What's next? Round of 16: (8) 1965 Topps vs (9) 1978 Topps

The randomizer created a few round of 16 match ups in which the 2 sets featured are a decade or more apart.  It'll be interesting for me to see if any of the "younger" sets get any kind of love against their older counterparts.

Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1965 has 598 cards.  1978 has 726 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1965  Steve Carlton, Tony Perez    1978  Eddie Murray, Molitor/Trammell
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1965  $5000      1978  $200
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more:   1965: 7       1978:0

Blogs:

1965 Topps  vs  1978 Topps  [edit:  thanks to Jim From Downingtown who pointed me to the updated '78T blog]  


Please comment with your vote on this post.  I'm not going to try the poll widget again this week.
Remember, comments earn entries into the end of the tournament prize giveaway.   You don't have to write a novel for your comment if you don't want to, a vote for either set works as well.  

Thanks for reading, and voting!   Robert

Week in review: 2nd play in match winner

The battle of the early 70's titans has been decided.   I thought I might see a few more votes than I did (something I blame on the poll widget being NFG), but the winner by a 9-5 vote is:

The psychedelic set from '72 moves on to the round of 16, which I will start tomorrow. 

I received another solid bubble mailer from JT Steele the other day, with a bunch more Blue Jays goodness, including these two Robbie Alomar cards:

Now when I quickly breezed through the envelope the other day, I originally thought that the same card was in the package twice.  Now, I probably have a few copies of the base Fleer '92 you see on the right, but I'm 100% positive that I've never seen or heard about the card on the left.

When I looked at the card closer, I noticed on the bottom "The Performer Collection", and the back the card is #'d 24 of 24.  I don't think that this was an insert in that years set, so I'm wondering if anyone out there can provide a  bit of info on the card?   Comments are more than welcome....

thanks for reading, Robert

This card should have went to another blogger

Building on last night's post about a couple of PWE's from Pat at the Hot Corner Cards blog, I actually found a trio of '62 Topps cards in one of them.  While checking the 3 cards off of the want list, I immediately was struck with the cartoon on card #92 of Sam Jones:

Of course anyone who is in touch with the blogosphere sees the cartoon and thinks of Matt Scott's blog Bob Walk the Plank (OK maybe it's just me who thinks like that).  I've seen his name so often on trade posts lately I'm beginning to wonder if he owns his own card shop.

Matt, I think you need to steal this photo and put it as your backdrop for a few days....just a suggestion.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Dave Winfield is a catcher?

More goodies from the land of PWE, this time from regular contributor Pat who runs the Hot Corner Cards blog.  I've mentioned Pat so often on the blog lately that I believe I may have to start charging him an advertising fee.

OK, maybe the cards will cover the fees this time.

First off, the SNI set inches its way past the 75% mark with this Heritage Chrome beauty from 2013:

Bruuuuuuuuce

Jay's card is serial #642, and brings the Reds to 40 out of the 50 cards required for the insanity set.

Next up, a couple of cards from a set that is involved in the "What's Next" tourney, 1962 Topps.

I'm wondering if these Tigers are dupes...I hope so!

There's one more '62T card; that one I am showing on a quickie post tomorrow afternoon.

I've mentioned a time or 3 in the past that I enjoy art cards.   Vernon Wells on this card kind of dampers that enthusiasm just a bit...

VW just doesn't look happy, does he?

This next card probably was never listed as an error card, but for me it screams "screw up"!!

Backstop wins 1992 WS MVP Award.  Picture of Dave Winfield.  Hmmmm.

Just to be sure, I looked at baseballreference.com and checked Dave Winfield's stats.  All 3 outfield positions, a few games at first base, and a couple of innings at 3rd base in 1986.   Never played catcher.

Let's see if there's a mention of Dave on the back.

Nope.  I guess UD couldn't find a stock photo of Pat Borders anywhere?  Even #25 in the background isn't Borders (it's Devon White). 

Makes you wonder how this slipped by the quality control department.  Maybe they were on break at the time...

Thank you for the cards Pat, much appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Black and blue and Thome too

First off, I just want to remind everyone that the 2nd play in match is still going on.  If you haven't voted yet, but would like to cast your vote, please comment on the 72 vs 71 post from last Saturday.

