Been digging through the closets and drawers this weekend, mostly looking for the other journal book - it is still eluding me - but I found a few things that need better homes.
Picked up a few minor league items from a friend of mine several years ago. I keep packing them away and then I have to go digging for them when I think about them later. There are actually two copies of this particular program, with manager Bob Skinner on the cover. Each of them has a roster sheet for that days game.
The first one is from August 15, 1992 against the Albequerque Dukes and also includes the Toros' promotional schedule for August and September. The second is for September 1 against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and also includes a bonus sheet - a wedding invitation for outfielder Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes that was held at the ballpark. Both books are intact for the most part except for the untidy removal of a food coupon from one of the ad pages.
The third Toros' program is from just a couple years later, after they repeated as PCL champions. This one was also sold at a game vs. the Sky Sox - this time somewhere between July 25 and 28, according to the roster sheet.
The scoresheet sections of all three programs are clean.
I have another program from around the same era, though this one is for a major league team.
Colorado Rockies Inaugural Spring Training program from 1993. Includes a ticket stub for a game against the Angels on March 14. There is an article on manager Don Baylor that almost makes me want to keep the book for my player collection, but it's a little too far outside the scope of reasonable storage and practicality. So my discipline leads to your benefit.
The bonus with this one is a limited edition baseball from the year after. Only 1000 of these were made for Spring Training in 1994.
And it's signed! After some brief research,...
It turns out to be the signature of catcher and later Cleveland and Seattle manager Eric Wedge. (Autographed card not included). He is now managing at Wichita State University.
I will trade any or all of these for cards on my wantlist, or cash to cover postage. I'm not in them for any significant cost, so don't hesitate to make an offer!
It's now November 1982, and the year is starting to wind down. And actually, so is this series, unless I can find the other journal book for 1983!
Big shop visit for this one. I spent over $23! (Boy, if I could get away from a decent shop for that little nowadays, they must have nothing but Bowman and hot rookies!)
It was about this many '78's, but there weren't any big stars listed.
Four Mickey Lolich cards, probably not '78 or '79, since I was working on those sets, so they're probably at least one or two of these....
Same deal with Cedeno...
This one I do know, but it could be the '70 or '71. The difference is the color of the inside.
1981 Kellogg's is the easiest set to complete, and I bought it all at once. I have a line on most of it if anyone needs.
Willie Randolph getting his first taste of New York in 1976....
A couple from the year before. Billy Williams is one of the few non-player-collection guys in this purchase.
Even the World Series cards had several of my PC guys. Palmer in '71 and Tenace, Foster, and Campaneris make apperances in '73 Topps.
All this and some stickers for $23? Bring back the good ol' days!
I've got two more entries from the journal to go. One about the '82 NFL strike and the resulting Redskins championship. The last is in December where I said that I put in orders for TCMA sets, and showed off my ('82?) Traded set. After that, I'm going to have to dig out the other book...
Dangit! I'm a couple posts ahead, and I forgot to put one up on Friday. Here's your bonus weekend post...
Got a really cool box of stuff from a Trading Bases member, Roland last week. He was making up for past trades and just helping people out. For a moment, I thought he might have gone overboard...
Was gonna say I don't even own and iPod, but I actually have one of those really small ones that you pin to your shirt that my mother won at a company party giveaway and didn't know what to do with it. I don't use it either.
Slide away the sleeve... Still looks like their may be electronics in there....
A-HA! It's actually all but three singles I need to kill the '93 GameDay set I started early this year with the purchase of a binder-full for cheap! (For those scoring at home, 22 ESmith 81 Monk 353 Stepnoski are left)
Perfect packaging!
Besides two other snap boxes of basically the rest of my '92 Pro Set football needs (yes, you read that right - 1992 Pro Set. I like that stuff just as much as 2020 Heritage or 1959 Topps. OK, maybe not quite that much, but still....) was this Conlon Colorized Bob Feller. #23 in the series, it was a bonus that came with the SCD Price Guide. Now all I need are the ones numbered in the 30's.
As a few of you might guess, I've got a couple different entries for this idea. I'll start with the minor ones first. Bo showed his fledgling accumulation of vintage brand name items and some political buttons. Kinda like this:
I see a lot of older presidential buttons like this in the flea markets and antique malls. If I didn't collect cards, I might be inclined to gather these. I like the historical value, but I'd probably end up collecting space program patches instead.
I do have one significant sports button - this Redskins Super Bowl matchup against Elway and the Broncos. Of course, the 'Skins came out on top. Oh, to see those glory days again soon....
But the main thrust of this little collection is rock bands. Mostly metal, as are my tastes, even today. There are a few mellower artists in the mix as well. Check the links for some of their good tunes. Warning - lots of cheesy 80's music videos.
These buttons were sold at the mall stores that carried t-shirts and posters of the current pop culture - in this case, the mid- to late 1980's. It was a cheap way to represent who you like to listen to. I did NOT, however, own a stereotypical jean jacket to put these on. I keep them in a tin can on a bookshelf.
The Super Bowl button makes a convenient lid.
While not an exhaustive catalog of all my favorite bands, the basics are covered well. Dokken was my first favorite hard rock act. And Judas Priest was not far behind. Their album art is the best for graphic representation (as you saw in the video in this post). I like Ozzy a lot, though I have never seen him live. Deep Purple was in the middle somewhere, though Perfect Strangers is a great album. You may not know Vandenberg, they were more of a fringe band. Their lead guiarist and namesake went on to join David Coverdale and Whitesnake for most of the TawnyKitaen period at least.
