10 Cards from the Dollar Box #14

A new year, a new collection, as in one all nicely charged up with random new Baseball Cards assembled ... not randomly. The incoming stream, though, is random, when I start out by looking through the 100¢ box down at the Friendly Local Card Store, though the actual out-the-door price is something like 9 to 19 pennies less than that. I don't keep track; I just enjoy "the Loot" -

Why I selected it: I collect Honus Wagner cards - previously not-deliberately, but rather as they randomly appear in packs. Lately though I have started picking up a card here or there. I am definitely past 9 Wagner cards now, but I haven't started picking out favorites.

I am always glad to find a Wagner card, but I think this is going to be a slow project, ultimately, because to binder up his first page of cards, I want to find photos assuredly from his playing days, and that is not easy to do. That seems to be because he worked for the Pirates as a Hitting Coach for a few decades after his retirement from the field of play, and that seems to supply a lot of the images used for cards created for him today. That makes complete sense in terms of basic availability of photographs of him.

Which is fine, to a point. I am at a point in my little on-the-cheap Wagner collecting that I think I have more cards showing him post-retirement than while still playing. Some day (the day of oh so many card collecting projects) I will finally start deliberately shopping for cards with specifically still-playing images - if such exist.

Why I selected it: I can't say I am enthralled with the name of these 2024 Topps Baseball inserts. I do like the image frame quite a bit though.

But I bought this card because I collect Christy Mathewson cards, and despite my reservations about the grandGAMERS, I really bought this card because I expect this image will help supply 1 of 9 cards using it, eventually. Which is an amusing, sometimes sad, but also somewhat understandable Baseball Card deal, most particularly for "Pre-War" players.

Why I selected it: Some further "collecting" of 2023 Topps Heritage seems likely in my future. So I figgered it would be best to just add this card when I could. I don't expect to build out the Complete Set, but I would like to find a couple discounted blasters or something, rather than just shopping for singles, digitally. Here's to hoping I can still scrounge a few up while traveling some the next several months.

Why I selected it: I quite like Randy Arozarena, probably mostly due to pleasant memories of seeing him suddenly enter national Baseball consciousness one fine October day when I had a few hours to kill in a fine little crossroads in far northern Wisconsin. I can't really follow his career much aside from Baseball Cards, which will only become more true as he plays in Seattle, which might as well be Siberia in terms of my usual Baseball experience with West Coast teams. 

But you can probably guess I bought this card for the Powder Blue collection, which looks like it will need 9 unlicensed cards just, because. I don't know why, I just collect Baseball Cards.

I think I am sub-consciously working through / buying one each of all the old Donruss designs that Panini now re-uses. Why ask why? Try Panini? Randy seems a little dubious on this.

Why I selected it: What's the deal with this blogger, he says he's uncertain about liking some card and then he turns around and buys another one just like it?

Maybe these will grow on me more quickly than other cards. The yellow-on-Powder-Blue does come off well here, nom sayn' ?

Why I selected it: I am still disappointed that I did not watch the 2023 World Baseball Classic, which these inserts celebrate. It would have been the perfect thing to do in the middle of Spring Training - watch some Baseball games, that count. I am looking forward to the next one and anticipate owning a brand new mega sized TV to watch it on by that (Coming Soon) point.

This card, though - has there ever been a set of Catcher's gear more colorful than this one? I collect Salvador Perez cards in my usual casual style, but I would snag this card if it featured some young gun from Venezuela serving as his back-up and not otherwise part of Pro Baseball and never heard from again.

Also - is this the most colors ever, on a card? Try and count them all. Good luck.

Why I selected it: Although I definitely like this 1989 Topps card design a bunch, I don't think I really want page(s) of it; neither this brand new 2024 version nor a bunch of the originals. It will, however, eventually somehow look nice all by itself, with some other Miggy cards for company.

