Return of Tales From FDR Sportscards

In the earlier days of writing this blog, I posted a few stories from my favorite LCS that has long since closed, FDR Sportscards. Those few posts actually garnered some of the fewest views of any post published so I put the idea of making it a series on the shelf. Tonight, I decided to revive it for one more shot. As previously written(though not read by many), I spent a lot of time(and money) at this shop in its day. I have a lot of stories that I think are great and I pulled a lot of decent cards there. So, in the interest of sharing some of those cards(and stories) that I had already scanned in preparation for the shelved series, here is a quick single card post, just because.

The year is 2000. I'm in my early 20's, working FT and going to school. Unlike many, at this time, I am in prime collecting mode. Unfortunately, I had even less control and focus on specific collecting goals than I do now. Topps flagship has just hit the shelves and for no reason in particular! other than it is the new product on the shelf, I decided to bust a few jumbo packs. I had done no preparation and had no idea what the big draws of the product were or even much about who was in the checklist. After liking enough of what I saw in the first two packs, I decided to keep going and rip at least a third jumbo on the afternoon. Somewhere tucked in the middle of that third jumbo stack was this:

Twenty something me didn't have as great an appreciation for baseball history as present day me, but I knew who Eddie Matthews was. At the time, this was probably one of the 'best' cards in my collection. However, on multiple occasions, I seriously considered selling or trading it. In fact, had I been more eBay savvy or of a few trade negotiations went a little differently, I would not have his card today. Fortunately, I was not very inclined to learn enough about selling on eBay and the few trade partners I tried to push this on were not willing to give as much as I wanted at the time. I'm glad things worked out the way they did. Otherwise this great auto of a HOF player would be just a memory. Man, I'm really am glad younger me isn't running this collection. He didn't know what he was doing! Thanks for reading.

The Time I Met Wade Boggs - A Single Card Post

In the late '90's and early 2000's, I spent a LOT of time at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park taking in games and seeking autographs.

There was a small group of guys that were at almost every game that I attended. This one guy(I think his name was Pete) that I saw all the time knew every player by looking at them and would call their name out to the rest of us so we could get our cards or other items ready. It turns out he frequented FDR Sportscards(which I have written about in the past) too. One afternoon, I was at FDR trying to get some cards of the next visiting team. Pete happened to walk in. We started chatting about some of the players and he mentioned that he had heard rumors that Wade Boggs might be in town. Boggs had recently taken a job working with the Rays in some official capacity, so it wasn't a complete shock. He told me he was going to pack some Boggs cards just in case. I hurried home and did my best to find some cards from his time on the Yankees and headed out for the ballpark. When I arrived, I took my usual place near the opponent's dugout. Pete was already camped in his normal spot. Today, he had a walkie talkie(yes, this was in the days before cell phones were in everyone's pocket) with him. I looked over at the Bulls's dugout and saw some of the other guys that were 'regulars'. A few minutes later, the walkie talkie beeped and Pete had a short chat with the guy on the other end. He quickly packed up his stuff and headed over to the home team's side. On his way by, he told me that Boggs was in the stadium. I'm not sure how the other guy knew, but is decided to follow. I didn't have any Bulls cards with me that night, so I was taking the chance that Boggs might be the only auto I walked away with that night. I stood waiting until all of the Bulls had gone by, went out to warm up, and returned to the dugout. It was only about 10 minutes before first pitch and still, no Boggs. I packed all my stuff up. Just as I was about to go find my seat, a few of the guys right at the dugout steps started bustling. At this point, there were only about four of us left waiting there. I turned around to see Wade Boggs, complete in a Durham Bulls uniform, walking up the steps from the clubhouse. Since I had already packed all my stuff up, I decided that I'd be happy with the chance to shake his hand and offer my congrats on an incredible career. He willingly signed for the other guys that were still there and turned to me, expecting to be handed another card. I offered my hand instead and if I remember correctly, tripped a bit over telling him how awesome it was that his 3000th hit was a HR. He thanked me and asked if I had anything for him to sign. I told him I had already packed my stuff up and that I didn't want to ask him to wait while I dug one out. He told me that he'd wait since I was the only other one hanging around. I quickly shuffled through the box I had with me and pulled out the first one that I saw showing him in the pinstripes.

He handed this back to me and I thanked him. He gave me a quick nod, walked over to the bench, and started a conversation with one of the other coaches. I don't think I really saw the card until I eventually wandered to my seat for the evening. I was in awe! Looking back on it, the only thing I really wish is that I had a camera with me. I searched and searched for a picture of him wearing the Bulls uni, but came up empty. I've gotten a bunch of in person autos at the ballpark, but this is the best experience I've ever had while autograph hunting.

