Flip it good

I am dragging out a few of these card packages while I formulate some more substantial posts that may never actually run because I never have any time anymore.

Yup, what you're seeing here is one giant stall tactic. It could last for weeks.

So, this is one last card from Corey of Adventures in 1952 Topps and Third Base Coach for the Dodgers Until He Finds a Managing Job. It appears to be a common variety 1987 Topps Steve Sax card. I think, conservatively estimated, I have 30 versions of this card.

But this is where you would be missing out if you didn't flip the card over to take a look.

There is a refreshing amount of talk about card backs on the blogs and I know there are a lot of collectors who enjoy reading the backs. But, just like those Playboy subscribers back in the day, a sizable group of people are in this hobby just for the pictures.

I'm guilty of this from time to time, too. I could spend half a week catching up on all the card backs I haven't read in this year's Topps set.

But, really, you've got to make it a habit of looking at the card, and then flipping it to the back. You've got to find a system. Look. Flip. Look. Flip.

Because someday you're going to flip and see this:

That's the back of this Steve Sax card.

As you may notice, Sax IS mentioned there on the list of On-Base Percentage leaders. But that's not what anyone was expecting when they braced for this flipping.

This card back is actually the back for this card:

The Wizard Of Oz all-star card. Don't expect me to write anything else about him because of a certain home run in '85. Run along Ozzie.

Instead I'd like to take a look at that card back again:

The best part of this card back is not only is it a wrong back, but it's a miscut back, too. And I have a chance to figure out what other card back is being featured on this piece of cardboard.

All it took was a search through the '87 collection and I found it easily:

The Steve Sax/Ozzie Smith AS card is sharing space with Teddy Higuera's All-Star card.

So this card is THREE cards in one.

It is Topps card #769 - Steve Sax, and Topps card #598 - Ozzie Smith All-Star, and Topps card #615 - Teddy Higuera All-Star.

Isn't that fun?

(By the way, 1987 Topps seemed to have more than its share of this, from wrong backs to blank backs. I don't remember seeing nearly this much in '86, '88 or '89 Topps).

That's what happens when you flip your cards. You come up with a blog post.

But then Corey knew that already.

This is how the card actually arrived out of the package:

You don't really think I intended to flip over an '87 Steve Sax card, do you?


(P.S.: Yes, this is going in the Dodgers album).