130 American Baseball Cards from 1970

The title of this post is the title of the listing on e-bay UK. That was it. The description was short and sweet too.

" This is a collection of 130 TOPPS Trading Cards from 1970 covering 25 teams

and including all 3 series check lists. Teams are ...The Red Sox,... . They formed

part of a collection from my childhood in Montreal and are in reasonable

condition for their age."

There was also a picture included but a long distance away in an attempt to include all the cards. I watched anticipating a high price, considering there is another seller who regularly sells 6-8 1970's Topps for £2.00, sometimes higher. With a couple of hours remaining I decided to bid, fully expecting to be outbid, and went to bed.
Maybe it was the time or the fact that they were in the UK, but I won! They arrived on Saturday and I was in for another couple of surprises.
Firstly the cards are in great condition, not reasonable. I thought they might be drawn on, have dinged corners, creases, etc, considering the description '...collection from my childhood...' but no. There are a couple of cards in poorer condition, one looks like it was run over by a truck, another looks as if it was pegged to something, a stain (blood perhaps?) on another.
Secondly, I intended to take the Red Sox and trade the rest. When I opened the package on the top was a plastic packet which had the checklists enclosed. I noticed that the boxes had been checked, so I read through..#2 Diego Segui... check, #3 Darrel Chaney..., #4 check, #10 Carl Yastrzemski... check. I quickly thumbed through the cards looking for Red Sox and there it was Carl Yastrzemski, in great condition. Excellent.
Wait a minute. I started to recognise a few more names, Hoyt Wilhelm, Tug McGraw, Sandy Alomar, Sparky Lyle, Reggie Jackson, Herman Killebrew, Eddie Fisher....Slow down Reggie Jackson, the Reggie Jackson... No way. I thumbed carefully through the cards and there it was, Reggie in his A's uniform. Very nice.
This was a really exciting find. A very lucky find. There are plenty of doubles (and triples) so they will be appearing in trades in the future.

1992 DONRUSS series two

These packs contains 15 cards.

The regular set consists of 784 cards which were issued in two separate series of 396.

The inserts (or subsets) include Rated Rookies , All-Stars and Highlights.

Series one were in blue foil packs and Series two in red foil packs.

Pack 1:

#BC2 Terry Pendelton NL MVP

#BC7 Colorado Rockies

#421 Lance Dickson RR Cubs

#701 Jim Lindeman Phillies

#705 Jaime Navarro Brewers

#709 John Cerutti Tigers

#714 Mitch Webster Dodgers

#719 Sid Fernandez Mets

#734 Billy Ripkin Orioles

#739 Tony Castillo Mets

#740 Sammy Sosa White Sox

#743 Steve Wapnick White Sox

#745 Darrin Chapin Yankees

#748 Rosario Rodriguez Pirates

#783 Bryan Hickerson Giants

Pack 2:

#429 Ryne Sandberg AS Cubs

#555 Gossage and Ryan Highlights Rangers

#560 Luis Alicea Cardinals

#564 Deion Sanders Braves

#565 Walt Terrell Tigers

#570 Scott Cooper Red Sox

#609 Carlos Quintana Red Sox

#612 Daryl Boston Mets

#635 Matt Young Red Sox

#641 Omar Vizquel Mariners

#642 Rick Sutcliffe Cubs

#646 Jack Howell Padres

#650 Chuck McElroy Cubs

#655 Scott Ray Cardinals

#660 Steve Frey Expos

The second pack had 3 Red Sox, which is a surprising ratio. These cards didn't set the card collecting world alight and I bought 6 packs for 99p on e-bay UK. The design is not stimulating but the players pictures on the front are large and usually action shots. The Colorado Rockies logo was the first of the type I had seen from this set. I presume it was because they were an expansion team.

Trade with Derek from 'The Bench'

It has been a bumper time for packages arriving recently. The three bench trades have arrived, plus a number of e-bay packages . I need to seriously catch-up on my posts.

The first to arrived was a big brick of cards from Derek in Denair, California. He was one of the people who responded to my call for trades on 'The Bench'. His team of choice was the San Francisco Giants. I sent him all that I had and here is the cards he sent back.
Enclosed was:

1989 Sportflics #47 Bruce Hurst
1994 Action Packed #65 Trot Nixon
1994 Action Packed #2 Trot Nixon
1999 Upper Deck Encore #17 Trot Nixon
2001 Stadium Club #1 Pedro Martinez
2001 Stadium Club #24 Nomar Garciaparra
2001 Stadium Club #53 Hideo Nomo
2002 Fleer Authentix #12 Pedro Martinez
2002 Fleer Authentix #101 Trot Nixon
2002 Fleer Authentix #120 Johnny Damon
2002 Topps #15 Trot Nixon
2003 Donruss #101 Trot Nixon
2004 Bowman #52 Trot Nixon
2004 Donruss Elite #12 Pedro Martinez
2004 Donruss Elite #13 Curt Schilling
2004 Donruss Studio #39 Trot Nixon
2004 Upper Deck Vintage #10 Pedro Martinez
2004 Upper Deck Vintage #24 Byung-Hyun Kim
2004 Upper Deck Vintage #183 Todd Walker
2004 Upper Deck Vintage #189 Jason Varitek
2004 Upper Deck Vintage #193 Bill Mueller
2004 Upper Deck Vintage #209 David Ortiz
2004 Upper Deck Vintage #263 Johnny Damon
2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #9 Bobby Doerr
2005 Leaf Limited #49 Edgar Renteria 457/699
2005 Topps Bazooka #148 Johnny Damon
2005 Topps Bazooka #154 Curt Schilling
2005 Topps Bazooka #163 Pedro Martinez
2005 Topps Bazooka #168 David Ortiz
2005 Topps Bazooka #220 Jose Vaquedano
2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #14 Carl Yastrzemski
2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #15 Carlton Fisk
2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #31 Fred Lynn
2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #43 Jim Rice
2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #54 Luis Tiant
2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #68 Rico Petrocelli
2005 Upper Deck Past Time Pennants #84 Wade Boggs
2005 Topps #571 Keith Foulke
2005 Topps Total #343 Trot Nixon
2006 Throwback Threads #157 Trot Nixon
2006 Topps #474 Trot Nixon
2006 Topps Update #UH5 Alex Gonzalez
2006 Topps Update #UH19 Julian Tavarez
2006 Topps Update #UH154 Kason Gabbard
2006 Topps Update #UH179 Manny Ramirez
2006 Topps Update #UH221 David Ortiz
2006 Topps Update #UH286 David Ortiz
2006 Upper Deck Chrome #8 Curt Schilling
2006 Upper Deck Chrome #10 David Ortiz
2006 Upper Deck Star Attractions #SA-CS Curt Schilling
2006 Upper Deck Star Attractions #SA- DO David Ortiz
2007 Goudey #217 Jim Rice
2007 Topps #360 David Ortiz
2007 Topps #413 Coco Crisp
2007 Topps #444 Josh Beckett
2007 Topps '52 #117 Jeff Bailey
2007 Topps Stars #TS9 David Ortiz
2007 Topps Update #UH270 Josh Beckett
2008 A Piece of History baseball #BSM-9 Mike Lowell 260/699
2008 Bowman Chrome #79 Jason Varitek
2008 Topps #YR162 David Ortiz
2008 Topps Update #UH264 David Ortiz


I must find a better way of listing these cards.

As I said a big brick of cards! Some that I had never seen and others that will fill some holes. This was the first of three large packages to come from 'The Bench' trades. So far it looks very promising. Thanks to Derek for all the cards. His card in the package had this impressive looking logo for the River Cats. A minor league baseball team?

Phillies in London

No this hasn't become a blog about my holiday snaps. This is a baseball related post!

The Christmas holidays have started~hooray. As a teacher, I enjoy the break. Every year we try to do something with our children for the start of the holidays. On Friday my family (extended-my wife outlaws came too) went up to London for two days. We use to live in London about 4 years ago and moved closer to the coast and a beach.



We did most of the tourist things, Trafalgar Square, Buck Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, etc. We were lucky as we walked up The Mall to see the changing of the horse guards , which my girls loved. By the time we had reached Buckingham Palace they were fed up and didn't want to see anymore guards! All they really wanted to do was go to Hamleys, a overpriced, over crowded toy shop that isn't a patch on Toys'R'Us but they love it!

All my boys wanted to do was go to the playground that has a really impressive wooden pirate ship that is as big as a real ship only better. It is great fun and I think there are more dads on it than actual children. It is a further walk through St James Park and the complete opposite end of Hyde Park, so that wasn't going to happen! We went to Hamley's and came back to the hotel.

While we were waiting for the lift a man wearing a Phillies cap and World Series Champions 2008 T-shirt got out of the lift. I asked the obvious question 'Are you a Phillies fan?'
'Well yes I come from Philly.'
'You must be pleased winning the World Series, the last time was 1980.'
'Do you know baseball?' he inquired.
'I'm a big fan of baseball.'
My wife and four children stood in the lift waiting. I asked if I could just chat for a little longer realising that I would be leaving her with four hungry, tired and grumpy children. She saw that this was too big an opportunity for me to pass up, she answered positively.

