[zeprock]

Another facet of my collection is phone cards, or more specifically, baseball-related phone cards. These seem to have been much more prevalent back in the 90's than they are these days. Here are nine from my collection.


1995 Assets Phone Cards One Minute #21 Nolan Ryan
1995 Classic $10 Phone Cards #18 Manny Ramirez
1995 Classic $10 Phone Cards Promos #7 Ozzie Smith (These were handed out at the 1995 FanFest as a redemption when a ticket stub was brought to the Classic booth.)


1995 Classic National #NNO Nolan Ryan/Phone Card (This was issued by Classic to commemorate the 16th National Sports Collectors Convention in St. Louis.)
1995 Stadium Club Phone Cards #XX 1992 All-Star Game (I pulled this from a pack back in 1995 and didn't know what it was at the time. Now it's the most valuable phone card in my collection.)
1996 Assets Phone Cards $2 #3 Barry Bonds (These were inserted one per pack back in the day.)


1996 Classic 7/11 Phone Cards #5 Ken Griffey Jr. (These were available at all participating 7/11 stores back in 1996.)
1996 Clear Assets Phone Cards $2 #16 Cal Ripken (These were also inserted one per pack and are clear so you can see through them.)
1997 Sony Phone Cards Portrait Series #9 Reggie Jackson

[evolb909]

Cool stuff, thanks for posting. The "oddball" things especially bring back good memories. I'm glad a few of you take the time to take pictures and share your collections.

It's also good to know there are other milk addicts out there... Although I'm at 1 gallon of skim every 2.5 days for about 15 years now. But my BMI has been perfect for over 10 years so I guess I'm not killing myself. Evidently it actually "does a body good".

[zeprock]

Dustin Pedroia is another player I collect. He was a scrappy sparkplug who came up and won Rookie of the Year in 2007 and then won the MVP Award the following season. I immediately started my "Pedey" collection. Playing for my favorite team was a bonus. I loved watching him dive and tumble after ground balls and somehow the baseball emerged from a cloud of dust and he'd thrown out the base runner. He was rewarded with four Gold Gloves and seemed to be on the fast track to the Hall of Fame. Then Manny Machado literally cut him down in his prime sliding into him spikes high and taking his legs out from underneath him. I remember watching video of him desperately trying to come back, on his knees at second base fielding ground balls. Such an unnecessary waste of talent. He's still on the roster but I don't think he will ever play again other than maybe a one-time appearance to say goodbye. Like Nomar Garciaparra before him, he's a HOF caliber Red Sox star, riddled by injury thus sure to keep him outside the door of the Hall. I currently have 455 Beckett recognized unique cards of Dustin. Here are nine from my collection including a rookie, some inserts, a bunch of relics and an auto.


2006 Upper Deck #1027 Dustin Pedroia (RC)
2006 Upper Deck Star Attractions #DP Dustin Pedroia UPD
2011 Topps Lineage '75 Mini Relics #DPE Dustin Pedroia


2011 Topps Tier One Top Shelf Relics #TSR34 Dustin Pedroia
2012 Topps Tribute Tribute to the Stars Relics #DP Dustin Pedroia
2015 Donruss Bat Kings #9 Dustin Pedroia


2015 Topps Allen and Ginter Relics #FSRADP Dustin Pedroia A
2015 Topps Tier One Acclaimed Autographs #AADPA Dustin Pedroia/50
2015 Topps Tribute Relics Green #TRDP Dustin Pedroia

[zeprock]

I've mentioned earlier in this thread that I bought a lot of my vintage star cards back in 1981 - 1982 at the first LCS I'd discovered, Twin City Coin in the Airport Mall. The shop was owned and operated by an elderly couple but they also had a younger man who was just a few years older than I was who helped them out. Nearly 40 years later I still remember his name, Paul Cook. One evening I went in and he was running the shop and having seen me in there frequently, he mentioned that he had something I might be interested in. He showed me a binder containing a complete set of 1958 Topps cards all in EX+ condition. I turned page after page seeing Ted Williams, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Koufax, Mantle, Musial, Banks, Berra, Ford, Brooks, Frank and Jackie Robinson, HOFer after HOFer. He said he could sell it for $200. It had many of the yellow letter variations in it. That was a lot of money for me back then but I was single, working two jobs and living with my younger brother in his paid-for mobile home and splitting his $40 per month lot rent so I bought it then and there. Today the Mantle alone is valued at five times what I paid for the entire set. For 36 years it was my oldest complete set until I finished my 1957 set just three years ago. Today I am showing nine cards from that 1958 set.


1958 Topps #1 Ted Williams
1958 Topps #5 Willie Mays
1958 Topps #30A Hank Aaron


1958 Topps #47 Roger Maris RC
1958 Topps #52A Roberto Clemente
1958 Topps #150 Mickey Mantle


1958 Topps #187 Sandy Koufax
1958 Topps #418 World Series Batting Foes/Mickey Mantle/Hank Aaron
1958 Topps #487 Mickey Mantle AS TP

[DrMitchJ]

Beautiful!
I only have a few 1958 cards, luckily the Mantle & the Mantle All-Star of that year, and the very photogenic Don Mossi ... but I love that design and all those amazing HOF players pictured. Wish I was a collector during that time but my card hiatus was from 1973-1985, by the time I was back in, I was too focused on the Hot New Cards & Players and all the older vintage cards were out of my price range by then.

