Cards from the Conroy household

I told the story last month of how posting a photoshop custom of Sean Conroy lead to an email exchange with his mom and how I was able to gift a few printouts of the fake card to Sean, and he was kind enough to sign and return 3 of them for me. But the story doesn't end there.

His mom asked if I could print out a few more copies of the card for her to give to friends and family during the holidays, and I was happy to oblige. She also told me my gesture inspired them to dig through her husband's old card collection and come up with a lot I might be interested in. We agreed to a fair price and now I've ended up with a few cards from the Conroy household, which I think is pretty cool. I know it isn't easy to part with cards you've had since the early 70s, and I really appreciate the kindness to offer them to me.

Let's take a look at the cards!

A couple nice HOFers in Killebrew and Jenkins.

Great lot of 71 stars. I think I had these in my setbuild already, but they're some nice upgrades, or failing that, PC additions. Not pictured, Earl Weaver.

And how about the two biggest name rookie cards in the set? Sweet! Never noticed the slightly similar poses on these two.

Closing it out with a few 72s. Despite the boyhood photo, I still don't believe Stargell was ever young; he was always "Pops" right? Likewise, Darrell Evans was middle-aged when he was born, I'm sure. Don't let this early photo where he's not wearing his glasses fool you. Same with Bobby Grich sans mustache.

A big thank you to the Conroy family for these cards!
Have a great weekend, everybody.

Another Netflix-inspired pickup (or two)

We watch a lot of Netflix at my house. My wife doesn't care much for documentaries, especially sports documentaries, so those are usually left for solo watching. I guess I'm suggestible in this solitary state, and often hit eBay while I'm watching and see if I can find a reasonably priced certified auto of the featured athlete(s).

Let's see, there was the two kids from Hoop Dreams a few months ago.

And after watching the Battered Bastards of Baseball, I picked up a Jim Bouton auto.

And most recently, I checked out No No: A Dockumentary about Dock Ellis. Very entertaining, highly recommended.

And yep, I set out searching for an auto. I was hoping for a nice shot of him in a Pirates uniform, since the best part of his career was with Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, it seems he's only got two readily available certified autos on the market, and both are from Yankee-centric sets put out by Upper Deck in 2003 and 2004. (Deja vu, as Jerry Coleman's two main certified autos are from the same sets. And like Dock, use the same photo both years. I got the Jerry from the same set (2004); I think it's a nicer design than the 2003 set.)

2004 Upper Deck NY Yankees Classics Dock Ellis Autograph #AU-14

Photo selection complaints aside, it's a pretty cool card, and a nice "memento" from that enjoyable film. I gotta admit I wasn't all that familiar with Dock, but now I might need to start a little PC.

Another Netflix-inspired mini-PC of mine is Buck O'Neil. I already had his 1962-style Fan Favorites auto among that tiny collection of cards, and I recently added another Buck auto...

It's impossible to watch any of Ken Burns' Baseball and not fall in love (manly speaking) with Buck O'Neil. It's streaming on Netflix, and while I've already watched through the whole thing a year or two ago, I'll still sometimes re-watch a bit of it if nothing else in my queue grabs me.

Buck O'Neil only has maybe a dozen different cards out there, so it's not a tough PC to "finish" assuming you don't worry about obscure oddballs and various modern cut-autos and the like. And this auto, featuring a happy photo from his days as a coach with the Cubs, is a great addition to my budding Buck PC.

Thanks for stopping by.