Memories are free (and sometimes cards are, too)

 

I picked up this card on Friday. Ryne Sandberg passed away Monday.

 

I was not a kid when Sandberg was starring for the Cubs. I was a senior in high school when his rookie card showed up, and I'm pretty sure I didn't know who he was when I pulled it. That was the last year of dedicated card collecting for me for the next six years. That's a lot of Sandberg cards I didn't see.

 

I'm also not a Cubs fan, and it feels odd writing a tribute. So I'm going to wander through topics while discussing Sandberg cards, too.

 

The Sandberg diecut card came from a collection I am assessing for a co-worker. She helps run a thrift shop through her church. The cards are the former collection of her neighbor. The collector's mom made the cards, and everything else in their garage, available to the shop.

 

It's apparent that the kid collected somewhere around 2005-15. There are also cards going back to 2001 (and some football cards from the late '80s but that was before he was born). It's mostly baseball and football with a little bit of basketball. There's nothing really valuable in the 5 or 6 binders, plus a bin and a few other random boxes, but it's interesting to see cards dropped off that aren't all junk wax. 

 

As you can imagine with a kid's collection, it is all over the place and by condensing things I ended up with like 30 extra nine-pocket pages, which I could claim for myself! I also added a new binder. And for my trouble, my co-worker said I could add some cards for my collection gratis!

 

Besides the Sandberg card, I added a couple of 2005 Sweet Spot key figures, a Verlander rookie and Vladimir Guerrero gold parallel. I researched this stuff prior to make sure I wasn't snagging high-dollar cards (this was at the heart of my no-collecting period). And it helps that this thrift store is not looking to sell individual cards like a card shop.

 

 

I added a legends short-print from 2011, back when that kind of thing was still a little unusual. There was a binder with almost nothing but 2011 and 2012 Topps. I'm still thinking of buying that binder in an effort to add a few more 2011 cards, since that's one of those sets that I own like two-thirds of and really should finish it.

 

 

There were no Dodgers that I needed but I found at least one Bills card to take home (there were actually others, including a couple relics, but they're all from that 2005-15 era and I have no interest). Those 1980s football sets feel like home.

 

 

In fact I added several 1988 Topps notables, too. 

 

The 1980s really is that cozy time period for me -- not because I was a kid -- but because the decade started with high school, then continued into college and ended with those great old days when you were young, out of school and had no money but felt like you had a lot.

 

So I understand the nostalgia for Sandberg and I've watched over the last 24  hours a couple of interviews he did. He was a solid individual. Here are five notables from my collection, without showing that Topps rookie:

 

 

Not an '80s card, but how can you dispute one of the better cards in the 1991 Topps set? It gets ignored among Clemens, Santiago, etc., but this makes me want that 792-card horizontal set again.

 

 

OK, also not a 1980s card (I'll get there soon!), but a really fun short-print photo that unfortunately Topps has reused a couple times since. This is the "original" from 2009, showing Sandberg's early Phillies days (Well, original if you don't count etopps!).

 

 

Here are both of Sandberg's MLB teams represented on one card. Thanks to all the All-Star appearances Sandberg made in the 1980s, he showed up on several Fleer Super Star Specials, including this one with Mike Schmidt (I also have ones with Dave Parker, Ozzie Smith, Cecil Fielder, and maybe others).

 

 

Seeing Sandberg with a mustache is as strange as seeing Ron Cey without one! I don't know how many times Sandberg shows up on cards with his mustache, but this 1988 Fleer Baseball MVPs is the only one in my collection.

 

 

OK, here's a Ryne Sandberg rookie card! This might be the most off-condition card in my complete 1983 Fleer set. I'm sure I received it in a lot of hand-me-down '83 Fleer cards and you know how that goes. The biggest rookie may not be in the best shape.

 

But I will put this card up against the 1983 Topps card, in fact I think I prefer it. (P.S. whatever you do, don't buy a Sandberg rookie today. They're all selling for like 20 bucks).

 

Rest easy, Ryno. The news of Sandberg's passing came in when I was at work at around 8:30. We had received orders earlier in the night to not wait for any late-breaking news because of a technical glitch in sending the newspaper pages.

 

But I waited for this story anyway. And got it in.