Signature Sundays - Brooks Robinson

It's Robinsons weekend here at Shoebox Legends I guess, with a sweet vintage Jackie yesterday and a nice Brooks autograph today!

This one's from the 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes release, a set I really enjoy due to the fact that the design is inspired by those early '90s Upper Deck Heroes baseball inserts (Ryan, Aaron, Williams, et al) that I clamored for as a kid.

Each of the twenty players on the autograph checklist in Upper Deck's 2005 release has five different cards, four in that classic vertically-oriented Heroes design (seen here), and one landscape-oriented painted card like this one.  All of the autographed cards in this release are hard-signed too, no stickers here.  These legendary athletes held the cards in hand while signing.

I used to search these particular autographs out much more vigorously than I do these days, but if I see the right opportunity I'm always up for adding one to my collection.  This is my first Brooks Robinson autograph from the release, and my 17th Emerald Autograph (#'d /99) overall.  It's unlikely that I'll ever complete this set given the amount of money I'd have to throw at the remaining 80+ cards, so I just enjoy and appreciate what comes my way.

Here's a look at the back, pretty standard fare indicating that the cards were sent to Brooks, autographed by him, then returned to Upper Deck.  You don't buy these cards for the backs, though.

Always liked Brooks' big, loopy signature, and this is a fantastic, clean example. 

Brooks was actually featured once in a Signature Sundays post here on the blog many years ago now.  I think I may prefer that Gypsy Queen auto over the Heroes one I featured today, but this one's no slouch either.  My instinct is to sell one since I've been in purge mode, but for now I think I'll keep both.  Having two Brooks Robinson autographs is a nice problem to have after all.

Thanks as always for stopping by.  I've got plenty of other great autographs stockpiled here at Shoebox Legends World Headquarters, so expect more Signature Sundays posts over the summer here!

Cardboard Keepers - Another Hard-to-Believe eBay Flip Lands Me a Legend!

Time for the next installment of "Cardboard Keepers", a thought experiment where I theoretically whittle my entire collection down to just 2,000 cards; 1,000 baseball keepers and 1,000 other keepers.

Today's keeper card comes courtesy of a recent eBay flip.  I've been on a pretty incredible run of these in the past couple of months.  I guess my timing for thinning out my collection and selling some unwanted items matched up nicely with the insane recent rise in the sports card market.  So far this year I've:

• Flipped nearly three dozen graded cards into a beautiful Jordan RC
• Flipped a single modern soccer card for five stunning HOFers

Today's flip is more in line with the Jordan RC, in that it was a many-to-one flip in terms of number of cards coming and going.  Flipping a bunch of smaller cards into one bigger, more valuable card is actually my favorite method, since it's in line with my goal of reducing the overall size of my collection.

So, what did I part with to raise the funds?

For starters, a lot of 26 1995-96 Topps Finest hockey refractors.  This was every single bronze (the most common, though still rare) refractor that I'd accumulated over a period of years.  Most were had on COMC for a buck or less, but a couple (like the Jagr and Lemieux) were a few bucks on eBay.  There's a very good reason that I didn't mind parting with these, and in fact had been meaning to for some time, but that's a post for another day.

After a bit of back and forth with the eventual buyer, I let the lot go for $95.  This was a fair price for both of us, and I'm certain it's more than I paid for these individually over the years.  The buyer is working on a complete set and was so excited to land this many at once, and I was about halfway to raising the funds for the dream card I was targeting.  A win/win!

Next up, a '52 Bowman Bob Feller.  I had to think long and hard about this one, given that I have a long term passive goal of completing the 1952 Bowman set.  The thing is, though it's not that easy to tell in the scan, this card has a yellowed tint to the front that makes it stand out noticeably when viewed alongside the couple of dozen other singles I have from this set.  Enough so that it always drove my OCD a little nuts, and thus Bob Feller was left on the proverbial cutting room floor as far as my purging goes.

