Hit or Miss With Online Purchases

Do you ever use the Buy It Now on a cheap ebay item before reading the fine print or without seeing a quality image?  I've done that three times this year including once this week. 


I bought the 1991 Kellogg's Legends of Baseball set because the price was too good to pass up.  The Carew card shown didn't look great and I made very little effort to look closer at it.  I decided that if the Clemente card was in good shape it would be worth it to me.  I was quite surprised when this arrived today.

I guess I didn't look close enough to realize that this was a sealed set.  That was a great surprise.  

Earlier this month I grabbed a lot of 17 cards from ebay assuming by the price and the poor pictures that they were probably cracked.  Getting some 1972s that weren't cracked was a nice surprise.

The third one I remember from this year didn't turn out as well as the two recent ones.  I bought a set of 1978 Kellogg's without looking at much since it was really cheap ($15?).  As you'd expect, most of them were cracked but they were in good condition.  

I know I've certainly made a few other mistakes with online purchases, including mistakes of being too cheap to bid higher on a few big lots, promo cards and uncut sheets.  Live and learn.

Luckily I am cheap so I just move on in my stupidity.  Does anyone else make mistakes like this?

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #55 Joaquin Andujar

I didn't remember that he was used in relief during 1979.  I checked online and found that he had 305 career starts and 100 relief appearances. 

The card mentions his inside-the-park homer that won him a game.  He had five career homers.

It is noted that the Astros didn't hit well when he was pitching in 1979.  They finished 89-73 and surpassed their previous highest number of wins (84).  But they sure didn't hit.  Jose Cruz was the team leader in homers (9) and RBIs (72).  Yes that is NINE, I didn't omit a digit.

Can anyone find a team since the Deadball Era to have their team leader hit less than 10 homers in a year?  I assume that even in the strike years that didn't happen. 

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #56 Don Baylor

Baylor was the 1979 AL MVP.  139 RBIs for a guy who never got to 100 is quite a year.  He also led the league in runs and games while hitting 36 homers.  He added 22 of his 285 stolen bases too.

He had 52 steals in 1976.  Since he was in the AL his entire carer I knew less about him.  Being on the west coast for part of his career made his games against the White Sox a bit too late for me to follow.  

He had a number of good years, but he only was named an all-star once.  He did play more games at DH than at other positions in his career.  Why did he only manage in the NL?

I think only five players have played more games as a DH than Baylor.  Can you name them?  Hint #1 - they all spent lots of time in the AL.  Hint #2 - only one is older than Baylor.  Hint #3 -

1974 Kellogg's Cards #01 - #09 - PSA

I mentioned that I picked up a few low-numbered Kellogg's cards over the weekend.  It seems like the first nine crack more than the others.  Was it due to more people storing them in nine-pocket pages? 

I decided to check on PSA to see if there are any noticeable differences in 9s and 10s. 

Here is a breakdown of 10s from PSA. 

#10s for a card        #cards in the set that fall into that range

10-19                       3    Monday (#02), Fisk (#05), Santo (#07)
20-29                       3    Gibson (#01),  Coleman (#03), Ryan (#08)
30-39                       4    Campaneris (#04), Luzinski (#09), Otis (#17), Allen (#33)
40-49                       6
50-59                      12
60-69                       5     Palmer (#06)
70-79                       3
80-89                       5
90-99                       4
100+                        9

Of the 54 cards, 12 different ones have had 50-59 10s.  All of the other stars in the set have more 10s than Palmer except Blyleven who has the same number - 64. 

Palmer is the only aberration.  I imagine it would be difficult to decide if a regular card were good enough to send away for grading.  It seems much worse to figure out if a 3-D card should be graded.  I would probably need to consult with someone who has an eye for that if I ever decided to try getting a card graded. 

Rosemont Card Show Post #3

I spent about 30 minutes at the 0.50 table.  I didn't even look at half of what they had available.  Here are some other items that I grabbed.

