Signature Sundays - Jim Abbott

With Spring Training underway and the snow in my front yard finally melting, let's return to baseball for this Sunday's autograph...

Today's autograph subject, Jim Abbott, is an example of straying outside my normal collecting boundaries.  Jim never played for the Red Sox, and this 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen release is anything but vintage, yet I absolutely had to add this card to my baseball collection.  I like the design and the autograph (on card!) is one of the more unique in my collection.

I don't see how any baseball fan (or anyone at all) couldn't admire Jim.  Being born without a right hand didn't stop him from pursuing a career in baseball, from becoming the best amateur player in the country, from winning athlete of the year in his college conference and even capturing (unofficial) Olympic Gold.  He was drafted in the first round of the 1988 draft by the Angels.  This is the team I remember him with as a late '80s/early '90s junk wax collector, so I'm glad Topps chose the Angels for this particular card.

The highlights of Jim's career are undoubtedly his incredible 1991 season (18-11, 2.89 ERA, 3rd in Cy Young voting) and his no-hitter while with the Yankees in 1993.  The fact that a man with one hand could become a first round draft pick, make the major leagues, and throw a no-hitter has mesmerized me since I first witnessed it as a kid and I think it always will.

Jim may not be the biggest name whose signature I have on cardboard, but I do think this is one of my all-time best buys at $2.27 plus shipping!

Oh, Happy Day!

After my last (rather adolescent) post, it's time to return with something a little more serious today.  Really, really old cards have pretty much become my collecting obsession in recent months, and today I've got another nice one from the 1930s:

Here's Clarence Day, affectionately known as "Happy", later shortened to "Hap".  Hap is a Maple Leafs legend, having been with the club in one capacity or another nearly every year between 1924 and 1950!  He began as a player in the days when the team was still known as the St. Pats, before Conn Smythe purchased them and dubbed them the Maple Leafs.

Clarence was team captain for 11 years, and brought a Stanley Cup to the city of Toronto during that time.  At the tail end of his career he spent one season with the New York Americans, and then dabbled in refereeing for a couple of years.  By 1940 he was back with the Leafs for what would be a 10-year coaching stint.  The team captured 5 Stanley Cups during that decade, and Clarence established himself as one of the top coaches in the history of the franchise.  He'd be a part of yet another Stanly Cup for the city of Toronto while serving as assistant GM before departing the franchise (awkwardly, to say the least) in the late '50s.

This was picked up from the same seller, and in the same purchase as the Bun Cook and George Patterson cards I've shown previously from this legendary set.  Because of that nasty top right corner this card received a grade of "Good - 2", which is perfectly fine with me since it's the only reason I was able to afford it.

There's another flaw that I actually love, and if you've got a sharp eye you may have already spotted it.  Look very closely along the top edge of the above scan and you'll see two stripes that are much lighter in color than the rest of the cardboard.  Follow those lighter streaks and you can see they proceed downward and towards the edge of the card.  If your eyesight is really good, you'll see similar streaks on the bottom corners.  I believe this was caused by some collector keeping this card in an old album, something like this:

Pretty cool, huh?  This obviously detracts from the value of the card for some, but it doesn't bother me in the least, in fact I think it adds character.  I love that this card is so old that it was stored in this fashion.

This 80+ year old card of a 7-time Stanley Cup winner and member of the Hockey Hall of Fame set me back less than $50.  My trio of cards from this set actually came to well under $100 total.  With names like Eddie Shore, Howie Morenz and Dit Clapper on the checklist I'm not delusional enough to think I'll ever complete this one, but I'm happy with my three for the time being...

Cardboard Classics - That Lion King is Downwind

I pulled this card from a $1 hockey repack I picked up at the LCS recently.  It's from one of the most over-produced sets in the history of hockey cards, 1990-91 Pro Set.  I had a ton of these cards as a kid, and I know both my brothers and I had complete sets, yet I don't recall this one.  How is it possible that my immature childhood self didn't snicker at this beauty every time I thumbed through the binder.  Maybe I did, and I've just forgotten over the years.

