A Positive Development

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