Anyway, in 1991 she and my mother were addicted to the show Beverly Hills 90210. They watched it every week, and then one day when we went to the card shop — for baseball cards — they noticed Topps made cards for the show.  It was game on for them … well, my sister anyway.

Pack after pack was opened and after a while, my sister had a full set and she placed it in a binder and pretty much forgot about it. Me? Never. We moved quit a bit over the last 20 years or so, each of us living with our father, and then with our significant others. Now we’ve both got kids on the way.

But never did I forget about the Beverly Hills 90210 cards. In fact, I kept them … for a momentous occasion. I suppose that would be today, since it is Sept. 9, 2010.

In this 88 card and 11 sticker set, you’ll see the nonsense that was the early 1990s. The bright colors, the quaffed hair, the ridiculous poses. Can someone tell me why every picture of Brian Austin Green shows him by himself acting like a 12 year old, yet Jason Priestley and Luke Perry are displayed as gods? And what’s with the girls? One image of Tori Spelling looks like she is trying to seduce us.

So it is without further adieu that I bring to you the greatness that is the 1991 Topps Beverly Hills 90210 set.

It’s tough to remember this because there always seems to be some intriguing player whose autograph I’d love to add to my collection.

A few years ago I sent letters to Garrett Atkins, Matt Holiday and even then-manager Clint Hurdle. I never heard back from Holiday, but I did receive my cards back from Atkins and Hurdle with a little purple note suggesting that I join their charitable cause. The note also asked me to accept their pre-printed signature in lieu of an authentic one.

When am I going to learn? Earlier this week I received a familiar note from one Todd Helton to whom I either sent to in 2009 or earlier this year. I forget. Same thing … no autograph, some team-issued card and a pre-printed note.

But I do have other requests I sent to them that I still have not received back, namely hot up-and-comer Carlos Gonzalez.

So let this serve as a reminder to all of you the next time you sit down to prepare for TTMs … stay away from Rockies players. Unless, of course, you want the standard letter and team-issued card.

For the record, this Todd Helton is a 2006 Grandstand issue … it shows him WITHOUT his goatee. Awesome. I do appreciate the team-issued cards. They are pretty neat.

No need to guess what the other 93 cards that are being offered. Every single one is a common, made after 1993. No joke. Honestly, I didn’t know you could offer that many cards in any given trade.

Anyway, I’ve been lacking on the posts lately. Got some personal stuff to take care of. I’m actually downsizing yet again (second time in four months) leaving my collection in a state of flux. If so inclined, visit my eBay link on the side of the page here to see if you want anything. I’ve got more stuff to post, but the biggest problem if finding time.

My collection will go on. I’m still infatuated with rookie cards, but that appears to be the only thing I’ll be collecting from this point forward. I’ve already posted my Red Sox collection for sale.

In exchange for my 1969 Topps Tom Egan (a common), someone offered me seven cards: five from 1982, one from 1984 and one from 2000. Conventional wisdom would have made me click the “decline” button instantly. But the stuff that was thrown at me for this common from 1969 was enough to make me hit “Accept.”

The Egan card is a common from a year that was not so rare, especially given that I have access to all sorts of cards from that era at my local shop. Clearly the person who wanted it had some attachment to it. And honestly, that was the entire point of this giveaway/buy back program. I’m glad I helped someone fulfill their want.

For me, Egan was just another card in the stash, something that might lead to something better down the road. For me, that opportunity presented itself in these cards:

1982 Topps In Action Carlton Fisk.

What an amazing card. The photography alone sold me on this deal. Fisk was a beast behind the plate — and I only got to see him play for the last five years of his career. I imagine if I were a few years younger that Fisk might have been one of my favorite players of all time. I have a soft spot for catchers, not unlike hockey fans who adore goaltenders.

1982 Topps Relievers –  Bruce Sutter/ Rollie Fingers

When I traded my 1987 Topps Bert Blyleven away, I was slightly saddened because I was parting ways with a digital copy of his awesome mustache. I can honestly say that the facial hair presented here is 10 times better. Sutter’s  monster beard and Rollie’s waxed mustache are awesome on their own, and when presented together, it creates an epic card.

