what's in the box?

it wasn't really bidding under the influence, but a few weeks ago, i threw a $1 bid on a lot of dodger stuff that was supposedly from an estate sale. i saw a few things in the photos that made me feel comfortable with spending $21 on the stuff, as shipping was $19.99.

nobody else bid, and a few days later, a large flat rate priority mail box showed up on my doorstep.

i thought i knew what to expect, but there was a fair amount of dodger ephemera that wasn't visible in the photos. let's have a look.

probably the most interesting item to me was this 1988 world series pinback button:

i did not see this button in the photos, so it was a surprise. there was a lot of stuff like this for sale at dodger stadium during the 1988 world series - stuff that says "national league champions" - which is now less desirable (i assume) because the dodgers went on to win the series. for example, my dad bought a national league champions sweatshirt at the stadium during game 1 of the series. he still has it, but never bothered to buy a world champions sweatshirt to supersede it.

the oldest item was this "quick" magazine

from april of 1951 featuring don newcombe on the cover. it was interesting to flip through the magazine which appears to be a sort of reader's digest of the weekly news. the baseball stories were short, including the one regarding newk.

there were seven loose 5x7 black and white dodger player pictures. interestingly, the more recent players - gary thomasson, bob welch, doug rau, reggie smith, bobby castillo, and manny mota - were all in worse condition than this duke snider

i am working on a separate post that deals with these pictures that the dodgers sold at the stadium and through the mail - stay tuned for that!

back in 1982, you could pick up some dodger ephemera at unocal/union 76 gas stations as well as builder's emporium, which was a home improvement store. there were a bunch of these items included - from the union 76 volpe portrait set, there were four mike marshalls, one pedro guerrero, six steve garveys, two dusty bakers, three mike scioscias, and twelve (!) mark belangers.

as for the builder emporium sheets, there was a steve garvey

two steve sax sheets (in rough condition), four dusty baker, two jerry reuss, and two tom lasordas - both 

of which appear to have been signed.

there was a 1983 dodger program/scorecard (unscored)

from a series later in the season, with pedro guerrero on the cover and a nod to 1981 topps there on the front. there was a page inside dedicated to the ceremony that the team held for ron cey when the cubs came to town earlier in the year:

looks like the penguin received a few plaques.

one of the largest volume items in the box were commemorative sheets from 1984. these were available at union 76 gas stations just as the volpe portraits had been in 1982. they marked great moments in los angeles dodger history. i think i fell just short of a complete set (missing the four 30-homer dodgers, and the "tenth" man sheets), but there were eight willie davis hitting streak sheets, two jerry reuss/bill singer no-hitter sheets, four 1981 world series champions sheets, two record setting infield (yay!) sheets, four 1959 world series champions sheets, nine don drysdale scoreless streak sheets, three manny mota pinch hit sheets, three maury wills 104 stolen bases sheets, two 1977 nlcs sheets, three 1965 world champions sheets, seven fernando mania sheets, one bob welch strikes out reggie jackson sheet, and four roy campanella night at the coliseum sheets. that's 52 sheets! here's the 1959 world series champions sheet

since it has some imagined baseball cards on it.

the dodgers gave out baseball cards at games starting in 1981. they were sponsored by the los angeles police department, and were oddly sized. this box included a couple of loose 1982 cards of mark belanger and ron roenicke

as well as 15 loose cards from the 1986 set. there were three tom lasordas and two ken landreaux cards, and single cards of the coaching staff, steve sax, franklin stubbs, pedro guerrero, alex trevino, jerry reuss, bob welch, ken howell, reggie williams, and orel hershiser.

that wasn't all, however, as there were 10 complete sets of the 1986 issue. 

eight were still sealed, and two were loose.

there were a bunch of dodger postcards, including three sealed packages. this fact lends credence to the idea that you could buy bundles of loose postcards from the dodgers (the first postcard sets sold at dodger stadium, i believe, were offered in a booklet form). i opened the packages up and found the players to be identical in each group:

dusty baker

greg brock

pedro guerrero
burt hooton

mike marshall
jerry reuss
bill russell

derrel thomas

fernando valenzuela

bob welch

however, one of the three packages had different postcards for baker, hooton, reuss, and russell than the other two. all three packages featured a mix of postcard years. i think this has been suggested before - that the dodgers, while they printed new postcards most years in the 1970's and early 1980's, would combine various years when putting together groups for sale. at any rate, this is a batch that was put together in 1983 at the earliest given the presence of brock and marshall.

there were also six other postcards included loose in the box - two brocks and a guerrero to match the ones in the sealed packages, plus two manny mota and one each of tom lasorda and davey lopes. those six were also from a mix of years.

of the seventeen different postcards (out of 36 total), the only one i needed was this dusty baker

which i would catalog as a 1982 issue based on the research that i presented in this post.  in fact, baker is the m-13 card 

which i was unsure even existed! this all reminds me that mrmopar provided me with some checklist information for dodger postcards after that post ran, and i need to go through and apply that information to my theories. 

there was a lot of other dodger ephemera, including:

8x10 team issue color photo john roseboro

8x10 photographs of kirk gibson - one in home uniform and one in away grays

1985 dodger media guide (with bill russell on the cover)

2 issues of dodgers magazine, both from 1990 - vol 3 #1 and vol 3 #3. both unscored

2 1988 nlcs programs, both unscored

1990 dodgers yearbook - their centennial season with cover art by leroy nieman

and, of course, there were cards, including an intact, non-separated sheet of 1994 dodgers police cards. it's not in the best shape, however.

as for "normal" cards, i counted 228 of them, including a few fleer stickers. the oldest cards were from 1968, and there were two of the jack billingham/jim fairey rookie card

the other '68 was willie davis.

by far, the newest item in the box was a random 2013 topps juan uribe gold parallel

i knew it was in there based on the auction photos, and i knew it was a need for my collection. however, i didn't expect to find any other dodger cards that i needed. i was pleasantly surprised.

these 1985 fleer star stickers of orel hershiser and alejandro pena

completed my team set. always nice to get a hershiser rookie of any variety!

there were a bunch of 1986 fleer mini dodgers, but only one set of the mini stickers

which i needed (they weren't even on my want list). i also needed these 1987 and 1988 fleer sticker inserts,

(or are they 1988 and 1987?) and i decided to add this 1983 fleer bob welch card

to my lurker collection - hello ron cey!

these 1986 topps and topps traded cards were needs

because they are the tiffany versions. just need alex trevino to complete the traded tiffany set.

there were a few oddball sized cards:

2 1985 donruss 3x5 all-stars pedro guerrero

1 1984 topps super pedro guerrero

2 1984 topps super fernando valenzuela

of those, i needed one of the 1984 topps super valenzuela

cards for my dodger collection

here's a signed 1987 topps reggie williams card

that was included

there were more non-dodger steve garvey cards than dodgers:

and there were a few other random cards that didn't really belong at all

although i guess i could sort of understand a mattingly card

in amongst the dodger stuff - just not a 1990 leaf.

finally, there were some 1985 topps r.j. reynolds cards

and by "some" i mean 88 of them. it's his rookie card - i wonder if he'll pan out.

i had a lot of fun going through this box. if anyone needs an '85 topps rj - you know where to find me!