Out with the New, In with the Old - Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack!

Under the title "Out with the New, In with the Old", I've posted a few times about selling off some modern cards that don't really fit my collection and using the proceeds for some vintage greatness.  Well a couple of months ago I decided to make a play at a card that I've been drooling over for quite sometime.  The card cost more than my self-imposed card budget for an entire month, so I decided to test the waters with some eBay sales in a fundraising campaign.  I gave up quite a bit to come up with the required funds, including...

Yes, I parted with my Tyler Seguin Young Guns rookie.  I felt sort of obligated to get a copy of this card given all the hype when Tyler was first drafted, but I have to admit the novelty wore off pretty quickly.  I've thought about ditching it numerous times even when he was still with Boston, so once he went to Dallas I knew it was time to let this one go...

I also figured it was a good time to let my Bobby Ryan Young Guns rookie go, while the excitement of his migration to Ottawa was still in the air.  Apparently my instincts were correct, as this card surprisingly netted me north of $20.

Not all of my auctions did so well.  These two batches of 1970 Topps, in pretty good shape...

...brought home just 99 cents each.  A set builder somewhere out there got a good deal with these.

I finally purged out a few scrub autos that came in a lot with some Hartford Whalers autos a long time ago.  I've been staring at them for what seems like forever so it felt good mailing these out, especially with a profit made.

I was a bit reluctant to let this Feller autograph go, but I've got a few of Bob's autographed cards, including some I like better than this one.

Ditto.  Once I obtained an on-card Goudey auto of Rollie Fingers this one became expendable.

To my surprise, someone actually paid $1 plus a couple bucks shipping for this basic Matt Kemp RC.  I had listed it figuring someone would grab it for a buck for the combined shipping if they were already purchasing something else, but it didn't play out that way.

I also purged out a large stack of no-name Young Guns rookies from various years...

...and some Topps Heritage yellow name/yellow team name short prints...

...a lot of Turkey Red #'d refractors...

Here are some more of the common Young Guns rookies...

My pursuit of 2012-13 Panini Classics Signatures autographs left me with an extra Sean Burke, so off to eBay it went.

I had an entire spare Red Sox team set from the dreaded Topps Heritage High Numbers set.  I was surprised to get close to $10 for this.

I also sold a large lot of insert and parallel and star cards, all New York Yankees, I think close to 100 in all.

Well, that was certainly a large haul of cards to part with for just a single card in return.  It was a good feeling mailing out a huge stack of unwanted cardboard though.  Besides, I think the trade-off was well worth it.

So, what was the one card I wanted to have so badly?

It's a really old one, in fact it's now my oldest baseball card.

I have always wanted just one card from this set.  Any card would have been fine, but making this one even greater is the fact that it's a Red Sox card.  You've waited long enough if you've read to this point, behold!

Holy freakin' crap!  I have had this card for around three weeks now, maybe slightly more, and I still can't believe I actually own it.  This is by far the greatest vintage baseball card I own.  The fact that Cracker Jack is so intimately tied to the game of baseball makes this set really unique, and the design is just plain classic.

There are a few Red Sox players on the checklist, but what sold me on this particular card is the awesome, prominent, old-school Sox uniform.  A good deal of the cards from this set feature closely cropped portraits of the players' shoulders and head, sometimes wearing a cap, sometimes not.  Most of the uniforms and hats of the era were very subtle if not completely devoid of logos, so even the cards where you can see more of the player can be relatively bland.  The end result is that for most of the cards in the set, if you covered up the team name on the bottom it would be a challenge to say the least to identify.  Not Heinie Wagner though, the blazing red "Red Sox" on his uniform can't be missed, and matches the background color of this set perfectly.

Here's a better look at the front in larger scale.  I'll save you a complete and thorough summary of Wagner's life and career, but if you're interested in that sort of thing I highly recommend this write-up over at SABR, which is maybe a 10-15 minute read.  Here are just a few reasons why this card rules.  Charles, aka Heinie:

• Was born in the 1800s.
• Had a reputation for fighting early in his career and was once arrested for punching an umpire in the face.
• Was team captain for the very first game ever played in Fenway Park in 1912.  Had a hit and a stolen base.
• Was a key player when the team won the World Series that very same 1912 season.  In game 8!  In extra innings.  Against Christy Mathewson.
• Was Babe Ruth's "adult babysitter" during his early career.
• Was a member of four World Series champion Red Sox teams.