This is a card I absolutely intend to pick up another copy of someday, when the time is right and the right deal comes along.  For now, I was happy to collect $75 for it, a deal that again I think was fair for both parties.

Finally, I sold this very shiny Jimmy G rookie card for $35.  It doesn't mean much to me as a Pats fan since Garoppolo plays for San Francisco these days, and it was an easy choice to part with for that reason.  I got $35 for it, which truthfully is probably right around or even slightly less than what I paid for it when I picked it up.

I was excited to let it go, because when the funds from those three sales came through I had what I needed in my Paypal account, and sprung into action!

With just a few clicks of a mouse, a card I've drooled over for pretty much decades now was finally mine.

Check it out!

Ain't she a beauty?  I had this absolutely stellar looking '55 Robinson in my eBay watchlist for weeks before pulling the trigger, hoping the entire time that nobody would grab it before I had a chance.  It's graded a 3.5 "VG+" by PSA, but I can tell you from looking at many, many examples of this card over that period of weeks that this is one of the nicer looking examples in terms of overall presentation that I could find at this grade/price point, and even a couple grades above this quite honestly.

Here's a better look, taken with my iPhone since my scanner tends to wash out PSA slabbed cards a bit.  If you click the image for a larger version you may be able to tell that the top right corner has a ding, which I'm assuming is why this card was graded as low as it was.

To me, it's an absolute stunner.  Good centering, not perfect but good, and just a clean, vibrant front.  Those colors are absolutely popping off the card even 60+ years after it was produced.  No surface creases, "snow" over Jackie's face, or any other detractors like that.  Not that I even mind that type of stuff when it comes to cards like this, but this example doesn't seem to summer from any of that.

This card makes me smile every time I hold it in hand and look at it.  I don't miss that Bowman Feller much now!

Here's the back, a little off center but perfectly clean.  Like the front, colorful and vibrant.  Even if I am fortunate enough to collect for many decades to come, I will never, ever have to upgrade or replace this Jackie!

Well, that's the story of how I acquired the first playing-era Jackie Robinson to officially enter my collection.  To be able to do so using cards I already had laying around and wasn't totally appreciating makes the experience even better. Cleared out two graded cards, and a couple dozen more in toploaders, and brought in a single stunner in return.  More space freed up in my card room, and a card I've always dreamed of owning in had, now that's how I like to collect!

That's 36 cards down in the baseball Cardboard Keepers collection altogether now, 964 to go.  You can see the virtual album here if you're interested.  As you can see in the snippet above, it's starting to look pretty impressive thanks to all this eBay flipping.

I'll be back with more keepers soon, in the meantime thanks as always for stopping by...

Hobby Goings On

Taking it easy today on the posting front with just some random happenings from the past few days as far as my collection is concerned. 

First up, I processed a big lot of these Red & Blue Wave parallels from the 2018 Panini Prizm World Cup set and added them to my collection proper.  The highlight of the lot was the Ronaldo above.  I'm up to 123 of these parallels now after entering in the lot, close to 50% of an entire set.  I've got a slightly smaller lot of Green & Orange Wave parallels to enter next, then I can start evaluating where I'm at with my goal of forming an overall "parallel franken-set" of this 300-card release!

While we're on the topic of really cool parallels, here's one that recently arrived in the mailbox courtesy of eBay.  Upper Deck did "Electric Ice" parallels for a couple of their flagship hockey sets in the mid-'90s.  In the 1995-96 release they took the rarity to another level and also included these "Electric Ice Gold" parallels, which fell just one per box.

I gladly scooped up this Sean Burke for my Whalers collection at under $3 with free shipping.  A team set of these is a tall order based on rarity, but doable.

This was such an awesome set design-wise that I feel compelled to show the back as well.

Speaking of my Whalers collection, while continuing on my ongoing purge I finally tackled a 5-row monster box on the floor next to my desk that I believed to contain duplicates only.  Imagine my surprise when I came across a stack of Whalers cards that I'd seemingly never scanned and inventoried!

