Columbus Day Card Show Blaster

Back on Columbus Day I managed to quickly hit a card show, the first time I've been fortunate enough to do so in years.  I showed off the first $20 worth of my haul a couple of weeks back, let's tackle another $20 worth tonight...

I spent about 20 minutes looking through one dealer's chest of vintage 5-for-$20 cards, before realizing that I could only find one or two cards that I was crazy about.  Instead, I saw that he had some vintage football available at $2 a pop.

I started a small project this year of acquiring one new football card to represent each of the New England Patriots' sixteen games this season.  It's been all vintage so far as that project goes, and one of the sets that I discovered through the project and really like the look of is 1955 Bowman.

I'm a fan of the simplistic design, allowing the player and the great old-school logos to be the focus of the card.  I mean, just look at this helmet!  Pure gold.

I picked up five of these in all, and this one was probably the best of the group.  I didn't realize when I purchased it that Gene Brito was the NFL Player of the Year in 1955!  Sadly, ALS claimed his life at just 39 years of age in 1965.

I still wouldn't call myself a football card collector by any means, but this is a fun little set to accumulate at just 160 cards deep.  I certainly have no regrets about laying claim to these five for an even $10 of my card show funds.

For the other half of tonight's "blaster" though, we'll return to more familiar territory for me with vintage baseball...

From the 1960 Topps set, I've long wanted a copy of this "The Champs Celebrate" card.  This has to be one of the absolute best photographs on any baseball card from the '60s, right?  I've seen quite a few cards that feature a Gatorade bath, but comparatively fewer that feature beer bottles.  $3 well spent here, even though I'm not actively collecting the 1960 set.

Also, in the days before the internet and baseball-reference.com, this back is just fantastic!

The final seven cards here came from the dollar boxes put out by the same dealer as the last card, also the same dealer who supplied all twenty dollar box cards from my post a couple of weeks back.  For starters, I couldn't leave this Claude Raymond behind because I appreciate any reference to the Colt .45s.

Grabbed a trio from the 1961 Topps set in Bullet Bob Turley...

...Bill Stafford, who I picked up solely because, as with a handful of other vintage Topps cards, he appears to be featured in cartoon format...

...and my favorite photo of the three, Vern Law!  Love those stirrups!

Here's another 1960, just because I'm helpless when it comes to the combo cards of the '50s and '60s flagship releases.  Surprised I didn't have this one already, but happy to fill the gap for a buck.

We'll close it out with a pair from my favorite decade to collect these past couple of years, the 1950s.  I have precious few '58s compared to the hundreds of '59s in my collection, so I'm happy to have had a chance to snag Bob Schmidt...

...and Rocky Bridges, with his patented cheek full o' chaw.

So, there you have it, another Andrew Jackson spent at the card show!

Thanks as always for stopping by!

Keepers! '53 Topps HOF Trio

Time for the next installment of "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 post is all about 1953 Topps.  I know, the blog has been heavy on this set as of late.  What can I say?  In a weird way, selling off the bulk of my graded '53s has motivated me more than ever to go after the set (as well as provided some serious funds with which to do so).  When I sold that lot of graded cards off, I kept not only my Red Sox cards from the release, but also the three HOFers from the set featured in today's post.

All three are no-brainers for my Keepers project on the baseball side.  They've each been featured on the blog in the distant past, but not for many long years, so I'm excited to show them off again...

Leading the charge is one of the game's all-time great southpaws, Mr. Warren Spahn.  My favorite card of Spahn of the handful in my collection, both because I love this set and because Warren was flat out dominating in 1953.  The Cy Young Award wasn't introduced until the 1956 season, but had it existed back then Warren would have been a strong contender in '53 with his 23 wins and 2.10 ERA, both best in the league.

There are actually two versions of the Spahn card in the set if you're that particular (I'm not).  This one has the biographical information up top printed in white ink, the other version uses black ink.  I am not pursuing a "master set", so one version of Warren's card is plenty for me.

