Fini!

Things have been quiet here lately. With regard to my collection anyways.  In the last two weeks I have had to replace the AC compressor on two different cars, leaving a fairly big hole in my pocket.  I have picked up a few things here and there, and have managed to complete two sets.

These were the last two unnumbered checklists I needed to complete my 1973 Topps set. So, at the moment, the only "flagship" sets I am working on are 1956, 1975, and 1979.  I'd like to finish at least one of the latter two prior to the end of this year.  Depending on how you look at it, it took me almost three and half years to finish this set. I got my first '73s in a trade with Ted at the now defunct Crinkly Wrappers in January of 2012, although I didn't start working it in earnest until about a year later.

These were the two cards I needed to achieve my definition of complete for the 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game set. This was over 4 years in the making, as I really started on this set in April of 2011.  It isn't a master set, as there is the serial numbered blue parallels, the autographed subset, game used memorabilia parallels to various insert sets, and the uber-expensive Yankee clippings insert set.  But the cost to complete any one of those is beyond what I willing to pay and would only distract from my core vintage set collecting.  So, this one is done also!

Lastly, this is the one card I have added to my Paul and Lloyd Waner player collections. I bought it on a whim and probably shouldn't have.  It cost $46 delivered and is typical of most modern Waner releases: bat cards issued in low numbers. I like the card real well, but I am discouraged by the prices these modern cards get.  I am not sure what I am going to do with this collection. I may just limit it to vintage (which are also expensive) and non-exclusive modern cards.  At least for the moment, the need for car air conditioning in the Oklahoma summer has forced that decision into the future.

2015 Set Completion #1 - 1973 Topps

This year, my intent is to actually complete some sets, an accomplishment that eluded me in 2014.  I have 4 in mind: 1973, 1975, and 1979 Topps and 1960 Fleer.  As I mentioned in my New Years post, I had struck a deal for the remaining cards I needed to complete the 1973 base set. They arrived about a week ago.  I still need to work on the unnumbered team checklists, but they are hard to find them in good, unchecked condition. So, I am just going to consider that a low priority, long term quest.

So, there was over 20 cards in that last lot.  There was no one last card, so I thought I would show the biggest of the big ticket cards in 1973 Topps. This was part of that last group of cards I needed.

I think it has great eye appeal. Nice corners and edges, but that surface wrinkle down below Ron Cey's face kept the card in the affordable range.

I should have another post up in a few days that I am pretty excited about.  A small hint: it will be the most valuable card in my collection

February Card Show - Chipping Away

As I implied the other day, I did make a little progress on my vintage sets at the show.  I had hoped to knock off a whole bunch of the 1973 high numbers, but was not able to since a particular seller wasn't at the show. I did manage to find four 73s I needed.

 

This leaves me with needing to acquire 53 more cards to complete the base set.  I also need 18 more of the team checklist cards.  At this point, I think I am going to have to start looking on EBay and other online auction sites, as I am getting to the point where I want this set done so I can move on to working 1975.

Two more cards for 1959 Fleer Ted Williams, which brings me to needing 45 cards to finish the 80 card set.  In particular, I love the first card "Sox Lose the Series."  Why? Duh. Because the Sox lose the Series.  It brings a little tear of joy to my eyes.

Three more for 1961 Fleer, leaving me 56 to go to finish the 154 card set.

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And finally two more cards from 1956.  The Berra has surface wrinkles, which explains why I was able to pick it up for only $25.  But, they are hardly noticeable, and this card has great eye appeal.

So, now you have seen every last card I got at the show, vintage or modern.  Not a large haul, but decent enough for me to declare success.  I even walked out with money still in my pocket.

What I am listening to: Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd

Card Show Haul

The card show was a bit of a disappointment.  There were only a half dozen sellers there. Apparently, a fair number of sellers cancelled at the last minute, including the one I was counting on for making progress on 1973. 

That said, it wasn't a complete wash.  I did manage to find about a dozen cards I needed for 1973,  the two star cards below and an even 10 high number commons.  This leaves me 58 base cards to go, including the Mike Schmidt rookie card, and 18 of the unnumbered team checklists.

I also found 6 cards towards my 1956 set.  I am now up to 83 cards from this 340 card set.  Almost a quarter of the way there.

I think the big score of the day, though, was this card. 

