Page 13 At the Bat Rack Frankenset

  Rules -

9 different players

9 different card sets

9 different teams

player is at the bat rack (or bat pile) in or near the dugout

Have fun (most important)

PAGE THIRTEEN

. . . and the backs

109 - Tom Underwood 1982 Fleer

110 - Wade Boggs 1999 Fleer Tradition - Warning Track

111 - "MEAT" of the Mets 2017 Topps Update

112 - Greg Luzinski 1972 Topps

113 - Steve Garvey 1983 Fleer Album Stickers

114 - Justin Turner 2019 Stadium Club 

115 - Juan Gonzalez 2004 Topps Bazooka

116 - Walt Dropo 1979 TCMA Baseball History Series (the 50s)

117 - Rich Becker 1997 Leaf

Yet another page complete, thanks go out to gcrl for sending me that Garvey at some point. Juan Gone and the Mets cards are a bit of a stretch, but they are both right in front of or right next to the bat rack, it's just hard to see the bats themselves. I think the Luzinski is my favorite, bonus points for creativity in making the bat rack mobile in a rolling cart. How much farther can this Frankenset go? Who knows?

Page 12 At the Bat Rack Frankenset

 Rules -

9 different players

9 different card sets

9 different teams

player is at the bat rack (or bat pile) in or near the dugout

Have fun (most important)

PAGE TWELVE!

and the backs . . .

100 - Pete Rose 1985 Renata Galasso Pete Rose

101 - Kiki Hernandez 1993 Classic Best Gold

102 - Rhys Hoskins 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen

103 - Larry Walker 1999 Upper Deck

104 - Garry Moses 1970 Topps

105 - Kevin Kiermaier 2016 Topps Chrome

106 - Joe Niekro 1987 Fleer

107 - Ozzie Guillen 1995 Pinnacle

108 - Ron Gant 1997 Pinnacle Inside

The Kevin Kiermaier card is a pretty big stretch - once again the big bat racks at Comiskey come to the rescue. I'll keep my eyes peeled for #105 in the future to try to find a more legit back rack card. The set is now into triple digits! Happy also to have a 1970 Topps card on this page, as that set is the unofficial granddaddy of them all when it comes to bat rack cards. There are earlier examples to be sure, but the 1970 set has several to choose from, which makes it a personal favorite. Larry Walker makes his 2nd page in a row.

Thanks for reading!

Page 11 At the Bat Rack Frankenset

 PAGE TEN (with links to pages 1-9)

Rules -

9 different players

9 different card sets

9 different teams

player is at the bat rack (or bat pile) in or near the dugout

Have fun (most important)

PAGE ELEVEN!

and the backs . . .

91 - Joe Carter 1994 Upper Deck

92 - Justin Upton 2015 Topps Update (image variation)

93 - John Blanchard 1962 Topps

94 - Jim Longborg 1975 Topps

95 - Larry Walker 1993 Topps

96 - Orel Hershiser 1985 Fleer Star Stickers

97 - Carlos Lee 2004 Donruss Team Heroes

98 - Jerald Clark 1994 Stadium Club

99 - Wade Boggs 2019 Stadium Club 

Had to use another Comiskey cop-out with #97. Pretty much any regular card with a shot of a batter in Chicago will show a bat rack in the background. Hopefully I will replace that one at some point. Upton and Blanchard are not exactly at the bat rack, but I'll allow it!

I think the Hershiser sticker is my favorite of this bunch, just for the novelty of it. It was fun to have not one, but two pitchers at the bat rack for this page. Fun fact about Johnny Blanchard - he was born in Minneapolis! This card shows him following his best season in the big leagues. He had career highs in almost every offensive category, playing in 93 games for the Yankees. He had an OPS+ of 168 for the season!

Thanks for reading.

Page 10 At the Bat Rack Frankenset

Page One

Page Two

Page Three 

Page Four

Page Five

Page Six

Page Seven

Page Eight

Page Nine

Rules -

9 different players

9 different card sets

9 different teams

player is at the bat rack (or bat pile) in or near the dugout

Have fun (most important)

PAGE TEN!

