A great trip to the card shop

I've gone through this before, but I am really blessed to have 2 good card shops a reasonable distance from me. It's nice to be able to physically look through cards, and sometimes you can get some really nice cards.

2 weeks ago I went to Triple Cards & Collectibles, which I go to primarily to make progress on my 1959 Topps set. I got a lot of great cards last time I went, and this visit was no exception. 

I got a lot of really good vintage cards this time. They had a $2 box of miscellaneous vintage, and, believe it or not, there was a Reggie Jackson rookie card in there. They didn't let me buy it, because it was obvious it didn't belong. It's possible that the ones I did get weren't meant to be there either, but they didn't want to be cruel and not let me buy any of them.

Getting vintage Yogi, Spahn, and Larsen cards for just $2 each was like a dream come true. I actually got 4 of the $2 cards as part of a $7/5 deal, so they were actually even cheaper than that.

Here's Al Kaline beside a Dover reprint of the same card. Why I also got the reprint will be explained later.

Here's a pair of early career hall-of-famers. I really like the Hunter, because the condition on that card is just so sharp. It isn't perfect, but it feels like it just came out of the pack, the colors are so vivid.  It's especially noticeable on the back.

I also got some work done on 1959 Topps. These 4 were all 60 cents each, a good deal. 

I really like the Curt Flood card. It's a real nice card, and Flood was a very good player and an important figure in the fight for free agency. Faye Throneberry was a high number, and I was happy to get him for just $1. 

While I was looking through cards, the owner was looking through a cigar box of reprints, and saying how they were more trouble than they were worth. He then told one of the workers there (or maybe a co-owner, I don't know) that he could take them home, or throw them out, or whatever. 

I like reprints, and so I offered to take them. He gave them to me for free, which was very nice. I had a great time looking through them, and there were a lot of good cards. There were about 200-250 cards, and not all of them were reprints. There were also some TCMA cards, and oddball stuff like that. I'll show most of them, so I won't do too much commentary on them to keep the post from going on forever.

I don't have a clue what these 1940 play ball-ish weird cards are. The artwork is really bad. Ruth doesn't look too bad, but DiMaggio is a fright and Heilmann looks like a kid, which is weird.

Here are most of the cards, sorted by set. A lot of them were Dover Reprint cards, while the Turkey Reds  and most of the 1933 Goudeys were Renata Galasso reprints, and are very nice.

Yankees!

These are TCMAs. They're real nice. 

One interesting thing about the reprints is that they were all hall-of-famers. That was nice, of course, but part of me wanted a more balanced representation of baseball from back then. Whatever. I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth anyway, and when I really think about it complaining of too many hall of famers is pretty stupid. 

It was one of the best trips to a card shop I ever had, but when I went the next week (last Wednesday) I might have gotten even better cards. Stay tuned!

By the way, I'm willing to trade some of the reprints, so if you see any cards you like, let me know, and we might be able to work out a trade. 

Going off the beaten path for baseball cards

Comc and Ebay are the usual options for buying baseball cards, but it pays to get off the beaten path some times for baseball card buying options. 

For instance, I bought some cards from Kit Young a month ago. Kit Young has been around for a long time, so he isn't exotic, but he isn't the knee-jerk option like Ebay.

This time I bought from a site that specializes in O-Pee-Chee cards, OPC baseball. I bought 4 cards from them; ironically, only one was actually an O-Pee-Chee card. 

First I got 2 cards for my 1959 Topps set build: Drysdale and Hodges. Neither of them are in great condition, but they're both totally acceptable to me.The backgrounds are interesting too. It felt good getting 2 hall of famers out of the way. I now have 56 out of the 572 cards in the set, which isn't bad considering I haven't been actively working on it for that long.

This was my favorite of the lot, both just as a card and as a deal. It was just $5, a real steal for a vintage Whitey Ford, and I also just really like the card. 1964 Topps has a nice design, and I like the pitcher-coach designation. Not something you see everyday.

This is a 1966 O-Pee-Chee card, though it looks just like a regular Topps card on the front. 1966 OPC was one of the rarest OPC issues of them all, so I was very pleased to get a Felipe Alou for a very reasonable price. 

