The 1980s Part 3

 Well, it's taken a lot longer to get this post out than I thought. I was distracted for the last couple of weeks by the WORLD SERIES CHAMPION TEXAS RANGERS!

I became a fan of the Rangers way back in 1972 when the Washington Senators moved to Texas, so this was a long time in coming. I will have another post about my Rangers soon(See Night Owl Cards, I'm learning!).

Let's get back to the '80s. This is the third of three installments about my 3 favorite sets from the '80s. The fourth installment will be about my 3 least favorite sets. 

Once again, this won't be a deep dive into the sets, but will hopefully, be a little informational and a little bit of  opinion. The 3 favorites are not ranked in any order, just like my 3 least favorites won't be either. I'm also sticking to Topps base sets. It's not like that's all I collected back then. I have tons of  Fleer and Donruss cards that I collected in the '80s, but my focus these days is on Topps so that's what I'm sticking to.

My third favorite Topps set of the 1980s is the 1988 Topps set. 

     

This 792 card set was released as one series at the height of Junk Wax Era. I really don't like the name Junk Wax Era, I wish there was a better way to describe it. The Overproduction Era? Anyway, the '88 Topps have a white border with the team name in block letters set behind the larger player photos. The player's names in block letters are on a diagonal strip in the right bottom corner of the card. The backs of the cards are orange with player stats. There are 80 rookie cards in this set (81 if you count the Leiter corrected card) led by Tom Glavine. 

I really like the simple design and larger player pictures. The team and player names are easy to read. The older I get and the worse my eyes get make that kind of important! 

There are four subsets in the '88 release; Record Breakers, Future Stars, Turn back the clock and All-Stars.

   

    

I really like the cut-out picture with red background. I think that it really focuses on the players. 

        

There are five Future Stars in the set. I'm not in love with this subset, but I don't not like it either. I do like the fact that Future Stars on the card is easy to spot. 

     

Card numbers 661-665 are the Turn back the clock subset. I think these are pretty cool cards. I do think they could have chosen a better player than Ron Blomberg. No disrespect to Mr. Blomberg, he was a Major Leaguer, but there are a lot of other players that would have been better.

     

Card numbers 386-407 are the All-Star cards. I like the close-up design of the cards. I think Topps could have chosen a better color than the yellow, but it's still a nice looking card. I really like how it looks when when all of the subset is together. 

Here are a few more cards from the set.

     

I always like manager cards. Okay, not always, but I'm starting to like them more and more the older I get. 

     

I think the way the team cards are cropped is pretty cool. Not something you normally see on cards. It's different and I like the pictures with players highlighted.

     

    

Overall, for a set that was massed produced and mostly ignored by card collectors this really isn't a bad looking set. 

Very soon (I keep saying that, but it never really is very soon!), I will have out my least favorite sets from the 1980s. Let me know in the comments what you think about the 1988 Topps set.

Peace,

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

 

What to do, What to do?

 What do you do with the cards that don't fit your collection?

When I first got into collecting back in 1981 with the release of Fleer and Donruss to go along with Topps, I wanted everything! I was accumulating a bunch of cards. I really focused on Fleer because, not only was it their reintroduction to baseball cards but the error cards were a big deal. I wrote about my business prowess (actually lack of business prowess) back in my first post. Anyway, I collected everything when it came to baseball cards until college, marriage and kids became my focus. I still bought a little of everything, but not like I had before. 

When I got back into collecting baseball cards around 2018, I started looking around at what was out there and quickly became overwhelmed. I had to make a decision on what I was going to collect and how I was going to do it. I came up with Topps base sets from 1972 to present and certain players, focusing on getting all of the players' Topps base cards. I'm not locked in to just Topps. If I find something that I really like the look of then I'll collect that too. There are a few of older non-Topps sets that I like that I'm going to look for once I get everything in order.

I'm still in the organizing phase of my collection. When you've bought all kinds of baseball cards from all different years and basically, just put them in boxes, you create a mess. I've come a long way in organizing everything, but have a long ways to go too. I'm still a long ways away from getting everything counted and on TCDB too. It's a process.

All of that brings me to my question...What to do with the cards that don't fit your collection?

The majority of my collection came from opening packs. I still like opening packs. My original thought was open the packs, get some doubles and trade or sell them to get what I needed and raise money to open more packs. Well, until recently, it hasn't really gone that way. What little of my collection that's on TCDB has led to several trade offers. I've actually completed 6 trades, have 3 trades processing and one in the works. 

So far, I haven't initiated any trades. I'm kind of wimp. I don't want to insult anyone with what I offer for their cards. What's funny is I don't think (at least I haven't been so far!) that I'd be insulted with whatever I'm offered for my cards. I'd just decline it or send a message that said appreciate it, but it's not enough. I would love to hear any of your trading stories. Being a newbie in the trading world, I only have one story so far. 

I made a trade with a guy on May 10th, mailed the cards on the 11th and received my cards on the 17th. The guy I traded with still hasn't received the cards. I feel terrible about it and have sent him a couple of messages trying to figure out if I need to do something. Return the cards he sent, find the cards and resend...something. I don't know. All I know is that I feel bad about it. The guy has been real nice about it and doesn't seem worried about it, but I hate it.

