Spring Chantilly Show - Youth And Old Age

There's an old saying that I've quoted before, "There's no such thing as a bad day when you're fishing."  The same holds true for card shows.  I woke up this morning so stiff and achy after spending most of yesterday on my feet at the Chantilly card show, but it was worth it.  I got to the show about 10AM, and left as they closed at 5.  Here's what I brought home.

Started with a few more for the '65 set build.  This will be a recurring theme.

 Usually I'll start at the far end of the show floor and work my way back, but since I had to get autograph tickets from the section of the building in the other direction, I jumped in at that end.  Dave Rosen & family at All Star Sports Cards out of Levittown, PA always has a big selection of insert and parallels from the current releases.  It's a great resource for me to find player collection stuff without having to open boxes.  

Got the Stadium Club Chrome, Red Foil, Pink Foil, and Sepia Bo's....

Picked up the Prizm, Chrome SC, Refractor, and Pink Younts for my friend Eric.

The biggest rainbow was Palmer, with the base, Chrome, Refractor, Red, & Pink.

He had a couple nice bonus items too.  Torre is one of the rare Cycle Succession A&G inserts out of the three I need.  And this 2024 Impeccable auto of Luis Tiant commemorating his debut.  Numbered out of 25, he must have signed this one shortly before his passing.

Next dealer had these '65s in a book.  Only the Agee rookie was more that $2-3.  A couple of these are upgrades.  I'm hoping that Agee isn't a duplicate, since I was working from my website and a printed list at the same time and that card was only on one.  Haven't found another one yet.

Then I heard my favorite local dealer Steve say hello over into the next aisle, so I stepped up to his table.  He had several of the Steve Carlton rookies that was the last of the big money cards I needed for my set.  I picked one out that was in the middle of the range of prices, and said I needed a Uecker too.  He gave me a good discount on them and then we worked a deal for the extra '64 Uecker and the two '57 mid series duplicates that I had from previous shows.  That almost cut my cost in half.  I was very happy.

At this point, I heard the announcement for my autograph signing and headed over to the lines.

Since he's from my hometown, went to the schools I work for, and knows my coworker, I started collecting Jordan Addison's cards.  I have them all in top loaders and didn't really have a favorite, but figured I'd be putting a binder together at some point, so I made the image below and printed it out for him to sign. It will go on the binder cover.

He went to Tuscarora High School, so that was the inscription that I had him add.

Resumed my shopping after the ink dried....Came by Stan's table, who I've bought from several times before.

Andy Pafko's '50 Bowman has some staining, but would have probably been twice as much otherwise.  And Vern Stephens is #2 in the set - the lower numbers carry the premium, but this one was spot on my target price at $12.

For this show, I began a set build of 1962 Post cereal cards.  I've been picking up a few of the biggest names here and there just as a novelty over the last year or so.  So the day before the show, I went through and listed the ones I had - about a dozen - including Mantle, Clemente, Aaron, Mays, etc.  Since I was that far, why not go for it?  I wrote out the remaining HOF'ers still missing, and snagged some of them here.  I just like the look of these, and they're a cheap way to owning megastars.  I'll flip the script on the normal set build and start with the big ones and find a common starter lot later.

Found another pair at the next dealer, who I've seen at the National a couple times.  (Not sure what his name is.)  Also filled out more of my '65s.  After all was said and done, I'm down to 17 cards for the set, and the biggest names lacking are Aparicio and Lolich.

Killebrew is shown twice, but I only got one.  Knocked out one of the remaining Hostess player collection needs with the '78 Ferguson.  Most of the Hostess I can't find are from the '79 set.  Not sure why they're so elusive.  Also finally found a '58 Ollie Matson that I liked to bring that set one closer to the finish.  But that end is years away, since that guy named Brown is still on my list.  I started the 1961 Golden Press's with a database trade months ago, and they've been fun to find since.  For a moment, I thought this dealer had a couple hundred of them, but they were BEHIND the divider, not in front of it, so there were only a handful, which was still plenty.

