Category: non-sports cards

Every new journey begins with a first step…

Ken Griffey Jr. baseball card

[Image Description: A custom Ken Griffey Jr. baseball card by Baseball Card Breakdown, in the style of 1991 ProSet Super Stars MusiCards. The card is a horizontal rectangular shape, with a yellow triangular upper right border, pink triangular lower left border with “KEN GRIFFEY, JR” written on it in black letters, the main photo in between those borders in what looks like a thick top left to bottom right diagonal line, and a black box in the bottom right hand corner with “Pro Set SUPER STARS MusiCards” written in white and purple letters, with a yellow star between “SUPER” and “STARS”. On the main picture of the card, baseball player Ken Griffey, Jr., a Black man with medium brown skin, visible from his ear and neck, and black hair, wearing a white Seattle Mariners baseball uniform with “GRIFFEY 24” written on the back, a blue undershirt, blue helmet, black batting gloves, black and white cleats, and carrying a black baseball bat behind him in his right hand, strides toward the on-deck circle, which has two bats and a rosin bag in it, on a clear day at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington. In the background, baseball players, including one wearing a #3 uniform, are visible.]

Ken Griffey Jr. baseball card

[Image Description: a black box in the bottom right hand corner with “Pro Set SUPER STARS MusiCards” written in white and purple letters, with a yellow star between “SUPER” and “STARS”. A pink triangle with “KEN GRIFFEY, JR” written on it in black letters serves as the top border of the card, and two adjoined yellow triangles serve as the bottom border, with the main white space of the card forming a thick V shape. The main text of the card reads “There’s no denying the impact Ken Griffey Jr had on baseball in Seattle. The Mariners playoff run in 1995– highlighted by beating the Yankees in the ALDS– was due in large part to Junior’s performance down the stretch. The team’s play energized the city and helped secure a deal for a new stadium. The future security of a franchise long rumored to be on the move was locked up for years to come with the construction of Safeco Field, opening in 1999.” A black card number “24” is in the top right hand corner of the card, and at bottom left, along the left yellow triangle, a copyright notice reads “2020 Baseball Card Breakdown”.]

I think I did this right, or as best I could (both descriptions are a bit longer than I’m used to seeing these, but to use less text would leave out important information). To say that uniform standards for image descriptions are all over the place is a bit of an understatement, but I’m trying.

Anyway, it’s a lot of text, but now, people who come to this site will know what the images I’ve posted actually are. I can imagine that some of you are thinking “Wow, that’s a lot of extra work”, and it is, intimidatingly so, but, assuming that I’m doing it correctly, anyway (and please, reach out and politely tell me if I’m formatting this sort of thing incorrectly), it also means that people aren’t left out of what I do because they can’t see the pictures. I don’t know that I’m expecting everyone who reads this and has a website of their own to follow suit with this, but I’m gonna do my best, and of course, it’d be nice if people did follow suit.

To get to the other business at hand in this post, Gavin made this card, and, as I love the Super Stars MusiCards, I had to have one. It led to a trade where I got a few other great customs from Gavin, which I should be getting to in the much nearer future. They’re scanned already, and just need to be uploaded, described, and otherwise written about. I keep tellin’ y’all that regular posting is coming back, and gradually, it will be (I also have a big interview with a Second Life artist friend of mine just about finished, more cards scanned and ready to write about, and undoubtedly some other stuff to talk about), but I’m getting close here.

I should also mention that I have a slightly more general interest, but private Substack these days that’s seen A LOT of daily posts in this time between my posts here (yes, I’m cheatin’ on y’all). It doesn’t cost anything to join, but you cannot sign up by yourself. If you would like to sign up, please either let me know via email (including the address you’d like me to subscribe you at), or, if you feel comfortable putting that information in the comments, please do so.

Onto the next step!

This Started As A Card Site, Right?: Recent Non-Sports Pick-ups

Yes, I’ve been busy doing a bunch of other things, but cards are the space from which this site originates, so let’s cover a few, in this case some non-sports stuff.

