When I bought Fleer's first set in 1981, I was sure that in 30 years I was going to be rich. After all, the first Topps set, released 29 years earlier, was going for big bucks. So it stood to reason that Fleer's first would be worth a bundle some day.
I was wrong. Actually I was wrong on two accounts. First, that 1981 Fleer set can be picked up for less than $20. I think I paid around $15 in 1981. Adjust that for inflation and you see that the '81 set is worth less today than it was when it came out.
But secondly, I was wrong because 1981 wasn't Fleer's first modern set. They put out a set in 1963; or at least they made an attempt.
In 1959 Fleer signed Ted Williams to an exclusive contract and put out an 80 card Ted Wiliams-only set. It wasn't a big seller. The next two year Fleer put out sets that featured retired players. That also got them around Topps' contracts with the major league players. But in 1963 they decided to go after Topps. They signed a bunch of players and released their first series of 67 cards. To try to avoid a Topps lawsuit, the Fleer cards had a cookie in the package instead of gum. From what I've read, the cookies were really nasty; more like dog biscuits than a cookie.
Only two Cubs were in the set....
....Ron Santo....
....and Glen Hobbie.
The design should look familiar. Fleer recycled it in 2003...
...as they celebrated their 40th anniversary. I'm not sure why they decided to celebrate. As soon as the first series was released, Topps did file a lawsuit and Fleer was forced to stop issuing any more cards. That doesn't seem like anything to celebrate, does it?
It took Fleer 18 years and another trip to the courthouse before they put out cards again, cards worth less today than they were worth 30 years ago.
I recently picked up my second Transogram card and I also found out an interesting fact about Transogram.
First, the card....
....this is Billy Williams' card from 1969. Like the Ernie Banks card, it too was cut from the bottom of the figurine's box. However, in 1969, the players were sold separately instead of in groups of three. I couldn't find any Billy Williams players available on ebay....
....but I did find this Hank Aaron. I must admit that the player looks nothing like Aaron.
Now the interesting fact about Transogram, well, its interesting to me, at least! I was reading my local newspaper, the Sturgis Journal, and an obituary caught my eye. I didn't know the person, but I recognized the name of one of the companies she had worked at....Transogram. Was that the same Transogram?
I scoured the internet and found out that yes, Transogram did have a factory right here in little 'ol Sturgis, Michigan. Transogram had a few factories around the US and the one in Sturgis was known as Transogram, Midwest. The company went bankrupt in the early 1970s, so the factory has been long gone. I haven't been able to figure out where in town it was located.
But the big question I'd like to answer is were these baseball figures made in Sturgis. I'd love to get my hands on one of the boxes to see if it says where they were made. Anyone out there got one?
Here is my monthly look at complete set prices, taken from the first five completed sales listings on Ebay on July 1.- Strange thing with 1969 sets: A really expensive set was sold, $2750 and a relatively cheap one sold too, $649.99. I guess that I why I average the first five sales, instead of using the first one I come to.
- Nobody wanted any mid and late-90s stuff. Only two sets were sold for each year, 1995-1998.
- No one was interested in the late-2000s sets either. Only one set for 2007-2009 was sold.
- The 2011 set makes its first appearance on the chart. These are all hand collated sets. The factory sets don't come out until the end of the month.
This also marks the two-year anniversary of my first look at the set prices. In July, 2009, it would have cost you $5,863.96 to buy each set from 1969-2009. Today, the cost was $5,682.14. That's nearly $200 less and you get a '10 and '11 set too.
The first few months I put the prices together it took quite a long time to do. But now, I've got the process streamlined, so from start to finish its only 45 minutes. I use dual monitors, so I have Ebay up on one side and an excel sheet on the other. The five prices go into the spread sheet year by by, and then the monthly averages are figured automatically. I've also got another sheet that sets up the html coding, so when I'm finished, I just copy and paste into blogger.
As long as it goes smoothly, I plan to keep doing this indefinitely.