Made it down to Barry's, who generally has tons of recent inserts and bulk base.  He had lots of Heritage High Number in the '75 design, but I'm probably just going to buy a short set rather than boxes, so I didn't need singles.  Hope to get a line on the SP's too.  Found these A&G parallels for Eric & I, as well as the Palmer 206 for this year and a surprise Dynamic Duals with Bo Jackson.  I have two of the Dusty Baker / Lou Piniella one, but didn't know about this one.

It was a lighter haul than usual, but had some bonus oversize items too.  The Prizm card shows the scale.  Went blind on the Jordan, which of course I already had, so he's available.  The Torre is a postcard, and I'm happy I didn't have the Fisk Heritage topper.  He goes with the Gene Tenace that I did own.

Late in the day, I was getting tired and could feel my heart rate rising from being on my feet most of the day.  Brother Mike was based at the farther end of the floor, and had a vacant table next to his, so it allowed me a nice break to sit in a chair and dig through one of his 8/$1 boxes.  I came up with seven, plus the Jeets mini and a couple dollar finds.  Total of $3.

The announcements for the closing of the show had begun, so I quickly moved through the last couple rows of sale tables.  One dealer had sectioned plastic boxes labeled with certain sets or themes.  There were a couple with Chrome Anniversary parallels.  Found these two PC guys.

Sutter is the Rose Gold Mini Diamonds flavor numbered out of 75.  Got a dollar off the total, so it's reasonable, I guess.  There are so many parallels of these, you gotta get 'em when you find 'em.

So that was my show.  I'm finally feeling alive again around dinner time the next day, but that's what I get for sitting around too much otherwise.  Like I said, is there any such thing as a bad day at a card show?

Adiós El Tiante (part 2)

Luis Tiant was my favorite baseball PC player.  He passed away on the 8th at the age of 83.

Here is everything I have of his that isn't really a plain standard card.

I've got a bunch of these Sportscaster game cards of my PC players.  One of these days I'm going to have to plow through all the listings to see which ones I'm still missing.  They aren't necessarily listed by player - like this one - so it's a bit tougher to research.

These Linnett portraits are a little smaller than the Sportscasters.  They are very colorful and very '70's.

This Metallic Impressions is from 1993.  I just got this one last month or so.  Actually got two of them - bought one and got one in trade around the same time.  Might work out if I can trade it for the other four PC guys I need from that set - Blue, Bonds, Foster and Lolich.

Also from 1993, the BAT card from UD All-Time Heroes.  Technically, this is the base card.  There are no other kind in the set.  I always think these are an insert from the 1994 set, but I'm wrong.  The whole deal in '93 are these derivatives of the old T202 Triple Folders.

One of the seven PC guys in these 2024 Oversize '75 box toppers from Heritage.  I still need Guidry and Tenace to finish them.  I wish Heritage did more with retired players, but I guess that's what Archives is. 

Speaking of which, here are two autographed Archives cards.  But these are just in-person signed, as opposed to the officially sanctioned flavor with the bigger stamp - like this one.  I didn't remember these were what they are until I pulled them for this post.

Here's both sides of the same situation.  The one on the left is an encased and serial numbered issued autograph.  The one on the right is a base card with an IP auto.  That one was probably cheap.

Here are two more recent officially issued signatures.  The Prizm is a bit over the top gaudy - must have also been cheap or I might have passed it by.

Surprisingly, this is the only jersey I have of Luis.  I don't strive to pile these up for most of my PC's except for the few I'm going for supercollector status with.  Nice looking card though.

And finally, a quadruple dual jersey of Boston's finest numbered out of 75.  You could argue I need a second one for my Fisk collection.  I would say that it's too bad that Dwight Evans and Cecil Cooper weren't the other two players featured.  Then I would have 100% player collection guys on it.  Oh well, I like Rice & Lynn too. 

