Retired Players

Retirement is nice.

Though we've regressed to the point of staying up really late and consequently waking up close to 11AM most days.  We'll have to get back to responsible adulting in August when Angela goes back to work.

But there has been progress. The card room is shaping up nicely.  I'll do a post on it when the floor is completely cleared.  I've got all the boxes and binders pretty much in their place, and most of the extra stuff is within reach.  There are still piles to put away and cards in the spare bedroom to sort and move.

This past Tuesday, we even went to Kevin's Cards in Greencastle and spent four hours digging out singles.  She found several of her PC guys and I got some SPs and Jayden Daniels.  I haven't taken pictures of those yet, so hopefully I don't forget and you can see them.

But this post is for an eBay purchase I made in May.  (This is how far behind I am with certain things.)  The seller, andmalts, had all kinds of inserts, reprints, parallels, obscure issues, etc.  Everything from '60's Topps stamps, 80's TCMA and Fritsch sets, 90's base and insert singles, to last year's hockey parallels, and more.

I loaded up on my PC guys things that I didn't have and haven't seen very often.

Starting off with a reprint of Charlie Keller's Tip Top Bread from 1947.  I have a decent condition original, but sprung for the rerun anyway. 

Here's the back.

Another Charlie Keller original that I didn't have.  I don't think postcards are usually 3½" tall, but I might be wrong.  Bud is a standard size card for scale.  

The back doesn't feel like it matches the size, but it's real.

Bud is also paired with these two postcard size 1986 Big Apple 3x5 cards.  It's a 12 card set of Mets and Yankees.  They are blank backed.

More Mets, this time from Kahn's in '91.  These are well made.

Manny Sanguillen in the other of two TCMA All-Time Pirates sets.  This one has the front in red.  I think the backs on the other set are white too.

Julio Franco from the Starting Lineup figures.  I would chase the actual figures, but I don't have space to display things like that.  I took down most of the stuff I had on the baseball cabinet and boxed it up and sent it all to the basement. Trying to keep it simple in this version of the card room.

A pair of Carlton Fisk additions to his PC.  Starting lineup from the same set (1988), and a Mr. Turkey Superstar.  Hadn't heard of those until I saw this listing.  Tempted to get the whole set just for the goofy name.

 

And finally, two more from the humongous Target Dodgers set.  Ron Fairly (RIP) and a very young Pete Richert.

That's it for today.  I hope to get in a few more posts this month.  Have a couple in the works, but there's so much to do around here, we'll see.

Like Miggy, 'Melo, and Gronk...

I'm on leave from work on the 29th and 30th of June.  (It's the 29th as I write this.)  Two ten-hour days uses up my Personal leave exactly.  I've still got vacation and sick leave left.  This is intentional...

Because on Wednesday, July 1, I become officially retired from the FCPS school system after 22 years, 7 months.

I would have stayed a couple more years to reach 25.  I enjoyed the people I worked with, and liked fixing chromebooks, laptops, desktops and the occasional 3D printer, moving freight around in the basement, managing the repair parts inventory, installing new equipment in the school lab rooms, and to a lesser degree, taking Help Desk phone calls.  Unfortunately, the big boss decided to move half of our staff to another group, and restrict the five of us who would be left to Help Desk phones ONLY.  I said, "no thank you."  And here we are.

No more early mornings unless it's something special.  No more long days without snacks or naps.  No more commute.  No more fast food lunches.  (Well, OK, less of them at least.) 

More time for whatever I want, including projects and maintenance around the house, organizing the card room (better), putting away all the stuff I've brought in for the last two years, consolidating my lists from this site and the TCDB, working on my classic cars, arranging everything in the garage and basement, and finding more card shops!

Angela has July off too, so we will be filling the days with fun stuff.  After that, my blogging, sorting, trading and maybe even selling will leap to new heights!  Not sure I'll be a Hall Of Famer like the guys in the title, but if there's one for the card world, I might be closer soon. Stay Tuned!

Getting There Is Half The Battle - And Less Now

Attended the National Battlefield Card Classic in Gettysburg over Memorial Day weekend.  Held at the All-Star Sports Complex near the Eisenhower hotel, it is now only 15 minutes from my house, making it the most convenient show venue.  

