Guess Whooo Sent Some Heritage

Got a large quantity of 2023 Heritage from Greg the Night Owl this Saturday.

Yeah, the toughest part of Heritage is the short prints.  I have exactly one from each series.

They came in a pair of packages.  Guess he was out of bigger mailers.

 
Two big bags full. (Editor's note: N.O. is a "back flapper").

All the big names, inserts, All-Stars, etc.

Trout, Alonso, Cole, Ramirez, Swanson, Rutschman, Betts, Witt.  All the current guys I recognize.  (And a lot that I don't, of course.)

Of course, anyone outside of the database is competing with all the trades I've been getting.  And this day wasn't any different.  Got these two sheets worth the same day.  But I don't mind the dupes.  

All of this allowed me to put names by the remaining numbers in my list.  I'm down to 27 regular series base and 33 high series.  All of Greg's were regulars, which meant that list went from twice as big to below the quantity of the high series needs.  I've traded for the entirety of what I have.  Haven't bought a single card from this set. 

Hopefully I can find a good starter batch of the SP's down the line.  Wouldn't mind a couple of the Adley variants as well.  

Thanks Greg! from Greg...

Ephrata Show Haul - Glitches In The Matrix

The annual Lions Club Card Show was held in Ephrata, PA this past Saturday.  Ephrata is between Lancaster and Reading.  It's always good for lots of vintage, especially Phillies if you're into them.  The show runs from 8 to 3 or so.  I got there around 10AM and stayed until about 2PM.

A quick side note: They usually have one guest signing autographs.  Steve Carlton, Jim Palmer, and Brooks Robinson were there in past years. (It may have been Brooks subbing for Palmer).  I don't even know where that happens.  This year the signer was potential top 3 NFL draft pick Abdul Carter, the Penn State linebacker.  He was scheduled to start at 11 after an interview, but didn't actually arrive until 1:30.  He "overslept".

Anyway, it was a decent show, although overall the prices were a bit higher than I expected.  Most of what I got were vintage commons from 1965, which I hoped to find for $2 each.  I paid twice that.  But let me show you what I got...

Picked up these two from "the guy at the end of the first row that has a lot of vintage hockey".  The LAD rookies card is a high number, so the price is reasonable.  Of course, I would see that card on every other dealer's table the rest of the day at slightly lower prices.  This is the theme of the show for me.

Went around to the next row and found these all marked at 50% off the listed price.  The ones you can't see are also $8.  Make a note of the blue ones for later.  Not sure what the couple unsleeved ones were quoted.  The dealer guy told me the price and I paid.  Initially, it seemed like I might have been overcharged...

But then I remembered that these two were in the mix, and I didn't realize how many $8 cards I had picked out.  So I did actually get a discount of close to 10%.  Banks is off center, but is good enough to escape the $60-100 price point I researched.  The Mets was right about where it should have been at $15 - also a short print high number.

Diverging from the vintage theme for a bit....  These were for my new collector friend Eric from the dealer I call "Brother Mike".  I get his emails about all the shows.  He doesn't have a huge table, but always has a diverse selection among what is there.  And the price tags are "just a conversation starter".  He marks them with what they go for on eBay - shipped - and you pay much less.  

I found these four for a dollar each in his stuff too.  The total was ten dollars.  For these and the two jerseys!  That's Brother Mike.

Figured I'd come across some JD5 up there.  They were from a guy on the back row that was getting ready to do a giveaway of some sort.  The sweater was $20 and the others were $5 a shot.  Daniels' stuff is like that.  There are like five more of those Topps Now cards to get.

Came back around after a hot dog lunch from the student athletic club or whoever it was selling in the other part of the building.  Went to my favorite guy at that show in the back side of the first row.  Wish I remembered his name.  Like a lot of dealers there, he really only does that show.  Got the Brewer, Shaw & Smith for a buck a shot (that's more like it), and then I "cheated with Pete" by getting this slightly well-handled but nicely centered speciment for at least ½ if not 20% of the going rate.  Figure that makes up for any overspending or mistakes I've made with this set build.  And there were some.

I also snagged these two fine examples of the last few SP mid-series '57s I need to finish my set.  Though even if I find the others, I still have Aaron, Mantle and Brooks Robinson rookies to spend on.

Left the show and decided to make a stop on the way home at the Morning Sun Marketplace in Thomasville since they would still be open.  Went to Jason's booth and found a couple more for my set build.

This shot was taken after I swapped the Briles rookie for the one I had in his PC binder.  The Jordan Addison is a Wild Card National Convention parallel numbered to 15.  Have never seen a current Wild Card card until this one.  

