Category: Hobbies

I made it through the fireproof and showed off some of my favorite pieces.  You got to see Hank, Hershel, Smoltz, Jordan, Bird and even Mickey Mantle.  Those are treasures that I hold near and dear to my heart.  But I mentioned before that everything I have that’s extra special couldn’t necessarily fit in the box of intense heat protection.  There remain items that are in harms way for the time being and they aren’t throw away pieces by any stretch.  In fact, one of the pieces rivals “The Mick” as it relates to sports history royalty.  For now, they are in a Rubbermaid box, stowed away from the sunlight and elements.  That is the best I can do.

But on the heels of sifting through some of my favorite items, I had to take another look, cracking the seal on the fireproof-less box.  I’ve selected the 6 best items remaining that would have certainly been included in the series had they been actually in the box.  One was obtained in person, a couple purchased from Steiner, one from the local bookstore, an eBay purchase and a silent auction win.  I obtain items when opportunities arise.  These are in no particular order other than once again saving the best for last.Ronda Rousey Autographed Book – Rowdy is a polarizing figure and people seem to either love her or hate her.  Count me in the camp that loves her.  She brought women’s UFC to the big time and was as big of a draw as most of the men.  She also had a great Hardee’s commercial that I enjoyed watching.  I like her brash confidence, even when it backfires.  This was a sweet find as the autograph book section is usually made up of Guy Fieri and Kathy Griffin items.  This one was a must get and I have it wrapped in plastic and tucked away.  I tried to grab a Tebow book when it came out but I never found one locally.  I guess you can’t win em all!Dale Murphy Autographed Steiner Baseball – While this would technically fit in the fireproof, it won’t along with the other items.  This was one of the Steiner purchases and is a must own for a Braves fan.  The Murph was all we had to cheer for during the brutal 80’s but he was a star and a great team leader.  One of my dream items would be the light saber poster autographed and I may break down and pick one up one day.  But for now, this ball will more than suffice.  Murph has a very smooth autograph and this ball is signed very well.  Every now and again Steiner will run a 2 for 1 or $49 special and I’ll go and peruse the list.  Most of it is comprised of Mets or Yankees players but there will occasionally be an 80’s star like André Dawson or Dale Murphy.  Of course, Murph was a no brainer.  There are 4 people who ARE the Braves to me: Hank Aaron, Chipper Jones, John Smoltz and Dale Murphy.  Thankfully, I have an auto of all of them so I consider myself lucky.Charley Trippi Chicago Cardinals PSA Autographed Jersey HOF Inscription – This will be the first in a run of 3 UGA legends for this post.  At UGA, Trippi led the Dawgs to a 1943 Rose Bowl victory and was the game’s MVP.  In 1946, after a stint serving in World War II, he received the Maxwell Award for being the nation’s most outstanding college football player along with being named SEC player of the year and a unanimous 1st Team All American.  He was later drafted by the Chicago Cardinals after considering professional baseball as a career.  He would retire with the most yards of total offense in NFL history at the time.  He was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  So it’s safe to say that Mr. Trippi was an all around stud!  Big timer at UGA, a veteran of World War II and the most yards in The NFL as of his retirement.  This is really a cool piece to own!Todd Gurley 18X24 Autographed Poster with Inscription – TG3 is an all timer at UGA!  He is a very recent player of course but he is a legend in Red and Black and an all around solid dude from all I can tell.  We met him at a signing event just before the draft and he could not have been more pleasant and welcoming of the Bulldog Nation that came out to see him.  There are several players I have met in the past that were just there to do their jobs and go home but Gurley seemed legitimately happy to shake hands and sign autographs.  I’ve told the story before about how he remember my daughters name even though he met her and got the name 2 hours earlier.  He signed 2 helmets and this awesome poster that I bought the day of the event.  TG3 was our superman and this poster was a classic image from his time in Athens.  This will be the first thing that goes up on the wall in my eventual man cave!Hines Ward NFL Authentic Autographed Football with Inscription – This is the other Steiner piece I have and it was a birthday gift from my awesome wife.  Though I have the signed card from in the fireproof, this was my first Hines autograph.  Again, I love his autograph and this one even has the “SB XL MVP” Inscription so it’s that much sweeter.  I know people in Pittsburgh love Hines Ward but people in Georgia love him as a hometown hero.  This is a full size ball and the auto is huge which makes this an awesome sight in real life.  I won’t open it until I get that aforementioned man cave up and going and can properly display this beauty.Muhammed Ali Autographed Boxing Glove – I won this piece in a silent auction charity event about 6-7 years ago.  I was dead set on winning this the moment I laid eyes on it and it remains the only item I’ve ever won at a silent auction.  Ali was truly the greatest and trumps all of modern day athletes in cultural and athletic importance.  He’s on my Sports Mount Rushmore with Mickey, Jordan, Gretzky and Walter Payton. I don’t even remember anything else from the event that night.  It was a quail hunt that had celebrities and athletes like Ryan Klesko, Frank Stallone, John Schuerholz and Heath Shuler but I didn’t even pursue an auto from any of those guys once I had my Ali.  I took it to my truck and just stared at it for a while before driving home.  Klesko could’ve come up to me and asked if I wanted his World Series ring and I probably would’ve never rolled down the window.  I have to find the proper display and protection for this one as it should be stowed away like The Mick!

