It's No Secret, Billy Is A Killer!

When Billy Kingsley of Cardboard History showed his Secret Santa package on the way out, it looked familiar to me because I had just taken a photo of it myself after pulling it out of my mailbox!

Now you get to see what was inside!

Two nicely wrapped stacks, complete with the proper tape job.  Note says "I am your Secret Santa this year.  Sorry it took so long to arrive. I had to wait for COMC!  Hope you enjoy!"

"Took so long"?  Dude, don't be sorry, it arrived before the 20th!  It's all good!  :)

So let's unwrap 'em and see what "Santa" brought...

The Strasburg that you can see in the package photo.  Cool card of the WS MVP for sure.

Some more recent World Champions from Washington!  Spanning the ages from the current guys (and some recently departed), back to the old school guys from the early 90's.

First set killer!  The final Topps AAF card for the base set and one of my top wants.  Not sure why this dude was so elusive, but so glad to have it.  AAF cards have been surprisingly scarce at shows.  Now just have to find the inserts!

Bam! Bam!  Two more shots to the top wants list!  A couple New York fellows from 1998 Donruss (actually a base card), and the blue version of Mr. All Rise.  Both also set killers.  Sweet!  I've got a whole mess of Jeter singles on my lists, but they're so hard to find, even in a batch of nothing but Jeters.

And rounding out the most wanteds, the last box topper from 2016 A&G, Big Papi.  Wonder if he found another job yet?

And finally, probably the coolest cards in the package, but not unexpected considering the source.  These World Of Wheels are really fascinating.  I especially like the '53 Chrysler.  That era is my favorite right now.  I look at listings for early '50s Pontiacs, DeSotos, and Cadillacs all the time.  Might have to peruse the listings on this set to see if I should go after a bunch (or the whole set?).

Thanks a lot, Billy!  Couldn't have asked for better selections, and the cars were a nice signature touch!

Wait For The Reindeer

Happens every year.  I get to Thanksgiving and Black Friday and think "I should get a jump on Christmas shopping before November ends."  And every year it ends up being December 12th when I'm still saying that to myself.

Worst part is, I only shop for a handful of people.  Finally started last week and I'm still not close to done.  Though I did ship out my Secret Santa a while ago and wrapped a couple more stacks for another couple guys I'm trying to recruit into the hobby.  The card stuff is easy, but the rest of this Christmas thing is hard.  And I don't even decorate the house either.

And between Christmas prep, Fantasy Football playoffs (which I messed up), and some side work that happened, blogging has come to a screeching halt. 

I've got my Secret Santa loot and the second SportLots purchase to post about, and still haven't started my series on trade batches.  I just can't seem to keep it all in my mind long enough to sit down and hammer it out.  But it will come eventually.  Probably the last couple days before the 25th.  So as I always say, Stay Tuned!

Hey Moe!

Just watched an interesting movie that is somewhat related to baseball, but didn't show as much of that as it could have.  And that would have made it better.

The Catcher Was A Spy is about Morris "Moe" Berg, the player with the not-quite-illustrious 15 year career who went on to play an historic role in World War II against Nazi Germany.  I'd have put the trailer here, but it's one of those where they hack the dialogue so much that it doesn't match the action and completely misleads about the movie.

A pretty high powered cast portrays the story of the enigmatic Berg transitioning from his playing days into the OSS using his Stanford studies in languages to find the head of the Nazi version of the Manhattan Project to see if they are close to developing The Bomb.  Unfortunately, the movie works so hard to show how unusual Berg was that we don't really get enough of any one facet - or in some cases too much.  Brief glimpses of his playing days with Ruth, Gehrig, Cronin, and the like are glossed over in favor of scenes where you're never sure if his private relationships are for real or not - and therefore they lose impact or distort the story.  For what you get in an hour and a half, a full two hours may have been an improvement.  You get the idea that he is fluent in several languages, but not much else of his expertise.  He's probably a little rougher in real life, but Paul Rudd is so All-American boy that the edginess is lost. 

When I heard about the story, I looked up his cards (of course).  There aren't many, but there are a few that mention his "other interests".

This '33 Goudey (image from the internet) is his first. 

I like this Play Ball from 1940.  Though looking up actual sales sites, any of these appear to be three crooked numbers in price, so I don't know that I'll be picking one up at the next show.

He was a fascinating character, though he wasn't going to win any awards on the diamond.  And neither is the movie about his exploits.  Which is too bad.  Apparently, the book is much better.

Stocking Up On Odd 'Lots

Got a hankerin' the other night for card shopping, so I got on SportLots.  Something got me started on the Target Dodgers set and my player collection guys. These are slightly larger than normal minis, but not quite full card size, so they'll have to live in the standard nine-pockets.

I found a few sellers that each had some of the ones I was looking for.  Upon further searching of their inventories, I ended up with a big 110 card order, and a smaller one of only 18.

This post is the big order.

It's been raining for a few days straight, and the outside of the envelope was damp, but only the packing list sheets were affected.  Everything else was wrapped up nicely.

I got some oddball sized things that were in a large toploader and two stackes in snap boxes wrapped in bubble.  Interesting tape ~ was almost like butcher tape, but peeled off easily like painter's tape, so mission accomplished.

As you can see, I knocked off several 1980 SSPC, better known as Baseball Immortals.  Some of these pictures are spooky.  You'll pardon the harsh lighting, I was being lazy and photographing these batches with my phone instead of scanning.  I can NOT take a picture of cards in my house without shadows or stupid reflections.  Just can't be done.

