Epic Mailday! Heads up to my pals in the following zip codes:
08551
13601
16933
30350
46350
61615
65803
76063
79323
87402
88001
95119
Alright, time to take care of one last thing here. I still have a big folder of scans from that collection I absorbed about two years ago. Instead of dumping all 100+ cards here, though, I cut it down to about half. So here’s some stuff I wanted to show off – I’m just gonna zip through these and call it done. That’s a 2014 Topps Mini of Altuve on the right.
A couple more cool Altuve cards – high end base and a neat Donruss insert.
A couple more neat current Astros cards. Springer mini from 2016 A&G and a blue framed Correa from 2016 GQ. I dig this framed set, so I’m slowly trying to put it together.
More parallels of current ‘Stros. Well, at least I think Frankie Tuesday will be on the 2019 roster, given the pitcher attrition we’ve seen. The Chronicle mentioned yesterday that the Astros are still apparently in the running to re-sign Keuchel, which was somewhat surprising.
Other recent ‘Stro parallels from 2015: a rainbow foil Gregerson and a great looking gold Lowrie. Sorry Nick, there was only one.
There were several new Bagwell and Biggio cards in the boxes that I didn’t have yet, including these two from Fleer Authentix. This was not the brand’s best effort, and I think it may have been its final release.
More fun Biggio cards. Did anyone ever actually try to play MLB Showdown? I really like the simplicity of that Leaf Rookies & Stars design.
Some ’90s Bagwell goodness, including a Virtual Reality parallel from ’95 Stadium Club.
Some crazy Biggio cards from the late ’90s. That’s an Upper Deck Special F/X on the left. The Pacific Crown Royale is just screaming to be a lasercut card.
A couple more Biggios showing him in the latter stages of his career.
Some early aughts Bagwell cards. The Turkey Red insert with the old-school glove is kind of fun. Since these are photo based, I wonder if they brought the glove for a shoot or if that’s just some post-shoot graphic work.
One last Bagwell I haven’t showcased yet, and another HOFer from his second stint with Houston.
This guy will get in eventually, I believe. Always cool to come across a shot of him from his first stop with Houston, particularly because I wasn’t collecting then.
I don’t think I’d ever paid much attention to the “salad tongs” on the ’99 UD borders, but I do think the set can look pretty darn good in the horizontal format.
Oh Canada! Old school “parallels” on display here. I wonder if Knepper would have signed an OPC card. He boycotted signing Topps cards for a while – something about a moral opposition to their Garbage Pail Kids sets.
Oooh, found a couple of vintage cards in there that I could use! Pretty sure these helped finish off my ’73 team set. Those orange-almost-red uniforms from ’73-’75 always throw me for a loop.
Police cards! Including another HOFer, Yogi Berra! These rank right up there with Mother’s Cookies for me, and are a good way to snag cards of guys who were only briefly with the team.
Speaking of brief Astros, check out young Kenny Lofton (sigh) and Ramon Garcia. Lofton has to be among the worst trades in franchise history.
And a couple more. Dig that sparkly blue F-Mart from 2013. I believe those were a wrapper redemption.
Rookies of some big-time personal favorites right here. 1995 Classic 4 Sport featuring my bullpen buddy Scott Elarton and a Bowman Chrome rookie of Morgan Ensberg.
The Bulldog! I loved Hampton. It was pretty fun having two pint-sized lefties on the team at the same time (Wagner being the other), and it was always fun to see Hampton come up to bat knowing that he could actually do some occasional damage.
A couple of fairly good pitchers here. Love it when I can add a SLU card, and the Kile is a rookie.
Minis! 1989 Topps SuperStar (sticker backs) and a 1990 Topps Mini Leaders. I like how the Scott mimics the 1990 design but still seems more subdued.
A pair of dudes who never actually played a game for Houston.
Modern parallel, junk wax parallel. Both are always appreciated. That’s a Members Only stamp on the X-Man if you can’t decipher it.
Early 80’s Fleer needs! Yes! The Nolan’s are always the hardest to come by, so that was a nice find.
A couple more crazy Nolan Ryan cards from the boxes. That’s a Playoff Absolute Memorabilia card from 2005 on the left, and a die-cut Topps insert from a few years back.
Dupes? Nope, these are the pack and factory set versions of Pete’s 1991 Traded card.
You can tell by the backs. The factory set has the white cardstock, the pack version is on gray.
Errors! That’s definitely Shane Reynolds, not Jeff Juden. Classic mixed up four of the Jackson Generals photos in 1991. Gonzo’s last name ends in a Z, not an S.
Ooh, more fun Classic stuff from 1992. It’s crazy that young Tony Eusebio still looks 35 here.
Sneaky ‘Stros of both types. I don’t think Milt ever got a card in a Houston uniform.
Shiny outfielders! Can’t remember if I already had the Denny’s card, but if I did it went into an eventual set build. The Bell is a parallel from Prism, and is just as wild in hand. I miss you, Pacific.
Oh yeah, some Silver Signature parallels! Taubensee looks like he missed the tag.
1996 Fleer is sublime, and so are these rookie cards.
Collector’s choice was always a nice place for Upper Deck to show off more of their excellent photography. I love this Chris Holt shot – very different for a pitcher. Pretty sure I already had this, but I’ve been looking for a second one to get signed.
A very young Lance Berkman on the left here – he was just cracking the lineup at this point. The E-X Century set is such a fabulous offering. Sure, it’s not flawless, but the cards just look so damn cool.
More fun outfielder cards from the late 90’s. Dig the Foreign Focus “Beisbol Latino” card of Alou.
Every new one of these is appreciated, even if this is an absolute trainwreck of a set. Although having finished my season customs (well, I’m within spitting distance and will hopefully knock them out in the next few days), I have a bit more appreciation for how much effort a proper set like this takes. Very neat to find a gold one as well.
This was a really weird time for the franchise. Some good names, but they couldn’t put together wins. Probably because the pitching staff had fallen apart at that point.
More die-cut madness! The Bowman Platinum of DeShields is particularly fun.
Finally, there were a few autographs in a little booklet as well. They weren’t new additions to the Astro-graph project, but they were very much welcome.
Last, but not least, was this auto-relic combo of Michael Feliz, who was part of the Gerrit Cole trade. Definitely a nice find at the time.
Phew! It feels good to put that folder to bed. With the Starchives set just about finished, I should be back to some trade post catchup soon. January has been a busy month on that front as well.
Epic Mailday! Heads up to my pals in the following zip codes:
Quick notes: I like the idea behind those Fleer Authentix cards, but not so much the execution; At this point I have enough MLB Showdown cards to try to play a game, I should probably do it sometime (once I find some rules); I got a few 1990 Topps Leaders cards in a collection I bought and was surprised at how much nicer they are than the flagship set; I've had that McIntosh card since 1976, never realized he didn't pitch for Houston; I love to say "Oberholtzer".
That Biggio Crown Royale card is very, very cool..but I agree it should be die cut. I'm trying to remember if I had a Mike Scott SLU or not, if not then I must have seen one at a shop that sold SLUs because it feels so familiar to me.
this post just made me all kinds of happy on this extremely bitter cold day in MI!
Awesome post and I got the package today. Thanks for the sweet cards!