How would you "grade" this?

OK, I've done enough trade posts and I bought this off of COMC or Sportlots or wherever to last me a while.  I have had this card on my desk for a week or two now, and thought a lot about it.

Let me correct myself first, this is one of the cards from my last COMC order.  It is a checklist card and was something I bought when I was hitting up team checklists from a couple of baseball sets I'm working on.   It cost me just 57 cents, but I've done more thinking on this particular card over the past few days, than most of the other cards I own, surprisingly so.   Let me tell you why.

First, let's introduce you to the card.  1978-79 OPC hockey card # 297.

Not a bad looking checklist if you ask me.  Normal rough edge OPC cut, not something to be terribly concerned with.  80-20 centering, roughly?  Not a huge deal either, right?

Here's the back.

Almost the exact same on the back, centering, edges, etc.  I liked this card so much that I thought 57 cents was a steal to be honest.

Now here comes my question.

How would you grade this card?  I know a lot of us out there when picking up older cards at shows or online, get a first impression on a card and say "that card to me is (insert grade)".

Why have I brought this up?  Well, on COMC this card was graded "poor to fair".  To me, that's a bit off.  Yes, I'm sure that the big thing on this is that the boxes are marked.  But look at it.  Both sides.

I think that the person who originally marked this card took good care to mark it so that it didn't look shabby.  To me, the only "poor" part is that the collector didn't get the Bill McKenzie (front) or the Jim Roberts (back) cards marked.   To think he was 2 cards away!!

Would love to hear your comments about this.   Give me your first instinct, how would you grade this and why.  I'm on the VG level for this card.  But that's me.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Royals doubles

While surfing card twitter one night last week, I came across a conversation between AJ from the Lost Collector blog and Matt (Twitter ID:@jmswyo) talking about TCDB and how Matt had just started on there.

Matt's a KC Royals collector, so I interjected my 2 cents and advised him that there may be a few Royals on my trade list he might need.   Next day, I had an offer waiting for me.  Nice!

No doubt that these 4 cards are doubles, as I'm sure I wouldn't have them if that weren't the case.

Nice vintage mix here!  All of them in nice shape, nothing too glamorous but definitely good enough for this guy.  Jim Campanis from the '70 set is especially good since his card # 671 is one of those dreaded high numbers I'll need to start chasing eventually (there's 86 of them...ugh!).  Two '72s and a '69 rounded out the vintage.

I really need to get back on the '69 train eventually, I love that set very much but have been slow to get rolling on it.  I just hit the 200 card mark this week.

Even the Ichiro Matt sent me is blue!!

I'm glad that I've finally figured out the scanning problems...love this scan!

2016 Gypsy Queen blue framed parallel in hand brings the Ichiro collection up to 243 cards, a mere blip on the mega amount of cards that he has out there.   I'm still having fun though adding cards here and there of the superstar.  One day I'll have to maybe pick up an auto or a jersey card or two.  His is the largest player PC I have that doesn't contain a hit.

Matt's TCDB ID is the same as his twitter, jmswyo, and he comes recommended highly.  Thank you for the cards Matt, they are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

2 by 2

It's been a pattern lately.  Trades, or generous offerings, coming in PWE's that contain just 2 cards.  People say size matters, and it does to some, but you know what, sometimes smaller offerings can make a difference as well.

Two cards, from two different bloggers, via two different methods of communication.  Too much!!

Another quick trade with Colbey from the Cardboard Collections blog netted me a pair of the 1985 Topps inserts from this year's set.  Try not to ugh too loudly, but after a failed attempt to chase the 1984 inserts from last year (failed meaning never got started after I said I would), I've put up a want list for the '85s on TCDB.

Yes, it is adding more to the already bloated amount of cards that I want, but I've been so happy with the number of sets I've knocked off so far this year, that I decided to add something a little frivolous.

Scanner skills quickly improving!!

My man Jon from the Penny Sleeves blog sent me a message on Twitter asking if I needed the T.Y. Hilton barber pole parallel from 2015 Prizm.  Of course I needed it, I still only have about 60 cards for Hilton, so Jon said he'd find something else and send it off to me.

Little did I know, Jeremy Lin #'d to 99 on the left of the scan would be the mate in the envelope.  The 14-15 Artist Proof from Hoops becomes the 39th card in the #'d to 99 PC, much better than I ever thought I'd do so soon.

Colbey and Jon, thank you both very much for the cards, they really are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

3 down, 7 to go

Part of the COMC order that I've talked about for a couple of days was the final 14 cards from the 1983 Topps baseball set.  This falls inline with my first of the year post which defined the order of my set completions for 2020.

I started putting the cards away before realizing that I needed to write this post, so I took a half dozen of the cards that were still out and gave them a quick scan...

Not too bad a group of 6 cards, wouldn't you say?   As with most of the sets that I have that are close to the finish, most of the remaining cards are of the star variety.  All Stars in 3 cases here.

Now that '83 is complete, the next two sets in order are also very close to completion.   Both of them were also part of this COMC order.

