Card Show Part 2: The Big Money Cards*

I realize yesterday's post was just as much of a tease as the first day. Nobody really cares about supplies, right? Well, the good news is that bought me some time to do some cropping.

For today's post, I have the big money cards. And by that, I mean the stuff that didn't come from a dimebox. These may go all the way up to three whole dollars. But that's a little misleading because $3 was the starting price. It was haggled down with a bulk purchase. And even the term haggle is a little misleading as you'll see.

Here's the box again and I'm going to start with the upper right corner. That particular dealer had a section of his table where everything was three dollars. It was full of oddballs, regional issues and miscellaneous team sets. I had picked out 8 items and was ready to offer $20 but before I could say anything, the dealer took the items from me, counted them up and quoted me $15. Um, ok! So let's see what I got for what ended up being less than than two bucks each.

Last year's Topps factory Cubs team set. I already had one that I picked up on eBay that I think I paid about $7-8 shipped last year when it came out. The dealer's sticker says $6.50. I really just wanted this for the extra Tony Campana card. Well worth the price to me.

Next up is a pair of mid 1980's Fleer team sets. The 1987 set on the left is the glossy version. Nice! I have most of the regular version but not a single glossy from this set. I had about half of the 1986 set on the right in my collection already with others needing an upgrade.

Finishing up this table were these five gold cards. I had no idea what they were when I picked them out and after a little research, they come from a set put out by Danbury Mint. I guess they are 22kt gold leaf covered baseball cards. Whatever that means. Based on some finished auctions on eBay, I think I did pretty well. I didn't see a complete checklist (although I didn't look very hard) but another eBay search showed at least a Moises Alou and Bill Madlock in Cubs uniforms for me to keep an eye out for. They come in a sealed plastic holder and as you can see by the dealer stickers, they were expecting a few more bucks before tossing them onto the clearance table. I tried pealing off the Sosa sticker before I just gave up.

Another table had two monster boxes of $3 relics and autographs or 10/$20. I only managed to find 5 Cubs I was interested in or didn't already have but after pulling 23 cards from his dimeboxes too, he bundled everything for $12. The dimebox stuff will come later but here are the "hits" from this table.

Two autographs. C'mon, how many of you die hard Cubs fan have even heard of these guys? Todd Noel never made it above A-ball with the Cubs despite being their first round pick in 1996. He later topped out at high-A with a Yankees affiliate in 2000. Jaye Chapman pitched 12 innings in 14 appearances for the 2012 Cubs. He is currently in an independent league.

A pair of mid-2000's Cubs relics. I like the simplistic design on the Baseball Heroes Felix Pie. The Derrek Lee is numbered 42/50. 

And finally, this Kerry Wood could have had its own "How'd That Get There?!" post because I didn't see the fine print where it shows him as a member of the Cleveland Indians. I just saw the Cubs uniform in the photo and the blue swatch. I'm still counting it for my Cubs collection.

And my final table today, in addition to 4 monster sized dime boxes, the dealer also had $2 "hits" and $.50 or 3/$1 vintage. Since we just had some hits, let's finish those off.

Two bucks for a Starlin Castro relic? Why not? I don't know what his status is in the Chicago collectible world but he has fallen off the map outside of it. Works for me. Let's hope he bounces back this season.

I had a Matt Garza Clubhouse Collection relic from 2013 so I figured I might as well pick one up from 2012. I would have ended up paying at least $2 in shipping to get it elsewhere.

And to go along with the Todd Noel autograph, here's another player that you guys might question why I bought this. My answer is simple. I didn't have cards of either of them. Sadly, two bucks is probably overpriced (especially considering the vintage I could have picked up instead), but I collect what I collect. Also like Noel, Ryan Gripp didn't make it out of the minors. Sorry Ethan, but this "gripping Gripp" stays with me! (But I did pick up a few things that will finally be headed your way for my contest a little while back.)

Ok, while this isn't "dimebox" vintage, we finally get to vintage nonetheless. As I said above, these were $.50 or 3/$1. Another bonus of this table was that every card came in a penny sleeve and toploader, even the dimebox stuff that's coming later. Let's start with the most recent and work towards the oldest. These will be presented without comment, just captioned with the year and player name. I will say, none of these cards have any creases and the only "damage" is some edge/corner wear. Even the centering on these are pretty good.

