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....

More Rescues From Among The Commons

As I've probably stated before in a number of ways, I'm not a rookie collector.

I can't wrap my head around the idea that a rookie card of a guy who only has a lot of potential is worth way more than (even the rookie sometimes) of a player who actually accomplished a HOF worthy career.  

But that's a whole other post...

One of the things that comes out of all the rookie hype is when you're building sets, you better hope you pulled the big rookie cards when you opened your boxes, or got them in trade before they took off.  Luckily, I had all the ones I was looking for.

On the flip side, since I don't pay so much attention to modern rookies, I will often leave them in the set boxes with all the rest of the base cards.  I will have finished the set, so they are in there somewhere, but as you saw with the Mike Trout post, I recently figured out it's probably better to pull them out and preserve on them at least a little bit.  

I intend to put them in the binder where all my major star cards are that aren't with their respective sets.  I have heard YouTubers say that binders and pages aren't good protection.  Aside from slabbing them, which will never happen, are top loaders or one-touches generally considered much better options than pages?  I don't have the storage space for many more top loaders.  Let me know in the comments...

So I went on COMC (This is generally how I figure out dollar values for stuff.)  and pulled up most of the current major stars (that I could think of - your comments helped a lot) and looked to see what their base Topps rookie cards were selling for, since those seem to be highly sought after lately.  I made a list of all the ones that were around $8 and over.  Nobody is close to Trout at four digits, but a few were more than I expected.  And since you can't really separate regular base cards in a COMC search for "topps base <player name>", I ran across a few others that I hunted down too, like A&G or Heritage high numbers.

Here is the group after I pulled them out:

I put them in top loaders for the time being, but like I said, they'll end up in a binder unless several of you leave screaming comments that I'm an idiot...Though I have put certain singles in top loaders and filed them back with the sets before too...

The down side of set building sometimes is that you amass the whole thing with most or all the inserts, sort it into a box, and then it goes on the shelf and sits for a very long time.  A few of these cards were in boxes that were way down on the bottom of stacks or deep in cabinets.

Like Altuve's 2011 Topps ($18) ~ that set was on the very bottom of the rack. 

Trout was in that bottom box too.  I just realized I forgot Goldschmidt ($35)...dangit!  Gotta pull that one back out again!

Had to think about where my 2013 Update set was.  I have a factory base set, and couldn't recall how I got the Update.  It was lurking in the cabinet.

 

...with the Opening Day set.

Yelich's Topps base is on the border of $7-8 like Posey's, so I haven't pulled it yet.  Arenado is $20+ and this Heritage High Number is selling for $68 right now.  Not sure if that's a fluke...

He was up on the cabinet shelf with the old school Update sets (lower right).  Mine isn't sorted, but he popped right up when I pulled out the first few cards.

2014 starts a run of Topps sets that fit into two row shoe boxes with Series 1, 2 & Update.  My run from 2014 to 2018 are all stored this way.  These guys are about $40-50 each for their regular rookies right now.  This is about when they started with the regular+rookie debut cards since just making one of a guy isn't nearly enough any more...

Lindor ($12) is the only one from 2015 or '16 that I pulled.  

Then we get to the guys that are still way up on the hot list.  Judge has one base ($41) and three Update cards ($8, $13, $20), plus I yanked his Bunt blue ($21) that I happened to pull and his '87 ($29) from my set.

And for Ohtani, almost nothing of his is registering below $10, so they all came out...even some Stadium Club inserts.  The one with Ichiro is only marked $4, so I might throw that one back...

If I was a good fan of the Nats, I should have a lot more Soto ($25) stuff, but he was in such high demand right from the jump that I never had any real opportunities to get anything exotic.

And I still need Tatis' RC from Stadium Club to finish that set....his are all about $10.

I did pull an Acuña auto from the previous Stadium Club and sold it on eBay.  Still have most of the others in that post.  His Update is going for around $20.

I was glad to pull the Vlad no-number at the time.  Of course, it's only like $17 now.  When those come out you think you might have hit a super rare short print, but the ones I find mellow out quickly.

So if you're a set builder, what do you do with the big name rookie cards?  (Guess it depends on how you store your sets too).  What is your value threshold to separate them from the set?  Or do you?  Bleep bloop it below, thanks!

Meanwhile, At Hivemind Headquarters...

Had to get away from another frustrating day of football watching, so here's what it looks like at Hivemind Headquarters when I'm pulling cards for trades from my baseball hoard of extra stuff from the 2000's.  I've shown most of this before, but stick around to the end for a special look.

On any given day, the card room is neater than this, but since I've got all the monster boxes laid out so I can jump around in them, it's solid cards all the way around right now.  

Here is the football half of the hoard as well...

And there's about that many (counting both batches) in the other room too, but I won't show those.  I like to take people in there first and they usually say, "Wow, you've got a lot!"  To which I reply, "That's just extra stuff, the actual collection is over here..."

Here are a few more that my friend Stuart brought in June...

Anyone trading older hockey?

Now I'll take you around the room and show the actual collection...

Starting from the doorway...

 You're greeted by Priest on the wall, and then the baseball binder shelf.

  

Which is next to the baseball (china) cabinet...

This one holds some of my storage supplies in the drawer. 

And the matching football & miscellaneous shelf on the other side into the corner...

Then turning around to the desk.  All kinds of stacks here - some are to be put away, some are future starter sets, some are just "I think xxx might need these", etc.

My Giants picture hangs in that corner.  Sometimes I think I should switch it with Priest so that baseball is with baseball and football is with football.  I'll get it right in my next house.

Then beyond the desk is the matching football and hockey cabinet...

Featuring the Theismann jersey,...

And Priest memorabilia...

Both cabinets have drawers for silverware that fit top loaders very nicely, though I keep filling them up and having to move things into boxes.

And finally, the rack at the other end of the couch gets you back to the door.

The top is all Washington football cards in the old vinyl lockers.  The rest are bulky sets.  The second shelf is sets in progress, and the rest are complete.

There are also complete sets in the bottom of each cabinet for their respective sports.  Here's the top and bottom of the baseball unit.

You've made it this far, so here's a full tour...

So if you need me, this is where I'll be.  Thanks for stopping by!

Might Be A Good Idea...

As you probably know, I'm not one to pay much attention to the hype on modern cards and their exorbitant prices.  The stars today don't quite have the mystique or reverance to me that vintage guys do.  Which is not to say that there aren't a few players that will be in the record books and lore for a long time to come.  

Every once in a while I have to acknowledge that as it manifests itself in cards.

So a couple months ago, I went into my collection...

It's down here somewhere...

Of course it's on the bottom...

Writing on the corner of a box is rather difficult.  My handwriting is better than this.  But anyway...

OK, pull that one out...

Series 1 on the left,... Series 2 next,...hmm don't have wrappers for Update.  Oh well...

Ah, bonus SP Ruth!  OK, should be about right here...

Pull that chunk out...

Right about here...

There he is!

That's a little better, considering...

Figured I shouldn't leave him in there with the set for much longer.  I could put him in one of those big lucite holders with the four screws like I have all my other big money cards.  (I know, no one uses those any more.)  

Anybody else I might be neglecting in my sets for the last decade or so who is now over $50?