Inching closer to finishing original Garbage Pail Kids Series 1-3 (initially, I was just gonna do 2-3, but I found near-sets of both sides of Series 1 maybe a year or so ago). These were both at a table at my town flea market last weekend, along with this CD…

Yes, it was a pretty good flea market table.

For those wondering, this is what’s left of my GPK want list now:

1985 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Series 1a (matte preferred, last update 04/02/18): 5 (regular back), 9, 33, 41

1985 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Series 1b (matte preferred, last update 04/02/18): 2, 8 (checklist back), 29 (checklist back), 41

1985 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Series 2a (last update 04/02/18): 49a, 58a, 63a, 75a

1986 Topps Garbage Pail Kids Series 3b (last update 06/10/19): 96b 104b 106b 107b 108b 112b 116b 120b 122b

If you’ve got any of these laying around, get in touch!

Yesterday, I hit my usual flea market, and turned up a couple more fun non-sports items…

Look at these mugs, punchin’ a kid. Those rats!

I’ve got the reprint set, but I’ll almost always pick up an original ’60s Batman card if I run into any, and I’ve got the dough.

“LOCKED SWORDS…huh-huh, huh-huh…”

If I’m being honest, I’m down for just about any ’60s non-sports stuff, as long as it’s within my fairly modest budget. I mean, Zorro cards don’t just show up every day…

As I get more and more frustrated with major sports leagues, the likelihood of me getting deeper into non-sports cards increases, though if I got really serious about it, there would need to be a focus and (likely) a cut-off date (as a lot of cards came out in the ’90s).

More cards (the kind with sports on ’em) coming relatively soon. I’ve got a small pile near my scanner, and I’m going to try and do smaller posts so I don’t kill y’all with my usual 40-different-card monster posts.

Lots to catch up on…

Sorry about that, folks. Life happened again for a minute. I’ve been sick for most of this calendar year, but I seem to finally be getting better, knock wood. I did some things other than play Skyrim for 260 hours this winter (I’m horrified and amused by this number), while I was convalescing. I’ve even managed to leave the house a few times this month, and of course got into plenty of trouble when I did, so let’s examine the trouble I found both from my house and out in the world!

I bought one more single pack of ’18 Topps on one of my Target runs. Anyone need either of these two inserts?

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This may not look like a Holy Grail comic book to some, but this issue of Adventure Comics completed a run of issues 425-490 for me that I’ve been working on since childhood. In that run is every issue of the original Adventure Comics that happened post-Legion of Super-Heroes and post-Supergirl, but pre-the last 13 issues, which were done as reprint digests. There’s all kinds of great stuff in this run: among others, you’ve got Black Orchid, The Spectre, The Creeper, Deadman, Justice Society of America, The New Gods, Dial “H” For Hero, and all three of the gentlemen featured on this cover.

I got it in the damnedest way, too. I’ve been looking very pointedly for this book for a few years (since I realized it was the last one I needed), trying to get it for a price I felt reasonable (some of the bigger online comics dealers wanted a bit too much for it), especially in bins that flea market and comic show dealers had out, and whiffing on that. So, I’m reading a post on a Facebook comic group I’m in where a guy found a pretty early issue of Adventure (in the 30s numbers-wise), and some wise guy chimes in with “I’ve got #476 if anyone wants that”, totally figuring no one cared. I was instant messaging him so fast, it made his head spin. Because he didn’t want to gouge me too much on shipping, and because he had some other comics to unload, I grabbed a couple more from him…

Mmmmm, first Paul Smith X-Men. I don’t hear this from other people too often, but Paul’s probably my favorite X-Men artist. I’m giving thought to trying, very slowly, to put together a run of Uncanny X-Men from as close to #94 and Giant-Size #1 as I can get (my earliest right now is #107, but I’ve got a run from #128-143, and I’ve also got #109 and #121), through to maybe #200, because that would cover the first year I read it as new issues, during which I found that I didn’t enjoy the current book as much as I did issues #175-back. (I’m of the mind that X-Men started to lose its footing right around where most current fans started to love it, which would be post-#200, so I’m kind of an X-Men hipster. If any of you have ever read Uncanny X-Men #177, I would’ve ended the series right before Mystique gets to Nightcrawler.)

