1991 Fleer: They Call it Ugly Yellow (Quite Rightly)

In my collection: 4 #450a error, 14 #450b corrected, 9 #710 Second Gen. Stars, 3 All-Star Inserts

Griffey looks: in a state of begrudging acceptance

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  It's perhaps the most universally desireable card in an otherwise piss-poor (pun intended) set.

The set: YELLOW.

 

Here's two of history's greatest southpaw pitchers.  That Glavine is in the binder because it's a rare one of a pitcher sliding into home.  Way to protect the hands, Tom.

 

This is in the binder under B for Bonds, but it's a great picture and one of the only cards of two-time World Series champ Mariano Duncan I've held on to.

Looks like a boring old Ripken card from a crappy set in the overproduction era, right?  I thought so too until I flipped it over.....

Crazy, right?  It's totally real, I assure you.  In a set loaded with stupid mistakes, this is a big, honking error.  Has anyone else seen one of these wrong back cards?  I hear they're not uncommon, but I've never seen another.  

Apparently a bunch have surfaced with football on the front and baseball on the back.  I wouldn't even waste time calling that an error - that probably falls more under the category of major f**k-up.

God this set sucks.

Here are the Griffeys:

Judging from the man's face, Junior is settling for a walk here.  Perhaps it was intentional, perhaps not, but he looks to be in a state of begrudging acceptance about it.  The guy's a good sport, even with loose shoelaces.

Can you tell which one of these is the error card?



The card on the left is considered an error card because.....well, I'm not really sure why.



In the blurb they mention Griffey batting "around .300."  In actuality he batted .2998324 (179 hits/597 at bats in 1990) which is very much in the vicinity of and rounds up to .300.  The problem is that his average is shown as .300 in the stat box which is exactly .300, not around it.  Yeah, you heard me - that's the problem.

This is the lamest error in the world.  I didn't even believe it until I saw both versions.  I mean, is .2998324 not by definition around .300?  I'd say that's about as around .300 as a number can get.  If you think that every average is going to land exactly within three decimal places every time with all the at bats these guys get, you don't understand math.  And I'm all on board for the three-decimal place standardization of batting averages, but semantics at this level are exceptionally ridiculous.

Then, the fact that Fleer went back and fixed the error is a tragedy.  It says that someone at Fleer thought enough of the company's embarassment in using the word "around" in the blurb on the bottom of the back of a single card to redo the wording, but they didn't even bother mentioning the fact that nearly every square inch of card space is bright yellow and this is one of the most horrible designs ever put to cardboard.  Nope, the word "around" was the reason cards weren't selling.  Talk about forest for the trees.

While we're being honest, I kind of like the backs in this set.  Color portait, color team logo, color bars in the stats grid.  The yellow doesn't even bother me that much because there are, you know, other colors.



Are you offended by this?  I'm more scared of the front.


Look at these fresh faces:

What a great card.  When Barry started slinging them out the park at record pace and the media started going bananas (bananas - yellow.  get it?  sorry.), I sifted through my collection for Bonds cards to set aside.  They would be my baseball card IRA.  I'm proud to say none of this card made it out of the Griffey box to the Bonds stack.  My desire to keep the Griffeys together was stronger than my desire for wealth.

Griffey gets more words, but Bonds has more records.  So who makes this card more desireable?  Who had the more storied career?  Is all publicity good publicity?  This card comes with a lot of questions.

Here is the one bright spot in Fleer's awful product line for '91.  I've said it before: there's not enough rainbows on cards anymore.  The blurb is solid, and you get 3 color pictures on one card.  In all, a great insert for 1991.

I would like to say that the design of the base set isn't really that bad - it's simple but classic and understated, and the photography isn't horrible.  It's just so yellow.  It's garish and overbearing, and it kills every card it touches.  If they rethought the color scheme a bit, '91 Fleer wouldn't be one of the dogs of the overproduction era.  This guy agrees with me.  Then again, if that happened it wouldn't be known as the yellow police tape set, it would be the "crisis averted" set.

