Sunday, January 31, 2021

Five Random Cubs Cards

 I've got 18,974 Cubs cards from 278 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.


1900s - 1970s: 1975 Topps #315 Don Kessinger  Kessinger was the last man standing of the 1969 Cubs.  By the 1975 season, he was the only member left and he was traded after the season.


1980s: 1981 Topps Giant #9 Mike Tyson  He looks almost as terrifying as the boxing Mike Tyson.


1990s: 1992 Topps Traded Gold #109 Sammy Sosa  Skinny Sammy takes a swing.


2000s: 2007 Topps Factory Set Bonus #4 Wade Miller This came from the Cubs team specific factory set.  Does Topps still do that any more?


2010s: 2012 Gypsy Queen Mini #72 Ryan Dempster  After four cards from Topps, the streak is broken with a GQ card.  I do like the minis from GQ.

Saturday, January 30, 2021

2020 Heritage High Numbers Cubs

 The Heritage High Numbers set was released on December 30, which is cutting it pretty close for a 2020 set!  It consists of 225 cards, including 25 of the dreaded short prints.

The Cubs fared pretty well as they accounted for eleven of the 225 cards.  Let's start with a couple of head-scratchers.

 


Heritage didn't spare us from the 2020 Curse of the Garcia.  And Ben Zobrist?  There was no possibility of him playing in 2020.  The picture is from 2019.  Why was he included?  Cotton was acquired in a trade in November, 2019.  He was at the alternate site in South Bend, released in August, re-signed and sent back to South Bend, and then released again in September.  These three three players made a grand total of zero appearances with the 2020 Cubs.

 

At least Hernan Perez played in three games before he was DFA'ed.

 

 

 


The best out of the rest of these would be Alec Mills, he of no-hitter fame.  He's one of just two of these eleven that figure to be with the 2021 Cubs.  Yikes, it's like 2013 all over again.

Friday, January 29, 2021

2012 Barney Heritage SSP Listings

Heritage 2012 included this SSP error card of Darwin Barney.  His position is missing, which mimics the same mistake made on the 1963 card of Cubs second baseman Ken Hubbs. 

I've been tracking eBay listings and sales of the card for almost nine years now.  I was curious as to just how rare the card is.  I tracked 38 listings within the first two years after its release.  Since then, the listings have dwindled and there hadn't been on eBay since September of 2018.

Oddly, after 29 months of silence, two were listed within the past few weeks.


This listing ended on January 17 and sold for the opening bid of $199.    That's a pretty steep price, but I guess if someone really wanted the card, and it's been unavailable for so long, you pay what you have to.

A day after the sale ended, a second card was listed.


Maybe this seller saw the previous sale and decided to try to cash in.  This listing was ended a day after it was first posted and sold for the listed price of $175.

I track the sale prices of these cards too.  The two January, 2021 sales were much higher than most previous sales and boosted the price average.  I've got 46 different card sales and the average price is $98.51.  The highest is $200 while the lowest sale was for just $24, and I was the one who got it at that price!

It will be interesting to see if any more show up or if there will be another 29 month hiatus.

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Ballstreet Journal Cubs - The Regular Cards

 I've shown the Ballstreet Journal full sheets of Cubs cards, but haven't yet shown the regular cards that came with the journal....until today.

Ballstreet Journal made it's debut with an issue dated January, 1990.  

Cards were included right away, and look, it's Ryne Sandberg!

 

 

The Ryno card from the debut issue was one of two for Sandberg in 1991. They also made cards for Andre Dawson and Mark Grace


The third Sandberg came from what they called the Diamond Edition.  It was an end of the year edition that reviewed baseball cards from 1991.

After putting out seven editions in 1991, Ballstreet went monthly, with 12 issues in 1992.  They all had cards, but the number of Cubs was reduced to just two cards of one player.  Guess who?



Of course it was Ryno!

And then they were gone.  


The December, 1992 issue was the last one.  It's odd that they just disappeared.  Often times magazines will scale back the number of issues before finally dying.  Ballstreet was humming along at one a month and then, nothing.


Wednesday, January 27, 2021

2000 Cubs Quarterly #3 Cubs Cards


 Here's the cover to issue #3 of Cubs Quarterly in 2000.  The free cards notice is still in the upper left hand corner, meaning we have nine more Cubs cards.

This set is just like the cards in the second issue, with no perforations.  But since I committed to punching out the perforated cards from issue #1, I cut these out too.

 

 

 

 


Kerry Wood is the only big name among the nine.  The 2000 Cubs were not very good.

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Five Years Worth of Topps Holiday Cards

 This year marks the fifth for the Holiday set.  I thought it would be interesting to see how the look of the cards has evolved over the five years.




The first three sets, 2015 - 2017 did nothing more than add snowflakes to the flagship.  


Topps got a bit more festive in 2019 as the snowflakes were replaced with holly.  Holly was also added to the border and the font colors were just red and green.


The snowflakes returned in 2020.  My opinion is that there should always be snowflakes.  Branch trimmings were added to the name banners and green and red was used.  I think the 2020 design is the best yet.  It's nice to see Topps improving.


Monday, January 25, 2021

2020 Topps Holiday Cubs

 Christmas was one month ago today, but I'm still in the holiday spirit as I've got the 2020 Topps Holiday Cubs cards.

As in the past, the 200-card set is a Walmart exclusive.  The design is the same basic one used on the flagship but with some snowflakes and branches added.  The name and team backgrounds are all red and green instead of colors that match the team colors.

Seven Cubs were included in the set and there is no card of Robel Garcia.  It's a Christmas miracle!