The National Haul Part 4 Non-Dodgers and HOFers

Aloha, everybody,

Here's the final of my 4-video series showing off the cardboard loot I scored on at The National. 

I didn't hunt only Dodgers in Chicago, but the brunt of my budget was for them. I managed to grab a few non-Dodgers vintage as well. Let's check em out.

Aloha!

Vintage Card Show Haul: Baseball & Basketball HOFers

Aloha, everybody, 

I hit the card show recently, and picked up some vintage Los Angeles Lakers and baseball Hall of Famers cards, including a Mickey Mantle!

Aloha!

Bo Lowered the BOom and Hit Me with a Cardboard BOmb

Aloha, everybody, 

I recently received a behemoth of cardboard from Bo, the man behind Sportscards Brought to Life. Bo came upon a whooooole lotta cards and he was generous enough to share the wealth with his fellow collector/bloggers. I was lucky enough to join in the fun and Bo was cool enough to fill a big ol' box and send it to me. 

 Check this out: 

Upwards of 650 cards of Dodgers present and past, World Series Heroes, Hall of Famers, scrubs, tributes, RCs, cards to share with you all....and more. Wow! 

I wish I could just pass the box to you as if you were sitting in the room with me, and we could both enjoy every card inside, but that's not possible, so let's enjoy some highlights.

I really enjoy these tribute cards of the early players and HOFers. I've picked up a few cards from these sets here and there, and Bo's box really expanded my collection. 

These are beautiful tributes. Great photos on classic designs...

And simple backsides with career stats. 

I had a few from this (also beautiful) set, and always wanted more. How did Bo know? 

Josh Gibson, Hoyt Wilhelm, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson. What a start. AmIright? This is just a scratch of the surface. 

I'll be presenting the different segments from this box over the next few posts, so stay tuned and we'll check out some more next time. 

THANKS for the cards, Bo. I really appreciate them all. 

Aloha! 

A JBF Tradeathon Leads to a Vintage-palooza

Aloha, everybody, 

Did you participate in JBF's recent Holiday Tradeathon? The creator of the Supertraders, the man who you never (but you really kinda do) wanna have a cardboard war with, is constantly finding new ways to spread his generosity around the blogosphere. 

This time it was a tradeathon. Wes offered up cards from different sports, autographs and well-loved vintage. The cards were offered to the first to call dibs, so one had to be vigilant to claim cards that were popular. 

I missed a couple of cards that I would have loved to claim, but there were plenty of others that caught my eye, and claim them, I did. 

Wes offered up a good amount of vintage and HOFers, both of which fit very well into my collecting wheelhouse, and here are the cards that I chose. 

A couple of posts ago, I decided to make a real go at collecting cards from defunct teams. Here's Frank Howard repping the Washington Senators from 1966 Topps...

 Howard, who broke into the bigs with the Dodgers, wasn't quite a HOFer, but he put up impressive enough stats: 
Rookie of the Year, 2-time AL home run leader, 4-time All Star, AL RBI leader, and a World Series champ. 
He'll slide into my collection just fine. 

Did I mention there was an offer of well-loved vintage? Who can resist 1954 Topps?
Bonus: Defunct team. 

Shantz was no slouch either: 3-time AS, AL MVP, 8 Gold Gloves, AL Wins leader, ML ERA leader, and WS champ! 
Bonus: Southpaw
Yeh, Mr. Shantz deserves a slot in my binder. 


In the three-hole, HOFer, Harmon Killebrew. I have a very modest PC of the Killer, and this card fit right in. 

This Killer card is an absolute beauty! Mirrory and refractory, it dazzles as it catches the light. 2014 Panini HOF Red Framed 08/50 

When I started collecting in the early 90's, Mickey Mantle cards were the bee's knees. I never lost my eye for Mantles. This one is an Upper Deck calling card commemorating the Mick's 500th homer. 
Bonus: Defunct Yankee Stadium 

The last of the cards I chose brings us back to 1966 Topps and another HOFer. This time it's one of the just 24 men to have pitched a perfect game... 

Bunning also pitched a no-hitter, was an 9-time AS, 3-time SO leader, and had his number retired by the Phillies, and he was a Dodger. Yup, I'll claim a Jim Bunning card. 

If those awesome picks weren't enough, good ol' Wes dropped in a bonus pack of 1995 Fleer. I pulled an abomination...

 And a second ex-Dodger, this time as a Met (I know, he's an ex-Giant, but we don't speak of such things in these parts), 

This card was the highlight of the pack. Gimme World Series Heroes every day of the week! 

Carter's WS heroic home run is forever implanted in my mind, so this was a great pull. 

Awesome cards from an awesome dude. THANKS, Wes! 

Aloha! 

I Swung - And Up Popped A Trade

Hey everybody,

Clayton Kershaw dominated once again last night.

Kershaw is definitely the real deal.  You just know the team's gonna win when he takes the mound.  I was born too late to see Koufax pitch, but I've been lucky enough to see some of the other great Dodger dominators such as Don Sutton, Orel Hershiser, Fernando, Ramon Martinez, and Hideo Nomo; now, Kershaw.  It's a beautiful thing when guys like this pitch for your team.

A couple of posts ago, I started the "Trade Me (Almost) Anything" series, and the first post dominated like Kershaw.  That post helped introduce me to a new trade partner, Bert, and his blog, Swing And A Pop Up .  That might not seem like dominating stuff, but that was just the beginning.

Bert checked into what I collect and he noticed I was chasing the 1987 Hygrade Baseball's All-Time Greats set. 

* WHAM!! *  In one fell swoop of blogo-generosity and coolness, Bert absolutely crushed those set needs by sending me a  hy-stack of those Hygrades.

IMHO this is a an overlooked and undervalued set.  Perhaps it's not undervalued in a monetary way because the card stock is not very thick and printing standards seemed to vary as some card runs seem to have washed out colors.  That's OK to me because the positives of the set far outweigh those small negs.

There are 103 cards in the set and the checklist reads like the walls of the Hall of Fame.

There are the usual suspects, sure...

But there are also plenty of guys that I would never get a chance to get a card of, due to their cards being overpriced, simply not available, or being ignored while Topps prints tribute cards of the same 6 or 7 players over and over.  Bert's generosity and this set helped me to get cards of guys like Three-Finger Brown, Dizzy Dean and Pie Traynor, just to name a few.

Here's what the backs look like:

Here's one more great...

THANKS for a dominating trade, Bert!

HOF + Vintage + Value = Ebay Home Run

hey everybody,

when we think of the legendary players that are must-haves for our collections, there are names that we all agree upon, irregardless of our separate team loyalties.  names like mantle and aaron, Robinson and williams - even honus wagner comes to mind. 

in many instances we have to settle for modern cards because we rarely come across cards from their playing days, or the condition is lousy.  Sometimes the condition is right - but the price is more than we can afford or really want to pay.  after all, it's just cardboard, right?

while trolling the bay last week i spotted a 3 card lot of roberto clemente originals with a starting bid of $4.65 - shipping included.  SAY WHAT ???  three original cards of the greatest pirate ever, the guy some say was the greatest right fielder ever, for less than a sawbuck ?

taking a page from jeff over at My Sports Obsession, i opened the bidding at that paltry $4.65, and then forgot about it.  there were still 3 days remaining in the auction, and i was sure folks were going to bid me out of contention.

the clock ticked away, these cards were invisible to everyone else, nobody bid me up, and 3 days later, i won!  check em out...

'73 topps. some inkspots in the upper left, rounded corners. everything else, nice.

'72 topps.  i love these cards showing clemente in action.  small crease on the right side, off-center, otherwise this card is in pretty good condition.

 

...and now for people who enjoy 'well loved' cards...

i'm not sure what the reason was for writing '68.'69 and '70 with a star because clemente missed the all-star game in '68 - but he did win gold gloves in those years.  that card was the chewiest of the lot, but i've gained a new appreciation for cards with character, thanks to you all out there, so i appreciate this one for it's personal history.

...and all for under five bucks. 

Binder Page Heroes 10 Hank Aaron & Pirates Ed.

hey everybody,

in honor of the braves getting burned on a bogus infield fly rule call, today's edition of Binder Page Heroes features the most famous brave of them all - yes, even more famouser than chipper, the legitimate home run champ, hammerin' hank aaron.

i don't have a whole lotta aaron cardboard, so the rest of his page is currently occupied by some pittsburgh pirates.  let's check 'em out...

this is hank's first card showing him as a member of the 500 HR club.  he's also creepin up on the 3,000 hits milestone.  he eventually finished close to 4,000 hits.

i often use reprints of a card i want to fill in a spot in the page until i can get the real mc coy.

here's the real mc coy. bill white, pictured here, went on to become N.L. president. 

it's a miiiiiiinnnniiiiiiiiiiiiiiii commemorating his breaking of the babe's all-time HR record.

this one's my favorite.  hank is forever young in this card.

 onto the pirates....

manny here finds a place in my binder because he was a pretty good catcher, but more than that, he got to play in 2 fall classics, and he was a WS hero both times.  his first WS (1971) he got 11 hits.  the only other player to get more ?  roberto clemente with 12.  in his second WS (1979), he got a game-winning hit.  nice work, manny.

lifetime games: 1062   lifetime hits: 1009

yet another WS hero.  gotta love that huge wadda chaw in maz's cheek.

"big dave parker", as Vinny always referred to him, is one of those players with good career stats across the board that fall just beneath the cut-off numbers for the HOF voters.  as a result, he'll probably never get in the HOF, but i suspect every pirates fan would vote him in if they could.

THANKS for reading !