1994 Tucson Toros Jones Photo set confirmed

     Bit by bit, evidence of these sets continues to surface.  Above are photos from the previously unconfirmed 1994 Tucson Toros Jones Photo set.  Big thanks to Joshua Raisen who runs the wonderful Astroland website for this information.  He picked up this "pack" of 5 photos on eBay recently, complete with the vinyl envelope in which they were issued.

So far, the only known players are the following (updated as necessary):

John Hudek

Domingo Jean

Frank Kellner

Mark Petkovsek

Scooter Tucker

    As these were usually issued in bundles of five, I expect there are at least 15 more photos in the 1994 set.  Whenever more photos turn up, the list will be updated.

Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens Want List

ヘンスリー・ミューレンス

    This will likely always be a very small, very obscure list.  Any help in tracking down these cards would be greatly appreciated.

1991 Carvel Yankees Juniors Team Photo

1992 Pinnacle/Score panel

2010 Upper Deck 1990 20th Anniversary Buy Back
     A few sets of these cards were apparently back-doored from Upper Deck, and have made their way into the secondary market.  So far, I only know of a single person who has them, but he hasn't sold any in awhile.  These are just 1990 Upper Deck cards with the same 20th Anniversary stamp that was used on the 1989 buy back cards in 2009.

2011-12 San Francisco Giants Team Issue photo card
     These are the cards that are only given away at Giants Fan Fest events at AT&T Park.  They are blank backed, feature black & white photography and are slightly taller than a standard baseball card.  They are most commonly found signed.  I would prefer a non-signed copy, but will take what I can get.  At the moment, I'm offering $25 shipped for this card (signed or unsigned).

2013 BBM Legendary Foreigners 2 Deep Impact Autographed  /48


2013 Leaf Pride of the Pinstripe /4


2016-2017 San Francisco Giants Team Issue photo card

     Only guessing at the existence of this card.  It would be 2.5"x4", black and white, blank-backed, and the player name and team banner would not extend beyond the logo circle.

Checklist Translations: 1995 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) Sticker Collection

     For several different seasons, sticker sets were issued for the Korea Baseball Organization.  I've found evidence for sets from 1983, 1995, 1996 and 1998.  I suspect there are more out there to be found.  I have no idea how these were originally distributed and I have yet to find anything resembling a pack.  For that matter, I haven't found any images of the stickers not already stuck in an album.  What I have determined is that there are 96 total stickers in this set from 1995, with 12 stickers per team.  Each team's section in the album starts with a cartoon logo sticker, usually followed by the manager and then the 10 most prominent players.  As seen in the images below, each sticker has a white border and features the players position and name at the bottom of the image.

1977 San Diego Padres Schedule Cards - Winfield Achievement Accomplished!

    In 1977, the San Diego Padres issued a "set" of 89 92 unnumbered cards featuring players and both on-field and off-field team personnel. All of the cards measured 2.25" x 3.375" and featured sepia tone photos with brown text on the front.  Neither Beckett nor the Standard Catalog make any reference to how these were distributed but, by their nature as schedule cards, I suspect they were handed out at Jack Murphy Stadium or just available at the ticket office for free.  The card lists below are based on the cards I have in-hand and contradict the Standard Catalog in some places.  Contrary to the variations alluded to by the SCBC, I have found no evidence of any individual player photos existing with multiple backs.

1994 Chiba Lotte Marines Menko (JCM 25)

     Back around 2008 or 2009, I decided to seriously pick up the slack in my Hensley Meulens collection, and I started exploring the world of baseball outside North America.  I learned that Meulens had played in Japan for a few years, and upon discovering Robert Fitts' website, learned that he also had several Japanese baseball cards.  I emailed Mr. Fitts and as I had exhausted his supply of different Meulens cards, he suggested I look into purchasing a copy of Gary Engel's Japanese Baseball Card Checklist and Price Guide, 6th edition, so that I could become more familiar with the hobby and get a better idea of what was out there.

      I ordered the 6th edition (about 2 months before the 7th edition was due to drop, but I didn't want to wait that long) and I found that Hensley Meulens had 9 cards from Japan over three years with the Marines and Swallows.  About 6 months after that, while more methodically browsing through the book, I ran across the 10th card of Hensley Meulens from Japan.  This one was right up my alley.  Not only was it a Japanese card, but it was Japanese ODDBALL card!  From my years of chasing cards for my Winfield and Williams collections, I loved finding oddballs.

Checklist Translations: 2007 TSC Sinon Bulls

More details to come.