30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 6

Day 6: A card you spent more than $10 to get.

There are hardly any baseball cards I'm willing to spent more than $10 for, but I made an exception in this case. It's the single most money I've ever spent on a single card. And of course, it is Mike Schmidt.

1999 SP Signature Autograph

I paid $46 for this back in November 1999. More even than I paid for his rookie card. It's the only Schmidt auto I have and I'm very happy with it. Earlier in the year I had paid $6 for the non-autographed version.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 5

OK, back to the Challenge:

Day 5: A certified autograph card of one of your favorite players.

Since Jim Bunning just passed away, and I was on vacation so I couldn't make a note of it in my blog, I'm going to go with this.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Autographs

I got this on eBay way back in 2005 for $8.50

And just because I have it, the non-autographed version.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game

I paid $0.30 for this later in 2005.

Repack Bang or Bust Part 5

The last one of these I did was about a 250-card Fairfield box. Well, this is sort of part two since when I bought that box I actually bought two. I rated that last box a Bang! and this one also gets a bang. I needed 115 of the 250 cards. Not too bad.

These boxes advertise that every other box (on average) has either a relic or an auto. The other box had nothing but this one had an auto.

2011 Bowman Autographed Prospects

Havens was the Mets #1 pick in 2008 but never made it to the majors.

1980 Topps #575

This was the oldest card in the box. The Phillies won the World Series in 1980, which was before I started collecting. I'm on a slow motion quest to complete the 1980 Topps set so I'm always happy to get one. 

My last post featured the weird airbrushed 1987 Topps Mike Laga card. That card came to my attention because this card was in the box.

1986 Donruss #578

Nothing really special about this card except it's part of a trend I noticed about this box. There were a lot of cards in it which were near duplicates of cards in the earlier box. For example, this is card #578. The earlier box had card #587 from the same set. These were the only 1986 Donruss cards in either box.

1986 Fleer #380

I collect Lee Smith so was happy to get this even though it's a terrible looking card. The photo is out of focus and the dark blue borders do it no favors. What was with both Fleer and Donruss using dark blue borders in 1986?

1988 Topps Traded #30

This set had a few of these Team USA cards. Pat Combs was the Phillies #1 draft pick in 1988, so of course, I have to consider this as a Phillies card. From this card I realized that there were several Phillies cards in this set I was unaware of. I managed to find the whole 1988 Topps Traded set on eBay for much less than $10, so I bought it.

1990 Donruss #147

Say what you like about 1990 Donruss, but I like it and have about 2/3 of the set. I collect Gary Carter but was missing this one.

1990 Topps #784

This card raises the question "Why do so many baseball cards have light poles in the background?".

1990 Broder Rookies Superstars

I have another card of Ben McDonald with the exact same back, but numbered #1 of 12. It also has a different photo. basebalcarddb.com lists the 12-card set but not the 7-card set. The other box had the Todd Zeile card from the 7-card set.

1990 Star #97

Another of the weird duplicates. This is a set I'd only had two cards from and both were Phillies cards I'd gotten in a trade. So I'd never seen one of these cards in a repack before I pulled #98 from the other box. Now I've also have #97.

1992 Triple Play

Zosky was the Blue Jays #1 pick in 1989 who never really made it. I didn't have a single one of his cards before opening this box. Now I have two. This one and his 1992 Ultra (#156) card.

1993 Donruss #276

The other box had card #277. Also featuring, I believe, the early season dead ivy at Wrigley Field.

1993 Topps Gold #319

These are a relatively rare finding in a repack. The other box had #318.

1997 Select Certified #40

Card #30 from this set (Paul Molitor) was in the other box. The only two cards from this set I've ever seen. I collect both players so I'm happy to have them.

2000 Upper Deck Ultimate Victory #54

I have a handful from this set, all of which I've gotten from repacks. It is a parallel to 2000 Upper Deck Victory but with a soft, thick coating on the front.

2001 Upper Deck Victory #590

This is another set which I've only seen in repacks. I don't know who this guy was but I didn't have this subset so it goes right into the reference books.