I dropped $20 on this card, but it is a really nice version of card #1 from the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set.  I've now got 31 of the cards from this 80 card set.  I probably shouldn't have started this because of the presence of card 68, which was removed from circulation early on and commands prices in the hundreds of dollars. In fact, I was following an auction earlier this week for card 68, and it sold for $279. Not really sure what I will do when I get down to only needing that card. I have only spent $100 or more on a single card 3 times and it hurt every time.  Paying 2-3 times that amount is not something I see myself doing right now.

So, that is probably it for card buying for me for the year. Not a bad haul given the poor turnout of sellers today.

July Card Show Haul - Set Additions

I am back from the card show up in OKC today. I mainly wanted to pick up some cards towards my 1973 Topps and 1960 and 1961 Fleer sets. Measured against those goals, it wasn't a particularly productive show for me.  I did manage to find 7 base cards from 1973.

I also managed to find 5 of the unnumbered checklists.

I picked up seven more 1968 Topps Game Cards. This leaves me only five to go to complete the 33 card set.

This 1970 Topps Giant Super Hank Aaron was only $5, so I picked it up on a whim.

This 1977 Cloth Sticker is more appropriately labeled trade bait. I seem to recall that some card blogger was interested in collecting these. So I dropped the princely sum of $1 on it.  Of course, I cannot remember for the life of me who it was that was collecting them.   Any one out there collect these or remember who does?

Anyways, since these big shows come around once every other month, I tend to save up so I am not running short of funds if I find something cool.  Since there was really only one vintage seller today, I could have pocketed what I hadn't spent on the above cards and used it to work on my 1973 set at a second LCS next weekend.

But, as you might guess, I didn't.  Coming up tomorrow: MOJO!

What I am listening to:  Nashville Blues by The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

A Trip to the LCS

I haven't taken a lot of time off work this year.  It has been crazy busy, and will continue to be like that for a while yet.  But, with July 4th landing on a Thursday, it gave me a chance to string together a decent amount of time away from the office without actually being away from the office much, if you get my meaning.  So, I started off today clearing some old fencing off the 5 acre pasture I bought recently and, after the heat drove me inside, I headed off into town to run some errands.  I also took advantage of having a weekday off to stop at my nearest LCS, which is only open from 12-6 on Monday through Friday.

I haven't been there in probably a year, when I exhausted their supply of good quality 1971 cards.  So, it was nice to get back.  My goal was to work on my 1973 set, particularly the high numbers.  I did just that, although I was hoping to find more than the 31 cards I walked out with.

I got a total of 13 high number cards, including this Darrell Porter, his first solo card.  These only put a small dent in my high number needs, but it is a dent nonetheless.  I also got a total of 11 non-high number commons, but nothing real exciting to show.  So, with only a small stack, I decided to go through the stores star card box and got a few more cards.

Including this Rich "Goose" Gossage rookie card.

And this Nolan Ryan.

 I also picked up 4 of the All Time Leader cards.

I also picked up my first team checklist card.   I am guessing that these will be the last cards I get to complete the set. They don't seem nearly as prevalent as the similar cards from 1974. In fact, the store only had two team checklists from 1973 and the other was marked up and in rough shape.

The store did have a copy of the Mike Schmidt rookie card, but with a book value of $150 I couldn't afford it on top of everything else I got. So, I left it behind.  So, where do I stand overall? Well, I need only 21 cards to finish the low number cards (528 and below) and only one has a high book value (#1, the All Time Home Run Leaders.) I still need around 100 high number cards and 23 team checklists.  Still a ways to go, but it is good to make progress. 

There is a two day show up in OKC next weekend. I'll probably hit that and see if I can find any more high numbers, although I am not optimistic. I have already gone through the 1973 box of the one vintage seller who is always there.  The other major vintage seller, Roger Neufeldt of Sports Memories of Oklahoma, probably won't be there.  He only does a few local shows a year and was just at the April show.  But, on the off chance he is, I need to at least check in the first day.

Every Dog Has His Day - Ed Brinkman

Though I am skeptical of my ability to sustain any regular feature here, given my "real life" obligations, I need give it a try.  I've basically slipped into a mode where any posts are half-assed and, consequently, I have limited readership.  Not that I am looking to challenge for the Blog of the Year or anything, but I feel like I've taken more from the community than I have given and need to work on what I contribute.

So, here is how it is going to work. I will periodically grab a random card from my collection and find the best single game performance in that player's career, as measured by Baseball Reference's Win Probability Added statistic.

I'll start with Ed Brinkman.