Does anyone remember these Vend-A-Stamps from Fleer?  I don't know about them.

I liked the player selection in the Boardwalk Baseball set.  44 cards for 0.50 including lots of big names.

I will look at these team sets on a rainy day. 

The above weren't sealed sets so I checked them out.  Odd that the Cap'n Crunch are labeled as Topps as well but they have no license with MLB so there are no logos on the hats and uniforms.  That ruins these cards like some 1970s football cards.

Only two packs of The Baseball Enquirer.  I would have bought more because they are entertaining.  I show two of them below who should be easy to guess.  Many of the others are not easy to figure out. 

That's how he looked in batting practice before the 1990 All-Star game at Wrigley Field.

I never found lots of the Coca-Cola cards and I love 1981 Topps.  I was happy that there was a George Brett card, even if the back of it was the photo shown above.  

Packs from the Donruss Fun Packs.  I couldn't resist getting a few of them.  I ended up with one pack being from the Tron set and the other five containing Sgt. Peppers cards.   I don't collect non-sports cards much, but it was certainly fun to open the packs. 

Rosemont Card Show Post #2

I did get some Kellogg's cards at the show on Saturday as well.

The table with piles on 0.50 items had the Kellogg's sets shown above.  Since that was the price for the entire set I just bought all 32 of them that I found.  Since there was stuff everywhere, there were probably more of these sets at this table but I was content with what I found.

All of the sets were the American version.  I rarely ever see the Canadian version of these cards, which have French and English text on the back.

As I looked closer at the sets, three of them were in packages that were no longer sealed.  Mike Schmidt was the top card on one of them and his card was quite discolored.  All three have been opened and only the one Schmidt card was damaged.

Yes, I know the first step is admitting that I have a problem.  I definitely have a problem.  At least I am keeping it affordable.

I couldn't resist the above cards either at the same price.  So, I bought a Carew in a pack for the same price that I got an entire sealed set with Carew in it.  Does that make sense?

There were a few dealers with a nice selection of Kellogg's cards.  I spent $10 on a Unitas because I never find nice ones.  I rarely spend that much on an individual card.  I struggle to find the first 10 cards in the 1974 set in nice condition so I was happy to get some of them.

There were a handful of dealers with hand-collated sets, but none were in my price range.  I didn't get to add any unopened packs that I needed and I saw no factory sets.

I added a few 1970 Kellogg's baseball cards.  I am still trying to fill a few needs there.  I should add them to my blog's want list.

Did anyone else get Kellogg's cards at this show?

Rosemont Card Show Post #1

I finally got to a big show where I had no time constraints.  I spent about 2 1/2 hours looking at as many things as I could and talking to some of the dealers.  I showed up with no particular lists or anything.  Even though I have some Kellogg's needs, Sportscaster needs and a few 1961 Topps to find, I just decided to enjoy the free time. 

These posts will mention lots of 0.50 items.  They all came from the same dealer.  It was fun to dig through his stuff and I didn't even look at his other sports. 

I stopped collecting new cards in the early 1990s.  The strike in 1994 helped extend that until I got my son some packs  around 2005.  So, when I was able to get some fat packs from 1996 Topps for 0.50 each I decided to grab a few.  I didn't recognize the wrapper because I'd never opened a pack from 1996 until yesterday. 

Without looking into all of the Prospects, there seem to be many big-name players in this subset.  

The Mickey Mantle inserts look nice too.

I decided to buy a $6.00 box on 1991 Score because I wanted to just open something cheap. 

I know that it isn't a valuable card, but I ended up with three cards of Chipper Jones. 

Getting the Roger McDowell card was the highlight of the box - since I didn't get a Mickey Mantle insert.  Why?  It brought back a great memory from when I used to go to way to many games at Wrigley Field.  

