See what I mean? Not terrible, but the 13 watt CF bulb ain't cutting it. I either need to bring in another light source or do all my filming during the day. Sunny days. No matter what though, I'm ripping that Buhner card tomorrow morning and posting the sucker even if I have to fall back on the scanner. Since I've made you wait so long I have an extra surprise for you all. In the mean time, here's the Card of the Week.
Autographed '92 Upper Deck Raffy card. If you squint, you can see an autographed ball up above as well. Well, me an Belliard go way back and he personally signed these for me while we were chillin' in his hot tub surrounded by groupies... ok, so maybe not. I never met the man before in my life. The closest I've ever been to him is the distance between my seat at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium and his spot at short. I even missed his freakin' home run because I left the room to go do something stupid. I am a Belliard poser loser. I did get this card and ball combo off the sale table at Atlanta Sports Cards for five bucks though. Hell, the display is worth more than five bucks!
I have a rule about autographed balls. If it's five bucks, I'm buyin'. Even if it says MICKEY MANTLE's accountant signed this, I'm still buying. Baseballs are expensive! This one is an official National League model with William White's signature stamped on it. The auto looks good to me and really, what moron would forge Rafael's signature on anything other than a check? The signed card is just a bonus.1992 is a good set from Upper Deck. It still has that same UD feel familiar from the 1989-1991 sets. Same thin card stock, same clean front, nearly identical back. There were even hologram logo stickers inserted for the last time. Not as good as the classic 1993 set which is Upper Deck's masterpiece, but a good set. 1994 Upper deck sucked. Oh lord how that set stunk. The cards were too dark, the squinchy photo on the side was stupid, the regional packs were REALLY stupid and the card stock was crappy. Blech. Upper Deck went straight downhill after 1993. '92 was good though. And this is a good card of Rafael. Belliard is doing a little hop skip thing on the front, he's in his Braves uniform and the stat line of the back shows an unheard of .249 average with 27 RBIs! Trust me, for him that's amazing. He wasn't there for the bat, he was there for the glove. You just don't see players like Raffy on championship clubs anymore. You really don't see ball/card autograph combos of them either. I'm a pretty lucky guy to find this beaut. It's almost a shame I'll be moving my Phil Niekro ball into the display soon. What? those things cost 12 bucks or something. Raffy will be happy in a cube.
6 comments:
I too, have that same $5 rule... I'm the proud owner of Omar Infante, Ryan Klesko, Gregor Blanco, Phil Stockman, Josh Anderson, Kelly Johnson, Brandon Jones, John Schureholtz, and Chuck James autographed baseballs, all for under $5.
I've got others of course... but these are my cheapie treasures.
Belliard is one of the few players I remember seeing play in person for the Portland Beavers during their early 80's Pirates affiliation. The PA announcer really seemed to like saying his name.
I never really took to '92 Upper Deck the way I did to the first 3. I'm not really sure why. Maybe I just got tired of the designs looking so similar. '93 was amazing. I can't even picture what '94 looks like. That whole year is dead to me.
1992 Upper Deck was a pretty good set with its graphics and images.
However, I think it is the first Upper Deck set I remember however being mass produced in a way that made the cards seem cheap.
It had the horizontal Ken Griffey Jr. multiple exposure card that for some reason, annoyed me after seeing it so many times, yet knowing it wasn't worth much.
I remember there were all sort of team sets in blister packs at Target back in 1992 along with Fleer rack packs.
I think I had fun with the high series, with the Home Run Heroes [Frank Thomas] inserts and a Pat Listach rookie.
Haha, Pat Listach was was like the Kevin Seitzer of 1992.
I nominate 1991 Score Odibe? McDowell as card of the week next week. That card is FACINATING!
A cube? Raffy would be happy that Smalls or Benny "the Jet" Martinez didn't hit him over the fence to belong to the collection of "The Beast."
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