$10 Challenge

I happened to see these two 1952 Bowman cards for sale at my LCS for $5 each. I couldn't break up the pair, so I bought them both. I mean, come on, I love the old Bowman cards and to see these two together is just fantastic!

Even better are the backs, which both mention the historic playoff series between the Giants and the Dodgers and the pennant-winning home run that Thompson hit off Branca in the bottom of the 9th of the deciding game 3.

 

So the challenge is to tell me a better $10 that you have spent on baseball cards.

Elusive HOF Rookie Cards

I'm a fan of Hall of Fame rookie cards. I think most collectors are in one way or another. Either you are chasing the current rookies in hopes they will one day become a Hall of Fame or you go after the guys who are already in the Hall of Fame, or both.

I'm more of a go after the guys who are already in the Hall of Fame. I enjoy a nice vintage rookie card of a Hall of Famer. Because I'm not picky about condition, I've been able to add some good ones. Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan, and Reggie Jackson come to mind. When it comes to vintage rookie cards, some seem to be more common than others and I suppose they are because of how vintage sets were issued by series and later series were sometimes more scarce. 

For example, I rarely ever see the 1973 Topps Mike Schmidt rookie card; card #615, but the Goose Gossage rookie card from the same set I see all the time. It's card #174. So the Schmidt is from the final series, which is typically in shorter supply. I also realize they are different players. One a position player and one primarily a relief pitcher, but they are both in the Hall of Fame. The Gossage can be had for $10 or less, while the Schmidt is over $100 regardless of the condition and a decent copy will set you back in the $200-$300 range (not graded).

One Hall of Fame rookie card that I don't recall seeing very often is that of Don Sutton. His 1966 Topps card is card #288, so it not in one of the later series, but for some reason I just don't see it very often.

I picked this card up for $5 at a card shop earlier this month. It's in rough shape, but I can live with that for $5.

What's a Hall of Fame rookie card that you rarely see?

848

I recently organized my Paul Goldschmidt collection and I've got an updated count. This 2019 Museum Collection Meaningful Materials bat card is my 848th different Paul Goldschmidt card in my collection. 

Not only is this card #848, but it also fits my Goldschmidt Numbered to 50 project and it's numbered 44/50 so it is also Goldschmidt's jersey number. 

I'm only actively pursuing his cards as a Diamondback. Out of the 848, only one of them feature him as a St. Louis Cardinal.

Thurman Munson: 1970 - 1979 Topps

Years ago I picked up the iconic 1971 Topps Thurman Munson card. I was then able to pick up a well loved 1970 Topps rookie card. From that point on I decided to go after the complete run of Topps Munson cards. I would pick them up whenever I came across them for a buck or two.

After a while I couldn't remember which cards I had and which cards I still needed so I put this project on the back burner. Well, the other day I decided to try and track down the last card I needed. It was the 1976 card and I searched for it at a couple of different cards shops, with no luck. I put out a couple of feelers on Twitter and Facebook groups looking for it, but didn't' have any luck so I turned to eBay.

Aside from the 1970 and 1971 cards, I was able to get all the others for just a few bucks, but the 1976 card is a high number and can't be had in decent condition for under $10. I found the card in good shape along with one other card for about $15 shipped and pulled the trigger.

So there you have it. 1970 - 1979 Topps Thurman Munson. I wish there were several more. I think most people would agree that the 1971 is his best looking card. It's probably in my top 5 all-time cards. I also really like his 1973 card. Which card is your favorite?

Most people prefer Trout, but I love me some Salmon

 Earlier this month I posted about my Tim Salmon collection. Tom, from The Angels, In Order reached out to confirm my address and sent me 10 new Salmon cards. Thanks Tom!

This prompted me to take my current Salmon collection from box to binder. I prefer binders when it comes to storing my collection, but takes sheets and binders are more pricey than penny sleeves or boxes and they take up more space, but I'm glad to have my Salmon collection in a binder now. For most of my player collections that make it into binders I sort them by year. I think I mostly do it because if I narrow it down to the year it's easier to check a few pages to see if I need a card than checking all of them. 

I collect Salmon because we went to the same high school. Not at the same time though. He graduated about 10 years before me. A few other professional athletes attended Greenway High School, but Tim Salmon is the most accomplished, in my opinion. Others include Richie Brockel (NFL), Dan Butler (MLB), Brad Lohas (NBA), Frank Pollack (NFL) and Tim's brother, Mike Salmon (NFL). Other notable attendees include Chester Bennington of Linkin Park, Jennie Garth of Beverly Hills 90210 fame, and Josh McDermitt star of the Walking Dead.