This card is from the very first sheet of my 1973 set.  I won't be proceeding through this linearly, in case you are wondering. I mainly chose this card because Ed is striking the pose of a particularly ineffective hitter, what with choking up and crouching in that odd way. And, indeed Brinkman had a .228/.280/.300 slash line over a 15 year career.  He was mainly known as a good glove man.  Over his career, he notched up a dWAR of 20.3 versus an oWAR of 5.3 and managed the mind boggling feat of three seasons with dWARs higher than 3.0

Ed's career day was May 23, 1970 when his then team, the Washington Senators, squared off against the Tigers in Detroit.  Overall, Ed went 4 for 5 with 1 run scored and 3 RBIs in a 6-5 Washington victory.  His contributions were as follows:

• Leading off the game against Tiger hurler Mike Kilkenny, he flew out to right fielder Jim Northrup. 
• He closed out the bottom of the first, by throwing out Al Kaline at first.
• He also ended the bottom of the second, by forcing out Mike Kilkenny at second on a Mickey Stanley groundball. However, Detroit managed to put three on the board by virtue of an Ike Brown homerun.
• Coming to bat with in the top of the third with with one out and Tim Cullen on second, Brinkman put Washington on the board wen he laced a double to right field, scoring Cullen.  Ed was stranded there two batters later.
• He ended his third consecutive inning with another forceout at second, this time Willie Horton.
• He didn't factor in the game again until the top of the sixth, by which time Detroit had opened up a 5-1 lead, when he opened the frame with a double to left field;later scoring on a Frank Howard homerun.  That tater by the Capital Punisher brought the score to 5-3 in favor of the Tigers.
• He came to bat again in the seventh with two on and two out.  A single to left field scored Ed Stroud to close the Senators to within one. An inning later, Washington tied the score on a solo shot by Rick Reichardt.
• Ed came to bat again in the top of the ninth with John Roseboro on second and two outs.  He singled to center, scoring Roseboro and putting Washington up 6-5.
• He threw out Ike Brown for the first out in the bottom of the ninth and then almost blew the game, one out later, when he committed an error, allowing Micky Stanley to reach base and keep Detroit alive. Luckily, the next batter, Cesar Guitierrez flew out to end the game.

I enjoyed researching this post, although I struggled with writing it.  Hopefully, I'll find my voice if I keep at this.

Coming up next: an unexpected addition to a PC.

What I am listening to: Baby Please Don't Go by Lightnin Hopkins

June Card Show Haul

After the bitter, bitter disappointment last weekend of finding that the LCS in Norman is no longer open on Saturdays, I decided to go to the one day show up in OKC this weekend. I probably would have skipped it, but I was excited about starting to finally focus on my 1973 set.

As I said earlier, I need 296 cards to finish 1973 (including the unnumbered team checklists).  I was able to knock off about 121 of those today. Most were commons from the lower numbered series, although I did start to make some inroads into the high number series.

This is probably the best 73 I got today, but I did get some other Hall of Famers.

Obviously Pat Corrales isn't a HOFer, but I love this card. I don't have to say much about the card as it has been described already (and better than I ever could) by Chris Stufflestreet at his 1973 Topps blog and, of course, at one of the more popular hobby blogs, Play at the Plate.

What can I say, a card of a pitcher batting has to be shown. Jim Kaat was a career .185 hitter and managed to hit 16 round-trippers during his 25 year career.  Not bad for a pitcher. Kaat is also one of the guys I still need to get in my 1963 Fleer autograph quest.

That would have made a good card show haul, but I was able to actually make a large dent in the remaining cards I needed for my 1960 Fleer set, picking up nearly 30 cards.

 Look! It is your Uncle Ed!  Actually, Ed Barrow was the front office executive behind the dominant Yankee teams of the 1920s, 30s, and early 1940s.  But, doesn't he just look more like someone's grandpa than a baseball executive?  All you Yankee haters out there can blame your jealousy anger on Ed.  But, you have to admire the awesomeness of this card. I think it is my favorite pickup of the day. 

Ralph Kiner is likely the only player featured in this set that is still alive. Someday I will take a look and figure it out.

This was my second favorite pickup of the day.

With these cards, I am down to needing 9 cards left to finish the 79 card set.  There actually is an 80th card for the set, but it was never officially issued due to contract problems with it's subject, Pepper Martin.  Several variations of this card #80 have been found in circulation, but they are extremely rare and ungodly expensive.  As in 4 figures expensive.  So, I will consider it complete at 79. I still have some big cards to go amongst those nine, including Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Ted Williams. But, I am close enough that I am going to try and complete the set this year.

So, with those purchases, my card show experience ended. I was only there about two hours, but was quite pleased to make substantial progress on two sets.