[zeprock]

Justin Verlander is another current player that I predict will become a Hall of Famer. I started collecting Justin soon after his Cy Young/MVP Award season and so far it appears that he is on track. I currently have 546 different Beckett recognized cards of Justin. Here are nine from my collection including a rookie, a SP and a slew of relics.


2005 Playoff Prestige #151 Justin Verlander RC
2005 Topps Update #220 Justin Verlander FUT
2012 Topps Mini Relics #MR50 Justin Verlander


2013 Topps Chasing History Relics #JV Justin Verlander S2
2014 Topps #450B Justin Verlander SP/Celebrating
2015 Topps Tribute Diamond Cuts Jerseys #DCJV Justin Verlander


2017 Topps Major League Materials #MLMJVE Justin Verlander
2018 Topps Allen and Ginter Relics #FSRBJN Justin Verlander B
2019 Topps Inception Orange #29 Justin Verlander

[zeprock]

Today I'm posting some more food issues. More specifically cards that could be found in the candy aisle. Here are nine from my collection.


1963 Bazooka ATG #17 Babe Ruth (This card was inserted in a box of Bazooka Bubble Gum back in 1963 and depicts a bust of the Babe long after he'd retired.)
1971 Milk Duds #13 Dave Johnson (Long before he became a successful manager, winning more than 1,300 games and piloting the 1986 Mets to the World Series Championship, Davey was a second baseman for the Orioles and owns the distinction of getting the last hit off Sandy Koufax. This card was printed on the back of a five cent pack of Milk Duds candy back in 1971.)
1984 Nestle Dream Team #3 George Brett (This card was one of four in a pack of cards included with a Nestle chocolate bar.)


1987 M and M's Star Lineup #22 Nolan Ryan (This card was sponsored by the Mars Candy Company and produced by MSA.)
1989 Pacific Griffey Candy Bar #1A Ken Griffey Jr./(Blue background) (These were produced by the Pacific Candy Company and can also be found with a yellow or a white background and were only available at stores throughout the Northwest. Ironically, Ken Griffey Jr. is allergic to chocolate and could not eat his own candy bar.)
1993 Upper Deck Clark Reggie Jackson #C1 Reggie Jackson/Inducted into HOF, 1993 (This is one of a three card set issued to promote the reintroduction of the Reggie bar by the Clark Candy Company. Cards were inserted in Reggie bars.)


1994 Sucker Saver #16 Jeff Bagwell (These were issued by MSA and produced by Innovative Confections and each disc was included with a sucker because every kid needs to set his sucker down for a breather and what better place to set it and save it than on the face of your favorite ballplayer.)
1995 Blue Jays Oh Henry! #26 Paul Molitor (This is from a 36-card set of the Toronto Blue Jays and sponsored by Oh Henry Candy Bars.)
2000 Fleer Twizzlers #2 Cal Ripken Jr. (This is part of a 12-card set inserted within packs of Twizzlers candy. They look like the regular Fleer Tradition cards that year except that they are glossy and have the Twizzlers logo on the back. I stumbled across these at a convenience store while coming back from a trip to Hew Hampshire with my wife and two young kids. Not being a fan of the candy, I still bought all ten of the packages they had when I saw there were cards included leaving my wife skeptical and my kids ecstatic at the bounty of goodies.)

[zeprock]

Back to one of my player collections today and featuring Chipper Jones. Chipper was the offensive force along with Fred McGriff in the middle of the Atlanta Braves batting order during their run of success through the 1990s. He was an eight-time all-star, batting champion, NL MVP and helped the Braves win a World Championship in 1999. Many of his teammates through those years are in the Hall of Fame, Glavine, Maddux, Smoltz, manager Bobby Cox and GM John Schuerholz. Now he's a Hall of Famer too inducted in 2018.

Back in 1980 I was working out of Orlando, Florida delivering pre-hung doors and windows all across central Florida. One memorable delivery I made was to an up and coming community called DeLand, Florida where there was a lot of construction. I remember it to this day because I came across a couple of kids about 8 or 9 years old playing ball. Being a baseball fan I struck up a conversation with the boys. To this day I remember one boy telling me that the other boy, Chipper, was better than anyone else in school and was going to be a major league player someday. I always remembered that because the name "Chipper" stuck in my mind because it was an unusual name. When I realized that Chipper Jones was from DeLand, Florida, I had to wonder if I met him that day and I still wonder. I recently read his book Ballplayer and would recommend it to any baseball fan. As of this posting, I have 1760 different Chipper cards that Beckett recognizes. Here are nine from my collection.


1993 Stadium Club First Day Issue #638 Chipper Jones
2000 Pacific Reflections #2 Chipper Jones (My then 9 year-old son, Kyle, pulled this from a box of Pacific on Christmas morning 2000. His favorite player was Ken Griffey Jr. and I swapped him a handful of Griffey cards for this one.)
2001 Sweet Spot Game Jersey #JCJ Chipper Jones


2002 Donruss Originals Nifty Fifty Bats #35 Chipper Jones
2002 Topps Chrome 5-Card Stud Jack of all Trades Relics #5JCJ Chipper Jones Jsy
2002 Upper Deck Ballpark Idols Uniform Sluggers Jerseys #CJ Chipper Jones


2003 Fleer Splendid Splinters Knothole Gang Game Jersey #CJ Chipper Jones
2003 Upper Deck UD Superstar Slam Jerseys #CJ Chipper Jones
2012 Topps Golden Moments Relics #CJ Chipper Jones S2

[scottzoe]

Love all the oddball and food issues!

Scott

[DrMitchJ]

Great Chipper story. You probably did meet him.