All of the Ginter Cubs Relics

Yesterday I showed the three newest Cubs mini relics from this year's Ginter.  Today I've got the entire run of my formerly favorite relics, starting with the first set in 2006.  There have been a total of 59 Cubs players with these cards over the 15 year run.  

I've got 59 cards in my collection because some years a player had both a jersey and bat card, so I picked up both.  As you look over the cards you'll get a look at how nice the cards looked until this year's nastiness.

 

2021 Allen & Ginter Mini Relic Cubs Cards.

 The mini relics in the Ginter sets were my favorite of all the different relic cards.  They always had a unique looking frame around a mini relic card.  From 2006 - 2001 they were the only type of relic in Ginter. The full sized relics first appeared along side the minis in 2013.

If you reread my first sentence, you'll notice that I said the mini relics were my favorite relics instead of are.  The nasty looking 2021 design is the reason for that.

 

It's not the fact that the three Cubs in the set are the big three that were traded away, though it does sting a bit to see them again in Cubs uniforms.  What turned me off is the ugly green border.  

 

Ginter has usually had a cool, funky border.  That green border is nasty.  I sure hope that Topps does better next year.

2021 Allen & Ginter Full Sized Cubs Relics

With brentandbecca out of the case busting business, I have to get my cards from a variety of eBay sellers.  I sure do miss the convenience and economy of buying from a single seller.  My 2021 Allen and Ginter orders are arriving and I'll show the cards as they get delivered .  Up today are the full-sized relics.

There are two different designs of full sized relics.  Pattern A has 56 cards and there are another 62 in Pattern B.

 

These are the three Cubs in Pattern A.  I received three different relics among the three cards.  There's a home and away jersey along with a bat.

 

 

The four Cubs in Pattern B have two different relics, the home whites and away grays.

Here's a fun-fact.... the seven Cubs with a full relic were members of the Central Division champion Cubs from 2007 and 2020.  

Here's a sad-fact... the only Cubs that will be Division champions in 2021 are ex-Cubs traded to better teams.... sigh....

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 19,446 Cubs cards from 285 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1971 Kelloggs #11 Jim Hickman  Hickman was coming off of the best season of his career, a season that was good enough to land him on the 1970 All Star team and the 1971 Kelloggs set.

1980s: 1982 Topps Traded #16 Bill Campbell Campbell got off to a slow start in 1982 after being signed as a free agent.  He turned things around in the second half, posting a 1.79 ERA over 23 games after July 16.

1990s: 1995 Fleer #419 Derrick May I like the look of the 1995 Fleer card. Hard to believe that the card is 26 years old

2000s: 2005 Heritage #128 Tom Goodwin  This would be a career capper card for Goodwin.  He became a free agent after the 2004 season but no team signed him.

2010s: 2011 Team Issued Bricks & Ivy Alfonso Soriano The Cubs went artsy with the 2011 Bricks & Ivy cards, as the only things not in black and white are the blue red things.

70s Saturday - 1971 Dell Today Cubs

In 1971 Dell released books that contained player pictures for each of the 24 MLB teams.  Each book contains 24 players.  They are placed 12 to a page.  The page is perforated so you can punch out the cards but I left my book intact.  The players aren't arranged on the page in any special order.  Rather, they seemed to be placed randomly.

Here is the first page...

...and right away you'll notice a Twin, Met, Padre, and Red Sox player mixed in.  Dell didn't seem to be too concerned about the teams shown.

The back of the page has a small bio of the player.  Stats were given on a different page...I showed those pages yesterday.

On to the second page of players...

with a couple Astros and a Brave...

and the back.

The pictures are a little small, so I've got a better look at each of the 24 cards, this time in alphabetical order...

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2002 Topps Total vs. 2002 Upper Deck 40 Man

 The two big card companies of 2002, Topps and Upper Deck, put out competing supersets in 2002.  Both had the concept of issuing cards of all the players.  

So let's see how they did with the Cubs.  I'll put the cards side by side so we can see who had the most players and which players were skipped by one brand or the other. Total is on the left and 40 Man is on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's how things turned out:

Number of players:  Total - 33   40 Man - 37

Players with a card in each set: 23

Players only in Total: 10

Players only in 40 Man: 14

Looks like you have to give the win to Upper Deck.