We've hit the home stretch here. Only two packs from the box are left to list, as review might be too strong of a word.
Pack 9 - 1991 Fleer Ultra (Pack 2)
12 - John Smoltz
63 - Les Lancaster
94 - Mariano Duncan (With an uncorrected error of Billy Hatcher as the third picture on the back of the card. I think Billy Hatcher, being a former Astro, improves the card.)
121- Cecil Fielder
144 - George Brett
194 - Junior Ortiz
200 - Delino DeShields
214 - Ron Darling
235 - Roberto Kelly
269 - Terry Mulholland
277 - Doug Drabek
290 - Ray Lankford
Fleer Ultra Team 1 - Barry Bonds (This is the closest I came to scanning a card.)
This pack was far superior to the other pack of Fleer Ultra due to the more recognizable names, the crazy error, which is one of many and the inclusion of an insert, which I believe falls one every five packs.
Pack 10 - 2007 Upper Deck Rack Pack
You realize this set has over 1,000 cards in it. I looked on eBay to see if there were any for sale and I found 2 complete sets. I also found that Upper Deck also released an 850 card set the same year in SweetSpot. I don't understand why. There is no need for one set this large, let alone two. Seeing this, it does not make me think, "Boy, wouldn't it be great if Upper Deck ever made licensed baseball cards again?" I would, however, accept a license from Panini, since they seem to make quality cards in reasonably sized sets.
11 - Ryan Sweeney
135 - Howie Kendrick
145 - Joe Saunders
162 - Juan Rincon
173 - Mariano Rivera (I tend to pull Rivera in every set.)
180 - Dan Johnson
226 - Mark DeRosa
274 - Chad Paronto
286 - Sean Marshall
346 - Rafael Furcal
369 - Chris Capuano
449 - Chris Duncan
457 - Ryan Zimmerman
470 - Pedro Astacio (8 teams, 15 seasons, 129 wins, all surprising numbers. Plus the fact he started his career in 1992. I would've guessed around 1996.)
484 - Vernon Wells Blue Jays Checklist
529 - Chris Young
568 - Jay Payton
586 - J.D. Drew
653 - David Delucci
668 - Brian Lawrence
696 - Logan Kensing
723 - Mike Lamb
735 - Octavio Dotel (He was only up to seven teams by this point in time, six he played for and the Royals, whose uniform he is wearing on the front of the card.)
784 - Wilson Valdez
790 - Matt Wise
850 - Roger Clemens
859 - Jason Kendall
940 - Jose Vidro
982 - Robinson Tejada
1011 - John Patterson (I've never owned a card which required four digits as a unique identifier. I was a better man when I had not owned one.)
Triple Play - Albert Pujols
Triple Play - Miguel Tejada
The best news I can provide about this pack is the lack of inserts. It's quite the opposite of the O-Pee-Chee pack which contained 6 cards, 4 base, one parallel and one basketball insert. I mean, if it only takes 150 packs or almost five box of perfect collation to complete a set, sign me up!
On the whole, I would not call this an enjoyable product to open. It's pretty close as to whether there was $20 worth of retail value in packs in the box.
2009 Goodwin Champions Rack Pack - $5
2007 Upper Deck Rack Pack - $5
2009 O-Pee-Chee - $2 (That was the price tag on the pack)
2012 Topps Series 2 - $2
1991 Fleer Ultra - $2? ($4)
2007 Topps Cello Pack - $1.50
2012 Topps Opening Day - $1 ($2)
1988 Score - $.50
That gets us to $22, though I suspect I may be underestimating the Fleer Ultra and possibly overestimating the 2007 Upper Deck. It does pass the "Not violating false advertising laws" test. However, the box totally fails the fun test. The best cards were damaged, as the lower half of the 2009 Goodwin Champions rack pack was creased and the selection of packs left a lot to be desired. I suspect I would not purchase one of these boxes in the future and would encourage you to do the same.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Saving a T206: A Card Show Report
There is little sadder than showing up at the end of card show, especially if another, larger card show is in driving distance, taking away a number of key dealers. However, I only felt like driving 20 minutes yesterday and got a late start as I wanted to watch some Premier League soccer. So, at 1 PM, I walk into the show and see dealers leaving. Undeterred, I walk around the room, looking at the unopened boxes, which held little appeal and saw a fair amount of football cards available for sale. In the back right corner was a dealer, who I had not seen before. His table was filled with a fair amount of high-grade 50s and 60s Topps cards, which do not interest me at all. Unless Willie, Mickey or the Duke is one of you idols, I cannot see the appeal of Topps cards from that era.
