March Group Break Results from Cardboard Collections - Part One: The non-Rockies

One of my favorite blogland activities is the group break.  In March I was involved in 6 different ones (3 have concluded, 1 in progress, 2 yet to begin).  My favorite is always Colbey's breaks over at Cardboard Collections.  For a very reasonable price (perhaps even too reasonable), you can pick up some nice older cards of your favorite team.  I was happy with the price so I picked up another team in addition to my Rockies.  This month based on the boxes being busted, I grabbed the Toronto Blue Jays and came away very happy.  The Jays were one of the most successful teams in the break, since he broke 1994 Fleer, Score, and Collector's Choice boxes and Toronto won their 2nd World Series in a row in 1993.  Let's check out my new "Jay bait."

This John Olerud card is the main reason I chose the Blue Jays as my 2nd team.  I wanted one of the 10 1994 Fleer Pro Visions cards and the Rockies didn't have one.  The box was supposed to contain 3 of these (which it did) out of 10 in the set.  So I had a 30% chance of getting it in my mind.  I beat the odds and picked it up.  I have the full set from 1991 and I always loved those cards.  This one was worth a good portion of the price of the Jays by itself in my mind.

The other main reason for picking the Jays was the chance at rookies of Carlos Delgado when he was a catcher.  Not only did I get the base rookies but I got two parallel rookies of Delgado as well.  The Score Gold Rush is in rough shape due to the mid 90s sticking problem (that was in no way Colbey's fault).  The Collector's Choice Series 1 is the box Colbey replaced the Score with and I "scored" a silver signature parallel of Delgado as well.  Not bad at all (well the pun was bad), but wait there's more.

This Duane Ward is the All Star insert for the 1994 Fleer set.  The American flag was used as a background on all of these cards, but what struck me as odd is that Toronto ISN'T an American city.  Shouldn't they have put the Canadian flag on the Jays (and Expos) All Star cards?   Another big time rookie for the Jays in the 1994 set was Shawn Green.  His "rookie" card was technically his 1st round pick card from the 1992? sets, but I like this card nonetheless.

Funny picture time.  The one thing about being a team collector is you miss out on a lot of the amusing cards from other teams.  This Collector's Choice Pat Borders commemorates his being the first person to give birth at home plate.  That kid could be getting drafted this year.  Oh and some needs to tell Devon White that "follow through" doesn't mean the bat should follow the ball after you hit it.

This trio of Hall of Famer cards should explain exactly why the Blue Jays won back to back titles in 1992-93.  I love the Roberto Alomar with the guest appearance of his brother Sandy and I don't remember ever seeing it before.  I had honestly forgotten that Rickey Henderson was a Blue Jay, but he did play for several teams (Mets, Mariners, Dodgers, Red Sox) at the end of his career.  Paul Molitor was always underrated (and under collected) in my mind.  He was one of the best pure hitters the game has ever seen.

Two other heroes of the Blue Jay's mini dynasty.  Jack Morris was great in 1992, but had a rough year in 1993 going 7-12 with an ERA over 6.00.  He left for one final season with the Indians in 1994.  The second card commemorates one of the most memorable home runs of all time, showing Joe Carter rounding third after his Series ending homer off Mitch Williams.  I remember changing channels to Saturday Night Live expecting a Game 7 that night and during Weekend Update they announced that Toronto had won the game.  Man was I pissed, not at the result but at the fact I missed it live.

Colbey also opened one of the 100 card repack deals that offered a 1 in 4 pack chance at a game used card.  The Cubs got lucky and had a hit, but I got some cool Jays out of it as well.  The Kelly Gruber is from a set that I had never seen, 1992 Topps Kids.  I was 15 for most of 1992 and while I still collected cards; I wouldn't have been caught dead buying a pack of Topps Kids.  it does look like a fun set though.  I also got a 1992 Skybox Pre-Rookie of the first pick of the Marlins in the expansion draft.  David Nied (Colorado's first pick) wasn't great for the Rox, but h did a heck of a lot better in the majors than Wilson.

I also picked up a couple of newer Jays in some of the bonus packs that Colbey added.  I'm sure you recognize both of these players, especially since they were about the only Jays from that year that I could pick out of a line up.

This card also came out of the 100 card repack.  No one had claimed the A's, so I just simply asked Colbey if I could have it and he included it in the package.  I am doing a slow build on several sets from the 1960s and 1970s.  Nothing that I am working that hard on and I really only have about 5 at most of each year, but if one comes my way I am not going to turn it down.  The oddest thing about my 1977 Topps cards is that of the 2 I now have, both are second basemen for Oakland.  The other being Tommy Helms.


Overall for my $5 (second team price) investment in the Blue Jays, I got all these cards plus approximately 100 more (including dupes).  I think I did quite well and that's not even including the Rockies which I will show in Part Two of this break hopefully tomorrow.  All of these cards excluding the Garner and the Olerud Pro Visions are for trade if you are interested.