A Couple of Quick Trades

Not much time today, so let's bang out a quick trade post featuring two recent trades...

I participated in Thorzul's 'Trade Me Anything' for the first time this year.  If you're not familiar with it he basically trades away all his inserts and parallels from his jumbo box of Topps Update every year and asks for literally anything in return.  I sent him a variety of cards and a Godfather DVD, and in return got this emerald foil parallel of David Ortiz, which commemorates him setting the record for most hits by a DH.

I snagged two of the 1971 Topps Minis off the list as well, one featuring who else but Ortiz.  I now have over 120 unique David Ortiz cards, which is pretty amazing given the minimal amount of recent product that I buy.

Here's the other '71 mini, Nomah!  I wish Topps would cut it out with these mini inserts, enough is enough already.

Here's a look at a back, not very flattering.  Anyway, it will still fun participating in Trade Me Anything and I was able to flush out a hundred or so unwanted cards to get these three in return, which was nice.

Just before the exchange with Thorzul I entered into a trade on Zistle with user hpennington22, who is apparently a huge Will Clark collector.  I sent off three Clark doubles and in return got not one...

...not two...

...not three...

...not four...

...but five 2013 Topps '72 Minis that I needed.  I was pursuing this insert set with vigor in the Spring when Topps flagship hit the shelves, but as seems to happen to me every year I lost interest long before Series 2 was ever released.  Oh well, still nice to get a bit closer to the mini set I suppose, and I'd take these cards over a couple of unwanted doubles any day.

Well, that's a wrap, thanks for the trades gents!

1953 Topps Project - Don Kolloway

The end of the year is rapidly approaching, and I'm still a few cards shy of my goal for the 1953 Topps Project, so let's take a look at another card today...

Don Kolloway was actually a fairly successful hitter early in his career, which began in 1940.  His most impressive feat in the batter's box was leading the AL with 40 doubles in 1942.  Don's most impressive feat in life came off the field though, as he represented the United States Army (29th Infantry Division) in World War II, seeing combat in Europe and earning a Bronze Star.

Don played a few more seasons after returning from military service...his 1953 season with the Philadelphia Athletics would actually be his last.  He owned and operated a tavern (called Kolloway's, in Illinois) later in his life after baseball, and passed away at age 75 back in 1994.

Set Progress:  60 of 274 (22%)

Signature Sundays - Broad Street Bullies

This Sunday I'm showcasing some autographs from the 'Broad Street Bullies' Flyers teams of the 1970s, courtesy of (surprise, surprise) 2012-13 Panini Classics Signatures. 

After winning the Cup in '73-74, the Flyers did what good champions do, went out and improved their team even further.  Philadelphia pretty much stole Reggie Leach from the Golden Seals, and would win the Stanley Cup again in '74-75 with him in the lineup.  His best year would come the following season though, when Reg would score a career high 61 goals and 91 points, before going on an absolute tear in the playoffs. Leach would score a best-ever by any player 19 goals in a single playoff run in 1975-76 (a mark matched only once since, by Jari Kurri).  His performance was so impressive that he was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP despite the fact that Philadelphia lost to Montreal in the finals.  Reggie is a member of the Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Fame.

Ed Van Impe was picked up by the Flyers when he was inexplicably left unprotected in the expansion draft by the Chicago Blackhawks (he had just finished runner-up for the Calder Trophy to some guy named Bobby Orr).  He would go on to play over 8 seasons with Philadelphia, serving as team captain a good portion of that time.  While he wouldn't be described as flashy, Ed was a rock on the blue line who played a physical game, and specialized in clearing the crease and blocking opponents' shots.  Ed was a member of both Stanley Cup Champion teams of the era and, like Reggie Leach, is a member of the Flyers Hall of Fame.

Orest Kindrachuk was a third line center for most of his Flyers career, and was a member of both Stanley Cup Champion teams as well (the first being his rookie season).  I have to commend Orest, whose parents were Ukrainian immigrants to Canada, on his penmanship.  That right there is how you sign a hockey card.

Next up is Kindrachuk's linemate, The Hammer.  I have wanted a Schultz autograph for a long time, and I absolutely love this one.  The photo is great, and like Orest Kindrachuk, Dave has a really  nice signature.  Panini chose a great photograph of one of the game's first enforcers (Schultz still holds the record for PIM in a season, as a matter of fact).  He was a member of both Cup teams as well, and recorded 222 penalty minutes in just those two playoff runs alone!

Finally, the lone Hall-of-Famer in today's post, Bill Barber.  Bill was a member of both Cup teams, but unlike the other guys in today's post he never played for any other franchise.  His 420 career regular season goals are the most ever by a Philadelphia Flyer, and he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1990.

I was always so impressed by Barber as a kid, because even though he had played his final game before I became a fan, he was elected to the Hall of Fame just after I began collecting, and there were a couple of Hall of Fame subset cards in some of the junk wax sets at the time.  The internet wasn't then what it is today, and it just wasn't easy to pull up stats and photographs as a little kid, so seeing an older photo like this mixed in with my pack was really exciting.
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So there you have it, five Philadelphia Flyers with 9 Stanley Cups between them!  This makes 64 autographs and counting for me from the 2012-13 Classics Signatures set...

Signature Sundays - COMC Blaster Edition

I'm not usually one to celebrate milestones, but I just happened to realize while scanning in today's cards that this is my 800th post in the nearly 6 years since I started this blog.  To celebrate, I'm doing a sort of cross-post of two different regular concepts, Signature Sundays and COMC Blasters.  So, let's take a look at a virtual blaster of autographs only, purchased from COMC...

I'll go ahead and spoil it right now, these are all going to be 2012-13 Panini Classics autos.  First we've got Craig Hartsburg of the Minnesota North Stars.  Craig actually began his professional career with the Birmingham Bulls of the WHA, but was picked up by the North Stars when the WHA folded.  He would play 10 seasons at the NHL level, all with Minnesota, and would serve as team captain for 7 of those years.  His autograph set me back $4.25...

Towards the end of Craig Hartsburg's time with Minnesota, they acquired Dave Gagner from the New York Rangers.  Dave enjoyed the most productive years of his career with the North Stars, before playing with a multitude of teams in the late stages of his career.  His John Hancock set me back an even $4, that's $8.25 if you're playing along at home.

I was pumped to see Al Iafrate on the checklist for this set.  Al was elected an All-Star multiple times and was an imposing presence on the blue line.  To me, and to many hockey fans, the things I remember most are his raging mullet and equally ferocious slap-shot.  This was one of my best Panini Classics bargains to date, as the seller accepted my initial offer of just $3.25!  That brings the running total to $11.50.

Duane Sutter may not be a household name any longer, but he was a key member of those early '80s Islander teams, and has the distinction of winning the Stanley Cup his first four years in the league!  Duane's little scribble here cost me $3.50.  We're at an even $15 and counting...

In closing, one of the all-time great Buffalo Sabres.  Craig Ramsay played his entire NHL career with Buffalo, over 1,000 games in total.  At one point he appeared in close to 800 consecutive games.  Known as a defensive forward, he was a reliable contributor on offense as well, racking up over 250 goals and over 400 assists during his time in the NHL.  Craig was an All-Star and even won the Selke Trophy in 1985.  I was happy to shell out $5.69 for this card.

Not too bad, five on-card autographs and thanks to COMC's free shipping on black Friday they were shipped to my door for $20.69.  I've now shown 59 autographs and counting from my favorite release of last year...

Out with the New, In with the Old - Buy Me Some Peanuts and Cracker Jack!

Under the title "Out with the New, In with the Old", I've posted a few times about selling off some modern cards that don't really fit my collection and using the proceeds for some vintage greatness.  Well a couple of months ago I decided to make a play at a card that I've been drooling over for quite sometime.  The card cost more than my self-imposed card budget for an entire month, so I decided to test the waters with some eBay sales in a fundraising campaign.  I gave up quite a bit to come up with the required funds, including...

Yes, I parted with my Tyler Seguin Young Guns rookie.  I felt sort of obligated to get a copy of this card given all the hype when Tyler was first drafted, but I have to admit the novelty wore off pretty quickly.  I've thought about ditching it numerous times even when he was still with Boston, so once he went to Dallas I knew it was time to let this one go...

I also figured it was a good time to let my Bobby Ryan Young Guns rookie go, while the excitement of his migration to Ottawa was still in the air.  Apparently my instincts were correct, as this card surprisingly netted me north of $20.

Not all of my auctions did so well.  These two batches of 1970 Topps, in pretty good shape...

...brought home just 99 cents each.  A set builder somewhere out there got a good deal with these.

I finally purged out a few scrub autos that came in a lot with some Hartford Whalers autos a long time ago.  I've been staring at them for what seems like forever so it felt good mailing these out, especially with a profit made.

I was a bit reluctant to let this Feller autograph go, but I've got a few of Bob's autographed cards, including some I like better than this one.

Ditto.  Once I obtained an on-card Goudey auto of Rollie Fingers this one became expendable.

To my surprise, someone actually paid $1 plus a couple bucks shipping for this basic Matt Kemp RC.  I had listed it figuring someone would grab it for a buck for the combined shipping if they were already purchasing something else, but it didn't play out that way.

I also purged out a large stack of no-name Young Guns rookies from various years...

...and some Topps Heritage yellow name/yellow team name short prints...

...a lot of Turkey Red #'d refractors...

Here are some more of the common Young Guns rookies...

My pursuit of 2012-13 Panini Classics Signatures autographs left me with an extra Sean Burke, so off to eBay it went.

I had an entire spare Red Sox team set from the dreaded Topps Heritage High Numbers set.  I was surprised to get close to $10 for this.

I also sold a large lot of insert and parallel and star cards, all New York Yankees, I think close to 100 in all.

Well, that was certainly a large haul of cards to part with for just a single card in return.  It was a good feeling mailing out a huge stack of unwanted cardboard though.  Besides, I think the trade-off was well worth it.

So, what was the one card I wanted to have so badly?

It's a really old one, in fact it's now my oldest baseball card.

I have always wanted just one card from this set.  Any card would have been fine, but making this one even greater is the fact that it's a Red Sox card.  You've waited long enough if you've read to this point, behold!

Holy freakin' crap!  I have had this card for around three weeks now, maybe slightly more, and I still can't believe I actually own it.  This is by far the greatest vintage baseball card I own.  The fact that Cracker Jack is so intimately tied to the game of baseball makes this set really unique, and the design is just plain classic.

There are a few Red Sox players on the checklist, but what sold me on this particular card is the awesome, prominent, old-school Sox uniform.  A good deal of the cards from this set feature closely cropped portraits of the players' shoulders and head, sometimes wearing a cap, sometimes not.  Most of the uniforms and hats of the era were very subtle if not completely devoid of logos, so even the cards where you can see more of the player can be relatively bland.  The end result is that for most of the cards in the set, if you covered up the team name on the bottom it would be a challenge to say the least to identify.  Not Heinie Wagner though, the blazing red "Red Sox" on his uniform can't be missed, and matches the background color of this set perfectly.

Here's a better look at the front in larger scale.  I'll save you a complete and thorough summary of Wagner's life and career, but if you're interested in that sort of thing I highly recommend this write-up over at SABR, which is maybe a 10-15 minute read.  Here are just a few reasons why this card rules.  Charles, aka Heinie:

• Was born in the 1800s.
• Had a reputation for fighting early in his career and was once arrested for punching an umpire in the face.
• Was team captain for the very first game ever played in Fenway Park in 1912.  Had a hit and a stolen base.
• Was a key player when the team won the World Series that very same 1912 season.  In game 8!  In extra innings.  Against Christy Mathewson.
• Was Babe Ruth's "adult babysitter" during his early career.
• Was a member of four World Series champion Red Sox teams.

Here's a look at the back.  Yup, they're upside down.

That's better.  You can click the scan for a larger version if the print's too small to make out.  I love that the bottom is labeled Rueckheim Bros. & Eckstein, which was the name of the company at the time (later changed to The Cracker Jack Company in 1922).

Well, I certainly need to do this again.  Time to start rounding up some more cards to sell...

Signature Sundays - McSorley and Muller

Here are another couple of recent additions from the 2012-13 Panini Classics Signatures set.  First up is tough guy Marty McSorley:

How's that for a signature?  One of my favorites from the set so far.  Casual hockey fans (like my Dad) remember McSorley as nothing more than "Gretzky's bodyguard".  He was a part of some significant moments in hockey history though, including assisting on "the goal" when Gretzky broke Howe's all-time scoring record.  Unfortunately, he'll also always be remembered for his illegal stick infraction in the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals against...

...Kirk Muller and the Montreal Canadiens.  Muller was the #2 overall pick in the '84 entry draft behind Mario Lemieux, and was a nearly point-per-game scorer and fan favorite in both New Jersey and Montreal over the first 11 years of his career.  In a sad series of events, Kirk was then traded to the New York Islanders, where careers go to die.  He was never heard from again.  Okay so that's an exaggeration but his numbers certainly dipped permanently.

Muller is currently head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes.  I've now posted 54 autographs from this set.  I've got a few more, but might take a break for a Sunday or two to show some different subject matter and mix it up a bit...