Roberto Alomar Collector's Thread

Thanks guys.

And...another post about cards that arrived in my mailbox recently.

The 2002 Upper Deck 40-man rainbow! Definitely obscure, but definitely satisfying to complete. The one I was missing was the Hit Makers Electric card, bottom center in the photo. I knew these parallels aren't that rare, but this card #1070 (!) never seemed to show up. So one night I did a deep dive into the bowels of ebay and found it. A seller was offering your pick of 4 Electric parallels for $10, but only listed the card numbers and not the player names. That's why I never found it in my rotation of "Alomar" related searches. So I snagged it, and proceeded to strain my oblique while patting myself on the back.



Another rainbow, but this isn't quite complete. The 2000 Pacific base card parallels. This set was kinda cool since there were two versions of each base card, an action photo and a portrait photo. With 6 parallels each. The portrait photo is unusual in that it features Robbie squinting hard because the photographer had him staring straight into the sun. Not great technique. But still I was glad to find the portrait Ruby parallel on Beckett a couple weeks ago, but still missing the portrait emerald green and action platinum blue. Somewhere over the rainbow those cards are waiting for me

banjar said:

And...another post about cards that arrived in my mailbox recently.

The 2002 Upper Deck 40-man rainbow! Definitely obscure, but definitely satisfying to complete. The one I was missing was the Hit Makers Electric card, bottom center in the photo. I knew these parallels aren't that rare, but this card #1070 (!) never seemed to show up. So one night I did a deep dive into the bowels of ebay and found it. A seller was offering your pick of 4 Electric parallels for $10, but only listed the card numbers and not the player names. That's why I never found it in my rotation of "Alomar" related searches. So I snagged it, and proceeded to strain my oblique while patting myself on the back.

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Another rainbow, but this isn't quite complete. The 2000 Pacific base card parallels. This set was kinda cool since there were two versions of each base card, an action photo and a portrait photo. With 6 parallels each. The portrait photo is unusual in that it features Robbie squinting hard because the photographer had him staring straight into the sun. Not great technique. But still I was glad to find the portrait Ruby parallel on Beckett a couple weeks ago, but still missing the portrait emerald green and action platinum blue. Somewhere over the rainbow those cards are waiting for me

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Nice gets! The 02 electric rainbow still eludes me in my Wakefield collection and I also need two from 2000 Pacific. I can imagine how great finding them felt

Thanks. Those little pickups that fill gaps in the collection really do feel good. Saw you had a new Wakefield card arrive recently, congrats on that!

bstanwood said:

Nice gets! The 02 electric rainbow still eludes me in my Wakefield collection and I also need two from 2000 Pacific. I can imagine how great finding them felt

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Moar piccups!

True confessions - I'm laying in bed. Can't seem to fall asleep tonight, which is unusual (thankfully). So I'm watching an episode of Best of the Worst, and thought I'd post some recent acquisitions. Thing is, I'm laying in bed, and not really motivated to get up and take photos of these cards. So I copied the images from the ebay listings. This is how you create top notch internet content!

1994 Score Gold Rush Blank Back. The seller said he got this from the printer. I like picking up stuff like this when it doesn't cost much.


2001 Donruss Classics Timeless Tributes /100. One of those not-too-desirable and not-too-scarce early 2000's parallels that never seemed to show up for sale, until it did. I love being able to fill these holes in the collection.


And speaking of filling gaps in the collection....the 2000 Pacific Vanguard Holo Gold parallel /199. I really like the Vanguard set. I still need the Holo Purple /10 and the Proof /1 parallels, but not holding my breath on those.


A seller on ebay has been listing all sorts of 2004 Leaf Exhibits. So far I've picked up 8 second edition cards I was missing. They are coming from Canada so the mail takes forever. I'm still waiting on the last 3, which have been "in transit" for over 3 weeks now. Hoping they will show up soon. This Exhibits set is basically the same idea as 1998 Tek, a huge series of the same card with minute variations. 98 Tek had 90 cards and Exhibits has 88.


This is the only 2020 issue I've decided to chase so far, the Topps Decades' Best run. For some reason I just like the design. It's funky. There are 16 parallels if you count the online jumbos. This green one is a retail-only issue, found at Target stores.

A 2000 Topps Tek Gold /10. I don't have many of these, 4 in total. I'm not keen to overpay for these, so am happy to let them trickle in over time. They are super-cool looking though.


1999 UD Textbook Excellence Triple /100. The "base" insert had silver foil, the Double had bronze foil, and the Triple has gold foil.



2005 Donruss Throwback Threads Player Timelines Prime Jersey /15. 2005 is an interesting year in my collection. 2004 was Robbie's last year, so 2005 is the last year for playing career cards. My checklist says there were 262 unique cards issued that year, but I only have 40% of them, far below my percentage for any previous year. This year seemed to have a lot of just plain bad sets, like Donruss Champions, Playoff Absolute Memorabilia, Donruss Prime Patches, Playoff Prestige, and so on.

