Some Swag Among The Slabs

I made a trade last week on the TCDB with a guy named Eric.  Turns out he lives near Hagerstown, MD which is just about 20 minutes from me.  So we met up about halfway in between to swap packages.  He primarily collects Paul Molitor, Robin Yount and Travis Hafner. We had a good conversation about our collecting habits, etc. before he had to get back.

He texted me later and asked if I knew about the show going on in the Silver Spring Civic Center, which is about an hour to our south.  I knew there were shows that rotated through there, but wasn't planning to go.  I have so much to put away around Hivemind Headquarters, plus the two piles of stuff for sale, I probably didn't need to add to any of it.  But I decided to go anyway. 😀 

So we made plans to meet along the route and made our way down there.  Upon arrival, I realized that I had been there once before.  It's a smaller venue, with a main room in the middle, and two other rooms at each end, plus a hallway between with a few more tables. 

A previous year's show

There was a LOT of slabs.  And several tables - especially in the outer rooms - of Pokèmon.  But I did manage to find some treasures among them.

I should have put this at the end, so as to not give away everything I got, but here you go.  The first thing I found (that I could get into - it was wall to wall people in the narrow aisles) was some vintage singles.  I found four of my '65 commons for a buck a shot (center above).  They're nice, though I left a couple sketchier ones there. 

At the same table, I picked up this set killer / upgrade to finish my '73-74 set.  The top corners are a bit weathered, but it's half the price of similar ones on COMC right now.  I think it's much better than the one I started with.

There were a few hockey-centric tables, though I wasn't looking for much in that realm.  I came across these fancy shiny SP Authentic inserts.  For this price and the presence of a parallel Ovie, I said what the heck.

Lots of tables had rows of toploadered singles sorted by team.  This one corner dealer had some that he hadn't priced, but instead was asking customers to make him an offer.  And he was taking pretty much all of them it seemed.  I figured I'd get these Jordan Addisons for about a buck a shot or slightly less, but it worked out even better - after I also picked out these:

Jayden Daniels was very present in a lot of showcases at this show.  I saw these initially and did a quick bit of market research to see how other dealers compared - or at least one other.  I asked the guy at the table across the room what his prices on the same Mosaics and a different insert were, and he said $10 each.  I immediately went back and pulled these out.  They totaled $20 with another Terry McLaurin card.  I handed them to the dealer and he replied "Just make it an even twenty".  I had to check later to verify that I basically got the Addisons for free.  I should have gotten that guy's business card or contact....  That brings my JD5 total to ten cards so far.

And the grande finale was this, the second set killer of the day.  Mantle/Mays "Managers' Dream" is the last card I need to finish my 1962 Topps set.  I don't usually buy graded cards, but lately they have bucked the trend that I always assumed they cost three crooked numbers just for being graded.  This one was nicer than any of the same grade on COMC and fits my set very well.  For a "4", it's well centered and has nice corners and no major flaws that I can see.  

Eric had a family deadline (that we didn't quite meet), so we left the show after a little over two hours.  That was enough.  We got lucky that the winter weather forecast was wrong, so it was clear sailing all the way there and back.  My thanks to Eric for the invite and ride.

Semi-Grey Saturday Blowout Deals

Could have made it really click-bait if I'd have written this yesterday - Black Friday - but this is how it works out.

Anyway, I do have some more basically free stuff to offer.  It's a mixture of oddball items from the National that might have value to someone out there. The majority are marketing items from companies who cater to a different type of collector than me.  Links are to the company sites.

I should never take tall, slim pictures for the blog.  They don't fit well.

Anyway, these are the items up for grabs.  I guess I'm taking the first comment to claim an item.

First up, a (Gary) VeeFriends Super Sticker of Bullish Bull.  Um...I got nothin'...

Also a stack of the annual Heritage Auctions cards - still sealed.  

You can have either or both.

A Piece Of The Game commemorative coin with red felt pouch.  This version limited to 5000 copies.  My fellow convention-goer Stuart got one of a smaller production number (gold version?).  The back is just their contact info and a QR code.  They're a memorabilia company.

BCW card frame with the National 2023 label.  Insert your favorite card from the show or scratch off the lettering(?) and enjoy a nice blue frame to show off your favorite cardboard.  There are four big screws in the back to split the frame into front and back halves.

Voucher and sticker, plus information about the TAG grading company.  Voucher is contained in a black framed top loader.  Oh shoot, it says the offer for the free additional grading is only until the end of the show (July '23).  Sorry about that.  But if you're into them, you can have the sticker....