How about you, who attended your High School?

Keith Olbermann snuck into a stack of 2013 Topps Archives

I picked up this lot of 60+ 2013 Topps Archives at the same recent LCS auction for $2.50. Figured it was cheaper than buying one pack of 2020 Archives.

I didn't look at any of the cards before bidding, so I just went off the description of 60+ cards from 2013 Topps Archives. The majority of the cards are from 2013 Topps Archives, but there were a couple of surprises. One of which you can see on top. It's a 2002 Topps 206 Keith Olbermann promo card.

The other surprise were these two 1986 Fleer Mini cards for Roger Clemens and Jim Rice.

Like I said, the majority was just base 2013 Topps Archives cards. The Reggie Jackson card will go in my player binder.

There were a few inserts as well. The Yu Darvish one is pretty cool.

If you see anything besides the Olbermann, Reggie Jackson or the Yu Darvish that you're interested in, just let me know and I'll send it your way via pwe.

 

1952 Bowman

I paid $6 for this lot of 1952 Bowman cards. No, I'm not trying to complete the 1952 Bowman set, but at just over a buck apiece I couldn't pass them up. There are a couple of familiar names here in Vic Wertz and Sal Magie, Also included are Monte Kennedy, Vern Bickford, and Frank Baumholtz.

With these 5 I probably have enough to fill a 9 card page. I should try to do a Bowman Page-A-Year binder.

I just realized that the offer for a "$1.00 value Baseball Cap of your favorite major league team by sending 5 wrappers and 50 cents to Bowman Baseball, P.O. Box 234 New York 23, N.Y." does not have an expiration date. Now to just get my hands on some wrappers.

1971 Topps Needs

I picked up this 1971 Topps Carl Yazstremski at my LCS in an auction. I picked it up because I'm working on the 1971 Topps set. Turns out though that I already have it. 

If you need it and want to trade me for some of my other 1971 Topps needs, let me know. As you can see, the condition is pretty rough.

Here is a list of the 1971 Topps cards that I actually need.

30, 45, 65, 70, 72, 76, 160, 180, 214, 223, 230, 233, 264, 275, 300, 315, 324, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 341, 342, 368, 369, 513, 525, 582, 600, 603, 619, 624, 625, 630, 674, 698, 708, 711, 736, 743

1973 Topps Needs

 Another recent auction purchase from my LCS was this two card Pete Rose lot.

The main reason I picked this lot up was for the 1973 card. I'm passively working on the set and I guessed that I needed this card. I did. That leaves me just 252 card to go for the set. With 660 cards in the set that gives me 408/660. Not great, but not horrible for a nearly 50 year old set.

If you can help me out, just let me know.

1, 17, 50, 90, 100, 117, 137, 139, 142, 159, 160, 164, 168, 169, 174, 175, 182, 187, 190, 193, 197, 211, 213, 216, 218, 220, 230, 234, 236, 245, 255, 280, 281, 282, 284, 300, 305, 309, 316, 330, 332, 335, 338, 350, 352, 356, 360, 370, 380, 392, 397, 398, 399, 400, 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 413, 414, 415, 416, 417, 418, 419, 420, 421, 422, 423, 424, 425, 426, 427, 428, 429, 430, 431, 432, 433, 434, 435, 436, 437, 438, 439, 440, 441, 442, 443, 444, 445, 446, 447, 448, 449, 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, 455, 456, 457, 458, 460, 461, 462, 463, 464, 465, 466, 467, 468, 469, 470, 471, 472, 473, 474, 475, 476, 477, 478, 479, 480, 481, 482, 483, 484, 485, 486, 487, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 494, 495, 496, 498, 499, 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507, 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519, 520, 512, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528, 529, 532, 535, 536, 539, 541, 543, 545, 547, 548, 549, 551, 552, 553, 556, 557, 558,560, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567, 569, 572, 573, 575, 576, 577, 579, 580, 582, 583, 584, 585, 589, 593, 595, 596, 598, 601, 602, 603, 604, 605, 606, 607, 608, 609, 610, 611 612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 624, 628, 629, 631, 634, 635, 641, 643, 646, 648, 651, 653, 654, 656, 660

Finding greatness in randomness. 1976 Topps Johnny Bench

In a follow up to my post yesterday I wanted to share a small lot that I picked up at an auction at my LCS earlier this month.

It is a seemingly random 4 card lot of vintage baseball cards. There is a 1969 Topps Al Kaline and a 1969 Topps game card of Roberto Clemente. And two Johnny Bench cards, 1976 and 1977 Topps. I think I spent $6.50 on the lot.

