The Greatest Decision Fleer Ever Made

 Fleer got married in 1998 to Sports Illustrated. This was a match made in heaven. Here's just one example of a base card from 98, showing off the poster boy wunderkind himself Junior Griffey.

 The back - is that Joe Robbie Stadium? That's an interesting choice. Anyway, they tried to predict what the player would do in the following season. They actually short-changed The Kid by 3 homers!

 From the beginning of the relationship, Sports Illustrated provided context for the greats of the past and the present. This would eventually become it's own set in the early 2000s - Fleer's Greats of the Game without mentioning S.I. at all.

 My favorite part of this pairing? Putting Sports Illustrated covers on baseball cards. GENIUS!

 The 1999 base set again had a simple enough design that let the player's personality come through in great photography.

This is just a bonus - came in the same COMC order... This card has a 3-D effect with raised textures like Upper Deck's Ovation sets a decade later.

Let's hear it for Fleer for once! Not bad. I missed all of these cards the first time around as I stopped collecting seriously around 1996 or so. I missed out on the greatest decision Fleer ever made!

Making Time to Trade Some Cardboard

Some times, you gotta make time to do the things you gotta do. The things you wanna do, gotta wait.

Andy of Ain't Nobody Got Time For Cardboard! sent me an e-mail last week and mentioned a nice stack of junk wax era Twins that had my name written all over it (I don't just mean Brian Harper's). I'm a little chagrined to find that the mailer I sent his way was light compared what was on my doorstep (for real, it didn't fit in my mailbox).

 Minis!

More Minis! Carew is serial numbered - my first Gypsy Queen Twins of 2016!

 Right about here is when I thought, "Dang. I shoulda sent more cardboard." This swatch is probably from Rickey's days with the Mets. Or, maybe the Angels?  Or Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles? It's definitely not from a Yankees jersey. Could be an A's jersey from the 90s. No matter where it came from, it's pretty darn cool.

 Lots of variety, including PC guys, Twins from all over, and minor leaguers.

 Here's another one of the Wacky Packages - a nice Perkins card I'd never seen before - and a mainstay of 1993 Topps.

That Sano card is my first 2016 Diamond Kings card - they are awesome in hand.

Thanks so much Andy! I will have to send you another stack to even this out a bit.

May the 4th Be With You

Sorry (not sorry), I couldn't resist.

May the Fourth be with you . . .

I love the 80s : 1982 Topps Cello Pack

Let's take a look at a cellophane wrapped stack of 1982 Topps cards.

The bottom card doesn't get a wax stain, but the cellophane stuck to the cardboard a little and left some residue...

The gum. Bleeech .

The "insert" is a single sticker.

I haven't seen the 1982 sticker album,  anyone know who is on the cover?

A pair of penguins!

Some of my favorites from the stack. Just one Twin in the pack.

A variety of styles in the set.

And the backs! This was fun to look through, the cards were in fairly nice condition too.

Winning on eBay

Sometimes, it is a fun game to pick the low hanging fruit, other times you want to strike quickly.

 I won all of these with the filters of "Free Shipping" and number of bids "0" - I sort the list by lowest price, then pick my max bid (under a buck for each of these) and just wait it out. I win a little less than half the time, but the bargains, friends, the bargains.

 Here's a fun little oddball

 Coca Cola and Sonic team up to bring us the Minnie. I hadn't heard that Mickey and Minnie factoid before, that's neat.

 I actually lost this auction, but the seller had a second copy and offered it to me to Buy Now for the max bid I entered. SOLD.

 Pedro had just started his dominance there - 82 Ks in 77 innings? The best is yet to come...

 This one was not an auction at all - I was looking for the Kennys Vargas version of this card, but Perkins was on sale for $15. I snapped it up real quick.

It's the first Topps Clear in my collection, and I agree with everyone else that has stated that these are probably the coolest parallels that Topps puts out.