Just because I haven't been blogging...

Doesn't mean I haven't been doing something that is related to the blog.  I've spent a bit of my spare time updating/sorting my PC's, finding doubles in both the Thome and Sakic binders.  What I thought would amount to a handful of hours on a weekend turned into a 4 evening project, but in the end it was well worth it knowing that both of those collections are up to date.  Now, the focus has changed to getting the piles of cards off of my desk.

One of the giant piles should be easy to handle, it's a giant stack of these:

Hockey will always be a weakness of mine, and even after saying that I wouldn't chase the 14-15 OPC set, there's a big stack on my desk.   I decided to show the Orr card after seeing a post here the other day.   One day I'm going to have to learn how to put custom cards together, I've seen so many people in the blogosphere do it and it looks like a lot of fun.

A pile that I actually did get off the desk this weekend was a bunch of these.

The Blue Jays "Just the hits" page is finally complete.   All of my autos and jersey cards are finally scanned and up for your viewing pleasure (if looking at the Jays actually pleases you).  There was about 40 of them to scan, and the stack of top loaders was a lot taller than I imagined. 

Next pile that's up for removal?   Minis.

I have an aversion to minis.  Yes, they are cards, but I find that I have a tough time handling them.  Over time what I've done with them is as they come in, I set them to the side.  More come in, the pile grows a little higher.  I guess what I'm hoping is that they'll magically go away somehow.

No chance there.   Now it's time to deal with them.

The goal in 2015 is to get things finished, sorted and neat.  That takes time, and for this guy, patience.

Hopefully I can find lots of both and get back to a state of sanity....

thanks for reading, Robert

'59 Topps set build #11/572 Cincinnati Red Legs team card

I felt like doing something a little bit different with this '59 Topps post, so instead of going in order after the Eddie Miksis card, I jumped ahead and grabbed my first team card to go over.

Card #111:  Cincinnati Red Legs (checklist 89-176) 

I had never really thought about it in the past when I looked at team cards, but there's an awful lot of players in this photo.  So many that I decided to count them.   There's 37 players in uniform, with maybe a handful of them having their faces defaced over time. 

There is only one Hall of Famer on the '59 squad, Frank Robinson.   I didn't see uniform #20 on any of the players, so I'm going to guess and say that he is 3rd from the left in the 2nd row from the top, standing to the left of Brooks Lawrence (#46).

Overall record:  74-80, 5th place in the NL, 13 games behind the division winning Dodgers.

Team Leaders:  

• Hits: Vada Pinson 205.   Pinson also led the team in runs, doubles and ABs (all 3 of those categories he led the NL), as well as batting average (.316) and steals (21).   Team MVP, no?
• Homers:  Frank Robinson, 36.  Frank also led the Red Legs in RBI with 125.
• Wins:  Don Newcombe and Bob Purkey had 13 apiece.   Newcombe also led the team in K's, with 100 and complete games with 17.
• Saves:  Brooks Lawrence had 10 saves, the number being so low because he also started 14 games.

The Reds fired their manager halfway through the season, as they struggled under first year manager Mayo Smith (35-45).  He was replaced by Fred Hutchinson, who guided them to a 39-35 record the rest of the way, and would guide them to three straight winning seasons between 1961 & 1963, also earning an NL pennant for the Reds in '61.

The back is in very nice shape, no pen marks or lost paper at all.  

I thought it very interesting that the checklist on the back was the 2nd series check list, instead of a team list.   This intrigued me so much that I had to see if I had any other team photos (I do, the Senators) to see if there was a team list on the back (there wasn't, the Senators are the 6th series check list).  The Blue Jays very first All-Star from 1977 also appears on this checklist, see if you can figure out who. (answer below)

There's a few interesting names on this check list...Bill "Moose" Skowron at #90, Felipe Alou #102, Stan Musial at #150 and Sandy Koufax at #163, none of which I own yet. 

I also wondered where the name "Redlegs" came from.  It appears that the "Reds" nickname was removed from the uniform between 1956-1960,  because of the association of the color red with communism.  Redlegs was once a derogatory term used to describe a group of poor white people that live in the Caribbean, mostly coming from Ireland and Scotland (reference here).  The team became the Reds again after the 1958 season, maybe not in time for Topps to change the name on the front of this card?

Ron Fairly (card #125) was the very first Blue Jay to appear in an all-star game in 1977, hitting .307 at the break and finishing the season with a .279 average with a career high in homers with 19.

thanks for reading, Robert                 

A couple of '64s that I forgot to show off + some other stuff

With all the serial numbered insanity cards that I've gone through since the beginning of the year, there was a couple of other cards that I neglected to show off.   A pair of '64 Topps cards that have vaulted me over the 500 card mark for the set!  I'm getting closer, but unlike the SNI set, the final 86 cards that I need for this set is going to be a bit more of a daunting task to acquire.

I really like the All-Star Vets card on the left; it's one that I've been trying to find at a reasonable price for a while, and I was lucky to find it on COMC for $3.  The Hector Lopez card set me back just under $3, but that's the price I guess I'm going to have to pay to acquire some of the Yankees commons that I need.

I haven't done a shout out for a fellow blogger in a while, but seeing this guy's blog made me want to speak up.

Dan at the Daily Autograph blog is one of my more recent followers (thank you Dan), and as I am continually playing catch up, I finally got around to checking out his blog today.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of obtaining in person autographs, it's just not my thing.   I don't discourage anyone out there from the practice, because I've seen a lot of great stuff on many people's blogs, and have been fortunate enough to receive a bit of swag that was obtained IP from other people.

Dan's blog, well it takes the IP autograph to a whole new level.  He posts one card a day, at 10AM.  Dan is posting his cards in the order that he received the autograph.  How is that for meticulousness!!
His coming soon tabs at the top of his blog (there's 2 of them, for both halves of the alphabet) show off the schedule he has for future players.  The latest date I've seen is April 2017!  Seeing something like this makes me feel bad that I'm going to post approximately a dozen times in January.  Maybe it's just the kick in the ass that I need.

Give Dan a follow if you'd like, you just might see someone you may have forgotten about over time, like Floyd Rayford .  Keep up the good work Dan!


Speaking of autographs, I have had a pretty good week obtaining autos myself.   I scored an auto from Wes at Jaybarkerfan's Junk earlier in the week, and today I received a 2nd auto from a fellow blogger.

I received the goodies from the group break that Chris at Nachos Grande ran earlier this month today, and inside the box was this bonus! 

Is this another trend in the blogosphere?  #Walletcard has been a smash hit in the blog world, and now 2 autos from fellow bloggers in one week?   Damn I am so behind the times.

I'm a book nerd by the way, so my #Walletcard is actually a book mark.  I haven't dinged the card up too much as of yet, but I'm sure after a while it'll be a mess...

Maybe I'll find a suitable card for my wallet soon, you know, something to join all the moths in there.

thanks for reading, Robert

Reflections

Now that I've cataloged my recent order of serial numbered goodness from COMC.com, I decided to take a look at some of the sets that were on the order and see how much of a presence that they own in my serial numbered madness.

I didn't expect to have a whole lot of 2006 Topps gold cards in the set, because I started this project in 2011 which meant that this set was already 5 years removed from peoples minds and collections.  I was actually surprised that this Brad Penny card is the 24th 2006 Topps card in the set.

I'm not purposely showing nothing but Dodgers in this post, but the first two sets I wanted to show just happened to have only one card each in the order, both being Dodgers.  I really like the chrome parallels from the 2007 Turkey Red set, but alas I only have 7 of these so far.  It's not as if I need a minimum number for any particular set that's included, but every time I see one of these I wish I had more.

For me, this is the "so ugly it's good" set.  As I was perusing through COMC and adding to my order, I found myself looking more and more at the 2008 Topps gold cards, hoping to add a few of them to the collection.  These 4 bring the total up to 21, again a bit more than I thought I would have, but not a bad number.

I was very curious about the 2012 Topps set, since it was the first full year that I blogged and chased after the parallels.

These 4 brought the total to a whopping 102 so far, which I'm sure is the largest of any set.

Remember the Reed Johnson card, and how everyone loved it when it first came out?  It'll be 3 years old when '15 series 1 comes out in a few weeks...

The brown framed Gypsy Queen cards are another of my favorites.  Serial #'d to just 999 kind of limited my ability to grab a lot of these for the set.  I own only 11 now that I have the Greinke you see here. 

Triple Threads have been kind of easy to find.  I wound up grabbing a dozen scattered across various years in this order.  I have 47 of the 2011's you see here, and a total of 95 TTT's spread out over 6 different releases.   Overkill maybe?

With just 156 cards remaining, the end is in sight.  I've taken an aggressive approach at the beginning of 2015 to knock this set down as quickly as I can.  I'm likely going to end up with a few gold cards from the 2015 Topps flagship set, and maybe some parallels from Opening Day when it is released.  2015 will be the 18th calendar year that will have at least one card in the SNI set, going all the way back to a pair of '98 Bowmans Best cards. 

What's even better is that the blogosphere and it's wonderful generosity is going to be responsible for at least 2/3 of the set by the time it's finished.

Never in a million years did I think that would be the case. 

thank you for reading, and collecting....

Robert

Magic Man

I placed another order with COMC.com last week, and decided to do the one day shipping.  I knew that the package was going to arrive today, and had prepared myself to post about serial numbers and a couple of '64 Topps cards.

Sorry, but things change.

I got home today and found not one, but two envelopes in the mailbox.   Surprise envelopes are the best, especially when it's from one of the finalists for the most generous blogger category in the 2014 Bip Awards.

Wes, who runs the Jaybarkerfan's Junk blog, found some great cards to send my way.   There were several want lists represented, so without further adieu, let's take a look.

In order for the modern want lists to be included, Wes slid in one card towards the SNI set.

Kevin Barry is the 43rd Brave out of 50, and is serial numbered 302.  With all the cards that Wes has sent me, that's the first card towards the insanity set!  Speaking of SNI, it's now down to 191 cards remaining, and even that number will be reduced after I sort through the other envelope I received today.

There's a card from the 1973 Topps want list to show off as well.   Another Brave, Larvell Blanks!!

You may or may not have heard about the guy on the right as well.  If I remember correctly, it's his RC as well....

So the 60's didn't feel left out, some burlap beauties made their way inside.

I had no idea that Larry Hisle was a draft choice of the Phillies and played 4 years there.  My memories of Hisle are him wearing Twins and Brewers unis.  You learn something new every day.

Best of all, there were a few '59s in the envelope, 17 of them to be exact.

I thought I would just show 3 of the cards for now, since you'll be seeing posts about each over time (at least I hope some of you will be around to see them).  If you're thinking Claude Osteen looks young in that photo, you're correct.  He debuted in 1957 as a 17 year old, and this is his RC featuring a photo at the tender age of 19 (if indeed the photo was taken in '59).

Finally, like many others around the blogosphere, I also received a personalized hit from Wes.

Serial #'d 27/98, which makes it even better because my birthdate is the 27th. 

Yes, Wes indeed is the Magic Man when it comes to making want lists disappear, so here's a song from Heart in recognition...

Wes, thank you very much for the surprise envelope, the cards are really appreciated!!!  By the way, you already had my vote for most generous blogger...

thanks for reading, Robert

'59 Topps set build post #10/572 Eddie Miksis

It's been 3 days shy of one month since the last time I popped out a '59 Topps post.   It's not as if I don't have the cards on hand to write about, it's more about the inspiration to do so.   Today I'm feeling inspired, so here's my 10th post about this set.

Card #58:  Eddie Miksis

This card is part of the lot that CommishBob sent me to provide a nice head start to this set.  It's in really nice shape for a 55 year old card, there's no writing or marks on it at all, and the corners are in reasonably good condition as well. 

This is only one of 2 cards that I have so far that feature the light green background with the players name in black letters.

How did he fare in 1959?   He didn't.  Eddie's last major league season was in 1958 with the Reds and Orioles, hitting a combined .135 in 52 ABs.

His career started at the age of 17, appearing as a pinch runner and scoring a run in his first career game, which the Dodgers won 4-3.

The two lines of information that you see on the back of the card describe Eddie's career.   1958 was the last of his career, and he went out by playing every position at least once except for pitcher and catcher.

• The missing 1945 season was spent in the US Navy as an 18 year old.
• Eddie finally became an everyday player after he was traded to the Cubs in the 1951 season.
• The most hits he had off of any pitcher during his career was 22 vs. hall of famer Warren Spahn (.319 average with 2 HRs).
• The more he faced Robin Roberts, the worse it got.  Eddie was 8 for 76 lifetime against Roberts with only 1 XBH (.105 average) 
• He struggled at 2nd base in 1953 for the Cubs, leading the league with 22 errors at the position.  Eddie became a part timer in 1954, and then switched to the outfield for the '55 season, where he led the NL in fielding percentage for outfielders (.989).  Go figure...
• Eddie appeared in the World Series twice, on the losing end in both '47 and '49 to the Yankees.  He went 3 for 11 in the 2 fall classics combined, with one double.

Eddie passed away in 2005 at the age of 78.

thanks for reading, Robert

Working on the resolutions

Yes, it's still only 15 days into the new year, but I am trying hard to keep my resolutions intact.  I've actually spent the past few evenings printing out checklists for my Joe Sakic (4884 cards total) and Jim Thome  (8725 cards total) PCs and crossing out what I have already accumulated.  Now that this task is finally accomplished, I can go about rewriting my want lists (since my "have" lists seemed to create some confusion among a couple of people) for these two guys.

In addition to getting those two guys cleaned up, I've decided to start a 3rd player PC, Brett Lawrie.  I've always wanted to stay away from guys that were on the current Jays roster, and now that Lawrie is wearing the Kelly green and gold of Oakland, I'm free to get that collection started.

I spent about 30 minutes last night digging through the box of Blue Jays duplicates, and found 8 cards to start off the collection.

Not a whole lot, but hey you have to start somewhere, right?

Speaking of resolutions, I mentioned a couple of sets that I wanted to complete.

You may or may not have looked at the Serial Numbered Insanity want list recently.  If you haven't, it has really shrunk in size, as I only need 192 cards to finish the set.  Scott Rolen above was the 50th card for the Cardinals, making them the 9th team to be completed. 

I also have quite a few in my COMC cart (27 to be exact), so rest assured that I'm taking this resolution seriously. 

I also spoke about this set....

Merritt Ranew was one of 9 cards in my last COMC order, bringing the want list down to 90.   This set will most likely be a little more of a drain on my budget than the SNI, but I'm hoping to whittle it down piece by piece over the next 12 months.  7-8 cards a month and I should be right on target.

So while I really haven't written a whole lot this month, I've not been inactive on the card front.

On the contrary, it feels like I'm really getting on a roll with my collection.  That's good, because there's only 350 days left in the year to keep the resolutions going.

Yikes...

thanks for reading, Robert

They have to be 50 or more years old to make this post

It was a pretty good week for me as far as vintage goes.   17 cards from the 59T & 64T sets made their way into my hands this week. 

My third order from Check out my cards netted me 9 cards from the '64 set, leaving me just 90 cards from completion.  Knowing my past history of starting older sets and blowing them off after a short time, getting this far is a major accomplishment for me.

What I've enjoyed about COMC so far is the ability to zoom in on each card and check out the condition.  So far, I haven't been disappointed with the results. 

The Reds team card reminds me that I still have to find reasonably priced team cards for the Yankees and Dodgers.  The Dodgers team card will be tough to find on the cheap because it is in the high # series.

Every time I see the Terry Fox card from now on, I'll think of the Marathon of Hope that was run across Canada by a one-legged runner of the same name.   Terry made such an impact on Canadians back then; I found it hard to believe when looking up articles that it has been 33+ years since his incredible journey across Canada. 

Is it just me, or does the Larry Brown card look as if it was drawn?

I also received another envelope this week, this one from the Night Owl.  As usual, he hits bits and pieces of my Blue Jays want list.  But this time, he added in 8 cards that he didn't know would fit in with my '59 Topps set.

Why wasn't he sure you ask?   Take a look....

These 4 had the letter W written on them in various places.  Two of them, not so bad as they were off to the side.  The Lollar and White cards, well the W was written on their faces.  I'm wondering if Bill Wetmore was the one responsible for this heinous crime.  The cards on the left also have 1959 written on them, just in case who owned them originally forgot what year they were made.  This group I am on the fence about whether to upgrade down the road...

These 4 I would say will probably remain as part of my '59 set.   The Ray Boone is in really nice shape, as is the Marv Throneberry and Hal Griggs.  The writing on these 4 cards doesn't seem to overwhelm the card overall, unlike the top 4 where it just seems that the writing stands out.

Randy Jackson doesn't look like he did on American Idol, am I right?  (Sorry, I just couldn't resist)

Greg, thank you again for the cards, they really are appreciated!!

Just in case any of you are interested, I had to start a new twitter account (the old one was hacked).   I decided to align the new account with the blog, hence the @30aweekhabit moniker.  I'm in the process of finding the accounts of people I was following before, and hopefully adding a few more to the list.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Washington is all washed up

Just 22 teams remain.  It's nice when all I have to do is scan one card and then say "I have another team done!"

The Nationals are the latest team to hit the magic number of 50 cards obtained.   Ryan Zimmerman finishes up the Washington/Montreal component of the set.

Serial number 1433 finishes the Nats

I was so determined to knock off the Nationals in this COMC order, that I accidentally over bought and picked up 2 cards, thinking that they only had 48.   Whoops...

No matter, maybe somebody out there will want a Nick Johnson Triple Threads card.

Then again....

thanks for reading, Robert

See ya Toronto

No, this isn't a post about the fading fortunes of the Maple Leafs.

This also isn't a post about no longer being a fan of the Blue Jays, although the Jays do have a part in it.

I received my latest order from Check out my cards.com today, and I was able to knock off the Blue Jays from the want list.  They are the 7th team to have all 50 cards present and accounted for.

Who better to be the 50th man, than Roy Halladay.

It's good to have another team off the list.   How good you ask?

So good that I'll devote the next two posts to two more teams that are going to hit the 50 mark with this order.

They're falling like dominoes....

thanks for reading, Robert

By the page: No excuses now

I'm hoping that 2015 will be the excuse to get my Jays out of the 5 row monster box and into pages/binders.

I must also mention that one of my wife's Christmas presents should also be the impetus to get this train rolling.   I received a couple of 2" binders, along with 2 boxes of pages to house these cards.

In other words, there's no excuses now.   I have the way, I just now have to find the will.  Let's start off with the 2nd by the page post featuring Roy Halladay.

Top row:  Stuff I'd like to see come back

Not only do these three cards feature Roy in the dark blues, they also feature things I'd like to see come back.

The green and blue borders that Topps featured in the early 2000's were two of my favorites, and I wouldn't be upset in the least to see colored borders on an upcoming flagship release.  I was always a fan of Fleer Ultra as well, right from its quirky inception back in 91 right up to its later releases. 

Yes, Topps needs a little bit of competition.

Middle row:  Lower price points

The MVP card was an easy choice for the center, my opinion of Roy is that he was the team's MVP for several years.  I doubt we'll ever see another set like Topps Total or Upper Deck 40 man, which is probably a good thing for a set chaser like myself, as the sheer size would probably end up frustrating me.

Bottom row:  Sleeveless

I don't know what it is, but I have always liked the sleeveless jerseys with the t-shirt underneath look.  I would not be upset if Toronto, or any other major league team, brought them back (does any MLB team feature this look anymore?). 

Another pretty good looking page of the Blue Jays hurler if I do say so myself.  Over time, I've got enough cards for at least a couple more pages of Halladay cards.   I'm 2 cards short right now of an all horizontal page, which will be an intriguing project for a post.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Let 2015 begin

I'm not going to go overboard with my card collecting resolutions this year.   There are a few things that I'd like to do, and if the last quarter of 2014 is any indication, I believe that I can complete and/or start these items.

1.  Finish the SNI project.

Good ol' Edwin Encarnacion is serial # 173, and is one of the 1294 cards that I have towards the set.  My next COMC delivery, which should be sometime next week, will knock the want list below 200 cards.  The final push is on, and I have a feeling that as the set nears completion things should get interesting. 

2.  Finish the 1964 Topps set

As of this writing, I still need 99 cards.  When I receive my next COMC order, that will drop to 90.
Forty out of the ninety are the dreaded high numbers.   A bargain hunting I will go.  It will be very nice to finish this set and be able to show it off sometime during 2015.

3.  Clean up/organize my player collections

Neglected for the past 2-3 months, I need to spend a weekend going through both my Thome and Sakic collections, and get them fully in order.  It's bad.

I also want to start a Brett Lawrie PC this year.  I can do this now that he's no longer a Blue Jay.   Yea, I'm weird like that.   Stay tuned.

If these three items don't keep me busy enough through 2015, then there's always other vintage sets such as '73 & '59 Topps to work on. 

First 3 things first.   Let's see if I can stick with that credo.

Have a great 2015 everyone.

Robert