Look how far we haven't come

Last night, Sooz ran a #chadchat about '90s inserts. It was great to see the engagement and excitement, as many, including myself, find the '90s to be the greatest era of baseball cards.

They aren't for everyone, and that's fine. Enjoy your own opinion. You won't change mine.

But for me, give me a beautiful shiny card with a fun theme and some asymmetrical features any day over a vintage card of a guy at spring training in a fake pitching pose rocking a porn 'stache.

The most common answer to "what made '90s inserts the best ever?" had a fairly common theme: creativity and innovation. While some don't feel innovation is needed at all in baseball cards, I find it staggering at the lack of progress over the last 30 years.

Think about cards from the late '60s to '90s, then think about the same time period from the '90s to the 2020s. We have stalled in our tracks, or in some cases, we've gone backwards.

I attribute much of this to Topps and their lack of competition. With a few exceptions, inserts were never their thing. And now, they can save money by printing inserts on the same cardstock as base cards. They can give the illusion of shine without having to actual give the card shine. Mostly, they are lazy.

They'd rather have 150 card insert sets spread across three series than they would a 10-card Hot Gloves set.

They'd rather just give us another 1987 homage or 70 card reprint sets we've seen a thousand times. To them, they'll call those an insert set and be done with it.

Just this past Tuesday, I had two separate insert cards roll up to my house. Neither were crazy Jordan/Kobe/Griffeys that costs hundred of bucks. But each was special to me and cards I had wanted for some time:

Look at those beauties. It's a coincidence that they are diecut, which is not a requirement for a great insert. But boy at they pretty.

Hot Gloves were those cards I saw on the pages of card magazines and as a kid and dreamed one day I could have. Packs of Flair at CVS were out of the question. $4.99 for a pack in a little box? Nope. Grab a pack of Score for $.89 and be on our way.

Pacific was wacky and zany and felt like a brand you settled on, yet over time the efforts have become much more appreciated.

Was it the competition that drove this? Insane designers looking to give their brand an edge? Companies open to fun and not just "you get what you get" because we have no other choices?

It's sad what Topps has done to inserts in their focus on parallels, autographs, SPs, and RCs. 

Long live the '90s, the undisputed greatest era of baseball cards.

Something in the water

I've wanted this card for years, but never acted it on it until just last week.

It's not a pricey card and can be had for a few bucks, if that. I just let it sit in my eBay saved searched, checking occasionally. While I am actively trying to de-clutter my collection, I decided to make room for it because it's just so cool.

In a very 1990s move, 1998 Flair put a new spin on their popular Wave of the Future insert set. They put actual water - or some form of liquid - inside of the card!

The card is made of a soft plastic, and the liquid has some glitter in it to help it shimmer even more. The card actually reminds me of a baby's teething toys. You know, the kind you freeze so the baby can gnaw their gums on it.

This card is an extreme example, but I miss card companies trying things. I don't call this innovation, but more so how competition breeded the desire to stand out and make an effort to try something new. We don't get that anymore.

Flair was a premium brand, and a card like this was one of the untouchables for a kid growing up. I'm glad to have it 23 years later, and impressed that the wave is still fluid and hasn't dried up. Literally.

What a fun card.

A Flair for the past

I can honestly say that I never purchased a pack of Fleer Flair cards growing up. It’s not that I wouldn’t have liked to. It’s just that they didn’t fit within this 12-year-old collector’s budget. They routinely ran $3.99-$4.99 per pack, and the cards came in a fancy little box – at least the earlier versions did. Beckett magazines were loaded with images of Hot Gloves and Wave of the Futures. I often swooned, but never pulled the trigger, instead staying with the traditional packs of Collector’s Choice and Score. Often, I rode my 12-speed Pacific bike to CVS with the loose change for a pack in my hand, counted precisely. Even if I had dropped one nickel on the mile ride, I wouldn’t have had enough for a pack.

