Bridgeport, CT

These three cards were sent by Cicogna of Bridgeport, Connecticut.  He sent them back in January, so apologies are in order for the delay.

Thanks for the cards.

Updated Totals:

1986 Topps All-Star: 629
1988 Donruss: 773
1989 Donruss: 390

Lowell, MA

This nice lot of six Wallach cards was sent by "Couto" of Lowell, Massachusetts.  1983-1985 is probably my favorite three year run of Wallach cards.  It's also somewhat unusual for them to show up in my mailbox, so it was a bit surprising to see what fell out of this envelope.

Thanks for the cards.

Updated Totals:

1983 Topps: 263
1984 Topps: 317
1985 Topps x2: 302
1988 Topps All-Star x2: 710

Keizer, OR

These 104 cards were sent by frequent contributor Bo of Keizer, Oregon.  I can say with a strong degree of certainty that it's the largest amount of Leaf cards I've ever been sent in one mailing.  Also in the mix was a wrong back 1987 Topps.  I'm never sure how to count these, but ultimately I add them to the '87 Total, but store them with other errors, extreme miscuts, and other production defect cards. 

Thanks for the cards Bo.

Updated Totals:

1987 Topps: 922
1990 Leaf x23: 119
1991 Bowman x2: 64
1991 Leaf x38: 159
1991 Topps x15: 260
1992 Fleer x20: 139
1993 Fleer x5: 63

WANTED CARD

This is a 1983 Clyde Drexler Police Card.  Bo, who sent me these Wallach's is looking for one and asked that I mention it on this blog to see if anybody who out there may have one for trade/sale, or know someone who does.  If you do, please contact me and I'll get you in touch with Bo.  Or maybe leave a comment with a twitter handle or something.  Bo, if you see this, maybe you'll want to leave a twitter handle or something in the comments too.

Oceanside, NY

These three cards were sent by regular contributor "Rosny" of Oceanside, New York.  Thanks for the cards Bo.  Always appreciated.

Updated Totals:

1990 Donruss: 432
1991 Score: 230
1992 Studio: 61

Bismarck, ND

This card was sent by Zac of Bismarck, North Dakota.  This envelope represents one small addition to my Wallach's, and one giant leap for my Wallach Collection.  Look again at that cancelation on the stamp.  "Bismarck, ND 58504."  This is the first mailing I've ever received from North Dakota.

I have now received envelopes from 43 different States (and four Provinces). The seven States that apparently hate baseball cards are: Alaska, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, Rhode Island, Utah, and Wyoming.

Thanks for the card Zac.  You are the all-time leader for cards sent from the State of North Dakota.

Updated Total:

1995 Topps D3: 20

McKinney, TX

22,000 Wallach Cards 

Reached with this Post

This huge assortment of 130 Wallach cards was sent by fellow Tim Wallach Superfan, Nick of McKinney, Texas.  Nick doesn't mess around when he sends his envelopes and has been, by no small margin, the single biggest contributor to blog in terms of total cards sent.  Which makes it somewhat appropriate that this posting of cards pushes my total over the 22,000 cards mark.  I feel like that's a lot.

As always, thank you for the cards Nick.  Here's a run down of the rest of the cards included in the package as well as updated totals:

Those cards on the endcaps are probably the two "rarest" cards included.  The one on the left is a '95 Upper Deck Electric Diamond Gold and the one on the right is a '96 Donruss Press Proof.  Those are only my second copies of both of those cards.

Of note in this group is the '86 Leaf, which is probably hard to distinguish from the standard Donruss in this photo, and the three '88 Fleer box set cards.  The Award Winners has always been one of my favorites due to it's heavy; reliance?, tribute?, influence?, stealing?,  of the '86-87 Fleer Basketball design.

That's a total of nine (9) 1992 Panini Stickers up there.  Previously I owned seven of them.  So Nick more than doubled my total, a feat that doesn't happen all that often and I like to point out when it does.  

