50's Vintage From Vacation

I promised to show the rest of my haul from this summer's trip to Michigan shops and the National in Chicago.  Sorry it's taken me a whole additional month to put up, but here ya go.

The bulk of my baseball purchases can be separated into two main parts - Older vintage, including '50 Bowman, '57 Topps and the final card I needed to kill my '64 set, and (because I finished '64, I could jump headlong into...) 1962 Topps.  This is the first part.

I'm really whittling this set down to the big cards.  Which translates to: they keep getting more expensive.  I won't rattle off the prices here, but these were all in holders marked $12.  I don't think that's what I actually paid for them, though.

The higher number ones that I'm still hunting are mostly the "no copyright" variations.  They have no date and company notations on the back.  Luckily they don't generally cost any more for either version.

Moving on to '57, I'll show them in batches grouped by dealer (denoted by different price stickers).  I have no idea of most of the dealers' names or anything.

I've mentioned before that I don't mind paying $3 or a little more for common singles from this year.  They're worth it for their age.  Commons from the 60's shouldn't run above that unless they're high numbers, in my opinion.

Got these from my man Marv who is a local dealer that I know well.  Paid a bit of a premium for these since they're hometown Tigers, but two of them are also the scarcer series.  ('57 high numbers aren't the rare ones, it's the fourth series out of five that are the tough ones.)  And Hoeft was a 20-game winner the previous year.

Found these nice stars for terrific prices at the National.  I don't look for perfection with this set, but decent centering and nice appearance are a must.  Think I got it with this trio.

Hit a bunch of nice ones from this dealer too.  A wide range of prices, but nothing crazy.  My PC guy Willie Jones at lower left.  Most of these are basic poses, but there's something cool about the on-field ones.  They just look different then other years.  Maybe it's the full bleed photo with nothing but text obscuring the image.

Another big batch from another National dealer.  Probably got some discount on these too.  Nice specimens all around.

And finally, this upgrade to Joe Adcock that I got from what I'll call the "Half Price Wooden Box".  You'll see more from the same box/dealer in later posts.  You've already seen a couple football cards from there.  I got quite a variety of cool stuff out of that box.  The dealer had showcases full of graded vintage and one 3-row wooden box with a hinged lid of off-condition cards.  They were marked with the white stickers with red dots and some had notations written in marker.  This one says "wrinkle", but I'll be dipped if I can find one.

See if you can find it.  I looked under the light with a magnifier on both sides and I can't see a flaw.  I mean, it's not Gem Mint Gradeable Perfect, but it's pristine enough for me.

Also from the same source, my first white letter variation from the 1969 set.  I'm not pursuing these, but for $7.50, how could I pass it up?  It's off-center, but I wouldn't call that VG.

Finally, the best purchase I made at the National and really the whole week:

The elusive 1964 Bob Uecker.  I searched and searched for this card before (and the first day or two of) the National and was disappointed nobody had one.  I asked my favorite seller - those of you who have been to a lot of shows already know where this one is from: Uncle Dick - if he had one.  To my delight he had just bought three of them the day before!  I got this one for about 70% less than I had expected based on the online prices I had been seeing.  Getting such a sought-after card from the best dealer around just made it that much more gratifying.

(And then my friend Stuart came running up to me after failing to reach me on my cell phone.  Now I have two....*sigh*)

Next post will be one of the three boxes of 2023 Allen & Ginter I busted, but after that get ready for wood grain borders ~ and not those damn '87's either....

Doesn't Break My Heart To See Them Go

Matt from Heartbreaking Cards Of Staggering Genius did a little shopping for me and killed over half my top wants.  It's always so great when traders will do this for you.  And it makes the posts easier to compose, since the pictures are already on my home wants page.

The first couple were easy-ish football singles to kill sets.  The first of two guys named Allen kills my 1996 Topps set (or the second copy that didn't go to my Redskins collection did).

