The Biggest Curly W

Jackie Is Topps Now

Recently decided to sign onto Instagram, pretty much just for the gorgeous women glam posts (see Collecting Cutch's Save Second Base series) 

Got a special bonus the other day when this post showed up.

The stunning Jackie Redmond from NHL network was hawking the Topps Now! cards from the World Series.  It's a beautiful thing when two of your favorite things come together.  I commented that she has now vaulted to the top of my list of favorite sportscaster sweethearts.

Today I saw that she did it again!  Sorry, I don't see how to post the actual video from Instagram on here.

Giving away the Astros set (grr!) before Game 4. 

Is it possible she's actually a collector?  Instant Mind-Blowing Dream Girl status for sure.

Nationals Ride The S-Train To Victory Again

Haven't been posting much lately, mostly because of the unbelievable World Series games 1 and 2.  (The other thing was that my Mom had the other knee replaced Monday - everything went great and she was home the next day and is recovering just fine.)

I didn't really have any special cards for Scherzer, Soto, or Invader Zim to commemorate Game 1, but I do have a few nicer ones for last nights 12-3 domination.

Every now and then I'll pull or come across a nice Steven Strasburg parallel or fancy card.  Nothing high end, but a few that are worth more than a George.

2010 Rookies, both #661.  These are .3 and .4 versions - version 661.1 (on COMC anyway) is the autographed first pitch photo which shows more of this throwing arm behind him like the left one here.  661.2 is the Million Card Giveaway of the same photo.

No, I dont' own this one

Next up is a gold parallel of the 2011 Rookie Cup.  Serial numbering to 2011 boosts the value.  At the time I was just glad to pull a parallel of his.

This one might look familiar in a sense to my regular readers.  It's the inspiration for the Leading Ladies design.  The red and white work well with the Nats uniform.

Another nice red accented theme, this Target parallel from 2013 has a very clean look.  Wouldn't be bad to seek out the whole team set of these.

Cool shiny stat line 2014 Donruss numbered out of 296.  I like the take on the '87 design too.

Slightly crop-scanned shot of the green Bunt parallel from 2017 (/99).  Not the best color for a red and grey uniform, but rarer parallel at least.

Really sparkly 2017 Bowman Platinum.  One of these days I'll find a starter lot of a recent BPlat set and finish it, except for the outrageous rookies or whatever Bowmanesque trouble it contains.  Scan doesn't do this one justice, so I snapped a photo with my phone...

And finally, the pièce de résistance.  The 2010 Heritage card given away at the National.  The only worthwhile item to stand in that big of a line for.  They're still going for triple-blaster prices on COMC.

The way the Nationals are going, I don't expect them to even have to go back to the "Juice Box" to complete the Series.  But we'll see.

Six State Tour - Full Circle

Finally, the last haul from July/August is from back in Maryland.  We made a return trip to "Kevin & Dad's" over toward Maugansville at Rocky Ridge Collectibles.  The first visit is documented here.

Again, sorry about the glare.  It is inescapable here at night.  These are the few baseball selections I made.  1999 Fleer Tradition inserts, a rare Dominator from 1998 (had to look these up and put a picture on my want list page to distinguish them from other years), a couple 2003ish Topps Chippers, '84 Fleer updates, and Ted Williams Locklear Collections.

More inserts from 2003ish Topps and Upper Deck, a Heritage SP, Yaz from 2005 Topps All-Star Classics, a Super Teams insert I may not need, and an American Pie Profiles In Courage Seaver.  Just recorded a show about Seaver last week.  Have yet to watch it.

 Transitioning between the sports with player collection stuff.  Bo Jackson in modern form with some unfamiliar inserts (some serial numbered.)  Not recognizing them is the only qualification to take them home.  Really don't know what that clear thing is at all.  We'll take a closer look in a second.
Took one off the Priest Holmes list, which is rare but always nice.  Palmer and Fisk are both Donruss "Originals" and not "originals" if you know what I mean.  The other Palmer was worth 50¢ and that's a triple with Mussina next to him.

SPx something of Bo.  It's even an oddball size.  The only other thing I can tell you about it is that I'm taking it home.

Mid to late 90's stars and inserts from Stadium Club and Upper Deck.  Pro Line Profiles Aikmans, and a stray Fleer Team Action.

A few more of those 1996 Fleer Sensations opposite a 2008 and 2002 Peyton, with 2016 Donruss and 2015 Diamond Kings in between, along with a couple 2014 Score and a 2011 Topps Legendary Combos. 

And lastly, the Redskins.  Not much else to say about them with their current season's performance.  The only thing they are winning this year is the Most Pathetic Team in the NFL.

Will try to figure out some other themed posts besides loot for a while.

Playing With House Money

After I arrived at the Chantilly show and took care of my autograph tickets, I sat down at the first dealer table and started to sift through some vintage hockey.  A couple minutes went by and then I heard my name over the PA system.  "Would Greg Armentrout and xxx and xxx please come to the CSA booth to claim your door prize"

No way!  I had just dropped the card in the box like ten minutes beforehand.  I never win anything!

So I finished up with that dealer and said "Let me go get my '52 Mantle now." 

Turns out it was a $25 voucher for merchandise from any show dealer.  Nice!

What did I spend it on?

Well, I was perusing another showcase and saw this:

Typically, $25 would have been a decent but not overwhelming discount on this item, but in this case, it was the whole sticker price.

I asked, "What's the catch on Jackie here?"

The guy consulted for a minute and then said that the owner questions the authenticity of the card.  I figured for that price I'd take a chance.  It was kind of a knee-jerk reaction, but I tend to freely spend at shows, so I went for it. 

