Decisions, decisions. Phillies card or not?

As a life-long Phillies phan and a baseball card collector, I naturally collect Phillies cards. These go into special binders, where I arrange the players by year in alphabetic order.  How do I decide if a player goes in the book? In the usual situation,  if the player is in a Phillies uniform and he played for the Phillies the year the card was published, the card goes in the book.

What about the situation where the player was traded or released before the card year but he still appears as a Phillie on the card?  My decision has always been, that such a card goes in the book.

Another situation that arises is when a player is traded to the Phillies, but the card shows him in the uniform of his former team. These cards do not go in the book, unless the player is identified as a Phillie, either with the team name or logo.

I recently acquired the Phillies cards from the 1987 O-Pee-Chee set.

Here's Mike Easler from the set.

By the exception to my third rule, this card goes in the book. Easler is in a Yankees uniform, but the card has a Phillies logo and the label "Now with Phillies".

Now it also happens that I have Easler's card from 1987 Topps.

Ha! This card does not go in the book.

Today, of course, this would have been an opportunity to Photoshop Easler into a Phillies uniform.

1987 was the last year of Easler's 14-year career and he played for both the Phillies and the Yankees. In December 1986, the Yankees traded Easler and another player to the Phillies for pitcher Charles ("don't call me Charlie) Hudson.  In June, the Phillies traded Easler back to the Yankees for Keith Hughes and another player. On the whole, I'd say that the Yankees got the better of this trade. Hudson was 17-13 over the next 2 years for the Yankees with 2 shutouts and 2 saves. The other players involved didn't do much.

Random Cards From My Collectin #70

Card #22932
2007 Bowman #50 Ryan Howard

Comments on the card/player: In 2007, Ryan was in the middle of a 4-year stretch when he was one of the most dominant offensive players in the game. Now the Phillies are hoping that some team in the American League will see some value in him as a DH so they can make room for some younger players.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.30/card in March 2007 for loose packs of Bowman.

Card #2163
2002 Topps 206 Team 206 Series 3 #8 Mike Piazza

Comments on the card/player: 2002 Topps 206 remains one of my favorite sets of that decade.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #41666
1993 Donruss #547 Brian Harper

Comments on the card/player: 1993 was a nice year for Donruss. The front photography was good, without a lot of distractions. The cards also featured a large photo on the back, with the same 5-year career stats they always had.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.04/card for a Fairfield 250-card cube August 2013.

Card #32780
1992 Topps Traded #11 Todd Benzinger

Comments on the card/player: It looks like Todd really got fooled on a pitch.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.05/card for 100-card Fairfield rack pack repack in May 2012.

Card #45106
2014 Topps Opening Day #214 Travis D’Arnaud

Comments on the card/player: D'Arnaud, the Phillies #1 pick in 2007, was traded to the Blue Jays in 2009 as part of the Roy Halladay deal. Now with the Mets, he had a decent 2014 rookie year.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.14/card for a blaster of Topps Opening Day in March 2014 at Target.

Card #8654
2003 Topps #86 Terry Adams

Comments on the card/player: I always liked the blue borders of 2003 Topps. I also like the little head shot insert on the front.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.16/card for a hobby box in 2003.

Card #15248
2008 Topps Opening Day #198 Rich Thompson

Comments on the card/player: The team name placement on 2008 Topps was kind of fun, but the horrible tabs at the top and bottom of the photos pretty near ruined the set.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #39942
1994 Donruss #362 Jeff Montgomery

Comments on the card/player: Donruss went full bleed printing in 1994 for the first time. It was also their first use of gold foil.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #47038
2014 Panini Golden Age #48 Baseball Hall of Fame

Comments on the card/player: Panini had some disappointments last year (2014 Donruss, anyone?) but Golden Age was a great set. In a ranking of similar sets, I'd rank Golden Age just behind Allen & Ginter and way ahead of Goodwin Champions.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.44/card for 144-card hobby box of Panini Golden Age on eBay in July 2014.

Card #46146
1992 Panini Stickers #244 Charlie Hayes

Comments on the card/player: From new Panini to old Panini. Back in 1992, I don't remember these at all. I'm not sure I would have bought any even if I was aware of them.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.06/card for a 54-card lot of odd Phillies cards on eBay in June 2014.

