Shining Star from a box of Bazooka gum

According to Baseballcardpedia, this range of cards were shipped at the rate of one per box of Bazooka gum. That seems the exact opposite to Topps normal cards, which had a ratio of lots of cards to one stick of gum.

Card Number 704: Topps Bazooka, 1989; #13

Although this is billed as a starter set, no other Bazooka branded cards were released that year. It was just the 22 cards that were inserted into boxes of gum.

The cardback is fairly standard - stats box, factoid and some bio data.

I like the Bazooka logo used as a watermark behind the stats box. That livens up the cardback a surprising amount.

This concludes the contents of the eBay package. Next up, a card that is brand, brand new.

Total: 704 cards

Sharing the Spotlight - Tony and Albert

Today's card arrived via Brian from the UK baseball card collectors Facebook group. It was part of a bigger trade that is a longer story, which I might tell another time. 

Card Number 501: Topps, 1995; #389

For a couple of sets in the mid-90s, Topps paired up players from the All Star Game on cards. Tony shares this one with Albert Belle from the Cleveland Indians.

The photo makes me chuckle because it looks like Tony and Albert have had a spat. Tony has his arms crossed and looks like he's giving Albert the cold shoulder, while Albert defiantly sits there ignoring him in turn. 

On the back there's a seasonal breakdown for both players. You will notice that both their totals before and after the All Star Break are radically different. That's because the season ended in August when the players went on strike.

Albert was a consistent selection for All-Star teams for five years in a row (1993-97) during his eleven-year Major League career. He was a noted power hitter and is the only player to score 50 doubles and 50 home runs in the same season. He averaged 120 RBI a season and was the first player to sign a $10,000,000 contract. And, of course, he got to share a baseball card with Tony Gwynn!

Thank you for the card, Brian!

Total: 501 cards

It's even more Tradition!

And a treat today, as Fleer inadvertently revive a great tradition of baseball card production.

Card Number 418: Fleer Tradition, 2000; #346

Fleer ditched the base set that looked like every other card set and instead rendered all 450 cards in a retro look that wasn't based on a Fleer set, as much as the Topps set from 1954 (judge for yourself)

One thing I really like about the back is that the watermark logo looks like a proper gum stain!

But the "gum stain" isn't the great tradition of card production from back in the day that I was referring to. (Although, as an aside, it surely won't be long before Topps start adding faux gum stains or tobacco stains to their retro products!)

Card Number 419: Fleer Tradition, 2001; #141

No, the tradition I was talking about was the good old miscut card! I bought these at the same time, just because! I've also scanned them together.

You can see how on the bottom one the ribbon is much closer to the bottom of the card. The dark line on the top edge is actually part of the image from the next card on the printing plate.

The misalignment is also noticeable on the cardbacks.

It's not obvious which set this is meant to be, so I think it's an attempt at a totally new retro-looking set. It also earns itself bonus points for having a cartoon on the back.

Little things like miscut cards amuse me. In one sense this kind of mistake helped Fleer succeed in making a genuinely retro product.

Total: 419 cards.