Unfortunately, it was steadily showering when I got there, and I had to walk close to a quarter mile from where I parked to the entrance.  So standing in line was a little damp.  The show was pretty much 50/50 sports vs. Pokémon/MagicTG, but that's par for the course these days.  Those gaming cards sure are colorful, but they all look the same to me.

The other "as usual" was that the majority of my days' haul was the same things I usually find at shows now - namely player collection singles from the most current sets, and base, parallels and hits from my two modern football PC guys: Jayden Daniels and Jordan Addison.  An addition that I can make to that list now is Angela's guys: Brett Favre, Eli Manning, Peyton Manning & John Riggins.  

Here's what I got, but not in the order I got it: 

Some parallel '25 Ginter action with both the silver and Chrome Bo, silver Torre, X black Fisk, and mini Sutter.  This kind of stuff is hard to track, even when I try to make lists.  I don't put it on their web page, because it would make the listings way too long, but only having odd lists of certain years and certain sets isn't much help either.

Found a couple of the Manning boys, including a really fancy Topps Chrome Fortune 15 Peyton.  These were all in a quarter box, I believe.

As were most of these Brett Favres.  The first two are numbered, so they may have been a buck a shot.

The Modern Artist (blue) is /99 on the back.

The Resurgence is /275 on the top left corner of the front.

And finally, the first purchase I made was this Jordan Addison Flawless Collegiate Gold patch auto /10 for $40.  It was marked something like $175 on the sticker underneath.  The dealer said he was surprised it had not sold in four shows up until then.  I'm glad I got the markdown.  It still showed the three digit price on COMC, which is what I gauge prices with.

The Phoenix Rookie Rising Jayden Daniels is a regular mainstream insert....

The middle card is something else.  I asked the dealer what it actually was and he wasn't sure.  (It was the dealer's young son and he said Dad handled all the buying.)  They were priced at $25 and $15 or so, but I asked the Dad if he'd take $30 for the pair and he did.  I managed to find out later what the middle one is.

It's a custom from a WhatNot user (who's a Giants fan...??) and sells them for exactly what I got mine for.  I think it was worth it for a nice looking and unique addition to my collection, whether it's official or not.

That's really all I came up with.  There were only a few vintage dealers at the show, and they seemed rather overpriced, so I didn't look for my '61 set build at all.  I'll wait for the bigger shows in the fall.  Thanks for stopping by!

Blog Bat-Around - Nice Cards Of Teams I Don't Like

After reading both Night Owl and Fuji's take on the latest topic (originated by Joe @ The Shlabotnik Report and Mike @ Not Another Baseball Card Blog ), I knew I had to jump in.  If nothing else, because Bat-Arounds are the best!

I liked Fuji's take on it, as he selected players that he respected even though they were on rival teams in three different sports.  So that's what I'm gonna do too.   Warning: This is gonna get lengthy!

One thing I wasn't sure about ... Do all of the cards you show have to be in your collection?  These are about half and half...  They're the teams I dislike the most, but the players I still like (or respect at minimum).  And almost all the images are from COMC.

5. New York Giants

Washington's NFC East rivals were the first ones I thought of for this post, and except for a nice Ron Jaworski auto I have on COMC right now, I couldn't imagine any Eagles that I really cared for.  But Eli Manning is one of Angela's favorite players, and he's pretty funny as Chad Powers.
I like the 2008 UD Rookie Debut set, and this card is a nice color match to the Giants uniform.  (The decent one.  The red jersey is lame and the white jersey with the grey pants always look like a rec league outfit.  The best are the all white 90's.  But I digress). 

Another reason to like Eli is his brother - who is Angela's #1 favorite - on the Broncos.

Not to mention that a few of the images of Eli with a stunned look on his face have made it to cards.  He looks like he's still recovering from the last sack.  Peyton loves putting up these kind of shots on their Monday Night Football broadcasts. 

Speaking of Monday Night Football, I wish I had more Frank Gifford cards.  This one is cool, but not one I own.  Gifford is really old school.  It seems like he was playing before they fully developed helmets, etc. 

