Topps Retired Triad: Refractorless Edition

Time now for another trio of Topps Retired pickups. Often when I do one of these "Triad" posts, it consists of 3 refractor autographs. But no rainbow shine this time-- heck, this first one isn't even an autograph, if you can believe that! lol

I generally haven't bothered going after the non-auto parallels of my beloved Topps Retired Signature Edition, such as the black borders from 2005. But if the price is right and they catch my eye-- like this nice color-matching Bo Jackson-- I might take a run at it.

Numbered 44/54 on the back. 

Though I hope to upgrade to a refractor someday, I went ahead and snagged this base Lou Brock auto from 2003 Retired recently.

While not serial-numbered, it has a print-run of 76 ("Group B"), so it doesn't pop up too often.

And now we close out with my first backdoored Retired card.

While Andy Van Slyke has a base card in 2005 Retired, he's absent from the (Chrome) autograph checklist. Turns out Andy didn't get around to returning the signed cards to Topps in time. In fact, looks like he never returned the cards to Topps, but has just this year begun occasionally sending them out in autograph-request returns to lucky fans. At least 3 or 4 of those have made it to eBay so far and I landed one for a decent price. (Glad I didn't jump at the first over-priced example to pop up.)

"Not valid without (hologram) sticker" keys you in to something being off. Validity aside, I think this is a damn cool addition to my Retired auto hoard.

Just the fact that I own this unreleased card gives me hope that maybe someday my dream Retired "ghost whales" could surface. I'm talking about the Kirby Puckett auto from 2003 and the Dick Allen auto from 2004 (listed on early checklists, but ultimately not packed out). You gotta think they exist, maybe in storage somewhere.. waiting to possibly see the light of day again someday. 
Hey, never say never... as Andy Van Slyke here can tell you.

vintage paper n' plastic

The great Lou Brock here was a nice one to knock off my slow-going 1964 Topps setbuild recently. Its PSA 4 grade ties for my highest in the set with Hank Aaron and Pete Rose (the only other graded card in my set is a 1.5 Koufax). The Brock is well centered and has a clean front, looking to be in pretty good shape for only being graded 4 out of 10.

The back isn't terrible, but somewhat justifies the score by being noticeably off-center to the left and having a dinged bottom left corner (that I feel could be improved by grazing the paper to the outside with your fingernail a little, but I guess that's on the person who submitted it for grading for not employing that age-old trick).
Anyways, this is Lou's last Topps card as a Cub, as Chicago foolishly traded him away in June of that year, to join St. Louis and the likes off...

Bob Gibson! Scored this raw '64 last week for single-digits shipped, which I thought was a pretty good deal, even though it's a bit miscut.

Brock and Gibson would bring home rings in '64 and '67 before meeting up in Cooperstown.

My '64 set is now at 71.48% complete with 168 cards left to go. I'll keep at it and hopefully put it to bed within the next 2 or 3 years.

But the vintage set that I consider my top priority is...

1957 Topps! Here's a "free card" I snagged the other day. eBay did a quick promotion where you could get $3 off anything over $3. I searched for '57 Topps cards in that price range and ultimately found this Bill Sarni need for $3.06 buy-it-now with free shipping. I used the $3-off discount code, plus I got 6¢ eBay Bucks (a.k.a. store credit rebate) to bring me back to neutral. I tend to stick to around a buck per common for my '57 set (at card shows or on COMC where shipping cost is less of a factor), but I "splurged" a little thanks to the promotion.

Reading up on him, Sarni had a heart attack during spring training of 1957 that ended his playing career, so this is a sunset card featuring complete career stats. He went onto coach for a little while then became a businessman.

My '57 Topps chase is neck-and-neck with my '64, currently at 71.46% complete with '57 (verses 71.48% for '64), though '57 has less cards left to go with only 119 (verses 168 for '64).

And the "plastic" mentioned in the post title wasn't just referring to the Lou Brock slab, but also this vintage baseball toy I picked up...