Here's a look at the back.  Yup, they're upside down.

That's better.  You can click the scan for a larger version if the print's too small to make out.  I love that the bottom is labeled Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein, which was the name of the company at the time (later changed to The Cracker Jack Company in 1922).

Well, I certainly need to do this again.  Time to start rounding up some more cards to sell...

Out With The New, In With The Old - Ryne Sandberg Edition

This past year I started a new, recurring series of posts called "Out With The New, In With The Old". Basically, whenever I end up with a somewhat valuable modern card that I'm not interested in keeping, I flip it and use the money to pick up some vintage. So far I've done this three times:

• Flipped a Jordan Eberle Score short-print for a couple of vintage Johnny Pesky's
• Sent Sal from Puck Junk a PK Subban Young Guns rookie and got a vintage Phil Esposito in return
• Finally, in my best effort to date, I sold a Logan Couture Young Guns rookie that I had pulled from a hobby box and used the money to pick up 5 O-Pee-Chee WHA cards of Bobby Hull and Gordie Howe
  

For today's Out With The New post, I sold a baseball card for the first time:

This is a 2004 Donruss Studio - Studio Proofs Platinum parallel of Ryne Sandberg. I was fortunate enough to land this card in a group break just about 2 years ago now. Not the world's most impressive card in my opinion, but as you can see on the back it is serial numbered 10/10:

I figured with numbering this low it would probably attract the attention of some Sandberg collectors out there, so after it accumulated dust for close to 2 years I finally listed it on eBay earlier this month. I went with a 99 cent auction with no reserve just to see how it would do. To my surprise there was quite a bit of bidding activity and the card ended up selling for $27.50, which was better than I had expected.

The PayPal funds from this sale went to the purchase of 5 new vintage hockey cards from one of my favorite eBay sellers. Here are all 5, from least favorite to favorite:

1979-80 Topps - #150 - Ken Dryden

I'm still plugging away at one of the most, if not the most, iconic hockey card sets ever made, 1979-80 Topps/O-Pee-Chee (just working on the Topps version for now). Dryden's is one of the top cards in the set book value-wise, so crossing this one off the want list felt pretty good.

Of course, one of the things that made this set so great was the card backs. I think I can safely say they are my favorite hockey card backs of all time. The skate design is absolute genius and many of the cartoons are quite creative. Ken's, featuring the Dryden brothers waving at each other from opposing goals, is no exception.

1973-74 Topps - #1 - NHL Goal Leaders - Phil Esposito/Rick MacLeish

1973-74 Topps has only appeared on my radar recently, after I picked up a decent chunk of the set from the quarter box at the local hobby shop. This card features a couple of the decade's greats, plus it's always nice picking up card #1 from any vintage set.

If I told you that 3 players surpassed the 50 goal mark in the 1972-73 season, you might be able to guess at Phil Esposito and Rick MacLeish, but would you have known Mickey Redmond was the third? If so, give yourself a pat on the back. I for one certainly did not know that. Continuing with the theme of first cards in a set...

1979-80 Topps - #1 - NHL Goal Leaders

Like the 1973-74 set, the 1979-80 Topps set also led off with a card featuring the NHL's goal leaders. Mike Bossy was still at the beginning of his amazing stretch of 50+ goal seasons, having recorded 69 in his second year in the league, 10 more than the next closest player.

This card is a great addition to my collection for another reason though:

The joy of a completed page! While I still need around 70 cards to finish this set off, at least the first page in my binder is now complete. Now for the best two cards in the lot...

1979-80 Topps - #185 - Bobby Hull

The 1979-80 Topps Hull isn't exactly his toughest card to track down. This copy is flat out mint though, and it's the third most valuable card in the set behind the Gretzky rookie and the Gordie Howe, both of which I already have. It was the first time Bobby had been featured on a Topps card since the 1971-72 set, since he had been playing in the WHA for the bulk of the decade. It was also the final Topps card of Hull.

