New to my unopened collection: 1986 Sportflics

I said that I've purchased a bunch of Sportflics, and am continuing to post them. There are two main thrusts of this: the 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats set which I started going through, and an unopened box of 1986 Series 1 Sportflics. Today's post focuses on the unopened aspect.  As was usual back then 36 packs came to a box.  I opened six packs leaving 30 for my unopened collection.

Outer sleeve.

A "Big Six" card attached to the inner box, showing Wade Boggs and Willie McGee.

The box comes with a white outer sleeve that you remove, to reveal the retail box and packs inside.  The retail box comes with a single card glued on.  I don't think it can be salvaged, since they must have used a bunch of glue to keep it on there.  I suspect different boxes get different cards; this box has a "Big Six" card, number 183, of the so-called triple crown.

Don Mattingly and Dave Parker pictured.

Darrell Evans and Dale Murphy pictured.

Of course no one won the 1985 triple crown, but this card features the AL and NL league leaders in each of the triple crown categories.  We have Wade Boggs, Darrell Evans, and Don Mattingly for the AL, and Willie McGee, Dale Murphy, and Dave Parker for the NL.  I've taken the photos so that you can see all six players.

Pack back.

You can see the pack fronts in the three images above.  Here's the pack back, with a partial checklist printed on the top half.  They let you know that you can write them for a complete checklist of Series 1, and they also let you know to watch out for Series 2.

Thanks for reading!  I'll post the cards I got from the six packs I opened in due course.

A few 1994 Oscar Mayer discs

At some point I saw another blogger post some of these 1994 Oscar Mayer pop-up discs.  I don't remember who or when; it was a while ago now.  But I wanted a few for myself.

Kirby Puckett.

Kirby Puckett disc back.

These are from 1994, when I was still just barely collecting.  I don't typically pick up post-1994 items, so these are just within my usual limits.  I only wanted a few, and Kirby Puckett is a good choice for me.  I have had two of his 1985 Topps rookie cards for a long, long time, and they have pride of place in my main binder.

Ruben Sierra.

Ruben Sierra disc back.

Ruben Sierra was one of the many important rookie cards in the 1987 Topps set; in the time I was watching, he played with the Rangers and A's.  Over the next years he also played with the Yankees, Tigers, Reds, Blue Jays, White Sox, Rangers again, Mariners, Rangers again, Yankees again, and Twins, topping 2000 career hits.

Andy Van Slyke.

Andy Van Slyke disc back.

Then there's Andy Van Slyke, who was very important to me in the late 80s/early 90s as a Pirates fan.  I didn't buy just one Van Slyke, though.  In the interest of having my cake and eating it too, I bought one to keep as it came and one to open up.

Popped up.

A few lines of stats.

I didn't want to open it wrong, so I practiced first.  I bought my friend the Mets fan a Lenny Dykstra disc, and we opened it together.  We did it a little wrong, tearing it in one place.  So then I knew how to open this Van Slyke.  Inside there are stats for the most recent five years.

Trivia question.

Trivia answer.

There's also a trivia question and answer that pops out.  Who won the most Gold Gloves?  Brooks Robinson, of course.  But also Jim Kaat, I think, who wasn't mentioned.  But not anymore, thanks to Greg Maddux.

Thanks for reading!

New to my unopened collection: 1981 Topps stickers

A while ago, for my small Mike Schmidt player collection, I bought one silver foil Topps sticker; I think the silver ones were the All-Stars.  That one sticker brought back some memories, and so I added some more Topps stickers to my unopened collection with a box of 1981 Topps Stickers.

Box of 1981 Topps stickers.

Box back, with a message addressed to "Mr. Dealer."

Fortunately such things are plentiful on eBay, and even though they've survived intact for 40 years, only cost a few bucks.  I like that the box has messages addressed to "Mr. Dealer," encouraging the retailer to also stock the albums.

Two unused albums.

Album back.

Speaking of the albums, I picked up two of them, in their original condition.  I'm not sure what I plan to do with all of this.  Part of me wants to open the stickers and see if I get a whole set into the album.  Another part of me wants to leave it all as it is.  So far that second part is winning my internal argument.  But with the albums, I could use one and still have one blank, if I want.  The album back has endorsements from Reggie Jackson, George Brett, and Jim Palmer.  I'll add that I find it odd that Brett has no logo on the front but he does on the back.  Pete Rose has a logo on the front.  Why did they blank out Brett's uniform on the front?

100 packs of stickers.

