"...That there is an Allstate Display case..."

  "I can do what everybody else is doing and do it better, which I don’t like my chances at. Or I can do something nobody else is doing and I don’t invite comparison. That’s where I’m at my best."     Kenny Rogers. 

1994

 Burbank Sportscards, the Don Mattingly collection hits a milestone and some thank yous.

1994 was really 30 years ago. Have mercy we gettin' old here. 

Small victories carry weight...

On the collecting scale I'm but a small fish in a large sea.  Same as in 1994. I was strictly a card guy in 1994.  Primary focus was Don Mattingly. The bulk of the budget easily went towards Mattingly items. I had my local collecting contacts looking out for me. The Batters Box. Youngs Sportscards. The Umpires Choice. A 4th contact , a very good fella named Gerald, who once owned a shop himself, also helped. Gerald literally found any Mattingly card I wanted. Coast to coast. Give him a week and he would have it.   The start of the 1994 MLB Season was the first, and only time, I had in my possession every Don Mattingly card currently available  from his Minor League issues through 1993.   An influx of new card companies, various artists proofs, refractors, etc. made that task, for me at least, virtually impossible beginning in 1994 with all the cards issued.  For one short blip in time though, when it came to Mattingly, I was as good as anyone else in the collecting game. To my hobby friends who helped, I appreciate it.  I cherish the memories and the simpler times. 

Intermission

"Say what's a Neotraditionalist Collector anyway"

"Check the back pages of Beckett"

   1994 was an interesting, puzzling and at times a frustrating year.  Nowhere near as good as 1993, and 1995 would top it also. Doesn't mean the year was a bust. Certainly not hobby wise. I, along with my nephew, were single card collectors. We weren't buying multiple boxes of any product. We had interest in players that most folks in our area did not. Patrick Roy, Ed Belfour, Clyde Drexler, Chris Chelios and others. Stars, yes, but this area (Charleston SC) wasn't exactly bursting at the seams with material of stars like Scott Stevens, Joe Dumars, Cam Neely etc. 

   

   Enter Burbank Sportscards. In '94 it may have been Burbank Coins & Cards.  Ad says they say they have a huge inventory. Burbank though. Does Burbank sound like a place that will have Patrick Roy or Dale Hawerchuk rookies? Not really. Made a quick list. 86 Topps or OPC Roy. 84 Neely rookie. 93 Score Franchise Roy, 93 Score Franchise Marino. Few others that escape the memory bank. Made the call, read off the list, had everything except for the '86 OPC Patrick Roy. 

Looking back, it seems archaic in ways. I tell my nephew "yeah the owner answered, Rob is the name. Whole process took like 20 minutes. Felt like I was talking to a fellow collector opening packs".  I was not expecting almost the whole list to be filled, but hey that's what the Chemical Bank Visa was for. Six days later, cards arrive. Though it was sold in 2000, the Patrick Roy '86 Topps I received remains the best looking Roy Topps rookie I've had in hand.

   

That was but one of several orders with Burbank in the 94-95 time frame. A couple more orders followed in 98-99 before I pulled the plug on my collecting in 2000.  A return to the hobby in 08 would eventually lead to ordering again from my "local" card shop all the way across the country.  Stephen, Rob, Ryan. They are collectively one of the good guys in the hobby. 

          A few of my Burbank pick ups over the last few years. Refractors, Mirror Golds & a Ice Blue Stevens.

  

"Goodnight John Boy"

  Rank sentimentalist time.  Harkening back to the prologue. Life 'tis but a movie. With a cast, if you're lucky, of thousands.  As I've gotten older, little things, man, they matter.   I want to thank Peg Young (Young's Sportscards), Wayne Aveyard (The Umpires Choice), Andy Tokai (R.I.P.😔)(The Batters Box), Gerald Firetag(Swamp Fox Collectibles)  for being part of the journey here. Your contributions are neither forgotten nor overlooked. 💓