What Goes Around,Comes Around

I purchased this card from a seller on eBay towards the beginning of April.Noah was In full swing around that time and I really wanted his first Bowman card.After about a week and a half of waiting for the card to arrive ,I dropped the seller a message stating that the Noah card  went MIA.The seller was cool about It and refunded the whopping $2.50 I had payed for the card, back into my Paypal account.Damn,I would have much rather have the card instead :( Well,yesterday ,while checking the mail for some vintage  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures I'd been expecting,I find a pwe with my name on It.There was obviously a card inside.I thought "nah,this couldn't be".I hadn't ordered any cards recently.Then I thought "yeah,It has to be!" .Realizing that I had reached my daily -thinking to myself -quota ,I proceeded to open the envelope.Yes!The case of the missing Noah Syndergaard card Is finally solved and sealed,almost 2 months later!I quickly jumped on eBay to let the seller know about It and he got a kick out of It.I also placed the 2.50 back into his Paypal account.All's well that ends well.

Junk Wax Banter

Lucky me!Privileged to have grown up in the junk wax/steroid era.I was 12 In 1989 ,and by that time I was a full blown baseball card collector.I had some Fleer and Donruss,but mostly Topps and Score.In 1989 ,Topps could be found just about anywhere ,and with my favorite player, Canseco,adorning the retail boxes,spotting them In the wild was a cinch. I think the chase card from that set at the time was card number 648, Future Star  Sandy Alomar. Packs of 89 Topps were cheap.Less than 50 cents a pack,45 cents to be exact.A kid my age could swing that easily.Between lawn cutting and sofa change,I had more than enough money to come away with most of that set.Fleer and Donruss were  easy pickings as well,just not so high on my want list.Then the world of baseball card collecting would be introduced to two new brands of cardboard- An incredibly sexy and hologrammed out Upper Deck and the homey ,over sized,facsimile autographed Bowman.Both dared to be different.Upper Deck's counterfeit proof holograms were too cool,reminiscent of those old 80's Transformers faction stickers.It was almost like you were getting two cards in one because the backs of them had an equally stunning hi-res action photo  of the player portrayed. Upper Deck taught me how to carefully hold a baseball card.

 Bowman was equally beautiful In It's own,vintage way.The players stood out on the elongated card fronts with a facsimile auto across the lower half.The card backs had an interesting design as well,sporting players individual stats against each American or National League team. Because of that,every time the A's played Texas,I wasn't going out on a limb by telling my buddies that Canseco would rake In that series, thanks to the all informative  Bowman card backs.

These two new card brands were great,but pricey.I think that's when pack buying slowed down for me .Upper Deck was pushing a buck a pack and I'm pretty sure Bowman was more expensive ,too.I never accumulated many 89 Upper Deck cards,In fact the three you see above are what's left from my childhood collection.That Bowman Canseco Is the same one I had more than 15 years ago.Look closely and you can see a nice crease running down the middle :) So,yeah,my era might have been the Junk Wax Era,but It was still MY era.And I loved every minute of It!

What Happened To Michael Burgess?

Back when I was heavily collecting Bowman,Michael Burgess was the talk of the town.A budding superstar who hit many a prodigious blast while In High School and early In his minors career,Burgess has struggled mightily as of late.It sucks because I've been monitoring his career,hoping he'd pull through and make a mark In the Majors, but sadly that hasn't happened.His career Minor League numbers aren't horrible.He's hit .250 with 150 HR's and 505 RBI over the course of 9 years.I remember pulling this Bowman X-Fractor Auto and feeling pretty excited about It.At that time ,It's book value was a little over 150 bucks If I'm not mistaken.I'm not sure what It goes for today.I did see one listed on eBay for $17.99 ,so that right there should be an indicator of  Burgess's overall popularity,right now.Maybe he'll bust out of It one day,get called up and  jack 50 homers ,steal 50 bases,release his own sneaker line and be named the league MVP.Or not.

Feeling A Little Bummed

 I know,they just no hit us last night.But Madison Bumgarner wasn't the culprit so I don't feel bad about posting this.There's no taking away from Mad Bum's awesomeness,on the mound or with the bat.It seems like this kid should have 100 plus wins already.In '07 I went nuts for Bowman,snagging up pack after pack thinking I'd land that "Pujols - like" prospect In the process.I didn't. I did however manage to pull first cards of  nice stars like Heyward, Moustakas and David Price.The Futures Game Prospects was also a nice set that consisted of guys like Longoria, Kershaw, Ellsburry , Votto,Bruce,Upton etc.(Horrible segue In 5..4..3..2..)I'm a little bummed for not posting as much as I've been wanting to here at "the Pub" ,so what better player to get the ball rolling again than with the Mad Bum himself!

 

Favorite Card Of The Day!