[zeprock]

Today the randomizer pulled up a name from the pre-war years. Eddie Collins was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939. His 47 home runs are the fewest of any non-pitcher in the Hall but with six World Championships on his resume, he's the only non-Yankee in history with more than five titles with the same club. A speedster with four stolen base titles to his credit, he was the highest paid player and second baseman on the Philadelphia Athletics famous $100,000 infield. Nowadays I believe every team has a $100,000 infield but in the early 1900s that was an anomaly. He became the sixth player to join the 3,000 hit club. I currently only have 67 Beckett recognized cards of "Corky" Collins although I have many unrecognized reprints. Here are nine cards from my collection.

       
1960 Fleer #20 Eddie Collins DP
1961 Golden Press #28 Eddie Collins
1971 Fleer Laughlin World Series Black Backs #8 1910 A's/Cubs/(Eddie Collins) (These were some of the first cards I ever owned getting them at a Halloween party in a Grange Hall in Cooper, Maine in between bobbing for apples.)

       
1975 Fleer Pioneers #20 Eddie Collins
2002 Fleer Fall Classics #43B Eddie Collins White Sox SP
2002 Topps Tribute #4 Eddie Collins

       
2003 Topps Gallery HOF Artist's Proofs #13B Eddie Collins Navy Uni
2014 Classics Timeless Tributes Silver #38 Eddie Collins
2015 Panini Cooperstown Crown Royale #29 Eddie Collins

[zeprock]

In 1981 I moved back to Maine from Florida and found myself working at a Wendy's making burgers and picking up a radio show at the local college radio station where I was not attending college. A friend of mine got a gig there and he told me to give them a call so I did. I asked how I could be a deejay there and was told to just show up. That started me off on my radio career of which I am currently in my fortieth year. 

Today I'm moving out of the vintage era and into the junk wax era. I believe that all started in 1981 when Donruss and Fleer were granted licenses to produce baseball cards. These two companies were in such a rush to get their sets out that they each made numerous errors, many of which they later corrected. The photos were less than great but for the first year in my lifetime, I had more than one set to collect. I remember buying hand collated sets of each of these at Downeast Coin and Collectibles in downtown Bangor, Maine and later acquired many of the variations in an attempt to complete my "master" sets. Here are nine 1981 cards from my collection.

       
1981 Coke Team Sets #69 Nolan Ryan (Produced by Topps for the Coca-Cola Company and issued by Coke for promotions in only a few cities.)
1981 Fleer Star Stickers #108 Nolan Ryan (I have two of these Fleer stickers of Ryan the other being a much lighter blue.) 
1981 O-Pee-Chee #261 Rickey Henderson (The Canadian equivalent of Rickey's second year card.)


1981 Pawtucket Red Sox TCMA #15 Wade Boggs (This is the only minor league card issued of The Chicken Man.)
1981 Perma-Graphic Credit Cards #19 Rickey Henderson (This plastic "credit card" of Rickey was issued with the cooperation of Topps Chewing Gum.)
1981 Reggie Jackson Accel #1 Reggie Jackson/Popular Hot Rodding (This is one of a three card set showing Reggie posing in front of one of his prized automobiles from his collection.)

       
1981 TCMA 60's II #444 Ted Williams
1981 Topps #315 Kirk Gibson RC
1981 Topps Traded #850 Fernando Valenzuela (Anyone else remember Fernandomania? Fernando won the Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year Award.)

[zeprock]

Barry Larkin is the next player I collect that came up on the randomizer. Playing shortstop through the same years as Ozzie Smith in the NL, 12-time All-star Larkin still managed to win three Gold Gloves, seven Silver Sluggers a World Championship and a MVP. I had no doubt he would be a Hall of Famer and collected him throughout his 19-year career all spent with his hometown Cincinnati Reds. Hoping to soon add him to my 1,000 Card Club, I currently have 933 unique Beckett recognized cards of Barry including these nine beauties.

       
1987 Fleer Glossy #204 Barry Larkin
1993 Donruss Elite #23 Barry Larkin
1994 SP Holoviews Die Cuts #23 Barry Larkin

          
1995 Collector's Choice SE Gold Signature #200 Barry Larkin
1996 Leaf Preferred Steel Gold #69 Barry Larkin
2005 SP Legendary Cuts Glory Days Material #BL Barry Larkin Jsy

 
2006 SP Legendary Cuts Legendary Materials Gold #BL Barry Larkin Bat/225
2017 Topps Tribute Relics Green #TRBL Barry Larkin
2018 Topps Tribute Triple Relics Orange #TTRBL Barry Larkin

[jack pfiester]

I love Collector's Choice Gold Signature! Wish they would've made solid gold borders for the 1995 base set, it would've been easier to identify.

Also that die-cut holoview is extremely tough!

Of course, I'm partial to Elite inserts!

