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Short and simple.

Passing Angels In 2013

Lost a half-dozen Angels this past year.

Here's my tribute to those no longer with us.

November 1933 - September 2013

MLB 1962 - 1970

Angels 1962 - 1964

November 1931 - January 2013

MLB 1957 - 1962

Angels 1962

September 1930 - March 2013

MLB 1951 - 1963

Angels 1963

May 1934 - January 2013

MLB 1961 - 1971

Angels 1968

September 1940 - October 2013

MLB 1963 - 1969

Angels 1969

August 1946 - December 2013

MLB 1967 - 1978

Angels 1976

Set Completed - 1983 Topps Baseball

I finally completed this 792 card set I started back in 1983 when I bought two wax boxes from a small family-owned wholesale/vending company I worked for.

Through the years, these cards have been binderized with space for the many missing cards, taken out of the binder sheets, set aside in a box, used for TTM autographs (many which never came back), and finally rebindered with an effort to finally complete the set.

I also held on to this special offer card that was inserted into wax packs...

And this game card, unscratched.

And I have the blank-back promo sheet featuring the previous years league leaders.

All I need to add is a wax wrapper

and to finish up the update set.

Now my efforts move on the the 1984 Topps set that I started the following year.

I'm fairly close on this one needing only the following cards:

18, 28, 30, 47, 73, 103, 110, 143, 169, 201, 224, 231, 253, 278, 287, 291, 

299, 318, 320, 329, 333, 353, 354, 358, 378, 404, 406, 412, 457, 501, 502, 

557, 585, 615, 630, 635, 643, 674, 677, 686, 712, 730, 736, 738, 761.

You can also find my need list on the above tab.

Tim Wallach Was An Angel

He was.

In 1996, for 57 games.

And these cards came from Tim Wallach, Tim Wallach the blog that is.

You see, Tim Wallach (the blog) collects Tim Wallach cards.

Not one of each like most of us would.

He wants them ALL!

So I sent him all I could find (except the ones I needed for my sets), even all the multiples.

That's what he likes.

And I got in return these great Angels cards.

Good deal to me.

These Ain't Yo Mommas Postage Stamps.

I collected postage stamps as a kid.
 In fact I still occasionally tear off the corner of an envelope with a stamp and throw it in my "stamps torn off envelopes" box.

I don't know why I still do that.  My kids don't collect them.  I don't really collect them.

Probably falls into the "someday when I'm retired" category of excuses.

Someday I'll get all the stamp stuff out, grab the old crusty pack of hinges, and go at it.

Problem is these days stamps are all stickers now, so you can't really get them off the paper like you used to by soaking them in water. I used to love soaking stamps.
 Anyhow, I was going through an old stamp binder and came across a sheet of stamps.

A whole sheet of colorful stamps.

But no ordinary sheet of stamps.

Check this out.

1987 Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future stamp sheet!

OK, let's see.

In 1987 I had no kids yet, had been married a year, and was in the Air Force.

As I think back, I didn't even know who Captain Power was.

At TV show?

A cartoon?

A comic book?

Obviously I was eating some sort of Kelloggs cereal, that's how I got the stamp sheet.

Lets see what I can find out about these guys.

Good Guy.

Leader of the Soldiers of the Future who want to bring down Lord Dread.

That's him with his Power Suit on the bottom.

Good Guy.

He's the Soldier who fights in the skies.

See the wings?

Good Guy.

Ground Assault Unit.

Captain Powers Fighter Jet.

Rode piggy back atop the Jump-Ship.

Lord Dreads personal ride, also called the Dread-Jet.

Kind of a combo X-Wing/Darth Vader Tie Fighter.

Bad Guy.

Lord Dreads new breed of Bio-Dread

a heavily armed killing machine.

Bad Guy.

First Warlord-Class Bio-Dread built by Lord Dread.

Pure Evil.

Super Bad Guy.

Ruler of the Bio-Dread Empire, trying to wipe out the remaining human race.

So these stamps are from a Kellogg's promo, probably through Corn Flakes.

That's about all the effort I can put into this.

I keep seeing Power Rangers fight scenes in my mind.

Completed Angels Team Set - 1981 Kelloggs

Only 2 Angels in the 1981 Kelloggs set of 66 cards available only as complete sets through mail in.

The cards were bigger than they had been in the past, the thinking was the larger size would prevent to notorious curling and cracking issues.

Lots of information in very tiny writing on the backs.

How'd you would have liked to have been the writer for all those card backs...no plagiarizing from Wikipedia back then!

That's the Tony I remember.

A Big Christmas Gift In A Little Envelope

All I remember is reading something that said send an SASE with two stamps and you'll get a Christmas surprise.

After that its all a blur.

Had no record of it, I stopped keeping trade records months ago.

You've seen me do this before.

Forget who the cards came from.

In my defense, there was no return address label affixed to my SASE.

And the postmark was smudged.

There was no note accompanying the cards.

