Maybe it's the least that can be done for someone who served his country and who has lived as long as he has - but it's nice for Waldron to get his 15-minutes of fame and be immortalized on a baseball card insert of his own.
I made it a point to send to an autograph request to Waldron with two First Pitch insert I found - after it became a thing where TTM collectors reported successes from him.
I remember 15-20 years ago when Robinson would sign through the mail for a small fee - I also remember when he basically stopped answering TTM requests because he had some sort of agreement with a card shop for paid signings.
Robinson's autograph may not pop as much with the matte card surface and the darker, painted image used on the 2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces card - but the auto is nearly centered perfectly to go with the horizontal picture.
Despite being a blue chip prospect who had a fine MLB debut season in 2016 - Dahl has had to deal with some physical ailments, so who knows if he ends up being sort of fragile otherwise, where his ascent as a big league star maybe slowed down a bit.
Dahl had his spleen removed after an outfield collision in 2015 and while he seemed to get over that over the next year - he has been shut down for much of spring training after a stress reaction in his ribcage and isn't likely to start the year on the Rockies' Opening Day roster.
I'll keep any miscellaneous cards I'll pull or find and when the mood strikes - look for at least one nice looking, current year non-auto insert / parallel that isn’t going to cost an arm and a leg.
It looks like there were actually nine packs [instead of eight totals packs] in my blaster for a total of 81 cards - I didn't pull a Target exclusive 1968 game rookie insert, so I think I might have been somehow skunked with this retail box, but ended up pulling six short prints [usually pulled 1:3 odds].
Pack one
#220 Joe Mauer
#275 2017 Philadelphia Phillies Rookie Stars - feat. Jake Thompson/Roman Quinn
#61 Marco Estrada
#109 Chris Iannetta
#462 Jackie Bradley Jr. - SP
#227 Steven Souza Jr.
#7 2016 ERA Leaders - feat. Hendricks/Lester/Syndergaard
#180 Stephen Piscotty
#190 Tommy Joseph
Pack two
#55 Josh Phegley
#88 Kyle Seager
#101 Jose Iglesias
#267 2017 Milwaukee Brewers Rookie Stars - feat. Orlando Arcia/Brent Suter
#486 Ji-Man Choi - SP
#493 Sam Dyson - SP
#73 Nick Hundley
#47 Collin McHugh
#82 Leonys Martin
#96 Gerardo Parra
Pack three
#316 Kendrys Morales
#384 2017 Arizona Diamondbacks Rookie Stars - feat. Braden Shipley/Matt Koch
#97 Javier Baez
#93 Aaron Nola
#229 1988 Topps Jeff Musselman - Rediscover Topps
#26 Howie Kendrick
#352 Kevin Kiermeier
#12 2016 American League Strikeout Leaders - feat. Verlander/Archer/Sale
#16 2017 San Diego Padres Rookie Stars - feat. Manny Margot/Hunter Renfroe
#33 Jhonny Peralta
Pack four
#102 Richie Shaffer
#11 2016 National League Strikeout Leaders - feat. Scherzer/Bumgarner/Ray
#259 Ken Giles
#121 Jeff Samardzija
#482 Albert Almora - SP
#85 Brett Gardner
#279 Washington Nationals team card
#297 Ezequiel Carrera
#278 Jeurys Familia
Pack five
#348 Julio Teheran
#320 Jayson Werth
#310 Tyler Saladino
#266 Los Angeles Angels team card
#BF-BR Brooks Robinson - Baseball Flashbacks insert
#64 Russell Martin
#256 Matt Harvey
#184 Jeanmar Gomez
#178 James Shields
Pack six
#271 Jason Castro
#196 Brandon Crawford
#118 Travis Shaw
#156 2016 World Series - Game #5 - feat. Aroldis Chapman
#461 Mark Trumbo - SP
#137 Adeiny Hechavarria
#129 Colorado Rockies team card
#388 Yonder Alonso
#181 Corey Kluber
Pack seven
#59 Jose Peraza
#156 2016 World Series - Game #6 - feat. Addison Russell
#43 Arodys Vizcaino
#325 Chris Davis
#302 Khris Davis
#274 Nelson Cruz
#15 Logan Morrison
#9 2016 National League Pitching Leaders - feat. Scherzer/Lester/Arrieta
#92 R.A. Dickey
Pack eight
#233 Scott Schebler
#369 Robinson Cano
#175 Michael Saunders
#48 Seth Smith
#467 Gregory Polanco - SP
#291 Wily Peralta
#191 Alexi Amarista
#191 Zack Cozart
#158 Cubs Fly The W
Pack nine
#86 Danny Valencia
#292 Carlos Ruiz
#176 Brandon Phillips
#157 2016 World Series - Game #7 - feat. Ben Zobrist
#12 Jake Arrieta - 1968 Topps Game insert
#44 Eduardo Nunez
#91 Chicago Aces - feat. Lester/Arrieta
#343 Marcus Semien
#104 Carlos Santana
Pack one
#117 Ryan Braun
I kind of want to see if this particular project becomes a more significant, satisfying chase - while eBay effectively saturated the market, it makes it easier to look for cards whose values were inflated 25-30 years ago, even if they weren't quite the big money old-school/vintage cards serious collectors continue to chase today.
