The Ken Griffey Jr. Collection

Here is my obligatory Ken Griffey Jr. Collection. These cards were the centerpiece of my collection as a kid. Today, I could probably collect this same group of cards on ebay in a day with about $100.  But as a kid, it was tough to collect these cards, largely because every other kid collected Jr., and nobody wanted to trade him.

Bowman, topps, OPC Griffeys.  I never got the '89 topps traded Griffey.

My Donruss Griffey rookie and other Donruss specimens.

More Donruss, kind of an odious design on this edition of that brand.

The Fleer Griffey rookie card and other Fleer, plus a random card that says 'The Kid' on it.

Upper Deck Griffeys.

Score Griffeys.

The Contemporary Binder

These are cards that I have collected mostly by buying packs in 2015.

2015 topps gold cups.  I'm not sure who I'm missing, as I have only 8, and there always used to be 10.  But I have multiples of all 8 of these guys, so maybe there aren't any more. I'm not sure.

This page has a theme: the foes of the 2015 postseason.  It's strange that Matt Harvey is a future star card, since it's his 4th year or so in the big leagues.

Included here is a Bryce Harper photo variation card, pulled from a pack. May be a bit of a rarity.

Happily I got a Kris Bryant rookie card, so I'm covered there.

Really like the Jose Abreu archives rookie card here, I think it's a 2014 card.

Since moving to the bay area, I adopted the Giants as my NL team, which then became difficult as they faced the Royals in the 2014 W.S. I never saw that one coming.  I met Hunter Pence in my office one day, he came around saying hello to everybody.

I am a fan of the topps Archive set. You get only stars from the past and present, and all kinds of styles.

Cut this picture off a bit. I think the Brian McCann card on the bottom right there is an error, Yankees is supposed to be in white.

The Royals Binder

This is my Kansas City Royals binder.  Contemporary Royals followed by vintage cards. I have gotten a lot of the contemporary cards by going to the local card shop and asking the guy to pull out his Royals.  I usually find a stack of 20 or so cards, and he names a price in the $6 or $7 dollar range.  Then I go back a couple weeks later and we do the same thing.  A lot of the vintage cards are from my childhood collection. They are special because they were so much harder to collect in those days, before ebay existed, and before I had money.  They came from packs, purchased one at a time, or from trading with friends. In 2015 I purchased 4 '87 topps wax boxes of unopened packs, and had a great time going through them.

This page represents the 2015 World Series lineup.

And these are key pitchers from the World Series.  Hochevar, Herrera, and Davis won the postseason for us. They were the heroes of 2015, hands down.

I have begun collecting Eric Hosmers, he's my favorite. I really like the Topps Archive cards, here I have Hosmer in the '83, '84, and '51 Topps styles.

Alex Gordon, also my favorite.

'80 and '83 Topps style Gordons.

Love Salvador Perez.

And Moose, he's my favorite too. I'm so glad he had a breakout year in 2015.  He had a lot of key hits in the postseason.  To a large extent he carried us the first half of the season.  Game after game, Escobar would get on base, and Moose would bring him home with a double.

I acquired these Paulo Orlando cards recently via trade. Very excited about them.

I don't have nearly enough Cains and Escobars.

Kind of cool Wade Davis RC.

Glad Chris Young is back in 2016.

Cueto in the '51 topps style.

A few formers Royals, not forgotten.  Also, cards I had made of my sons, Andre and Harper.

Here we get to my vintage Royals collection.  I have some older George Bretts also, all in hard cases.

Here is a sequence of topps Bretts from '86 to '91.

Bo Jackson, an all-time favorite.  The Bo injury was hard for me as a kid.

Before Bo Jackson or Ken Griffey Jr., I collected Kevin Seitzer.  This guy hit .323 and had 207 hits as a rookie.  That turned out to be the best year of his career, but he remained solid.  Sadly, I must have lost interest in the guy because when I recovered my card collection from my parents' house, these cards were all in my commons box.  Well, he's been re-promoted back to the binder.

Complete '87 topps Royals team set, with a Seitzer card from the traded series added in.

'86 topps Royals.  Jorge Orta keeps appearing in the bottom right corner because the slot is empty.

And the complete '85 topps Royals team set. A recent ebay acquisition.

'79 U.L. Washington, and I have doubles of the Bret Saberhagen.

Here is the complete '76 Royals topps team set.  The George Brett is in a hard case, so not shown here.

And here is my autographed Royals post card set.  I sent the Royals a letter in the mail when I was a kid, enclosing several baseball cards, and asked for their autographs.  They sent my cards back and included these signed black and white photos. What a treasure and a great memory.