So I waited to make this post.

I waited until I saw another blogger post about his Christmas SASE.
Couldn't find anything.
Had to go back through posts from maybe 5 bloggers I suspected.

JAYBARKERFAN!

2012 Bowman Platinum Purple Refractor BPP43

2013 Topps Chrome #70 Orange Refractor 

2011 Topps Finest #88 XFractor 288/299

2006 Flair Showcase #104 Field Box Legacy 074/150

1996 Donruss Elite #65 Silver 08111/10000

2008 Donruss Threads #131 069/100

2007 Bowman Heritage #195 Black 28/52

2006 Topps Finest #60 Refractor 19/99

Stunned.

Thanks for the awesome cards for the cost of two postage stamps.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Friends

Merry Christmas friends, bloggers, and readers!

And thank you all for your support, generosity, kindness, and encouragement this year..

one of my more challenging.

I'm looking forward to Lords continued guidance and provision in the new year.

He is faithful.

I'm also looking forward to seeing what you all got for Christmas.

I already tore into a box of 2008 Timeline that came today!

Batman Is A Super Hero Of Listian Proportions

I have been searching out Batman Animated and The Adventures of Batman & Robin cards lately, trying to complete some sets my son and I started when he was younger in the mid 90's.  And I've been having a lot of fun doing it.

Several unopened packs of 1995 Skybox The Adventure of Batman & Robin (Retail) went up for auction so I was quick to put a high bid on them.  I convinced to seller to sell a few more for GINs which I then jumped on.

I showcased the contents of one of the packs recently on A Pack To Be Named Later but I love em so much I wanted to show another.

#80 Case #572 "Harlequinade"

Joker doesn't care that the bomb in his plane is about to explode, he'd rather try to shoot down the Dynamic Duo.

Idiot.

#88 Case #575 "Bane"

That's Robin at the end of the chain, so Batman has to do his best triple gainer to rescue him in time.

Score him a 10!

#30 Villains - Mr. Freeze

Ah, my favorite villain (from Animated Batman, I can do without Arnie)

Freeze knows how to use his cold gun so don't dick with him.

#86 Case #575 "Bane"

I can hear Batman now, "What the...?"

The scene then pans to Robin trying to cover himself in a pickle barrel, head and feet exposed.

Coloring Card!

These next cards came in a lot from an opened pack of 1996 Fleer/Skybox The Adventures of Batman & Robin Action Packs.

Each pack came with 2 cards for the Arkham Escape Game.

It took 12 different card fit together like a puzzle to complete the game board.

Two Pop-out cards came in the pack.

Twelve cards complete this subset.

Harley Quinn by far the most annoying female villain ever.

Each pack also came with a puzzle card.

Teeny tiny puzzle pieces way too small for my man hands.

That stinking joker, my least favorite bad guy (I guess that's the point huh?) gets his due.

Hey wait!  Batman's a southpaw?

And a 1 per pack coloring card, 6 in the set.

To color or not to color...

This Robin Pop-up card is from

1995 Skybox The The Adventures of Batman & Robin (Hobby), the pop-up replacing the coloring card in the retail version.

You use you thumbs and pointer fingers to push Robin up through the top of the card.

Pop-up!

I recently bought a 48 pack box of the Action Packs on ebay.

Man I can't wait to tear into those.

Happy Birthday Steve Garvey!

Southern California's Favorite Son, Steve Garvey is celebrating his birthday today.

Way to go Steve, too bad you never played the Angels though.

You can see more of Steve, and many other Dodgers at GCRL.

Dude, Just How Many Former Angels Are There?

1993 pack of Topps Stadium Club Series 3 Listia pickup.

Thumbed through the cards and noticed a theme...

They're just about all ex-Angels!

Spike Owen - 1994-1995

Pat Mahomes - nope

Mark Eichhorn - 1990-1992, 1996

Tom Brunansky - 1981

Andre Dawson - nope

Brian Williams - nope

Dave Winfield - 1990-1991

Harold Reynolds - 1994

Jeff Reardon - nope

See what I mean?

Hey there's an idea for a new collection goal...pick a set and try to only get all the cards of players who played for the Angels!

Uh, no.

Nice John Olerud for the player collection - the only "Never an Angel" player I collect.

Any Blue Jays fan name the players whose numbers are on the bats behind him?

I like this card because of the old style stadium in the background.

County Stadium?

Barry Bonds Members Only insert card.

Only Frank Thomas, Bonds, Clemens, Joe Carter, and Greg Maddux were in this series 3 subset.

Would rather have had the Maddux.

Sole Angel in an Angel uniform in the pack was Russ Springer (1993-1995).

Sweet!  A Series 3 checklist card!

Always exciting.

And a special offer card.

These I actually dont mind, as I keep them.  I especially like the ones from Topps packs in the 70's and 80's.

This particular one has a zillion variations on the trim color scheme.  I have 6 or 7 different so far.