Cardboard Census: Part Two ... or maybe Three

When I last updated you about my counting project, it wasn't in an "official" Cardboard Census post.  So this is the second official post, but the third update.  Anyway....

So I finished the wire rack shelf, which included the bulk Redskins in the vinyl cases.  This led to finishing the Redskins except for the two binders that house the sheetable 50's through mid-80's.  Those will come later.

But what it did lead to was the oldest batch, starting with the 1948 Bowmans through the early 50's that don't fit into standard pages.  They are housed in the football cabinet in the lower drawer.  These drawers work really well for storing toploaded cards.  They were originally for silverware, since these are china cabinets.

The early 'Skins live with all my football jersey and autograph cards, both of Washington players and others.  There are also some hockey behind the white dividers in the last row.  I'll show them some time later.  But you want to see some highlights of what's in here, don't you?

Here are the stacks of Bowman Redskins.  1948, 1950, 1951 and 1952.  Yep, #33 is Sammy Baugh.  Not shown is the '52 Baugh I got in July of 2018.

And some of the autographs that I've obtained in person.  Mostly at Chantilly shows.

These I got for only a few dollars.  Kilmer and LeBaron were like $2 each at different shows.  I guess they were IP autos and since they didn't have any concrete assurance of authenticity, they had to go cheap.  I have a few different Charley Taylor autos.

Remember that Darrell Green jersey I picked up last weekend?  Guess what was already in the drawer?  Yep, works out OK, though since I can add the other one to the full set.

I really gotta document my GU & Autos better.

Some other Redskins from more recent times.  They keep getting fancier.

There are also some mojo hits from other teams.  These I pulled myself.  It's so rare and gratifying to pull somebody decent, especially since I don't open a whole lot of stuff.  None of it is high end.

2014 Valor was a fun break.  I got the Jadaveon Clowney and Manziel jerseys, but everything is a Rookie Premiere swatch, so they're not worth much.  The one time I pulled a 1/1, I got this guy.  Was thinking I should just go for the rainbow since he never amounted to a starter in the NFL.

Managed to pull a couple HOF'ers several years back too.

Tucked in the corner of the drawer is my full 42 piece set of 2006 Fleer Showcase Stitches.  I laid 'em all out on the floor so you can see them.  Some decent names in these too.  I probably haven't come close to completing the base set past the first 100, (101-200 are /699, and 201-300 are /199) but I found all these!

OK, so this post devolved into my Football Mojo show, but here are the current counts.  I have now finished the wire rack shelf, and the football cabinet completely.

Total GU & Autos by sport  Baseball 11  Football 586  Hockey 156  Other 5

I added 31 more football GU/autos from the sets in the bottom of the cabinet.  The others stayed the same.

Total regular cards by sport:

Baseball 59190
Football 32742
Hockey 18117
Other 3742

Grand Total (so far): 114549

Now I just have these left to go.  And the binder shelves are almost full since I took this pic.

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!

More Sunday Mojo

After making my Pennsylvania run on Sunday, I also went down to my local-est shop in Frederick.  I hadn't been there in a few months and I wanted to see if he had Big League boxes since I've been looking to buy some in person, but have missed the shows since it came out.

Well, I struck out on the Big League, but I did have something waiting for me since I was there last.

Brian Mitchell had been there in March to sign in the shop.  I brought the owner some base cards of his to get signed, and had reserved this one for myself.

I also picked out this one from the display case.  Not only is it a rare Darrell Green jersey (he only has a few), it goes with my 2002 Upper Deck XL set, though it will live with his Redskins compadres.

And I got this London Fletcher relic numbered 36/99 too.  I don't think there are too many of London in the burgundy and gold in existence or in my collection.

Those two scanned a little weird since the price tags are actually bright orange.  Not sure why they washed out like that.  Oh well.  They were both $5 each out the door.

This probably sets a record for number of MOJOzz I've obtained in a single week that wasn't a National convention.  Don't get used to it!

Hit A Sale In Pennsylvania

Made a quick trip up to Route 30 on Sunday to actually visit a different shop, but figured while I was up that way, I'd check out Jason's Sports Cards in the Morninstar Marketplace flea market complex a little farther down the road.

