As If I Needed Another Player Collection

It doesn't take much for me to collect a guy. (It's even easier if it's a girl, but that doesn't happen often.)  So after a bit of quick research, I decided to add another player to the long list of "I want everything".  

Back in the day when I started most of my PC's, I just happened to have a few of the same player that weren't part of a set build (I was only a few sets in at this point), and thought "he's cool" - in the binder(s?) he went.  The consequence of this is that there are a few guys that I look at now and think "If I need to sacrifice a couple of these, he's one of them."  I only have real attachments to about a dozen or so out of the 60+ PC's I maintain.

Edwin Jackson is the newest draftee to my player collection team.  He technically supplants Royce Clayton, because I collect them for the same reason - modern player that has been on several franchises over his career.  Jackson has now set the record at 14 teams.  Clayton had played for eleven, which was the top total before Edwin.

The 39-year-old right-hander last pitched in the major leagues in 2019 with the Detroit Tigers. More recently, he helped Team USA capture a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics last summer.  

Along with the Tigers, Jackson also made stops with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Devil/Rays, Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago White Sox, St. Louis Cardinals, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins, San Diego Padres, Baltimore Orioles, Oakland Athletics and Toronto Blue Jays. 

His career accomplishes included an All-Star appearance in 2009 with the Tigers, a no-hitter in 2010 with the D-Backs and a World Series title in 2011 with the Cardinals, a three-year stretch that perfectly captures his nomadic career. He finishes his days as a pitcher with a 4.78 ERA and 1.47 WHIP across 412 games (318 starts). He struck out 1,508 batters in 1,960 innings.

Above are the five base cards that I happened to have in my extra stuff.  I thought I had seen several of his cards as I have been sifting through "The Hoard", but I probably sent them off to Cubs collectors or in set chunks.

I should be able to find his basic cards pretty easily.  Often he is limited to Topps flagship, Update, and maybe Heritage, GQ and Upper Deck flagship aside from his rookie year (2003) where he's in just about everything, but as a dreaded rookie.  

He's also got a lot of rookie autographs too, and since I'm not much of a rookie collector, I figured I'd see if eBay had a good batch to give me a head start.  

Boy, did I hit one!

Thanks to eBay seller sellwhatIfind, I got 27 cards, broken down into

4 Unnumbered RC's
6 #'d RC's, as low as /10
2 Auto/Relic RC's /22 and /150
14 Autos- 13 RC 1 non rc #'d as low as 16. Almost all under /100
1 1/1 Rookie Printing Plate

And I offered 3/4 of the asking price and was accepted!

This 2003 Just Minors is sticker-sealed in a top loader so it doesn't scan perfectly.

2003 Elite Extra Edition die-cut /100.  I like how they stamp across the sticker.  A lot of these have that feature.

'03 Flair Future Fame, Fleer Genuine Upside and Fleer Authentic Ticket To The Majors.  Some of the higher serial numbers of the bunch.

These two '03 Leaf Limited Phenoms are both shiny silver, but the rainbow shiny Silver Spotlight scans bluish.

Pairing these two low numbered ones throws off the chronological order.  Anyway, we have the first of many 2004's, Fleer Authentic Club Box Ticket to the Majors - this time /25.  Jumping ahead to '05, this Diamond King gold is /10.

Cyan Press "Proof" Plate 1/1 from Fleer Classic Clippings.  Had to use a magnifier to find that on the front. 

At some point I'll look up which particular Flair parallels these are, but for now I'm just basking in the low-numberedness.  I kind of like the parchment paper that the one auto is on.

The second Fleer Genuine [Insider] Upside in this lot.  This is the 2004 flavor bronze base version.  There aren't actually other color or gold/silver parallels, just "Reflections" /99.

This '04 Fleer Platinum Inscribed looks more like a minor league issue until you find the Plat logo.

Still more Fleer, this one Sweet Sigs Platinum Autograph, in EJ's case numbered to 22.  I always go back (or in this case forward) to the 2007 Sweet Spot Classics autos that are famous for fading.  Glad this one hasn't done that.  Probably looks worse in the scan.

A trifecta of Playoff Honors, which I just started as a set not too long ago.  Will need another one of these base cards.  

More fancy '04's.  Studio auto and two from Skybox Limited Edition, nice die-cuts.

Two of the few regular base.  I figure you probably know what the backs looks like...

Besides the printing plate, this is the biggest hit of the lot.  The one swatch + auto - Donruss Prime Patches from 2005.

The Mirror White and Gold auto flavors of 2005 Leaf Certified Materials.  These scan real nice.

And finally, the UD Trilogy Generations Future Signature numbered out of 35.  It's really faint right above his nameplate on the front.

So howzzat for a jump start?  I actually made a graphic checklist for all the base cards that he has thinking I'd just go for the regular stuff to show all the different teams.  But after finding this auction, I guess I'm a supercollector in the making.

