Saturday, January 8, 2022

2021 Year in Review

                                         

2021 Year in Review

There were no new Tim Wallach cards issued in 2021, with Topps opting not to include Wallach in Heritage, Archives or any of their countless insert subsets.  They did however include Chad Wallach in the flagship base set for the second consecutive year.  It was a pretty cool photo selection as well.  If Chad doesn't find his way into the 2022 set and this marks his last Topps card, he'll have a nice looking tandem of cards to show for his service time in the majors, albeit, a few less than he should as Topps inexplicably omitted him from the set in 2018 and 2019 sets (and I would argue 2017 update should have included Chad as well).

Chad played in 23 games for the Marlins this season.  He picked up 12 hits bringing his career total to 43, which means the Wallach's have now combined for 2,128 hits in the majors.  I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't be excited to see a dual card of Chad and Tim similar to the family subset Topps did in the 1985 set.  

Chad was released by the Marlins this season and promptly claimed of waivers by the Dodgers.  Los Angeles put him on the 40-man roster, but sent him to AAA, where he played one game in Oklahoma City before being released again.  This time the Angels immediately claimed Chad and again kept him on the 40-man but sent him to AAA Salt Lake.  Young Wallach spent the last 39 games of the year knocking the cover off the ball in Utah, finishing with 8 home runs and a .750 OPS for the Salt Lake Bees.  Hopefully he can earn a spot with the Angels next spring and find his way back into the Topps set.



I "only" added 656 new Tim Wallach cards to my collection this year.  That is by far the fewest I have added since I started doing this "Year in Review" post back in 2014.  I can't say I'm surprised.  I also published far fewer posts than I ever have previously.  I think like a lot of collector's, the noise around cards this past year has been sort of off-putting and created a less than fun atmosphere.  So I stayed away from it as best as I could while still quietly going about my business.  It's clear though that there is a direct correlation between how often I post on thort is blog, and how many envelopes of cards I receive from readers in the mail.  I can't promise a huge increase in posting in 2022, but this blog isn't going anywhere.  I'll keep posting as long as I keep adding new cards, and there are a lot more 80's junk wax Wallach's out there still to be hoarded.


Current cards in the Collection: 27,570
Cards acquired in 2020: 656
Collection grew by: 2.4%

Top Fifteen Most Abundant Cards in the Collection

 

1. 1982 Topps .................................. 1,240   
2. 1987 Topps ...................................1,029        
3. 1988 Donruss ................................. 977
4. 1989 Topps ..................................... 864
5. 1988 Topps All-Star ....................... 826
6. 1988 Topps ..................................... 798
7. 1986 Topps All-Star ....................... 737
8. 1990 Topps ..................................... 642
9. 1990 Donruss ................................. 542
10. 1989 Donruss ............................... 518
11. 1990 Fleer ..................................... 492
12. 1987 Donruss ............................... 475
13. 1985 Topps ................................... 474
14. 1986 Topps ................................... 468
13. 1982 Fleer ..................................... 457

The only new addition in the Top 15 was 1985 Topps jumping up to #13 and bumping 1989 Fleer out of the Top 15.  1986 Topps also moved up a couple spots dropping '82 Fleer.  Otherwise there wasn't any change. 

It's interesting to me, that even extended out to fifteen, the list is still monopolized by Topps, Donruss, and Fleer, and the most recent card is 1990.  I'd have to list cards out to #19 for another brand to show up (1990 Upper Deck 362).  


Top 10 most added cards in 2021


1. 1985 Topps  .................................. 92
2. 1992 Topps  .................................. 31
3. (tie) 1983 Donruss ....................... 28
3. (tie) 1986 Topps ........................... 28
3. (tie) 1986 Topps AS ..................... 28
6. 1990 Topps .................................. 25
7. 1992 Bowman  ............................. 23
8. 1993 Topps  .................................. 21
9. 1983 Fleer ..................................... 18
10. 1983 Topps ................................. 16

Last year it took 53 new copies of a card to crack this list.  I also added 4x as many cards in 2020 as I did in 2021, so the numbers make sense.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't surprised to see '92 Bowman and '92 Topps on this list. 


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

Where's all the Stadium Club?  I didn't add a single copy of 1991 Stadium Club (165 copies), 1992 Stadium Club (95 copies), 1993 Stadium Club (80), 1994 Stadium Club (53), or '95 Stadium Club (30).  That's the entire run of Wallach Stadium Club base cards.  '93 Upper Deck (165), '93 Donruss (137), and '92 Leaf (126) were other notable no-shows in 2021.

Welcome Back

This list isn't as exciting as it's been in previous years, no doubt a result of adding fewer cards.  But there were still a few that popped up after long droughts.

1st since 2013
1988 O-Pee-Chee Stickers
1990 O-Pee-Chee
1995 Stadium Club Super Team World Series

1st since 2014
1984 Stuart
1993 Panini

1st since 2016
1986 Topps Sticker
2005 Topps Rookie Cup


Top 5 cards sent in 2021
  

I posted fewer post this year than any other year in this blog's nearly 11 eleven year history.  As a direct result of that, mail was way down.  That said, I still received 155 cards in the mail this year.  A decade plus in and it still amazes me.  Thank you.

1. 1990 Donruss............................... 9
2. 1983 Donruss .............................. 8
3. 1989 Topps .................................. 7
3. 1989 Upper Deck ......................... 7
5. 1982 Donruss .............................. 5


Top 15 All-Time Most Sent Cards
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

Since I started this blog I have been sent 9,434 cards by readers.  The 15 cards above are the most commonly sent ones.  This list has long been my favorite list that I keep regarding my collection.  I think it's a better reflection on trends that existed within the card industry in the 1980's and early to mid 1990's than the list of my overall collection numbers.  This is a random sampling, while the overall numbers are directly effected by the cards I specifically target, and I am biased towards cards from 1982-85.

 With the anomaly of the 1987 Indiana Blue Sox set aside, every card on this list is a Topps/Donruss/Fleer base card from 1987-1991.  As someone who was a young kid buying cards at grocery stores, gas stations, little league snack bars, card shops, and even the ice cream truck for awhile during those years, nothing about this cluster surprises me.  Baseball cards were literally every where and I'm not sure I knew a kid my age who didn't at least casually collect them.  I really believe if I were to continue this blog for another 20 years, the cards on this list would remain more or less the same.  



As always, a huge thank you, and Happy New Year to anyone who reads this blog from time to time, sent cards last year, or has ever sent cards, I look forward to doing this all again next year.

1 comment:

  1. I have a few waiting for me to send (as usual the Dodger variety).

    Card-sending is down regardless of post frequency if my blog is an example. People just don't send as often as they once did. Though blogging more frequently helps a little.

    ReplyDelete