Proceeds from the Cards for Junk Program
February 7th, 2012 by slangon

Back about a million years ago (or at least it seems that long ago to me) (seriously, it took me about 20 minutes of hitting “Older Posts” and scrolling down to find the post I was looking for), The Cardboard Junkie put out a call for all your blank pack searcher decoy thingies in exchange for a small bubble mailer full of cards. I happened to have some of them thingies laying around collecting dust. I happen to enjoy receiving small bubble mailers full of cards. I got in on the action.

Here’s some highlights from what he sent my way. (By the way, the fact that I’m just writing this post now is totally a reflection of my own procrastination and is in now way implying that Dayf was slack in his promise to send a small bubble mailer full of cards.)

There were 2 team bags full of cards contained within said small bubble mailer, one filled with Mets and stuff and one filled with seemingly random cards from the earlier part of this millennium. The random earlier part of this millennium cards are cool and all, but for the sake of brevity, I will be focusing on the Mets bag. Perhaps someday, when I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel for post topics I’ll show some of them. We’ll see. In the meantime, here are some of my favorite cards from the Mets/stuff pack.

One of my favorite things about reading Dayf’s blog is his super sense of humor, which was evident from the get-go by this little note he included on the pack.

Can you imagine? Someone saying they were glad to get Mets cards out of their house? That’s rich. Days, you sir are a card. Someone ought to collect you. Ha!

Anyway, Dayf was kind enough to hit a gaggle of cards from the 90’s and 00’s from my Mets team want lists.

With the addition of this Darrin Jackson card, I’m down to needing just 1 more card to finish off my 1994 team set. That may sound like a strange set to still need any cards from, but keep in mind that in 1994 I was in full blown not-collecting mode. Also, I can’t exactly bring myself to pony up any money to actually buy cards from 90’s.

This is one of those sets that I only had one or two cards from for the longest time. Over the course of the last 2 months or so, though, a lot of generous folks have been sending me ’97 Topps Mets cards. There were a bunch in this package, including this Butch Huskey card showing him signing some autographs on what looks to be an absolutely gorgeous day. Makes me itchy for baseball season to start.

There were a few 1999 Topps cards, including these “All-Topps” cards.

I don’t really know what “All-Topps” means, but you can’t go wrong with cards featuring John Olerud and Mike Piazza. I particularly like the catchers card. I wonder if a few years from now it’ll be as weird as I think it will to see Jason Kendall on the same card as 2 Hall of Fame catchers. Probably.

Moving on to the next century…

Dayf put another set within 1 card of being done with all of these 2000 cards. Now if I can just track down that super rare Jorge Toca rookie card, I’ll be in business.

He also put a hurting on my 2001 Topps Mets want list, including this Robin Ventura card. I know I already had the 2001 Topps Opening Day Ventura and I think I had the 2001 Topps Chrome Ventura. They’re all the same card, but the obsessive compulsive collector in me couldn’t rest until I got the plain old Topps version. It’s also sort of cool to get a Robin Ventura card from a Braves fan.

The Mets portion of these cards was rounded out with a few 2002 cards.

I wonder if it occurred to Dayf what a prominent place Atlanta has in that Benny Agbayani card. It inspired me to try and figure out what game that photo was from. I was going on the assumption that the photo was from 2001. Greg Maddux was throwing for the Braves and that seems to be number 55 starting for the D’Backs, which would be Robert Ellis. Ellis made 1 start against Atlanta that year, on April 26. Greg Maddux was indeed starting for the Braves. The Mets were in Milwaukee that day, losing 8-12. Benny Agbayani went 1 for 5 with 2 RBI and 3 strikeouts. Mike Piazza had a huge day going 3 for 5 with 2 homers. The Mets starter, Brett Hinchliffe (who?) was terrible, giving up 9 hits and 8 earned runs in only 2 innings of work. Not surprisingly, that was his only appearance in a Mets uniform as well as his last appearance in the Majors.

Although that was it for the Mets, Dayf didn’t stop there. He also threw a bunch of manager and team cards my way, all from the early to mid 70’s.

As if the Yankees couldn’t annoy me more, it always irritated me that trying to get any of that cards is always a pain in the ass, even from years when they were not very good.

Somehow, out of all 1972 Topps cards that I’ve ever laid eyes on, this Astros team card seems to fit pretty damn perfectly with that groovy design. Although the rainbow Kool Aid Astros uniforms from the late 70’s and 80’s were the height of glorious tackiness, these early 70’s uniforms are pretty damn awesome. If I was an Astros fan, I would damn sure pick one of those up.

For a pretty long time, I’ve been on the fence about trying to actually collect the 1974 set. It was the year that I was born. It was the first year of no annoyingly tough high numbers. Outside of the Winfield rookie, there’s not too many tough cards. Plus it looks pretty cool.

Plus they were rocking the floating heads. By the way, you might think Salty Parker has the best name on this card, by Tom Morgan’s nickname was “Plowboy”.

And speaking of floating heads…

I think I have roughly half of the Cubs Floating Head Team Cards now.

There was one more, very special card in that package. This post has run on too long as it is, so you’re going to have to wait to see that one. In the mean time, thanks again for the cards, Junkie. You might’ve been happy to get them out of your house, but probably not half as happy as I was to welcome them.

One Response to “Proceeds from the Cards for Junk Program”

  1. Not only did you get Mets out of my house, you got me to semi-organize most of my Topps base set doubles up to the early aughts. You don’t know how much it irked me to come one card short of finishing off some of those team sets. Post those suckers over on Night Owl’s one card wonder thingy or whatever it’s called.

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