And that wraps it up for my Tiant collection.  Hope you enjoyed. 

A lot of my PC's started when I had a few cards of the same player and I just liked him.  Tiant was definitely one of the coolest dudes to play the game.  He was funny and kinda badass at the same time.  Plus, he was a loyal and caring family man, as you could see in the program about bringing his parents to America.  I appreciate players much more when they're good people too.

Adiós El Tiante (part 1)

Just a day after I posted about my favorite football PC player's birthday, my favorite baseball PC player passed away.  Luis Tiant was 83.

This 6" x 9" MLB photo decorates the cover of the first of nine binders that house all my baseball player collections.  Luis' cards are right up front.  There are 13 pages from the binder and several other things, so I'll split this into two posts since there are 27 images.  

Here is everything I have of his so far....

It all starts with the personalized IP autographed 1965 Topps rookie card.  Somewhere I had a picture of he and I when I got that signed, but I can't find it.  Not a great shot anyway and he seemed like he wasn't enjoying himself that day.  I just started the '65 set, so I'll need another one at some point for that.  

Found one of the '69 Topps highlights with his signature on it too.  Don't think it was very expensive.  Going through my collection to make these scans, I realize how bad some of these vintage cards are as far as centering.  That '66 is terrible.

The second page is a 9-pocket mini sheet with several inserts and oddballs.  (The bottom slots are empty so I cropped them out.)  A '69 Topps transfer, the regular and OPC deckle edges, a Dell photostamp, a Milton Bradley, and the '70 Kellogg's.  

The O-Pee-Chee versions of the '69 League Leaders cards begin page 3.  As a rule, I put Topps first, then Hostess and Kellogg's, then any others after that.  That changes in 1980 when Topps is no longer the dominant company.  The middle card is a Kahn's.  It might be '70, but only fits in the middle page slot sideways.  There will be a bunch of odd-sized items later that live in the odd-size binder, but that Kahn's just didn't have a good spot in that one, so it stays here.  And those '70 "Supers" aren't really super-sized.

The next page has holes - mostly for OPC versions.  Tiant has no '72 cards.  He was injured and spent significant time in the minors in '71 according to the back of the '73 cards.  I left a slot open for the OPC ERA Leaders below the base card, and for the '74 OPC below the base Topps too.  It works out better to show the pairs this way with an odd number of pockets. 

More from the '75 design later.  That SSPC is such a funny shot.  It looks like he's thinking "If this fool doesn't take the picture and get out of my way, I'm gonna sock him in the mouth!"

More OPC's, a cloth sticker, and a '79 Burger King that is like a Traded card.  Ya gotta love the pairings of the late '70's Topps & OPC's when a player changes teams.

Here's where the order switches.  All companies are in alphabetical order now.  I stuck that little stamp from '83 with the Donruss.  It's actually in a folded penny sleeve draped over the card.

Now it gets really diverse.  Senior Leagues, Swell, Line Drive, Minor Leagues, and Action Packed.

Moving on to post-career issues.  Ted Williams, Upper Deck, Fleer, etc.

Lots of reprinted images in this section.  Archives, Fan Favorites, Retired Signature, and the more uncommon Shoebox Topps issues, among others.

Now the finishes get more fancy then the photo selections.  I'm sure there are a lot more out there that would expand this part of the PC.

More retired player sets, more repeated pictures.  I think there are even more parallels of those Absolute Heroes.  I'm sure I'm still looking for the pewter '06 Greats.

And finally, you have the Topps Chrome Anniversary premiere edition and all the parallels, along with a few of the other issues from around the same year.  The base and Mustaches card are online exclusives.  The Archives '75 isn't what I was talking about before.  This year's Heritage box toppers are even nicer.

Had one straggler stuck on the back of the last page.  Didn't want to start another sheet just for one card.

Stay tuned for part two - all shapes and sizes - plus the mojo hits and a non-card item or two.

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. 