Almost made the mistake of buying another '57 Pyburn from there.  It was an off-center copy.  But I went back to the car and confirmed the ones I already bought at the show, so I put it back.  

But inevitably, this still happened....

They are virtually identical in centering and condition, and I paid the same price. 

But that's not the worst of it.  When I got it all home and checked off my lists, I went to put the '57s in the binder .....  and they were already there.

*Sigh*

It was a decent show overall, though.  Guess now I have a starter pile to send to COMC.

Stay tuned though - Chantilly show is this coming Saturday.  Nothing like back to back big shows....

Saved From The Hype Monster

Before I get into the case break, I want to share another box opening that I did a few weeks ago.  

This one was part of the hoard that I am liquidating which is composed of mostly basketball.  If you know me, you know that is the one sport I don't really delve into.  I have a small Michael Jordan collection, but that is all baseball.  I have a couple other sets in one binder, but that's it.

Anyway, this collection has a lot of wax boxes, but the majority of them have already been opened.  There are, however, a few that weren't.  One was this 1999-2000 Upper Deck flagship box.  It's the size of a hobby box of the time, but it's more like a blaster in that it's priced at $20 and only has eight packs of ten cards.

I looked up the odds on the Database and put them in my eBay description:

Possible Inserts:

Basketball Heroes: Julius Erving (1:23 packs)
Future Charge (1:8 packs)
     Quantum Silver (/100), Gold (/25)
Game Jersey swatch
     (Kidd, Shaq, Duncan, Barkley, Garnett, Stockton, Van Horn, Olajuwon, Pierce, and Jordan 1:2500 packs)
     (Kobe, Pippen, Hill, Payton, Carter, Miller, Iverson, Robinson, Walker, Malone 1:288 packs)
Game Jersey Patches (1:7500 packs), Super (/25)
History Class (1:11 packs)
     Quantum Silver (/100), Gold (/25)
Jamboree (1:11 packs)
     Quantum Silver (/100), Gold (/25)
MJ: A Higher Power (1:23 packs)
     Quantum Silver (/100), Gold (/25)
MJ's Final Floor relics (1:2500 packs)
Now Showing (1:4 packs)
     Quantum Silver (/100), Gold (/25)

Pulling a jersey would be epic!  Especially if it was Jordan, Shaq, or Bryant!  The big names garner three and four digit crooked number prices on eBay!  

So full hobby boxes go for $750 or so on there.  Since this was just about a third of a hobby box, I put mine at $275 initially, I think.

It sat.  There were some followers.  But it sat.  I got a low ball offer the first few days.  But then nothing.  I figured it might get snatched up quick.  Nope.

So I let it on there for about two months at a lower price.  After that, I figured it isn't going anywhere.  So I took it down.  Thought there might be someone who messages me wanting to get it after it was taken down, but no.

After all that, I couldn't take the suspense.  

I opened it.

I'm ultimately glad I didn't sell it to someone for $245!

I snapped photos as I went, so they're not quite in logical order.  Here's the box topper ad.

"7 Packs plus 1 extra pack".  No UD - It's eight freakin' packs, OK?  Stop it.

So this is a typical pack, from what I recall.  Eight silver foil base cards (as opposed to the bronze foil in baseball and football) and two inserts.

Some decent names in the base cards.  And there were inserts that contained Jordan, et al, or were all Jordan.

Other insert sets were rookie-centric, of course.

The Jordan on the left is the most valuable card found in this box.  It goes for about $15.  No jersey, sorry.  No blockbuster pulls here.

I should have expected the absence of a big hit.  But what I really didn't expect was the absolutely HORRIBLE collation of the base cards within this box.  As you can see here, there were TRIPLES of a few cards, and doubles of a significant number as well.  I've lost track of the exact numbers, but out of 80 cards, 12 were inserts, and only about 50 couple were unique base cards.  Over a third of them were dupes within the same box!

I wouldn't have been surprised if the buyer immediately asked for a refund after blowing almost $250 for this.  It's really only worth about a tenth of that.  

I probably should have taken pictures of all the inserts at the end, but they'll likely end up trade bait on the Database after a while anyway.

Let me know if you've ever pulled something awesome from a small box like this, or ended up with jack squat from one.

Monday Mega Mail Day

The post office tends to save up packages for Monday deliveries around here.  Which works out for me because I don't tend to plan much for Monday evenings otherwise, (#old guy, #mondayssuck) so it's nice to come home and have some new cards to check off.

Last week on the 6th of November, I got the mother lode.  My constant trade friend in Michigan sent me the latest batch, and it came with several TCDB friends.

