I bought a collection of 561 different Paul Goldschmidt cards.

Yesterday I made another Facebook Marketplace purchase. I picked up a Paul Goldschmidt collection from a guy that not only stopped collecting Goldschmidt as a result of Goldschmidt's trade to the Cardinals and recent extension signing, but is giving up on collecting all-together. Sad for him. Good for me!

According to the seller, the collection includes 561 different Paul Goldschmidt cards. Because he is getting out of collecting all together, he included his entire collection, which is maybe another 300-400 cards, mostly 2018 Topps base, but a few relics and autographs as well.In the picture, the two small white boxes and the small lot of top loaders in front of the small white box are all the non Goldschmidt stuff.

Before I integrate my current Goldschmidt PC with the collection I bought, I wanted to get a count of what I already have, so I can tell how many of the 561 are new to me.

I currently have my Goldschmidt collection sorted by brand and then by year, all individually stored in top loaders or magnetics.

Allen & Ginter - 24
Archives - 12
Big League - 3
Bowman - 28
Bowman's Best - 10
Bowman Chrome - 14
Bowman Platinum - 14
Bowman Sterling - 1
Bunt - 7
Chipz - 3
Classics - 2
Chronicles - 2
Custom - 2
Donruss - 30
Diamond Kings - 8
Elite - 3
eTopps - 1
Finest - 11
Fire - 3
Five Star - 7
Gallery - 4
Gold Label - 7
Gypsy Queen - 24
Heritage - 29
Honus Bonus - 2
Immaculate Collection - 1
Inception - 1
In the Game - 1
Museum Collection - 15
National Treasures - 2
Oddballs - 4
Opening Day - 10
Panini - 12
Pinnacle - 1
Prestige - 1
Prizm - 9
Select - 3
Stadium Club - 13
Strata - 1
Supreme - 4
Tier One - 10
Topps - 111
Topps 5 x7 - 2
Topps Chrome - 53
Topps Tek - 7
Triple Play - 2
Triple Threads - 19
Tri Star Obak - 1
Tribute - 10
544 different Paul Goldschmidt cards

I also have 235 duplicates.

By adding this collection of 561 different Paul Goldschmidt cards, I could, in theory, more than double my Goldschmidt PC, but I know that won't happen. I'm hoping to be able to add about 200 new Goldschmidt cards to my collection.

I love being able to quickly look through my cards in binders, but for my player collections I don't like the idea of a run of cards together, but I also don't like the thought of cards numbered to 50 or less just being in a binder page. That's the reason I went with top loaders.

I'm going to have to take another look at how I store my Goldschmidt collection and see if I want to continue with the top loaders or move everything into pages and binders.

What are your thoughts? How do you store your player collections?

Finishing up the Facebook Marketplace Purchase and Prizes for an Upcoming Contest

Alright, I'm going to try to finish up my Facebook Marketplace purchase in one last post here. I don't think I'll have any pictures because this is mostly for me anyways.

I was at $44 dollars worth previously.

1991 Studio Set, missing just 7 cards. 51, 53, 112, 154, 171, and 234 with Rod Carew puzzle  - $5
Boardwalk Baseball All-Time Records Holders 44 card set - $5
Circle K All-Time Home Run Kings 33 card set - $5

So that puts me at $59.

I went through and pulled out 9 cards from every set represented so I could put them in a binder. Probably got about 25 different pages; everything from 1986 O-Pee-Chee to 1994 Leaf. I'm going to give each page a $1 value. So that puts me at $84.

Next I tried giving away all the other cards via Twitter. The guy that I found locally offered me D-Backs bobbleheads in exchange. i told him it wasn't needed, but if he wanted I did need one bobblehead from last year, so he gave me the 2018 Ketel Marte Luchador bobblehead and he even through in a Zach Grenike mini bobblehead that wasn't a stadium giveaway, but was part of a package if you made a donation to the Phoenix Children's Hospital a couple years ago.So I value those two bobbleheads conservatively at $30. My total now is at $114.

So for $100 I got $114 worth of value in my opinion between various cards and the two bobbleheads, plus I got 19 factory sealed Topps sets. Not bad.

Now, I'll be working on the contest that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I've got the prizes, but I haven't got the contest figured out just yet.

I did pick up another prize for the contest recently though. Not sure if anyone would be interested in a Ron Tompkins rookie card. In addition to the Tompkins rookie card, I have the 1956 Hank Aaron and the 1978 Eddie Murray RC.

With prizes this big, I might need a while to come up with the contest, so be patient.

Only 22 cards to go for the 1991 Topps Archives Set

The collection I purchased recently had a small stack of 1991 Topps Archives cards paying homage to the 1953 Topps set. I happen to be trying to complete this set, so I went through the 24 cards and found two cards I needed for my set. Not going to assign a dollar amount to these because it would be less than $1, but it was still a nice find and hopefully I can complete this set soon.

By adding these two cards, I now need just 22 cards to complete the set. if you have any I need, let me know so we can work out a trade.