Campy Was In Every Set Too!

Night Owl has put Bert Campaneris back in the collective mind in more ways than one.  (See what I did there?)  His post about Campy related how Bert showed up in several games he was watching, and is remembered for playing all nine positions and losing his composure one time in the playoffs.

Dagoberto happens to be one of my (many) player collection subjects.  Mine is not the best or most complete collection of his cardboard, but I haven't done bad.  It's not high end by any means, but is pretty diverse in relation to most of my other PCs.  Let's check it out.  (Sorry, I left them in the pages to scan, so there may be a few glare spots.)

Nice '65 rookie card with ASR Trophy and KC A's pinstripes, also mirrored in the '66 Rub-Off.  The red thing is an Atlantic Oil game card.  The '69 trio card is a rare combo for that year.  Bert has a lot of hatless shots in his catalog, though.

Since he has so many oddball cards, I sometimes leave spaces in certain pages to make room for future additions.  There are some gems here, including the black & white '69 Milton Bradley, a Topps Photostamp, and a rare (for my collection) '71 Bazooka.  You can't do much better than '70 Kellogg's though.

Occasionally, I'll forego the chronological order to make a more appealing page, as in this one with so many matching O-Pee-Chee and Topps cards.  (Topps always goes first in my binders until 1980, then the companies go in alphabetical order).  The glaring omission here is the '73 World Series card.  Gotta look for that at the next big show.  Whenever that comes...

As with any major OPC appearance, you have to see the backs to fully appreciate them.

More World Series action and more oddballs.  And again, another OPC WS card gets pushed up my priority list.  Maybe I'll add them to my top 10 wants the next time I have to fill in some spots.

Some heavy airbrushing on those '77s.  You know that's the same photo recropped from the '76 shot.  The '79 is a very clean card though, and the colors work really well.  Apparently Kellogg's cards are prepared early in the offseason.  They didn't get the Texas memo in time.

Bert looks much less out of place with the Angels than the Rangers, I think.  After the rough edged OPC, we get into the modern era and the other companies.

But it isn't long until his career winds down.  That minor league card is by TCMA in '83.  It's my most recent addition to this PC.  The second all-time leader is OPC too.

Now we get to some serious oddballs.  Ol' Bert just didn't want to quit playing the game he loved.  Went from the minors to the Senior League.  I did not get that IP auto myself.  Bought it at a show for probably less than $10.  The little playing card thingy is in the catalog, but is really only a xeroxed piece of paper.  You can really see the embossing on the Action Packed in the last slot. 

His ubiquity continues thru the '93 Ted Williams set, UD All-Time Greats with Anniversary editions, Sonic Greats, SI Greats Of The Game (a set I want to build really bad.  Found a dealer with a whole box of it one time and only picked out my PC guys at the time.  Should have got a starter of the whole thing too.  One of those regrettable moments I'll always remember), and the excellent UD Decade 70's.

More recent post-career goodness - Archives, Super Teams, Fan Favorites, Tribute, SP Legendary Cuts, and the prettiest set of all time Upper Deck Timeless Teams.

Rounding out the binder pages, Topps Pristine and a buyback.  I try to put buybacks in order by the year they came in packs (again) instead of the year of the original issue.

Now to the really oddball stuff.  Pulled these out of my non-nine pocket page binder.  Upper Deck BAT triple folder card, '71 Topps coin, '70 Super (which is super thick and somewhat curled), and '67 poster.  Gotta love those shoulder numbers.

This one is even a little too large for the scanner bed.  1970 poster, which I thought was older than that.

And finally, and item so oddball it can't be scanned.  This RC Cola can is from the second series, issued in 1978.  They also had football cans that year.  The previous year, the cans had square bio information areas.  Luckily, this one was on top of my stack of nine cans of my PC guys.  Still looking for a bunch more.

And that's my Bert Campaneris collection.  He's got a lot of diverse card related items to go after, and I'm sure there are many more for me to find.