Card #76: 1992 Stadium Club #740

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Topps
SET: Stadium Club
NUMBER: 740
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Stadium Club became known for its incredible photography.  Unfortunately Sandy Alomar Jr. was not a subject of that great photography early on.  His card in 1991 was a simple batting shot.  And then there is this one.  To be fair, Alomar barely played in 1991, so there were probably not a ton of options here, but this is just a very uninspired photo.

Beaumont Golden Gators

I have found that I really enjoy tracking down the minor league cards from Sandy Alomar Jr.'s career.  I have most of them now, I think.  This is from the Texas League team Beaumont Golden Gators, and man, these uniforms are ugly.  I bought the entire team set to get this one card, which was actually cheaper to do than many of the individual cards I have seen for sale.  Unfortunately, now I have a bunch of unwanted minor league cards on my hands.  What to do.

Card #75: 1991 Post #6

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Post
SET: Post
NUMBER: 6
SUBSET: Rookie Star
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I really wish that I had been more actively collecting when food issues were prevalent.  I picked up a few here and there, but for the most part, I missed out on it.  I would have loved to pull something like this card out of a box of cereal.  Unfortunately I had to get it at a card show.  That is nowhere near as interesting of a story.

Tek Progress

I had been having problems with getting Tek deals closed and getting the cards in lately.  However it appears my luck has started to change.  I lamented the fact that I was unable to get patterns 29 and 90 from one forum member a few weeks ago after seemingly coming to an agreement.  Well that member did get back to me and we were able to work it out after all.  So here are patterns 29 and 90.

Card #74: 1992 Triple Play #227

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Triple Play
NUMBER: 227
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This is a cute card.  I think that is Sandy's son there that Sandy is teaching to swing a big toy bat.  Triple Play was Donruss's attempt at creating a kid-friendly set and it succeeded for a little while.  The colors were vibrant and it included a lot of fun photography, such as this card here.

Card #73: 1992 Leaf #9

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Leaf
SET: Leaf
NUMBER: 9
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Just a few cards later came the base card from 1992 Leaf.  I kind of prefer the black border.  The silver border is kind of boring.  I do still like the photo though.  This still came in the same card show trip as the last several cards.

Three Parallels

There are not a ton of base cards out there that I still need.  So picking off the litany of parallels out there is what I am down to, for the most part.  Here are three recent pickups:

1.  1998 Zenith Z-Silver.  Zenith was a short-lived set by Pinnacle in the mid 1990's that re-emerged as a set from Donruss/Leaf in 2005.  So it came out at the end of the run by two different companies.  It was supposed to be a higher-end set in the mid 1990's with no more than 150 base cards in any of the sets.  This is the more common parallel from the 1998 set.

2.  1999 Stadium Club One of a Kind.  Kind of a misnomer as it was numbered to 150.  This remains one of my favorite photos of Alomar of all time.

3.  1998 Topps Gold Label Class 2 Red.  This is the rarest of the three, numbered to just 50.  I was actually unaware of the Red Label parallel before getting back into my Alomar collection and had not seen one before this one popped up.

Card #72: 1991 Panini Stickers #172

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Panini
SET: Stickers
NUMBER: 172
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This card is about an inch shorter and and inch thinner than a normal card.  It is yet another oddball from the same trip but was one that I had quite a few reservations about buying.  It is clearly a sticker card and I was really not sure about its inclusion in my collection.  I had not had any of these even in my Red Sox collection at this point.  I have a few now though and of course I picked up this one.

Gold Mail

1.  2001 Topps Gold.  Quick Ebay grab.  I liked these gold cards the best of all of the Topps Gold parallels over the years.  The border just looked better, and it looked nice with the green.

Card #71: 1992 Topps Kids #71

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Topps
SET: Kids
NUMBER: 71
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Another day, another oddball from that trip.  I was never quite as excited about this card.  I have generally not cared as much for cards that are clearly for kids.  Even when I was a kid.  This one is not as bad as some of the other cards from this set which were much more cartoonish.  Still though, it was an Alomar card and I did not have it.  That is all it really takes for me to want it.

Hey, a Trade!