Why I selected it: Although this is another one with a, kinda-what? as in, ever, name to the run of inserts, I like these goofy colored Baseballs for some goofy reason. And the perfect player to have on a goofy Baseball Card has to be Jazz Chisholm, Jr. Though of course no one will ever understand why it's Jazz Chisholm on some cards, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. on other cards.

Why I selected it: I do like a good Oneil Cruz card, particularly those with the Pirates' great Home Alternate uni and a clear view of the Pirate Patch.

Recently I learned a couple things that pertain to this card. One is that a pretty high % of successful Major Leaguers were Shortstops at one time in their career. As it is the most physically challenging position requiring the most athleticism, it not uncommonly reveals an actually great Baseball player who however may not be quite the best available Shortstop in the mix of players around him. This could be becoming the case with Oneil Cruz as the Pirates are moving him to the Outfield now; when I read that I also read that he is unhappy about that. This also sorta happened in Jazz Chisholm's career; so-far, so-good there. Another long year near the 3 Rivers? I hope not, for Bob Walk's sake.

This is a Rookie Card card of course but I have plenty of Rookie Card cards - who doesn't? I never have any idea what year a Bowman card comes from and I would have purchased this card automatically because of the player, anyway.

I have long figured that I should check out Bowman cards of actual MLB players more often, and would find enjoyable cards if I did, but so many Baseball Cards, so little time. Thanks, $ Box.

Why I selected it: I definitely bought this card for one of my usual one page looks at some various permutations of the Braves tomahawk uniform.

However this card is sneaky good in that it is the first All-Star card for a sneaky good player. Contreras is such a good hitter he routinely serves as Milwaukee's Designated Hitter on his days off from Catching. That's a bit unusual, but then Contreras is a bit unusually better than many people realize, I think, aside from the All-Star voters, whoever they may be these days (I forget). 

The complex trade that brought Contreras to my 2nd-most closely followed team, the Brewers, disappointed me as more evidence of "tear-down" in Oakland, and just yet more goodies being fed to the richer teams by the poorer teams. But I bet Atlanta misses Contreras now, and Esteury Ruiz has had a few moments (just, a few) for the A's, who I expect will surprise even more teams in 2026.

Upshot of all these Baseball thoughts? This card may not end up on a Braves collection page. After all, it would also look sweet on a Chavez Ravine page.

Bonus Round

Why I selected it: Hey look, another excellent young Braves Catcher.

It is far too easy to forget Joe Torre's achievements on the field of play, after his long equally successful career in the dugout and then the League offices. So it is always nice to see new 21st Century Baseball Cards address this. 

I can never remember which set these Topps-celebrates-Topps cards come from, but I don't care. I just buy cheap Rookie Cup cards when I see them. 

There was a whole product of Topps braggin' on the Rookie Cup again just recently; it was one of those online-only deals where you essentially pay $50 or so for a randomly selected on-card autograph (2/box, maybe?) of some famous player and then a bunch of base cards no one really wants. Except me, it often seems. So I hope to see some of those cards in LCS or dealer boxes in my future.

Overtime Bonus Round

Why I selected it: I instantly added this one to the pile as soon as I saw it. I had that same reaction when I first saw a Tigers card from this set (2022 Finest), and a Dodgers card. That's because these cards use a stone cold simple design choice that always works on a Baseball Card: Team Color. So when I finally found one from this set for a Powder Blue card, well, if I had had only $1 with me that day, this is the card I would have purchased.

And this is another Rookie Card card so I guess I should make a quick discount double-check-in on Josh Lowe's career; I haven't seen his most recent base card. 

Or, maybe not. It is impossible to ever remember the players named Lowe in Tampa Bay. They come, they go, not even Baseball Cards can help me here.

The Wrong Way to Baseball Card Bonus Round

Why I selected it: Uhhh, well, I always like Satchel Paige cards. But, it seems, I like them so much, I already bought this one. Even Satchel seems to be sayn' tuh tighten up, man. I, uhh, might have bought this one twice before, even, actually.

So, uhhh, got any extra Satchel Paige cards but might need this one?

