1998 Tucson Sidewinders Jones Photo - Hensley Meulens

***UPDATES AT BOTTOM***

 

     Pursuing a player collection of a lesser known, yet widely traveled slugger can be a challenge.  What makes that pursuit all the more satisfying is when something like this turns up out of the blue.  Not only was I not looking for this photo, I had no idea it even existed as none of the main hobby resources have any record of this set.  A little research reveals that in 1998 (and presumably all the other years these were produced), these photos were given away at Sidewinders games, at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, in packs of five photos.  The photos I received came in these envelopes:

     Given that there are sixteen photos here , I'm going to assume there are at least four more to the set, possibly eight (previous sets contained 24-25 photos).  These are the photos from the lot I received:

Bryan Corey
Nelson Figueroa
Tim Florez
Ben Ford
Hanley Frias
Karim Garcia
Ron Hartman
Danny Klassen
Peter Kolb (Trainer)
Garry Maddox
Barry Manuel
Hensley Meulens
Chris Michalak
Vladimir Nunez
Stephen Randolph
Mike Robertson
Rob Ryan
Jeff Suppan
Ephrain Valdez
Neil Weber
Bob Wolcott

     The same seller also had another lot of Tucson Toros photos.  After receiving everything, based on when the various players coincided on Toros rosters, there were 17 photos from 1993 (another undocumented set) and 5 from 1997.  The 2000 (and final) edition of the Standard Catalog of Minor League Baseball Cards only listed 5 photos from the 1997 set (presumably a single game's giveaway), so those, plus the photos in this lot make at least 10 in the set.  Here are the players in each:

1993		1997
Mike Brumley Jim Bruske Mike Capel Steve Carter Fred Costello Ed Dixon Dave Engle Tony Eusebio John Hudek Jim Lindeman Terry Mathews Joe Mikulik James Moulton Luis Quinones Jeff Robinson Donne Wall Bruce Walton Rodney Windes		Joel Adamson Brian Banks Ron Belliard Jarvis Brown Mark Davis Matt Grott Greg Hansell Jeff Huber Bobby Hughes Geoff Jenkins Frank Kellner Travis Lee Norm Montoya Tony Phillips Al Reyes Sig Roberson Tim Unroe Jack Voigt Al Williamson Doni O'Bryan & Peter Kolb

     I've added checklists for all three to the SportsCardForum.com Inventory Manager (updates are only being posted to TCDB unless someone else is adding them to SCF, these days).  The photos are unnumbered, so I alphabetized and numbered based on that, so if I find more photos in the future, the "card numbers" will be adjusted.  As usual, these are all available for trade or sale, except for the Karim Garcia which has already been claimed.  All photos have now been sold.

-----UPDATE (14 December 2011)-----

     I have now found references to Toros sets from 1995 and 1996 (given away to the first 500 lucky fans) and a second Sidewinders set from 1999.  This helps lend a little credence to sets having been issued each year from 1987 to 1999.  Now I just need to find evidence of sets from the missing years and begin the extremely slow process of building checklists.

-----UPDATE (19 January 2017)-----

     According to the 28 July 1998 Arizona Daily Star, at the Sidewinders game that night, the first 500 fans would receive photos of Edwin Diaz, Tim Florez, Danny Klassen, Neil Weber and Bob Wolcott, which combined with the list above brings the set total to 21.

-----UPDATE (21 October 2017)-----

     Another batch of Sidewinders hit eBay recently, confirming the previously reported five names to the checklist: Chris Michalak, Neil Weber, Bob Wolcott, Tim Florez and Danny Klassen.

-----UPDATE (2 March 2023)-----

 

     Four more photos turned up on eBay this week; Tim Unroe, Jarvis Brown, Antone Williamson and Al Reyes.

-----UPDATE (19 July 2023)-----

    

     A lot of items from the 1997 Toros hit eBay today, including the following new additions to the checklist: Joel Adamson, Greg Hansell, Geoff Jenkins, Norm Montoya, Tony Phillips (the pitcher) and trainers Doni O'Bryan and Peter Kolb sharing a photo.  There were some larger photos, including Travis Lee (with facsimile autograph) and a team photo.  Also included was a large photo of Ed Vosberg, labeled as from 1990, though he only played for the team in 1989.  Currently I have found no evidence of a 1990 set, or at least no actual photos have surfaced.

