The beginning of November signifies a few important things around my house. It is really my favorite time of year. Unfortunately, it signifies the end of Baseball Season and Halloween, which are two of my favorite things as well. But those negatives are offset by a lot of the positives that November brings. And Baseball will be back in a few months, right?
First, being from South Georgia, this is the time of year when the weather finally starts to feel like Fall. The temperature on Halloween night was finally low enough to wear a sweatshirt and toboggan. Around here, a toboggan is a ski cap and not a sled. We almost never have a need for a sled around these parts. But I absolutely love the weather when it is hovering in that lower 50 region.
November also means that football season is getting serious. The College Football Playoff rankings are finally released and teams are in the thick of conference play. Nothing beats conference play when it comes to college football. Georgia played Florida on November 2 and has Missouri on the 9th, Auburn on the 16th, Texas A&M on the 23rd, and then closes the season with a non-conference rival, Georgia Tech on the 30th. What a month of football!
As for the NFL, the games really start to matter because the playoff race is shaping up. The teams that are going to compete have separated themselves from the teams that will be vying for the #1 Pick in the upcoming draft; with the exception of those few teams that are hovering around .500 and trying to make some second half magic. But football isn’t football until you reach November. That is truly when the temperatures drop and the match-ups heat up!
For me, I don’t need much else besides cool weather and football to put a spring in my step. But this time of year also means that the Holiday Season is upon us. We are just a couple of weeks away from Thanksgiving, which is a dream holiday for a fellow that likes to eat the way I do. We go to a couple of different houses on Thanksgiving and we eat and watch football all day long!
Then, after Thanksgiving, my family’s favorite holiday is front and center; Christmas! Christmas brings back so many fun memories of childhood for me and I try to relive those with my kids every year. We watch Christmas classics like “A Christmas Story” and “Christmas Vacation”, we go see Christmas lights in surrounding neighborhoods, and we decorate our home while Christmas music plays in the background. And, we watch FOOTBALL!
Even though November signifies the end of the Baseball season, Topps takes the opportunity to release one of the more anticipated releases for my two daughters each year; Topps Holiday Boxes. Both of them enjoy opening packs throughout the year but they get excited with big hits like dad does. They want a card that “a player wrote on” and cards with pieces of a jersey in them. But when it comes to Topps Holiday Boxes, they love every card they pull. And this year, they loved them even more!
Topps Holiday Boxes are found at Wal-Mart and I have seen them at both $19.99 and $22.48. The boxes come with 10 packs of 10 cards each and contain 1 autograph or relic card. There are also Silver Metallic cards that are found 1:2 packs on average, so expect about 5 of those as well.
The set contains 200 cards and this year, there are some new short prints (SP), super short prints (SSP), and super rare super short prints (SSSP) to be found in the set. The SP’s are found 1:7 packs, SSP’s are 1:20, and the SSSP’s are 1:161 on average. Thankfully, as he normally does, Ryan Cracknell has provided collectors with a handy-dandy checklist with photos and codes so your search can be made a little easier. That article can be found HERE.
The set includes all of the top rookies from this year and the variations make some of them pretty valuable. If you are lucky enough to pull a hot rookie super rare variation that is a silver metallic, well, you need to go buy a lottery ticket! Also included in 2019 boxes is the chance to pull Santa Hat player worn relics and even a Santa Claus autograph! Paging 1990 Pro Set!!
The design is what makes this year’s version stand out for me over previous years. I have always been a “border guy” when it comes to sports cards. And 2019 Holiday does not disappoint. Last year, there were just snowflakes around the edges. This year, they brought a nice green border over half of the card that was infused with holly. The rest of the card edge has a snowy finish with more infused holly. Some people may think it’s corny, but I love it and so do the Lil Dub’s!
The variations are where things get super fun for the Lil Dub’s. I had them go through the cards and try to find the hidden objects. Some were pretty easy to find but some are more difficult. Fortunately, I pulled the base Shohei Ohtani here so they spotted the filled stocking pretty quickly.
As for the relics, some of these are still just plain one color swatches; but I still like the “Christmas Present” design they come with. Base relics fall at an average of 1:11 packs. The fun Holiday Relics are tougher and land at 1:638 packs. And while I have never been a “manufactured relic” guy, I think I would be fine with pulling one from this checklist that includes the likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Santa Claus, and Frosty the Snowman. Those are REALLY difficult with stated odds of 1 in every 4,782 packs.
There are base autographs (1:334 packs), Relics Autographs (1:3,619 packs), and Holiday Relics Autographs (1:6,619 packs), and the autograph pulls are difficulty to say the least. With 10 packs per box, just a base autograph would fall 1 in every 33 boxes. That makes an autograph a really nice pull!
The set “is what it is” for most hardcore collectors; a novelty. But for $20, it is a great way to incorporate pack ripping with the rest of the family during the most festive time of the year. It has a way of making you forget about chasing some super-refractor of a player we’ve never seen play and just helps you focus on the cards. And that is really what made all of us start collecting, isn’t it? I give the 2019 Topps Holiday Box a “5” on the Dub-O-Meter and it is really pretty easy this year. The design is really fun for me in the setting that I am opening with my kids. And anytime you can combine cold weather, Christmas, fun with the family, and baseball cards, what else could you ask for?
J-Dub
Here is an old tiny softball field. This is actually still in use, though it looks pretty worn. This is the first softball field I ever played on. This is where I played 2nd base and my friend “Buggy” played SS. I haven’t seen Buggy since about 8th grade but that is the one player I always remember when I think of this field. Our high school played football just beyond left field and I always wanted to hit a softball onto that field. I never did but it’s weird when I go back now to see just how small a feat it would’ve been. I could probably hit a brick over that fence at this point in my life. It really puts a lot of things in perspective when I think about my kids and what they can’t do for themselves just yet. Yeah, this little softball field makes me think of how precious my kids are.
Here is a unique one. This looks like a green space that has some various decorations on it. But in reality, that fence used to be the front gate to my great grandmothers front porch. She had a big house that sat right behind that fence and we spent every Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas there with extended family. We played football, hunted Easter eggs, and took what seems like a million pictures in front of her big fancy bushes in our church duds. The house was moved several years ago after she passed away but when I ride by, I can still see it sitting there. I’d love to walk through that gate onto her screened in porch and swing one more time on her bench swing.
When you look at this one, you are probably thinking I’ve gone too far. How can this possibly be a photo that has any relevance? Well, this is the end of the paved road in front of my paternal grandparents home. They had a dirt driveway that went all the way around their house and you can see where it hit the road just in the left of this photo. We raced bicycles around the house every day of every summer and that transition from dirt to pavement was the start/finish line. My Uncle Greg usually won but he was about 10 years older than the rest of us. My little brother rode his bike as fast as he could toward the trees one time and slammed on his brakes to skid sideways. Only when he went into his skid, he fell off and cracked his head on the pavement. It was the second worst head injury that ever happened at that house, but I’ve written about the worst one before.
If this card doesn’t make you smile, then I don’t know what to do for you. Nolan Ryan in the old Astros uni!
We can talk more about modern cards of value at some point but for those returning to the hobby after a hiatus; I think the subject of “Junk Wax” is where we need to start. If you ever check the responses or mentions when Gary Vee posts about sports cards, many of them are along the lines of, “Are the cards from when I was a kid worth anything?” As collectors, we get this question quite regularly in our day to day lives. I am pretty sure that the entire world collected sports cards in the 80’s and 90’s, so when people find out that some of us still do it in 2019, the question presents itself in some form or fashion. A lot of people still have a box of cards from when they were a kid or a binder that has been sitting in a closet at their parents for 30 years. And trust me, most of us LOVE looking through those cards with you to see if you have something cool. So with the pumping up of the industry happening all around us, these questions deserve some examination.