More stars as part of the '79 final countdown, as I bought a dozen of these.  I'm finally down to just one card to finish up this set, and that's the Ozzie Smith RC.  By the time this posts, I may have already bought it, depending on whether I can find one online for a good price.  I don't want to have to wait until the monthly card show in 2 weeks to finish this off.

Once I get Ozzie bought, I'll go after the final two cards of....

2012-13 O-Pee-Chee hockey.  I've been trying to knock down the want lists of the remaining sets in the list of 10 while finishing the sets at the top.  These 4 SPs leave me with just 2 to go, both of them fairly inexpensive so once I complete the next order on COMC, I'll have 5 out of the 10 completed.

Two months into 2020, I'm very happy with how I've progressed so far.  Staying on course has always been difficult for me, as I just end up finding so many distractions.

We'll see what happens when it's '73 Topps' turn to be finished...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

A piece here, a piece there, and a six pack

First off, wanted to bring up my recent experience with COMC.  I had mentioned previously that I sent a question regarding the shipment (or lack of) of my cards.  I did mention that COMC managed to get my cards out the same day that I sent my follow up request, so no worries there.  Now, interesting to me was how it arrived to my house.

The order was just over 50 cards.  I've ordered this amount a couple of times in the past, and received a bubble mailer.  It's what you would expect, as the order wasn't really that large.  But much to my surprise, when I opened the mail box on Friday and found a box of cards.  A 400 count box!!  A bit of overkill in my opinion, maybe they felt bad and sent a box as a gesture.  I don't know, but I guess I can count myself lucky to have an extra storage box.

As what's going to be the norm of my future COMC purchases, I've begun picking at some sets.  Card by card, one each from the following sets...

1959 Topps.  Still a long way to go, 95 cards to finish the set.  But I don't expect to finish this off for quite a while, so 1 at a time is good enough for me.  Orlando Pena cost me just 89 cents, which is probably cheaper than most of the other cards I need to finish the set.  But buying one at a time keeps the set in my mind until I get around to focusing more on it.

1972 Topps still has over 300 cards on my want list, but I've heard all the "watch out for the pricey higher numbered cards" discussions, so I figured I'd start in at least on the semi-high numbers.  Chuck Dobson cost me only 65 cents, and again, sticking with one of these per order until I get around to working on this will reduce the want list, even if it is only gradually.

Now the Dave Winfield RC you see here didn't cost me less than a buck, but for just under $15 I have the other big rookie card I needed for my '74 Topps set.  There aren't any really high $ RC's left on my 85 card want list (Bucky Dent and Manny Trillo are the only "names" left), but there's plenty of star power on the list still to pick up.  This is on the radar during 2020 and there's only a handful of sets to go before we focus on this one...

1976 Topps is next up, and as you'll see tomorrow, '83T is done, and I've also finished '79T and 2012-13 OPC hockey this weekend.  Aside from the Monge/Lerch RC in the upper right corner, lots of big names on these 6 cards, and there's still a few more names to go.  But with just 13 cards to go, I'm hoping to have this done by the time the April card show rolls around.  Once this is done, then it's time for '73 Topps.

Oh baby....

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Serial Saturday #32: Shameless

I usually don't make it a point of writing to companies customer service departments.  More often than not, you get the stock email back.  You know the one "we're working to fix your problem, there's nothing else you can do at this point".  No kidding right?  People are looking for you to do something to fix it, and fix it quick.

Well, I actually wrote to COMC's customer service this week.  Kind of shameless really, as I wanted my cards that the site said would be shipped on the 21st.  Tuesday was the 25th, and no notice from them that the cards had shipped, so I fired off a quick email.  I actually received a fairly quick response a few hours later.   COMC stated that they had received an unusually high number of shipment requests, and were backlogged.   OK, fair enough I thought.

Later on Tuesday, my order was boxed up (more on that tomorrow) and yesterday my cards were in hand!

This was a small order for me, just over 50 cards, and only 5 of them met my serial #'d needs.  All 5  were for various player collections.

I'm up to 6 out of my 500+ Jim Thome card collection from the Moments and Milestones set.

I truly do have mixed emotions about the Moments and Milestones cards from 2008.  They fit my serial #'d wants yes, but there's so many of them (I think there's over 450 for Thome alone) and multiple colors that it's a daunting task to go after them.  So, I'll end up just maybe grabbing one here and there to scratch the itch.

The T.Y. Hilton collection is really still in its infancy, with only 59 cards in hand before adding these 2.  The orange die cut from Prizm on the left is one that I especially liked.  I bought a couple of packs of Donruss football back in 2016, and liked the design that's featured on the right, but never did chase the set.  Smart...too much going on around here.

Most of my serial #'d cards that have come in over the past couple of months have been Panini parallels, so picking up a Topps product is a nice change. The Museum Collection card on the left I believe is the first one that I own, and the Sapphire Blue parallel looks very nice in hand.  I decided to check and see if he was gong to be ready by Opening Day, but this report says that he's likely to start the season on the IL.

Yes, in the end my request to have my cards might have been shameless, but I learned that sometimes you just have to grease the squeaky wheel in order for something to happen.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert