Monday, October 22, 2012

Group Breaks: Including One from the Daily Dimwit

Group breaks are great if you are a fan of a specific team.  You know, the life-long affiliation with one team that makes you care about the utility infielder from 1967 and reliever from 1985 as much as your home town superstar.  I lack that commitment to any baseball team.  In fact, the only team I possess any kind of life-long loyalty to is the Pittsburgh Penguins, not that I've ever lived in Pittsburgh, I just like flightless birds.

When it comes to baseball, I am nominally a Braves fan, due to the Superstation and getting cable around the same time the Houston Astros ditched orange from their uniforms and relegating Mike Scott to a secondary role.  I also have a strong affinity for the New York Giants of the Christy Mathewson/John McGraw era.  My fandom for this team and era in general led me to collecting tobacco cards.  In fact, here is a T205 McGraw I bought on a whim a few months ago. The portrait portion of the card managed to survive for many years unscathed, something the name portion of the card cannot claim.

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Nonetheless, my lack of a team for life makes it harder to participate in group breaks, as it isn't like, "Oh, there is a group break, let me go claim the Royals."  I always need to break out checklists and research.  Half the time, once I've finished my research, any team that I wanted is usually claimed.  However, I joined my second group break over at the Daily Dimwit, selecting the Giants after much internal debate.  The boxes included in the break were 2012 Topps Triple Threads, 2001 Playoff Memorabilia and 2002 Fleer Legends of the Game.

Let's see what I managed to pull in the break starting with 2001 Playoff Memorabilia

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And we're done.  I had low expectations for this box and they were met.  The Bonds was the only supershiny card in my package. 

And on to the 2002 Fleer Legends of the Game.  It was these cards which led me to choose the Giants, who are well represented in the set.  Out of 100 cards in the base set, there are nine Giants, all of which ended up in my pile, including a second of the Wilhelm below.  I included the highlights, since to be quite honest, no one needs to see a picture of Bill Terry, unless it is some kind of technicolor, art deco masterpiece. 

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Finally, we are on to Triple Threads.  As we all know, the element of the gamble exists in every group break, as there are some winners and some losers in every deal.  On the good news side of the ledger, I beat the odds and ended up with a card from the box.  Even better, the card was numbered and contained Willie Mays.  The downside is that it is a base card numbered to 625. 

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It's a pretty great card in its own right, but not the hit everyone hopes for, since aspires gives the wrong impression that there was work involved.  So, there is the results of the group break with the Daily Dimwit. Thanks again for running this break!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Trade with ARPSmith and a Bowman Chrome Update

At today's show, I was able to valiantly resist purchasing an entire box of Bowman Chrome at the show today.  Seventy two cards in a box is not sufficient for my opening needs, even at reduced show prices.  I did break down and purchase one pack.  My one thought on the base cards in the pack were "Wasn't this the same design as last year and the year before?"  I'm sure there is a difference, but I would be hard pressed to know what it is.  I also ended up pulling the following Nolan Arenado insert, which is super-shiny, but otherwise a card destined to sit in my boxes until it ends up somewhere else.

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A few weeks ago, I worked a primarily "vintage" for new, glossy cards deal with Adam over at ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession.  As I was leaving for a short vacation last week, a hefty box arrived filled with cards from Adam.  The cards put a significant dent in my want lists towards completing sets, while the 1973 Topps cards heading west are unlikely to be missed.

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There was a strong showing for all three 2012 Topps sets, though Series 1 and 2 dominated, as I purchased a box of neither this year.  The Willis and Ramirez cards showcase the players with teams you will never remember ten years from now.  In fact, I had already forgotten Dontrelle spent time with the Cincinnati Reds and this doesn't even cover the Diamondback, Phillie or Oriole portions of his career.

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There was also a fairly large amount of 2012 Topps Archives in the box as well, somewhere in the neighborhood of half a set.  As you can might have guessed, my favorite design is the 1984 Topps, which I grew up with.  Yogi barely edged out the Babe for scanning.  I also have come very close to finishing the 2011 Topps Lineage set as well.  The Wagner is a nice addition to any set, since I am such a sucker for pre-war players on post-war cards.

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Finally, we have the above.  My almost certainly misguided attempt to complete the 2010 Topps T206 Mini set was greatly aided by the box, knocking 30 or so cards off my list.  Kendrick's card has one of my favorite backgrounds from the original set, which is found on Hall of Famer George Davis's card.  The Diamond Stars Foxx is from CMG reprints set.  Given my new focus on the set, we may see Mr. Foxx appear again quite soon.  Finally, there is Tris Speaker on a 2000 Topps card.  Having went 15 years without thinking about baseball cards, I was almost surprised that there was no original 2000 Topps Tris Speaker card as some kind of shortprint.