So this really does conclude the show and tell Series about my most meaningful pieces.  That’s not to say that there won’t be more adds in the future but as of now, there isn’t really much I can show you that would top the last few posts.  This series is going to be hard to top but I’ll come up with something to start on next.  Until then, best of luck to you on your quest for those awesome PC items!!

J-Dub

I’ve written a lot about sports card collecting but I don’t know if I’ve ever just taken the time to explain what this hobby really means to me.  I hope my love for it shines through in my other posts but I think it deserves its own designated article as well.  Sports cards are the most important “material” object in my life and have been for a great part of it.  And while it started out as a potential money maker just like most collections did, it is so much more than that now.  The money is no longer even a factor except for the occasional replenishing of funds to buy more cards.  I will flip some non-pc items to buy more boxes or pc cards or to load up my PayPal with shipping for future randoms.  I’ve found that there is generally a collector out there for everything; you just have to find them.

I started collecting full time in 1989.  There are only a handful of things I really remember from 1989 in general but I definitely remember Jose Canseco’s 40/40 Club Donruss, Ken Griffey Jr. rookie cards, Sandy Alomar Jr., Gregg Jefferies and my first big pull, Gary Sheffield.   I guess you could say that the hobby is a time machine for me and ’89 Donruss is my DeLorean.   I am very fond of my childhood and was very fortunate to experience happy times.  I enjoy revisiting those times when I can.  And no matter how advanced we get with our technology and card designs, I can go to some old wax and instantly be taken back to a memory from my youth.  I can visualize myself scouring Beckett for the prices of the ’89 Score cards I just ripped.   I remember what my comforter looked like as I was getting that .50 value for the Luis De Los Santos RC.  I remember some of the specific cards on the hot list from time to time such as the aforementioned Gregg Jefferies.  I can see that nerf hoop hanging up on my closet door waiting for me to get done with the cardboard.  I can hear the Super Mario theme song while my Nintendo is idle.I remember pulling all-nighters at my cousin’s house with cards spread out all over the bedroom floor as we both re-sorted our binders, removing busts and adding new prospects.  We would pull off trades all night as we compared duplicates from each others collection.  I remember Canseco was the first player in my binder, followed by Ken Griffey Jr and then Nolan Ryan.   I remember the 1990 Topps set my parents bought me for Christmas when I was 13.  Not knowing what to do with complete sets, I went through and took out the stars and put them in the binder.  My binder was my show piece so I didn’t want them sitting in a box in the closet.   In that closet, I had a copy paper box stacked to the top with baseball cards that didn’t make the cut for the binder.  I would rummage through the box periodically to make sure somebody hadn’t resurrected their career, thus needing to be placed back in the binder.

