Fleer Autograph Project - 1960 Part 20 and 1961 Part 52

It is coming up on a month since my last post. I should probably do a little dusting around here.  Recently, I partnered up with two other people to bid on two different lots of signed 1960 and 1961 Fleer baseball cards.  My focus over the last several years has been 1961.  Alas, we won the lot that was comprised solely of 1960 cards.  At some point, once I get to the realistic end of the 1961 set quest, I will turn to 1960.  So I was only a little disappointed that I made no progress on 1961.  

What was interesting is that I needed 5 of the cards on the lot we won. One of the other partners needed the exact same cards. I ended up taking two of my needs and let him have the other three.  Both of the cards I got were of players for which I already have their 1961 card in my collection. So, the next two posts will be combined.

And away we go:

Here is Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett.

1. Gabby Hartnett was born as Charles Leo Hartnett in the waning hours of the 19th century on December 20, 1900. He was the oldest of 14 (!) children.
2. Like many of that era, he played semi-pro ball on both town and industrial teams. It was as a member of the American Steel & Wire where he came to the attention of professional baseball.
3. In a possibly apocryphal story a scout for John McGraw's NY Giants passed on Hartnett because his hand sere too small for major league baseball.
4. What isn't disputable is that, based on his performance for that industrial team, he signed his first professional contract with theWorcester Boosters of the Class A Eastern League. And that led to his contract with the Cubs.
5. He initally backed up Bob O'Farrell, who will be featured in a future edition of this series. It was in this role that he earned his nickname. As a shy 21 year old he barely spoke thus earning the ironic sobriquet Gabby.
6. Nickname was "Old Tomato Face"'
7. His first major league hit was a single of Dolf Luque on April 13, 1922. His final hit came 19 years later and was a single off of Gene Lambert on September 24, 1941.
8. He was the National League's MVP in 1941.Modern sabermetrics credit him with 4.9 WAR that season. Looking at the voting results, there were 12 other players with higher WAR led by Arky Vaughan who clocked up 9.8 WAR with the 4th place Pirates.
9. Was the Cubs catcher in the 1932 World Series and was behind the plate for Babe Ruth's controversial called shot.  Hartnett was quoted in his biography saying “I don’t want to take anything from the Babe, because he’s the reason we made good money, but he didn’t call the shot. He held up the index finger of his left hand … and said, ‘It only takes one to hit.’
10. Hit one of the greatest walk-off home runs on September 28, 1938 when he took a curve ball from Pirates pitcher Mace Johnson. It was a key victory in the Cubs path to the pennant that year. It was (is) known 
11. Hartnett played in 4 World Series but, befitting someone who played 19 years with the Cubs, was never was on a winning team.
12. He was the Cubs player-manager from 1938 through 1940. Fired after the 1940 season, he signed on as player-coach for the Giants that had chose to not sign him 20 years earlier.
13. Despite being a son of New England, he lived his entire post-baseball life in the Chicago area. He opened Gabby Hartnett’s Recreation Center which included bowling lanes, a barbershop, a soda fountain, a cocktail lounge, and a sporting-goods store.
14. Died on his 72nd birthday after several years of failing health.

What I am listening to: Enter Sandman by Metallica (N.B. This was recorded last year at Lane Stadium at Virginia Tech. The crowd's reaction to the start of the song was so strong it actually registered as an earthquake at Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory about a mile away. I mention this only because I was actually at that concert. It was one of the best concerts I have ever attended.)

A Good Day

 I went to a card show today!  My first in over a year! It was held at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds and was the biggest show I have attended here in Oklahoma.  It was huge, but it included Pokémon and TCG and I expect it was dominated by those sellers. To be honest, I barely got inside the doors. Two of the sellers I buy from at every show were set up next to each other right by the entrance. I never got past their tables.  

Overall, there was nothing I would consider a noteworthy pickup. It was all set needs.  Mostly commons, but with a few minor stars and a couple of HOFers that aren't particularly popular in the hobby.  I did manage to find a few 1967 high numbers, which was a pleasant surprise.  Overall, it felt good to attend a show again.  

However, this post is about something different: mail deliveries!

As long as it has been since I went to a show, it has been even longer since I added something to my Johnny Antonelli player collection. And I added two this week.

I found this 2009 Heritage buyback on Ebay for less than $20 and I grabbed it immediately. I have a complicated relationship with buybacks.  I don't consider that the foil stamp conveys any transformative effect to the card.  This is, and will always be, a 1960 Topps card. But the online resources consider this different, so I will continue to add them provided the price is reasonable. I've seen other Antonelli buybacks, but prices in excess of $50 are not reasonable.  So, this is my first buyback card in this player collection.  

