Want to be king of 1996-2003 minor league team-sets?

AUPT

One of the eight monster boxes that this minor league
team-set collection has been in for the past decade.

Who wants to be the king of 1996-2003 minor league team-setcards?

When I left Krause Publications in May, 2006, after more than 25 years as editor and publisher of Sports Collectors Digest, Baseball Cards magazine, Tuff Stuff, the Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, etc., I purchased approximately one million sports cards from the company warehouse.

I had long been a minor league baseball fan and collector (and team minority stock-owner), so when team-issued minor league baseball card sets began to boom in the mid-1990s, this niche received my special attention. I wanted to keep the catalog's listings comprehensive, so each year I contracted with one of the specialty minor league card dealers to provide us with one example of every team set issued each year.

Every year Allan Schoenberger, owner of Lake Country Minor League Prospects in Richwood, Minn., would scour the bushes, contacting every team, often several times a year, to buy quantities of their team-issued card sets. This was an enormously time-consuming quest and Allan was singularly successful at tracking down virtually every team set, every year. His diligence often resulted in bringing to the hobby late-season update sets, variations, etc.

Every couple of weeks throughout the summer and fall, I would receive a box from Allan with an example of each set that he had located. Sometimes there were surprises, as when previously unavailable sets from earlier years had turned up.

Over the period of the late 1990s and early 2000s, we spent easily $2,000 a year with Allan. Most years there were 200-225 team sets. As I recall, we paid anywhere from $8-50 for each set. It was worth it to me not to have to track down these sometimes elusive issues.

I personally cataloged each team set that we received. I would remove the set from its team-issued packaging, sort it either by card number or player name and send it to the data entry department to be keyed into the Standard Catalog data base.

I selected one card from each set to use as illustration. Sometimes I chose a card because it had a great photo that said "minor league baseball." Sometimes I chose a card because the player name -- Stubby Clapp, Lance Penix -- appealed to my puerile sense of humor, or because the player had the same last name as a childhood friend. I would have that card photographed and then, when data entry was complete, would return the card to the team set and seal it all up back into a team-set bag. Thus, these cards received minimal handling.

Now I'm going to give one collector or dealer the opportunity to profit from all of Allan's work and my company's investment.

I'm offering, as one lot, this entire inventory of minor league team sets. There are eight years' worth (1996-2003) of complete team-set runs. About 200-225 sets each year, about 25-30 cards per set. That's more than 1,700 sets and 45,000 cards.

Last winter I took the time to pore over each team set from 2001-2003, comparing what was in the team-set bag to the set's listing in the Standard Catalog. I created a spread sheet for each year listing for each team set the manufacturer, the number of cards in the set, any superstars in the set and, when available, the number of sets issued. If there was a card missing, that was noted. In about two percent of the sets, there was a "missing" card. The card may have been lost or unintentionally filed with a wrong set. It may never have been issued, or may never have been packaged with the set I received.

Here's the thing . . .

Poring over each set and creating those spreadsheets was very labor intensive and, damn it, I'm retired and don't want to work so hard.

So, I'm proposing to offer this massive minor league collection as-is at a hell of a bargain price.

Basically the hoard will be as-issued. Besides the aforementioned occasional missing card, there will be a relatively few cards with factory, packaging or storing mishandling -- bends, edge dings, corner creases, etc., though at least 98% of the cards are Near Mint/Mint.

Fellows, I'm trying to avoid more work here. I don't want to create spread sheets for the other years. If you're interested, I'll email you the spread sheets for 2001-2003; contact me at scbcguy@yahoo.com. If you want to get a nearly 100% accurate look at what you're buying, go to Lake Country's web site at http://www.lakecountryminors.com/ and look at his offerings of team sets, arranged by years.

Note also Allan's prices. His prices are based on what his years of experience as a minor league team-set specialist have told him about rarity and demand. You and I both know that most minor league team sets don't sell for much on eBay these days. That's usually because you only see on eBay the most common of the team sets. Too, those eBay prices reflect only the market in that snapshot in time that buyer and seller come together for a particular set. If you're a collector looking for a particular team set, you can either wait for if or when somebody offers it for sale, and hope to get it at a bargain price, or you can get it when you need it from a specialist dealer at a higher price. The really rare sets, and those with today's top stars in their pre-rookie days still command substantial premiums.

All that being said, if you're willing to let me slide a bit on the "cataloging" of this lot, and if you can live with an occasional missing or dinged card, you can make the deal of a lifetime.

I'm offering this single lot of minor league team sets -- about 1,700 sets and 45,000 cards -- that Krause Publications paid more than $16,000 for, for the postpaid price of $3,250. That price is for payment via check or money order only, no PayPal accepted. If you're interested, be the first to email me and you can become an instant minor league team-set mogul.