Part of me just loves the randomness of the lot. They are however, all vintage and all Hall of Famers. I believe the Clemente is the first game card I have from that set. The reason I bought the lot though was for the 1977 Topps Johnny Bench card. I think it has been discussed on multiple blogs before, but with all the dust in the photo, it is just such a great looking card. For me, I could see this card representing the 1976 Topps set for me, just like the Ted Kluszewski does for me for the 1957 Topps set. Plus I have the Bench rookie card, so maybe I should go after his complete run of base Topps cards from his playing days like I am doing with Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan and Thurman Munson.

What do you think? Is there a better looking 1976 Topps card based on just the photo alone?

Cards that leave an impression - 1957 Topps Ted Kluszewski

I don't remember the first time I ever saw this card, but it was probably about 30 years ago. My guess is that I saw it in a Beckett magazine the first time. How about you? Do you remember the first time you saw this card?

The sleeveless uniforms the Cincinnati Redlegs star first baseman is sporting, aren't something that you see every day on a baseball card. The story goes that Big Klu had such big biceps that he had to cut the leaves off his jerseys and so when the Reds changes their name to the Redlegs in 1956 they made a uniform change as well and incorporated the sleeveless jerseys to accommodate their star first baseman.

I saw this card at my LCS for less than the coast of a blaster. The condition isn't great, but it's not horrible and the centering is good, so I pulled the trigger. When it comes to 1957 Topps, is there a better card to represent the set?

Hobby Rabbit Holes

 If you are like me you've probably been down a hobby rabbit hole a time or two. One thing leads to another and all of a sudden you are are buying a 300 count lot on eBay of something you weren't interested in 5 minutes earlier.

I want to reduce my collection. I promise I do. The other day I was thinking about how to do that and I thought I would start with cards of members of the 500 Home Run Club. About 4 years ago I spent several months sorting out a significant portion of my collection by player alphabetically. I figured I'd start at the top and so I grabbed the stack of Barry Bonds cards I have and started counting. 272.

My original thought was to do 100 cards per 500 Home Run Club member. Then I thought 99 would be better since that would be 11 sheets of 9. Then I came across about 40 of the 2005 Topps Barry Bonds Home Run History cards and I thought that would be a cool project. About 5 minutes on eBay told me that it would be pricey and be fairly difficult to acquire the 762 cards. Plus then I would have those 762 cards, plus another 272 Barry Bonds cards and I am trying to downsize.

So then I thought I could just add to the 272 cards I already have and get to 762 unique Barry Bonds cards.  762 is of course the number of home runs that he hit. I posted on Twitter and was given the idea of putting together a collection of 762 cards featuring each pitcher that he hit a home run off of. That's a pretty cool idea. I had thought about something similar before. My idea was to have one card for each of Nolan Ryan's strikeouts, but then I realized how much money I would need to spend in sheets just to hold the 5000+ cards.

Okay, back to Barry Bonds. I spent another 20 minutes or so on eBay looking at large lots. There is a lot of 2200+ Barry Bonds cards for around $180 shipped. The listing doesn't have many details and the pictures didn't either so I messaged the seller asking him how many unique cards there were. His response was "No idea sorry thanks". I won't be pursuing that any further. My guess is there are maybe only a couple hundred different cards in the lot.

I did find a few other decent lots of 100 - 200 different Bonds cards, but who knows how many of them I already have, plus I'm on a budget, so I'm not really looking to spend several hundred dollars on this project. Maybe I'll just make it a long term project and pick up cards from dime boxes until I get to 762. Maybe I'll just pair down the 272 to 99 and call it a day. What do you think I should do?

2020 National Baseball Card Day Recap

 I'm a little over a week behind, but I hope everyone had a great National Baseball Card Day back on the 8th. I hit up two different card shops and spent a total of $4.35 cents.

One of the shops was participating in National Baseball Card Day and so I did get the Pete Alonso card and a pack for free.

My pack contained a nice mix of youngsters and veterans.

I also happened to get a small lot of 1982 Topps cards on NBCD that I bought on eBay when I realized that the 1982 Topps card I had for my Reggie Jackson collection was his all-star card and not his base card.

The cards were shipped between two pieces of cardboard and the envelope came with a "postage due" stamp on it, but I wasn't charged. The fact that this came in on the same day that I went to the card shop was perfect because I happened to pick up a 1980 Topps Reggie Jackson card at one of the card shops.

The 1980 card is significant because it and the 1982 card were the only cards I still needed to complete the base Topps Reggie Jackson run.

I also found another 1986 card in a dime box so that I could replace the one I took out of my 1986 Topps set.

