Rock Stars, Champions and Sweet Treats From Our Little Corner Of The Palace

I'm moving up in the blogging world.  The latest recognition comes from long-time blog reader and generous trader mr. haverkamp (aka Jim).

He liked the blog and my "amazing variety of wantlists" - so much so, he dug me out some good stuff!


Some early 90's Upper Deck inserts:

Three of the Topps T205 triple folders:

A bunch of 2013 Allen & Ginter including inserts:

Some great Hostess and Mother's Cookies for my player collections:

A hit to 2002 Upper Deck Golf:

And finally, an odd ball promo from 1991 Pro Set Music.  Didn't see that one coming!

Gonna have to work a bit to get suitable return fire for all this goodness!

Elimination Can Still Be A Good Time

My buddy John hooked me up with a game ticket to Saturday night's Orioles vs. Rays game at Camden Yards.  The game itself was not what we wanted to see, (though they almost rallied after we left), but it was nice just being at the ballpark.

I drove myself since he was riding with other friends.  It was easy parking in lot G down by M&T football stadium.  Got to see the new Ray Lewis statue, along with Johnny U's on the walk up to Oriole Park. 

We found our seats in the upper deck and settled in.  Showed up rather early, so the crowd hadn't filled in yet.  It was interesting how the lights kicked in and darkness fell right about the time of the first pitch.

We were in the corner near the foul pole and the Orioles retired numbers.

The starting lineups...hopefully clearer in the larger view.

Around the fourth inning, we went for food and walked around to the monument park in the other corner.  I had not seen them in person yet.

Brooks Robinson

Earl Weaver

Frank Robinson

Eddie Murray

Cal Ripken, Jr.

Jim Palmer

John had to leave (his friend got called back to his Navy ship). So I hung around until the top of the 9th inning.  Score was 9 to 1 Rays at that point.  Since the O's hadn't been winning a lot lately, I didn't have much faith in a comeback.  I finally decided if the next batter gets on, I'm getting a jump on the traffic.  The batter got a hit, and I headed out.

I continued snapping pictures on my way down the ramp behind the grandstands.  You can see the game between the floors.

Game view is kinda washed out

Came through the monument park again and went around to the warehouse and out Eutaw Street.

Went home and learned the Orioles scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth!  This solidifies my rule about not leaving early.  I got home and they were replaying the game on CSN so I recorded it from about the 7th inning on to see the scoring in the 9th.  My luck struck again and the recording stopped after the eighth inning.  So I'm just seeing the highlights this morning on their website.

That loss officially eliminated the O's from the post season.  Ah well, maybe next year....

Didn't Sell, But I Did Buy

Last weekend's show wasn't a total waste of time.  I did manage to pick up some singles for myself.

The highlight was these four oddballs from my buddy Steve, who's been doing that show and many others for a good while now.  These are from 1984 through 1989 (in one set) O'Connell & Sons Ink.  They're blank backed and are the first from this 250 count set that I've seen in person. 

These go in my player collections.  The Elston seems to be cut to regulation size.  The others might be a challenge to fit in regular sheets.   Still need 79 BudH, 145 Vida Blue, 156 Lolich, 157 Palmer, 171 Keller, 193 Foster, and 204 Bo.  The checklist is interesting in that a lot of players repeat.  Some a couple times.  For example, there are five Mickey Mantles, three Stan Musials, three Nolan Ryans, etc.  150 Hall of Famers in the set.  And then there are guys like Don Mossi, Fernando Valenzuela, Jim Gilliam, and Danny Ainge.  All are ink rederings of what I believe are pictures from other cards.

I also picked up some nice '64s from the 300 series.

Killed a whole bunch of this year's inserts as well from my favorite insert vendor.  A lot of them were the retail exclusives.  Was able to convert my want lists for all of the series 1 inserts to "need" lists.  Series 2 is still largely "have" lists since I don't like to list out more than half the numbers, especially when there are 50 and 100 of each insert!

Mystery Envelope

Got a PWE in the mail the other day with some contributions to my recent Allen & Ginter sets.

Not sure who it's from, since it's not addressed, but I have my suspicions.  Is that you?

It actually came marked "Postage Due" since there was no extra ounce / non-machinable 21¢ stamp included.  Luckily, there was no envelope left to collect the cash in, so like most of the time the postman didn't sweat it.

Three Giants stars for my 2013 set.  Thanks to the "stealth sender"! :)

Maybe I Should Just Stick To Trading

Well, that was discouraging. 

Got everything prepared, hauled it all out to the car, carted it into the show, piled it all on the table, and put my signs up.  And then after about four and a half hours,....

...I carried it all back home.  Every single card.  Didn't sell anything.  Not one.

I thought I had some decent stuff, too.  The Ginter and Gypsy Queen I showed earlier, a couple other years of Heritage, recent Topps with inserts, and some newer football.  I knew there might not be so much of a market for my miscellaneous older baseball and football, but maybe a couple Redskins collectors or something.  Nada.

I put out the few gamers and autographs I had among the boxes, and loose in the front, along with the Bowman Chad Kuhls.  Those were really the only things most people even picked up.  Had a couple nibbles on the other stuff, but no takers.

Guess I just don't collect the popular stuff - Shiny Bowman Rookie mojo.  Kinda knew that going in.  But didn't expect Zero.  Figured there had to be a couple set builders or team collectors coming in at some point.