I think I remember seeing Edwin live at a game in the outfield before first pitch.  Can't recall what game it was.  I thought it was cool that he played for both Washington and Baltimore.  That's why Pete Richert is one of my PC's.  

What inspires you to start a player collection?

2nd COMC swap

Business was booming there for a while on my COMC stock.  Sales are up to 32 cards and $120 or so.  So I gathered another batch of stuff for my own collection to get sent back.

Actually, I gathered two batches of stuff.  One at home and one at work (while on phone duty).  Curious how you can sign in as the same person but pile up two cartloads that don't overlap at all.  I pulled the trigger on the one that was my vintage baseball players, and left the one that was my more modern football guys.  That batch disappeared after a few days.  I'll load 'em up again next time.  They were mostly base cards anyway.

What I did get this time was an eclectic mix (do I ever do it any other way?) of guys I collect from the 60's thru the 80's - either in minor league, or obscure issues, or very modern products.

Pardon my penny sleeves...

1980 TCMA Joe Coleman, 1989 Smittys/Toyota Grant Jackson, 1999 Multi-Ad Joe Ferguson (yep, the bearded catcher from the Dodgers & Astros), 1987 and '88 Bob Bailor, and a 1989 Smokey Bear A Century Of Dodger Greats Claude Osteen - obviously not a minor league card.

Went a little nuts with the Pete Richerts.  But there were just a bunch of his at my price level - less than $3 each.  1988 & '90 Cal League, 1990 and '91 Frank Chong, 1992 Modesto A's black & white, and finally, 1995 Edmonton Trappers.

Now some real oddballs (with apologies to John Mangini), I left the tag in the Fleer glossy Kingman, those Mother's Cookies are distinctive - this is the '86 flavor, along with a gold parallel of the Hometown Heroes Rivalry and a King B disc from 2001.  Three from Bud Harrelson, the 1999 Fleer SI Greats cover, and two from a set I'd never seen before - something called 1994 Spectrum The Miracle of the '69 Mets.  The brothers in the other Mother's ('89) and the '92 Dodgers DARE coaches represent both Manny Mota and the aforementioned Joe Ferguson.  These multi-guy ones go in the same binder, so I don't bother getting two. 

A quick pair of Jim Fregosi.  The 2001 HTA stamped card, and the permanently encased Danbury Mint 22K gold issue.  These apparently went from 1995 to 2001.  Jim is the last of my guys I was missing.

So many of my player collection dudes were managers!  Bowa here is very well known for it.  I like those Rookie Cups, but I'm glad I got the red & orange together, since they're hard to distinguish.  His red uni helps.  Another HTA 2003 Topps (I always want to say the burnt orange year is 2003...) and not the first oversize team issue card of his I own.

Going for the rainbow on these 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary Luis Tiants, at least the affordable ones.  You have the base, refractor, X-fractor, and Aqua Wave versions.  As a bonus - or maybe more photo recycling on Topps' part, an Archives Snapshot to boot.

Now the fun stuff.  These aren't modern reprints, they're the real deals from 1977 and 1980+.  I'm now down to two of the orange series original Star Wars cards (plus one green), and still need a few of the Empire Strikes Back, but this checklist upgrade and two character cards are probably the toughest ones.

The rest of these will make you glad you read this far.  My favorite wrestler who I only really watched on the Divas show, Paige.  This is one of her hottest photos of all her cards IMO.  I think I had a parallel or two, but not the base.  

And continuing the theme of incredibly sexy women named Paige, we have the golfer/Instagram model Paige Spiranac (I believe it's pronounced "speer-AH-nek"?).  I posted about her first cards in the 2013 Allen & Ginter set.  These are much nicer.  The first two are the Goudey inserts on this 2021 Goodwin Champions set.  There are fourteen (!!) parallels to the Goudeys.  I just picked two that I thought were the prettiest.  I passed up three or four more that were still around a buck or two, but figured I'd wait on chasing the rainbow.  GC typically does two poses in their base set - vertical & horizontal, and here are the Royal Blue parallels of each, and the Platinum Rainbow of the vertical as well.  My favorite is the Splash Of Color, which is not an insert or parallel, but rather a subset of the base after #100.  I'll definitely be hunting the couple parallels of that one.  Rowwr!

Thanks for stopping by!

Bruce Sutter Closes His Longest Game

Bruce Sutter is one of only a few Hall Of Famers that I collect out of 50+ baseball players.  So it's a definite must-post on the occasion of his passing.  Wrigley Wax posted all he had of Sutter, which were all Cubs, but there were several that I don't have.  (Jealous.)

Get ready, my binder had 16 pages, and then there are the odd size or shape and autos and gamers after that....

I'm pretty sure I upgraded my '77 rookie card at one point.  The first one I had was not the best condition.  