I don't get many trades done for Sandy Alomar Jr. cards.  I generally prefer trading because I don't have to spend any money and I help a fellow collector out.  That's the way it should be.  However, a lot of the people actively trading on the forums are younger or focused more on the newer sets.  So it is rare to find people who have one Sandy Alomar Jr. card, much less two.  But that happened recently and I got the following two cards, plus a couple of Red Sox in one trade:

1.  1998 Finest No Protector.  I finally got my answer.  You cannot simply remove the protector to become a No Protector card.  Both sides are chrome-like on the No Protector version as opposed to just the front on the regular version.

2.  2002 Fleer Box Score First Edition.  This was the card I was most happy about it.  I actually lost this one in a bidding war a few months back and most of the other times I have seen it, the prices have been astronomical.  But now I managed to snag it in a trade.

Card #70: 1992 Leaf Black Gold #9

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Leaf
SET: Leaf
NUMBER: 9
SUBSET/INSERT: Black Gold
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Okay, not all of the cards I got at that card show many moons ago were oddballs.  There was this parallel card.  This is one of the rare times that I get the parallel before the base card.  Leaf was one of the first brands to do a parallel set along with Topps.  I like the action shot of Alomar smothering a ball in the dirt.

Not as Exciting as Yesterday, But Still...

Just two cards today.  Both cards are a little rare, but not really high-end:

1.  1988 Star Nova Promo.  Still a few promos left from this brand, but I am getting close to having everything.

2.  1999 Paramount Holo-Gold.  For awhile, Pacific was the big dog when it came to massive numbers of parallels.  I will be chasing those for awhile, I think.

Card #69: 1990 Topps Magazine #20

YEAR: 1990
BRAND: Topps
SET: Magazine
NUMBER: 20
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Cards taken out of a magazine are an unfortunate thing of the past.  I miss being able to get baseball cards out of a variety of places.  Food, magazines, pretty much anywhere.  I do not remember Topps Magazine existing.  I remember other price guides though that had cards in them and I remember Sports Illustrated for Kids.  This is yet another oddball I got in one card show trip.

Some Wantlist Hits

All four of my newest cards hit from my wantlist.  That is a nice mailday.

1.  1990 BYN Puerto Rice Winter League Update.  Technically this one was not on my list, but it was the one I intended to have on there.  This is what I love about my player collection: the ability to get a variety of different items from all over the place.  I would never have a Winter League card in my Red Sox collection, but I have one in this collection.  Alomar played with the Leones de Ponce.

2.  1998 Topps Tek Pattern 69.  Alright, some new Tek cards.

3.  1998 Topps Tek Pattern 1.  This one is huge.  This is one of the missing patterns that for whatever reason did not get delivered to me when it was supposed to.  I ended up finding someone else that had it available.

4.  2005 Upper Deck First Pitch Signature Stars.  I was not 100% sure what this card was when I bought it on Ebay.  But I was thrilled when I received it and realized it was my #3 card on my Top 10.  It is a nice enough card with the White Sox uniform which is unusual for an Alomar autograph card, but then the logo on the back and the team on the front are the Texas Rangers.  This is just my fourth Rangers card of Alomar.

Card #68: 1991 Topps Glossy All Star #9

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Topps
SET: Glossy All Stars
NUMBER: 9
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I always really liked this design that Topps used for years on its Glossy All Star inserts.  The only difference with this one is the 40 Years of Baseball logo Topps used in 1991.  This was another oddball from the big card show trip.

Oddly, His First Pro Team was the Indians

I bought these two cards off of COMC, and though they were each a little more than I would have preferred to spend, they were rare enough that I was unsure when I would ever see another one.

1.  1997 Pinnacle Totally Certified Platinum Gold.  This is not serial-numbered although it did only have a print run of 30 cards, making it an exceptionally rare card for a mid 1990's issue.  This gives me all three of the Totally Certified cards.

2.  1984 Spokane Indians Newspaper.  This is Sandy Alomar Jr.'s very first card.  Look how young he looks.  Yes, his very first professional team was the Spokane Indians, a low-level minor league team for the San Diego Padres.  This is kind of an interesting card, looking like the 1977 Topps set.  I have never seen one of these before, and it may be awhile before I see one again.

