I Was Starting To Think These Didn’t Exist

A dirty game used card.

Every game used card I have looks like it was washed with an Ultrabrite and DiDi Seven combo wash.  Until now.  It was a no brainer when I saw this on eBay for a BIN of $3.50 or best offer. I offered $1.50 and they accepted.  This card kicks ass.  First off, I rarely if ever see a swatch with any kind of anything on it, and if you do it’s usually a pinstripe.  I still can’t figure out why a jersey with a pinstripe can fetch more than a plain white swatch.  They’re the same thing, just one has a line on it, whoo hoo!  This is way cooler than a line, this has dirt and maybe a little bit of blood on it.  It makes me want to go find tape of the 2002 National team and figure out just when and where this happened.  Was it a diving catch or a bang bang play at the plate at the end of the game?  I may never know.  The other cool factor of this card is that it is Sam Fuld.  He’s one of those guys that wake up in the morning and can’t wait to get to the park and get dirty.  I didn’t even mind that I had to go to the post office and pay an additional $.34 to cover some of the postage.  Well actually, I kind of minded.  It was as cold as hell and it was raining and I had to go out in it because some schmuck couldn’t slap another stamp on the damn thing.  Oh well, I got a pretty damn cool card out of the deal.

Beckett Proves Their Values Are Inflated

I’ve been a strong critic of the once high and mighty Beckett.  I’ve called them out on several topics from shady business practices to having unrealistic values in their price guide.   Today they have proved to me that their numbers are completely based on fantasy, or at least on eBay.  Tracy Hackler has a write-up on a high school football card of the Denver Bronco’s head coach Josh McDaniels.  You can check it out here.  Give them a few minutes if the page does not load, they’re still in their beta stage of the site.  The article claims his card from the 1995 Ohio High School Big 33 set had a value of just $.75 in January.  Later it rose to $3 and then $5.  Just recently one sold for $26 on eBay.  So what value does Beckett slap this card with?  $10, maybe $15, that would be an honest average of what the card has been worth and what it has sold for right?  Nope, they decided it is now worth a whopping $30.

I know they make the argument of scarcity and how surprising of a storyline the Broncos have been this year but that should not inflate the value of this card by that much.  They even state that it is a 3,500% jump in value in 9 months.

Whenever I bring up the argument of book value vs. real world value, I always hear form the Beckett defenders that if a card sells for an unusually large amount on eBay, it shouldn’t affect the book value.  People always state that one out of the ordinary sale should not spike up or drop the book value.  Well in this instance one sells for $26 and they value it at $30.  Why the extra $4?  My theory is they added in the shipping charge into the value.  This contradicts another popular argument about eBay vs. book value.  That eBay shouldn’t have an effect on value because of the variables such as shipping charges, time of day, and the day of the week an auction ends on. These all affect the final purchase price of a card but it should not have an effect on the value.  If they want to value this card at $30 that’s fine by me.  All I’m really trying to say is if this card is worth $30, a ’89 Donruss Griffey RC should be worth $.25 and not $8.  Right?  The next time I hear someone mention that eBay shoud not be the be all, end all price, I’ll be quick to point to this card to end the argument.

Got Any Sam Fulds?

I’ve decided to try my hand at being a serious player collector during the off season.  I already collect a few of the Cub’s legends but I realize I will never be able to track down or afford every card they have out there.  I’ve wanted to start a player collection for some time now but I haven’t been able to choose one.  The players I’ve considered collecting have either fizzled out after an amazing rookie season, I’m looking at you Soto, or had their cards sky rocket in price for no real reason at all, yep that means you Kosuke.  Others have played a few too many years to try to catch up on like DeRosa and Reed Johnson.  I’m a big fan of Ryan Theriot, but so is every teenage female Cub’s fan and I don’t consider myself groupie material.  My options seemed limited until this season when I saw Sam Fuld go full blast into the bricks and ivy for an otherwise meaningless out.  This is the kind of player I could feel proud to collect.  He showed more guts and hustle  in his 65 games this season than Bradley and Soriano has shown in their careers combined.  He finished the season batting .299 with an OBP of .409.  If he gets the chance to be a position player I think he’ll be in the running for a gold glove.  He is also a diabetic.  Being a diabetic myself, I know some of the challenges he has to face to get out on the field on a daily basis.  According to Beckett he has a total of 155 cards with 77 autographed cards.  I’ve been able to track most of them down and they seem to be at reasonable prices.  So far I have two autos and a game used pants card.  I need to go through my Cub’s box later and see how many of his cards I have hiding in there.  It’s a 3600 ct. box so it may take a little while.  Hopefully I’ll get a checklist up soon of the cards I have and need.  In the meantime if any of you have a Fuld card you don’t want or need let me know.  Also if anyone comes across any of the more rare cards out there of him let me know where you seen it.  I will offer up some sort of finders fee if I am able to get one of these cards.  Hopefully the Cubs won’t trade him off before I can get this collection started.

