My Craigslist Card Collection Purchase

[sanjosefuji]

During the summer, I like to keep busy... so I usually sign up to teach summer school. The extra money goes towards vacation expenses, school supplies, and of course my cardboard addiction.

Normally, I work with middle schoolers... but in the summer, my buddy and I like to switch things up and work with the little ones (4th graders to be exact). She teaches the language arts curriculum, while I cover the math. It's pretty much the same routine every year.


And every spring, I start stocking up on junk wax to pass out to my little kids. They love ripping open packs, even if 99% of them don't recognize the players. I'll usually teach a statistics lesson first to get them hooked... then use the extra packs as incentives for the rest of the summer.


Well I recently found this post on Craigslist and realized it had a little bit of everything and would be perfect for my summer school program. I immediately contacted the guy to see if he was firm on his price. After a little negotiating... I picked up everything you see below for $30.

1988 Fleer Baseball Wax Packs (x36)
1987 Topps Baseball Wax Packs (x6)
1987 Donruss Rack Pack
1988 Donruss Rack Packs (x2)
1989 Donruss Rack Pack
1986 Fleer Sluggers vs. Pitchers Set
1987 Fleer Baseball SuperStars Set
1987 Fleer Sluggers vs. Pitchers Set
1988 Topps Baseball Commons
1993 Action Packed ASG Series 2 Set
1989 Topps Baseball Rack Box (24 packs)
1989 Topps UK Mini Baseball Box (48 packs)
1991 Conlon TSN Baseball Box (36 packs)
1987 Topps Baseball Set (hand collated)
2000 MLB Showdown Starter Deck
2001 MLB Showdown Starter Deck
2001 MLB Showdown Draft Pack

The bulk of this purchase is going towards my classroom this summer. I'll probably bust the rack packs, since they're heavily damaged and are coming off the backing boards.


I might also use a couple of these items as prizes in the month long contest I'll be running this summer.


Plus, I'm going to keep the three Fleer "mini sets", the 1989 Topps UK Mini box, and maybe the 1991 Conlon TSN box.


Here are a few other items, I'm planning on keeping from this Craigslist collection:

Ultra Pro 8 Pocket Pages (x37)
Ultra Pro 2 Pocket Pages (x33)
1990 Baseball Wit Game (w/ 108 trading cards)
2000 APBA Board Game (w/ 30 cards)

The students have no use for odd-sized binder pages, so I'll be keeping those. It's nice to have a few of these in hand just in case I need them.


I've never seen this Baseball Wit game, but it comes with 108 trading cards. I'm debating on busting it or not. Either way... according to Beckett it has some pretty nice names in the set: Tony Gwynn, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Rickey Henderson, Nolan Ryan, and even Babe Ruth.


He also had a board game called "Super Stars Baseball". It was produced in 2000 and comes with 30 cards. The game is sealed, so I used Beckett again to help me with the checklist. This game is also pretty loaded with cards of Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Cal Ripken Jr., and my personal favorite... Tony Gwynn.


I'm not sure what I'll do with the two games. Neither of them have any monetary value... in fact the whole collection is pretty much worthless... but the sealed board game is pretty cool.

1988 Topps Big Series 1 Set
1988 Topps Big Series 2 Set
1989 Topps Big Series 1 Set
1989 Topps Big Series 2 Set
1989 Topps Big Series 3 Set

I was pretty excited to see this binder in the lot. If you collected in the late 80's... then I'm sure you know about Topps Big. I remember seeing these in random places, but never picked any up. A few months ago, I considered buying some boxes just to finally grab some. Now I don't have to. Best of all... they're all in pages and were placed in this new binder.


Now all I need to do is hunt down the 1988 Series 3 set. This will be going on my bookshelf with my other binders. I'm sure I'll do a Set Spotlight on these sets sometime in the near future to give you all a better look.


In addition to these sets, he also had a bag full of flats:

1992 Lou Gehrig Wheaties Box
1992 Babe Ruth Wheaties Box
1993 Upper Deck Home Base Newspaper (x2)
1987 National Sports Collectors Convention Poster
1993 The Diamond Magazine (August - 3 issues)
1995 Daily News Brooklyn Dodgers Tribute Magazine
1992 Dino Cardz Promo Strips (x2)

Outside of the dinosaur cards, I'm sure none of these will interest the students. I'll probably give the two Wheaties boxes away as prizes... along with the magazines. The UD newsletter thing is pretty cool, since I've never seen this publication. The guy probably thought it'd be worth something one day, since it's the first issue in the first volume. I wonder if they ever printed a second issue. Maybe one of these days, I'll blog about it... since it has some interesting reading material.


Out of all of these items, I only plan on keeping one thing... this 1987 poster from the 1987 National Convention:

It's an 11" x 14" poster, printed on matted paper and features some of the greatest baseball players of all-time. I wonder if they had all of these guys at the National signing back in the day. If so... can you imagine collecting autographs of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Joe DiMaggio all on one poster?


Unfortunately... it has a small tear along the top and a couple of slight creases along the sides. It doesn't bother me though. Later on today, I'm going to Michael's to buy a frame. This beauty is going up on my wall.


I never made it to the National Convention held in San Francisco back in 1987. It's probably because I wasn't driving yet... and most of my buddies were too cool to collect cards. Hopefully the National will make its way back to The City, because if it does... I'll definitely be there.


Oh... speaking of card shows... check out this flier for a 1989 card show at the Moscone Center:

Can you believe the prices? Maury Wills for $4? Mark McGwire for $10? The most expensive autographs were $15. Those were the days.


Okay... today's question of the day is:


You're traveling back to 1989 and you're attending this card show with $25 in your pocket...

Which players' autographs are you going to chase down?

I have to go with Mays and Henderson... Mays is one of the greatest players of all-time and Henderson is one of my favorite players of all-time.


I'd probably use the leftover dollar and buy a pack of 1989 Upper Deck.


Anyways... recapping my purchase. It may not be a great deal... but I have no regrets. Sure there weren't any huge hits... but it was sort of a smorgasbord: stuff for my students... some items for my contest... and a few PC items for myself.


Enjoy your Saturday everyone... I'm headed out to buy a frame for the poster... and then I might bust a few packs of Conlon. Sayonara!

More...

[Pfinder]

Nice find.

[schwood]

I am going with Clemens and Greenwell specifically for my PC. And since I only usually get one day at a show, I would probably grab up a Willie Stargell to trade off!

[maryvillereb]

very cool buy! tons of neat stuff in there

[Brads55]

Thanks for sharing. Very cool idea that you do with the kids at school.

[Hester/Sanders]

Thats pretty cool. I hit a garage sale last year and picked up 45 loose and sealed Baseball McFarlanes for 50.00. Many were Loose Chicago players which I needed and I sold around 10-15 of them for around 100.00. Makes you wish you could come across deals like this once or twice a year. Thanks for sharing.