August Card Show - Vintage Stars!

I started off the show with a specific mission in mind. Namely, to make some progress on my 1971 set. With that accomplished, I slid into hunter-gatherer mode and hit a couple of the vintage dealers looking for deals. One fellow had a box of well-loved cards for 10% of book. I sorted through there and found a couple, but most were well-loved AND commons.  I also hit another dealer that had a lot of good condition vintage including stars and I found some there, as well. Not that I am have to stick with stars, but when going through discount boxes, the main thing is for the card to capture my imagination.

So, let's take a tour through my imagination, shall we?

1953 Monte Irvin.  Despite the fact that it looks like he is posing in a subdivision backyard, I really like this card. Indeed, 1953 is slowly moving up the list of my favorite sets.  I would put it in the top 3 along with 1955 and 1956.  The order changes from day to day.

 1960 Casey Stengel. I think this card cost me a whole dollar.

 1960 Whitey Ford.  I don't remember how much I paid for this but it was definitely under $10.

1961 Phil Rizzuto MVP. This is my first vintage Scooter card.  I know now that he had a reputation for malapropisms when he was an announcer for the Yankees, but I don't care. Growing up listening to Phil, Bill White, and Fran Healy call the Yankees games is one of the fond memories of my childhood. I can still hear their voices in my head........uhh.....that didn't sound right.  I mean that I can recall what it sounded and felt like to listen to them. I didn't mean they are talking to me and telling me to do things.

One of my goals for the June card show was to get a Bob Uecker card. I failed then, but found this little gem from 1966 at the August show.  Best part of this card? Free!  The dealer threw it in the deal for the following three cards.

1968 Bob Gibson.  Great shape and only $5.

1960 Roberto (Bob) Clemente. The guy was dealing. This only set me back $25.  This was the most I spent on a single card at the show.  But, given that it books at $200, and a card of equivalent condition has a price of $48 over at COMC, I am most pleased with this deal.  It wasn't, however, my favorite pickup of the show.  That is reserved for this card:

1948 Bowman Allie Reynolds.  This is in fantastic condition for a card of it's age. I would put it in the EX range.  Set me back $20.  The neat thing about this is the fact that Allie Reynolds was born in Bethany, Oklahoma.  At the time he was born, 1917, it was likely a farming town. Today, it is a near suburb of Oklahoma City.  And not too far from where the card show was actually held.

I have periodically toyed with the idea of starting a collection of cards from players who were born in Oklahoma.  There are a total of 240 players that fit that criteria, including 41 who were actually born before Oklahoma became a state.  The big reason I might not do this?  Mickey Mantle, born up in coal country (Spavinaw) in the northeast part of the state.  He is the biggest name of the 5 Hall of Famers from here. The others being the Waner brothers, Johnny Bench, and Willie Stargell.  Although, cards of the Waner brothers from during their career would probably be pricey, they wouldn't be Mickey Mantle pricey.

So, that is a wrap of last weekends card show. I had a great time and hope it won't be February before I can hit another.

June Card Show Haul - Miscellaneous

I wasn't going to blog this week, but it is first thing in the morning. I am nursing a tasty cup of coffee and am not really wanting to ponder the day ahead. So, I am going to knock this one out and put a bow on the June 9 card show. This isn't going to be one of my better pieces. But, if you want something Pulitzer worthy get yer ass out here and help me load hay. When ever you start to wonder about your sanity because you collect 2.5" by 3.5" pieces of cardboard, just remind yourself that not only do I buy the same pieces of cardboard, I also drop a couple G each year on dried up grass clippings. You should instantly feel better about yourself.

Your welcome.

One of my goals was to peruse the vintage dollar boxes.  The one dealer, who had a huge box of late 50s early 60s for a dollar each at the April show didn't have it with him this time.  So, I went through Roger Nuefeldt's discount box (which is usually $2/$3/$4 cards), as well some boxes of Big Red Sports Cards, who has dime/quarter/dollar/ five dollar boxes.  I came back with a small set of super sweet cards.

1953 Clem Labine. I don't have many cards from 1952 through 1954.   After having recently read Roger Kahn's "The Boys of Summer" I don't have as visceral a reaction to Dodgers of the Brooklyn variety.

Poor cropping job. Sue me. I can't figure out my feelings for Billy Martin.  I loved him as a kid because he was the fiery manager of my beloved Yankees.  But, by most accounts, he was also a miserable SOB. I suppose a few years of therapy might help me sort it all out.  However, in the mean time, I added another 1956 card to my collection.

And another.  The recently departed Moose Skowron.

Oisk.  This one was actually sent off to Chris Potter Sports last weekend to be autographed.  but more on that later.

I am not sure why Laird is labelled as an outfielder. He is mainly a third baseman.  Typical Topps quality control, I guess.

2011 Topps Marquee Jackie Robinson. I just like it.  The full bleed cards are pretty cool.

1990 Swell Enos Slaughter autographed.  This is my favorite card of the whole show.  It set me back a tenner, but I think it was well worth it.  A signed card of a Hall of Famer.  Does it get any better than that?  No, I tell you, it does not.

So that is it for the June card show.  I've got a couple other posts in the pre-planning phase. But, the next few weeks may be a little lean.

Mail Call - October 27th Edition

I had another post scheduled for this afternoon, but I pushed it out a day because I am excited beyond belief about what came in the mail today. I believe I mentioned before that a guy that went to the same high school as I did runs autograph sessions in Rochester, NY and Minneapolis, MN. While his events seem to be more focused on football*, he did have a couple of baseball players at his October signing. One was Met and Yankee great Doc Gooden and the other was Rochester's own Johnny Antonelli. Johnny played major league ball for 12 seasons between 1948 and 1961 with a couple years off for military service. He won 20 games twice for the New York Giants and made the move with them to San Francisco.

That was all before I was born. I am most familiar with Johnny Antonelli as the name on a chain of tire stores when I was growing up in Rochester. So, when I found out he was going to be at the signing, I managed to arrange to meet Roger Neufeldt of Sports Memories of Oklahoma at his warehouse on the one day he was in town after a show in Houston and before he left to go to the Chantilly show in Virginia. I managed to pick up about 6 Antonelli cards and chose 4 to send in to get signed. Well, they arrived back today. And here they are:









* This October signing also featured Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, and (until a last minute cancellation due to Kent Hull's funeral) Marv Levy. Having lived and died with the Buffalo Bills through both lean and flush years, I was very tempted to send items in for them to sign as well. But, when I totalled up the cost to buy items to have signed and the cost of signatures, I decided to stick with Antonelli this time around. As it stands, Marv Levy has recommitted for a December signing in Batavia, and I may very well send something in for his signature.

One of my recollections of watching the Bills on TV back then was when the cameras would zoom in on Levy swearing a blue streak at an official. The announcer would always say some variation of "I'll bet he didn't learn those words at Harvard!". If I do send something in, I think I'll ask for that as an inscription.

By the way, if you are a Bills fan or a Vikings fan, you need to check out the upcoming signings at The Sports Corner. If my experience is any indication, you won't be disappointed.

A Great Connection

I woke up this morning to a friend request on Facebook. It was a guy that went to the same high school I did. He graduated two years before me and I didn't really know him, but his younger sister was in my class.

I accepted and looked over his profile. As it turns out, his business is setting up and running autograph sessions with sports personalities and he has an upcoming signing that includes former MLB pitcher Johnny Antonelli. I actually have three Antonelli cards from 1953, 1956, and 1960. The '53 is stained, so I probably won't send that in for an autograph, but I believe I may have to send the other two in and any others that I may be able to pick up for cheap in early October.






I'm pretty excited about the whole deal.

Card Show Haul - A New Beginning

As I wandered around a last time before heading home, I stopped at one dealer's table and he had some vintage cards out that he had just gotten in. I decided to look through them in search of more cheap 1956's. I managed to find a few, but also found some 1952 1953's that were a few bucks each. So, now I own three cards from the first full Topps set.


This Antonelli card is stained, but since he and I share a hometown, it doesn't really bother me.





That Indians logo is something else, isn't it? Not that the current logo is that much more politically correct.

My wife is from Ohio. On one of my solo trips back that way, I stopped at a sporting goods store and bought her a Indians hat, with Chief Wahoo logo on it. She rarely wore it. In contrast, I live in ball caps and tend to go through ten or more hats a year working on our farm.

So, at one point, when my stock of hats ran low, I picked up the Indians hat to wear when heading into town for some reason or another. Now, Oklahoma has a fairly sizeable Native American population. I got a few dirty looks while wearing that hat, and, upon my arrival home, relegated it to the "wear only at home" pile. True story.

Boring, but true.