1990 Upper Deck #156 and #24

 

 

In my collection: 11 regular, 18 checklist

Griffey looks: amicable

Is this a good Griffey card?: Yes.  This is the Kid’s sophomore card in Upper Deck’s sophomore set.  Plus both pictures on the card are brimming with personality. 

The Set: One thing I never noticed until just a few weeks ago is that 1989 Upper Deck depicts home plate and the first-base line along the right edge.  The 1990 design includes the first-to-second base line along the top.  Upper Deck is putting together an infield, one year at a time.  More on this when we get to 1991…..

1990 UD always seemed a little plain to me.  It’s certainly the plainest Upper Deck set that included a white border.  Maybe a slightly fancier font for the player name would have dressed it up and made the set more memorable.

Moreover, to maintain the faithfulness to the baseline theme, the vertical design is used for every card, even those with horizontal photos.  Take a look at the Wade Boggs quadruple exposure from that year.  How awkward is that?   An awesome card ruined by a silly design decision.

All in all, I don't hate this set.  I cannot complain about Upper Deck’s photography and overall quality, but this design is a bit of a snoozer.  That's hard to admit as the simpler Upper Deck designs tend to be my favorites, but this one is a little too scant even for me.  Had I been a kid opening a pack in 1990 after Upper Deck’s whirlwind introductory year, I would have been disappointed.

  

 

Drew's $74,000 contract with the Rangers finally gave him the scratch to fix that snaggly molar.  Sure, he's all braced up, but check him out, all happy and proud.  You go, Drew Hall!

I bought that Drew Hall card on eBay for $1.00 and never received it.  By the time I realized this it was too late to do anything.  Still plan on picking one up one of these days....

Who doesn't like Bubblicious?  Or possibly Hubba Bubba.  I'd have to smell it to be sure.

Look.  Griffeys.

You crazy, girl.  You crazy.

How can you not pull for this guy?  He just looks so damn amicable.  Hey, Griff, let’s go grab some brewskis and talk about women.  I know, they crazy, right?

It’s 1990.  There’s no way to know for sure what he’s laughing about, but here’s a few educated guesses:

• Alvin Davis is trying to spell Jim Lefebvre’s name and failing spectacularly.
• They are playing Lasagna by “Weird Al” Yankovic over the stadium loudspeakers.
• Jay Buhner and Tino Martinez are quoting scenes from Ghost Dad.
• The M’s are mocking new guy Randy Johnson’s mullet.
• Omar Vizquel is making heat boobies with his Hypercolor t-shirt.
• Edgar Martinez just told Pete O’Brian to “Eat my shorts,” then proceeded to do the Bartman.
• Someone just asked him to invest in their fledgling Seattle coffee business called “Starbucks” and he thinks the name is funny.
• He’s thinking of a joke he saw last night on Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Don’t look at me like you never made heat boobies.

Upper Deck carried these over from the ’89 set - their version of Diamond Kings, but they are also team checklists and pretty desirable as far as cards in that vein go.  No trippy backgrounds or disproportionate facial features – just a realistic portrait and an action shot.  Mr. Wells paints classy.

For more on Vernon Wells, Sr., the Upper Deck artist-in-residence, this is a great read.

We haven't done Topps Griffey card in a while.  I feel a Topps post coming soon.  Goodnight!

Where There's a Will, There's a Chuck: A Trade Post

I came home yesterday to a bubble mailer and a PWE which resulted in a great many "woo-hoos" around the Junior Junkie household.  Each contained cards of Louisiana natives Will Clark and Chuck Finley, both among my very few player collections.

First, Dustin over at Coot Veal and the Vealtones found time out of his busy new-daddy schedule (congrats, y'all!) to send me a sweet stack of down home loosiana goodness.



Triple exposure Chuck




Dustin sent lots of Chuck Finleys - this is just a few of my favorites.  That '88 Topps card single-handedly gave us the word "Chuckstachioed"



Also a few of the many Will Clarks he sent.  I make fun of Score caricatures, but these two aren't bad.  I think it's because we NOLA boys are so good-lookin'.



He also threw in some great silly names and goofy facial expressions.  This one took the goofiness cake.



