You'll Never Guess What I've Been Buying This Week - Maybe You Can Tell Me Why

 I've been trying to find some Kellogg's cards for sets, but prices have gone up too much for a cheap guy like me.  Since I've been selling stuff I've been itching to buy things. 

I did find a John Henry Johnson from 1979 in the original wrapper.  That was the highlight of the week even if I overpaid by paying $10.  

The only thing that I've been able to find cheaply has been the Kellogg's hockey cards of Lemieux and Hull from the 1990s in Canada.  I made about 10 orders, all small ones.  Some included a few other cards that I don't even know anything about since I don't collect hockey cards much.  

If you are a Kellogg's collector and you are buying all of the good cards, please stop doing that so I can buy them.  Thanks for your support.  

Is the Kellogg's market feeling the same craziness as the entire sports card market?  Are there investors jumping in and grabbing all of the most popular cards?  I haven't had time to check out sale prices to know, but is the uptick happening to just the best cards - 1971s and stars?

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs #10 - 12

 I've been spending a lot less time with my Kellogg's cards because I am organizing basketball cards to get rid of by either selling, donating or throwing them away.  They sure seem to be popular now, even some of the junk era ones.

Back to thoughts about baseball even though I shoveled a few inches of snow this morning and I will probably be doing that again tonight and tomorrow morning.  When do pitchers and catchers report?

#12  - Darrell Porter

I remember Porter as a Brewer, which shows my age.  He played for Milwaukee from 1971 to 1976.  I didn't remember him finishing his career with Texas for two seasons.  In between he played with St. Louis and Kansas City.  With St. Louis he was the World Series MVP in 1982.  That was all after this card, which shows him with the Royals.  

Darrell had career highs in almost all batting categories in 1979 but the Royals didn't win their division.  No wild card, so no playoffs for them.  Porter was named the starting catcher for the AL in the All-Star Game.  

Not on the card - he was a four-tme all-star.

#11 - Gorman Thomas

He had to be a teammate of Porter for a while, right?  Yes, for four years - 1973 - 1976.

Not many guys have drag racing listed as a hobby.  He probably had a clause in his contract to protect the team's investment should be get into a big crash.  

I was surprised to see that he didn't play in 1977.  He was in the minors.  He spent time in the minors from 1969 to 1977 so his MLB career is impressive.  His batting average in the majors give a big hint as to why he was in the minors so long.

He did lead the league in homers in 1979.  He led the minors a few times too, including having 51 homers in 1974.  

Not on the card - he led the league in homers again in 1982 and he topped 100 RBIs three times.  

#10 - Bruce Sutter

This is one of my favorite pictures, but I am here to talk about the back of Howard Sutter's card.  Since he was a Cub we all knew that his real name was Howard not Bruce.

Bruce's 37 saves and six wins accounted for over half of the 80 wins that the Cubs had in 1979.  The 37 saves tied the NL record.  Managers didn't pad the save stats like they do today.  Sutter pitched in 62 games and logged over 100 innings.  

He finished 56 of the 62 games that he pitched.  Given time, I'd like to find out about the six games that he didn't finish.  Was he knocked out?  Did the game continue and the Cubs used a pinch-hitter?  Did the game go into lots of extra innings?

Sutter blew a save in one game but he pitched the entire 7th through 11th innings giving up two runs.  That game went 18 innings.  I found an 11-inning game where he pitched the 8th and 9th before being lifted for a pinch-hitter.  That's two.  He pitched the 9th through 11th in a game before pitcher Ken Holtzman pinch-hit for him in the 12th.  That's three.  Another one he pitched two innings before being pinch-hit for in the 10th inning.  That's four of six.  Another one - pitches 2 1/3 before being pinch hit for in extra innings.  And I found the last one.  Sure enough he pitches two innings and is replaced for a pinch hitter in the ninth inning of an extra inning game.

He went the entire season without being taken out in the middle of an inning?  Kind of.  He did blow saves in most of those six games mentioned above.  And he did lose a few games in the middle of the last inning when the Cubs were on the road.

The card mentioned a pitch that Sutter calls a "split-finger fastball".  That was a new pitch.

I like that the card reminds us that the save was not an official statistic until 1969.  

Sutter won the 1979 NL Cy Young Award but one of his six losses came as the Cubs lost 23-22 to the Phillies in a game that is shown on television each winter.  He gave up a homer to Mike Schmidt in the 10th inning after the Cubs rallying from being behind 17-6 in the fourth inning.  

A Purchase That I Never Made Before..........

 ....and I wasn't able to do today either.

I took a trip to The Dollar Store this afternoon with my daughter.  Many years ago I bought a bunch of Starting Lineup figures there for a dollar each but I don't remember the last time I saw cards at any of their stores.