And the backs . . . 

82 - Travis Fryman 2001 Fleer Ultra

83 - Lou Gehrig 2003 Fleer Greats

84 - Nicky Delmonico 2018 Topps Stadium Club

85 - Honus Wagner 2002 Fleer Fall Classic

86 - Mark Grace 1998 Fleer Legends of Today

87 - Frank Thomas 2018 Donruss

88 - Eddie Mathews 2010 Topps Turkey Red

89 - Juan Rios 1970 Topps

90 - Robin Yount 1992 Topps

Ok - so the big thing here is that the bat racks at Comiskey / Guaranteed Rate Field can be seen from the batter's box. I'm surprised I made it this far before having to "cheat" with one of these White Sox cards like #87 with Frank Thomas. Technically there is a bat rack on the card, it's just not the focus of the card. I'd love for them all to look like #84 and Nicky Delmonico when they are in Comiskey, but for the moment it was as close as I could get. 

Mark Grace has a pretty good card here, but I have to give the crown of my favorite card to the vintage cardboard and Juan Rios. Rios only played in one MLB season, with the expansion Royals. He had a longer minor league career, signed originally by the Mets in 1965. 

Free Stuff Friday #13 Batter Up!

Free Stuff Friday rolls on for its 3rd month! 2008 Topps makes an appearance, but the real Jose Bautista does not! Jose Castillo is pictured on the Joey Bats card back when he was still anonymous.

Some inserts!

parallels! Roark is a Series 1 Walgreen's Yellow parallel.

Hockey! Does anyone want to try a different "other" sport for a couple weeks? I might add something else next week, though hockey gets claimed, especially the newer stuff.

The mini collection this week is Bat Rack cards! Don't worry, I have at least one more copy of all of these.

Claim one or claim them all!

If we haven't traded in a while, please also reach out to me with your address.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

Page Seven - At the Bat Rack Frankenset

Can anyone stop this train? No! Page Seven of the "At The Bat Rack" Frankenset is here. 

Page One

Page Two

Page Three 

Page Four

Page Five

Page Six

Rules -

9 different players
9 different card sets
9 different teams
player is at the bat rack (or bat pile) in or near the dugout
Have fun (most important)

PAGE SEVEN!

and the backs . . .

55 - Larry Doby 2003 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic
56 - Ryan Adams 2011 Topps Update
57 - Marquis Grissom 1997 Bowman Chrome
58 - Tony Clark 1997 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion Edition
59 - Jon Shave 1993 Bowman (Blank back)
60 - Jerry Hairston 1984 Fleer
61 - Mike Schmidt 1985 Donruss
62 - Vladimir Guerrero 1998 Pinnacle
63 - Alan Ashby 1990 Elite Senior League

Oh yeah, it's getting weird now. 3 hall of famers, a Senior League card, and a blank back. by the way, I would very much prefer the regular 1993 Bowman issue of card #59, so if there are any Rangers or Bowman or Jon Shave superfans out there that want to swap, I will send you the "harder to find" blank back version for the regular one. 

I really like the Mike Schmidt card, it might be a stretch for this frankenset, but I am making up the rules as I go along, so sometimes the player brings their own "bat rack" by carrying around a pile of lumber. I'm nearly done with page eight as well, but it's also fairly lopsided with a particular team, so I might try to find some alternates before posting that one.

Thanks for reading!

Johnny On the Spot

Yet another awesome mailer came to me recently from Johnny's Trading Spot.  Where do we even begin?

Well, how about a bat rack card? The rest of this post is all Twins, so brace yourselves:

There are always a big stack of parallels, these have been dressed up inside and out with the parallel and the airbrushed uniforms.

Variety is always in full effect, with prospects old and young.

I have more Kirby Puckett cards than any other player, but I think the Silver Signature was new to me, and possibly all three in the middle row - too many subsets and special editions in the 80s and 90s!

These two were both new to me, as there weren't any to be found in my cereal box these days.

One of my favorite eras of Twins baseball was 2000 to 2005, always a treat to add cards from that half decade.