However, there was a plastic snap box that you could fill with about 50 cards in the middle of the case. The case, which can hold 50 or so regular sized cards contained a small stack of T206 cards. As you know, T206 cards are smaller than a standard card and might be worth protecting, especially if the cards have nice corners. Not sloshing about in a plastic case.
As you can see, the Heinie Wagner above has three exceptionally nice corners and a dented fourth corner. The card has no creases and just has a small amount of color loss, but not paper loss on the card. The back is a Polar Bear back with some tobacco stains, but that is to be expected on a card placed into a pouch of loose tobacco at the time of release. I have another Heinie Wagner (Bat on Left Shoulder) which I bought at the National, but it is fairly low grade if my memory serves.
I ask for a price and the dealer asks, "Do you know what it books for, I generally don't sell cards this old?" I answer honestly no, because I've never looked at the book. So, he takes out a Tuff Stuff or something that wasn't a Beckett and looks for a price. He then asks me what grade do I think the card is? Really? He should be able to grade this. I point out the upper left hand corner and small amount of color loss and decline to grade the card. The card has strong eye appeal and some sharp corners, but suspect the corner lowers the technical grade to a Fair or a Good. He then hands me the Tuff Stuff and asks me to find it in the card list. I take a half hearted look, but know it isn't in there, since Heinie Wagner is a common. After 12 or so seconds, I say, it is a common and not in the list, though I did disclose that I finished the set.
He thinks about it and I'm thinking, he is going to ask some ridiculous number and I can go about my day. Of course, as you see the card, he asks for just north of a blaster and after about 4 seconds of reflection take the card. Since the card was stored in a box, he just handed me the card and sent me on my way, so I spent the rest of the show looking at tables with a T206 in my hand. That being said, I did save the card from being banged around inside the plastic container again, which the poor Snodgrass and Tannehill could not escape.
Fortunately, when I got to my car, there were a few packs of 2012 Topps WWE Heritage cards and I gently placed the card between two cards and drove home. Well, drove to Walmart, purchased one of those best of 2012 Topps repack boxes, opened five packs in my car like some kind of monster and drove home, but you catch my drift.
However, there was a plastic snap box that you could fill with about 50 cards in the middle of the case. The case, which can hold 50 or so regular sized cards contained a small stack of T206 cards. As you know, T206 cards are smaller than a standard card and might be worth protecting, especially if the cards have nice corners. Not sloshing about in a plastic case.
As you can see, the Heinie Wagner above has three exceptionally nice corners and a dented fourth corner. The card has no creases and just has a small amount of color loss, but not paper loss on the card. The back is a Polar Bear back with some tobacco stains, but that is to be expected on a card placed into a pouch of loose tobacco at the time of release. I have another Heinie Wagner (Bat on Left Shoulder) which I bought at the National, but it is fairly low grade if my memory serves.
I ask for a price and the dealer asks, "Do you know what it books for, I generally don't sell cards this old?" I answer honestly no, because I've never looked at the book. So, he takes out a Tuff Stuff or something that wasn't a Beckett and looks for a price. He then asks me what grade do I think the card is? Really? He should be able to grade this. I point out the upper left hand corner and small amount of color loss and decline to grade the card. The card has strong eye appeal and some sharp corners, but suspect the corner lowers the technical grade to a Fair or a Good. He then hands me the Tuff Stuff and asks me to find it in the card list. I take a half hearted look, but know it isn't in there, since Heinie Wagner is a common. After 12 or so seconds, I say, it is a common and not in the list, though I did disclose that I finished the set.
He thinks about it and I'm thinking, he is going to ask some ridiculous number and I can go about my day. Of course, as you see the card, he asks for just north of a blaster and after about 4 seconds of reflection take the card. Since the card was stored in a box, he just handed me the card and sent me on my way, so I spent the rest of the show looking at tables with a T206 in my hand. That being said, I did save the card from being banged around inside the plastic container again, which the poor Snodgrass and Tannehill could not escape.
Fortunately, when I got to my car, there were a few packs of 2012 Topps WWE Heritage cards and I gently placed the card between two cards and drove home. Well, drove to Walmart, purchased one of those best of 2012 Topps repack boxes, opened five packs in my car like some kind of monster and drove home, but you catch my drift.
10 Packs, 12 Dollars, What Could Go Wrong?!?!? (Part 4)
With only four packs left, I am starting to feel that perhaps this
was not the wisest purchase I have ever made at a Target. Let's look at
two more packs that I've opened and sat on for the last two weeks.
Pack 7 - 1991 Fleer Ultra
Mariners Foil Sticker - Nothing says "premium" cards like the inclusion of a foil sticker. Actually, nothing says Panini baseball stickers like the inclusion of a foil sticker. Let's move on.
28 - Tom Bolton
36 - Tim Naehring
49 - Mark Langston
165 - Mike Morgan
179 - Dan Plesac
233 - Mel Hall
240 - Hensley Meulens - I believe this Bam-Bam card is the high point of the pack. Well, that or discovering they numbered the cards by team in alphabetical order from Atlanta Braves to Toronto Blue Jays.
301 - Andy Benes
312 - Garry Templeton
358 - Roberto Alomar
370 - David Wells (pre-gout)
391 - Barry Bonds (Great Performances)
394 - David Justice (Great Performances)
Aside from the bright colors on the back and the poor man's Leaf look to the cards (and we all know that Leaf is the poor man's Stadium Club), there is little to say about this pack.
Pack 8 - 1988 Score
17 cards, bright colors, no waiting. I think pulling this pack out of the box was the low water mark of opening the box. Not the packs, mind you, but the box. As a child, I opened many boxes of this product at cost. So, it is hard to get excited about a 50 cent pack in your repack box.
Upon opening the pack, I was struck by two things. First, Score also made Sportflics or vice versa, which I only put together again when I saw the offer on the back for young superstars and then saw the "Magic Motion"trivia card contained within. Second, when I opened the pack, I saw the cards were color sorted. And each 110 card sheet was a different color making it appear that instead of mixing all of the cards, they select a certain number of cards from each sheet and add them into the pack. Quite the odd method of collation, but I'm sure 24 years ago, this was a revolutionary sorting practice. Let's break it down by color!
Purple
51 - Doug Drabek (Dented)
69 - Howard Johnson
71 - Keith Moreland
Blue
184 - Danny Darwin
196 - Dan Pasqua
204 - Garth Iorg
Red
234 - Greg Brock
246 - Jimmy Jones
254 - Johnny Ray
Green
383 - Buddy Biancalana
397 - Randy St. Claire
Yellow
450 - Dale Murphy
540 - George Bell
545 - Jack Morris
Orange
642 - Mackey Sasser
644 - Kevin Romine
647 - Ron Gant
And to think, there are still two more packs from this box filled with mystery left to open. Well, not open, that's done, but discuss as rational, like-minded individuals.
Pack 7 - 1991 Fleer Ultra
Mariners Foil Sticker - Nothing says "premium" cards like the inclusion of a foil sticker. Actually, nothing says Panini baseball stickers like the inclusion of a foil sticker. Let's move on.
28 - Tom Bolton
36 - Tim Naehring
49 - Mark Langston
165 - Mike Morgan
179 - Dan Plesac
233 - Mel Hall
240 - Hensley Meulens - I believe this Bam-Bam card is the high point of the pack. Well, that or discovering they numbered the cards by team in alphabetical order from Atlanta Braves to Toronto Blue Jays.
301 - Andy Benes
312 - Garry Templeton
358 - Roberto Alomar
370 - David Wells (pre-gout)
391 - Barry Bonds (Great Performances)
394 - David Justice (Great Performances)
Aside from the bright colors on the back and the poor man's Leaf look to the cards (and we all know that Leaf is the poor man's Stadium Club), there is little to say about this pack.