The last repack of 2014

I am finally caught up. Sort of.  The last repack of 2014 was purchased on 12/29/14. It was one of those 100-card Fairfield packs that come in the indestructible clear plastic packages. I almost always get suckered by these because at least 1 of the 4 visible cards calls to me. 100 cards for 4 bucks is not too bad a deal, even if I usually run to needing only about 50% of the cards. Here are the most interesting cards.

1982 Topps #168 Bruce Sutter/Rollie Fingers

If there were such a thing, I'd nominate this card as one of the hairiest card of the 1980s.

1982 Topps #682 Jesse Jefferson

The photographer must have been laying on his back to get this shot of an indifferent Jesse Jefferson.

1987 Nestle Dream Team #31 Bob Gibson

This is the third one of these I've found. Only 31 to go. These cards came with candy bars or by mail-in wrapper redemption. Note the lack of a logo on Bob's cap. Since these were published by Topps I'd have thought they'd be licensed.

1989 Play Ball '89 Will Clark

This is a real oddball. I spent about 20 minutes, looking in my usual sources but could find no information about this set. With only one card to go by, it's hard to speculate too much. It has the feel of a locally produced card.

1993 Jimmy Dean Rookies #3

I have several cards from the 1993 Jimmy Dean set but this looks like a separate rookie-only set.

1994 Score Rookie/Traded #16 Walt Weiss

There are two things interesting about this card. One is that the design is completely different from Score's regular 1994 set. I don't know of any other update set which did not use the same design as the regular issue. The other is the photograph. Both the fielder and the base runner are looking at the umpire for the call. Good photo!

2007 Topps Red Backs #298 Eric Chavez

By Red Back, Topps meant that the player's name, position, card number and Topps logo were in Red, instead of white. One of the odder parallel sets that Topps has produced. I don't know what the insertion odds of this was but this is the first one I've seen in the wild. I have the Phillies and Astros cards from the set which I bought on eBay.

2011 Topps #7 Mickey Mantle

I got the Topps #7 card from their 2011 set. Weird photo.

Roy Halladay Photoshop triplet

In Roy Halladay's long 16-year career, he only played for two teams, the Blue Jays and the Phillies. So Topps didn't have too many opportunities to Photoshop him into a different uniform. They not only didn't miss that chance, they did it twice.

I just pulled this 2010 Topps card from a repack.

But Roy played for the Phillies in 2010. I already had this card.

Even better, I had this card from the Topps Phillies Team Set.

On this card, they got his uniform number correct. Also, the card back has the same photo but cropped differently. Actually, the back photo is cropped differently on all three cards.

Man, I love finding stuff like this.

My Reference Cards #10: Fleer Gamers and Fleer Mystique

Two Fleer sets from 2000 which I didn't like enough to buy much of.

Fleer Gamers

These weren't real expensive (a 5 card pack for $2.99) but I didn't really care for them. I have 15 cards from the 120 card set so I'm guessing I bought 3 packs. Math! The front of the card was a lot of embossed foil. The backs were glossy with a fair sized photo. The others aren't as goofy looking as the Mark Grace photo.

"Next Gamers" was a subset of prospects with a slightly different front design.

There weren't too many insert sets in Fleer Gamers and this is the only one I have.

"Fleer Gamers Determined" was a 15-card insert set. The front is glossy with holographic foil. I picked this one up at a card show in 2005 for $1.50.  There are only 5 other inserts : "Fleer Gamers Extra", "Fleer Gamers Cal to Greatness" (A 16-card set featuring highlights from Cal Ripken's career), "Fleer Gamer change the Game", "Fleer Gamers Lumber", and "Fleer Gamers "Signed Lumber". I haven't been interested enough to go after them.

Fleer Mystique

 These were pricey for the time, a 5-card pack cost $4.99. I think I bought 1 pack. I've pulled a couple of these from repacks. The front of the card has a high gloss and a holographic background. It looks like an attempt by Fleer at a Topps Finest kind of card. The backs also have a high gloss, a player head shot and full career stats. There were 175 cards in the set. Cards 126-175 were serial numbered (to 2,000) rookie cards. I don't have any of those. The cards really are about as dark as this scan.

There were 10 insert sets, including a parallel (Gold) and an autographed set (Fresh Ink). The only insert I have is this.

"High Praise" was a 10-card insert set. Very holographic on the front. Actually a nice looking card in person. I think I got this in the one pack I bought.

Coming up next will be 2000 Fleer Showcase.