Close no more

This is going to be a great week for me collection wise.  I received two boxes of cards yesterday, one from Julie at A Cracked Bat which I will share later on this week, and a second from COMC.  The COMC box is the one I want to start with this week because the order I placed helped finish not one, but two sets.

Yep, 2 sets off of the 68-86 Topps want list.  I'm down to 14 sets left to build, and outside of the '73 set which has been at 2 cards for over a year now, there really isn't anything close to being complete.

No matter, let's look at the cards that finished off the '85 Topps set first.

Yes, please ignore the Jim Rice at the bottom of the page, his was the "lone wolf" that I bought from the '84 set and I decided to scan him with the '85s.  Nothing was very expensive here, Hershiser's card was $1.25 and the rest were in the 60 to 99 cent range.  Finishing off this set was rather painless, and I now have them boxed and in the closet with the other complete sets.

Finishing off the '80 Topps was a little more costly, but as you'll see and read in a couple of minutes, the price tag was worth the cards that came with it.   These are the vertical cards, just 4 in total, and the Richard/Ryan card coming in at a very cheap 60 cents.

Nothing expensive here either, as these 4 all came home for less than $3 total.  A bit of a ding on the lower left corner of Graig Nettles, but that can get upgraded in the future.

Of the last 14, the Rickey Henderson RC cost the most (naturally), but I was still able to buy it for just under $10, a steal for that card.  I don't deny that I've been very lucky with building sets lately, as I've been able to find large $$ cards for cheap.  

I've been trying to do the same thing with the Mike Schmidt RC for over a year now, but I've had no luck.  It's been tough to find a nice copy of that card for a decent price.   Just imagine how patient I'll have to be when I start looking for the big name rookies in the 68 and 69 Topps sets...

For now, it's great to be able to say that these sets are done, instead of close to being done.

Thanks for reading, Robert

A Go between

One of the most satisfying things about blogging lately have been the compliments I've received.  I don't fish for them, writing as often as I can has been it's own reward over the years.  I've had people write me emails that don't blog with cards from my want lists, wanting very little in return.  

As many of you have said over the years, card collectors are the best. 

I've posted a couple times within the past month about trades with Bill (TCDB ID minibbcards) and his appreciation for A&G minis.  I received an email recently regarding those posts from Jim, aka Mr. Haverkamp, asking for Bill's email address so he could initiate a swap.  (Hopefully that trade went well)

Once I provided the email address (with permission of course), Jim let me know that he had a few cards to send my way as well.

Right away, I was pretty sure that when I opened the envelope that all 6 cards were on want lists.  The 3 '05 Cracker Jack cards finished off that portion of the Blue Jays want list.  The Eduardo Escobar was needed, and is the first card I've marked off the 2017 Heritage want list in quite a while.  The Henderson and Brett from the '85 Topps list drop that down to 6, all of which are on their way from COMC as I write this.

Jim, thank you for the cards, they really are appreciated!!  Not too shabby for being a go between.

Thanks for reading, Robert

I've been busy

Haven't written a post in over two weeks, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy with the collection.  Just the opposite.

I've really spent some quality time on the Trading Card Database website, updating my trade list/want lists, and have actually completed a few trades this week.  Have some posts later this week to chronicle those.

Today's post centers on my quest to find a decent dealer on sportlots.  I've had to knock a couple of my go to sellers off due to poor performances recently.  I decided to try another seller, greenie2, with a 20 card commons order to see how they handled the transaction.

I was impressed...

My 1985 Topps set is pretty much completed, as the remainder of my want list is in my COMC cart.  These 5 cards I was able to find for a quarter or less apiece, so I saved about $2 altogether compared to COMC. 

Same with the 1980 set.  These were all priced at the 18 cent minimum, and knocked 8 cards off the '80T want list.   The remainder of the cards I need, except for the Rickey Henderson RC, are also in my COMC cart.  So today's card show will hopefully turn up a good Rickey RC at a decent price, and I can put this set to bed as well.

I didn't want to be too cheap for the first purchase with a new seller, so I added 7 1982 Topps commons to the list.  I have a very long way to go for this set, as these 7 put me just over 20% complete. 

What impressed me about this seller was the speed (had the cards in less than a week, including the holiday), and the packaging.  The seller used cardboard cutouts to protect the brick of cards, perfectly I might add.  It's been a while since I've seen anyone take that much care in shipping.

So while I haven't been posting on the blog at all for a little over 2 weeks, the piles on the desk are starting to grow.   This means I'll be writing some posts over the next few days.

Try to keep the groans to a minimum...OK?

Thanks for reading, Robert

Close and Closer

It finally happened.  I got stiffed on a Sportlots order.  It kind of surprised me that the order never came, as I had used that particular seller a few times in the past.

What bothered me the most is that the seller lied.   Don't mark an order as shipped when you haven't shipped the cards.  2 weeks later nothing had arrived so I filed a non-receipt complaint (for lack of a better word).   The shipper asks for 5 more days, which really just delayed the inevitable fact that they weren't going to fulfill the order.

So, I used that money and added a bit more this past week to chop down 2 1980's Topps want lists down to pretty low numbers.

First off, I knocked 30 cards off of the 1980 list....

Not a lot of huge names, but some of them you'll recognize, such as Lou Piniella and Ron Guidry of the Yankees, along with co-rookie of the year John Castino of the Twins.  I remembered that Matt Keough had some rough years at the beginning of his career with the A's, so I turned the card over and learned that he was originally an infielder in the minors, hitting over .300 in 1975 before being converted to a pitcher.  His '79 season was a forgettable one, with an ERA just over 5.00 and a 2-17 W/L record.

These 18, plus 12 other cards brought the 1980 want list down to just 22 cards.  Number 482 is on that list, which means I still need the Rickey Henderson RC.  Once I have that in hand it'll all be down hill from there.

That set is close to being complete.   The 1985 Topps set is even closer.

For me, it was disappointing that I had to buy 3 Blue Jay cards from the set.  With the seemingly half million Blue Jays dupes I have hanging around, Fernandez, Bell and Stieb were all part of this purchase.  As you can see as well, there were some more notable names in this group.

I didn't bother scanning all 47 cards, but among the 29 you don't see here are names such as Garvey, Strawberry, Molitor, Gibson and Schmidt.  That want list is now down to 13 cards.  Maybe this coming weekend I'll just hop onto COMC and finish that set off.

I don't know if I should be as surprised as I am that I'm this close to finishing these sets already.  The cards seem to be quite easy to come by in large lots, so I guess I really shouldn't be.

It'll be nice to finish these 2 sets, and hopefully knock off a couple of more late 70's/early 80's sets by the end of the year.   We'll see how that goes....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Monthly card show spoils: 7 for 30

The last few times that I've hit the monthly card show I've gone for quantity.  Trying to come home with as many cards as I could for as cheap as possible.   That attitude has knocked off quite a few cards off of the want list recently.

Yesterday's show was going to be the same.  Hit some dime or quarter boxes and try and knock off some more cards.  A funny thing happened though.

There weren't any dime or quarter boxes.   That is rare for this show.  So I decided to go and hit up my vintage dealer to see if he had any 59's for me.   I got to his table and couldn't hit the 59 Topps box. 

Turns out I didn't need to, as he has another box that contained miscellaneous 70's and 80's goodies.  I only wound up buying 7 cards, but they featured some great players at great prices.

Both the '74 and '76 Topps set builds are at a point where I'm starting to get into the star card purchases.  I haven't looked in great detail at how many commons I still have to pick up, however I know that both want lists are below 200 cards and thus buying cards such as these will be a necessity.

The Yaz was $6 and the Carew was $2.   Not bad.

Both of these were $1, again not a bad buy in my opinion.   The 1980 want list is getting low, just 52 cards to go (including the Henderson RC).  The Seaver was one of the "hero numbers" that I still needed (#500).  The '81 Topps Stolen Base leaders card didn't make as big a dent into that want list as the Seaver did, as I still need over 400 cards to complete that set.  I might try and find a large/cheap lot of cards in the next couple of months to knock that list down some.

