OfferUp Trade: 1983 Fleer Stamps Set

Normally when I get unopened sets I like to open them up and put them in a binder to display and enjoy them. This 1983 Fleer Stamp set is an exception, at least for the time being. I'm just not sure how I would display them, so for right now I'm just keeping them sealed and then I put them in sheet protectors and then in my Fleer binder.

This came as part of my big OfferUp trade a little while back. It was something that I wasn't familiar with before being presented it as part of the trade.

There are 288 total stamps. This includes 224 players and then 64 additional stamps that I am guessing, based on the packaging, are team logos, but that seems like a lot of team logos. Note that none of the team logo stamps are viable. 

I didn't take a picture of the back, but it is a black piece of cardboard.

The OfferUp trade brought a complete set, plus an extra of Group 3 of 4. 

I did a little research and these were sold in these packages as well as in stamp dispensers.

Here is a photo of the stamp dispensers that I found online. Each dispenser came with 18 stamps and once all the stamps had been dispensed, the dispenser could be clipped to your belt and act as a coin holder!

Anyone ever purchase these back in 1983? Anyone have the sheets or any of the stamps? Anybody have the stamp dispenser/coin holder?

1974 Topps Traded

I've always been intrigued by the 1974 Topps Traded set. I've picked up a few cards here and there over the years, but over the last couple of months I've picked up a small stack of cards from The Batter's Box dime box and so it's time to see how close I am to a complete set.

It was interesting learning about this set as I put this post together.  The card numbers correspond with the player's other card in the set, but have a "T" after the number on the back. These cards were available as part of the complete set, which Topps made available for the first time in 1974 through the JC Penny catalog. Let me clarify. This was the first time Topps sold a complete set and it was only available through the JC Penny catalog. Topps also randomly inserted these Traded cards into pack of the later series 1974 packs.

There are only 44 cards in the set. As of 4/25/22 I am at 30/44. As of 5/11/22 I am at 33/44. As of 7/11/22 I am at 42/44.

23T Craig Robinson

42T Claude Osteen

43T Jim Wynn

51T Bob Heise

59T Ross Grimsley

62T Bob Locker

63T Bill Sudakis

73T Mike Marshall

123T Nelson Briles

139T Aurelio Monteagudo

151T Diego Segui

165T Willie Davis

175T Reggie Cleveland

182T Lindy McDaniel

186T Fred Scherman

249T George Mitterwald

262T Ed Kirkpatrick

269T Bob Johnson

270T Ron Santo

313T Barry Lersch

319T Randy Hundley

330T Juan Marichal

348T Pete Richert

373T John Curtis

390T Lou Pinella

428T Gary Sutherland

454T Kurt Bevacqua

458T Jim Ray

485T Felipe Alou

486T Steve Stone

496T Tom Murphy

516T Horacia Pina

534T Eddie Watt

538T Cesar Tovar

544T Ron Schueler

579T Cecil Pshaw

585T Merv Rettenmund

612T Luke Walker

616T Larry Gura

618T Jim Mason

630T Tommie Agee

648T Terry Crowley

649T Fernando Gonzalez

NNO Traded Checklist

1983 Topps Traded Set

In addition to collecting each base Topps set from 1981 (my birth year) to present, I also want all of the Traded/Update sets as well.

I have quite a few, but I probably need just as many or more than I have.

This past weekend I picked up a 1983 Topps Traded set at The Batter's Box card shop in Phoenix. I paid $40 for it. It was in the box, but the tape, taping the lid shut had come loose since it is almost 40 years old. They also had the 1984 Topps Traded set as well, but it was $45 and still sealed. I did a quick search online and think I got a pretty good deal on the 1983 set, but I think $45 was a bit too high for the 1984 set, so I passed on it.

The big card from the 1983 Topps Traded set is the Darryl Strawberry XRC. That card alone sells raw for anywhere from $25 - $65 depending on the day and graded copies can go much higher. Even though Strawberry did not have the type of career he was projected to have during his first few seasons, this still remains a popular card among collectors. I have never had one in my collection, so I was extremely happy to not only purchase the set, but to find the Strawberry card in it when I got home. You just never know, especially since the tape had come off.

The first thing I noticed about the set once I got it out of the box was that it felt "grainy". It felt almost like Topps cards feel out of the pack when they had a piece of gum up against it, but obviously there was not any gum in the box. Not sure if anyone else has noticed that about the set.

Here is the 1983 Topps Traded set; front and back.

The cards are in alphabetical order by last name which is how the Topps Traded sets were produced from 1981 - 1992.

Topps would use the Traded set to showcase players on new teams, like Ron Cey here in his Cubs uniform, but also to feature players it might have missed in the 1983 base set, like Mike Davis.

Aside from the Strawberry XRC, the Julio Franco XRC is probably the second biggest card in the set today. The Ron Kittle card would have been a bigger card back in the day, but I think most would agree that Julio Franco had a better career than Kittle, and as such is a more desirable card today.

This next page certainly has some star power with Steve Garvey, Von Hayes and Keith Hernandez making up the left hand column.

I don't think I had ever noticed before that the manager cards contain the manager's stats as a player and also his managerial stats. This can be seen on the back of the Frank Howard manager card below. I think that is pretty cool.

Joe Morgan is one of just 3 Hall of Famers in the set. See if you can find the other two?

Here is the Strawberry XRC in all it's glory. Front....