The "Printed in Canada" line is the only way to tell that it's an OPC card. 

Overall, I got some good cards at good prices from OPC baseball. As with Kit Young, not all the cards are priced as well; really, I think I might have gotten all the good priced baseball cards. But I'll definitely be checking back occasionally to see if there are any more good baseball cards.

This series of purchases really shows that it pays to consider options other than the go-to sites like Ebay.

A windfall

 So, for a long time I'd had this card of Mike Trout. I liked it because it was Mike Trout, and it was shiny. I had no idea where I'd gotten it; it was just in my cards with a couple other cards from that set. You can probably guess where I'm going with this.

The card. A 2013 Topps Blue Slate parallel.

I put it up for auction a few weeks ago, because with the boom in modern cards and the Mike Trout Superfractor selling for 4 million dollars, I decided it was the time to sell. It had some corner wear, the result of it just being in my collection for my years, but it still sold for $80. 

So now I had all this money that I wasn't sure what to do with. I wanted to get a 1933 Goudey hall of famer, but it took a long time to decide on one. I ultimately decided to get a Waite Hoyt card, as it's a nice one.

Overall, I was pleased with my purchase. It's in very good condition, except for a surface wrinkle on the front, and it's a very attractive picture. Waite Hoyt himself wasn't too bad, either. He won 237 games over his 21 year career, and won 22 games against just 7 losses with a 2.63 ERA for the 1927 Yankees. 

I now have 12 out of the 239 cards in the set, with 2 out of the 64 hall of famers. I'm starting to get discouraged again about how many hall of famers there are in the set, so I'll probably switch my focus to 1959 Topps for now unless I find a really good deal.

Cards from Kit Young

For me, Kit Young has always been one of those names that I hear about, but never really think about as an option for buying cards. However, recently my Dad called me over to the computer to show me the site, and it turned out they had good prices for 1933 Goudey. Intrigued, I probed deeper, and was able to find 8 cards for a good price. Here they are:

1949 and 1950 Remar are the cheapest pre-TCMA minor league cards that I know of ; these 2 were just $2.50 combined.  While Earl Jones pitched only briefly in the major leagues in 1945, Augie Galan actually had a long and successful major league career, lasting for 16 years, from 1934 to 1949. He hit .287 for his career, and walked a good bit, while leading the league in stolen bases twice. Just out of the major leagues in 1950, he hit .282 with 13 home runs.

Jess "The Silver Fox" Petty was the only 1933 Goudey I got. Petty was not a bad pitcher, though his career win-loss was 67-78 for his MLB career. He had ERAs of 2.84 and 2.98 in 1926 and 1927, and the '20s was one of the hardest hitting periods in history. By 1933, at 38, he was pitching for the Minneapolis Millers in the American Association, and was still a pretty good pitcher, winning 18 games against 8 losses. For his whole pro career he won 253 games.

It also had an "autograph" on the back, which I don't mind.

I got very good prices for the Red Man tobacco cards. Though it's tough to find even commons for $4, none of the four I got cost more than $3. They aren't mint or anything, Nellie Fox has some heavy creasing, but not too bad. I was very happy to get cards of both Fox and Bobby Avila. Though Avila isn't very well-remembered nowadays, he actually was a very good player for a while there. In 1954, the year of his Red Man card, he won the AL batting title with a mark of .341.

The Whitey Ford was what really sealed the deal, I think. I could hardly believe that an early career card of a Yankee hall of famer from the '50s was just $3, even if there was some heavy creasing. Hank Bauer was appreciated, if not as spectacular.

I was really happy to get this card. I'd always wanted a Mother's Cookies card from the '50s, and I was finally able to get one at a good price. Despite it being in good condition, graded, and a guy who hit .306 in his major league career, Bob Dillinger was priced not much more than a beat-up common usually is. Bob Dillinger actually had his best season in the Pacific Coast League by far in 1953, as he hit .366 with 236 hits in 171 games. For comparison, he hit .287 in 1951 and .301 in 1954.

Overall, I was pleased with my order. The prices were good, and though the shipping was a bit above normal ($7), the cards came on the same week as I ordered them, so I can't really complain.

