The View from the Third Floor

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Best Baseball Card Sets of the 1980s

So this is the companion post to Worst Baseball Card Sets of the 1980s. Just a reminder: major releases only, base cards only. Let's get to it.

10. 1986 Topps: A front design that stands out from previous Topps releases. I like it, though I can see how others might not.

9. 1986 Fleer: Kind of similar to '86 Topps - good front design but not much else.

8. 1985 Donruss: Decent front design, with the year as a nice bonus. Also, a white background for the stats section.

7. 1989 Fleer: One of my favorite front designs of the decade.

6. 1986 Donruss: Another one of my favorite front designs of the decade. Again with the white background for the stats section, but this time with a better outer color than '85.

5. 1984 Topps: Decent front design. A lot of action shots (with a head shot bonus).

4. 1983 Topps: Decent front design. A lot of action shots. Similar to '84 Topps, which might explain why they're adjacent in the rankings..

3. 1989 Score: I like the front design. A lot of action shots. Color photo on the back and a white background for the stats.

2. 1989 Upper Deck: I like the front design. Decent posed to action shot ratio. Largish color photo on the back. White background for the stats.

1. 1988 Score: I like the front design (which looks even better in a group). The set is dominated by action shots, and to a lesser extent, pseudo action shots. Color photo on the back and a white background for the stats.

These rankings are indisputable! Until I change my mind.

Friday, October 23, 2020

Cardbarrel Order

Dinner at Derek Jeter's house.

So I got 42 cards this time. One of my more organized batches, with each card being a 2017 Topps Fire retired player, a Cy Young Award winner, or a football player trying to play baseball.

- 1969 for Lonborg.

- Perry is 1979. I keep toying with the idea of doing a Padres page, but the guys I want seem to fit other categories.

- Wilson is 2018.

- Tebow is 2019. I think he's the better prospect at this point.

So that's that.

Thursday, October 22, 2020

You Down Wit O.P.E.

Yeah you know me.

So the madre visited on Tuesday and she brought down a few boxes of baseball cards from my youth. It's nearly all overproduction era (O.P.E.) cards, with just a few that are a bit older.

- Random 1979 Topps card, which is several years before I started collecting.

- Carter returned to the Expos for his final season.

- There are a few Future Stars and a bit more All-Star Rookies.

- There's also a Shawon Dunston Rifleman.

- A few of these No-Hit Club cards, including an Orioles shared one.

- Apparently Tom Glavine was a legit hockey player.

- A lot of Rated Rookies.

- Rickey breaking Brock's steals record.

- RJ was 24 - 24 with a 4.03 ERA when this card came out.

- Eight Darren Daultons, but Julie has 'em all.

- A decent stack of dupes, including Omar Vizquel as a Mariner.

- Some guys on wrong teams: Dave Righetti as a Giant, Willie Randolph as a Brewer, Pedro Guerrero as a Cardinal, Dennis Eckersley as a Cub.

So yeah - some O.P.E. cards might be showing up in give-aways soon. Ha.

Saturday, October 17, 2020

The Weekly Clean-Up

- So the MLB play-offs were going better than the previous round, but sheesh.

- I received a gift from a lady friend.

The starting center fielder on my all-time team was a nice bonus.

The card I had asked for was a custom In Memoriam Lyman Bostock.

The maker runs a blog: https://whentoppshadballs.blogspot.com

Julie's blog if you wish to see the card:

https://acrackedbat.blogspot.com/2020/09/gio-1970s-series-2-with-side-of-contest.html

- So I watched the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. Didn't get much done for a few days. But I made it to the post office on Friday, so somebody should finally get his Ten On the Tenth cards in a few days.