Player Collector Contest: Mark McGwire (entry)

Posting up for the player collectors contest.

What you are looking at is one of the most complete collections of a single player in the 90's. McGwire has to be one of the toughest players to collect from this era because of both the amount of hardcore player collectors as well as investors that invested in his cards compared to the number of cards in existance.

Without further ado, the collection stats:

Note* this is about 6 months out of date. I think I have about 50 more cards to add (mostly 2010 /9, /4 GU and some rare oddballs) but will not have the time to update this for at least a month or two.

Website: http://www.joering.com/mcgwire/index.php (New site coming soon)
Full Stats: http://www.joering.com/mcgwire/stats.php?id=onionring9

5065/5648 unique cards (90% complete)
500+ unique non-cards
4000+ duplicates
Just under 10,000 total cards/pieces.

Very short history: I started collecting in 1987. Living in the Bay Area, it was only natural to start collecting the rookie that was hammering the majors in his first year. Since it was my first time collecting, McGwire starting his career was a perfect fit. I also decided to collect Canseco, Jerry Rice and Joe Montana. I never liked Canseco all that much but felt obliged to continue collecting for a few years because he was one of the bash brothers. I finally dumped him and concentrated solely on McGwire and for a few years more, Rice/Montana.

I think the most surprising fact nobody here probably knows is that I've never even met the guy. I've never gotten his auto in-person, never even gone out of my way to meet him. This is mostly because I was playing in so many competitive sports that I went to very very few games and never had the time to go to shows or signings. I did this all the way up until I blew my shoulder out the summer before I was going to college. By that time, he was shipped off to St. Louis!

These are the three most common questions I get asked about my collection:

1) Why did I continue to collect: He was a positive role model growing up. Like Jerry Rice, he was a personable person that was successful and people could look up to. Every time I get a new card, it brings back memories of running to card shops with my dad between games or the thrill of opening up a box of cards when I was younger. Always love good memories.

2) How much have I spent on this collection: I've never answered this because I have no idea (nor do I want to know). There are a few cards in the collection that will sell for $1k by itself and I've got close to 6000 cards. I really don't want to know but I'd assume well into the 6-figure mark.

3) What's your favorite card? I have two right now:

I would collect Ruth if I wasn't collecting McGwire so this one has always been my favorite random card:
http://www.joering.com/mcgwire/index.ph ... =ruth+used

This is one of my most recent because it's the first card my wife ever gave me. She doesn't really like me collecting cards all that much but she apparently loves me!
http://www.joering.com/mcgwire/index.ph ... tness+gold

Was asked for some autos, here are a few

Beautiful collection. I hope you move on, but I really dont think people are looking at collections and just voting for their buddies.
You really have as nice of a player collection as anyone on here.

why does he have an auto card with just a picture of his package?

You really do have a sweet collection, i've looked through your spreadsheet several times just to see what a certain parallel looks like and am amazed at how much you have.

GarkoCollector said:

Beautiful collection. I hope you move on, but I really dont think people are looking at collections and just voting for their buddies.
You really have as nice of a player collection as anyone on here.

Click to expand...

As do you!

Few people realize the cost and how hard it is to hit any sort of milestone when collecting a guy like McGwire because he only has a finite amount of cards. I get in bidding battles with a few of the locals here on occassion that make a $5 BV card end up costing close to $150. I look back at how much this collection has cost me and I could have bought a house. But heck man, the memories are priceless and hopefully my experience along with other around here have helped people out over the years.

I don't expect people to appreciate the collection, but the reason I put it up is for those that do.

But honestly, with a group of collections like the ones we have up there, I'm proud to have made it past round 1 let alone whatever round we are on. FCB has some killer collections on there!

On a side note, I know I've gotten a hell of a lot of help not just from the McGwire collectors here, but the other PC guys as well. I, along with the other Mac collectors would like to give back.

