When I posted about the early Topps Traded sets, I mentioned that the 1982 set was the most expensive, because of one card...
....Cal Ripken's rookie card. What's puzzling to me is that the card isn't even his rookie card.
This one is, which was included in the 1982 set. The update card was his first solo Topps, but not his first Topps.
Anyway, I was curious about pricing on the set, so I went back through the archives of Baseball Digest to find card dealer ads that featured the 1982 traded set.
This is the ad for GS Gallery, from the February 1983 Baseball Digest....
...From the blow-up, you can see that they were selling the set for $7.99
Now we fast forward twelve years later, to 1995. This time the ad is from Larry Fritsch Cards. His prices are often on the high end, but look at what he is selling the 1982 set for....
... He wants $295! I wonder how many of them he sold? My guess, not too many, because look at this current screen shot from their website...
....the set is now going for $200. Who says that there is inflation? But I bet he still doesn't sell many of these, since they can be found on ebay for around $100.
One of the goals I set for myself for 2011 was to add more relic and autograph cards to my collection. And one of the top players on the list was Bill Buckner.
Billy Buck was my favorite Cubs player in the late '70s - early '80s. Despite terrible ankles, he played day in and day out, and played hard. He didn't use his physical problems as an excuse. He just grabbed his mitt and a bat and went out and played the game. His 7 1/2 years with the Cubs were the best years of his career, and he finished his time in Chicago with a .300 average, right on the nose.
I already had a relic card of his, so for a while I was on the lookout for a decent autograph card. The card had to show him as a Cub and I really wanted an on-card autograph, not a sticker. Here is what I ended up with:
I think its a real beauty. It's from Sports Illustrated's 1999 Greats of the Game set. The combination of the home pinstripes and an on-card autograph are perfect. This card moves up to a high spot on my all-time favorite cards!
Here is the latest addition to my autographed card collection, former Cubs skipper Lou Piniella. It's a nice looking card, and Lou seems happy and content. That was pretty much the Lou we had in Chicago. We didn't get the angry, toss bases and kick dirt Lou. Instead we had the gentle, awe shucks Lou.
He did get the Cubs to the playoffs his first two seasons. That alone was a major accomplishment. The last time the Cubs were in the post-season consecutively was the three year run from 1906-1908. But the team was a monumental playoff flop, getting swept both seasons.
By the time Lou stepped away from the team last July, it was pretty obvious he just wasn't that into his job any more. And the team reflected his attitude. I liked Lou, but wasn't sad to see him go.
I did want to add his autograph to my collection, so I would check each week to see what would pop up. This card did, and I was the only bidder. But the best news was that I would be getting the card for free!
How you say? Well, back in June, Netflix had a deal in which, if you signed up for a free trial, you would get $15 put into you ebay bucks account. I was all over that! I signed up, watch some free TV on my computer for a few weeks, and then cancelled just before the trial period was over.
The Net(Flix) result: $15 Bucks....Lou's autograph!
I have none!!
But I was feeling left out, not posting anything about the set like everyone else, so I thought I would at least talk about what I'll be after this year.
First, I will get a Cubs team set. Actually, I already bought one and am just waiting for Mr. Mailman to do his thing. There are only eleven Cubs in the set this year: Alfonso Soriano, Starlin Castro, Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza, Carlos Zambrano, Marlon Byrd, Geovany Soto, Carlos Marmol, Kosuke Fukudome, Aramis Ramirez, and Carlos Pena. And because the Cubs are so lousy this year and there aren't a lot of people interested in collecting them, not a single Cub is among the shortprints #301-350. The good news there is that I save a few bucks. But I'd rather spend the money and have the team doing better.
Two insert sets also have a Starlin Castro card; Hometown Heroes and Baseball Highlight sketches. I'm on the prowl for them. I'll probably wait a few weeks and get them from Sportlots.
The crazy part this year is the relics. I've got all of the Cubs relics since Ginter first came out in 2006. Most years it was one or two, three at the most. But last year there were five. And this year, it's gone nuts. Even though there are only eleven base set Cubs, there are relics for Ten. That is just ridiculous. What's even more ridiculous is that I'm going to go after all ten. I just can't stand to have a hole in the collection. I hope that Topps starts to realize how stupid it is to have so many of these so-called "hits." A Blake DeWitt jersey card? Really?
Last night I was able to get seven of the ten. They came from only two sellers, so that helps keep the shipping down. And most were pretty cheap. The only one I paid more than $3 for was Starlin Castro. I've got the other three in my sights, and hope to have them by the end of the weekend.
As I get these in hand, I'll get them on the blog. Stay tuned.
A little while back I wrote about the one and only time that Upper Deck didn't include a player's picture on the back of the card, 2003.
