So a couple of months ago, I won an auction for a couple hundred Orioles cards. It was one of the first auctions that I won since getting back into the hobby, and I did it just to boost my Orioles team collection. The description on the auction wasn't great, and to be honest, I was expecting a bunch of junk wax.

My folks sent the cards in their latest package, and I'm glad they did. Looking through, the lot had its share of junk wax, but also a bunch of really interesting cards. Nothing along the lines of Thorzul's 40-dollar haul, but value for money as far as I'm concerned. I've enjoyed sifting through the cards, and am pleased to share some of the highlights with you. So sit back and enjoy...Eight Bucks Worth of Orioles:

The first installment contains the oddball cards from "non-traditional" manufacturers. Later on, I'll do posts for Topps, Upper Deck, Fleer, Donruss, etc. The first card - well, you can't beat Sportflics. Unless, of course, you tried to scan a Sportflics card. Can you even tell who this is? I'll give you a hint - it's not Jim Palmer:

If you said "Mike Boddicker" - you win! If you said anyone else, you lose. If you said "Jim Palmer," then I'm sorry, but I simply can't help you.

A side note - I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out the card number for this card. On the left hand side, it says "Series #1 Card 104". But on the right-hand side, next to the Sportflics logo, is a picture of a baseball with the number 52. So which is it?


Next up is this card of former shortstop Jerry Adair. I can't make hide nor hair out of this card. First of all, there's absolutely no clues as to what year this card comes from - none - which makes me think it's a reprint. On the back, there are two lines of stats: "Past Year" and "Lifetime". The copyright information is for Sports Novelties - Chicago, Ill. with no year. In fact, the only year that's mentioned in 1958, when Jerry made his debut for the O's. And yes, the card is in black and white, which robs us of a good look at those first Oriole caps.

Now this next card isn't a re-print, as such, but a re-interpretation of a classic baseball card design. An homage, if you will. It comes to us from Baseball Card Magazine, and has obviously been cut out. Poorly, I might add:


I'm willing to overlook the fact that the original owner apparently used a machete to cut out the card because it has a picture of Chris Hoiles on it. Chris Hoiles was great. At least, it seemed that way to me at the time. I've got nothing but good memories of Chris Hoiles and there's nothing you can do to tarnish them. Besides, Fred Lynn was washed up by then, anyway.

Moving on, here's a card of Ken Singleton from a sponsored set. In this case, Drake's Bakeries:


Ken is a Drake's "Big Hitter" and in 1980 he hit 24 home runs, certainly a big total for that time. Nowadays, if a corner outfielder doesn't hit 24 home runs he's not pulling his own weight. Sadly for Ken, the '80 season was the fifth and last time he blasted 20 or more homers. He hit 13 in the strike-shortened '81 season (when this card came out) and only hit 18 in '82, his next full season. He retired two years later with 246 career blasts.

Drake's is best known as the company that brought you Devil Dogs and Ring Dings.

The final three cards are all from the good folks at Pacific. These two are from the 1988 Baseball Legends set:


As I said before, any card with Brooks Robinson on it is a good card. The Brooksie card was actually the first card I saw on top of the pile. My first thought was "oh great, this is going to be a bunch of reprints and inserts. But I was, thankfully, wrong.

The final card today is also from Pacific, or should I say, Pacifico?


Yes, it's Ben McDonald, lanzador in Pacific's 1993 Spanish-language set. It's a good thing I took five years of Spanish in school so I can tell you that Ben finished with 158 strikeouts in 1992, and his 227 innings pitched made him the third-most durable pitcher on the team that year. He was also the first pick in the 1989 draft, but I didn't need to be able to read Spanish to know that.

Next up in the series - my Leaf cards from the stack. There are some good looking cards, so stay tuned!