1982 Topps Goose Gossage

This card is just appealing to me. 1982 Topps is totally underrated in terms of design. Love the All-Star design. Only bad thing, is Goose is not sporting his mustache, would have been great considering the previous card.

1982 Topps Joe Niekro

Not the Hall of Fame Niekro, but a Niekro nonetheless. This card screams 80s to me: Astros “rainbow” uniform, quaffed hair, sweet 80s Topps card design.

1982 Topps Harold Baines

Second-year card of a really good designated hitter who is a borderline Hall of Fame candidate. Did you know he was about one year away from collecting his 3,000th hit when he retired in 2001? I didn’t realize he was only 134 shy of that historic mark. Oh, and Baines’ beard was awesome, too.

1984 Topps RBI Leaders f/ Reggie Jackson

C’mon, it’s Reggie Jackson. Definitely not one of his older cards, but this 1984 Topps card is cool nonetheless. Entering 1984, Jackson had 1,435 RBIs. He ended his career with 1,702, which has him 23rd on the All-Time list. Interesting note: Of his 21 seasons in the Big Leagues, Jackson only drove in 100 runs or more in a single season six times.

2000 Topps Fred McGriff

Definitely the throw away card of the bunch, but it is Fred McGriff and not Jeff Reboulet. Did you know that McGriff was drafted and signed by the New York Yankees in 1981? Cool factoid.

It’s like the Topps version of “Where’s Waldo?” In some cases you can spot a player from a mile away based on their size or skin color — like I am pretty sure Yogi Berra is the last guy in the second row from the top, and Elston Howard is right behind him. But where’s Mantle? I think he’s the fourth guy from the left on the top row, and next to him could be Don Larsen.  But that could be someone else for all I know.

But it is always helpful when Topps used to label the front of the cards as if it were a real team picture. Like this 1958 Topps Yankees Team Card. Got to love that the Bat Boys got some love.

News of a federal indictment against Clemens made the rounds Thursday morning, giving lots of people reason to bash the once-heralded Major Leaguer once again.

The first mention I saw of this was a Tweet from NBC’s Darren Rovell that suggested that Clemens’ wife, Debbie, would be dubbed “Miss Remember.”

Clever I thought, as I stood in line waiting for my Starbucks. But why Tweet that today?

No. 3: Roger Clemens

And then the floodgates opened, the news was being reported everywhere.

Admittedly, I laughed. And then I thought about all of the money I had spent on Clemens cards over the years. And while the cards are surely not “worth” what they were a half decade ago — when he was Mr. Cy Young and a first-ballot Hall of Famer — they do remind me of better times.

And it is because of what they remind me of that my Clemens personal collection will remain mine and likely will grow in the future.

Obviously the market for Clemens collectibles has all but died, save for a few holdouts such as myself.

But this also brings about a prime opportunity for Clemens collectors; more of his “rare” cards will be hitting the market soon, and more than likely at reduced prices.

Personally, I’ve wavered in my Clemens collection for the last five to seven years, but none of it has had to do with the allegations of performance enhancing drug use. This new news does make me want to return to building that collection, I’m still missing lots of singles since the early 2000s.

Did Clemens use PEDs? Probably.

Does that make me hate him? No.

Do I think he eventually gets into the hall of fame? Absolutely.

A few days ago I wrote this piece proclaiming such, while drawing some similarities to ne’er-do-wells from the early 1900s.

Bottom line is Clemens was one of the best pitchers in the history of the game, and he afforded me many great memories of the game I love.

Do I expect others to feel the same way about him? No.

You can hate Clemens all you want. You can call him a cheater. You can burn his cards in protest. None of this concerns to me. Just as my decision continue collecting his cards shouldn’t trouble you.

True, I am a Red Sox fan, and have been since 1988, when I selected Roger Clemens as my favorite player. But there has always been a soft spot for those A’s teams, the same squad I would rush home from school and listen to on 560 KSFO radio or watch on KCIU-36, the flagship television station.

Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco were my guys. I waggled my bat the same way they did whenever we played pickup ball. I had pretty much all of the batting stances down from those teams, including the ridiculous bat-wielding technique of Ron Hassey, Carney’s bat jitter,  Rickey’s rock and explode, Hendu’s toe-tap, the way Walt choked up on the bat. Yep, all of them.

So imagine my delight when I stopped at a thrift shop and saw a binder full of Oakland A’s cards. Now before we go any further, this simplistic description of a binder of cards is actually pretty common in my area. I still live in the Bay Area. All sorts of collectors have dumped their collections at thrift stores, who then routinely over price them. But not today, my friends. The Cardboard Gods were shining down upon me. This time they wanted a mere $3.99.

I flipped through the pages of this neat-looking binder and nearly dropped a load in my pants when I saw this page:

Do you see it? Hell, do you see them? It’s a pair of freakin’ Mark McGwire autograph cards! And one of them being signed on my favorite McGwire card of all time, the 1989 Upper Deck card?

When I saw this, I closed the binder and headed to the register. You’re telling me that this store — which often removes cards from binder pages, throws them into baggies and hawks them 50 for $2.99 — was going to sell this entire binder for less than a bottle of Diet Coke and a pack of gum at the neighboring liquor store?

I was hoping the cashier didn’t thumb through the binder to get a gander at what I was so giddily ready to purchase. Good thing he didn’t or he might have realized there were FIVE more autographs in the binder including Bash Brother Jose Canseco (90 UD), Dennis Eckersley (89 Fleer), Mike Gallego (90 UD) and a pair of Walt Weiss (89 Topps, 90 UD).

Questioning the authenticity of these autographs? Not me. They are absolutely legit in my opinion, especially those McGwire’s. I’ve been mesmerized by McGwire’s auto since childhood and have been studying every stroke. I spent my first two years of college (1998 and 1998) trying to perfect it.

Aside from the inked cards, there are still a boat load of cards that bring back all sorts of memories. Check out these Mark McGwire Mother’s Cookies cards. Gotta love the one with the massive bat and the one with fellow Rookie of the Year winners, Jose Canseco and Walt Weiss. I’ve written about some of these before.

And these unlicensed issues, which were pretty prevalent in my area during childhood.

I can’t seem to figure this one out. It’s not really a card, but more like a wallet size picture. The image appears to be from 1987, or Spring Training 1988, based on the jersey. The back only says “This Paper Manufactured By Kodak.”

How about this 1988 Topps Record Breaker Error/Gimmick card. Check out McGwire’s plant foot — there’s a bow on his cleat, and a weird triangle toward the heel. Come to think of it, it looks like Someone at Topps made a poor attempt to make it look like he was wearing a wedge heel. Seriously.

And for good measure, how about these rookie-year issues, 1987 Topps and 1987 Donruss Rated Rookie. Oddly enough, the Donruss card is probably the nicest raw copy of this card I have ever owned, and I’ve had a few come through my collection. They were tough to keep mint back in the day because of the stiff binder pages and black card borders.

Pretty cool, eh? And that’s just McGwires.

Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane with some other Junk Wax Era releases.

Here’s some 1989 Fleer error cards. Notice the red color bars on top and below the photos; they are supposed to be green.

I used to LOVE these oddball releases. 1989 Topps Toys R Us Rookies Walt Weiss and 1988 Topps Revco League Leaders Mark McGwire.

What an awesome image of Rick Honeycutt signing autographs. He actually looks like a police officer writing a speeding ticket. Sweet shades, Rick.

Who can forget how useful Tony Philips was. I’m pretty sure the Topps photographer caught Phillips off guard here. I wonder who else signed that ball and what happened to it.

A partial set of 1990 Fleer World Series cards, recapping the 1989 victory over the Bay Area rivals San Francisco Giants. That was the Bay Bridge Series that was stopped for a week or so because of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

I was going to scan an image of each player from those great teams, but there are too many. There are literally 200-plus cards in this binder. Instead I’ll finish this post with five of my favorite A’s cards from the era, all of which just happened to be in the binder.

