Happy Birthday to Me - A COMC "Card Show" - Part 2

Time for the second and final installment featuring the birthday presents I picked out for myself on COMC last month.  With my $75 credit I ended up with eight cards in total.  You can see the first four here, today I've got the remaining four to show off.  Let's get to it!

I don't recall ever having seen this great '68 Topps Steve Carlton before.  The copy this seller was offering was in pretty spectacular shape, and it didn't take more than a few minutes of internet research to discover that I was getting a real bargain here at $6.44.  Something about this pre-game shot of a young, smiling Steve enjoying a sunny day at the ballpark just spoke to me.  Though his best days were still ahead of him in 1968, he'd just been a member of a World Series winning team the season prior.

Nice, clean back too.  This is now hands down my favorite Steve Carlton card of the 30-40 that I own.

Next up we've got a '63 Topps Nellie Fox.  Couple of small corner dings and a little white marking on the smaller black & white photo, but this card was an absolute steal at $3.94 because it's a scarce high number card from the 7th and final series of '63 Topps.  Nellie was close to wrapping up his HOF career here, in fact 1963 was the final season he would be elected an All-Star (for the 15th time!).

Just two cards left now, and they represent two of the nicest vintage cards I've been able to add to my collection this entire year.  First, this stunning second-year card of speedster Lou Brock.  Like the Steve Carlton that I led off today's post with, I don't have any recollection of having come across this card previously, but fell in love with it instantly.  At $12.69 it was my second most expensive card purchased, but in my mind it was worth every penny.

Not quite as high a number as the Nellie Fox, this one comes from the still scarce 6th series of the '63 release.  I love the cartoon on the back, so appropriate for the man who has stolen more bases than anyone not named Rickey Henderson.

Okay, time for the final card, and it's one I've wanted to own for years now, since I was a boy really.

As far as '60s baseball cards go, this has to be one of the most iconic.  Behold!

I can't describe how excited I was when this COMC order arrived and I finally owned my own copy of the 1961 Topps Roger Maris card.  A great portrait shot here, I love Roger's stoic look.

The home run race that went on that season is one of the most well-known tales in baseball history, and I've been interested in that race since first reading about it as a young boy obsessed with any baseball books I could get my grubby little hands on.  It's awesome to me to think that this card was printed up during that historic year.  I'd like to think that this was pulled from a pack and traded around between a group of neighborhood friends that summer as Roger and Mickey chased history, though I'll never really know.

At $25 and change, this card makes me never want to purchase a retail blaster again.  Bonds, McGwire and Sosa can all go screw, Maris is still the true single season home run king as far as this collector is concerned!

Happy birthday to me, indeed!