I used to attend about 30 - 40 games per year at Wrigley Field.  Then, I'd add about 10 road games in different places, especially St. Louis since it wasn't too far.  I always sat in the left field bleachers directly behind the left fielder.  I sat with the same fans almost every Sunday and I'd get to a lot of the Saturday games too.  When night games started I added lots of those too.

On one day I decided to bring my Ewell Blackwell model glove to the park for batting practice. 

This glove was from the late 1940s so it probably wasn't going to help me catch anything for a few reasons.  First, there is really no pocket so catching the ball would probably involve it hitting my hand directly.  Second, being 350+ field from home plate meant that the ball would be coming in fast and I didn't want a broken hand.  Lastly, I am left-handed, so I am not as good with a right-handed glove as it is.

So, how does McDowell fit in to this?  He was shagging for the hitters and he spotted my glove.  He asked me to throw it down to him on the field.  I hesitated until he said that he'd throw his up to me.  He did and a few of us used his glove while he struggled to catch anything with the Blackwell model. 

I hadn't thought about that day in a long time.  Good memories. 

I bought some Kellogg's cards but this was my favorite thing from yesterday.  Tomorrow I will mention the Kellogg's cards that I picked up.

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Back - #57 Jack Clark

The back starts by saying that Jack and the Giants underperformed in 1979.   His stats were a bit off because he only played in 143 games.  He was an all-star for the second time.

He was drafted as a pitcher.  Because of his hitting he started playing regularly.  What about the pitching?  Baseball-reference.com only shows him pitching in a few games in 1973 and having an ERA of 6.00.

He is now listed as playing right field.  I do remember him having a great arm in the outfield.  

When game 6 of the World Series is mentioned anywhere including Seinfeld reruns, everyone knows that it is referring to 1986.  Game 6 in 1985 is generally mentioned with the name of an umpire but I don't want to do that.  

Clark's arm had an important role in a pivotable call in the ninth inning of game 6 of the 1985 World Series but his arm strength had little to do with this one.  Clark, then a Cardinal first baseman, fielded a weakly hit ball and threw to Todd Worrell who appeared to beat Jorge Orta to the base.  Orta was called safe and the Royals end up winning game 6 and game 7.

He ended up playing 18 years - 1975 to 1992.   He seemed friendly at the National so if you get an autograph from him find something to talk about.  Just don't bring up game six of the 1985 World Series.

Rosemont, IL Show on the Weekend

Is anyone going to the show at Rosemont this weekend?  I will be going early on Saturday and I don't even think that I will have any time constraints.

Let me know if you will be around.

1980 Kellogg's 1-Card Packs and PSA Stats

I've mentioned a few times that the 1980 packs from the cereal boxes don't have a great seal.  It is certainly different from other years in that regard.  I checked PSA's population report and there is only one graded pack, a Nolan Ryan.

Does this vary from 1979 much?  Nope.  Just one Willie McCovey.  The most Kellogg's packs graded for any year of Kellogg's cards is 36.  Not much going on for these cards. 

For 1980 cards almost 5,000 have been graded and over 33% have been graded as 10s.  Over 40 of each card has been graded.  Really?  Nolan Ryan, George Brett and Pete Rose have been graded the most frequently.

There are lots of unopened sets around so I don't think that getting a 10 for a common is a big deal.  Are there any 10s in short supply?  Card #1, Ross Grimsley, checks in with the least 10s with only 12.

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #58 J. R. Richard

I remember batting against a little league pitcher who was a giant - maybe six feet tall even.  How about a 6-8 pitcher?  Yikes. 

I like that the text mentions him as James Rodney instead of J.R.  I also like that he is mentioned as "currently the National League's ERA leader" instead of just saying he led the league in ERA in 1979. 

Finally, we are getting some unique writing on a card back.  He signed a "dough-heavy multi-season contract".  That won't get boring to read.

Richard only played into 1980 due to a stroke.  His ERA of 1.90 in 1980 was lower than Don Sutton's 2.20, but J.R. didn't pitch enough innings to qualify for the ERA title.  He tried to comeback but he didn't make his way back to the majors.