Did I mention parallels?

This is a great card, probably my favorite of the stack. Love the soft focus background. Terry Felton started his MLB career with 16 straight losses, leading to his exit from baseball prematurely. At the time of his retirement, he was also the Toledo Mud Hens all time leader in wins, which unfortunately did not translate to success in the majors. Both his 16 game losing streak to start his career, and 0-13 record in 1982 are major league records.  He did record 3 saves in 1982, but by the time this card was released, so was he. Felton went on to become a detective with the Baton Rogue, LA police.

To give a sense of the varied nature of this mailer, here is a sampling of the brands and years included. Thanks again John!

Free Stuff Friday # 2 - Double dippin with 2020 Vision

Inspired by the generosity of Jon at Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts, here is the second in what I hope will be a regular series of "Free Stuff Friday."

If you see a card you want, claim it in the comments below and I will send it to you in a PWE. 

Claim 1 or claim them all!

Sorry for the late start, work was a real bear. 2020 is out and here's a selection from Series 1 for you to snap up.

Parallels Universe! DeJong is /299, Upton is /999. Lee is the black border parallel, Realmuto is a rainbow foil.

How about a Teddy Ballgame Insert? All are from 2019 except "Archetypes" which is from 2015.

Mini collection time! Double Plays are a fun way to end the day. I'll try to incorporate a different mini collection each week.


I will take recommendations / requests for next time in the comments as well. Want a particular sport, or year, or brand? Let me know and I'll try to incorporate it next time. 

Check Out My (Final ?) COMC Order

Dude, Where's My Cards?

Still waiting for an update on the shipment I requested on 12/2/2019. I emailed on 12/23, they replied the same day and said they'd look into it and get back to me. 

No response/update for over a week, so I sent a follow up on Jan 3rd. No Reply.

I emailed again on January 8th - no reply.

Hmm, maybe they aren't getting my emails? I started a new email thread on January 22nd - no reply.

I emailed again this Monday, after hearing nothing for another week, with no communication from COMC since that first response way back on December 23rd.

So, I have pulled all of my cards from sale on the website. I tried to have them shipped back to me, but they wanted to charge me $81 to ship my own cards back to me. Fine, you can keep them, I marked everything I sent to them as "For Charity."

I still had a sizeable number of cards that I already paid for, on the site, ready to ship. I had been using a strategy of placing a shipment order at the beginning of each month (after the $5 bonus), then adding store credit a week or two later and starting the process again. I would eat up all the store credit, save $4 of the bonus $5 to cover shipping, then repeat.

My first shipment request from COMC was way back on 9/17/2014. I had been ordering one shipment a month, EVERY MONTH, since March of 2015. This was before I even had a COMC account.

After not seeing my shipment change over to "packaging" status for 6 weeks, I decided to divest in the website altogether. I didn't have enough "store credit" to cover shipping, so I added $10 in store credit (the minimum allowed), and added my last cards to my last shipment to bring the amount left to $0.01

While I will really miss the site for its ease of navigation and all the great inventory, I decided that I didn't want to reward this poor customer service any longer. It's one thing if they lost the cards, or damaged them, or sent them to the wrong address... Any reason would have been better than not replying at all after 2 months. These were the last cards I ordered from COMC, they still owe me 61 cards from the December shipment that never materialized, and probably an apology too.

This is the only time I've had an issue in over 5 years using the site, but it's ridiculous to be ghosted on a simple shipping inquiry. What do you think, am I overreacting?

Good-Bye, 2019! Hello 2020! (contest in post)

Happy New Year everyone! 

2019 had its ups and downs collecting-wise, I wanted to get 2020 started with a quick review of my 2019 Collecting Goals. How did I do? Well, we grade on a curve here at the ol' Arbitrary, so everything is Highly Subjective.

My first goal was to organize my wantlists, player collections, and mini collections.... HAHAHAHA! Well, I definitely did not achieve this goal, and if anything, I'm in worse shape now than I was last year. Some things I did in 2019 did help my collection get more organized - I added some new Hockey and Basketball binders, and I updated my want lists on this site at least once each... Hoo boy, that's a low bar. But I cleared it! 

