Found money

As a few of you know, COMC is holding several "challenges" to help recatalog their inventory of cards. I'm more than happy to help COMC because, from the beginning, I've found it the easiest way for me to obtain cards online. Also, I get the feeling that Beckett doesn't like COMC very much, so that's more inspiration for me.

The challenges are pretty tedious -- name the team, name the card number, etc. -- but if I have the time, and I turn on my tunes, I can whip through a handful of challenges in a single sitting until insane boredom hits me.

The best part of the challenges is you accumulate store credit by doing them. Before I knew it, I had a healthy amount of "found money," and I decided to go shopping.

I spent a little bit on my still unannounced card contest winner and then determined how I'd divide up the rest.

I decided I would devote them to Dodger cards that I'd never think of to buy online, or cards that I didn't even know about before researching for this little shopping spree. Why not? It was found money. I didn't even know I had money to spend on these cards that I didn't even know existed! Yay!

The only card that I obtained that didn't fall under this stipulation was the 1978 Hostess Ron Cey card you see at the top. The realization that I didn't have that card already was too much to bear. So it's mine now.

As for the others, I can't say I gave any of them much of a thought before I grabbed them.

Like this Line Drive card from 1991. I had a faint inkling about this set because someone once sent me the Steve Garvey from it, with one corner cut off. I believe there's a Manny Mota in the set, too. But a priority? Can't say it ever was, even with Big D here.

Yeah, I landed on a few food issue cards from the late '80s, stuff that appeared after I stopped caring about cards you could find on the sides of boxes.

I've noticed that some of these cards go for unhealthy prices, like we're paying for someone's scissor skills.

This looks exactly like the Fernando card from the 1984 Topps Purina set. But it's not the Purina set. It's the Topps Cereal Series set. Don't ask me why there are two different sets that look almost identical except for one with the generic name of "cereal series." I just found out about the set like a week ago.

Possibly the best food-issue card that I picked up. I will be able to place Chef Boyardee in my binder! My 10-year-old self is so happy, even while my current self cringes at the phrase "first annual".

Did you know Burger King made ugly sets in both 1986 and 1987? I didn't. I thought they just did it in 1986 and then the authorities took their card-taking skills away from them because obviously they were a danger to collecting. But, no, BK was allowed to make this wonderful terrible thing.

More late '80s Pedro Guerrero. This features the tell-tale Mother's Cookies rounded corners. I often block Mother's Cookies cards out of my mind because there are so many sets. But I'll have to take them more seriously because this card here is fantastic.

I had to snag the Bill Madlock card from the set, too, because there just aren't enough Dodger Bill Madlock cards. Look at that shiny jacket.

We're still in Mother's Cookie jar, but this card is from eight years later. It's just as phenomenal as the Guerrero card, but probably even better because palm trees and sunglasses and fans.

The most expensive cards I picked up -- if I had to pay anything for these, that is -- this is a card from Hideo Nomo's rookie year. I must have over a dozen different Nomo rookie cards now. Is that all of them? Probably not.

 

Do you know how many 1988 Donruss cards get sent to me? But never this one. What the hell?

Here's another rookie who'd go on to great things with other teams. Discovering this card was a delight.

I like the 1990 red-bordered Toys R Us sets much better than the 1989 yellow-bordered ones and even the 1991 black-bordered ones. I must not be the only one as it took me a lot longer to discover these.

This is the newest card that I took. It's from the 1993 Select Rookies set, which again I didn't know existed. It's very fancy for a card from 1993.

These are the oldest cards I ordered. They're from the Fleer 1970 World Series set. I admit I've known about these for awhile, but I haven't made them a priority until recently.

What I appreciate about the top card is that you have no idea who won the Series based on the front. Let's keep it that way.

 

As some of you older collectors can probably tell, I'm on a Laughlin kick. Like the World Series cards, these Baseball Firsts were drawn by Robert Laughlin.This set is from Fleer and came out in the mid-1970s, I think 1974 (I have to consult my research material when I get a chance). It's not the cloth sticker set that came out later.

Anyway, it's a lot taller than your average baseball card, and very cool.

But unfortunately, my acquisition wasn't all fun and games and free cards.

There was a bit of a tragedy after I received the package.

I ordered all the cards in penny sleeves because there's no way I'm going to spring for 20 cents per card for a top loader unless it's some super vintagey thing. I was moving the cards from the table to my desk and as usual, they were slip, sliding all over. They squibbed out of my hands and I instinctively slammed them to my leg to keep them from falling and scattering.

Sadly, a Mootown Snackers card took a hit.

Such a wonderful card, and now there's a crease in it from top to bottom.

I stewed about ruining a brand new card for a minute or two and then I realized something.

I still have some COMC store credit left over!

So I ordered me up another Mootown Snackers Daniels card. For free!

This is like the greatest thing ever.

Isn't it, Beckett?