Don and I chatted for a while about various things baseball ~ Phillies specific Chase Utley, Mike Schmidt, Pete Rose and the recent World Series, the upcoming World Classic, Red Sox, Manny Ramirez. I told him about collecting baseball cards, but he suggested that only children did that! I told him about blogging and mentioned a couple of names, who knows when he is back in Philly he may just look a few up.
He had to go and meet a colleague for dinner and hoped that I might meet him tomorrow. I didn't. Which was disappointing because it was enjoyable listening to an American accent, talking baseball face to face and being able to hold my own in the conversation.

Thanks Don, the Phillies fan.

Trade with Boxbusters

Another package today from East Alton, Illinois. Will from Boxbusters sent over a fine selection of BoSox.

Enclosed was:

1986 Topps #605 Dennis Boyd

1986 Topps #749 Ed Jurak

1986 Topps #771 John McNamara

1986 Topps #785 Bob Stanley

1987 Topps #374 Glenn Hoffman

1987 Topps #396 Tim Lollar

1987 Topps #675 Ed Romero

1987 Topps #764 Bill Buckner

1989 Topps #71 Mike Boddicker

1989 Topps #354 Larry Parrish

1989 Topps #526 Wes Gardner

1989 Topps #704 Carlos Quintana

1990 Upper Deck #671 John Dopson

1991 Score #232 Mike Boddicker

1991 Stadium club #426 Matt Young

1992 Upper Deck #110 Tom Bolton

1992 Upper Deck #252 Tony Pena

1992 Upper Deck #308 Luis Rivera

1992 Upper Deck #503 Tony Fossas

1992 Upper Deck #505 Matt Young

1992 Upper Deck #521 Jack Clark

1992 Upper Deck #525 Ellis Burks

1992 Upper Deck #570 Joe Hesketh

1992 Upper Deck #588 Mike Gardiner

1992 Upper deck #658 Greg Harris

1992 Upper Deck #678 Danny Darwin

1993 Fleer #184 Mo Vaughn

1994 Upper Deck #602 Damon Berryhill

2008 Topps heritage Chrome #146 Dutin Pedroia 1289/1959

2008 UD X #16 Clay Buchholz

Thanks Will. Excellent cards again!

1987 Topps

Each pack contained 17 cards and 1 stick of gum.

There was 792 cards in the set which included the subsets Future Stars, Topps All-Star Rookies, Record Breakers, Turn Back The Clock, All-Stars, Team Leaders, Checklists and Manager cards.

An interesting feature of these cards is that each card had a wood grain background.

I have the entire set of Red Sox for this particular set but enjoy openeing packs so much that i will always bid if they come up on e-bay. I gave two away to another collector here in the UK.

Pack 1:
#101 Carl Willis Reds
#116 Bill Russell Dodgers
#119 Ron Robinson Reds
#252 Denny Martinez Expos
#365 Rick Rhoden Pirates
#349 Storm Davies Orioles
#546 Mike Morgan Mariners
#575 Pat Tabler Indians
#576 Frank Pastore Twins
#598 Ozzie Smith All Stars
#619 Jerry Reed Mariners
#649 Mickey Tettleton A's
#652 Terry Foster Angels
#741 Paul Molitor Brewers
#752 Dan Petry Tigers
#774 Wayne Krenchicki Expos

Pack 2:
#74 Dan Pasqua Yankees
#123 John Kruk Padres
#148 Dave Collins Tigers
#183 Andy Hawkins Padres
#222 Denny Walling Astros
#380 Rich Gossage Padres
#400 George Brett Royals
#414 Joe Orsulak Pirates
#419 Mark Portugal Twins
#446 Chuck Finley Angels
#518 Gene Mauch Angels
#645 Dwight Evans Red Sox
#674 Bill Campbell Tigers
#700 Dave Bergman Tigers
#713 Tom Brookens Tigers
#736 Steve Bedrosian Phillies
#759 Joel Youngblood Giants
#776 Tom Brunansky Twins

I purchased these cards from the same seller on e-bay UK as the 1983 Topps, although there was some interest in the 1983 Topps, there was none for these 4 packs and I won with one speculative bid.

Again 1 Red Sox hit. The cards are in excllent condition and as always with this seller, the cards had not been pre-opened and searched.

Retiring Pursuit of 2008 Goudey

I have collected all the base cards. I traded away all my 1936 B+W's to Dayf.
There are a few short printed Red Sox that I will continue to look for.
205 Carlton Fisk,
206 Fred Lynn,
207 Wade Boggs
256 David Ortiz
271 Carl Yastrzemski - sports royalty
294 Josh Beckett -sports royalty

But it was time to retire this particular blog!
Thanks to all those (Andy, Justin, Jo, Matt, Spiff and Shane) who sent cards to help me collect the whole, base set.