NASCAR autographs from long ago

Did you know that the NASCAR Playoffs are currently going on right now? All of our eyes are focused on MLB, and rightfully so, but NASCAR and their ever-evolving playoff format are in full swing as well.

Admittedly, I don't follow very closely in 2017. I know general storylines, but not much else. However, growing up, I was a big fan, especially of Dale Earnhardt Sr. In the mid-90s, I sent a bunch of TTM requests to NASCAR drivers, and the success rates were always very high. I don't believe I ever sent a SASE either. The teams were kind enough to handle the postage.

A few months ago, I rescued some old bins of mine from my parents attic, and basically transferred them directly to my attic. In one of the bins, I found a few old envelopes of signed photos, and was happy to find all of my NASCAR autographs preserved and in great shape.

I definitely received some of the sport's biggest stars at the time, and the Earnhardt is certainly one that I treasure.

Here are the others:

Signed by both Derrick Cope and Bobby Allison

And while not a NASCAR driver, Bryan Herta used to send signed photos via email requests.

Pretty cool to look back on these, and I'm glad I saved them from over 20 years ago.

Non-mainstream cards - GI Joe, World Cup '94, Maxx Racing

I feel like all of my posts lately are either trade reviews, purchase reviews, or TTMs. They are mainly baseball-centric as well. This is all well and good, but I'm not bringing much insight to the table other than telling you what I got in the mail that day. Boring. I recently saw a post over at Community Gum about a trade for some Garbage Pail Kids cards. Man, I remember those! It got me thinking about some other non-baseball, basketball, football or hockey cards I've collected in the past. There have been a lot of attempts at trading cards - movies, TV shows, other sports - so here are a few that I remember collecting. I'd love to hear what you guys collected at one time or another.

In 1994, all the rage was about the World Cup in the USA, and rightfully so. I remember getting a few packs of soccer cards made by Upper Deck. I loved the Tony Meola (USA goalie) base card, as well as hologram (!!) insert of Roberto Baggio and Jorge Campos. Do these ring a bell?

Image completely stolen off of an eBay listing.

I was also a big collector of GI Joe's when I was growing up. Actually, screw the term "collector." I played with them and had wars. I was always jealous of the kids on the commercials who had a battlefield in their backyards. I had A LOT of action figures (the small, movable ones), and it terrifies me to know what my mom may have sold them for in a garage sale. My favorite was Big Boa (the one with the boxing gloves and punching bag), and I also liked Croc Master (he came with a pet croc). Those two were IMPOSSIBLE to find, but somehow my parents came through for me. Imagine having to find those figures in the late '80s without the help of eBay?! I also remember collecting some of the cards. The ones I collected were from the 1991 set.

Also stolen from eBay on a secret Cobra Hammerhead Mission.

Lastly, I remember getting a few packs of racing cards before they became mainstream. Nowadays they have a lot of really nice products with race-used fire suits and tires relic cards. I remember these packs of 1991 Maxx used to cost $.25 at a local drugstore, and I was a pretty big Dale Earnhardt Sr fan growing up, so I liked these a lot.

I'm sure I collected other random cards, but these three sets really stick out to me. I recall a few packs of Ninja Turtle and Dick Tracy cards. What about you guys? What did you collect that wasn't "mainstream"?

Happy Daytona 500

I was always a huge Dale Earnhardt fan. I pulled the card below in a pack years ago. Today, I'll be rooting for Kevin Harvick!