We've got a new project pending that is taking our McGwire site to a whole new level which many here will be able to participate in. It will be a few more weeks, but when it's done, hopefully this project will allow all supercollectors to cross our knowledge in one website

:shock:

I'm so glad you posted those autos. Simply amazing. If you get a chance, I'd love to see some of your rare 90's inserts/parallels and game used patch cards.

onionring9 said:

GarkoCollector said:

Beautiful collection. I hope you move on, but I really dont think people are looking at collections and just voting for their buddies.
You really have as nice of a player collection as anyone on here.

Click to expand...

As do you!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the appreciation, but the fact is that Garko is a low end guy, and other than having lots of 1/1's and rare stuff, its not terribly expensive. On the other hand, your amazing collection is comprised of rarity, popularity and value. I can buy 20 1/1's of Garko (if not more) than it would cost you for one of McGwire.

Its really a shame that some of the people are out of the player collector contest that really didnt have their collections looked at. I really hope I see you in the finals. Looks like you and Zambrano would be a good quality head to head.

Take care
Tom

per request, a handful of some of the more rare oddballs and inserts of the 80's/90's. I'll just take a handful from each year. The variations of base cards are proving to be harder to find than some of these, but people appreciate these much more than those

'86 chong error - at one time this card couldn't be found for less than $1k



'88 score promo - took 20 years to find this


'88 topps cloth - I did an experiment with one of these (a common one) - they do not suck up water anymore!


'89 topps heads up test - very very rare


Big Mac gave me these - some of the toughtest cards to find now
'91 colla fan club cards



'92 clovis police - One of the most sought after sets of McGwire - I believe these were all distributed as posters, then dealers cut them up to sell the cards individually. I've only seen one other full poster left in-tact.


'93 cooperstown bound promo - another card that took 20 years to find - much more rare than the "more known" dufex card


'93 finest blank back proof - got this off another collector


'96 liberty sports - thanks again magic!


'96 UD diamond destiny gold - I have a hunch these are sitting in people's closets that think they have the bronze version. When I bought this I assumed I was getting another bronze but lo and behold, found!

The "inverted" trilogy of '98 - pain to find, they look great next to the non-inverted base, ref and atomic





The dreaded embossed gold/silver refractors



I won't post all of them, but any addition from the venzuelan collection is considered a trophy. Here's the first of many that I have

I don't know very many people that have one of these of their player. First and only I've seen of McGwire. For the longest time nobody seemed to know what they were:
'98 Sportcubz


Most people's favorite cards on here. The purple was a gift from docdw25 (gem 10!!!!). The red prototype is one of the most valuable cards in my collection. Costs a small fortune, got a killer deal on it, worth every penny






autographed by the artist himself


I always loved these but I'll only post the /15 gold '98 cramers


A group of us believe there are only about 6 of these, who knows though
'98 swing for the fences upgrade


Not that rare but I love hunting these down - some of these come with no refraction, some come with no "R" or "Refractor" label, some do. Still trying to piece together which exist and which don't for all of this subset
'98 mystery finest refractors - there's a bunch, I'm just showing the Thomas/McGwire



'98 topps fruit roll-up


I remember a lot of people love these holo gold cards, here's one of mine

'98 teks....aye aye aye - just completing the base set is near impossible, try completing all of these:
'98 topps tek (90 pattern)
'98 topps tek pre-production (30 patterns)
'98 topps tek pre-production GOLD (30 patterns - either 1/1's or /2's)
'98 topps tek diffractor (90 patterns)

Happy to say I've got 51 of the diffractors, here's a gold and a diffractor!!

Last post because I'm out of time - I'd love to post all my rare/variation cards, but these sets are my last of note:

'99 topps chrome HR parade 220 refractors - 70 different patterns - damn things cost me $150-$500 each. Still not done, have either 14 or 19 left, don't remember:



And lastly, one of the other hardest sets to put together, the Chicago collection, 15 total cards all stamped /5 (sometimes on the back like this one) , got 13 of them!

onionring9 said:

Not that rare but I love hunting these down - some of these come with no refraction, some come with no "R" or "Refractor" label, some do. Still trying to piece together which exist and which don't for all of this subset
'98 mystery finest refractors - there's a bunch, I'm just showing the Thomas/McGwire

Click to expand...

