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

You never know what you'll miss until you look closely at a card

One thing that I've learned over the past 2 years is to look closely at a card, because you'll never know what you'll miss.

This might be the most boring card you'll see on the blog today, but it still struck me as interesting for the irony (if you can call it that).

I bought this 1970 Topps checklist as part of a lot a while ago.  I took another good look at it, and I decided that you should "check" it out.

Here's the front:

Clean as a whistle, corners in OK shape, a nice looking front for a 43 year old checklist card.

Take a look at the back:

The only mark on the entire card, is beside card 244, the checklist for the 3rd series.

I wonder if the person who owned this card previously knew that this was card 128, not 244.

OK, so it struck me as funny....

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

Forgotten, but still around.

I stated many times on the blog over the past year my love of the 2008 UD Masterpieces set.  I remember the joy I felt the day I finished it.

I remember how much I loved the captured on canvas jersey cards.  I loved them so much that I started to collect them.

Then all of a sudden, I stopped.  Other ideas and sets came along that kind of pushed this project to the side.  But you may or may not have noticed, the tab at the top of the page did not disappear.  I still have either 64 or 65 more of these to go, depending on whether the Yunel Escobar card actually exists.

I was actually reminded about this set 10 days ago because of a couple of emails that were sent to me by Tom Slowey (thank you for those again Tom) with some interesting tidbits about the set.  Tom is the one who informed me that the Escobar was replaced by Manny Ramirez (interesting).  I looked through a few of the cards that I do own, and I pulled the Freddy Sanchez out for scanning.

I remember the last day of the 2006 season, the excitement that Pirates broadcaster Greg Brown had over Freddy capturing the batting title.  Freddy did have quite the season that year, driving in 85 runs, hitting .344 and also leading the NL in doubles with 53. 

Injuries took their toll on Freddy, and he's been out of the game since 2011.   He owns a career average of .297 and has 3 all star games to his credit.

If I ever get my ass organized again, this is one set that I will have to try and tackle with a little more gusto.

Promises, promises....

Thanks for reading, Robert

To Ginter, or not to Ginter. That is the question.

I really did have a blast last summer participating in Gint-A-Cuffs IV.  I'm torn as to whether I will participate in the fifth rendition of this tournament.

While I'm absolutely positive that I will not come close to beating the box topper I pulled last year ( I promised no more scans, you'll have to check for yourself as a reminder), I rather enjoyed tallying up the cards as I pulled them.

It actually kept me off the streets for 4 days.....

There are those that like the relics, there are those that couldn't care less about them.  I rather like the orange relics from 2010 myself

For some reason, the border really appeals to me, it would have even better if this swatch was orange instead of black.

Beggars can't be choosers I guess.  At least I still have a couple of weeks to decide if I want to defend my 6th place finish from last year.

I'll let you know.

Thanks for reading, Robert