2016-17 & 2018, 2019 San Francisco Giants Fan Fest photo cards

(Updates at the bottom)

     eBay saved search comes through again!  It appears that the Giants updated their Fan Fest photo card design a tad for the 2018 event, and I just picked up a lot of cards on eBay that included a previously unknown Hensley Meulens card.

     In this new design, the team logo is now in a square that fits within the edges of the name and team bars, the player name is slightly wider, and the team name and position are now italicized.

2018 design

For comparison, below is the design that was used from 2013-2015.

2013-2015 design

 

The other cards I have found with this new, square 2018 design are as follows:

Jose Alguacil

Tyler Beede

Travis Bergen

Ty Blach

Steven Duggar

Aramis Garcia

Matt Herges

Nick Hundley

Ryder Jones

Evan Longoria

Andrew McCutchen

Mark Melancon

Conner Menez

Hensley Meulens CO

Alyssa Nakken CO

Buster Posey

Pablo Sandoval

Rick Schu CO

Chris Shaw

Andrew Suarez

Breyvic Valera

Pat Venditte

Tony Watson

Mac Williamson

Curt Young CO

I'll update the list as I find more.

--UPDATE-- 

     Slight update here, as I just discovered that there was another design change that I missed.  Between the 2013 design and the 2018 design, there was subtle change that I am now calling 2016-2017.  Swiped from an eBay listing, the Ehire Adrianza features the newly discovered design, and the Jeremy Affeldt the earlier design.  The two differences being on the 2016-17 design the team/position banner features the larger, italicized text, and the banner does not extend beyond the end of the logo circle.

For this 2016-17 design, I have identified the following players, so far:

Ehire Adrianza

Ray Black

Matt Cain

Brandon Crawford

Matt Duffy

Gorkys Hernandez

Chris Heston

Nick Hundley

Steven Okert

Josh Osich

Jarrett Parker

Hunter Pence

Buster Posey (crouching)

Buster Posey (throwing)

Jeff Samardzija

Chris Stratton

Albert Suarez

Kelby Tomlinson

Mac Williamson

Ron Wotus

--UPDATE-- 

Another design has surfaces for the 2019 Fan Fest cards.  So far, this Dereck Rodriguez is the only card I have seen on eBay:

--UPDATE 3/10/2024--

A recent eBay listing has added several more cards to all of these sets, including more from 2019, so that now stands at:

Craig Albernaz

Andrew Bailey CO

Brian Bannster CO

Tyler Beede

Kai Correa CO

Jaylin Davis

Alex Dickerson

Mauricio Dubon

Mark Hallberg CO

Dustin Lind

Andoan Richardson CO

Dereck Rodriguez
Austin Slater

Drew Smyly

1992 Cord Camera Columbus Clippers Photos

    I learned about this issue about 3 1/2 years ago when someone posted a couple of lots of these on eBay.  Unfortunately for me, there was a Bernie Williams in the lot, so I wasn't about to fight the deep pockets of a Bernie collector.  Thankfully, as often happens, if one waits long enough, and is ready with a saved search on eBay, things come back around, and now it resides in my collection!

    Presumably these were a stadium giveaway,  but none of my newspaper archive resources cover Columbus in the 1990s, so that is only speculation.  I am not entirely sure whether the signature is genuine, or just part of the photo.  In the photos on Worthpoint, several of the signatures from the original lot overlap the white part of the photo, so that would imply they are real.  The photos measure 3 1/2" x 6 7/8" and are printed on photo paper and were sponsored by local camera shop, Cord Camera & Video.  A similar set was also issued in 1993, but I don't know whether or not it contains a Meulens.

The following players were included in the original auction:

Brad Ausmus
Royal Clayton
Andy Cook
Francisco de la Rosa
Mike Draper
Mike Humphreys
Jay Knoblauh
Torey Lovullo
Ed Martel
Billy Masse
Hensley Meulens
John Ramos
Dave Rosario
Dave Sax

Dave Silvestri

J. T. Snow
Russ Springer

Don Stanford

Larry Stanford

Bob Wickman

Bernie Williams
Gerald Williams

1991 Score All-Star Fanfest/ National / NCWA Summer Convention

     Ok, so it's not a rainbow in the traditional sense of piles of meaningless, slightly different variations, but who would have thought such a set so far out of the collector's main stream would have three different variations?