I mentioned last Sunday  that I had pulled in a nice lot of 1985 Topps cards for cheap.  In that post I also talked about needing 6 rookie cards that were listed in the Beckett price guide.   Yesterday I grabbed the 2 biggest names off of that list, plus another star player...

Purchased these three cards for $20.  Can't beat that if you ask me.

I walked into that show with a 400 count box to take a whole bunch of cards home.   That was the plan.  In the end, you can see it wasn't needed.  Not a bad haul for one week's worth of spending money.

Thanks for reading, Robert

25% of a set for $10

Before I started writing this post, I decided to take a quick look at the latest Beckett baseball magazine that I purchased (July/18) and see how much the 1985 Topps set is priced.

Was I surprised to see that the complete hand collated set is listed for $50.  Geez, a set with Clemens, Puckett and McGwire RC's is only $50?  Those 3 rookie cards that I just listed combined go for $47.

What I read is that the remainder of the set goes for $3.  789 cards for the price of a gallon of gas.  Just can't see it.

Well, in my quest to get the 80's portion of the 1968-86 Topps run completed, I stumbled into an ebay auction for singles, 3 cents apiece.  Can't say that I've ever seen that price anywhere, online or at a show.  You know I had to test it out.

So, I sent in an order for 195 cards.   The auction said $3.75 shipping for any amount of cards, so you know the seller is losing $$ on an order this size. 

The offer came back for $9.93.   With no delay, I hit accept and PayPal was sent. 

You just never know with a seller that you've not dealt with before how things are going to turn out.  Will the cards be in reasonably good shape?

Will the cards be packaged well.  Will everything that you asked for in the order arrive?

I did quite all right here.  The package didn't come postage due.  As you can see from the scans of the first 54 cards that they are all in good shape, and the time it took for them to arrive from NJ wasn't too bad (one day later than the anticipated arrival date).

I could have gone on with scanning all the cards, but if you really need to see them all, there's a blog that can quell that thirst here.

So pulling in the 195 cards in this package has my want list down to a very manageable 63 cards.  There are 6 listed RC's left on my list, Clemens, McGwire, Saberhagen, Davis, Hershiser and Gooden.  While writing this post I hit COMC and picked up the Saberhagen RC for 61 cents, so I feel pretty good about getting the rest for cheap as well.

To be honest, I still can't get over picking up a quarter of this set for just under $10. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

A bit of a bitch fest

I received an order from Sportlots earlier this week, actually it came the same day that I received the cards from CommishBob.

I was kind of excited about this 94 card order and was looking forward to receiving them.  I pulled from my mailbox a box of cards from Bob (just over 100 in total), shipped very well.   And I also received this...

This is an 8.5 x 11 white envelope.  No padding.   It would be something that you would receive documents in from say, a legal firm.  Not me.  I received 94 cards, without benefit of a top loader or any kind of protection.

I paid $6 premium shipping for this.   I get that people sell cards to make money, believe me I've been there myself.

I wouldn't do this to anyone.  Never.

AMAZINGLY, these cards arrived unscathed.

About 30 cards apiece for each of the 78, 84 and 85 sets were knocked off the want list.   Needless to say I have to find another seller though when I decide to knock another 100 or so cards off the list.

The moral of the story?  If you're going to charge someone $6 to ship them an order, at least try to spend more than half of it on the actual shipping charges. 

It's just good form.

Thanks for letting me bitch.   Robert

58 days

While this post automatically pops up on the blog, I will be watching the Maple Leafs live and in person down here in S. Florida as they take on the Panthers.   I figured that I would keep the run of posts I've been on going and do another post on the '85 Topps cards stack that is starting to dwindle.

No team cards, just manager cards in this group.  I only bothered to scan one of them, but it's a good one.

For you vintage collectors, doesn't Sparky's card remind you of manager cards from the 60's?  If he were to put a hand to his mouth and start yelling it would easily fit in to one of those 60's sets.

I decided to look up Anderson managerial record, and I see that he won manager of the year twice with the Tigers.   Did MLB not give out the award while he was managing in Cincinnati?  He was there 9 years, only had one losing season and in the other 8 finished either 1st or 2nd.  2194 wins ranks him 6th all time for managers, and the only active manager that's close to 2000 is Bruce Bochy with 1853 (Dusty Baker has 1863, but is not currently employed as a manager).

Had a helluva time when I was younger getting the spelling right on these guys names.  Pete Vuckovich shares a birthday with yours truly (he's 15 years older), and after his solid season in Toronto in 1977, he moved on to St. Louis and Milwaukee and won 70 games over 5 seasons, capping it off with a Cy Young for the Brewers in 1982.

I like these cards, part of a subset of 12 #1 overall picks.  Al Chambers didn't have quite the career that he would have wanted, only lasting parts of 3 seasons in Seattle before moving off to play in Mexico for a few seasons.  Still don't know how Harold Baines didn't get more votes for the HOF, 2839 hits is nothing to sneeze at.   Don't give me the DH crap, Edgar Martinez has over 1400 games out of his 1900 at DH and got 70% this year.

A trio of solid starting pitchers.  Does anyone see the warm up jackets with the players name on it like Steve Rogers is sporting? Hard to believe that with 16 wins and 5 shutouts, Mike Boddicker didn't win AL ROY in 1983, finishing 3rd behind Ron Kittle and Julio Franco.  This would be Tudor's only Topps card featuring him as a Pirate, as he would end up on the Cardinals in '85, winning 21 games with 10 (yes 10!) shutouts.  He also had a 1.93 ERA and a WHIP below 1, but didn't win the Cy Young! The Mets had some kid named Dwight Gooden with 24 games with a lower ERA and almost 100 more Ks, so I guess that's all right.

Had no remembrance that Howe was a Cardinal, I always remembered him as an Astro.  I also was surprised to read that he was a computer programmer back in 1971 when a friend encouraged him to attend a tryout camp.  Who knew that they had computers back in '71?

Here's Harold Baines again, along with his outfield partner Rudy Law.  Rudy was the speed merchant in that Sox outfield, stealing 77 bases one year.   1985 would be Dan Ford's last season in MLB, appearing in just 28 games with 1 homer.  Disco Dan sure did look cool in those shades though.

Dan's last season lasted just 51 days, which is 7 days less than the current streak I've got going.  

Still haven't purchased any packs of new product.  32 days to get me to the end of March and knocking off one of my year opening goals. 

Having giant stacks of cards from the early 80's come my way has made this a lot easier...

Thanks for reading, Robert

A little nervous

I've had these stacks of cards on my desk for a couple of weeks now and my posting schedule  (which has been lax lately) has gotten me nervous.  The taller stacks of 84 and 85 Topps are especially making me nervous, because I've vowed to show a bunch of cards on the blog and not just put them away to be forgotten.

So, in order to reduce the piles, we need to show some more cards.   1985 Topps is the choice tonight; knocking 50 more cards off of that want list will put that set at more than 25% complete.

Yogi looking trim in the pinstripes.  You hear all the names over the years; Mantle, DiMaggio, Ruth, Gehrig and Berra is right up there with all the legendary names when you think of the Yankees.  Is there anyone in the past 40 years outside of Derek Jeter that would be considered a legendary Yankee player?   Would love to hear thoughts on that...

The father and son cards in my opinion are a great idea.  I almost put the fathers in chronological order by accident, just reverse the Bell and Boone cards and I would have been all set.  Love the square haircut on Francona, that just screams the 50's and early 60's. 

A deep group of outfielders in this scan.  Was there ever any kind of look that George Foster had that didn't scream "don't mess with me".   Is there a centerfielder among these 6?  I wasn't sure about Ruppert Jones so I had to look up his stats on baseball reference, and it turns out he played CF for several years in Seattle, NY and San Diego.

This group of infielders would probably be better known for their bats and not their defense.  1985 would be the last full season in the bigs for Al Oliver, but he wouldn't see any time in Philly as he played for both the Dodgers and the Jays that year.  I always thought that Doug DeCinces was more of a big time power hitter, but he managed 237 homers during his career of 15 seasons.  Tom Herr would have a career year in 1985, finishing 5th in MVP voting and driving in 110 runs while hitting only 8 homers.  That St. Louis team was fast, Herr's 31 steals was tied for 4th on the team. 