1978 Topps Bobby Murcer

1974 Topps Billy Williams

1974 Topps All-Star Reggie Jackson & Billy Williams

1973 Topps Cubs Team

1972 Topps Rookie Stars Cubs

1972 Topps NL Strikeout Leaders

1971 Topps Hoyt Wilhelm

1971 Topps Joe Pepitone

1971 Topps Ken Holtzman

1969 Topps Bill Hands

1969 Topps Rich Nye

1969 Topps Jim Hickman

1969 Topps Charlie Smith

Some of you eagle-eyed readers may have noticed that I forgot to caption the 1971 Jim Hickman and Larry Gura cards. I didn't forget. I just didn't realize until I got home and scanned them that they were actually...

...the O-Pee-Chee versions. I'm kicking myself now because there were definitely multiple copies of some of these cards and I didn't check the backs to see if there were more. I naively assumed they were just Topps cards and picked the ones with the best centering/edges/corners. Lesson learned.

While I did keep a few non-Cubs cards from the dimeboxes for my niches yesterday, almost all of the non-Cubs from the "expensive" boxes will find new homes in trade/gift packages by week's end. You'll have to look for those on other blogs in the coming weeks. The lone exceptions were these iconic cards. 

I've seen this card numerous times on blogs over the years, but shockingly, I don't think I'd ever seen one in person. And then I found two in a bargain bin.

Julio Borbon

So this was bound to happen eventually with the more of these cards that I get signed but I swear this is completely random that these are all coming back at once. And what am I talking about? Last week I showed two former Cubs, Howard Johnson and Mick Kelleher who both signed their jersey #20 along with their autograph.

As you can see on the card above, Julio Borbon did not, however, he is clearly wearing the number 20. And after taking a look at Cubs by the Numbers, I realized that Borbon was my 7th former Cub in my signed ATCRCS collection to have worn number 20. Along with Ho-Jo and Kelleher, I also already have Jerome Walton, Oscar Gamble, Al Spangler, Adolfo Phillips. Not only that, but there are still two more that I have in my possession but haven't showcased yet. I guess I know which two will be next...

Back to the subject at hand, Julio Borbon joined the Cubs back in April after the selected him off of waivers from the Texas Rangers. Some of you may remember I had a fun interaction with him when the Cubs came to play the Nats back in May when trying to get autographs. When he came over to the crowd, he asked why nobody had any Cubs cards of him yet (he had been with the team all of about 3 weeks at the time). I whipped out my brand spanking new 2013 Team Set card, which he signed:



But the ATCRCS at the top of the page was signed with a little help from an SCN member before Borbon got overly agressive on the basepaths and was thrown out trying to take third on a passed ball that didn't get as far away from the catcher as he would have liked. He was DFA'd after the game to set an example by the management for sloppy play. This took him off of the 40-Man roster and nobody else took a flyer on him, so Borbon spent the rest of the season with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs. I didn't see Borbon on any of the prelimnary 2013 Topps Update checklists so I'm not sure Borbon will even get any "official" Cubs cards.

James Russell

I 'm trying not to overload you on ATCRCS posts and have been doing at least every other post but that is all I seem to have going on right now. Luckily we're heading into the weekend when I'll do First Pitch Friday, One Game Wonder and a Where Are They Now Pro Debut posts so bear with me. Hopefully the extras in this post will cure any boredom.

This may be a first for me but I'll have to double check to be sure. Not only did I recently get back a James Russell ATCRCS card signed...

...but I also got back the 2013 team set card...



...and an upgraded 2012 team set card!



There are a couple of players I have three or more autographs from but I'm pretty sure this is my first trifecta that includes all three team sets I am working on. Despite a record setting 53 different players last year and another record setting 56 (so far) this year, there are only 21 players that can claim to be in all three sets.

Six of those 21 have already been traded away or released (Soriano, Garza, DeJesus, Camp, Clevenger & Marmol) so the chances they make an appearance in 2014 are pretty slim.

It will be interesting to see which of the remaining 15 will be the last man standing. Will it be one of the big name money guys like Anthony Rizzo or Starlin Castro or Jeff Samardzija? A middle of the road guy like Darwin Barney or Welington Castillo? Or one of the young pitchers like Chris Rusin, Brooks Raley or Blake Parker?

That reminds me, I have another bunch of 2013 cards to still make...