Tales From FDR Sportscards - This One Time at the Card Shop...

Okay, please pardon that weak American Pie reference. This is the second installment in a series about my favorite LCS which unfortunately is no longer in existence. 

In my first post, I wrote about how much time I spent here. In case you missed it, I spent a lot of time in that shop. This one day when I happened to be browsing/chatting the owner, Fran said she had something she thought I might be interested in. At this point, I had been a regular customer in the shop for over a year, so she knew what I collected almost as well as I did. However, when she turned back to come back over to the counter, she was holding some well worn, old, slightly over sized card... At this point in my collecting career, I was not in the habit of buying vintage and I thought that every card I owned needed to be really close to mint or else it wasn't worth owning. I immediately asked her why she thought I'd be interested and she asked me to just take a look. She placed the card in front of me. It had definitely seen better days, but for reasons I didn't understand at the time, I couldn't stop staring at it. I had often looked at pictures of this card and wondered what it would be like to own one, but the four digit 'book value' told me it wasn't likely to happen. Yet here it was sitting in all of its worn down glory just inches away from me. I still assumed the cost would be the deal breaker for me. I was mostly broke and could only justify laying out small chunks of change for some singles or a few packs here and there. Fran knew this as well. After staring at it for what seemed like forever, I asked her about the price. She launched into a proposal that she had obviously put a lot of thought into. She told me that since it's condition wasn't great that she'd sell it to me for $100 and before I could tell her that was going to be out of my price range, she said she'd hold it and I could make whatever payments I thought I could manage until it was paid off. I'd like to say that I jumped at that offer, but in reality I had to think long and hard about it. I was just about to decline her generous offer when the phone rang. While she handled the phone call, I once again stared at the card. I'm not sure what it was, but something changed my mind in those moments and when she hung up the phone I told her that I'd like to accept her offer. A few weeks later, I walked into the shop, made the last payment, and took this home:

These days, when I look at this card, I can't believe that I hesitated for even a moment at the chance to own this card. It is absolutely one of my favorite cards - rounded corners, poor centering, creases and all. I'm still not sure what exactly changed my mind that day, but I sure am glad that I didn't pass this up.

Thanks for reading, I hope you'll stay tuned in the future for more Tales From FDR Sportscards!

Tales from FDR Sportscards Vol. 1 - The Surprise El Duque

A little over 15 years ago, I stumbled upon a small, local card shop that was literally right next door to where I worked. Once I discovered this, I ended up spending WAY too much time(and money) there. No matter if it was a lunch break, before work if I had a later shift, or after work if I was scheduled for an early half day, the odds were you'd find me there. I really miss this shop(though my wallet is happier that they have since closed). I have a ton of stories to eventually share about the random experiences there, so today I introduce the first in a series: Tales from FDR Sportscards.

On an August day, way back in 1998, I happened to be in the shop and saw that Bowman's Best had just arrived. At this time in m collecting career, I loved any and all things Bowman. I remember being sooo excited when I saw this box.

One of the things I loved about this shop was that Fran, the owner, always kept the product info sheets that the card companies sent out and put them in the boxes that were open for pack sales. It was always nice to have them to use as a reference. I would almost always read this over, in detail, before buying packs or boxes. I especially loved looking over the checklists to see which players I could pull if I cracked some packs. Though I liked the design, I didn't really remember seeing much on the checklist that made me overly excited, but I knew I was going to rip some open. So, I started with a few packs and began chatting baseball. Orlando Hernandez was in the midst of an exciting rookie season, so he quickly became the topic of our conversation. I remarked that I was disappointed that he wasn't on the Bowman's Best checklist(according to the product info sheet from Topps). Right about that time, I opened a pack and this was tucked away in the middle.

My jaw dropped and I stared at the 'El Duque' RC in disbelief. It was obvious that I had missed his name on the checklist somehow. I didn't say out loud that I had just pulled this card, but did ask to see the checklist again. Fran handed it to me and asked what was in the pack I just opened. I scanned the list down to card #183 and I swear that there was some other player's name there. I even asked Fran to look and she confirmed that Orlando Hernandez was not on the checklist that she had. I was so thrilled!!!

In years since, I've searched for any articles that talk about him being a late addition/substitution in that checklist and I can't find anything to that effect. To this day, I really love this card. At some point, I'm going to track down both the refractor and atomic refractor parallels without breaking the bank, but until then, I still have this: a card that I didn't think was supposed to exist, the surprise 'El Duque'! 

Does anyone else remember anything about this being a late substitution to the checklist? Thanks for reading and come back soon for more Tales from FDR Sportscards!