I remember taking those non-star cards and playing baseball games in my bedroom.  I would take the cards and draft two teams using each position and then place them on an imaginary field at those positions.  I would then go through the cards and formulate a lineup based off of the stats on the back.  I put the speed at the top, power in the middle and utility at the end, just like a regular lineup.  I would then use a notebook to keep stats of a make believe game happening in my mind’s eye.   I specifically remember Jerry Browne, Ron Washington and Mel Hall being in that stack of floor game cards.  I didn’t use my stars because I knew not to damage them.  How else would someone remember Jerry Browne from 1989?  Even more nostalgic, that card game was played on nice blue shag carpeting!I remember my neighbor and I creating grab bags with 50 cards (mostly base) and a star or two and selling them at a yard sale his mom was having.  Our other neighbor wound up buying all 10 bags and was not thrilled that there were so many base cards.   The catch was that one of the bags contained an ’89 Donruss Ken Griffey Jr. so I would say he got his $10 worth but he also took a lot of junk cards off of our hands.  He said we would have been better off just asking him to buy the Jr. for $10 but what fun would that have been?  Then he wouldn’t have had all those Dion James and Mike Gallego cards!  That same friend got me back a couple of years later with the now infamous Ken Griffey Jr. autograph he traded me. I wrote about that one here.
I remember getting baseball cards for every occasion.  I even got them for Halloween one year instead of candy from my grandmother.  It was ’90 Fleer and the one card I remember pulling was the Mark McGwire.  I still love that card because of the sentimental value it has to me.  Who else remembers what they got for Halloween 27 years ago?  Sports cards are better for the mind than Ginkgo Biloba.  I got them for my birthday, Christmas, in my Easter Basket, you name it.  I think the only person that ever dropped the ball on getting me cards was the Tooth Fairy.One of my best friends in high school, David, pulled an Andre Dawson Elite one year and that was the first time I remember getting really jealous about someone else’s pull.  Now I get jealous all the time because he sends me photos of Carson Wentz and Marcus Mariota autographs.  For the past month, he has sent me a solid autograph pull every 3-4 days!  He travels with his job so has more access to card shops than I do in my 90 mile radius.  He was also a big Twins fan because he was originally from Minnesota and he had the 1987 Wheaties box in a plexi-glass case.   I remember wanting to burn that box in 1991 but David was 6’8 and could have squashed me like a bug.My parents had a weekend getaway camper at Fort Gaines and I even have card memories from those trips.  The classic Orel Hershiser grounding happened on the way to the lake.  But also, we would have to travel over to Eufaula to get groceries from Wal-Mart from time to time and I always picked up some cards there.  I remember getting my first look at ’89 Bowman on one of those trips.   I remember when you could pick up packs in Wal-Mart and they weren’t “retail”.  Those were the days when you could get packs almost anywhere.  I got them at Suwannee Swifty, Big B Drugs, Piggly Wiggly and Eckerd.  Even small little curb stores in the middle of nowhere likely had some Donruss gathering dust on a shelf.  I specifically remember that ’89 Donruss wax pack being everywhere I went.You see, I’m a very nostalgic person.   I think we all are to a large degree but I live in the neon lights of the late 80’s and early 90’s.  The movies, the music and pop culture in general just take me back to a time when I thought I had life all figured out but was too naïve to know that I didn’t.  Now, I know I don’t have it figured out, imagine I won’t ever figure it out and wonder if it’s even worth figuring out sometimes.  Life has a way of being overbearing sometimes.  Work is a constant stress, I spend every waking moment concerned for the well being of my kids and wife and making sure that they always have what they need and the bills never seem to stop.  So when I want to clear my mind, I don’t buy National Treasures or Flawless.  I go buy a $10 box of 1990 Pro Set and I’m immediately back in my old bedroom, scanning the Beckett Price Guide and looking for Emmitt Smith and Percy Snow rookies.  I actually have a box of Pro Set that came in last week so you’ll be getting a retro review in the next few days!

I’m now the old man that asks kids to stay off my lawn when it comes to newfangled products.  I’m the “back in my day guy”.  I find myself being more like Hank Hill than Boomhauer these days with my rigid, by the book personality.  That all melts away when I have a chance to sit down at the kitchen table and start looking through my cards.   I like the new stuff but it’s more about value than I prefer.  The value is higher but so is the cost.   I enjoy opening boxes that have potential autos or printing plates but it doesn’t help the rigors of adulting melt away like a couple of packs of 1989 Bowman.  When I’m done with a box of classic wax, I know that I got my money’s worth.  When I’m done with a new product, there is a good chance that I didn’t come close.  And that really boils down to the value I place on cards now.  I like a flashy auto but if I can buy 540 cards that will send me down memory lane to a day when my biggest concern was whether I was going to play baseball in the yard or Tecmo in the bedroom, that is priceless.This is why I love this hobby.  This is why I am so passionate about the cards and the community.  I want others to experience cards the way I do.  I know that isn’t entirely possible but I want to try and relay those feelings in my writing.  I may never be a famous writer or anything like that but I never have to worry about not having a passion for what I’m writing about.  I love cards and I love this community.   I random cards because I want my blog shared with like minded collectors.  I also random cards because I want to share some of those meaningful cards with my readers.  Some people may not think that four packs of ’89 Bowman is a very valuable.  Some people scoff at the thought of having to rip a pack of ’90 Hoops.  But realize this, when I send someone those unopened packs, it’s like I’m sending a little piece of my childhood to share with you.  Even if you open them and throw them in the trash, take a minute to soak in the players and the sets that I grew up with.  Most likely, you grew up with them too.

