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

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