I could downsize my stock and try again next month, but I'm not optimistic that it would go any better.  Some of the other veteran vendors say it slows down when football season starts (since the shows are on Sundays).  So I don't know.  I might feel better about it later.  We'll see.

Going Behind The Table Tomorrow

Have been spending my usual posting time prepping for selling at my first show tomorrow. 

I think I'm bringing too much for one table, as my car trunk is chock full and there are a few more boxes in the back seat.  A lot of people's collections wouldn't fill their cars, and this is just my extra stuff!  Hopefully I can sell some off - I need the space!  Not going to cash out the whole table, though.  Still a lot of trading potential.

I've got my inventory, extra top loaders, team bags and empty boxes for packaging, and plenty of change.  I think that's everything.  Even made some signs for the back of a few boxes pimping this blog.

If you're in the Hagerstown area tomorrow, stop by and look for my table at the Ruritan Club in Maugansville!

Pre-Nat Show Loot

I've neglected posting my haul from the mid-year Chantilly show.  This show was just a couple weeks before Chicago happened.  You may be sick of me showing my purchases of mass quantities after the National and Michigan Tour 2.0. Just confirms that I have no life otherwise, especially this year. :)

My usual show attire includes dark blue cargo pants with big pockets so I can carry around all this and still look for more.

Unpacked...

Still doesn't look like a whole lot until you sort it and spread it out.

Unfortunately, I don't have closer pictures or scans of the '50 Bowman, '63 Fleer, or some of the other good stuff.  Since it's been so long since I got these (mid-July), and that's the stuff that's most fun to put away, they're already integrated into their sets.  I could do a "state of the set" post if you want to see what I have so far on those....

I did upgrade a few team checklists, and remembered that Minnie was in bad shape too.  Turns out I had already swapped my set checklists, so these are available.  Didn't find the second one (132-295), but if you need any of the others, let me know.

More '74 upgrades and some additions to my '70 set.  Some great markdowns from a dealer named Dave Estright.  Didn't have as much success the second time around at his 90% boxes at the Nat.  But if you haven't been through them the first time, it's worth checking out.

Always love the space program, and this was a great find from Mulk's Sports Cards from just west of here.  This is a combination of the 1969 and 1970 Man In The Moon sets.  It was half off at $25, just missing three cards.  I've since found a couple of them and upgraded a few more.

And finally, a few from the "guilty pleasure" section, namely wrestling Divas.  There are several base cards of the gorgeous love Paige, and a bonus autograph of scarlet-coiffed hottie Eva Marie.

I promise I'm going to try to put together more posts on the philosophical or whimsical side rather than "look what else I got!" for a while, I swear....

Mr. Bob And Friends

The latest shipment from my man Marv arrived Saturday, and it did not disappoint.  Knocking my 1960 Topps needs down to fourteen cards were these beauties.

Mr. "Bob" Clemente heads the list.  This thing is only about 2° from being absolutely perfect.  His buddy Maris is just a little off vertically, but is pristine clean otherwise.

Ferrarese is the odd man out of this group, but bright and sharp nonetheless.  Great cartoon on the back of his:

Hep me, Hep me, I been hyp-mo-tized!

The rest are all high number All-Stars.  Skowron's back says he was out most of the previous year, but is back and clouting clutch hits for the Bronx Bombers.  McCovey is basking in his rookie year glory, looking forward to a Hall of Fame career.  Mathews  never has a bad card, and Kaline is just wondering what he has to do to win the batting title.  The cartoons on the back of the All-Stars are epic.  They cover half the card back, it's awesome.

Marvelous Marv VB., you are once again the MVP!!

IP By Proxy TTM Auto

That sounds like an automated network protocol setup.  Above my pay grade, I'm sure.

It's actually a quick description on how I got this:

I took my '79 Topps Ron LeFlore to the National hoping to trade something to somebody to get it signed for me.  I wasn't going to be at the show myself on Sunday, so I needed a little help.  Don from SCF had a table in the far corner of the floor and had a few suggestions.

My original arrangement failed when I forgot to leave my extra auto tickets with Don where they could be retrieved later.  But lucky for me, another SCF member, Rick, who goes by Turd Ferguson, took care of it for me.

I always like to get my in-person autos personalized, so when they go into my player collections, it's evident that I actually met the player.  This is the first case where my name was used, but I wasn't actually there.  Still looks great - a nice signature on a classic looking card.

Thoughts-On-Ginter Lead To Hits-On-Lists

Kerry from Cards On Cards started a conversation about Allen & Ginter in a recent post.  I commented with something like "Don't stop now, I just got a big pile of trade bait that you saw in this post.

Got the first wave of Kerry's contributions the other day.

 First up, the always welcome hit to a previous year's straggler inserts.  With a rare photo no less.

Heritage short print of a very serious looking Armando...

Heritage insert of two great pitchers, and a short print of J. Lo's current boyfriend.

 More Heritage.  Coaches and a guy I like even less.  I notice he's not wearing batting gloves.  They must have only had a couple hours to shoot.  He would have had to refasten them between shutter clicks I'm sure.

Moving to football.  Some rare variations from Pro Set.  ESPN 30 For 30 subject Dupree is just a PC, but the others feature text in various stages of obscurement (is that a word?) , missing player association logos, or slightly different color wording (not shown because they were filed away early after much squinting and independent scanning.)  Any Pro Set variation collectors will know what I'm talking about.

And finally, some random Redskins for the team files.  Very eclectic mix.  Thanks Kerry!