Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

I thought I had my 1975 Topps set completed but no, it can't be that damn easy. I  bought the final card for it from a seller on eBay who I've bought from before. One of those folks with tons of sales and positive feedback.

The card I needed was the Yount rookie. Not hard to find but I was doing my usual thing with it...waiting to find one that was in acceptable shape at a decent price. We all do that, right?

Anyway, I found it and as expected it arrived within two days since the dealer is located just northwest of Houston. Here are the pics from the eBay listing.:

As soon as I pulled it from the packaging I knew I had a problem. I've handled enough cards in my time to be able to tell that this one wasn't right. Now, I've accidentally bought 1975 minis on COMC because I sometimes shop too late at night and really should be sleeping, but that wasn't the case here.

Just to be sure I placed my Yount on top of a standard card and sure enough, it was trimmed. Now my standards are not perticularlyhigh, especially in light of how tough it can be to find really great cards for this build (and the 62 and 71, sigh), but I'm not going to put a trimmed '75 in my binder when I can find a 'whole' card at a similar price with a bit more work. If this was the last card star I needed for a tobacco set that would be a whole different story.

So I sent the pic to the dealer and within a few hours, I had a return invoice sent my way with ample apologies. The dealer received the card yesterday and my refund should be here at any time.

I wasn't angry about it. As I mentioned, I have bought from this particular dealer in the past and wouldn't hesitate to do so again. I was just disappointed that the baby I thought I had put to bed was suddenly sitting straight up in the crib and screaming for attention.

Such is the life of a collector.

Fairfield Bubble Pack from Target, Part #1

A couple of weeks ago I was in Target and bought one pack each of 2013 Gypsy Queen and Archives. After I opened them I had the same feeling I had about three weeks into my fantasy baseball league. I'd be better off giving my cash to someone who could put it to good use, like a homeless person.
I spent $6 or $8 or whatever it was and the stuff I got wasn't much fun and was instantly forgettable. But when I had been there I saw some of the Fairfield re-packs that folks blog about from time to time. There were a couple of options including one that guaranteed an 'autograph or relic' card. Cost was $12 I think. Pfffft.... I was not about to drop $12 on an autograph of some schmoe I had no interest in, so I passed. I also saw these $3.99 hanging packs of 100 cards. I ended up not buying any because I had the GQ and Archive packs in hand but I kept them in mind.
I was back at Target a few days later and figured I'd pick one up. There were about eight of them on the rack and I picked out the only one that did not have a 1986 Will Clark All Star card showing on the back. For $4, about the cost of a pack of new cards, I'd get 100 cards and they were sure to be, even if worthless, more interesting than the Charlie Hough on an '87 design Archive. And I was right. On both counts. The 100 cards I received are pretty much without any value but they sure were more interesting than those two packs of 2013s.
I busted one side of the blister at a time and went through them slowly. Here's some of what was among the 50 cards the right side.

Yup, three Jose Mesa cards. They were packed consecutively and near the front of the stack, too. Now, while I dig big ol' relievers with intimidating stuff this wasn't promising. It made me wonder about how these things are collated.
 I waded through more riff-raff like 2010 Topps, '91 Fleers and minor league shiny cards of guys who never made it. But I got a few cards that I liked immediately.

A 1991 Carlton Fisk All Star that also has the 1990 AL Triples leaders listed on the back.

A 1995 Topps Walt Weiss. I had to look at this a second or two before it was clear to me that it's an action sequence of Weiss turning a dp. I haven't seen this used on a card other than this one.

Hall of Famer Robin Yount's 1987 Topps. Now a real '87 card beats a phony '87 card any day, at least in my book.

This card is from a company called Invincible and it's a card of Fernando Seguignol. I looked him up and he played for the Expos and then went to Japan, came back stateside to play for the Yanks before he went back to Japan to continue his career. But the interesting thing was how this card contains some sort of plastic insert. The circle containing the player portrait is semi-transparent and is like a film slide. Never seen that before.

This shiny Upper Deck Matt Kemp card was one of the ones that showed on the outside of the package. It's one of the reasons I selected this particular hanger pack. I have a small Matt Kemp collection. I wish he was so glad he's back helping my fantasy team these days. 

The best of the other 50 cards will come in another post.