So that title is a bit lame, I know. But there have been more and more conversations with similar minded collectors locally, on facebook groups and on twitter which has led to more and more momentum on the original 1987 Topps and Topps Traded projects. Those have now blossomed (probably well too far for me to manage) and I now find myself sending out requests on 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1989 and 1991 Topps along with 1987 and 1988 Fleer – along with anything else my little fluttering heart feels submission worthy at any given time.
There will certainly be a slow-down here over the next month as work is ramping up pretty hard but the submissions have headed out of here fast and furious for the last couple of weeks and I find myself putting together a quick letter whenever I have a spare five minutes of the course of the day or I am sitting on conference calls. I expect there to be continued returns over the coming weeks…well I hope there are anyway.
A bit backwards today, posting starts from today’s returns and will work back toward my last post a week ago.
Bill Bene 1989 Topps #84 1/1 in 15 days – if my count is correct, and I believe that it is, Bene is the 85th return I have had for the ’89 Topps set. Always nice to pick up the “unique” cards in any set so I love seeing the #1 Draft Pick in the corner here.
Rich Gedman 2/2 in 17 days with “2x AL All Star” inscription – there is a lot about this return that made me smile. As a kid I was a huge BoSox fan (yeah, I know – but I was one of the kids who literally cried himself to sleep in ’86 – had to jump off the bandwagon after the two WS wins, fandom got a little out of hand) and Gedman was one of my favorites. This is also the third attempt I have made to get his auto and failed on both of the other tries. Try, try again as they say. And I love the inscription here – I need more inscriptions – those things are addictive! Thank you Mr Gedman!
1987 Topps #411 Darnell Coles and #251 Rob Wilfong – thank you for a great member on a facebook group for trading me these two needs. I haven’t been very active on facebook and now realize that I need to spend some more time there. I would post his name here as a thank you as well but he better give me permission first. Hopefully we have a lot more trades moving forward (if you see this, I have sent out a number of your 88T needs!). What a great community and gets back to my “Fun” comment in the title – it’s great to chat with folks with similar but different goals from all over the place.
Don August 2/2 in 8 days – absolutely love these 1985 Topps Team USA cards, I only wish there were more of them that actually signed. Will have to see what I can do about acquiring more of those as well as the other Olympic cards that are out there (1988 Topps Traded for sure – probably others).
Shawon Dunston 3/2 in 14 days – as a kid in the midwest and before the lights at Wrigley, there were many an afternoon spent watching the Cubbies on WGN. Awesome to watch them play and even better to listen to Harry Carey get hammered over the course of a broadcast, though we would have had not idea that was happening at the time. The 1985 #1 Draft Pick is another one of those “subsets” that are really appealing and it’s always a nice surprise to get three cards back when you only send in two. Thank you Mr Dunston!
Maury Wills 2/2 in 21 days – really, what can I say here. “One of my favorites” is a line that gets used far too frequently over the course of this project but this one would certainly fall in that class as well. Thought it was a bit of a pipe dream but wrote Mr Wills a letter and sent off a check, three weeks later and I have two fantastic TTM additions and a very classy note. He will certainly be getting a thank you card back from me!
Doug Drabek 3/3 in 11 days with “My Best” inscription – I think this is my second return from Mr Drabek. In my experience he has always been quick to respond and his signature always looks top notch – as you can see a couple of my secondary projects in 1988 Fleer, 1989 Topps and 1991 Topps. Thank you Mr Drabek!
What follows is another lot purchase from DJ down at DJ Sportscards in Renton. Always a good guy to chat with and fair with his pricing. Ended up buying a 1984 Topps set as well so the mailbox has been stuffed with those things headed out of here over the last 48 hours or so. My first ever set, excited to put some more time into that one!
1986 Topps Lot – mainly picked these up for traders but I do have an ’86 Topps set lying around here somewhere so who knows if that will find it’s way on the project list. I just find that a lot of these cards are pretty dark and make seeing the auto pretty tough.
- #448 Herm Winningham
- #181 Al Nipper
- #192 Milt Wilcox
- #356 Mickey Hatcher
- #214 Randy Bush
- #226 Lee Lacy
- #681 Dick Williams (deceased)
- 1983 Topps #409 Marvis Foley (set side project)
- 1987 Donruss Opening Day #137 Ray Knight (did you know his middle name is Charles? Ray Charles…Knight – I found that kind of funny)
- 1987 Donruss Opening Day #199 Steve Balboni
- 1989 Fleer #428 Darrin Jackson
- 1985 Donruss #62 Dave Parker
- 1988 Fleer #101 Matt Williams (set side project)
- 1991 Upper Deck #593 Omar Vizquel (Mariners project)
- 2012 Bowman DP&P #BDPP25 Mike Zunino (Mariners project)
- 1987 Donruss #610 Dave Valle (Mariners project)
- 1987 Topps #508 Jim Beattie (double – available)
- 1987 Topps #45 Jim Presley
- 1987 Topps #117 Scott Bankhead
Odometer for each set as follows:
- 1987 Topps and Topps Traded – 599 (who’s going to be #600?)
- 1983 Topps – 5 (just starting on this one)
- 1984 Topps – 53 (dozens have gone out over the last couple of days)
- 1985 Topps – 82
- 1987 Fleer – 8 (this one is still kind of an afterthought)
- 1988 Fleer – 119 (pretty good for always being a throw in)
- 1989 Topps – 85 (and a lot more to come here I am sure)
- 1991 Topps – 28
Thanks for checking in – hope you all have full mailboxes out there!
Lumberjack Cards 