The next guy was also from 1996, but ended the regular Ultra set.  Bee-Ak-A-Ba-Too-Ka was the last rookie.  Still working on the companion set of the foily Sensations.

The other Allen is this 1983 rookie that I figured I'd end up buying at the next show, but now I don't have to look for it any more.  Glad to finish another vintage football set.  Which means I can start some more. 😁

Keeping with the Hall Of Famer theme, this Fleer Greats Of The Game Retrospection Collection (<gasp> long name) finished that little insert set.  I bet these were expensive when they first came out.

Even more potential HOF'ers in this pair of 1965 tall boy minis from 2012.   Wish these fit into sheets better, but they're too cool.

Same theme, different sport.  This Mario finishes the base set to 1993-94 Upper Deck, although I still have those WJC stamp errors on the list.  Not sure if they're easy to find or not.  I thought there was only one, but there is evidence that there are actually a bunch of them.  Anyway, Mario is one of the few Penguins I respect.

This one didn't spend much time on the Top 12 list.  It's a second copy for my space binder.  There are still a couple similar things on the non-sport list to take its place, though.

Back around to baseball, this is also a set killer from 1994 Donruss.  A set I kinda started from scratch with a handful of extras from my dupes box and a few trips to dealers with cheap singles.  Nice to put this one to bed.

And finally, this SP from 2014 GQ.  I never saw this one in the wild myself, so I'm very glad to finally have it.  Not likely to try to tackle any more GQ sets unless they go back to the more conservative retro designs.

Thanks again Matt for flattening my Top 12 list.  I replaced enough of them to make it a Top 10 list again.  It's getting tougher to find individual singles to put up here.  The majority of my "5-0r-less" set lists are down to at least three or more cards.  Maybe that just means I'll have to go on another shopping trip to SportLots or COMC again myself.

Lucky Se7en

For the longest time, one card topped my priority wants list.  It was a bit obscure, too.  The Week 7 redemption card from the 2011 Topps Prime 9 program was missing from my set of nine redemption cards and nine player cards that came from them.  Until now.

But there's been a complication.

My good buddy Stuart told me he miraculously found the #7 card, but actually sent me the entire set of redemptions and player cards.  So now I have two whole sets minus the #7 redemption card.  While I appreciate the effort - and Stuart sends me tons of stuff all the time - sending me the whole thing just basically negates what I had before.  Or I still need a #7 to complete what is now the second set.  So I'm almost no better off, unless....

You can help!  If anyone else out there has pieces of this set, be it the redemption cards or the player cards, let me know.  I'll break up one set to any and all so then all I have to keep is the #7 and you can complete your set. 

I don't know how many collectors keep (or persuade their dealers to let them keep) the redemption numbers, but this also includes any and all of the player cards that you got when you turned in the redemption cards.

Each of these currently sells for just under a dollar on COMC, so they're not super high end or anything. 

Comment or email with trade offers for any you might need!

Four More Down From P-Town

Good ol' Tom was at it again!

One of my favorite blogger traders sent me another PWE that arrived Thursday.  More shots to my most wanted list.  Check it out.

Yeah, funny how that happens when you're dealing with bloggers who are generous enough to go shopping for you.  A lot of traders will trade, but won't go out of their way to get something specific, even if it's just packs at Wal-Mart or Target.  But this community is different.

And I don't really have to scan them, they're already pictured on my site!

 

The final two 1st Home Runs from 2015 Topps Update.  Barring gremlins, this wipes out all 2015 sets from my baseball page completely!

The last gremlin from the 1990 SportFlics set I bought otherwise in one shot in Michigan.  #2 on my top 12 list.

And the Joey Votto that was #6 on my list.  Until my last SportLots order.  Rats, sorry Tom.  I indulged myself.  But I appreciate the effort on this one just as much.

Big thanks Tom!

Penny Sleeves From Out Of This World

Got a return package from Jon at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts this week.  We've got a multi-stage swap going, and this was a great first step!

