So Long And Thanks For The Cards……

Does anyone really think these guys will be around by the end of the year?  I have to give Beckett it’s due on actually reporting some hobby news for once.  Well done Mr. Olds.

A Couple Of Rare And Well Traveled Cards

One of my long-term collecting goals is to have at least one example from as many different sets I can find.  Last year I was able to get a 1955 Topps Double Header, a 100-year-old T206, and a couple of nice 1938 Churchman’s Boxing cards.   Already this year I’ve been able to add another T206 and a couple of rare well-traveled cards.

First I’ll show off the T206.

It’s a Orval Overall 1909-11 T206 Sweet Caporal back.  It’s a little beat up and has some paper loss, but it’s 100 years old and it didn’t even cost me $10.  I now have a Piedmont and Sweet Caporal backs, I’d like to get at least one of the different backs in the series.  Orval was an instrumental player for the Cub’s in their last two World Series victories.  He went 3-1 in series competition and led the league in strikeouts in 1909.  That really puts this 100 years of losing into perspective when this guy was one of the last Cubs to win the series.  They really need to do something about that.  I also have a note to any would be parents with the last name Overall.  Do your damn kid a favor and don’t name him Orval.

The next card looks like your ordinary run of the mill 1964 Topps card.

OK, really it looks like a beat to hell ordinary run of the mill 1964 Topps card.  When you flip the card over is when you realize this card traveled a long way to get to Northern Illinois.

This is a 1964 Andre Rodgers Venezuelan Topps card.  These were sold across South America due to the popularity of the winter and rookie leagues in the ’60s.  These are next to impossible to find in mint condition.  I thought the kids in the states really did a job on their cards in the ’60s but the South American kids must have just put them through hell.

The next bunch of cards are not that old and I really don’t know just how rare they are, but I’ve only seen pictures of them in books and the interwebs.

These are examples of the 1991 Topps Desert Shield set.  These were distibuted in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield.  I would like to eventually get the Cub’s team set and maybe some day grab the Larry Wayne Jones RC.  I wonder if there was a soldier who had the slightest inkling to trade everything he had for every Chippah he could find.  Currently the cheapest Chipper RC  BIN price on eBay is a BGS 8 going for a cool $379.  What a difference a little gold foil stamp makes.

So there you have it, a card that traveled a couple of thousand miles north, some cards that may have come back in a soldier’s nap sack, and one thats made it through 100 years of history.  Not bad for under $20.

2010 Topps National Chicle And Why I Might Like It

I’ll start with good.  These cards look amazing.  I don’t care if Ichiro is in a throwback Brewers uniform, they got the city right and I like it.  If the bulk of the set looks as good as the Robinson card, we may have a product of the year contender.

Now with the not so good.

At first glance I thought these cards were flat out flugly.  The more I see of them the more I’m starting to understand their place in the set.  First and for most it’s an art set based on a retro theme.  I like that idea better than just mailing in another retro themed set, see T206 if you want to know what I mean.  I hated the Ruth card at first but it got me thinking, what would players from the golden age of baseball look like with modern jerseys and equipment.  The ideas floating in my head look cool and I hope the artists pull through and do a better job than the Ruth card.  I think the mistake here was making Ruth look so much like Chippah.  Maybe that was the idea, but the idea did not transfer so well.  It’s still better than say, a Honus Wagner donning the 1970’s Pirates get-up.

The Thomas card, or Beckham card which ever it is, is kind of cool.  I really hope it’s Beckham, because if it’s not, the artist needs to go back to the supply store and buy some new colors for skin tone.  The concept behind this could be a cool one too.  Take today’s rookies and stars and place them in older iconic cards.  How about a Mauer in place of Puckett on a ’85 Topps design or David Wright on Strawberry’s rookie card.  I like the idea and concept behind these cards.  If it’s not the idea, then yes, it is a horrible painting of Frank Thomas.

I’m going to wait until I see more images from the set before I make my final verdict.  For now I’m excited to see 100% of the autos will be on card.  That is a definite step in the right direction.  I’m also glad to see a few new concepts included into a set.  We as collectors can’t complain about the same boring rehashes of retro sets and at the same time slam Topps for trying something new.  I guess at the end of the day I’d rather see the Babe in a Brave’s jersey with eye black and batting gloves than see the same tired image of him in the same old boring pin stripes.  Maybe this set should have been called “Unique” and not “National Chicle”.