Wanna Rip Some Packs?

Of course you do. You wouldn't have clicked the link to this if you didn't.

I wanna rip some packs. But I have come to the sad conclusion that I'm just shooting myself straight in the wallet when I do it. Baseball card depreciation is worse than new car depreciation, or electronic gadget depreciation.

And I'm not sad about the _value_ of the cards I rip. I could really care less what the cards I own are worth. Seriously. I enjoy them, or I wouldn't keep them. If a major warehouse find of cards from any set I have collected or am collecting was found which then made the cards I own now worth 10% of what they were the day before, I wouldn't care in the slightest. A lot of collectors, though, would throw up their hands in disgust and quit the hobby completely if that happened to them. And it would be Oh, The Humanity for weeks and weeks on the Internet if that were to happen. I would probably have to retreat to trout fishing, and flipping through binders full of worthless base baseball cards.

The problem with ripping cards today is that you can buy the same card, out of the pack, for 25% or possibly less of the pack price - and without any duplicates as when you rip your way through your cash.

Sadly, ripping just no longer makes any sense. I won't beat the dead horse any more, I think everyone understands all this.

That's why I'm happy I've grown to enjoy ripping re-pack products. Because I still enjoy the anticipation of not knowing what baseball card I'm going to find in that pack. I'm not sure I would have come to enjoy repacks so much, if I hadn't discovered baseball card blogs. I had never considered the idea of collecting the cards based on what's in the picture on the card. Simply collecting Turning Two cards, from any set, any manufacturer, any year? Brilliant. I am so slow sometimes…. thank y'all!

Ok, let's rip a pack:

SUNDAY! SUNDAY! This 4th of July weekend don't miss this one! Special Bar-Bee-Que Twinkie Cook-Off in the Parking lot! It's the world famous Monster Truck Rally you've been waiting for!

errr, wait, that's just what I hear in my head when when I read ULTIMATE Super JUMBO PACK. I love over the top advertising. And no, I didn't make up the part about the B-B-Q Twinkies. You can look that up on the Internet, which is where I looked it up from.

I thought to title this post Window Shopping #3, but I'll save the roll-out of the new web series for the final re-pack product I can share with you some other time.

I do like these Ultimate Super Jumbo Packs. You'll see one of these again some day too, which has one of the most iconic baseball cards of all time, really, no kidding at all - you'll see. It was so cool to see that it will lead me to a whole new collecting project.

Which this pack might as well. Because I window shopped for that sweet red, white, and blue baseball card there on the front, because I always like red, white, and blue baseball cards, perhaps a little bit extra when they feature a team that has only two of those colors on the national flag over the stadium:

Because when I see 1985 Topps cards on blog posts, I start to like them a little bit more each time. I would like to pick up a "vending box" of the things (no ripping with those however, but I was always in awe of the idea of them as a kid). By 1985 though, I was slowing way down on baseball cards, and I have perhaps just a few packs of them, somewhere. I think. Maybe. But now I have at least one more than I did before! Thanks ULTIMATE Super JUMBO PACK.

But Doug Flynn? Dunno, I'm not totally sure that isn't Ian Kinsler shipped back through some sort of 3D Printing Powder Blue Time Machine. I like that Topps went with powder blue ink on this card. The back is a sentimental one as well, wherein Topps informs us that "Doug and his wife were introduced by Pete Rose." Awww, gee, Topps, so sweet.

Let's see what's behind the window card:

And the air starts leaving the balloon quick in this pack. '89 Bowman, whoo-boy.  Maybe these days with the 6 divisions in baseball where you barely know the players in the other 5 divisions any more (one key reason why I still buy new baseball cards), it would be a little interesting to see a player's stats against a division rival. But in 1989? Zzzzzzzzzz.

Once again I like that this particular re-packer puts the cards in the pack backwards sometimes. Because, Yes, I Read the Backs, though I gotta tell ya, I'm taking one for the team sometimes doing that, particularly this year. I never do know what I'll find on the backs, but let's flip this one over:

Well whaddya know, the first 1989 Bowman I wanna keep. I like Kirk Gibson, even if most of the rest of the MLB world does not. I'm from Michigan, and so is Kirk. Kirk plants a lot of trees, and so do I. Kirk is known here in northern Michigan for having a nice hunting spread over in the north-east top corner of the lower peninsula, and he has been on Michigan hunting and fishing TV shows several times as a result. I am sure he is there right now, having a good time with old friends and trying to forget about baseball and how and whether he can somehow return to The Game; it is easy to forget your troubles out at Deer Camp.

I like that Kirk wears #23, which is my birthday. I like On-Deck cards. I like that Pine Tar is featured on this baseball card.

But I will not be collecting 1989 Bowman any time soon, or ever. No matter how many get put into my re-packs, which is usually several, from some re-packers (4 of 30 cards in this one). For the final re-packer we will visit some future evening, those won't fit in their "pack", which is a good thing.

Let's see what else ULTIMATE Super JUMBO PACK has for me:

I'm sure now you are just looking around on the blogroll for something else to click on. But I admire 1992 card backs. Clean. White. Easy to read. Design recalls the front:

And I'm starting to think a few carefully targeted pages of 1992 Topps would look good in a binder. What are these repacks doing to me? I loved 1991 Topps but for whatever reason 1992 didn't grab me when I ripped a sample pack back in that day. At least it will be cheap to indulge in them a little more some day. But this is a dangerous precedent…

GAH! 1987 Topps! Wood paneling invading my computer. What is going on? This repack was loaded with the things actually - 10 of 30 cards were 1987 Topps. And here I had to discover a new strange meme to collect on a 1987 Topps, which would be a top contender on my Least Favorite Sets of All-Time list, were I ever to publish one by being stuck on a desert island with a complete collection of baseball cards and an Internet connection to blog about them all, finally.

And what wacko new meme is that? How many baseball cards feature a baseball bat suspended in mid-air, untouched by human hands? That will be a fun collection to chase, 3.33¢ per lottery ticket in these one dollar repacks. But why did it have to kick off with a 1987 Topps? That card will sure be lonely on a binder page for a long time to come. And it will be a 1987 Topps! Yuck! This hobby really is full of crazy people, isn't it?

At least I'm not being led down the path to collecting these:

I might have started to do that when I was a kid, but my allegiance to Topps was strong, and I hadn't finished 1981 Donruss (stay tuned), and on a kid budget I had to keep my priorities straight. I think before I ever had to worry about what to do with a couple packs of 1982 Donruss, these came along:

This is commented on plenty via blogs I'm sure. But until you see the two designs adjacent to each other, you forget about just how lame this was. My kid instincts were correct, and the repack shows off baseball card history well. Goodbye, Donruss.

Vern Ruhle though? He will always give me flashbacks to a Topps set a few years previous. By this point in collecting, I earned enough spare change from odd jobs in the neighborhood to really buy up some packs of baseball cards, and knew several other almost-teens who could as well. We could complete sets! But as it was turning out that year, Vern was a tough pull, and one other card was as well (I wish I could remember which). A whole bunch of us needed the same two cards. We could all buy packs, but no one in my town could pull those two cards. Pack buying became pointless. Hmmm, kinda like the intro theme to tonight's post. Anyhow, someone figured out that if you stretched the wax on the back of the pack, you could read the name of the card on top. And then shortly, every box of baseball cards in town was "pack searched" for those two cards. 

Ahh, memories. That is a big part of collecting these worthless baseball cards. Like this one:

What a card! I loved that set. I'll make it through the pile of blog-about cards eventually and reach the pile of blog-about boxes some day.

The runner looks like he absolutely demolished himself, but he's SAFE! I'm a little tempted to use modern research sites to sort out this example of an only occasional baseball card meme shown on Cardboard Junkie, err, Card Junk, the other day - a multi-position player. Topps never does that any more.

