A Grande box of cards

I believe Chris at Nachos Grande was the first blogger I ever traded with. I think we swapped cards before I had a blog up and running.

While we don’t swap nearly as much (maybe every year or two), Chris was kind enough to shoot me a big box of Yankees he was ridding himself of. I look forward to returning the favor and sending him some Reds in return.

This box was particularly fun due to the amount of 90s and early 00s cards in it. While I do appreciate the newer stuff, seeing cards of El Duque and Scott Brosius that I didn’t have really makes my day.

Sandwiched in between was this cool Bernie Williams figure from 2004 MLB SportClix game. I hadn’t heard of this game, but looks like it would be pretty cool, although games like this tend to not do very well. Damn kids and their damn video games.

 Of course, there are usually a few Tino cards in boxes like this. I always liked this Pinnacle Swing for the Fences promo card. The royal blue back always appealed to me.

This is a sweet Jeter I didn’t have from Topps Total. I know many of us wish Total would make a comeback at some point. It seems we’ve seen most Topps sets from the past 15-20 years make a comeback at some point, so hopefully Total isn’t far off. Side note – I totally forgot about those Blue Jays uniforms. I’m glad they didn’t last for too long.

There were a couple of Jeters total. An upcoming project of mine is to finally sort, count, and catalogue my Jeter cards.

Speaking of not lasting too long, Travis Lee was a Yankee for a short time in 2004. I actually remember being thrilled when the Yankees signed him, but he got hurt after just 7 games. Interestingly, he went to Tampa Bay the next year and Tino came back to NY, so they were sort of (but not) traded for each other.

Topps Stars! 1997 Topps Stars is – to me – an all-time classic set. I never quite found any of the follow-ups to be as appealing, but I still enjoy seeing all years of the brand. What a great Alfonso Soriano prospect card from spring training. This one is from 2000 Topps Stars.

A truly classic Bowman’s Best design. I might have to send this to Tartabull for a TTM signature.

Ty! I really hope he makes it back to the mound this year.

Chris included an unopened Upper Deck fan pack of Yankees – 25 cards from a few different Upper Deck sets. I wasn’t collecting at this time, but I’ve seen these a few different times. Still, does anyone know the story behind them? Where were they offered?

Lastly, a Topps RC of a 23-year-old who just finished 3^rd in the Cy Young voting. People seem to think the Yankees don’t have much starting pitching, but between Severino, Sonny Gray, and Tanaka, that’s a pretty formidable front three.

Chris, thanks so much for the very generous box of cards. I’ll be sure to send Reds your war soon.

When a card is all the rage

It's funny to look back and see when certain cards were all the rage. A few days ago, I was looking through some older cards I had in top loaders, and came across this:

Back in the summer of 1997, this card graced Beckett's pages over and and over. I was in seventh grade, of course I read Beckett, so stop judging me. Mind you, the D-Backs hadn't even played a game yet, but this guy was going to be a star. I remember a trip to the big mall in Syracuse. My mom was shopping with my sisters, and I wandered into one of those over-priced memorabilia stores that most big malls have and bought my first ever pack of Bowman. Sure enough, I pulled the Lee. The owner of the shop immediately offered me money for it...probably like $10, but hell no, this card wasn't going anywhere. He did give me a top loader for it, and I was a happy guy. Bowman Chrome and Bowman's Best came out and brought higher end versions of this card, but the original was pretty cool.

Then Travis Lee's career started a bit slow in 1998, and Mark McGwire started hitting a really lot of home runs. Suddenly Lee's rookie card was forgotten and this card, 13 years later, became the most sought after card of the day:

For graduating first in my eighth grade class in 1998, I asked for this card. Instead, I got a box of 1998 Stadium Club, which was still pretty sweet even though I didn't pull one of the Tino co-signers I desperately wanted (and still do). I did get an Andruw Jones Matrix though, which at the time was a solid pull and probably was going for around $20.

I think it's interesting to look back and think about how certain cards defined a year or a period of time. Strasburg this past year, and not too far off in the future, I'm sure Bryce Harper will have this same effect. What cards can you think of that really defined a particular time? What cards were the rage and now can be had for pennies or a few a bucks?