Card #67: 1990 Classic Yellow #T76

YEAR: 1990

BRAND: Classic

SET: Yellow

NUMBER: T76

SUBSET: NA

TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Another of the oddballs from the same card show trip as the last couple.  I always liked the Classic cards.  They had some nice photography and a decent player selection.  The design was definitely an early 90's one, with the bright colors and blue stripes.  It reminds me of the opening credits for Saved by the Bell.  Ah, the 90's.

Everything But the Kitchen Sink...

What do we have here?  An oddball, promo, autograph, bat card, and a metal card.  That is quite the collection of cards...

1.  1991 Topps Gallery of Champions.  This is a thick, aluminum card.  Topps used to make these of the the major award winners.  I have been looking for it for some time, trying to get a decent price for it.  I got it with a couple of the other cards in this scan.

2.  1993 Select Promo.  I scanned the back of this because that is what shows that this is the promo.  The stats are all 0's.

3.  2004 Donruss Recollection Autograph 1991.  This is my fourth of the Recollection Autographs.  I still prefer my 1989 RC auto from this set.  The Diamond King is probably the most likely to be preferred.

4.  1991 Topps Cracker Jack.  I did once manage to get some Cracker Jack cards from Cracker Jack packages.  But I had no idea what they were at the time this came out.

5.  2002 Topps Gold Label MLB Awards Ceremony Platinum.  Believe it or not, this is just my second relic card of Alomar with the Indians.

Card #66: 1992 Colla All Star Game #13

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Colla
SET: All Star Game
NUMBER: 13
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Of the oddballs from the big card show trip, this was probably my favorite.  I love the glossy finish and the full-bleed design.  Keep in mind, this was only one year after Stadium Club released, so this was still a relatively new thing in cards.  I do not really know what this set was though.  I think it was just a special boxed set from the All Star Fanfest.  Barry Colla was the photographer, I am pretty sure.  Other than that, I really do not know much about this set.

Card #65: 1990 Donruss Best AL #97

YEAR: 1990
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Best
NUMBER: 97
SUBSET: AL
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

An early card of Alomar with the Indians.  This was the second of the relatively epic oddball-centric card show trip.  I don't really know why Donruss released these sets.  They stopped doing them before I started collecting.  I just know I have a whole bunch of them in my Red Sox collection and this one in my Alomar collection.  I like the blue border better than the regular red border.

Random Ebay Pickups

A quick scan of some recent Ebay buys:

1.  2006 Upper Deck Special FX.  2006 Upper Deck is Alomar's only card with the Dodgers.  Luckily it has a lot of parallels.

2.  1990 Donruss.  This one is another of those printing variations.  Nothing real exciting.

3.  1996 Fleer.  Yes, there are still some base cards I don't have yet.

4.  1999 Revolution.  See?

5-8.  Broder Issues.  I am not sure the reason that the Broder stuff does not appear in Beckett's checklists.  I know they are not licensed cards but it would be nice to know exactly how many of them there are.

9.  1992 Dynasty Baseball.  I don't know what this one is, but I love the artwork.

Card #64: 1992 Donruss McDonald's #11

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Donruss
SET: McDonald's
NUMBER: 11
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I think these were only available at McDonald's restaurants in Canada.  I don't know why I think that, but I do.  I remember getting this card.  It was one of several oddball cards to come in My Collection posts that I picked up at one card show.  This was when my Sandy Alomar Jr. collection was the primary focus of my collection.  I do not remember getting any Red Sox at this show, though I probably picked up at least a few.  But I do remember getting a lot of Alomar cards.

Card #63: 1989 Bowman #454

YEAR: 1989
BRAND: Bowman
SET: Bowman
NUMBER: 454
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: San Diego Padres

This was the last of the rookie cards from the major brands that I acquired.  Among those rookie cards, this is my least favorite.  Most of the pictures have been pretty boring, but this is the least-inspired photo of Alomar in the bunch.  Couple that with the boring Bowman design and the fact that this card is slightly taller than normal cards and you have a fairly undesirable card.

