Two Not-So-Random Rynos

In this weekly series, I show off two random Ryne Sandberg cards from my 600+ card PC. One will be from his playing days (pre-1998) and one since his retirement (1998-present).

Normally these cards are random, but I went to a card show yesterday and managed to find nine Rynos that were new to the PC.

Playing Days:

Sandberg played during the junk wax era, but was done before the parallels and inserts got super crazy limited. Therefore, very rarely do I come across a Sandberg card from his playing days that I don't have, let alone have never even seen before. But that was the case with this 1993 Score Select Stars insert.

I stumbled upon this one in a box yesterday that was sorted by team. All the cards in the box were a dollar and I did end up pulling a couple of other Cubs needs. At first, a dollar for a junk wax card seemed a bit high, but I think I've gotten to a point where spending a dollar (with no shipping to boot) on my #1 PC guy for a card I've never seen is allowable.

When I got home and did a search to figure out exactly what this card was, I was pleasantly surprised to see it runs a couple of bucks on eBay and Sportlots plus shipping. Score! (pun intended)

I actually liked the base Score Select when it came out and was one of the first I tried to mock when I started creating customs due to its simplicity. These Score Select Stars were a 24-card insert set that fell in 1:18 retail packs.

Post Retirement:

A different table had monster boxes full of products from last year and this year, rough sorted by number but with no prices. When I asked what the prices were, the dealer said it depends on the player. Ugh. I hate that. Someone like Ryno could be a common or a star depending on your point of view.

But I went through and pulled a bunch of Cubs from sets I didn't buy any of like Fire, Tribute, Gallery, this year's Donruss, etc. I handed the dealer a stack of about 60-70 cards, a mixture of base and inserts and parallels expecting the worst. When he quoted me $12, I couldn't pay quickly enough! Sportlots type prices on higher end brands without the shipping? I'll take that every time!

I know almost nothing about Topps Fire. There seems to be a lot of parallels and inserts and parallel inserts. This particular Sandberg, according to TCDB, is the Monikers Gold Minted parallel and might just be the ugliest card in the PC. For less than a quarter though? I'll take it.

I have a lot of scanning to do but I'll do a show recap post next week sometime.