Next, Yankees superstar Phil Rizzuto!  If memory serves, this was one of the very first HOFers from the set that I ever landed, well over ten years ago now.  [Goes and searches email - yep, January 2008!]  1953 was Rizzuto's last really good season, and the last in which he'd receive any MVP votes.

Lastly, my favorite card in today's trio, Satchel (misspelled Satchell here) Paige!  This is an absolute cornerstone card of my entire baseball collection.  There are precious few playing-era Paige cards out there, since he enjoyed the majority of his success during his many years in the Negro leagues.  This one's been a personal favorite since the day it arrived, and still brings a smile to my face many years later.

This has really become an iconic baseball card, and it's easy to see why.  I'd be hanging onto it even if I had to shave my collection down to just 10 baseball cards, forget 1,000.  Can't say that for the other two cards in this post, as cool as they are.

Three great cards there, all easy selections for this exercise.  With these added to my tally I'm back up to 35 cards in my second pass at the 1953 Topps set as well, getting there slowly but surely!

That's 14 cards down in the Baseball Keepers collection altogether now, 986 to go.  You can see the virtual album here if you're interested.

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

A Football Card Experiment - Game 9 - No Ravens Either..

In an attempt to increase the size of my very small football card collection, I'm picking up and featuring one new card for each of the Patriots' 16 regular season games this year.

Week 9 sees the Patriots (8-0) taking on the formidable Baltimore Ravens (5-2) in the Sunday Night Football prime time match-up.  I'm not all that interested in modern football cards, so because the Ravens don't have the storied history of some other franchises on the Pats' 2019 schedule I had trouble finding a Ravens card that I wanted to add to my collection.  Instead, for the second consecutive week of this project, I went totally random.  Check it out!

Chuck Liebrock here is my very first card from the 1971 O-Pee-Chee Canadian Football League set.  I picked this one out for this project because it was A) dirt cheap (just 44 cents!), B) I love the glorious red design, and C) I'd never even heard of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before.  In fact, this is my first CFL card of any sort.

As for the subject, Chuck Liebrock played ten seasons in the CFL for the Toronto Argonauts and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.  As for the Blue Bombers franchise itself, they were founded all the way back in 1930, and have won ten Grey Cup titles to date.  As great as the front of the card is, I was equally drawn to this one based on the card back:

Simplistic, but awesome.  The layout here is very easy on the eyes, and in typical O-Pee-Chee fashion the write-up is included in both English and French, with the customary "Printed in Canada" along the card bottom. 

The highlight of this design though is the upper half of the back, which features the essentials in white-text-black-background format, and a fantastic cartoon.  In my few minutes of research on Chuck for this post, this card back is the only place that referenced Liebrock breaking a leg while skiing!

So, there's my entry for game number nine in this series of posts.  Next week I'll take a break from this series due to the Patriots' bye week.  I'll be back on November 17th with the next football card in this project though, until then thanks for stopping by as always!

I Sold My 1953 Topps Cards! Part 2

Last weekend I put up a post regarding my surrender on my 1953 Topps PSA-graded set.  I had no regrets about giving up those cards, and getting $1,750 in return.  Today's post in this ongoing series begins to shed some light on exactly why I didn't have any regrets.  Yup, it's time to start sharing some of the spoils that I used the funds from the sale on.

Now, just because I sold that lot of cards does not mean that I don't enjoy the 1953 Topps set.  Baseball cards from the '50s continue to be my primary target collection-wise, and the '53 set in particular is still an absolute favorite of mine.  I knew full well that I'd want to use some of the funds to offset at least some of the 102 cards I sold from the release.

As a first step, I deposited $40 into my COMC account and went hunting for cheap '53s.  I was looking for low hanging fruit that was visually appealing, and I think I did damn well.

The cards that I was able to grab were a perfect fit for my new approach to this set.  Not flawless cards by any means, but not completely banged up either.  I just want good visual appeal and nothing like gigantic creases, tears, holes, etc.  Luke Easter here's a good representation of the overall lot, as you'll see.