So Fleer Flair sat there, years later entering my collection via eBay and trades and blogger packages. To me, it’s still special when a Flair card shows up, because that little voice in my head still tells me it’s a premium card.

Later in the 1990s, Flair had some sort of weird parallel system with rows and seats and different names like Showcase and Showpiece and on and on. I don’t really get it, and probably won’t. What I do usually know is a Tino I don’t have when I see it. In this instance, it was the Grace Showpiece Row 1. According to www.baseballcardpedia.com, it would have been seeded 1:24. I think I looked at the matrix correctly.

Regardless, it’s a gorgeous card, and although confusing given the naming convention, it still feels as premium as ever.

JBF Epic Boxes: Packs 11-12

I need to do these posts faster. While I've been slow to do them, ANOTHER epic box from Jaybarkerfan found it's way to me! Sheesh. It'll take me 'til Christmas to get these up.

Let's look at team bags 11 & 12, shall we?

Pack 11

Let's start off with some truly attractive SP Authentic cards. Holy smokes these are nice. There is SO MUCH border, bit I gotta say, the white makes it look classy. I know a lot of people don't prefer a large border with a small photo, but these just look nice. They tried to give the photo a ragged look, which works ok. The photo has an interesting gloss. Think of the 1995 Topps Cyberstats parallels.

Primetime is too cool for Classic, and definitely too cool for pink borders. 

Could Fleer really not find a better third shot than Wade Boggs' butt?

And the card of the pack? This 1999 Stadium Club Mariano Rivera. Great shot. Great simple design. Love the muted team logo in the corner. Stadium Club was so solid in the late '90s.

Total cards in pack: 42 (appropriate)
Running total: 388

Pack 12

I'll start with a Tino, because any pack with a Tino is a good pack.

Yogi! While his quotes might be a bit overdone at this point, it's cool to have them immortalized on cards. This is the ever-popular "Baseball is 90% mental, the other half is physical" quote.

Jeter. Classic pose. Man, I'm curious what his last Topps regular base card will look like in 2015. I say "regular base card" because you know he'll be in 9,000 other sets for the rest of his life. I'm a fan of Rivera's last card, and hope Jeter gets a good one too.

The card of the pack? Let's go with a darkhorse! 1995 Topps Finest Mike Stantley. This set wasn't as iconic as '93 or '94, but I like the bright colors and design. Someone took the fun out of this for me and peeled the unnecessary clear coating off of it already. Jerks.

Total cards in pack: 40
Running total: 428

Cards from the Most Interesting Blogger In The World

A few weeks ago, Jaybarkerfan caught me off guard and sent me TWO flat-rate boxes back with 16 team bags of cards. I need to show those off. However, the other day while scanning cards, I realized that I never scanned and showed off the previous package Wes sent me about a month before. I felt badly about that.

So before I get to those AWESOME two boxes he sent me, here’s some of the sweet stuff he sent me back in February.

First off, this post-it was in there. I actually do find Wes to be the most interesting (and mysteriou)s card blogger out there. He comes up with massive amounts of Yanks and sends them my way. Where does he get them? How? Why? The man is a mystery, but I’m thrilled he has chosen me to be the recipient of mysterious ways.

Now on to the cards. I’ll show off this football card first. A few times, I’ve mentioned I’m a Bengals fan. Long story as to why I like Cincy, but Wes took note and periodically sends me Bengals relics. I don’t actively collect football, but adding sweet cards from my favorite team is something I’ll always be up for. Take a look at this beautiful Tyler Eifert jersey/patch card #’d to 99. Whoa! Eifert is going to be a star, and I’m very lucky to have this in my collection now. 

Next up, two sweet green cards! This Mariano is just a classy card. Well, any card with Mo is classy, but the design and the vibrant emerald color really make this card special. Plus, #’d to 250. I don’t have many high end Mariano cards like this. 

And speaking of green, this awesome emerald refractor of the guy pitching for the Yanks tonight!

 

Here’s a random sampling of what else was in there. Is there any insert set over the years that is cooler than Flair Wave of the Future? I don’t think so.This card doesn't have water in it, but it's still fantastic.

