a vintage advantage

Expect to see plenty of vintage on this blog in 2021 as my interest in current cards continues to wane (I don't plan to attempt ripping much if any current product this year). I've revived my goal of completing a page of each vintage Topps baseball set, and I've been filling out my new vintage (non-flagship) frankenset. Plus I've also got a few vintage setbuilds in varying stages of advancement, and sometimes I just pick up random singles for PCs or whatever. Such as...

Check it out! I hadn't picked up a playing-days Clemente in a while, and when I saw this '62 Post with a low opening bid, I took a run at it. The first four cards in this post were from the same seller, taking advantage of combined shipping. Not in perfect condition, but just right for my collection.

Clean back, too.

And here's a '61 Post Willie Mays. I threw bids on a handful of cards from the seller and this was another that I ended up with after the dust settled. Again, not in mint condition, but considering the fair price, works just fine for me. Helps kick up my little PC of the Say Hey Kid.

Some light pencil marks on the back that I've resisted the urge to try taking an eraser to.

I also snagged this '60 for my Minnie Minoso collection.

Looks good.

Here's the main card I was after from the seller. Bobby Richardson was one of the few notable rookie cards missing from my 1957 Topps setbuild. Took me a while to find one that looked ok in the price range I was hoping for, but I'm happy with this one.

Just barely makes it out of my personal "upgrade needed" threshold. It's from the toughest series of '57, so you can't be too choosy unless you really want to pay up.

Here are a couple more rookie cards of All-Stars that I needed for my set. Chris the Collector surprised me with this pair recently.

Thanks again, Chris! Very much appreciated!

About half my recent Sportlots box order was vintage cards, including a couple more '57 needs plus Don Larsen for my '64 build. It's been slow going, but I'm nearing 80% complete with both. Doubt I'll complete either this year.. maybe in 2022.

A more realistic goal for me this year would be to finish off at least one of the 70s sets I've got in the works. Thanks to these from Sportlots, I now have only 29 cards left on my 1974 wantlist, though the remaining cards are pretty much all HOFers and "Washington" Padres variations (the latter of which I've been considering cutting bait on). The Red Sox checklist finishes all of those red-bordered inserts for me, though I'd like to upgrade many of them from marked on the back to unmarked.

My 1978 build is a bit further out, with 131 cards still remaining after checking in these four. As always, please check out my wantlists and get in touch if you think you might be able to help me out with anything in trade. Thanks

Over the hump with 1957 Topps

After sorting out my incoming COMC order, the tallest stack was '57s. I've been hitting the set hard this year and was hoping this haul could help me hit the halfway-complete milestone.

The biggest name in the lot was should-be HOFer Minnie Minoso. It's in nice enough shape to where I won't likely worry about trying to upgrade it (but you never know; I wouldn't mind a dupe for the PC). Got it during the recent sales event for just $1.90, which I thought was a pretty solid deal.

Sweet back, too.

Some other familiar names included baseball family patriarchs Tito Francona and Ray Boone.

Happy to say I'm now at 51.32% complete with the set. Above are some more new additions via COMC worthy of taking a closer look at, including a blurry Foster Castleman (I picked up many cheap off-condition commons that I may try to upgrade down the line). Nice flag shot in the middle there.

Speaking of the flag, I had a nice 4th of July. Caught my first ballgame of 2018, attending the early game of a Portland Pickles twinbill. There're a wooden bat collegiate summer league team. I think we've seen them 3 times before, and they were undefeated in those 3 games, but sadly our perfect winning streak was stopped this time, with the home team losing 3-2. Still a good game with some exciting plays and a couple dingers (both Pickle runs were via solo shots).

We met up with some friends and had a good time, but it was hot and even though there was some cloud cover (making a ring around the sun), I got a little sunburned. Still upset with myself about that. Should have been better about sunscreen.

Anyways, July 5th is Rich Gossage's birthday. I planned ahead and made an animated card of him the night before.

I've picked up like 60+ new Twitter followers in the past week thanks to the attention my Mark Fidrych gif got, so now I kinda feel pressure to keep delivering quality content. I'm hoping to hit 1k followers one of these days. (Honestly, I just want to get to the point to where I'll get at least one like on any tweet, no matter how dumb and pointless it may be. lol)

Thanks for reading!

10 Years and a PWE

This lovely lady has been putting up with my shit for a solid decade now, if you can believe that! I'm a lucky fella to have her in my life.

(Just a photo thing I whipped up for Facebook.. figured I'd throw it on the blog too since it turned out kinda nice.)

Speaking of longevity, howbout Minnie Miñoso, huh?

First MLB at-bat 4/19/1949, last MLB at-bat 10/5/1980. And Mike Scioscia has been in the game a damn long time too, debuting in 1980 and still at it today as the Angels manager. I'm sure he and Minnie have got a century in the game between them, all told.

These cards all come from Chris the Collector, via our first trade, a swap of PWEs.

Some current guys on retro designs. Fine looking cards, these.

A couple 2016 Bunt cards.

Lastly.. Rod Beck, a card for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset, and a Corey Seager insert.

