Miscellaneous March Madness - Vintage Edition

March was a semi-active month hobby-wise.  I put an order in at COMC and picked up a few things on EBay. I didn't spend much money, but I did get enough to milk three weak posts out of it. Normally, I'd save the vintage for the last post, but as I worked through the scanning and cropping, I decided I really didn't want to do everything at once.  It's a Friday night, I have an glass with two fingers of Glenmorangie, and I am in with striking distance of finishing the last season of Star Trek:Voyager.  So, since I had started with the vintage cards, that is what I am going to feature in this post.

Boom! The last three cards I needed for my 1979 set.  This is the eighth Topps set from the 1970s that I have completed.  I have finished 1971 and the entire run from 1973 through 1979.  1979 was the last year I had any cards from in my youth and will be the most current Topps set I intend to complete.

Two more cards from 1961 Fleer, leaving me only four left to complete that set. Unfortunately, two of those remaining four are Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.  Very expensive and I expect it will take me a while to find them in the right condition at the right price.

Coming up: Modern cards and some player collection additionsl

What I am listening to:  So Far Away by Carole King

Joy of a Completed Set - 1975 Topps

A quick trip to sportlots.com and my 1975 Topps set is now complete with these four cards.

Yeah, I got lazy and didn't bother to make sure I had a good quality scan. I just threw this wonky scan out there.  No attention to detail or respect for craft. What can I say. Life is busy and I have little free time to do a respectable job.

 The same seller had some 1979 Topps cards, but only one that I needed:

 

It is a bit diamond cut, but that doesn't bother me.  My main criteria are sharp corners, smooth edges, and border all the way around.  The corners on this are a little more worn than I would normally go for if I was buying in person. But, this is plenty fine. It isn't like 1979 is that valuable of a set.

This leaves me three cards to go to finish 1979, all commons.  I believe a trip to COMC is in the cards soon, to pick up the three remaining 1979s as well as some inserts for the various modern sets I am working on intermittently.

What I am listening to: Losing My Religion by R.E.M.

January Mini-Show Haul

Last Saturday, I drove up to Edmond to go to the monthly mini-show at Al's Sportscards.  I was up in the neighborhood to buy horse feed and hadn't seen one of the main sellers I deal with since summer, so I stopped in to say hello.  I didn't spend much, but was productive nonetheless.

I actually found a box of 1979s in Al's inventory and was able to get 16 more cards, leaving me a mere 4 to complete the set.  I really like the JR ultimately redeemed character.

I managed to find two more cards towards completion of my 1975 set.  This also leaves me 4 cards from completion.  My intent will be to finish both 1975 and 1979 before the end of February.

I found another 1961 Golden Press card. I also bought 6 cards for my 1956 set, but managed to forget to scan them.  The seller of the 1956s was rather proud of them, asking around $7 each for cards I would normally pay 4 or less for.  But after taking up space at his table, I felt like I needed to buy something.  I left at least 20 cards I needed behind as there is a limit to my generosity.


What I am listening to: Ghost of Highway 20 from the upcoming Lucinda Williams album of the same name (skip forward to around 2:00 if you just want the music:)

Card Show Haul - Vintage Sets

The show ended up being quite fruitful with regard to working on vintage sets.  Two of the three main vintage sellers were there and I made a little progress on a lot of sets.

I managed to pick up 8 more cards towards my 1979 set; leaving me 17 to go to completion.

I managed to find this 1978 TCMA The 60s Sandy Koufax in a dollar box.  I have a good deal of the 293 card set, with about 40 to go to completion.  This set, and other 1970s TCMA and SSPC sets, are what I intend to work on during the long dry spells in the quest to finish pre-1973 Topps sets.

I found 3 1975 Topps cards, leaving me only 6 to go to complete the set.  The Munson however, is not one of the three.  The scanning process doesn't make it obvious. but it is actually a mini. I don't really intend to ever collect the 1975 minis, but how could I pass up acquiring the card of one of the Yankee's iconic players for a mere buck?

I found five more 1961 Fleer cards leaving me 6 to go to completion.  The Ross Young is one of the more expensive cards in the set with a book value of $40.  Why? I'm not sure, but the best explanation is that it is the last card in the set, and like the 1952 Topps Andy Pafko, it is hard to find in good condition because of damage from the rubber bands that held stacks of cards together back in the day.  Alas, two of the remaining cards I need are Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, which both come in at a $120 book value.  I'm hoping to find both for under $30, so it will probably be a long search.

I picked up four more cards from 1961 Golden Press, leaving me 12 to go. It is just a small 33 card set that, as I understand it, came together as pages in a book; explaining the perforation chads along the edges.

I picked up this 1956 Al Kaline for $5.  I am not sure why the seller (who tends to price high) had it for such a low price.  It appears to be a little off color, but the discoloration is uniform and the card has great eye appeal.  The seller had a large number of 1956 cards with him and I could have made significant progress on my set.  Except I managed to leave my 1956 want list at home. However, that didn't turn out to be a major issue.

Since I couldn't work on my 1956 set, I decided to have the seller put together a 1972 starter set for me.   I now have about 235 cards towards the 787 card set.  Among the cards he pulled for me are the 4 cards above, which includes the infamous Billy Martin card. (If you don't know why it is infamous, please look closely at his hand.)  This set will undoubtedly be a long haul to completion, with over 260 high number cards.  I expect that it will take a minimum of two years, since I'll only be able to get small groups of high numbers at a time....when I can find them.

