Blog bat around - junk wax favorites

1990 Upper Deck - I don't know if I thought Upper Deck was anymore special than the other sets of the day, but it had nicer production quality than Topps, Donruss or Fleer.

I think I wandered into a video store selling cards and picked up a copy of the Ryan for $0.50 - when I was just starting to collect as an adolescent.

1987 Topps - I felt like the commons from this set was perpetual repack fodder, where I have no lingering nostaglia for it as a whole.

For at least for a small period of time in the early 1990s however, the McGwire, Will Clark and Jose Canseco were still worth $2-$4 - as the most accessible early MLB cards for those junk wax era stars.

Maybe at a random stop mall show one time as a kid - I may have bought a few packs of the O-Pee-Chee version and ended up pulling a Barry Bonds rookie.

1990 Leaf - I remember a childhood friend coming over and showing me his trade box, where I was triggered by this card, a Ron Gant and Kevin Mitchell.

Admittedly, this was a set I did not get a chance to heavily collect - where the Frank Thomas and David Justice rookies ended up being out of sight, out of mind, I remember coveting a Carlos Baerga rookie since it was a $10 card of rising star second baseman.

1992 Fleer Ultra - I felt like after a boring and drab inaugural Fleer Ultra release the previous year, Fleer came correct with a jazzy, UV coated, foil stamped masterpiece.

Maybe I could not get enough thumbing through the stars that were teased in the base set as well as various insert sets - where I thought cards from this set would somehow be valuable for a long time.

1991 Fleer Ultra Update - it was not until this late season boxed set was released did I warm up to 1991 Fleer Ultra, with key rookies of the day like Jeff Bagwell, Mike Mussina and Ivan Rodriguez.

1990 Fleer - this was a basic set I had access to and there was a certain quaintness that appealed to me; maybe it was the effect where the image is coming through the card.

1991 Upper Deck - I remember blowing gift money to buy a box for $36 from a Thrifty's Drug Store, where the trading cards were locked up in a display case by one of the cashier counters.

Maybe this had some crossover appeal where there was a Michael Jordan baseball card inserted in packs - while the High Number version featured a Jeff Bagwell rookie.

1991 Bowman - I probably didn't care for the junk wax era Bowman sets, but I guess the 1991 set had rookie cards of Chipper Jones, Ivan Rodriguez, Jim Thome, Kenny Lofton, etc.

I end up giving the set credit for allowing me to discover my first card of an Angels prospect named Tim Salmon - when thumbing through the bulk cards a friend had a accumulated in a row within 3,200 count monster box at his house.

1990 Score - this was the first complete set I bought, probably from a Target and I used to thumb through the cards once in a while.

1992 Upper Deck - I kind of feel like this was the first Upper Deck set from the early 1990s that was everywhere regular packs, boxes, jumbo packs, team set blisters probably put together and sold by a third party distributor, etc.

At some point, I may have gotten tired of seeing the Ken Griffey Jr. multiple exposure card - where it was forever going to be a card worth $0.50.

I've come to appreciate the Bloodlines subset, featuring some of the more prominent Big League families of the day - I don't know if I'm misremembering things, but a neighborhood kid I used to play with used to pronounce 'bloodlines' as 'blood-lee-ness' and I used to get a chuckle out of that.

1969 Topps Aurelio Rodriguez #653

I picked this card up for about a dollar as another vintage card 'curiosity' to put away - I've never really considered owning the card, but I've seen over the years, so I wondered if I could randomly add a copy of the 'quirky, oddball' card to my collection.

I probably first learned of the uncorrected error card picturing the California Angels' bat boy in this early 1980s book - I bought the actual book years ago when it was finally discarded and I decided to dig it out for a photo op with the actual card.

Trading card commandments: Blacklist Cards by Paul Green

These are basically the basic messages I gleamed from the pages of this book - I was so eager to jot them down somewhere, before returning the book to the library [edit: about 10 years ago].

I think Green passed away several years ago [and may have been more of a coin collecting enthusiast] and this book was published all the way back in 1994 - but it features some pretty good stuff if you are focused on the bottom line of trading cards, whatever that means these days.

1.) Go for the home run all the time.
2.) Be selective all the time.
3.) Avoid non/odd-sport cards.
4.) Buy established HOF bound stars.
5.) Avoid injury prone players.
6.) Avoid late bloomers - 24 and up.
7.) Avoid autographed cards and sell them off - presumably uncertified autograph cards.
8.) Avoid questionable players.
9.) Buy the real thing - not reprints.
10.) Avoid guys without championships.
11.) Avoid draft picks.
12.) Avoid two-sport stars.
13.) Avoid special cards - like leaders or all-star cards. Buy players' actual cards.
14.) Avoid non-glamour positions - offensive linemen in football.
15.) Avoid oddball and black and white cards.
16.) Avoid stars with `mediocre' years.
17.) Avoid players who shift positions.
18.) Look for players with five monster years.
19.) Beware of the hype or the stats - today's stars are destined to be commons.
20.) Avoid baseball players who would have to defy all historical trends to make Cooperstown - the Hall of Fame is all that matters.
21.) Avoid stars without a significant stat - 500 home runs, 300 wins, etc.
22.) Catchers get injured.
23.) Take advantage of people's nostaglia - money now or profit never.
24.) Cards that are priced too high will come down in price - no matter how scarce the cards, without demand prices drop.
25.) Do not worry about prices - price guides are guided by dealers.
26.) Condition matters.
27.) Ship cards to regional areas or donate cards - do not be greedy.
28.) Supply and demand - buy when prices are low and sell when they are high.
29.) Anticipate demand and potential decrease before it takes place.
30.) The goal is to sell close to retail value.

Blacklist Cards By Paul Green