I made a 2019 commitment to my bat rack mini collection, and now I have a fairly healthy stack of cards to place in pages. At the beginning of 2019, there were just 2 pages of bat rack cards in my bat rack frankenset. Now I have posted up to page six, and there are more pages on the way in 2020. This was a goal achieved without any argument from me. 

I added a new mini collection in 2019 for cards featuring phone calls, and made a modest stack of these as well. They are much less abundant than bat rack cards, they seemed to be most likely found on NFL sidelines in the late 80s, and then again in the mid to late 90s Fleer and Upper Deck sets. It technically started in December 2018 with this Secret Santa post, but it wasn't until 2019 that I started adding phone cards intentionally. I look to continue this mini collection and add a new one for 2020, which will come in a future January post. Any suggestions?

2019 was going to be the year I finally finished the 1959 Topps set build. I am very very close now, with a small checklist remaining of mostly high numbers, including the very pricey Bob Gibson rookie card. If I can find a good deal on Bob (and Willie and Warren and Mickey), then I should have this set completed in the next few months. I'll be looking to do a similar weekly review of each team's set in 2020 once I complete the darn thing!

What else for 2020? I've let my "I Love the 80s" posts wither on the vine a bit in 2019, I will be looking to pick those back up again and start moving from 1981 Team Reviews to 1982. 

I also want to start another set build, and since I've worked on 1956 and 1959 after completing the oddball 1965 O-Pee-Chee set, I thought I would go with a 1970s edition next. 
Hey, here's a random contest with a very long fuse. I haven't decided which set I'm going to try for next, but maybe you can guess which one it will be in the comments below?
Let's say up to 5 people can win this contest, so if you wanted to pick a year that someone else picked, go ahead.
Winners will receive a custom-made-by-me re-pack of those 100 card (+1 pack) boxes you find at, say, Walgreens. Each box will have a "hit," and I'll add some 1970s vintage singles in there, too.
Winner(s) will be announced when I finally pick a new set, probably in February or March.

 Last but not least . . . Support The Minor Leagues!

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - Decade By Decade

So here we have the last page in this mini-collection - showing the zero year from each decade of Topps. I'll be adding another card to this page in a few months, but will I ever finish the page? Will there still be Topps cards in 2040? 2030?

A look at the backs, to give a clear idea of how printing and design has changed over the decades. I may opt to swap out card #70 at some point, as the backs of most 1970 Topps cards have a different look to them. The 1980 set is my favorite design of these 6, but I have to say that 1990 Topps has grown on me a little after repeated viewings. 1960 Topps is of course known as the last fully horizontal set (though my favorite cards from that set are the vertical Manager cards). What is your favorite zero year set?

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - the 2010s

Now we are catching up with the present-day with this series- here is 2011 through 2019. I switched back to double digit numbers to fill this page, which gets us Votto, Devers and deGrom!

Here are the backs, and it looks like Topps has gotten very comfortable with this format- banner on top with name, team, position and card number, followed by a little blurb. A sampling of stats follows, then you've got to give the remaining real estate to the legal department. In my opinion, the 2015 set with its varied colored borders is my favorite of the bunch. The 2019 entry is pretty good too, with a not so subtle nod to the 1982 set. Do you have a favorite set of the 2010s? Do you think the backs are getting stale?

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - the 2000s

The legend continues! Seeing Hideo Nomo in a Detroit Tigers uniform is a little jarring, but for the most part these guys are in familiar places. The Pirates and the Giants appear two times apiece. The Jack Wilson card is a fantastic shot.

You'll notice that for the 2000s, I am pulling cards in the 200s from the checklist, rather than starting over with #1... Just making a different choice here on these. I was a fan of the backs in 2001 - 2003. The 2003 cards remind me a bit of the 1984 set, which had my favorite card backs of the 1980s. I think 2003 and 2004 have my favorite designs overall from this decade. How about you? What is your favorite design of the 2000s?