Card #62: 1991 Bowman #57

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Bowman
SET: Bowman
NUMBER: 57
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Eh.  Bowman was pretty boring from 1989 through 1991.  The photography was stale and boring.  The designs were not terribly interesting.  The best thing that could be said for it is the decent player selection.  Well that was a not a big deal for my Sandy Alomar Jr. collection.  He just won the Rookie of the Year so of course he was in the set.  This is not a favorite card of mine.

Tek Progress and More

Two packages came in late last week with some interesting stuff.

1.  1998 Topps Tek Pattern 30.  I finally was able to knock one of these off my needs list.  In order to do so though I had to purchase a large lot from the set.  So I have a lot of stuff to go through and possibly sell off.

2.  1998 Finest No Protector Refractor.  I have no idea why Finest did the Protectors and No-Protectors.  If you peel the Protector off, is it then a No-Protector?

3.  1989 Bowman Tiffany.  This is the version with his dad and brother on it.

4.  1998 Leaf Fractal Materials.  This scan does not do this card justice.  This card has a leathery texture on the front and is numbered to 1,000.

Card #61: 1990 Score Rookie/Traded #18T

YEAR: 1990
BRAND: Score
SET: Rookie/Traded
NUMBER: 18T
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

As you can see from the fact that this card is the background of this blog, I really like this card.  The action is terrific in it.  Alomar is reacting to what is likely a pop-up on the infield or in foul ground.  The helmet and mask are flying off and he is breaking into a run.  Orange is not usually a color I like on cards, but this one looks pretty decent with it.

My First Diffractor

1998 Topps Tek is causing me a lot of headaches lately.  I have had four cards I thought I was going to get fall through.  Lost in this chaos is the fact that there is a parallel set to it: the Diffractor parallels.  I did not have any of these and based on prices I have seen, I do not expect to get them all.  But I did just get my first one:

I have no idea how rare the Diffractors are.  But luckily I got the first one out of the way.

Card #60: 1991 Score 100 Rising Stars #1

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Score
SET: 100 Rising Stars
NUMBER: 1
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This is another one of those random Score box sets.  Score did a lot of these from 1989 through 1992 or so.  This one is Rising Stars even though you would have to look at the back under the number to find that written anywhere.  So it would not be hard to just mistake this for some random base card.  The design is pretty plain, although it does have Score's trademark sharp photography.

Random Parallels

Ebay is still my most oft-used method of getting cards.  It is still odd to see cards that would have been very difficult to find when the cards were released for low prices.  It makes filling in holes that much easier though, without breaking the wallet.

1.  2000 Topps Chrome Refractor.  Refractors were still fairly new to Topps Chrome at this point, so they were still rare and expensive in 2000.  I don't actually have the base Chrome card, one of the few base cards I still need.

2.  1998 Leaf Fractal Matrix Die Cut.  Previously I only had one die-cut from this set, a John Valentin.  I always liked die-cuts, though this is not one of the most impressive.

Card #59: 1992 Pinnacle Team 2000 #17

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Pinnacle
SET: Pinnacle
NUMBER: 17
INSERT: Team 2000
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Even after a bad season lost to injuries in 1991, many companies had not yet lost hope in Sandy Alomar Jr.  Hence why he showed up in this set, predicting stars in the year 2000.  They were not too far off with Alomar.  His last All Star season was in 1998 and he was basically a backup catcher by the time 2000 came around.  But he did play for several more seasons.  The insert set missed the boat on a lot of players, so Alomar was definitely not the most egregious example.

Plate Mailday

I had one printing plate previously.  This one is not one that was placed into packs, at least I don't think it is.  I think the printing plate craze started in 1997.  This is the back of Alomar's 1996 Pacific card.  I am not sure how these got out into the market.  I do have one other Pacific back printing plate in my Jason Varitek collection as well.

Card #58: 1992 Topps #420

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 420
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

There is not much to say about this card.  I am not sure why it took so long to track this one down.  The photo is interesting enough.  It looks like Alomar made contact, which is not something that happened a lot in 1991.  Topps had a great set in 1991 with photography, but 1992 was a bit of a letdown.