If people are going to use Twitter and Facebook to argue about politics and social issues, then I am going to try and spread as much positive vibes as I can.  Thank you sincerely for following me and reading this blog.  I really appreciate every comment, every RT, every like.  It is an awesome feeling to write something that engages even the slightest bit of discussion.  This is my extension to the hobby world from small town Georgia.  It has connected me to so many great people around North America.  I don’t own a shop or have a podcast or own a big time break company.   But I do have a passion for the industry and a thirst for wanting to get to know more people like me.  Sports Cards are a natural unifier of people regardless of your background or religious preference or political party.  From time to time, we all should stop and think about how we got here and why we are still in this hobby.   Odds are we all owe it a tremendous debt of gratitude.

J-Dub

 

 

This series has quickly become the most read and commented series I’ve put together.  I’ve found it easier to share my collection through blogging and Twitter and this particular series has covered all of my favorite pieces that I keep locked in my fireproof safe.  If you missed Parts 1 and 2, I will link them for you here.


Part 1


Part 2

While I say that these are my favorite pieces, I should mention that I have a few others that I treasure that don’t fit in the fireproof.  Maybe that will be the finale to this series but I’ll have to re-title it in some unique way.  I’ve got 7 more items in this part and will have 7 for part 4 before we can get to a finale so I won’t get too far ahead of myself.  Let’s dive back in!2013 Panini Prizm Draft Picks Kris Bryant Auto – This is currently the only Bryant auto I have.  I ripped through 4-5 boxes of this stuff to pull one too.  The box comes with 4 autographs and I pulled a lot of guys who will never see a Major League Baseball field.  I pulled some other decent names as well though with Gregory Polanco and DJ Peterson.  I have a Eugenio Suarez auto from the set and didn’t know anything about him until this year and he’s on fire for my fantasy team so I guess you just never know.  I would love to have a Bryant in a Cubs uniform but for now, this one will suffice.  I’m not going to complain about having a Kris Bryant auto, no matter what uniform he’s wearing.  He has a very good signature, even if this particular picture doesn’t show it well.  It’s also on card which is great!  You can still pick up these boxes for less than $50 and there are some solid autos to be had!2011-12 Upper Deck Exquisite Magic Johnson Championship Bling Auto – I love this piece!  The auto is gold and it’s #’d to 50!  I’ve been a Magic Johnson fan since I was a wee lad.  He always has a smile on his face and made some of the most amazing passes I ever saw.  I still vividly remember when Magic announced his retirement due to contracting HIV.  I was in 9th grade and HIV was a very real and scary issue during that time, not that it isn’t still in 2017.  But in 1991, we didn’t know very much about the virus and it was nothing more than a death sentence in a 14 year olds mind.  I remember Magic coming back for an all-star appearance and winning MVP.  And then he came back to play on the 92 Dream Team.  Magic has always been superhuman to me so having an auto was a goal of mine.  One of my favorite documentaries (and I love a good doc) was “Magic & Bird – A Courtship of Rivals.”  I could watch it everyday and never get tired of it.  I really love this card and it will always have a special place in my collection.Panini Dirk Nowitzki Auto – This is the most recent addition to my fireproof collection.  This one came courtesy of a great friend, Nate Gunderson (@GundersonNathan) this past week.  Nate and I pulled off a really sweet deal as I sent him a short stack of Texas Longhorn Autos and he returned the favor with this, a Chris Conley 1/1 Auto, Herschel Auto, Knowshon Moreno patch and other great Atlanta players.  I’ve wanted a Dirk auto for a very long time and I’ve always heard he was great TTM but I’ve just never sent him anything.  When I got this, it immediately went into the fireproof and that’s where it will stay for life.  I was in the prime of my basketball life when I started hearing about Dirk playing in Germany so it was a very intriguing story to me.  He was a 7 footer that could shoot like Bird!  I was skeptical like others but all he did was come over to the NBA and amass 30,000 career points with his unstoppable fadeaway.  