Burbank Sportscards or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Wonderful Kuntz

If you're like me, you've trashed the name of Burbank Sportscards in the past. They have a lot of cards, and especially a lot of rare cards, but they all seem to cost an arm and a leg, so you stay away.

Well I had trashed and I had stayed away...until I decided to bolster a few of my more obscure collections. And the only card site that had the 2 God Shammgod cards I needed was one Burbank Sportscards. So I took the plunge, and spent about $20 with shipping on a bunch of Shammgods, Kuntzs, and Wonderful Monds. Only to get an e-mail a few days later from them indicating that one of the Shammgods, a Fleer Tiffany, wasn't available.

UGGGHH! Why would I purchase cards from you if you don't have the rare one I need as part of the package?

BUT Burbank threw in a twist. They felt bad that the Shammgod wasn't there, and so they offered me the choice of any other card on their website, up to a certain price point. I picked one card that was 95 cents over that price point that I really wanted, and threw in a Casey Fossum jersey card as a backup. Surprisingly (for me anyways), they said they would send the more expensive card. And wow, am I so glad they did, because it looks beautiful, and has easily become one of my favorite cards in my entire collection:
That's be a 1996 Fleer Ultra Golden Prospects Hobby Gold Medallion #14, Wonderful Terrific Monds. The non Gold Medallion version is probably nice (I don't own it), but the Gold Medallion version is TRANSLUCENT, and GOLD! I now have a Wonderful Monds translucent card, a short printed Monds card, and a Monds auto. I'm pretty sure I can die a happy, happy man.

So immediately, with that one email and one card, Burbank had swung me to their side. I was already wavering as I purchased cards, as the prices weren't as bad, considering the rarity, as I thought, and the selection was damn good. But the Golden Monds sealed the deal. Do I wish their cards were cheaper? Oh hell yes, of course. But I won't avoid them like the plague any longer...instead I'll just buy from them sparingly, and when I've saved up to do so.

But anyways, enough about my new found appreciation for Burbank. On to the other cards, starting with the 3 Monds backs that discuss his name, a first for any Monds cards of mine:
You'll probably have to click the image to see it more close up, but these backs are cool. The left card explains the complete history of the Monds name. The middle, GOLDEN BEAUTY card calls Monds' name "arguably the best name in all of sports." And the SP Top Prospects card on the right not only includes the "Terrific" middle name of Monds, but also mentions that Monds "name draws second looks." I love that some of Monds' card backs acknowledge the awesome that is his name, rather than ignoring it or showing "statistics." So cool.


Of course, there were other Monds in the package, so many in fact that I am now have 20 of his 26 cards, with only 2 of the remaining cards available online. Here's the fronts of the SP and New Horizons from above, along with 2 parallels and an Ultra base card:


I also picked up some Kuntz in this purchase. He's less exciting than Monds in card backs (they mention when he was drafted or that he played 3 sports in high school...woo hoo!), but also a player collection I treasure dearly. I now have 17 of his 27 cards with this purchase:
Ah, to finally understand Tiffany. I mean a few months ago, the difference between the two cards in the middle row on the right wouldn't have made sense. But yay, now it does!


I also found an error on Rusty's 1985 Fleer card, which is cool:
It says Rusty "walked 25 times in only 142 at-bats in '83." It appears the card company added Rusty's Twins BB and White Sox SO totals, because 12 + 6 does not equal 25, far as I know.


Last but not least, the only Shammgod I got in the deal since the Tiffany was missing. That's fine though, since this Shammgod is amazing:
So shiny! But the back is obviously cooler:
The scan does it no justice, but "of 399 RAVE" is printed on with one kind of print, and then it looks like "138" was printed after. This is my second serial #'d Shammgod card (he has 6 total and none of the other 4 are online), and 16th of 22 overall (only 1 of which is actually online at this point). So I'm glad it looks awesome, because it's probably one of my last new Shammgod cards for a while unless a super collector somewhere sells off his master set!

Thanks again Burbank for the great cards - you've really swayed me. I never thought I'd say that, but 15 cards I need for a touch over $20 is fine when they're a) awesome and b) pretty rare in some instances. So I'm a pretty happy Mooss.