The stack was a few dozen cards thick, and as I started comparing them against my inventory on The Trading Card Database, I realized I needed just about every one of them.

When the dust settled I'd added no fewer than forty new Whalers cards to my official collection!  This was the largest single jump for me on that front in quite a while, and motivates me to really try at the goal I threw out at the beginning of the year to accumulate 2,000 Whalers cards by December 31st.

I'm still more than 200 shy of that even after adding these to my tally, but I have quite a bit of that 5-row monster box still to process in my purge.  I have a feeling there could be another stack or two like this one, if I'm lucky.

Obviously I'm not going to show all forty of the new Whalers cards in this post, but selected a few favorites like this '89-90 Scoring Leaders Ron Francis.

This one's pretty cool, from the 1989-90 O-Pee-Chee Stickers set.  First one of these in my formal collection!  Awesome brown pads on Peter Sidorkiewicz there.  I wish I had a second copy of this so I could peel it and stick it to the outside of the shoebox where I keep my Whalers collection.

One of the highlights of the find was definitely this 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee John Garrett.  This plugs a hole in my Whalers team set from the greatest flagship hockey set ever made.  I have the entire Topps set, and it looks like I'm missing only Mark Howe to knock the O-Pee-Chee version out now.  There's a card I'll need to seek out very soon.

I chose this '94-95 Leaf card just because Geoff Sanderson's facial expression is so serious.  Lighten up Geoff, it's a game.

Strong mullet game from Pat Verbeek on his '94-95 Ultra card.

Not a bad grouping there, felt great adding a chunk of Whalers in one fell swoop like that.

Here's another over-sized Helmar Polar Night card.  This one features Charlie Ganzel of the Detroit Wolverines.  I love the stockings, uniform, cap, floating ball, all of it.  Just a really cool and visually attractive card of a guy who'd almost certainly be missing from my collection otherwise.  That pretty much sums up the beauty of Helmar in my opinion; affordable cards of guys whose playing-era cards are astronomically priced, if they exist at all.

Well, that's a wrap for now.  Thanks as always for stopping by, and check back soon for the results of another hard-to-believe eBay flip!

Buyback Franken-set: This Guy Really WAS Everywhere

Today's Buyback Franken-set contestant is inspired by a great post over at Night Owl Cards, where Greg explored how prevalent Bert Campaneris was on Topps baseball cards during his career.

1966 Topps #175 - Bert Campaneris

Can we include my Buyback Franken-set though in terms of places where Bert Campaneris resides?  I'd sure like to think so, as this 1966 buyback is a real beauty.  This card actually did not make an appearance in Night Owl's post, but many other cards showing Bert in the act of bunting sure did.  Just a great shot of Campaneris on this card, those '60s A's uniforms were fantastic.

Nice clean back too, with a cartoon that references Bert pacing the AL in stolen bases in '65 (a feat he'd accomplish again in '66, and then two more seasons in a row after that!).

So, does this make the binder?

Well, I had this '78 Jerry Morales in slot 175.

I say "had" because he was vacated in favor of Campaneris immediately.  Not exactly a nail-biting call there.

So I concur, this guy really was everywhere.  And now he's in my Buyback Franken-set as well!

Franken-set Progress: 672/792 (84%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 134/792 (16%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 711
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,517

Trading Card Challenge - A Cool Recent Photo

I decided to take Tim B of "Cardpocalypse" up on his 7-post Trading Card Challenge, first posted about a week ago now.  Seemed like a fun way to explore my collection and generate a few blog posts at the same time.  So far I've completed:

Challenge #1 - My Favorite Card Acquired in Quarantine

Yep, that's it.  What can I say, I'm a little slow.  Today we'll tackle the second part of the challenge, which is to spotlight a card from the current release year (any sport) with a unique photograph.

In looking at Tim's list initially, I knew that this particular post would probably be the most challenging of the seven for me.  The reason I say that is because I just don't really buy new cards.  I couldn't tell you the last time I picked up a blaster, or even a stray pack, of new product, even before the pandemic.  Pickings were going to be slim here, and I was unsure whether I even had one good candidate to be honest.