Pack 8 - 1988 Score
17 cards, bright colors, no waiting. I think pulling this pack out of the box was the low water mark of opening the box. Not the packs, mind you, but the box. As a child, I opened many boxes of this product at cost. So, it is hard to get excited about a 50 cent pack in your repack box.
Upon opening the pack, I was struck by two things. First, Score also made Sportflics or vice versa, which I only put together again when I saw the offer on the back for young superstars and then saw the "Magic Motion"trivia card contained within. Second, when I opened the pack, I saw the cards were color sorted. And each 110 card sheet was a different color making it appear that instead of mixing all of the cards, they select a certain number of cards from each sheet and add them into the pack. Quite the odd method of collation, but I'm sure 24 years ago, this was a revolutionary sorting practice. Let's break it down by color!
Purple
51 - Doug Drabek (Dented)
69 - Howard Johnson
71 - Keith Moreland
Blue
184 - Danny Darwin
196 - Dan Pasqua
204 - Garth Iorg
Red
234 - Greg Brock
246 - Jimmy Jones
254 - Johnny Ray
Green
383 - Buddy Biancalana
397 - Randy St. Claire
Yellow
450 - Dale Murphy
540 - George Bell
545 - Jack Morris
Orange
642 - Mackey Sasser
644 - Kevin Romine
647 - Ron Gant
And to think, there are still two more packs from this box filled with mystery left to open. Well, not open, that's done, but discuss as rational, like-minded individuals.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
"Listen Mister, No Man Alive Can Throw Harder Than Smokey Joe Wood"
There are a variety of similar quotes attributed to Walter Johnson, part of the lineage of great fireballers, which indicate that Smokey Joe Wood was the hardest thrower of them all. The quotes are similar to the title of this post. Wood was a star of the day and best known for his 1912 season where he went 34-5 and won three additional games in the World Series. Smokey Joe never scaled those heights again after breaking his thumb. However, did reinvent himself as an outfielder for his friend Tris Speaker's Cleveland Indians in the 1920s, showing the breadth of his skills.
Smokey Joe was also the manager of the Yale baseball team and a regular around Fenway Park into his 90s. Given Wood's fame and exceptionally long life, there are countless autographs available from him. However, when it comes to cards from Smokey Joe's career, there are a real dearth of options available to the collector. He did not appear in either the T205 or T206 sets, but did make an appearance in the very drab T207 set, which contain monochrome pictures set against brown backgrounds, the T202 set where he shares a card with Tris Speaker, the National Game set and a few others, such as the E121 from when he transitioned to the outfield in Cleveland.
Since getting back into collecting cards, one of my goals was to acquire a period Smokey Joe Wood card. Given their limited availability and the legend of Smokey Joe Wood, his period cards tend to have a premium of a Joe Jackson or an upper echelon Hall of Famer, since the desire to own a period Smokey Joe is fairly common.
A few weeks back, I was able to bid in an auction for a E91-C Smokey Joe Wood. The E91 series is a set of caramel cards, which have the notable deficiency of using stock pictures with different uniforms. So, Christy Mathewson just might look the same as Joe Wood except for the name on the jersey. This limits their desirability, but makes them more accessible. With a late bid, I was able to win the below card for the price of a blaster. It has an obvious deficiency in the missing lower right hand corner, but it does give me a period Smokey Joe Wood.
Of course, since the picture isn't really him, I am still looking to add a period piece to my collection. As always with card collecting, it is the journey that matters and the journey which never ends.
Smokey Joe was also the manager of the Yale baseball team and a regular around Fenway Park into his 90s. Given Wood's fame and exceptionally long life, there are countless autographs available from him. However, when it comes to cards from Smokey Joe's career, there are a real dearth of options available to the collector. He did not appear in either the T205 or T206 sets, but did make an appearance in the very drab T207 set, which contain monochrome pictures set against brown backgrounds, the T202 set where he shares a card with Tris Speaker, the National Game set and a few others, such as the E121 from when he transitioned to the outfield in Cleveland.
Since getting back into collecting cards, one of my goals was to acquire a period Smokey Joe Wood card. Given their limited availability and the legend of Smokey Joe Wood, his period cards tend to have a premium of a Joe Jackson or an upper echelon Hall of Famer, since the desire to own a period Smokey Joe is fairly common.
A few weeks back, I was able to bid in an auction for a E91-C Smokey Joe Wood. The E91 series is a set of caramel cards, which have the notable deficiency of using stock pictures with different uniforms. So, Christy Mathewson just might look the same as Joe Wood except for the name on the jersey. This limits their desirability, but makes them more accessible. With a late bid, I was able to win the below card for the price of a blaster. It has an obvious deficiency in the missing lower right hand corner, but it does give me a period Smokey Joe Wood.
Of course, since the picture isn't really him, I am still looking to add a period piece to my collection. As always with card collecting, it is the journey that matters and the journey which never ends.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
10 Packs, 12 Dollars, What Could Go Wrong?!?!? (Part 3)
(Now with Part 4 erasing Part 3!!!)
With only four packs left, I am starting to feel that perhaps this was not the wisest purchase I have ever made at a Target. Let's look at two more packs that I've opened and sat on for the last two weeks.
Pack 7 - 1991 Fleer Ultra
Mariners Foil Sticker - Nothing says "premium" cards like the inclusion of a foil sticker. Actually, nothing says Panini baseball stickers like the inclusion of a foil sticker. Let's move on.
28 - Tom Bolton
36 - Tim Naehring
49 - Mark Langston
165 - Mike Morgan
179 - Dan Plesac
233 - Mel Hall
240 - Hensley Meulens - I believe this Bam-Bam card is the high point of the pack. Well, that or discovering they numbered the cards by team in alphabetical order from Atlanta Braves to Toronto Blue Jays.
301 - Andy Benes
312 - Garry Templeton
358 - Roberto Alomar
370 - David Wells (pre-gout)
391 - Barry Bonds (Great Performances)
394 - David Justice (Great Performances)
Aside from the bright colors on the back and the poor man's Leaf look to the cards (and we all know that Leaf is the poor man's Stadium Club), there is little to say about this pack.
Pack 8 - 1988 Score
17 cards, bright colors, no waiting. I think pulling this pack out of the box was the low water mark of opening the box. Not the packs, mind you, but the box. As a child, I opened many boxes of this product at cost. So, it is hard to get excited about a 50 cent pack in your repack box.
Upon opening the pack, I was struck by two things. First, Score also made Sportflics or vice versa, which I only put together again when I saw the offer on the back for young superstars and then saw the "Magic Motion"trivia card contained within. Second, when I opened the pack, I saw the cards were color sorted. And each 110 card sheet was a different color making it appear that instead of mixing all of the cards, they select a certain number of cards from each sheet and add them into the pack. Quite the odd method of collation, but I'm sure 24 years ago, this was a revolutionary sorting practice. Let's break it down by color!
Purple
51 - Doug Drabek (Dented)
69 - Howard Johnson
71 - Keith Moreland
Blue
184 - Danny Darwin
196 - Dan Pasqua
204 - Garth Iorg
Red
234 - Greg Brock
246 - Jimmy Jones
254 - Johnny Ray
Green
383 - Buddy Biancalana
397 - Randy St. Claire
Yellow
450 - Dale Murphy
540 - George Bell
545 - Jack Morris
Orange
642 - Mackey Sasser
644 - Kevin Romine
647 - Ron Gant
And to think, there are still two more packs from this box filled with mystery left to open. Well, not open, that's done, but discuss as rational, like-minded individuals.
With only four packs left, I am starting to feel that perhaps this was not the wisest purchase I have ever made at a Target. Let's look at two more packs that I've opened and sat on for the last two weeks.
Pack 7 - 1991 Fleer Ultra
Mariners Foil Sticker - Nothing says "premium" cards like the inclusion of a foil sticker. Actually, nothing says Panini baseball stickers like the inclusion of a foil sticker. Let's move on.