I saw nothing today until we were in the checkout lane.  There I saw a pack of Star Wars cards.  I know nothing about the pack since I've never purchased a pack, even in the 1970s.  The pack seemed to have maybe three or four cards.

When scanning it my daughter mentioned that it made a noise like it was being stolen.  The guy at the register asked for assistance and the manager said somewhat jokingly that she couldn't sell me the pack because it wouldn't scan.  So, it caught me quite by surprise when she threw it about 10 feet into a box of stuff that I guess they cannot sell since the item number didn't register on their computer.

This was odd because everyone who's ever been to their stores could figure this one out - sell it for a dollar!  

I don't have a picture because the pack went to the Island of Misfit Items that we all know cost one dollar each. When my daughter goes back there I will ask her to check to see if the pack is still in that box.  

On the bright side, I got a few Kellogg's hockey cards in the mail today along with a couple of 1970 baseball common cards that I need.  

Has anyone found cards at The Dollar Store in recent times?

1980 Kellogg's Baseball Card Backs - #13 - 15

 Slowly working my way through this set.  I'm spending some time getting rid of lots of my newer basketball cards, especially those from 2000-01 Fleer Ultra since I have lots of them.  My age shows when I call 20-year-old cards newer.  

Time to check out the next three cards to end my evening.  I'm ready to work on another set, hopefully one with larger printing on the back.

#15 - Jim Palmer

Anyone was happy to get a Jim Palmer card from any year and getting his card from a box of cereal was just as good.  

Palmer had a series of injuries in 1979.  By this time he had four consecutive 20-win seasons - twice.  He was the youngest pitcher to throw a shutout in a World Series game.  

Not on the card - he still holds that distinction.  The way pitchers are handled today he may hold that honor for a long time.  

Not on the card - the injuries mentioned remind me of something I saw on television last week.  I stopped channel surfing to watch an old Cub game because Bill Murray was announcing.  There were two different updates during the game about Palmer being rushed to a hospital.  I remember that being a big deal at the time. 

#14 - Steve Carlton

Carlton was a force, just like Palmer, but Palmer was seen a lot more on television - I don't mean that just because he kept showing up wearing only his Jockey underwear.

Lots of the basics on the back.  He's #10 on the all-time strikeout list.  He won 27 games for the last place Phillies in 1972.  

Not on the card - Carlton's debut was five days before Palmer's.  

Here are some stats that you won't see much of with current pitchers.

Complete Games - Palmer 211, Carlton 251

Shutouts - Palmer 53, Carlton 55

#13 - Roy Smalley

Smalley gets one of the longest paragraphs because he's not got the career that started in 1965 like Palmer and Carlton.  Roy wasn't even in high school yet in 1965.  

He was the starting shortstop in the All-Star game and had career highs in most batting categories.  

I knew that his dad played from a Topps Father-Son card but I didn't know that his manager, Gene Mauch, was his uncle.  

Not on the card - he played until 1987 but he couldn't improve on the career marks he set in 1979.  He didn't get into another All-Star game.  That's understandable when the guys who were named all-stars in the 1980s included Dent, Yount, Ripken, Trammell and Fernandez.

New Ebay Standard Envelope Updates

 It has been a busy week.  I find myself looking at lots more individual cards on ebay now to see if sellers are using the new cheaper shipping plan.  I just checked and I ended up buying more individual cards than ever this week.

I've gotten a variety of cheaper and more expensive cards.  Maybe it is because everyone is busy buying basketball cards.  

This week I picked up Kellogg's cards of Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Bill Madlock, Fred Norman, Bill Bonham, Dan Driessen and a few others.  I hope this trend continues, but I will start losing free time because track and field has been allowed to begin in April here in Illinois.

I didn't realize until now the variety of sports that I purchased.  I forgot that I grabbed some Lemieuxs, more track fact slides from the UK, Joe Greene and a few other damaged football cards and the baseball cards mentioned above. 

Is anyone else noticing more listings with cheap shipping?

Lots of Comments Online About ebay's Standard Envelope

 I sold a few things using ebay's Standard Envelope for trading cards.  I can say that everything was easy for me since I purchased sturdy envelopes from ebay.  All of that means nothing until the buyers get their purchases in the mail and approve of this new feature.

I like the idea of sending cheap cards this way.  There is a problem when using ebay's envelope.  The envelope weighs 1.3 ounces and the maximum weight allowed with the Standard Envelope is 3 ounces.  I think ebay should consider bumping the maximum to 4 ounces since it would still fit easily into the envelope.

I'd like to find more cards like this.

I am hoping to find lots of cheap cards with this feature but it hasn't been a fast start.  I haven't made a purchase yet with this feature.  

Is anyone else planning to sell with this feature?  Will you purchase something if it is using this feature?