ERROR: 1988 Fleer Jody Davis & Keith Moreland

I was sorting some of my doubles from my recent Cubs lot pickups and came across some funny business. 

These are the standard Jody Davis and Keith Moreland cards from the 1988 Fleer set. These have been upgraded over time from my childhood cards but one copy or another has been in my possession for the past 25 years. In fact, my 1988 Fleer team set has probably been complete for just as long.

But then this card showed up in one of my recent lots.

I knew that set was complete so I skipped right past it on the initial sorting. The second time around though, on the detail sorting, the two different Keith Morelands were suddenly next to each other and obviously different. Maybe one came from a box bottom or some other kind of advertising? Nope.

That's where the Jody Davis comes in. The bunting "Moreland" is actually catcher Jody Davis and an error card. The batting stance Moreland is the corrected version. I thought I was up to snuff on late 1980's/early 1990's early cards, but this one slipped through the cracks.

And since I scan the fronts and backs of all of my cards, here are the backs. Despite the error on the front, the Moreland backs were the same on both cards so I just uploaded one.

Cubs Lot #4

This is another smaller lot but one that I plan on spreading out over about 150 posts.

What?!

Don't worry, I'll explain in a bit.

I actually won several auctions from one seller who seemed to be doing a purge of his unwanted Cubs cards. Lucky me! I probably wouldn't have normally picked these up for the $0.99 I paid individually, but with combined shipping and the lot (you'll see at the end) that I won, I definitely feel I got my money's worth.

Now, most of these guys you'd probably have to be a pretty big Cubs fan to have heard of since just two made the big leagues. But I'm still happy to add these guys to the collection.

Brandon Sing made it as high as Triple A Iowa but spent the past couple of years in independent leagues. This blue refractor is limited to just 150 copies.

Elvin Puello topped out with six games in Single A Peoria in 2005 before going back down to low A Boise in 2006, his last year.

Chris Walker played for the Cubs organization from 2002 to 2007, rising up to Triple A Iowa. He's been bouncing around the minors and independent baseball since, spending 2013 in the Mexican League.

Kevin Collins played High A ball for the Cubs and Cardinals but hasn't played since 2006.

Ronald Perry "Bear" Bay didn't make it above A ball with the Cubs but played at the Triple A level for the Indians, Angels and Padres as recently as 2012.

Buck Coats had Major League time with the Cubs in 2006, the Reds in 2007 and the Blue Jays in 2008.

Matt Creighton bounced around quite a bit while in the Cubs organization, playing at multiple levels each season. But he couldn't quite break into the bigs. These are a nice pair of autographs to add to the collection though.

Bobby Brownlie is a former first round draft  pick for the Cubs and although he played Triple A for the Cubs, Nationals and Braves, he too, never broke through to the Majors.

Grant Johnson is a former 2nd round draft pick out of Notre Dame that topped out at Double A Tennessee.

Finally for the single cards, we have to most successful of the group, Tyler Colvin. A first round pick in 2006, Colvin made his Cubs debut in 2009. He was traded to the Rockies with DJ LeMahieu for Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers following the 2011 season. He bounced bewteen the Rockies and their Triple A affiliate for the next two seasons and is currently with the Giants Triple A team in Fresno.

However, the large part of this purchase was this lot below:

Nearly two hundred Mark Prior cards, all different. Considering my collection consisted of a meager 50-ish Prior cards before, this is a big boost. There weren't any autographs of relics, but there were a couple of serial numbered card. As I mentioned at the top of this post, I intend to get many posts out of this lot. There are so many different inserts that I missed out on in the early to mid 2000s that I think it will be fun to visit each (or most) individually. I'm thinking "Mark Prior Mondays" might be a thing although I may just use them when I get stuck for a post.

All of the cards in this post set me back $20.47 shipped, which works out to less than a dime per card. All of the minor league cards were new to me and I'm guessing at least 150 of the Priors will be new once I get them all scanned and cataloged. There weren't too many base cards which is what I mostly had. Not too shabby.

I will have to double check when everything is sorted out, but this may bump Prior up to my second biggest player collection (unofficial) behind Ryne Sandberg.

