What got me started

I've been writing the blog for 12 years now (haha I missed the blog's anniversary on July 23rd), and for most of that time I had no interest in vintage football.

Sure there was always the vintage hockey interest (I grew up in Canada) and over time the vintage baseball interest came along (the '64 set build helped create that love).

A few months back I stumbled across a '70 Topps football lot on eBay, and my current obsession has become older football sets.  I've been picking up pieces and parts at shows, on eBay and via the trade route on TCDB.

Unlike the baseball and hockey vintage sets which for the most part are pricing me out of completion, I don't believe the same thing is going to happen with football.  As I work on building these sets, I might end up proving myself wrong.  But for starters, I've been having fun acquiring some of the old stuff.

This set I do like, and I've been able to put almost half of it together already.  120 out of 263 are already in house, and I have a COMC order that will put the set over the halfway point.

This set has reminded of what the vintage sets should be.  Old cards.  For the most part, especially with baseball and hockey, I'll be very picky about what I add to the sets.  Most of the cards that I acquire for 60's and 70's builds are usually EX-MT or better.  That can get pricey.

For the football stuff, especially 1972 and before, I'll accept the dinged corners, I'll see the creases that are there and accept the fact that that's how they should be.

I do stick to the hard and fast rule for my vintage, no paper loss.  Even I like to be able to read everything that is on the old card backs, which I'm loving for the football sets.  

It'll be a few weeks before I see my COMC order come in, and I'm looking forward to a pair of cards, Fran Tarkenton and Johnny Unitas '70 Topps.   Between the 2, I paid less than $10 total.  That isn't bad. 

Actually, at that price, this is fun!!

Robert 

Five and 5: Part 2

I came across an interesting poll just after the July 4th holiday on Twitter, and have been mulling a response for about a week now.

The tweet was from Ivan who runs the @WatchTheBreaks twitter account.  His poll asked the following question.

Has #TheHobby gotten better or worse in the past FIVE years?

The results were interesting.  317 people voted, and Worse got 51% of the vote while Better received 49%.  With the amount of bitching I see on twitter about cards and monopolies and all kinds of things, I thought the vote would have been more on the line of a 75-25 split.

I guess it depends on how you look at the question.  Do you look at it from the hobby as a whole perspective, or look at it from an individual perspective.

I tend to be more of a positive person, so I looked at it from the positive aspect.  The hobby is better for me now than it was 5 years ago.

Collecting modern cards has evolved to a point where I haven't bothered to put together any sets from 2018.  The only cards that I've bought from this year were for Blue Jays team sets or any of my player collections.

Panini didn't need to airbrush the Jays logo, pine tar took care of that chore

With fewer distractions, I have been focusing on putting together vintage sets more, which works out better because I can put more of my card budget towards vintage. 

Forget me for a minute, there's still a lot of positive things going on in the hobby.  People are chasing rookie cards now like they did 20 years ago.  Mike Trout RCs and Mookie Betts RCs are a couple of the hottest cards in the hobby now.   Don't forget Otani as well.   I see all kinds of people asking for LeBron James RCs, Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews in hockey, Saquon Barkley in football.  Since I started writing almost 7 years ago I don't remember a time during that period where RCs were as hot as they are now.

I also see a lot more generosity out there as well.  People donating cards to charities (Commons 4 Kids is one example).   People seem to be trading even more now for trading sake, not just matching dollar values to complete a deal.

I see people selling cards all over the place, twitter, ebay, sportlots, COMC and on message boards as well.  I'm sure that there are other avenues as well for a collector to buy a card.  For as much as people lament that the brick and mortar card shops are going the way of the dinosaur, there are plenty of avenues for collectors to get their hands on cards now. 

I'm sure that there have been plenty of podcasts and discussions so far during 2018 about how monopolies are ruining the hobby as a whole.  Do I think monopolies are good for collectors?  Absolutely not.  Are we as collectors going to be able to change that anytime soon?  Probably not.

But for me, there's only one thing I can do to protest what the monopolies are doing to the hobby.

Spend my money elsewhere.  

Lately, I've done that quite a bit.   I'm sure I'll keep on doing it for the foreseeable future.

I just choose to look at it from the positive side instead of the negative.

Thanks for reading, Robert

I now have more than I need

I hit the monthly card show on Saturday this time.  Backwards for me because I usually hit the show Friday night after work because the location is on my way home.  I decided to take my wife and our friends out Friday night for dinner instead. 

I also ran through the show on Saturday backwards as well.  I usually hit my vintage dealer first, grab the cards I want from him and take the rest of my money and look elsewhere.

This time, I hit the vintage dealer last.  I guess backwards worked for me, because for the first time since I started hitting this show a few months ago, he had '59 Topps commons, for a buck!

He always has stacks and stacks of cards for the '59 set, but they are usually $2 and up.   This time I figured would be no different than any other, so I started perusing the pile looking for maybe 10 cards for the '59 set.

So I start looking through the pile and find a couple of $1 commons and say to myself "score!".  Keep on looking, keep on finding dollar commons.   They're all in nice shape, no pen marks, nice condition all around for '59s.

In the end, I found 22 cards that were a buck apiece.   Best haul yet.  So much so, that I had no problem grabbing 6 of the rookie subset cards that I love so much.

Now I'm up to $35 worth of cards in my hands, so I figured I would grab one more semi star card, make the total around $40 or so, which I could certainly live with.

So I grab Mr. Kluszewski here for $6 and bring the pile over to him.   As always, he gives me a discount.   Instead of hearing $40 like I thought I would, he quoted $35!  Teddy K. wound up coming home basically for free, which you can't beat for anything.

The best part is, these 29 cards for the '59 Topps set means I'm a little more than halfway complete.  Yes, that's right, I now have 289 cards and only need 283 more.  I now have more than I need you could say.

I started the journey with this post back on September 26, 2014, and now just over 18 months later I'm halfway done.

With a boat load of star cards still to obtain, the other half of the set is going to probably take a little more than 18 months to complete.

Stay tuned....

thanks for reading, Robert

A return to blogging related activities

I always laugh when I see sports articles referring to injured players returning to "baseball related activities".  It just sounds so stupid to me.   I never have thought once that a returning athlete would be doing something like taking up the ballet, or learning to rumba.

For five days, as far as "blogging related activities" went, I did nothing.   OK, that's not entirely true, I did read a few of my favorite blogs regularly, and I took the time out to wish Brian congratulations on his 2000th post over at the great Play at the Plate blog. 

Did I think about my blog?  Yea, a couple of times.   But as far as editing want lists and trying to come up with something worthwhile to write (lol, yea, my stuff being considered worthwhile....), it was absolutely a no go.  But then for some reason, I sat down last night around 10:30 and started going through the pile of Jays cards on the desk and removing the corresponding cards from the want list.

It actually felt good to get away.  I actually put a lot of thought into what I want to do next on the blog over the past few days.  That amount of thought (yes I know, thinking just gets me into trouble) brought me to a couple of realizations.

1.  I really like my Blue Jays collection, but it's a little too overwhelming.  I have what amounts to a couple of thousand cards I need to put into binders.   Holy shit.  It made me realize that I have to draw the line on the Jays collecting for the foreseeable future.  So I drew a line.  A thin red line.  If you've looked at the Jays want list over the last few days, you've seen it. 

I'm not adding anything new below that line for the foreseeable future.  There's no need.   I have enough cards to chase above the line to keep me busy for a very long time.  Case in point, here's a card that I received today from Max at the Starting Nine blog (another one of my favorites).

You always have that one card in an envelope that just jumps right out and grabs you.  This was it.  Why?  Because I had not one damn clue what it was.  I knew it had to be from 1977, because that's the only season that Singer was in Toronto.

A little digging on the Trading Card Database revealed that this was my first Hostess card!!  Fabulous.  I've never had a really big appetite for food related issues, but this card may start to sway that a little bit.  Miscut? Who cares! 

2.  My love for "vintage" cards has grown exponentially.  Case in point.  I went to Wal-Mart on Sunday needing a few things for the house.  I hit the card aisle, and what do I see.   A few rack packs of Heritage, and a couple of blister packs of Bowman. 

I passed, very quickly.  Nothing from this year is exciting me at all.  I decided to save my money for the card show this weekend.  Vintage should be all over the place....I can't wait.

I decided to dig a little bit to see when I started talking seriously about putting together the '64 Topps set.   The post here is dated March 3, 2012.  2 years and 2 months since I really started working on this set, and the interest is still strong.  Not like newer releases that I started and watched as they became stale when I couldn't/didn't want to finish them. 

I've also had a blast finishing the '75 and '77 Topps sets, and the '73 is a little over 90% complete.  I definitely want to keep going and complete a lot of the older sets.  That's where the blogosphere is going to come in.

I'm going to run a tournament, and let the blogosphere decide what my next set building project is.  I've seen other bloggers run stuff like this, and it's always been a favorite of mine, so I'm going to do one myself.

18 sets...1 eventual champion.  I will build the set, and keep everyone apprised when each card comes in.  That's the plan. 

I also plan to incorporate some kind of give away during the tournament.  I haven't done a whole lot of contests during the past year, so it's time again to give a little back to the hobby, and to those who have helped me enjoy it immensely since I started the blog.

Just imagine if a set like '60 Topps won...

572 of these cards being shown for your viewing pleasure...I think that would be great.

Keep an eye out, it's coming soon.

thanks for reading,  Robert

It's like throwing darts blindfolded

I admit it.  When I took down my Blue Jays want list, it made it difficult for people to figure out what I needed.  If you don't have something to reference, how do you know what to send?

I'm sure that people know I love the Jays, but when they endeavor to send me a package like A.J. from The Lost Collector did recently, it has to be like throwing darts blindfolded.

Unless you're Phil Taylor, it's quite difficult to hit a dartboard when you can't see it.  A.J. did quite well though...

He sent out some Finest

Need em all

How about some 80's??

Always I before E when spelling Stieb

A power hitter and a pitcher with a power slider.

Need em both...

You really don't hear the word vintage associated with the Blue Jays, but these two cards are as close as you're going to get...

Need em both...

Finally, a manu relic with the Blue Jays logo and Joey Bats on it is quite all right in my eyes

Chances are if I were to end up in a bar with A.J., I'd do my best to steer clear of the dartboard.

Thank you for the envelope A.J, very much appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

At least I can say that one of my 2013 goals is complete

I decided at the beginning of 2013 to set a bunch of collecting goals for myself, as a lot of other bloggers do.  In some cases, I've done all right with following them.  In other cases, they've been an absolute write off.  In hindsight, looking at what I set for myself at the onset of the year, I went a little overboard. 

I did manage to hit one of my goals today at the monthly card show.  I purchased nothing but vintage, and with the 12 cards I bought for the '64 set, I'm now over 60% complete.

The 12 cards I bought worked out to a 6-6 split.

Here's the 6 low numbers...

I was happy to pickup another of the leaders cards that start the set off.  I only need three more to complete the leaders set. I also decided to grab cards today that were in better condition than the VG level I've been picking a lot of lately.  Naturally, they cost a little more, but they were worth it. 

I also picked up 6 high number cards, 4 semi highs and 2 of the high number cards.

I always like looking at the rookie cards and seeing what players accomplished during their careers.  The name Paul Speckenbach was one that I had never heard of before, and for good reason.  I did a Google search of his name, and the 6th entry was none other than GCRL's post about him just over 3 years ago.  Wayne Schurr only pitched 1 season in the majors.  In 1964 he pitched in 26 games and had no record.  There is a quick post about him as well over at the Great 1965 Topps Project blog. 

I also decided to grab a few more '62s today, 10 altogether.  Here's the best of the bunch...

I think the the win leaders card is the first Warren Spahn card that I own.  I have tried to pick up any of the Alou brothers cards quickly when I see them on the cheap.  A poor man doesn't like to spend a lot of cash on Cash, and getting the All-Star card for $2 was something I couldn't pass up.  I haven't really attacked the 62 set with any gusto, but with the 10 cards I picked up today, I'm just over 10% complete.  A long way to go, but there's no hurry with this set.

Today might be the first time ever that I went to a card show with an actual plan, and stuck to it.  I didn't purchase a card newer than 1973.

Let's see if I can make it two shows in a row next weekend.  Since I will spend two days walking around the Expo, I'm sure that at one time or another, I'll lose my way.

But what a way to go....

Thanks for reading, Robert

More card show goodness

'75 Topps wasn't the only vintage set on my mind at the card show.  I still had a lot of unfinished business with a couple of earlier sets that I wanted to tackle.

I didn't grab as much as I would have liked from the '73 set, but I did manage to knock 16 cards from that want list.

 

It's more fun for me when I actually remember some of the names that I pick up.  Burt "Happy" Hooton is one example.  It's even more interesting because I only remembered Hooton as a Dodger.   Did you know that Burt's middle name is the last name of another great pitcher....Carlton.

Same thing here.  I have many memories of Ben Oglivie beating up on the Blue Jays as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers in the late 70's and into the 80's.  It's fun listening to Steve Blass on Pirates telecasts talking about the prodigious home runs that Bob Robertson used to hit.  It's good to finally put a face to the name that he's always mentioning.  And yes, the airbrushed "p" on Cesar Tovar is unfinished and a little crooked. 

When I hit my vintage table, the first thing the dealer did after we exchanged our hellos and how was your summers was reach for these 4 cards.

4 high numbers from the '64 set!  I don't have a whole lot of these yet, because they are very pricey.  But for $9, these 4 came home with me.  I had to make sure that was the same Rick Wise that I remembered pitching for the Indians in the late 70's, and sure enough it was.  That picture is him as an 18 year old rookie in '64.

These weren't the only 4 that I purchased from the '64 set on Saturday.  In total, 19 more cards found their way into my pile.

the checklist is marked up on both sides, but for a quarter, I figured why not.  I saw the name Marty Keough and wondered if he was Matt Keough's dad, sure enough my suspicion was correct.  Don't know who Matt Keough is?  Well Matt pitched for the A's in the late 70's and early 80's and didn't have the best of luck.  Matt finished 2-17 in 1979, and led the junior circuit in earned runs/home runs allowed in 1982.  On the flip side, Matt was part of the rotation in 1980 that didn't see one of their starters finish with an ERA over 4, and the oldest pitcher on the starting staff was just 28 (Rick Langford).

Is it just me, or does the Mets team card look as if the players are kind of sliding down hill from left to right?   With these 19 cards, I'm only 24 cards shy of hitting my goal of 60% complete by the end of the year. 

I didn't come home with as many cards as I had in the past, but as the checklists for my sets wind down, the prices go up.  There's always a trade off....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Good grief

This is what happens when you can't believe your luck at a card show.

I had had good luck earlier in the show with picking up '64 Topps cards, and the 2nd to last table I visited was no exception.

Then I noticed this on Monday evening...

Doh!  Oh well, I can always replace it later.  Damn waste of a really nice vintage card.

The real McCoy's are coming up next post...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Beat up vintage is still cool

It's history folks, plain and simple.  What's funny for me is, in high school, I hated  history.  With the white hot passion of a 1000 suns.

There were only two reasons I took a history course in college.  One, I required a humanities credit.  Two, there was a tremendous looking brunette in the class.  Of course, I wound up with a D because it was hard to focus, if you get my drift.

But I digress....

Cards like this that I picked up at last years November Expo in Toronto for $5 remind me of why beat up cards from the past are great.

 

Pants pocket?  Someone sat on it?  Who knows.  It's the RC of a Hall of Fame center that I got on the cheap.

Sometimes, someone sends you a card that reminds you that even older beat up cards are cool as well.

No, he didn't sing for the Doors

It appears that somebody taped this baby to a page.  Still, it's great to me.

How about a nicely folded '57 Topps baseball card as an example?

It's amazing how we tolerate a beat up card like this because it's approaching 60 years of age, but if someone approached you with a rookie card from the last decade that had a slight imperfection, the look of disdain would be quite evident.

Beat up vintage is cool, because we don't expect as much from older cards as we do the newer ones that come out.  The days of storing cards in shoe boxes wrapped in giant rubber bands are gone.

Sometimes, I wish the rubber bands would come back.  At least these piles on my desk would have less of a chance of falling if they were wrapped in rubber.

Thanks for reading, Robert

A man sized cup

Whatever happened to the good old days, when men sported cups that were large and long???

1965 Topps # 305

Now Rico Carty has a cup that anyone would be proud of.

Fast forward to 2013, and I guess the cup budget isn't what it used to be.

Bryce's big hair I'm sure makes up for the lack of cup size.

Yes, a poor attempt at humor, I know. 

Thanks for reading anyhow, Robert

My first color TV

I had a blast at the monthly card show on Saturday.  Found all kinds of goodies to add to the collection.  But I found one card in a box that had everything marked down. 

When you can get a color TV for $1.25, you can't pass it up, right?

My first '55 Bowman card, #220 Jim Hearn of the New York Giants. 

I don't recall if I've ever seen a '55 Bowman before.  I probably have, but likely overlooked it while hunting for other cards. 

This card just helps to reaffirm my love for vintage.  The less said, the better.

Thanks for reading, Robert

I guess it all just comes down to -age

I often kid with a lot of people about my age.  To be honest, I don't consider myself old really (I'm 45), but there are little telltale signs of my advancement towards middle age.

My last eye test a couple of years ago revealed that bifocals were needed..."welcome to middle age" said the eye doctor.  

My father called me back in October to wish me a happy birthday, and the first sentence out of his mouth after wishing me happy birthday was "you're getting old son!!".  You know you're getting old when your dad tells you that.

I trimmed the goatee last weekend, and noticed that instead of a few gray patches here and there, about 90% of it is now white.  Man, that was fast.

Maybe all of these were a precursor to how I've decided to collect this year.  The two primary ways that I planned to add to my collection this year ended in -age...

Vintage....Heritage...it's crazy what you notice sometimes when you actually sit down and think, isn't it?

It's been interesting to read the "tweets" the last couple of days, as Topps has released their 1st series checklist.  The buzz is starting to grow in anticipation of the 2013 Series 1 release....

Not me, I'm waiting for Heritage this year.  As you know, the '64 design is one that I really like, and it's featured in this year's set...

Image first posted on mybaseballcardblog.com  post dated 9/14/2012

This is likely the only baseball set I will put together from the 2013 releases, and I'm actually kind of excited waiting for it. 

I'm also looking forward to completing my '77 set, which is less than 60 cards from completion.

I also have a good head start now on the '73, '75 and '76 Topps sets as well, I'm hoping to come close to finishing those this year, as well as getting a start on the '70 set as well...

I don't remember the Padres unis ever looking like this

We're two weeks into the new year, and I've done well so far with my card purchases, sticking to the resolutions I made for myself. 

Completing sets I've been working on for a while, and working on the vintage sets that I've started.

Only 349 days left in the year, I should be able to hold on to those resolutions....

The Vegas line is 100-1 against me keeping them by the way....

thanks for reading, Robert

Well loved 40 years ago versus well loved now

As I mentioned on last night's post, there were a few cards in the lot that Brian from the Triple C (shortened because I'm lazy) blog that you could definitely consider "well loved".  I sat here at my computer and thought to myself...

40 year old cards...well loved...collectors usually love them.  There's a story behind them.

40 day old cards....well loved....collectors probably would spit on them.  These are new!!  What the hell!!

I thought that kind of odd.   So I enlisted my better half to perform an experiment.   First, here's some of the well loved '73 cards for your amusement.


First, here is Jim Brewer, card # 126.  Do not confuse him with "Goat Boy" Jim Breuer (Video has some language  NSFW).

Kind of tame as far as well loved goes.  Some creases, corners damaged.

Next up is Gerry (don't call him Holy) Moses.  Card # 431

Still corner damage, especially lower left, but now this one is off center and has paper loss in the upper left hand corner. 

Next up is Larry Gura, card # 501.  This is about as tame as they get when it comes to well loved in this group.

I checked.  Larry never played 3rd base in the bigs.  Nor did he wear the number 38.  Would love to hear why the lettering/numbering appeared on the card....

Next up is Dave Roberts, card # 39.  It appears that Dave will not have to shave as much anymore.

Maybe he could have auditioned for a part in the movie "Face off" ??

Finally, this is as extreme as it gets for well loved.   Tommy John, card # 258

Combination of through the bike spokes and through the laundry (maybe more than once).  Well loved indeed!!