By the way, I completely stole these images from Beckett.  Thanks Beckett!

King Of Kong

I got off early tonight due to lack of work.  I spent my evening watching “Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken” with the kids.  After I put them to bed I browsed the Netflix menu on the 360 and decided to watch “King of Kong, A Fistful Of Quarters“.  It’s the story of Steve Wiebe and his dream of being the best at something and his struggle to succeed.  Seriously, he has missed many accomplishments by just a little bit.  He decided to take on Billy Mitchell’s record on Donkey Kong.  If you don’t know what Donkey Kong is, I can only assume you’re Amish or live in Wisconsin.  He goes through hell to take down Billy Mitchell and after he does, his streak of bad luck continues.  I won’t get into it too deep but in the end he succeeds.  If you haven’t seen the movie I suggest you do.  If you have seen the movie, then you could probably agree that Billy Mitchell was the kid in your neighborhood who took the ball home after you started beating him.  He is truly a whiney pompous bitch of a man.  The only people more despicable than he is, is his little minions he has following and working for him.  Sorry Billy, but the film did you no favors.  As far as Steve goes, he is about the most stand up dude there is and deserves the honor of being the best in the world.

In the middle of the movie I remembered I received a package from Beardy in the mail that I had yet to open.  Sorry Thorzul, this is a kind of trade post with a story.  The top card of the first pile I pulled out was this.

What kind of crazy ass coincidence is that?  Beardy was also nice enough to practically knock out all of my needs for the Ginter set.  He sent along a Carlos Marmol jersey card from the set.  I would have included a scan but I’m following dayf’s footsteps and only posting 1 card per trade post.   I haven’t placed them in the binder yet but I have to be close if not done with the set.

Somebody needs to make a card set of some of these record holders.  There are some real characters in the bunch and their achievements are nothing short of amazing.  This includes the 80 something year old Doris Self.  Who is the 3rd place holder for Q*Bert.  She has since past on and is playing Q*Bert in heaven no doubt.  Then there is this guy.  He is Roy Shildt, AKA Mr. Awsome, the record holder for Missile Command  Click the link, you won’t be sorry.

If you want to check out where you match up against the greats you can go to Twin Galaxies and check out thousands of verified high scores.  If you want to see where you match up against me, you can find me on the the 360 with the gamer tag of gritz76 and on the PS3 as gritz-76-.  Send me a friend invite and I’m sure I’ll accept.  Now I got to go chumpatize some 12 year olds on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Here Ya Go dayf, Gank Away

I also have the Ruth but I think he ran away with some benchwarmer cards because I can’t find him and all my  cards smell like booz, cigars, and cheap perfume.  When he’s done I’ll post him too.

Getting Artsy Fartsy With The ’62 Set

Collecting vintage cardboard is a little different from collecting modern.  I can’t rely on breaking a couple of boxes to get the bulk of the set.  I can’t rely on casebreakers on thEbay to get the shortprints.  There are variations galore and even a strange green tint parallel type thing going on with the ’62 set, but no certified autographs, game used cards, or printing plates.  Untill now.

A couple of weeks ago I was trolling the Beckett boards, I know, I’m a hypocrite.  One member pointed out an eBay auction for some “fake” printing plates.  I checked it out and was excited to see they were all from 1962.  I emailed the seller and asked him if he could tell me more about the plates and not posting his auctions and calling him a fraud.  It turns out, in the early ’80s Topps had an auction and he and three buddies won a large lot of what he called junk at the time.  He said the box was full of old printing plates, blank back proof cards, and a host of other stuff from the printing process.  They divided it all up and tried selling it through out the years.  He could barely give the stuff away at first, but as the advent of game used and printing plates came along he has finally had a chance to get rid of the stuff.  Here is what I bought, it is a 1962 printing plate of Jack Curtis.

It’s pretty cool but it’s kind of boring.  He also sent along the card of Curtis.

I also had a copy of the Curtis card, so I decided to make an art project out of the deal.  I went to the store and picked up an exacto knife and some tin snips and cut away.

I then layered the three cards and came up with this.

