Card #5: 1992 Donruss #203

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Donruss
NUMBER: 203
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I think it was around the time I got this card that I really started collecting Sandy Alomar Jr.  I could be wrong.  I know it was somewhere around this time though.  I actually like this picture.  It is not terribly unusual but the colors are striking and the photography is pretty sharp.  It is an interesting card.

Card #4: 1991 Score #851

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Score
SET: Score
NUMBER: 851
SUBSET: The Franchise
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Ah, here we go.  This was the first card that really appealed to me.  1991 Score had five different Alomar cards in the set.  It was a set with a number of subsets: All Stars, The Franchise, Award Winners, Riflemen, and a number of others.  This is from The Franchise which had one important player per team.  Roger Clemens was the Red Sox representative.  Alomar was the Indians representative, which made sense since, at the time, he was probably the best player they had.  Carlos Baerga and Albert Belle would soon develop, but Alomar's 1990 season was very impressive.  He was also a catcher.  This card may have been one of the early ones to lead me to deciding to collect Alomar, though again, I have no memory of how I came to have this one.

Card #3: 1991 Donruss #489

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Donruss
NUMBER: 489
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

My first base card in the collection.  Once again, I have no idea how I came about getting this card.  The pose is pretty simple, a staged shot on the field prior to a game, most likely Spring Training.  Pretty boring really, but 1991 Donruss has a number of boring shots.  Nothing much to say about this one.  It is just kind of there.

McDonald's?!

And another random oddball, one-card mailday.  This one from McDonald's and Score.  This is actually the same shot as is on his 1991 Score base card.

One Card Mailday

Just one card here.  I remember these glossy inserts but have no idea how they were acquired.  My older brother had a few and I got a bunch through random oddball boxes.  This is my second one for my Alomar collection.  Nothing terribly exciting, but not all maildays will be.

Card #2: 1991 Score #400

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Score
SET: Score
NUMBER: 400
SUBSET: All Star
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Seriously, my first two Alomar cards were ugly.  Like my first card, I have no idea how I got this card.  Again, I assume that it came in a pack because I was not collecting him yet, but it may have been a trade.  I did like catchers right away, so I may have traded for a double belonging to my brother.  I don't usually like cartoon character versions of players and these with the giant heads were really bizarre.  Still, this one managed to be my second Sandy Alomar Jr. card.  Strange.  Very strange.

Die Cuts, Oddballs, and Coins?!

More stuff to show off.  I bought another lot off of Ebay, probably the last one I will need to buy.  It provided a number of cards, then I picked up a few random singles that looked like necessities.

The Gold Crown Die Cut and the In the Cage Die Cut are two of the reasons that I loved Pacific in the 1990's.  They had a ton of interesting die cut cards.  The In the Cage has a number of holes where the fencing is.  It is just a real cool-looking card.  I have a Nomar Garciaparra in my Red Sox collection that I spent a little money on, this one cost a couple of bucks.  By far one of my favorite buys in the collection.  

The Sportflics card is a little disappointing because Alomar has only a headshot, which you can kind of see through Gary Sheffield.  I am not sure what to think of the drawn card, other than that it is a 9 year old who drew it.  I like the SP Authentic card.  I really don't have a lot of serial-numbered cards in my Alomar collection.  The Showdown is another Rangers card, that's probably all of the Rangers Alomar cards that exist now.  And I now have two of the 90 different Tek variations.  Anyone have any others?  I would love to get all 90.

Alomar has a number of closeup cards of his face wearing the catcher's mask for some reason.  This is a Pre-Production Sample card.

Finally, the Starting Lineup card and figure also came with this coin:

I don't make these part of the card collection, but it is an interesting additional piece.

Card #1: 1991 Donruss #693

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: DONRUSS
SET: DONRUSS
NUMBER: 693
SUBSET: Award Winner
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Yes, THIS was my first Sandy Alomar Jr. card.  It's no small wonder then that this eventually became the focus of my player collection.  This is kind of an ugly card, as many other bloggers have pointed out.  It must be from a press conference, possibly the one in which Alomar won the Rookie of the Year Award.  But it is kind of out-of-focs and has a red tint to it.  It is just kind of odd-looking.  Plus, Alomar is wearing a suit.  Definitely an odd start to the collection.  I also do not totally remember how I got this one.  It is likely I got it in a pack because it is unlikely I would trade for this card prior to deciding to collect Alomar.  So it must have come in a pack.