2002 Topps 206 #55

I like this set but bought very little of it when it was new. I pulled card #45 (Bud Smith) from the other box.

And finally, 2015 Topps Team Sets #PHP-8

The Phillies team sets don't seem to be available where I live in the Houston area. I'm lucky I can find the Astros set. The other box had the Phillies Maikel Franco card from the set.

That Big Bowman Sun

Another full bleed set from Bowman this year. Really, the cards don't look much different from last year. For the base cards they mostly just moved the player name from a horizontal position on the side to the bottom.

They did some funny stuff around the team logo, similar to what they did on 2017 Topps Stickers. The backs are similar to last year, with a block of text and a line of stats. I kind of like the background more this year. The slanted parallel lines of last year were a bit disconcerting.

Is it my imagination or are these prospects gleaming in the light of the big Bowman sun.

I'm trying to come up with some Icarus reference for this last card but nothing is coming to me.

I did manage to pull one hit from the blaster, a Prospects Autographs Green parallel, serial numbered to 99.

Stephens was the Reds 18th round draft pick in 2012 and just made it to Triple A this season. So he's probably not going to be the next Cy Young, but still, an auto is an auto, even if it's a sticker auto.

Repack Bang or Bust Part 3

There was nothing new in the local target so I bought this.

4 packs, 50 loose cards and a bonus for $7.99. Through the windows on the front and back of the box we can see that 2 of the packs are 2016 Topps Heritage and 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen. 

I didn't buy a whole lot of Topps Heritage last year. There were 9 cards in the pack. I needed 4 of 8 base cards. There was one insert.

This is a Topps Heritage 1967 Stand Up. Presumably the original 1967 card was a punch out thing that made a creepy standing head. This was the only non-relic, non-auto insert from 2016 Topps Heritage I didn't have so along with 4 base cards, this pack is a bang.

I bought even less of 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen. There were 4 base cards in the pack and I needed 3 of them. The 4th card was an Astro I don't mind getting a dup of. There was also a mini card as expected. And then there was this.

An on-card autograph card. I can't say I knew who this guy was even though he played 3 years for the Astros (2011-2013) and finished last season with the Phillies. He appears to be an extra outfielder who doesn't hit. But an autograph is an autograph and I didn't have any of these from 2016 Gypsy Queen. This pack was a total bang.

The two hidden packs were 2015 Series 1 Topps. Not promising since I already have the whole set. These two packs were a total bust. Not even a card I didn't mind having a dup of. There was one insert in each. Both were the Topps Highlight of the Year cards. 

Fernando certainly had a great year in 1981. I remember his 8-game winning streak to start the season. I also remember that his first loss was to the Phillies. I remember listening to the game on the radio. I had to look it up to get the details. The Phillies beat the Dodgers 4-0 in LA that night. Marty Bystrom, of all people, got the win.

Another great pitcher but of whom I have no personal memories.

Of the 50 loose cards I needed 22 of them. I usually figure if I get close to 50% needs on something like this I'm ahead, especially if I get some players I collect that I need. So the loose cards are also a bang. Nothing especially exciting however.

A relatively early A Rod card from 1997 Upper Deck.

1994 SP. Two cards I needed that are on foil board, which I hate. I wonder why Cone is wearing a green hat. Spring training game on St. Patrick's Day perhaps? I know the Phillies have done such a thing.

1994 Bowman's Best. Utilizing Topps' still new 'Chrome' technology, this is way better than foil board.

I guess Greg Luzinski's son seemed like a good bet. The Dodgers made him their #1 draft pick in 1992. He was a catcher in their minor league system at the same time the Dodgers had some guy named Mike Piazza. Ryan played in the minors until 1999 but never was able to crack into the majors.

And the bonus? 

I think this thing is called a Teeny Mate. It's made by Topps. I bought a few and have gotten a few in this type of repack before. I've 8 of them now sitting in front of my computer monitor.

All in all, mainly based on the autograph, I'll call this repack a bang.