The $15 Guarantee

Before I get into tonight's post, I'd like to direct everyone's attention over to the sidebar, where I have added a link to my 1985 Fleer wantlist. My theory on this set is that people are either swimming in the stuff like they would a sea of 1989 Topps or they find it rather difficult to find even though it doesn't have a lot of resale value. Those that fall into the former category, I would assume, are probably a bit older than me and probably started collecting before I did. The latter are probably my age if not younger and have never found 1985 Fleer packs at the corner store. I would love to open a bunch of packs of 1985 Fleer for the sheer enjoyment of it, and yet I think the price of unopened wax is prohibitively expensive because of the notion that you could pull a Roger Clemens rookie card and grade it and make $$$$.

Speaking of $$$$, I picked up a 1999 Bowman Series 1 hobby box for the investment level price of $15. With promises of Kerry Wood and Ben Grieve swimming around in a pile of gold coins and jewels, Scrooge McDuck style, I am ready to set off on this venture and open up some packs of 1999 Bowman.

Pack 1:

188 - Octavio Dotel (The current Pirates closer.)

8 - Moises Alou

215 - Jason LaRue (LaRue, the Cardinals backup catcher for the third consecutive season, looks like he's about 12 here. You'll have to trust me, because I didn't scan the card.)

41 - Bernie Williams

53 - David Justice (Veteran players had red foil on the front and red text on the backs, along with "Now & Then" photos - not to be confused with "Then & Now".)

135 - Mark Osborne

161 - Ramon Hernandez

89 - Justin Bowles

46 - Jaret Wright

194 - Ben Petrick International (Each pack comes with a Bowman International parallel. The International cards have a metallic finish and each background is of the player's home state or country, supposedly. Petrick is pictured with the Astoria-Megler Bridge in the backdrop.)

Each pack comes with a checklist in pocket schedule format.

This tells you exactly how to get your $125 back after suffering buyer's remorse. I wonder if it's still valid. I find it extremely odd, in all seriousness, that collectors apparently had just a 5 month window in 2002 (!) to cash in on this so-called guarantee, but only if they had already decided to be pessimistic about this set's future AND send in an additional $5 to Topps 3 years earlier.

Pack 2:

26 - Scott Erickson

113 - Eric Valent

173 - Chip Ambres (This is either the coolest baseball card photo of all-time or, much likelier, a staged photo that still looks kind of awesome.)

103 - Jack Cressend

3 - Ruben Rivera (The forgotten Rivera.)

220 - Daryle Ward (Allegedly, the only player to hit the ball into the Allegheny River on the fly in a game.)

219 - Adrian Beltre

216 - Kyle Peterson

189 - Wes Helms

144 - Mamon Tucker International

Pack 3:

174 - Trot Nixon

61 - Kenny Lofton (I just watched Up in the Air the other night and it reminded me of the Kenny Lofton commercial towards the end of his career where he kept getting traded.)

31 - Larry Walker

50 - Jose Guillen

198 - Amaury Garcia

105 - Mike Lincoln

171 - Mario Encarnacion

132 - Andy Abad

189 - Nelson Lara

176 - Jeff Yoder International

Pack 4:

6 - Mark McGwire (I haven't heard a ton about McGwire during game broadcasts this season... at least, not as much as I thought I would.)

96 - Ryan Anderson

63 - Alex Gonzalez

117 - Jason Grilli

205 - Fernando Seguignol

212 - Luis Rivera

186 - Doug Mientkiewicz (The prospects and rookies have blue foil on the front and blue text on the back. You just get one photo instead of a Now & Then deal.)

136 - Phil Norton

181 - Damaso Marte

12 - John Valentin International

Pack 5:

30 - Orlando Hernandez

177 - Chris Jones

9 - Jim Edmonds (Nice shot of the classic Edmonds uppercut swing in ready position.)

25 - Jason Kendall

206 - Marlon Anderson

138 - Roy Halladay (Nice early card of one of the game's elite pitchers.)

108 - Cole Liniak

180 - Billy Koch

207 - Todd Sears

97 - Kevin Barker International

Pack 6:

99 - Robert Fick

56 - Derek Bell (Derek Bell drove in 108 in 1998.)

153 - Joe Fontenot

4 - Sandy Alomar

172 - Mike Zywica

104 - Joe Lawrence

71 - Bruce Chen

128 - Jeff Liefer

27 - Andres Galarraga

175 - Pat Burrell International (Pat the Bat in front of some nondescript buildings that represent Arkansas.)

Pack 7:

29 - John Olerud (Olerud hit .354 in 1998. He was always a fantastic hitter.)

75 - Derrick Gibson

20 - Paul O'Neill (Totally Pauly!)

148 - Russ Branyan

19 - Pedro Martinez

93 - Scott Elarton

114 - Roosevelt Brown

83 - Manny Aybar (I keep forgetting that Manny Aybar was a Cardinal.)

22 - Vinny Castilla

90 - Chris Haas International

Pack 8:

I posted Pack 8 over at APTBNL.

Parts 2 and 3 will be posted over the next week or so, depending on my increasingly busy work schedule. The usual rules apply here: everything is up for grabs beyond the Cardinals, although priority will always go to the people that I trade with frequently.