The Diamond King's Royal Package: a Trade Post

I got a trade package in the mail yesterday from Kevin at The Diamond King.  He sent me so many Griffeys I had never seen you would think I just started collecting.  It's a feeling of immeasurable joy to flip through a stack of Griffeys chanting "need it, need it, need it," but if you're any kind of collector you know what that's like.

That Leaf Passing Through Time card has a secret: the back contains a reprint of a previous Leaf card, and guess which one they chose?

1995 Leaf - only one of my most favorite designs of all time.  There's no foil or holo effect on the reprint, but the colors pop nicely.

I get very excited by reprints of cards that I love but that are considered less iconic on a large scale.  There are plenty of tributes to the '89 Upper Deck rookie and the '52 Topps Mantle, for example, but the '95 Leaf?  Who gives a damn about '95 Leaf?  Me, that's who.  Excellent choice.



That Starquest is of the "Rare" variety.  That's one serious die-cut, and I am grateful to that sticker reminding me that card is a silver variant which I didn't even know was a thing.  Some Griffey card expert I am.




I have one of that "Wish List" set sealed.  I don't have the heart to open them up, so this puts me one step closer to never having to.  Plus that Club House Series card is a promo the back of which is posted below.



Club House promo back and two cool new inserts.

This is the the strangest thing I pulled from Kevin's trade stack.  It appears to be a phone card but there's nothing about it being a phone card anywhere on the card.  I won't go into too much detail as this will likely be the star of an upcoming "Oddball" post.  If you have information on it, give me a shout.

Thanks, Kevin!  This was a truly awesome stack.  I have a solid selection of steroid-using douchecanoes coming your way for the SCAM project.  There's some rookies, serial-numbered cards, inserts, oddballs, all that.  Look for those next week. 

And everyone else, go round up any cards that you used to love but now may be a little bitter about due to the recent unpleasantness in MLB and send them to Kevin.

1993 Flair: Fleer Goes Fancy-Pants

In my collection: 3

Griffey looks: crystal-clear

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  The first Flair set, and it's a beauty.

The set: This is Fleer's foray into the realm of the Super-Premium.  Topps went in a whole new direction for Finest, their super-premium set, by embracing the Chromium process while Fleer took the pre-existing standards of great cardmaking - quality stock, quality printing, gold foil lettering, and high gloss - and ran out of the stadium with them.  Flair is the product, and it is sweet.

These were the nice things you're not supposed to let kids play with.  They made you feel older, classier, responsible for something beautiful.  Even as a kid, they made you want to put on a smoking jacket and pour a glass of cognac. 

The detail in the printing was finer than anything we'd seen.  The ultra high-gloss made the card look like it had just been dipped in syrup.  The pimary lettering was gold foil.  And the cards were all so thick and heavy in your hand, like a painting as compared to a photograph.  They had weight, dimension, and substance. 

I swear I just saw on another blog that someone else said the exact same thing, but it made me chuckle because it happened to me, too: I showed one of these to my Dad when I was a kid, and he really looked at it and said "wow."  That was impactful.

Instead of mylar packs, the cards came in little boxes.  They were more expensive, and much more difficult to convince Mom to buy, but dammit if she didn't spoil me rotten.

There is only one insert called "Wave of the Future" comprised exclusively of rookies.  I don't know why they bothered making a rookie insert with no star insert and no parallels.  Still, the base set really was enough on its own.

Let's see that Griffey!





You've got to admit Fleer did a heckuva job on the printing here.  Griffey looks crystal-clear on that front.  Look at his eyes - you can almost see the ball hanging in mid-air, just beyond the edge of the card.  I tend to make fun of yearbooky, faded background pictures, but that one balances out the card nicely.  This is a truly awesome Griffey, folks.

1993 Flair is a rare one-Griffey set, so there's no ridiculous list of cards for me to complain about not having.  Enjoy it, because it doesn't happen a lot.