3 More for the 2013 Custom Team Set

Since I last updated on these, the Cubs have upped their roster total from 36 to 38 players since Opening Day. I only have a card for one of the two newest but I've also gone back and added two more that I missed.

Brian Bogusevic was added to the roster last week when the Cubs designated Carlos Marmol for assignment. This is another card that may ultimately change because of the photo selection. If I could see more of his face, it would have been a keeper. We'll see if a better photo comes along that meets my standards.

He started off well getting two hits in his Cubs debut and getting a hit in 4 of his five games. He did make a blunder in left field that led to the tying run scoring in the opening game of the Seattle Mariners series. Officially, it was a RBI triple for Raul Ibanez but had he played it properly, it would have been first and third with no run scored. Hindsight is always 20/20 though.

I've liked him so far in left field and Alfonso Soriano seemed to do well as the DH. (Hint, hint American League buyers at the trade deadline.)

Speaking of trade bait, Matt Garza is 3-1 in eight starts since coming off the DL with a 3.83 ERA that is just a shade below his career average. I have nothing against Matt Garza but if he can bring another piece or two for the puzzle that's coming together for the near future...

Rafael Dolis pitched five innings over five appearances this season before landing on the DL back in May. I haven't seen any updates to his status.

As for the Cubs as a team, they are 35-45 and 15.5 games back in the NL Central through 80 games. At this point last year they were 30-50 but only 14 games back.

I guess as the Cubs improve, so do the other teams...

Last year, they had scored 293 while giving up 368 through 80 games. As of yesterday's win over the Mariners, the Cubs have scored 330 and given up 340. While the run differential is still negative, they've added almost a half run per game.

These are cards 32, 33 and 34 in the 2013 team set (although they are not officially numbered). There still four unaccounted for but they're coming! You can see the rest of the ones I've posted here.

1994 Fleer Extra Bases - Cubs Team Set

Several months ago, I went on an eBay spending spree and picked up a couple of lots of miscellaneous Cubs cards. A bunch of it was junk wax, and though I'm a little ashamed to admit it, I needed a good chunk of it. In upgrade form though. The stuff that carried over from my childhood wasn't in the greatest shape and my borderline OCD tendencies didn't like that.

Buying in bulk is also much cheaper than $0.18 per card plus shipping, even when you factor in the extra stuff I didn't need/want. With some big chunks now out of the way, I can figure out what's left and drop the $0.18 on those.

Plus, you can come across some oddball stuff. I'm not sure I can call a set released by one of the big five card companies an oddball, but I don't think the 1994 Fleer Extra Bases set was too mainstream. I don't even know how it was released/distributed. I certainly don't remember seeing packs of it or even singles at a card show back then. They just showed up in one of my lots a few months ago.

In fact, I think Fleer printed these out last year. They're not breaking any licensing agreements because these came out in "1994", right? Sounds like a solid business plan.

One of the things I liked about Fleer back in the day was their card order. Players on the same team were kept together and alphabetical by their last name. Once I found the master checklist online, I confirmed the player before Willie Banks and after Rick Wilkins were not Cubs and realized I had the complete Cubs set. Although, it looks like there are a pair of inserts I'll have to chase down.

They are the same width as your standard baseball card at 2 1/2" but they are taller, measuring in at 4 3/4". That's kind of neat, until I started thinking about storing them. As I complete the team sets, I've been moving them into binders so now I have to look for oddball sized pages.

This set came out after Ryne Sandberg's first retirement but he gets a mention on the back of Rey Sanchez's card. Does his name constitute this as a Sandberg Cameo card?

At 12 cards in the checklist, the Cubs fall shy of the 14+ card average per team (only 28 back then) in the 400 card set. Aside from the annoyance of storing them, I think it is a pretty sharp set. Full length color photos on both sides, a blurb and a couple years worth of statistics. The photo selection is also pretty good and seems to have benefitted from the elongated cards. The Extra Bases logo is a little excessive but not enough to ruin the card. I might have swapped that logo and the Cubs logo from the back but then there is no set identifier on the front. Hmm...

Back to the sorting and finding more goodies I initially overlooked!

If anybody knows off the top of their heads what pages these would fit into, I'd appreciate it. The measurements again are 2.5" x 4.75". Hopefully there's a page that fits three across and two down, six total? At twelve cards, two pages would be perfect.

Small update: I found a link to the breakdown of a pack over at A Pack to Be Named Later. Even seeing the wrapper doesn't ring any bells.