Yesterday I took a some time to look at the backs of all the other Upper Deck Cubs cards. I was interested in pictures that caught my eye for whatever reason. I found the following four.
Rondell White, 2002....it looks like Rondell stayed up really late the night before, and came to photo day straight from the bar.
Steve Trachsel, 1998....You would think that a guy with a lifetime record at the time of 37-43 would just keep his mouth shut and pitch.
Mark Grace, 1994...many who have heard Mark Grace doing Diamondbacks or Fox games on TV suggest that he follow the first line on his shirt.
Mark Grace, 1998, The guy to Graces' left just said, "Good God, Grace, did you just cut one?" And the look on Grace's face gives us the answer.
....continuing an occasional look at Topps Trades sets through the years....
Topps began issuing separate Traded Sets in 1981 and would be very consistent for eleven years. I call these years the "Colored Boxes" years because, well, look...
....For eleven straight years Topps used the exact same style of box for the traded set, just changing the color from year to year. During most of the same time, 1981-1990, Topps used a consistent design on their wax packs. They just rotated the colors on a three year cycle; blue, green, then red, and repeat. I find it interesting that they didn't match the color of the traded box with the wax packs. It only happened once, 1987, when both the wax and box were green. The box colors break down this way:
1981 - Red
1982 - Blue
1983 - Green
1984 - Brown
1985 - Purple! That was the one and only time for purple
1986 - Red This was the first year a color was re-used
1987 - Green
1988 - Blue
1989 - Red
1990 - Brown
1991 - Green
I keep my traded cards in their original boxes. Some day I may put them in binders, but for now, they're fine in the boxes. Since there are only 132 cards in the set, if I need to find a card it's fairly easy. I've also found that six traded boxes fit perfectly in a 800 count box...
...so storing them is pretty simple.
I even made labels for the boxes, borrowing Topps' design.
As far as value, these vary quite a bit. The most expensive is the 1982 set which can fetch over $100, and that is for one reason....
....the Cal Ripken rookie card. I got really lucky here. I bought my 1982 set back in 1982, so I didn't have to pay an inflated price for the Ripken. Then, in 2008, when I was putting my Topps base sets together, I bought one from a seller who threw in some bonus sets too. I didn't pay much attention to what the bonus was; I just needed the complete set. Turns out, one of the bonus sets was a 1982 traded set, with the Ripken! So I've got two of them!
The rest of these sets can be found for no more that $20, with many going for less than $10.
Two slight changes were made to the traded cards in 1982 and then Topps left things alone the rest of this run. First, the cards were numbered separately, with a T following the card number, from 1T - 132T (in the 1981 the the numbers were just a continuation of the base set).
The backs were also a different color from the base set. Some years the backs were just a different shade of the base color. But you could always tell the traded cards apart from the base and that change continued all the way through this era.
As far as Cubs go, there have been some years where they have had way too many players in the set. When you've got a lot of traded players, that usually means a lousy team trying to get better, instead of a good team that is just making a couple tweaks. Here is the year by year Cubs breakdown, plus one of the cards from that season
1981 - 10 Cubs...I picked Joe Strain because he was featured on another blog a couple weeks ago (forgive me, I don't remember which one)
1982 - 12 Cubs...The first Cubs card of our new radio color man
1983 - 6 Cubs...This one is for Night Owl, who I'm sure cringes at the sight of the Penguin in any uniform other than the Dodgers'.
1984 - 9 Cubs....Had to go with the 1984 Cy Young winner
1985 - 3 Cubs...not much to pick from this season
1986 - 4 Cubs...for all the Bosox fans
1987 - 5 Cubs...Two cards from this season, a HOFer and future HOFer
1988 - 9 Cubs...so young looking here
1989 - 7 Cubs...the 1989 NL Rookie of the Year
1990 - 3 Cubs...I loved how Harry would also massacre this guy's name
1991 - 6 Cubs...this guy was going to be the third baseman for years to come...but he and his .165 BA didn't stick around too long.
All season long I've been hearing talk about Jose Bautista. I don't get it.
Team Issued card, 1993
He had a really nice season in 1993, going 10-3 with an ERA of 2.82. He was 4-2 as a starter and 6-1 out of the pen. It was a great year, though he did get suspended for three games for intentionally throwing at the Giants Mark Carreon on June 11.
Pacific, 1994
In 1994 he fell off a bit, going 4-5 and his ERA rose to 3.89, though he was injured for part of the season. But in December, the Cubs granted him his free agency. He went on to spend time with the Giants, Tigers, and Cardinals through the 1997 season, but was not very good those years.
So why are we talking about Jose Bautista in 2011??
Oh, that's why!