#24
#33
#35
#41
#55
#66
#69
#86
#114
#142
#145
#184
#213
#222
#239
#253
#261
#264
#267
#268
#271
#275

9 cards...I mean 27 cards from 1992 Stadium Club

In my opinion, 1992 Stadium Club took a step backwards after a stellar 1991 inaugural set. The 1992 set is nice, it just wasn't as good as the 1991 set, again, in my opinion. The photography was still good, but it wasn't ground breaking anymore. Topps also took the set to the extreme by issuing 3 Series with 300 cards each for the biggest set Topps would ever produce up to that point and for several more years, with a whopping 900 cards.

The collection that I purchased off Facebook Marketplace had probably about 350 cards representing all three series. I was able to find 9 cards from each series to fill a page in a binder. I tossed the rest as they had a lot of condition issues.

Here are the three pages I saved for my collection, which again I will value at $1 per page, so $3 for this post and $48 so far towards my goal of $100.

Series I

Series II

Series III (I had to include the checklist, which is card #900)

9 cards from 1991 Stadium Club

While the guy I bought the collection from appears to have been a member of the Stadium Club in 1991, other than the Charter Member and Members Only cards, he only had 5 pages in a binder filled with Series I from that year. He had two of the more iconic cards though from the set, so that was nice. Previously I had selected a binder page from 1991 Stadium Club Series II, so it worked out nicely that all his cards were from Series I.

Stadium Club was revolutionary back in 1991 and I don't remember being able to afford much of it. They were the first borderless cards to my knowledge and the photo quality and gloss were just next level. Then they took a couple of photos of two big name pitchers in tuxedos and put it on cards and collectors everywhere went crazy! I remember that card being hard to find and selling for between $5 - $10 easy.

I picked out my 9 favorite and I'm going to assign it a $1 value since I could probably find most of these in a dime box, maybe not the Nolan Ryan, but I'm going to say $1 for the 9 card lot, so that puts me at $45 so far.

Were you a member of the Stadium Club?

1991 was a good collecting year for the guy that I got the collection from off Facebook Marketplace. Not only did he have the 1991 Topps Baseball Factory set, a 1991 Topps Traded Baseball Factory set, a 1991 Upper Deck Baseball Factory set, and the 1991 Upper Deck Final Baseball set which I've already mentioned, but he had 1991 Factory sets of Pacific, Upper Deck and Bowman Football and two boxes of 1991 Bowman Football that he just opened and put the cards back in the boxes.

Because I have no interest, for the most part, in football cards at this time, I will probably sell these sets for cheap. I'm going to assign them a value of $10 total for the three sets.

But this guy was not done in 1991 just yet. He also became a member of the Stadium Club. Included in the collection were actually two Charter Member sets. Well...almost two complete sets. One of them is missing the David Justice card.

One of the sets came in the original box with the bronze Nolan Ryan medallion and Stadium Club key chain. Also included in the collection was a complete set of Members Only cards from 1991.

Okay, so I was up to $15 previously.

1991 Pacific, Upper Deck and Bowman Football - $10
1991 Stadium Club Charter Member Box with Charter Member set, Nolan Ryan Medallion, and key chain. - $10
1991 Stadium Club Charter Member set missing David Justice card - $4
1991 Stadium Club Members Only set - $5

This puts me at $44 so far towards the $100.

XRC vs. RC - Facebook Marketplace Purchase

In addition to the 19 consecutive Topps factory sets from 1989 - 2007 and the 500 count vending box from 1988 Topps that I mentioned in my previous post, there as also a 1991 Upper Deck baseball factory set and a 1991 Topps Traded baseball factory.

I plan to assign values to everything else from my recent Facebook Marketplace purchase to see if I can come up with the $100 purchase price.

I'm going to give the 1991 Upper Deck factory set and the 1991 Topps Traded factory sets a $5 value for each of them.This is probably pretty generous, but I make the rules. So we're at $10.

Not in a factory sealed box, but in pages in a binder is the 1991 Upper Deck Final set. I'm going to assign this a $5 value as well.

The is a 100 card set that was only issued in factory set form. I was always under the impression that when a card only came in a factory set and could not be pulled from a pack then the if there was a rookie card in the set, it would be an XRC vs. a RC.

For example, this 1991 Upper Deck Final Minor League Diamond Skills card of Pedro Martinez is the only 1991 card and the earliest card from a major manufacturer of Pedro Martinez. It's considered his RC, his only RC, but I still question why it's not an XRC.

Pedro didn't spend any time in the majors until 1992 and even then he only pitched in 2 games. Since this is his RC and his only RC, I guess I'll use this for my HOF rookie card collection. Also, is it just me or does the hat appear to be photo-shopped.

The other big XRC, I mean, RC in the set is of Jim Thome. Thome only has one other RC, 1991 Bowman. I'll have to decide if I want to use this card or the Bowman card for my HOF rookie card collection. The cards are very similar, so it will be a tough choice. Let me know which you prefer.

Alright, so far we're at $15, only $85 to go!

