Another Goodwill Find!

If you follow this blog, you know I love some cheap cards. I especially finding cheap cards in the wild. A few months ago I stumbled upon a shoe box full of '80s, '90s and a handful of vintage cards. Read about that here.
Ever since that day, I've made a trip to Goodwill pretty much any time I am alone near one. The wife isn't a big fan of me spending cash on cards, so I try to not bring her into my dirty habit. I have stumbled upon a few bobbleheads but not many cards. A few weeks ago, I did see a few boxes, but they were all mid-90s football that had already been leafed through.
But last week, while dropping off a few items, I went into a local store and found SIX boxes of cards. They were all neatly packed in 800-count boxes. Leafing through, most had early '90s stuff. But not this box.
For $10, I couldn't resist (make that $11 by rounding up for Goodwill). Once I dug into it a bit, I realized it wasn't a Storage Wars-esque money maker, but it still had a lot of fun stuff in it.

The first thing that caught my eye was the large amount of 1982 Topps in the box. While not the most visually pleasing set, it holds somewhat dear in my heart. A lifelong Milwaukee Brewers fan, 1982 always holds something special as it was the only time the Brewers made the World Series. Sadly, they lost, but it was likely their most successful season in team history.

As a Wisconsin boy, I can never get enough of the Brewers. This box offered several, including a few good 1982 Brewers in the mix. Any time I can get a Robin Yount card, I am a happy man. It makes me remember my childhood, as he basically came into the Majors when I was 1 and played up through my high school days. It didn't get much better than that as a young boy. To add Jim Gantner and Paul Molitor cards to it is even sweeter, as those three were the foundation of 1980s/early 1990s Brewers teams.

 

The box also contained a lot of other early junk wax. I consider 1985 or '86 as the true beginning of junk wax, but some may consider any '80s card to be considered junk wax. Finding some '83, '84 and '85 cards was fun as well. There were a few 1986 Topps, but I already have that set so it was not that exciting.

The 1984 Fleer set may fall into the junk wax title, and this box sure offered a lot of it. Probably 1/4 of the box was full of the '84 Fleer. It's a basic design with not much luster, but it did offer two gems. The Jay Johnstone card with him wearing an umbrella hat made out of Budweiser labels is definitely unique. Also, how many guys can say they have a baseball card of them holding a snake? Well, at least one: Glenn Hubbard.

As I dug deeper into the box, I found some good vintage stuff. No one really stands out from the '70s stuff, but it's always cool to get cards from the '70s or prior. I really do like the Dodgers coaches card, and it makes me yearn for the days of manager cards in sets. I would prefer those to the thousands of inserts and parallels that confuse me to this day.

 

This box not only had baseball cards, but it also had baseball stickers. Fleer was notorious for adding these stickers into regular sets, and the Mariners stickers are very fun to see. I was unaware of the Fleer star stickers, but they were a nice touch. I can honestly say I won't be sticking those stars on anything, but maybe a Mariners sticker makes it somewhere.

 



Speaking of Fleer, there were a handful of early '80s Fleer and Donruss sprinkled into the box as well. I always thought the early Fleer designs were a bit bland, but now I sort of yearn for their simplicity. The company kept things simple and didn't inundate anyone with a thousand different things to look at on one card front.

Just for good measure, the box served up a handful of football cards. Archie Manning was the only player I recognized, but to get one good vintage card out of the box was a pretty nice bonus - even if I never had heard of the gentleman.

Things did get, um ... interesting. This Larry Bowa card was issued by Red Lobster. I used to think the cheesy rolls were the only good thing to come from Red Lobster. I obviously was wrong.

OK, Dwight Schrute may have enjoyed this card, but what use do I have for a Battlestar Galactica card?
Lastly, does anyone know where I can look up 1980s Illinois Lottery winning numbers? I can only assume this ticket was from the '80s - and there were three of them. Maybe this box did offer my Storage Wars moment and I am a millionaire.
In all, this was a fun box to crack. It was already opened at Goodwill, so obviously someone peeked through it. If there was anything of value, it was gone. But the box was fairly stuffed, so I am assuming not much was taken. Looking at the other boxes on the shelves, this was the best of the bunch. I have enough late-'80s and early-'90s cards. Oh, this box did have about 100 1990 Score cards, but it was worth it for what else this brought.
The only issue now is I had put every Topps card I owned that was made in 1990 or before into a binder. Now, I have a lot of early-'80s stuff that need to go in there as well. But some of my fondest memories are wasting away hours sorting through cards and putting them in binders.
If nothing else, this box has brought out the 10-year-old me, who now gets to spend a few hours sorting more cards!