Without a doubt every 98 Mystery finest from series 1 has 4 variations. We just need to update the website. I think I have the ones not on the site.

base
base with "R"
refractor
refractor no "R"

I don't think I've seen any variations from the series 2 mystery finest cards.

docdw25 said:

onionring9 said:

Not that rare but I love hunting these down - some of these come with no refraction, some come with no "R" or "Refractor" label, some do. Still trying to piece together which exist and which don't for all of this subset
'98 mystery finest refractors - there's a bunch, I'm just showing the Thomas/McGwire

Click to expand...

Without a doubt every 98 Mystery finest from series 1 has 4 variations. We just need to update the website. I think I have the ones not on the site.

base
base with "R"
refractor
refractor no "R"

I don't think I've seen any variations from the series 2 mystery finest cards.

Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure you are dead on about the series 2. I haven't seen any either though I wish there were

I'd also be really surprised if you didn't have all the ones not on the site, within the last 2 years, you have added some pretty amazing depth to an extremely impressive McGwire collection

sick stuff

Wow. I don't even like McGwire that much but that's a helluva collection. I would like to add his autograph to my collection one day. Great stuff you've posted.

Onionring9, I have a question for you regarding the Mark McGwire Clovis Police Poster/Card set that you posted a picture and description above in post #10. Yes, I do realize this thread is over a decade old.

But first, a quick story. I grew up in the late 80's - early 90's, when I moved out of my parents home I stored all my cards and sports memorabilia away in a closet in their home. 25+ years later, I decided to go through it and one of the items I found was this poster. I do not remember how I got it, but I do live very close to Clovis.

In doing research for this item, I came across this thread and read that even the cards alone are highly sought after by McGwire collectors due to their rarity. OnionRing9 stated above he has only seen one other "uncut" poster.

Beckett has an interesting piece written on the history of this item as well as the event. The article states that the cards were cut up by the printing company and only a few that were uncut were given to sponsors and event VIP's. The sponsors and police officers gave out the cards over a 4 day event.



Here is what Beckett wrote:

"This 24-card standard-size set was sponsored by the Clovis Police Department, The Oakland A's, and 25 Clovis area businesses. The program raised $9,200 in a four-day period. Both businesses and officers gave out 12 1/2" by 18" posters and cards, and graduating DARE students also received cards. The cards were cut from the poster, but some uncut posters (measuring approximately 20" by 25") with the cards still attached were given away to VIPs and sponsors for framing. The fronts feature color action photos of Mark McGwire on a green card face. The pictures have bright yellow borders, and the upper left corner is cut off to display the City of Clovis insignia. The player's name is printed in bright yellow print at the top. The backs features "Mark's Moments~ (various facts about McGwire) and public service messages. The cards are numbered on the back."



I know in the 90's, it was common for players to do sponsored signing sessions / meet and greets. What surprises me is McGwire was already a recognized player by 1992, and what is even more surprising is the fact that both Mark McGwire and the Oakland A's allowed the Clovis Police and their sponsors to print baseball cards with their name and logo all for a minimal production run for a "charity" to earn a few grand.

I realize this post is almost 14 years old, but if OnionRing9 still post here, I'm really trying to find a value for this item. Mine isn't in perfect shape, it does have a few flaws, but it is all in tact. With no comparable sales determining a value can be tough. If anyone is interested, I am looking to sell!

Any comments or advice is appreciated!

I posted the above Poster on EBAY if anyone is interested.

1992 Mark McGwire Clovis Police Poster

eBay auction number: 315199705500

Here is what mine looks like: