Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 18,075 Cubs cards from 235 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1970 Topps Super #40 Billy Williams  The picture that Topps used on this 1970 card is probably from 1964 or 1965.

1980s: 1989 Red Foley #31 Jody Davis  Red must have had a really early printing deadline because Davis was traded to the Braves at the tail end of the 1988 season.

1990s: 1998 Cubs Convention 1969 Cubs Dick Selma Willie Smith Got a pretty decent pairing of '69 non-starters.  Willie Smith hit the pinch-hit walk-off home run on opening day and Selma was the Bleacher Bums' cheerleader.

2000s: 2007 Upper Deck #606 Alfonso Soriano  Soriano had two cards in the 2009 Upper Deck base set.  One showed him in a Nationals uniform and this one showing him in Cubbie blue.

2010s: 2010 Topps Chrome #124 Geovany Soto The 2010 season was his last decent season.  His skills declined pretty quickly after his first four years in the majors.  I hope Willson Contreras doesn't do the same thing.

Down the MSA Rabbit Hole

You may have noticed that I've recently been showing a lot of the disc sets from MSA.  It has been a fun and interesting dive down the MSA rabbit hole, but also a bit frustrating.

You know that I am a bit of a completist.  I don't like empty spots in my collection. My quest is to have all of the Cubs discs from all of the MSA sets.  The problem is that I have yet to find a master list of their sets. Instead, I've had to use a scatter-shot search.

First I searched on the Trading Card Database.  My query was a year and the word discs.  For example, searching for "1976 discs" gives me these results:

Then I'd click each of the results with word "discs" and see if they are MSA sets.  I did that for each year from 1974 through 2005.  I found their first set, a test set in 1975.  Their final set came out in 2002.

I also scanned through the index of the Standard Catalog.  I found a couple sets there that were labeled with the word discs though the TCDB did not use discs in their description. 

That is my frustration. Are there other sets that I missed?  I have no idea.

My research has turned up a total of 93 different MSA sets. The sets include 138 Cubs.  I have in hand or on the way 117 of them.  The 21 that I'm missing will not be easy to find.  I'm expecting it will take years, if ever, to end up with all 138.  But that is my goal.

Below is a list of all the MSA sets. Take a look.  Vintage collectors, do you notice any that I've missed?

1975	MSA Test - blank backs
1976	Blank backs
	Buckman
	Carousel
	Crane
	Dairy Isle
	Isaly's
	Orbakers
	Red Barn
	Safelon
	Towne Club
1977	Burger Chef
	Chilly Willee
	Dairy Isle
	Detroit Caesars
	Holiday Inn
	MSA Customized
	Pepsi Glove
	Saga
	Wendy's
	Zip'z
1978	Big T/Tastee Freez
	Papa Gino's
	Saga
	Wiffle
1979	Wiffle
1980	NONE ISSUED
1981	FBI
	MSA Mini
	Peter Pan / Sunbeam Bread
1982	FBI
	On Deck Cookies
1983	Roy Rogers Yankees
1984	NONE ISSUED
1985	Cain's
	Jox Thom McAn
	KAS
	Kitty Clover
	Subway (blank back)
1986	Cains
	Jay's
	Jiffy Pop
	KAS
	Kitty Clover
1987	Cain's
	Jiffy Pop
	Key Food
	Our Own Tea
	Super Stars
	Weis Winners
1988	Master Bread
	Fantastic Sam's
	Hostess Potato Chips
	Jiffy Pop
	Key Food
	King B
	Our Own Tea
	Super Stars
	Tetley Tea
	Weis Winners
1989	Bimbo Cookies
	Holsum
	Holsum Schafer
	Key Food
	King B
	Master Bread
	Our Own Tea
	Rainier Farms
	Super Stars
	Taystee
	Tetley Tea
	Weis Winners
1990	Holsum
	King B
	MSA Super Stars
	Tetley Tea
1991	Holsum
	King B
1992	Ben's Super Hitters
	Coke Hardees
	King B
1993	Ben's Super Pitchers
	King B
1994	Innovative Confections
	King B
1995	King B
1996	King B
	Schwebel's Stars
1997	King B
1998	King B
1999	King B
2000	King B
2001	King B
	King B Legends
2002	King B

Book Review: The Wax Pack

I try to read any book that relates to collecting baseball cards.  A new one came out last month and I picked it up.

"The Wax Pack" has an interesting premise:  author Brad Balukjian picked up a pack of 1986 Topps, which is the first year he collected cards.  He then tries to connect with each of the 14 players on the cards (the 15th card was a checklist) in the pack.  He spends the summer driving across the country, meeting with the players and talking to them about their time in baseball and since retirement.

Brad did do a little cherry-picking.  He didn't open just one pack.  He opened several and used the pack that included the favorite player from his childhood, Don Carmen.  The pack also included some pretty big names from the era, Vince Coleman, Lee Mazzilli, Carlton Fisk, Garry Templeton, and Doc Godden.