Another great back featuring two of my favorite things...hockey and beer! Finally, my favorite card of the 5:

1974-75 Topps - #261 - Scotty Bowman

I believe this card is the most expensive in the 74-75 Topps set in terms of book value, along with the Bobby Orr, both of which book at $30. The coach cards are one of my favorite elements in the set, and this is not only one of the greatest coaches in hockey history, but one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports period. Scotty won more games and more Stanley Cups than anyone before him (and anyone after him to date). He had already won a Cup with Montreal when this card was produced, and he'd go on to win four more (consecutive) Cups with the Canadiens from 1975-76 through 1978-79. He reached the playoffs in all 8 years that he coached the Habs, winning the cup an amazing 5 times!

That alone would have been enough to earn Bowman a place in hockey history, but he would also bring Lord Stanley's cup to Pittsburgh at the helm of the 1991-92 Penguins team. He then moved on to coaching the Red Wings where he would coach his teams to 3 more championships before retiring. Between the 1970's Montreal teams, the stacked Pittsburgh squad of the early 90's, and the powerhouse Red Wings, Scotty stood behind the bench of some of the best teams in the history of the sport.

Well, that's what a serial numbered Ryne Sandberg card can net you on eBay I guess. I was really happy with this flip, I don't miss the Sandberg at all and I've made significant dents in the 1970's Topps hockey run with these 5 cards. Best of all they are all in really good shape, and were all previously on the want list. I'm now just 22 cards away from a complete 1974-75 Topps set...I wonder what else I have kicking around to sell?

Out With The New, In With The Old - WHA Lot

Time for my third and final (for now) Out with the New, In with the Old post. Basically these consist of me flipping a newer card that I pulled from a pack for vintage goodness. So far I flipped a 2010-11 Score Jordan Eberle Hot Rookie SP for two graded Johnny Pesky cards, and traded away a P.K. Subban Young Guns rookie for a 1968-69 Topps Phil Esposito. In my opinion I saved the best for last, but you decide for yourself.

Back in March of last year, I pulled this Logan Couture Young Guns rookie from a 2009-10 Upper Deck Series 2 wax box:

At the time, I was pretty bummed about the box as a whole, Couture was probably the best of the Young Guns I pulled. He hadn't seen much, if any, NHL action at that time, plus I was aggravated that I got 2 figure skater cards as inserts in the box. Really Upper Deck?

I learned though that sometimes what appears to be a crap box can turn out pretty decent in the long run. Fast forward a year and you have Couture turning in a fantastic rookie season, in fact he's even a (strong) candidate for the Calder Trophy this season. I capitalized on the hype by listing my card on eBay back in February when he was on a scoring tear, and in fact was leading all rookie scorers. The auction fetched $24.50, which I was very pleased with. You'll never believe what I was able to pick up with the PayPal balance. For less money than I made off the Couture card I won this:

1977-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA - #50 - Bobby Hull

I haven't really posted about it yet, but the 77-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA set is one I've been working on for quite some time. There are a ton of issues with centering and rough edges with this set, pretty much par for the course for O-Pee-Chee at that time. I'm not doing a graded set, but I have been trying to find PSA 8 versions of the two big cards from the set (Hull and Howe) for some time now, and I was beyond pleased to snag this well centered Bobby Hull for $22.

Here's the crazy part though...my $22 didn't just net me the Bobby Hull. The auction was actually for a lot of 5 O-Pee-Chee WHA cards. Check out the other 4!

1974-75 O-Pee-Chee WHA - #50 - Bobby Hull

My very first 1974-75 WHA card, and not a bad one to start with! I don't care for the 74-75 design as much as I do the 77-78's, but talk about a nice throw-in card. Before this auction win I didn't have any vintage Hull's in the collection, now I have two.

I do like the 74-75 backs quite a bit. Just the fact that they have a cartoon automatically makes them better than the 77-78 backs. Interesting that the back refers to Bobby Hull as Mr. Hockey. Bobby's known as The Golden Jet, not Mr. Hockey. No matter, the other 3 cards in the lot are the real Mr. Hockey!

1977-78 O-Pee-Chee WHA - #1 - Gordie Howe

Very nice, the other big card I was missing from the 77-78 set, card #1 commemorating Howe's 1,000th goal. Sure, this one's off-center from left to right and from top to bottom, but it's got 4 good corners with no scratches, scuffs or creases and has pretty good overall visual appeal. I'll track down a PSA 8 to go with my Bobby Hull someday, but for now this one is more than acceptable in my set. I love the see-through boards in the background and the classic O-Pee-Chee "Now with..." designation on the front.

You can see how the copyright print at the bottom of the back is cut off, and at the top of the back you can see a faint trace of the copyright print from the card that was above it on the uncut sheet. I think the watermarked number 9 is a nice touch.

1976-77 O-Pee-Chee WHA - #50 - Gordie Howe

My first 76-77 WHA card. I like the design that O-Pee-Chee went with this year, I may have to try completing this one once I've gotten through 77-78.

1975-76 O-Pee-Chee WHA - #66 - Gordie Howe All-Star

Possibly my favorite card in the lot. I love the way the All-Star subset looks in this set. Unlike all the other WHA cards in this lot, the back contains full stats for Howe's career, which at that point was a lot of information to cram onto the back of a single card:

That about wraps it up. No offense to Logan Couture, but I think this was an absolute steal. I doubt there's a hockey card collector out there anywhere that would take that single Young Guns rookie card over these vintage Howe's and Hull's.

Out With The New, In With The Old - Sal Edition

Time for the second "Out With The New, In With The Old" post. This one's a quickie. A few months back I purchased just a single pack of 2010-11 Upper Deck hockey (still the only 2010-11 Upper Deck cards I've purchased so far), and was fortunate enough to pull a P.K. Subban Young Guns short print. I had no real use for the card, and was going to list in on eBay until I found out that my buddy Sal from Puck Junk needed it. I would much rather see the Subban end up in Sal's collection than sell it to some stranger on eBay so I sent it off to him. In return, Sal sent me this:

1968-69 Topps - #7 - Phil Esposito

This is a welcome addition to my Bruins collection, and is currently my oldest Phil Esposito card. It will go nicely with the lot of 68-69 Topps I picked up at a card show last fall. I now have 17 cards from this 132 card set. I'll continue picking these up as I see them, I could see this being the first 1960's Topps hockey set I complete eventually.

The cartoon on the back is kind of funny, as we see Phil depicted in the shadow of the great Bobby Hull. Actually, this is sort of a coincidence as it foreshadows my 3rd and final "Out With The New, In With The Old" post, which I hope to have up later this week.

All in all this was a great trade for me. I unloaded a modern short print of a rotten Canadien for a nice vintage card of a Hall-of-Fame Bruin...doesn't get much better than that. Thanks for the awesome card Sal, glad I could help you with your 2010-11 set!

Out With The New, In With The Old - Johnny Pesky Edition

Since my collection is largely focused on vintage, my first thought on the rare occasion where I pull something half-way decent from a modern pack is to flip it. I've done this a few times recently, and have gotten some pretty nice stuff in return. I figure I'll do a couple of posts showing what I got rid of and what I got back in return, and you can decide if I made out well or am a total fool.

When Panini released a Score hockey set a few months back, I was excited like many collectors. I picked up 3 hobby boxes since I was able to find them at under $30 bucks a piece, and got a large chunk of the set taken care of. To be honest, the cards lost their appeal pretty quickly for me. I still plan to finish off the set, but I certainly didn't have a need for this card:

2010-11 Score - #556 - Jordan Eberle Hot Rookies - Short Print

I'm not sure what rate these short-printed Hot Rookie cards fall at, but this was the only one I pulled from my 3 boxes. Had it been Tyler Seguin I likely would've held onto it, but since there's no way I'm going to collect all 10 of these I decided to part with it. I must have timed my sale pretty poorly though, as I collected only about $16 if memory serves me (recent auctions for the card have ended at around $30).

I decided to utilize my Paypal funds from the sale to add to my vintage Red Sox collection. There was one player in particular I sought out, a huge part of the franchise's history that was inexplicably missing from my collection. After a ton of searching I settled on this:

That's a beautiful card if I do say so myself. Pesky has basically devoted his entire working life to the Red Sox organization, as a player, manager, adviser, etc. I mean the right field foul pole at Fenway Park is named after the guy. Every good Red Sox collection needs at least one Johnny Pesky card. This is one of the nicer ones I've seen, I think the photo is cool and combined with the 1964 design it makes for a pretty visually appealing card. Believe it or not I snagged this in a Buy-it-Now auction for a mere $8. Can you believe that? Since I had some leftover cash I sprang for a second Pesky:

I like the 1964 card much more, and this one cost me $12, but I couldn't resist going for the pair.

All in all I had to chip in about $5 in addition to what I sold the Eberle card for. So, which would you rather have? The two vintage Pesky's or the Eberle with $5 in pocket?