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #59 Bruce Bochte

It's great to be reading the card backs again as I half watch golf and NASCAR.  I haven't followed NASCAR much since my son was last interested about ten years ago, but the last few laps are always fun to watch.  I found out that the golf won't conclude due to darkness so I lost some interest in it.

Did Kellogg's have a card for each team in 1980?   Yes.  Was Bochte the best choice for the Mariners?   He was an all-star in 1979, he had 100 RBIs and he batted .316.  Okay, that's a nice season.  Willie Horton had just as good of a season (or a better one), but he was also wrapping up his career.  The team was 67-95 so there weren't lots of good pitching records on the team either.

Bruce's hobby is listed as tropical fish.  Did he tell that to teammates?

He had an RBI in the All-Star Game in 1979.

The Angels traded him to Cleveland and he was signed by Seattle as a free agent.  No players involved in the trade ever got a Kellogg's card.

He hit 100 career homers.  I confused him with Bruce Bochy.  Bochte played 1B and the outfield from 1974 - 1986 in the AL.  Bochy played catcher from 1978 - 1987 in the NL.  Bochy didn't get a Kellogg's card.

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #60 Rod Carew

As I start looking at the fine print on these cards I will first say that I've had a few challenges with this Rod Carew card.  Like many other first and last cards in older sets, I've seen it cracked and discolored.
I've also had a problem with the first set of unopened individually-wrapped cards that I purchased which was a 1980 set.  The Carew card easily fell out of the wrapper since they didn't use the same sealing method in 1980 as in other years.  I've found this to be a problem with lots of the unopened 1-card packs from 1980 and not from any other year.  Has anyone found issues with other years?

Also, as I start looking at 1980 Kellogg's cards, I have sets and singles available for trading.  I also have unopened packs of most players available for trade although the conditions of the packs certainly aren't perfect.

Back to Carew and the card back.  Ugh.  I will need to magnify these to be able to read them.  Even the card number is a challenge for me.

  He missed nearly 50 games.  He hadn't missed a lot of games since 1970.  He's hit .300 for eleven consecutive years.

He stole home seven times in 1969 and he has 189 career steals.  They still don't list stolen bases on the Kellogg's cards.

I hope that the remaining card backs have something more interesting to say and something more recent than 10 years ago for Carew.

I was guessing that after 1979 Carew probably didn't steal many bases so I was quite surprised to see his career total of 353 steals.  It turns out that the card has an error.  Carew had 289 stolen bases after the 1979 season.

I doubt that this card has been corrected, but I will go check it out.  I checked about 10 sets and cards on COMC and I didn't find anything other than the error.  That makes sense since it seems Kellogg's didn't make changes to mistakes in this set.  It also makes sense since most sets that I've purchased were probably factory sets, not hand-made ones.  Since the factory sets would normally be the last cards printed, if there were corrections to mistakes they'd probably turn up there.  Let me know if you have a corrected card.

Summer Job is Finally Ending; Coaching Has Ended as Well

The new summer job sure took it's toll on my free time.  I've been working Sundays and coaching on Saturdays as well after school each day.  Both wrapped up this weekend.  My team qualified for the State Cross Country meet so that added three weeks to the season.

Before checking out the card backs from 1980 Kellogg's, I wanted to check in on a site that has pack breaks.  They opened a few 1970 Kellogg's packs since I last checked.  One of the packs didn't follow the formula and it's the first pack of more than 40 that I've tracked that didn't follow the pattern. 

Does anyone have any more data on 1970 Kellogg's packs and their contents?  I've been tracking this and I'd certainly love to hear from anyone else who has done this.

That's all I've got on that subject for now.  I am just happy to have gotten home early today. 

The 1980 card backs are my least favorites at this point because they remind me that my eyes aren't as good as they used to be.  Was the print always that small on these cards?