I also got this. In another collecting project (and to let y’all know in advance my comics projects usually go way, way more slowly than my card ones have over the past decade) I’m working on all 4 “team-up” books (The Brave And The Bold, DC Comics Presents, Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One), because they were really fun comics that I was always drawn to as a kid. Let’s see how Batman ends up hanging out with Black Lightning, before he ended up hanging out with him a lot! Superman and Sgt. Rock? How’s that work? Aunt May and Franklin Richards hanging out with Galactus? Sign me up! The Thing and The Sandman drinking in a bar? SOLD.

2 more games for if I ever finish Skyrim and don’t just decide to start over to beat the game “the right way”. I’ve been hearing about both Ico and Shadow Of The Colossus for close to 2 decades, so I snagged the first reasonably priced used copy of this collection that I could find. I don’t have a PS4 yet, so I can’t play the latest remaster of Shadow of The Colossus yet.

With Syndicate? I played the hell out of the Atari Jaguar version (an idea that probably horrifies people who played it on PC, but I think the 3DO version was probably even more of a nightmare to navigate), and while the reviews haven’t been great for this update, I’ve been curious, and it was $5 new.

From there, I hit a comic and card show, and while I passed on getting a pic and autograph from Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat (who still looks great, and seemed to be a nice guy, especially to the kids he met), I did scour a bunch of cheapie bins for fun stuff.

These two finished my Top 10 run!

Can you tell that I’m an anthology book junkie?

I’m about two-thirds of the way through a complete All-Star Squadron run now. Earth-2 is also kind of a thing for me.

Onto the cards…

I liked everything I saw from this kid in the postseason. I always hesitate a little to add young, current players to my player collections, but I think he might end up sticking.

Another Dontrelle relic. Cool color scheme. Not the greatest condition, but it was a buck.

#puigyourfriend

If only we’d all known, 5 years ago, that you’d be able to get Puig relics for $2! This is a fun one, too, from those winter cards.

I didn’t get Ricky Steamboat’s auto for $20 (or the $30 pic and auto package combo), but I got a friggin’ Homer Bush autograph for a buck!

Finally gettin’ on the Vladimir Guerrero Jr. board. (Yeah, I know what I said about Bregman, but he’s not second-generation from one of my favorite players of all time.) By most accounts, the kid has a very bright future ahead of him. Let’s hope it works out that way!

From a 5 for a dollar bin? Sure, why not.

Also from the 5 for a dollar bin. Can you believe these monsters vandalized what’s otherwise a pretty decent condition ’71 Topps card? Of course you can. This is available for trade. No, I’m not replacing the Ron Fairly in my set with this one.

Needed this for my ’70 set. To paraphrase Springsteen, it ain’t a beauty, but ‘ey, it’s alright…

I don’t know if I had any Inception baseball before this. Happy to start with a Scherzer.

I am such a sucker for these 2000s legends sets that were really just filler cardboard for autograph chances, but looked pretty nice while doing that. These got me over a third of the way through this one. Especially like Raines, Cey, Santo and Staub in this batch.

And, finally, I got the complete set of these (1991 Comic Images Silver Surfer cards) at my local comic book store. Scanning does absolutely no justice to how insane, psychedelic and 1990s-tastic these cards look, but I’ll show you 3 of my favorites, anyway.

First issue cover!

I still have a very run-down t-shirt with a version of this image on it.

You have to love psychedelic extreme close-ups of Thanos with shiny, shiny teeth.

That’s been my February so far. How’ve you all been?

So, Non-Sports Cards…

I spent a little bit of time sorting through my non-sports stuff over the past couple weeks, because I picked up a few cool pieces at opening day of the flea market. Basically, I wanted to get a better idea of how much I had of each set I’ve got some cards of, so I can decide what stuff I’m going to collect moving forward, what stuff I’m going to hang onto because it’s cool, but not build upon, and what stuff I’m a crazy fool for hanging onto. I didn’t come up with concrete answers in most cases, so I’m gonna try to figure it all out here, “out loud”, as I go.

