Trade with The Angels, In Order

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Tom over at The Angels, In Order requesting access to my 1990's Phillies Google docs spreadsheet. The result? 23 Phillies cards for me, and, for Tom, some cards off his want list.  Here are the highlights (thanks Tom).

1990 Fleer League Leaders #21 Ricky Jordan

Fleer produced a lot of these 44-card boxed sets in the late 1980s and early 1990s. They were mostly distributed in chain drugstores and the like. I don't remember ever seeing them for sale. Ricky Jordan was one of a number of projected great Phillies from that period who never amounted to much.

1992 Stadium Club Dome #100 John Kruk

The last Phillie I needed from this set.

1992 Upper Deck Minors #68 Tyler Green

There were a lot of Phillies in this set. Even with the 4 that Tom sent, I still need 6 more.

1993 Toys R Us #18 Dave Hollins

Another set I've never seen before. It's a 100-card set I presume was sold as a boxed set. I'd have bought it if I'd ever seen it. My kids were little in 1993 and I spent enough time in the store.

1994 Fleer Excel #246 Scott Rolen

A very nice, very early Scott Rolen card. A nice looking minor league set. Glossy front and back with a little gold foil on the front.

1996 Collector's Choice Silver 

1996 Ultra #519 Lenny Dykstra

Tom set 3 cards from this set. I actually had the Gold Medallion version of this card where the background is all gold. Without the background it wasn't clear what Dykstra was doing in this photo.

1998 Pinnacle Mint #30 Scott Rolen

The only Phillie in this set. I only had a couple of card and coins from 1998 Pinnacle Mint but I didn't have any of the matched coins and card. In an earlier trade with Tom (in 2011) he had sent me this:

1998 Pinnacle Mint Bronze #30 Scott Rolen

Trade from across the sea

I haven't made a trade with John from England for awhile but I got an email from him last June proposing our usual trade, Red Sox cards for Astros cards. We finally got it pulled off. John writes a card blog "The Pursuit of 80's (ness)" but hasn't posted since earlier in the year. Come on John, let's see something new.

I always get a pretty varied collection of stuff from John and I always wonder where he finds this stuff in Kent.

Let's have a look and some of what he sent.

1965 Milkana Astrodome

This is a real oddball. Milkana is a German cheese company which apparently sold from a location in London. In searching for something about it the only substantial information came from a post John did in 2010. We both are guessing that the card dates from around when the Astrodome opened in 1965. The painting was done by someone who probably didn't know anything about baseball. Milkana is still around. They have a cartoon blue heart with hands as their mascot that goes by the name of Mr. Doo Dhu.

1976 Topps #171 Greg Gross

I don't actually collect Astros from before 1995, but 1976 cards are always welcome as I only have a few and most of them are Phillies. Future Phillie Greg Gross shows off the colorful Astros uniform in full splendor. The Astros have incorporated some of this rainbow goodness in their current unis but not like this. I assume that the '40' on the shoulder was a tribute to someone. His uniform number is on his pants.

1997 Score Reserve Collection #487 Chris Holt

1997 Score wasn't a very attractive set but they made up for it with a series of confusingly named parallel cards. This featured a silver foil background with raised silver foil rays behind the player.

Score Hobby Reserve #370 Brad Ausmus

This one featured an embossed gold shield conveniently placed for Ausmus to sit on.

2002 Donruss Fan Club #160 Lance Berkman

Donruss also issued in 2002 "Best of Donruss Fan Club" which had exactly the same cards as above but were printed on foil board.

2003 Upper Deck 40-Man #369 Octavio Dotel

From 2002 through 2005, Topps issued their Topps Total set which contained every player on each team's 40-man roster. Not to be outdone, Upper Deck did the same thing in 2002 and 2003. These sets were huge, with about 1,000 cards each.

2003 Upper Deck MVP #17 Lance Berkman

This was an inexpensive set which I never cared much for so didn't buy much of. This is now the only Astro from the set that I have. I only had one Phillie as well. This drove me to eBay where I was able to pick up the Astros and Phillies team sets for a couple of bucks apiece.

2008 Upper Deck Goudey Autographs J. R. Towles

As named by the Night Owl, the "Ken Griffey says" set. Pretty forgettable but still an autographed card and much appreciated. Towles (pronounced tolls) hit .375 in 14 games in his 2007 debut year and looked like the next big thing. In 5 total years with the Astros (155 games) he only hit .187.

