Saturday, November 3, 2012

Just About as Bad As It Gets for a Giants Team Collector

My LCS recently put out a quarter box with a pretty good variety of cards.  There were some vintage mixed in along with some more recent cards so I had some fun going through the box.  I wound up picking up $9 worth of cards with a few Giants cards, a few early 70s vintage and some tradebait.

Earlier today I was sorting through some cards and ran across this:

I picked this up as tradebait, as everyone knows there are quite a few Dodger collectors out there and I figured a Hershiser insert for a quarter would be a nice addition to a trade package.  I looked closer at the card and what do you see along the bottom but San Francisco Giants listed as Orel's team.  I know he was with the Giants during this season and I am sure Dodger fans were not too excited about Hershiser joining the Giants.  I can tell you that Giants fans weren't overly enthusiastic either.  With 3 years with the Indians between his Dodger and Giant years you wouldn't think this would happen to a card.

This card is basically the reverse of this card:

So in reviewing this card I was at a crossroads.  Does it fit in my collection with that ugly Dodger Blue uniform staring at me every time I flip through my 1998 Giants binder.  I did keep the Schmidt but with the Giants uniform proudly displayed it seemed like the right decision.

As I was mulling this over I decide to flip the card over and see how it was numbered and if the back explained why a card celebrating the Dodgers 1988 World Series would list the Giants as his team and look what I found:

While there was no explanation for putting his team on the front as the Giants, my problem is solved.  I have decided to keep the card and just display the back in my pages.  The beautiful Orange, Black and White uniform fits right in won't make me cringe as I flip through.  Problem solved!

So team collectors, what do you do with cards where the uniform doesn't match the team name?  Do you keep them in your collection?  Even if it is your arch rival?

4 comments:

  1. yes...I would keep it, my wife would call it a hoarding problem! haha

    ReplyDelete
  2. I usually keep them. (OPC is a great example as in the late '80s they showed player in their old uniform and then said "now with Dodgers." I keep those cards).

    But if the card was showing Giant uniform, I'd reconsider. I don't need that horrible pumpkin color messing up all that beautiful blue.

    ReplyDelete
  3. i'm kind of a purist about that.

    it's gotta have the right uniform, definitely. if it had a tiny logo like the schmidt relic, i might keep it temporarily, but in the back of my mind, it's always expendable as tradebait.

    if the logo is sf, tiny or not, i have no interest.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have always had mixed emotions about these cards. If the card says Cleveland on it, I usually keep it, as it's probably listed as an Indian card. But I hate when the card companies do that.

    ReplyDelete