[zeprock]

I love Collector's Choice Gold Signature!  Wish they would've made solid gold borders for the 1995 base set, it would've been easier to identify.

Also that die-cut holoview is extremely tough!

Of course, I'm partial to Elite inserts!

Thanks. I pulled that Holoview out of a dollar box at a card show.

[zeprock]

I'm doing another oddball day of sorts today and posting nine hologram cards from my collection. I never saw a hologram on a card until Upper Deck put them on the backs of their inaugural 1989 set and produced full hologram cards soon thereafter. They seemed to be quite popular in the early 1990s with several companies doing their own versions. I had a difficult time scanning these but for better or worse, here's a sampling of some.

       
1991 Arena Holograms #3A Frank Thomas Silver (This card was produced by Arena and distributed through hobby dealers. The back features The Big Hurt in a tuxedo. I also have a gold version of this although it's more the color of root beer.)
1991 SilverStar Holograms #4 Cal Ripken (These cards were issued with a color blank-backed ticket also featuring the player and commemorates one of the player's achievements. This card commemorates Cal's consecutive game streak.)
1991 Upper Deck Comic Ball 2 Holograms #9 Reggie Jackson/Nolan Ryan/with Roadrunner and Coyote (This card not only features two of the all-time greats of the game but also features my younger brother's two favorite cartoon characters superimposed on it. Upper Deck teaming up with Looney Tunes. Beep beep be-deep!)

       
1992 Front Row Griffey Holograms #2 Ken Griffey Jr./Rewriting the Record Book (This is one of a three-card set of holograms issued by Front Row to commemorate The Kid.)
1992 MJB Holographics Bagwell #2 Jeff Bagwell/Crouching posture/ready to field (From the premier edition of Holoprism set featuring 1991 NL Rookie of the Year, Jeff Bagwell. MJB also released a set of Chuck Knoblauch, the 1991 AL Rookie of the Year.)
1992 Ruth Gold Entertainment #1 Babe Ruth (This card is from a five-card set produced by Gold Entertainment celebrating the life of Babe Ruth. A couple of the cards in the set have a Lou Gehrig hologram on the reverse side. I also have a Gold version of this card which is much more rare than this standard silver version.)

         
1992 Upper Deck Team MVP Holograms #45 Nolan Ryan (This is from the first complete set of hologram cards I ever bought. Upper Deck issued this 54-card set featuring the top pitcher and batter from each team and it came in a special custom-designed box along with a cool certificate of authenticity featuring Cal Ripken Jr.)
1992 Whitehall Legends to Life #1 Ty Cobb (Created from actual photographs from the Whitehall Collection.)
1993 BBM Japan Holograms #NNO Tokyo Yomiuri Giants (Here's a Japanese team logo card that I pulled from a pack of BBM Japanese cards. This card is beautiful in person.)

[zeprock]

Back-to-back Reds players coming up on the randomizer after Barry Larkin on my last player post, today it's Tony Perez. Unlike Larkin, Perez played for several teams including a stint with my Red Sox but he is best known as being the RBI cog in the Big Red Machine of the 1970s. I currently have 212 different Beckett recognized cards of "Doggie" including these nine.

       
1965 Topps #581 Rookie Stars/Tony Perez RC/Dave Ricketts RC/Kevin Collins RC SP (Perez went on to the Hall of Fame while Ricketts went on to coach and manage in the Cardinals farm system and Collins went on to work in the automotive supply business.)
1966 Topps #72 Tony Perez
1967 Topps #476 Tony Perez SP (How odd is it to see the player's name below his jersey number? Answer: Very odd.)

       
1969 Topps #295 Tony Perez
1971 Kellogg's #58 Tony Perez
1971 Topps #580 Tony Perez

         
2002 Greats of the Game Through the Years Level 1 #18 Tony Perez
2004 Greats of the Game Autographs #TP Tony Perez F1

   
2005 Absolute Memorabilia Team Six Swatch Single Spectrum #TS44 Montreal Expos/10 (Misaligned swatches on the back but still I thought I'd show you both sides of this one.)

[zeprock]

In 1982 I found myself working in a shoe shop "buffing" and "antiquing" shoes. It was piecework and I developed a system that made me very fast to the point where my foreman took my two co-workers and moved them to other positions after watching me consistently buff out half a dozen racks to their one. I was making pretty good money at the time and with no major financial commitments, it went into cards. As I mentioned back in post #31 on this thread one of my co-workers who also worked in the shoe shop and was a childhood friend who also collected gave me a price guide and that was the year I discovered Twin City Coin in the Airport Mall and started buying up vintage cards of all the players I had ever heard of. 1982 was the year Cal Ripken Jr. appeared in the major sets so this nine card post is heavy with my rookie cards of Cal.