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Factory Set - $5
1991 Upper Deck Final Set - $5
1991 Topps Traded Baseball Factory Set - $5

Facebook Marketplace Purchase

Every once in a while I check Facebook Marketplace for baseball cards, but up until a week ago I'd never actually bought anything. This purchase actually began several weeks ago. A post caught my eye because the photo showed a variety of Topps factory sets.

The post claimed 1988 - 2007. I would later find out that it was really 1989 - 2007. It was a 500 count vending box of 1988 Topps and not a complete set.

The seller was asking $200, which isn't a bad deal, but I have some of the sets already so I messaged the lady saying I'd be interested in looking at them at $100. She messaged me right back and said that she already had someone interested at the full price. Fast forward a week or two and I get a message saying I can have them for $100 if I'm still interested. I told her I was and we arranged to meet.

At $100 for 19 complete sets, that works out to $5.26 per set, which is a great deal in my opinion. What I didn't realize was that there were other cards in the collection that came with it.

The lady I purchased the cards from said that her husband had collected cards for a while, but had just lost interest and they were taking up too much space. He must have been around my age, because I feel like the majority of the cards are the same stuff that I collected as a kid.

I'm comfortable with the $100 for the 19 complete sets, so everything else is just a bonus. I'll show off some of the random stuff in my next couple of posts.

A Future Prize

My post last week about a potential contest with an extra Eddie Murray RC and mystery 1956 Topps card as prizes garnered quite a bit of  interest, so I will be moving forward with it at some point in the near future with a contest.

In my initial post I gave an incorrect clue stating it was a second year card of this player. It's actually the third year card of this player. I've been writing my posts all at once and scheduling them, so I only noticed this when Collecting Cutch mentioned in a comment that he hoped it was a Clemente card. I know that Clemente's rookie card is 1955 and the player I had is 1954, so I knew I must have written something wrong. I apologize.

It's not a Clemente card, but it is Hank Aaron with a cameo of Willie Mays. For the action shot, Topps took a photo of Willie Mays and doctored it a bit to make it appear to be Aaron.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the card it in really rough shape, but at the price I got it for I'm happy. I already have one. I was hoping this one was a grey back, as I have the white back version, but it's also a white back version so I'm going to offer it up as a prize in an upcoming contest.

Can you see it?

When it comes to Hall of Fame rookie cards, there are some pretty iconic cards for collectors. I would list the 1954 Hank Aaron, 1968 Nolan Ryan, and the 1969 Reggie Jackson card among them, at least for me. Notice I didn't mention the 1952 Topps Mantle, because that's not his rookie card. There are others for sure, but there are just some cards that I think most collectors out there can picture in their mind immediately when it's mentioned. Then there are others that are a bit more obscure.

I had to double check to make sure this was Rollie's actual rookie card. It is. A young, clean shaven Rollie Fingers graced this card. I met Rollie once at the 2011 All-Star Fan Fest and the photo I had of him was mustache free. I asked him if he would draw on his signature handlebar mustache and he adamantly declined.

What are some of the more iconic rookie cards for you?

$20 for a Reggie Jackson Rookie Card? Let me get that in writing!

Yesterday I mentioned that I purchased the Jim Palmer rookie card along with another Hall of Fame rookie card for $40 shipped. Here is the other card.

Initially the seller was asking $30 for this card and $20 for the Palmer. Like I said, I offered him $40 for the pair and he accepted. He messaged me though, making sure that I had seen the ink on the Jackson card. I responded "Ink. What ink?" But then I quickly let him know that I was aware.

I know the condition is a deal breaker for many collectors, but for me it adds character and made it something I could afford. I'd actually been looking into purchasing this card on ebay a few weeks before and was prepared to spend up to $100, so to get it for $20 was awesome. If I had spend $100, it would have been in much better shape, but I was able to get this card and the Jim Palmer card for less than half of what I was thinking about spending.

This was a card that as a kid, I dreamed about having, but never thought I'd own it. Much like the Aaron RC and the Bench RC that I now have in my possession. So there you have it folks. Never stop dreaming!

Have you been able to add any cards to your collection that your 12 year old self never dreamed you'd be able to afford?

Who likes pancakes?

The last three vintage cards I showcased were from a Facebook group, but they weren't from the same guy that I've been buying most of my vintage cards from.

Here's a card from that seller.

It's a 1966 Topps rookie card of Jim "Cakes" Palmer. 

Teammates called him Cakes because he would eat pancakes before every game he pitched.

I paired this with another Hall of Fame rookie card and got him to do them both for $40 shipped, so this set me back $20. Not bad for an 8 time 20 game winner.

Hard to believe that the Orioles left him unprotected in the 1968 expansion draft. Even harder to believe that neither the Kansas City Royals or the Seattle Pilots didn't take him. He was in the minors recovering from an injury in 1968, but still. Palmer would go 16-4 in 1969 and then win at least 20 games a year for 8 of the next 9 seasons.

Palmer was adopted as a baby and then his adoptive father passed away and his adoptive mother remarried, Max Palmer. This is where Jim got his last name from. Max was a 7'7" actor and professional wrestler turned pastor/evangelist. So even at 6'3", Jim's father had almost a foot and a half on him.

How about you, could you eat pancakes every 4-5 days?