The cards or the cube, which is worth more?

My wife and I did our usual Saturday shopping, and part of the trip was a stop at Target.   There wasn't a whole lot there that attracted my attention, so on a lark I bought one of those 250 card cubes.

I know I shouldn't expect a lot when I purchase one of these, but when the highlight is the great starter sets I wound up getting for '87, '88 and '89 Topps sets, it just reinforces my stupidity in purchasing the cube.

Let me take that back, the cards weren't all bad. There were a few in there that I found interesting.  One of the older Donruss sets that I'm going to get around to collecting one day is the '84 set.   I don't really have any of the cards at all now, but I've had a few in the past, and I believe that the set looks sharp.

Again, not all of the cards were bad, I actually was able to get a handful of 1988 minis in the cube, and there weren't any stiffs in the group!

How would you like to have those 6 to start your team??!!  I'd take my chances with the other 3 players on the field when I have names like Schmidt, Sandberg and Yount to start.

Another thing that I noticed in the cube was the two or three mini player collections.  Groups of 2 or 3 of the same player inside was quite an interesting find.  Mike Lansing of the Expos was the one that I decided to show off, because the cards were all interesting.

I think all 3 cards are interesting, especially the rookie cup card on the bottom.   I don't remember how many horizontal rookie cup cards I've seen over the years (I'm sure the collectors of these probably have that number in their back pocket).  The positioning of the cup is very unique as well, almost dead center of the card.  We've all seen many double play cards over the years (GCRL is a great testament to that...), but the card in the upper right of the players greeting each other at home plate is one that you don't see very often.

Finally, I'll show off some All-Star cards that were in the cube, featuring more great players in this group such as Ripken, Ozzie and Doc...

Oh yeah, how about Ken Griffey Jr. getting ready to bunt!!   That might be a picture of one of the 8 career sacrifice bunts that Griffey completed. 

All in all a few interesting cards in the cube.  Yes, the title was a bit on the sarcastic side, but hey, I gotta be me.

At least I was able to pick up another storage cube!

Thanks for reading, Robert

It only took me 12 days to figure out how to write this up.

Yes, I know it's been 12 days since Christmas, and everyone and their brother has written about the cardboard related presents that they received under the tree, in their stocking, etc. 

It honestly took me 12 days to figure out how to write about these 2 boxes.  Here's the back story for you...

It's Christmas evening, we're doing the standard passing out present to members of the family, and as the unwrapping and the smiling nears its end, there are a few presents still remaining under the tree.  My sister-in-law has told everyone in the room that they are "alternative" presents.  Not something that you would buy in a conventional store. 

What scared me was that the 2 biggest boxes were mine.  18" long x 12" wide by about 6" high.  2 of them.  They weren't light.  I was also instructed that I had to wait until everyone else opened theirs before I could open mine. 

Here's a picture of one of them...

Not sure what to think here.  I finally get the green light to open the first one, and to what do my wondering eyes see?

An absolute mishmash of baseball, football, basketball, teenage mutant ninja turtle, terminator and other assorted cards.  Just placed in the box, all unorganized and disheveled, no protection whatsoever. 

Oh, and here's box #2

Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Pro Set, Upper Deck, they're all in there.  I even found a ton of soccer cards from a Pro Set release around 1990.  If you look hard at the left hand side of this last picture, you'll even see a GI Joe card.  My sister-in-law found them, and from what she was told somebody was going to send these to a charity auction. 

I've found about a dozen collect-a-books in there so far.  DC Comics cards.  Wrestlemania cards from Classic.  A few Garbage Pail Kids cards. No Ponies yet, but you never know.  I'm estimating about 3000 cards between the 2 boxes.  The baseball is mostly 88-91 era stuff.  Same with the football and basketball. 

Here's one interesting card I found while writing this post.

A sweepstakes card from what the '89 Bowman set.  The giveaways were actual '51 Bowman cards of Mantle, Hodges, Ford, Paige and 7 others.  This is actually quite a nice card, it's too bad it was mixed in with the others because it has dings on the corners because of that.   I'm sure that I'll find a couple of more interesting cards in the Christmas boxes when I do decide to go through them. 

There are even a few cards in the boxes that would be considered "well loved".  All I have to say is I'm going to have a helluva lot of fun posting about these over the next few weeks.  You're going to see some stuff on this blog that you thought you would never see.  I never thought about some of this stuff until I saw it in the boxes.  

Who knows, somebody, somewhere, may just want a few of these for their own collection.  Be ready.

thanks for reading, Robert