This is a Richie (Dick) Allen 1969 Transogram figure. I first became aware of these things because they originally came with a yellow card you could cut out from the back of the box, which was paid tribute to in 2018 Heritage (You remember those super-yellow Heritage inserts last year, right? Those things.). While "new in box" versions are out of my price range, I scored just the loose toy for under a blaster shipped. Still would like to score an accompanying card one of these days.

Normally I try to keep my player collections "cards only", but Allen is one of my top-tier guys (been a fan ever since I got a ball signed by him in-person as a kid in the early 90s), so I make an exception for him. (I also have a Dick Allen marble that Mark Hoyle gave me.) You can move the figure around at the neck, waste, and arms, but seeing as this is a 50-year old toy, I'll try not to fiddle with it too much lest I break it. But yeah, neat little item.

For scale, here's the figure along with another recent PC add-- the /99 black (or "charcoal" if you ask me) parallel from 2004 Topps Retired.

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

A few 1965 Topps caged beauties

I'm at the point where I'm gonna have to spend some decent money if I want to keep moving with my 1965 Topps setbuild. The cards I'm featuring today get me past the 90% complete mark, with most of what's left being big-name guys and high numbers. Since I have a soft goal of finishing the set by the end of the year, expect to see more 65s on the blog over these next 4+ months as I try to focus my card budget on picking off needs.

Four big pickups to show off today. Hobby purists be warned: they're all slabbed. I'm usually not big on graded cards, but if I'm going to shell out for vintage stars, I'll often pony up a little extra for graded copies just so I can be reasonably confident they're not counterfeit, plus it's nice to have added protection against damage. But I don't concern myself with the assigned grade as long as the card looks nice enough to my eye.

The great Bob Gibson. Gotta love this card. Between League Leader cards and World Series Highlights, he's in this set a few times.

And here's Gibson's teammate and fellow Hall of Famer, the speedy Lou Brock. It's his first Topps card as a Cardinal after coming over from the Cubs. This is a short print, from back in the days when those really came out of the printing process, not planned and artificially created.

I figured now would be a good time to go after some set-need Pete Rose cards, seeing as how he's been in the news for alleged nefarious activities (that don't have anything to do with gambling/money, for a change).

Not sure how much of an effect it's had on the value of his cards, but I think I got a good deal on this, just his 3rd Topps card. It's only graded a 2, but looks pretty damn good, unless you angle it in the light to reveal some minor creasing. (That's another reason for buying graded vintage: less chance of being surprised by flaws that might not show up in pictures.)

Last one for today, big Willie Mac! Such a nice looking card.

Got a few more (non-graded) '65 eBay wins on the way that I'll probably post about next week. Factoring those in, I'm down to 53 cards left.