Even better, two of the cards were Cubs!  I never got packs that had two Cubs in them.

Each chapter of the book dealt with his time with the player, or at least him attempt to connect with the player.  It was interesting to hear what the players had to say out their career and to see what life was like after baseball.

It was a quick read and enjoyable read.  If you're looking for a pleasant way to spend a few evenings, I recommend you get the book.

A Look at All the Living Set Cubs

I thought I'd take a quick look at all of the Cubs in the Living Set.  Nico Hoerner's card was the eleventh Cub in the set.

We've got two retired players and nice active Cubs.  All nine are still a part of the Cubs organization.  

And who should we still get in the future?

Three big names stand out - Jon Lester, Willson Contreras, and Kyle Schwarber.

And if retired guys get added, how about Billy Williams, Ron Santo, and Fergie Jenkins.

Here are the stats on all the cards:

5	Ian Happ	March 21, 2018	Print run - 3,042
30	Brandon Morrow	May 16, 2018	Print run - 5,585
64	Ryne Sandberg	August 8, 2018	Print run - 7,212
67	Anthony Rizzo	August 15, 2018	Print run - 5,568
83	David Bote	September 19, 2018	Print run - 5,345
103	Javier Baez	November 7, 2018	Print run - 4,499
127	Kris Bryant	January 2, 2019	Print run - 5,361
210	Jason Heyward	July 10, 2019	Print run - 2,573
217	Ernie Banks	July 31, 2019	Print run - 5,406
266	Kyle Hendricks	December 4, 2019	Print run - 2,074
310	Nico Hoerner	May 6, 2020	Print run - 3,523

1976 Buckmans Cubs Discs

...another of the 1976 MSA disc sets...

MSA was based in New York City and it seems like they marketed their disc sets to several New York establishments.  Today's set is one of them.

Buckman's was a one-store company.  There were no franchises or other locations.  The store was located at 2576 W. Ridge Road in Rochester.  The dairy started there in 1911 and in the 1930s a retail store was opened.

The store started out with a little building attached to the dairy's barn.  Over the years the store grew larger. Other store fronts were added later to create a strip mall. 

But the large barn in the back was still visible.  The farm and store changed hands over the years since it was started by Homer Buckman in 1911.  Eventually the land and business had separate owners.

In 2005 the owners of the land announced a deal with Walgreens.  The drug store chain signed a 25 year lease on the land and would construct a store.  Buckmans was out and the store and barn would be demolished.

The business owner had plans to open in a new location, but that never happened.  The nearly century-old business was gone for good.

While Buckman's had a run of nearly 100 years on the site, Walgreens lasted barely ten.  The store is now closed and the building is for lease.


The Buckman discs had the generic 1976 design with the five stars across the top.  As with most of the sets, there were five Cubs.

   

Topps Living Set Nico Hoerner

For the first time since December, the Cubs had a player included in the Topps Living Set.  I ordered the card and Topps did a quick job of getting the card to me.

Nico Hoerner, a guy with all of 20 MLB games under his belt, gets included.  The print run for his card was 3,523.  

While I like Hoerner and hope he has a long and productive career, he has no business being included in the Living Set.  

I don't like the direction that Topps seems to be taking with the set.  Print run numbers are down, so they add more prospects, figuring that prospectors will buy the cards in bulk, gambling that the player becomes the next Mike Trout.  But that waters down the Living Set, which I thought was supposed to be for the stars of the present and past, with an occasional rookie sprinkled in.

It has instead turned into a money grab.  Case in point - Willie Mays card from last month had a print run of 4,787.   A few weeks later, Dodger prospect Gavin Lux, with all of 11 games in the big leagues, is included.  His card sells 6,303 copies.  Gavin Lux outsells Willie Mays by 33%.  I doubt that Lux' career will be 33% better than Willie Mays.

1977 Detroit Caesars Cubs Discs

When I saw the listing of 1977 MSA discs included a set called Detroit Caesars, I assumed pizza. Mike Ilitch owns Little Caesars and the Tigers.

Turns out that I was half-right.  The Detroit Caesars were a professional slo-pitch softball team in the American Professional Slo-Pitch League.  In fact, they were a very good softball team, winning the league title in 1977, the league's first year of existence, and 1978.  In 1979 the lost in the semi-finals.  The team disbanded after the '79 season.

The team drew well so you'd think that their disc version would be plentiful.  But they are not. I don't know how the discs were given away or how often, but apparently, they weren't given out enough.  They are among the more difficult 1977 discs to track down.

None are listed on Sportlots right now.   I was able to find the Cubs discs on Ebay and at a pretty low price too.  I'm also fortunate that there were just two Cubs in the 1977 MSA sets.