Upon opening the box, I think that 100 packs of stickers look like a lot of packs of stickers.

Fronts of sticker packs.

Backs of sticker packs.

Here are the fronts and the backs of the packs.  Again, George Brett is logo-less on the front.  And at 15 cents per pack, we're looking at not even 4 cents per sticker.  In current dollars, we're talking about approximately 11 cents per sticker. 

Inside front cover.

My favorite feature of the album is inside the front cover, on the bottom left, there's a space for you to put your own picture.  Your picture would then face the 1980 AL pitching leaders.

Phillies and Pirates.

Each team has a page in the album, and there are some extra pages for league leaders and All-Stars and whatnot.  I like that the Phillies and Pirates ended up next to each other, and that in 1981 they were the two most recent World Series winners.

Inside back cover.

Finally, we end with the back cover, which faced the Giants.  The back cover includes the offer to complete your collection.  You could send a dollar to get 10 stickers of your choice.  So they're getting a premium by charging more than double what the stickers retail for, but you're getting to be definite in terms of which stickers you get.  I remember that anytime I tried one of these albums, I would give up completing it long before I came close enough to consider their completion deal.

Thanks for reading!

Coming attractions: I love the 70's

About a week and a half ago, I made a short post saying that I would be posting a bunch of Sportflics soon.  And having posted that helps me to remember to work through the Sportflics I wanted to post, which I have now started.  In that same spirit, here's a brief post about a bunch of 70's awesomeness that I'll be posting soon.

John Candelaria.

Willie Stargell.

Pete Rose t-shirt offer.

I've said that I'm winding down my collecting, and that remains true.  I'm down to fewer than 40 cards for my 1972 Topps set, and then I don't plan to get much more than the 1955 Bowman set that I'm working on.  But earlier this year I splurged on a box of 70's goodness from COMC, buying more than 100 various Hostess and Kellogg's cards and MSA discs.  Technically a few of the Kellogg's cards are from the 80's, but still.  Pictured above are the only unpunched Pepsi discs that I bought, featuring two important Buccos of the 70's, John Candelaria and Willie Stargell.  In a dozen or so posts coming up, I plan to show all of this great stuff.

I've actually already been posting some other 70's stuff I got as part of the effort, but which are not Kellogg's, Hostess, or MSA.  The items and posts which you could say were surreptitiously part of this series are: 13 1977 Topps cards,  11 1977 Topps cards, some 1977 Padres schedule cards, the 1978 Topps Phillies team set, cards of Danny Murtaugh, Bob Boone, Hank Aaron, and Reggie Smith, and a 1976 Topps Dick Allen card.  Of course there's other 70's stuff that I post, but I don't think it was all consciously in this vein.

Thanks for reading!

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats: 1930s and 1940s

A week ago Sunday, I said that I would be posting a bunch of Sportflics coming up.  Here's the first batch, a few cards from the 1986 Sportflics Decades Great set.

1986 Sportflics Decade Greats.

Box bottom: ad for Rookies set.

Here we have the top, front, and bottom of the box.  This feels very 80s to me.  The bottom advertises another 1986 Sportflics set, their Rookies set.

Inside flaps: Mickey Mantle disc offer.

Hank Greenberg.

I posted before the 1986 Sportflics Dwight Gooden disc offer and the Don Mattingly disc offer.   There's also a Mickey Mantle that you could get through this form.  Searching COMC for these discs, I see that they're listed as 1986 Sportflics Jumbo discs, and in addition to Gooden, Mattingly, and Mantle, there are Wade Boggs, Wally Joyner, and Roger Clemens out there.  Maybe they came from offers in the Rookies set, or some other promotion.

As for the cards, I'm showing here a handful of the cards that the set identifies as the greats of the 1930s and 1940s.  Also, instead of scanning, I'm holding these in my hand and taking photos with my phone, trying to angle them so as to get clear shots of some of the card images.  So you'll see my thumb or hand in most of them.  Starting off we have Hank Greenberg, who I wish I had a Play Ball card of.  But instead I settle for nostalgia cards like this.

Joe DiMaggio.

Joe DiMaggio.

Joe DiMaggio is in the set as one of the Greats of the 1940s.  Who could possibly argue with that?  The card back (not pictured!) shows his stats for the 40s, with a .325 batting average and over 1000 hits.  This, of course, is despite not playing 1943-1945 for military service during World War II.

Lou Gehrig.

Lou Gehrig.

For each decade, Sportflics designated one player as the Player of the Decade.  For the 1930s, that was Lou Gehrig.  He had 1802 hits in the 30s, batting .343.  Not to mention the playing streak.