Addresses blurred for internet protection.

First up, Stuart's offerings....

About half player collection and half set needs, starting with the Heritage box topper of Vida Blue.  The '72 is a regular Topps for Manny Sanguillen.  I have trouble keeping track of those extra cameo appearances, so I end up searching for extra copies of '70s subset cards years after completing the set and filling in my PC guys' regular issue.  The '75s are all O-Pee-Chee for PCs, but I had most of them already.   The Hernandez is such a cool shot, and I've been able to snag the regular, red foil, and now shiny version of that Heritage card.  The rest are set hits - 2013 Cooperstown, 2006 Heritage, 2005 UD All-Star Classics, 2003 XL Football, and a complete set of the round-corner glossies from 1977-78 Topps hockey.

And now, in no particular order, are the Database trades.  First up, from GoldenEagles555, a few non-uniformed Redskin players, and a couple '97 Stadium Club hits.  That SClub set is one of several that have been pounded by TCDB traders.  I'm so happy to move extra stuff to build sets like that, even though they would be cheap to buy, sending (in as many cases as possible) more cards than I'm getting is just awesome.

And the diversity of some of these trades (and traders) is great too.  Check out that red foil Spider-Man!  And continuing the theme of strong guys in red outfits, Tony Gonzalez Upper Deck rookie, and three Ultras of more Washington players.  Thanks to Hector, aka HDZLV.

Another nice mix from BCMeeker.  I'm down to about a half dozen on this 1990-91 Skybox basketball set.  Stuart started me off with a lot of about 1000 cards that I dug my set out of and then entered the extras for trade, and then I put my remaining wants on the database and two out of every three trades have had some of them in it.

And these two might look familiar.  This happens sometimes when two trades hit at the same time.  But I've killed off so many Washington needs that they've probably surpassed set hits in my trades on the site.  Which is just incredible, because digging out two to ten singles from each product in shops and at shows would take forever, and I know there are tons of collectors who have them and don't need them.  It's a win-win.

More stuff from the sports spectrum from CraigB56.  Late 90's hockey, and one of those Donruss game cards that are pretty easy to come by on TCDB.  The Dotson Score is for the Washington collection, but the Addison is my latest player collection.  The Vikings WR went through the school system that I work for.  I've got a co-worker that coached him in middle school.

The other bubble mailer was from JFCard.  I didn't spread these out too far.  There's the Jordan from the Skybox set, along with an '84 Fleer Update Darling for that set, and a SportFlics Keith Hernandez for his PC.  The stack is mostly 1997-98 Score hockey, a few other newer set hits, pretty much all of the first year Capital O-Pee-Chees for that team binder, and some other odd PC needs.

I got one more package the next day from sfurukawa, which was bigger than any of these.  I just didn't take a picture of it.  It was a 300 count box full of mostly Washington football, but also a complete set of 1988 Sportflics Gamewinners, and a handful of baseball PC cards.  That was an unusual trade where I actually got more volume than I sent - but his end was all 1975 Topps baseball minis.

I combined that shipment into the stacks of all the above inventory and sorted by sport.

Here's a lower angle so you can see the quantities.  Not bad for a week of trading...

I've completed 11 trades and have that many still in progress (in transit) for the month of November so far.  And we're not even halfway through!

I also did 11 last month - starting with one on the 11th and the others on the 18th and beyond - after turning them off for August and September to try to recover from the National and Michigan hauls.  (Which I really haven't.)

In October, those trades added 185 baseball, 20 hoops, 73 football, and 5 hockey.  283 total.

And this month has brought 50 baseball, 54 hoops, 416(!) football, and 121 hockey.  641 total.

I bet I've moved a lot more than that to good homes too.  Gotta love Database trading!

Jumping Into '62

With the completion of 1964 Topps, my next set build is 1962 Topps.  Both sets (and some '63's) started with the same bargain lot I got at a shop in western Maryland a few years ago.  I got over 300 cards for a net price of about 7¢ each that day.  No big stars, but a nice starter lot for all three sets. 

Earlier, I mentioned my official start in on the classic wood bordered cards.  I sure ended up with a lot of them by the end of my vacation.  

After that, the bulk of these were obtained at the National.  As before, these are grouped by vendor, but not in great detail in most cases.

Curious that the bright red price tags scan just off white.  Anyway, these are typical of my starter lot.  Not pristine, but not too bad.  The Win Leaders is a little more crooked than I like, but for $2 instead of two or three times that...sure.