     In 1991, Score issued a set of 10 supposedly up-and-coming prospects that were expected to make some sort of impact over the next few years, and they were given away at the 1991 All-Star Fanfest over the MLB All-Star weekend in Toronto, in a little sealed plastic wrapper like Post used in the 90s for cards issued in cereal boxes. They also came with a random 1991 Score World Series trivia card like were issued in every pack of Score. To save a little effort, they also gave out pretty much the exact same set at the 1991 12th Annual National Sports Collectors Convention in Anaheim, California. The only difference? That little line of text on the lower red stripe on the reverse of the cards. Incidentally, Score also produced a set of hockey cards, featuring some of the greats of the day, using almost the exact same design (the colors were slightly different).

     I'm guessing the last one was perhaps a proof or example printed up without the lower banner to show how the cards would look. I bet they were never intended to see circulation amongst the general public. While I've seen several of the Fanfest and National sets once I started to notice them, I've seen this particular variation blank variation listed once on CheckOutMyCards.com. Of course, that may simply be because no one ever posts scans of the backs of cards on eBay or Sportsbuy.

Here's the full checklist of the sets, in case anyone might be "super collecting" Ed Sprague:

Score Title Card (blank backed)
1. Ray Lankford
2. Steve Decker
3. Gary Scott
4. Hensley Meulens
5. Tim Naehring
6. Mark Whiten
7. Ed Sprague
8. Charles Nagy
9. Terry Shumpert
10. Chuck Knoblauch

     I almost have to think they were shooting for the 2nd or 3rd string of actual prospects....I mean, this is 1991, and no Todd Van Poppel? No Jeff Bagwell? I-Rod? Mo?

     Beckett doesn't acknowledge the existence of the National set, but SCD lists both sets together, mentioning the separate events. Neither mention the existence of the blank variation. I have no idea what the print run was, but I imagine loads of these sets didn't survive any farther than the trash cans by the exit doors at the events (especially after kids opened them and saw who was in it!). In 2006, SCD gave the set a whopping $2 book value. Beckett was a little kinder, but not by much. The Fanfest set is pretty easy to find on eBay, the National set slightly less so.

****UPDATE (25 June 2019) ****

   Thanks to a collector over at TradingCardDB.com, I now know that there was a fourth version of this set, issued at the 1991 National Candy Wholesalers Association Summer Convention. "1991 Score NCWA Summer Convention" is what was printed in the red stripe on the reverse of the cards.

    Sets were issued for hockey, football and baseball.  The hockey sets seem to be the most common, followed by football, with the baseball sets being extremely rare.  Or at any rate, the baseball sets are so unknown that I've only seen a few of the individual cards, but no complete sets, and they are not cataloged by any of the usual entities.

2006 Columbus Clippers 30th Anniversary Program Cards

    In 2006, the Columbus Clippers celebrated their 30th anniversary as a team. One of the ways they chose to commemorate that occasion was through the issuance of a series of collector cards distributed with each Clippers game program over the course of the 2006 season. I think this was the third of four times they would issue cards this way, resulting in a very difficult to find set. A checklist had popped up for this set several years ago including Hensley Meulens in the set. However, when Beckett finally added the set to their system, Meulens was nowhere to be found. Instead, there were several cards listed generically as 'team card' or 'stadium card'. So did he have a card or not?

    This week, thanks to waiting on an eBay saved search for about 6 years, I finally found my answer. A seller listed several 2006 Clippers programs, including images of the cards inside, and one of the cards was this:

 

     The program, from May 9, 2006, (the seller included the game's line-up sheet and a ticket stub) contained the cards for 1989 (Hal Morris), 1990 (Deion Sanders), 1991 (Bernie Williams) & 1992.  One of those 'team card' entries in Beckett's listing was for Columbus' record setting eight selections to the 1992 International League All-Star team, including Hensley Meulens.