Anyway, with a name like Ron Asselstine, it's fitting that the card's subject appears to be clutching the boards about to float an air biscuit towards those unsuspecting fans.  At least they've got plexiglass protecting them, but that gold and green lion is straight in the path of Ron's backdoor breeze.  Asselstine's facial expression seems to support my theory.  Is this the only appearance of a fart on cardboard?  Feel free to leave a comment if you've got a thought one way or the other (or just want an excuse to post an amusing synonym for fart).

I promise to be back with something more mature and substantive tomorrow, it's just been this kind of week...

1953 Topps Project - Bob Schultz

After three new additions to my 1953 Topps set in January, last month saw just one measly card added.  I'd like to get a few more knocked out this month, so here's the first...

In what is becoming a very common theme for these posts, Bob's career got off to a late start due to the fact that he served with the US military in WWII.  Between that conflict and his time in the minor leagues, Schultz didn't make his first big league appearance until age 27 in 1951.  In 17 appearances (including 10 starts) he turned in an underwhelming 3-6 record with a 5.24 ERA and a nearly 2:1 walk to strikeout ratio (no, I do not mean strikeout to walk, I mean walk to strikeout).  Despite these numbers, Bob apparently impressed enough to earn a full time spot for the 1952 season.

In that full season, Schultz still struggled with walks but he did reverse his win/loss record from the season prior to 6-3 as well as shave over a point off of his ERA.  The Cubs decided to move on from him anyway and dealt him to the Pirates in June of 1953 (the trade that brought Ralph Kiner to the Cubs!).  He finished out the year with Pittsburgh, didn't play in 1954, and completed his MLB career with a single appearance in 1955 for the Tigers (where he gave up 3 earned runs in 1.1 innings of work).

Bob passed away at age 55 in 1979, and if Wikipedia is to be believed he was shot during an argument outside a VFW in Tennessee...

Set Progress:  66 of 274 (24%)

Signature Sundays - Lamenting the Demise of Panini Hockey Cards

In light of the recent (depressing in my opinion) news that Upper Deck will be the only company making licensed NHL cards for the foreseeable future, let's take a look at a few more autographs from one of my favorite hockey sets in recent years.  The 2012-13 Classics Signatures set is an example of Panini getting it right.

I mean this is a fantastic autographed card right here.  A really nice photo that I do not recall seeing elsewhere, simple retro design and large, clean, on-card autograph.  What more can you ask for?  Only thing I can think of is for Andy to actually sign his name 'Andy Moog' as opposed to 'Andy Woox'.  Andy actually captured 3 Stanley Cups in his career, and is a welcome autograph in my collection given the time he logged with the Bruins in the late '80s including a run to the Cup Finals.

Sticking with the Bruins theme, here's fan favorite Rick "Nifty" Middleton.  The Bruins absolutely stole Rick in a mid-'70s swap with the Rangers, sending an aging Ken Hodge to Manhattan (who would play just one more season before hanging up the skates).  In return, the Bruins got Middleton who stuck around for 12 seasons and tallied over 900 points in a B's sweater.  I love the black and white photograph of a helmetless Middleton that Panini chose for this card, and once again the autograph itself is excellent.

Pierre Turgeon was one of my boyhood idols as a hockey player, and as such was one of the autographs I was most excited to land from this set.  He was drafted #1 overall by Buffalo just a couple of years before I became a fan of the game, and was really emerging as a superstar right as I got into the sport.  He put up fantastic numbers for many years, and is really a member of that upper echelon of non-Hall-of-Famers.

Pierre managed over 500 career goals (currently 36th all-time) and over 1,300 points (just outside the top 30 at 31st all-time).  He was never able to hoist the Cup, but he was voted an All-Star a handful of times and had a beast 132-point season in 1992-93.  I was more than happy to pay $9.50 shipped for this one.

I've definitely been saving some of my favorite autographs for last when it comes to this set, so now nearly 100 cards in you're starting to see the real highlights of the set in my opinion.  I've always been a fan of Vachon's signature and there are so many things to love about the photo choice on this one.  The brown pads and wooden stick, retro Kings sweater, that killer mask.  This card definitely pairs nicely with my other Vachon auto.

