Card Show Quarterboxing from the 70s

The recap from my vintage-heavy haul from this past weekend's card show continues into the 70s now. I'm not in a big hurry, but I'd like to eventually finish a run of Topps flagship spanning the entire decade, so there are plenty of cards for me to pick up. While 25¢ per card is a decent price, I am hoping to get most of the commons knocked out through trades rather than purchases, plus I didn't want to take the time away from digging to check my lists to see if I needed each card, so I pretty much stuck to cards that caught my eye, either with a well-known player or neat photo or whatever. And some of these cards I've already got, but figured I'd build up my tradable vintage cache a little, not to mention possibly upgrade here and there.

Took me a while to warm to 1970 Topps with its blah design, but with photos featuring bat racks, big all-star rookie trophies, and bat carts plus big all-star rookie trophies... you kinda gotta love it.

Another thing '70 Topps has going for it: Pilots! Here, you can see the contrast between their regular season uniforms (left) and the simpler spring training uniforms.

 Accidentally grabbed a couple Tiants. And I already have at least a couple copies of that Hoyt, but couldn't pass it up.

Curt Flood famously never played for the Phillies, going to court over the trade and starting the fight for free agency in baseball.

Rounding out 1970 with some HOFers. Would like to upgrade Red with a better centered copy someday. Bunning is in good shape. Santo has a crease in the upper right, but it's a high number that books for $10+ according to TCDB, so it was still a solid buy for a quarter.

Moving onto 1971.. I've already finished this set, but I've got plenty of beaters in there I'd like to upgrade. I didn't refer to my list, just guessed. I guessed right with Willie Horton, as my old copy had rounded corners. I was already good with Jim Northrup, though. There are 3 variations of this card: no splotch on right, gray splotch on right, and (not shown here) black splotch on right. Some checklists might group both splotches together as one error, but there are definitely two distinct variations if you ask me. The splotch version goes for $7+ according to COMC. Both up for trade.

Sanguillen is a nice looking card. Is he filling out the lineup card or signing an autograph? Maybe it's his contract extension with Topps.. that'd be funny to have as the picture on a card.
Matty Alou is a high number.

A few horizontal cards to close out 1971 Topps.

Found one Kellogg's card in the quarterbox: Cesar Tovar from 1971.

Four Hall of Famers for my '72 Topps setbuild.

Some more '72s. Unmarked vintage checklists are always a good buy for a quarter.

1973 Topps is another set I've completed, but grabbed a few cards hoping they might be upgrades. I remember team cards were often tricky to find in good shape when I was building my set, so added these 4 to my stack. Turns out only the Red Sox needed to be upgraded, though.

And 3 more I didn't need to upgrade, it turns out. :( There are two Bench/Allen LL cards in the set: HR leaders and RBI leaders. I can never remember which one I need up upgrade. It's RBI leaders. Seems like I'm always coming across the HR leaders card but never RBI leaders.. so frustrating! I've got like a page's worth of that damn HR leaders card at this point, yet still only one RBI leaders card and it has an ugly printing flaw on it.

I didn't snag much from the mid 70s. Didn't need the '74 but might need it for the Brock PC. The Dodgers card was an upgrade. Gaylord has a crease, and it's OPC, so it'll go into the PC, not the setbuild.

And these last few close out my 70s pickups. I already have the KC Killebrew (in both my set and PC of Killer), but no way I'm passing up that legendary short-term stop sunset card for a quarter. I'll check if it's an upgrade for either, but otherwise up for trade.

That wraps up the vintage portion of my card show haul. I'll likely get another post out soon with the modern cards I got, though digging through the cache of cheap vintage was easily the highlight of the show for me.

Remembering my best Listia scores

I was just thinking of Listia the other day when reminiscing about my return to the hobby. I didn't have much disposable income at the time, so instead of spending real money on cards, I pretty much stuck to earning credits on Listia to turn into cardboard. I eventually got a decent job, allowing me to spend actual money on cards, and turned to eBay and the like, leaving the inflation and frustration of Listia behind.