Just a Jay Buhner card - just a regular old Jay Buhner card.  Nothing to see here.

This reminds me - I'm going to have to put together a post of Jay Buhner cards that have Griffey in them.  There are more than you might think....

And finally, a very personal card:

 

Panini's struggle to not show team logos has played right into my hands....and my heart.


Will is wearing the uniform of my high school baseball team, the Jesuit Blue Jays, our shared Alma Mater.  When I saw this card on Coot's blog I knew it had to be mine.  Super appreciative to him for trading this with me.  Cannot express how much I love it!


Next up, Marcus from All the Way to the Backstop single-stamped me some unexpected cardboard coolness:
 

I have to wonder if Chuck and Griffey ever faced each other (is there a way to look that up?).  Hopefully not on this day as Chuck looks hella-focused.

Holy crap, Google, are you kidding me?  I love the Internet!  From Chad over at The Hardball Times, here's this scary-appropriate chunk of information I didn't know existed when I typed the above caption:


#34. Ken Griffey Jr. vs. Chuck Finley (10.2 RC, 78 PAs, 1990-2002)   View match-up

Actual:    4.2 RC | 12-73 | .164/.218/.301 | 0.519 OPS | 18 K, 5 BB, 0 HBP
Expected: 14.3 RC | 20-67 | .298/.384/.565 | 0.949 OPS | 11 K 9 BB, 1 HBP

After an extremely slow start to this match-up, Ken Griffey Jr. went on a tear to nearly bring his actual RC in line with his expected in 1993. Ultimately, Finley got the better of Griffey, who closed out this match-up with a less-than-stellar 1-for-29.



Ken Griffey Jr. also struggled against Kevin Appier (6.9 RC) and Mike Mussina (6.6 RC).
Chuck Finley also dominated NONE.

Yikes.  Looks like Finley frickin' pwned the Kid.  They were division rivals, after all.  I don't understand most of the terminology or abbreviations used in the above segment, but I did understand "1-for-29."

And have I mentioned I love funny names?  How I have never seen Haverbush I'll never know, but he is going into my "porn names" binder tonight.

I'm not showing all the goofiness cards at once because I plan on doing another blog featuring only those cards that achieve optimal laughability.  Wheels are in motion....

Thanks a bunch, guys!  It's a pleasure to come home to new cardboard, especially on days when I get home in time to intercept the mail.

What Cardboard has Taught Me or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog

I started collecting baseball cards again recently.  Things have changed since the mid-90's.  Here's a few things I've learned in the past few months of collecting:





In reality, we taste like chicken.

Apparently there are days when you can just go down to the ballpark and get a bunch of autographs.  New Orleans has never been a baseball town.  I'm amazed we still have the Zephyrs (our AAA team).  Anyway, that sounds amazing.  If Ken Griffey (Jr or Sr) make it to one of those, please, think of your old pal, T.J.!

Those orange-toothed beasts on the left are Boudreaux and Clotille.  They are nutria, and the mascots of the Miami Marlins AAA affiliate New Orleans Zephyrs.  You may recognize their names if you've ever heard a good coonass joke.  That picture was taken at Zephyr Field which is about a mile from my house and right next door to the Saints Training Camp, the Budweiser Distribution Center, and the only Dairy Queen in the New Orleans Metropolitan Area.












Hey, kids!  Do you like being gouged?

 Toys R' Us may sell baseball cards, but you definitely don't want to go there to buy them.  I went hoping to get a blaster with some sweet purple parallels for 2013 Topps.  The blaster was priced at $27.99, $8 more than anywhere else I've seen them for sale.  The shelf was a mess with no organization or logic to it.  And very few price tags.  At that markup, I expect a better shopping experience.

I decided to bite the bullet and get the box anyway (I also had an unpriced repack box in my hands that rang up for $24.99.  13 packs for $25.  Yeah, no......).  I got the blaster to the car and started ripping.  No purples.  Not one.  Never again!



This is the card that keeps me ripping.

Buying 2013 Topps in general is a stupid move on my part.  I collect retired players pretty exclusively.  I should be buying repack boxes.  And yet, I'm 14 cards away from completing Series 1, so how can I stop now?  (FYI, I have reams of duplicate base cards.) 

Plus there's the slim possibility of pulling a Griffey autograph.  So far I've pulled two Griffey die-cuts and two random autographs of players who aren't named Griffey.  And yet, The Chase has me.  I remain stubbornly optimistic.

So yes, I'll keep buying them a little longer, but then it's packs from the past and nothing else.  Or at least it should be.............Nah, it wont.  Bring on the 2013 product!



 


 
Wives hate baseball card blogs.  I've had to get really creative in balancing time to put these posts together and spending quality time with loved ones. 

All your favorite players are retired!  Stop buying packs!

For example, we've been plowing through Doctor Who on Netflix for the past few weeks, so one thing I like to do is scan in all the cards at once onto an SD card, then bring the SD card over to the laptop in the living room for editing and posting.  She doesn't seem to mind me plucking away at the computer while we watch, and the way I figure, if we are both in the same room, we are spending time together.  Love of my life successfully fooled!  Score one for baseball cards!

Not really.  Real human interaction trumps cardboard every time.  And for the record, she's very patient and understanding about the blog.  However, when we have a kid it's gonna be game over for the Junior Junkie.  Better do as much posting as I can now.

I'm worth a lot more than what I cost.

The concept of value in this hobby is relative almost to the point of meaninglessness.  Now, as much as I make fun of Beckett, it is a good resource for market price which is essentially the opportunity cost of keeping the card for yourself.  Still, I find that even somewhat valuable cards are worth more to me in a PWE to a fellow blogger than in an eBay auction that'll net me five bucks.  Above that, well, we'll see.  I haven't been that lucky. 

What I'm saying is that the Tim Wallach guy is doing it right.  If you love a player that very few others love, you will probably end up with an amazing collection of that player and an overall more rewarding experience.  A patch card may be worth 20 bucks to you, but if you're the only one who wants it, you'll probably get it for less than 5.  I recently got an awesome Chuck Finley relic card for $2.55.  Why?  No one collects him but me.

My problem is that I also collect Ken Griffey, Jr., one of the most popular players in baseball's modern history.  It is pretty frustrating, I assure you.  That's why this next point is so important:

The results of my card organization therapy.

There's nothing more relaxing than organizing your cards.  I love putting fresh stacks of 2013 Topps where they belong in a set, or dividing up stacks of repack box fodder by team and picking out the ones I think my fellow bloggers might want.  A guaranteed daily influx of cards would be ideal.  Any cards, even ones I don't plan on keeping.  The incessant organizing: that's my addiction.

I also know that I'm a little behind in my quota for posting Griffey cards.  Time management has never been one of my strengths.  This is something I will be working to remedy.

Good night, baseball card people!

Anatomy of a Trade

Trading is the soul of the blogging community in this hobby.  Having completed a few trades now, I have come to the conclusion that while it is a very rewarding experience, it can get a bit time consuming and expensive.  In that vein, I have been developing a system for streamlining the process and reducing the cost that I'll share with you now. 

First, the cards themselves.  I keep a running stack of cards I know go to specific people; everything else gets split up by team.  The result is a small stack of cards about 200 thick, then three 3200-card white cardboard boxes arranged alphabetically by team.

 

This is not even all of them.

I also have a couple stacks of non-baseball-related freebies to include with trades such as stickers and random fun cards.  These are "lagniappe," pronounced lan-yap, an Acadian word that translates roughly into "a little extra."  We have a lot of goofy words down south.

Now, for a very small quantity of cards, a PWE will do.  If someone is looking for only a handful of players or enough cards to make a small stack, I have a few bubble envelopes I keep on hand.  I protect them by wrapping the stacks in top loaders and tape which seems to be fast and work fine.  These ship for two bucks so no complaints here.

The biggest issue I have run into is bulk shipping.  I still have thousands of cards I am looking to trade, but the shipping is getting a little expensive.

Four team stacks I recently paid out the ear to ship.....

For example, I recently did a trade with Tom over at The Angels, in Order, another great blog I read on the reg.  I just shipped his (and a few other bloggers') stuff on Saturday, and I'm sure his stuff is on its way to me. 

Anyway, he told me he had a couple of Griffey stacks for me.  Now, this is the perfect trade for me for two reasons:

1. I get a lot of Griffeys.  (w00t!)
2. He collects Angels cards, so I get to unload a whole team's worth of cards that aren't Griffeys.

Since I have divided up all non-Griffeys and non-keepers by team, I have hundreds of cards for every team in baseball waiting to go to bloggers who have Griffeys to trade.  It's a lot of cardboard.

If I ship these "hairy man-stacks" in regular white cardboard folding boxes, the shipping runs just under ten bucks (!).  That's a lot of scratch for a few Griffeys.

Now, keep in mind that I do not operate on a CPG system (cost per Griffey).  I wouldn't be in this if it was about returns.  I would much rather have to pay more for Griffeys and get to contribute to this awesome community than get them dirt cheap from a nameless eBayer.  The blogging community is all about the give and take, and I'm all about the blogging community. 

Also, there are a lot of you who are just stand-up dudes for whom I would have no problem shelling out a couple bucks to get you a stack of cards I know you would love and maybe even write about.  I get ecstatic seeing cards I've had since childhood that have languished in a box in a closet for years lovingly scanned and appreciated.  It's really quite remarkable.

But the fact remains that I can do more if I can spend less. 

So, to combat this cost, I grabbed a stack of small Priority Mail boxes the last time I was in the P.O.  A value to ship at only five bucks, I took them home and began testing.  I learned that these boxes, if done right, can hold right around 400 cards each with space left over.  We have a winner.

Can you tell who got this one?  That's right.  Dime Box Nick.

To fill the extra space I recently started throwing Mardi Gras beads in with the cards - yep, more lagniappe.  These are not the plain old single-color shiny little balls.  I mean real ones, with the name of the Krewe that threw them and caught at a real parade by an authentic drunken local.  You can throw them away, give them to the kids, hang them from your rear-view mirror, trade them for.....well, you know.  It's up to you.  Down here they are plentiful and free, and they're a fun way to keep the cards from shifting around in the box.

So, I grabbed all my Angels, put the Tim Salmon cards in the front, divided them up into 4 stacks, wrapped them up for protection, arranged them in the box with some Orpheus beads (they're Angel-red!) and sent them off.  That little box got real heavy, and I still have Angels I couldn't fit.

I also started putting the Junior Junkie seal of approval on everything I send out.  I've always been a sucker for personalized packages....

 


Anyhoo, if you have a bunch of Griffeys you don't feel too attached to, and a team to which you are hopelessly devoted, let me know!  I am highly motivated to turn all this spare cardboard into Griffey gold!

And if you have a shipping secret or trade system improvement to share, I'm listening.  I'm all about adopting best practices if it results in more Griffeys!

P.S. This post should win an award for most sentences begun with a coordinating conjunction, something I hate doing.  And if you don't know what that is, you are reading one now.

Love, Griffey Style

What did you get for Valentine's Day?  I got mashed potatoes.

You can't make this stuff up.

 

I thought I had them all, but a quick look on eBay and I found this:

And also this:

That elongated one at the top of the box I do not have.  Ooh, and a teacher card?  I'm missing that one, too.  What did I do with all these?  Did I actually use them for class exchange, or did I keep them in a binder for nearly two decades like a sane person?

Hey, Happy V-day.

1991 Stadium Club #270 and the rest....

1991 Stadium Club #270 and the rest....

In my collection: 7 regular, 2 Charter Members, 2 All-Stars

Griffey looks: pensive

Is this a good Griffey card?: Yes.  A nice picture, a full-color depiction of the famous 1989 Topps Traded rookie card, and just a butt-ton of frickin' class.  A great card from an excellent 1st-year set.

The Set: Guess what?  I love '91 Stadium Club.  Ol' blue is finally here, people! 

"Attention, citizens of 1991!  Pay no attention to these upstart brands, for your old pal Topps is the grandaddy of baseball cards.  Behold!  We have hired real photographers that are going to knock you on your card-lovin' ass with their dynamic use of shadow, saturation, and perspective.  And do you like.....gloss?  Ha ha ha - we know.  Also, we take checks." - Topps, early 1991 (not really)

This is Topps going premium.  The set is characterized by a single, classy blue line offset by gold foil and the prominent Stadium Club logo. 

The photography is amazing, and Topps knew it.  Moreover, they wanted you to know it.  That's why these babies are full-bleed (a novelty then).  And peep the big, yellow Kodak logo right on the top of the box.

In your face, Upper Deck.

Another part of this set that Topps did a great job on was the colorful, engaging back.  True, they tried to sqeeze a lot of cheese on that cracker, so some of the writing gets a little tiny.  But you gotta love that strike zone box.  On second thought, flip it for the southpaws, then you can love it.  And a full-color reprint of his rookie card?  How sweet is that?

In exchange for all this awesome, Topps set the price at $1.25 per pack.  Now, let's get honest for a minute: do you remember actually paying $1.25 a pack for '91 Stadium Club?  Hm? 

I only ask because where I live, LCS's were charging $5 bucks a pack.  This set was so crazy inflated, I remember keeping my commons in penny sleeves inside top loaders.

This is a set with Gene Nelson on the box.  We should have known better....

"You overpaid for this pack, bro!  LOL."

Pitch Crime Dog high and tight.

Tell Roberto to swing away....

Unfortunately for him, it looks like that ball is right down the middle.  Strike one.

These crack me up:

Bags and Mo each had their rookie year in 1991, so this set contains their rookie cards.  And since this set depicts each players' rookie card on the back of his respective card, blah blah blah, pretty weird, right?

So, what's this guy thinking about?


Hey, is that....is that Fred?  He's kinda far, but it looks like Fred.  Should I call his name?  Is that weird?  What if it's not him?  I don't want to creep the guy out.  Man, that really looks like Fred.

The Kid look pensive, like he's trying to decide whether to double down the left field line and get some base time or just crank it out the park and call it a day.  One thing's for sure - he's got a heck of a bat arsenal to choose from.

Packs of 1991 Stadium Club came with this card:

For thirty 1991 bucks you got a set of cards that included the likes of Andy Hawkins, Dave Stieb and Kevin Maaaaaaaaaaaaaa  Oops - sorry.  Nodded off on the keyboard there for a sec.  Where was I?

Yeah, some bonus cards, a medallion, Topps magazine (yes, the same one that won all those Pulitzers), and a personalized Stadium Club ID card that bestows upon the holder all the rights and privileges of someone who.......<sigh>.....I'm totally super jealous of to this very day






The "medallion" they describe on the card ended up being a bronze Nolan Ryan card commemorating his 300th win.  Pretty awesome....

I pulled that picture on the left from eBay where someone is selling their '91 Stadium Club booty.  I believe that's a key chain I spot in the middle there.  Want.

Also, did you notice how there's a "But that's not all" on the membership application card?  Yikes.


Warning: It's about to get yearbooky up in here:





 

This is the card that makes paying for a Stadium Club membership worth it.  I've said it before; I like newspaper designs.  We are losing the local paper, so let's enjoy these while we can.  Sunday comics and crosswords especially.  Sudoku to a lesser extent.

The front of this card is weird - I can't really put my finger on it.  You know that meme with the guy and his family, and he's all creepy and murdery-looking?  Hold on......

<searches Internet for 43 seconds>

Reminds me of this.  Hey, is the wife kind of cute?  Is that just me?

One more Griffey from 1991 Stadium Club:


Grrrrr......



Griffey looks kinda pissed, like he just swung through a bad pitch for a called strike 3.  Unless this was taken at the All-Star Game, in which case he is irked that he had to come to Toronto.

That card came out of this wacky box:




It's a little box shaped like a stadium.  Yes, I owned this.  I won it at a meeting for my high school baseball card club.  I think I sold it at a garage sale for pennies, but not before removing the Griffey.  It's just a big, square thing that takes up too much space, and it had to go.  I'll admit it, I want the set back.  I'd buy another one given the opportnity to not have to pay shipping.  The cards were really cool.

That's all the Griffeys from 1991 Stadium Club.  It's a great set.  The only card I don't have that I'd like to show you is from the football set.  The Brett Favre rookie card has his name spelled "Brett Farve."  And who can blame them?  The spelling is so phoenetically wrong-seeming. 

Oh, screw it.  That's what Google Images is for:



Hee hee.