In closing, here's winger Jean Pronovost and a good look at the blue Penguins sweaters from back in the day.  Jean was known as a consistent two-way forward.  The peak of his career came in the mid-'70s where he flirted with 40 goals for a few years in a row, and even logged a 100-point season.  The Penguins never experienced much success during that period so Jean is not as well-known as some of the stars of the decade, but he was a solid player who scored close to 400 goals and 800 points in a 13-year career.

These five cards bring me to 95 autographs and counting from this set.  It's sad to see Panini lose out on their license, I'm a firm believer in the "competition breeds innovation" philosophy and I think they were really starting to get it right with some sets the past two seasons.  Oh well, there's always vintage baseball cards...

A PWE from Canada - Douglas Strikes Again!

On the very same day that he began posting a trade package I sent his way, I received a PWE in the mail from one of my favorite trading partners, Douglas of Sports Cards from the Dollar Store.  Inside were 5 cards that were all needed and all greatly appreciated:

We'll start with the lone baseball card, a Wally the Green Monster from the 2012 Topps Stickers set.  I've got something of a minor Green Monster collection going (this is my 5th card of the mascot).  This card was actually on my Most Wanted list in my sidebar for a while before this package crossed it off.

It's getting more and more difficult to find any Whalers cards that I don't already have, but Douglas always seems to manage somehow.  Example A is this non-licensed card of Hartford draft pick Michael Nylander from the 1991-92 Classic Four Sport set.

Here's another, of Hall-of-Famer Paul Coffey from the 1996-97 Leaf Limited set.  This card was actually on my Zistle want list, and looks much better in person than it does in the scan.

In the last PWE Douglas sent me there was a great Bobby Orr National Hockey Card Day card.  When I was adding it to my collection on Zistle I noticed that Gordie Howe came right before Bobby on the checklist, and that he was depicted with the Whalers.  I noted it in that last post, and what do you know, Douglas came through and included that very card this time around!  This package brings me to 1,146 unique Whalers cards and counting...

Finally, a nice Pat LaFontaine Premier Pivot insert from 1993-94 Ultra.  I'm a sucker for the '90s Ultra inserts, and this particular card also sat on my Most Wanted list for one reason, it finished off this 10-card insert set:

Some big names in there, nice to finally finish this one off after years of accumulating.  Thanks once again for a great bunch of cards Douglas.  I guess it's time to find some new cards to add to my Most Wanted list...

Normie Himes - Ice King!

For whatever reason, I tend to subscribe to the 'save the best for last' philosophy.  I guess I like anticipation and build-up.  With respect to this blog though, that attitude sometimes results in me withholding an absolute favorite card for months and months, in some cases longer.  I stay caught up with trade posts and smaller items as they come in, and before I know it some of the highlights of my collection are cleared off my card desk and put in storage (or on display) without ever seeing the blog.

I'm trying to break that habit a bit this year, and in the spirit of doing so here's a fairly recent addition to my vintage hockey collection:

What a card!  I still smile every time I look at this one.  As the PSA slab indicates, Normie Himes here is from the 1933-34 World Wide Gum Ice Kings set.  World Wide Gum was a Canadian company that had some sort of affiliation with or association to Goudey, which was operating out of the US.  They reproduced the 1933 Goudey baseball set for Canada, but also printed a few hockey sets of their very own that same decade.

Do I care that this card was graded a 2?  Not at all, in fact it's the only reason a guy like me could afford pretty much any card from this set.  These 80+ year old beauties are not very easy to come by in any condition on my budget.  Here's a better look at the front:

I love the stars and stripes New York Americans sweater, lack of equipment, and newsboy cap.  Apparently that hat was a trademark for Normie, who was a very under-rated player in his day by all accounts.  There's not a ton of info online about him, but he was the Americans' leading scorer for quite a few seasons and participated in the very first NHL All-Star game.  The most thorough write-up I could find on his career was this one.

Here's a look at the back, which will look familiar to any of you baseball collectors who have pre-war Goudey cards, except that it was printed in Montreal.

I never thought I'd have one of these original World Wide Gum cards, and I'm excited to welcome Normie Himes to my collection.  This is one I'll likely always hang onto, even if I stop collecting someday.

