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!

2018 COMC purchases: Cal's my pal

The little pile of Cal Ripken Jr. cards I picked up from COMC caught my eye today so that's where I'm going next.  You can also catch some new football content on TMM should that interest you.  Otherwise, here's some fun inserts of the Iron Man for your Sunday enjoyment:

This one is from the 1992 Donruss debut of Diamond Kings as their own insert set, and as usual the manufacturer and artist Dick Perez nailed it.  These served as a good indication that the Diamond Kings name was in good hands, and cardboard history shows that they improved from there.  Definitely a gem from the waning days of junk wax and boring designs.

And now we're looking at card #7 from Fleer's 1995 Flair insert set focused on Cal.  "Enduring" is of course a good word to describe Ripken throughout his trademark streak.  The back of this one talks about how he won the 1991 All-Star Game MVP before being named the most valuable player in his league later that season.  With this in my collection I just need four more cards to complete the set--one of three Ripken-specific inserts I'm working on that you'll see in this post!

Given Cal's stardom you'll be hard pressed to find many "cheap" quality inserts of the HOF shortstop, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.  The 1996 Ultra Rawhide card above is a case in point with its cool textured surface and great shot of the two-time Gold Glover in the field.

Throughout these posts you'll get a chance to see where I "splurged" a bit this time, spending more like $3-$10 on single cards when I usually don't.  One player in particular benefited from that more than the others, but Ripken did get in on the fun with this awesome die-cut/acetate 1997 Studio Hard Hats (#3043/5000) offering.  Hello, "90s inserts rule" tag!  I've had Barry Larkin's card from the set for a while and have Griffey's card on my wantlist because these just look too cool to ignore.  You won't find anything like this in the era of the Toppsopoly but my fellow 90s collectors and I can enjoy endless creativity like this!

All Cal All the Time set #2 for today is 2000 Fleer Gamers' Cal to Greatness.  This is one I've been trying to tackle for a while because, while the first five cards are relatively cheap and easy to find--I've had them all for a while--the next five were 1:25 pulls and the last five were 1:144, making them much harder to track down, at least at prices I could stomach.  The one you see above is #10 in the series, leaving me short #s 6 and 9 plus the entire run of 11-15.  I'll get there at some point!

Last up is the final all Ripken set, not to mention the largest.  Fleer's 2007 Ultra Iron Man insert weighs in at a whopping 50 cards so this foursome goes a long way towards making a dent in my wantlist.  That's still fairly large because I only recently started working on it after finding a couple in the cheap boxes at shows.  But I've got six now with more on the way, and I look forward to filling the gaps on this outstanding black/orange/foil tribute to Cal that features excellent photography.

This nice little nine-spot of Cals bumps his PC-leading collection up to 795 cards with another milestone--100x his jersey number--in sight thanks to some Sportlots reinforcements.  While I wait on those you'll get a look at a few more COMC PC cards soon!