$100,000 Worth of Aristides Aquino Cards

For those of you who don't remember the specifics, Aristides Aquino was left for dead in Billings, Montana, changed his batting stance to one where he was fully facing the pitcher, blew the roof off the minors, then, in 2019, became the first player in the history of baseball to hit 10 homers in his first 16 games and the first rookie to hit 14 homers in any month, much less his first.

 

During those 16 games The Punisher was hitting .353 with an OPS of 1.361. His card prices were going bonkos and I had a Panini Elite autograph parallel /100. I picked it up for a buck fifty when he was just a fledgling single-A guy, and sold it for well over a hundred during this run. I've only done this for him and Rece Hinds because the prices were too insane to ignore.

 

Then the league figured out he couldn't hit breaking balls. Like, at all. Outside of that first month, Aquino played in about 200 games and hit about .190. Not good, Jim.

 

This means that his autos were practically being thrown away on COMC a few years later. Enjoy what was, at one point, one hundred thousand dollars worth of Aquino autos. Give or take.

 

   

 

Dear Cincinnati. Please stop hitting like Aristides Aquino and please start hitting like Aristides Aquino.

 

Go Redlegs. 

Complete Junk Wax Set - 1990 Pro Set Super Bowl MVPs

I loved this little set as a yoot. Great artwork. Tough S.O.Bs. It's the reason I know the order of early Super Bowls and what went down. It was so long ago that this represents less than half of the games, which gives me pause to reflect on aging... woof, better stop that.

 

I have a memory of these coming in a little box, but this is classified as an insert set. Pro Set, in general, was distributing their cards any and every way they could, so maybe it was both. How many boxes of Pro Set are withering away in garages right this moment? I'll leave that to the philosophers. 

 

 

Go Redlegs.
 

Single Card Post - 1964 Topps #50 Mickey Mantle

My grandpa traded four used tires for this card in 1995 at a South Carolina jockey lot. 'Jockey lot' is a southern term for flea market, by the way. 

 

What a legend. And so is Mick. 

  

 

 

 

 

Is it mint? Hell no. Is it my favorite card? Hell yes. It's my only base Mantle and I don't foresee that changing. I do have five others from his playing days that will be posted someday. But for now, enjoy the '64 goodness.

 

Go Redlegs. 

More Junk WaXXX Trades

Mailbox coming in hot with the sexy, sexy junk wax. This is my TCDB profile. Trade me some non-base junk wax.

 

 

My junk wax retail binder is becoming enormous. K-Mart was middle class heaven, man. Crappy toys. ICEEs. FIFTY CENT CARD PACKS. Country Aisles take me home to the place I belong. I am also trying to complete those silly Donruss puzzles. Don't even remember which one this piece is. Maybe Clemente.

 

Granola cards. Sure. Five and Dime Canseco. Stray K-Mart. '89 Donruss is junk wax hall of fame, of course. Truly 10 million printed. And I feel I get one or two of these Topps All Star cards in every trade and I'm still many, many short.

 

'85 Woolworth on top next to a Score Sample of Ellis Burks. I'm enjoying finding these card shop samples. You can see the breadth of my 1980-1995 wants here. Gimme everything.

 

 

1992 Hardee's Discs. Storage nightmare! I let em stick out the tops of 8-card pages, 6 to a page. Until I need the page for actual vintage. Then I throw these away maybe. 

 

I'm 2 away from the 220 card Nolan Ryan Pacific set. Soon. 1991-92 Fleer Basketball is being chipped away at. As is 93 Donruss and 93 Topps Traded. 

That '94 Donruss sorta-parallel set is 100 cards strong. I'm rockin' about 60. Yet another stray K-Mart in there alongside some rando Frank Thomas (my boy). '92 was when Diamond Kings cranked it up to 11. Black Leaf is best Leaf. And I'm two stickers away from '91 Fleer master completeness.

 

 

 

 

FROM THE TOP TURNBUCKLE, MEAN GENE! Sorry to smack you so hard at the end here. This is my first pile toward my 80's WWF hunt. Not high on the list of things to focus on, but it exists.

 

Junk wax heaven, brother. 

 

Go Redlegs. 

Vintage Rarities - Ugly Drab Edition

All vintage is great. Vintage Reds are even greater. But some vintage is more greater than others. Below are old oddballs that will NOT impress your friends.

1948 Blue Tint (R346) #46 Johnny Vander Meer

 

Apparently this is some mysterious set with unclear origins. Released in strips in the New York market, 48 total cards, blank backs, and gone as quickly as they came.

 

 

1935-37 George Burke Photo Stamps Sammy Byrd

 

Made by a Chicago photographer for players to use to answer fan mail. Neato. These are very tiny and poorly printed, but hey, it was the 30's.

 

 

1947 Bond Bread Ewell Blackwell

Bond Bread was named as if it was guaranteed in the same manner as bank bonds. This worked as a selling point after The War, I guess. Bond Bread's company went bankrupt in the 70's after a spate of unsanitary working conditions and being thwomped on the shelves by Wonder Bread.

