Mid-week Baseball Randoms

Not a lot of time today, so let's just look at a random smattering of baseball cards I rounded up off my card desk, scanned in, and added to my collection proper over the last few days.

I'm continuing to work my way through a cello box of 1993 Topps Series 2 that I picked up a while back for a trip down memory lane.  Most of the cards I pull I just put right into a priority box to ship off to Billy at Cardboard History, but I keep a couple of cards from each pack that interest me for my own collection, like HOFer Jim Thome here.

This is one I may get rid of in a purge someday, but I hung onto it for now just because Cliff Floyd was kind of a big deal when I was pulling these cards from packs for the first time as a kid.

Another classic shot of a man enshrined in Cooperstown here.

Each cello pack comes with two Topps Gold parallels, and I was pleased to land one from the Red Sox portion of the set this time around.

Pulled Scott Cooper's standard card from the very same pack, as fate had it.

It should be painfully obvious why I chose to hang onto this Jeff Conine.  That is one of the strangest backgrounds I have ever seen on a baseball card right there.

Not as nice as his '94 sunset release maybe, but I love this George Brett.  For some reason the photo looks to me like one from much earlier in his career, and wouldn't even feel out of place in an early '80s set.

Always nice to land a new card of one of my personal heroes, Jim Abbott!

We'll close out the '93 Topps portion of today's post with a Crime Dog/Big Hurt combo!

One day I aspire to have the entire subset of manager cards from 1960 Topps, and today I get three cards closer.

I'm going to show the backs of all three, as they are every bit as enjoyable as the fronts, perhaps more so even.

See?

A great trio right there, and in fine shape too!

Here's a significant card in my quest to complete the 100-card 2014 Finest set in X-Fractor form.  Or at least it used to be.  I paid more than I'd like to admit for this card (around $14 I believe) a year or so ago because Ramirez cards weren't getting any cheaper.  He was one of the bigger rookies in the set and copies were becoming scarce.  I have a feeling I could have reeled this one in for less coin had I been more patient, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say...

We'll close it out with the only two cards I purchased from the Topps Living Set promotion.  As someone who adores 1953 Topps you'd think I'd be all over these, but honestly I just prefer to spend my hard-earned money on actual cards from the '50s, including the '53s themselves.  I did pick up a JBJ...

...and my only Shohei Ohtani RC of any sort back towards the set's debut just to see what they were like in person.  I'll certainly hold onto these two, but don't plan on chasing any more other than maybe picking up a Xander Bogaerts for that player collection.

That's a wrap for this Wednesday, thanks as always for stopping by!

Another Birthday Helmar Pack

Time to rip open the second of four packs of 2005 Helmar Brewing Baseball that I received as a birthday gift from my parents at the beginning of the month!

As we've seen before, each pack contains three cards, featuring original artwork.  Many of the subjects are forgotten or lesser-known players from long ago, so these are right up my alley.  Let's tear in...

This is my first card of James Robert McAleer, who managed the St. Louis Browns from 1902 to 1909, also appearing as a player in the 1902 and 1907 campaigns.  I've seen him referred to as "Jimmy", and by the nickname "Loafer", but can't find a reference to the name Hugh anywhere.

Either way, I love that every pack of this introduces not just new cards to my collection, but new subjects entirely.  The artwork on this one is beautiful, I love the old-school ball cap in particular.  My favorite card in today's pack.

Next up we have Negro League player James Cobbin, who spent time with both the New York Black Yankees and Indianapolis Clowns (as seen on this card) franchises.  My first card of his as well.  Helmar actually did a full Negro League set a while back, which looks awesome but isn't cheap.

Closing out the pack is Ross Youngs.  Ross was a career New York Giant, and was a key member of the team that won four consecutive NL pennants, and two World Series as well.  He's enshrined in Cooperstown, and deservedly so.

I love the pastel background colors on this card, including the beautiful orange sunset.  Those striped stirrups might be even better than that, though.  A really nice looking card all around, I'm sure you'll agree.

Three new cards for my collection, three new subjects for my collection.  Another successful pack of Helmar here, with two more still to come from my birthday present.  Thanks for stopping by!

PWE from an Old Friend

A couple/few weeks back, I arrived home from work to find a PWE in the mailbox with a return address in Delaware.  A big grin instantly came across my face, as I realized I was the recipient of another generous batch of Red Sox cards for my team collection from my good friend Mark Kaz, who used to blog at This Way to the Clubhouse.

Aside from being a generally nice guy and one of the friendlier folks you'll encounter in our hobby, Mark has been hooking me up with Sox cards for quite literally years now.  He and I don't swap PWE's as fervently as we did back during our Zistle (RIP) days, but every so often I get a reminder like this that Mark is still collecting away a few states south!

This Matsuzaka RC from Topps Triple Threads is a fun novelty card now, but imagine how big a pull this would have been for a time back in 2007?!?!