Updated Totals:

1982 Fleer: 299

1983 Topps x6: 262

1985 Fleer: 107

1985 Donruss x2: 119

1986 Leaf: 28

1986 Topps: 316

1986 Topps All-Star: 628

1987 Donruss: 428

1987 Donruss Opening Day: 36

1987 Topps: 921

1988 Donruss x6: 772

1988 Fleer x4: 292

1988 Fleer All-Star: 11

1988 Fleer Award Winners: 20

1988 Fleer MVP: 19

1988 Kay Bee: 31

1988 Revco: 41

1988 Score x2: 263

1988 Topps x6: 706

1988 Topps All-Star x2: 708

1988 Topps Mini: 34

1989 Donruss x2: 389

1989 Fleer: 395

1989 K-Mart x2: 55

1989 Topps x3: 741

1990 Donruss x4: 431

1990 Fleer x5: 368

1990 Score x2: 301

1990 Topps x2: 508

1990 Upper Deck x4: 310

1991 Bowman x2: 62

1991 Donruss: 266

1991 Donruss MVP: 248

1991 Leaf x2: 121

1991 O-Pee-Chee Premier: 73

1991 Score x2: 229

1991 Score The Franchise: 194

1991 Upper Deck x2: 283

1991 Upper Deck Checklist x3: 220

1992 Bowman x2: 54

1992 Bowman USA x7: 65

1992 Donruss x3: 213

1992 Fleer x3: 119

1992 Leaf: 97

1992 Panini x9: 16

1992 Topps: 213

1992 Triple Play: 95

1992 Upper Deck x3: 278

1993 Donruss x2: 102

1993 Fleer: 58

1993 Stadium Club x2: 69

1993 Stadium Club Dodgers: 7

1993 Topps x3: 197

1993 Upper Deck x2: 139

1994 Topps x2: 121

1994 Triple Play x2: 32

1995 Topps: 57

1995 Leaf Limited: 8

1995 Upper Deck Electric Diamond Gold: 2

1996 Donruss Press Proof: 2

Sunday Edition

These five 2012 Topps were sent by Adam, from Broomfield, Colorado.  Adam operates the card blog "Infield Fly Rule."  You should check it out.  He sent these cards to me back in April,...of 2018.  My bad.  Thanks for send the cards Adam, four of the five still ended up filling 2012 needs.

In addition to finding this envelope, I've been somewhat active on ebay of late.  Here are a few highlights:

These five weren't necessarily anything high on my want list, the Papale and '70 Williams are actually duplicates for me, but when I see cards I like at what I deem to be the right price, I tend to be somewhat impulsive.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to say admit this, but these two cards above represent my first ever '51 Topps red (or blue) backs.  I can remember early in my collecting days looking at Beckett price guides (it was still in the early days of Beckett too), and this set standing out as the oldest one listed.  Over the years the weight of importance I placed on that faded, and some how through it all I've managed to never own one.  Well, now I own two, and I feel pretty good about it.  At some point I'll likely make an effort to complete these sets.  The cards feel pretty good in hand, nice and sturdy, and I imagine this set would look very nice sleeved in a binder.  It also won't break the bank to piece together a low grade set.  Hopefully the right size pages exists.

Finally, this may be my favorite new acquisition in quite some time.  I owned this card, along with a good number of others from this series decades ago, but they were lost to time.  I know it's a cliche, but my mother literally threw these out when I was in college.  She knew better than to toss the '88 Donruss, but a lone Garbage Pail Kid in a top loader (yes, I kept Nasty Nick in a top loader and he still got tossed), that wasn't anything worth keeping.

I had maybe two dozen 1st series in top loaders in a shoe box that was sent to the curb.  My 2nd and 3rd series were, and remain, in a 3-ring binder.  It was my over abundance of caution that led to the destruction of my first series cards.  This Nasty Nick is in extremely poor shape, as you've probably already determined, but I'm happy to have one in hand again. 

The first three series of GPK's are another set build I hope to take on but it's just not all that high on the priority list, especially given the price.

Thanks for reading.

Long Beach, CA

Brian of "Dre Day Cards" sent this assortment of 25 Wallach cards from Long Beach, California.  Long Beach State is a rival of Cal. State Fullerton's in baseball, so perhaps Brian was just looking to rid himself of these cards of the Titan Legend.

Thanks for the cards Brian.

Updated Totals:

1987 Donruss: 427

1988 Donruss: 766

1988 Score x2: 261

1989 Donruss:  387

1989 Fleer: 394

1989 Score: 181

1989 Topps: 738

1989 Upper Deck x3: 193

1990 Bowman: 102

1990 Fleer: 363

1990 Topps: 506

1991 Bowman: 60

1991 Donruss: 265

1991 Donruss MVP: 247

1991 Fleer: 185

1991 Upper Deck: 281

1992 Bowman: 52

1992 Score: 83

1992 Upper Deck: 275

1993 Donruss: 100

1994 Topps: 119

1995 Fleer Ultra: 42

Lake Barrington, IL

This group of four cards is the fifth time that Storms has sent me Wallach's (at least by my math).  This group features three some what "rare" cards.  The '91 Leaf is actually of the "Preview" variety and not the standard base set '91 Leaf.  I'd also be remiss not to point out that yellow O-Pee-Chee rectangle in the corner of the '85.  Finally the '91 Panini "Canadian Top 15" isn't a sticker I see very often and still know next to nothing about.  The standard '91 Panini were tiny rectangular stickers, so these "Top 15" variants obviously weren't coming in the same packages.

Thanks for the cards Storms.

Updated Totals:

1985 O-Pee-Chee: 24
1991 Leaf Preview: 13
1991 Panini Canadian Top 15: 23
1991 Topps: 245

Raleigh, NC

These four Wallach's were sent by James of Raleigh, North Carolina.  By my count it's the third time James has sent cards.  These were actually taken from James's brother, so thanks go out to him as well.  Maybe the Whalers can beat the Bruins four times in a row, once for each of these cards.  And I apologize if that offends, I really don't have anything against the Hurricanes, but as you might be able to guess given the uniforms on these four cards, relocating sports teams is a bit of sore subject on this blog.

Updated Totals:

1990 Fleer: 362
1990 Topps: 505
1990 Upper Deck: 306
1992 Score: 82

Arlington Heights, IL

Steve sent these 11 cards way back in May of 2017.  I believe this is the last of the old mailings I misplaced during my move.  I now have a box of recent one's to catch up on in the next few weeks.  Sorry for my mistake Steve, but thank you for the cards.

Updated Totals:

1986 Topps x3: 315
1986 Topps All-Star: 627
1987 Topps x2: 920
1988 Topps All-Star: 706
1990 Topps: 504
1992 Topps: 212
1994 Topps: 118
1997 Collector's Choice: 27

Brownsburg, IN

Daniel sent these five cards from Brownsburg, IN.  He sent them in April of 2017.  Yes, it's taken me over two years to post these cards.  My bad.  Sorry Daniel, this envelope got lost in the shuffle of a move.

They're still very much appreciated.  Also of interest, at least it is to me, is this is the second time someone from Brownsburg, IN has sent me cards.  Gabe, who publishes "White Sox Card Adventures," also sent me cards from Brownsburg, IN back in 2015.  I don't know if Daniel and Gabe know eachother, but they're literally just a couple of miles apart.  If you two are looking for trading partners you may have one closer than you know.  Let me know and I'll try putting you in touch if you want.

Thanks for the cards Daniel.

Updated Totals:

1989 Topps: 737
1991 Topps x3: 244
1991 Upper Deck: 280

1991 Stadium Club Printing Error

My sorting process for Wallach cards has evolved of the years.  When I pick up a half dozen or so new Wallachs, be it by eBay or the generosity of a stranger by mail, it's not very time efficient to go to the stacks and try to log them into their proper place.  I keep an 1,800 count shoe box for new cards to go into.  When it begins to fill up, that's when I break down and sort the new arrivals into the mix with the other 20,000 plus Wallach's.  It's tedious, but I enjoy it.

Recently while undertaking that task, I was thumbing through a small stack of '91 Stadium Club, counting out 25 at a time to place into team bags, when the card above on the left caught my eye.  It's missing the gold foil stamping.  I'm pretty sure I've seen these pop up on eBay before, but it never interested me enough to pay the asking price for one.  That said, it was pretty cool to find one in the wild like this.

I'm not  a huge "error guy" when it comes to Wallach's, I actually prefer things like wildly off-centered cards or grossly off caliber color printing levels, but I do have a few wrong backs, blank-fronts, blank backs, and things of that nature.  This will find it's way into a binder with those.

Below is the card back, which as you can see is perfectly normal.

Sunday Edition - Mail Time

The "One Man's Junk" Blog sent me these set building needs.  I'd say "recently sent," but I'm pretty sure it wasn't that recently.  I moved into a new home back in August of 2017.  In the build up to that move, and subsequent settling in after (it's still ongoing) this blog has been neglected.  I have an absurd amount of mail piled up that I need to post, and haven't really been collecting as much as I would like in general.

I've been trying to catch up though, and in the process of those efforts, I came across three envelopes from Spring of 2017.  I'm actually assuming this is from that period because the other two are, but this one lacks a cancelation stamp.  Someone just took a pen to the postage.  In any event, they're welcome acquisitions and very much appreciated.  Sorry for the delay Jeff.

Here's a link where I stand on these four sets after these additions.  Take a look if you're interested or may have duplicates you're looking to swap.

I said above that I haven't been collecting as much, which isn't to say I haven't been collecting at all.  I still search eBay daily for Wallach items, I've nearly completed the 2018 Topps set, and have a good start on 2019.  I've also been picking up the occassional low grade vintage card.  In fact the two below arrived in the mail this week:

This 1966 Pete Rose has taken on the title of "oldest Pete Rose in my Collection."  I believe for a lot of collector's between the age of say about 37-50, the 1963 Topps Pete Rose is engrained in our brains as the single most important baseball card in existence.  I'm sure slightly younger collector's may view the '84 Donruss Mattingly or '68 Ryan that way, but for a certain demographic, it's the '63 Rose. 

When Pete Rose was making his assault on Ty Cobb's record, my brother and I were young kids just getting into full on card collecting.  Pete Rose may have well been Babe Ruth to us.  His '63 Rookie was as "big" as baseball cards got.  To this day it remains #1 on my want list, and over the last year I've had a separate eBay fund set aside with the purpose of eventually buying a PSA 1 or 2.  I'm a ways away but I'll get there.  For now, this '66 (which arrived shipped for less than the price of a hanger pack) replaces my 1970 Rose as the my oldest Rose.

 I'm not a huge Cubs fan, but when I see a chance to own a '62 Banks (shipped) for the price of a couple of packs of 2019 Topps, I set aside my South Side prejudices, and pull the trigger.  There's also a strong possibility that '62 will be the next set I try to complete once I put 1953 in the books (I'm actually pretty close), so it doesn't hurt to get a head start.

Some one clearly loved this card, or more likely Ernie, as evidenced by the hearts written on the back.  The pen marks don't bother me any more than creases or rounded corners, but they do make me feel a little guilty.  If there was a way to find out who put them there, I'd be inclined to return this card to them.  I'm not going to seek them out, but in the off chance they ever stumble upon this, consider the offer on the table.  And not that anyone would try to scam me, but there's a sister card to this one that I'm not posting and will want to hear about before I send it off your way.

50 Card Lot of 1982 Fleer

I recently picked up this lot of 50 1982 Fleer Wallach's on eBay.  They arrived at less than 10¢ a card shipped, which is always my threshold for lots of cards on eBay, be they rookies or 1991 Donruss.  Given the age of the cases they were shipped in, and the condition of the tape that the cases were sealed in, these cards had the look of being from an early 80's rookie card speculator.  I guess after 37 years of taking up space, they decided to cut there losses.  I suspect in another 35 years or so there will be no shortage of "1/1's" and "rare" autograph and insert cards being unloaded for pennies on the dollar as well.  Hopefully that'll please some collector down the road as much as finding lots like the one above pleases me.

Updated Total:

1982 Fleer: 298

Tim Wallach Rawlings Glove

This is NOT a game worn glove.  Well, at least not worn by Wallach in an MLB game.  Somebody wore it at some point, but more likely in some American Legion game by some anonymous teenager. 

I wasn't sure these existed.  When I saw it pop on ebay I did a double take and hit "Buy It Now" faster than I ever have in my live.  As Little Leaguer, my general assumption was that anyone who won a Gold Glove, also had a Rawlings glove that could be bought and worn.   I would have loved to have played with this glove.  I just never saw one, and came to accept that while my teammates had Jose Canseco, George Brett, Ozzie Smith, and other names proudly printed in the palm of their Rawlings gloves, that I would never get to sport "Tim Wallach" in mine. 

Granted, I never had a Rawlings glove.  They were too expensive.  I suspect my parents would have found a way to buy me one had I stumbled across the Wallach model, but as I never did, it was never an issue.  My last year of Little League, my father bought me a new glove.  It was a black Wilson with Kirby Puckett's name in the palm.  I wore it through the end of Little League, all of Pony League, and a few years of varsity baseball until it was ultimately lost in a bag that was stolen out of a dugout in college.  I loved that glove and was sad to lose it.  Still, this glove feels really nice on my hand, and definitely would have more suited for my last year varsity ball when I was forced to play short stop.  I have had one round of catch with it, but have retired it to a shelf now as I don't want to wear it out anymore than it already is.