Another way I've tried to move some cards is to try selling them on buysportscards.com. I think I've had about 9 sales for about $50. It's been about 6 months and I know that $50 isn't much, but it's $50 I wouldn't have had! I've got about 2200 cards listed. Obviously, buysportscards.com doesn't get near the traffic that Ebay does, but there are no fees and most of what I'm selling is not very expensive, so its better than Ebay...if it sells. I know that collectors sell on TCDB too, but I haven't seen or heard anything about it. I wonder how often it happens?

Here's my link to buysportscards.com https://www.buysportscards.com/Seller/c827e50ba1/mpdillard25. 

If you decide to look at it but would rather trade for something posted there, contact me and we can work it out. 

Random act of kindness!

Probably the coolest thing about writing this blog is meeting new people. Two of the coolest people that I've met online is Nacho Grande and Night Owl. It's nice to make new friends even if its only online. I want to give a shout out to Night Owl for the random act of kindness of sending me some of the cards I need to move forward on my 2018 Topps set. Thank you!

I think that's all for now. Please leave a comment and let me know how you move the cards that don't fit your collection or some of your trading stories.

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31

Two Things...

First Thing

   

As I mentioned before, I've started, albeit very slowly, putting my collection on TCDB. This has been an eye opening experience. I have learned that even though I thought I was semi-organized with my cards, I'm not. It might look like it, but it's not even close. I've got boxes labeled by brand and years and most of the cards in those boxes are in order. However, that's where the organization ends! I have all of these "other boxes" that have all kinds of cards in them. Even cards that should be in the organized boxes. Every time I turn around, I find more cards that should be somewhere else. 

The other issue is every time I sit down and say to myself, let's work on listing cards in TCDB, I get easily sidetracked to something more fun like looking at the cards instead of cataloging them. Also, like last night, the task just seemed too daunting, so I bailed on it. A couple of people have mentioned that its a process and I believe them!

Another revelation to inventorying my collection that has become a bit of a dilemma is figuring out a system to add cards as they come in. Now don't get me wrong, its not like there's a ton of cards coming in the door everyday, but when I do get something, the first thing I do after I look at it is to put in its place in the set...and forget to mark it off the list or put it in TCDB. I did start a list that I need to add to TCDB, but I can already see that its not going to be very effective. I need to start doing a better job of tracking what's coming in, from where and when it arrives so it will be easier to inventory. 

What a mess! The hope is that one day, I'll get it all in TCDB and in it's rightful place. 

Second Thing

This kind of ties into the first thing...

I had to find a starting point in adding my collection to TCDB, so I opened the cabinet and pulled out a year that I only had 2 boxes of and I knew that I didn't have any outlying cards to deal with...my 1991 Topps cards. 

I honestly cannot remember the last time I have looked at these cards. I checked my checklist and found out that the set wasn't complete, which was a bit of a disappointment, but it is what it is. Anyway, I started going through all of the cards that I have and found some really cool looking cards. I will say that not all of the pictures are clear, some seem grainy but I really liked some of the shots they used on these cards. 

Hard to go wrong with card #1 Nolan Ryan. I'm a huge Ryan fan. Almost got to meet him one time. I'll tell that story another day.

      

I was never a big fan of Carlton Fisk. Probably, because my Rangers had the "real" Pudge in Ivan Rodriguez, but I thought this was a cool looking card. You know with Cecil Fielder running he had to be out, but can you imagine what it would feel like trying to catch the throw with that big man barreling at you?

       

Chipper Jones rookie card. I always liked Chipper, but wasn't a huge fan. I have some family ties to the Atlanta Braves, so I always followed them but like I said wasn't a big fan. I have become more of a fan listening to him talk on different broadcasts, podcasts and such. George Brett could flat out hit. Seems like every time the Rangers played the Royals Brett was always on base or coming up with the big hit. I remember in 1980 when got to .400 and finished hitting .390 for the year. I was rooting for him to pull it off. He was so close. 

           

I could go on and on about Cal Ripken, but will save it for another time. I just like the card. Benny Santiago's card is a cool pic and I always like a good action shot like Rickey Henderson's.

I think this is one of the best Roger Clemens cards. The scoreboard on the Green Monster, Strike out, such a cool shot. 

The 1991 set is a 792 card set that celebrates Topps 40th year anniversary. There are two subsets, the Glossy All-Star set and the Glossy Rookie Set.

      

I have a few of the All-Star cards, but not any of the Rookie cards. Might have to look into acquiring some these in the future. 

To wrap this up, TCDB definitely has it's challenges, uploading everything, making me evaluate how I do things and how to get organized, but there's an underlying benefit of revisiting cards in my collection I've set aside and haven't looked at in awhile. 

Oh yeah, one other thing(I guess that makes it three things!)...Shout out to Night Owl Cards for the mention in his blog!

Peace, 

Michael

Isaiah 40:31