I recently saw some cool things on eBay and decided to finish some sets and grab some cool pieces of history. Let’s start off with the sets.
A few years ago, I was able to purchase a 1998 Topps Inaugural Rays complete set from a guy on Facebook for less than the price of the regular set. This set gave me 2/3 of a Rays master 1998 Topps set, with the regular and Inaugural Rays versions complete, and the Inaugural Diamondbacks set missing. I found a decent priced Rays Inaugural D-Backs set on eBay, and was able to get a Rays 2002 Topps Total team set and get a reduced shipping charge.
That’s the D-Backs set.
There’s the regular set.
I could kick it up one more notch and try to go for the Minted in Cooperstown parallel set. I’m still missing a few, but I’m close to halfway done with that one.
Base, Inaugural Diamondbacks, Inaugural Rays, Minted in Cooperstown, Chrome, and Chrome Refractor.
Mike Piazza, Cal Ripken, and Tom Glavine grace the front.
There is just info about the set on the back.
The other items I picked up were kind of historical items. I remember when Topps Chrome first debuted in 1996 that it was a huge set. The first Chrome set came out in 1993 with Topps Finest, and Topps Chrome was a premium brand with some novelty still attached to it when it came out in 1996. I found an advertising panel for the set, and at around 10 bucks, I felt the price was right.
I also found another panel for 1997 Bowman Chrome. This was the set that started the rookie craze and paved the way for the iconic Bowman Chrome autographed rookie card. While the autographed rookie wouldn’t come out until 2001, had the 1997 Chrome set never happened, we wouldn’t have the 2001 Pujols autographed rookie, the 2010 Trout autographed rookie, and all of the other autographed Bowman Chrome rookies. Name a player, and they probably have an autographed Bowman Chrome rookie. The 1997 Bowman Chrome set made that possible.
I’m going to keep this flier with my Chipper Jones cards.
I would love to find an ad sheet like this of 1993 Topps Finest. I have a 1989 Upper Deck DeWayne Buice promo card, and with the 2 promo sheets I added to my collection, I feel like I have some of the iconic sets represented. Maybe just need the Finest sheet (if it exists), and something from 1991 Stadium Club, 1990 Leaf, and 1989 Bowman.
I’ve had a little bit of fun lately, as I’ve attended 2 Stetson University baseball games. The first one actually wasn’t a Stetson game, but was a tournament game of Notre Dame and Iowa that was played at Stetson’s home park. I met up with my friend Jim, and got him a card of Wes Obermueller that he got signed, and I got a Nick Ungs 2004 Topps card signed.
On Tuesday, we went to see Stetson play FGCU. It was supposed to have a baseball card giveaway, but they gave away pennants instead. They had schedule posters in the entrance of the park, and I got one to get signed by the 4 players on it. Kyler and I had the poster, 3 cards from a 2023 Stetson set, and a 1993 Topps Traded Andy Barkett to get signed. Andy’s son Isaiah plays for Stetson, and he usually attends the games. Kyler helped me spot everyone on the poster before the game, so we got that one done. Later, Jim pointed out where Barkett was sitting, and we got him. Isaiah Barkett was on the poster, so I got a father and son in the same day. I don’t think that has ever happened before. The game was kind of bittersweet for me. My stepdad had been battling cancer, and passed away the day before. He treated me like his own kid, and we’ve been to many ballgames together. He beat me at a pool noodle tossing contest at a Corpus Cristi Hooks game in 2017. A Texas native, he would always say ‘God bless Texas’ after the national anthem. After the anthem at the Stetson game, I gave a good ‘God bless Texas’. While Stetson fell behind 9-0, and intimately lost 14-12, I think my stepdad gave Stetson some magic as they hit a Grand Slam and pulled to within 2. It was Kylers first Grand Slam, and made the defeat a little easier to swallow. We’re going to the game on Tuesday as our church purchased a section of seats. I grabbed another schedule poster that I’ll get signed, and let Kyler have the first one. I also found a few more players in the 2023 Stetson set that are one the roster, so I added them to my stack, and we’ll try to get those finished tomorrow. Before the game, I’ll pay John from Johnny’s Trading Spot a visit and look through some of his trade boxes. I have some Braves for him that he can hopefully use.
Maybe someday I’ll find more 1998 Topps versions of Rays cards to complete that rainbow someday, as well as finding a 1993 Finest ad. While the Rays might not be a popular team among collectors and ‘96 Topps Chrome and ‘97 Bowman Chrome might be sets that make flippers laugh, they are all cool to me, and I will continue collecting stuff like that because that’s what I’m into.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy
see ya tomorrow
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