First, let me offer an explanation of one of the terms that will be used here regularly. Most collectors know this already but as this might reach somebody new, the term “Junk Wax” refers to the cards we collected during the big boom of the industry from around 1986-1995. The time frame varies from collector to collector but it is referred to as “Junk” because it was so massively overproduced. There are still cases and cases of 1987 Topps sitting in a warehouse somewhere. I prefer to view “Junk Wax” as more of an endearing term that represents cards from my youth. It is sort of like “Dad Bod” being somewhat derogatory but also embraced by society, both men and women alike, as a positive or cool thing.
With this in mind, when someone asks me if their cards from when they were a kid are worth anything, the answer is generally, “not likely”, but we now know that it is a little more complex than that. The ‘90 Donruss, ’88 Topps, ’91 Fleer, and ’92 Leaf sets of the world really have no tangible monetary value. But long time collectors aren’t just throwing those cards in the garbage either. That 1989 Gregg Jefferies Future Star was once a retirement piece that was set aside by the masses. It is now a .50 cent card that provides more nostalgic value than 90% of the cards on the market. When someone in the hobby mentions Gregg Jefferies, it is synonymous with “cards I collected as a kid.” If I pull one, it still goes in a toploader.
The truth, as it relates to monetary value, is that there are very few cards from that era that carry anything more than a $5 price tag. There are certainly exceptions but the advent of social media, eBay, and other selling sites, combined with what we know now about production numbers from that era, has transformed the 1986 Donruss Jose Canseco, 1985 Topps Mark McGwire, 1990 Pro Set Emmitt Smith, and 1989 Hoops David Robinson cards into collection pieces that can be bought all day long for a few bucks. I won’t even get into an explanation of grading because the odds are; if you are finding the box in your childhood closet, those cards aren’t graded. We’ll save that discussion for another day.
We will touch on condition, however. What makes the vintage cards from the 50’s and 60’s so valuable is tied to scarcity and condition. So many of those cards were tossed away or used as play toys, the basic number of cards still in reasonable condition make those somewhat rare. In any collection, rare is good. By the late ‘80’s, we had learned to keep our cards in better condition because they could be worth something in the future. We used toploaders, binders, and screw-down holders to keep the highly sought after cards in “pretty good” condition. But “pretty good” condition isn’t good enough anymore. And 90% of our collections went into big cardboard boxes for posterity so “pretty good” might be generous.
That fact, combined with the printing errors (miscuts, off-center photos and borders) that are rather commonplace in sets from those days, there is still somewhat of a premium for cards that are in mint or pristine condition. For example, the Ken Griffey Jr. Upper Deck rookie from 1989 sells on eBay for about $30 if you still have it in a toploader or binder. If it is graded by one of the major companies, and certified as mint condition, it sells for about $450. Whatever your understanding of value is, that is a pretty self-explanatory comparison without having to go into the ins and outs of grading.
The average “big box of cards” sitting around the house collecting dust from your childhood likely won’t have the ’89 Upper Deck Griffey or ’86 Donruss Canseco in there. These were the cards we put aside for safekeeping and either sold when we were getting out of the hobby or traded them for other cards we thought were going to be valuable and ultimately wound up in the big box when the players didn’t pan out. I am envisioning those trades that involved the likes of Todd Van Poppel, Kevin Maas, and Phil Plantier. But who knows, you might get lucky and stumble on something you forgot was there.
Draft Pick Cards
1989 Upper Deck
Oddballs
Unique Photos
Pro Vision
Leaf Gold
Topps Gold
Gallery of Stars
All-Star Rookies
Errors
Mid-Late 80’s Fleer
1992 Bowman
1987 Topps
1989 Fleer Billy Ripken
Ken Griffey Jr.
Frank Thomas
When you ask the question, “Are my cards from my childhood worth anything”, the short answer is “no”, so long as you were a kid from 1980 to 2000. The longer and more accurate answer will take some sorting, research, and time. And what that really means is that there might be a few specific cards in a box of 5,000 that may be worth a few bucks. But that is only taking monetary value into consideration. When considering social and nostalgic value, you really can’t put a price on “Junk Wax”. There is still a great feeling that comes with finding a Gary Sheffield RC or a Juan Gonzalez Reverse Negative or a Nolan Ryan Triple Exposure card. This is where the value lies for cards in that era. When someone tells you they would take the cards but won’t pay a whole lot for them, they likely aren’t lying. The cards have value; they just aren’t worth a lot of money, if that makes sense.
