March Pickup Thread

[GregZakwin]

Quakes Minor League Team Issue...maybe one day PSA will label it as such.

[jp1216]

^^ PSA got it right - "CARD"

[saucywombat]

1981 Fleer Harold Baines "Transitional" Error

[Mike D.]

Wish I had back the two subs I spent on this card that came back "7" and "8".

Note to self: For black-bordered cards, just buy a "9" if you want one.

[ParisianJohn]

The very first baseball cards I ever bought with my own money were 1987 Sportflics cards hen I was 11 years-old. Back in early 1987 they sold for $0.65 per pack, which included 3 player cards and 2 team cards. I bought about 25 packs and somehow only pulled 4 doubles - not bad considering the whole set only had 200 player cards.

I decided to get myself the complete set and recently picked one up for around $10 - which is way less money than I spent in 1987 for about a third of the set.

I had a lot of fun flipping through them and trying to remember the players by face before checking on the back of the card. I know it's gimmicky, but I still love rotating the cards a little bit to get the motion effect. I also still like to scratch my finger nail against the grain of the card and make a little squeaky sound. Since they only produced 200 cards you got only the better players, so a high ratio of HOFers.

If you're unfamiliar, Sportflics were a set of cards put out from 1986-1990 that were called "magic motion". On a thick card stock the front of the card had 3 images of one player, and as you turned the card the image changed so you'd get 3 pictures of someone swinging a bat or throwing a ball - kind of like stop-motion. The backs of the cards had the player's name, stats, a small blurb and a color headshot picture - the first card to do this.

For whatever reasons (high price, looked gimmicky, entered the market when it was too saturated to stand out, etc.), Sportflics never caught on. I still had fun looking through mine this week! And yes, I also still have the third of the set that I collected in 1987 and ran out of money trying to chase down.

[Mike D.]

I also turned 11 that summer of 1987. Sportflics even at 65 cents were a LOT more expensive than the Topps cards, which were 45 cents and had 15 cards per pack.

For whatever reason, Sportflics never got a lot of love, but they are kind of a cool and different artifact of that era.

[ParisianJohn]

Originally Posted by Mike D.

I also turned 11 that summer of 1987. Sportflics even at 65 cents were a LOT more expensive than the Topps cards, which were 45 cents and had 15 cards per pack.

For whatever reason, Sportflics never got a lot of love, but they are kind of a cool and different artifact of that era.

Ahh, the summer of 1987. A time of "Baby on Board" signs and me thinking I might be able to one day fund my retirement through my 1986 Donruss The Rookies sets!

Yeah, no one else collected Sportflics cards that I knew so I was unable to trade them with any other kids in the neighborhood.

My father bought me a 1987 Topps wax box and I remembered it being yellow and green with an image of Dave Righetti's card on top and thought it was $0.40 per pack. I just looked it up online to confirm that was the price. It was also 17 cards per pack, which surprised me. I thought it was maybe 12. The cello packs were $0.69 for 31 cards - an even better deal. For about $15 you could either get about 650 Topps cards or 69 Sportflics player cards. Easy choice for most kids, and while I loved reading the historical team cards in Sportflics packs, my friends were never interested in that stuff and saw it as wasted money that should have produced another player card.

Not sure who Sportflics thought would buy their cards. Too pricy for kids, too gimmicky for adults.

[Mike D.]

Wow, 40 cents and 17 cards...even better deal than I remember. I remember being able to get two packs plus some penny candy for my $1 weekly allowance. Guess it was more candy than I remember.

[ParisianJohn]

In 1981 when I was 5 my father came home with a box of Topps cello packs and said, "We're not opening these." He stuck them in a cabinet drawer and over 30 years later I inherited them. I still have those packs and looked at them now to see that the price was $0.49 for 28 cards - and a stick of gum! I'd still recommend buying separate penny candy over the Topps gum.

[ParisianJohn]

I guess I can add to my March pick-ups - - When I got my box of 1987 Sportflics the seller on eBay (who runs a card shop in the northeastern US) decided to sweeten the deal by tossing in ten random 1988 Donruss common cards that if graded would be about a 2-3 at best. I guess I'll keep them!