I will note that tonight I return to Zephyr field to watch the #2-ranked LSU Tigers take on the Golden Eagles of Southern Mississippi.  I'm knocking off work early and heading to the tailgate in my purple and gold.  We are all praying it doesn't get rained out.  Luckily the tailgate is on regardless of the whether the game takes place.  Two baseball games in 5 days - it's gotta be some kind of personal record.

Happy hump day!

King B: Quality Meat Snacks and Baseball Cards

See also The 1990 and 1996 King B Cards

In my collection: 2 1994, 1 1993

Griffey looks: like a pog

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  Unique and extremely collectable, round cards are obviously the future.

The set: King-B Beef Jerky Company put out a set of round baseball cards from 1988 through 2002.  Griffey had cards in those sets from 1990 to 1996.  That's 7 years of round Griffey cards.  Two of those years are represented in my collection.

The cards were manufactured by Michael Schechter Associates who also made cards of similar roundness for Oscar Mayer in 1994.  The Oscar Mayer cards could be flipped up into a standee.  I don't have said card, so forget I said anything.

This King B cards are very much oddballs, but I feel they are prolific enough a set to merit their own post.

I mean come on, doesn't this look good?



The bag may be resealable, but that's a feature I've never had to use....


Peppered is good.  I like teriyaki better, but sweet & hot is my absolute favorite when available.  Pemmican makes a really good one, but it seems Jack Links is taking over everything now.  This is exactly what happened to King B. 

The cards came in canister packages of beef sticks, so this bag is not an appropriate picture for this post.  I do prefer this type of jerky, though.  My blog, my rules.

So, round baseball cards, huh?  Remember that Simpsons episode where they put Bart into the remedial class and the teacher says, "Everyone grab a safety pencil and a circle of paper."  And there's that kid who "starts fires" and the other who "has mittens pinned to his shirt all year long?"  Man, that was a good one.

Anyway, these are the perfect cards for those kids.  Even as a reasonably intelligent adult, have you ever shuffled a bunch of Topps Tek cards too quickly?  Those corners hurt.  Plus there's 4.15" less of potentially damageable edge not to mention four fewer corners to "ding."

Let's take a closer look:

Griffey is staring off pensively, meditatively.  Perhaps he is experiencing one of those moments when your mind slips the reigns of the now and plunges the depths of infinity, ensnaring your spirit in existential crisis both exhilarating and terrifying.  Also, he looks like a pog.

This one's a little more light-hearted.  The purple carries over to the back and you've got the updated glove logo.  Also the diamond-in-circle design of the '93 set hurts my eyes, so I like this a lot better.

The only real complaint I have with the King-B Jerky cards is that they gave up on Junior after 1996.  Why?  He was coming off his injury and putting up some really solid numbers.  Instead they went with likes of Jeff Montgomery, Al Martin, and Matt Mieske.  The only Seattle Mariner in the set?  Dan Wilson. 

Don't get me wrong, I love Dan Wilson and have a pretty extensive PC of him, but does he better represent meat products?  I would think if you had to pick another Mariner to represent meat snacks it would be Randy Johnson.  I'm not sure why, he just seems like a salted meat kinda guy.

Have you noticed that there are not enough round cards out there?  I've only ever seen these, the Oscar Mayer ones, and 2003 Upper Deck Standing O Die-Cuts (which look great).  There are a lot of potential designs that suit the circle layout nicely.  I shouldn't mention specifics here as I may someday start my own brand, but think about all the sports that use a round ball or puck.  Ooh, and cards shaped like little footballs.

I've already said too much.

Here are the five years of King B Griffeys I am missing:

1990 King B #16
1991 King B #6
1992 King B #8
1995 King B #11
1996 King B #6

I'd also like to give a shout-out to one amazing website full of oddball knowledge that helped make this post possible.

In closing, I'd like to say that Tuesday sucks.  Come on, 5 o'clock!

This post brought to you by scotch and Easter candy....

I've made a lot of headway in the area of collection engineering this past weekend.  It's a constant battle to keep this hobby from getting overbearing and out-of-control.

The main thing is that I finally finished dividing up my non-Griffeys by team.  My estimate was close - It turns out I have over 16,000 cards I need to get rid of.  I have had a few takers on team bricks, but not enough to sate my thirst for mailing these cards off in exchange for Griffeys.  Come let me know your team!

I also came to some realizations about the whole job of collecting (which is all too appropriate a description of what it is to collect these little cards - a job).

First I'm gonna have to stop buying packs.  As a Griffey collector, the only things worth spending money on are Griffey card lots on the bay, specific cards on COMC, and shipping trade packages to other bloggers.  I have spent a small fortune on repack boxes and blasters and packs that don't result in more Griffeys.  I still love opening packs and will find ways of doing that on the cheap, but if I had back all the money I've spent on packs and repack boxes in the last few months I could afford to buy a '93 Finest refractor.  No kidding.

I want a Trey Griffey card.  Hoping to see more great things from the Griffey family.

I should start putting notes in with my trade packages.  I received one for which I didn't know the sender, and I felt terrible about it (it was Jaybarkerfan's Junk).


I'm going to have to start focusing on obtaining base cards for every set for which I am missing them in the '00's.  I've mentioned before that I have far fewer Griffeys from the 2000's than I'd like, and it turns out that there are several sets (2005 Topps, for example) for which I am even missing the base card.  How embarassing....  I should at least have every Topps base card (I have several of the 2005 Opening Day base card).

I missed the monthly baseball card show this past weekend, so I spend $30 on a fun array of items from COMC.  I got some great stuff I'm excited to show when it comes in.

I missed the show for good reason: The Marlins were in New Orleans playing the AAA affiliate Zephyrs right by my house.  Got to see some great ball playing.  The Z's went down 7-0, but it was a fun day.  I'll leave you with some pics.  Pleasant evening!

That's local hero Austin Nola formerly of the LSU baseball team.

See #10 in the middle there?  That's the Marlins' 1st-year hitting coach Tino Martinez.  I was starstruck.  This man played with Ken Griffey, Jr., people!  He won 4 World Series, too, but we all know which is better.

Then this was lunch.

Oh, and how about that Kershaw guy?  Great opening day.

A Real American Hero, or the 426 Unique Griffeys of 2008 SPx

In my collection: 22 different American Heroes, 24 total, and nothing of anything else including the base card.

Griffey looks: all G.I. Joe and stuff

Are these good Griffey cards? Yes.  It's a huge, expansive set dedicated to the man himself.  Gotta love it.

The set: 2008 SPx by Upper Deck is positively loaded with soul-numbing scarcity.  Numbered and relic cards abound with autographs, triple patches and all that nonsense.  The packs only contained 3 cards each but with an autograph or relic in every one.  It's as though the set was built in reverse with the autograph and relic cards having numerous parallels and the base set having none.

This means the base set ended up being pretty overlooked.  It took me an absurdly long time just to find what Griffey's base card looks like.  Here it is:

This picture is as close as we're gonna get.  Not a bad-looking card, though.  Cool die-cuts, etching, light refraction, nice logo - I would love to find one. 

I must admit there's a sliver of my soul that hurts when I publish a post of a set for which I am missing the base card.  Sadly, nobody seems to care about the base cards here.  I think they were mostly protection for the auto/relic card in each pack.  In fact there's very little information to be found about the set in general - just a massive 29-page checklist issued by Upper Deck and a lot of eBay auctions for the American Hero and relic cards.

Griffey collectors know 2008 SPx for two reasons.  First, the American Heroes set which, I admit, is awesome and not impossible (even a little fun) to complete.  I consider it a healthy though funds-consuming challenge. 