 

Finkelmeier Insurance ad card disguised as a Michael Jordan Fleer rookie. 
I could keep this next to my fake Wayne Gretzky rookie and bogus Jackie Robinson card, but if you're a Jordan hoops collector, this is more for you.

And finally...

Oh never mind.  This $10 discount coupon for the eBay Vault expired in October.  My bad.

And I guess I didn't take a separate pic of the Pristine Auctions can cozy, but that's available too.

If I get a few requests (or even comments at this point) for this stuff, I'll put up some other actual cards to give away before Christmas.

I'll Give You The Moon And The Stars

A while back, I saw an item on eBay that I thought would be a good addition to my Moon & Space binder.  It's not actually a trading card set, but a set of game cards.  

They're the 1984 Space Rockets trump game from West Germany.  Made by a company called Altenburg-Stralsunder.  It's a 32 card set comprised of eight groups of four.  Each card has stats on the bottom under several categories that determine the winner of each round when compared to the other cards thrown in with it.

They are grouped by Space Shuttle, US rockets, European rockets, etc.  The photos are really nice.  Rocket launches lend themselves to spectacular photography.  Here's the back....

The set was less than ten bucks, so I wasn't totally distraught when I got them, but was annoyed to find out that every card had at least one tack hole in it, except for the title card.

Needless to say, the seller didn't get the full five stars for the auction.  But since they were cheap, I didn't hit them with a negative.  And recently, I found another set for a similar price.  The only difference was the title card.

They fit quite nicely in 8-pocket (horizontal) sheets.  The catch is, since it's a 33 card set, the title card has to go somewhere else.  4 x 8 pockets = 32, of course.

The benefit for you is that I'm giving away the original set.  It comes in a plastic box that is kinda damaged too, but still works.  I have extra boxes just like it that I used to have similar game cards with race cars and motorcycles on, but I don't know what happened to those (Look out Billy, I might find them later).  So if you don't care about the box, I'll ship the original, or let me know if you want a better box.  If the tack holes don't bother you, I don't imagine the box will either.  They are still playable if nothing else.  For incentive, I can throw in an unopened pack of Space Shots (series 2) cards.

I guess the first request will get it, unless I get a couple enthusiastic responses, and then I suppose I might have to have a contest or bids for trades.  I'll watch the comments...

A Purple Pitcher Passed On By PadroGraphs

Whoops!  Missed my Friday posting slot.  Wasn't paying attention...

Thanks to Rod Richards for a freebie refractor from this year's Heritage of my champion Nationals pitcher Patrick Corbin.  Rod was offering freebies and I requested Corbin to add to the stash of parallel Nats I'm casually building in honor of their victory season.

These things are pretty cool looking.  Love how it looks like the original black when turned to a certain angle, and then morphs into a shiny rainbow until coming around to the purple color.

But shiny on retro is still weird.

Thanks Rod!

Picked A Pocket Of Pitchers And Pie

Got a cool little mailing today from Julie at A Cracked Bat: Baseball Cards And A Hot Dog today.  They were offerings from her Pick My Pockets page for regular readers.

First was a shiny Fedde.  These always scan blue, but they're regular foilboard.  My first parallel National.  The original idea is to make a whole team set of one type of parallel (or all of them), but I've tried this before and failed.

The Penultimate Pick is a Pettitte.  (OK, got that out of my system.)  One more chip out of the house-sized granite block that is the Decade's Best inserts.  I need to generate some bulk trades on these so I don't have to buy a lot of them.

And finally, a George Foster red American Sluggers insert from 2002 Topps American Pie.  I finished all four colors when I did the set, but haven't done the same for my player collections. 

Thanks a lot Julie!  Gonna check out your want lists anyway!

Big Mailday Coming, But Not Now!

Got an envelope in the mail a couple days ago from Topps Now!.

You might have seen where I had ordered one of the Washington Nationals Now! championship team sets back in November.  It came with an autograph from one of several players that would be shipped at a later date.

Could this be my long awaited prize?  Oh please let it be Strasburg, or Scherzer, or even Kendrick. (My luck, I'll get the guy I have the least enthusiasm for, Corbin).

Open it up!

Yep, single trading card inside.  Along with this folded card.  Drum roll....

Ugh.  It's an ad for the new season of Topps Now!.

The upside is, it's a Mike Trout card.  Looks a bit like they twisted the sidebar of the flagship set and ran it along the bottom edge and up the right side a little ways.  The back has that cool embossed logo effect. Any Trout collectors, hit me up.  I don't really need to hold on to this.  The only other Now! cards I'll be getting is if the Nats or O's win another championship, or one of my player collection guys comes out of retirement.

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?

