Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius

I recently got a pack of 1988 Donruss in a Fairfield repackage that I bought at a CVS in town. Over the years, I've probably opened more of this product than another other Donruss issue. It was my first Donruss set and I went a little nuts about these blue-bordered cards at the time when I was nine years old. It wouldn't be until the next year with the first Upper Deck set that I was introduced to the idea of paying $1 for a single pack of cards. Before that, a couple quarters could be me 15 cards plus a puzzle piece at my local Phar-Mor pharmacy.    The great thing about Donruss sets of this era was that in each pack there was a pretty good chance you would pull at least a Diamond King or a Rated Rookie. As the wrapper even highlighted, the 1988 set featured 26 MVP Bonus Cards, giving you an even better shot at pulling something worthwhile.  This particular pack turned out to be the worst pack of Donruss cards I've ever opened. Here's the first nine.  And my next si...

For a while I have had three of those trading card displays they sell at Michaels and other places with decorative frames. I've got one filled with my favorite Andy Pafko cards and one that highlights Central Illinois players (mainly Bill Madlock, Chuck Dressen, Del Unser and Walter "Boom-Boom" Beck).  I couldn't really decide on what to put in the last display and finally decided to do a tribute to my favorite baseball card book, the Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book written by Brendan C. Boyd and Fred C. Harris. Although I started Heartbreaking Cards before I discovered Flipping and Trading (as I like to call it), I feel my writing style about cards and my sense of humor fits right in with the mentality of the book.  I always wanted to try to make a go of getting every card highlighted in the book. Although there are many oddball cards highlighted that don't command high prices, there are also some keys cards that would make comp...

It is interesting to me to think that as Marvel Comics entered its fourth and fifth decades in the 1970s and 80s that they didn't have a complete archive of the comics they printed, dating back to 1939 with Marvel Comics No. 1.  Issues were missing here and there and the idea of the possibility of issues lost to history is unfathomable with how prestigious and popular the comic book company would eventually become.   Thankfully, a collector by the name of George Olshevsky, a comic collector on a level that surpasses all others, was the only person in the world to collect the complete works of Marvel Comics from the very beginning.  Beginning in 1976, Olshevsky shared his incredible comic collection with the world, doing summaries on each issue of the key Marvel series. I recently picked up one of those guides in issue No. 5 of the Mighty Thor index from November 1977.  Here's what each page looks like with the key details and credits of each issue plus any ...

For whatever reason in my various forms of collecting that has extended from baseball cards to music to comics to 1970s horror magazines , video game collecting never really struck my interest.  I guess I always thought of them more as a tool than a collectible. I've purchased more games on Steam than I'm prepared to admit and while I've still got my original Nintendo and Sega Genesis, those old games from my childhood are boxed up in the basement. I really enjoy my Xbox Series S and I have no problem giving up the idea of owning physical games for the digital-only console.  Although, one exception has recently broken through my disinterest in video game collecting and that is a complete Atari 2600 Spider-Man game.  This was a release by Parker Brothers in 1982 and was not only the first Spider-Man video game but also the first Marvel Comics video game. What got me interested in tracking one down was taking a closer look at the amazing art on the front.  The back giv...

Doesn't Hall of Fame pitcher  Burleigh Grimes look awesome in this photo?  The legendary last pitcher to be able to throw a spitball in the major leagues is smoking a cigar in a great three piece suit.  It was taken on, what what I imagine to be, one of the best days of his life -- October 5, 1936 -- when he was named the manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, replacing Casey Stengel.  Grimes was born in the little town of Emerald, Wisconsin, which is about an hour northwest of my hometown of Eau Claire. I must be one of the few people in the world with a "Burleigh Grimes baseball cards" saved search on eBay.  It was through that search that I found this original photo up for auction. Originally from Acme Newspictures, Inc., the image was sold to newspapers looking to use it in a story about Grimes' new job.  The reverse side has the following cutline about the image:  "Burleigh Grimes, former spitball pitcher in the major leagues and present minor league m...

Here are a couple recent additions to my Matt Batts collection . As a collector of "Matt" cards, the best "Matt" to play the game is Matt Williams (or maybe an argument could be made for Christy Mathewson, but that missing "T" makes all the difference) but  good old Matt Batts holds sentimental value just for the name alone.  As a Matt Flaten, I appreciate Batts' name that also sounds like an action...and a baseball action at that.  Batts was a Boston Red Sox prospect just before the U.S. became involved in World War II and he served in the Air Force from December 1942 to December 1945. He made his pro debut in 1947 with the Red Sox and also played for the Browns, Tigers, White Sox and Reds before retiring after the 1956 season.  Batts was a dependable back stop, who had a career .269 batting average with 26 home runs and 219 RBIs.  While playing for the Browns in 1951, Batts caught for Satchell Paige, who became the American League's first black p...

In my card collecting career, I've opened thousands of packs of cards. I still get a thrill getting to rip open something new and that enjoyment is coming back to me after the shortage of retail products during the pandemic.  But some of the cards I've owned I've always wondered how exactly they got into the card collecting market. Some cards of course were famously inserted into packs of cigarettes. Some cards were put into food products and cereal boxes. Some you had to collect wrappers to mail away for the chance to getting cards sent back.  But the oversized Exhibit Salutation cards have always mystified me because I've read that they were distributed through their own vending machine. I had a hard time definitively finding answers for some of my follow-up questions (how much were they, how big was the machine?) but then one day a few years ago I got to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York and it was all answered. After spending several hours in ...