All about the Base - 1975 Topps

Year: 1975

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Flagship

Card Number: 223

Card Type: Base

Over the course of the next few weeks I want to feature each of Robin's Topps Flagship cards in chronological order, from 1975 to 1994.  It's something I've wanted to do for awhile now and I know I've probably feature a few of the cards before, but what can you do?  I'm also toying with doing this for his Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, and Score cards, but I'll probably break up the series'.

First up is Robin's rookie card out of the classic 1975 Topps set.  Robin broke into the league in 1974.  As a matter of fact Robin was on the roster and played during the Brewers opener on April 5th, 1974, they lost to the Red Sox.  So why wasn't Robin in the '74 set?  Well 1974 was the first year Topps switched from issuing their product in series' and put the whole set out all at once.  So where Robin might have been in one of the later series', there was none. And the traded set was exclusively for traded players.  Robin had to wait till 1975 to grace cardboard.

The 75 set is pretty iconic and a hobby favorite.  I didn't realize the card I chose to scan was so mis-cut, but I wasn't going to dig out another card.  I currently have 5 1975 Topps Yount rookies in my collection all in varying conditions.  But it's so true what they say,  "You never forget your first."  I would love to say that the card scanned was my first Yount rookie, but to be honest I can't remember which one it was anymore.  But I vividly remember when I picked my first rookie up.  

I was living over seas in Germany.  My father was in the army and stationed in Berlin.  We got there just after the Wall fell in December of 1989.  Berlin was a divided city not just East and West, but in the Western sector between the British, French, and Americans.  The US didn't have a centralized base in the city, rather it was spread out in what they called Kasernes.  I can remember going over to the Air Force Kaserne, called McNair, and they hosted a periodic sports card show.  It's there I met a guy who had a ton of vintage cards there with him and he was going around asking what people collected.  I had set up a table selling as many singles as I could from my dupes.  The guy had asked me who and what I collected and I told him I was a Brewers collector and really liked Robin Yount.  He came back a few minutes later with a 75 Yount rookie.  We talked for awhile and I took the card home for about $50.  I thought I'd gotten a good deal then.  Robin's rookie cards were still commanding around $200 and while the one I got wasn't in mint condition it was a card I'd never thought I'd own.  I can say that's the most I ever spent on one of my rookie cards, but it's still a great memory.

On the Radar - 2018 Panini Donruss Baseball Retro 84 Signatures

The first new Yount cards of the year are a few days away.  Robin's first cards will be in Panini Donruss Baseball and they are all autographed.  I'll post images as they become available and I'll correct card numbering once this is released.

2018 Donruss Baseball  Retro 84 Signatures #6
2018 Donruss Baseball  Retro 84 Signatures Blue #6  #/99
2018 Donruss Baseball  Retro 84 Signatures Red #6  #/25
2018 Donruss Baseball  Retro 84 Signatures Gold #6  #/10
2018 Donruss Baseball  Retro 84 Signatures Green #6 #/5
2018 Donruss Baseball  Retro 84 Signatures Black #6  #/1

1991 Ballstreet Journal Full Panel Insert

Year: 1991

Manufacturer: Ballstreet Journal

Card Number: 58

Card Type: Magazine Insert

Issue: #6, November 1991

The internet is pretty amazing.  Yes about half of it is filled with crap and advertising, but when you have a question the answer is usually out there to be found.  It's also a nice juxtaposition for the card featured today.  Because 25 plus years ago before the internet and at the height of the trading card junk wax/speculation era there were a lot of magazines that catered to the hobby.  There were magazine specifically for the speculators, which cards and products were hot, what rookies should you invest into send your kids to college?  And of course there were the price guides.  In 1991, I was still in high school and living overseas so I didn't have access to all the great publications that were being put out to help collector's.  But that's why the internet is so great, with a few key strokes not only did I find what issue of the Ballstreet Journal that this card came out of I found a few photos.  

With so many magazines competing with one another they tried to offer gimmicks to entice you into buying their issues and free cards was the main enticement.  From what I found each issue of Ballstreet Journal came with 10 of these insert cards that you could pull out and cut out the card.  Lucky for me I have an intact panel from the issue.  The other great thing about researching this card is I found something else to go after for my collection.  I also collect Frank Thomas cards and he just so happens to be featured on the issue that Robin's card is in.  

Another fun fact,  the back of the cards feature a trivia question about the feature player and the answer on Robin's card is wrong, Robin was still 18, not 19, when he broke into the majors.  The write up is also wrong with the same age mistake and the wrong year that Robin broke into the majors.  While Robin didn't get his first baseball card till 1975, he played his first major league game  April 5th, 1974.   

1992 Fleer Provision

Year:1992

Manufacturer: Fleer

Set: Flagship

Card: Base, Sub-set

Card Number: 708

Sub-set: Provisions

Donruss had Dick Perez and in 1991 Fleer entered the art card market with Terry Smith's Provisions.  The '91 set was an insert and Fleer crossed the insert over into their basketball and football sets as well.  I remember the '91 baseball inserts were super easy to find because they had black borders and stood out like a sore thumb in the packs when you pressed the wax paper to the side of the pack.  Yep I was a teenage pack searcher.  

In 1992, Fleer numbered the Provision set into the main checklist. In 1993 the art would get reused in the Barry Colla Diamond Marks Bookmarks - Art card inserts.  

The Provision cards are still some of my favorites from the junk wax era.  And I'm glad Robin got included in the second set.  Plus Fleer added a very nice write up on the back.

1992-93 Pocket Pages

Year: 1992 - 1993

Manufacturer: Pocket Pages Card Show Digest

Card Set: Pocket Pages Card Show Digest Inserts

Card Number: 23

Card Type: Base Magazine Insert

I've had this card in my collection for quite awhile and I always thought it was an insert or bonus card added to packs of 9 pocket pages.  Like a 10 or 25 pack you can pick up at Wal-mart or something like that.  I was curious exactly how they were distributed and there are quite a few cards in the set.  After a little research and checking a little more closely at the copyright on the back of the card I discovered I couldn't have been farther from the truth.  This card was a magazine insert much like the cards that were put into Baseball Card Magazine.   I don't have a personal copy of an issue of Pocket Pages Card Show Digest, but I can assume from the name it was a publication that listed nation wide card shows. I've found a few images to share here and archive for posterity.  In the center of the digest 6 cards were stapled into the middle.  The checklist over at the Trading Card Database looks to be incomplete, but this set alone looks to have over 50 cards in it and there are other Series' as well.  The cards also cover at least all 4 big sports.  Robin was in the November 1992 issue featured below. If you happen to know more about these cards and the magazine/digest they were in feel free to share in the comment and/or post links.

2005 Donruss Zenith

Year: 2005

Manufacturer: Donruss

Set: Zenith

Card Number: 239

Card Type: Base

2005 a time when the shelves were packed with products.  Zenith was a tribute to the Pinnacle brand that came before Donruss' ownership.  Packs were about $5 each and boxes came with 3 hits.  There were tons of inserts and parallels in the set.  Out of the base cards only the Z-Gold parallels were numbered.   The card is pretty typical of the mid-range stuff Donruss put out in the mid-2000's and what Panini continues to put out today.  The player cropped and placed on a shiny background.  The Dufex parallels do look pretty neat though.

2008 Topps Sterling White Suede Parallel #227

Year: 2008

Manufacturer: Topps

Set: Topps Sterling

Card Number: 227 (RY11)

Card Type: Parallel 

Parallel Set: White Suede

Card Attributes: Serial Numbered

Serial Number: 25/50

I will be the first to tell you how much I hate the new trend in the trading card market.  The move away from affordable products with large base sets to hit driven, expensive, low card count products is one of the things that is slowly killing the hobby.  But back in the mid 2000's the higher products were more like going to a car showroom.  Most car companies have multiple models that are affordable and met different consumer's needs, and sure there was some overlap in the models and what they offered, but they also offered some higher end models for those clients that could afford it.  That's what the early and mid 2000's felt like.  For the most part the hobby was affordable with multiple, ok, a lot of products to choose from with some higher end stuff mixed in for those with a little deeper pockets.   Starting in 2006 Topps brought out a new Cadillac, Topps Sterling.  This was Topps' high end brand.  And it was nice.  The cards were fancy, the hits were pretty, and very low numbered, even if most players featured had lots of different cards.  And in 2008 with Sterling being HOF-centric and featuring player themed boxes, I loved it. Not enough to drop the $200-300 a box this stuff was going for, but definitely enough to seek out some of Robin's hits and all of his base cards.  The set featured a large base set with all cards numbered to 250.  You also got a few parallel sets.  The base being numbered to only 250 made the cards fairly rare, but not too expensive or hard to find, thanks ebay.  The next most common parallel is the white suede.  Numbered to just 50 copies and very, very white.  I've been slowly picking up these parallels as I find them for a decent price.  Robin has 11 base cards in the set so it been a slow process and I think I've manage only 3 so far, but the hunt is most of the fun anyway.