For example, in my organized and cataloged collection I have just six total football cards, three total hockey cards, and one single soccer card as far as current-year releases go.  Basketball and non-sports?  Nothing at all.  So, that left baseball.  Even there I'm admittedly thin, with just two dozen 2020 cards to choose from, nearly all if not all of which came in trade packages.

Thankfully there was one card among those 24 that stood out and qualified as having a unique photo.  Therefore, by process of elimination alone, I have my response for the second post in this series...

This great Opening Day 'Spring has Sprung' insert came my way courtesy of reader Travis and his son Dan.  I absolutely love the low-angle shot here of Rafael Devers and a couple of teammates sitting on baseball buckets sharing a joke at a Spring Training facility.

The photo itself is unique and awesome, which is why it's today's featured card, but I also dig the design of the set with a sort of retro/60s type feel to it.  Of the very limited number of current-year cards that I have, this one is my clear cut favorite.

So, that's a wrap for the second post in this series.  I'll be back soon to tackle the next one, my favorite football card.  Pickings will be kind of slim there also, but I think I have one in mind.  Until then, thanks as always for stopping by!

I Sold My 1953 Topps Cards! Part 4 - '71s

Last October, I made the difficult decision to sell off my 1953 Topps graded set, which was over 100 cards in size.  While I held onto the Red Sox and select other singles, I parted with over 100 PSA 6 '53s in the sale.  I netted $1,750 for the lot, which is by far the most I've ever made in a single card sale in my time in the hobby.  I decided to save/invest $1,000 of the proceeds, and spend the remaining $750 on some cool replacement cards for my collection.

In the first post in this series I covered the sale.  In the second post, I started sharing my pick-ups with the resulting windfall in the form of 16 1953 Topps cards from COMC to re-initiate my set build in raw format.  In the third post in the series, I picked up another 33 raw '53 Topps cards courtesy of eBay.  So at this stage I'd spent $138.20 and acquired 49 1953 Topps cards, nearly half as many as I'd sold off in the first place and still with over $600 in play money left to spend.

For the next installment in the series, I decided to chase a few 1971 Topps HOFers.  Not sure why I had this thought at the time, maybe it was knowing that 2020 was 1971's year for Topps Heritage.  Anyway, after picking up the Nolan Ryan from the set in a nice-looking PSA 4 a while back, I was hoping to find some companions for Nolan in the same grade.  The 1971 black borders are notoriously tough, so I just wanted my cards to look presentable, and was more concerned with authenticity and frugality than with perfection.

In the end I netted an additional six players with plaques in Cooperstown (mostly) from the iconic set...

First up, the three pitchers, starting with Catfish Hunter.  This is a great example of how going for a visually-appealing lower grade is very budget friendly, as I paid just $7 for this card.  1971 was Hunter's first 20-win season, and it began a stretch of five consecutive years where he'd reach that plateau (while also capturing three World Series titles!).

Next up, the great Steve Carlton!  Coincidentally, Steve first hit the 20-win mark in 1971 as well.  The following year he'd win his first of four NL Cy Young Awards.  Amazingly, this card was had for $6.99, a penny cheaper than the Catfish Hunter even.  As you can see, I went for some low-hanging fruit at first as far as HOFers from this release go.

Closing out the starting pitcher portion of my pick-ups is Juan Marichal.  This was actually the cheapest of the three, picked up on COMC for just $5.80 last November.  Unlike the first two hurlers, Juan's 20-win seasons were behind him by this point.  You could argue that 1971 was his last great season actually, as he still logged 279 innings, 18 wins, and posted an ERA below 3.00.

Moving on to our trio of offensive players now, beginning with the Human Vacuum Cleaner himself, Brooks Robinson.  I always liked the image of Brooks that Topps chose for this set.  Even though it looks like he may have just swung and missed, it's a great shot nonetheless.