Here are the prices:| YEAR | July 1 | June 1 | May 1 | 12 Mo. Avg. |
| 1969 | $1,380.25 | $1,311.80 | $954.50 | $1,069.38 |
| 1970 | $767.67 | $1,275.00 | $755.00 | $897.59 |
| 1971 | $632.28 | $1,124.40 | $614.80 | $784.46 |
| 1972 | $918.06 | $1,104.24 | $1,580.55 | $920.87 |
| 1973 | $317.05 | $341.24 | $464.50 | $361.35 |
| 1974 | $233.87 | $318.16 | $237.68 | $232.75 |
| 1975 | $184.84 | $229.61 | $463.15 | $296.76 |
| 1976 | $139.47 | $183.20 | $194.40 | $166.57 |
| 1977 | $117.20 | $178.85 | $144.40 | $127.24 |
| 1978 | $103.79 | $102.60 | $99.04 | $93.13 |
| 1979 | $72.97 | $86.40 | $84.50 | $86.89 |
| 1980 | $50.06 | $68.41 | $61.88 | $63.14 |
| 1981 | $28.79 | $28.69 | $39.58 | $29.34 |
| 1982 | $30.66 | $30.45 | $35.02 | $32.70 |
| 1983 | $30.37 | $35.80 | $43.60 | $32.13 |
| 1984 | $26.99 | $16.10 | $26.25 | $23.82 |
| 1985 | $21.06 | $29.21 | $23.23 | $24.84 |
| 1986 | $8.66 | $22.04 | $20.10 | $13.83 |
| 1987 | $10.30 | $13.92 | $10.30 | $8.02 |
| 1988 | $8.37 | $11.06 | $8.51 | $8.46 |
| 1989 | $5.42 | $9.34 | $6.45 | $8.69 |
| 1990 | $11.09 | $4.75 | $10.89 | $9.80 |
| 1991 | $7.80 | $9.49 | $14.05 | $8.32 |
| 1992 | $9.45 | $6.59 | $8.89 | $10.26 |
| 1993 | $27.20 | $19.77 | $26.39 | $20.22 |
| 1994 | $27.11 | $32.00 | $22.36 | $22.47 |
| 1995 | $23.75 | $35.00 | $54.00 | $36.60 |
| 1996 | $29.98 | $19.68 | $24.01 | $21.48 |
| 1997 | $23.83 | $42.50 | $47.59 | $41.41 |
| 1998 | $46.99 | $52.06 | $37.13 | $40.68 |
| 1999 | $24.42 | $23.88 | $20.30 | $23.28 |
| 2000 | $16.80 | $18.35 | $18.40 | $17.03 |
| 2001 | $49.42 | $36.97 | $55.38 | $51.48 |
| 2002 | $33.53 | $40.55 | $40.37 | $37.23 |
| 2003 | $22.93 | $27.00 | $20.49 | $31.67 |
| 2004 | $27.19 | $19.72 | $27.63 | $24.68 |
| 2005 | $32.53 | $18.25 | $24.02 | $23.97 |
| 2006 | $31.51 | $18.81 | $15.05 | $20.96 |
| 2007 | $10.99 | $11.56 | $11.15 | $14.14 |
| 2008 | $42.01 | $25.83 | $20.09 | $24.37 |
| 2009 | $28.00 | $37.70 | $33.38 | $37.30 |
| 2010 | $33.78 | $24.22 | $30.74 | $37.30 |
| 2011 | $33.70 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $30.95 |
It's been a long time since I've looked at a player who spent time on both sides of town. But with the two teams facing each other this past weekend, it seems like a good time to renew this feature. Today I'll take a look at Juan Pi....
...zarro. No, I couldn't bring myself to feature Juan Pierre, the way he took it to the Cubs. So instead, it's left-handed pitcher Juan Pizarro.
Pizarro broke into the majors with the Braves as a 20-year-old in 1957 and was in Milwaukee through the 1960 season. The Sox acquired in a three way trade with the Braves and Red Sox. He would stay with the south siders for the next six season and have the best years of his career. He made the All Star team in 1963 and 1964, his best two seasons. He was 16-8 and 19-9 those two years. He tailed off in 1965 and in 1966 spent most of his time working out of the bullpen.
The Sox traded Pizarro to the Pirates, and the journeyman portion of his career was under way. It was 1 1/2 seasons in Pittsburgh, a season in Boston, and parts of a season in Cleveland and Oakland before Pizarro ended up back in AAA in 1970.
While with Hawaii in 1970, he posted a 9-0 record and the Cubs purchased his contract for the last two months of the season.
That was good enough for Topps to include him in the 1971 set. The AAA shuttle continued the next season, as he split time between Tacoma and Chicago. With the Cubs he posted a 7-6 record in 16 games (14 starts).
Pizarro spent the entire season in Chicago in 1972, but was used sparingly. He made only 16 appearances, starting seven. His record was 4-5 with an ERA of 3.94. Topps didn't think much of his 1972 season either and left him out of the '73 set. After starting the 1973 season in AAA, he was recalled to the Cubs in mid-May. He pitched in 17 games before the Cubs sold him to the Astros.
He finished the year in Houston, and hooked up with the Pirates a bit in 1974 before being released, ending his career.
His final Chicago stats:
White Sox (6 seasons): 75-47, 3.05 ERA
Cubs (4 seasons): 11-12, 4.78 ERA
Wow....
I was watching the Cubs/Sox game yesterday when Adam Dunn was batting. His problems at the plate this year are pretty amazing. With only 7 HRs, an average well south of the Mendoza line, and over 100 strikeouts, he's not exactly what the Sox hoped they were getting when he was signed to a 4 year, $56 million deal.
To see someone, who in the past has killed the Cubs, struggling like that brings a wry smile to my face. And the fact that he plays on the south side, well, that's just icing on the cake.
But while watching him bat, I had one of those weird feelings. I seemed to remember that I had an Adam Dunn autograph card in a set somewhere. And I thought it was an update set. So during the game I went through the sets, and sure enough, I was right.
I found the card in this set, Topps Traded and Rookies, 1999. If you look at the box, you'll notice that it says, "Contains one randomly selected Autographed Rookie Card." Wanna guess who I got in my box?
Yup, good ole Adam Dunn. I grabbed my Standard Catalog to see what sort of value it placed on the card.. They listed it at $80. The next stop was ebay, because I was curious as to what the card would actually go for. There's a couple of these as Buy It Nows, one for $82.89 (but with free shipping!) and another for $29.99 A check of completed sales showed one sold for a best offer price of $30 and a BGS graded 8.5 card went for $39.99.
I wonder what this went for two years ago, or even six months ago? If I was a market player, I'd be dumping this sucker ASAP.
But I'm not. So it goes back into the box....unless someone wants to pay me $82.89 for it.
Upper Deck issued baseball cards for 22 seasons, from their groundbreaking 1989 set to their unlicensed 2010 set. There was one design feature that was a part of every single set...
....except for 2003.
Do you know what the 2003 cards were missing?
Well, you won't be able to figure it out by looking at the front of the card. Now look at the back.
Now have you figured it out?
The 2003 set was the only one of Upper Deck's twenty-two that did not include a picture of the player on the back of the card.
So why the change? Did Upper Deck think they had to change things just to change them? I suppose no one could come up with a decent answer, because the picture on the back returned in 2004.
The teacher in me feels obliged to look back on my progress with the collection goals I set for myself back in January.
Goal #1: Keep Getting New Stuff: No problem here! Topps Flagship, Heritage, Opening Day, Pro Debut, Gypsy Queen, Bowman, and the Factory Team set have all been added. And I'm looking forward to Allen and Ginter, coming soon. Grade: A
Goal #2 Add More Oddball Sets: I haven't added too many of these. I've added Upper Deck Spectrum and Upper Deck X, plus TCMA All Time Cubs from 1977 and 1979, and the 1969 Cubs from 2004 Timeless Teams. That works out to about a set per month. Grade: B-
Goal #3 Complete 2005 Turkey Red Set: I tackled this at the start of the year, and then ran into a wall in getting the last four SPs. I found three of the missing four at Beckett for a decent price, but was still missing Wily Mo Pena. Well, a couple weeks ago I checked Sportlots and lo and behold, a seller had Wily for only 18 cents. I immediately grabbed it; I'm thinking the seller didn't realize the card was a SP.
Behold, the missing Wily Mo and the completion of the set! Grade: A
Goal #4 Pick up Topps 1952 Cubs: I got the first 19 quickly and easily by the end of January. Since then, nothing; because all that's left are the super expensive high number cards. I've been tracking their sale for the last six months, and the average price for the nine is $96.13 per card! Sorry but I can't spend nearly $900 to add Bill Serena,Toby Atwell, and friends to my collection. Grade: B
Goal #5 Add more relics and autographs: This has been fun. I've added Shawon Dunston, Dave Kingman, Ken Holtzman, Derrek Lee, Steve Stone, Greg Maddux Joe Pepitone, Billy Williams, Steve Trout, and Don Zimmer, among others. Again, its been about one or two per month. Grade: B+
Goal #6 Enjoy what I've got: No problem, there! I look forward to spending some time each day with my collection. Grade: A
Goal #7 Share with you: Still posting once a day at 9:00 a.m. and hoping you check it out daily Grade: A