Well, I hope Adam is as happy with his haul, as I am with mine.




Friday, October 19, 2012

2012 Bowman Chrome at KMart

No purty pictures of cards today.  Just a story of what could have been. 

I was out earlier today and for the first time saw 2012 Bowman Chrome for sale.  I'm always a sucker for a new product, even if it is full of prospects that for the most part I don't care about.  So, with nothing else in the store calling to me, I pick up a blaster of 2012 Bowman Chrome and wait at the register.

I was well aware each pack contained three cards for a box with a grand total of 24 cards inside.  Even so, I thought, what the heck, let's get the blaster.  I turned the blaster over and see it has a tiny, white price tag.  The price tag read $21.99.  So, with tax, each card in the box would cost $1.  $1 for each chrome card in the box.  I thought, that is ridiculous. 

So, I hit the wall on purchase price and said, I can do better.  I couldn't bring myself to buy 8 packs of cards with three cards in a pack for a dollar a card.  I didn't see the value or the joy in the product.  So, I left and drove home empty-handed.  Normally, I would be saddened by not getting anything, but I came home and inadvertently found something far better, for slightly less than the cost of a blaster.  In fact, it is a real piece of history for my favorite team of all-time.  Once it arrives, the item will be properly lionized with flowery prose and accompanying pictures.  In the interim, I will wait for my piece of history to arrive and not look at a bunch of shiny cards, which would like end up in a dark box, seldom to be seen again.

Of course, I'm going to a show tomorrow morning and silly me will probably end up with a hobby box.  If so, I'll just delete this little old post and we'll pretend it didn't happen.   

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Vacation Cards

Perhaps the best thing about a vacation is a chance to explore new environs.  There, you might see a new sight or gain a new experience while getting away from your life.  Or you might know every store in another area which could potentially sell sports cards and memorabilia and go there instead.  So, my time away led to an area I knew well filled with antique stores.

Try as I might, I was unable to find anything in the first store I went to.  I nearly purchased a box of 1993-94 Parkhurst cards, but the box had seen better years and was at best, slightly opened and worst, horribly mutilated.  I also saw an interesting baseball game from turn of the century, but it was quite large and would neither fit in my car nor store easily in my apartment. 

From there, we went to another antique store, where I had some luck in the past, adding a few T206 Cubs to my collection, including a Harry Steinfeldt.  Arriving, I took the slow walk around the store, stopping to look a the baseball memorabilia and the Statis Pro: Boxing game I never buy.  I arrive at the case containing the pre-war cards and get the store worker to open the case. 

Flipping through the stacks, I realize that I need none of these cards to complete my set.  There is a Rube Kroh with an overprint on the front (the Piedmont reverse from another card or strike was visible on the front) and there was a strange mass of color on the back.  You could make out a shape in the card, but I could not readily tell the player or if there was a highly collectable ghost image in the back.  I dither and think about it, before putting the card back, because it was either a great steal as a ghost image or a horrible overpay as a regular, low grade T206.

I also found an Orval Overall Hands Face Level.  It was the cheapest T206 card in the store, less than I pay for lunch most days and as one of my favorite players, I have a soft spot for all of his cards.  Even though I own a slightly better version of the card already in my collection, I picked up the below card, because I hate leaving the store without something.

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Sadly, I found nothing else on my vacation, but had many a card waiting for me at my front door when I came home.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

30 Minutes At The Card Show: Part 4 Odds and Ends

Not content to take the two Diamond Stars, get into my car and drive on to the Meadowlands, I continued to search through my regular dealer's stacks of cards.  I was also able to pick up the worst card I've ever seen for sale and let me tell you, I have a few T206s which I cannot fathom how they survived to this point in their weakened condition.   But feast your eyes on the below:

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Poor Willie.  The left hand side of the card is missing a piece of the picture.  The right hand side has a clear piece of tape along the card, but not in a load-bearing way.  Dirt covers a fair portion of the card as well.  Weakened, chipped corners frame the card.  A pinhole of some sort pierces through his arm.  Thankfully, the writing is actually not on the card itself, but instead on the holder, with the 40 representing book value and the 2 representing a pre-purchase price.  But it fills a gap in my 1973 Topps set.