28 - Tom Bolton
36 - Tim Naehring
49 - Mark Langston
165 - Mike Morgan
179 - Dan Plesac
233 - Mel Hall
240 - Hensley Meulens - I believe this Bam-Bam card is the high point of the pack. Well, that or discovering they numbered the cards by team in alphabetical order from Atlanta Braves to Toronto Blue Jays.
301 - Andy Benes
312 - Garry Templeton
358 - Roberto Alomar
370 - David Wells (pre-gout)
391 - Barry Bonds (Great Performances)
394 - David Justice (Great Performances)
Aside from the bright colors on the back and the poor man's Leaf look to the cards (and we all know that Leaf is the poor man's Stadium Club), there is little to say about this pack.
Pack 8 - 1988 Score
17 cards, bright colors, no waiting. I think pulling this pack out of the box was the low water mark of opening the box. Not the packs, mind you, but the box. As a child, I opened many boxes of this product at cost. So, it is hard to get excited about a 50 cent pack in your repack box.
Upon opening the pack, I was struck by two things. First, Score also made Sportflics or vice versa, which I only put together again when I saw the offer on the back for young superstars and then saw the "Magic Motion"trivia card contained within. Second, when I opened the pack, I saw the cards were color sorted. And each 110 card sheet was a different color making it appear that instead of mixing all of the cards, they select a certain number of cards from each sheet and add them into the pack. Quite the odd method of collation, but I'm sure 24 years ago, this was a revolutionary sorting practice. Let's break it down by color!
Purple
51 - Doug Drabek (Dented)
69 - Howard Johnson
71 - Keith Moreland
Blue
184 - Danny Darwin
196 - Dan Pasqua
204 - Garth Iorg
Red
234 - Greg Brock
246 - Jimmy Jones
254 - Johnny Ray
Green
383 - Buddy Biancalana
397 - Randy St. Claire
Yellow
450 - Dale Murphy
540 - George Bell
545 - Jack Morris
Orange
642 - Mackey Sasser
644 - Kevin Romine
647 - Ron Gant
And to think, there are still two more packs from this box filled with mystery left to open. Well, not open, that's done, but discuss as rational, like-minded individuals.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
2012 Leaf Memories or How Much Did I Pay for Leaf to Put Two Foil Stamps on a Common
Nothing says sportscards quite like someone purchasing previously sold cards which have limited value, buying them in bulk, putting a stamp on them and charging 50 times the price they paid. Especially, since by doing so, they can skirt the issue of being able to place cards with Major League team logos without a Major League license. So, let's talk about 2012 Leaf Memories.
1990 Leaf is an enduring design, primarily for being one of the first high-end challengers to Upper Deck. It also rebranded Leaf from Canadian Donruss to a brand of its own. The set features higher-quality cardboard and metallic coloring and is far from the worst design of the era. Of course, avoiding bright yellow or mixing two off contrasting colors is usually enough to save you from that fate.
Obviously, with 22 years having passed, it is the perfect time to honor the memory of 1990 Leaf. Not caring about most non-Topps releases (and most Topps releases for that matter), I was blissfully unaware of this set, until The Daily Dimwit showed off his new Astros from 2012 Leaf Memories. Is that a new Mike Scott card? Limited to 20? To eBay!!!!!
I quickly find the above card with no problem, which represents 5% of the stamp run. So, basically, I was willing to pay $5 for a card, which is exactly the same as one I own, that I can get for less than $1 shipped. When you stop and think about that, you say, "Are you crazy, it's foil stamping, with no additional image?" Of course, the player collector in me checks it off the list and moves on without a care in the world.
Except the care of an autographed version of the card! Searching Mike Scott Leaf led me to the autographed version as well. An autographed version! Two Mike Scott autographed cards in one year. And limited to only 33 copies!!! To the bidding.
I actually lost the first two cards I bid on. One for less than I paid for this and one for the same price. After losing the second card, I made an offer on a third for the same bid price as the last card, but with free shipping. Fortunately, the seller accepted and I was only tied to one-eleventh of the print run on eBay.
With this out of the way, I can safely feel I found all of the Mike Scott cards I needed for the year. There is the Leaf History Cut Signature set, but somehow purchasing a piece of paper Mike Scott signed in a fancy holder holds no appeal for me, especially given the whole, Mike Scott is alive and signing autographs thing. But to each his or her own.