That’s good enough to place him 6th all time in NBA scoring!  He cemented his legacy with me when he took down Lebron and the Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.  I love Dirk and love this card!  Nate came through in a huge way on this one!2013 Topps Museum Andrew Luck Patch/Auto #’d to 55 – I haven’t mentioned Luck much on my Twitter feed but that’s because we haven’t made it to football season yet.  I love my Falcons and my Dawgs in the NFL but Andrew Luck is my favorite QB in the league.  He might be my favorite player behind Gurley and AJ Green.  I have had Luck on 4 of my fantasy football teams since the first year he started.  Thankfully, those are keeper leagues so I don’t see myself letting him go anytime soon either.  My daughter and I have matching Luck jerseys that we wear from time to time as well.  I was thrilled to see the Colts take a player from my high school in little ole Camilla Ga, Grover Stewart, in this week’s NFL draft.  Grover is a DT and Luck needs some help on the defensive side of the ball!  Those 400 yard passing games need some defensive support!  This piece is my only Luck auto but I do have a ton of his cards.  I suppose he might be my NFL PC but I haven’t really been keeping track of the numbers.  I have this one though and it’s my favorite of him!2015 Topps 60th Anniversary Y.A. Tittle Auto – I don’t necessarily have a strong connection to Y.A. Tittle but I’ve been a football fan all my life and I know his body of work and also know he’s in the Hall of Fame.  I knew he was a legend at LSU and the MVP of the Ice Bowl (1947 Cotton Bowl).  He played for the Colts, 49er’s and Giants during his career and won 3 MVP awards in 4 years in NY.  What I didn’t expect to find out about him until some recent research was that he created the phrase “alley-oop” in sports.  That’s quite a claim to fame regardless of his on the field accomplishments.  I pulled this card in a pack of the 60th Anniversary Topps Football set and was excited to have a legendary Hall of Famer from the 50’s to add to my collection.1990 Score Baseball Bo Jackson (with football pads) Graded 10 – This may be the most iconic card I own, along with the ’89 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr.  My buddy Kin (@beansbcardblog) even uses it as his Twitter avatar.  This card has always been one of the most appealing cards of all time for me.  The black and white was unique in a modern day card set but having a two sport player wearing shoulder pads while holding a baseball bat was awesome.  There’s another version in the ’89 Football set with Bo in a batting stance and I own that one in a Gem Mint 10 as well but it isn’t as widely recognized as this one.  Bo was known as one of the greatest athletes of our era.  He’s also known for a few iconic images; breaking a bat over his knee, scaling a major league fence and this one.  If I could only keep one card from my entire collection, this might be it.  But I don’t even want to think about that scenario so let’s move on.1955 Bowman Mickey Mantle – This card is obviously in very poor condition.  It even has some tape across the front of the card but it wasn’t ripped because the back is not taped.  It’s creased but I wish the front looked like the back.  It has seen its better days but it is an authentic 1955 Mickey Mantle and the only Mantle card I own that isn’t a reproduction.  The best part is that I picked it up for $20 from Smiley’s Antique and Thrift Shop around Lake City, Florida on my way home from Disney one year.  We had always seen the big Yellow Smiley Face sign but we had never stopped.  We finally did and I wound up making one of the proudest card purchases I’ve ever made!  The only negative from that trip is that there was a handful of other 1955 cards that I didn’t really pay attention to because I saw this Mantle.  There weren’t any other big stars but there were some in much better condition that were very cheap.  I should have splurged that day and bought several of those ’55 beauties.  Even with that regret, this Mantle stands as the oldest card I own and is the one player that is on most collector’s bucket list from that era.  I really don’t care about the condition.  It’s an original Mick and that’s enough for me!We made it through 7 more and there’s one more post coming your way from the fireproof.  I think I have saved the best for last but it’s really hard for me to pick favorites in this batch because they are all very special to me.  I will promise you there are some great ones in the next post.  Thanks for checking out another edition of “What’s In The Fireproof?”

J-Dub

I have waxed poetically about 1989 on many occasions here on the blog.  And “waxed” is an appropriate term for that time period.  Aside from the foil of Upper Deck and the plastic of Score, wax was still the packaging of choice in 1989.  That year was my first full year of collecting sports cards.  I vaguely remember ‘88 Score packs for some reason but ’89 was when I hit the ground running.  I remember tons of ’89 Donruss that year.  I remember the ’89 Orel Hershiser that got me grounded.  Billy Ripken introduced a nation of 12 year old’s to a term that has stood the test of time in card errors.  I remember Score having the rookies of Sheffield and Randy Johnson but not Ken Griffey Jr.  I remember a lot about 1989.That was the year that I had my collection confiscated by Mrs. Merritt in Science class because I was trying to swing a trade while she was talking about hydrogen.  That was also the year I dressed up as Jose Canseco for English class to perform a talking autobiography.  I had the baseball pants and the A’s cap but no Jose jersey.  My mother, being resourceful, took a plain white t-shirt and used paint pens to create a Canseco jersey.  With it being ’89, I guess I’m just lucky she didn’t use puff paint.  Me and my boys were wearing fanny packs with Nintendo games in them on the playground and we were in fact the cool kids!  We traded Nintendo games as much as we traded cards.  Contra for Double Dribble is one I remember.I lost my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day that year because I slipped another girl a note and she found out.  Before you bash me on this one, remember I was 12.  Plus, it was just a feeler.  If the “other girl” had shown interest, I would have broken up with my girlfriend before I asked the new one to go steady, like any gentleman would do.  It all backfired though.  And I vividly remember sitting on the monkey bars when my current girlfriend walked up with the teddy bear I got her, put it in a mud puddle and then threw it on my shirt.  For years after that my friends would ask if I was giving anyone a teddy bear on Valentine’s Day.  I learned about karma at an early age my friends.Another thing I remember from 1989 was Bowman.  This was their first year back in the hobby since 1955.  Topps bought Bowman out after 5 years of fighting over contracts with players.  I suppose exclusivity isn’t just a problem in today’s world after all.  Bowman was the only card manufacturer to begin the 50’s but Topps joined the hobby in 1951.  When Topps bought Bowman in 1956, the name went quiet for 33 years.  Then, in 1989, Topps brought back the old name and introduced a vintage looking set with cards that were 2 ½” x 3 ¾”, slightly larger than the standard card size.  I remember having a ton of ’89 Bowman that were bent at the top because no one made toploaders or pages that were the right size to keep them in good condition.  They still don’t make a perfect toploader for that size.The set was only 484 cards, which was a downsize from other sets in the 80’s and the cards had a basic white border with small red trim on the inset of the border.  The Bowman logo was prominently placed in the top corner of the card.  No name or position was printed on the front of the card unlike other sets of the era.  This was a true throwback look and only included a facsimile autograph of the player on the front.  If you didn’t know the player and couldn’t read the auto, you were stuck looking at the back of the card.  Speaking of the back, they were quite a bit different from other sets that year as well.  While all of the vital statistics were still available, the actual player stats were broken down by teams played against and then totaled.  The totals included were the 1988 season and the player’s career.  If the player was a rookie, the back of the card was stamped with text along the lines of “Ken made his Professional Baseball Debut at Bellingham in 1987.  He played at San Bernandino and Vermont in 1988.”  Of course, that was Ken Griffey Jr.The box holds 36 packs with 12 cards each.  And like Topps of the day, there is gum to be had!  Unfortunately, there are no box bottom cards like other Topps sets.  The box did showcase 3 of the best talents in 1989 with Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr. and the great Gregg Jefferies.  As with other sets, they ran a contest but their’s would have been unbelievable to win.  The grand prize was a Complete Set of 1953 Color Bowman with an approximate value of $10,000.  I’d love to know if anyone ever won that!  The wax packs had an old school feel with a baseball diamond, an old looking pitcher or catcher and “ComeBack Edition” prominently displayed in the top left corner.  The key rookies in the set were Jr., Jefferies, Gary Sheffield, Chris Sabo, Robin Ventura and Sandy Alomar Jr.

Enough yapping, let’s take a look at these beauties!

Vintage ReprintsI know these are reprints.  I know this!  But the card stock and size make these look and feel so legit.  I always loved these when I got them in packs.  It was like owning an actual 1951 Mickey Mantle, without all the dollar signs that come with it.  It also included Jackie Robinson, Willie Mayes, Satchel Paige and others!  Reprints or not, I loved these!

The RookiesWell, no Jr.  That was a letdown but I did haul in several other big name rookies from ’89 starting with none other than Gregg Jefferies.  I believe this was also the only ’89 set Robin Ventura was in.  I pulled the Rookie of the Year, Jerome Walton and a Braves phenom, Steve Avery.  Despite the absence of Jr., I’m pleased with the rookie haul.

The AcesThere were more aces than these 4 but these were my favorites.  Orel is here for obvious nostalgic reasons.  The Rocket was a stud even before the cloak of PED’s.  Doc Gooden was a lot of fun to watch, even when he was hurling against my Bravos.  And speaking of my Bravos, how about John Smoltz?

The InfieldersThese are just a hand selected few of the stellar infielders the set has to offer.  William Nuschler Clark was a star in the late 80’s and is often overlooked when harkening back to the days of yore.  Ryno, Mattingly and Larkin are seldom overlooked and are recognized for their stardom.  Then we have the man, Ronnie Gant.  He is with the infielders in this set but he would soon move to the outfield.  Pulling a Gant is always a worthy moment!