Fortunately, Topps never does this anymore either:

Looking back at the sets of my childhood, I hate the blurry cards. And in 1980s baseball cards, there are still plenty of them. And it always seems like there are more in the 1980s than the 1970s. What's up with that? Sometimes I wonder if these tend to have lower populations of high grades from the grading company, as the grader presumes a more focused copy could, or should exist. Some day I'll poke around on that idea.

But that LaRoche card will be going in a binder page slot, because I like cards with interesting trees on them. Particularly the blurriest trees ever, probably.

That card immediately brought to mind one of my Sea Turtles:

And no, I didn't hit a father-son combo in a repack, though that is a definite possibility with these two chips off the same block, as the repackers already use Sea Turtles to bulk up their product, frequently as the marquee card in the window on the top of the pack.

I probably shop via the window card with the hope that there is more of where that came from, and in this pack, there was:

The repack comes through again, reminding why I'm not in a hurry to fiddle around with 85 Topps. Dark-blue-on-powder-blue, with a player in a blue uniform in front of a blue dug-out full of powder blued up baseball players. Not well played, Topps. It could be that the blue just overwhelmed the registration of the red colors on this card and we get a pink Brave instead, and by the time your eyes attempt to reach safety at the bottom of the card, all the blue everywhere seems to have migrated towards purple and away from the probably-supposed-to-match color of the B-R-A-V-E-S lettering. What a mess of a card; not even the red, white & blue belt can save this one. 85 Topps just moved down the To Collect list a little bit.

This repack packer certainly had a lot of Topps at hand that day, with just a few examples from the other manufacturers. Topps wasn't the only one who could punt on good color choices on baseball cards:

And few sets get it more wrong than 1990 Score. Green, Yellow, Blue, White, Phillies 'red' - am I looking at a bowl of Lucky Charms? Nice powder blue touch there on the logo though. 1990 was a bad year for colorful baseball cards. But in another repack I picked up this year, 1990 Score hit a home run with a colorful card. I'll get to that box of repacked baseball cards, some day.

But I'm always interested in the manufacturers I never even bought a pack of baseball cards from, ever:

That's a 1989 Classic, with a handy feature on the back - space for the player to autograph the card. I have to wonder how many 'graph seekers took advantage of that. What a dilemma. To look at your cool autograph that proves a famous baseball player touched this baseball card, you would have to flip it over. Should I deface this valuable baseball card and have him sign the front? But who wants to check out a signature on the back of a card? What do I do here?

Buy some other manufacturer's baseball cards, most likely. Especially when a card-back writer is so hard up for material he includes this as a trivia question: "How many umpires are used in a regular season game?" I think even six year olds would have had their intelligence insulted by that one. You aren't missing much on the front of this one, either.

Nevertheless I frequently do admire non-Topps card backs:

Yes! The obvious question you wonder about when the back of the card says the player reached his new team via trade. For Who? For crying out loud, Topps, hook me up with this already. The new printing presses and their ability to print micro-type full of useless Rookie Facts makes this a no-brainer. Who'd the other guys get for this guy? Do you want me to put down my baseball cards and just ask Baseball Reference or Wikipedia? Siri will answer the question pretty fast these days, Topps.

Donruss had it right all along. Though now I have to wonder if the new un-licensed "Donruss" cards still do this. I'm sure a repack of some sort will answer that question for me soon.

That one had a kind-of cool front, with a nice batting cage shot. I'm just not a fan of posed batting shots with no batting helmet. Details, details.

Which you usually can't see on these never-seen-these-days baseball cards:

Bleeding powder blue on this one. A pity digital zoom technology wasn't available to Topps back then to see this much powder blue in up-close glory.

That's the last card I have for you tonight; I didn't really include it for the not-quite-digging-that-one image on the front. But I was tickled to find this card in my repack, because I could see that 24 years ago, it belonged to a real baseball card collector:

Just like me.