Now, I had a pretty good finish to my day today.   I had to work the close shift, so I didn't get home until 9 pm.  What awaited me when I arrived home was a great pile of envelopes, totally unexpected.  I'm sure that all of you out there read the Night Owl Cards blog on a regular basis, and if so you may remember that he mailed out a bunch of PWE's at the end of last week.

I did not expect to receive one of those today, because I only knew of one card that I had asked to be set aside...

Everyone out there maximizes their PWE's by sending multiple cards, and the black bordered Reyes was not the only card inside.  Greg hit the jackpot on the Topps Opening Day blasters a short time ago, and I was lucky enough to be the recipient of two blue parallels.

Jean Segura is serial #'d 1360, and is the 35th Brewers card out of 50.   Gerardo Parra on the right is serial #'d 1055, and represents the 32nd card for the Diamondbacks.   Better yet, these two cards bring the total of cards I have to 1125, which means that I am 3/4 of the way finished.

It seemed like quite a while since the last serial #'d cards came in, so these were definitely a welcome sight.

Last but not least, there was a great Jim Thome base card for the PC in there.

 

Great shot of Thome providing either a pre game or post game interview.  I guess he needed two bats to prop himself up.

What's shameful on my part is updating the Thome have list on the PC tab, and realizing that I've had a dozen cards that have been sitting on my desk for 3 weeks that haven't been added to the list.  I think that this weekend is going to be spent updating my pages, and cleaning off the piles of cards that have accumulated on my desk again.

Greg, I have that Joc Pederson card set aside for you, plus a few other Dodgers.   Should be in the mail this weekend.  Thank you for what you sent, very much appreciated!!!

thanks for reading, Robert

What is the proper response for a "Double Bipping"?

The other day I documented a 9 card lot of 1964 Topps I received from Marc at Remember the Astrodome.   The same day I received that bubble mailer, I received a 2nd, unexpected one from JT Steele.  It was full of 80's & 90's Blue Jay cards, including a card that I've always liked, and is a favorite in my collection.

1992 UD Blue Jays team checklist, featuring Dave Stieb.   I love Mr. Wells artwork here, the roof open at the dome with the CN Tower peeking through the opening.  While I tell everyone that I'm at home in the U.S. now, cards such as this that feature some part of the Toronto skyline always make me a little nostalgic (OK, maybe misty eyed is a better phrase). 

When I first opened this envelope, I went through it quickly because it was Friday, and I had other things on the agenda that evening.  Today, I took a closer look at the cards, and noticed that there were a bunch of the Topps Big cards from 1988 in there.   As a matter of fact, there were a lot more of them than I thought should have constituted a team set.

Then I started sorting through them.....

 

that's a whole lot of shakin' goin' on there.

even more featuring Kelly Gruber! 

Now I know that this isn't a true bipping, as I've seen guys get a mountain of a certain player in their envelopes.   But I feel like I've been kind of bipped.   Does that count?

I have always wondered what people said to the other when they were bipped.  I guess I'll say what I always do.

JT, thank you for the cards, much appreciated!!  No matter what is in an envelope that shows up at my door unannounced, I'm always grateful that someone out there is thinking of me.

Enjoy your Memorial Day everyone, and please be safe no matter what you're doing!!

thanks for reading, Robert

The itch

First off, I have to say congratulations to Josh Beckett for throwing the first no hitter of the 2014 campaign.   I was surprised to hear that this was the first no-no for the Dodgers since 1996 (Nomo). 

Now, the other day I celebrated my 7th wedding anniversary, and a very good friend of mine asked me if I was itchy.  Naturally, being the men that we are, the text messages started flying back and forth, including such wonderful phrases as quickie, slap and tickle, touch and go, etc etc.

I didn't tell him that the itch I had was to rip some packs of cards, something I hadn't done for a few weeks.  During a trip to Wal Mart on Saturday, I picked up a rack pack each of Bowman and Heritage from this year, along with a box of Prizm hockey which was 40% off!

Now, I've had zero luck with Heritage so far, and this continues with the 1 pack I picked up.  The only card of note in the pack was a Bill Cosby Flashback.

Even though Mr. Cosby has thoroughly entertained me for decades, this card doesn't have a place in my collection.

Now, I've seen a lot of Bowman hit the blogosphere over the past few weeks, but I still had no desire to go after the product.   The only reason I did buy the rack pack on Saturday was to see if I could get some trade bait.

Let's start with the purple people eaters...

0 for 3.  Meaning I have no idea who any of these fine gentlemen are.

Now I'm sure that there are people out there that just dig on this set, because they love the prospect part of it.

For me, it's tough when I don't have any idea who the players are.  I don't follow baseball that in depth in order to derive any enjoyment out of sets such as Bowman.

The only reason I know this guy is because I follow enough blogs to have seen his name once or twice.

Now at least I've heard of this guy.  The chrome scanned really well on this card.  It is also a mini if you are interested in this gentleman at all.

Finally, I did manage to snag one numbered card.   I know this guy...

The card is numbered 368/500.   Don't need it for the SNI set, unfortunately.  So it becomes just another part of this post.

See anything you need here?   Comment/email, and I'll get it to you as quick as I can. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

Bruuuuuuuuuu

It's been a while since I actually completed an actual trade with a fellow blogger.   My relationship with a lot of my trade partners has developed to the point where we just send each other cards without a formal "I'll send you this if you send me that" type of email.

Informal is probably the best way to describe it.

Not that formal trades aren't welcome, as was this one with Marc from the Remember the Astrodome blog.  Marc made my day by offering me a page worth of 1964 Topps towards the set I'm building.  He's got a few 67's and 68's on their way to him in return.

The Schwall and Hinsley/Wakefield cards are both from the high series, so they are most welcome here.  Not that the other 7 cards weren't, because they bring me a few cards closer to the 80% goal.  That goal is now only 18 cards away, and I'm hoping to have the goal met by the time the National ends in August. 

Speaking of older sets, the 2nd play in game for the What's Next? tournament went live as of noon today.  Since the voting poll widget is not working properly, please leave your vote by dropping a quick comment on this afternoon's post.

Marc, thank you for the cards, they are fantastic!! 

thanks for reading, Robert

What's Next? Play-in match #2 1972 Topps vs 1971 Topps

Wow, I didn't even realize that when I first ran the randomizer that this was an early round match up.  In any other world, this could have easily been the final to determine the winner, but instead, one of the big boys gets knocked out early.

Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1972 has 787 cards.  1971 has 752 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1972  Fisk/Cooper, Cey/Oglivie    1971  Steve Garvey, Baker/Baylor
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1972  $1500      1971  $2500
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more:   1972: 1       1971: 4

Blogs

1972 Topps  vs.   1971 Topps

This was the first time that I spotted the '72 Topps blog hosted by Douglas.   He is counting the cards down starting from 787 and working his way towards #1.

The 1971 blog is written by the Night Owl, and as always is a quality read.  Greg is daring to be different and working his way from card #1 to the end (or is that the norm...).

Since last night, Jim from Downingtown has informed us that the polls are still not working.  So, if everyone would be so kind as to leave their vote in the comments on this post, that would be greatly appreciated!!

thanks for reading, and voting!   Robert

Week in review: First play in winner decided

It was a fairly close race for most of the week, but in the end, even after the voting poll crapped out, the winner was:

1961 Topps won out by a 12-8 margin.  That set will assume the 15 seed, and will face 1974 Topps in the round of 16.  I've already set up the poll for the 2nd play in match, which features a battle of the titans (in my opinion, anyhow) as 1972 Topps will face off against 1971 Topps.   Both sets have their redeeming qualities, and I'm hoping that the poll widget doesn't crap out like it did this week.  The tale of the tape post for the next match will be posted at noon tomorrow.

Thank you to those who did vote!!

I've also put a little thought into possibly adding a second baseball PC to my collection.  One guy that I really enjoyed watching during the late 90's was this guy.

Yea, I know a lot of you may cringe at the thought of adding Mark McGwire to any PC, but PED use or not, I know that there were a lot of people watching him in 1999 as he chased and finally caught the record for homers in a season.  But I'm not completely sold on him.

There are a couple of current players that I've thought about collecting as well.   Andrew McCutchen is an easy choice, MVP talent, based here in western PA where I live.  "Cutch" may just end up being one of those players that just gets too expensive to collect the way he's hitting the ball again this year.  Another player that I really enjoy watching, and get a lot of opportunities to do so, is Johnny Cueto.  The Luis Tiant style windup is always something I've enjoyed, and Cueto is having a season for the ages so far in 2014.  The only thing that has really kept him from being considered one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past several years is injuries. 

I'm not overly sold on the idea of another baseball PC just yet, but the idea is there.  Stay tuned...

thanks for reading, Robert

One small flaw

By the time you're reading this, I'll have enjoyed my anniversary dinner with two women (spoiled rotten, yes I know), and hopefully will be well on my way to a great evening.

I've enjoyed showing off the card show rewards over the past few posts, and this next card that I'm going to show is another interesting example.   This is a checklist card from the '72 set.

Nice clean front side, corners in fairly good shape.  I always get a kick out of looking at checklist cards from vintage sets, because you get an idea of what someone collected back in the day.

Guess the person who was after this set didn't get very far...

The only card marked off on the checklist is the Yankees Rookies card.

Image borrowed from tradingcarddb.com

Only Rusty Torres had an extended career, playing in parts of 9 seasons between 1971-1980.   Roger Hambright was drafted in the 67th round of the 1967 draft.  That should have given him some kind of mojo or karma, right?   Nope.   He only pitched in 18 games during the '71 season as a 22 year old.  Never did pitch again in the bigs after that.  Alan Closter pitched in parts of 4 seasons, with the last two being less than memorable (ERA's over 11 and 14 during those seasons).

Not knocking these 3 players, or Yankee fans in general, but wasn't there another card on this checklist that this person could have gone after?   Killebrew, Mays, Gibson are three of the players that could have been had. 

When this post comes live, there will be less than 24 hours to vote on the first play in game for the "what's next" tournament.  1961 is leading, but not by a large amount.    Comments can be made here on your selection. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

Believe it or not, I listen to her

I've done it.   Survived the first 7 years of my marriage.  When I say survived, I mean that I haven't done anything stupid enough to get my ass thrown out of the house. 

Yet.

Tomorrow is my 7th wedding anniversary, and the wife and I are going to celebrate with a good friend of ours from Florida who is flying in tomorrow afternoon.  We're going out to our favorite wing joint for dinner (wife's choice!), and probably just have a blast tomorrow night.  It's too bad I have to work on Friday....

One of the things that I've learned from my wife over the years is one of her favorite sayings, which over time has become one of mine...

"you can't leave it there at that price"

This card is a prime example.

When you see a 1963 league leaders card featuring Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson and Stan the Man Musial, it gets your interest.  When you see the price tag of a measly $4, yes, you can't leave it at the show for that price.

Yes, it's off center, and the corners and edges aren't the greatest, but it's still good enough for me. 

Card #1 of any set is always tough to find in good shape, so when I spotted this, it quickly moved over to the gotta have pile.

At that price, I didn't leave it there, and I'm glad I did. 

thanks for reading, Robert

Deface the face

It's funny to see what some people have done to vintage cards.  Yea, you get your cards that have been put in the bike spokes, or thrown against a wall trying to knock down other cards that were propped up against said wall.

But the funniest thing is when kids write on cards.  Back in the day, kids would draw mustaches or glasses on cards, just to make them look funny.

I bought a 200 card lot of '71 Topps last winter, and pretty much set them aside until recently.  The cards for the most part were pretty beat up, definitely worth the cheap price tag.  There were about two dozen cards that had writing on them, likely from some industrious lad who was aware of the player's change in teams.

This change on the Ken Suarez card was made in 1972, since Ken played the 1971 season with Cleveland.  At least the "Tex" on his left cheek was neatly written.  Suarez was a backup catcher for all of his 7 seasons in the bigs.

As opposed to the Suarez card, the Jim Hannan change was likely made during the '71 season.   Hannan was traded by the Tigers to the Brewers on the 11th of May for two players who never played for the Tigers, or anywhere else in the bigs after 1971.  Jim appeared in 21 games after the trade to the Brewers, compiling an ERA just over 5 before retiring at the age of 31.

Elliott Maddox's face is almost completely covered by the letters SF.  Not sure why though, because Elliott never was a part of the Giants organization.  1971 was the only season that he played for the Senators, hitting .217 in 258 ABs.  Maddox went on to play with the Rangers, Yankees, Orioles and Mets during the 70's, before finishing his career in the Phillies organization in 1981. 

I'm sure that the kid who had these cards didn't think outside the box and try to update the cards in the open spaces that were available outside of the face.

If it were me, defacing the face with a mustache and glasses would have been a little more fun.  Worst case scenario, I would have gotten all the teams right...

Maybe

thanks for reading, Robert

What's next? Play-In match #1 1968 Topps vs 1961 Topps

Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1968 has 598 cards.  1961 has 587 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1968  Nolan Ryan, Johnny Bench      1961   Ron Santo, Juan Marichal
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1968  $3000      1961  $7000
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more:   1968: 6       1961:  17

  

Blogs:

1968 Topps   vs   1961 Topps

I'm sure that I'll be referencing a lot of the blogs that Jim from Downingtown has that feature vintage sets.  If you're not following them, why not?  They are all well written and showcase a lot of sharp looking cards.

Feel free to comment on this post as to who your favorite is, and why.   Comments on this post earn entries into the end of tournament drawing for a prize to be given away.

thanks for reading and voting, Robert              

What's next? The tournament begins

As promised, I'm going to start the tournament where you decide what vintage set I'm going to build next.  There are a total of 22 total sets between 1959 and 1980.   I've already built or am close to completing four of those sets (64,73,75,77) so those will be off of the list.  I also have a decent start on 5 others (62,68,70,74,76), but not big enough that I wanted to take them out of the equation.

This leaves the total at 18 sets.   In order to get the list down to 16 teams, the first two weeks will be "play in games", similar to the NCAA basketball tournament in March.  After that, the tournament will be single elimination, knocking out sets weekly until there is only one set left standing.  That set is going to be "what's next?" for me to build.

What I did to determine the initial "seeding" (if you can call it that), is I typed in the 18 years into the randomizer.  After running it through three times, here's the list.

The winner of the 15 v 18 match will receive the 15 seed, and the winner of the 16 v 17 match will receive the 16 seed.

This is where you come in.   Every week I will have a poll on the right hand side of the blog, asking you to vote on that particular week's match.  I will start the week with a post saying that voting is open, and a small blurb on the sets that are involved.

I am going to give something away at the end, and entries will be earned by you, the loyal, faithful blog reader by leaving comments on the weekly match post.  These will be posted on the weekend.  

If there is a tie during a specific week, I will pick one person at random from the comments, and ask them which set should go on.   Simple.

After the round of 16 is completed, I am going to re-seed the final 8 sets by the number of votes they received during their particular match.   If there is a tie, it will be broken by the higher percentage of votes (for example, if one set received 24 out of 32 votes, and the other received 24 out of 35 votes, the first set would receive the higher seed).  If there is still a tie, I will put the older set in the highest seed (totally arbitrary and random, I know).

The 1st play in game should be very interesting, 1968 vs 1961.  That post will go live in the morning, but the poll is already live and on the right hand side of the blog.

Have fun, and may everyone's favorite set win!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Cheap ass set building 101

I love building sets.  I also love my money.  The task of building vintage sets has been a great exercise for my patience, but it's a battle that I've been winning.   I've shown many times on the blog the great deals I've found on cards ('64 Mantle & '64 Aaron are two good examples) when I've been patient and not grabbed the first card that I saw.

The '73 Nolan Ryan I picked up last night is another good example.

 

It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but for $5 it fits well into my collection.

Speaking of $5 cards, here's another one.  It's a '64T with a little more star power...

 

Finding cards such as these at great prices just makes me want to build vintage sets even more.  Yes, there are some cards that you're not going to find very cheap, but for the most part, with some patience and luck I've been able to put together sets like '64 Topps at a very affordable price.

If you're thinking about building an older set, but not sure about the $$ aspect of it, I'm here to tell you that it can be done.  If you're patient and not super picky about condition, then give it a shot.

I've had a blast since I started building the '64 set a couple of years ago, and I intend to keep building vintage sets until I don't have any more left to build.  It's been too much fun, in a challenging way, for me to stop now.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Can't beat 10 cents a card

Little did I think I would encounter a box like this at the card show I went to today...

10c apiece  60s--70s--80s vintage.  

I had to rub my eyes and clean my glasses to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

OK, I look again and I'm not seeing things.  Then I think to myself that these cards are going to be "well loved", for lack of a better phrase.

About 20 minutes of digging, and I didn't fare too badly.

Some 1970 Topps cards made their way home.

Not bad for 60 cents.

There were even some decent '71s in the box

Another 60 cents well spent.

I even managed to dig out a '61 and a '69.

Yep, that's a tape stain on the top of the Juan Pizarro card, but for 10 cents, I figured why not?  I've always liked the color on the back of the '69s as well...

For me, this set has one of the easiest backs to read of any of the older sets.  Love the cartoon as well, the guy is knee deep in snow, and yet the football manages to stay right on top of it all, no problems. 

I managed to pull out about 50 cards from that dime box altogether.  Some '72s, '78s and '79s as well.
It's too bad I still wasn't building the '75 set, because there were a lot of those.

I'm sure that had he seen this box, Nick would have had a field day....

thanks for reading, Robert

Standouts

I mentioned in yesterday's post that there is always that one card in an envelope that stands out above the others.  The Bill Singer card was very cool and an unexpected pleasure from Max at the Starting Nine blog.

There were two other cards that also got my attention, and could have been the stand out card in many other envelopes.

First, a little purple for your Thursday evening?

I don't remember seeing any purple parallels anywhere in the blogosphere for the '14 Topps set, and then Jose Bautista makes his way to my door step.  I like it.  Great shot of Jose swinging for the fences, and the purple is nice and dark, which is much preferred to a lighter shade such as lilac (did I really just write that???)

This next card of Aaron Loup is really an arm bender.

Baseball is wondering why there are so many Tommy John surgeries?  Good God man, look at this photo, it just screams ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction.   Say that five times fast.

Max, thank you for the cards, they are greatly appreciated!!  As always, a fantastic envelope...

Now it's time to get prepped for the card show, because I'm actually going tomorrow night!!   An unexpected gift from my wife, who was willing to fore go our regular Friday night out so I can attend. 

Spoiled rotten...yes, I know.

Thank you for reading, Robert

A return to blogging related activities

I always laugh when I see sports articles referring to injured players returning to "baseball related activities".  It just sounds so stupid to me.   I never have thought once that a returning athlete would be doing something like taking up the ballet, or learning to rumba.

For five days, as far as "blogging related activities" went, I did nothing.   OK, that's not entirely true, I did read a few of my favorite blogs regularly, and I took the time out to wish Brian congratulations on his 2000th post over at the great Play at the Plate blog. 

Did I think about my blog?  Yea, a couple of times.   But as far as editing want lists and trying to come up with something worthwhile to write (lol, yea, my stuff being considered worthwhile....), it was absolutely a no go.  But then for some reason, I sat down last night around 10:30 and started going through the pile of Jays cards on the desk and removing the corresponding cards from the want list.

It actually felt good to get away.  I actually put a lot of thought into what I want to do next on the blog over the past few days.  That amount of thought (yes I know, thinking just gets me into trouble) brought me to a couple of realizations.

1.  I really like my Blue Jays collection, but it's a little too overwhelming.  I have what amounts to a couple of thousand cards I need to put into binders.   Holy shit.  It made me realize that I have to draw the line on the Jays collecting for the foreseeable future.  So I drew a line.  A thin red line.  If you've looked at the Jays want list over the last few days, you've seen it. 

I'm not adding anything new below that line for the foreseeable future.  There's no need.   I have enough cards to chase above the line to keep me busy for a very long time.  Case in point, here's a card that I received today from Max at the Starting Nine blog (another one of my favorites).

You always have that one card in an envelope that just jumps right out and grabs you.  This was it.  Why?  Because I had not one damn clue what it was.  I knew it had to be from 1977, because that's the only season that Singer was in Toronto.

A little digging on the Trading Card Database revealed that this was my first Hostess card!!  Fabulous.  I've never had a really big appetite for food related issues, but this card may start to sway that a little bit.  Miscut? Who cares! 

2.  My love for "vintage" cards has grown exponentially.  Case in point.  I went to Wal-Mart on Sunday needing a few things for the house.  I hit the card aisle, and what do I see.   A few rack packs of Heritage, and a couple of blister packs of Bowman. 

I passed, very quickly.  Nothing from this year is exciting me at all.  I decided to save my money for the card show this weekend.  Vintage should be all over the place....I can't wait.

I decided to dig a little bit to see when I started talking seriously about putting together the '64 Topps set.   The post here is dated March 3, 2012.  2 years and 2 months since I really started working on this set, and the interest is still strong.  Not like newer releases that I started and watched as they became stale when I couldn't/didn't want to finish them. 

I've also had a blast finishing the '75 and '77 Topps sets, and the '73 is a little over 90% complete.  I definitely want to keep going and complete a lot of the older sets.  That's where the blogosphere is going to come in.

I'm going to run a tournament, and let the blogosphere decide what my next set building project is.  I've seen other bloggers run stuff like this, and it's always been a favorite of mine, so I'm going to do one myself.

18 sets...1 eventual champion.  I will build the set, and keep everyone apprised when each card comes in.  That's the plan. 

I also plan to incorporate some kind of give away during the tournament.  I haven't done a whole lot of contests during the past year, so it's time again to give a little back to the hobby, and to those who have helped me enjoy it immensely since I started the blog.

Just imagine if a set like '60 Topps won...

572 of these cards being shown for your viewing pleasure...I think that would be great.

Keep an eye out, it's coming soon.

thanks for reading,  Robert

Not bad looking for 50 years old

You may remember last Saturday's post that covered the recent pickup of a couple of high numbers for the '64T set I'm building.  Down towards the bottom of the post I mentioned that I was bidding on a Hank Aaron card.

Well, here it is...

Beautiful!!  Slightly off center, but for $35 the card is in fantastic shape.  Corners are nice, there are no pen marks and the back is clean.

I spent 5 bucks more than the weekly "budget", but I would say that it was worth it. 

Clemente is on deck....

thanks for reading, Robert

Another completed page for the SNI set

Finally decided to put away the half dozen cards I had sitting on my desk for the SNI set.   Lo and behold, another page is put to bed!

For your viewing pleasure, here is page #103, serial numbers 919-927

 

8 out of the 9 cards are the responsibility of fellow bloggers, including the Xavier Nady card which came my way from Ted at the retired Crinkly Wrappers blog. 

I'm hoping to put another little dent into the set in a couple of weeks when I hit the big 3 day Pittsburgh show at Robert Morris University.   Fingers crossed...

thanks for reading, Robert

Overload

I might have overdone it a little bit.  The Sportlots purchase I made the weekend before last contained 100 cards, a lot of them featuring Jim Thome.  I showed quite a few of them in a couple of previous posts, and have even more for you tonight.

How about a few Leaf/Donruss examples to start?

 

Interesting that all 7 examples from this brand all feature Thome in some variation of a hitting pose.  Yea, I counted him adjusting his batting glove as a "hitting pose". 

Topps/Bowman was able to sneak in a fielding pose on the 2002 Bowman card, and the Hit Parade features something that Thome wasn't well known for, base running.  19 steals in 22 big league seasons will attest to that. 

These next 4 cards are probably my favorite of the entire lot...Heritage

The eyes are a little spooky on the 2002 card, reminiscent of some of the '52 Topps cards.  My favorite is the reproduction of the '57 Topps card with Thome kneeling and using the bat as a prop.  It's hard not to like any of the Heritage cards, maybe that's telling me something...

This group of 17 will put me over the 150 mark for the Thome collection (once I catalog them, hopefully tomorrow).  I still have a little more than a dozen left to show off.  This big purchase is something that I'm glad I did; it was a good way to knock off a lot of base cards quickly and cheaply.

I'll probably do this once more before year's end, without the severe overload.

Thanks for reading, Robert