So, that was the bulk of my card show finds. I did get one card towards a player collection, but will save that for a PC specific post.

A Visit to the Card Shop

Other than the oddball lottery ticket in my last post, I have done nothing hobby-wise since summer.  The time and money just hasn't been there.  However, I did take advantage of some birthday money, and the fact that my wife was at a horse show on Saturday to visit one of the local card shops.  My main goal was to make progress on my 1979 set, although I did also want to see if I could find one of the remaining cards I needed for my 1975 set.

I managed to find 49 cards I needed from my 1979 want list.  After I got home, I was surprised to see it included three of the key foundational players for the great Detroit Tigers teams of the 1980s. I also managed to finish the All-Time Record Holder  and 1978 Record Breakers subsets.  The subset I didn't manage to finish was the 26 card team prospects subset that occupies cards 701 to 726.  What is frustrating is that the one card I lack, #724 Cardinals Prospects, doesn't include any big names.  The subjects are Tom Bruno, George Frazier, and Terry Kennedy.  This card is, essentially, a common.

These pickups got me into visual range of completing the 1979 set, with only 33 cards to go for completion with Dave Winfield and Nolan Ryan being the two biggest names left on the wantlist.

And the one card I wanted to get for my 1975 set?

Boom! There it is! With that, I have 8 cards left to go to complete 1975.  At this point, I don't expect to complete it by the end of the year (or 1979 for that matter.)  But, I do plan on making a push to complete both in January.  Afterwards, I plan to start two new sets:1972 Topps and another one. I haven't decided on the second one yet, but it will be something that is relatively easier to complete.  1972 Topps will be a bear to complete.  It is a large set at 792 cards, and a popular one. Consequently, the high number series are ungodly expensive. More so, I think, than it's immediate predecessor 1971. It took me almost two years to complete 1971, and progress was sporadic.  I could go months without making any headway. I expect 1972 will be much the same The "easier" set will be used to fill in the time gaps band give me something to do during those down times.

Anyways, if I don't post again any time soon, y'all have a happy holiday season!

What I am listening to:  Doing it Right by The Yawpers

The Old Ballpark

A lot of you probably read Julie over at A Cracked Bat.  If you do (and you should,) you will know that she recently ran into Ferguson Jenkins in a card shop called The Old Ballpark in Oklahoma City. As an OKC area guy, I can confirm it is a great shop.  The shop in Norman, The Dugout, has a better selection of vintage but isn't as well organized and doesn't seem to put a lot of emphasis on current releases.  The Old Ballpark still has a decent selection of vintage, but does market current releases and has a large number of discount boxes at various price points.

I went there this past weekend with my 1975 and 1979 Topps want lists in hand. I didn't see any boxes of 1975 commons, but did find a one and a half 800 count boxes of 1979 cards.  At last check, I needed around 216 cards to finish 1979. I was able to knock off 117 at The Old Ballpark.

I got a handful of stars, the best of which was this  Jim Rice.

I also got most of the 26 team prospect cards. In fact, I only need 2 more to complete that subset.

I also managed to make one recent addition to my Waner brother PCs on an EBay auction..

I bid on this not expecting to win, but ended up getting it for $15 delivered.  There is the bimonthly OKC show coming up at the end of June that I am going to go to. So, July is the perfect time to get started on the Waner PCs in earnest.  I'll probably start with getting a bunch of modern base cards that are inexpensive and start working to get a few of the vintage cards at bargain prices.

Coming up: Additions to another player collection.

Card Show Haul

Last weekend, I went to my first card show in a while.  The OKC show that was generally held every other month had disappeared since last fall, but was recently started up again with a new promoter.  I didn't have a lot of time at my disposal as the farrier was out in the morning and I was going to see the OKC Dodgers play in the evening.   So, no discount boxes or aimlessly wandering to see what was around.  I went straight to to the two sellers I knew had the type of cards I was looking for.

One had a huge box of late 1970s cards, so I sat down and started working through the 1979s. I had previously bought an 800 count box of 1979s, but the duplication was so bad that I only ended up with about 200 unique cards.  This box, though, seemed better. I started going through it and it seemed to have less duplication. So, in the interest of time, I made an offer on the entire lot of 1979s (about 800 cards), and he accepted. 

So, how did it turn out?  There still was a lot of duplication, and my hope of completing the common portion of the set was dashed.  As it stands, after this box, I have 513 out of the 726 cards in the set. Quite a ways to go. Alas, now I probably have over 1000 duplicates to deal with.

The second seller had a binder with about 70 1956 commons in it. I went through it and needed over half of them for my '56 set.  We talked a bit about it and his offer was more than I cared to spend. I told him I wouldn't insult him by offering what I could afford. However, he got the number out of me (a bit over $2 per card) and, surprisingly, took it.

I am pleased to report that, with this pickup, I finally crossed the halfway point on the 1956 set. In fact, I am just about to the 60% complete level, having 203 out of the 340 cards. 

While I prefer to spend my time at a card show, as it is supposed to be leisure time, I am rather pleased with my productivity in the face of time constraints.