I always get a kick out of Brooks' "small visor" batting helmet.  In fact, I just watched the 1971 Topps All-Star game the other day (with no new sports I've been enjoying throwback games on occasion) and commented about how Brooks' helmet reminded me of this card.  $6.57 for a card I've desired for years now, not too bad!

Alright, so one of the six cards I picked up is a subject who is not enshrined.  I am of the opinion that Rose should be allowed in, though unfortunately it does not look like that will happen before he passes away.  In any event, I wanted to pick up the hit king's card for my '71 collection regardless of his HOF status.  This card was more expensive than the first three combined, at $23 even.

Finally, the card I was most excited about from this small grouping...

...my newest playing-era Clemente!  I aspire to one day own the entirety of Topps' flagship Clemente card run, from his 1955 RC through his 1973 issue.  For $26 I crossed another card off that list here.  This one is a relatively high number, and like the other cards in today's post is all I could ever ask for as far as condition goes from this set.

Just a classic shot of Clemente and his bat barrel, simply fantastic.  As far as pure aesthetics of the photograph goes, I prefer this one over the other two flagship Topps Clemente cards in my collection so far ('61 and '69).  For just a bit more than a blaster would set me back, I can't believe it took me this many years to track one of these down.  A satisfying purchase with my '53 Topps funds, indeed!

Put together with the Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron and Frank Robinson cards that I already had from this release, I'm on the cusp of hitting double digits in my quest for the HOFers from the set now!  Running total for these six cards was $75.36.  I'll certainly keep my eye out for opportunities to continue with this '71 HOFers/stars quest in the coming months.

1953 Topps Sale Breakdown

$1,000.00 - Invested/Saved
$138.20 - 49 1953 Topps Singles
$75.36 - 6 1971 Topps Singles

Remaining Funds:  $536.44

Buyback Franken-set: Burlap!

Today's Buyback Franken-set post is all about the burlap, with all ten contenders coming from the 1968 Topps release.  I seem to be gravitating towards this set by coincidence lately, having featured an awesome Clemente buyback from the release, then landing the Mantle in a recent card flip.

Figured I'd keep the '68 momentum going and see if we can't induct a couple cards into the Buyback Franken-set.  Let's get to it!

1968 Topps #244 - John Donaldson

The blacked out cap on John Donaldson's card is extra jarring when viewed against the backdrop of those bright red bleachers.  Had Topps just left the hat as it was, and maybe cropped out a bit wider to get more of that fantastic glove that's barely in the frame at right, they'd have had a really nice card.  As it is, not too aesthetically pleasing if you ask me.

Unfortunately for Donaldson, he also gets pitted against the 1979 "We Are Family" World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates team card as far as the franken-set binder goes.

Ouch!

1968 Topps #264 - Ted Abernathy

Ah, much better.  Ted Abernathy is properly cropped, has a nice stadium backdrop, and has not been airbrushed or painted over in any way.  Ted appeared in an astounding 78 games for the Reds in '68, good for tops in the National League!

Oh man, the '79 Pirates again!  That uniform and hat combo is just awesome.  The "Caveman" was coming off a hot rookie season in 1978 when this card was printed up, and would win a World Series with Pittsburgh later that same year.

Abernathy loses in a close one.  Influencing my decision here is the fact that I already have another 1968 Topps buyback on this particular page of the binder, so the '79 Don Robinson preserves some better variety on the page aside from being a great card in its own rite.

1968 Topps #49 - Ed Brinkman

Next up, Senators shortstop Ed Brinkman, who seems to have suffered from some registration issues during the printing process.  A nice card, although again cropped somewhat oddly.  At such a low number, of course Ed's got some competition when it comes to induction into the set...

Generally speaking, I prefer the 1973 Topps set to their 1968 effort.  The thing is, with all other things being equal, I prefer the look of having all vertically-oriented cards on a page if possible.  This horizontal Twins coaches card just kinda throws off the vibe of the page it's on.

Brinkman fights his way into the binder!