1992 - 1995 Sportsprint New York Yankees postcard set (update)

----------
UPDATE - 20 January 2017

A Bernie Williams postcard has surfaced featuring Bernie at the bat, wearing a jersey featuring the "7" on the sleeve, memorializing Mickey Mantle who had died in August 1995.   That means the "1993" list is probably a mix of postcards from 1993, 1994 and 1995 (or even 1996 given how the #7 was only used late in the season).  Thanks to eagle-eyed Kid4hof03 on FreedomCardboard who pointed this out.

----------
UPDATE - 31 December 2015

    Thanks to Michael over at New York Yankees baseball cards, we now have solid information for splitting these postcards into individual 1992 & 1993 sets.  The list below has been updated accordingly.

----------
UPDATE - 25 June 2015

     I'm now thinking this is actually two or three separate sets, or the set was issued continuously over two or three years.  This morning on eBay I caught an auction with previously unseen cards of Danny Tartabull in a portrait shot, another Kevin Maas with a different photo and a Roberto Kelly.  Kelly wasn't even on my radar for some reason, even though he was an All-Star for the Yankees in 1992, so I don't know why I was surprised.  Checking the same seller's completed auctions turned up another lot that included Buck Showalter, Mark Conner and new-to-me cards of Clete Boyer and Yankee Stadium.

--------
UPDATE - 15 January 2013

I saw the Maas postcard on eBay, so the set is now up to 26.  I'm going to start posting images of each postcard as I find them so collectors might have a slightly better chance of recognizing them.  I suspect the black & white cards are copies of the originals, but until I find color versions, these are all I have to work with.
-----------
UPDATE - 09 December 2011

     A couple more of these showed up on eBay recently, but they are no help in narrowing the set down to a single year as all six individuals were with the team from 1992-93.

----------
UPDATE - 04 December 2012

A much larger assortment of these has hit eBay, bring the checklist up to 25.  I finally have verification of most of the starters of the team.

---------

     The postcard arrived today, all the way from Los Angeles. It was interesting to see that as soon as I got my shipping notice, the seller immediately had a second one posted for sale. Considering he said he was given these as a gift, and he only had the Meulens, Showalter and Howe, he probably has a stack of them from an in-person signing from way back when. I have to revise my date estimate to either 1992 or 1993 as those were the only years Meulens and Howe were on the team together with Showalter at the helm. By 1994, Meulens would be playing in Japan and out of the Yankees system altogether.

Here are the front and back together:

  

     No joy on Googling SPORTSPRINT/ATLANTA aside from more references to that 1994 Greenville Braves set. Ditto for the photographers and what was presumably the outfit that provided the photos.

Hensley Meulens International League Hall of Fame Induction

     Hensley Meulens spent parts of six seasons in the International League as a player, most notably 1988-1993 with the Columbus Clippers, and 1997 with the Ottawa Lynx.  Once his playing days were over, he returned as a hitting coach for the Indianapolis Indians from 2005-2008.   I don't take much time off work, but this week I made an exception and drove up to Columbus, Ohio, to witness the induction of Sir Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens into the International League Hall of Fame.  Below is my shaky cell phone video of the ceremony.

     It was a beautiful evening for baseball at Huntington Park, with a season-high crowd of 11,373 turning out for the event.  I guess some of them also showed up to see the Clippers face the Indians (not a good night for Ross Detwiler and the Clippers) or maybe for Sugardale Dime-A-Dog night (10 cent hot dogs!).  In any event, in honor of Sir Bam Bam, the team was giving away these canvas printed plaques covering his career with the Clippers:

     I had really hoped to get a chance to finally meet the man himself, but it just never happened, mostly because I got wrapped up in the game and didn't think to go hang out by the Hall of Fame plaque after the ceremony.  However, he did notice me!  I was sitting in the front row behind the plate, right by the Clippers dugout, wearing my Hensley Meulens San Francisco Giants 2010 World Series away jersey, and he saw me from the second level box where he was sitting with his family and sent this down to me:

     He did smile and wave to me when he came through the dugout onto the field.

     The I.L. Hall of Fame now occupies two of these plaques, so next year they will need to start on a third.  Out front of the stadium is a bronze statue of Harold Cooper, the business man who brought baseball back to Columbus after the Cardinals had moved the previous affiliate (the Columbus Red Birds) to Omaha following the 1954 season.  Cooper bought the International League team in Ottawa and relocated them to Columbus, establishing the Columbus Jets.  Fast Forward to 1970, and unable to work out a deal for improvements to their existing stadium the team was again sold and was moved to Charleston, West Virginia, and became the Charleston Charlies.  The Clippers began in Columbus in 1977, in the same stadium, and in 1984 it was officially renamed "Cooper Stadium".  Harold Cooper is in the upper left corner of the plaque below.  Hensley Meulens is in the lower right.
  

 

  Here is a closeup of 2016's inductees:
    

Bam-Bam & Tuffy Mailday: This Card Is Cool Edition

     I'd been out of town all week for work and was anticipating some exciting mail when I got home.  In what has become one of my favorite online trading experiences, with RyanG of This Card Is Cool, I send him semi-random junk for his type-card collection, and he sends me stacks of pure Japanese awesomeness!  He included a brief note:

     Very eager: check!  Update want lists: check!

     It is increasingly difficult to find new cards to add to my Sir Hensley Meulens collection.  Before these new additions, my Meulens want list was down to just seven cards (of which, one may not exist).  Now it is down to five (or maybe four for existential reasons).

2013 BBM Legendary Foreigners 2 Deep Impact Silver Signature #42 /100

  

2013 BBM Legendary Foreigners 2 Deep Impact Red Signature #42 /30

  

     Feels kind of awesome to own a Hensley Meulens card numbered to just 30.  If I can track down the gold signature (numbered to 50), I'll have the whole rainbow for this set.  Then it's just back to waiting for an affordable copy of his autographed card (numbered to 48) to show up to have the clean sweep of all of Sir Bam-Bam's Japanese cards.

    Ryan also sent some major additions to my Tuffy Rhodes collection, which has been a touch stagnant in the past year.  Well this is quite the revival.

2002 Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes Team Issue
     I had discovered something like a half dozen team issued cards of Tuffy with the Buffaloes, but this beauty was not one of them.  I love how these keep turning up and I super love that Ryan found one for me!  2002 is a guess on my part, but all of the 2003 cards I have seen actually say 2003 on them.  Could be 2000 or 2001, but I'm sticking with 2002 until proven wrong.

  

2003 DyDo Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes Team Issue w/Norihiro Nakamura
    Yet another team/sponsor issued card of which I was completely unaware.  Tuffy shares the card with fellow B's slugger Norihiro Nakamura.  It would appear this was given out during a two game series vs. Hanshin on 22-23 March 2003.

  

2008 Lotte Bikkuriman Pro Baseball Seals #17

  

    I've been trying to pick up this little foil beauty since it was issued.  Each year, Lotte issues their Bikkuriman Seals (stickers) with little chocolate wafers.  Usually they are anime-type characters, but a few times they issued baseball sets.  I think 2008 was actually the last time they issued a baseball-themed set featuring actual players. These are 2" x 2" squares.  I find it curious that while Japan, like most of the rest of the civilized world, uses the metric system, cards and stickers are still created using firmly standard measurements.

2013 BBM Legendary Foreigners 2 Deep Impact Title Holder Pink TH8 #/100

 

     Looks more purple in the scan, but the decorative trim is actually pink.  In the typical modern parallel overkill, there are four versions of this card, an unnumbered version with ugly gold(?) trim and parallels with trim in pink (/100), green (/50) and blue (/30).  I still need the green and blue.

2015 BBM 25th Anniversary #087

  

     It is something of a mixed blessing to collect such a big star in Japan.  On the one hand, it means he keeps getting new cards almost every year (but in no where near the quantities of, say, Dave Winfield), but it also means a lot of his cards can be pricy and out of reach for someone as cheap as me.  BBM is very big on anniversaries, and they seem to issue a set for every single anniversary that rolls around, be it league anniversaries, team anniversaries, event anniversaries or even its own company anniversaries.  This set commemorate's BBM's 25th anniversary issuing baseball cards.  Similar to the early Stadium Club sets from Topps, each card features the players' first BBM card on the reverse.