I didn't scan the backs of all the cards in today's post in the interest of brevity, but they all look similar to this one.  Great shape, no paper loss or any of that nonsense.

Quite a few of these are cards that I had in slabbed format that were included in the sale.  Seems silly to sell a card and then use some of the proceeds to buy back the exact same one?  Not when you consider that I let the graded ones go for $17-per-card on average, and the cards in this post cost me $2.45 each (with just one exception, the Luke Easter that led off the post was $3.25).

So yeah, part of the reason that I had no issue letting my '53s go is that I fully intended to buy many of them back at a fraction of the cost in ungraded format.  I honestly like the raw cards better, especially when I can find needs like this at a sub-$3 price point.  I loaded up on Ultra-Pro vintage-sized penny sleeves and top loaders so that I can keep these protected and looking great.  At some point I might consider going with a binder and 8-pocket sheets, but I'm sticking with top loaders in a monster box for now.

Cal Abrams, one of the best smiles in the set.

To think, you can buy four cards from this original 1953 release in this kind of condition for less money than Topps asks for a single "Living Set" 1953-style modern card in their online store.  To each his own, but give me the four vintage cards all day long.

Another one I'd owned previously.  Always wondered what the wooden structure behind Zernial's left shoulder is.

I picked up this entire $40 lot in one single offer to a COMC seller, and now that I've got them in hand I'm really satisfied with the condition.

Some of the cards, like Les Fusselman here, are ones that I did not have prior to the sale.  Feels even better adding some of these with the proceeds.

Love the St. Louis Browns logo on these cards.  It was actually worked into my original blog header way back in 2008 or so.

I can understand why opinions on this set differ vastly among collectors.  Either you love it or you don't.  Personally, I think the artwork is fantastic.

Perhaps my favorite card of this grouping is Brooklyn Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen.  Aside from the Red Sox, there is no team that I enjoy adding to my baseball card collection more than the Brooklyn Dodgers.  Great background on this one as well.

So there you have it, 16 1953 Topps cards for an even $40, to the penny.  Combined with the Red Sox team cards I held onto, I'm up to 32 cards and counting, or 11.7% complete, in my second go-round at this set.  I've got plenty more to show from my sale proceeds haul, so I'll be back next Saturday with more.  Until then, thanks as always for stopping by!

Buyback Franken-set: Crossing 1,400 Buybacks!

Even a couple of years into the project now, I continue to enjoy my Buyback Franken-set.  Taking in new buybacks and continuing to work on the binder is easily one of the most enjoyable things in the hobby for me.  Let's keep the momentum going today with another handful of Topps Heritage box-topper buybacks that take me over the 1,400 total buyback mark!

1969 Topps #377 - Gary Bell

I grabbed this Gary Bell off of COMC and paid way more than I usually would for a single buyback at $3.33.  This was 100% about paying the "Seattle Pilots premium" as I would absolutely love to complete a Pilots team set in buyback format someday.  A pipe dream perhaps, but I'm one card closer anyway.  Pilots aside though, it's not a very interesting card...

...and unfortunately it runs into a very interesting card as far as the franken-set binder goes.  I love the bright, vibrant colors and the amount of background activity going on here.

'72 Terry Harmon for the win!

1960 Topps #322 - Willie Tasby

If memory serves this 1960 Topps Willie Tasby All-Star Rookie came as part of a lot, not a card I hand-selected at all.  Certainly a strong contender for the binder though, as I have precious few 1960 Heritage buybacks (this is just my fourth, and my first from the rookie subset).

1975 Ed Goodson looks none too pleased about Willie Tasby's attempt to oust him from the binder.

He certainly won't be pleased now, as Tasby supplants him.  Off to the rejected box for Ed Goodson.

This number was part of a completed page in the binder.  Here's how it looked before, with Goodson in place lower left...