Thanks for reading!

Free cards

For a while it seemed like every other blog was participating in the free card Friday movement, though the phenomenon has practically disappeared. However, I claimed some cards from 2 different bloggers before the end. The first person I claimed some cards from was Jon, of A Penny Sleeve for Your Thoughts. He was definitely putting up some quality cards for free. Here's the three I got from him:

I only claimed the Brooks Robinson and the DiMaggio from his blog, but he sent Pete Rose as an extra! Neither Brooks nor Pete are exactly in mint condition, but anybody who wants to send me vintage hall-of-famers for free is welcome. 1971 and 1973 Topps were both some of the best sets of the '70s, in my opinion.

I also claimed a couple from Nick, who writes Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey, one of the blogs which made me decide to give blogging a try myself. I only claimed two, but he also sent a couple extras:

These were the 2 that I claimed off the blog, and they packed a punch. I was very happy to get a vintage Phil Niekro, as it was just my 3rd vintage card of him.

These were the four "throw-ins", and mighty good "throw-ins" too. I don't remember if I told him that I liked minor league cards, or if it was just a coincidence, but I was very glad to get some. For one thing, minor league cards are generally a good deal rarer than major league cards. Also, they're more off the beaten path. It's also very interesting to see major leaguers before they made it to the big time (Kevin Seitzer, Rex Hudler) and after ( Fred Gladding.) My favorite of these is Rex Hudler A.K.A "Wonder Dog". It's got a good design and a good picture. I really liked the Seitzer too, as he went on to be a good major leaguer, and because it's a TCMA minor league card.

In retrospect, I wish that I claimed more cards from people, but I guess it's OK. If I claimed too many cards I would have felt obliged to host one or two free card Fridays myself, and I'd go broke from the shipping. Okay, maybe it wouldn't leave me penniless, but it wouldn't be too far off.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Jon and Nick for the cards!

Getting serious about 1933 Goudey

I've always loved 1933 Goudey, and a couple of years ago I decided that I'd try to complete it. However, that project went on the back-burner after getting 5 cards as I decided that with $10 prices for commons, and 4 Babe Ruths, it wasn't going to happen.

I thought about it more this spring, and I realized that if I sold the cards I have that I don't need or want, I could get a hall of famer or two and some commons. That's gone alright so far; I've definitely made some progress. Here are the cards I've gotten so far in my Goudey quest part II:

This was the first one I got, and my favorite. Over the past year or two I've gotten interested in the minor leagues, and John (Jack) Ogden was one of the stars on the greatest minor league dynasty ever: The Baltimore Orioles. They won the International League pennant every year from 1919 to 1925, under the leadership of Jack Dunn, who is usually remembered as the man who sold Babe Ruth to the Red Sox. Jack Ogden spent all of his minor league time in the International League, which at the time was at the highest minor league classification, AA. He was very successful too, winning 213 games against just 103 losses in the International League. His best season was 1922, as he went 31-8, as the Orioles won 115 games against just 52 losses that year.

 His career was winding down by 1933,  his last year in pro ball outside of 1 inning in 1934. Ogden was featured as an Oriole on his Goudey card, because Goudey included some minor leaguers in the set. Here's the back:

It looks like this card was once owned by a certain Dick Cawley. Whenever something like that happens I always Google the name, hoping that the person went on to fame or something. No luck yet.

Same deal here, though I just got a boring name. John Smith, I mean. It would have been so much more interesting if I got Isaac Jablonowski, or something distinctive like that. This was my 3rd Yankee from the set, which I was happy to get for just $7. Walter Brown, or "Jumbo" Brown as he is more well known, was the heaviest player ever until C.C Sabathia came along, tipping the scales at 295 pounds. He led the league in saves twice later in his career with the Giants, but you have to understand that his league-leading totals were 7 and 8 respectively.

Gus Suhr had another interesting story. In 1929 he came out of nowhere to lead the Pacific Coast League, which at the time was the top minor league, with 51 home runs. It just was a fluke; he had never hit more than 27 home runs in a minor league season before, and his major league high was 17. Even funnier was that he played regularly for 3 years in the PCL during war time, and hit the grand total of 1 home run in the 3 years combined. You could look it up, as Casey Stengel used to say.