Great bunch of cards! Big thanks, Chris. I hope this trade is our first of many, and we're still swapping cards a decade from now.

Cards from the Big Folder

Here're some recent pickups I haven't gotten around to posting about yet, soundtracked by the songs of Tears For Fears.

"Everybody Loves a Happy Ending"

For Padres fans, a happy ending to the 2017 season would be to capture a NL ROY award. They've got a few young guys getting an opportunity to play, so who knows. Last I checked, Manuel Margot was leading rookies in several offensive categories, so fingers crossed he keeps it up. I was very happy to land this Christmas Card auto off eBay a month or two ago for a good price.

"Laid So Low"

Feels like the moment has passed, but I'd still like to one day get all the Gallery of Greats inserts from 2015 Chrome/Series 1. These were a couple cheap ones of guys I collect from Just Commons. Both these guys have been laid pretty low lately, with Josh Donaldson having injury issues so far this season. And the tears roll down Royals' fans faces as Alex Gordon continues to slip further away from his all-star form of the past.
Still though, sharp looking cards!

"Change"

I've got several Brooks Kieschnick cards, but those were all from his days as an upcoming slugger with the Cubs. This is my first card from after he made the change into a pitcher who could also be called on to pinch hit or make a spot start in the outfield or at DH. Love the versatility.

And here's the back so you can see the pitching stats. He would spend all 2005 in Houston's minor leagues before hanging up his cleats, so this is a sunset card, featuring complete career stats.. well, pitching stats, at least. Pity there's no batting stats or write up trumpeting his "2-way player" feat. It's not super uncommon for guys to switch in the minors, but to get into over 100 MLB games as a position player, then take up pitching and make it back to the majors? Pretty exceptional. This card balances out my lil BK PC: I have 14 of his cards, and half of those are certified autos, which is kinda crazy. But hey, he has many inexpensive autos out there, so I pick them up when I can.

"Head Over Heals"

(Heads behind borders?) Panini seemed to throw a bunch of ideas out at collectors around 2013 to see what would stick. Select was one of the ideas that didn't stick. It wasn't even on my radar back then. But years later I wound up with a Brian Wilson card from it that I strangely was head over heals for even though I very much dislike Brian Wilson. I thought about finding a hobby box to bust, but after learning that all the autos in the product are stickers (Nooooo!!), I quickly dropped that idea and understood why the reboot failed. Instead I picked up a few cheap singles of guys I collect on Just Commons, including a Beltre refractor.. er "prizm".

(Different Brian Wilson.)

"Shout"

I'm trying to build up my Minnie Minoso PC a bit, so I added these couple cards to my Just Commons cart. It makes me want to shout when I think about the injustice of him not being in the Hall of Fame. Cold as ice.

"Pale Shelter"

Here's a card I bought to add another Jabari Blash to my Blashlection. (I also kinda collect AJ Reed.)

Blash is a guy who launches many massive dingers in spring training, making those stadiums look like pale shelter, but once the season starts, he gives me cold hands. Hopefully he can deliver this season when the Padres ask for more and more out of him.

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World"

I'll never forget that day in the mid 80s when I was a kid at Aquaris Roller Rink for a friend's birthday party and "Everybody Wants to Rule The World" came on over the sound system. For the first time in my young life I realized what an amazing thing music was. The song just really connected with me, as I skated ovals under the light bouncing off the mirror ball. Ever since that moment, Tears For Fears have been one of my favorite bands.

So when I saw an autograph card of singer Curt Smith featured on Sport Card Collectors not long ago, I made it a mission to land myself a copy. It didn't take too long for me to snag one at a decent price (under $7 shipped) on eBay. I've never seen the show Psych, a guest spot on which brought about the card, but I'm interested in checking it out, so hopefully it comes (back) to Netflix streaming one of these days. And I'd love it if Roland Orzabal eventually got a certified autograph card too so I could complete the central duo of the band, but it doesn't look like he's got any official autos out there at the moment.

I was gonna end this post there, but let's have one more...

"Sowing the Seeds of Love"

Hey, speaking of Netflix, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is back today! Sowing the seeds of love up on the Satellite of Love. Good enough excuse to repost a favorite piece of my autograph collection, my DVD signed by Joel, originally posted about back in October 2014. The new version of the show actually premiered last night at midnight, and I even stayed up late but forgot to watch it. Luckily my work closes for Good Friday since the stock market's closed, so I have the day off. Had a fun day bowling with my wife and hanging out.. and now just about to check out the first episode.

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend. TFF 4EVER!

September Card Show Haul

Very rewarding card show today! I had kinda been getting in a rut of spending all, or nearly all, of my time at the table space of my usual guy, Bill. This time, I mixed it up and bypassed his bins completely.

Also notable is that I bumped into a couple people I know while at the show. First Rod from the Padrographs blog said hi for a moment and apologized that he didn't think to bring any cards for me. A little later, a former co-worker of mine happened to be passing through the mall with her family and we chatted briefly before her youngins dragged her off. This might not be a big deal to you more social guys out there, but it's a rare occurance for me to run into people I know.

Anyways, back to the cards. Here's a nice overview photo of my haul. A couple boxes to rip, and some good progress on vintage sets I'm working on.. but that stuff will have to wait for another day to write about, and today I'll just try to cover the rest. I will say that lots of cards were from nickel boxes, ranging up to a couple cards from a 75¢ box. Only two big ones from 1971 Topps were over that.. the last two "big money" cards I needed from the set (but again, I'll do a separate post for my vintage setbuilds once I get my spreadsheets updated).

Cubs tradebait is in high demand for me thanks to a bunch of Cubbie collectors I've been trading with lately. Nothing too amazing here, but the slabbed Grace RC and the OPC Tommy Davis are kinda cool. Speak up if you want any of these.

Some cheap Griffeys, including a bunch of Pepsi cards. SCC, do you need any of these?

Vintage tradebait. Love that Dick Allen.. I need to check if that's an upgrade for me or not.

A bunch of nice vintage keepers for me. Minoso! Pepitone! D. Williams! B. Williams! Perez! Gamble! Tiant!

More tradebait. The Doc and Keith are #'d /1000 on the back.

More keepers for me, with a bunch of shiny 89UD-style cards and some gold. Lots of Fred McGriff here.

More cards. Sorry some of these photos aren't great. I will buy any/all 90UD Marquis Grissom for a quarter or less.. this one was 15¢. That Matt Harvey card in the lower left confuses me.. it's a 2016 reprint with a buyback stamp?

Picked up a few cheap football cards that caught my eye.

Even a basketball card.. love those colorful wave refractor type things.

And the rest. I think the Chris Speier is an upgrade for my 73 set. That gloriously miscut Walter Johnson will probably end up with Jedi Jeff. The Pirates auto will likely go to Matt Scott.

That's gonna do it for today. Thanks for swinging by.

Vintage 1965 Clemente! (trade roundup)

I'm back after a few days off stressing about finishing my taxes and some changes at work. Let's round up the recent trades that've come in.

Recently a guy emailed me saying he found my blog while looking for pictures from the Simpsons softball team episode. He mentioned he noticed I had 1965 Topps Roberto (Bob) Clemente atop my current wantlist, and that he happened to have one and was willing to sell it. I'm sure I don't have to tell you fellow bloggers out there that card solicitation emails from strangers are generally bad news and it's usually best to ignore or politely decline and point them to eBay for their card-selling needs. But John seemed like a good guy and I definitely wanted that card, so I asked if he'd be interested in trading instead, and offered up one of my Simpsons custom sets in exchange. He happily agreed and a few days later this baby arrived:

Very happy to land this card! Not only is Clemente among my all-time favorite guys to collect, but 1965 Topps is also a favorite and a set I'm building. So this is definitely a card I needed.

Love it! Thanks again, John. Your cards are on the way.

-   -  -  -- - ------o

Next up is a nice surprise envelope Mark Hoyle. I still had been meaning to mail him out some cards to thank him for the previous PWE he sent my way, but dang it, he lapped me! But don't worry, I just put an envelope in the mail, with another one hopefully on its heels in the next day or two.

These are great! Looks like Mark acquired a White Sox deck and was kind enough to shoot me these three. Hoyt Wilhelm, Dick Allen, and Minnie Minoso, three of my favorite old-timers to collect. I don't know much about these playing cards, though I've seen them mentioned on the blogs before and if I weren't so lazy, I'd look up them up.

Many guys I collect among this lot of 2016 Heritage Then & Now inserts.
Big thanks, Mark!

Mr. Hoyle still doesn't have a blog, but he has started showing off some of his collection on Twitter, so that's a start!

-   -  -  -- - ------o

From not enough blog, to too much blog.. Next up is a fat envelope from Tony Burbs at Wrigley Roster Jenga. I love his blog, but my browser does not. When I visit it, my computer slows down, the page takes a while to load, and has even crashed my browser on rare occasions. Speaking of an overload of awesome (that's a good segue, right?), he sent me a nice bunch of cards...

I just showed off my Pedro PC a couple weeks ago, and that post is already paying dividends in the form of these three needs. That crazy thing in the middle can barely be called a card, as it's thin and clear, reminding me of my school days with teachers using overhead projectors.

Here it is on top of real cardboard:

So yeah, it's weird but a cool addition to the collection.

Some legends. I got many of those 100 Years of Wrigley inserts thanks to having the Cubs in a Series 1 group break, but since this Stan Musial is actually a Cardinals card, it didn't get funneled into my haul. So it's nice to get it in trade.
Hoyt makes his second appearance of the post.. I've seen that photo on other cards before, but the teal border really makes this one pop.
And Teddy Ballgame is always a welcome sight.

And we close with a great lot of active guys (plus Marcus Giles, represented by a cool minor league card). I think that Trout's an SP, isn't it? Very cool. Happy to get the Sale and Mookies as well.

Big thanks, Tony! I'll get some Cubs sent out your way soon. Please let me know of anything in particular you'd like that I could send you.


Thanks again to John, Mark, and Tony for the wonderful cards. Hey, did you notice there were zero Padres cards in this trade roundup? That's a rarity, for sure. And with how the team has been playing this season, I'm totally fine with this.

See ya'll next time!