Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Kirkland, WA

  
This large mailing of 373 Wallach cards arrived in my mailbox recently courtesy of Craig, from Kirkland, Washington.  Included with the cards was a nice note.  Craig used to watch Wallach play in the Alaskan Summer League back when Wallach was playing at Cal-St. Fullerton.  I assume that's why he had so many Wallach cards to send.  Or he was just an enormous fan of 1990 Fleer.

It was a Fleer heavy assortment as you can see, with a few others mixed in.  The 1988 Box Bottoms are always a welcomed addition.


Aside from Topps, which suffers from poor photo selection (the Wallach card, not the set), 1991 was a terrific year for Wallach cards.  Two each in Donruss and Upper Deck, and all four of them are great looking cards (with Gary Carter making a welcome cameo in the Donruss base card), and 1991 Fleer being one of my all-time favorite designs and nailing the photo with a nice clear picture.  This box was loaded with 91's.


I've always found 1989 Score to be oddly elusive.  It's a card I've always really liked and never pass on an opportunity to buy in bulk when it's available, but it's just not readily available in large quantities very often.  There were 33 copies of it in this mailing, which was a pleasant surprise to find.


That's 21 copies of 1988 Topps Big above, which may be the most of that card that I've ever added at once.  Thanks for the cards Craig.  They're greatly appreciated.

Updated Totals:

Also included with the cards, was an enormous amount of Expos stickers, checklist featuring the Expos, Expos Team Leader cards, and a few Buck Rogers managerial cards.





Tuesday, March 7, 2023

Lake Barrington, IL

  

These 12 cards were sent by regular contributor "Storms."  By my count this is at least the 8th time Storms has sent cards.  The highlights here are the 1984 O-Pee-Chee, and 1988 Fleer Box Bottom.  The '88 Fleer Box Bottom serves as a great example of how important photo selection is.  I much prefer it to the Wallach in the '88 Fleer base set.  The box bottom photo selection makes the entire design of the card look better. 

Thanks for the cards "Storms!"

Updated Totals:




Monday, February 27, 2023

Orlando, FL

 


These 20 cards were sent by "Mick" of Orlando, Florida.  I believe this is the first time Mick has sent cards.  I'd remiss not to mention what nice shape these cards all arrived in.  I'm not one for the figure scale grading system that uses numbers and slabs cards in goofy over sized cases, but on the traditional scale, these are all NM or as close to Mint as one could hope for.  Included in the bunch was a '92 O-Pee-Chee, which isn't a card I see very often.

Thanks for the cards Mick!

Updated Totals:



Thursday, February 16, 2023

Arlington, TN

These 18 cards were sent by Mark of Arlington, Tennessee.  By my count this is the second time Mark has sent cards going back to 2020.  This is a nice mix of late 80's Expos cards for the most part, including a pair of '89 Score, which features one of my favorite photos to ever be used on a Wallach card.

Thanks for the cards Mark!

Updated Totals:


Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Ottawa, Ontario



These 7 cards (stickers) were sent by frequent contributor Angus, of Ottawa, Ontario.  The '91 Panini French sticker is only my 2nd copy of that card.  Tracking down my first copy of it was incredibly difficult and ended up being the last "regular" Wallach card I obtained.  It spent years on my "Most Wanted" list, and was the only non-insert/variation on the list, unless you count O-Pee-Chee tattoos as a "regular" issued card.  I don't, and I picked up one of those prior to the '91 Panini French regardless.  Which is all to say, I don't see very many of them.

Thanks for the cards Angus!

Updated Totals:

1990 Panini x6: 14

1991 Panini French: 2

Tuesday, February 14, 2023

Eden Prairie, MN



These 9 cards were sent by "Chies" of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.  They were actually sent in 2022, but when I was doing my year end posting and tallies, I somehow missed this envelope.  Rather than redo all the numbers, I'm simply going to count it towards 2023.  I believe this is the second time "Chies" has sent cards.  I'm less sure that I have the name right as the writing on the envelopes has been difficult to read.  The 1989 OPC Sticker is only my second copy of that card.

Thanks for the cards!

Updated Totals:


Thursday, January 19, 2023

2022 Year in Review


2022 Year in Review

There wasn't a lot of "Tim Wallach" related news in 2022.  No new cards were made of Wallach, and Topps even snubbed Chad Wallach from their 2022 sets, despite Chad once again spending a decent amount of time in the Majors with the Angels.

On a personal level, I finally made it to Dodger Stadium, taking in a pair of games during the Dodger's last home stand of the season on a Friday night and Saturday afternoon.  For Friday night I was able to find seats in the first row on the right field wall.  That's me above in the blue Expos jersey.  Below are a pair of pictures from my seats, one from the Friday night game and one from the Saturday afternoon game, a few rows further back.  Mookie Betts to his endless credit, tossed a ball to a kid between each inning Friday night (he took Saturday afternoon off).  For a Red Sock, or former Red Sock (do you ever really live that down?), I guess he's not a bad guy.




Dodger Stadium had long been at the top of my list of parks I'd never been to, but wanted to visit.  It didn't disappoint.  I'm not sure when I'll be able to make it out there again, but I would certainly jump at the opportunity to do so should it present itself.