One thing that I have most definitely learned over the last few years is that you can never have enough food in your house. This grocery cart represents the standard, “Daddy, we don’t have anything to eat” trip. G loves her Mac-n-Cheese, Juice, Goldfish, and Diet Dr. Pepper. Bug loves her Totino’s Pizza, Lunchables, Chips, and Mountain Dew. The Oatmeal Pies are Daddy’s treat. This cart of high quality sustenance will last about 3 days. Then I’ll be back for more. This doesn’t even count as part of the trips I make to actually buy legit meal food. I now understand what me and my brother put my parents though; we were boys and I ate everything you could put in front of me that wasn’t a green bean!
This wonderful place is like a fantasy land for me. I live about a half a mile from here and I can take off at a moments notice and my food problems at home are solved. I would estimate that in any given 30 day month, I spend 20 days here. In fact, I spend so much time here, I recently met a parent in FFA and the first thing she said was, “oh yeah, I see you at Publix all the time! Nice to formally meet you.” The cashiers know me by name, some have friended me on FaceBook, and the deli clerks know what I want before I ever order. The meat manager always gives me “the finger guns” when I walk by and the produce manager stops to catch up with me when I’m grazing the Granny Smith apples. I’m flattered at times, but sometimes embarrassed because I spend way too much time there.
Food has always been a very important part of my life. Unfortunately, I’m not as active as I once was, so my body has paid the price for my love of chicken-n-waffles. But while I battle occasionally with being unhappy with my waistline, I enjoy food far too much to turn my back on it and try to live off of salad or some sort of bread free diet. I’m certain that my poor diet choices will take me one day but I think I’d rather live 55 good years than 70 bad ones. I cut where I can but if I’m being honest, there are just some things I’ll never be able to cut; Oreos, Apple Pie, Reese’s, Pizza, to name a few.
A recent topic on Twitter has been the general pulse on non-licensed sports cards. This conversation led to an era in which I was able to enjoy two of my very favorite things together in the form of the Food Issue Baseball Card. During the 80’s and early part of the 90’s, the timeframe wasn’t dubbed “Junk Wax Era” just because of production numbers from Topps, Fleer, and Donruss. Compounding the glut of cards on the market, everybody and their brother was producing them; from Kellogg’s to Purina to KMart to Pepsi. Some of these “oddball sets” were licensed and some weren’t. I don’t remember it being as big of a deal back then but the lack of logos is more than obvious today.
While there are some companies that are wading back into the oddball releases, they are much less common than back in the 80’s. Hanes just released a set of Michael Jordan Fleer cards to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of his partnership with the company. A pack of 5 cards could be found within a package of t-shirts or boxers at participating Wal-Mart’s and a few other big box stores. These cards don’t even feature Jordan in a sporting event and collectors were immediately clamoring for them on eBay; nobody more so than Ivan (
When I was a kid, Quaker Chewy Granola Bars were a huge afternoon snack for kids. They were easy to handle, tasted pretty decent, and didn’t have to be cooked. As was the case with many other products aimed at kids, they added a new dimension to their desirability when they released a 33 Card Baseball Set in 1986! They weren’t the first on the market but they were certainly my first. I still have a few of these in a binder but I recently picked up the whole set on eBay for a smooth $10.
The design is pretty memorable for a food issue and they had backing from one of the several licensed card manufacturers at the time, Topps, so we got the MLB Logos. It was very different from the flagship design so it had added collectibility with it also looking like a completely separate set. That Quaker Oats Yellow and Red remain very memorable to me. The set featured the collectible stars from that year and even doubled up on a couple of teams.
The backs aren’t too bad either. The red and blue are easy on the eyes and the back of the card has a basic grey stock. I wish there were more seasons outlined but that is the only complaint I have.
Doc was fresh on the scene and would be as dominant as anyone over the late 80’s. This guy was fun to watch!
Tony Gwynn was always one of my favorites but I’m not really in the minority on that. The Pads uniforms were not known as “good looking” but I do miss these old gems.