This is the real star of the two. It is a 1971 House of Jazz card.  These were issued by the House of Jazz record store in Glenside, PA as a store promotion. There are 35 cards in the set and it boasts an impressive checklist for an unlicensed set.  There isn't a lot of information on the store, though a quick Google Maps search shows that the address is now home to a counseling service and a community development organization. The checklist itself is dominated by East Coast teams but seems to lack any thematic organization. It includes all-time greats, stars, and utility players (Peanut Lowery!)  

The set itself would be fun to build, but the rarity of the set makes that a non-starter. I have only seen the Antonelli a few times, certainly less than 4, over the years and it normally sells in excess of $300. I can only imagine what the Lou Gehrig and Jackie Robinson would sell for. When I saw this on eBay for $99, I mashed that But-It-Now button immediately.   This is probably the second most rare Antonelli issue behind the 1958 Packard Bell (of which I have only seen once) To say I am stoked is underselling it.

What I am listening to: Life During Wartime by The Talking Heads

2026 Goal Missed

 I still haven't been to a card show this year. I ended up skipping the March show as it was the same weekend I was leaving for the CONEXPO-CONAGG trade show in Las Vegas and I needed to get some things done at home before I left.  

I didn't take a lot of pictures this year as the trade show was huge and I had specific things I wanted to achieve. But, I couldn't pass up the opportunity take a picture of this Komatsu WA700 loader staged as if it was dumping a load into an (also Komatsu) HD605 70-ton haul truck.   The company I work for predominately uses Caterpillar products in our operations, but we do have similar Komatsu equipment in our fleet.  Anyways, on to the main topic.

It is only a quarter of the way through the year and I've already completely messed up one of my goals for the year, though not necessarily in a bad way. One of my goals for the year was to almost finish the 1967 Topps baseball set.  Almost in that I wanted to get the set complete except for the high number Tom Seaver rookie card. However, in a turn of good fortune the company I work for gave out bonuses and, for once, I didn't have any adult obligations laying claim to the windfall. So....

I won't deny that I was a bit sick after placing my bid as it was for a price that makes the third most I have ever spent on a card.  The centering is off, but I've never been a centering absolutist.  As long as there is border all the way around, I am fine.  It isn't obvious from the image, but there is border along the bottom.  I put it at 80-20 centering top to bottom.  I probably won't change my goal from almost completing the set.  I need 53 more cards and 51 are from the sixth semi-high series and seventh high number series.  Lately, they have been getting really strong prices, and I am not confident that I can pick up more than one or two at a time.  But, I am pleased to have this one out of the way.

What I am listening to: Blind by Korn (Believe it or not, I had this teed up before it went viral as Mason Miller's entrance song)

Set Completion - 1970 Topps Football

 I am struggling to get back in the swing of collecting again.  It isn't anything financial even though my dishwasher just died and I had to get a new one.  I think it is more a case of having lost my muscle memory, as it were.  There is a card show in OKC at the end of the month, and I currently plan to attend.  It is the same weekend I need to fly to Las Vegas (Ugh!) for CONEXPO, an every third year conference combining the aggregates, ready-mix concrete, and construction industry. If I do get to the card show, it will be a week short of a year since the last show I attended.  

In the meantime, I looked over my want list and decided to knock off 1970 Topps football. I only needed 7 cards, mostly commons. I overpaid a little bit, but I really wanted to get something done. I was thinking of doing a post of my favorite card fronts and backs from the set and even went so far as to go through the set noting the likely candidates.  The time needed to scan and write looked to be more than I had available.  Then I noticed that the same card was on both lists. So, here it is: my favorite card from 1970 Topps Football.

I have no idea what is up with this image, but it is glorious.  

Grayson had numerous business interests' post-career, so I have to assume he wasn't working as a carhop.  I haven't been able to find much information to fill in any blanks, but there is enough information out there to see that he was an interesting fellow.

1. Originally undrafted out of college due to his small size, he was signed briefly by the Dallas Cowboys in 1961, but Tom Landry didn't think he was large enough for the NFL.  On the recommendation of Gil Brandt, Hank Stram signed him to the AFL Dallas Texans.
2. He played 4 years with the Texans and their successor organization, the Kansas City Chiefs. During those 4 years, he made 3 Pro Bowls and 2 AFL All-Pro teams.
3. In 1961, he returned an interception 99 yards for a touchdown against the New York Titans.  He was also a kick returner, and, in 1963, he returned a kick 99 yards for a TD against Denver.
4. In 1965, he was traded to the Oakland Raiders for cornerback (and later actor) Fred Williamson.  It is with Oakland that he really came into his own.
5. In 1965, his first season in the Bay Area, he intercepted 3 passes returning two for touchdowns. In 1968 he intercepted 10 passes and scored 1 TD.  The following year, he picked off the opposition 8 times and contributed 1 touchdown.  
6. He retired from football after the 1970 season.  In 6 seasons with Oakland, he made 3 Pro Bowls and 4 All-Pro teams.
7. During his 10-year career, he missed exactly one game.  That was the first game of his rookie season in 1961.  How is that for consistency?
8. He is the all-time AFL interception leader and was named to the AFL All-Time team.  He is the only defensive back on that team that is not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  
9. He had a number of business interests in his post career life, and his son Dave Grayson Jr played 5 seasons as a linebacker in the NFL for Cleveland and San Diego.

What I am listening to: So Much Trouble in the World by Lucinda Williams & Mavis Staples

Chipping away at 2009 Tristar Obak

I started working on Tristar Obak in the spring of 2012, my second year back collecting.  Today, I am quickly approaching my 15th year in the hobby.  And still completing 2009 Obak still eludes me.  I started 2025 seven high number cards short of completion. In April I located three of the seven.  Last week, I found another.  Normally, I would only look for base cards and not serialized parallels. But this card was a bit more than $3 delivered. So, I am down to 3 cards to finish this set

Under normal circumstances, I would look for a song from a musician that was featured in a post, but Lachey was in the boy band 98 Degrees.  And boy bands were not, and are not, my thing.

What I am listening to: More Than This by Roxy Music

Past, Present, and Future

It is Christmas Eve day and I have the day off. I already have big plans for the day. I'm assembling an Ikea display cabinet for my wife.  We recently recarpeted and repainted the master bedroom and are taking advantage of the empty room to get rid of a lot of the crap that had accumulated over the years and to better display my wife's glassware collection.  Additionally, I am cooking Christmas dinner today.  We have tickets for the OKC Thunder-San Antonio Spurs game that is at 1:30 on Christmas Day and afterward we are going to drive around some of the swanky OKC neighborhoods and look at Christmas lights. So, dinner is today. I figured I could do a quick year in review and look at my goals for 2026.  I also figured that as long as I was at it, why not do a quick post of how I have started back collecting again.  So, here we go.

2025 was a lost year.  I put collecting on hold in March and have only started dipping my toe back into the water after Thanksgiving. That is it. No sets completed.  Only two cards added to my Fleer project.  

As far as my recent activity, I discovered WhatNot.  If you don't know what it is, let me explain. WhatNot is what I can only describe as a rapid fire, live action auction site.  My wife has been on it regularly buying marbles for her collection.  There are plenty of sports card sellers on there as well. It works like this.  The seller shows a card on video and starts a counter which is usually 10 to 30 seconds for initial bids.  After that time expires any additional bid will add 10 seconds to the counter until bidding stops.  

It works well for how my wife collects. But it doesn't work for me as a vintage set collector.  There are a number of vintage sellers, but the way they run auctions is.....odd.  The sequence of cards auctioned off are random.  A mid 60s Roger Maris will be followed by an early 80s Rickey Henderson.  No rhyme or reason.  There is no way to know what is next and no time to figure out what a card should be worth before bidding starts and ends. Consequently, it was my observation that the winning bidder often overpaid relative to the cards value.  Example: one seller decided to auction off a graded mid-1960s star card (I don't remember who, unfortunately) and talked about how much it was worth. He started the auction at $2,500 and someone bought it (I also don't remember the final price) I looked the card up at PSA and the average of recent auction prices was $1,800.  To be sure, 99.9% of the cards that are auctioned there are not high end cards.  That is just the one example that came to mind.

Since the format didn't work for how I collect and the site process invites overpaying, I deleted the app from my phone and left it quickly behind. I did get a few things. Nothing fancy, but I did end up buying a binder of 1970s hockey cards. It appears to have been a dealer's binder since there were only common cards included and there was massive duplication. I mean like 5 copies of an individual card level of duplication.  I'm still working my way through it, but I have finished sorting through the 1970-1971 Topps hockey set.  In the end, I had half of the 132-card set and I've already put together my want list.

I have a couple observations.  First, unlike baseball, the Topps hockey set is actually smaller than its OPC equivalent.  The 70-71 OPC set is 264 cards. Second, the set is not organized randomly but rather by team.

I am not sure why Topps did this, but it seems odd. Though they did set it up so that each team appears in the 132 card set and also shows up again in the second, OPC only series. So, an American collector would have gotten cards for each team but may not have gotten his favorite player who was only in the OPC second series.

To be sure, the orderliness of having similar card designs grouped together has an appeal.  But, it also leads to messes like cards 23 to 25.

   

Both Bob Baun and Pete Stemkowski were traded by the Red Wings early in the season prior to the cards release, so Topps airbrushed the Detroit logo off their jersey's changed the team's name at the bottom of the card. Done and done in Topps usual slapdash way.  With their baseball sets they at least chose photos and/or airbrushed so that it is not completely obvious the player is in their former teams uniform.  They didn't even put that much effort in here and it is made worse because teams are supposed to be grouped together.

Anyways, the binder includes small groupings of cards for each set from 1970-71 through 1979-80. I'll be deciding which I want to build and getting my want lists together in the days ahead.

Speaking of the days ahead, now that I am (hopefully) clear of all the adult things that stymied my 2025 collection, I feel ready to set some goals again. And here they are.  My 2026 Goals:

1. Get my hockey cards and want lists in order.
   
   
2. Add at least one card each to my signed 1960 and 1961 Fleer sets
   
   
3. I'd like to finish 1967 Baseball, but that Tom Seaver high number RC is still out there and is going for over $1,000 even in mid-grade condition.  I'll be happy if I finish the set except for that card.
   
   
4. Finish 2 of these 3 football sets:
• 1969 (126 Cards left but all commons and minor stars), 
• 1970 (7 cards) 
• 1974 Football (55 cards)

I hope to have another post before New Years, but we'll see. Happy Holidays!

What I am listening to: Take Five by The Dave Brubeck Quartet.

One Off

I finally broke my hobby drought. After nearly 8 months of not adding a single card to my collection, I just bought what will be the 74th card in my signed 1961 Fleer project.  It isn't a particularly noteworthy player particularly considering that I have 14 Hall of Fame players among the 20 players I need to get through before I arrive at number 74.  But it is a significant addition in that the player in question, Hippo Vaughn, died in 1966 and the version I bought is the only one I have ever seen available. I am aware of a second copy in a friend's collection.  But that is it. I am sure there are more out there but given the short time between release and his passing, there probably aren't that many. The price was actually fairly reasonable but high enough that I am going to go back into hobby hibernation until after the holiday season.

Anyone who has read my blog for a while (and there may be as many as a dozen of you) know that I live just outside of Oklahoma City and my wife and I are fans of the OKC Thunder. We have a quarter season (10 game) package.  We generally make it to 8 or 9 regular season games each year.  The nice thing about the package is that we get a crack at playoff tickets for the early rounds before they go on sale to the general public.  So, this year after the Thunder romped through the regular season, we decided to attend one game per round.  We had to buy tickets for the Western Conference Finals at the same time as the general public but were able to snag a pair. 

The NBA Finals were a different story. The worst tickets, and I am talking about horrible no-good seats straight behind the basket and the last row of the upper bowl were over $700 each. There is no way we were going to pay that. So, we watched at home as the Thunder became NBA champions.

Not long afterward, we started getting solicitations for NBA Champions memorabilia.  One was for Panini Instant mini sets of cards.  I ended up buying three: one for opening, one for saving, and one to send to a friend.  And that is the subject of this post.  Talk about burying the lede. It took a while to get here. 

I had bought a new high speed scanner in order to digitize a lifetime of family photos.  It scans cards without damaging them, but it doesn't do a very good job scanning cards.  It works as intended, but it automatically crops images to the edges. That is fine for photographs, but not for cards where it doesn't really show the edges and corners. And you know how us card collectors like our edges and corners.

That said, these cards do nothing to change my general disinterest in modern card offerings.  The front design is fine though not particularly attractive.  And the back is completely uninspired.

There was a total of 30 cards in the set.  I won't show them all, but I will show my favorite players.

Lu Dort is my favorite player and my favorite type of player. He is one of the best defensive players in the league and draws all the toughest assignments.  Lebron James?  Put Dort on him. Giannis Antetokounmpo? Put Dort on him. He can run hot and cold on the offensive side of the court. But his defense is always on point.

Alex Caruso actually started his pro career with the Thunder's G League affiliate before moving up to the NBA with the Lakers and Bulls.  He is another defensive standout.  But his value is that he is one of those players that just brings energy to the game.

A veteran presence, Kenrich Williams is the second team anchor. He knows his job and he goes in and does it. No drama.  Just a solid player.

Ajay was a rookie last season and played will though his season was hampered by injury. He has been getting significant playing time this season in the absence of Jalen Williams (J-Dub) who is still recovering from an off-season wrist surgery. He has been playing well with the opportunity.

Just a nice shot of Chet Holmgrem from Game 7.

I'll be back next with another signed 1961 Fleer card of a Hall of Fame player.  It probably won't be until after Thanksgiving since we are going back to visit family. It has been years since we have traveled for the holidays, but the stars aligned and we were able to arrange boarding for our dogs and a farm sitter to take care of our horses.  So, to all of you, have a Happy Thanksgiving!

What I am listening to: Inamorata by Metallica