Time sure does fly...

It's been a while.

I'm still here, not reading as much as I used to, but I'm still active in the hobby... but I haven't opened a pack of cards in about six months. I look at the barely opened box of '88 Donruss and want to keep going, but I just can't find the time.

In my time away, I've been working full time and recently upgraded my computer to Vista Ultimate after holding onto XP Pro for about ten years. Since I don't have my scanner software installed yet, this post will be sans quality pictures. I've also gotten back into my old ways of knife collecting and have been spending more time drooling over knives than baseball cards... But here I am, ready to talk cards for a bit.

I've been working on a trade with reader Robert for a few weeks and some bad weather and bad timing got in the way. His end of the trade came in today, and I'm still pulling cards for him.

Going his way are a small stack of 1988 Score and as many 1994 Topps as I can give him. Coming my way are 12 Steve Avery cards (!), a few 88 Fleer that I needed for the set and some '81 Topps that pushes me a bit closer to my ultimate goal of completing that set some day.

We'll do this the old fashioned way and use some camera pictures.



And here's the Steve Avery haul...


In other news, I'm finally on broadband internet... after two years of waiting, Verizon finally let me have DSL.

So there you have it. Thanks again to Robert and as soon as you let me know what '94 Topps you're looking for, I'll have your cards in the mail.

Mail Day: '09 Topps down to three, and two unexpected cards.

Three of the final six '09 Topps I needed came today by way of Jeff at Card Junkie. I'm thinking this is at least the fifth trade we've made and they've all been wonderful. As I'm sure you all know, he's another one of the good guys to trade with.

Here's three of the final six. Now I only need 41, 100, 330.


My parents also came up for a visit today and my mom brought a tin of cards that she found in my closet. In side was an unexpected find.


1990 Upper Deck #65 - The Steve Avery collection is now upto 14 cards. I'd forgotten all about this card. It was still in a top loader and I'm not sure why it wasn't with the rest of my cards when I dug them all up last summer. But I won't complain.

Also in the little box was a card that I need to complete my '88 Revco League Leaders set. Yes, I'm still chasing down a 20 year old drug store odd ball set. But it's a nice little set. I only need the McGwire to finish it. I'll probably tack that onto my next SportLots order.



My thanks to Jeff for the '09 Topps and to my mom for finding a stack of cards that I put in a strange out of the way place fifteen years ago.

6 + 7 = 13 Steve Avery (mailday part three)

Now for the conclusion of our three part mail day from Dave at Indians Baseball Cards.

My Steve Avery player collection got a nice boost today and is now up to thirteen. Sure it doesn't rival some player collections out there, but someday it may.

Here we go:


1989 Bowman #268: I remember buying one pack of Bowman in 1989 and thinking "what the hell am I going to do with this?" At eight years old, non-standard size cards were too much for my little brain to handle. Since then, I've really started to like this set.

I've been thinking about building another older set this summer and I've narrowed my choices down to 1989 Bowman or 1989 Score. Seeing this card today, I'm leaning towards Bowman.

This is a really great looking card. Nice classic pose, very understated design.


1990 Bowman #9: Another great looking Bowman design, with a not so great photo. Ominous storm cloud above his head, a spotlight on his face. This is more typical of Topps photography than the '89 Bowman.

This is another set I'd like to build, but the '89 set is just a bit more quirky and looks like it'd be a lot of fun.

The reverse notes that at the time of printing, Steve still hadn't thrown a major league pitch. But does tell us that he threw at Durham (when they were still a Braves A level club) and at Greenville (when it was the Braves Double A stop).


1991 Upper Deck #365: I actually already had this card, but as it's part of my factory set, I didn't really remember it. When I realized that there was a Steve Avery in 1991 UD, I'd planned on picking up another copy rather than take something out of the factory set. Now I don't have to.

As much as I like 1991 UD, this is my least favorite Steve Avery card of those that I have. The photo on the reverse would have been much better for the front. I'm not sure why they chose the silly pose that they did.


1992 Fleer Ultra #157: This is the first time I've ever seen a 1992 Ultra. I must say, I really like it. Maybe more than 94 Ultra which has always been a favorite of mine.

The photo on the front is great. Is that Candlestick?

On the back we see stats for Steve's first really great year. 18-8, 3.38 ERA and look at all the innings he ate up. He did give up 21 homeruns that year, but was third in the NL with wins, fifth in games started and placed sixth in Cy Young voting.

If you're not careful, you could easily get the next two cards confused for each other, especially if you were just looking at the backs...


1993 Donruss #26


1993 Upper Deck #246

I hope I'm not the only person to think that Upper Deck and Donruss looked almost exactly alike in 1993.


1993 Topps Stadium Club #626

Also in the box was a second 1990 Bowman and another 1990 Donruss Rated Rookie. I'm looking around to see if anyone's had luck with Steve Avery signing through the mail, and those two would be wonderful cards to have signed.

Steve Avery

Here we go. As promised, here's my start on a Steve Avery player collection. I have a whopping six, count 'em... six card! There may be a few more here and there. But as I've said many times, my collection ends just before the vast proliferation of sets and variations, for example I have one of just two Avery cards from 1989, and there were just eight different Steve Avery cards in 1990 spread across all brands.

This is going to be a challenge, but one I'm looking forward to.

Here they are:


1989 Topps #784


1990 Donruss #39 - This was my first Steve Avery card. I actually bought this one in a card shop in 1990 for about $5. It's not perfect, but the white line through the M in his middle name on scan of the back is from the scanner, not the card.


1991 Donruss #187


1992 Score #797 - Oh the days before high quality digital manipulation. You can clearly see where the photo was "cut" using some software program. Look at the outlining of his pitching hand and then at his right sleeve just above the wrist. Then look at his hat on the back of the card. I never noticed this until I scanned it, and thought at first that it was the scanner, but no.

Read the back of the card. There's a wee lil typo there, or poor fact checking, or something. The last sentences reads: "The Pirates won 1-0." No, they didn't. The Braves won game two 1-0.

Way to go Score, high quality product ya got there... I kid, I kid, I actually like 1992 Score.


1994 Fleer Ultra #147 - Wow, that gold foil really doesn't like to scan, does it? Also pardon the dust and cat hair on the scan of the front... I love '94 Ultra, one of my all time favorite sets. I'm thinking about trying to find a box or two of it and see if I can't put together a set... it's a big one though.


2000 Topps #11 - Again, pardon the cat hair and dust. This is my only Steve Avery card not in a Braves uniform.

I'm thinking about tackling this thing in order of release, but we'll see how long that lasts. If I do it that way, the first card would be (not counting any little oddball releases, I'll deal with them at the end) 1989 Bowman.

Looking at ebay a lot of his cards go for no more than $1.50, so I don't see this being the most difficult undertaking of my life.