(I managed to find my way to a ballpark today. It's been awhile. I go so infrequently these days that when I do, I'm surprised by the prices on everything. I mean this is minor league baseball, should I be spending $150 to have a good time for a "minor" event? It's just the two of us! Anyway, time for Cardboard Appreciation with an appropriate card. This is the 341st in a series):
When I wrote a post 10 days ago about the very nice cards I received from reader Jonathan, I didn't include a set of cards he sent me.
It was the 1986 Memphis Chicks set from something called "Time Out Sports". Jonathan said he got it cheaply because the Bo Jackson card that's part of the 26-card set wasn't included. But he sent it along anyway because he thought it had that charm that 1980s minor league sets are known for ... and it does.
A blogger from 2008 could expend quite a few words on a card of someone named Jere Longenecker who the photographer didn't even bother to wake up before snapping his picture.
Mike Miller seems to be reacting to something insulting the photographer just said. Or perhaps he's just mad because the photo was cropped off-center. That seems like a general issue with the set.
Outside of Bo Jackson, there isn't much star power with these cards.
Gary Thurman was a regular in junk-wax era sets while playing for the Royals.
And all of these guys I seemed to pull multiple times in 1989, whether it was Topps, Donruss or Fleer. (Notice the fine cutting job they did with these cards).
This is why the Bo Jackson card looms over anything else in the set and why the set is still valued today. I don't really care about obtaining Bo Jackson cards, and normally I wouldn't bother with trying to seek out the Jackson card. But I definitely am all about complete sets and it just seemed wrong to leave this set at one card short.
So I started shopping for the '86 Memphis Chicks Bo Jackson card with really not a clue. I discovered that the asking price on the card is generally like this:
But more often it's graded (of course) and costs twice that much or more.
So, hell no, I don't need to complete a minor league '80s set that bad.
And that's when I discovered that there's a promo card for this set that costs a couple bucks. So I got it.
Good enough. He may be wearing a road uniform and not sitting in a dugout staring at the camera like all of his teammates, but the card format is the same and the back is the same. And I like that this stands out more because Bo stood out more.
I'm calling this set complete. (But I can't find this card listed on TCDB).
Comments
I don't know where I saw it was a Promo, but it was listed a couple times as such.
B. I remember pulling Thurman rookie cards from packs and setting them aside. I was curious as to why I thought he was going to be a star. It looks like he had a solid batting average during his rookie year, but he only played in 27 games. Guys like him taught me I shouldn't be a card prospector.