I'm not very good at reading the markings on these gloves, so if anyone out there is, and can give me more info on it (or better yet point me in the direction of a new one) please let me know.

2018 Year in Review

2018 Year in Review

Tim Wallach returned as the Marlins Bench Coach in 2018.  While it certainly seems to be a good position, it's not one that's likely to result in any new baseball cards the way being a manager might.  The likely best hope for a new Wallach card is probably one for Chad Wallach.  Chad was picked up by the Marlins during the off season, and was actually the opening day starter due to Realmulto's injury.  Chad spent most the season in AAA, but did see a good amount of time with Marlins, and managed to hit his first home run.  Tim and Chad have now combined for 261 career home runs.

As far as cards go, 2018 was a pretty good one for me, as I was able to add over 2,000 Wallach cards.  Unfortunately there were no new Wallach cards produced, unless you count the "Rediscover Topps" stuff as "new."  I don't.  There was also some sort of digital only card produced, but I feel very strongly that a jpeg on the Internet is not a baseball card.  I guess I'm old fashioned and stubborn.  That said, there's always hope for 2019.

Current cards in the Collection: 21,892

Cards acquired in 2018: 2,372

Collection grew by: 10.8%

Top Ten Most Abundant Cards in the Collection

1. 1982 Topps .................................. 1,195

2. 1987 Topps ..................................... 918

3. 1988 Donruss ................................. 765

4. 1989 Topps ..................................... 736

5. 1988 Topps All-Star ....................... 705

6. 1988 Topps ..................................... 700

7. 1986 Topps All-Star ....................... 606

8. 1990 Topps ..................................... 503

9. 1990 Donruss ................................. 427

10. 1987 Donruss ............................... 426

For the second year in a row little change to the Top Ten.  There were no new-comers to the list, though '89 Fleer now sits just outside of it, and the only changes to the order were the '88 Topps and '88 Topps AS swapping positions, and the '90 and '87 Donruss cards swapping positions. 

Top 10 most added cards in 2017

1. 1987 Topps ................................. 100

2. 1988 Topps All-Star .................... 98

3. 1989 Fleer .................................... 97

4. 1989 Topps .................................. 91

5. 1988 Topps .................................. 75

6. 1988 Fleer .................................... 60

7. 1990 Topps .................................. 56

8. 1990 Fleer .................................... 55

9. (tie) 1991 Stadium Club .............. 53

9. (tie) 1990 Upper Deck ................. 53

After being one of the more surprising "no-shows" in 2017 (I didn't add any that year), 1991 Stadium Club made it's presence known this year with 53 new copies crossing my path.  If '87 Topps matches it's total of a 100 new cards again in 2019, it'll become the second card to cross the 1,000 copies thresh hold.

Notable No-Shows, zero acquired (pre-existing amount)

There weren't any real head scratcher's among the cards that I didn't add a single copy of in 2018.  It was for the most part the usual suspects, odd balls and inserts that I don't have many copies of to begin with, and a lot O-Pee-Chee, Tiffany and Stickers.  1989 Topps Big, 2003 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites, 1996 Flair, and 2005 Topps Rookie Cup were among the more "surprising," though it's probably a stretch to call it a surprise.  There were no 1991 Stadium Clubs, or 1985 Fleers showing up on the list this year..

 

Top 10 All-Time Most Sent Cards

 

 

I was sent 42 envelopes of cards in 2018 containing a total of 946 cards.  That's nearly double the total number of cards I was sent in 2018.  I have now been sent 6,723 cards in the mail by readers since I started this blog.  It's a mind blowing number that I struggle to wrap my head around.

 

1. 1989 Topps .................................. 262

2. 1987 Topps .................................. 243

3. 1988 Topps All-Star .................... 242

4. 1990 Topps .................................. 213

5. 1988 Topps .................................. 209

6. 1988 Donruss............................... 193

7. 1990 Donruss .............................. 188

8. 1990 Fleer ...…….....................…  158

9. 1991 Donruss .............................. 157

10. 3 tied with 147

There wasn't a whole lot of change in the Top Ten.  1990 Fleer is the only new comer on this list with the Topps All-Star being the only card to fall off.  It's pretty clear that 1987-1991 was sweet spot for readers of this blog.

I want to thank everyone who read any post in 2018.