The other reason is that there are 426 unique Griffeys in this whole set including 100 1/1's and 100 1/3's.  It's a monster.  A beast.  Insurmountable.  A spirit-crusher.  2008 SPx was never meant to be completed.

So, for the purposes of this post I am only covering the Ken Griffey, Jr. American Hero insert set.  It's all I have for now.

Speaking of which:

 

 





 

 

 

This set is rich-looking.  The cards are all an old-gold foil backing color pictures and nice blurbs.  The foil fronts don't scan great, I'll admit; but I love how every single card reminds you that he does, indeed, still play outfield.

And that he's an American Hero, fighting terrorism and inspiring American youth, all G.I. Joe and stuff.  God bless him.

The back picture does not change until he goes to the Reds - this is not the only large Griffey-only set that does this.  I know it's for the sake of staying up-to-date on the uniform, but I'm surprised a set on this scale doesn't have a unique picture for the back of each card.  Still, no complaints.

Every card in this set is numbered to 725, meaning there are 72,500 regular cards of this set out there.  I have 24, putting me at 0.0331% of the lot.

In my research I used the official Upper Deck checklist as well as the parallels lists on Baseballcardpedia.com.  It took me a while, but here is a complete list of all 426 unique Griffeys from the 2008 SPx set and their quantities (again, apart from a few regular American Hero cards I have none of these.  Not even the base card):

#23
SSS-KG - Superstar Signatures
SSS-KG - Superstar Signatures Parallel
WM-KG - Winning Materials - #/150
WM-KG - Winning Materials - Autograph Parallel - #/20
WM-KG - Winning Materials - Die-Cut Parallel - #/150
WM-KG - Winning Materials - 3 Diamond Parallel - #/125
WM-KG - Winning Materials - Jersey # Parallel - #/125
WM-KG - Winning Materials - MLB Logo Parallel - #/99
WM-KG - Winning Materials - 3 Baseball Parallel - #/99
WM-KG - Winning Materials - MLB Team Letters Parallel - #/99
WM-KG - Winning Materials - Position Parallel - #/20
WM-KG - Winning Materials Rare - Patch Parallel 1 - #/99
WM-KG - Winning Materials Rare - Patch Parallel 2 - #/50
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - #/75
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - Jersey # Parallel - #/35
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - Team Letters Parallel - #/25
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - Position parallel - #/20
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 - 3 Baseball Parallel - #/20
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 Rare - Patch Parallel 1 - #/50
WM2-KG - Winning Materials 2 Rare - Patch Parallel 2 - #/25
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 - Parallel - #/99
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 - Team Letters - #/15
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 - SPx Parallel - #/10
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 Rare - Patch Parallel - #/15
WM3-KG - Winning Materials 3 Rare - Autograph Parallel - #/5
WT-GJP - Winning Trios (w/ Jeter & Pujols) - #/75
WT-GJP - Winning Trios (w/ Jeter & Pujols) - Parallel 1 - #/25
WT-GJP - Winning Trios (w/ Jeter & Pujols) - Parallel 2 - #/15
WT-GJP - Winning Trios Rare (w/ Jeter & Pujols) - Patch Parallel - #/25
KG1 through KG100 - Ken Griffey Jr American Hero - #/725
KG1 through KG100 - Ken Griffey Jr American Hero - Memorabilia Parallel - #/25
KG1 through KG100 - Ken Griffey Jr American Hero - Signature Parallel - #/3
KG1 through KG100 - Ken Griffey Jr American Hero - Boxscore Parallel - #/1

Ouch.

I have KG5, 6, 11, 12, 17, 19, 21, 25, 35, 37, 40, 42 (x2), 47, 49, 53, 62, 63, 64, 74, 78, 83, and 92 (x2).

I still hope to complete the American Hero set someday without spending a fortune, and also land a base card and possibly a 1/1.  An autograph would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath - I'm still hoping to land one of those from Nachos Grande's 2013 Topps Tribute Box break....

Have an excellent week, baseball card people!