Jimmie Foxx.

Jimmie Foxx.

Jimmie Foxx is a personal favorite.  I said that I wished I had a Play Ball of Hank Greenberg, but since Foxx is more important to me, I did get one of him a while back.  Foxx was the longtime number 2 in career home runs, before the sluggers of the 60s came along (Frank Robinson, Harmon Killebrew, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Mickey Mantle).  I don't know exactly when one of them passed him.  But the old Philadelphia Athletic held on to be number 2 to Babe Ruth for a long time.

Babe Ruth.

Babe Ruth.

Speaking of Ruth, here he is.  After the 30s and 40s, the cards are in color for the 1950s onward.  This set is a wonderful representation of so much of the baseball history I love.  The Sportflics format is perfect for this purpose, too, showing a portrait and two action shots of each of these greats.  It may not come across perfectly in a blog post, but this set really captures something great about baseball.

I'll show a few cards from the set's remaining decades in a couple more posts.  Thanks for reading!

13 more 1977 Topps pickups

I posted once before that I was considering getting a 1977 Topps set, but decided against it.  But when I was browsing eBay for such things, I saw a bunch of the cards in the binder, mainly of minor stars, and thought they looked great.  So I decided to pick up a bunch of the cards, mainly of minor stars, or at least players that I have a mild interest in.  That previous post showed the first round of this effort.  Here are 13 more; some of these are for my main binder and some will go in a box.  There will be a handful more which are still to arrive.

Bake McBride.

Greg Luzinski.

These two guys were 2/3 of the starting outfield in the 1980 Phillies.  McBride was a former Rookie of the Year with the Cardinals, and was injury-prone but did well with the Phillies for a few years.  Luzinski was the Phils' number two slugger behind Mike Schmidt, although Luzinski did even lead the majors in RBI in 1975 and had more RBI than Schmidt for several years.

Rich Gossage.

Davey Lopes.

I said these are mostly minor stars; Gossage, of course, was a premier reliever and made the Hall of Fame.  Lopes feels to me also a bit more notable than most of the players here.  My first memory of Lopes was his 1987 Topps record breaker cards, for bases stolen at the age of 40.

Tommy Harper.

Alex Johnson.

Tommy Harper was a member of the Seattle Pilots, and was a two-time stolen base champ.  He's in the Red Sox Hall of Fame, despite only playing three seasons with them.  Alex Johnson was the 1970 AL batting champion.  He had some trouble in California, involving run-ins with teammates and management, multiple fines, and grievances filed by the players' union.  Johnson and Harper were actually almost traded for each other, but for those problems.

Willie Davis.

Jerry Mumphrey.

Willie Davis was near the end of his career here; after 1976 with the Padres, he played a bit in Japan, and then finished out his career in 1979 with the Angels.  Davis was part of the 1963 and 1965 Dodgers championship teams, and was a two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner with them.  For some reason I have Jerry Mumphrey's 1980 Topps card burned into my memory; here he is a couple of years earlier.  Mumphrey played with the Cardinals, Padres, Yankees, Astros, and Cubs from 1974 through 1988, making the 1984 NL All-Star team with the Astros.

Jerry Royster.

Lee Lacy.

Jerry Royster played with the Dodgers, Braves, Padres, White Sox, Yankees, and Braves again from 1973 through 1988.  He appeared in the top 10 of several categories (runs, triples, stolen bases) in the late 70s.  Lee Lacy was on the Pirates' 1979 championship team.  He set a record with the Dodgers by hitting home runs in three consecutive pinch hit appearances; Del Unser later tied the record and got a record breaker card in the 1980 Topps set.

George Hendrick.

Garry Templeton.

I've posted about George Hendrick a number of times, and what I always say is that I don't think I ever noticed him until Night Owl's excellent post about him.  Hendrick was a four-time All-Star, a two-time World Series champ, and a two-time Silver Slugger winner.  Like Jerry Royster, Garry Templeton here is sporting the Topps All-Star Rookie trophy.  Templeton was a three-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger winner, and is in the Padres Hall of Fame.

Maury Wills.

Finally, as in the 1987 set ten years later, we have a Turn Back the Clock card to when Maury Wills stole 104 bases in 1962.  Unlike the 1987 version, they didn't attempt to show an old card, so they didn't have to mock up a Topps Maury Wills card.

Like I said, there are a few more 1977 cards coming, but I think I've got just about all the ones I'm interested in.  Thanks for reading!