The OutfieldersThis Tony Gwynn card was not my favorite of his but I there aren’t any that I flat out don’t like.  He was such a pure hitter!  Ruben Sierra and Mike Greenwell are also often overlooked 80’s stars.  They put up big numbers during those days.  Numbers didn’t get any bigger than what Jose, Straw, Bonds and Bo could do.  Some were pharmaceutically enhanced and some were natural talent.  Either way, they were crushers!

The LegendsWhat is an 80’s set without some legends?  This set has its fair share of them too.  Ozzie, Rock, The Hawk, Rickey, Ryan, Schmidt, Brett, Fisk and Yount all had superb careers and are always welcome additions to the collection.  You really can’t ever have enough of these cards!

The InsertsThese cool father/son cards were right in the middle of the set.  I pulled the Griffey’s and Stottlemyre’s but the set also included the Alomar’s and Ripken’s.  This was before sets were loaded with tons and tons of parallels and inserts so these were the standalones in that category.

This set has one drawback and it’s major.  The size of the card is a complete disaster that really effects the collectability of even the stars in the set.  The design was very simple and worked for the set but these would’ve held up much better if the cards had been standard size.  Some of the pictures are odd and a majority of the set is staged photos like the vintage days.  The checklist is top notch for ’89 as it included all of the major rookies, even The Kid.  The reprints were a nice touch for the throwback set and the size of the set was more manageable than the 700+ behemoth’s of ’89.  The price point is extremely low and the overall rip was really fun.  I just can’t get past the size of the cards.  Because of that, I’m going to have to give this box a 3 on the Dub-O-Meter.  If not for the card size, these would have been a 4.  I still won’t stop you from enjoying a box of ’89 Bowman because it’s enjoyable.  Just don’t expect to be able to store these easily.

J-Dub

Scoring Scale

1. Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards.  Just read the post and thank me later.

2. There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.

3. Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you into buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of them.

4. You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did!  It has some downside but worth the ride.

5. Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking!  What are you waiting on?

I met a young lady in the summer of 1993 when I was umpiring on nights that I wasn’t playing city league baseball.  My uncle was the recreation director and he landed me a little side gig to make a few extra bucks.  The young lady in question was playing softball that night and I called her out on a bang-bang play at 1^st base.  She was none too pleased with the call and voiced her displeasure.  That was the first time I came close to tossing a player out for arguing.  I can still hear her muttering something about me being an idiot as she headed over to the dugout.  A year later, she was flirting with me at the Video Superstore, either having forgotten about our first encounter, or falling victim to my boyish good looks.  We would go on to date (off and on) for the next 7 years, eventually becoming husband and wife in April 2001.She came along at just the right time as I was shifting my focus away from my childhood hobby of collecting cards, thanks in part to the baseball strike of ’94.  I left cards in the dust that summer and began a relationship that has lasted now 23 years, give or take a break up here and there.  This weekend, I celebrated my 16 year wedding anniversary with Mrs. Dub and once again, I left cards in the dust.  We went out to eat Friday night and spent all day Saturday fishing the Chickasawhatchee Creek in the backwoods of Baker County, Ga.  It was a throwback to the summers of our youth fishing and swimming in those beautiful spring fed waters.  Today was a total recuperation day before our two kids made their way back from Grandma’s and our hectic life jumped back into high gear.