Now, let's compare to some well loved, but not quite as old cards.  Our next 3 examples come from the 2011 and 2012 Topps flagship sets.  Thank you to my wife Jane for her great creativity with these cards, especially since she had very little time to perform some "magic".


First, let's start with Miguel Tejada, Card US322 from the 2011 Update set.

My wife tried to give Miguel a mustache.  Didn't work out quite the way she wanted it. You can't see the 3 dimensions of the card, but it was starting to resemble a pyramid when it was returned to me.

Next up is Gaby Sanchez, card US 321, also from 2011 Update

You can plainly see that Gaby now has antennae coming from his helmet, much like the Great Gazoo did many years ago in the Flintstones.  A great crease along the middle of the card accentuates the ball like scratch on the left hand side just below Gaby's elbow.

Finally, we have Matt Holliday, card # 320 from 2012 Series 1.

They are impossible to see, but both Lance Berkman and Matt Holliday are suffering from paper clip scratches.  The paper loss in the upper right hand  corner is of course taboo for a one year old card, right?

1973?  2011/12?  Which well loved cards do you prefer? 

The modern cards have a back story now.  

I'll let you decide.

thanks for reading, Robert

Another reason why "well loved" vintage is preferred

I've recently jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.  (@RMitchell2767 if you do want to know my ID, or whatever it's called..)  My tweets are usually nothing outstanding, since I just use the site for informational purposes (and to follow the myriad of bloggers out there tweeting).

I did find one tweet on Wednesday that really piqued my interest.  The tweet linked to an article on the Sports Collector Daily website that mentioned another technique used to alter cards, bleaching.

I've heard about, and seen cards that have been trimmed to remove any noticeable edge chipping or corner wear, but bleaching?  Using chemicals to remove dirt or hide the effects of aging is something that I'd never heard of, but now that I've read the article it just doesn't surprise me.

Now that I know this, I feel even better when I pickup cards that have backs that look like this...

Or cards from 1960 with a nice crease on the front like this...

the yellow letters actually stand out more on the scan

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not going out to find every beat up card in existence when buying cards for a vintage set.  I'm sure that everyone out there has their own dealer(s) that they trust to sell them cards that are free from any tampering.

But in a world where people are always looking to make a buck, you just never know. 

I may never look at a bottle of Clorox the same way again... (yes, I know that bleaching doesn't necessarily mean using bleach...work with me here..)

Thanks for reading, Robert

Group breaks, card drafts and PEDs oh my!!

While enjoying the spoils of a couple of card drafts and a group break this evening, I decided to look a little harder at the cards I received from Wes, Greg and Matt and see if there were any tidbits in there that I could share.

Sure enough.

I found a couple of cards of guys who all of a sudden have become trendsetters and they didn't even know it.

why guys with their ability felt they needed to.....nevermind

I also found a couple of guys who weren't allowed to root for each other during a baseball game.

Let's go 'Dre!!!

I found another guy who may have been one of the top 5 pitchers in the NL before the break, but now should have a missing persons report filed on him...

Come back James, the Buccos need you!

This card is of a man who left this Earth way too soon..and is of a set that would be the only one that I would collect if I got back into football.

How many times did you see this during his playing days??

Moving on to the sport of hockey, I was very happy that Matt was very generous and sent me a couple of extras to ease the sting of my poor luck in his group break.  This Dion Phaneuf is a great addition for me, but it also led me to ask 2 questions...

Matt, thank you for the extras!!!

1.  When did the Leafs have brown in their unis?
2.  Was it a sign when the person who designed this card actually cut out the groin area of the picture to insert the swatch?

The next time you wonder about the reasons why we are going to experience another lockout in the NHL this year, take a look at this guy's contract as one of the reasons. 

12 years, $64 million contract for a 31 year old goalie...and it's the players that have to bite the bullet...

Now that I've regaled you with a bunch of cards from the present and made a little light of the current state of sports, let's enjoy a little bit of the past....who doesn't like vintage??

All well loved, just like a lot of 60's cards

Wonder if these guys ever thought they would hear the terms collective bargaining agreement, performance enhancing drugs or albatross contracts.

Nah, they were just having fun playing the game they loved.

Thanks for reading, Robert