I spoke too soon about Reynolds, upon looking at his stats he was more of a defensive stalwart, playing multiple positions while playing just over a decade in Houston.

Kudos to you if you can remember Lance Parrish finishing his career playing 70 games for Toronto in 1995.  Kudos to you if you remember Steve Yeager finishing his career playing 50 games for Seattle in 1986.  I'll always remember these 2 guys in the uniforms you see them in here.

Not a whole lot of star power among the half dozen pitchers you see here, but there are a few names that those of you who followed baseball in the 80's will recognize.  Honestly, just seeing all the classic uniforms (even the spring training duds on Al Holland) is just cool. 

Yea, I can see why the Night Owl devoted a whole blog to these cards....

thanks for reading, Robert

The first 50

You know, I could sit here for several hours over several days and put all these cards away that Adam sent me, but then if I did that, I wouldn't be sharing the joy of seeing some of these cards again.  Or for the first time.

So, I'm going to take the stacks and divide them into 50 card chunks.  Easier to write about, easier to scan and decide what I want to write about. 

The posts might be small, but they'll be more manageable.   I'll also be able to update my want lists slowly instead of going through several hundred cards at once and making mistakes (no doubt).

I've already put away the '89 Upper Deck cards and updated that want list, that set is down to 208 cards left.  I also stupidly put away the 1970 Topps cards before scanning them, but seeing that list drop by 61 cards was something that put a smile on my face.

So let's get started on the rest of the cards, shall we?  Let's start with 50 '85 Topps cards.

I pulled out a few of them....

Reading the backs of these record breakers cards was quite interesting.  Carlton Fisk catching all 25 innings in one game?!  Don Sutton striking out 100+ batters in 19 seasons.  Steve Garvey going over a full season without an error at first base.  Some great stuff here.  I don't know if Topps has any record breakers in this year's set, but if they don't they should find a way to include them in the future (yes I know that records aren't broken every day).

I've seen a couple of others mention bringing back manager cards.  Yea, I'm all for that as well.

• Padres brown tops with the yellow lettering.   Yes
• Powder blue Twins uniforms with the red batting helmet.   Yes Yes
• Pittsburgh with the gold tops, black pants and pill box caps.   Oh hell yes!

Bring em all back...oh and find someone in today's game that chokes up on a bat as much as Mickey Hatcher is in his photo.

Does anybody wear glasses on the field anymore?  I'm sure that some do, but I can't think of anyone who does right off hand.  Oh, and a team in Montreal?  You bet.  Toronto/Montreal games each year would sell a shit load of tickets in either city.

It's probably a cup of coffee, but I prefer to think of it as a Red Solo cup, which is what I thought it was at first.  Come on, I'm sure that there's one or two old school players that still have a belt or two in the clubhouse after games (or before depending on your preference).

So there's 14 of the first 50 I'm putting away tonight.  I'm going to try and push myself to get these posts up regularly over the next couple of weeks, mostly because I'm getting a bit anal about keeping my desk relatively clutter free, and these stacks are big.

thanks for reading, Robert

Stacks

I responded to a post a few weeks ago on the APRSmith's Sportscard Obsession blog about Adam wanting to move some cards.

I raised my hand and asked for some 82, 83 and 84 Topps starter lots if they were available.

Adam went to town.  Then some.  The stack of Blue Jays on the left wasn't even close to being the biggest pile of cards as you can plainly see.

I put about 100 of the '89 Upper Deck cards away (the clean white pile) before taking this picture.

You can see where my keyboard is on the right, it's actually been tough typing this post while not disturbing the stacks on my left.

The stack that I'm most excited about is the '70 Topps (2nd from the right).  That's 61 cards that I wasn't expecting which put a nice dent into that vintage set.  I actually toyed with the idea of abandoning the '70T build a few months back, but for some reason I persevered and now I'm over a third complete thanks to this lot.

The '84 Topps set is going from 18 cards in hand to about 18 cards left on the list (I don't know that yet, I'm just exaggerating to make a point) thanks to the giant stack 4th from the right.  '85 Topps also takes a big hit with the pile to the left of the '84.  There's also nice stacks of '79, '80 and '83 Topps as well.  I put all those want lists on the blog in the past couple of months thinking it might be a couple of years before I finish the run of Topps sets between 1978 and 1985.  Now I'm thinking it might happen by the end of the 2018 baseball season.

My guess?  My want lists just took about a 1500 card hit from this mailer that Adam sent.

Adam, there is no way I can thank you enough for the time and effort you put in to combing my want lists, it is truly appreciated!! (believe me, Adam had to have done a ton of work on this)

Time to hit Amazon to order some binders...

thanks for reading, Robert

Kirby for 80 cents

You just never know what you'll find at a card show.  I decided to head up to the West Palm Beach card show this morning to try and knock down some more of my want lists. 

I walked into the hall, hoping to see the same dealer I saw there last month; I had scored quite a few '90 Leaf and '89 UD cards, and was hoping to get another good deal this month.

Disappointment.  I walked in and his tables were empty.

There are 20 other tables at the show, so I figured I'd take a look around.  The 2nd table inside the door looked intriguing, as it had dime boxes.  So I sat down and started digging.

20 Heritage singles from '17:

A couple of '80 Topps cards

My 1981 want list saw 7 cards removed

Finally, I pulled 23 1982 Topps cards, with a few decent names mixed in.

So, there's $5.20 so far.  I didn't find anything else I wanted in the dime boxes, so I looked at the rest of his table.  Looking for something to maybe get me closer to $10.

I found this card.

Kirby Puckett RC.  I'm putting the 1985 Topps set together, I needed this card, so I figured it would round out my purchase nicely.

I handed the dealer the cards, he asked me what I had and I rang it off for him.  32 dime box cards, 20 Heritage singles and the Puckett RC.

I pulled a $20 bill out of my wallet expecting maybe 5 or 6 bucks in change.

The dealer says to me, "Six bucks".   Two months in a row, I find a great deal at the WPB show.   I did a lap of the other tables, but just couldn't bring myself to take a good look.  I joked to my wife when I got home that I probably spent more on gas getting there and back than I did at the show itself.

Eighty cents for a Kirby Puckett '85 Topps RC.  

Damn.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Quarters

For the longest time while attending card shows, it seemed as if I was going for cards/dealers that were selling cards for dollar/two dollar amounts.  I knocked a lot of cards off of my older set want lists, but there were times I came home with a bit of an empty feeling.  I'd spend 50-60 bucks, and end up with 20-30 cards. 

Last month was some great success in nickel boxes, this month was cards that cost a quarter.

I showed 10 cards last night from 1968-1970, and there's a bunch more I have to show today. 

All for 25 cents.

7 cards from the '79 Topps set.  If there is one card from my youth that is instantly recognizable, it's the 79T Goose Gossage card.  I pulled so many of those out of packs back in the day (all sadly gone), but that off balance follow through photo is stuck vividly in my head.

Three nice clean checklists for a quarter are a good find in my opinion.   Still a very long way to go to finish this set though.

Not much from the '78 set, but 3 decent star names and another clean checklist.   A dollar's worth of quarters.

Bits and pieces from 80, 81, 82 and 85.  Another Nolan Ryan card, I think that's the 3rd straight month I've brought home from a card show.  I also got some joy out of seeing a future stars card of Dan Quisenberry of the Royals. 

But, the big find for me at the show is the next couple of groups of cards.

First, 18 '72 Topps cards, each for a quarter.  I made one mistake, picking up the Royals rookie stars card when I already had it, but still this is a nice, unexpected dent to make in this set from quarter boxes.  Robert Barone's favorite player is a part of the '72 set as well, and he is pictured above. 

27 cards from my '74 Topps want list round out the group.  I managed to pull a couple of cards of players that became managers later on in their careers (Gaston and Alou), another who was a long time pitching coach (Stottlemyre), and another who was a long time broadcaster (Hutton).   Seeing Al Oliver's card made me do a Google search on his, and I found this website.  It was a very interesting read, and I learned something I didn't know about Al, that his father passed away the day he was called up to the majors. 

I just may hit the West Palm Beach show this weekend.   Gotta see if I can keep my run of card show frugality going...

Thanks for reading, Robert