....and back.

And so there you have it. The complete 1983 Topps Traded set.

762 Barry Bonds cards!

Last weekend I finished a card project that I started back in August of 2020. So in a little under 2 years I went from 272 different Barry Bonds cards to 762 different Barry Bonds cards; to match his home run total. Thank you to everyone that helped me out along the way! There were multiple bloggers who sent me Bonds cards and I appreciate each of you! 

This was a fun project and I am really happy with the way it turned out, especially the placement of the Home Run Heroes cards. If I add an additional Bonds cards to my collection I can see if I want to replace any of the current cards with them, but I do plan on just sticking to 762.

I made a YouTube video of the binder and am going to post it here. I haven't always had good luck in showing videos on my blog, but here's hoping!

OfferUp Trade Recap: 2001 and 2002 Topps Heritage

Finding a nice stack of early Topps Heritage cards in one of the boxes was a pleasant surprise, because I didn't have much of it in my collection. These give me a nice selection to choose from for a couple of pages to represent these sets in my collection.

Not many from 2001, but a nice selection of star for my Heritage binder.

Interesting that the Greg Maddux card is a short print and I have 3 here. You can that two of them are red backs and one is a black back. The Pedro Martinez is also a short print.

There were way more 2002 Heritage. Lots of base; including some short prints. Or maybe I should say, lots of short prints and some base. Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Jason Giambi, Ken Griffey Jr, Tony Gwynn, Andruw Jones, and Vladimir Guerrero are all short prints.

I was able to add a Griffey to my Griffey binder, so that was nice.

More SPs and some variations. Both Bernie Williams and Nomar Garciapara are short prints. The Nighttime variation was unannounced. I have 7 of the 10, with two Adrian Gonzalez.

Here is what I need:

#10 - Randy Johnson

#69 - John Olerud

#204 - Pokey Reese

Lots of inserts. NewAge Performers and Classic Renditions aplenty. I have a complete set of Classic Renditions, but need quite a few New Age Performers. 

Here is what I need:

NA1 - Luis Gonzalez

NA3 - Barry Bonds

NA4 - Ken Griffey Jr.

NA 6 - Sammy Sosa

NA7 - Andruw Jones

NA8 - Derek Jeter

NA12 - Bret Boone

NA13 - Roberto Alomar

NA15 - Vladimir Guerrero 

Then and Now. A couple of dups and just half of the 10 card set. These are based on league leaders in various categories in 1953 and 2001, so there are some players that show up multiple times.

Here is what I need.

TN1 - Eddie Mathews/Barry Bonds

TN2 - Al Rosen/Alex Rodriguez

TN4 - Minnie Minoso/Ichiro

TN8 - Al Rosen/Alex Rodriguez

TN9 - Robin Roberts/Randy Johnson

If you see any of the cards I have duplicates of that you would like, let me know and we can work out a trade. If you happen to have any of the cards I need, that would be even better.

Player Collection Boosts from the OfferUp Trade

I was able to pull out some cards of players that I collect from my recent OfferUp trade.

Let's start with Griffey. When we were working out the trade, he had a stack of Griffey cards that I felt would make it so the trade wouldn't work. I knew I already had some of them, so I took them off the table. In the boxes I did end up with there were more Griffey cards. 120 to be exact.

 

Out of the 120, I needed 22 of them, which is actually more than I expected. Here are the ones I needed. I already had the 1992 Fleer Pro Vision card, but it was with my Pro Vision sets, so this one will go in the Griffey binder.

Lots of unlicensed cards, but I'm okay with that. There are a couple of nice inserts as well. A few of the cards I am socked that I didn't already have, but I am glad to add them to my Griffey binders.

This card actually completed this Mothers Cookies set, so that was awesome!

My other main PC from the 90's and early 2000's was Mike Piazza. There were way less Piazza cards than Griffey. In fact, there were only 6 Piazza cards. I did need the 3 Mets cards though, so I am happy with 50%.

There was just one Dale Murphy card; at least in my first go through of the collection. In fact, I know there are some others in there. But I did need this one.

There was a nice pile of Don Mattingly cards and I needed a bunch of them, so that was awesome! I needed the entire top row and there were 3 from the bottom row that I needed. I did come to the realization that I need to, at some point in the near future, organize my Mattingly binder by year in order to make this process easier.

The majority of cards from the trade are from the 80's and 90's. Probably 5% pre-1980, 70% 80's and 90's and 25% 2000 to present. So I was really happy to find a few cards of modern players that I collect (or at least set aside when I get them).

There were only a couple of Goldschmidt cards. I already have the Diamondbacks ones. I don't actively seek out Goldschmidt in a Cardinals uniform, but I still set them aside when I come across them. I only needed the two Prizm cards.

I needed 3 of the 6 Bryce Harper cards.

I needed all of the Mike Trout cards, minus the dup in the picture.

Ohtani is another player that I just sort of set aside. I feel like pretty much everyone "collects" Trout and Ohtani, much like everyone "collected" Griffey and Piazza back in the 90's.

This card is great because it went in my Topps All Star Rookie Cup binder.

Here are a few other Ohtani. I guess I need to start a binder for him.

I'm sure there will be a few more of these players that I find as I continue to go through the boxes and binders in this OfferUp trade, but this is a good start for now and I not only blogged about them, but I got them put away as well, which is a huge step in the right direction for me organizing my collection.