A Venerable Old Card (Set) Part 13

Last week in this space I showed off a cool old oddball Ozzie Smith card that showed up in a box from a college friend.  Still so many more cards to show off, so this week I am going to focus a little bit on the Cubs.  Not just today, but all week.  In sorting out the box it is clear that a bunch of the cards in the box are old Cubs giveaways.  Some look pretty cool, others not so much.  I know that I am a Cardinals fan and you may not think of this as a place to read about cool Cubs cards, but let's get something straight here before we look at the cards.

It's hard as a Cardinals fan to collect Cubs cards.  I still have nice Cubs cards.  Further, the Cubs cards we are dealing with this week are from the 1980s.  What baseball loving kid in the 1980s did not spend a percentage of their summer break watching the Cubs games on WGN?  I did all time.  I can probably name most of their starters anytime after the mid 1980s through the mid 1990s.

A little background on tonight's card set....

This is the Thorn Apple Valley Cubs team set.  It was a stadium giveaway during the 1983 season.  While the 83 season was not a great one for the Cubs, the set features rookie cards of Ryno and Joe Carter.  There are also a lot of good veterans in this set, many of whom were contributors on the 1984 Cubs team, which was a really good team.

1980s Cubs also means there is music.  Enjoy the cards, commentary free.  

Unexpected Snow Day Find

I have lost count of how many snow days we have had here in Raleigh this school year.  I was not sure whether to post Snow Day 9 or Snow Day 10 as my Facebook status this morning, so I put them both down.  I had a great extra day off hanging out with my three year old and also got to spend some time sorting more cards from 2002.  This afternoon I stumbled upon a set which I had total forgotten about until I started pulling out the cards from my various team boxes.  This evening I present the 2002 Fleer Fall Classics Set:

 

In sorting out my 2002 sets I have found that several of the sets look like they could have been another product from that same brand.  Almost as if the card company had two design ideas for a card product, rejected one, and then still made a set out of the losing card design.  In so many ways the Fall Classics set looks like a failed design concept for the Greats of the Game line.  In fact, this design is really pretty close to the 2005 Greats of the Game set.  The cards in Fall Classics however do focus on the great players from postseason play and not necessarily the greats of the game.  Two separate groups of people.  Still there are plenty of big names in the set: 

 

There are two features of this set which I really like and made it an enjoyable set to spend half an hour of my afternoon flipping through.  First, the backs of the cards post the players postseason statistics for their career.  Not unheard of with baseball cards, but certainly gives you a different view of some players.  Here's a look at the back of the Bambino.  

 

  The other cool thing, as previously mentioned, is the fact that Fleer put in players who were good postseason performers.  There are plenty of players who have been able to find a few moments during the postseason to play their best games and sometimes the kind of slip through the cracks.  Many baseball fans can tell you plenty about the World Series rings won by greats like Babe Ruth and Stan Musial, but they had plenty of help along the way.  So, I decided while I was flipping through the set to pick out three good, but not great players, who have made a big impact on the postseason during my lifetime (Please not they had to have a card in the set-Big Papi is not in the set)

Depending who you ask, Trammell could be considered great, so I am putting him third on my list.  He only appeared in the postseason twice in 1984 and 1987.  The 1984 team won the World Series and was perhaps on the most dominate teams of the past thirty years.  Basically the Tigers lead the American League from Game 1 through Game 162 and then bludgeoned the Royals and Padres to win the World Series.  Trammell hit .364 in the ALCS and then batted .400 in the World Series winning the MVP.  

At times Porter was a great player, but there were a lot of distractions around Darrell's career.  Go read up, I am not rehashing it.  Porter had several appearances during his career in postseason play with the Royals and Cardinals.  However, he played a key role in the Cardinals winning the 1982 series against the Brewers and took home the World Series MVP.  Kind of cool to see him recognized on cardboard for his great postseason play.  

Last one.  I could have gone Gibson here, but basically the two biggest postseason home runs hit during my lifetime belonged to Kirk Gibson and Joe Carter.  The Gibson one was cool, but it was at the end of the first game.  Joe Carter's walked off a series.  That has not happened too often.  So, you've probably seen it a few hundred times, but it never gets old. Great call on the play too...