Expertly packed, and not showing the finery inside....

First off is this Favre card from 2009 Mayo with him in what many would say is the wrong dang uniform.  This completes my set, and opens a spot in my priority want list.

Next is a starter set of Hall Of Famers from SSPC or TCMA or Renata Galasso, depending on the listing.  More well known as the Baseball Immortals, this is a 199-card set of famous and not-so-famous HOF'ers issued in 1980, and updated a few times after that.  Since I'm one card away from the basic set of Hygrade All-Time Greats, this was a logical next set.  This won't be the first starter set Jon bestows on me.

Jon kills another priority want, and a favorite insert set, with the last Heroes of Spaceflight card from 2009 Topps American Heritage Heroes - a non-sport set of presidents, war heroes, astronauts, historic figures, pioneers, scientists, etc.  Gemini 4 was missing when I thought I had finished these the first time.  These are one of the first sets I put in my Space binder.  But wait, there's more!

An amazing contribution to my astronaut collection, Jon also sent this relic from the Shuttle's first commander and the eventual director of Kennedy Space Center.

From Panini's Americana Heroes & Legends in 2012.  This is the 16th relic out of 20.  Flippin' sweet!  I'd consider going for them all, but I bet the Sally Ride is a tough one to find cheap.

Looking forward to the next round, Jon!

It IS Next Year, And Tom Keeps On Killin' 'Em!

Seems like every couple months I'm having to revise half of my prime want list because Tom at Waiting For Next Year sends me several targets.  Let me tell you, it's a good problem to have.

This go-round brought these singles home to their families (the rest of the cards in the set - at least in most cases.)

First one is Adam Jones at the All-Star Game in 2014.  It doesn't actually kill the whole Update set, since I still need a bunch of those World Series Heroes inserts, but it was the sole survivor of everything else.  A lot of non-Oriole orange going on here.

I figured this one was a long shot.  One of the most rare retail inserts in the decade.  2012 Archives had these 1982 In Action inserts.  Funny that Josh Hamilton was my last one and not Ichiro, Cal Ripken, or Clemente.  So glad to get this one either way.

This one isn't actually a set killer, but is the last of many of my player collections to appear in 2003 Yankee Signature Series by Upper Deck .  There are a whole other set of the actual autographs, of which I have a couple, but one of my top guys ended up being the most elusive in this case, until now.

Capping it off are the two (American) football WAGs from ProLine in the 90's.  Rohn Stark and Herschel Walker's respective love interests graced the final slot in my priority page.  Now they'll be replaced with someone much less aesthetically pleasing for sure.

This completes the assault on my wants ~ again.  It's like the third time in just over a year or so that Tom has tackled some major targets.  Kudos to you sir, for being such an awesome trader and hunting these down!

Yearly Goals Assessment

It's always fun to see what's changed over the last year, especially when you write down what you'd like to do at the beginning like a lot of us bloggers do.  I'm not the biggest go-getter goal setter, but I'm interested to see how I did.

It's a goal post.  Ba-dum-pum.

2018 Goal #1 - Keep a steady blogging pace.  Well, I topped last year's number (146) with 160 this time out.  I was a blogging machine until a couple hitches in June and July, and would have made it pretty good if it weren't for a lull in mid-to-late November - the "dog days" of blogging.  I finished out strong and the first of the year makes it easy to finally get a backlog of posts ready to go.  Goal #1 - Accomplished.

2018 Goal #2 - Be more positive and creative in my posts.  I think I did OK on this one, but not great.  There weren't as many rants that I can recall, but I didn't come up with too many really original ideas either.  In tallying up my posts for 2018, the overwhelming majority were Loot/Trade posts (53) which is pretty much the point of a card blog - to show cards.  (And of course, there was no shortage of incoming cardboard around here!).
The next highest categories were experience posts (Things I did and How I Do Things) and commentary posts, including the OCD series.  These two almost overlap, but they comprised 38 posts all together.  Again, not too many negative essays, but more things like the renovations to my card room, product reviews, and how I make lists, arrange and decorate binders etc. 
The rest were game-in-real-life and Baseball History types of things, blogger participation (Bat Arounds and common topics among us), and posts that showed gorgeous women.  A couple goofy things sprinkled in here and there, and that was really it.  I only created one single custom except for the Leading Ladies.  Gotta ramp it up this year.    Goal #2 - Accomplished, though not spectacularly.