       
1982 Anchorage Glacier Pilots McGwire #1 Mark McGwire (The back of this early McGwire card lists him as both a first baseman and a pitcher.)
1982 Donruss #405 Cal Ripken RC
1982 Fleer #176 Cal Ripken RC

       
1982 O-Pee-Chee #95 Ozzie Smith/Traded to Cardinals Feb. 11/82 (When a player was traded, OPC would let you know right on the front of the card.)
1982 Perma-Graphic All-Stars #16 Pete Rose
1982 Perma-Graphic All-Stars #17 Mike Schmidt

         
1982 Topps #21 Bob Bonner RC/Cal Ripken RC/Jeff Schneider RC (Bonner was actually called up to play shortstop for the O's over Ripken. He went on to a long career . . . as a Baptist missionary in Zambia. Schneider lasted all of 24 innings before going back to "life as a normal person". I wonder if he brags to his buddies at the bowling alley that his Topps rookie card is more valuable than Derek Jeter's.)
1982 Topps Traded #98T Cal Ripken
1982 Topps Traded #109T Ozzie Smith

[zeprock]

Another current player that I collect that I predict may go to the Hall of Fame one day is Buster Posey. I started collecting Buster in 2012 after he had added a Rookie of the Year Award, a batting championship, a Silver Slugger, a couple World Championships, a Comeback Player of the Year Award, A Hank Aaron Award and a MVP to his resume. He was already an All-star when he missed most of 2011 due to injuries sustained in a plate collision with Scott Cousins of the Marlins. That incident initiated MLB to adopt the "Buster Posey Rule" in order to cut down on plate collisions. Whether Posey makes it to the Hall or not is yet to be determined but I'm holding out hope for him and continue to collect his cards. I currently own 441 different Beckett recognized cards of Buster. Here are nine from my collection.

       
2010 Topps Heritage #114 Buster Posey RC
2013 Topps #128B Buster Posey SP/Great catch
2013 Topps Museum Collection Blue #8 Buster Posey

       
2013 Topps Toys R Us Purple Border #128 Buster Posey
2014 Topps Yellow #50 Buster Posey
2015 Topps Update Chrome All Star Stiches #ASCRBP Buster Posey (Oooh sparkly!)

         
2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Relics #GQRBP Buster Posey
2016 Topps Opening Day Toys R Us Purple Foil #OD183 Buster Posey
2017 Topps Opening Day Relics #ODRBP Buster Posey

[zeprock]

Back to the grocery store today for another food issue post. These nine cards from my collection are all from the nuts and chips aisle.

       
1976 Crane Discs #69 Carl Yastrzemski (There are many different versions of these discs that were produced by MSA and distributed by various advertisers. This disc was distributed with Crane Potato Chips.)
1982 Cracker Jack #6 Mickey Mantle (Some food historians consider the molasses-flavored, caramel-coated popcorn and peanuts snack the first "junk food". Topps produced these standard size cards for Cracker Jack and they were originally distributed in two 8-card sheets at the Old Timers Baseball Classic held July 19, 1982. Cracker Jack, based in Chicago has been around since the late 1800s and has long been associated with baseball just like peanuts and that song about baseball, peanuts and Cracker Jack. )
1990 Sunflower Seeds #23 Cal Ripken (This set was issued by Stagi and Scriven Farms Inc. with the cooperation of MSA for Jumbo California Sunflower Seeds in an attempt by the company to promote sunflower seeds as an alternative to chewing tobacco in the dugout.)

       
1954 Dan-Dee Reprints #22 Red Schoendienst (These cards were originally inserted directly into bags of Cleveland-based Dan-Dee Potato Chips in 1954 and therefore were subject to all the grease and oil from the chips staining them. Near Mint cards from this set are almost impossible to find. This is a reprint although I don't know what year it was issued. If anyone knows, please inform me.)
1992 Classic/Best Fisher Nuts #5 Chipper Jones (This set which mirrors the 1992 Classic/Best set was available only for a short time from Fisher Nuts for a certain amount of money along with proof of purchase. Fischer Nuts was based in St. Paul, Minnesota.)
1995 Eagle Ballpark Legends #1 Nolan Ryan (Upper Deck produced this nine-card standard-size set as part of a promotion for Eagle Ballpark Style Peanuts. The set could be obtained by sending in a cash register receipt as evidence for the purchase of two cans of Eagle Ballpark Style Peanuts and $1.00 to cover shipping and handling.)

       
1997 Cracker Jack #5 Derek Jeter (This card is one of a 20-card set that was distributed inside boxes of Cracker Jack.)
2005 Giants Topps Emerald #GTS1 Barry Bonds (Emerald Nuts were produced by Diamond Foods Inc., a company based in San Francisco that specialized in snacks.)
2020 Topps Utz #8 Mookie Betts (For the second year in a row, Topps has produced a special line of cards for distribution in Utz Snack Packs throughout New England and the East Coast. Unlike the 2019 set which paralleled Topps flagship design, the 2020 cards have their own unique design and the card numbers are preceded with UTZ.)