tony's collection!

#10 -- 1985 7-Up Cubs Team Set #23 Ryne Sandberg

Ryno double dip on a stadium giveaway card?

Yes, please!

#9a -- 1985 TCMA Iowa Cubs #25 Dick Cummings
#9b -- 1985 TCMA Iowa Cubs #33 Bruce Bielenberg

I'm already cheating here, but I couldn't help acknowledging the fact that the Iowa Cubs made history by hiring Gilbert from Revenge of the Nerds and the man with the most unfortunate name in all of humankind in 1985.

#8 -- 1990-91 NBA Hoops #205 Mark Jackson ("Famous" People in Background)

Some of the cards Tony gave me were hockey, football, basketball, etc. -- but as luck would have it, one of the extreme few non-baseball cards I want was in there.

I quote this Mark Jackson as having "famous" people in the background because that's actually how it's listed on COMC right now. For those of you who weren't around for the brief craze, that's none other than the infamous Menendez brothers making a cameo in the crowd, seen here at the far left in the courtside seats they bought after their heinous crime.

I still can't decide what's more fascinating: that the Menendez brothers are on a basketball card, or that someone actually noticed the Menendez brothers are on a basketball card.

#7 -- 2010 Topps Update #US-50 Mike Stanton RC

I'm almost positive I owned (and subsequently traded) this card at one point, which made not having it in my Mike/Giancarlo Stanton collection all the more painful.

Nothing like erasing a ten-year-old mistake.

#6 -- 2015 Topps #20b Madison Bumgarner (Photo Variation)

The only thing better than a photo variation is a photo variation of a pitcher hitting.

#5 -- 1988 Donruss Baseball's Best #4 Mark Grace

I'm as surprised as you that any kind of '88 Donruss offspring would wind up on my list, but I'm pretty sure this was the last rookie-year Mark Grace card I needed, which is a banner day for any top-tier player collection.

#4 -- 2011 Topps Attax #94 Hideki Matsui

I've never played Topps Attax, nor do I ever plan on doing so in this lifetime.

But unbeknownst to me, Topps Attax did do one thing I long assigned to the lost episodes of baseball lore -- they made a card of Hideki Matsui with the A's! Even though he appeared in a healthy 141 games with the 2011 A's, Matsui was basically shunned by every card company that year. This is the only card I've ever seen of him in the uniform, and it's relegated to a strange game-based brand that almost no one remembers. And hell, I didn't even find out about this one until nine years later.

Matsui also played for the Rays in 2012, but no card exists of that stint either...although maybe I shouldn't close the book there quite yet.

#3 -- 1991 Line Drive Pre-Rookie #122 Jim Walewander

Jim Walewander loves the Dead Milkmen, is from my hometown, and went to high school with my mom.

I've never had more reasons to collect a guy. I think I've managed to scrounge up all of Walewander's major-brand cards from his cult-classic Tigers days, but his oddball & minor league cards have remained mostly elusive. I spent so much time torturing myself with all his scarce team-issued minor league cards that I didn't even notice he was in the '91 Line Drive set, which as far as I know was nationally distributed.

Guess I won't have to jump up on a table and shout anarchy now.

#2 -- 1971 Topps #570 Jim Palmer (autographed)

It was the best of times: holy hell, A SIGNED JIM PALMER CARD!

It was the worst of times: wait a minute, I still don't have a REGULAR '71 Topps Jim Palmer!

It was the best of times again: Who cares?! JIM PALMER SIGNED IT!

#1 -- 1985 Donruss Box Bottoms #PC-1 Dwight Gooden

Somehow, out of all those boxes, and everything in them, it was a Mets card that wound up being my favorite of the entire lot...which I received from a Cubs fan, remember.

I suppose that's why I've never quite understood rivalries. A great baseball player is a great baseball player, a great baseball card is a great baseball card. Dwight Gooden here is both of those, and this box bottom has been near the top of my want list for years. I love box bottoms anyways, and this has to be the Box Bottom to Rule Them All. It wasn't even on my mind when I reached in for another stack of Tony's collection that night, and it wasn't on my mind when I flipped past the card before it, but then, all of a sudden -- there it was! -- it instantly became a NEED IT GOT IT! card on my list.