But I logged in for the first time in almost a couple years to take a look. The last item I bought (a Tony Gwynn magnet) was Feb 24, 2016 . The last items I sold were an auto of former all-star (and currently detained drug trafficker) Esteban Loaiza on Sep 21, 2015, and my last hurrah, a couple Vin Scully customs on Apr 3, 2016. (I don't sell customs anymore.)

Digging into my purchase history, I found a few highlights to share and thought I'd get a blog post out of it.

I already posted about this Gaylord Perry 1966 Topps high-number years back, but it's still one of my all-time greatest auction wins. I have no idea what's the current exchange rate of credits (Listia is switching from "credits" to a new form of cryptocurrency now), but I'm sure 11,161 isn't much more than a couple bucks now. I don't think I've ever obsessed over winning a card more than this. It would be the first thing I thought about when I woke up! "Gotta win it! Gotta win it!" These days I'll just set a snipe and put it out of my mind.

This McGriff is a cool one because it's my first time dealing with a card blogger, back before I started my own blog. Spastikmooss of The Great Sports Name Hall of Fame blog and I have since done a handful of trades, and while this Listia transaction doesn't quite count as a trade, feels like this was an early cardsphere encounter, and as the comments show, I got him to combine a couple separate card auctions into one listing at a good price. Still a highlight of my Crime Dog PC.

This Rickey Henderson rookie was a steal at only 2000 credits. Almost feel bad for the seller, but hey, that was the "Get It Now" asking price they set. A poor listing title (just "baseball cards") and the main photo being the card back must have limited the number of views it got. I think it originally didn't have any pictures, which is why my comment there asks for some to be added, just to confirm it was legit. I chalk this one up to karma... Back when I was a kid first getting into baseball cards, I stupidly sold a Rickey rookie (I had no idea what I had) to a popular kid for some pocket change and it haunted me for a long time. So scoring this one so cheap felt like the cardboard gods making things right. (Talked more about this in a big post years back.)

So there are 3 memorable Listia pickups from the past. Good times, though I have no desire to get back into that site.
Thanks for stopping by!

Blurring the lines between contest winnings and trades

I seem to have settled on a weekly trade roundup post every Tuesday or Wednesday. Maybe Monday would make more sense, but I typically fall behind with blog reading over the weekend and then end up spending my free time Monday trying to catch up, so often I'm unable to get a post of my own off on Mondays.

Let's get going with this week's roundup...
It was just about three weeks ago that I showed off some cards sent to me from Jeff Jones (with the Jedd Gyroko auto Christmas Card being the big highlight). I figured Jeff was just starting up another blind trade, and so I scrounged up a return bunch of Braves soon thereafter. But then I realized that what Jeff sent was actually my prize for being a winner in his Super Bowl contest. So I had actually begun a new trade circuit rather than completed an old one. Rather than simply accept the cards I sent as a "thanks for the contest" gift (which would have been completely fine), Jeff was quick to shoot another batch of cards my way. Nice guy!

Check out this great lot of 1979 Kellogg's! A bunch of guys I collect in there.

Colin Rea made the club after a solid spring training, but that's all I really feel like saying about the Padres right now. I caught an inning or so of their opener against the Dodgers and it was painful. Looks like it's gonna be a long, depressing season for San Diego fans. Again.

Also included here is another 2011 Topps parallel for my frankenset, an awesome minor league Giancarlo, and BOOM a Gavin Escobar auto #'d /299, plus it pictures him in a SDSU Aztecs uniform with logos left intact.. nice!

Thanks again, Jeff!

-    -    - - - - -- ---o

Next up..
Fuji was a lucky winner in my big 700th Post contest a while back. He was so happy with the prize package, that he decided to surprise me with a mailing of cards to say thanks. That's some cardsphere generosity, right there! He obviously didn't have to do that, but I'm not one to turn down cards.

