One Man's Junk Wax Is Another Man's Treasure...

...At least for a few hours. 

A couple weeks ago, a box of vintage cards showed up on Yahoo! Japan Auctions. These thirty-year-old cards must be worth a fortune, right? When I started collecting, a box of thirty year old cards would have been packed with some of the most iconic Topps, Bowman, and Leaf cards from the Golden Age of baseball.

Well, this box was packed with Topps, Bowman, and Leaf cards. But not from the Golden Age. More the junk era. Perhaps 1000 cards were nicely packed into an Adidas shoebox and sent to me for a price I found reasonable - less than a 2021 jumbo pack. It wasn't about finding super-rare variations. I didn't even look to see if any of these sets had valuable errors. Since the arrival of the box, I've been sorting through the cards, multiple times, looking for singles that fit into my collection.

First go-through, I just looked for the five "best" cards from each set. This way, you'll see all of the sets found in the box, and I can kick this off with a bit of fun. Get ready for a bunch of kindling!

Jeff Reardon: there's an umpire back there! Add the fact that this is an away game and Jeff has an uninterested expression on his face.

Tom Candiotti: that 1990 jersey t-shirt didn't age well. And those stands are M-T. But this card is here mostly for his grip on the ball.

Carlton Fisk: a card of a legend. I'm not sure I really knew who Fisk was back in 1991. I wasn't a White Sox fan by any means and at this point it was all about Griffey, Thomas, and the Braves. But he's bunting!

Jack McDowell: Why did I choose so many AL teams? This card is one of many I saw that had the White Sox throwback uniforms. I remember going to a TBTC game in San Francisco that was a lot of fun.

Gary Carter: another legend, and finally an NL card. Do you remember that Gary Carter played for SF? Not too bad of a photo, either. Honestly, 1991 Donruss was a good start for this post since the photos are so uninspired. It can only get better, I hope!

Tino Martinez: let's talk gold. There were plenty of these 1994 Topps Gold cards in the box, so I pulled five of those. Tino is here for two reasons: how often do you see cards of first basemen catching popups? and Bob Feller's retired number is clearly visible in the background. Visible backgrounds are so rare these days! 

Scott Bullett: a player signing autographs. And again, we can see someone posing in the dugout!

Rey Sanchez: another player putting ink on something. It looks like his 1993 Topps card!

Joe Oliver: It's nice to see play at the plate cards. That is all.

Dwight Smith: 1994 Topps had a lot of photos in the field. This is a pretty good photo, though it might have been better if it included the fielder. Then again, we can see Dwight's expression pretty well here.

Geronimo Pena: this card is great and awful at the same time. You can't see faces, it's hard to tell exactly what's happening, and where's the ball? But Geronimo is leaping over a runner in a pretty unique situation.

Ellis Burks: moving on to the regular 1994 Topps cards, Burks is calling time. I don't remember the last time I saw a player calling time on his baseball card.

Cory Snyder: from the look on his face, I'm guessing Snyder was out. It's such a strange photo that, despite a lack of action, is appealing.

Devon White: another unique image of a player checking his mail. Don't give me a photo like this every year, but I think these B-roll images belong somewhere.

Mike Devereaux: Is that a bee by his ankle? What is going on here? The facial expression makes this card.

Chipper Jones: 1991 Bowman was definitely the home of the rookie card. I think half of the cards in the lot had players with no prior MLB experience on their card backs. Unfortunately, the set has fairly vanilla photos. But Chipper Jones has a fairly iconic pose. Too bad this set wasn't as high-quality as Stadium Club.

Melido Perez: here's another photo of the Sox in their throwback uniforms. Gotta keep it for that reason only!

Jose Canseco: yet again, t-shirt jerseys. Bad idea. Is this Spring Training? Canseco is so big, that bat looks like a toothpick in his hands.

Frank Thomas: waiting at the batting cage. Such ingenuity, creativity and uniqueness on a card! Such sarcasm in that last sentence!

Kevin Mitchell: we finish 1991 Bowman with a photo so nondescript, they could use it on a football card and nobody would be able to tell the difference.

Tony Gwynn: these were the newest cards in the lot. Tony is here because he's one of my favorite players. Unfortunately, regular cards in this set have fairly uninteresting images. And unfortunately, my scanner doesn't like black borders. I'll have to figure that out.

Deion Sanders: nice leg kick, and a blast from the past.

Awesome Action: while the base cards aren't so inspiring, this subset had some nice shots. This photo has the ball, fielder, and runner, all in a fairly crisp image.

Don Mattingly: He's not batting, which may have been the biggest selling point of this card.

Mascots: my scanner chopped off all of the borders here. Ugh. You finally get to see a card back, though, because in addition to a fun costumed mascot on the front, there's a dog on the back!

Big Poison: Paul Waner's nickname was at least somewhat creative. Better than the J-Hey, A-Rod, D-Mac. What happened to names like Crime Dog?

Les Bell: there weren't many of these Conlon cards, so I didn't have much to choose from. But I love that gigantic NL patch on Les' arm.

Claude Hendrix: While I like that I can see some of the stadium in the background, two other things put this card through my scanner: first is the date: 51515. Second is the two teams who played in this no-hitter: the Whales and Rebels. Definitely not AL or NL, this is the first time I've noticed having a Federal League card in my collection.

Joe Medwick: Medwick was a great player, plus those old stands behind him.

Lefty Grove: again, the text at the bottom steals the show: Rrrip! The back tells the details, but on its own you have to wonder if his nickname almost became Gassy.

Frank Thomas: Moving on to Stadium Club, we're getting into the stacks of cards that were pretty small. This gold parallel Dugout Dirt insert has a decent photo on the front, but it's that cartoon on the back that I love. I might need to collect the entire set!

Ozzie Smith: this gold parallel subset has yet another t-shirt jersey (I'm really glad those are gone) and Ozzie not fielding for a change.

David Wells: I'm not a fan of tattoos, but that tattoo, man.

Jim Edmonds: is the photo on this card from his debut? He doesn't seem too happy. Maybe Jim isn't quite in shape yet.

Heathcliff Slocumb: I always enjoyed his name. But this is a pretty good picture of Heathcliff, given the timing during his windup and the angle, where it almost feels like you're at the plate and he's looking right at you.

Von Hayes: There were only five cards from 1990 Topps, so you get to see them all. I am not a fan of that t-shirt jersey, but I like the old logo!

Doyle Alexander: The logo on his cap looks really small. And the piping on this jersey is just ridiculous. 

Omar Vizquel: his hat goes over the Mariners team name! Witchcraft! I like the fact that I can see the stadium in the background.

Mark Parent: okay, getting really boring. But he has a helmet and catcher's mitt, but no chest protector. Is Mark just warming up the pitcher while the real catcher gets his gear on after a plate appearance?

Carmelo Martinez: unfortunately, we're finishing with a yawner. I guess this serves as a good reminder of how boring card images used to be!

What was your favorite card here? Seeing these sets brings back memories!

Until next time...