A Little $2 Surgery

The Chantilly show I attended on Friday was a bit disappointing in that I didn't find a whole lot of set killers or special player collection cards.  So I'm still debating on whether to make a post about my haul.  I got almost as much for a fellow collector who has been holding a stack for me than I did for myself.   What I got was largely the same things I usually come home with - 1950 Bowman, 1957 Topps, and a few miscellaneous more recent things.

I did spot Chris Sewall, of Baseball Card Collector Investor Dealer YouTube fame.  I introduced myself and said I watch his videos often even though I consider myself the anti-collector (or anti-hype collector - don't care about grading, rookies, or shiny).  I fumbled over describing what I collect and we parted ways.  Check out his channel, he's not one of these "influencer" guys.  His Q&A sessions are always informative.

But anyway, part of what I bought included a couple 1957 Topps cards that were only a dollar each.  That's generally a great find, but these had a bit of an issue.

They look fantastic on the front, but when you turn them over....

They both have these paper strips stuck to the back of the card.

This one is shown in progress of removal.  I have actually seen this before and was able to cure it.

What you need is a little bit of water (I used a bottle cap), a scraper (or if you're daring, a razor blade - though I'd recommend using the non-blade edge.), a cotton swab, and if you're old like me, a magnifier - preferable that will stand on it's own.

What I do is dip the swab into the water and tap or roll it off so it's not soaked.  You only want to dampen the strip, not so much of the surface of the card.  Just enough to make the glue let go.  Keep the leading edge of the strip damp, but if you get too much water, let it dry and then reapply to just where you need it.

Then I switch to the scraper.  Not sure where I got this one, but it's perfect for the job.  Keep pushing the paper with a light scraping motion, being careful not to press too hard into the card surface.  Once it stops sliding off easily, apply the water again. 

Continue working it down and dampening the leading edge.  Typically I would get about and eight to a quarter of an inch increments before dampening again.  It's slow work, but it pays off.  The first strip was basically whole and came off in one piece.  Wasn't perfect, but it'll do.

The other one had been partially removed so it came off in fragments.  And there was a little damage already at the end.

But they're both much better than they were.  I guess those strips were how someone catalogued their cards or something.  Well, now I have a couple really decent '57s that were only a dollar each!

Let me know in the comments if you've ever had to do rehab work on a card...

Does Heritage Stay True? (1959 vs. 2008 edition) Chapter 6

I'm almost at 100 trades on the database, and I'm heading to Chantilly this weekend (Friday if my back will stand the concrete floor), so I'll have more to show and cross off my lists. 

Meanwhile, back to the comparison of '59 and '08 Heritage...

We start at #304, which is another team card match, the Chicago Cubs.

Gave this one the "mini-check", because whoever laid out some of these in 2008, has a lousy sense of balancing the space.  I get it, the team photo is 30% longer than the old one, but why do the fonts have to be so miniscule?  Try this:

The '59 card is almost too crammed together, and the '08 one is sparse.  Here's a decent place in between.

Next up, Dice-K - coming off a phenomenal rookie season.  You match him with a Yankee?  What kind of blasphemy is that?  

Jerry was an up and coming rookie hurler for Boston too. 

At #310, a couple of White Sox.  But sorry Jerry, you're just not quite the guy for the job right here.

Slugging Sox Shortstop?  That's better.

A couple well known National league pitchers at #312?  Yep.  Cool black color scheme?  Yep.  Approved.

Are they just matching color at this point?  Jacque did OK, but...

...This guy was the star 1st Baseman for the Braves.  He should have been #315.

Down at #327, Big Papi and Gary are.....yellow.

Vic is described as a power hitter, so he'll do since Ted Williams isn't in this set.

Now we get on a bit of a good run two cards later.  Tigers match up well.  Still a bit of space below the wall there, but I'll let it slide.

Reds star pivot men in the black scheme at #335.  Cool....

Tigers household names at #338.  'Nuff said...

Right after them, a steady pair of Pirate pitchers coming off good years.  Sure...

Three in a row!  #340 pairs decent hitters for the team that became the other team.  I like when they match up Senators and Rangers or Twins, Pilots and Brewers, etc.

At #346 - See?  THAT's how you compose the picture and use the right size lettering.  Good job!

And at #350, a couple more star National League shortstops.  Don't know if Rollins will ever make the Hall of Fame, but he had a heck of a year in 2007, so this is a pretty proper pairing.