All in due time I’ll show off the EPIC boxes sent by JBF.

Thanks, Wes.

Other worldly cards

I've been working to catch up on a few bubble mailers of cards that have come in recently. I'm glad to say that I'm jusssst about caught up.

I recently snagged a lot of cards that Dan of Dan's Other World offered up. There was a great assortment of about 50 Yanks, and here are my favorites below. The package contained a bunch of A&G cards from the years when A&G was attractive looking, plus some old school Flair. Those cards still feel special, let me tell you.

 

 

Dan, these were some awesome cards. Thank you, sir.

A little tradin' with P-Town Tom

I'm not sure if I can call this a trade yet since I haven't sent P-Town Tom his portion of the trade yet. I stink at sending packages lately. However, Tom did send me some sweet Yanks which I'm always a huge fan of.

First off, Tom wrapped a few of the cards in this Panini bag. Pretty cool.

Next, we have some oversized oddball Mattinglys from the mid-80's. I love the embossed cards. Super cool.

And a Mattingly that I saw in a Beckett once growing up, fell in love with it, and was convinced I'd never own it.

Here's the card that started the trade. Tom scored it off Listia, I believe.

Vintage is the way to my heart, Tom. You rascal.

And a few others I particularly enjoyed:

 

Tom, I swear, your cards are going out ASAP. Thanks again.

Vintage winnings from Papa Coot Veal

New dad Dustin over at Coot Veal and the Vealtones held a contest recently to celebrate the birth of his baby girl, Evy Jo. He had some seriously awesome vintage prizes to give away. Luckily, my name was drawn, and had to make a very difficult selection between a bunch of great vintage Yankee cards.

After flip-flopping my decision more than once, I settled on a 1952 Bowman Hank Bauer. I didn’t have a 1952 Bowman, and had seen this card a lot. I was soooo tempted by the ’51 Bowman Billy Johnson because of the sweet pose, but happily stuck with my Bauer decision, and I have no regrets.

It seems like early Bowman was all over the place in terms of card size. Small, large, square, skinny, etc. The ’52 is smaller than a current card, but bigger than a GQ mini, I’d say. That’s not a scientific analysis though 

DHoff also sent me a stack of Tinos and other Yanks. I always appreciate when bloggers go out of their way to dig up Tinos for me. It’s very thoughtful and does not go unnoticed, even if some end up being dupes. There were several I didn’t have, including the 1996 Flair gold that I featured in my Tino Tuesday series recently.

The Yankee cards were great too. Below are my two favorite, for no other reason except they are awesome. 

Dhoff, thanks again!

Tino Tuesday #57: 1996 Flair Gold #132

I thought I had been pretty good about picking up Tino Martinez Flair cards, but bloggers keep sending me ones I don’t have. This 1996 Flair Gold parallel comes to me from DHoff over at Coot Veal and the Vealtones. I recently won a contest over there (more to come on that), and Dustin sent me a batch of Tinos in addition to some other stuff.

Growing up, Flair was always a big deal for me. I wasn’t allowed to even really look at it. I remember the card section at CVS (always had a ton of packs), and Flair was off to the side by itself. It came in little boxes, and the price was astronomical compared to the other stuff. I’ll stick to Topps and Score, thank you.

Over the years, I got my hands on several Tino Flair cards. But new ones keep popping up. In later years, that had all those variations, but this one was from 1996. No idea why I didn’t have it.

It’s as thick as a normal Flair card, so that’s a plus. I remember the first Flair card I ever got was a football card. They came one per pack in Fleer’s football set. It was of Willie Roaf of the Saints. I showed my dad the card, and I remember him holding it up and saying “wow, what a nice card that is.” He probably hadn’t held a baseball card since the ‘50s or ‘60s, so this probably was quite a change from what he remembered.

I like the gold background as well. Flair’s design always was very simple, yet sophisticated. It always felt classy, and this card is no exception.