Collector's Log: Stardate 198204.05

"When we last left our heroes" back in 1982, they (my friends & I) were sorting and underpricing our extras to sell in the neighborhood, and making room for the new '82 cards that were coming out.

Something a little different in school on the 26th, got to watch 'em rehearse the school play.  Even though I got into filmmaking in school, I was never interested in drama (stage or otherwise).  But it was better than pep rallies.  My lack of enthusiasm probably comes from about third grade, when I had the lead role in "The Little Prince".  I knew my lines cold from the second reading and it was going fine until I leaned a little too far in and bumped into the microphone.  The only memory of that experience is the entire crowd breaking up into laughter.  Guess that was the end of my acting ambitions.

My stepsister was over for the weekend again.  Her brother lost interest after a while, so he stopped coming.  I still laugh at my comment.

Anyway, the main highlight of this entry is the trip to the Hanover card shop.  I imagine we were sorting and making lists the day before, and then made the trip.  I didn't realize I had started my Pumpsie Green "supercollection" (he has a total of ten active career cards, and fifteen more post-career issues) that soon.  Got the brand new (and now rather ubiquitous) KMart MVP set.  That little set is nice and still stands out to me from all the other - mostly later - box set issues.  Also added some more '81 Fleer stickers - another one of the "original" non-standard issues that came out in that time period.

Not sure what that mining operation was all about, except kids thinking that shiny rocks are somehow valuable gems.

I can't believe I don't have the original entry for when I was presented with the collection from a nephew of my stepfather.  It was several hundred cards, most of which were 1970 Topps - which of course, is the design of the pending Heritage release.  They were generally in decent shape, but had been handled a lot, so there weren't many with four sharp corners.  But most of the stars were there, and in multiples.  I took the first starter set, and then passed it on to a couple of my buddies, and then kept what was left.  That's probably still the source of the row of dupes in my vintage monster box.  I would go on to round out the set in similar condition along with a batch of '72s from the card shop I patronized for 20 years when they closed up.  Both sets are now complete, but the high numbers are in better shape than a lot of the rest.

April brings us back to the Putt-Putt arcade and my killing it on several games.  Of course, there were no deals running that day to reward me.

(not my ticket)

Opening Day 1982 started off with a win for the Orioles.  Eddie Murray had a Grand Slam in the third inning.  In the inning before, the new kid socked one over the fence too.  He ended up with 431 homers in his career, so it was a decent run.

The dude in the middle was pretty good.

They got more packs of '82 Topps.  I had bought that set as well as Donruss, I think, so I was only building Fleer at the time.

Ran out of space in the entry, so I abbreviate "Twice" as "2ce".  I had so much better writing style back then. 😁

Next time, the Fleer build continues, one of the guys narrows his collecting focus, and we learn of things that will bring a whole new aspect to our collecting!

Winning Isn't Everything, But It Sure Beats Whatever's In 2nd Place!

I actually won something!

I casually put my 2¢ into CynicalBuddha's Almost the Easiest Super Bowl Contest on the Web this year with a heavy dose of cynicism.  I really wanted to see Saints vs. Chiefs play the game, but figured the Patriots would win because it feels like it's dictated by the league.  So I picked Patriots over Saints and guessed four field goals and a middle of the road total score number.

By gosh, my cynicism paid off.  I've had Brady on my fantasy team for the last two years, and he scores OK, but my team ends up dead last both seasons.  I've mentioned many times that he makes good decisions, and is an accurate passer, but nothing else justifies the idol worship that everyone seems to have for him.  So I'm not a fan.  But this time I got rewarded.

I actually skipped over reading the post when it was first put up.  I thought "I'm sure I didn't  come close."  It wasn't until a day or two after that I pulled it up and saw my entry highlighted.  "NO WAY!!  What the heck did I win?"  I didn't even know.  I hadn't looked at the prize post either.

Well, they showed up today.

I won't reproduce the images for the prize pieces.  He did that in this post.  The best part for me was the stack of Redskins I got on top of those.  I figured it would be some shiny serialized singles and a pile of base and inserts.  I was pleasantly surprised to find several higher end jerseys and autos among the Washington faction.

There were some regular and parallel rookies.  All of which I needed except three older ones.  Sweet!

A nice 2005 UD rookie piece of Jason Campbell...

A Momentum jersey (/99) and a serial numbered (/100) Prestige of Santana Moss...

A very deep blue and shiny Spectra jersey of ol' Hank, also numbered out of 99...

And a crazy shiny Unparalleled autograph of defector safety/linebacker Su'a Cravens (/199).

All told, I got some great additions to the Redskins collection.  The type of stuff I saw at a recent trade night at my local shop, but wasn't equipped to trade for.  Nice to get some anyway. Thanks CB!