Next time, the thrill isn't gone, but it's about 100 cards off!

Appealing To The Masses

Just a quick post with some snapshots from around Collective headquarters.  I'm so entrenched in entering my extras on the Database, and keeping up with all the trade offers, that I'm not doing much of anything else hobby-wise.  This includes putting away all the stuff I'm getting in trade or have essentially swapped from my COMC stock.

This is the desk in the card room where I put everything that I've processed (crossed off my lists).  The front row is all new incoming cards from trades or purchases - generally in the last few months.  The piles further back are sets I've started but not necessarily listed yet, or misc. singles that I've pulled from the "hoard" that I thought might interest a particular collector. 

For example, these are all the baseball set hits I've accumulated since late April or so - maybe sooner.  And they showed up primarily in PWEs that averaged a dozen cards at a time.

One of the collections that's grown the most is my player PC of Edwin Jackson.  This is why I'm the leading EJ collector on TCDB.  (Thanks to all the traders on there for making it possible.)  I don't have him on my website, he's managed only on the Database.  I laid all his singles that have come in on top of a 5000 count box.  They almost didn't fit.  Haven't put them in any order yet.

Another very diverse batch has recently accumulated of Bo Jackson.  I will confess, a couple of these are from my COMC swap.  But some traders have had some really interesting ones available.

Some other colorful additions include Chad Kuhl.  You can tell by the paper inserts that all but one of these was from COMC.  And that one was a dupe that showed up in a trade right after I placed my order.  Kuhl is the only foray into present-year cards that I have going right now.

And finally, these are some recent dupes (that actually go back to before I've been trading so intensely, but no matter).  The majority are player collection hits that I already had.  All these are available by request if you see something you need.  Bonus for reading through this far....

Ranking Among the Collective

Matt over at Cards Over Coffee just posted his rankings on the Trading Card Database for several of his player collections.  That made me curious, as I've been trading like mad over there - just completed 60 trades this week - and I haven't entered all my player collections or their wants on the site yet.

Found out I can probably crack the top 10 on a few guys...

The first one is the only one that I track exclusively on the Database site. I originally intended to start with just basic base cards to show all the different teams he played for, but when I found a big lot of gamers and jerseys, I decided to go for the gusto and supercollect Edwin Jackson.  (In his case, it's true, but when I show gamers and autos for my other PCs, it doesn't represent a lot of what I actually have. For most of my PCs, I have a few, but not usually a major percentage.)

I'm leading the pack by more than double!

My next newest guy is all "new stuff", and I'm #1 with him, too!

He doesn't have that many cards total, so if you get a few parallels, it's easy to jump up the ranks.

The last guy who I've already entered is an even more severe case of the same thing.

He's got less than 10 cards total, and all of them are minor league.  I'm only missing two. 😄

I looked up some of my largest PCs to see if I can crack the top 10.  It's almost definite on several of them.  I figured the number of collectors of these guys would be a lot higher.  I guess it's just that only so many of them have catalogued their collections on the site.

The biggest one I have is probably Jim Palmer.

He's under 200 by #6, so I'm almost assured of blowing that away.  

With Carlton Fisk, I'm not so sure.  I might have a couple hundred, but is it enough to stay in the top rankings?

Ya gotta break 300 to get past #13.  I dont' know...

I scanned through the first two pages of the players currently listed as in my Collection to see any other of my actual PC guys were there. 

I found George Foster on the second page.  I have only traded for a couple of his, so that's all I have in there so far.

Under 100 by 7th place.  I'm in for sure.

My Mussina collection isn't going to hit the top ranks, I can guarantee that.  It's because I restrict mine to only his Oriole cards.  He's got way more Yankee cardboard.  And as popular as the Yankees are in general....you know there are gonna be some hoards.  3500 is unbelievable.

Not sure I'm even hitting top 20 on that one. 

I've got all the basics and a few unusual Tiants, but as far as volume, it could be hit or miss.

Though to beat 76 at the third place spot shouldn't be that tough.

Finally, my oldest PC - Charlie Keller.  It's tough because after his '50s Bowmans, etc. it gets pricey to find some of the more diverse cards, especially when he's paired with other players like that DiMaggio guy.

But 21 is easy to make Top 10.  So I'll be in the middle somewhere. 

Maybe on the long Memorial Day weekend, I'll get some PC data entry done.  I've still got a long way to go on my extra stuff.