It’s a lazy, rainy Sunday night in South Georgia and I’ve been looking at a couple of unopened boxes I have sitting on the shelf wondering if tonight would be the night to crack one.  I got a box of 1985 Donruss in the mail during the week and plan to do a rip and post of that sweet nostalgia.  I still have 2017 Donruss Baseball, 2016 Donruss Football, 2016 Optic Football and 1992 Studio Baseball sitting there staring back at me.  None of it seemed to have the right allure for the evening so I thought I would take another dip into the fireproof.  This is Part 2 in the series and I picked out 5 really nice personal favorites to finish out this solid weekend.  If you want to catch up on Part 1, you can check that out Here.1985 Topps Cal Ripken Jr. Autograph PSA/DNA – This beauty came in the 2014 Leaf Cal Ripken Jr. Iron Man Signature Collection.  This was a two card box that came with one Cal Ripken Jr. autographed Iron Man card and one buyback Cal signed on card and slabbed authentic.  These buybacks included anything from his rookie Topps to 1990 Donruss so it was a real chance when I bought it.  The risk was mitigated somewhat by the guarantee of receiving two autographs from Cal Ripken Jr.  I really hit the jackpot with the 1985 Topps as it is still a valuable set and was a very nice design.  When considering the possibilities, other than the rookie or maybe the ’87 Topps, I don’t know if I would’ve picked another choice.2010 Topps Chicle Babe Ruth Atlanta Braves 1/1 – I have no idea if this card has any value whatsoever but it’s an SP in and of itself without the designation of being a 1/1 so I definitely jumped on it when it went on sale on DA Cardworld.  The base card sells anywhere from $5-$10 on eBay but value isn’t really the reason I bought it.  I bought it because he’s sporting the deep red Atlanta uniform and current (2010) Braves cap.  The picture drew me in and the 1/1 sold me.  It was less than $20 during that sale so I couldn’t pass it up.  When I got it, I slipped it right into the fireproof and will hang on to that one until I’m old and feeble as it’s the best reprint Babe I have.2012-13 Momentum Basketball Larry Bird Auto #4/10 – I went through a stretch where I bought a ton of these boxes because they were super cheap and had some great autographs in them.  I pulled 2 Jimmy Butlers, a Kevin Durant and another that’s in the fireproof that we may discuss in the next installment.  Of course there were a lot of busts in the set too with Nando De Cola and Jeremy Pargo but every box had a veteran.  I bought those boxes on the off chance I could pull an Anthony Davis or the aforementioned Butler but also knew that I could add to my veteran collection every time.  I have Vernon Maxwell, Buck Williams, Luc Longley, Cedric Maxwell and Isaiah Rider just to name a few.  This one was the best legend I pulled because Larry is just that, a Legend!  I grew up watching and emulating Bird and his beautiful jump shot.  I loved the dunk and 3-point contest in my youth and I will never forget him raising that finger before the ball ever went in the goal during one of his 3-point titles.  I already had the Jordan/Bird from the first post but it was sweet to add a standalone Bird.1990 Pro Set Herschel Walker Autograph – Mrs. Dub and I like to frequent antique malls and thrift shops when we travel out of town.  We like them for different reasons of course.  I look for cards and sports items and she looks for old clothes, décor and records.  Some of those stores are busts but when you find something, it’s usually a great story.  I picked up my one and only vintage Mickey Mantle at one of these stores, even though it is in horrendous condition.  One holiday season, we took a trip to the North Georgia Mountains, which is home to a ton of these type stores.  I stumbled across this Herschel Walker Pro Set card with a $5 price tag.  Of course, I was skeptical because it had no COA but I knew Herschel’s signature pretty well and I had a friend in a FaceBook group who PC’d him so I reached out to him as well.  Plus, for $5 it was a no brainer.  The card passed all of the eye tests and I have what I consider to be an authentic Herschel Pro Set auto.  I will get it authenticated the next time one of the companies is at a nearby card show.  We just had some great banter on Twitter this week about Pro Set so that one was perfect timing to show.Hank Aaron Autographed Baseball – This installment included Babe Ruth in a Braves uni and also home grown legend Herschel Walker so let’s round it out with this beauty!  This was an amazing find in a 2014 Historic Autographs Five Boroughs autographed baseball box.  The box itself was on sale for around $40 and was a nice value buy for the names that were included.  I bought 5 of the boxes and got two Chili Davis cards but also got a Reggie Jackson and Don Mattingly.  Rounding out the purchase was this Hank Aaron.  At first, I was shocked because the box promises an autograph from a star or HOFer that played on one of the (4) New York City based teams.  I did not recall Hammerin Hank playing in NY.  I started reviewing the checklist and discovered that NLB Stars were honored in this set and included in 1 in 24 boxes.  Aaron was included as a member of the Indianapolis Clowns in 1952.  Aaron is a legend in the game with his 755 home runs standing for years as the MLB record before the steroid era came along.  To add to that, he is a local legend as a member of the Atlanta Braves and now as a still active member of the Braves community.  I don’t know how else I would ever get a Hank Aaron autographed baseball for this price to add to my collection.

Five more items are revealed in the fireproof and I have enough for possibly two more posts.  Again, I’m not going to cover the Cuyler Smith cards that got their own post but they are there as well.  I also just placed the sweet Gypsy Oak cards I got last week in the safe.  These five items are very special to me and will always be a part of my collection.  I am on the verge of having to upgrade the size of the box or either getting a second as two baseballs have taken up 1/3 of the area.  Hopefully you’ll find these items interesting and keep you on the edge of your seat until my next fireproof post.  If not, there’s always that ’85 Donruss box that is on the horizon.

J-Dub