Haven't checked out this site in a while - nice pickups!

mooshoo said:

Haven't checked out this site in a while - nice pickups!

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Keep coming back.

@banjar , I may have missed it in this thread but what made you decide to collect Alomar?

Thanks mate.

mooshoo said:

Haven't checked out this site in a while - nice pickups!

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I second that. I wish @mooshoo would post more often!

Here's a post on the genesis of my Robbie Alomar collection...

Shaggy said:

Keep coming back.

@banjar , I may have missed it in this thread but what made you decide to collect Alomar?

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is anyone here looking for BGS 9.5 Alomar rookies? i have some from a small PC i started years ago and am looking to streamline and move. LMK

It's been a while since I posted some random cards and thoughts here, so thought I'd make a quick post. On another thread I promised (threatened) to scan my entire Alomar collection and make a website, and I'm slowly following through. I'm doing the scanning first, but I still have less than 10% scanned. 378 of 4415 unique cards to be exact.

Yeah, it's going to be a while. But now and then I get a handful scanned, and I'm really happy with how my scanner is working. I have an HP 4652 for what it's worth. Here are the last three I scanned tonight, and they so happen to be three of my favorite GU cards. 2002 Donruss Originals Nifty Fifty. Love the design, the color scheme, and everything else about them.

@tidel144 - here are some scans for ya

banjar said:

@tidel144 - here are some scans for ya

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Beauties!

banjar said:

@tidel144 - here are some scans for ya

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Amazing @banjar - thank you!

Thanks guys.

Wow, it's been 4 months since my last Robbie Alomar card fetish post here. I'm slipping... like so many bloggers do. You start off hot and full of vim and vigor, but eventually your little corner of the interwebs just gets stale. Not that I haven't been working on the ol' collection, because I definitely have. It's just that my energy to write posts and upload pictures is waning a bit.

That said...

Here's a couple posts that I shoulda posted here, but ended up posting on other threads:

And what the hell - a couple other pickup posts that ended up on other threads. You know, just to be a completist.

Well, while I'm on a roll, why not post a few actual recent pickups here...

1989 Padres Magazine, Uncut Sheet. I like magazine inserts a lot. So much that I decided to collect the uncut sheets. One reason for this is that you see the little advertising pitches that came along with the cards inside the magazines. Like this one - with a UNOCAL sponsor and some sidebar ads for tune-ups and brake services. My friends, MLB in 1990 was a far cry from what it is now.





Speaking of magazine inserts, here's one of my all time favorites. 1992 Ballstreet. In general I like the cut cards better than the full sheet varieties, but in this case, the original uncut sheet is better. I recall owning a Ballstreet magazine back then with the uncut card inside, but I didn't think much of it and I'm pretty sure I just threw it away. Only to buy another copy 25 years later.



This is a fun one I found roughly 4 years ago. The 1992 Bleachers Prism Uncut Strip, all minor league cards. It was sitting on ebay for months and months, without a best offer button, so finally I just wrote the guy asking if he'd take X dollars for it. He said yes, and so I got it. A year or two later I did a road trip to San Diego to see family and friends, and stopped into a card store along the way. As I talked to the guy behind the counter some bells started ringing in my head, and I realized he was the guy I bought this from, and we had a good conversation. Just one of those little moments.



Last one for today. The 1995 Kraft Singles Superstars Set Box. Why? Because it has a picture of Robbie's card on it. I'm unapologetically the kind of guy who will collect not just cards, but things with images of the cards on them. This is the American League set box, and yeah I got the National League set box too. They tried to make me go to rehab, but I said no no no.

Garvey made an early appearance in those magazine/program cards, so I have been aware of them. I really like that 1990 design you shared. The later year cards seem harder to find, although I am not willing to pay premiums to get the full magazines mailed, so maybe that is hurting me. That 1988-1993 era is great for Padre stuff because they had some pretty good names pass through (Cora, Mack, , McReynolds, C. Martinez, Gwynn, J. Carter, Sheffield, Alomars, Kruk, McGriff). all players I liked to collect, especially as Padres since I was still following them post Garvey retirement.

It is impressive when you look back at how many good players the Padres had during those years. And so little to show for it. Reminds me of the "Trader Jack" set that Sony put out a few years ago, with a checklist of players McKeon shuffled in and out of the organization.

I like the 1990 Padres Magazine set as well. Robbie also had two cards in the 1989 set, one on his own (which I have the uncut sheet of) and one with Sandy Jr and Sandy Sr (which I still can't find the uncut sheet of). Back in the day when I started collecting, I could never find these. Probably nobody else that lived outside San Diego could either. But when I got back into it I ended up calling San Diego Sports Collectibles, who helped produce them, and they still had some left!