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What can I say, I've always had a soft spot for anyone who can sell clothes with the line, Buy your rags from Daddy Wags.  Surprisingly, this is my first Leon Wagner card and even though there is a small amount of penmanship on the back in the baseball, I am quite pleased with owning this card.

As a general rule, I don't care for basketball cards.  I'm not much of a fan of the sport, but I have soft spot for any card which you can separate into three pieces.  So, I always purchase any 1980 Topps Basketball cards where I can recognize at least one player on the card.

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As you can see, there is Bob McAdoo, Adrian Dantley, Wes Unseld and Lloyd "World B." Free.  All stars of the late 1970s, even though Photobucket refuses to rotate the cards for your viewing pleasure.  However, there is one basketball player I would consider myself a fan of and enjoy collecting. 

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In the middle, highlighted with arrows on the toploader is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, right around the time of Airplane.  You can never go wrong with Airplane or Kareem, who might be the only basketball player I regret never seeing live.  Also, Kareem was most certainly not a ninny.

And with this stack of cards added to my collection, I was able to leave the show and get on my way to the Meadowlands.  

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

30 Minutes At The Card Show: Part 3 Diamond Stars

With time dwindling, I stop by my regular dealer's table.  Usually, I stop after a quick tour of the show, in case there is anything must have at one of the other tables, but today there was no time for such tomfoolery.  He knows I primarily collect pre-war cards and asks if I'm interested in actors and actresses, which I'm not, along with strip cards, which I despise.  There is something so amateurish about a card on a piece of cardboard with a simple drawing on it.  Below is a copy of one of the few strip cards I own, mostly because of the horrible printing error on the card.

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With the likelihood of a decent purchase flying out the window, I start leafing through his stacks of cards, which often have something interesting in them, even if I am not actively seeking these cards for purchase.  About 15 cards down in the second stack I pick up, there are two 1930s Diamond Stars, Cliff Bolton and HOF Chick Hafey.  For the record, Chick Hafey is almost certainly the worst Baseball Hall of Famer, since he played in 100 or more games 7 times in a season and was what you would call a regular maybe four times.  While a fine hitter, he wasn't an all-time great for a few seasons, which is pretty much what you need to be as a Hall of Famer with 4,600 AB or a packed committee like Roosevelt's plans for the Supreme Court. 

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Nonetheless, having decided to collect the entire Diamond Stars, I purchased both cards at a reasonable price, even after you factor in the Hall of Fame premium on Hafey, which ended up costing me just as much as the entire Goudey lot below.

The design and color of the Diamond Stars are just so stark and appealing.  As there is no Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio or Williams in the set, the overall costs are far more affordable than the other 1930s sets.  And as I start to wind down my T206s, I need to have something else ready to take the central role in my set collecting.  I swear, just one more post regarding what I bought at the show, which I will save for tomorrow.  As you will see, I did not save the best for last. 

Monday, October 15, 2012

30 Minutes At The Card Show: Part 2 SPxtastic

Have you ever been to a card show and by the time you get home, ask yourself, "Self, why didn't you buy those cards?"  Usually the answer is I don't need it or I didn't really want it or most commonly, that dealer wants 10 times the price I would pay online.  However, last month I left behind a stack of cards in a quarter box which made no sense to me.

Thinking I was going to miss this show, I was concerned in two months' time the cards I wanted would be gone.  Of course, to think that cards from a quarter box would be gone, especially hockey cards is a critical failure in understanding the marketplace.

Rounding the corner from my initial purchase, I breeze past the selection of overpriced vintage cards where I occasionally find a card of interest, but in a hurry, have no time to gamble on such an occurrence happening.  Finally, walking past the binders, I reach the quarter boxes, which to my surprise are also five cards for $1 as well.  Looking at the box, I immediately see the die-cut shapes are still there.

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See, last month I saw these die-cut cards, covered in holograms and walk away.  This time, I purchase 18 1996-1997 SPx cards, though due to rushing and a complete inability to order 18 cards, purchase two Kariyas and Tkachuks, leaving me 34 cards short of completing the set, which as you probably guessed created another set of cards on my want list.  I also picked up the below regular Paul Coffey SP card as well, though I couldn't find a 20th card I wanted for no additional cost, which is better for my boxes, but not for my need to make the most of every quarter. 

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The cards themselves are fine, though it did show me I need to clean my scanner.  With these cards purchased, I was all but ready to leave, but my regular dealer awaited, where I of course, made more purchases, but that will have to wait until Part 3.