Cubs Lot #2, Part 4: Everything Else and the Breakdown

Last week's first Cubs lot was a pretty manageable 217 cards. So much so, I was able to fit the scans and breakdown into one post. My second lot was nearly six times that size at about 1300 cards. But don't worry I'm only going to split it into four posts. Relics. Autographs. Serial Numbered. Everything else and the breakdown.

So you’ve seen the Relics. And you’ve seen the Autographs. And the Serial Numbered cards.

Just because these next cards don't share any of those characteristics, that doesn't make them any less a part of my Cubs collection. There are a few base cards but also quite a few inserts and a decent mixture of rookies and stars.

Let's start with one of the staples of my repack box breakdowns, the oldest card in the box.

1979 Topps Cubs Prospects (Dave Geisel, Karl Pagel, Scot Thompson)

Dave Geisel had a perfect 3-0 record with a 2.15 ERA in his 36-game Cubs tenure.

On the other hand, Karl Pagel went a career 0-3 at the plate with three strikeouts in his time with the Cubs. The cap logo belongs to the Midland Cubs, the team's Double A affiliate at the time.

Scot Thompson spent the most time with the Cubs, playing with them through the 1983 season.

You probably can't tell from the scan but the photo on this Kevin Tapani card is extremely blurry. With the pinstripes and the blue and red color scheme of the Cubs uniform, It almost looks like an attempt to make a 3D card, glasses not included. I already have the regular card, but I'm going to keep this too, just for fun.

The other day at the card show I picked up a Mike Fontenot Classic Combo card that I didn't know existed from the 2007 Topps set because it wasn't included in my team set checklist. Low and behold, I came across an Alfonso Soriano in this lot, paired up with JJ Hardy.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious about these Chrome cards but can somebody explain why the Blake Lalli had a white border but on the Jeff Antigua, the chrome goes to the edge?

Topps reusing photos isn't limited to just the old retired players. I have a really good memory when it comes to player photos so this makes me afraid of all the Cubs cards I've put back from dime boxes over the years because I recognized the photo as something I already had. And these were just two of the examples, there were probably a half dozen more, easily.

This card marks JR Mathes' debut into my collection. Can anyone explain to me how you get J.R. from Alfred George? Speaking of debuts...

A good chunk of Topps Total was able to add a couple more first timers to my collection, represented here by Francis Beltran and Donnie Hood.

I guess Fleer didn't get the memo from Topps that it was ok to Photoshop. Here, Alfonso Soriano appears on Cubs cards while wearing Washington Nationals uniforms.

The player who added the most unique cards to my collection from this lot was Corey Patterson with 18 new-to-me cards. I already showed some of the numbered cards, but here's a trio of "regular" inserts from the lot.

There was only one new Ryne Sandberg card in the lot. This card from Metal Universe didn't scan very well but it appears that Sandberg has some kind of funnel/vortex/vaccuum thing on his glove hand. Ok.

Of course, there were tons of cards of Alfonso Soriano, Derrek Lee, Geovany Soto, Carlos Zambrano but it was a pretty mixed bag on new-to-me and dupes. 

Let's get to the breakdown.

Advertised Quantity: 1391

Actual Quantity: 1372

Damaged Cards: 5

Non-Cubs: 1

Different Cards: 1067

Price Per Cubs Card: $42.05/1371 = $.031

Price Per Different Card: $8.98/197 = $.039

New Cards (or upgrades): 567

Price Per New Card:  $42.05/567 = $.074

Number of Different Players: 371 + 29 team cards/multiple players

Considering all of the "hits" and still being able to come in at well under a dime per new card, I was very happy with this lot. The rest of the lots going forward will be of the much smaller variety, more like the first one. Before I get to those though, I will probably dip into my Craigslist lot a little more.

As for the one non-Cubs card that showed up, I'll probably keep it anyway:

How fun to say is Rancho Cucamonga?