    Now on to the two new highlights of my entire Tuffy Rhodes collection:

2008 BBM Orix Buffaloes Memorabilia #BsM4 /300

  

2009 BBM Touch The Game Memorabilia #M02 /200

      Yes, indeed, these are my first two actual Tuffy memorabilia cards featuring actual pieces of bat in the actual card!  No non-game used shenanigans here, I can practically smell the home runs hit with these tiny chips of wood.  It's not that Tuffy's game used cards are really all that expensive, but I can just never find a single seller on Yahoo! Auctions Japan that is selling more than one at a time.  Pile on Kuboten fees, and I'd be paying an extra $12-15 per card on top of the actual sale price.  I just can't justify $25-50 for a single card.  But thanks to Ryan, I didn't have to.   Many, many thanks, Ryan!  These cards are not just cool, these cards are awesome!

Hobby Archaeology: 1991 O-Pee-Chee/Topps Pre-Production Sample Sheets

     I've covered this ground before, but it is not often that I'm able to add another item to my Hensley Meulens collection.  This post originates in yet another undocumented item that I just happened across on eBay.

     From 1971-1976, the O-Pee-Chee Company (often abbreviated to "OPC"), the Canadian firm that licensed with Topps to produce baseball cards for the Canadian market, issued sets that were nearly identical to Topps in design and card count. From 1977-1989, O-Pee-Chee issued sets that were usually half the card total of the Topps equivilent.  In 1990-1992, O-Pee-Chee briefly returned to issuing yearly sets that paralleled the entire Topps base set.  1992 would be the last Topps parallel set O-Pee-Chee would issue.

     As a preview of the 1991 sets, both Topps and O-Pee-Chee issued pre-production sample sheets showing off the design of the new Topps 40th anniversary set.  The sheets measure 7.5 inches by 10.5 inches, feature the full front representation of 9 cards from the upcoming set and a large advertisement for the set on the back.  Beckett does not recognize either set of pre-production samples and the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards only recognizes a single sheet for for O-Pee-Chee.  The single Topps sheet is different in that each card has a separate back, and is often seen cut into individual cards.   Below are the sheets I have identified.  I do not know how many different sheets were issued.

1991 O-Pee-Chee Pre-Production Sample Sheets

NNO Sammy Sosa / Tommy Greene / Jeff Innis / Juan Samuel / Julio Valera / John McNamara / Darryl Strawberry AS / Pat Tabler / Chris Nabholz

NNO Barry Larkin / John Patterson / Jeff Kaiser / Rickey Henderson AS / Todd Hundley / Jeff Robinson / Rob Ducey / Steve Searcy / Juan Gonzalez

NNO Greg Colbrunn / Russ Swan / Ken Griffey Sr. / Matt Williams AS / Rex Hudler / Eric Davis / Jim Lefebvre / Alex Fernandez / Hensley Meulens

NNO Bill Bathe / Jeff Blauser / Jose Canseco AS / Wes Chamberlain / Norm Charlton / Mike Dunne / Craig Grebeck / Carmelo Martinez / Mike Scioscia AS

NNO Jeff Kunkel / Tim Costo / Chipper Jones / Bobby Thigpen /  Danny Jackson / Kurt Miller / Jeff Brantley / Tony LaRussa / Mike Lieberthal

NNO Paul Marak /  Tim Sherril / Jim Vatcher /  Bob Welch / Dennis Cook / Rich Garces / John Franco / Greg Litton / Scott Terry

NNO Chuck Finley AS / Carlton Fisk RB / Mark Grant / Travis Fryman / Luis Rivera / Dennis Lamp / Cal Ripken RB / Steve Olin / Al Leiter

NNO Ellis Burks / Tom Browning / Randy Myers / Jose Rijo / Kevin Wickander / Mike Marshall / Darnell Coles / Dave Anderson / Dan Wilson

NNO Fred Lynn / Kelly Gruber AS / Scott Bankhead / Darrin Fletcher / Robin Yount / George Brett RB / Bud Black / John Russell / Rick Honeycutt