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Blue Framed Paper #256 Nolan Ryan

Another much appreciated card from the 2nd year of Gypsy Queen. I didn't get any variation of the Ryan card from that set. This is numbered 147/599.

2013 Triple Play #32 Matt Dominguez

If I were Matt Dominguez, I'd sue over this card.

2015 Donruss Studio #7 Jose Altuve

Panini's not entirely successful attempt to revive Donruss Studio.

Cards from Baseball Dad

This was a weird trade. Jack, the Baseball Dad, is also a Facebook friend. A few months ago I posted that I was at the Houston Hobby Center for a performance of "The Wizard of Oz" musical and posted a photo of the program. Jack commented and asked if I could get a copy of the program for his wife. Since I was still at the show, this was no problem. I sent him the program along with a bunch of Indians cards.  He sent me back a bunch of Phillies cards, well more than half were cards I needed. And some of them were exceptional.

2004 Topps Pristine #7 Billy Wagner

This is a set I never see for sale anywhere so I rarely buy any of it. I didn't have a single card from the 2004 issue. So a double hit, a Phillie I didn't have and a set I didn't have any of.

2006 Upper Deck Special Effects Purple #737 Aaron Fultz

This was an Upper Deck parallel set, similar to Topps Chrome. I had a couple of the base cards and 2 of the Green parallel. This is from the Purple parallel, numbered to 150.

1965 Topps Embossed Inserts #34 Jack Baldschun

Here's a card I didn't even know I needed. These cards were an insert to the 1965 Topps set. Inserts were pretty rare in those days. Except for the centering, the card is in great shape. But I'm not quibbling over the condition. I love this card.

1989 Pacific Legends II #187 Elmer Valo

This is a set I've never heard of. The back of the card says Valo was born in Ribnik, Czechoslovakia in 1921. baseball-reference.com says he was born in Rybnik, Poland. I suppose there have been a lot of changes in that part of the world since 1921. This guy played parts of 2 seasons of his 20-year career for the Phillies. Good enough to get him elected to the Phillies Wall of Fame in 1990.

1993 Hostess Twinkies #4 John Kruk

I had the Astro (Jeff Bagwell) from the set, now I have the Phillie.

2000 Pacific Ornaments #14 Scott Rolen

I think this is my favorite, a Scott Rolen Christmas ornament! It's die cut and the front is full of holographic foil goodness.

In addition to the Phillies cards, Jack also checked out my 2004 Topps Cracker Jacks want list and filled 5 missing slots. I haven't added a card since October 2011. Thanks, Jack!

Random Cards From My Collection #14

Card #9329
1990 Bowman #154 John Kruk

 Bowman dropped the over-sized design of 1989 but kept the crazy stats on the back for 1990.

Card #30726
2011 Topps Cognac Diamond Anniversary #67 Vladimir Guerrero

Topps had a couple of variations on this technology in 2011 and it was kinda fun. But something very like it is back for 2012 and I'm tired of it already.

Card #21580
1997 Donruss #233 Ricky Otero

Otero was a centerfielder who made 189 appearances for the Phillies in 1997-1997. Another phorgotten Phillie.

Card #14277
2000 Upper Deck Gold Reserve #237 Scott Rolen

The old random number generator is tossing up a lot of Phillies today. This was a parallel set to 2000 Upper Deck. I only have 3 of these, all Phillies and all acquired from The Night Owl in trade. Thanks Greg!

Card #28164
2002 Upper Deck #252 Billy Wagner

I picked up this card during the 2011 Summer Clearance Trade.

Card #22367
2010 Topps Chrome #116 Jimmy Rollins

More Phillies! Almost 25% of the cards I have scanned are Phillies so I guess we're going to see a bunch of them.

Card #21003
1994 Topps #1994 Tyler Green

One of my favorite Topps designs from the 1990s.

Card #11041
1989 Score Rising Star #88 Ricky Jordan

Ricky was one of those guys who never quite lived up to their potential. It didn't help his career any when the Phillies acquired John Kruk mid-way through the 1989 season either.

Card #6126
2004 Upper Deck Power Up #10 Rocco Baldelli

This was one of the weirder sets of the 2000s. The black area on the upper left is silver foil. There were a number of different colored parallel sets which had higher point values on the back. You could redeem the points on Upper Deck's web site for prizes but I never bothered. I am the proud owner of the Griffey Blue parallel which was worth 1000 points!

Card #21861
2000 Metal Fusion #3 Scott Rolen

This 15-card set was inserted into 2000 Fleer/Skybox Metal packs. each card featured a pair of teammates but why it was called Fusion is beyond me.