Back to the store

  

In early May, I realized that it had been a long time since I had even looked at the baseballcardstore website.

 

In the past five years I've made purchased from there two or three times a year. It's a great place to find cheap cards and there's been the bonus of Steven sending cards my way just because or producing made-to-order Dodgers packages for me to grab at my convenience.

 

But as the site grew more popular I found less and less of interest. All the good stuff seemed to be snapped up right away. And there was another Dodgers super-collector who had discovered the site who was grabbing anything I wanted. Eventually I just stopped checking it out.

 

When I realized that it had been a year since I had placed an order I resolved to find stuff that fit my collecting interests. If I really tried, it shouldn't be that difficult. I like a lot of stuff. And the cards are cheap, so make an effort, night owl!

 

It took awhile -- so little time to devote and the site is still not the easiest to navigate -- but I found 80 cards I could take home. Around 5-7 were for other collectors and the rest for me. It came to 15 cents per card. There are now cards available on that site for a buck or more, but I focused on the cheap stuff.

 

Let's take a look at how random my collection is:

 

Starting with some stuff I always seem to pick up at this particular store. I've never seen these 1993 Donruss McDonald's Expos anywhere but here and grab them when I spot them. I especially like the Ken Singleton, Ellis Valentine and Charlie Lea. The Felipe Alou is cool, too.

 

 

The last time I placed an order I grabbed several 1988 Fleer Star Stickers. I went back for all the others that I could find. Most of these are "lesser stars" or heck, not even stars at all, Fleer! But I love all the '80s Star Stickers sets so I'm happy to make progress.

 

 

Of course, I would never stop at the Fleer Star Stickers if there were other '80s Fleer oddballs available. These all came home, too. I wish the 1989 For The Record set was much larger, I really like the look of those. The Tom Henke is a dupe. I ended up picking up three dupes with this lot. I'll note them as I come to them. DUPE!

 

 

Every time I see stickers for sale on online shopping sites I think, "are these worth throwing money at like cards?" But it's criminal how few 1983 Topps stickers I own (I stopped at '82 back during my initial collecting phase). So I got two Hall of Famers.

 

 

I will definitely add cards from Topps flagship sets if they're cheap-and-notable. I had that Mattingly already though. DUPE!

 

 

I am always on the lookout there for cards from sets I like but haven't done much with at all -- which is just about every '90s set. 1993 Select and Finest and 1997 Topps I all enjoy.

And how about sets I've known about and seen forever but done almost nothing about? The only Topps Kids cards I own are Dodgers and the Bip Roberts has been phenomenal every time I've seen it, especially the "Now with the Reds!" message in a format usually reserved for cereal boxes that says "8 vitamins and iron!"

The All-Time Record Holder Topps set hasn't appealed to me, especially the cards with color photos, just doesn't work with the primitive design. But the black-and-white ones do and I have almost no Rudy York cards. And finally, that 1991 Fleer All-Star Team set looks amazing and because there are no Dodgers in it, I have never owned one, until now.

 

 

You'll even catch me hunting for cards of players I like -- which is something I usually don't do. (We're chasing sets here!). Here are three guys who I've always liked and am just realizing as I write this that all are deceased. Oh, and Tony Fernandez is a DUPE. But it's probably an upgrade, too.

 

 

 

This card may not stay in my collection long. It's a gold-foil parallel, I was surprised to spot it.

 

 

 Steven did reserve a few Dodgers for me, which considering how long I had been away is appreciated. All of these are needs in some fashion or another. I think that Jeff Kent is for the 2005 pursuit (yeah, chasing the Updates, too). Ohtani will come in handy if I ever try to complete the 2024 Holiday set, which I really should.

 

 

I always come back to 1991-92 Pro Set hockey when I'm shopping here. Not as much to find this time, but nice to add another Gretzky -- plus the one that led off the post.

 

 

I created a binder a couple of months ago for my football cards that aren't a part of a complete set (1977 and 1979 Topps) or Buffalo Bills players but still run from the 1960s through 1990. Once I got all those cards in, there were some years missing, but understandable -- 1960s and early '70s mostly. But somehow there was nothing from 1986 Topps. So I did something about that.

 

I've mentioned that '86 Topps really stands out but in a weird way. It does not look like a Topps set to me, it looks more like something from Donruss of the period.

 

 

I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw these two cards.

 

Jill Girardi is from where I live. I know her family pretty well. Her and her two other sisters and younger brother all play or played lacrosse. All four of them were good and received scholarships. Jill was probably the best of the girls, she became a starter at Northwestern. Only her brother is still playing in college.

 

But also, years ago, I remember her and her sisters coming into church when they were little. My daughter was even smaller. They used to sit right in front of us. Their dad is a dentist and that's where I go for appointments (I see a different dentist -- who also had a kid who played lacrosse).

 

So anyway, I was a little aware of this 2023 Topps set -- I knew it was creating a 200-card set of all college athletes. It's got a weird name -- Topps Athletes Unlimited, and the athletes aren't wearing their college uniforms, which is disappointing. Instead they are wearing uniforms that say "Athletes Unlimited". I don't know what that is, were there tournaments or something? Confusing cards, but, hell, not every day you see a nationally produced card of someone you've known since they were little.

 

 

Back to baseball, I forgot these three. I've given up on ever pursuing 2003 Topps a complete-set quest, but when you're trying to finish out a cart, you grab stuff you still relate to.

 

 

I always land some O-Pee-Chee from that site -- of course! That Johnny Bench was practically the find of the whole lot. An OPC Bench for 15 cents! Let me at it!!

 

 

 Here is another vintage O-Pee-Chee card of the hockey variety.

 

 

With the back as proof of OPC legitimacy.

 

 

 Finally, this card.

 

It's the first card I added to my cart. It's the oldest card I've ever acquired from the site, maybe the oldest I've ever seen. I definitely knew it had condition issues from the picture, but, hell, a 1964 Topps card of a noted star player is worth the dime and a nickel, crease or no crease.

 

And that's just about everything I added, save for cards I'm sending.

 

The total came to $12, which is so much more satisfying than buying a $30 blaster of 2025 Topps Series 2.

 

I did have to wait a little longer for my package, but there was a note on the site apologizing for the delay with an explanation. It's the smallest operation you could think of for the volume of cards available. But a week later I had my cards. 

 

Hopefully I can add another purchase in another 5-6 months, we'll see. But as a sign of how long it had been since I visited: here is a list of all the sets I was chasing that I posted on the previous baseballcardstore post back on May 31, 2024, with the sets crossed off that I have finished since:

 

1970 Topps baseball

1970 and 1971 Fleer World Series

1969 Topps baseball

1967 Topps baseball

1979 Topps football

1983 Kellogg's

1985 Donruss

1987 Fleer

1988-90 Pacific

1989-91 Swell (1990 Swell done)

1975, 1977-79 Hostess (1977 Hostess done)

1981 Fleer Stickers

2024 Topps Heritage

1980s Traded Sets

 

Eight of them finished. Just because I haven't visited an online site for awhile it doesn't mean I'm shirking my collecting duties.