Tuesday, April 02, 2024

My all-time Top 100 cheap azz keepers collection - 9-1

My Top 10 is where I show off my iconic Top 100 gems - it might be cliche to have these cards in such a collection, but it's all fun and games where I have ownership of some of quirky and odd classics.

There is a sense of accomplishment where I wrapped up something, but now I'm thinking about the next Top 100 - where I'm eager to consider the cards I have in-hand to see how each might fit in a Top 100, as well as keeping my eyes peeled for Top 100 fuel I might have not seen and/or considered before.

FWIW, maybe I'm missing a 1989 Billy Ripken FF error #616, where the copy I ended up picking up was entombed in a BGS slab - I would have added it if I had a raw copy, even if it's valued more than the $20 cap I had for any single card in this collection.

9. 1976 SSPC Oscar Gamble #526 - I did not anticipate having two Gamble cards in my Top 10 and could have added a third [2016 Topps Archives Snapshots #AS-OG] that I'll save for the 'next episode.'

8. 1982 Donruss Cal Ripken Jr. #405 - I remember coming into possession of this card under dubious means as a child once upon a time, oh so long ago.

I was bored waiting on my parents to negotiate a deal to buy carpeting for new house - I grab some tape from the dispenser handy and the first thing I do apply tape to one of the corners and cause permanent damage to one of the corners.

I probably ended up trading the card somewhere, foisting it upon someone else because I messed the card up - but I've always wanted my own copy of the card, even decades later.

7. 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle REPRINT #N/A - I grabbed this card for novelty, thinking it was cool looking and certainly no one would mistake it for the real thing or even a knockoff, since it's a regular sized card.

I think the card has a glossy surface, but there any obvious identifiers as to where this card came from - I like it because it features an iconic baseball card.

6. 1976 Topps Oscar Gamble #74T - the OG big hair, afro card of the 1970s.

5. 1996 Pinnacle Bob Hamelin #289 - infamous mug shot card

4. 1988 Fleer Tim Flannery #582 - the surfboard card

3. 2022 Topps Stadium Club Chrome Babe Ruth #3 - for my Top 100, I wanted cards with historicity behind it, but it's a no brainer to fit a newer card featuring Babe Ruth irritating teammate Lou Gehrig, presumably at some of kind of party.

2. 1984 Fleer Glenn Hubbard #182 - this ends up being my second copy of this card where Hubbard has a boa constrictor around his neck and the Philly Phanatic is lurking in the background.

1. 1989 ProCards Minor League Keith Comstock #14 - like the Billy Ripken FF error, this card has gained some notoriety, where it may now be valued more than the $20 cap I had for any single card in this collection.

However, it was languishing loose in my collection where I did not have a place for it - finally putting together a Top 100 allowed me to formally make the notorious card a centerpiece in what might be my island of misfit toys.