I really don't know what else I can say in thanking Tony for all this. Not only for giving me his cards, but for even thinking of me as a remote possibility of someone who might give them a good home. I seem to say it every day on the blogs, but fact is I don't feel worthy of this. I probably never will.

In the end, I hope I've communicated even a fraction of the fun I had going through Tony's cards, because believe me, what comes through on the virtual page here doesn't even come close to doing this act justice.

Adding to the back of my baseball card

As of next week, I'll have a new job.

Thanks to some help from a former coworker, I'll be starting a new position at a charity-based book warehouse, where I'll basically be pricing and listing books online all day. I've worked at a used bookstore for about a year now, and while I enjoyed it more than any of my past bookstore jobs, working retail in the age of COVID just got to be too much for me. Dealing with the public has its own hazards regardless, but it was aggravating and often incredible to see how little people seemed to care in the middle of a pandemic. So goes my faith in humanity.

I'm excited to start at the warehouse, mainly because I won't have to wait on a single customer. But like a well-traveled baseball player, I've unwittingly built up the back of my baseball card as an adult with my job changes. This is the fourth book-related position I've had, and my third in the last three years. I've never really planned on having a set-in-stone career, but I also wasn't exactly looking to become Dave Kingman, who (in)famously played for four different teams in 1977, as mentioned in this excellent Topps Comic I recently received from Greg of the legendary "Night Owl Cards" blog.

Even after his wild quadruple-stop season, Kingman did eventually find a relatively stable home in Chicago, and even became somewhat of an icon as a Cub -- I can only hope to be so lucky.

If nothing else, I think this new job will allow me at least a bit more time and energy for things like baseball cards -- I've got a set schedule with weekends off.

I'm about to set a record for fewest posts in a month on this blog -- this is just the fourth one I've written in August -- and you can attribute a lot of that to simply being devoid of brainpower after coming home from the bookstore. I always get nervous leaving a job, but this was a fairly easy decision, especially because I had another gig waiting for me.

So hopefully I'll have some more time for my cards now, and more energy to show great cards like the ones I got from Greg around here.

The Kingman and 2019 want-list miscellany were actually throw-ins to the main coup: a stack of minis I claimed from Greg during a giveaway he held on his blog a while back.

As soon as I saw that Jim Abbott advertised as part of the lot, I knew it was the prize I wanted -- the others were just cherries on top.

As fate would have it, I also received a surprise package from Greg last week, one that featured yet another heap of want list help.

I still have yet to see any 2020 Archives on the retail shelves around here -- it's probably already been bought up by the pack hounds -- but it's nice to know my 2019 Archives needs are getting closer and closer to completion.

My want lists are more for my own reference than anything, but it warms my heart to know that other people still go through it, finding stuff I need.

Here's some 2020 needs Greg found from my lists, including a couple more cards that reaffirm my love for this year's Turkey Red inserts.

I specifically requested this card from Greg on his blog not long ago, and voila, it wound up on my doorstep not long after.

I've mentioned it before, but I started collecting Ryan Borucki because his uncle is a client at my mom's work -- my mom, at some point, mentioned to him that I'm a huge baseball fan, and she came home with a ball personally signed for me by Borucki one day, given to her by his uncle.

When Greg mentioned that he'd pulled Borucki's advanced stats variation from a pack of 2020 Topps, I obviously needed to inquire.

It's the first of these parallels I've gotten this year, and I'm ecstatic to have it -- I'll wow everyone with my knowledge of Ryan Borucki's spin rate. It's a nice change of pace in what has become something of a valley for baseball card backs in recent years. For now it's just another way to connect with my collection -- which is something I hope to be able to do much more often in the near future.

Until then, wish me luck at the new job, and hope I can start to build some kind of consistency on the back of my baseball card.