[abothebear]

I love Sportsflics. The backs have full-color glossy photos. I believe they were the first to do that.

[saucywombat]

Put together the complete set of the 1994 Sportflics 2000 Rookie/Traded Artist's Proof.

I was also 11 in 1987. You really could not buy anything in Charleston other than Topps in 1987. At that time time no card shops and the drugstores/candy places/7-11 would only have Topps. I think you could get Fleer when it first came out each year from Kaybee Toys at the mall but good luck with that. I remember seeing Sportflics when I was in the 4th or 5th grade - but who knows where they came from.

Sportflics get lumped in to other exciting things to 4th and 5th graders at the time: M.U.S.C.L.E. men, battle beasts and GI Joe.

Maybe because they were more plastic than paper and had the lenticular action - parents found them more as toys than cards. And parents were already letting you spend TOO MUCH on cards! Might have been their downfall.

[ParisianJohn]

My first exposure to Sportflics was to the 1987 set (which may have happened in late 1986 as the cards are marked with that year, and in the blurb on the back of Schmidt's card it says "had an MVP-like season" - not acknowledging yet that he had indeed won the award). I remember when I later saw the 1986 cards I was unimpressed in comparison.

The 1986 edition was a 200 card set, yet only about 140 cards were of single players as they had a slew of "Tri-Star" cards that would feature a single image of three players who were categorized as something like "The Three Best Shortstops". These cards aren't as interesting for many as single player cards, and I seem to recall in the 1986 set that you received one Tri-Star and two single cards.

The bigger issue for me was that on the single cards that one image would be a headshot of the player while the other two provided the "motion". The 1987 set moved away from this and now you'd get three consecutive images of Kirby Puckett swinging at the plate or Nolan Ryan throwing heat. That third image made for a huge difference in the simulated action on the card, and in my enjoyment.

Maybe a good number of people were first exposed to the 1986 set and gave us on subsequent editions?? Had I seen the 1986 cards before the 1987 ones, I may have stopped there.

In the end though, that price to card ratio was probably just too high. And yes, they were the first cards with a color photo of the player on the back.

[GregZakwin]

Originally Posted by jp1216

^^ PSA got it right - "CARD"

Let a man dream, jeez!

[GregZakwin]

[RayBShotz]

A couple more 1984 OPC Gems I've added this month.
RayB

[jchcollins]

I broke down and finally made this long-term want happen yesterday. I likely overpaid still by a bit, but was able to look at the card in person and take it with me instead of waiting and praying over the US mail. I will gladly chalk all that up to a convenience fee. Really nice 9, dead centered and razor corners. The only thing I can see which might have held it back (which you can't see in this pic, I don't think...) is some microscopic print dust on the top border in one small place. Doesn't bother me in the least.




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[GregZakwin]

[Mike D.]

I HAD to get it, it was on...wait for it...Sale!

[sbfinley]

Picked up a pair of Nats RC's and a couple for my signed Topps WS MVP run.

[GregZakwin]

[Mike D.]

A Verlander RC!

[bnorth]

Originally Posted by GregZakwin

Nice card, what exactly is the cut? Doesn't look like an autograph.

[Bcwcardz]

Originally Posted by ParisianJohn

The very first baseball cards I ever bought with my own money were 1987 Sportflics cards hen I was 11 years-old. Back in early 1987 they sold for $0.65 per pack, which included 3 player cards and 2 team cards. I bought about 25 packs and somehow only pulled 4 doubles - not bad considering the whole set only had 200 player cards.

I decided to get myself the complete set and recently picked one up for around $10 - which is way less money than I spent in 1987 for about a third of the set.

I had a lot of fun flipping through them and trying to remember the players by face before checking on the back of the card. I know it's gimmicky, but I still love rotating the cards a little bit to get the motion effect. I also still like to scratch my finger nail against the grain of the card and make a little squeaky sound. Since they only produced 200 cards you got only the better players, so a high ratio of HOFers.

