2018 Sportlots purchases: my Cal Sunday

I'm back with more Sportlots content and since I already showed off a big pile of additions of a certain NY Giants WR over on TMM this evening I thought I'd pick a player for here that came with fewer scans (and therefore less work!).  Don't worry that you'll feel cheated though, since that player is Cal Ripken Jr.:

We open on 1986 and Cal's fifth full season (sixth overall).  Because of my love for hologram cards I picked up three that include Ripken from that year's debut of Sportflics, with each card showing off its technology by including two other players.  Card #1's theme, according to the back, is "American League MVPs", and it includes Don Baylor (1979) and Reggie Jackson (1973), with Mr. October featured prominently in the scan; Ripken was the '83 AL MVP, of course.  The second is a trio of '85 Orioles teammates that were all Rookies of the Year, and Cal's 1982 award was preceded by Fred Lynn in '75 and Eddie Murray in '77.  Last up is "Run Scorers", touting Willie Wilson (133 in 1980), Paul Molitor (136, 1982) and Ripken (121, 1983) as leaders in that category.

Card #4 hails from the following year's product but this time Ripken gets solo billing.  That's followed by a group of cards that includes Stadium Club issues from the 1991 debut (Members Only) through '93, with Upper Deck's 1993 SP debut mixed in as well.  Sportflics' temporary return in '94 after a three-year layoff closes this scan...

...but Ripken's "Starflics" subset card from the same set opens this one.  Pinnacle somewhat rebooted the brand the following year as Sportflix, though that too was short-lived.  That wasn't the case for Donruss' Studio, which would enjoy a few more appearances after the "locker" set of 1994.

From there we get a good look at three different 1995 products.  I managed to dig up three more of Cal's cards from Flair's Ripken-centric insert, leaving me chasing numbers 1, 3, 5, and 8.  The family shot in the second example is pretty cool, no?

Next I have all three of the Iron Man's base cards in Upper Deck's SP Championship, a set that ran during the '95 season only.  I already had the die-cut versions of the first and third card you see there, so one more of those plus a special 2131-themed insert stand between me and completion.

Closing this scan is card #1 in Stadium Club's 1995 product, a great shot of the Orioles legend doffing his cap during a legendary season.  Speaking of that set...

...this scan leads off with his second of four appearances in that iteration, the fun "Best Seat in the House" subset.  That's not it for the brand here, either, as the subsequent card hails from 1996 and the sixth in this group from the excellent 2000 offering.  Before we get there we have a nice trio from the improved second year of Topps Gallery, a personal favorite in Sports Illustrated (1999), and a sliding Cal from '99's Ultra.

The final trio keeps on moving forward starting with Upper Deck's higher end parallel version of its value brand Victory, 2000's Ultimate Victory.  Nice choice on the blue borders, UD!  That's followed by a base from the second and final version of Fleer's Fall Classics, made in 1993.  Personally I think the design took a step back with those weird green (or whatever) borders.  A 2006 A&G base that I think was a throw-in from a seller who took a long time to ship finishes up this group.

This scan combines the remaining vertical cards with a trio of horizontals.  The former portion starts with 2007 SP Legendary Cuts, and while that particular design isn't one of my favorites it remains a brand I'll always chase.  I then knocked off another 2007 Ultra Iron Man insert at a very cheap price, though I have lots more of those to nab (please check out my wantlist here!).  Base cards from 2016 Topps Archives and 2017 Donruss (another throw-in, I think) close out that group.

The horizontals are led by a 1986 Fleer base you already saw in the Trammell post from this series, and I'm happy to show it again given that they're now HOF SS colleagues.  Next is a "Cause & Effect" subset card that's the third example of 1995 Stadium Club in this post, and you'll be happy to know I already had the "Extreme Corps" subset issue to complete the quartet.  And we'll end the post with a surprisingly nice insert from Upper Deck's low-end '97 Collector's Choice called Big Shots.  It's a great look at the legend waiting on-deck at Camden Yards.

With these additions I now get to celebrate another milestone down as Cal's the first of my baseball PCs to hit the 800-card mark (832, to be specific).  Again that's 100x his jersey number and more than 100 better than the runner-up, Barry Larkin.  I look forward to Ripken (or anyone else, honestly) to be the first to eclipse 1000.

Stay tuned for more quality Sportlots content soon!