So far I only have 3 of 28 cards [a 1960 Willie Mays and a 1961 Eddie Mathews are the other two I bought years ago] for this project - there maybe a couple of other cards I can use, though they maybe tied to another part of my collection, so I might only decide to use them if they are the final two cards I need.
The 1993 Topps Jeter rookie card is kind of boring with an image of a young Jeter superimposed into a generic outline of a baseball field - the card is sort of a post junk wax era 'junk wax card,' but the foil stamping makes the card looks just a little bit more attractive.
I do appreciate some 'old school' elements in baseball cards, so it's not like I don't get what these cards are about - I grabbed 7 random packs from a card shop and also a blaster box from a Target to see if I can get into these new cards for a little bit.
It may not feel authentic, but the thinner card stock is cleaner and the cards look fairly sharp - it seems like there was no effort to make the cards look like the originals, which may not be something people who collect Heritage seriously may like.
I read a little primer on the original 1968 Topps cards - but despite the inconsistent pattern scheme on the borders, I'm okay with the cards looking a little bland and maybe lacking a little imagination [just considering the cards themselves and not the wrinkles and gimmicks that come with a 2017 release].
The card backs are bright and bold - so that makes them easy to read.
I realize 1968 Topps wasn't a set that used facsimile autographs of the players as part of the design - so the fronts of these 2017 Topps Heritage cards look less cluttered.
Pack one
#280 Chase Headley
#283 Pittsburgh Pirates team card
#301 Martin Prado
#358 San Diego Padres team card
#NAP-14 Kyle Hendricks - New Age Performers
It's going to be another 19 years for 2036 Topps Heritage to come out featuring 'Today's Stars in The 1987 Design' - where pulling a buyback card from 1987 Topps would make sense, though I probably could have pulled any junk wax era card from this latest Topps promotion.
#77 Yadier Molina
#345 Jarred Cosart
#210 Carlos Rodon
#343 Marcus Semien
#104 Carlos Santana
Pack seven
#220 Joe Mauer
#275 2017 Philadelphia Phillies Rookie Stars - feat. Jake Thompson/Roman Quinn
#389 D.J. LeMahieu
Though my run doesn't exactly go back to the 'vintage years' of the 50s, 60s and early 70s - I want to build a run of Topps cards from the past 35-40 years.
A particular player may only be represented three times for each of the teams he has played for - someone who has played for at least a couple of teams can possibly appear six times, though my goal is to have a variety of players represented and not just a particular player.
There might be some strategy in observing the 3X rule - where I might hold off on simply adding a no-brainer star player's card, maybe to save the spot for next year [or if I've used the same player's card seemingly multiple times in recent years].
There might be some odd player choices but the idea is not doing too much work to create a run of cards featuring just strictly star players - at times I just want to use the cards I already have in my collection [especially, but not limited to the junk wax era years 1986-92] as opposed to being too picky when all I need is a random card to fill a hole.
However, there will be ‘tweaks’ to include prominent players, players with the highest WAR for a particular team in a given year, the most photogenic cards, etc - it’s just no fun when I have no cards to chase after.
I must have written Ward 10-15 years ago and I got my two cards signed - I'm not sure if he was a dominant player at his position on a year-to-year basis, but Ward was a longtime star and part of two Super Bowl championships with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Most of my 'pocket change' has been spent towards picking up magnetic card holders to upgrade storage for many of the individual cards in my PCs - I can only use top loaders and semi-rigids from 1999 for so long.
As is, I haven't really bothered to rummage through the cards in the quarter bins of my LCS - I have this ritual with these loose cards where I may grab a brick of them to start off with, but have to sort them out to where I only get so many cards.
I knew I was vaguely aware of him as a guy who did come out - so for a time his story was interesting post NFL career.
It's not like Lincecum lost his mojo overnight, but his comeback attempt with the Angels in 2016 was an absolute failure - after being such a dazzling pitcher in his prime, it's hard to imagine the reality of Lincecum being a has-been, relative to all his big league accomplishments.
Guerra was a journeyman minor leaguer who finally made his big league debut at 30 in 2015 - however he started 20 games for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2016 and struck out 100 batters in 121.2 innings pitched while allowing only 94 hits.
Though Bettis' autograph is a little messy, the scribble I got on a 1994 Fleer Flair Hot Numbers insert was definitely rushed - the autograph wasn't completely clean with just a bit of streaking and a blemish on the white part of his jersey in-between his number and his shoulder pads.
The slabbed PSA/DNA card ends up being a keeper in my autograph collection somewhere because I'm not into football collecting as much - where I'd try and find an actual certified autograph card [or non-card item].
#74 Brett Lawrie
#93 Matt Joyce
#9 Chris Sale
#12 Jerad Eickhoff
#286 Drew Pomeranz
#296 Tyler Clippard
#139 JaCoby Jones
#282 Tyler Flowers
#155 Jacob DeGrom
#274 Matt Strahm
#51 Jake Barrett
#151 Jonathan Villar