There you have it.  A true 1/1 1962 Jack Curtis printing plate card.  It’s not fully completed yet.  I still haven’t actually stuck them together.  I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what to use for this.  I was just going to use super glue, but I have a horrible track record with glueing myself to what ever it is I glue.  I also don’t know what color this plate is.  The rookie trophy is completely black.  What ever color would make yellow black on the plate is the color, but I don’t know what that would be.  Any guesses here would be helpful too.  I was also thinking about cutting the trophy out and glueing that to the plate to give it a little “pop”.  I’ve been paying too much attention to HGTV.  I’ll make that decision after I see how the glueing process goes.  I think I might try to search eBay for some cheap game used cards of players in the ’62 set and make some authentic bootleg game used cards for the set.  We’ll just have to see how artsy fartsy I feel.

Baseball Vs. Hockey

The monthly local card show has once more come and gone.  There is only a handful of dealers each month and the flow of new cards to buy is dwindling.  I think they sell more to each other than they do to the public.  I often see cards go from one dealer to the next and then back up for sale the next month.  Today I picked up a handful of vintage, one card for the ’62 set, and a handful of newer wax.  I picked up three packs of Unique for a review, a pack of ’09 Sweet Spot, a couple packs of T206 that I should have left behind, and I tried my hand at a couple packs of UD Black Diamond Hockey cards.  These are the first packs of hockey cards that I have ever purchased.  I thoroughly enjoy hockey, it’s my second favorite sport, but for some reason I’ve never had the urge to buy any cards.  After watching last nights Hawks match against the Blues I was ready to take the dive.  I’m kind of glad I did.  First I’ll show you the highlight of the $20 a pack Sweet Spot.

It’s not a bad pull.  A nice jersey card of an up and coming young pitcher.  This very card can be had on eBay for under $2, some have even gone for less than $1.  It’s rather sad when a $20 pack of cards gets you a $2 game used card and it’s one of the hottest young pitchers in the game.  Now here’s the highlight of the Hockey packs I bought.

This here is a 09/10 UD Black Diamond Quad Horizontal Variation SP of the legendary Bobby Orr.  If I didn’t already know better I would have bet that the Porcello card would have a higher value on the eBay market.  According to the completed auctions of eBay this card has sold for as high as $78.77 and as low as $14.99.  It has no game used swatch or auto, it came out of a $4.50 pack, and it is of a player who has been long since retired.  Compared to the Porcello, the Orr card is a home run.  I’m not sure what my point is here really?  I guess I would like it if baseball cards had similar pulls to this card rather than jamming sets full of meaningless game used cards and autos of triple AAA middle relievers and charging $20 a pack.  I also pulled a triple quad of Patrick Kane which has sold for more than $5.  I think if I had it to do all over again I would have picked up a box of the Black Diamond and left the baseball behind.

Here’s what else I managed to pick up today.

Starting The New Year Out Right!

This iconic card from the 1962 set was awaiting me in my mailbox this morning.  This is another one of those cards I never thought I would be able to own when I was a kid.  This is of course the card issued the year after he broke the single season home run record, a record that I still believe he deserves to hold today.

This was purchased on my Christmas eBay shopping spree.  According to Beckett this gem books at $500.  According to the real world it should book for right around $50, because that’s what I got it for.  I was prepared for it to have a couple of hidden creases or some other major hidden flaw but that’s not the case.  This card is in pretty damn good shape.  Sure it’s off-center, but if you’re bothered by centering issues, the 1962 Topps set is not one for you.  The left edge is a little nicked up, but unless you pick the card up and feel for it, you’d never know.  I honestly expected this card to set me back a couple of hundred dollars when the time came to pick it up.  At $50 I think I got a steal.

I have a couple more heavy hitters on their way from the ’62 set, hopefully they’ll both get here on Monday.  I even have enough gift cards left to try to go after the Willie Mays card from the set.  By the end of this year I hope to get the base set minus the SP’s completed.  That would leave just under 100 short prints to chase.  The short prints of this set are insane.  Not only are they expensive, they are next to impossible to find.  There are a few cards I’ve been looking for and not seen on eBay, or anywhere else for that matter, since I started putting this set together over a year ago.  I have an updated list of what I have and what I need here. The ones in red are the ones I have.  If you have any to trade and make my list a little more red, let me know.