1990 Leaf is an enduring design, primarily for being one of the first high-end challengers to Upper Deck. It also rebranded Leaf from Canadian Donruss to a brand of its own. The set features higher-quality cardboard and metallic coloring and is far from the worst design of the era. Of course, avoiding bright yellow or mixing two off contrasting colors is usually enough to save you from that fate.
Obviously, with 22 years having passed, it is the perfect time to honor the memory of 1990 Leaf. Not caring about most non-Topps releases (and most Topps releases for that matter), I was blissfully unaware of this set, until The Daily Dimwit showed off his new Astros from 2012 Leaf Memories. Is that a new Mike Scott card? Limited to 20? To eBay!!!!!
I quickly find the above card with no problem, which represents 5% of the stamp run. So, basically, I was willing to pay $5 for a card, which is exactly the same as one I own, that I can get for less than $1 shipped. When you stop and think about that, you say, "Are you crazy, it's foil stamping, with no additional image?" Of course, the player collector in me checks it off the list and moves on without a care in the world.
Except the care of an autographed version of the card! Searching Mike Scott Leaf led me to the autographed version as well. An autographed version! Two Mike Scott autographed cards in one year. And limited to only 33 copies!!! To the bidding.
I actually lost the first two cards I bid on. One for less than I paid for this and one for the same price. After losing the second card, I made an offer on a third for the same bid price as the last card, but with free shipping. Fortunately, the seller accepted and I was only tied to one-eleventh of the print run on eBay.
With this out of the way, I can safely feel I found all of the Mike Scott cards I needed for the year. There is the Leaf History Cut Signature set, but somehow purchasing a piece of paper Mike Scott signed in a fancy holder holds no appeal for me, especially given the whole, Mike Scott is alive and signing autographs thing. But to each his or her own.
Friday, January 11, 2013
1973 Topps Ron Cey Rookie Card
If you bid on a card enough times, eventually one of them arrives at your doorstep. You bid, you get outbid, you lose interest, you come back, you bid on another, so on and so forth.
With the Ron Cey/Mike Schmidt rookie card, it was always a matter of time and a matter of saying, this will cost more than a blaster. In fact, I think it costs more than any other 10 cards I've bought for this set, possibly 20, since I ended up getting good deals on 1973 Topps cards throughout the last two years. The key is to purchase large lots with stars, which is how I ended up with a couple of really cheap Ryans and other fine stars.
The downside to purchasing the rookie card of the best third baseman of all time is that I am out of excuses for not finishing my 1973 Topps set this year. There are no difficult cards stopping me from finishing the set. No extravagant purchases left. While there is a Ruth and a Phillies team card with Mike Schmidt from the high numbers, there are no stars to stop me. I have to go to shows, search on eBay and find the last 34 cards to finish the set.
So, by year's end, the set will be completed. The pages full of cards and images of ballplayers from years gone by. The album bursting with cardboard, ready to sit next to the other album of 100 year old flag cards will be full and put away, with I satisfied in the knowledge that I've put another set to bed.
With the Ron Cey/Mike Schmidt rookie card, it was always a matter of time and a matter of saying, this will cost more than a blaster. In fact, I think it costs more than any other 10 cards I've bought for this set, possibly 20, since I ended up getting good deals on 1973 Topps cards throughout the last two years. The key is to purchase large lots with stars, which is how I ended up with a couple of really cheap Ryans and other fine stars.
The downside to purchasing the rookie card of the best third baseman of all time is that I am out of excuses for not finishing my 1973 Topps set this year. There are no difficult cards stopping me from finishing the set. No extravagant purchases left. While there is a Ruth and a Phillies team card with Mike Schmidt from the high numbers, there are no stars to stop me. I have to go to shows, search on eBay and find the last 34 cards to finish the set.
So, by year's end, the set will be completed. The pages full of cards and images of ballplayers from years gone by. The album bursting with cardboard, ready to sit next to the other album of 100 year old flag cards will be full and put away, with I satisfied in the knowledge that I've put another set to bed.
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