1992 Upper Deck Mark McGwire — check out the bat.

1990 Score 1989 World Series recap of Games 1  and 2. Love the wording at the bottom left of this Dave Stewart and Mike Moore image. It says “Actual World Series Action Photography.”

1989 Fleer Triple A’s card featuring Canseco, McGwire and catcher Terry Steinbach. There’s a very personal story that goes with this card. Not the right forum to share it though. Actually, pretty depressing. Maybe I’ll save it for my book.
1988 Topps Team Leaders. So Young. So good. So innocent … or so we thought.

1991 Score Dream Team Rickey Henderson. Only a Canseco Dream Team card would have rivaled this badboy. Go, Rickey! Go!

You see, sometimes when I am on the run I grab cards, thumb through them real quick and then stash them under one of the seats of my car. And that’s where they say, stewing in their juices for some 60 days or so, waiting for their new owner to look them over again and write something pithy about their existence. Today is their lucky day.

As you can see from the image above, there were multiples of many cards in these packages. In this case there are some 24 instruction cards for some 1985 Topps Rub Off “cards.” They aren’t worth anything and will likely be round-filed here within a few hours unless someone can convince me otherwise. I did find the instructions somewhat intriguing, particularly the last part that tries to convince us that there is some magic — PRESTO! — involved here. Must be the same guys who thought Atari 2600 was the pinnacle of realistic video games.

From 24, we go to eight … as in the number of these funky Barry Sanders Topps cards I cannot identify. They appear to be 1997 and have a foil-type finish to the fronts. I immediately want to guess that they are some sort of parallel, but yet I cannot find them on Beckett’s Web site or Check Out My Cards. A little help, anyone? These are Card No. 2.

I’m not a football collector, but I find some soft, minimal value in this rookie-year Bo Jackson release. Pretty cool image of Bo breaking loose as a Los Angeles Raider. Too bad the guy got hurt a few years later; he coulda been Barry Sanders, or vice versa.

Might as well get these basketball cards out of the way now since I’ve started with a few non-baseball released. Here’s three serial numbered parallels — the black borders are /500 and the gold is /100. I HATE that Topps made some of these thick to serve as decoys in packs — I bet a good number of parallels got ruined by searchers.

While we’re on serial numbered Gold Topps cards, here’s a 2008 Topps Paul Byrd that managed to sneak its way into my collection. The more I think about 2008 Topps, the more the design irritates me.

And now the “good” stuff.

Back in the 1990, I remember walking into my local shop and seeing for sale some boxes of actual Bazooka Gum that contained ONE trading card. The boxes contained early releases of Ken Griffey Jr (if memory serves me right) and players who were sure to set the game on fire like Jerome Walton and Dwight Smith. And of course you had one of the most awkward-looking players of the era, Chris Sabo. This guy rocked the goggles like no one else ever did; well, maybe James Worthy. And he did so while en route to earning National League Rookie of the Year honors. This was a fun (and cheap) walk down memory lane.

That little stroll through the 1990s index part of my brain also made me remember Diamond Kings, which were all the rage in 1992. Those gems were drawn by this man, Dick Perez, featured on these 1983 Donruss cards. I have to get one of these signed by Dick, it’d be a cool card to add to my collection. Dick, if you’re reading, one (or both) is(are) headed your way.

Before Diamond Kings were all shiny, golden and covered in gloss, they were simply drawings of a player and part of the basic set. Here Ty Cobb is depicted as a Diamond King on this “Puzzle” card from 1983 Donruss. These show collectors what the puzzle pieces inserted in that year’s packs are supposed to build. Love these.

1983 Donruss is an interesting set in and of itself, solid rookies — Ryne Sandberg, Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs, to name a few — but also for the subset cards. Here’s the MVP’s card of Frank Robinson, Vida Blue and America’s favorite television baseball analyst Joe Morgan.

And we finish things off in a super-serious way — the Infamous San Diego Chicken. Sadly, this is NOT his rookie card, which would have been a great addition to my Ultimate Rookie Card Collection.  The Chicken also appears on a card in 1982 Donruss.