NNO Ozzie Guillen / Carl Everett / Frank Thomas / Frank Viola AS / Barry Bonds / Johnny Ray / Carlton Fisk AS / Ken Griffey Jr. AS / Bo Jackson

NNO Nolan Ryan RB / Shane Andrews / Barry Bonds AS / Bobby Thigpen RB / Barry Larkin AS / Marc Newfield / Scott Chiamparino / Tracy Jones / Bobby Bonilla AS

1991 Topps Pre-Production Sample Sheets

NNO Jose Canseco / Wade Boggs / Kirk Manwaring / Bo Jackson / Benito Santiago / Willie Randolph / Walt Weiss / Roger Clemens / Rickey Henderson

Quirks of the modern "certified" autograph

     Autographs are a funny thing in the modern hobby.  There are various schools of thought regarding them, how to collect them, how to buy and sell them.  Some fans are all about the chase, picking up as many "In-Person" (IP) and "Through-The-Mail" (TTM) autos as they can get, while not really caring too much about actually buying an autograph second-hand.  Then there are those who won't touch an autograph unless it came in a pack as part of an official product issued by a fully (or partially) licensed card company.

    These different perspectives make for some interesting dynamics in the pricing of autographs of the non-prospect and less than Hall of Fame caliber players.  Many collectors consider an auto of John Tudor or Paul Assenmacher to be filler, and complain loudly when pulling one of these instead of a Derek Jeter or Albert Pujols or [insert overpriced, hot prospect of the week].  Other collectors get excited about those infrequent autographs of Bill Madlock or Carlos Baerga in something like Topps' Fan Favorites sets.  But in the U.S. market, rarely does that more obscure player's signature command much, if any, premium even when they do turn up.  There are numerous Bill Madlock autos, both certified and not, that failed to clear the $5 mark recently on eBay, and that is including shipping and handling.

    Throw in the Japanese market, and suddenly the whole market is turned on its head.  In 2013, BBM issued two sets dedicated to foreign (basically any non-Japanese) players to appear in Japan over the past 35 years or so.  In some cases, these resulted in the only pack-issued, certified autographed cards for some of these players.  Many of these players were so completely off the radar of the U.S. card manufactures that they would likely never even get an honorable mention to be included in a Fan Favorites type set.  These are players whose non-certified (IP or TTM) autographs regularly fail to get even a minimum bid on eBay.

    Yet have that player sign a limited quantity of cards in a set in Japan, and in some cases, you get what you see at the top of the page.  That is a screen capture from a completed Yahoo! Auction from Japan of Hensley Meulens' only certified auto.  The card was limited to only 48 copies.  That card sold for 10,500 yen, which at the time of the auction was about $100 U.S. dollars.  A cool Benjamin.  For an autograph of Sir Hensley "Bam-Bam" Meulens.

     A month earlier, the Bill Madlock from the same set, limited to 39 copies, sold for 12,650 yen or about $120 U.S.  Those two mark the high end of the spectrum, but other players hit similarly surprising numbers; Roy White ($30), Ralph Bryant ($52), Benny Agbayani ($30), Gene Bacque ($85), Darryl Spencer ($40), Don Buford ($25), Jim Paciorek ($50).  Even the likes of Mike Easler, Juan Eichelberger, Lee Stevens and Willie Fraser clear $10-$15.  Even Tuffy Rhodes autos still clear $25-$40 in Japan and he's got dozens of certified issues there.

    My apologies to anyone who has read this far expecting a payoff.  There's not really a moral to this story, so much as a pile of frustration for someone who collects lesser known players who happened to spend time in Japan.  Out of a print run of 48 cards from a set issued in another country, of which there are still plenty of unopened boxes on the market, it is unlikely I will ever be able to track down that Meulens card at anything like a price I'd actually be willing to pay.  I love this hobby, but sometimes it drives me crazy!

Catching Up With Bam-Bam's SGA Team Set Cards

    As I seem to have missed the last few of his newer cards, this should clear the to-do list on recent acquisitions for my Meulens collection.  Sponsorship for the yearly San Francisco Giants stadium giveaway team set has changed hands multiple times since 2012.

    The set had been sponsored by Emerald Nuts for several years, but that ended in 2012 with this set (which is a glaring example of why foil text on card fronts is a bad idea):