2018 Goal #3 - Clean Up and Put All The Stuff Away!  At the beginning of 2018, I had piles and piles of purchases, box breaks, and supplies all over the card room (and beyond).  I have since straightened it up - mostly because I added new furniture in April and basically had to evacuate the room.  So now it looks like this:

 

Early 2018 on the left, Dec 2018 on the right.

 

 

It's a whole different bunch of stuff on the sorting desk, but the volume is almost the same.  I had all my player collection cards that needed to be added to binders spread out on the whole desk, but had to pick them up.  In the meantime, I had to put more incoming set stuff on the cabinet.

So it's really just as congested as it was.  Just with different stuff.

 

The couch is a lot better.  Only a couple bobbleheads I got for Christmas on there.

The other catch is that most of what was on the desk in January was moved into the other room in a big foam tray/box.  And it's mostly still sitting there.

So Goal #3 - Deferred.

Goal #4 - Complete the 1960, 1970, and 1972 Topps sets.  This one was a win!  In July at the Chantilly show, I finally killed all three.  This allowed me to start on 1964 Topps in earnest and start on '68 and '57.  Goal #4 - Accomplished!

2018 Goal #5 - Ramp Up The Trades With My Original Group & Keep Up The Blogger Trading.  Got this one half right anyway.  I'm pretty sure I made more trades with fellow bloggers than I did with my Yahoo! group friends.  My most wanted list took multiple beatings from my kindred composers.  I did get in a few trades with the other guys, most of which I don't post on here.  This goal is still in progress.  Goal #5 - ½ Accomplished.

2018 Goal #6 - Knock Out A Lot Of Old Want Lists. I made a backup to my site pages and stored it on my work computer in January last year.  Looking now at my Baseball page side by side with the current version, there are a lot of sets that aren't there any more, but the majority of them were down to a few cards and were the ones I posted on my most wanted list.
That would be fine, but the catch is that I've added just as many new sets this year as I have taken off.  And most of the other listings haven't changed much.  Some that were Have lists are now Needs with names by the numbers, but the whole thing is basically the same length.
Goal #6 - Accomplished But Negated.

That should be plenty to think about this year.  I'm not sure at this point whether I'll make it to Cleveland for the National.  I liked it the first time a few years ago, and would love to meet a few of the other bloggers and traders I deal with.  I'm also on the verge of just stopping the collection of certain sports and narrowing my focus a bit.  (Mostly because my house won't hold it all for much longer.)  At least it seems like the dog doesn't like to chew cardboard....

I didn't end up going to the National in Cleveland, but I do plan on making Chicago again.  I've missed the last couple, so it will be good to hit one again.
As for restricting my collecting, that didn't happen either.  I finally added a couple hockey sets - both new and vintage, and a couple vintage on the football side too.  I alleviated the storage problem with the new shelves, which are about full already....

 

I just have to clean up a bit and there will still be room there.  And I do have room for bigger boxes again, so some consolidation is in order soon.  After my birthday in a week or so, things will settle down and I'll get into the cardboard swing again over in that room.  The dog didn't work out, so that isn't an issue.

2018 was a great year for collecting and blogging.  It was rather "meh.." for just about everything else.  My job is fine, and my friends are still around, but not much else went on, really.  Except for my Capitals winning the championship, the other sports (including fantasy) continually disappointed.  I've always been more of a fan of cards than the actual sports they portray, but this year made that rift a lot wider.

Looking forward to more activity in 2019 - the cardboard kind and otherwise....