If you're unfamiliar, Sportflics were a set of cards put out from 1986-1990 that were called "magic motion". On a thick card stock the front of the card had 3 images of one player, and as you turned the card the image changed so you'd get 3 pictures of someone swinging a bat or throwing a ball - kind of like stop-motion. The backs of the cards had the player's name, stats, a small blurb and a color headshot picture - the first card to do this.

For whatever reasons (high price, looked gimmicky, entered the market when it was too saturated to stand out, etc.), Sportflics never caught on. I still had fun looking through mine this week! And yes, I also still have the third of the set that I collected in 1987 and ran out of money trying to chase down.

Really enjoyed this. I actually enjoyed Sportflics. I was 13 back in 1986 and was actually excited to get something new. I only found the 1986 with the multi player cards which also had rookies. It had the multiplayer rookie cards with about 6 guys. I remember canseco being one which brought some value to the set. That reminds me I once paid $110 dollars for a 1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Jose Canseco back in the early nineties. I took money out of the bank. I probably could have bought a nice Mantle for that money back then. Live and learn.


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[lampertb]

Originally Posted by ParisianJohn

The very first baseball cards I ever bought with my own money were 1987 Sportflics cards hen I was 11 years-old. Back in early 1987 they sold for $0.65 per pack, which included 3 player cards and 2 team cards. I bought about 25 packs and somehow only pulled 4 doubles - not bad considering the whole set only had 200 player cards.

I decided to get myself the complete set and recently picked one up for around $10 - which is way less money than I spent in 1987 for about a third of the set.

I had a lot of fun flipping through them and trying to remember the players by face before checking on the back of the card. I know it's gimmicky, but I still love rotating the cards a little bit to get the motion effect. I also still like to scratch my finger nail against the grain of the card and make a little squeaky sound. Since they only produced 200 cards you got only the better players, so a high ratio of HOFers.

If you're unfamiliar, Sportflics were a set of cards put out from 1986-1990 that were called "magic motion". On a thick card stock the front of the card had 3 images of one player, and as you turned the card the image changed so you'd get 3 pictures of someone swinging a bat or throwing a ball - kind of like stop-motion. The backs of the cards had the player's name, stats, a small blurb and a color headshot picture - the first card to do this.

For whatever reasons (high price, looked gimmicky, entered the market when it was too saturated to stand out, etc.), Sportflics never caught on. I still had fun looking through mine this week! And yes, I also still have the third of the set that I collected in 1987 and ran out of money trying to chase down.

Ha! I haven't thought about these cards in 30 or so years, but yes, I too discovered them in '87. Topps was still king of '87 for me, though.

[ParisianJohn]

Originally Posted by Bcwcardz

Really enjoyed this. I actually enjoyed Sportflics. I was 13 back in 1986 and was actually excited to get something new. I only found the 1986 with the multi player cards which also had rookies. It had the multiplayer rookie cards with about 6 guys. I remember canseco being one which brought some value to the set. That reminds me I once paid $110 dollars for a 1986 Donruss Rated Rookie Jose Canseco back in the early nineties. I took money out of the bank. I probably could have bought a nice Mantle for that money back then. Live and learn.

Oh, when we all chased those rookie cards thinking they'd fund our retirements. I actually still have 2 packs of the 1986 Donruss - The Rookie set in a closet in my home office. Sigh....

Well, some of the Gem Mint 10s of that Canseco card sell for like $500 on eBay now if you still have it and you think it could rate that high.

Not long ago on the vintage board I saw a guy talk of how in the early 1990s he straight-up traded off an old card of his for a 1970 Topps Nolan Ryan. This was at the height of both the junk wax era and the Nolan Ryan craze when he got so much media attention for doing what he was doing at that age in life and became a folk hero. The guy said he later had the Ryan graded and I think it's a PSA 5, still in his collection, and is worth maybe $250. The card he traded away was a T206 Walter Johnson portrait in good shape. At the time they were worth the same but that Johnson is worth thousands now. If you're in this hobby long enough you'll have some story like this - but perhaps not as bad as that specific example!

I should probably start a new thread on "Late 1980s to Early 1990s biggest wastes of money/worst trades".

[packs]

One of the all time cards:

[packs]

Double post