Random Cards of the Week

Time for another random round of cards.

Card #11958
1993 Topps Gold #773 Cliff Brantley

There was a time when not all baseball cards had gold foil on them. Gold foil started to appear on regular issue cards in 1992 with Topps Stadium Club. In 1992 and 1993, Topps issued parallel cards to their flagship set as inserts in packs.

Card #5541
2002 Donruss Originals #161 Sean Burroughs

Donruss starting mining their own past for design ideas (as Topps has done quite successfully with Heritage cards) in 2002 with this retro set. The set featured cards with designs from 1982, 1984 (such as this Burroughs card) and 1986. This is the only year this set was issued.

Card #14145
2009 Topps 206 #74 Greg Golson

This set turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments released in 2009. Topps had previously released a real nice Topps 206 set in 2002. I was excited to hear about the upcoming 2009 release but I don't care for it much, especially the card backs with identical artificial dirt smudges on each card.

Card # 206
1987 Topps #178 Cecil Fielder

These early Fielder are amazing. In his first 4 years with the Blue Jays, Cecil hit 31 home runs. In 1989 he went to Japan. In 1990 he came back to the states and played for the Tigers, having become enormous in the time he was gone. He hit 51 homers in 1990 for the Tigers.

Card #12296
2008 Topps Update #220 Geoff Jenkins

I think you either love this card design or you hate it. I love it.

 Card #13950
1989 Topps #291 Mets Leaders

In 1988, Strawberry and McReynolds shared almost all the Mets batting records. Is that other guy Keith Hernandez?

Card #16517
2006 Upper Deck #598 Jason Smith

By 2006, the Upper Deck flagship set started looking pretty much the same from year to year.

Card #310
1987 Donruss Opening Day #79 Orel Hershiser

Before Topps Opening Day, there was Donruss Opening Day in 1987. The card design is the same as the base set except the border is brown instead of black. This set was only available as a boxed set and I bought one in 2003 for a reasonable price. There is a rare and famous Barry Bonds error card from this set but I didn't get one. Instead, I got two Barry Bonds cards in the box (and therefore, I'm short having the complete set by one card).

Card #16887
1986 Topps #520 Keith Hernandez

This card is a bit beat up. I've probably owned it since 1986 which would make it one of the first cards I bought.

Card #5813
2000 Stadium Club Chrome Refractor #152 Jason Giambi

I really liked the Stadium Club Chrome cards in 2000 and bought a hobby box of the product. The Refractor cards really looked good.