TTC Update

I found my secret stash of cards I sort of like last night and was able to fill a few holes in the Topps Type Collection.

Here's my current checklist.  I'm headed to a card shop on Friday so I should be able to fill a few of the more recent years with dime box goodies.  Wait.  They don't have a dime box.  I'll pull them and make an offer.  It will probably be in the order of five for a buck.

Year	Number	Player	Team	Notes
1951
1952
1953
1954	160	"Red" Kress	Cleveland Indians
1955
1956
1957
1958				have Carl Erskine
1959	485	Ryan Duren	New York Yankees
1960				have Earl Wilson
1961	205	Bill Pierce	Chicago White Sox
1962	114	Howie Koplitz	Detroit Tigers
1963	99	Jim Umbricht	Houston Colt 45s
1964	95	George Altman	New York Mets
1965	109	Walt Bond	Houston Colt 45s
1966
1967	5	Whitey Ford	New York Yankees
1968
1969	642	John Hiller	Detroit Tigers
1970	14	Hank Allen	Washington Senators
1971	55	Steve Carlton	St. Louis Cardinals
1972
1973
1974	575	Steve Garvey	Los Angeles Dodgers
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980	280	Gaylord Perry	San Diego Padres
1981
1982
1983	565	Bucky Dent	Texas Rangers
1984
1985				have Orel Hershiser
1986				have Orel Hershiser
1987	328	Bob Welch	Los Angeles Dodgers
1988	300	Don Mattingly	New York Yankees
1989	560	Rock Raines	Montreal Expos
1990				have Orel Hershiser
1991	79	Frank Thomas	Chicago White Sox
1992				have Orel Hershiser
1993				have Orel Hershiser
1994	374	Bernie Williams	New York Yankees
1995				have Orel Hershiser
1996				have Orel Hershiser
1997	110	Orel Hershiser	Cleveland Indians
1998	368	Scott Stahoviak	Minnesota Twins	badly creased
1999	365	Raul Mondesi	Los Angeles Dodgers
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007	135	Troy Tulowitzki	Colorado Rockies
2008	252	Dmitri Young	Washington Nationals
2009	6	Ross Detwiler	Washington Nationals
2010
2011	380	Jose Reyes	New York Mets
2012	279	R.A. Dickey	New York Mets
2013
2014

** NOTE: This checklist is outdated.  Please see the newer one at the Friday entry.

Looking at this, I'd probably like to cover as many teams as possible, not just loading up on any one team.  I'd also like to vary my player selection, not having a run of Hershisers.  That's what my player collection is for.

This start of this process has made me realize that my cards are in horrible disarray and that I have too many of them.  I'll guess I'll be making a trade-bait page soon.

The start of my Topps Type Collection

Last night I kept the TV turned off and started to pull together some cards for my Topps Type Collection.

As I went through stacks and notebooks I realized that I've got a crud load of cards I really don't want or need. What don't I have? Topps base cards. Lots of them.

Well, I probably do have more than I think. I've got tons of Orel Hershiser dupes. I could use those, but I don't want this to be a subset of my Hershiser player collection. I also didn't want to rob my Carl Erskine player collection.

I added some blank pages to a notebook and started to insert cards that I had. Ten years per decade and only nine pockets per page. That will mess one up when counting.

One of the problems that I encountered was that I really don't know what design goes with what year. Sure, I know the design names. Burlap. Woodgrain. Pennant. But I'm not sure which is tied to what year.

So rather than keep counting spaces I decided to make some card blanks to fill the spaces. A quick reminder of what I still need to get.

That's nice and all, but I wanted to be able to see the cards. Get to know their designs. So I went to the web and stole many of your card scans. Really. I know where I grabbed them.  I layered a year on top of them for quick reference and made a mock up.

Here's the finished product.  I decided to make the fillers black and white.  Like the giant year in the middle of the card wouldn't have been enough to tip me off that I still need it.

I still have many more years to go.  I've got cards that I know I have, I just don't know where they are.  I hope to have a checklist up in the coming week.  If you want to help a fellow collector out, I'd be happy to take your dupes or spares.  Condition really doesn't matter.

1950 Bowmen

I was at one of my local card shops last week and saw these two gems in the glass cabinet.

1950 Bowman
Pete Castiglione (card # 201)
Rookie Card

So, with a little exchange of some cash, I liberated them.

1950 Bowman
Dave Philley (card # 127)

Probably a bit of an impulse purchase on my part, but they looked so lonely.

Getting these cards has put me on the quest to do a Topps type set.  Not all # 5 cards.  That's ridiculous.  Just one card from each of the main sets each year.  I don't care what series it is from.  No Updates.  No Baseball America.  No shiny.  Just a base card from the base set.  I have to figure out what I need.

And yes, I know that I spelled Bowman wrong in the title.  I was looking for the plural.  And I know that it might seem strange that I've decided to put the type collection together after showing Bowman cards.  And I know that I'm very late to this form of type collecting.

1894 Mayo JFK Tribute card

1988 Knoxville Blue Jays sked

The 1988 Knoxville Blue Jays finished the season with a 75-69 record.  They had 23 players on that team that eventually made it to the majors.

Bike Athletic Night on June 17th?  What?  Refillable cups?

Gently Loved Entertainment Cards - part 8

I went back to find some more Dawbtastic Mork and Mindy cards, but they were all out. I did find two ALF cards that I had overlooked before.

I've never seen a complete episode of ALF.   The concept never intrigued me and I was busy doing other stuff.

1988 Topps ALF - Series 2
I Think I Left The Cat In The Dryer! (card # 53)

1988 Topps ALF - Series 2
Bouillabaseball inserts
Earl "Rat Lips" Flick (card # 36N)

Some cards from Crackin' Wax

Christopher, from Crackin Wax, wants you to take his cards.  I did.  For a small donation, which goes to charity, he'll let you take 20 cards from various boxes he's busted.  You claim the cards you want and then send him your shipping material and he'll get the cards right out to you.

I've been involved with a few BoBuBingos in the past.  They're fun.  Christopher makes them fun.

So, let's see some of what I claimed.

I haven't opened any Ginter this year.  When I saw that an Abe Vigoda card was available, I set the hook deep and reeled it in.

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter's
Abe Vigoda (card # 176)

This summer I read Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone's The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World.  It concerned the Voynich Manuscript.  If you like reading about history and books, the Goldstones don't disappoint.  Here's a link to Yale University's Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscript Library webpage about the Voynich Manuscript.

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter's
Codes, Ciphers & Cryptographs
The Voynich Manuscript (card # CCC-VM)

Just because you need another mini.

2013 Topps Allen & Ginter's
Black Bordered Mini
Jacoby Ellsbury (card # 211)

I think that those cards are worth a total of 9 points in Gint-A-Cuffs V.  I think.  I don't know.  I just want to put that nightmare behind me so I can move on to the nightmare that is Gint-A-Cuffs VI next summer.