Signature Sundays - Tony Esposito!

After a nice Willie O'Ree auto last week, we'll stick with hockey for today's Signature Sundays post. A few weeks ago I showed off a Mike Bossy autograph that I obtained from Casey (formerly of Drop the Gloves, now House of Oglethorpe).  Here's the other autograph I grabbed when he split apart his HOF auto collection:

I've wanted a Tony Esposito autograph for a good long time, and this one certainly fit the bill.  I like the photo and the signature itself is large, bold, unique and clearly legible.  The fact that it's on card is just the icing on the cake.

This card is actually from the same exact set as the Bossy autograph, 1999-2000 Upper Deck Century Legends.  While I'm not formally chasing Hall of Fame autos like Casey did, I think I'm up to between 15 and 20 now and counting.

Thanks Casey for the great deal on both autographs.  These two former members of your HOF auto collection have found a good home.

Support Your LCS - Baseball and Hockey Grab Bag Edition!

I've been out of some hobby essentials (like toploaders) for a week or two, and yesterday afternoon I finally found some time to swing by the only remaining reputable (in my opinion) hobby shop in my area.  Since I was picking up supplies I took a look around of course, like any good collector would.  There were packs of all the latest product, some cool vintage, but none of that came home with me.  Here's what did:

Yup, I could not resist the allure of the grab bag.  I always used to go for these when I collected as a kid just because it's a cheap way to add a good chunk of cards to your collection.  The shop owner hand packs about 70-80 cards of a given sport into a paper lunch bag, folds and tapes it shut, and voila.  Sort of  like a poor man's repack, except I think these are infinitely better than the 100-cards-for-$5 repacks I've bought a few times at retail outlets.

I'm not one of those collectors who has every junk wax card ten times over, really all that I have has come from trades and busting repacks and grab bags like these.  I think that allows me to enjoy these more since I don't end up with 50 dupes or anything crazy like that.  Any doubles I do end up with only bolster my trade profile on Zistle, so it's really a win/win.  Here's a look at some of the cards I got from this one...

Love him or hate him, Guillen was certainly an interesting personality and this isn't a bad looking card as '88 Donruss goes.

Here's a 2007 Bowman Chrome Carl Crawford.  These two cards were right next to each other in the pack, which is a good example of just how broad a range these cover.

Here's my very first 1999 Bowman card, of a really good player too, Mr. Tim Salmon.

I love the Conlon set, I've completed the entire first series and really should go after the rest of the run.  If you're a fan of pre-war baseball history or cards you really can't go wrong with these.  Of all the baseball cards in this post, this was the lone double, and I don't think I'll have too difficult time finding a home for Charlie Root.

Never heard of this set, will probably end up trading this one away at some point.

Now this card I really like.  The simplistic design and full-bleed photography of 2003 Donruss is right up my alley.  Colon has had a really long, decent career, and the fact that this card depicts him in one of just 17 career games with the Montreal Expos makes it a keeper for me.

Here's a second '03 Donruss, what a great photo.  If I ever get caught up and bored (ha!) and need another set to collect, this one might be it.

I don't know too many baseball fans who don't like Vizquel, and after such a long career he's already back in a coaching capacity.  That's a man who just loves the game right there.

Hideki Matsui and Eric Hinske were the other two 2004 Leaf cards in the package.  This was another set I hadn't seen before as 2004 fell during a stretch when I didn't collect for many years.

I got a kick out of this terrific '80s Diamond King, where Harold Baines shows off the bizarre uniforms the Sox sported at the time.

Here's another set I'd never heard of, 2004 Upper Deck Diamond Collection Pro Sigs.  A little too busy for my liking, but still an interesting early-career card of a guy with some big wins for my favorite team.

A 1998 Topps Chrome Manny wasn't a bad card to pull, I'd have plucked this from a quarter box any day.

I even got a new Red Sox card in the form of this 1985 Topps Al Nipper.

This was another nice card given where it came from, Johan Santana's 2006 Bowman Heritage.  These are based loosely on the 1949 Bowman design, a set which I'm a big fan of.  This card is also a short print!

Here's a 2007 Topps insert of Johan based on the DeLong cards from the 1930s.  There were two or three of these inserts included.

Never had any 1997 Bowman Chrome cards before opening this...

...now I have two.

SP Authentic is too rich for my blood in pack form, and I'm not a hit chaser, so getting a couple of singles this way works.

I chose to scan this Phil Hughes from 2009 Topps Updates & Highlights just because I like the photo.

Here's an interesting card of a two-sport star from an obscure set, 1991 Score 100 Rising Stars.

This Bowman Chrome Matt Holliday will go into my trade box, but it's nice to see cards as recent as 2012 in here.

Look how skinny Braun's arms look in this one...

Not a huge fan of these Fleer Tradition cards.  I see what they were trying to go for, I just don't think it worked.

Same goes for the League Leader subset.

Cool painting on this Erstad Diamond Kings card.

In closing a couple of minor stars in 1989 Fleer format...

Not bad at all, and the best part?  These cost $1.  And there were about 30-35 more cards that I didn't even scan (although these were my favorites).  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to buy retail wax again.  I'm glad I had the sense to grab a hockey one as well:

First card in the stack was this great celebration shot of Dave Bolland.  I'd seen this one before a couple years back on other blogs but forgotten about it.  Certainly a keeper.

I had no idea that in the late '90s Bowman released a CHL set.  I got three cards from it...

...the best of which by far was this Brenden Morrow.

Never made the NHL, even for a game.

Included in this grab bag were 10 cards from the 2013-14 Score set.  Current year hockey cards for less than two cents each?  Yes please!  I got my very first look at this set when Douglas from Sports Cards from the Dollar Store sent me the Shawn Thornton in a PWE, and I have to say I'm a huge fan.  I don't need another 600+ card set to chase right now, given that I just finished one, but I'll certainly accumulate these on the cheap.

Here's another one.  There seem to be a lot of celebration shots in this set, but I'm not complaining.  Seeing this card makes me really angry that Upper Deck just got an exclusive deal with the NHL to produce trading cards.  Ugh.

I got three goaltenders from 1993-94 Ultra, none of which are spectacular...

...but all of which are new to me.

One of my favorites has to be this SP Authentic card of Bruins pest (and goal scorer) Brad Marchand.  Again, I don't buy any mid-level cards like this (or any wax at all most of the time) so it's nice to get a sampling of cards from this set.

This one's even better than the Marchand.  Definitely would have picked this up from a quarter or even fifty cent box.

Unfortunately they came with a Canadien, but I guess that's a small price to pay.

Believe it or not, this Palffy was actually on my Zistle want list.  I probably had 10 copies of this card as a kid, but I really beat on my cards and precious few have survived in my collection to this day.  I always loved the Canada Cup subset from '91-92 Upper Deck.  I also got a Brett Hull Team USA card from this same subset which went into my trade box.

My first three cards from 2012-13 ITG Heroes & Prospects.  I don't really follow minor league hockey at all, so I've never heard of any of these guys.

I'm sort of out of the loop on recent sets, so I assumed this card, #251, was the first card of 2012-13 Upper Deck Series II.  Apparently there was only one series of UD flagship last year though, and this card was an "Upper Deck Update" insert from SP Authentic.  Nice to see the Winnipeg Jets again either way.

This card screams mid-'90s for sure.

One of my favorite players back in the day, I would have been psyched to land this card when it was released.

I got six cards from the 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee set, including long time Devil Patrik Elias...

...and former Bruin Mark Stuart.

Also got a Marquee Legends short print of Bryan Trottier.  A short print in each grab bag, not too shabby.

Here's one of the retro parallels as well, a decent little representation of 2012-13 O-Pee-Chee right there.

Here's another new-to-me from 1992-93 Score.

Love the Hollywood mask on this 1995-96 Summit Kelly Hrudey.

In closing, a rookie card of a guy who I think does a great job on NHL Tonight, Jamie McLennan.  Like the baseball grab bag, there were a good 30-40 hockey cards I didn't show here (including your obligatory '90-91 Pro Set).

It was a ton of fun to go through these, and to score around 150 unique cards from all different years for just $2 is an unbeatable value.  I will be ripping and posting more of these for sure!