I found a LOT of Ratt buttons. Think I might have the whole lineup individually, and then twice as many group shots. I got the t-shirts back in the day for the middle one in the middle row (plus the poster that I had hanging in my college dorm), and another shirt that had the "robot rat" on the back. Everyone knows them for their videos with Milton Berle (and a younger Tawny). Here's one that's just pure performance.
Too bad it ended badly for the original lineup. The drummer got mad and made his
own version of the band (that failed), and the blonde guitarist died.
Next up, the band that originally turned me on to guitar solos and long-haired musicians in general - KISS. But it wasn't back in the early days with the makeup and live albums, it was their first album with NO makeup.
Also shown here - Mötley Crüe and Krokus (crank these up)
There's no video for this song, but here's the album track:
Next up, Twisted Sister and Bon Jovi. TS wasn't the most polished band, but they were good honest rock and roll. Plus, Dee Snider's testimony at the PMRC hearings was epic.
I liked Bon Jovi's first few albums, but always thought their songwriting was chock full of clichés. Later on, they got way more popular, but my fandom kinda waned.
A couple oddballs here. Loudness was a totally Japanese metal band with a phenomenal guitarist. Guiffria was another more obscure one that I liked. Just happened to find buttons of theirs.
And rounding out the mix, a few of the mellower bands that I liked before I discovered metal. Huey Lewis & the News were one of only two bands that I saw live more than once. I think they played for a long time after the 80's but I didn't keep up. Survivor had a great sound way beyond "Eye Of The Tiger", but changed singers a few times. Night Ranger was popular later during the metal period, and was played along with that type of music, eventually contributing members to a few other harder acts.
There were several other bands that were favorites of mine, I just never found buttons of theirs. Queensrÿche, Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Cinderella, among others.
Recently traded with Jeremy at Heartbreaking Cards.... Knocked out a bunch of his Tampa Bay Rays wants instead. Here's what I got for this round...it's a very eclectic mix of set hits.
Nice batch of 2002 Topps Traded. Most of these guys had decent careers. Not sure if Mario is Edwin's brother or not.
Another Traded set, this time from the next year. I always associate this set with speckles from bricking since I bought a whole box that was like that. Even the replacement box wasn't a whole lot better. One day I'll find or trade for a nice series 1 set.
Scott Rolen insert from 2003 Topps. Trouble with these is, some players are duplicated between the red and blue backs.
Some nice names from the most recent set build I've started - 2004 Topps All Time Fan Favorites including the late Al Kaline. Excuse my old eyesight missing the cropping on these scans.
One, two and twenty four from the 2004 Topps insert series. I never had to memorize the order of the Presidents in school, did you?
Retro-hat version of Torii Hunter's 2005 Heritage. He's always so happy on his cards.
Cantu from the first A&G set and Jeremy's beloved Rays.
Here's one from the 2006 Topps 1952 rookies set. Two of the most overemphasized things in the hobby. The '52 design and rookies. Guess I just collect this set because I could with the starter batch I got.
Another Topps rookies from 2007. Great photo concept, just not the best execution.
And finally, two from 2007 Heritage. Still need the other A Sanchez.
As a lot of us are doing these days, I spent some free time last week perusing eBay for oddball card items and bargains. I stumbled across a seller called wipeoutslider who had the last two 1981 Topps Scratch-Offs I needed and several other player collection items. I actually started looking at his stuff after finding a nice lot of 2001 Bowman's Best higher numbers which would knock off a bunch from the list I had just made.
The order arrived in an extra large plastic bubble mailer. There were three sub-packages inside. All of the packaging and tape was marked with eBay insignias. This was the most epic packaging job of all time!
The simplest sub-package was the bundle of regular sized cards. It was in its own smaller bubble envelope and sandwiched between top loaders. Textbook deluxe packaging.
Inside was the aforementioned Bowman's Best lot. Some of these are available for trade. I just didn't separate the needs from the extras when I scanned it all.
Also in the bundle was a 2002 Chrome gold refractor of Dusty Baker. Hard to tell it's the gold one until you put it up against the regular color card.
Next up, a double layered cardboard sandwich around the two '81 Scratch-Offs and a postcard inside a semi-rigid plastic sleeve. You could run over these with a truck.
Turns out I got another Griffey this past summer, but it'll just add to the pile of about twenty full panels of these I have left over from a big batch that a dealer in Ephrata sold me real cheap. Have to go back through my set and make sure I've got at least one of each card and all my player guys. I'm pretty sure I have more than enough.
Behind those was this nifty "Plastichrome" post card of late Dodger great Ron Fairly. (Night Owl might be jealous).
Here's a quick view of the back. Feels just a bit heavier than a regular post card, but not so rigid as to contain too much "plastic".
And finally, another double-layer sandwich of a bagged and top-loadered pair of 8x10 images of a couple of my other player guys. They would have survived a sunken ship, I think.
Sparky Lyle is drawn/painted very nicely on this Atlantic Richfield (now ARCO) Photo Card. It's definitely from 1969, as Lyle wasn't on the Sox that long. Great artist rendering.
WipeoutSlider has tons of these kind of team issued photos and postcards. I could have gone nuts with all my player guys. But at $5-8 a shot, and since they're such an large size, I decided to keep it to only a few. I've got enough stuff from most of these guys that I can let that kind of thing go.
I like this photo of Manny. He looks so intimidating, even though he's the nicest guy in person. You may recall this shot showing up in my badass players post a couple years ago.
Believe it or not, I only paid a total of a blaster and a half for all this stuff.
I think I got a bargain on the shipping charges alone, since the items were packaged so well. This is the gold standard on how to pack and ship items from online outlets. Sellers take heed!
