Time to do the dirty deed

 

A couple of weeks ago I received this box from Jon, a reader who has sent me a number of cards in the past.

I knew it was coming. He sent an email shortly before it arrived and then I realized that we had communicated about this shipment through email in the past, but you get to my age and emails from more than a week ago creep out of your brain as if they were never sent.

 

But when I saw the box, I didn't know what was in it, just that I had agreed to receiving it and that it was card-related. And I wasn't about to go searching through old emails. I'd rather just be in suspense.

 

 Even after opening the box I didn't really have an idea. But I started to get suspicious because -- golly -- that's not a careful way to package trading cards.

But upon closer inspection, this made sense. A whole lot of sense. Although me accepting it, I don't know, maybe I can see about being held to that legally.

Because this is what we're talking about:

Yeah, that's a few healthy stacks of 1988 Donruss.

 

I guess I did ask for that. You see, it's time for me to do the dirty deed and finally complete this set, and Jon is helping me out here.

"Help," though, has a funny side effect when the topic is junk wax.

That's around 70 Ken Caminiti cards -- you folks were doing some crazy shit when I was college -- and that's not even all of them from the box.

There were lots of dupes, maybe not on that level -- although I still have to total the Jose Linds. I admit I did find myself wishing that some cards I needed replaced the duplicates, but that's not looking at the bright side.

The bright side is that I went from needing 350 cards to finish the set to 96. I know, you are astonished that I haven't finished this set and the rest of you are astonished that I haven't bought a complete set for 10 bucks online.

It just took me awhile to care enough of about these cards, and I find I care enough about them that I don't want to buy the entire set in one shot (Or I don't care about them enough to shell out 10 bucks). I'd rather finish it by -- uh -- some dropping a couple palettes of the stuff on the porch.

That is what I expect when I publish my 1988 Donruss want list, which I will do right now:

158, 159, 280, 549, 630, 632, 651, 653, 656 (The set's complete!)

 

Somehow that comes to 98 instead of 96, but with the ridiculous amount of variations listed on TCDB, it gets confusing on what I have and don't have (EDIT: I have updated the want list as I just received an envelope from Chris of The Collector. I have a feeling this will happen a lot).

(4/29/23 - List updated again after an envelope from Diamond Jesters). 

(5/5/23) - List update again after an envelope from @addysdaddy181)

I don't care about the variations at all. I just want one card of every number.

No rush either -- although I expect to complete this faster than any set I've completed in 40-plus years of collecting. I haven't had time to go through all of the cards Jon sent except to mark what I need. And I still need a binder and pages and, well, a few hours to get used to having a binder for 1988 Donruss. That set has been stored in a box, like all junk wax sets should be, for decades.

I found a few Leaf cards mixed in with the regular Donruss cards. I need the Saberhagen for my Donruss set but I'm not brave enough to pretend the Leaf card is a Donruss card.

 

Oh yeah, and I found some 1989 Donruss cards, too. ... Yes, I want to finish this set as well. I'll get a want list up on my want list page at some point soon, that might be easier than sorting through Variation Land. 

 

Jon took the edge off on all the Late '80s Overload with a few Dodgers. All of these were needs. It's nice to get a few more of the 1990 Targets.

 

I consider this more Mid-80s than late 80s. These are all 1986 Fleer needs, getting me to just 30 cards from completing it (practically all stars).

 

Jon also packed a couple of old publications, including this cool -- and very tidy -- Who's Who book from 1960. 

 

Is there a photo of Nellie Fox without a chaw?

This hard-cover book gives you the history of the Brooklyn Dodgers ... to 1945.

That's the copyright date. Frank probably could have waited 10 more years and had a more interesting read.

So, yeah, that's something I never expected to say: I want 1988 (and 1989) Donruss cards. I am hoping to finish this quickly because I don't want to start publishing too many posts with nothing but Gregg Jefferies and Bill Pecota cards. There's enough of that stuff on Twitter.

Just don't send too many extra. Because -- shhh! -- I've actually thrown out a few of the cards (no, not the Caminitis).