This quartet of autos kicks off the package with a bang. Love the Kevin Kouzmanoff auto. His might be my most impressive passive PC, meaning I've accumulated a pretty sweet Kooz collection without really trying.
Mark Loretta is another Padres fan favorite guy.
I had to look him up, but Walker Weickel is a big right-hander the Padres drafted out of high school in 2012 (55th overall) who has been creeping his way up through the minor leagues with mixed success.
And of course, a Fuji auto, this one in the style of 2015 Topps. These are always cool to get, though I must admit it's a dupe for me. Would it be weird to send out another blogger's personal card in a trade package? LOL. Maybe eBay?

Here we've got a couple neat dufex cards, a Target parallel, and a Gwynn diecut.

And some more Gwynns and other Padres of the past and present. That's a cool looking McGriff I don't think I had yet.

Great stuff. Thanks again, Fuji!

-    -    - - - - -- ---o

Here's a funny one. I recently won a contest from Sport Card Collectors (remember the Game of Thrones Hobbit 1/1 art card).. well, soon after that, SCC surprised me with a "thanks for winning my contest" bonus PWE! Ha, ok, maybe that wasn't the purpose of it, but that's what it felt like. Maybe it was a consolation prize because I came in 2nd in his subsequent contest. Can you imagine if I won two of his contests back-to-back in such a short time span? He might have to lay a lifetime ban on me! Haha, no, what kind of prick would do something like that?

This tight 4-card blast featured a gold theme to it, with 3 gold parallels, plus a red one. I think the Wil Myers is my favorite here, though the Headley #'d /199 is pretty sweet.

Very cool.. thanks, SCC! I'll drop a few Yankees and/or NY Giants your way soon.

-    -    - - - - -- ---o

Finally for today..
This one doesn't have anything to do with a contest. A Darryl Strawberry supercollector named Eric found out about the Darryl cards included in my Simpsons custom set and he got in touch to inquire if I had any other Strawberry customs kicking around he might be able to procure. It turns out I did have a spare magnet card from a while back. Eric was down for that, and we quickly agreed on an easy trade.

Some top guys I collect here, with most of these being needs for me.. Gaylord Perry, Dick Williams, Dwight Evans, and Bill Madlock.

So many Julio Franco cards! I must have cracked 100 different cards by this point. I need to sort out all I got and weed out dupes.

And we close with the main card of the trade.. the elusive 1984 Donruss Tony Gwynn. This may have been the final card I was missing from Tony's mainstream/flagship runs. I need to do another big sort to check what I'm missing (yeah, I'm definitely not one of those guys who keeps good records of his collection), though I think now I've got all the main base cards from his career. That's a quite a milestone for me, though probably something I should have accomplished long ago seeing as Tony's my all-time favorite player.

Thanks again, Eric!

trade roundup and the 2nd chance prize winner announced

Let's recap the trade packages that've come in over the past week or so, then we'll figure out the other winner in my big 700th Post contest.

Judson from My Cardboard Habit is a good guy. He recently busted some 2016 Topps and lamented pulling a Marlins hit that no one on the cardsphere would be interested in. Gavin to the rescue! I'm always happy to trade for Giancarlo Stanton cards I don't have.

This beaut of a manurelic pairs nicely with the similar Kris Bryant I got from the group break I was in recently.

Judson threw in a couple additional cards. I had asked for the green Yeison Asencio, since it would pair nicely with the gold auto I have of that card (I hope 2016 is the year Asencio breaks out and gets called up. Last season he hit over .300 and led the AA San Antonio Missions in hits and RBI, but at 26 years old, it's time for him to step up), but the Giancarlo #/50 was a very pleasant surprise. Thanks, Judson! I hope those those 1969 Topps I sent were useful and best of luck to you with your setbuild. Any of you guys with some available '69s should get in touch with Judson about a trade.