I do have this 1960 though.  I have his 1958 Topps as well.  

If you're old enough to know him at all, you probably know him from the 70's broadcasts. 

And finally, I couldn't do the Giants and not include one of the greatest players of all time, Lawrence Taylor.  The dude just eminates intimidation.

He should be card #1 in any Greats of the Game set.  

 

4. Boston Red Sox

As an Orioles fan, I watched the recent Red Sox play mediocre for most of the game and then come back in the last inning and win too many times.  Good for them in 2004, but I was over it quickly.  I like the old school Sox much better.  But Big Papi is such a fun guy - he had that show where he tried all these different jobs.  So any cards with a happy David Ortiz are cool.

Plus, he gets a pass since my guy Brian Matusz (RIP) had his number when they faced each other.

Of course, there's my #1 player collection guy, Luis Tiant from the old school Sox.  Nobody was cooler than him.

3. New York Yankees

Tiant had a few Yankees cards too!

A few of my PC guys donned the pinstripes.  Ya gotta love the jacket and chaw in this '74 Sparky Lyle.

This '83 Lou Piniella is not that remarkable except for the levitating bat.  I think he might have as many manager cards as he does as a player.

I will say I always kinda liked Derek Jeter.  He had a distinctive mannerism at the plate that was kinda strange, but cool at the same time.  Sort of non-chalant, all business, but calm and focused.  This 2005 Topps reminds me of an action shot from 1973 Topps cards.  I have several singles on my want lists that would kill sets, and they're all him.  And those are elusive!

Yankees cards and pink seem to be a thing too.  It works.....

And who can forget this one?  I don't have a sense of how good a player Gamble was, but his cards are iconic anyway.  Be it for the 70's style or the airbrushing.

2. Pittsburgh Penguins

Once again, as a Caps fan, their arch rival just generates disgust.  But back when the Capitals weren't very good, Super Mario was a dominant player.  Unfortunately, most of his cards are in the late 80's/early 90's.  But I found a few that were cool.

This McDonalds Prism has the more modern Penguins uniform.  It's not bad, actually.

These blue unis are kinda nice looking too.  I'm guessing they're the third alt's or something.  Marc-Andre Fleury was another Pengie I didn't mind too much.  Especially when he moved on to Vegas (and now beyond apparently).  I had mixed emotions when the Caps beat him for the Cup - if the G-Knights would have been against anyone else, I'd have probably rooted for them.  But it was a little extra satisfying that it was the Peng's old goalie that we beat.

I have a casual collection of star goalies among my hockey gatherings.  The masks and equipment are even cooler than baseball catchers, especially the graphics on the masks.  Flower had bright yellow pads for a while that were terrible looking, but the black, white and pale gold would be nice for a team I actually like.

1. Dallas Cowboys 

Washington is the nation's capital, but America's team is in Texas?  Pfffft.  Anyway, if you know me at all, the choice for #1 was a no-brainer.  It's a close call between Pitt hockey and The 'Boys on who I hate the most, but Dallas ultimately wins.  Jerrah pays extra for the weekly hype boost no matter how they're playing, and they're always praised as championship contenders at the start of every season.

Troy Aikman is a decent announcer, even though being with Joe Buck kinda holds him back.  He does praise Washington when they deserve it, so he's OK in my book.  Didn't like him much when he played, of course.

Having a career in the 90's puts him on all the wacky inserts...

And he's old-school enough to look good on the retro-style stuff.

The other former lead Cowboy now announcer that I never really hated too much is Tony Romo.  These Strata cards aren't bad, and the throwback uni matches well.

Romo has always been a golly-shucks regular guy who is probably fun to be teammates with.  He doesn't get too serious, even in games (except when they blow the playoffs again - but then I'm happy, so it works out). 

Tony fits in with the frat boys, but is still down to earth enough to be likable.  He knows the game well, and communicates it to the general public without being pretentious.  Another guy who, on any other team, I'd have rooted for.

 
That's my rundown.  I could have split it up into two posts, but at this point, it's taken me so long to put it together, I figure I'd just throw it all up at once. 

Keep the Bat-Around's coming.  I'll try to think of one too!