A couple notes on the arrangement of things to make it easier to identify certain cards.  Up through 1980, I put Topps first and O-Pee-Chee beside them and then put anything else next.  Hence Kellogg's and Hostess follow OPC.  After 1980, I put all sets in alphabetical order.

So there are the OPC, Topps and Burger King in the first row, then Kellogg's.  Love those '81 Fleer stickers.  How is that '81 Kellogg's so O/C??

Then we move into the Cardinals cards.  OPC in slot 1 (love it when they advance the team), then Perma-Graphics (credit) card, '81 regular, Coke and Traded...

Works out well to line up the '82 OPC & Topps and still have the Perma- in the right spot.

1983 ends with the Rub-Off.  I put any with my player guys on them with that player facing up.

These are a bit out of order now that I look at them.  The center slot is a Tiffany, so I might have been in the middle of deciding whether to line up the player cards and the Active Leaders or put all three player cards together.

Yeah, the glossy is out of sequence, as is the OPC, but grouping the pictures takes priority.  These are the OCD debates you have with collections in binders...sometimes it's just whatever looks better.

And now the Braves years.  I really don't remember him on the Braves.  Not sure how much baseball I watched in the late 80's as it was right after I graduated high school.  The two SportFlics have the same photo of Bruce among the three on each card.

Another Tiffany.  The spaces are just me making room in case there's something else from '88.

The Tiffany trifecta completed with the '89.  And with the Upper Deck, here endeth the active career cards.  Post-career section starts with the McDonalds.  Sorry Bo, I didn't have a second one for you.

Almost every great retired star set of the time here...

Still need the bronze Fleer Greats.  They sure like that Cubs pose of his.  The Tribute barely fits in the page slot, much like the Triple Threads below.

Now we get to some really pretty cards.  And some serial numbers.  The 2010 is a Topps Update legend variations.  The '77 reprint is from 2011 Topps 60 Years.  The cracked ice looking Coopy doesn't come through on the scan very well.

I only have one of the Wrigley Field giveaway cards (the '63 design).  I was there for one batch, but haven't found the others and didn't know there were stamped ones for the season ticket holders until I saw WWax's post.  That's a cool '73 flavor Archive, isn't it?

One from the Stan Musial set Heroes, a rather generic Panini, and a Cooperstown induction that I just randomly found somewhere.  Most of these recent parallels and rare ones I just find in dollar boxes etc. 
I don't aggressively seek out Sutter stuff as much as several of my other guys, but he's around second-tier as far as my priorities go.  (There are probably about five tiers - 1) the few guys I want EVERYTHING of, 2) players with good careers who have a decent number of offbrand and post-career cards, 3) guys with the basics and a few others, 4) guys with a minimum of cards that I still like, and 5) players I could take out of my PCs if I had to.)

That DK Heritage card looked really distorted when I scanned it.  Then I took it out of the page and figured out why...

That texture must have blown the scanner's mind a little bit...

Last page in my binder.  Top three are Archives.  Last two probably have six parallels, but I won't chase them too hard. (Not that I'll turn them down if they're cheap).

These are pulled from my binder of odd sized issues, which is arranged by size and not year, so these are all over the place.  The 7-11 coins are from '84 (1), '85 (2), and '86 (4).  There are two more that I haven't found yet.  He has a ton of them.  To figure out the scale, the Squirt card is regulation 2½" x 3½".  The white disc is a Colgan's Chip from 2013 Cooperstown, the little rectangular one is a 1981 All-Star Game Program insert - one of those wacky things that has a ton of my PC guys in it, but I'd never have fathomed that I'd ever actually have some.

Here's Bruce on the 7-11's since Quisenberry showed on the scan.

The backs of the coins plus an '89 LJN Baseball Talk record card thingy that can be put on a player like a phonograph.  (You young'uns look that up).  And a piece of a Fold-Out from the late 80's too.

'80 & '85 Supers

And finally, the coolest ones.  I'm lucky to have found most of these that are numbered so low. (at least to me).  That "...Lineage" one has the obligatory space for an auto that you didn't get, but it's nice anyway.  I wish they'd have swapped the photos on the dual Gagne piece and the Memorable Moments auto so the swatch would match the jersey.  But it was probably less than $10 or 15, so I'm not complaining.

I can't really go on for long about all the details of Sutter's career and say that I'm deeply affected by his passing.  I can say that watching his dominance for the Cardinals was the inspiration for this collection, so there is at least some nostalgic attachment.  I was a fan of the Cardinals when I was young, and he was one of my favorites.  I enjoyed watching when he and his new HOF friends got together on tv specials as well.

"I mean, he won all these awards and all this stuff and they weren't even hung out in the house because all he cared about was winning and being respected by the other players and being a good teammate. That was his whole motivation," [son] Chad Sutter told the AP....