-   -   --  ---o

Next up is Pirates fan Nolan, who doesn't have a blog, as far as I recall, but I traded with him once a year or two ago. Speaking of Marlins, he recently got in touch with me to graciously take the box of unwanted Marlins I was trying to clear out of my house. He was also interested in getting some custom-made customs made by me. They came out pretty nicely and I plan to feature them in a separate post soon, with his blessing. But in addition to a few bucks for the project, Nolan was cool enough to send me this item as a thank-you:

A Gaylord Perry autograph on a page of a 1976 baseball almanac type thing. Sweet! I haven't decided if I'll keep it as-is, or use it for a custom cut-auto. It's kind of big, so I'll probably leave it for now.
Thanks again, Nolan!

-   -   --  ---o

Next up, Jon from the cleverly named blog A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts got in touch, also interested in some customs I had whipped up. He called dibs on the extra Hrabosky TTM success I had available, and was also hoping for an unsigned Alan Young custom of mine to try a TTM with himself. In return, he sent me a nice, stuffed PWE full of good stuff.

Three cards for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset. And good ones, at that! Clayton Kershaw. The Willinghammer. A sparkly Jose Guillen sunset card.

I'm not including Lineage in my setbuilding dreams, but am never against a random shiny card popping up in a trade package. And I love that Kellogg's McCovey! Seems like a long time since I last got a vintage McCovey I needed. Definitely a nice addition to the PC.

A double dose of horizontal cardboard with a glow-in-the-dark Smoltz and a Mickey Mantle oddball.

Here's Smoltzy glowing a little, lest you think it was one of those darn non-glowing parallels that look nearly identical in the light..

Is this the first Adventure Time card in my collection? I think it might be. Maybe the second. It seems to be a shiny insert too. Pretty cool. Great show.

A couple appreciated needs for my 1971 Topps setbuild. My progress has been slowed in recent month as I haven't been actively chasing down the remaining cards, but I'm slowly getting there.. 169 more of these black-bordered beauties left to go.

I don't recall seeing these 1983 Topps stickers before, though I'm familiar with the blue-bordered 1982 versions thanks to ripping a few packs of '82 Topps back in the day. Nobody I particularly collect in this lot, but that early 80s Padres uniform is my all-time favorite, so it's nice to see proudly displayed here.

Big thanks for the trade, Jon!

-   -   --  ---o

That wraps up the trade recap. Now let's do the 2nd chance drawing from my latest contest.

Here's the alphabetical list of brave folks kind enough to pimp my 700th Post contest:

Andy Stetson*
Billy Kingsley*
Bo*
Corky*
cynicalbuddha*
Greg Zakwin*
John Miller*
Jon*
Jupiterhill*
Kevin P.*
Mark Aubrey*
Mike Matson*
Sport Card Collectors*
Stealing Home*
Stephen Radford*
Tim B.*
Wilson*

And let's randomize once for a winner:

Wouldn't you know it, the first guy alphabetically also ended up first randomly. Congrats, Mr. Stetson! Email me with your address n' stuff.
Andy seems to be a new guy on the scene, among the Cub fan ranks.

Thanks again to all who entered! Hopefully I'll get a few more contests happening during this upcoming season. Don't forget to comment on my blog once in a while if you want to be eligible for the full prize packages that will be available.

Thanks for reading and see you next time.

Cards for Christmas

As a kid, I remember getting stuff like a factory set of '90 Score for Christmas, but I had never gotten cards for Christmas since returning to the hobby as an adult. This year, I couldn't think of much to ask for for Christmas (/my birthday, which is right around the same time). So much of the ideas on my wishlist were hobby boxes.

Very excited to rip into these boxes! Stay tuned for posts on them over the next week or so.

I was lucky enough to get some cards in the mail from trade buddies this past week, and I'll show them off now.

First up is a 2-card slam from Matthew from Bob Walk The Plank. It's always nice to get a package of cards in the mail, but when it's Matt, you get extra excited because you know he brings the hits.

Sah-weeeeet! A couple months ago, I took matters into my own hands to create a Padres Dave Winfield auto, but now I've got a legit such card. Thanks, Matt! Awesome card.

And along with the Winfield was another badass San Diego auto, this very nice on-card Gaylord Perry Cooperstown autograph. This is a great addition to the PC. Big thanks again, Matt! I've still got that printing plate with your name on it. It felt wrong to send a plate in a PWE, so I left it out of my recent mailing to you, but I'll send it along soon enough.

Next up is P-Town Tom from Waiting Till Next Year (No, Seriously 2016 Is The Year) who also dropped a heck of a card package on me.

When I first saw this card out of the package, there was some blue tape over the bottom and I thought, "Ah, cool new McCovey card for me.. oh wow, this is thick! Like strangely thick for a regular card." Then I removed the tape to reveal the lovely vintage jersey swatch and was very happy!

Tom kept the Willie love going with this snazzy diecut Stargell #'d /1979. With generous Pirates traders out there such as the aforementioned Matthew Scott sucking up the cardsphere's Buccos, it always feels a little extra special when a Pirate hit finds its way into a package for me. Very appreciated!

Tom rounded out the package with a terrific assortment of 2011 Topps parallels for my frankenset-type-thing. Thanks, Tom!!

And Mark Hoyle got into the holidaytime mailings with a team set of 1979 Burger King Yankees.

A bunch of guys I collect in there. Thanks, Mark!

And here's a late addition that I haven't even had the chance to really rip into yet. Courtesy of.. well, I'm not sure what to call him.. CC, Chaos, Twitch.. one of his blogs is here. Good guy, Cubs fan, artist. Looks like there's a sketch card and a Pete Rose auto.. nice! Look for this package to be featured on the blog at a later date.

Big thanks to Matt, Tom, Mark, and CC for the cards!
Merry Christmas to one and all!

Dimebox Nick drops a psychedelic PWE

Hey, second post in a row recapping a nice PWE from a Cubs fan. Yesterday it was P-town Tom, and today it's Dimebox Nick.

This is not a blurry photo on my part! Nick sent some help with a new minicollection I'm trying to get off the ground: The Drunk Binder (tentative title. If that doesn't stick, maybe LSD Binder? Trippy Binder? Or hey, howbout the Bender Binder!? I like the sound of that one.) The idea is to have a binder full of nothing but trippy misprints.. not miscuts / off-center cards, but rather cards like this that seem to be drunk and/or high thanks to the printing plates not being properly aligned or whatever. If anybody has any more blurry/trippy cards like this available, I'm your guy. (Wait, one more potential name: The Tripping Balls Binder. Get it? LOL, I might have to go with that one. Or how's this for the official binder title: Tripping Balls: The Bender Binder. It is decided! I may go ahead and add more psychedelic cards to it too, like particularly hypnotic inserts and extra weird miscuts like that Kevin Appear from a few days ago.)

Here are some great Padres cards from carefree days of yore. Not to bring everyone down, but Eric Show (rhymes with "How") was apparently a bit of troubled nut who died young from drug abuse. And to ruin another fine card.. Fred McGriff's son (I'm assuming he's the toddler on the card) would-- years later as a young man-- get into legal hot water for leaving his dog in a car on a hot day with the windows rolled up. If you're scoring at home, that's a dog crime by the son of the Crime Dog. And to top it off, Rickey was picked off third moments after that photo of him was taken (ok, I just made that last one up.)

Here's a nice refractory Jake Peavy card I haven't seen before.

Here're a couple outstanding cards that my eyes lit up to find in the envelope. That minor league issue is my oldest Caminiti now. And love the Seals throwback on Rod Beck.

Legends! All appreciated PC additions.

Here's a cool Giancarlo.

And of course some Hoyt! Nick is the cardosphere's foremost Hoyt-head, and I'm lucky enough to occasionally get his dupes. Very appreciated!

Thanks again, Nick! I'll be dropping some cards your way very soon.