The next few cards came out of 15/$1 box. I could only come up with 14, but that's okay.

I also added a few Walley Joyner and a Zack Greinke card but somehow I didn't get pictures. This Trevor Story card will go into my doughnut collection.

Unlike the Story card, these 9 cards are actually from 1992, but they aren't Topps, they are O-Pee-Chee. I'll use these for a binder page since I don't recall having any 1992 O-Pee-Chee cards in my collection.

Initially I was just looking to add the Aaron and Reggie Jackson card to my Aaron and Jackson collections, but they were 3/$1 or 50 cents each, so I decided to get a third card. Then I noticed that there were only 4 different ones. I wasn't familiar with the set, but since the only cards were numbered 1, 2, 3, and 4, I thought they might be the only cards in the set. I did have my doubts though since I saw the Prime 9 at the bottom. Turns out there are 9 cards in the 2012 set, so I will probably just put the Aaron and Jackson in my player collection binder and file the Ruth and Mays cards rather than going after the set. It is a cool looking set though.

The last card I picked up set me back a buck. It is card #1 from the 1971 Topps set. I picked it up because I need less than 50 cards to complete the set and this is one of them.

So there you have it. That was my 2020 National Baseball Card Day. How about you? What did you do?

Some Yankee cards for my Player Collections

 This box produced a few more cards for some of my player collections.  I have got to get organized. 

A couple of Reggie Jackson's in a Yankee uniform.

Out of these 8 Don Mattingly Cards, I was able to add 4 to my Mattingly collection.

A Post Without Photos

If you’ve left a comment on one of my 2020 posts prior to today, please leave a comment below, with three cards you need (within reason) or players or teams that you collect and I’ll send you a pwe.

Tim Salmon

I have had this in my draft folder for several years. Tim Salmon is a guy who I've always liked because he went to the same high school that I did. At some point I went through and made a list of the Tim Salmon cards I have. Always looking to add more from dime boxes.

1991 -1
Classic Best #329

1992 - 1
Sky Box #81

1993 - 20
Bowman #229
Bowman Foil #341
Donruss #176
Flair #177
Fleer #197
Fleer Award Winner #5 of 6
Fleer Rookie Sensations #17 of 20
Fleer Ultra #523
Leaf #445
O-Pee-Chee Premier #37
Pinnacle #276
Select #339
Stadium Club #249
Studio #114
Topps #20
Triple Play #37
Upper Deck Star Rookie Checklist #1
Upper Deck Star Rookie #25
Upper Deck Star of Tomorrow #7
Upper Deck Team Checklist #812

1994 - 19
Bowman's Best w/ Chad Mottela#102
Collector's Choice Homefield Advantage #283
Collector's Choice Team Checklist #328
Collector's Choice Up Close and Personal #639
Collector's Choice Up Close and Personal #639 Silver Signature
Collector's Choice You Crash the Deck Instant Win Game with Mark McGwire
Flair #27
Fleer Ultra # 27

Fleer Ultra Award Winners #24 of 25
Pinnacle #9
Pinnacle Power Surge #PS4
Post #26 of 30
Score #539
Select #309

Ted Williams #160

Ted Williams #161
Topps #397
Upper Deck #111
Upper Deck The Future is Now #54

1995 - 9
Bazooka #119 (Signed In Person)
Collector's Choice #100
Denny's Pinnacle #16 of 28
Fleer Ultra National Packtime #
Pinnacle # 391
Pinnacle Swing Men #286
Score #420
SP #135
Topps #200

1996 - 14
Bowman #43
Collector's Choice # 75
Collector's Choice Team Checklist #416
Donruss #477
E-XL #30
Fleer Metal #32

Fleer Metal Mother Lode #9 of 12
Leaf #45
Pinnacle #26
Pinnacle The Naturals #142
Pinnacle Hardball Heroes # 276
Score #328
Topps Profiles #AL-20
Upper Deck #290

1997 - 14

Bowman's Best Atomic Refractor #98
Collector's Choice #260
Donruss Interleague Showdown w/ Raul Mondesi #447
Donruss Elite #23
E-X 2001 #43
Fleer #50
Fleer Team Checklist #721
Fleer Metal #43
Leaf #129
Pacific Paramount #9
Pinnacle #20
Pinnacle #53
Topps #320
Upper Deck #290

1998 -10
Fleer Mystique #42
Leaf 50th Anniversary State Representatives #09 of 30 - 4304/5000
Pacific Aurora Pennant Fever #34
Pacific Invincible #7
Pinnacle #141
Pinnacle Inside #42
Score #117
Topps #312
UD Retro #3
Ultimate Victory #2