For many years, Murph was the only reason to tune in to the hapless Braves. I sure wish he had been around in the early 90’s to enjoy the good times.
The exact opposite of the Padres uniforms were those of the Expos. I can’t think of any reason you wouldn’t love these beauties. Raines was a legend on those teams!
Speaking of legends, there are two in this photo; Nolan Ryan and the Astros Jersey! I know he spent a good portion of his career with the Rangers but when it comes to cards, this is how I remember The Express.
The Wizard really was one of my favorites during this time. I’ve told the story many times about his rookie card being the first card I remember owning. I should’ve PC’d Ozzie!
The other Met I really liked was Strawberry. I’m conditioned to dislike the Mets but I made exceptions for Straw and Doc.
Donnie Baseball without the stache is always odd to me.
Speaking of Stache, “Chicken Man” always had a strong one in Boston!
No facial hair could compete with Eddie Murray though. After all these years, THIS is the card that I still vividly remember from this set. I loved this card when I was a kid.
Finally, the other Oriole on the checklist was the Iron Man himself. I’ve never met a Ripken card I didn’t like!
This was a pretty easy score for me. I love this set because it has a good design with fun colors, and the checklist is as solid as green oak. This is what oddball sets were meant to look like and the good folks at Quaker nailed it. I still think of this set when I pick up a box of Apple/Cinnamon Oatmeal or a Granola Bar. This set earns a strong “5”! What say you on the 1986 Quaker Set?
A running theme when I sit to watch my own film is one of chaos. An image I see over and over is me walking through a scene towards the camera in slow motion. But the action all around me is moving in real time or, in some cases, almost sped up a tick, making my movements even more sluggish. Sometimes I don’t care; I’m just moving along at what feels like a comfortable pace and everything else is detached from me and independent from my decisions. But sometimes I want to catch up with what’s happening around me but I just can’t seem to move fast enough. It can be a little exasperating.
Then there are moments when the chaos disappears and it looks almost as if I’m walking in space with stars and neon colored nebula around me. It’s very peaceful. It’s almost too peaceful; lonely and quiet. It is clear that the scene is being played out in my mind. It is the place I go to when the chaos has oppressed my thoughts and my vision. It’s a necessity but it doesn’t advance the main storyline, if that makes sense. None of this makes the same sense when I see it in word form as when I am watching the film, but maybe this is the part that was influenced by Guillermo del Toro, who knows. But this interstellar moment always comes when it feels like the bedlam from the previous scene has just about sapped the life out of me.
When I emerge from the galaxy segment, I’m back on the same road as before. But the chaos is gone; replaced now by ashes and rubble. It’s not a scene of despair as much as it feels almost like starting over. But I’m not starting with a blank slate; I’m starting with the remnants of what was destroyed before. I guess the imagery does seem a bit despondent or sorrowful but that’s just the natural order of the events that take place. I want to stay in this moment and breathe but I don’t like the feeling of my surroundings. I need to try and rebuild.
And that is where the chaos slowly begins to appear again, during the rebuild. I add things that are unnecessary because I hope to be this well-rounded and versatile person that can not just be a good person in general. I want to be the best husband, always giving my full attention to providing for my wife. I want to be the best father, being there for every moment of my children’s lives, and guiding them along their path. I want to give all I can to each of them, realizing that my best moments lay in the lives they create for themselves. I want to be a good friend to those who have been good to me. I want to be a good employee that goes to all of the extra-curricular activities and leaves blood, sweat, and tears at the office everyday.
There are a lot of things I want for my life. Some are selfless and some are selfish. I struggle to balance the two. How much do I do for myself, knowing that it sacrifices what I could be doing for someone else? It becomes an either/or very quickly and the consequences of any specific choice result in the previous chaos that led to the desolate road I am walking on now. If I’m selfish, I disregard the people in my life that are important to me. I feel anguish and disappointment in my decisions if they aren’t for “the greater good”. On the other hand, if I am selfless, I carry around bitter feelings because I think that I don’t matter to anyone. I carry around self doubt and emotions about my own worth.
This is when my life slows way down again and everything around me starts to speed up. I can see it and feel it but I think I’ll be able to handle it every time it starts again. I think I’ve learned something from the past and I’ll be able to prioritize and manage. But it’s always a trap. It always leaves me gasping for air and looking for a life raft. The scene that closes the movie is always the same. It’s very similar to the scene from “Shawshank Redemption” when Tim Robbins finally reaches freedom. The imagery is the same but the meaning is different. This is more about me reaching out and grasping for that next scene where things are peaceful and quiet. Because next time, I’ll surely get it right. Won’t I?
I remember the Nolan Ryan and Joe Montana triple exposure cards getting a lot of publicity. I really don’t remember too many people being excited about this Dean Biasucci double exposure.
I bought a box of Series 2 so it isn’t LOADED with all the stars but it has enough to make it worthwhile. I bought Series 2 for a specific reason, which will be revealed at the end. But this box did include 3 Super Bowl Champion Quarterbacks!
Bo and Barry were in Series 1 but I’ll take any box that produces a Herschel Walker and Rodney Hampton!
Jerry Rice headlines the wide receivers. A young Michael Irvin was coming off of a 20 catch rookie season but was about to explode!
Solid tight ends were hard to come by in the early 90’s in the sports card world but these 3 were very solid on the field.
Reggie White and Richard Dent! What more is there to say?
I was thrilled that LT was in Series 2 and Junior Seau was an added bonus!
Deion Sanders and Darrell Green were two of the fastest players in the league while Rod Woodson and Brian Jordan were two of the hardest hitters.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Emmitt Smith in a #25 jersey. I wonder who #22 was that year in the Pro Bowl? And how about a Marcus Dupree Card? Remember him from the 30 for 30, “The Best That Never Was”?
The Hall of Fame Inserts were not as appreciated when I was a kid as they are now. Big Earl makes an appearance!
I had totally forgotten about this insert set until ripping this box. I loved these back in the day! David Fulcher may have been the best defender on TSB. I also have Joey Browner as one of the most underrated NFL players in history.
The sackmasters got their own insert called Sack Attack. All of these guys were studs but look at that top row!!
The artist cards were big back in ’91. These were the NFL Leaders in various categories. Some of these were obvious, like Thurman Thomas with the most all-purpose yards and Barry Sanders most rushing. But I was stumped by Steve DeBerg so I had to read the back. He lead the league in QB Rating, if you can believe that!
Dream Team was one of my absolute favorite inserts in the baseball set because they were black and white. I did like these too but not quite as much. This is one of my favorite André Rison cards though.
More Art Cards! These were the Team MVP’s and I pulled the whole set in the box I ripped. Another Rison for the PC and the addition of Bo is always welcome. These are some great cards!
Here are the highly touted rookies from the ’91 class. Russell Maryland was the #1 overall pick in the draft. Ricky Waters May have had the best career of these players but I remember each of them for various reasons. Todd Marinovich was the Todd Van Poppel of the group.
Here is the reason I bought Series 2! The Brett Favre RC is the most valuable card in the set, though not very valuable on a monetary scale. I often think about what would have happened if the Falcons had kept him. Is Favre why we are cursed? Is it like The Bambino and the Sox or the Goat and the Cubs? Is it Favre for the Falcons?
I really enjoyed revisiting 1991 Score and there were some things I had forgotten about over the years. The Favre RC is a good pull but the inserts like Team MVP, League Leaders, and Dream Team make this set what it is. The base design is very much “Early 90’s” but the inserts were so much fun back then. At $10 or less, the price is so reasonable on these boxes, you really can’t pass them up! The only knock I have about the set is one I could have with the whole era. But when you study this checklist, it seems to stick out more than normal. The sets that were broken up into Series 1 and 2 completely eliminated your chances of pulling certain stars like Bo Jackson AND Jerry Rice in the same box. I don’t understand how the Series’ were truly split up when it comes to the veterans but I like the opportunity to pull anybody in the league when I open these boxes. For that reason, I have to give 1991 Score a “4” on the Dub-O-Meter. What say you?