2011 Topps Lineage Autograph Reprint Roy Smalley Jr.

Whoops, I got carried away with my 2010 Upper Deck break this weekend that I forgot to publish on Friday and Saturday. Sorry!

I keep putting off picking up any actual vintage so I do kind of appreciate some of the reprint stuff. I didn't buy any Topps Lineage in 2011 but have been slowly adding things over the years as I see them at reasonable prices. I'm done with the base set but still working on the Diamond Anniversary sparkly stuff. And I recently picked up this autograph insert.

Roy Smalley Jr played for the Cubs from 1948-1953. I didn't realize he was a Cub until I started making ATCRCS cards a few years ago, but by that time he had just passed away. When I was growing up, the extent of my knowledge of him was his Father-Son combo card with Roy Smalley III in 1985 Topps. But that card showed him a member of the Milwaukee Braves, which was confusing in itself as at that point, I only knew of the Atlanta Braves. I was six when that set came out, what do you want from me!? 

According to my rough estimate, I now have almost 250 different Cubs autographs and this one has me closing in on 100 different certified Cubs autographs. Once I'm done going through my lots, I'll come up with an official count.

Cubs Lot #3

This lot was much smaller and I'm able to take care of it in one fell swoop. It was the priciest per card lot that I bought, but from the pictures, I could tell it had a bunch of stuff I needed. There were some common base cards but even among them, I found some upgrades.

It only took 4 scans and some cropping so this was fairly quick and painless.

I didn't have many Bazooka cards so these were all new. Apparently, the Bazooka Joe character is a bandwagon fan of all 30 teams and has a card for each. You can't tell from the scans but the Donald Hood on the left is the regular card and the one of the right is a mini. Or vice versa. Whatever.

A few more Hee Seop Choi for the collection. The Donruss on the upper right is a dupe but he's got a broken bat so it'll be heading to JediJeff.

I had the regular Stadium Club of Shawon Dunston on the left but mine had some chipping on the foil logo so this is an upgrade. The Golden Rainbow parallel is a nice addition and the Dunston part scanned as both golden and a rainbow. The Score above and Score Select below were new to me as well.

My Eric Karros collection quadrupled as I started with one and now have four!

What Cubs lot purchase would be complete without a new Corey Patterson and Mark Prior? There were a couple of each of these guys, but alas, only one each that were new to me.

Like Eric Karros, Rondell White is suddenly thriving in my collection. These three double me up to six.

I said it before, I'm still a little surprised when I come across another new No-mah cahd. This one is die-cut and horizontal.

Speaking of horizontal, how about a nice Sammy Sosa? I'm a little sorry that I was out of the hobby when Fleer Tradition was around. I've seen some nice stuff form them. Lots of horizontal-ness.

This was hands down the coolest "card" in the package. Its a standard 2.5 x 3.5 but as thick as the manu-ring-relics that Topps has put out. A good half inch. If you look closely at the front, there's a yellow button with a megaphone icon. When you squeeze the card, you get the WGN radio call of Sammy's 300th home run. Well, at least you're supposed to. The battery is on its last legs because mine just lets out a high pitched squeal for about as long as I imagine the home run call is.

I mentioned that the lot itself was fairly pricey (per card). But I did get the seller to throw in an autographed Cubs card he had listed separately for no additional charge. Not a big name, but still new to me.

As is protocol for a lot purchase, here is the breakdown.

Advertised Quantity: 100 + 1 bonus

Actual Quantity: 102 + 1 bonus

Damaged Cards: 0

Non-Cubs: 1

Different Cards: 103

Price Per Cubs Card: $19.99/102 = $.196

Price Per Different Card: $19.99/103 = $.194

New Cards (or upgrades): 52

Price Per New Card:  $19.99/52 = $.384

Number of Different Players: 54 + 2 team cards/multiple players

And here is the one "non-Cubs" card. Like the Derrek Lee from the other day, I'll be keeping this one too anyway.

Its kind of funny that the player was Hee Seop Choi, since he was the one sent to the Marlins to land Derrek Lee. Ok, maybe that's only funny to me. Since Choi is shown in his Cubs uniform, I'll be hanging on to it despite the teal coloring and Marlins name across the top.