1968 Topps #108 - Don Pavletich

Don Pavletich, backstop for the Reds, is next.  Again, I have to question the cropping here by Topps.  Maybe there's some reasoning that I'm missing and someone will enlighten me in the comments, but the choices on a lot of these just seem strange to me.  Why wouldn't you include Don's left hand and the bat knob here?  What gives, Topps?

Rough match-up for Pavletich, with an early-career buyback of current Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez currently occupying slot 108.

Easy choice there, will take something nicer than this '68 to bump J.D. from the binder.

1968 Topps #62 - Chuck Dobson

Is it possible that this is the most boring card in the entire 1968 Topps set?  Well, you could make an argument for it, but I have a feeling there are much worse hat-less photographs than this one.  Either way, I'm not a huge fan of this card.  Pretty much any existing card in the franken-set will successfully defend its slot against Chuck here...

Certainly this beautiful 1965 Jim Katt (should be Kaat) has what it takes.  This buyback has been fairly well entrenched in the binder for some time now, and rightfully so.  Look at that smile!

Dobson never stood a chance.

1968 Topps #498 - Bill Bryan

And immediately my hypothesis that there are more boring cards than that Chuck Dobson in the '68 set is proven correct.  Easily the most bland and unattractive baseball card in today's post.  I'm almost hoping that I already have a buyback in slot 498 just so that I don't have to include this in the franken-set, even briefly.

Yep, already have slot 498 occupied.

Another easy call.

1968 Topps #66 - Casey Cox

A much nicer looking Casey Cox here, vying for slot 66.  Again, why cut off the edge of his glove?  I'm a fan of franchises of the past, and this card provides an awesome look at the Senators uniform of the time.  This is the third '68 Senators buyback in this post alone.  Without any real superstars on their roster, I should see how many more I can track down towards a team set maybe.  That would be pretty cool.

I'd love to induct that Casey Cox card, but this Cuno Barragon is already in slot 66 and is one of my under-rated favorite buybacks in the entire binder.  You just don't see many 1962 buybacks, and I love the photograph on this one, particularly all of the dents from baseballs having hit the wall behind Barragon over the years!

Tough loss there for Casey Cox.

1968 Topps #286 - Cecil Upshaw

The prize for most off-centered of all the buybacks in today's post goes to Cecil Upshaw of the Braves.  It's so bad that there really isn't even a thin strip of burlap on the right there.  If you collect buybacks though, you can't really be concerned with condition, so I didn't hesitate to pick this one up for pocket change on COMC.

1974 Tony Muser stands in Cecil's path.  With no real attachment to either buyback, I don't see a need to oust Muser in favor of the off-centered Upshaw.

This one was also a victim to the fact that I've already got two other burlap '68s on this particular page of the binder.

1968 Topps #71 - Vern Fuller

Vern Fuller looks...uncomfortable?...on his '68 issue here.  A great look at a really vibrant red Indians uniform though, and a much better job of cropping on Topps' part, makes for an overall attractive card.  I'd actually be fairly happy welcoming this one to the binder, but...

...1973 Johnny Briggs doesn't look like he's about to let that happen, does he?

Nope.  Actually a tough choice with this one, I would have been happy with either candidate.

1968 Topps #413 - Tommy McCraw

Closing out today's proceedings we have first baseman Tommy McCraw of the ChiSox.  A nice enough posed photograph of a smiling McCraw.  I don't know much about Tommy as a player, but aesthetically speaking this card's a winner.

Ordinarily a Seattle Pilots buyback would wipe the floor with that Tommy McCraw, but...

...that hat!  Ugh.  Still happy to have any Pilots buybacks that I can get my hands on, but this one belongs in the rejected box, not the franken-set binder.

Well, we didn't get any new numbers among today's ten contestants, but a few of them did at least move into the binder strengthening the overall set.  Still stuck at 84% complete, maybe I'll have better luck on that front next time.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

Franken-set Progress: 672/792 (84%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 134/792 (16%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 710
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,516