Card Show Finds And Other Interesting Stuff

I’ll start this post of with a couple of card show goodies I picked up on Sunday.  I had to skip out on the show for the last two months so I was long over due for some card show goodness.  Unfortunately I had a $140 speeding ticket due Monday so I couldn’t really justify going ape shit on baseball cards.  I was able to piss away $30 and this is what I have to show for it.

My main supplier of ’62’s was there and was taking a beating so he offered up $100 worth of book for $25.  I managed to grab$108 for $20.  They’re a little beat up, but not a bad list of names.  I’ve been hunting down the Torre rookie for some time now so I’m happy to get that one off my list.   This brings me 6 cards closer to finishing the set.  I’m not sure how close I am because I have a stack I need to organize, but I think I’m closing in on the halfway point.

Here’s where the other $10 went……..

I managed to grab an auto of one of my new favorite players, Sam Fuld.  I’m almost sure the Cub’s will trade him now just to spite me.  He is one of the players they should of called up instead of signing Mr. Bradley.  He is also a major league record holder.  He owns the record of the most at bats, 101, without a RBI.  He finally notched his first career RBI on the last day of the season hitting his first major league home run.  Watch out for him next year, he’s just getting started.  I also scooped up a second year Jim Rice for a buck, a nice BowChrome Randy Wells, and a sweet jersey card of the mighty Dave Winfield.

Now onto the interesting stuff.  A few posts ago I showed a 1938 Jack Dempsey card I picked up off theBay.  It was PSA graded and trapped in plastic.  I remember reading an article or a post a few months ago about counterfeit Mantles being sold in PSA graded cases.  I wondered how easy it was to break open the case and replace the card within.  My answer, EASY!

All it took was a couple of thin wedges in a few strategic places and poof, my 1938 Jack Dempsey turned into a ’08 Hideki Matsui.  It’s completely sealed back up with no evidence of tampering.  This just furthers my anti-grading stance.  All the crooks need to do is counterfeit the cards and the PSA label and get a hold of a bunch of PSA graded cards, replace the guts and sell them on theBay.  It took me a whole two minutes to do this from start to finish.  Like the late great ODB once said, “Ooooh baby, I like it rawwww.”

TBS Sucks!

Why is it when the baseball season is over MLB turns the broadcasts over to a network that has little to no experience broadcasting baseball?   I’m watching the Phillies take on the Rockies right now and I can barely watch the game because my eyes are focused on that stupid Pitchtrax graphic.  How stupid is this fucking graphic!  I enjoy seeing it after a close call just to see where the ball fell, but having it visible for the whole damn game is useless!  What good does it do to see where the pitch was a second after you just seen where the pitch was?  Do we really need the broadcast to look like a video game?   If you are looking at this TBS, turn that shit off!  And while your at it fire every one of your broadcasters and make Craig Sager buy a normal fucking suit.

When I tune into a post season game I just want to watch a ball game, not some cluttered screen full of less than useless graphics, not some guy in a sparkly suit coat interrupt a victory lap to ask some stupid ass questions, and the last thing I don’t want to see when I tune in is a god damn Bon Jovi concert.  TBS you suck!

How Boxing Has Changed Over The Last 90 Years

After finally accepting that the Cub’s season is an official wash, I’ve focused my attention on the world of boxing.  Over the last two weeks there were two big fights.  The first featured recently unretired Floyd Mayweather Jr. completely dominating the number two pound for pound fighter in the world, Juan Manuel Marquez.  I thought Marquez might have had an outside shot at this fight only because on HBO’s 24/7, he was featured drinking his own piss while training for the fight.  I figured if he was that hardcore, he might stand a chance.  I was wrong.

The fight from last week was also one sided.  Vitali Klitschko used his size to dominate a tough competitor in Chris Arreola.  Honestly, with a last name like that you would probably have to grow up tough.  In the end Arreola just couldn’t get past the size difference and was forced to give up in the late rounds.

I have also been watching a ton of old fights on ESPN Classics.  I work second shift and they air their classic fights at just the right time for me to lay in bed and watch some unbelievable bouts.  The one that caught my attention the  other night was the 1919 heavyweight championship bout between boxing legend Jack Dempsey and Jess Willard.  Jess Willard was the biggest heavyweight to hold the title at the time but that did not stop Dempsey from knocking him to the canvas 7 times in the first round.  The round ended with Willard being knocked out cold in the corner of the ring, but he was saved by the bell.  His corner brought him to between rounds and he continued to get knocked around for the next two rounds until he couldn’t continue anymore.  Here is a video of the first round…….

If this were fought out today, this fight would have never gone past the second knock down.  In 1919 boxers were not required to go to a neutral corner after a knock down which allowed Dempsy to tee off on Willard’s head.  If you liked the first round the whole fight can be viewed here.  Willard ended the fight with several teeth knocked out, broken ribs, and a severely broken face.  After the fight I felt compelled to find a nice Jack Dempsey card for my collection.  After a little shopping I was able to add this 1938 Churchman’s card for under $20.  I haven’t decided if I will break it out of it’s plastic when it arrives or not.