1999 - 7
Bowman #273
Fleer Sports Illustrated #94
Fleer Tradition #235
Leaf Lineage #1
Topps #360
Topps All Designated Hitters #456
Upper Deck #25

2000 - 11
Fleer Focus # 194
Fleer Gamers #15
Fleer Metal #52
Fleer Mystique #92
Fleer Tradition ##231
Skybox #120
Topps #348
UD Black Diamond #2
UD Choice #46
UD MVP #3
UD Victory #3

2001 - 8
Bowman Heritage #319
Donruss #130
Fleer Focus #94
Fleer Platinum #66

Fleer Tradition #211
Playoff Absolute Memorabilia #130
Upper Deck #50
Upper Deck Vintage #6

2002 - 7

Donruss Estrellas #2
Fleer #288
Fleer Tradition #323
Fleer Ultra #47
Topps Gallery #102
UD Ballpark Idols #6
UD MVP #8
Upper Deck Vintage #7

2003 - 23
Bazooka #15

Donruss #79
Finest #42
Fleer Hardball #179
Fleer Hot Prospects #44
Fleer Platinum #167
Fleer Ultra #57
Leaf #7
Leaf Passing Through Time #258
SPx #3

Sweet Spot #3
Topps #448

Topps Postseason Highlights #349
Topps Gallery #34
Topps Total #110
UD Classic Portraits #35
UD Finite #3 1593/1999
UD Fourtyman #831
UD Game Face #3
Upper Deck #31
Upper Deck First Pitch #31
Victory #3
Victory Green #3

2004 - 9

Bowman #46
Donruss #79
Fleer Authentix #85

Fleer Showcase #66
Leaf #5
Playoff Honors #3
Playoff Prestige #5
Topps #189
Upper Deck Vintage #286

2005 - 3
Donruss #81
Donruss Classics #22
Donruss Leather & Lumber #127

144 Unique Cards
66 Doubles

Too many cards or just not organized?

Anyone else have too many cards? Is there such a thing? Sometimes I think there is and other times I can't get enough. One drawback to having "too many" cards is that I tend to lose track of what I have because it's not organized. 

In July I posted about my Dwight Gooden collection passing the 50 card mark. This box yielded another 23 Gooden cards. I was able to add 17 to the binder. My Gooden collection is now at 69 cards.

Contest winnings from 2017

Stryker Trahan was the 26th overall pick of the 2012 MLB draft. The D-Backs took him as a catcher, but he transitioned to the outfield. Sorry it took me so long Brian!

Whenever I see this guy...

I think of this guy...

I got a package of cards from Brian yesterday for participating in his contest.

Check out what he sent.

First up is this 2016 Diamond King card of Paul Goldschmidt. This is my 77th different Goldschmidt card so far in 2017 and my 292nd overall.

Here are a few more D-Backs from the 2016 Diamond Kings set.

Here are some 2016 Update D-Backs cards.

Topps Glossy All-Star Cards (1984-1991)

Starting in 1984 and ending in 1991, Topps inserted Glossy All-Star cards in rack packs. The cards feature the manager and players from the starting lineup of the previous years All-Star game along with a card of a Captain (retired player). So the cards from 1984 showcase the 1983 All-Star team and so on. 22 cards each year.

I know that these cards were distributed in rack packs, but I'm curious if they were ever available from Topps as complete sets, possibly as a mail in option. If you have any insight, please let me know.

There is a lot to like about the sets in my opinion. Probably first and foremost on my list is the nostalgia factor. To me these scream, my childhood. I also really like the red, white and blue classic, but simple design. You've also got the game's best players. 

There are a few drawbacks in my opinion as well. I could live without the manager card, but it is a good reminder of the previous years World Series teams, which is somewhat confusing because again the cards from 1984 feature the 1983 All-Stars and the managers from the 1982 World Series. The set contains the starting lineup for each league, which is a must, but that will sometimes leave out players who impacted the game. For example, the MVP of the 1987 All-Star game was Tim Raines, but he wasn't a starter, so he doesn't have a card in the set. The backs also leave a little something to be desired. Even just their stat line from the game or a sentence about their performance I think would have added to the very plain backs. Finally, including a card of the Captain from each team also has me scratching my head a bit. I guess I'm just not familiar with the All-Star Captains.

Alright, so when I put in all down, there are more drawbacks than positives, but I still think the positives outweigh the negatives and so I'd like to get the complete run. I will add each set to this post as I get them.

1984

1985

1986

1987

1988 

1989

1990

1991