1965 Topps Needs (as of 8/10/17):
3 AL 1964 Home Run Leaders - Harmon Killebrew / Boog Powell / Mantle
55 Tony Conigliaro - Boston Red Sox
120 Frank Robinson - Cincinnati Reds
130 Al Kaline - Detroit Tigers
134 World Series Game 3 - Mantle's Clutch HR
206 Willie Horton - Detroit Tigers
220 Billy Williams - Chicago Cubs
236 Denny McLain - Detroit Tigers RC
260 Don Drysdale - Los Angeles Dodgers
282 Giants Rookies - Dick Estelle / Masanori Murakami RC
308 Mets Rookies - Cleon Jones / Tom Parsons RC
310 Johnny Callison - Philadelphia Phillies
321 Rusty Staub - Houston Astros
329 Hawk Taylor - New York Mets RC
340 Tony Oliva - Minnesota Twins
349 Larry Miller - New York Mets RC
352 Alex Johnson - Philadelphia Phillies RC
353 Jerry Lumpe - Detroit Tigers
360 Orlando Cepeda - San Francisco Giants
369 Phil Linz - New York Yankees
378 Chuck Estrada - Baltimore Orioles
381 Al Jackson - New York Mets
384 Johnny Klippstein - Minnesota Twins
385 Carl Yastrzemski - Boston Red Sox
386 Cubs Rookies - Paul Jaeckel / Fred Norman RC
405 John Roseboro - Los Angeles Dodgers
440 Tom Tresh - New York Yankees
445 Don Lock - Washington Senators
455 Norm Siebern - Baltimore Orioles
462 Lew Krausse - Kansas City Athletics
470 Yogi Berra - New York Mets
474 Cookie Rojas - Philadelphia Phillies
475 Clete Boyer - New York Yankees
477 Cardinals Rookies - Fritz Ackley / Steve Carlton RC
487 Woody Woodward - Milwaukee Braves
495 Joe Christopher - New York Mets
500 Eddie Mathews - Milwaukee Braves
513 New York Yankees Team
519 Bob Uecker - St. Louis Cardinals
521 Phillies Rookies - Dave Bennett / Morrie Steevens RC
532 Hector Lopez - New York Yankees
533 Mets Rookies - Napoleon / Ron Swoboda / Bethke / Tug McGraw RC SP
545 Jesus Alou - San Francisco Giants SP
550 Mel Stottlemyre - New York Yankees RC SP
554 Chico Ruiz - Cincinnati Reds SP
566 Yankees Rookies - Gil Blanco / Art Lopez / Moschitto RC
572 Baltimore Orioles Team SP
573 Red Sox Rookies - Lonborg / Moses / Mike Ryan / Schlesinger RC SP
579 Dick Smith - Los Angeles Dodgers SP
582 Bob Schmidt - New York Yankees SP
592 Frank Bork - Pittsburgh Pirates RC SP
593 Tigers Rookies - Jackie Moore / John Sullivan RC SP
597 Twins Rookies - Joe Nossek / Dick Reese / John Sevcik RC

If you've got any of these available to maybe work out a trade, please let me know and I'll do my best to make you a solid return offer for consideration.

Thanks for reading!

Card Show Vintage Blaster

Solid card show haul today. Biggest purchase was 120 cards from the 20¢ bins. Another was 7 cards for $5 (which were all #'d and/or auto'd football cards bought for trading buddies of mine), and then 20 $1 cards.. and it's this last purchase I'll be showing off here today. While some of the cards might not have been awesome deals (I sorta had to struggle to come up to an even 20, but the old guy seemed nice and I didn't want to make him make change), but still a nice showing of cards for the retail price of a blaster. The guy had a bunch of overproduction era stuff, but I did my best to sniff out the vintage.

Beat to hell or not, I don't think I could pass up a 1952 Topps card for a buck, so this creased Cliff Mapes was a no-brainer. Looking him up... His career wasn't super impressive, but he did get a couple rings as a backup outfielder on the Yankees. He's also known for being the last guy to wear Babe Ruth's number 3 before it was retired, plus he wore number 7 right before Mickey Mantle.

I actually already had these 5 cards. I think the Sparky is an upgrade over what I had in the PC (Love this card because it's the closest to a Padres card he ever got after being a coach with them in '69). The '71 Lou Brock is in pretty decent shape, and it's a semi high number, so generally not a cheap card, so I added it to my stack even though I've already got one in my set, plus I'm pretty sure another one in the Brock PC (this one might be an upgrade?), so I guess it's trade bait. The same could be said about the '71 Dick Allen, though it's in rough shape with a couple major creases. But yeah, I love that card, even with the photographer's knee in the shot. One of my prized possessions is the original match print photo for the back photo from Topps Vault. The Dwight Evans RC would have been a screaming deal for a buck but a kid named Russ wrote his name on the back. But hey, good enough to add to my Dewey PC. And the Davey Lopes RC looked too nice not to pass up.. might be an upgrade for my set.