"Touch 'em all Joe you'll never hit a bigger home run in your life"

30 Year Top 50: 1998 Donruss Signature Series

#24-Picking out which Donruss Signature Series set to post on my countdown was a difficult task.  I actually considered a few different sets that were similar, but luckily I always find space for those sets below.  The concept for this set was actually started in 1996 with the Leaf Signature Set.  The Donruss Signature cards were a per pack autograph set with the packs running around $15.  The cards are really easy to find on the secondary market and are generally really inexpensive, so lets look at the reasons this set is a good addition to the collection.

1998 Donruss Signature Series Andy Benes Autograph

First, despite there literally being thousands of copies of some of these cards there are some very tough autographs in the set which make it a tough to collect.  Some of the cards were purposely short-printed, but others were short-printed because of the financial difficulties of Pinnalce, the card company that printed the Donruss sets, and the fact that they did not pay the players who signed the cards until after the sets release.  Some players did not sign their cards, some players signed their cards erratically, and some distribution was botched after the bankruptcy.

1998 Donruss Signature Joe Carter Autograph

The other reason I love this set is the number of different players that signed for the set.  There are some great names in the set with on-card autographs that are difficult to find in other sets.  For example, the Joe Carter card above is one of two on-card autographs that can be found of the long time Major League player.  While Carter is not a Hall of Fame player, he is definitely a very good player who hit a World Series winning home run.  It's a nice autograph to own.  There are several other players similar to Joe Carter, who were solid to above average Major League players, with few on-card autographs available.  Mariano Rivera might be the best one out there.  

1998 Donruss Signature Significant Signatures George Brett Autograph

The last reason is the inclusion of the Significant Signature autographs in the set.  This insert is chalked full of Hall of Famers with on-card autographs.  Most of the Hall of Fame autographs are also signed in large quantities and can be easily found at a reasonable price.  While they are not the best looking autograph set, they are great to look out for if you are looking to add a few Hall of Fame autographs to your collection.  

Like the 1998 Donruss Signature Set?  There are several great other alternatives to find some great autographs in from the mid to late 90s.  

1996 Leaf Signature Andy Benes Autograph

Like I mentioned above, the 1996 Leaf Signature Set started the run of autograph sets for Pinnacle.  Just like the 1998 Donruss Signature set, the autographs in this set were one per pack and featured a high number of both common and star players.  A lot of collectors love the white design of this set with the black ink autographs.  Some players signed over dark patches in their background pictures, but most are clean autographs.  There are several short-printed autographs in the set which are highly desired cards.  

1997 Donruss Signature Jim Edmonds Autographs

The 1997 Donruss Signature autographs followed the Leaf Signature Series.  The cards provided a nice area for the players to sign at the bottom of the card, but this set was the most over produced Pinnacle autograph set.  The cards are easy to find, low in price, and this set lacks some of the star power of the 1996 Leaf Signature and 1998 Donruss Signature sets.  

1999 Fleer Mystique Fresh Ink Kris Benson Autograph

After Pinnacle folded in 1998 Fleer took up there slack with producing a big line of autographs, but they didn't produce a per-pack autograph set.  Instead, they created a cross set autograph set with different players appearing in different sets.  The autograph lines varied between the Fresh Ink line and the Autographics line.  The Fresh Ink sets ran in 1999 and 2000, while the Autographics line ran in 1999, 2000, and 2001.  My favorites were the 2000 and 2001 Autographics sets.  Both were on-card autographs with loads of stars, short-prints, but also a good mixture of young and everyday players.  

2000 Skybox Autographics Chris Carpenter Autograph

2001 Fleer Autographics Jim Edmonds Autograph

30 Year Top 50: 1986 Donruss

#42- The 1986 Donruss set was an incredible set at the time of it's release and a few years in the early to mid 90s.  The set featured one of the hottest rookie cards of the 1980's and several other rookie cards that were above average.  For awhile, the Jose Canseco rookie in the set could sell or trade for upwards of $100.  However, with the demise of Jose Canseco the value of his rookie cards also crashed hurting the overall value of this set.

1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Jose Canseco

I am not going to rehash the whole Jose Canseco saga, but he was incredible at the height of his career and fell really hard.  At the time of this set's release, the Donruss Jose Canseco rookie card was one of the most sought after cards.  Often a rookie card makes or breaks a set and in this case the fate of this set followed the Canseco card.  In the late 80's when the Canseco rookie was at it's height, the card also brought up the values of several other rookie cards in the set including Fred McGriff, Paul O'Neill, and Andres Galarraga.  

1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Paul O'Neill

1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Andres Galarraga

1986 Donruss Rate Rookie Fred McGriff

In the end, the "other rookies" in the Donruss set ended up being almost as important as the Jose Canseco.  All three players had careers that were probably better than Canseco's, especially Paul O'Neill who was a key player on four World Championship teams.  None of the four players are Hall of Famers and that has brought down the value of this set to around $20.  It's not the 1988 Donruss set, but it's also not nearly as good as the 1987 set.  

My reason for including this set in my countdown is the simple fact that for a few years in the late 80s this was a great set.  In 1989, Jose Canseco hit 42 home runs to lead the American League while stealing 40 bases and driving in more than 100 runs.  That same season, Fred McGriff enjoyed his second thirty plus home run season, when 30 home runs was a big deal, and draws comparisons on that season with Mark McGwire on Baseball Reference.  O'Neill and Galarraga enjoyed solid seasons, but would have more impact later in their careers.  

Despite it's loss in value the 1986 Donruss set can teach us two important lessons.  First, the 1980s cards all generally lack the kind of cardboard value that vintage cards enjoy.  No fault of the collector's, but its hard to value a card when there are thousands upon thousands of copies of a card.  For me, these sets are still great to take out and look at.  I love the polyester uniforms and seeing cards of players I loved watching as a kid.  Cardinals cards of Danny Cox and Mike Laga.  Yellow Pirates jerseys.  

Second, there are many in the card industry that try to say that the on field product has little effect on the price of a player's cardboard.  If that statement were true, than the Jose Canseco card would still retain some shred of value instead being able to find raw copies of the card for under $5. 

I had such as conversation with the Editor of Beckett Baseball Card Magazine Chris Olds on Twitter during the Cardinals and Nationals game last week.  Basically, I took the view point that Bryce Harper's regular season and postseason performance would have to greatly improve for him to maintain his current level of card values.  

For example, in the mid 90s collectors went crazy for Andruw Jones cards when he played well, as a teenager, in the 1996 playoffs.  Sixteen years later, Andruw Jones is a role player with a low batting average and no defensive skill.  Not to say that is what Harper is to become, but collector's eyeing a high end rookie should look at the cards of Canseco and Jones to better understand the high risk that comes with adding high end rookie cards to their collections.  

Like the 1986 Donruss set?  Not in my Top 50 is the 1984 Donruss set.  This set is very similar to the 1986 Donruss release.  For years, this set was a highly valuable and high sought after piece of cardboard.  There were three important rookie cards in the set, which like the 1986 Donruss, lost value and popularity with the demise of the players.  Most importantly was the Don Mattingly rookie card. 

1984 Donruss Don Mattingly 

Mattingly had a great start to his career, but it was derailed by injuries.  His cards had trouble maintaining their values over time.  Mattingly has moved on to become a successful manager with the Dodgers and still is popular with Yankees collectors.  The other two key rookie cards were the Joe Carter Rated Rookie card and the Darryl Strawberry rookie.

1984 Donruss Darryl Strawberry

1984 Donruss Joe Carter

Strawberry's career followed a similar path as Jose Canseco.  Again, not going to rehash the entire saga, but he was a really good player who turned out to be very average.  His cards are still sought after, but do not maintain much in terms of value.  Joe Carter was a highly thought of prospect who turned into a nice everyday player.  Above average, but not a Hall of Famer.  More importantly he hit a game winning, series ending home run in the 1993 World Series.