1950 Bowman - Post #6 - Sid Gordon

Next up in my slow, plodding effort to complete a 1950 Bowman baseball set, Mr. Sid Gordon:

Gordon was a very respectable power hitter who enjoyed a 13-year career at the Major League level.  He spent the early years of his career with the New York Giants (broken up by a two-year stint in the Coast Guard during WWII), before being traded to the Boston Braves prior to the 1950 season.

Sid put together some impressive seasons, but this is a great card to get towards my set as his 1950 campaign may have been his overall best.  Gordon hit .304 with 27 home runs and 103 RBI that year.  While he had a couple of other seasons that were comparable as far as home runs and runs driven in, his 33 doubles and .960 OPS were both career highs.

By the time he hung up his spikes, Sid had compiled more than 1,400 hits, 200 home runs and 800 RBI.  He was named an All-Star twice, garnered MVP votes in five separate seasons, and was enshrined posthumously in the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Gordon died doing what he loved in the year 1975, suffering a heart attack while playing softball in Central Park at age 57.

Half a dozen cards and counting now...

Set Progress:  6 of 252 (2% Complete)

Buyback Franken-set: Christmas Hangover Edition

What a great day yesterday spent stuffing my face and opening gifts, and more importantly in the company of loved ones.  I can't think of a better way to get back to the grind than evaluating a round of buybacks for my franken-set project!

1970 Topps #79 - Clay Kirby

Leading off is a 1970 Clay Kirby.  Clay nearly tossed a no-hitter for the Padres in '70, but was pinch hit for in the 8th inning.  To be fair, he was losing the game 1-0 at the time.  He'd later win a World Series with the Reds in 1975, and sadly passed away from a heart attack at just 43 years of age.

Ted Kubiak's 1968 issue is already holding down spot 79 in the binder.  Normally I'd choose a player with a cap over one without by default, but Kubiak's runaway strand of hair there just cracks me up.

In the end it was too much for Clay Kirby to overcome...

1970 Topps #443 - Al Jackson

Speaking of cap-less players, here's "Little" Al Jackson, who'd go on to serve as a pitching coach for the Red Sox in the late '70s.

He's facing off against a properly capped player, well in this case manager, as well.

This one is purely a case of preferring a hat.

1970 Topps #44 - Roberto Pena

One more '70 Topps buyback, utility infielder Roberto Pena.  Pena was actually traded to the Athletics at the outset of the 1970 season.  The A's had apparently seen enough of him by May, and turned around and dealt him to the Brewers, where he'd finish his career.

I had this two-player rookie buyback from 1966 Topps in slot 44.

Pena bumps his way into the binder though!

1971 Topps #373 - Tom McCraw

After three straight conflicts to start the day, we finally get a new number for the franken-set courtesy of first baseman Tom McCraw.  Tom was traded to the Senators just before the 1971 season got underway, and in fact made the franchise's final out at the end of that season.  I'm pleased to welcome this one to the binder, 1971 Topps at its finest.

1971 Topps #421 - John Stephenson

On the other end of the '71 Topps spectrum we have John Stephenson and his blacked out cap.  Not a real strong contender here, and it does have some existing competition as well:

Wow, this Pat Dobson is about as bland a baseball card as one could possibly produce.

In a battle of duds, I'm going with the Stephenson, though I certainly hope to be able to oust that one someday as well.

This number is part of a completed page as well, here it was before with Dobson lower left...

...and here it is now with the Stephenson in place.  Maybe the weakest buyback on the page?  Eh, it's a coin flip between it and one or two others here.

1975 Topps #472 - Bruce Dal Canton

Here's a nice Bruce Dal Canton from the most colorful set of the '70s, 1975 Topps.  Fascinating fact about Bruce Dal Canton that I just learned while typing up this post...he became a Major Leaguer after attending an "open tryout" that the Pirates held.  He was a high school teacher at the time, in Pennsylvania.  How cool is that?

We've got a good battle here for the franken-set.  I admittedly don't know a whole lot about Craig Kusick, but I get a kick out of this card because to me he looks like he belongs in a "Bill Swerski's Superfan" skit from SNL.

I decided to keep the Kusick in the binder, just because it has a more amusing photograph.  Had I known the factoid about Dal Canton's tryout as a teacher when I was making the call I might have gone the other way with it though.  This is one I may have to revisit down the line...

1975 Topps #346 - Bobby Darwin

Sticking with the theme of '75 Topps, here's an imposing-looking Bobby Darwin.  Bobby looks like someone you'd maybe be afraid to pitch to.  Darwin actually began his career as a pitcher, and debuted in Major League Baseball at the position at the age of 19.  After toiling for years in the minors he switched positions and rejuvenated his career.  Pretty impressive.

Already had this Jerry Adair in slot 346.  After all I've said about hat-less players in this post I'm obviously going with the Darwin, right?

Wrong!  It's going to take a better card than Bobby Darwin to oust a member of the Impossible Dream Red Sox team who even received some MVP votes that year!

1975 Topps #333 - Dick Drago

Speaking of Red Sox, here's pitcher Dick Drago.  I thought this one looked familiar when I pulled it for posting...

...and that's because I already had the 2015 Topps buyback version in the binder.

I simply kept the one that was in better condition for the franken-set, which was the 2014 buyback.

1975 Topps #389 - Tony Solaita

One more '75, featuring Tony Solaita, the only Major League Baseball player to hail from American Samoa.  Tony was mostly a reserve player at the MLB level.  Kinda creepy that, like Clay Kirby who led off the post, Tony Solaita only survived until age 43.  In Solaita's case he was shot to death related to a land dispute in his native country.

The Solaita buyback is a great one for this project because it's a new number, and it also completes a brand new page!  Some good star power here with Bouton, Piniella, Hershiser and Kirby Puckett.  I secretly hope to be able to move that Puckett over to my '90 Topps buyback binder at some point.

Well, I think we'll call it there for today.  A couple of new numbers, an upgraded completed page and a brand new completed page.  I'll take it!

Franken-set Progress:  514/792 (64%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  384
Total Buybacks in Collection: 898

Merry Christmas! (and My Other Hobby)

Merry Christmas everyone!  This is the tenth Christmas that I've celebrated here at Shoebox Legends, and I figured it was the perfect time to show off one of my favorite ornaments on our tree, The Great One himself!

Instead of posting any cards today, I've got something a little different for the holiday.  Recently I mentioned that my spending on sports cards has taken a downturn due to another hobby.  Well, here it is...

Yup, after quite a while spent researching and saving I finally got a nice hi-fi setup going to play vinyl records.  Music has always been both a passion and a hobby for me.  I've played the guitar for many years now, and live music has been a big part of my life since I was just a teenager.  I've attended easily north of 100 concerts, and I can remember asking for and receiving albums as birthday gifts as far back as sixth (The Beatles) and seventh (Led Zeppelin, Nirvana) grade.

When I had part-time jobs growing up, my friends and I would hit the local Strawberries music store any time we got paid and load up.  At one point I had literally hundreds of CDs, in fact despite downsizing over time I probably still have that many today.  I went digital long ago though and hadn't purchased a CD in ages, but I've wanted a proper turntable setup for years now.

Well, in 2017 I finally made it happen, and I couldn't be more pleased.  For those of you who care or are interested, the turntable is from U-Turn Audio, and the speakers are made by Audioengine.  The speakers are powered so I don't need a receiver, and also have a built-in bluetooth receiver and DAC (digital audio converter), which is pretty great as it lets me enjoy my entire library of digital music, or any other streaming source like Pandora, from my phone with the same high-quality sound.

At this point I have to say I couldn't be happier with either product.  I can honestly say I've never heard music sound so crisp, clear, and rich before.  The only thing I plan to upgrade at some point is the pre-amp (the little black box on top of the right speaker).  My current one was a cheap ($49) but highly-rated model off Amazon.  I'd like to get something a little nicer aesthetically speaking, since my wife is being a good sport and letting me keep this in the living room.  Actually, she's been enjoying it just as much as I have and has already picked up quite a few records herself!

The long term plan is to get some vertical vinyl storage for either side of this little table to hold more albums and to move the speakers onto, but this is fine for now especially since it's getting cramped a bit by Christmas decor.  I picked up the stand on Etsi, handmade from reclaimed sanded and stained wood.  Had the look I was going for and only set me back around $150.  It should hold around 100 albums or so, which is perfect.

I don't have a ton of records yet, but I do have three Christmas-themed albums in the collection so far, with this Bing Crosby being the first.  When it comes to holiday music, I definitely gravitate towards the classics, and this album is chock full of them.  One of those where pretty much every song is a classic that you've heard countless times on the radio, in shopping malls and in holiday movies over the decades.

With these tracks having been recorded in the 1940s, this is a great album for the vinyl medium.  This was one of the first records I picked up, and it's gotten quite a few spins this holiday season.

Much like the Bing Crosby album, Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song" is another seasonal classic where just about every track is a staple for this time of year.  I like this one every bit as much as the Crosby album, maybe more.

Collecting vinyl isn't all that different from collecting cards in some ways, there are rare pressings, serial numbered releases, and even colored vinyl!  As you can see based on the sticker, my copy is an exclusive "Red/White" pressing of the album, released by Newbury Comics, a regional chain here in New England.

Here's what the actual record looks like, almost equivalent to a colored parallel or refractor in the baseball card world I guess.

Here's the last of the holiday trio we've accumulated to date, the well-known and well-loved soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas", performed by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.

This one's my favorite of the three.  Jazz sounds really spectacular with the setup I have, in fact this is one of the records that really got me into exploring more jazz artists over the past few months.  A true holiday classic in every sense of the word, and pressed on seasonally appropriate green vinyl to boot!

Well, now you know what will be competing with sports cards for my hobby funds in 2018!  Don't worry, I am still enjoying collecting cards too, and have plenty of great cardboard already stockpiled to feature in the coming year.

Merry Christmas to those of you that celebrate it!  I hope you are spending the day enjoying the company of loved ones, and I thank you as always for taking a few minutes of your day to stop by and read my ramblings.  It'll be back to sports cards tomorrow!

Buyback Franken-set: The Ichiro Bump

Just one card to evaluate for the buyback franken-set tonight, but it's a good one!

2002 Topps #225 - Ichiro Suzuki

Second-year Ichiro featuring the All-Star Rookie Cup logo!  I snagged this one on eBay, because $2.00 plus a buck for shipping seemed very reasonable for an early-career card of one of the best pure hitters of his era.  I'd love to get this future HOFer into the binder, but there's a competing card for this number:

Wow, tough match-up here.  A nice Stottlemyre with an interesting backdrop and a nice bold Heritage buyback stamp against a pale blue sky.  I hate to give this one the boot, but...

...the combination of Ichiro and the Rookie Cup was just too much.  Mel here getting tossed really illustrates just how hard it's getting to be to make the binder now as I close in on 1,000 total buybacks.

It just so happens that card #225 falls on one of the few pages I've completed to date.  Here's the previous incarnation, with Stottlemyre in the lower right corner...

...and here's the new look with Ichiro in his place.

Some real star power added to the binder tonight, hard to imagine this one ever loses its spot!

Franken-set Progress:  512/792 (63%)
"Rejected" Buybacks:  377
Total Buybacks in Collection: 889

COMC Blaster - Holiday Break Edition

My Christmas vacation starts today, and I'll be enjoying eleven straight days of sorely-needed rest and relaxation.  Hopefully that will result in an uptick in posting frequency here on the blog as well.  Let's kick it off with one of my custom "COMC Blasters".  The basic idea here is to illustrate just how far you can stretch a $20 bill on what is arguably the greatest hobby site on the internet.

Today's edition contains vintage, a relic, three-dimensional dinosaurs, Star Wars, a die-cut and much more (even a football card!).  Let's get to it!

1971-71 Topps Gary Jarrett - $.77

We'll start off with a trio of cards from the gorgeous 1971-72 Topps hockey set.  This is a release that I actually managed to make pretty significant progress on in 2017, enough so that I've got it in a binder with a want list up even.  With a little luck and some responsible use of my hobby funds I may be able to put this one to bed in 2018.

1971-72 Topps Doug Roberts - $.61

This one has some sentimental value to me.  Needed a raw version for my bindered set.  Can never have too many Golden Seals cards!

1971-72 Topps Wayne Cashman - $1.29

Here's the only one of the three that I paid more than a dollar for.  Cashman was a scrappy winger who enjoyed a very long NHL career.  He played 17 seasons, all with the Bruins, and was a member of two Stanley Cup winning teams.  Pretty excited to welcome this one to my set.

2016 Topps Opening Day Wally the Green Monster - $1.09

I've made a habit of picking up Wally the Green Monster's Opening Day Mascots insert just about every year.  Honestly, I may have overpaid slightly for this 2016 version, but at least I can cross it off the list.  I like it when Topps chooses a photo that includes the actual Green Monster in the background like they did here.

2012 Allen & Ginter Framed Mini Relics Jed Lowrie - $1.10

I'm not really big on relics/game-used cards generally speaking, though there are a few exceptions.  I think Allen & Ginter's framed mini relics are some of the nicer ones out there, so I typically snatch up any Red Sox I don't have if I can find them for around a buck or so.  Such was the case with this plain white swatch of the under-rated Jed Lowrie.

1959 Topps Pedro Ramos - $.48

It's the time of year where most collectors start to take stock of the prior year and decide what changes if any they want to make for the next one.  One thing I definitely have planned for 2018 is to continue to make good progress on my 1959 Topps set.  I've never completed a large set anywhere near this old, and it's no easy feat, but it's very satisfying any time I slide a new card into the binder.  Especially when said card cost me less than two quarters.

1959 Topps George Altman - $1.49

Why would I shell out $1.49 for this one when it's got banged up corners?  Because it's a dreaded high-number, part of the final series actually.  Finding a card from this series in any condition for less than a couple bucks is a challenge for sure.

1959 Topps Tom Morgan - $2.38

Here's another high-series card, and in even better shape.  If I could find the rest of the high-number cards I'm missing in this condition at $2.38 each I'd buy each and every one of them immediately.  Very pleased with this one.  273 cards in the binder now, I'm actually approaching the half-way point!

2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs 3-D Triceratops - $.87

You may have seen some of these lenticular 3-D inserts from Upper Deck's 2015 Dinosaurs release previously on the blog.  They don't necessarily scan so well, but in person I think they're great.  There are only 42 cards on the checklist, so any time I see one I don't have already for less than a dollar I pounce.

2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs 3-D Oviraptor - $.80

The pair in today's post brings me up to five in total now.  Getting there slowly but surely...

2011 Topps Cognac Mike Schmidt Legends Variation - $1.05

It feels like just about every one of these "COMC Blaster" posts that I do ends up containing at least one of the 2011 Topps Legends Variation cards.  I just can't get enough of these, someday I hope to acquire them all.  This Mike Schmidt is particularly striking.

2013 Topps Blue Slate Mike Napoli - $.98

If I had to pick a least favorite card in today's grouping, this would be it.  I believe these were redemption cards that you could receive by mailing in pack wrappers to Topps.  They're very shiny cards and look nice enough I guess, but why did I spend almost a dollar on this?  Well, when I added it to my collection on The Trading Card Database I remembered why...it was the final one I needed to complete my Series 2 Red Sox team set.  Interestingly, I have not a single one of these from Series 1.  I wonder if they even made them?

2016 Star Wars Tek Blue Rainbow Maz Kanata - $1.30

The Star Wars Tek acetate cards are a guilty pleasure of mine.  I've loved the movies since I was a kid, though I haven't seen the latest one yet.  Maz Kanata here, who was introduced in Episode VII, is a Blue Rainbow Foil parallel, numbered to /99.  I've got five of these parallels now, a few more and I can make a complete binder page of them.

1969 Topps Houston Antwine - $.58

I'm really not a football guy at all when it comes to card collecting.  I enjoy the sport, and watch the Patriots every week, but I've already got enough to collect without dipping my toes into another sport.  With that being said, I stumbled across this one when I was looking to add some more cards from a seller in order to make a bulk offer.  Just a cool card for 58 cents.

I didn't know this when I bought the card, but it turns out Antwine was no slouch!  A formidable pass rusher, he was named an American Football League All-Star practically every year in the '60s.  He was actually elected to the New England Patriots HOF posthumously in 2015.  Now I'm definitely glad I forked over some pocket change for this one.

1995-96 Topps Finest Refractor Eric Lindros - $2.25

Yet another 1995-96 Finest hockey refractor.  I know I'll never complete this entire set in refractor form, yet I keep trying.  This is a significant notch in my belt as far as these go, as Lindros is now enshrined plus this is the very first card on the checklist.  In my opinion I flat out stole this one at $2.25.

1994 Flair Hot Glove Kenny Lofton - $1.38

Perhaps my favorite card in this entire post.  The 1994 Flair Hot Glove die-cut inserts were all the rage in the mid-'90s.  It's easy to see why, these cards are flat out beautiful.  They still demand a premium, relatively speaking, to this day, so I was pleased to land Lofton for the price I did.  I would love to track down the rest of these and complete the set, but there are some big names that command more coin than Kenny here.

Even the backs are just fantastic.

2011 Topps Cognac Darryl Strawberry Legends Variation - $.75

Here's yet another Cognac Legends Variation.  Didn't have it previously, 75 cents, into my cart it went.  Besides, it pairs so well with the Platinum version that I already had:

Now I just need the regular ol' base card to complete the trifecta.

1961 Topps Dick Williams - $.90

I'm not sure how I never managed to acquire this great '61 Topps Dick Williams card until now.  The '61 flagship set is very polarizing to me.  There are a lot of cards I just don't care much for, but there are also a lot that I really like.  Williams definitely falls into the latter category.  I was happy to spend 90 cents on this one since it's basically flat out mint.

Well, this brings the running total to $20.07, so we'll cut it here for today.  I hope you enjoyed my latest plunder from the amazing selection that COMC has to offer.  Thanks for stopping by!