A couple set needs. I had the Red Sox team card marked as "pending" on my list, but I didn't bother to check it until I got home. Oh well, if I end up with a dupe, I'm sure someone would give it a good home. The 1964 Leon Wagner isn't in great shape, but it's a tricky high number, so I figured it was worth the buck even with a crease that seems to be threatening Leon.

When I was finishing up my 1973 Topps set a couple years ago, these blue team checklists were deceptively tricky to complete and I had to settle for many of them marked up on the back. So when I saw all these unmarked beauties, I had to grab them up to upgrade.

The '68 Strikeout Leaders is cool in that it's all HOFers, though the surface is pretty worn. It'll go toward my Gaylord Perry PC if it's not already there (or if it is, then to the Fergie Jenkins PC). Tommy John is a guy I'm always on the cusp of collecting, but never really commit too. Looked like a nice '66, though.

This last card I don't care about at all, just threw it in for the case. I'll find something fancy to imprison in there.

So there you go, my "vintage blaster" from the card show.
More from my card show haul on the way soon.
Thanks for stopping by.

2016 Stadium Club hobby box (with case hit!)

The other day my lovely wife randomly sent me a link for an eBay discount code that was expiring within the hour. I searched around for a wanted card or card lot over the minimum dollar amount so I could take advantage of it. At first I couldn't find anything good that fit in that price range, but then I searched for hobby boxes, and when 2016 SC popped up, that worked for me so I pulled the trigger. The coupon code brought my cost down to a tick below the trending price, so I was happy with that.

Let's check out what the box had in store for me...

Starting out with some inserts, I think this is the first time I'd ever been able to piece together a couple of those Triumvirate die-cuts, so that was kinda cool. I think the "Luminous" cards are supposed to only be one per box, so guess I got lucky pulling a second one.

I kept seeing the back of the inserts as I was opening the packs, seeing names like Trout and Kershaw and getting excited for a second thinking "Maybe this is one of my 2 promised autos!" But nope, I'd flip them over and realize they were just regular inserts.

Here're some base cards of current superstars.

And some of this year's hot rookies.

Here are the parallels I got. The Rondon is black, while the rest are gold. I was happy to pull the Giancarlo, though the rest are available for trade.

Here are some retired stars I grew up watching.

And some guys from before my time. Lou Brock tragically got boring cards most of his playing career, usually just standing around, so it's nice to see an exciting photo of him on a card for once.

A few more active guys I collect. Per usual, Stadium Club delivers with some great photos.

My autos didn't really knock my socks off, gotta say. Rob Refsnyder and Kevin Plawecki. I've already pulled autos of both these guys from Panini products within the past year, so I had some "Not him again?!" feelings. Both are decent young players (and hey New York teams so big fanbase) though definitely not among the better names on the auto checklist to hope for. As I pulled the second auto (Plawecki) from the dwindling packs, I began to worry the box was a bit of a bust for me (I know, I know.. Stadium Club isn't about the hits). But that feeling only lasted a brief moment because the very next card in that pack was this case hit:

Boom! Coverboy Carlos Correa Members Only parallel! Again, these Members Only parallels are one per case. To pull a big name such as the reigning AL ROY is quite lucky on my part. These aren't serial numbered unfortunately, but we're talking about a print run in single digits. If I wanted to sell it, it's reasonable to think I might be able to fully recoup the cost of the box with this one card, or at least get close. There don't seem to be any on eBay yet, either in current or completed listings, so it's hard to say. But I like the idea of having a good card of Correa, so I plan to hang onto it.

So yeah, thanks in large part to the Members Only hit, this turned out to be a pretty sweet box for me.
Thanks for stopping by and checking it out! I'll have plenty of base cards to trade for you guys working on the set.

P.S. Don't forget it's Pull Tab Awareness Week! I've got a little contest going n' everything, if you missed it yesterday.