This one, I’m gonna go for it, and I’ve already added it to my want list. I’m 40 cards from the end. I don’t have any stickers. Were there stickers? I don’t see any on Trading Card Database. I actually have some unopened wax of this somewhere, I think.

This one’s been on my want list for a while, and it’s staying there until I finish it. 19 cards and 12 stickers to go. I can probably pick off the whole set relatively cheaply on eBay, but that seems wasteful somehow. We’ll see.

I got a bunch of these in a big lot I got a while back, 1992 Cornerstone Avengers (Steed & Peel, not Wasp, Ant-Man, Hulk, Iron Man and Thor). This is the only card I’m missing from Series 1, card #67, “Mrs. Peel, You’re Needed!”. I have a ton of doubles on these still, too, if I’m not mistaken. I’ve barely watched the show ever, but it’d be nice to finish the set, given that I’m so close.

Next up are Star Wars cards. I’ve got some Empire Strikes Back from a few different series, a small handful of Return Of The Jedi, and a Burger King ESB card, too. I’m pretty sure I’m not collecting them, because the checklists are huge, there’s a big market for them which means they’re getting pricey, and, frankly, I’ve spent enough money on Star Wars stuff for a few lifetimes. I’d probably make an exception for the C-3PO boner card, but really, I don’t think I’m gonna chase any Star Wars sets otherwise. I’ll keep them around, though, because I’ve had almost all of them since I was a kid, because they don’t take up much space, and because it’d be nice to perhaps someday get Mark Hamill to sign for me, I’ll keep this one handy…

I figure he probably has fun with this one.

This would take some serious work to finish, as it’s the only Planet Of The Apes movie card I have, but I’m up for it, if the opportunity arises.

The TV show, I’ve got a more respectable 21/66 on. I think I’ll probably go for it, though I haven’t checklisted it yet.

Only have 10/88 of these, but I may have to. I mean, they’re Hulk cards.

Picked up the reprint set a few years ago, but I’ve got a few originals. I won’t turn more down if they come my way, but, like Mars Attacks, I think I’ll just hang onto what I have and enjoy the reprints if I want to look at the whole set.

Fast-forwarding a few decades, here’s MOAR DIFFERENT BATMAN CARD. Used to have way more of these than I do now. I’m kind of OK with that. The print quality’s really…not so good, even by usual Topps non-sport standards. Pass. I’ll keep what’s my only Jack Nicholson card, though!

I swear, I think I’m the only person on Earth who doesn’t like this movie and never has. Come and get these, I have 21 of them.

Have a bunch of these, too, but I’m not quite ready to either collect ’em further (I don’t even have them checklisted yet, so I’ve no idea which series they are) or unload ’em. They’re kind of in card and sticker limbo. I got a few of them signed by Jay Lynch before he passed, but other than that, they’ve just kinda been hanging around for a couple decades. If anyone can give me a compelling reason to do more with them, I’m all ears!

Who was the genius at Topps who thought “Ya know what them kids love today, is that Rat Patrol!”? Cool, border/caption/logo-less pictures, but I don’t get the line existing. I wasn’t around for Rat Patrol in first run. Maybe kids did love it. I only saw it in the middle of the night on Channel 5 in New York, pre-Fox. This was not a kids’ timeslot, or, really, a kids’ show. These are weird enough to hang onto, unless you’re willing trade me something cool for ’em, but I still have to ask…why?

On the other end of the spectrum, does anyone need a card of Iggy Pop with his crotch on fire? I have extras! Once upon a time, I had cases of The Crow: City Of Angels wax. Diamond had a blowout, and I loaded up, because they were so cheap that it made sense to buy cases of it. (I think they were like $5 a case.) I didn’t crack enough to make a set or find anything “cool”, because ultimately, Iggy or no, this was a terrible movie, but I opened a little bit of it, and this card is probably the best thing that came out of the movie.

