Random Cards From My Collection #17

Card #7587
2003 Stadium Club Royal Gold #124 Andy Marte

2003 was the final year for Stadium Club, with an encore year in 2008. The Royal Gold parallel card had gold foil instead of silver, a gold background color on the back, and a thicker card stock than the base card.

Card #4247
1996 Topps Chrome Wrecking Crew #14 Mo Vaughn

This 15-card set was inserted at a 1:24 ratio in 1996 Topps Chrome. I bought all of two packs of this product but managed this insert.

Card #16034
2009 Topps Update #225 Gregorio Petit

Petit played 25 games for the A's in 2008-2009. This is probably a photo taken at spring training considering that the base runner is sporting uniform number 98. How many cards do think feature Mr. Petit? According to Beckett.com, when you take into account minor league cards and parallels, there are 92 Gregorio Petit cards.

Card #3110
1992 Fleer #72 Dave Winfield

Winfield played over 100 times as many games as Gregorio Petit. He also played for 22 years, vs. 2. In his 19th season, Winfield played 156 games, batted .290, with 26 homers and 108 RBIs. He also won the Silver Slugger award, the Branch Rickey Award and the Babe Ruth Award. He is a Player I Collect.

Card #811
1995 Fleer All-Fleer #8 Tony Gwynn

This was a nice 9-card set available via wrapper redemption in 1995. I acquired the entire set for $4 in 2005. The cards appear to be laser-cut, which was very popular with the card companies back then, but it's not.

Card #16959
2007 Fleer Rookie Sensations Jeremy Sowers

This fairly unattractive card is part of a 20-card set inserted into 2007 Fleer. I guess the set wouldn't have been hard to complete since one was inserted into every pack. The card has a plain, non-glossy finish with gold foil lettering. Rookie Sensation or not, Sowers finished his 4-year career in 2009 with an 18-30 record.

Card #1060
1997 Donruss Signature Autograph #39 Bobby Estalella

In 1996, Donruss was the first company to offer an entire parallel set of autographed cards. This was the legendary Leaf Signature set, which, with the Extended set, offered over 500 autographed cards. In 1007, they followed up with Donruss signature, a much less ambitious project, but still ahead of it's time.

Card #11809
2004 Topps Cracker Jack #190 Rene Reyes

Another card from one of my all-time favorite sets.

Card #7989
2007 Fleer Soaring Stars Derek Jeter

Another insert set in 2007 Fleer. This 20-card set was inserted 1:2 packs. There were a lot of inserts in this set. You may remember that this was the final year of Fleer, which was produced by Upper Deck.

Card #22521
2004 MLB Showdown Trading Deadline #9 Doug Glanville

I never did figure out how to play this game. Actually, didn't care to learn.

Song of the Week - Lawyers, Guns, and Money by Warren Zevon

I never get tired of this song. This is a pretty good live version.

2012 Topps Opening Day First Look

I picked up two blasters of Topps Opening Day at Target. I've been pretty disappointed in blasters recently but I think I made out pretty good with these. I pulled at least one of all the inserts (except an autograph), didn't get too many duplicates and got most of the Phillies in the set.  Since the base cards look just like the regular edition cards I'm only going to show the inserts.

One comment about the base cards however. In the old days, when Topps started making the Opening Day cards, they came with a large foil shield logo. Those days are long gone and the Opening Day logo is simply printed on. But this year, the logo is smaller, making them harder to tell apart from the regular cards. What gives, Topps?

Topps Opening Day Blue

The usual blue-bordered serial numbered parallel is back. If I had my way, I'd make all the Opening Day cards with a blue border. I think I said the same thing last year.

Topps Opening Day Fantasy Squad

This is a new insert for 2012. I like it. Also, my first Pujols card in an Angels uni. I gotta believe this is a Photoshop Special.

Topps Opening Day Elite Skills

Another new insert for 2012 featuring my chief pet peeve, silver foil lettering on a black background.

Topps Opening Day Mascots

Returning for the 3rd year, I think it's time to give this insert a rest.

Topps Opening Day Stars

The 3-D Opening Day Stars is back. I kind of like these.

Topps Opening Day Superstar Celebrations

Another returning insert set. As I remember, the Dodgers didn't have much to celebrate last year.

1991 Baseball Cards A-Z (Part 6)

After some distractions, I'm getting back to my 1991 card collection. This will be the last part.

I've started working in earnest on my 1992 collection. I only need about 10 cards to finish that so maybe later in the year I'll do this again. That collection will have 76 cards.

1991 Ultra

1991 was the first year for Ultra, Fleer's entry into the premium card niche. The card featured several innovations such as upgraded card stock and full bleed printing, but in keeping with 1991 being a transitional year, did not have features which will become common, such as gold foil and a glossy finish.

1991 Ultra Gold

In future years, Ultra Gold will become a parallel set, in 1991 it was a 10-card insert set. It will be a couple of years before the card companies will convince collectors that they should chase parallel cards.

1991 Ultra Update

The 120-card update set was only available as a factory set. I only have a handful which I suspect I've acquired over the years in repacks. This Rodriguez card is one of the key cards from the set.

1991 Upper Deck

This was the third year form Upper Deck and they are starting to fall behind. With a design which has remained virtually unchanged since 1989, no foil, no full-bleed printing, and no gloss, their premium card is not as nice as Donruss, Fleer and Topps issues in 1991. They remain the leader in holographic logos, a feature that no one else will duplicate, ever.

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes

In 1990, Upper Deck introduced the Baseball Heroes inserts with Reggie Jackson. This year, they continued the set, picking up the numbering where the Jackson set left off, with two players, Aaron and Nolan Ryan. These were available as random inserts (Ryan in Series 1 and Aaron in Series 2). Each series also had one of 2000 cards autographed by either Ryan or Aaron. Although Upper Deck was falling behind in some ways, they remained the only set with inserted autographs for the 2nd year.

1991 Upper Deck Heroes of Baseball

This was another insert set. Only three players were featured, Harmon Killebrew, Gaylord Perry and Ferguson Jenkins, plus a header card. I bought the 4-card set for about $15 in 2003.


1991 Upper Deck Silver Sluggers

This 18-card set was available in jumbo packs at 1 per pack. It featured the 18 players who had won the Silver Slugger award in 1990.  This is not an award you see celebrated too often. I got this card (the only one from the set I have) in a repack back in 2003.


1991 Upper Deck Comic Ball 2

This was a 198-card set, available in foil packs featuring Nolan Ryan and Reggie Jackson playing baseball with various Loony Toon characters. There was a 1990 set and also sets in 1992 and 1993. I know virtually nothing about them as this is the only card from the series I've ever seen. They seem to be pretty available on eBay. I found this in a repack in 2006.

1991 Upper Deck Final Edition

This was a 100-card update set only available as a factory set. Martinez is the key card. In 1991, I had small children. On the day after Christmas, my wife and I were in Toys R Us exchanging some duplicate toys the kids had gotten from relatives for Christmas. As we were waiting in line, a box of this was sitting on the shelf at my eye level. At $10 is seemed a bargain so I bought it. How good of an investment was that? You can go on eBay right now and buy a sealed set for $2.99 plus shipping.