Sunday Vintage

I'm not big on dressing up for Halloween, but my fiance and most of her friends are, so I reluctantly attended a "costume required" party last night dressed as a fully functional keg. Needless to say I'm nursing a severe hangover this morning. The Patriots also have their bye week, so it's shaping up to be a nice lazy Sunday.

I'm a little low on energy, but I kind of mailed it in this week (one 3-word post, come on!) and wanted to get a post in to start November right. So, here are the results of a recent hobby shop run. A few weeks ago I found myself with a free weekday, which doesn't happen very often. I'd been wanting to check out a hobby shop in Connecticut that I remembered going to when I was a kid with my Dad and brothers. It turns out the place was still open but had moved to a different location one town over. I found the shop pretty easily and walked in with $20 in my pocket to see what I could find.

The store was pretty disappointing to be honest. There was virtually no hockey (not that I expected much). A lot of what the guy was selling were modern baseball and football wax boxes, but at about 20 - 30% more than you would pay online. These shop owners don't do themselves a lot of favors. I go out of my way to try to support local hobby shops, but it's very difficult to justify the added expense. Let me see, should I buy a pack of Goodwin Champions for $5.50 or maybe an Allen & Ginter pack for $6? No thanks.

There was one thing that caught my eye though, a 1600 count box full of 70's cards in penny sleeves. There were some commons, but actually a lot of stars as well, and most of the cards were in decent shape. Here's what I got. The first 5 cards were $1 each...

1974 Topps #306 - Earl Weaver (Manager) - OK, so maybe you think $1 is too much to pay for this card, but pickings were slim at this shop. Besides, Weaver's managerial skills got him a spot in Cooperstown, his number is retired by the Baltimore Orioles, and this is only the second Weaver card in my collection.

1972 Topps #169 - Vida Blue - You'd think Vida would look happier here, coming off of a 1971 season in which he went 24-8 and won Cy Young and MVP awards at age 22. Although his career numbers will never get him into the Hall of Fame, he had some of the most dominant stuff in his era, and his 2,175 career strikeouts are good for 53rd all-time.

1975 Topps #530 - Gaylord Perry - "Spitball" Perry was a no-brainer for $1. I'm ashamed to admit that this is only the 7th 1975 Topps card in my collection. If anyone's got any doubles or extras looking for a home I'd love to trade!

1972 Topps #250 - Boog Powell - Another Baltimore favorite and another 1972 Topps card I needed. The pose makes Boog's bat look incredibly small doesn't it?

1974 Topps #634 - Eddie Mathews (Manager) - I know it's a manager card, but to grab an older card of a member of the 500 home run club for a buck seemed like a good deal. Eddie still looks like he could pick up a bat and step into the box. This was the final $1 card, I paid $2 for the next 4...

1972 Topps #241 - Rollie Fingers - This is before Rollie took the hair from between his eyebrows and planted it below his nose where it would eventually become one of the most fabulous mustaches in baseball.

1974 Topps #201 - Carew/Rose - Batting Leaders - You can't go wrong with Rod Carew and Pete Rose on the same card. These guys each had over 200 hits in 1973, with Rose coming in at 230!

1974 Topps #212 - Rollie Fingers - Another Fingers card. This is one of those players I don't actively collect, but will always pick up when I stumble across them.

1972 Topps #93 - Jenkins/Carlton/Downing/Seaver - NL Pitching Leaders - This is probably my favorite card out of the bunch. Three Hall-of-Fame Cy Young winners and the guy who surrendered Aaron's 715th home run all on one card! It goes nicely with the AL Home Run Leaders card I got a while back.

1972 Topps #38 - Carl Yastrzemski - This is one of two cards I ponied up and paid $3 for. This one was a definite as I'm a huge fan of the In Action cards, and I already have Yaz's regular card from the set. Here's the other $3 card...

1971 Topps #65 - Howard/Killebrew/Yastrzemski - AL Home Run Leaders - I'm a sucker for league leader cards. I would've purchased this one based on Yaz alone, but having Hondo and Killebrew on there just put it over the top.

Not a bad haul for $19 in my opinion. OK, I'm going back to bed...