My 2016 Collecting Year in Review

I went into 2016 with a plan to buy fewer cards over all while focusing more on Phillies and Astros cards (current and past). I think I was successful. I purchased 2,876 cards in 2016, about a thousand fewer than in 2015. Of those, 530 were Phillies cards and 162 were Astros. 1,888 were 2016 cards so about one thousand cards were from prior years. Most of them were from repacks, although I did make some dents in prior years Phillies want lists. This is the oldest card I bought:

1952 Topps #149

I got it for $2 at a card show in February. It's one of ten oldest cards I own.

Here are some other interesting cards that I haven't featured in prior posts this year.

1962 Topps #135

I got this for $3.50 at the same card show as above. It's the oldest Babe Ruth card I have although still nowhere as old as during his career.

1985 Renata Galasso Pete Rose #40

That February card show also yielded 3 cards from this set. I consider this a big find.

1990 Topps Tiffany #479

Topps Tiffany cards weren't easy to get back in the day, and are still rare. This is the first one from 1990 that I've seen. I pulled it from a repack in November.

1990 Upper Deck Comic Ball #398

Upper Deck produced these Comic Ball cards, featuring Warner Bros. cartoon characters from 1990-1992. I don't remember seeing them for sale. I had cards from the other 2 years but this is the first one from 1990. All of them have come from repacks.

1991 Topps Stand-Ups #12

The weirdest thing I bought this year. I got it from eBay in February. From the scan it looked like a die-cut card. There was little information in the listing. It is a plastic container of candy. It has a sliding door on the bottom to get the candy out but someone had glued it shut. 25 year-old candy was not that tempting.

1992 Donruss Rookies #69

I got this 132-card set in March, mainly to get the 5 Phillies cards in it. It's a nice looking set but it must have been a poor year for rookies. Besides Pedro Martinez, the only other big rookie was Manny Ramirez (which I already had).

1992 O-Pee-Chee #244

1992 Topps Gold Winner #244

I bought the complete Phillies team cards for each of these sets on eBay, filling some big holes in my Phillies want lists.

2016 Donruss Promising Pros Materials 

I'm not a big fan of modern Donruss but Nola is supposed to be a big part of the Phillies future and this is a nice looking relic card.

2016 Panini Diamond Kings Rookie Signatures Bronze

But I did like Panani's Diamond King set. I got this on eBay. It's the most expensive single card I bought this year.

2016 Grandstand Reading Fightin' Phils #24

I also bought a couple of 2016 Phillies minor league sets. Does the front design look familiar to you?

2016 Topps Opening Day Printing Plate #159

I managed to pull a printing plate out of a retail pack of Topps Opening Day.

1985 Renata Galasso Pete Rose

I found this card at the card show I went to in early February.

It's a nice looking card featuring a painting of Pete Rose in a Phillies uniform. Rose played for the Phillies from 1979 through 1983. Here's the back.

The back says "Designed by Topps Chewing Gum, Inc." and P. R. E. Inc. No year given. Just what is this card? I'm also don't know the painter, Ron Lewis. There is nothing about him on Wikipedai but his style looks familiar.

It took me a little while but I identified this card as from the Renata Galasso Pete Rose set issued in 1985. I eventually found the set on tradingcarddb.com here.  Renata Galasso was an influential card dealer in the 1970s and 1980s in New York City. She got her start (according to Wikipedia) by selling hand collated Topps sets. Eventually she was producing her own cards in conjunction with Topps and TCMA.

There are 120 cards in the set, including 9 of Rose in a Phillies uniform. The first three cards in the set have Pete's stats, the next 87 cards have this same question and answer format on the back. The last 30 cards fit together like a large poster showing all of Pete Rose's cards from Topps on the back.

I was able to find two more of them on eBay. Here's another one with the Q&A format.

This one seems like an odd question to ask.  The other has the Topps cards on the back.

For you Pete Rose as an Expos fan (there has to be some, right), there are not very many baseball cards which feature Pete as an Expo. This set has 8 of them. Seems a large percentage when you figure Rose only spent a portion of one year there.

Random Cards from My Collection #49

#10594
2008 Bowman Chrome Refractor #39 Tom Glavine

Comments on the card: The regular 2008 Bowman cards were the normal black borders with red highlights. I like that the chrome versions had white borders.  Still too much facsimile signature.
When acquired: October 2008
How acquired: Paid $1.00/card for a blaster box.
Player's season: 2008 was Glavine's last season and he finished with the Braves, where it all began. He was 2-4 in 13 starts but that hardly matters in a career where he was 305-203.

Card #6712
1991 Score Von Hayes #426

Comments on the card: This was a good design. Big photo on the front, simple colored borders (one of the colors was white) and nice photo and stat listing on the back.
When acquired: Don't know.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: In June, Hayes got his arm broken by Tom Browning of the Reds. It ended his season. He was traded to the Angels at the end of the season but his career was also effectively over.

Card #4205
1997 Donruss #416 Brady Anderson

Comments on the card: This was a 25-card subset in 1997 Donruss, not an insert, featuring the top players with the top 25 batting averages in 1996. Reaching all the way down to #25, was Anderson at .257. Anderson actually hit .297 in 1996, so maybe this is career average?
When acquired: Don't know.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: Anderson led the American League in being hit by a pitch in 1997, at 19. A little down from his league leading total of 22 in 1996.

Card #34054
2012 Topps Archives #161 Chase Utley

Comments on the card: This was a nice set (as is this year's) but are you getting a bit tired of recycled Topps designs?
When acquired: June 2012.
How acquired: Acquired during the Great 2012 Summer Clearance Trade.
Player's season: Chase missed most of the first half of the season, coming out of spring training with knee problems.

Card #3915
1980 Topps #526 Phillies Team Photo

Comments on the card: I love team photo cards. I wish Topps would bring them back.
When acquired: Don't know.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: My favorite Phillies team of all time. They were 91-71 in 1980 and won the first World Series in franchise history.

Card #770
1990 Score Rising Stars #6 Todd Zeile

Comments on the card: This was a 100-card set sold as a complete set in a blister pack. It features up and coming rookies.
When acquired: August 2003.
How acquired: Paid $9.00 for the entire set on eBay.
Player's season: 1990 was Todd's first full season. He played 144 games for the Cardinals, hitting .244 with 15 home runs. Good enough to place 6th on the ROY voting.

Card #21941
2002 Upper Deck Vintage #236 Jimmy Rollins

Comments on the card: Upper Deck Vintage was an attempt by Upper Deck to mimic Topps success at recycling their past designs by recycling old Topps designs. I like cards featuring players signing autographs but Jimmy looks a bit distracted here.
When acquired: Don't know.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: In his second full season, J-Roll lead the league in plate appearances with 637 and triples, with 10. He was also an All-Star.

Card #2731
1982 Donruss #585 Mike Schmidt/Pete Rose

Comments on the card: From Donruss' second year of production. They really loaded up on the popular players of the day.
When acquired: Don't know.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: Pete and Mike were both All-Stars in 1982.

Card #40470
2001 Fleer Tradition #234 Eric Davis

Comments on the card: Here's Fleer pretty much doing the same thing as Upper Deck Vintage.
When acquired: 2001
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: Eric had hit .303 in 93 games for the Cardinals in 2000. He singed with the Giants in 2001 and only hit .205 in 74 games. And that was the end.

Card #22310
2004 Donruss Elite #130 Bob Abreu

Comments on the card: Mirror finished cards with multiple parallels. I never bought much of this product.
When acquired: Don't know.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: Bobby hit .301 in 2004 and and went to his first All-Star game.