Turns out they were having a sale ~ a whole lot of dollar stock was being offered at 10 for $7 and 100 for $60.  And there was a display case with lots of fancier stuff discounted to $10.  I took advantage.

Out of the dollar boxes, these two Bo Jackson football cards.  The left one is Panini Black Friday and the right one is Leaf VIP from the 2018 National in Cleveland, which I didn't attend.  Glad to get both of these because I had little hope of getting them from the original sources.

Also from the football section is this 2018 Donruss Fans Of The Game, which will go with my stack of attractive ladies since I have no other 2018 Donruss at all.  She's nice, but her taste in teams isn't her strong point.

A really nice specimen of the first checklist in 1972 Topps.  And Karlos is actually just a base card hit to my Gridiron Kings list.  He looks like a parallel with the fancy frame and all.

Moving over to hockey, I spotted a couple sets I recognized.  Reimer was on my list, but CuJo turned out to be a bit more interesting.  Didn't have to find him on the want list, because when I flipped it over to look at the number....

Bonus Sample card!

Rounding out the dollar stock, these three ace pitchers.  Palmer didn't look familiar, and most likely isn't in my PC binder since it's serial numbered.  Ryan is another off the never-ending list of 1987 tributes from 2017, and Mussina with the bitchin translucent portrait inset photo...was already off my list.  *sigh*

Jason rounded off my total at the end, so these all actually ended up only costing 50¢ each!

And now the $10 hits.  This Palmer jersey is a lot more silvery than blue in hand, but the scan is easier to read.  It's serial number 7 in a series of 23 (to correspond with the wins total).

He had a ton of Palmer autographs to choose from.  I limited myself to three.  I don't need every one there is.  This one was a nice clean design.  None of these are numbered over 50.  There were a few that he had repeats of, so they may still be there next trip.

A nice Tribute auto out of 35 and a much more ornate UD Premier /50.  This (truncated scan) illustrates the difference in the art department philosophies between Topps and Upper Deck in my mind.  Topps is very basic and reserved.  Upper Deck used a lot more textures and patterns in their designs.  Though the UD does remind me of recent Topps Museum Collection designs.

Snagged another of my HOF pitcher PC guys' autos with this SP Legendary Cuts 50/50.  The foil stuff is a lot easier to read in this scan too.  I wasn't sure if I had a Sutter sig with the Cardinals or not.   I didn't think I'd find one for $10 anyway.

And finally, I picked up one of the current Redskins that I don't have any hits from yet.  I ended up seeing another one of his autos for $6 at the shop nearest my house, but it wasn't numbered nearly as low as this one.  It's #01/25.

I'm not usually one for stacking up the mojo hits, but now and then it's nice to add on to them.  Ten bucks each is good for HOF'er autos, and a fair price for the others.

Memorial Day Miscellany

Hope everyone is enjoying a day off with as nice weather as I'm getting here in Maryland. I don't have a good central theme for a post today, but there are several little bits to put out.

As we remember those who made the sacrifice for freedom in America, we also pay tribute to a couple fallen sports heroes who passed in the last several days.

 

Bart Starr passed away at age 85.  He and I share the same birth date.

Buckner's death was just announced today.  He was 69.  Was kinda annoyed at ESPN.  They put it up on the crawl that he was gone and that he had 2715 hits over 22 seasons for five teams.  But then they had to say that he committed the fateful error in the '86 World Series.
Did you really have to tag him with that again?  I'm no Sawx fan, but they had him back and put that whole thing behind them several years ago.  Way to stain his legacy ESPN.


Current Count stats:

I've finished sounting the cards on my wire rack shelf and in the upper half of the football cabinet. 

Shelves have been slightly reconfigured since this shot

Counted everything behind the glass doors and in the drawer.

Total bulk Redskins in the vinyl cases (and early vintage) 6541
Redskins GU & Autos 207

The rest of the Redskins are in two binders which will be counted later.

Total GU & Autos by sport  Baseball 11  Football 555  Hockey 156  Other 5

Mostly football and hockey since that's primarily what's in this cabinet.  The "Others" are basketball and golf.

Total regular cards by sport:

Baseball 59190
Football 19689
Hockey 8952
Other 1072

The baseball is the bulk set stuff on the bottom of the wire shelf.  There is a whole lot more baseball to come.
The bottom of that cabinet houses the remainder of the football and hockey sets, and there will be some from the binders to add to this number.
The Other category includes two early 90's hoops complete sets and my stack of gorgeous women cards.  (Still have some old Benchwarmers in the bottom of one cabinet.)

Grand Total (so far):
89630
and counting.... I suspect that I'll approach 200,000 when it's all said and done.


Funny thing happened while going through all those sets.  I found a Postseason Celebration, three Storied World Series, and an '83 tribute Bo Jackson card in my set of 1996 Upper Deck Silver football.  Would have wondered where the heck those went when I closed those inserts out! 

You guys ever lose track of a particular card or cards and then find them somewhere crazy a while later?

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!

There Are HOF'er Cards, And Now There Are Cards In the HOF!

I've been to the Pro Football Hall Of Fame a couple times.  I have never been to Cooperstown.  Starting this weekend, I now have a lot more motivation to go.

While it would be a great experience to witness actual HOF players and recent retirees in the Hall Of Fame Classic game that is happening on the 25th, that's not what I most want to see.

The 2017 HOF Classic coaches, many of which will
also be in this year's dugouts.

Nope, the other event happening there is the opening of Shoebox Treasures, the Hall's new exhibit all about our favorite things ~ baseball cards.  From their website:

For the first time in the Museum’s history we will take a comprehensive look at the history of baseball cards, collecting and the connection generations of fans have had to these Shoebox Treasures. 
A few of the highlights we are excited about for the planned exhibit include: cards from every era: the 1800’s to today; “Holy Grail” cards like the Honus Wagner T206 card and the 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle; and a make your own baseball card interactive.

The 2019 HOF yearbook that a friend passed to me recently has an article that says the exhibit will not only chronicle the history of cards, but also delve into their design, fabrication and sales, those who collect them, and the Holy Grail cards mentioned above.

There will be many more actual cards on exhibit encased in protective "drawers" that visitors can sift through and view.

The Hall had a card exhibit before on the same floor of the building, but it was removed when that section was renovated.  But they got such a response from fans that they knew they had to get some cardboard back on display.

I wouldn't expect that many of us would learn a lot of new information about the history of players on pasteboard, or what they pick out at the most desirable cards and the stories behind them.  I'm sure they'll be displays about the 1952 barge dump, cards issued in tobacco, Fleer & Donruss joining in 1981, the Overproduction Era, etc.  But they also said there will be some detailing of the copyright  and licensing process, and other behind the scenes glimpses.

Plus, just seeing a big group of the most iconic cards in real life is always a nice prospect.

If anyone has a chance to go, report back and tell us how it is!

Collector's Log: Stardate 198206.24

I'm pretty sure I was already into the Star Trek show, but I guarantee the second movie Wrath of Khan made me a bigger fan.

We would eventually see E.T. as well.   I didn't collect the cards, though.

How many of you are too young to have had to look up information in an encyclopedia in the library instead of getting on a computer?

I still have my personal set at Mom's house that looks just like this.  It was the Bicentennial Anniversary set from 1976.  And it was updated once a year, with a Year Book addendum, where they included new articles and updates to existing ones.  

Now there's Google and Wikipedia, etc. that is constantly updated on the fly.  Can you imagine having to go back to this?

School year was winding down, so classes were very informal and loose.

Nice to know I got a bargain trade for a star card.

 

Probably didn't over-trade too much for these since the rookie thing wasn't quite my cup of tea.  Got a second Kemp later since he ended up a PC.

Had to look up what Horner's RC was.  Didn't think he had a quad card like those other guys.  Wins ROY without a prospect card that year.  Topps missed the call on that one.

More cardboard pickups after playing the game itself.

 

 

All these are PC guys as well.

Gotta wrap this up quick, there's a thunderstorm starting outside....