As I mentioned in a previous post, I focus my two player collections on trading cards which actual feature an image of the player, with the possible extension into postcards. That does exclude a fair amount of memorabilia. I've often seen Johnny Antonelli Armour coins (in 6 different colors!) come up for auction, but I just pass them on by. Pins, balls, and gloves are similarly ignored.
However, something came available on EBay recently that I had to bid on, despite it falling outside the defined scope of my player collections. But first, let me dispense with a recent acquisition for my Paul Blair player collection:
A 1972 Milton Bradley card. I never picked this up earlier because I wasn't sure it existed. I have had the 1969 Milton Bradley Paul Blair for a while, but never saw anything that was listed as 1972. It isn't helped by the fact that they are identical from the front. The back, however, is a different story:
Because I am a crappy scanner, I've got '72 on the left and '69 on the right. The lousy cropping just adds to my shame. This is the 112th unique card in my Paul Blair PC.
Now on to the unique item:
I know it looks a lot like a 1978 Topps trading card. A printing error, perhaps? Nope. This is a film positive for the 1978 Topps trading card that was auctioned off recently by the official Topps Vault Ebay account. I snagged it for $13 delivered. As I understand it, film positives are used during the creation of the printing plates that are used to print the actual cards. There are four different color plates (and thus film positives): black, cyan, magenta, and yellow. Needless to say, I am pretty psyched about getting this little piece of history.
With that, I think I have caught up with my recent hobby activity. With vacation coming up and the holidays fast on it's heals, it may be quiet for a while. There will be OKC shows in October and December. I can't guarantee I won't go, but if I do, it will be with a fairly limited budget.
What I am listening to: Outlaw You by Shooter Jennings
In my last post on this project, I mentioned that there was three cards out of the 66 card 1963 Fleer set that I didn't reasonably expect I would ever find an affordable autographed version: Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, and Joe Adcock. Adcock may seem odd given the other two, but it does make some level of sense. The 1963 Fleer Adcock was a short print, thus has a Beckett book value of $200. Given that Adcock died in 1999, I didn't expect many such autographed cards to exist and those that did would be way too rich for my wallet.
Imagine my surprise when one popped up on Ebay shortly thereafter. I guess I went a little crazy, but ended up winning with a final bid of $136.
More than I really wanted to spend, but not much more. My limit, set at a more dispassionate time, was $120. But, being so close, I came in with a higher bid with a couple seconds to go and won. This will pretty much kill my hobby budget through the fall. My wife and I are taking a vacation in early October and with the holidays fast approaching, it makes sense to mostly sit on the sidelines until 2017
What I am listening to: The Funeral by The Turnpike Troubadours.
While I haven't been super active this year as far as adding to my player collections, I have made a few pickups here and there. I have added one really cool piece to my Paul Blair collection, I am going to save that for another post sometime in the future.Hopefully soon, but probably not.
Today, I am going to focus on additions to my Johnny Antonelli collection. By way of review for any newcomers here, I have a player collection of Johnny Antonelli because I grew up in Rochester, NY and (at the time) he owned a chain of Firestone tire stores in town. He was something of a local celebrity. I suppose that is a odd reason to have a player collection, but there you have it.
Additions to the collection had stopped for quite a while, but have picked up over the last 6 months or so. so, let's get to it:
This is supposedly a 1950s George Brace postcard, although it may be a 1970s reprint. In a few minutes of googling, I found there is some discussion about how to identify which vintage it is, but I haven't dedicated enough time to actually figure it out. I just liked it and added it to my collection.
My player collections follow a fairly simple rule: trading cards that feature an image of the player in question. That's it. So, all the cut auto cards that come out each year in un-licensed sets don't count. I am starting to come around to adding post cards to the mix. I have certainly been adding post cards, but haven't fully committed myself yet. Speaking of which:
1985 TCMA post card of Johnny Antonelli and Hall of Famer Robin Roberts.
These look like the 1947-1966 exhibit cards, two of which feature Antonelli, but they are not. They are actually 1980 reprints and come in three colors: sepia, blue, and red. I don't have the red one yet. There are several red on EBay, but are priced at around $6 including shipping. These exhibit reprints, which are the same size as the originals, have a book value of less than a dollar. I'm probably being too cheap about it, but I am having a problem paying $6 for it. Especially given the cost of another recent Ebay purchase. But, I am going to wait to see if I can find the red version for $3 or less.
Earlier this year, I was looking through my player collection binder and realized that I didn't have a 1951 Bowman Antonelli. I am not sure how I managed that, given that I have been working on this collection for 4 years. I guess I could attribute it to my approaching dotage. In any case, it took a while to find one reasonably priced, but now I have all 4 Bowman Antonellis (1950, '51, '54, and '55).
This is a card that I have been aware of for a while. It is a 1958 San Francisco Call-Bulletin raffle ticket and Giants schedule. I have only ever seen one of these available and the seller wanted double the high book value. I wasn't going to pay that, so I just continued to keep my eye out. Luckily, this one came up and I was able to snag it for $11.50 delivered.
The auction was described as "Old Sport Raffle Ticket, Johnny Antonelli, Pitcher, San Francisco Giant Schedule." I have to love auctions where the descriptions are poorly written, which allows me to buy the item at a fraction of the price I would have paid if it had been better written. If this auction had mentioned "1958 Call-Bulletin" it would have gone for a lot more. Sucks for the seller, but I can't concern myself with that.
Coming up soon: another autographed Fleer and a odd, but historic addition to my Paul Blair collection.