...and here it is now, with Tasby included.  My absolute favorite on this page by a country mile is Pumpsie Green.  Got that in a trade with my hobby buddy Douglas Corti last year, and it remains one of my most prized buybacks to date.

1967 Topps #265 - Lou Burdette

An awesome buyback here, featuring an aged Lou/Lew Burdette.  1967 was Burdette's final season, and I really like the simple posed photograph of the weathered veteran Topps used here.  I was almost certain that this card would merit inclusion in the franken-set, but it turns out that #265 is a pretty brutal match-up as far as that goes...

Ouch!  Hands down one of my favorite '80s buybacks to date.  You could make an argument that this photograph was poorly cropped by Topps, and you wouldn't be wrong, but I love all the blue.

Easy choice there, Yount retains his spot.

1962 Topps #86 - Donn Clendenon

A Donn Clendenon rookie card is up next, now we're talking!  Donn is of course most famous for being named World Series MVP for the 1969 "Miracle Mets" team.  Cool shot of him showing off the guns on his Pirates RC though.  This one has got to make the set, right?

Oh man, another rough battle here.

At the time I was getting this post ready and fixing up the binder a couple of days ago, I decided to stick with the '72 leaders card.  In the time that's passed since then though, I'm seriously wondering if I made the correct call here.  There have been a few cases of this throughout the course of the project, and I plan to revisit some of them if and when I complete the franken-set.  This is a card that will absolutely be revisited.

1970 Topps #452 - Felix Milan All-Star

Let's close out the post with a trio of brand new Heritage box-topper buybacks, featuring 1970 Topps.  My first buyback from that set's wonderful All-Star subset, second baseman Felix Millan of the Braves.  I really like what Topps did with the newspaper-based design for these.  Would love to welcome this card into the binder based purely on aesthetics...

...and it looks like that will work quite well, given that I had a 1990 Topps buyback in slot 452!

Felix Millan goes into the franken-set, and Luis de los Santos becomes the 120th buyback in the dedicated 1990 Topps buyback set binder.  Still such a long way to go with that one, if it's even possible to complete (which I seriously question).

1970 Topps #3 - Darrel Chaney

At card #3, Darrel Chaney is making a push to land on the very first page of the franken-set binder.  As you can imagine, competition is pretty damn tough on page number one.  In case you had any doubts about that...

...in this case Chaney gets matched up against one of my absolute favorite cards from childhood.  1990 Topps was the first baseball card set that I ever collected, and I absolutely treasured the five Nolan Ryan cards that led off the checklist in that release.  It's going to take something much nicer than that Darrel Chaney to bump this one out of the binder.

Poor Darrel, he never stood a chance.

1970 Topps #406 - Mike Andrews

Last one for today, a really nice buyback for my Red Sox collection.  Like the pair of '70s before this, I picked this card up on COMC earlier this year.  Even if it doesn't make the franken-set, it's still a nice addition to my team collection.

For the second time in the past week, Lee Elia's 1967 card is challenged for slot 406 in the binder.

For the second time this week, it defends its title.  This is another one that I feel kinda iffy about, but I don't want the binder to be too heavily loaded with Red Sox cards so I have to try to keep myself in check there.  While I like the Andrews card every bit as much as the Elia, I couldn't really find a definitive reason that I liked it better, so we'll leave things as they are for now.

That's a wrap for today.  No new numbers for the project, so I'm still stalled at 82% overall completion.  I did get to add a new 1990 Topps buyback to that project at least, and more significantly this post sees me surpass the 1,400 overall buyback threshold!  It's pretty insane to think that I've featured 1,400 unique buybacks on this blog over time.

As I said at the outset of the post, I'm every bit as motivated as I've ever been with this project.  1,500 buybacks here I come!

Franken-set Progress: 653/792 (82%)
1990 Topps Buyback Set: 120/792 (15%)
"Rejected" Buybacks: 628
Total Buybacks in Collection: 1,401