It's 2006 Again

I recently received a couple of cards in one package that were both from 2006, but showing Alomar with two different teams.  That was unintentional, but hey, it worked out.

1.  2006 Topps Update Black.  This is my first black parallel of Alomar, not that there are that many to choose from.  But hey, low-numbered Alomar parallel.  Nice.

2.  2006 Upper Deck Silver Spectrum.  Numbered to just 99, this is a very rare Dodgers card of Sandy Alomar Jr.  Alomar's only Dodgers cards are variations on this 2006 card.  He started the 2006 season with the Dodgers and finished with the White Sox.

Card #57: 1989 Upper Deck #5

YEAR: 1989
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Upper Deck
NUMBER: 5
SUBSET: Rookies
TEAM: San Diego Padres

Here it is.  This was the big card early on in my collection.  THE most desirable Sandy Alomar Jr. card of the time.  I remember when this card was worth quite a bit.  And as a young collector, it was difficult for me to spend several dollars for one card.  It was $5.00 when I bought it, I think.  But for a 12-year-old, that was quite a bit for one card.  This was one of the big cards in a landmark set.  Of course it was not as important as the Ken Griffey Jr. rookie, but it was another key card.  Alomar was a major prospect at the time.

Star Alomar Brothers Set

I think I have all of the Star sets now.  There are some promos still out there but this should be the last of the sets.  This one featured both Alomar brothers, with five cards apiece and one card with both.  The pictures were used on other Star cards.

Card #56: 1989 Fleer #630

YEAR: 1989
BRAND: Fleer
SET: Fleer
NUMBER: 630
SUBSET: Superstar Special
TEAM: San Diego Padres

This is the fourth card from my collection to also feature Roberto Alomar.  Companies loved the fact that there were these two high-profile brothers in the Major Leagues.  This one is listed as an uncorrected error because the names do not match up to the picture.  There are still more cards of the Alomar brothers to come.

More Venting

Man, what is it about the Tek set that leads to so many damn problems?  Just recently I thought I had entered into a deal to get two more patterns for a decent price.  I thought the deal was done.  Then I didn't hear from the guy for over a week despite repeated emails to work it out.  I finally heard back last night and he no longer had the cards at all.  So that is now four patterns I thought I was going to have that fell through.  It frustrates me because I am having a hard enough time as it is trying to track these down.  If anyone has any for trade or sale, please let me know.  The ones I need are to the right and I have a lot to trade.  In particular I need the ones I should have gotten which are patterns 1, 29, 63, and 90.

Card #55: 1992 French's #10

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: French's
SET: Player Series
NUMBER: 10
SUBSET: NA
TESM: Cleveland Indians

This is one of my favorite unlicensed oddball cards in my Alomar collection.  It is a food issue from a mustard company and the uniforms are airbrushed.  This card features Benito Santiago as well who actually blocked Alomar, leading to his trade from the Padres.  I have two of these cards in my Red Sox collection as well.

Card #54: 1991 Stadium Club Charter Member #1

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Topps
SET: Stadium Club Charter Member
NUMBER: 1
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Technically this card is unnumbered.  But this set came complete in a box and since Alomar's name was first alphabetically, he is default #1.  The Charter Member set celebrated achievements by players during the 1990 season.  I have a few Red Sox in my collection as well.  This card celebrates Alomar's being named the Rookie of the Year.

Some New Stuff

A couple of new cards.  My posting has been a bit more limited lately because one of the home computers is out for repairs and my wife has a tendency to monopolize the other one.  My work computer is having problems with internet connection lately too.  It's been frustrating.

1.  1997 Donruss Signature Autographs Millenium Marks.  I love the shot of Alomar in this one with the hockey-style catchers' mask.  The autograph is nice too.  I wish Alomar had more game-used cards.  He has a nice number of autos though.

2.  1992 Sports Card News.  I am not really sure what this oddball is.  I have a couple now that are similar.

3.  1998 Aurora Pennant Fever Silver.  This is my third variation of this insert.  I have the base and the red as well.  There is still a platinum blue and a copper out there.