If memory serves, Mark happened upon a stack of 2016 Topps Mini Red Sox cards in a box at his local show, and he's been sending them to me in a steady stream since.  This package contained not one...

...but two 2016 minis.  Ryan Hanigan donning the tools of ignorance, and my first horizontal-layout mini from the set in Wade Miley.  I'm well on my way to a completed team set of these now, based almost solely on Mark's generosity.

Sticking with the 2016 theme for a moment, here's a really vibrant Purple Refractor from Topps Chrome, serial-numbered to /275.  I've yet to meet a colored refractor from Topps Chrome that I didn't like, and this card is no exception.

From the 2006 Topps Co-Signers set, here are two Josh Beckett parallels from the seemingly unending number of parallels in this release.  If you notice, the blue portion of the card actually features Curt Schilling.  There are two other versions that feature different players there (neither of them Josh Beckett), plus endless different color schemes.

Case in point, here's the Gold version to accompany the Blue.  Each of these were serial-numbered, one to /125 and one to /115, but I forget which is which.  Collecting sure was complicated around the mid-way point of the last decade, wasn't it?  Still is, if you ask me!

Sticking with the colored parallels theme for just a couple more cards, here's my first Blue parallel from this year's Topps Big League set.  I liked this design generally speaking and the blue looks extra sharp on a Red Sox card like this.  Very cool.

2009 Topps Unique sure was aptly named, wasn't it?  This Red parallel of Jon Lester is the first card from the set to enter my collection proper on The Trading Card Database.  This card was serial-numbered as well (so was the Big League Blue Nunez above, actually), which is a common trend among this latest envelope.

We'll close it out with what is perhaps my favorite card in the PWE, this absolutely fantastic 1987 Burger King All-Pro Roger Clemens.  For a card to feature a plain-black, unlicensed hat, yet still be my favorite in a package, it's gotta be really interesting.  This one is exactly that.

Man, did I devour quite a few Burger King meals back in the late '80s and early '90s as a kid!  Used to love the chicken nuggets especially, and would get a honey sauce to dip them in.  Good times.

Mark, thanks as always for the amazing injection of new Red Sox cardboard!  My Mets supply is running a little thin, but I'm sure I can scrounge up something to send your way here soon!

A Football Card Experiment - Game 3 - J-E-T-S Jets, Jets, Jets!

In just a few minutes, the 2-0 New England Patriots will host the 0-2 New York Jets in Week 3 action at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA.  Continuing with my experiment to acquire and feature one new football card for each Patriots game this year, here's my entry for this week:

I've gone on record numerous times as being an unabashed fan of the Topps "tall-boy" sets of the '60s.  I've been casually picking up examples from the '64-65 hockey set for years now, but Dainard Paulson represents my very first card from its sister 65 football set!

At $3.50, this beauty was the most expensive card from the small lot that I treated myself to as a birthday present, much of which funded the early weeks of this project.  Small price to pay for a tall card and a relevant blog post though in my opinion.

As you can see from the cartoon and the write-up on the back, Paulson was not only one of the best defensive players on the Jets, he was one of the premier backs in the entire league.  In fact, he was an AFL All-Star in both 1964 and 1965.

I'm very happy with the entry for this week, and this project is giving me just the right dose of football cardboard without overwhelming me, exactly as I'd hoped.  Tune in next Sunday for more football content.

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the NFL action today!

Keepers! Mantle, Mantle, Mantle

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.

I've got the next three additions to the baseball keepers collection, and unlike the first half dozen entrants one of these has never seen the light of day here on the blog before.  Today's post is all about the great Mickey Mantle!

Owning a playing-era Mickey Mantle card seems almost like a rite of passage for baseball card collectors who specialize in vintage, at least in some circles.  I've wanted one quite literally since I was a kid, and I can remember drooling over the handful of vintage Mantles that my childhood friend's father owned way back in the early '90s.

Well, I made it all the way to my mid-30s without crossing that goal off of my collecting bucket list.  Late in 2018 I finally bit the bullet though, and picked up this '66 Topps example.  It still makes me smile when I look at it, coming up on a year later.  In fact, I liked it so much that I think I got the itch.

Shortly after featuring the '66 Mantle, I used an eBay gift card I received for Christmas to take about half of the sting out of this beautiful '64.  I like this one even better than the first, and could now say that I owned a pair of Mantle cards proper.

Each of those two cards has received a post here on the blog over the last few months.  I actually have a third 1960s Mantle though, acquired after that initial pair gave me the taste.  I'm especially pleased with and proud of this one.  The pair has now become a trio...behold!

Oh yeah!  Quite possibly my best card from the '60s, period.  I love the look of Mantle on one of the most unique and easily-recognizable designs of the decade.  Just classic.

As with my first two Mantle cards, the low grade allowed me to nag this otherwise unattainable card.  I assume this one received a "Good 2.5" from the folks at PSA primarily based on the soft upper left corner, but it sure feels criminally under-graded to me.  I have a feeling this card would have actually fetched more at auction raw than it did in this holder, but that's fine with me.  A vibrant and visually appealing card if you ask this collector!

My scanner struggles with PSA slab backs, but you get the picture.  Nice clean back, no paper loss or anything nasty.  Works for me.

So that's how I went from zero proper playing-era Mantle cards to three, all within a year.  I'd love to augment these with a Topps Mantle from the '50s as my next goal.  1959 in particular would be killer since I'm working on that set, but no luck there yet.

For now, I'm selecting all three of these cards for my baseball keepers collection.  That's 9 cards down in that collection altogether now, 991 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!

Happy Birthday to Me! Another Pack of 2005 Helmar

A while back I ripped a pack of these 2005 Helmar mini cards, and absolutely loved them.  Well, my dad reads this blog and picked up on the fact that I liked these cards.  For my birthday earlier this month, he and my mom were kind enough to send me four packs of these!

I've got the first one to feature here today.  In case you missed it the first time around, each pack contains three cards.  The cards all contain original artwork by the artists at Helmar, and as you'll see the quality is fantastic.

The best part about the set is that it covers many subjects who are relatively obscure in the annals of baseball history.  Aside from the beautiful artwork, I enjoy the fact that each card is an opportunity to learn about a lesser-remembered name from baseball's past.

Let's see how I did in this pack...

First card out is Negro League great Rube Foster.  I'd seen this card on COMC previously, and it was the card I wanted to pull the most out of the limited number I'd seen.  This is my very first card of Foster, and I couldn't ask for a better one.  I love the imagery here, particularly that great uniform.

This pack is already a win, regardless of what the other two cards are.

Next card is a dupe for me, although a beautiful one.  I haven't been able to find much of anything about Goto here since encountering this card for the first time a few weeks back, anyone have a lead?

If any of my trading partners is interested in this one just speak up and I'll toss it in your next outgoing package.

A really interesting card to close out the pack.  Arnold "Chick" Gandil was a member of the famed Black Sox team, and consequently banned from baseball.  The first baseman was actually the leader in the scheme, and admitted later in life that he deeply regretted it.  As with Rube Foster above, this is my very first card of Gandil, and the artwork is quite interesting as well.

I'm really loving these cards so far, and I'll be sure to feature each of the three remaining packs from my birthday present when I get around to opening them.  Thanks for stopping by, and if you're reading Dad thanks for the great cards!

Fivers - Throwback Nolan Ryan

Fivers is an aptly named series of ongoing posts, each of which will feature a single card that cost me $5 (give or take).  Leading off the series is the great Nolan Ryan!

I stay away from nearly all of Topps' online exclusive card offerings nowadays, but a couple of years back when they released this take on a Nolan Ryan 2007 Topps card that never was I was helpless.

Ryan was one of my absolute favorite players growing up, and on top of that 2007 Topps was the first flagship set that I collected when I returned to the hobby.  Throw in a fantastic image of an aged Nolan Ryan acknowledging the fans, and I was sold.

I do wish Topps would do a little something more with the backs for these releases, but oh well.

This card cost me exactly $5, and while it may not be one of my more valuable cards of The Texas Express, it's certainly one of the more visually appealing.  I'd grade Topps a 'B' for this effort, while a more interesting back would have bumped this to at least an 'A-'.

Have you purchased any of the Throwback Thursday or other online exclusive sets in 2019?  If so, did you buy direct from Topps or try to save some coin on the secondary market?

Thanks as always for stopping by!

A Football Card Experiment - Game 2 - Squish the Fish!

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.

Earlier today, the Pats annihilated their week 2 opponent, the Miami Dolphins.  To commemorate the occasion I've got...you guessed it...a Dolphins card...

...and a fantastic Dolphins card at that!  When I conceived the idea for this small project and began looking around at vintage football cards, it didn't take me very long to settle on Garo Yepremian's rookie card.

There are so many things for me to like about this card.  I'd never heard of Garo, who was born in Cyprus, before.  He doesn't seem like a likely NFL football player to me, between the diminutive stature (5' 7") and male pattern baldness.  Nonetheless, he was the team's kicker for their perfect season in 1972, which is pretty cool.

As the back of the card indicates, he'd never even seen an American football game before suiting up for his very first one with the Detroit Lions in 1966! 

I really love the design for the back of the cards in this 1971 flagship set.  Topps fit a whole lot of information on here, including a small cartoon, and did it in such a way that it's very easy on the eyes and visually appealing.

The front isn't bad either, the cartoon element in the lower corner is perfectly '70s.  You don't see a lot of sets where red is the dominating color either.  2008 Topps Opening Day baseball comes to mind, but there aren't many.  All of the other pluses aside, you can't really go wrong with a card that features a couple of trees and wood-paneled station wagon!

This is proving to be a fun experiment a couple of weeks into the season so far; I'm pleased to welcome Garo to my collection!  Thanks as always for stopping by, and enjoy what's left of your Sunday evening!