Finally, a reason to use Twitter

I've yet to come up with a good reason as to why I have a Twitter account.

I really only use it for baseball and baseball card related stuff, and even then it makes me wanna tear my hair out most of the time. A guy can only stomach so many bad baseball takes and pictures of people cleaning out retail card shelves. Most of the time it's a platform for seediness. This isn't news to anyone who has Twitter, of course, but for me it's in this weird gray area of a thing I have no reason using, but one I use anyway.

Up until recently, I've always been skeptical of trading cards on Twitter. Not so much because I'm worried I'll get ripped off or anything, but mostly because it feels so impersonal. I barely use my Twitter account, and for someone to wanna set up a trade with me based on my cobweb-filled profile just seems a bit odd. That, however, changed recently when Twitterer(?) @Raiderjoe reached out to me because he wanted to trade. I was, as usual, a bit passive about the whole thing until I received a message from him saying something like: I've gone through my stuff and I've got about 800 cards picked out for you so far.

Wait a minute: 800 CARDS?!

It was at that exact moment that I decided to start taking Twitter trading way more seriously.

A large flat-rate box showed up on my doorstep a few days later, packed with just about everything you could imagine. One of the first hard-hitters I found was the '77 White Sox team card at the top of the post -- a former Dime Box Dozen need and an iconic piece of baseball history since it's the only team card ever to show dudes wearing shorts. How did I not already have this card?!

Other quirky finds soon followed -- 'fros, odd airbrush jobs, and science teacher Mark Lee doing an impersonation of a big-league ballplayer.

Other generally fun vintage randoms I'd never seen before -- that Blue Moon Odom has to be one of the few cards with a water tower on it.

Twitter isn't exactly a haven for mini-collecting, since most of what I seem to see are guys who oddly all "collect" Trout, Acuna, etc., etc.

Given that, I was all the more grateful to find a bunch of new themed hits in here  -- including a few obscure minor league singles I could've easily gone a lifetime without discovering.

In this battle of throwbacks, it's a four-way tie for first.

Always love getting new cards for the big player collections.

It became apparent early on that this wasn't just a random grouping of 800 cards -- this was stuff that was carefully chosen for me to enjoy, and I spent a whole glorious evening sifting and sorting through everything.

I'd bet good money that Bo Jackson was featured on more of these weird Broder oddballs of the '80s and '90s than any other single player, and these two help prove my case.

I really don't know a whole lot about the Senior League aside from the cards it spawned -- though it warms my heart to know Lowell Palmer was still wearing his famous shades in the late '80s.

There wasn't much latest-and-greatest stuff in here, but the few I did find packed a punch.

(Ralph Kiner really needs more baseball cards.)

A nod to the horizontals.

And now for something completely different: a card shaped like a crown, and a business card for a card shop in Cooperstown.

I've never been to the Hall of Fame, and I want to go for obvious reasons -- but admittedly part of my desire to make the trip one day is to check out the gobs and gobs of card shops I imagine lining the city's streets.

Admittedly, trading with me is like throwing paint against a wall -- it'll go all over the place, but some of it'll stick.

If you send me enough cards, you're bound to hit something I like -- I somehow didn't already have that Lenny Randle, and Ryan Langerhans is on the long list of Obscure Guys I Collect.

Weird stuff from the '90s -- not sure why that Silhouettes card freaks me out, but it does.

Question: where can you find an older Bucky Dent, a younger Kevin Millar, a pitcher in catcher's gear, and a giant bison head on a normal human body?

Answer: the minor leagues, of course!

Maybe I'm giving Twitter a bad rap.

Maybe it's not the inferno I usually make it out to be. When you dig beneath the rough surface, you might just find some quality entertainment, and good dialogue between collectors. And some of them are even willing to send you gigantic boxes of baseball cards. A place like that can't be all bad, can it?

I guess not...but show me another guy filling his shopping cart with retail blasters, and I'll probably right back on the verge of deleting my account.