Some good names here.  The first checklist is the error flavor, with numbers starting at 121 on the back instead of 34.  Santo is a little rounded, but $8 isn't bad in Chicago.  Sometimes I buy certain ones a little too fast.  I think the Musial and World Series are good discounts.

Even better discounts on these.  They're from the "Half Price Wooden Box" I mentioned in the previous vintage post.  $3 Team cards and World Series?  All day....

Also from there, a Billy Martin for seven and a half.  Again, fits right in with my set.

And inevitably, between those two batches, I ended up with two of the same checklist.  This time the 3rd Series variety, which has some variants too.

Both of these are the "with comma" version, denoting itself at card 192.  There is another version without the comma.  But there's more...

On yet another copy I got elsewhere, the black shadow appears to overlap the white panel (error on left), and behind it properly (on right). 

Moving on, some more stars at nice prices.  All of which are about half of what you'll typically find these in this condition on sale for.

A few heavy hitters from my pal Marv.  He just sent me a huge lot of '62's from his stock that I hadn't found, including some massive stars.  You'll have to wait for those.  They'll be the nicest ones yet.  I do like that Mathews a lot, though.

Big Bad Bambino.  From the big holder with the marker price, it feels like this one was on the 80% off table I hit at the National, but I might be wrong.  Could have just been half price.  There are several on COMC right now at about $10-15 in slightly worse condition.

For the flourish at the end - these are all from the same dealer on the last day we were at the National.  All of them were a dollar a shot.  Mostly commons, but a lot of rookies.  I pulled out some of the more well known names.  Not bad for team cards and minor All-Stars, eh?  I got both the regular and green tint samples of Mr. Drake up in the corner.  I won't be persuing all the green tints, they're too hard to distinguish most of the time.

All these got me down to 276 cards needed out of 598.  Marv is about to cut that down another 30-40%.  Stay tuned!

In The Zone

UPDATE: Unfortunately, Dave has put out notice that the shop will close 31 Dec 2023.  

In recapping my card hunting in the various shops, flea markets, shows, and antique malls in Michigan, I'm not going to go in chronological order, nor am I going to cover every card.  Mostly because I don't remember exactly and am lucky to keep straight what I got where.

The Collector's Zone, 1425 Wildwood Ave, Jackson, MI wasn't our first visit, but it was pretty early in the week.  It's paired with a jewelry store, and has a large selection of comic and gaming materials along with cards.  My host Stuart and I had been there a couple times before.  The proprietor, Dave, is always friendly and willing to negotiate pricing.  He doesn't organize and store everything perfectly, but believes in just having it all available for customers to dig through.  But it's relatively neat compared to some shops we've been to.

He had a few boxes of new arrivals on the tables (in the right part of the photo) that we dug through first.  I found several football set needs in there.  One box was all vintage baseball, including a lot of '62 Topps, which will become a recurring theme in these posts.  We also found a few other odd baseball items that hit some of my other lists.

I'm leisurely collecting the 2011 sparkly legends...the Gullett is an OPC upgrade...Mattingly is a set need....Nettles is the Craig back variation.  The others are the start of my official set build, before it became official.  More on that in a later post.

Dave also had a couple boxes of the typical shiny football I kept running into at about every shop we visited.  I tried hard to meticulously pick these out and not get anything I already had.  And then I went back through them and put back the duplicates.  Of course, I missed one as you can see.  (Hint: third row).  The first row of Bowman are all serial numbered except for the last one.

One of the more unusual finds was among several stacks of non-sport cards.  I have been looking for sets or boxes of this particular set for a while.  Most of the time the boxes are outrageous, and actually very impractical since this is only a 40 card set.  I keep thinking these are from the '90s, but they're actually 2008 PopCardz.  The above photo is not mine, I snagged it off the internet to save time.

Here is a sample back.  The info is rather whimsical, but interesting.  As you might guess, I just got them for the gorgeous gals.  I don't even know who a few of the dudes even are.

Here are my top picks.  I threw in Anton since he was in the alternate universe Star Trek movies.  But the women outnumber the men by about three to one in the checklist.  Perfect!

So as we were settling up, I mentioned to Dave that I was an aspiring Priest Holmes collector.  He said he had something I would like and pulled this out:

It's 5 x 8 inches and is a deluxe addition to the other two I have that are just plain red or white swatches.  This one's a sick patch that appears to me to be the upper left corner of his nameplate (the bottom of the H in Holmes) and the top corner of the 3, all turned 90°.  What a surprising find that was!

We actually returned a day or two later to see what else we could dig up, but I don't recall which of this stuff I got on which trip.  Thanks again to Dave.