Thirty eight to get me to eight

It's to the point now where I can smell it.   The end of the line for the '64 set is close.  I up and bought another 7 cards this week for the set off of eBay, and they arrived promptly at my doorstep in 3 days.  I can honestly say that the last few purchases I've made I've been really lucky.  The sellers have all been high quality that have been doing this a long time.

The 7 cards below from the baseball exchange are the latest examples:

More high numbers, picking up a couple of Mets for peanuts was an easy choice.   The cards are in great shape, and the backs are clean and not scratched.

$6 for Whitey and $5 for Johnny Podres were a couple more easy decisions.  Again, same as the Mets, great shape, clean scratch free backs.  I had seen several copies of Whitey in the $20-$30 range.  $6 is a lot easier...

Now the Hodges and Spahn cards were a pair that had frustrated me for a while.   Cheap copies were usually beat up pretty bad, and halfway decent copies were expensive.  Finding Hodges for $6 and Spahn for $8 (the most expensive card of this purchase) was somewhat of a miracle for me.

Finally, the team cards that I've needed in the high numbers (Red Sox and Dodgers) have been priced incredibly high.  I can never fathom paying $20+ for these cards, I just don't see the reason why they are so much.  So when I saw this for $6, bingo.

The 7 cards you see cost me $38, and yes that is a little more than a weeks worth of my budget.  But, I treated these as my birthday purchase (which fell yesterday) and to get the want list down to single digits (finally), I was more than glad to pony up the extra few bucks.

Hey, even my wife agreed that these were worth the money I spent!!  When that happens, I know I'm doing something right.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Still on a one per week pace

I had mentioned earlier this year that if I had picked up one card a week toward my 1964 Topps set, I could be done by the end of 2016.  Well, I did a little shopping on eBay over the weekend, and for $17 shipped, these 4 cards arrived yesterday.

The Chuck Schilling and Diego Segui cards are both from the 6th series, and the Don Mincher is from the higher numbered (and more expensive) 7th series.  $11 for the three cards was quite cheap, especially considering the condition of the Diego Segui card which is easily EX to EX-MT. 

For me, this Willie Stargell card was one that I've tried many times to get in auctions on the cheap, but failed.   I finally found one that I thought was in decent enough shape for a pretty good price ($6).  I grew up watching Stargell play 1st base for the Pirates, but he spent a good portion of the first decade of his career patrolling the outfield for the Bucs.  He must have been slimmer in those days.

Just 34 left.  There's more than 34 weeks left in the year.  So you're saying there's a chance....

thanks for reading, Robert

2 more '64s added

Been a busy week here.  Between an up and down work schedule and doing a bit of spring cleaning around the house, the blog has taken a back seat.  However, I received an eBay purchase this week that knocked off two more of the high numbers that I needed for the '64T set.

Both of them are in really nice condition.  I was especially pleased with the Bennie Daniels, which is the final card in the set, #587.

I hadn't heard of either of these players before, so a little investigating was in order.

Leon Wagner had a decent 12 year career in the bigs, between 1958 and 1969.  1964 was one of his best seasons, playing in 163(!) games, hitting 31 HR and driving in 100.  Interesting that he was traded after the 1960 season by the Cardinals to Toronto (in the old international league), and then traded again by Toronto to the Angels at the start of the 1961 season.  I can't remember seeing a trade between a MLB club and a minor league club occur in my lifetime, which made this little tidbit even more interesting to me. 

Daniels didn't have quite the career that Wagner did, playing in 9 seasons with the Pirates and the Senators between 1957-1965.  Daniels was a swing man for most of his career, starting and relieving for both clubs.   He had only one season with double digit wins, 12 in 1961.  Bennie finished his career with 45 wins and an ERA of 4.44.

These two cards give me a total of 440 in the house for the set, or 75% complete.  I've got my eye on a Hank Aaron auction right now, and if I'm lucky enough to win it that will give me one of the few big pieces that I still need to finish the set.

Here's hoping!

thanks for reading, Robert