Continuing with the bi-colored '75ish designs of nothing but HOF'ers, I completed my Home Run Heroes (Big League Chew).  This is 2/3 of the set.

Some other insert hits, including 2005 Heritage, 2008 A&G United States, 1999 Fleer Tradition Going Yard (which are now done), 1998 Donruss Dominator, and 1997 InterLeague Matchup.

My one lone golf find ~ 2002 Upper Deck Pin Seeker.

Football set hits start with 1996 Ultra, which I just put in a binder along with the Sensations set I'm building along side them.  A couple other Elways, from '97 Playoff First & Ten, and the 2000 Fleer Greats Retrospections.  The black ones are 2008 Mayo with the last Super Bowl card I needed.  Have to verify whether Young is the only set hit here, or if I already have the other boys in my Redskins.

Got a 1999 Topps jumbo Fred Taylor - Rice shown for size comparison.

Spotted these TCMA Redskins too.  They also come in "missing number" varieties.  Seller had three Redskins listed, but the third guy is shown on the card as a Steeler...

Anybody need Billy Wells?  He actually did play for Washington in '54 thru '56, but this card is all about '57.  He was a running back, but more accomplished as a return man.  Had did have a run of 88 yards in his first season.

Knocked out a whole bunch of the other Washington vintage-ish collection.  Some are O-Pee-Chee and some are Topps, a couple instances of both.  Those "helmet" stickers come in two flavors with the numbers and the logo swapping places.

Back to my baseball player collections, most of these are fairly common, except that Gatorade Julio Franco, and the Heritage Livan is a short print.  That one was the costliest card in this batch at over $4.  The Silver Press Proofs were over a buck, (as were the Ruth and a Palmer I'll show in a minute), but most of the other stuff was a quarter or less.

More parallels and oddballs.  The Guidry is an Original Back from 2011, the Targets from above, Agfa Palmer that I mentioned, TCMA All Time A's Tenace, Fairly is also TCMA from 1980, celebrating the 1959 squad.  And the Claytons are all parallels ~ Fleer Tiffany, 40-Man Electric, and UD Gold...

Some of the oddest ones were of Carlton Fisk. 

I hadn't even listed the Fleer mini or the All-American team card.  I only had one of the Coke White Sox police-sized on my wants, but found three (the one with the crossed bats is the third.)  And I had seen King B discs in the book, but haven't gone through to see who else is in there.  These are capped off by the blue parallel version of his 2019 150th Greatest Players card.

The other batch has some more of the Target Dodgers and several more oddballs too.

Bucky Catches A Tiger

My friend and best trading buddy Stuart, aka Bucky75, (also aka BseballCommish75 on Sports Card Forum), hooked me up with an autograph at a Detroit area show on November 10th.  He bought me the card too, since the one I have was lesser quality and will be bound for my set.

Mickey Lolich is most remembered for his three complete game victories in the '68 World Series against the Bob Gibson led Cardinals.  He had the most strikeouts by a lefty when he retired in 1979.

He is also one of my many player collections.  And now he's one of a select group that contain a personalized autograph.

Here they are at Redford.  This wasn't the first time Stuart has met him.

They met before in 2017 discussing, as Stuart notes on his People I Have Met page, "the '68 Series and what makes a good donut."  Lolich was the color commentator on the local Lansing Lugnuts minor league team tv broadcasts back in 1996.  Hopefully, the cameramen there waited until the subjects were ready a bit longer than the card show people.

Incidentally, if you venture to that site, see if you can help any of his want lists while you're there.  He's got tons of trade bait.  I've seen it first hand.

Thanks, dude!

Victory At O Dark Thirty, Roger

Tuesday's mail brought the latest batch of 1964 Topps baseball set fillers to my door.  My man Marv in Michigan came through again!

Most of my list is the higher numbers, like these two, #474 and 511.

And of course, the rookies are the first to go out of dealer stock, so these are very welcome additions.

The green scheme of the Cardinals is a nice contrast to their red unis and dark caps.

 

A couple well-known managers.  Dark is an upgrade, and Hodges with the Senators is just cool.

O C is also an upgrade.  He looks like the tension of not measuring up to the rest of my set was stressing him out.

Sharp Yankees team that's a little off center, but that just makes it a more reasonable price.

No Yankees here, but some great names.  And Jim Maloney.  No offense Jim.  He looks as shocked as we are.

The second biggest card in this haul.  Maris against the batting cage.  The Yankees scheme is just about perfect with the black name plate and red team letters.

And the pièce de résistance, second year Pete Rose.  Great ballpark shot with the Rookie trophy in all its glory.

Now to go check these off my list.  I'm sure Marv will inquire about knocking out some more in just a couple weeks.  Thanks Marv!!

Blame It On The Tryptophan

Went away for the Thanksgiving holiday until last Saturday, and then have just been bogged down in the everyday stuff since.  The blog has gone dark for over a week, which wasn't intentional, but is typical this time of year. 

There is still progress being made, though.  I've been pulling trade fodder for a blogger or two, and have cleared out some of my incoming stacks into their proper places.

Look!  Desk space!

Of course, I just put in a SportLots order for about 125 cards to fill it back up.  Stay tuned for that....

Have also pulled the majority of my Secret Santa stack that I'll ship out in the next week or so. 

Don't want to give too much away, but fortunately for us both, I didn't have to go shopping for the stuff I'm sending.  It all came from extra stock I had on hand.  Makes it easy when their want lists are very detailed and wide-ranging, especially team collectors.

I'm hoping to get the blog motor running back on normal RPMs by the weekend.  Then of course, there's Christmas (or insert your seasonal holiday celebration here), so consistency is going to be a problem.