On the card front this year, I added 4,120 new Tim Wallach cards.  Thats almost seven times as many as I added in 2021.  I wouldn't say I was much more active in my efforts to add Wallach's this year, it was more just a result of luck.  On eBay I found two lots that were abnormally huge that really boosted the numbers.  Both were of 800+ cards, one of all 1983 Fleer and another of all 1984 Topps.  Both of those surpass the 656 cards I added in all of 2021 by themselves.  I also received several very large mailings from readers of 200+ cards, which really doesn't happen that often.  One was actually over 700 cards.  Stack a few events like that in a single year, and you end up with over 4,000 new cards.

In total I received 30 mailings of Wallach cards from readers this year.  That's down quite a bit from the peak in 2015 when cards were showing up on a near daily basis as a result of some publicity this blog received, but still about 30 more than I feel like I should have any reasonable expectation of getting.  In 2022 I received a total of 2,248 cards in the mail from fifteen different States, and two Canadian Provinces.

Speaking of States, I received cards from Alaska for the first time in 2022.  Alaska marks the 45th different state I've been sent cards from.  For those wondering Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming seem to be the states where people hate baseball cards.  If those states ever get their act together and send me cards, I'm going to print out my map and frame it...it could be awhile.


 


Current cards in the Collection: 31,690 
Cards acquired in 2022: 4,120 
Collection grew by: 14.9%

Top Fifteen Most Abundant Cards in the Collection



1. 1984 Topps .................................. 1,255  
2. 1982 Topps ...................................1,251       
3. 1988 Donruss ...............................1,074
4. 1983 Fleer .....................................1,056
5. 1987 Topps ...................................1,045
6. 1989 Topps .............................. 960
7. 1988 Topps All-Star ....................... 931
8. 1988 Topps .............................. 874
9. 1986 Topps All-Star ....................... 772
10. 1990 Topps ................................... 704
11. 1990 Donruss ............................... 575
12. (tie) 1989 Donruss ....................... 549
12. (tie) 1990 Fleer ............................. 549
14. 1986 Topps ................................... 536
15. 1987 Donruss ............................... 510

For the first time since I started posting this list on annual basis back in 2015, 1982 Topps does not sit at the top of it.  After adding over 800 copies of of 1984 Topps this year, it's fallen to the number two spot.  1983 Fleer was the other big riser this year jumping up to the four spot.  As the numbers show, I now have over a 1,000 copies of five different Wallach cards, with a few more knocking on the door.  Back in 2015, 273 copies of 1989 Donruss was enough to crack the top ten, it takes nearly triple that figure now.  12 year old me back in 1992 would be much more impressed by the site of this many Wallach cards than they would be by the iphone I post this blog on.


Top 10 most added cards in 2022
  

1. 1983 Fleer ..................................... 832
2. 1984 Topps ................................... 812
3. 1991 Upper Deck ......................... 141
4. 1988 Topps All-Star ..................... 105
5. 1988 Donruss ................................ 97
6. 1989 Topps .................................... 96
7. 1991 Donruss MVP ....................... 93
8. 1988 Topps .................................... 76
9. 1991 Score .................................... 74
10. 1986 Topps ................................. 68
10. 1992 Donruss ............................. 68

These are some of the biggest numbers to appear on this list since I started posting it.  I can't say I ever expected 1983 Fleer to appear at the top of it, but I'm not complaining either.


Notable No-Shows, zero acquired  


When over 4,000 cards get added in a single year, you're going to cover a lot of ground.  Of the cards I didn't add any of this year, none of them are all the shocking.  1987 Leaf (with 58 copies in my collection) was the most abundant card not make an appearance in 2022.  Other "notable" no-shows include 1988 Donruss Baseball's Best (54 copies), 1994 Leaf (48), 1994 Collector's Choice (48), and 1993 Flair.  1983 Donruss nearly became the most surprising card to ever this make list, barely avoiding it with only a single copy added this past year.


Welcome Back

 




The 2003 Donruss Expos card was actually sent by a reader and is only my 2nd copy of that card.  I haven't added one since I picked up my first one back in 2003.  The same goes for the 1995 Stadium Club 1st Day issue, though I know I see those pop up for sale from time to time.  I suspect the production numbers on the 2003 Donruss Expos run were relatively low as I just never see them around

1st since 2013
1995 Stadium Club 1st Day Issue
2003 Donruss Expos

1st since 2014
1991 Fleer Canadian (Glossy)
1993 Panini

1st since 2015
1985 O-Pee-Chee Poster
1991 Petro
1991 O-Pee-Chee


Top 5 cards sent in 2022

  

Last year 1990 Donruss took the top spot on this list.  I received 9 copies of it.  1982 Donruss was fifth with 5 copies.  Needless to say, numbers were way up this year.