Then I remembered I had the voucher and used that to pay for it.  Might as well play with house money if I'm gambling.

I got it home and compared it to my Sandy Koufax from the same year. 

Looks close.  The card stock seems a bit different, but I was still a bit hopeful.  Turned them over....

Yeah, OK, now that's a big difference.  The Jackie is really yellowed.  And the printing is close, but just not quite as sharp as the Koufax.

I looked up how to tell fake vintage cards and the simplest test was to hold them up to a bright light with the back facing you and see if you can see through to the front.  An authentic vintage card should be solid and dark.

Nope.

Ah well.  Learned a bit about forgeries and it didn't cost me a thing.  Still looks decent until I can get a real one.  If I'd have spent it on real stuff, it would have probably been a stack of set hits that I wouldn't remember later.  Could have picked something else from real vintage, but this was a Jackie Robinson. 

Have you ever had any experiences with fake cards?

The Stars Without The Cardboard

It's not as if I needed to bring home another pile of cards, but I went to the October Chantilly show this past weekend anyway.  It was more for a couple autographs for a friend than anything else, but I figured I'd pick up some new inserts while I was there.

My main target was a couple former Redskins stars that were there among a whole group of them.  You could get Terry Allen, Dexter Manley, DeAngelo Hall, Ricky Sanders, Rickey Ervins, Mike Bragg and Chris Hanburger for $119.  That was $56 off the regular individual price (of about $30 each).  That was a bit much for me, and my friend William just wanted a couple of the older guys, so I went with them.

Chris Hanburger wore #55 and was elected to the Hall Of Fame in 2011.

 Larry Brown wore #43 and was the 1972 NFL MVP and played in Super Bowl VII vs. the undefeated Dolphins.

I printed out some cool photos for them to sign instead of cards or helmets this time.

They had several other "lanes" open with signers while I was in line for those guys.

Dexter Manley, who I got at a Chantilly show before.

The Diesel John Riggins was there too.  He's on TV a lot around here.

And Jerome Bettis for you Steeler fans harkening for better days.

I did end up with some current year inserts and even some vintage football etc. which I'll share in a later post.

Thanks in advance to the bots for jacking up my reader numbers since "cardboard" is in the title.

Cuts Both Ways

The penultimate stop on the six state tour was a diversion to an antique mall in Maumee, Ohio.  Most of the card type stuff was at the front of the store.  We had fallen way behind traveling and diverting off on slow roads, so we didn't spend more than about an hour.  But I did find some unique things.

Some oddball items including a '74 Topps Giants checklist, a Bo Jackson from Upper Deck, a Hank Aaron reprint from 2000, and an Elston Howard Salada coin.  Let's get a better look at that...

Very similar to the Topps coins of the same era, I don't think I have any of these otherwise.

The main draw to this shop from Stuart's previous visit was these uncut sheets of 1978 Topps baseball.  Each of these has at least two of my player collection guys on it.  There were a few more that I left behind either because of price or the lack of PC guys for me.

Here's the back of one sheet.  The numbering is consistent with the regular set, so I suppose these were magazine promos or a dealer issue, not really sure.

Then from uncut to cutout, I found this among the star football selections.  Didn't know about it until I had my hands on it.  A cool addition to my Redskins collection, as it says, it's an aborted LeVar Arrington rookie card from Upper Deck MVP.

Apparently Arrington didn't agree to have the companies depict him on cards and sued them.  So they recalled them and did this to them.  I had seen the 2006 Topps Alex Gordon cutouts for sale online, but not this.

Next time: Last stop Maryland!

Cars, Commerce, and Klingons

The coolest place we visited while in Michigan was The Henry Ford museum.  (They call it The Henry Ford).  There's a lot more to it than just cars.

The promo video is a bit melodramatic, but all that stuff is actually there on site.

We went through the museum, which car guys, as well as history buffs need to put on their must-visit lists.

 

There's a section on the development of steam power to run factories, etc. with several massive displays of machines.  You can see the progress of the technology as the years passed.  But just the scale of some of the machinery is quite impressive.  Some of them are actually in motion as well.

The "other" kind of steam engines are also present.  Yep, there are full size locomotives and cars inside the building.  And you can get up inside some of them.

Not to be outdone by the ground transport machines, there is another section on aviation with whole planes hanging from the ceiling, like this DC-3.

But of course, there is extensive information about the manufacture of cars.  Including this cool expanded view of a Model T.

And a large expanse on the evolution of the automobile, with its influences from the interstate highway system, manufacturing innovations, culture, etc.

My favorite display model was this DeSoto Fireflite from 1957.  I really dig that style.  I'm so into chrome and tailfins.

And you can't have a Ford musuem about cars without Mustangs.  This is actually the very first one.  Serial number 1.

In one hallway, there are Presidential limousines including those that carried FDR, Kennedy, and Reagan.

What drew us here was the special limited engagement of the Star Trek exhibit.  I took a ton of pictures of everything, but won't load it down here too much.

There were props from all the shows and movies from TOS thru ST:Discovery...

...including the original consoles and captain's chair from the Original Series.  Restored to working order.

Models from the productions...

Costumes...

And some interactive displays.  Here's yours truly taking a rest and communing with the Hivemind.  (No, this is not actually how I publish blog posts.)

We did make one quick stop in a town called Gratiot at a shop that was mostly comics called SJ Sportscards.  The owner took a really long time to come to pricing on the vintage singles and junk wax era items that we picked out.  Most of his stuff was still stickered with 1992 prices, and apparently his references haven't changed much.

I got these for eight dollars.  Hey, they're nice and everything, but....

Ya gotta go to The Henry Ford.  And take some time in Greenfield Village, if not just to drive a Model T!