 

 

1962 Topps Baseball Bucks Joe Jay.

 

Not terribly rare, but dull and gray and no fun to look at. A proper cash money green and better paper stock and these coulda been special. 

 

1931 W517 Strip Cards Pete Donahue

 

Standard strip card action, but BIGGER. 3x4 for a set of strip cards is gigantic. As you see, my version snags a hint of the dotted lines.

  

1934-36 Batter Up #44 Adam Comorosky.

These come in several printing hues, each as drab as each other. BUT they pop out like those 60's Topps and 80's Donruss stand-ups, so they were obviously a manufacturing marvel for the time period.

 

Maybe the color refractor age ain't so bad after all. 

 

Go Redlegs.  

 

Cincinnati Bengals QB Autos.

Presented in reverse order of Bengals quarterbacking success. There is no Joe Burrow auto at the end of this, sadly. I instead bought a car. If you've even heard of half these dudes, I'm impressed.

 

 

 Erik Meyer - Undrafted, 1 season training camp invite 

 

 

Collin Hill - Undrafted, 1 season training camp invite

 

Tyler Hansen - Undrafted, 1 season training camp invite 

 

 

John Walsh - 7th round pick, 1 season training camp invite

 

 Jake Dolegala - Undrafted, 1 season on the active roster

 

 Dan LeFevour - Waiver claim, 1 season on the active roster 

 

Casey Bramlet - 7th round pick, 1 season on the active roster

 

Jeff Rowe - 5th round pick, 1 season on the active roster, 1 season on the practice squad 

 

 Scott Covington - 1 season, 0 wins, 4 completions 

Erik Wilhelm - 7 seasons, 0 wins, 4 TDs

 

 

Jay Schroeder - 1 season, 0 wins, 5 TDs

 

 

Jeff Driskel - 1 season, 1 win

 

 Ryan Finkey - 2 seasons, 1 win 

 

 

 Sam Wyche - 3 seasons, 2 wins (doesn't live in Cleveland)

 

 AJ McCarron - 4 seasons, 2 wins, 1 playoff appearance

David Klingler - 4 seasons, 4 wins

 

 John Kitna - 5 seasons, 18 wins 

 

 

Jeff Blake - 6 seasons, 25 wins

 

 Andy Dalton - 9 seasons, 70 wins, 4 playoff appearances

 

Ken Anderson - 16 seasons, 93 wins, 2 playoff wins, 1 Super Bowl Appearance 

 

Who Dey

Go Redlegs

 

That Guy Was a Red? - Autograph Edition

In the annals of "Dudes you didn't know were a Red", nothing comes even CLOSE to Christy Mathewson. Pitched ~4800 innings and piled up 373 wins for the Giants over 17 seasons, then, as the Reds "player"-manager in 1916, he came out of de facto retirement for one game to pitch against rival Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, who was also retiring. Both went the distance. Reds won 10-8. 

 

Autos I also don't have are Reds minor league legends Trevor Hoffman and Randy "Macho Man" Savage (né Poffo) as well as American icon Jim Thorpe. 

 

No card of Mathewson as a Red existed until a 1980 Exhibits release, so a Reds auto is highly unlikely. Similar for Thorpe in '81. Hoffman has a few minor league Reds releases and a '92 Bowman. That'll run ya a hundred bucks. The Macho Man? Never blessed with baseball cardboard. His signed wrestling cards go for four figures. Feel free to send me one.

 

Here's what I do have.

 

 

Jeff Conine. 17-year career. Marlins Hall of Fame. 80 games for the Reds in '02. 

 

 

Ron Gant. 30-30 man for the Braves. 16 year career. 119 games for the Reds in '95. He was an All-Star that year, so maybe people are aware.

 

  

Kent Tekulve. Teke! A Cincy native. Finished his 16-year career with 52 innings for the Reds in '89. 

 

 

Terry Francona. This would've hit harder a few years ago. Our current skipper played 102 games for the Reds in '87.

 

Roger Craig. Legendary Giants manager. Lost the 1989 Earthquake Series to the A's. Pitched 64 innings for the Reds in '65.

Kevin Mitchell. This is the only entry in which the player was with the Reds for multiple seasons. Doesn't really fit, I just want to show off a Kevin Mitchell auto.

 

Jeff Montgomery. 12 years as a Royals All Star closer. But he began his career with 19 innings for the Reds in '87.

 

Terry Pendleton. 15-year career. 1991 NL MVP (f outta here, Barry Bonds). Played 50 games for Cincy in '97.

 

  

Yasmani Grandal. Bounced around the Bigs for a dozen years, making multiple All Star games, but began as a minor leaguer for the Reds. We traded him and others for Mat Latos.

 

Ruben Sierra. Twenty(!) years in the majors. 80's and 90's baseball royalty. Played for 9 teams, including 96 games for the Reds in '97.

 

Honorable mentions that I also do not have: Lee Smith, Leo Durocher, Al Simmons, Mordecai Brown, Rogers Hornsby (manager only). 

Go Redlegs.