1. 1991 Upper Deck ........................ 140
2. 1987 Topps ................................. 112
3. 1988 Donruss .............................. 97
4. 1988 Topps All-Star .................... 94
5. 1989 Topps .................................. 83
6. 1991 Donruss MVP ..................... 78
7. 1988 Topps ................................. 76
8. 1991 Score ................................... 74
9. 1992 Donruss .............................. 68
10. 1991 Donruss ............................ 66



Top 15 All-Time Most Sent Cards




This list remains my favorite out of all the numbers I track.  I feel like it offers the best insights into the junk wax era and what people were buying, and to some extant the production numbers.  It's obviously not perfect, or all that scientific (as evidenced by the 1987 Blue Sox card that a reader was nice enough to send me 325 copies of a few years ago), but I still find it to be a useful tool, or at least, an interesting list to track.

1. 1989 Topps .................................. 328
2. 1987 Indiana Blue Sox ............... 325
3. 1987 Topps .................................. 308
4. 1988 Topps All-Star .................... 290
5. 1990 Donruss .............................. 289
6. 1988 Donruss............................... 284
7. 1988 Topps .................................. 253
8. 1990 Topps .................................. 250
9. 1990 Fleer ...…….....................…  211
10. 1989 Donruss............................. 209
11. 1991 Donruss ............................ 191
12. 1986 Topps ................................ 190
13. 1986 Topps All-Star .................. 179
14. 1991 Donurss MVP ................... 176
15. 1991 Topps ................................ 175


Finally, thank you to everyone who continues to send cards, or even just continues to occasionally check in on this blog.  It's lasted a longer than I expected.  






Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Portland, OR


 This card was sent by Gavin of "Baseball Card Breakdown."  The card isn't marked up with sharpie holiday decorations, that's a custom sheet inside the sleeve (like the old overhead projector notes my teachers used to use way back in the 1990's), but the card has been altered.  Gavin explained in a note that he exposed 1991 Fleer to a "lengthy, solar-powered process to modify the border color into a pleasant creamy tone."  Which if I understand correctly, is a fancy way of saying he left them out in the sun for a very long time.  Regardless, the effect is pretty cool.  Below are photos of the front and back of the card: 

  


You can see the back appears to be more or less unchanged.  I won't be counting this as a "unique" Wallach and will simply update the total number of 1991 Fleer by one in my collection.  However, this card has found a place in the back of the 3-ring binder where I keep one copy of each Wallach I have, along with a few other custom efforts people have been generous enough to send me over the years.

Thanks for the card Gavin!  It's very cool and I really appreciate it.

Updated Total: 

1991 Fleer: 244





Check out Gavin's Blog:




Minneapolis, MN


 These 8 cards were sent by the "Crocodile Sports Card Blog."  You can visit the blog by clicking that link or by the clicking the logo at the bottom of this post.  I'm missing a name and return address, so it's just going as being from a blog in the middle of Minneapolis on the map.  

Thanks for the cards Dundee.

Updated Totals:





Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Salem, OR

The above cards, and all of the cards below were sent by Sean, of Salem, Oregon.  All in all I counted 699 758 (found 59 nine more buried in the large box they were shipped in as I was tossing the packing paper and bubble wrap before throwing it out) Tim Wallach cards.  Also included was a relatively random assortment of Topps and Bowman's from the last 20 years or so.  If there was any rhyme or reason to those cards, I missed it.  I assume they were just used to help fill out the box the Wallach's were sent in for shipping purposes.  Thank you for the cards Sean, this is one of the larger mailings that I have ever received.  Please reach out on Twitter and let me know if I can send anything in return.






Friday, November 4, 2022

Ramsey, NJ



According to my Sportlots.com account history, I've placed 137 orders going back to 2011.  A recent one I placed in an effort to fill out some final holes in the 2013 Topps set resulted in a first for me.  The seller, unknown to me at the time, was regular contributor to the blog "Max" from New Jersey.  I don't have an exact count as to how many times Max has sent me cards, but I know he's been sending them since 2011, making him one of the oldest contributors of cards.  He recognized my name and address on the Sportlots order and threw in these four Wallach cards.  As such, I'm counting this as a mailing.

Check out Max's blog "The Starting Nine," it's from way back in the old school before we all moved most our activity over to Twitter.  Can't hurt, because we may all be retreating back to the blog comment sections down the road.

Thanks for the cards Max!

Updated Totals:



Saturday, October 22, 2022

Sportlots pickups

 



I've been very active on Sportlots of late.  It's a result of trying to fill in the few remaining gaps I still have in the Topps sets from 2008-2022.  It's been a successful effort, and I'm currently one 2014 #424 Jose Ramirez away from completing that run.  Sportlots can be a very cost effective way of purchasing cards for set builds, but you have to navigate the shipping rates.  A habit I developed years ago, is when I purchase a cards from a seller, I try to max out the number they ship at the same price.  So if they charge $1.75 for 5-10 cards and I'm buying 5 cards from 2013 Topps, I go and add 5 more Wallach cards (assuming they have some to add) to max out the shipping.  The above 227 Wallach cards are the result of the last two months of doing this.  Granted, about 75% of them came from one seller who had very reasonable rate up to 300 cards and I was buying a lot of set build needs from.  

Regardless of how I acquire these cards, they all count and go towards the total tally.

Updated Totals: