Flick Friday: Diminished Capacity

Today's movie is one that you may know nothing about; until a month ago I never heard of it.  Mrs. WW was scrolling through Netflix and stumbled on it and then told me.

This is a movie that is centered around a Cubs baseball card....and I had never heard of it.  How ridiculous is that??  Cubs and baseball cards in the same movie, they are the crux of the movie, and I had never heard of it.

Diminished Capacity was released in 2008, but it was a very small release.  According to IMDb, the movie was out for all of three weekends on four screens.  It's box office total was $21,291.  That seems messed up!  Alfonso Soriano make that much in two innings.

Three weekends on four screens is probably why you never heard of the movie.

So here's the plot:

Cooper (Matthew Broderick), a Chicago journalist, isrecovering from a serious concussion and still having memory issues.  He is asked by his mom to come back home to southern Illinois to help her with

Uncle Rollie (Alan Alda), who is starting to show signs of dementia.  Good son Cooper heads south.

He bumps into his old high school flame and recently-divorced Charlotte (Virginia Madsen).  She's starting her own business and has the opportunity do work for a Chicago company.

Among his crazy ramblings, Uncle Rollie shows Cooper this,

a T206 card in near-mint condition of Frank Wildfire Schulte.  Schulte was a member of the 1908 Cubs and Rollie figures the card is worth a bundle.  His reasoning is that the collectors are all after the big names like Tinker, Evers, Chance, and Brown.  That would make the Schulte card scarce and more valuable.  The card was his inheritance from his father and he's ready to cash it in.  He is thinking a six figure payday.

With Charlotte already heading to Chicago for her business,  Cooper decides to tag along and bring Rollie, too.  They are going to a card show and try to unload the Schulte card.

At the show, they meet up with a frustrated Cub fan/card dealer, along with a

Mr. Mint-type dealer who wants to try to scam the card from Rollie.

So will Rollie sell the card?  Will he get ripped off by Mr. Mint?  Will he get the real value of the card and be able to live comfortable?  Will Cooper get the girl?

Watch the movie to find out for yourself!

The entire movie is centered on Rollie's desire to sell his extremely valuable baseball card. The movie makes several mentions of the great value of the card.  So I did a little checking.

I went to PSA's price guide to see what a T206 Frank Schulte (back view) would cost.

Wow, was I surprised.  Six figures?

Hardly.

Try barely four.  PSA list the price of a 9 Near Mint at $2,750+

Not quite the six figures that Uncle Rollie was looking for.  I would call that a slight major script flaw.  But hey, its not like Hollywood is typically interested in getting all the facts straight.

SInce the movie's got Ferris and Hawkeye, so we can overlook little flaws.

And look at Cooper's boss' office.

See that blue banner on his wall?  I've got the exact same one on the wall in my office!

If you've got Netflix, you should go ahead and watch Diminished Capacity.  You'll enjoy the 90 minutes worth of diversion.

P.S.  Remember Rollie's premise that the Schulte card would be really valuable because collectors snapped up the big boys and forgot about Wildfire?

 

I'm one of those collectors!

Topps 2014 Mini Die Cut Cubs

I'm still waiting for my big shipment of 2014 cards, but the inserts are dribbling in.

Today I've got the 1989 Mini Die Cut cards.  I wasn't planning to get these because I had been told that they were not going to be easy to find and would be pricey. That doesn't seem to be the case.

The two Cubs on the checklist were easy to find and cheap too.  I paid $3 including shipping for the two cards.

I've got no idea why Topps decided to make these.  The 1989 set was nothing special, coming out smack dab in the junk wax era.  I do like the die cut, just because its something different.

The two Cubs on the checklist are both hall of famers.

 

Up first is Mr. Cub.  The picture has been used before, most recently in...

....last year's "The Greats" insert.

Something else about the picture seemed familiar.  I went back and looks at the Topps cards from Ernie's playing days and found that...

 

...the picture comes from the same photo shoot as the picture on his 1967 card.  Both pictures are from Shea Stadium, he's wearing the same blue sweatshirt, and the writing on the bat knob is identical.

The other Cubs card belongs to...

Andre Dawson.  How about the necklace...Hawk!

Dawson has a card in the 1989 set, so we can take a good look at the two side by side.

Topps pretty much nailed the design on the die cuts, though it was a pretty easy pattern to copy.  Both cards have a happy Dawson.  He was an intense player during the game, but he seems pretty easy-going the rest of the time.

The Total Inserts

Though Topps Total was a low-frills set, it did have a few inserts.  By my count, there were 16 Cubs cards among the basic inserts.  I've got them all.

Team Checklists: Total had the unique two-number system for cards, a set number and a team set number.  It was a pretty nice idea.  And if that wasn't enough for team collectors, they also had an insert of team checklists.

 

The front of the card was identical to the player's card....

 

 

 

....the checklist was on the back.
The Cubs checklists were Sammy Sosa (2002, 2003), Mark Prior (2004) and Kerry Wood (2005).

The rest of the Total inserts were the shiny types.

Total Topps  This was the superstar insert set and was the easiest to hit.  For the first three years there were 50 cards but the set was scaled down to only 20 in 2005.

 

 

 

Six Cubs were included, 2002 - Alou, Sosa, and Wood; 2003 and 2004 - Sosa; 2005 - Maddux

Award Winners  These cards featured....Award Winners!  This set was in all four years of Total and always had 30 cards.

 

Sammy Sosa had cards in the 2002 and 2003 set...his award was the Silver Slugger

Production  This set was the smallest of the Total inserts (ten cards each year) and was the hardest to pull.

 

Sammy Sosa was included from 2002 - 2004.

Domination  This was found only in the last year of 2005.  There were 30 cards that fell 1:10 packs.  The weird thing is you don't see any "Domination" heading on the card.  In fact, the card is identical to the base except that its chrome instead of cardboard.

Mark Prior was the only dominating Cub in 2005.

And that wraps up Topps Total.  Between the base cards and the inserts, I've added 137 cards to the collection.  Total was probably the biggest (based on the number of cards) hole in my collection....now filled.

My First 2014 Cubs Card!

The 2014 Topps cards haven't arrived at our Walmart yet. The closest Target is about 40 miles away. So I'm waiting for my first pack of cards.

But that doesn't mean I'm totally shut out. While Brentandbecca sorts through 60 cases of cards to put my main order together, I've been hitting ebay to pick up some others.

My buy pattern for the past couple years is this:
The main set, Cubs team set, and basic inserts come from Brentandbecca.
The tougher inserts and parallel cards come from other sources, mainly Ebay and Sportlots. Though I could probably pick up some of these from Brent, even with 60 cases he may not pull these cards. Rather than waiting to see what he pulls, I hit Ebay right when the set is released. I can usually find some good deals early on.

 

This card is a Sportlot special. It's the Target Red parallel of Darwin Barney's base card.

As for the card itself, I knew what it would look like back in December when Topps released a picture of a full sheet of cards.

This is the best look that I could get from the sheet.

 

The picture is from June 29 when the Cubs played the Mariners in Seattle. The Mariners had a Turn Back the Clock game, returning to 1909. Barney is wearing the 1909 Cubs road uni. That is what defending world champion Chicago Cubs look like.

This is the first of eleven series one Barney cards that I'm hunting....base, Red Hot, gold (/2014), Camo (/99), Green (/99), Black (/63), Pink (/50), Yellow, Walmart Blue, Target Red, and Toys R Us Purple.

Of the two that are left, the Platinum (1/1) isn't on my radar. I would love to get the Clear (/10), but I'm not sure just how much it will go for.

At this point, I've seen a little more than half of the cards and I've been able to snag eight of them. Yet to surface are the pink, clear, and platinum I will wait patiently.

 

Topps Complete Set Prices 1969 - 2013

Here is my monthly look at Topps complete set prices for all the years in which I own a set, 1969 - 2013.  The prices are from Ebay sold listings taken on February 1.  The prices do not include shipping.

• Two high-end 1969 sets were sold, really boosting the average for that year
• 1989 sets prices were at a near all-time low.  The five set prices were $1.00, 7.95, 1.49, 2.68, and 4.99 for an average of only $3.62.
• Prices for 2010 and 2011 sets dropped under $20.
• The cost to buy one of each was $5,726.80 and that is an increase of $576.30 over January prices

YEAR	Feb. 1	Jan. 3	Dec. 1	12 Mo. Avg.
1969	$1,021.20	$736.00	$826.40	$944.34
1970	$879.07	$770.52	$1,024.60	$965.14
1971	$748.20	$606.73	$1,092.40	$685.54
1972	$902.60	$775.17	$1,252.60	$867.77
1973	$324.80	$319.95	$311.50	$408.03
1974	$211.70	$247.17	$178.21	$221.20
1975	$261.36	$326.47	$254.80	$266.28
1976	$182.92	$192.84	$161.29	$160.94
1977	$149.69	$119.70	$156.20	$145.52
1978	$112.15	$96.11	$78.60	$94.76
1979	$78.64	$74.15	$102.10	$76.47
1980	$63.08	$66.82	$64.61	$62.16
1981	$24.47	$36.30	$33.75	$28.91
1982	$39.07	$42.31	$50.99	$40.56
1983	$54.76	$40.40	$39.89	$35.72
1984	$19.56	$18.25	$14.00	$19.04
1985	$17.79	$26.02	$21.38	$23.98
1986	$9.76	$15.00	$10.18	$17.42
1987	$8.38	$9.64	$6.68	$9.11
1988	$6.74	$10.78	$10.78	$8.23
1989	$3.62	$5.59	$12.09	$8.23
1990	$8.19	$6.39	$7.36	$7.92
1991	$5.99	$6.07	$8.44	$9.35
1992	$13.84	$21.64	$8.53	$12.70
1993	$15.64	$17.95	$12.20	$21.38
1994	$19.78	$29.02	$26.32	$22.69
1995	$35.90	$27.60	$32.45	$34.84
1996	$11.60	$23.89	$21.67	$20.20
1997	$46.54	$41.00	$58.58	$46.40
1998	$44.19	$35.48	$33.58	$40.15
1999	$35.00	$24.10	$29.84	$22.66
2000	$19.79	$20.54	$25.58	$20.29
2001	$48.39	$47.98	$41.05	$48.23
2002	$37.30	$34.81	$24.44	$36.53
2003	$39.61	$26.09	$37.22	$37.64
2004	$17.06	$21.08	$24.28	$25.26
2005	$35.90	$30.49	$20.50	$30.54
2006	$24.04	$29.85	$33.58	$26.39
2007	$28.99	$26.99	$25.00	$23.11
2008	$30.00	$35.29	$20.50	$27.22
2009	$30.49	$29.10	$35.91	$36.00
2010	$16.74	$22.68	$34.17	$23.10
2011	$16.49	$28.77	$23.01	$24.02
2012	$25.80	$27.78	$24.45	$28.82
2013	$47.85	$51.81	$40.62	$38.52

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,096 Cubs cards from 87 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1973 Kelloggs #54 Ron Santo In 1973 Kelloggs ditched the 3D format and went to plain cardboard.  Luckily, they returned to 3D the next year.  This card shows Santo in the 1972 road uniform.  

1980s: 1987 Fleer Glossy #562 Leon Durham The 1987 season was the Bull's last full year with the Cubs.  He hit a career high 27 homers, the most by a Cubs first baseman since Jim Hickman hit 32 in 1970.  

1990s:1990 Star #1 Ryne Sandberg This card is the first of nine Sandberg cards from the 1990 Star base set.  Ryno's looks pretty intense.  He had a career year in 1990, hitting 40 homers and winning Gold Glove #8.  He became the first player in MLB history to have a 40 homer run season (1990) and a 50 steal season (1985).  He was the NL's leading All Star game vote-getter.

2000s: 2002 Fleer #122 Augie Ojeda Little Augie is turning a double play against the Pirates at Wrigley.  The game--July 25, 2001.  Abraham Nunez led off the game with a single, but the next hitter, Warren Morris, hit into a 4-6-3 double play.  The Cubs would go on to win the game 6-5.

2010s: 2103 Team Issued Season Tickets #28 Greg Maddux  Here is a card from last year's Cubs/Topps set given to the season ticket holders.  This was from game #28 on May 31.  Maddux was chosen for the card because he's #31 on the 31st.  The Cubs beat the Diamondback that day 7-2.  It was their fifth win in a row, the longest win streak they would have in 2013.

Nice Little Swap With This Way To The Clubhouse

Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse was interested in the Drakes Gary Carter card that was part of a panel I bought for the Ryne Sandberg card.  I was happy to stick it in a PWE and send it his way.  He was happy to be able to add it to a Drakes collection that features some mangled Mets.

Last week I got a return PWE from Mark that had this card....

...of Mr. Cub.

I'm pleased to say that it was a card not in my Ernie collection.  In fact, I had never seen the card before.

It comes from a 1984 set put out by TCMA called All Time All Stars.  The set has 18 cards in it, nine players from each league.  The chosen players were those who, according to the back of the card,  "compiled the greatest All Star Game records."  The National League cards have a red border while the American League players are framed in blue.

Ernie Banks played in 13 All Star games and had a career .303 average with 1 homer and 3 RBIs.  I'd have to say that hitting over .300 against the best pitchers in the other league is a pretty decent accomplishment.

Too bad they showed Mr. Cub in street clothes.  The cards don't mention any license, but that's not the reason for the lack of a uniform.  The picture is from 1958 after Banks was named the NL's MVP.  More on the picture here.

I lifted some pictures from an Ebay seller that has both the AL and NL sets for sale...

...and you can see that every other player is in uniform.

Thanks, Mark, for the new card and the opportunity to learn about another set.