One of my collecting goals for 2012 was to complete all of the Giants team sets from the base Topps, Fleer, Donruss and Upper Deck sets from 1981 - 2011. Through a bunch of trades and purchases I have closed in on this goal and now need only 11 cards to complete this goal. I whittled one tough to find card off this list with a recent Sportlots purchase.
At first glance this Bill Swift card looks like a normal 1992 Donruss card. I really like the photo with the ball still in the picture and his arm in mid-follow thru. 1992 Donruss cards are quite plentiful but if you flip this over you can see it is actually from the Update set:
Swift is card number U-22. Four cards from this 22-card set were included in each retail factory set and they just aren't that plentiful. Unfortunately there is a second Giant in the set, Cory Snyder, that I just can't hunt down. This is a pretty nice set as it includes Kenny Lofton's rookie, HOFers Gary Carter and Dave Winfield and Highlight cards of Mark McGwire, Eddie Murray and Jeff Reardon. There are no copies on Sportlots, Beckett.com or COMC so I am going to have to keep my eyes out. I fear the Snyder will be the obstacle to me meeting my goal. But in reality, I never thought I would get that close.
As I typically do with Sportlot purchases, I searched the sellers inventory for some additional Giant needs. Here are the rest of my goods:
I picked up 5 different Classic cards featuring Giants. Until I made my checklist, I wasn't aware of how many different sets and colors of these there were. I am whittling away but still need quite a few cards from these late 80s and early 90s sets. The quad card has an interesting selection and I thought the Scott Erickson was an odd inclusion until I looked up his stats and saw that he won 20 games in 1991.
I thought I was able to complete the Woolworth team set with 3 Giants sluggers but I looked at the checklist on Teamsets4U.com and it appears there is a Rick Reuchel in the set in addition to these 3 and the other Kevin Mitchell. This 33 card set is very Bay Area heavy with 5 Giants and 9 A's. I guess since they played each other in the 1989 World Series that makes sense. I have the 3 Rickey Henderson cards in collection of his as well. I also picked up 3 Pacific cards of 2 Giants HOF and slugger Dave Kingman.
I did complete the Topps Mini set with the Clark and Butler and also scored 6 Panini Stickers. Remember when Panini was only known for their stickers?
My final pick ups were these random Giants pickups from the early 90s. I was always a fan of these 1991 Fleer All-Star cards. A very 90s design but I like them. The Steve Decker card is interesting, it is one of 10 cards from the Score All-Star Fan Fest set that I believe was available at the 12th National Sports Collectors Convention. I just don't remember Decker being hyped as that big of a prospect. The Matt Williams Mother's Cookie card is one of 4 in a set just of him. I now have 3 of them.
Overall I was very happy to pick up the Swift and add all of these cards to my Giants collection. If you happen to have any of the cards I need to finish my 2012 goal, let's make a deal. Here is the list:
2007 Fleer #428 Tim Lincecum RC
2005 Fleer Tradition #325 Aardsma/Knoedler/Simon TP
2003 Fleer Tradition Update #317 Todd Linden ROO
2003 Fleer Tradition Update #391 Kevin Correia ROO RC
2002 Fleer #90 Carlos Valderrama
2001 Donruss #202 Barry Bonds FC
2001 Topps Traded #T25 Brian Boehringer
2000 Topps Traded #T17 Sean McGowan RC
1997 Upper Deck #270 Bill Mueller UPD
1992 Donruss Update #U21 Cory Snyder
1990 Donruss #217B Scott Garrelts COR# (Born 10/30; corrected in factory set)
I checked around my collection for any of those cards above, but I don't have any of those. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI still can't figure out sportslots. They make it so hard to sell on there with the terrible page navigation and odd links.
ReplyDeleteThey need to joins us in this new century.
Do you still need the rest of the Purple Classic ('91) Giants? I think I have them.
ReplyDelete-Josh D.
royalsandrandoms.blogspot.com
I thought this selection of cards looked familiar, and then realized I sold all of these awhile back! Glad you're enjoying the cards. It took me three of the red-boxed 1992 Donruss factory sets to find the Dave Winfield, and I think that ended up being my second Bill Swift. The first sold on COMC a couple of years ago.
ReplyDeleteThe green Classic card with the four different players was actually intended to be cut up into four, and then mounted on little colored feet to be used as playing pieces in the Classic trivia game. Because all of the Classic Baseball sets to 1993 were actually set up as trivia games, with dice, game boards, pieces, trivia questions on the back of each card and its own set of rules. I would be surprised to learn that anyone ever actually played that game.
On another subject, do you have any of the 4.25"x5.5" black & white team issue cards with the gray borders and Pacific Bell logo in the lower right corner? I'm trying to figure out what year they came from, but can't find any reference to them specifically.