Some Shininess and Some Oddballs

I definitely ran the gamut in the next several cards.  A very rare parallel from a 1990's perspective, one of the elusive and highly-desired 1993 Finest Refractors and a whole bunch of food-issue oddballs.  Things will eventually start to slow down, not yet though:

1.  1999 Finest Gold Refractor.  This is numbered out of 100 which was a low-numbered parallel in the 1990's.  I found this for sale on one of the forums and had to talk the member into selling it to me.  Apparently he was headed to a show in the Cleveland area and thought he could sell it there for $15.00.  So I overpaid a bit, but I got it.  Gotta be willing to do that with a single player collection on occasion.

2.  1993 Finest Refractor.  This is the second time I bought this card.  The first time I received the card and it was clearly not the refractor.  But this one definitely is.

3.  1991 Mootown Snackers Signature Series.  Classic food-issue oddball without an MLB license.

4.  1991 Jumbo Sunflower Seeds Autograph Series II.  Another oddball

5.  1993 Kraft Singles Superstar.  This is a pop-up card.  I am a little surprised Alomar got one in this set because he did not have a great 1992.

6.  1999 Topps Opening Day.

7.  1996 Leaf.

8.  1997 Ultra.

9.  1995 Score Gold Rush.

10.  1997 Upper Deck.

11.  1997 Fleer.

12.  1995 Fleer.

So a bunch more cards, thanks to another Ebay lot and some random singles.  Not bad.

Lots of Alomars With Some Big Thanks to Baseball Dad

Yikes, I have fallen behind.  I have been on a bit of a binge lately as you will soon see.  Here are the pickups with some random notes occasionally.

The first eight cards came from one seller, the last came in a trade:

1.  2002 Topps Traded SP.  All of the non-rookies from this set were short-printed.  Nice rare Rockies card here.

2.  1990 O-Pee-Chee.  I never really know what to do with these that have the "Now with..." label.  I don't really need to worry about that with this.

3.  2002 Topps Traded Gold.

4.  2003 Topps Heritage SP.  Another nice SP from Heritage.

5.  2005 Fleer Gray Back.

6.  2005 Topps Total Silver.  Rare Rangers sighting.

7.  2006 Upper Deck Special FX Green.  Rare Dodgers sighting.

8.  2005 Topps Rookie Cup Original Relics.  Wow, this is a nice card.  Numbered out of just three, it has a real nice trophy that you can actually feel.  

9.  1991 King-B Discs.  Kind of a strange oddball.

The next two were Ebay buys, followed by a trade focused on oddball cards:

10.  1998 Starting Lineup.  Alomar is the only non-Red Sox player for whom I bother with SLUs.

11.  2004 Donruss Timelines Recollection Autographs.  My first Alomar auto.

12.  1989 Panini.

13.  1989 Procards.  I figure the occasional minor league issue is acceptable with the single player collection.

14.  1989 Star.

15.  1991 Classic II.

16.  1991 Post Canadian.  I like food issues.  I wish they were still around.

17.  1992 Classic Game.

18.  1992 Panini.

The first four continued the trade and then after that you will see a massive trade from Jack of Baseball Dad.  I reached out to him when I picked this collection back up and asked about any spare Alomars he had.  He sent me a nice package full of stuff.  Your side is on the way.

19.  1992 Panini AS.

20.  1993 Topps Micro.

21.  1992 Topps Micro.

22.  1999 Topps.

23.  2003 Fleer Tradition Update.

24.  1997 New Pinnacle.  Interesting shot looking at a camera.  Alomar has a lot of weird, fun shots.

25.  1998 Bowman International.

26.  1998 Bowman's Best.

27.  1997 Collector's Choice CG.

28.  1998 Donruss.

More from Jack:

29.  1998 Pinnacle Performers.

30.  1999 Aurora.

31.  1999 Bowman.

32.  1999 Paramount.

33.  1999 Skybox Molten Metal.

34.  1999 Stadium Club.  He also has a ton of nice play-at-the-plate shots.  This is one of the best.

35.  1999 Victory.

36.  2000 Topps.

37.  2000 Victory.

38.  2001 Topps Opening Day.

39.  1996 Pacific Crown Collection.

40.  1996 Metal Universe Platinum.

41.  1991 Classic I.

42.  1993 Ultra.

43.  1994 Collector's Choice Silver Signature.

44.  1995 Fleer Revco.  I was surprised to see this was a Revco card, not a base card.

45.  1996 Circa.

46.  1996 Fleer Indians.  Another parallel, I have most of the Red Sox team set.

The first one is from Jack, the second is from a trade, and the last is one of the new crown pieces to my collection:

47.  1996 Metal Universe.  Thanks Jack for all the help!

48.  1994 Upper Deck Eletric Diamond.

49.  1998 Donruss Crusade Purple.  I don't even have a Red Sox crusade cards.  These were hard to find and expensive.