Championship Cards – Allentown Pa
Went for some supplies, I needed a place to put my growing Phillies cards that did not have a home in the binder yet. So I swung by Championship Cards hoping to find something fun.
Last time I stopped in the owner mentioned a 1980’s team set of Phillies, but then I got distracted by the junk wax boxes. Luckily he still had them!!
I went through the cards, but could not focus on the checklist to see if they were all there, I was so excited because this set will be the very first page, from the year the Phillies won their first World Series!!
There will be more to write about this set as I go to put them into the binder that will hold them forever. With the team set from 1980 secured, and the boxes I needed also on the counter I wandered around a bit to see what else I could find.
Grab Bags
My friend always buys Grab Bags from card shows and he loves them. I found on one of the counters team bags full of cards for 50% off. That meant 2 for $1 folks, and then I knew it was on! I grabbed $5 worth. I took a few that had Ryne Sandberg showing, as a kid I collected his cards.
Nevermind Sandberg’s disastrous run as a Phillies manager, we would like to forget that ridiculous debacle Man how crushed I was when all that went down! I still like to collect the cards though. Brings me back to those days as a kid, and gives me something to chase here!
We are looking for Hall of Famers, Phillies cards, and players that are notable/we remember from collecting. No idea how these bags are made up, so I am not sure what to expect! I can see why my friend gets these as there could be anything in there.
Bag # 1
This bag had the distinction of having the only Phillies card in the 10 Grab Bags! The thing I’m finding with the card shops that pull the Phillies into other boxes is that the likelyhood of finding many Phillies in these types of boxes/grab bags is very slim.
What a card!!! It took me a minute to find it on TCDB, link here – because this card is a 2000 Bowman Draft. A stunning pull for this grab bag! This must have been such a coveted card back in the day, Burrell was the hottest prospect! This is a year later than his rookie card, since that was listed in 1999, but I love the MLB Debut etched on this card in the silver foil. Numbered at #1 in the set Pat the Bat was the future here and the hype was serious!
What is wonderful about this card as a time capsule is you can see that from the way the card is numbered, the #1 Draft pick note on the top of the back, to the summary of the minor league success on the mini- Stat section. This card tells of greatness waiting to be unleashed, and it is great to see that full court press of excitement about a player the Phillies drafted #1 from the top baseball card maker in the world.
So grateful to pull that card of Pat Burrell in the first bag, the other notable cards:
- 2017 Topps Jose Bautista
- 2007 Topps Chrome Nick Swisher
- 1990 Ryne Sandberg All-Star
- Fleer Sticker – Mariners
So I was not expecting anything remotely modern, let alone a star player like Jose Bautista from 2017 Topps! I also don’t have any of those cards in my collection so the design was interesting to see. The graphics on the card are all skewed a but so I wonder how the card design was received when they were released. I like the design myself .
The sticker cards were always cool to me, and I recently read in Tanner Jones “Confessions of a Baseball Card Addict” that Fleer and Donruss used to have gum in their packs until that was stopped due to legal dispute, so Donruss did puzzle pieces and Fleer did those tremendous stickers. God I love those stickers. Did anyone ever create the puzzle with the pieces?!
When coming up with the idea of starting at 1980, I always thought that would be the toughest year to obtain the whole set from. Funny how one visit can change everything. Turns out the set I bought was created for someone else who never came in to pick them up. When I scored the junk wax they were mentioned, but I was preoccupied with 1991 Topps. Really happy I was able to get that set, and it seems like the more difficult stuff will be from the late 90s – today!
Thanks for reading, next time we open Grab Bag #2!!