30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 11

Day 11: One of your favorite cards from the 1970s

1978 Topps #210

I was following the Phillies closely in the 1970s and beyond but I wasn't collecting baseball cards. I have nearly all the Topps Phillies cards from the 1979s however, and a few of other players as well. I'm going with this one because it just says "1970s" to me.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 10

Day 10: One of your favorite cards from the 1960s

1960 Topps #138

I'm going with this beat up old Art Mahaffey rookie card. I don't remember where or how I got it. I'm a big baseball fan now, but when I was a kid (I was 8 years old the summer of 1960), I wasn't much of a fan. But I can remember that I was somehow aware of Art Mahaffey. He played 6 years with the Phillies, 1960-1965, compiling a 58-60 record. He was somehow an All-Star in 1961 (when he was 11-19) and again in 1962 with a bit more respectable record of 19-14. He was 12-9 in 1964, the year the Phillies blew a big lead in September and lost the National League pennant (which to be truthful, I hardly remember).

So this might not be my absolute favorite card that I own from the 1960s, but I have a story to tell about it so it's my choice. And really, without a story, what's the point of picking any particular card?

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 9

Day 9: One of your favorite cards from the 1950s

I'm going to restrict this to cards from the 1950s that I actually own. There are only 49 of them and most are Phillies. Looking through them, it was no contest.

1958 Topps #230 Richie Ashburn

I got this card in 2007, paid $7.80 for it on eBay. It's in pretty good shape and is a great looking card from a great looking set.

I grew up listening to baseball on the radio and for most of that time, Richie Ashburn was the Phillies color man. I don't really remember him as a player but I loved him doing Phillies games. He worked as a Phillies broadcaster from 1963 to 1997. He was planning to retire after the 1997 season but he died of a heart attack, at age 70, in his hotel room after broadcasting a Mets-Phillies game on September 9, 1997.

A fact we didn't know until he passed is that Ashburn and my father, who also loved Ashburn, were born in the same day.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 6

Day 6: A card you spent more than $10 to get.

There are hardly any baseball cards I'm willing to spent more than $10 for, but I made an exception in this case. It's the single most money I've ever spent on a single card. And of course, it is Mike Schmidt.

1999 SP Signature Autograph

I paid $46 for this back in November 1999. More even than I paid for his rookie card. It's the only Schmidt auto I have and I'm very happy with it. Earlier in the year I had paid $6 for the non-autographed version.

30 Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 5

OK, back to the Challenge:

Day 5: A certified autograph card of one of your favorite players.

Since Jim Bunning just passed away, and I was on vacation so I couldn't make a note of it in my blog, I'm going to go with this.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game Autographs

I got this on eBay way back in 2005 for $8.50

And just because I have it, the non-autographed version.

2001 Fleer Greats of the Game

I paid $0.30 for this later in 2005.

1986 Dorman's Cheese Mike Schmidt

A quick break from the 30-day Baseball Card Challenge.

Just when I think I have every 1980s Mike Schmidt card, another one comes along. It's one of the things that makes collecting cards so much fun.

1986 Dorman's Cheese

A card from this set was featured on tradingcarddb.com's Card of the Day. I figured that a 1986 set should have Schmidt in it and it did. There were several available on eBay. These cards came as a 2-card piece, perforated between cards. As it turns out, the featured card of the day was Rickey Henderson, the other half with Schmidt.

It's hard to tell the card size on tradingcardb so I was surprised to see how small the card is, smaller than a Topps Sticker. But, it's still a Mike Schmidt card I didn't have.

30-Day Baseball Card Challenge Day 2

Day 2 - A card with more than one player on it.

I had a hard time narrowing this down to one card so I'm going to cheat on the rules here (assuming there are rules) and feature 4 cards.

1993 Score #512

There are a lot of reasons to love this card. For one thing it features a rare play, the unassisted triple play. For another, it was pulled off by a Phillie. And finally, it wasn't just anybody involved, it was Barry Bonds.

1991 Studio

For its pun value alone.

2009 Topps Update #316

I got to see Pence's early years as an Astro and he was fun to watch. He sure enjoyed his first All-Star game in 2009.


Here's the whole challenge list.

Repack Bang or Bust Part 5

The last one of these I did was about a 250-card Fairfield box. Well, this is sort of part two since when I bought that box I actually bought two. I rated that last box a Bang! and this one also gets a bang. I needed 115 of the 250 cards. Not too bad.

These boxes advertise that every other box (on average) has either a relic or an auto. The other box had nothing but this one had an auto.

2011 Bowman Autographed Prospects

Havens was the Mets #1 pick in 2008 but never made it to the majors.

1980 Topps #575

This was the oldest card in the box. The Phillies won the World Series in 1980, which was before I started collecting. I'm on a slow motion quest to complete the 1980 Topps set so I'm always happy to get one. 

My last post featured the weird airbrushed 1987 Topps Mike Laga card. That card came to my attention because this card was in the box.

1986 Donruss #578

Nothing really special about this card except it's part of a trend I noticed about this box. There were a lot of cards in it which were near duplicates of cards in the earlier box. For example, this is card #578. The earlier box had card #587 from the same set. These were the only 1986 Donruss cards in either box.

1986 Fleer #380

I collect Lee Smith so was happy to get this even though it's a terrible looking card. The photo is out of focus and the dark blue borders do it no favors. What was with both Fleer and Donruss using dark blue borders in 1986?

1988 Topps Traded #30

This set had a few of these Team USA cards. Pat Combs was the Phillies #1 draft pick in 1988, so of course, I have to consider this as a Phillies card. From this card I realized that there were several Phillies cards in this set I was unaware of. I managed to find the whole 1988 Topps Traded set on eBay for much less than $10, so I bought it.

1990 Donruss #147

Say what you like about 1990 Donruss, but I like it and have about 2/3 of the set. I collect Gary Carter but was missing this one.

1990 Topps #784

This card raises the question "Why do so many baseball cards have light poles in the background?".

1990 Broder Rookies Superstars

I have another card of Ben McDonald with the exact same back, but numbered #1 of 12. It also has a different photo. basebalcarddb.com lists the 12-card set but not the 7-card set. The other box had the Todd Zeile card from the 7-card set.

1990 Star #97

Another of the weird duplicates. This is a set I'd only had two cards from and both were Phillies cards I'd gotten in a trade. So I'd never seen one of these cards in a repack before I pulled #98 from the other box. Now I've also have #97.

1992 Triple Play

Zosky was the Blue Jays #1 pick in 1989 who never really made it. I didn't have a single one of his cards before opening this box. Now I have two. This one and his 1992 Ultra (#156) card.

1993 Donruss #276

The other box had card #277. Also featuring, I believe, the early season dead ivy at Wrigley Field.

1993 Topps Gold #319

These are a relatively rare finding in a repack. The other box had #318.

1997 Select Certified #40

Card #30 from this set (Paul Molitor) was in the other box. The only two cards from this set I've ever seen. I collect both players so I'm happy to have them.

2000 Upper Deck Ultimate Victory #54

I have a handful from this set, all of which I've gotten from repacks. It is a parallel to 2000 Upper Deck Victory but with a soft, thick coating on the front.

2001 Upper Deck Victory #590

This is another set which I've only seen in repacks. I don't know who this guy was but I didn't have this subset so it goes right into the reference books.

2002 Topps 206 #55

I like this set but bought very little of it when it was new. I pulled card #45 (Bud Smith) from the other box.

And finally, 2015 Topps Team Sets #PHP-8

The Phillies team sets don't seem to be available where I live in the Houston area. I'm lucky I can find the Astros set. The other box had the Phillies Maikel Franco card from the set.

1995 Mr. Turkey Baseball Greats Tug McGraw

It's hard to pass up on a card issue called "Mr. Turkey Baseball Greats". At least it is for me, if the player in question is a Phillie. And not just any Phillie, but Tug McGraw, one of the heroes of the 1980 Phillies World Series championship. Post-career McGraw cards are rare anyway, and he's as likely to appear on such a card as a Met or a Phillie.

Although the copyright is 1994, both baseballcarddb.com and beckett.com list this as a 1995 issue.

It's kind of a weird set. The other four cards are Bob Feller, Al Kaline, Boog Powell, and Warren Spahn. Mr. Turkey was (and maybe still is) a trademark of the Bel Mar Foods Co., a meat packer in Michigan. If the company still exists (I did a bit of searching, but it wasn't exhaustive), the company may now be owned by Sara Lee.

What these 5 players have to do with each other or an upper midwest meat company is beyond me. And I have no idea of how they were distributed. I imagine they were stuffed with the gizzards in fresh turkeys available in Michigan supermarkets.

Note that the cards were not licensed by ML Baseball. Tug's cap is air brushed, but that's clearly a Phillies uni, not a Mets uni.

2017 Topps Gypsy Queen

According to baseballcardpedia.com, Topps was trying a lower price point for Gypsy Queen this year. I paid $0.47/card this year for a blaster and a couple of packs, which is the same as I paid last year, and pretty much for every year of this product.

Topps did revamp the product. There are no mini cards in this set, which is OK by me. There are also very few insert sets (in fact only two) which aren't either parallels or autos/relics.

I've not been much of a fan of the Gypsy Queen designs over the years.

There are some nice design features this year. I like the lighter borders, the way the photo fades into the border, the curlycue things on either side of the city name, and the player name plate. I even like the fake age burn. But, the bottom part of the card is just horrible. I like the ornate Gypsy Queen logo on the back but it just takes up too much room on the front. There is also no team name on the front and no team logo anywhere, which I don't like.

Topps maintained, what I believe, is the main Gypsy Queen feature, the treatment of the photograph. This feature I've always liked, regardless the rest of the design.

I pulled two Astros (of 12 cards in the set) and two Phillies (also 12). I guess I'll buy the rest on eBay. Both teams are a bit over represented in the set.

There aren't a lot of cards featuring players in the field.

I guess this photo is from last year's All-Star game or it's a joke. In the back ground we can see various team caps (Mariners, Blue Jays, Indians, Phillies) and several team shirts (Brewers, Dodgers, Padres, or maybe it's the Nationals All-Star shirt). Even though the game was in the Padres park, the American League was the home team. Arenado was hitless in 3 ABs.

Randy Johnson rocking an Expos uni. Gypsy Queen always included a few retired players. This year they collected the retired players as cards 301-320 and made them short prints. The box proudly proclaims "1 Short Printed Base Card Guaranteed!".

I pulled two of the 10 different parallels. Can you spot the gimmick in this one?

It's apparently supposed to have been printed without the black printing plate. I don't know why the name plate is black however.

This one is a little easier.

Here are the 2 non-auto/relic inserts.

This is called the "Fortune Teller mini". It's as tall as a regular card but thinner.

Looks like 2009 Upper Deck Goudey, one of the creepiest issues of the past 20 years.