The Heart Of Baltimore...

I don't have a lot to say about the passing of Baltimore Orioles legend Brooks Robinson that isn't going to be said in all the tributes. 

As I've mentioned before, this autographed photo was obtained at a signing at a sponsor gas station in my home town.

These are the Brooks cards I have in my star binder.  It's an assortment of HOF'ers and other name players that I don't keep with the sets.  There's really no rhyme or reason on which ones go in there or which ones go in the set binder...

The Marquee and the Triple Threads are ones I had sitting around that didn't have a home otherwise.  Thick cards like that aren't the best in sheets...

Shucks, I meant to straighten these scans out before I posted.  Oh well.  The certificate goes with the Front Row set...

Like I said, I have other Brooks cards in their sets - '59, '64, even '68 (no idea why since the combo is here), '72, '77.  But you'll see those on other blogs, etc. too.

The guy was an amazing player with an incredible range on the field, but his heart was much bigger than that. 

Ginter Gap Cards #2

The half dozen people that responded favorably to my custom A&G cards of Malika Andrews inspired me to create some more.  I'll call them Ginter Gap cards, since they are subjects that Ginter didn't include.

This time, it's the new owner of the Washington Commanders.  He's already brought good fortune on the franchise - they're 2 and 0 on the season so far.  There are also reports that a new stadium is in the works.  Not to mention that he replaced the dark cloud over the team in general.

Guess I could have waited a few days for the new 2023 A&G to come out, but so far I like this base design a whole lot better.

Vintage NFL (New Football Loot)

Since it's the first weekend of the NFL season, it's the perfect time to show the vintage football I got on vacation.

It's not a whole lot, but there are some cool cards.

Finished my '71 Topps Game with these four.  Sorry about the glare on Bradshaw.  Most of these were found at the National.

Some big names in the '68 Topps set.  I should have shopped around for most of these, I ended up finding better centered copies for a lower price not long after I snagged these.  

Have really been shopping more carefully for the last few '57s.  Glad to find these nice ones for a good price.  Of course, that Brown guy is gonna be a bitch to find cheap...  (Again with the glare.  it's just not possible to take pictures of cards in holders in this house.)

These aren't really vintage at 1988, but they're throwbacks nonetheless.  

And neither is this one (1999 Fleer), but it depicts a cover from the 1970's.  

And finally, I got this one at half the sticker price, along with a bunch of vintage baseball I'll show later.  How many of you know what this is?  It's a 1972 Topps high number.  There were a couple more in the same box I pulled this one from, but they were either a lot more or a lot lower condition.  It was the first time I've seen one in real life.  They aren't all All-Pros, but the first 23 are.  I don't have any illusions on getting the rest of them, but it was nice to add at least one to my set.

Hope your team does well this season - real and fantasy. 

Hitting The High Points

I've got a few more batches of shop & show loot to put on display, but I don't really have many more images of where they came from.  So I'll just post them by type, rather than source.

This may be the only post in this series that the typical modern collector will pay attention to.  It's all about the hits, and the shiny serial numbered stuff.  There are other autographs, etc. in what I bought, but this is the bulk of them.  If you know me at all, you know this isn't what I go after.

As you can see, this lot crosses three sports.  Not all of them are jerseys or are numbered.  I focused instead on the thickness of these cards.

They've all got a significant point size.  Later shots will be on a darker background so the white edges show better.

The thickest one is this UD the Cup Kuznetsov, numbered to 249.  

Here he is next to a regular 1978 Topps card.

And the back.  I picked this one up with a few of the others in this batch at a table in the Lansing Mall show.  Pretty sure it was a dollar box.

On to baseball and a couple player collection additions.  Can't recall exactly where I found these, but they're both bonus pickups.  Fisk is a manu-relic, which isn't attractive in itself, but it is in the 1980 design, so sentimentality won out.  Jones isn't even a player collection of mine, but I have a mini-collection of his relics in consecutive years, and this will be a nice "header card" if you will.

Fisk is a little washed out because I left the sleeve on him, but you can tell it's several times the height of the normal card.

And the backs...  Those Bowman Best are nice, but it's peculiar that the backs have the frame around them too. 

 

These Inceptions left their seller along with the Kuznetsov.  These are pretty, but I will only likely obtain them as singles.  Boxes are $200 and up if you can catch them.  Each card is numbered to a different figure, but the price was the same - one lucky buck.

They're probably the thinnest of the bunch, but are still multi-ply.

I didn't scan the backs of the Inceptions, nor did I separate the Doctson jersey, so I'm skipping to the back.

You saw the Illusions quarterbacks in the preview post.  I found the McLaurin quad at the same dealer at the National.  They were less than ten bucks each.

Terry is numbered to 299 and the swatches vary by color and whatever workout equipment this striped piece comes from.  The gold scanned green on the closeup tilted toward the light.

Of course, there is no explanation of what they are on the back.  

The quarterbacks one is pretty trippy.

This one I do remember distinctly.  A very pleasant dealer at the mall show asked what kind of thing I was looking for, and was appreciative that it wasn't the same as the usual.  I was thankful he took my offer of $15 for it.

 

Rear view and closeup of the low serial number.

Here's how the whole batch stacks up.

Luckily, most of them came in top loaders of the appropriate size, so I only have to spend two or three of my new ones.

What would you like to see next? 

Vintage, or other newer miscellaneous things?  Let me know below.  I'll try not to take all month to show this stuff.