Keeping this around so I have one to scratch off right before the bomb hits.

Only have one of these. Got it recently. Wouldn’t mind more!

Strangely, I keep getting these in lots. Up to 9/66. I love the soundtrack, but I’ve still never seen this movie. I should try to get on that. It’ll help me make a decision as to whether or not I wanna build this one.

I’m sure Farrah just loved this card, if she ever saw it.

I’ve got about a dozen cards from various series of this set, which is another kinda big one like the Star Wars sets are. I’ll probably just keep accumulating them until I’m forced to finish ’em.

ELVIS NEEDS BOATS!

ELVIS NEEDS BOATS!

ELVIS ELVIS ELVIS ELVIS ELVIS ELVIS ELVIS NEEDS BOATS!

Hard pass on finishing this one, though. Awful quality, and the people I find who have them for sale are almost always what I’d describe as “typical Elvis fans”, in that they’ve probably voted against my right to exist at least once in the past decade or so.

Ditto here. Man, I miss the days when Kiss were super-heroes, instead of the trainwrecky senior citizens they’ve become.

“Draw me like one of your French girls…”

Was this shot from “Phantom Of The Park”? Been a while. To me, it looks like Gene’s hiding out in a shooting gallery. “Shoot him in the codpiece, and his wings flap!”

Now, Queen, on the other hand, they seem to get cooler by the year. Wish Freddie was around to enjoy it and get credit for it, of course. This picture’s missing Brian, though…

But holy crap, this one isn’t. Man, what a badass.

I may have to track down more of at least the Queen part of the set. The Queen and Kiss cards are from 1979 Donruss Rock Stars, if you’re unfamiliar, which featured Queen, Kiss, The Village People and The Babys (John Waite’s old band). I don’t know that I’m hardcore enough of a John Waite fan to be chasin’ down cards of the dude. I did see a Village People card at the flea market last weekend, but it was in awful shape, alas.

Speaking of badass…it’s The Mod Squad! Some might say “OK, how was Rat Patrol not OK, when The Mod Squad were?”, and to this, I say “Just go with it. They were.” Topps just recycled these card borders for an online-only baseball set that I can’t afford, didn’t they? I’ll be happy to see Peggy Lipton again when Twin Peaks returns in a couple weeks.

And yes, E.T., there’ll be time for a snack.

THE YEAR OF DICKS, PART 1220

Yep, that is indeed Dick Martin, from the Laugh-In set. Stubby sent me this card a few years ago now. Again, weird subject for a card set. Did kids watch and get Laugh-In when it was on the air? Did grown-ups collect non-sports cards? Weird licensing choices…

These were at least educational! (Also: some would argue that I shoulda saved this for The Year Of Dicks.) This is my only card from the Who Am I? Set. Nice painting, really.

Another educational card, albeit one that’s been through hell. Until I got it in a house cleanout lot a few years ago, I’d never seen a Supersisters card, and until I read the Wikipedia entry I just linked to, I’d never known the whole story behind them. They’re an imperfect set, but from what I can tell (I haven’t read the card backs on the entire set), it was a noble attempt, given the times they were made in (and I’m kinda relieved that, since they pointedly left Angela Davis out of the set, they also declined to invite Phyllis Schlafly and Anita Bryant, as well). Plus, I’ll say it: I can’t hate a card set with Buffy Sainte-Marie in it…

I don’t own this one. (Yet.) I found it, along with the rest of the set, at the University Of Iowa Digital Libraries (though I think they got a different printing than I did, as the borders and logo are very different).

ALL HAIL THE GILLMAN

This is from the 1973 You’ll Die Laughing set, which, with black and white photos, is not as cool as the 1959 set, which are fully painted and gorgeous, but it’s still pretty fun. Too big of a set for me to build from 2 cards, though, I reckon.

And, finally…

Nope, none for me, thanks. Anyone want ’em?

Long story short: I end up with some weird shit. Hope you’ve had fun looking through some of it!