Pairs of serial numbered cards

Time for more of my haul from the card show. To refresh your memory, I picked up 120 cards for a quarter each. After such a big haul, I often grapple with how I should work the cards into a blog post.. trying to find a theme, or separating the cards into groups or whatnot.

This post features a few guys I collect, each represented by a pair of serial numbered cards. Um, perhaps we could make this more interesting by trying to declare a winner between each match up. Yeah, let's give that a shot. 

Ernie Banks 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game 292/500 vs. 2002 Donruss Classics 521/1500. Gotta go with the left here. The powder blue border is nice, plus it's 3 times as rare as the other card.

Eddie Murray 2011 Topps Marquee 109/199 vs 2011 Tier One 597/799. Hmm.. both cool cards. Guess I'll have to give the win to the Marquee thanks to the scarcity.

Al Kaline 2013 Triple Threads 321/650 vs 2011 Gypsy Queen 188/999. GQ has the cool gold border, and nice to see the stadium background, but ultimately it's a boring, awkward pose. The TT card has got the action. Hate to seem like I'm awarding the win to the lowest numbered card every time, but yeah, Triple Threads wins this one.

Johnny Bench 2011 Tier One 390/799 vs 2011 Triple Threads 1196/1500. Here we go with an underdog win. The red border of the Triple Threads card beautifully frames the photo.

Jake Peavy 2005 SP Collection 228/299 vs 2010 National Chicle 293/499. We're taking a break from the HOFers for a former Padre standout I kinda still collect even though I should probably call the PC good at this point. Gotta go with the Chicle here. That set is hit-or-miss with the artistic renderings looking either kinda cool or pretty dumb, but this is a good one. Nice refractor shine to it.

Adrian Gonzalez 2011 Tier One 784/799 vs 2013 Triple Threads 209/650. Like Peavy, a dude I collect thanks to his days in San Diego though I'm trying to stop, but hey, a cheap, numbered card is hard to pass up. I think I'd give a slight edge to the Tier One card here.

Randy Johnson 2005 Donruss Classics 189/800 vs 2014 Triple Threads 274/325. Let's give this one to the TT.

2002 Gold Label 210/500 vs 2014 Museum Collection 18/199. The Museum Collection card looks good, but it's hard to go against Gold Label.. always a great looking set.

Lou Brock 2005 Playoff Absolute 12/150 vs 2010 Triple Threads 387/525. Our final bout, this one is not even close. The Playoff card has the lower number, but it's obviously a naked card designed for an auto or at least a relic. TKO for the TT card here.

So there you go, a pair of numbered cards for a bunch of Hall of Fame guys plus a couple former Padres crashing the party.

Thanks for reading!

. . .

Oh, now that April is over, let's check out the handwritten post contest entries. There were a dozen people who made such a post and commented on the entry post with the URL to it.

Tony Burbs

Tony L.

Robert

Mike Matson

Sport Card Collectors

Angus

Billy Kingsley

The Chop Keeper

JediJeff

John Miller

The Junior Junkie

Matt Stupienski

I know there were a few others who did handwritten posts but didn't officially get in on the contest due to not posting the link in the comments. But rules is rules. I did kinda bend the rules a little for JediJeff and his punch card post, but it was in the spirit of the contest, so I let it count.

Did you guys see a spike in hits on your handwritten posts? The one I did is easily my most popular post of 2016 so far, with nearly 900 views! I hope bloggers had fun with the concept and maybe even do another handwritten post once in a while for the heck of it, even without the incentive of a contest.

Ok, so let's assign numbers (not pick a winner) to the entrants..

Let's say the winning number is the total number of runs scored in this afternoon's Padres vs. Dodgers game (5/1/16). Anything over 12 loops around (so, 13 = Tony L). The game has already started as I type this (no score in the 1st inning), so I'd better get this post live ASAP. Good luck to all participants!

UPDATE: Kershaw pitched a shutout and drove in the game's only run to beat San Diego 1-0. So Tony L. stands as the winner. Congrats, Tony!