He wasn't a bad player in the majors though; he played 11 years in the bigs and led the league in games played 3 times.

Dick Bartell had the best major league career of the guys I got in this round of Goudey's, playing for 18 years in the major leagues, with a career batting average of .284, pretty good for a infielder. This one was actually completely funded with cards I sold on Ebay, so that was nice. It's a nice card, though, really, they all are.

This card is definitely the worst conditioned '33 Goudey I've gotten so far. Oh well. As I've recounted a couple times, I'm a Stratomatic player, and the '27 Yankees is the team I play with the most. Mark Koenig was the starting shortstop for that team, so I've developed an appreciation for him. When you play Stratomatic with a player, you really get to know them better. I know Koenig as He Who Never Does Any Thing But Hit Singles.

That batch of 5 cards gave me 10 total. I still have 229 left, including a lot of hall of famers, not to mention 6 cards of Ruth and Gherig alone. I probably won't finish it unless I get a really good job when I grow up, but you never know.

And in any case, it's a great set.

Thank God for card shops

I'm very grateful for the privilege of having two very good card shops not too far from me. I take it for granted sometimes, but I know that some people don't have any card shops near them at all.

And card shops definitely have advantages over ordering online. For one, you have to pay shipping ordering on the internet, which is generally a couple dollars. While that isn't exactly a lot of money, it could be used for the cards themselves, and for me it's a good part of my budget. Also, it's nice to get the cards physically when you buy them. When you order online, you place you order and then you wait. And wait. And wait. It isn't really too long usually, between a couple of days and a week, but it's enough for the time to drag.

I generally go to Nick's, which I've been going to for years, but last year I discovered another one that has good prices on vintage.

As I was in the area last week, I went with my Mom, who I thank for reading for an hour while I went through nearly all of their vintage baseball cards. It took a little digging, as that card shop has varying prices. Some are very affordable, others not so much. In the end I emerged with 27 cards, after a very  careful perusal of all the options. I'll show the cards from oldest to newest.

The Jim Grant rookie card was my most expensive purchase overall, at $1.20, but I think it was worth it. For one, he was a pretty good pitcher, plus his nickname was Mudcat. Nicknames don't get too much better. Hal Smith had a pretty nice card that year, with the old time catchers gear, not to mention him giving a sign to the imaginary pitcher.

I've finally decided to officially collect 1959 Topps, and this shop is the reason why. For some reason, I feel like 1959 Topps is always priced more affordably compared to other sets. It's also a pretty nice looking set, with a good design, good backs ( which is very important to me), and interesting photography. Don Gross is an example of good photography, as it's always nice to see a pitcher posing with a bat.

 Frank Herrera, whose rookie card I got, had a short major league career, but hit 321 home runs in the minor leagues.

The 1959 cards I got this time pushed my total to 54 cards, nearly 10% of the whole set. I've been very surprised at how many I have. Of all the sets I'm actively trying to complete, I've definitely gotten the farthest for '59 Topps. I like the background on the Johnny Groth card, especially the guy standing right behind him.

Of all the cards I got, these two were my favorites. They look like mere commons on the front, but when you turn them over they disclose the reason: They're high-numbers, my first of the set! I was especially pleased because they were just 60 cents each, a real steal. 

They have very good prices on their '70s cards, which is nice. All the '70s cards I got were 10 cents each, except for Bob Montgomery, who was 16 cents. 

These 4 yanks aren't exactly in mint condition, and my Dad might have them already, but I just couldn't pass up the quartet above. Sparky Lyle was the best of the 4, pitching in the majors for 16 years, and he was in his prime at the time this card was made, winning the 1977 Cy Young award.

Of these 3 I was especially excited to get Andres Mora's rookie card. Though he didn't have much of a major league career, he played in the Mexican League until 1993, hitting 435 home runs in his minor league career, placing his name among the greatest minor league power hitters ever.

For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by the name Sixto Lezcano. Sixto sounds a lot like six toe, which highly appealed to my sense of humor back then. The full name has a very nice ring to it. 

Overall, it was a highly productive trip to a card shop.

Thanks for reading!