Diamonds in the rough

I know it seems like I've settled on a schedule of posting every other day. But that's just March forcing me into that pattern. It's nothing planned. But you'll probably have to put up with it for at least a couple more weeks.

 

I'm finally getting to the other big send of cards I received over the last couple of months. This showed up from reader Bill K. about two weeks ago and I've been combing through it ever since. Here is an idea of what I pulled out of the box:

 

Those are four thousand-count boxes and they were all pretty much jammed full. The vast majority of it was Dodgers with a few "guys who used to be Dodgers" and an early '90s Buffalo Bills set added.

 

Bill said he's been cleaning out/pairing down his inventory, which if the boxes are indication was filled with cards from the early-to-mid 1980s to today. As you might have guessed, I had a lot of these cards already. I mean A LOT. Perhaps you've heard I collect Dodgers.

 

So much of my sorting work was sifting through a whole bunch of "what am I going to do with all this"? That's why I'll say this again: if you are in the market for Dodgers cards, I am your guy. They will be free. I'm not looking to trade for anything. This often falls on deaf ears. Nobody has any room apparently. But I'm more than happy to select and send.

 

So while searching through all the familiar I was thrilled to see cards I didn't know. Stuff I needed. Diamonds in the rough. Out of the thousands, I came out with around 60-70 cards I could use. Doesn't seem like a lot, but as an advanced collector, that's pretty good.

 

I'm not going to show you all those needs. But I will provide a top 10, because I like doing that. And the top 10 will contain more than 10 cards, because I like doing that, too.

 

 

10. 2020 Bowman Chrome Tony Gonsolin

 

The vaunted rookie Bowman Chrome. It's amazing how long some collectors hang on to these even through multiple trips to the injured list. Gonsolin is finally mine.

 

 

9. Fleer Sports Illustrated Covers Dodgers

 

I own all of these already and they're sitting in my Dodgers binders. But I'm trying to complete (very lazily) a separate set of all the Covers cards, so these will show up in a separate binder.

 

 

8. 2002 Fleer Boxscore International Road Trip Hideo Nomo & Adrian Beltre

 

Even for cards from 2002, my eyes will light up if I'm seeing a card for the first time. I know instantly that I need them. These two cards from the Fleer Boxscore set are called "International Road Trip". As cards were doing back then -- to an infuriating degree -- these are part of the base set but are serially-numbered.

 

 

7. 1997 Select Hideo Nomo

 

Bill did a good job of completing team sets I didn't know I needed to complete. This Nomo card finished off the Dodgers set for '97 Select, and because Nomo was the last one, it's in this top 10.

 

 

6. 1986 Fleer Star Stickers Mike Marshall

 

This card completed a team set, too. Yes, it was shocking that I needed a Dodger from an '80s Fleer Star Sticker set. Yes, I'm too afraid to check the other '80s Fleer Star Sticker sets now.

 

 

5. Various '90s Mike Piazzas

 

Ah, yes, yes! Getting '90s Piazza cards always make me feel like I'm accomplishing something. The Circa Access card opens up and is nothing I've ever seen before. Meanwhile the '95 Fleer insert shows the card staff that year could still accomplish a few things despite the drug rumors.

 

 

4. 1997 Pinnacle Inside Dueling Dugouts Karim Garcia

 

I have wanted one of these Dueling Dugouts cards since I found out what they were (which was probably like 15 years ago). I have long been fascinated by this concept, ever since I was a child in the '70s. I don't know what this technique is called but seeing the window change while rotating the wheel on the side was the height of technology in the mid-'70s. Don't know what it did for kids in the late '90s -- I'm assuming it did something as there are four Dodgers in this set and this is my first one.

 

Oh yeah, this is the back of the card.

 

 I know everyone cares more about Vladimir Guerrero on this card. I'm so glad I'm not everyone. Sorry, Vlad, you'll be facing toward the back.

 

 

3. 1989 Swell Claude Osteen, Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Joe Black

 

We are approaching the part of the countdown where the cards were needs and I've known there were needs for quite some time. Collecting Swell's sets, I've known that the '89 Swell set is the most challenging one. The two Dodgers on the bottom have been elusive for a long time. The other guys can go toward collecting the main set. Of course that means I need a second elusive Erskine and Black. 

 

2. 1998 Fleer Ultra Otis Nixon

 

I know this is ranked too high, but this particular card has been an obsession of mine in the only way it can be -- I've owned the Gold Medallion parallel for a loooong time and never had the base card. Now it's mine! Isn't it wonderful? I was so preoccupied by this card I thought it was the last Dodger I needed for the set. But there's a Paul Konerko still out there.

 

 

1. Various Sportflics Dodgers from 1986, 1988-89

 

Maybe not much to look at on scans, but if you team-collect you know how unavailable some the Sportflics set are, especially from 1988-90. But 1988 and 1990 are now complete and 1989 just needs a Valenzuela. (After that it's just the three-different-players-from-different-teams cards, which I can wait on for a good long time).

 

I puzzled and puzzled as to why they were unavailable so these were super-welcome!

 

 

So that's the top 10, but here are bunch of others that fit into my collection:

 

 

 And here are some of those 1993 bookmarks, and the team set is finished!

 

 

So this was very cool from Bill. There's more work to do, sorting the "to-be-bindered" stack, etc. And you should see the stacks of cards ready for the Dodgers dupes box. I don't do the giant dupes-box update until the fall and it's already overflowing with dupes. I know nobody likes to hear this but some of the cards are candidates for the trash, honestly.

 

But again, if you want to take away some of these Dodgers (not the ones I just showed above), you know what to do.