The suit nearly fits

 

I've been watching the cards from my first Sportlots order of the year trickle in. It seems like it's taking longer than usual.

But I'm down to the final two cards that need to arrive. Unfortunately they were supposed to be part of this post.

In fact, the plan was that I would have all of the cards I needed to finish the 1985 Fleer set for this post. That was the first mission of the year: complete that set. But I'm still six cards short. One card that I ordered did not show, I received a refund -- Mike Brown, of all players. Two Darryl Strawberry cards were swiped from my cart. Damn player collectors. I think a couple of the others were snatched from my cart, too, but it's possible I missed adding a couple.

All of those cards should be easy enough to snag and very quickly, too. But I don't want to wait for those to get this post done. So now you'll have to suffer through two 1985 Fleer posts. Sorry, I'll make it interesting, I promise.

 

The '85 Fleer set is still in that sweet spot of sets that include players during my formative years of following baseball. Some of the players I obtained in this group that were playing when I was still in high school or even in grade school include Mookie Wilson, Rick Manning, Jack Morris, Bert Blyleven, Don Baylor, Al Holland, Rick Dempsey and Dave Parker. There are others, too.

 

I like those players a lot, more than today's players, even more than the players who started in the late 1980s or the '90s. Those guys who played when there was an NBC Game Of The Week and ABC Monday Night Baseball are the ones I want to collect the most, forever if I can.

The '85 Fleer set is not my favorite '80s Fleer set, but it's in the top tier. The team color-coordinated borders off-set by the gray is very appealing to me in a way that 1983 Fleer is not. This set has been dubbed "The man in the gray flannel suit" set -- I think by Cardboard Junkie -- and it fits, like ... well, a gray flannel suit.

More needs filled.

I'm  miffed over the Mattingly card. After missing out on the Strawberry, I was happy the Mattingly stayed in my cart. But the card has a couple issues, including a couple creases. I usually make sure my '80s purchases are at least EX-NM, and this was listed as NM. It is not. Sometimes I'm too trusting over Sportlots sellers and don't have my radar on like I do with ebay sellers. I'll try to upgrade if I can -- '80s cards shouldn't be creased, it just makes me think I inherited the card of some 8-year-old in '85 and that's not nearly as cool as having the cards of an 8-year-old from 1953.

 

The color contrast is interesting. Someone living in the modern era would probably think one of these is a variation. Thank goodness we didn't have to concern ourselves with that nonsense then.

 

I also had to buy myself a Steve Yeager card, was shocked I didn't have at least three of these in my Dodgers dupes box.

But that's where the '85 Fleers run out. You'll have to wait for the rest. They're, um, at the tailor's.

I didn't land much else with my order, I mentioned before I had to remove some cards myself due to budget concerns. I did finish off a team set though.

The Swell sets were pretty pesky but now they're done with these from '91. Garvey was one of the last ones, as usual.

I upgraded a handful of cards from my youth with this order as well. Just showing one here, it's one of the '78 cards that loomed over me, probably more than any other one except for the Reggie I still need to swap out.

That's the side-by-side comparison. The original, which I've had since I was 12, is not all that bad. It's not like I was mangling it like the '85 Mattingly. By this point I was starting to value my cards a little more, mostly just worn corners and paper loss from me stacking them up and such.

 

Wow, that's a bit jarring ... all those '70s, '80s and early '90s cards and then SHINEEEE!

I've loved 2014 Finest since it came out. Haven't done a thing to prove that other than my words on here. This Kershaw slipped my mind because I've had the refractor version for quite awhile and my brain just thought it was the regular card.

So, that was a successful first order of 2023. Not the most exciting. But I'm working up to that. By summer, you'll have to take a cold shower after viewing my online orders.