Via Night Owl, I learned about a Blog Bat Around started by Torren' Up Cards about an All Autograph Team. I am primarily a vintage set collector and though autographs are mostly not my focus, I do have a small project of collecting autographed versions of the 1960 to 1963 Fleer baseball sets. Of course, like any collector, I do come across autographs at shows or in the occasion modern hobby box that catches my eye.
I reckoned that doing an all start autograph post would be easy using just my signed vintage Fleers and quite a bit harder using anything but those cards. So, I decided to try to do both. Luckily, most of my autographs have been posted here, so I just had to cut and paste links. So, this went quicker than I thought.
It has been a while since I went to a card show. The bi-monthly OKC show was yesterday, although I wasn't planning on going. Earlier this spring, we had someone come in with some heavy equipment and clean up an overgrown fence line next to the house and knock over/bury a ramshackle old loafing shed out by the barn. I've been steadily working to put new fencing in, but progress has slowed with the NBA playoffs going on. My plan for Saturday was to prep the fence line so that I can get started dropping posts in during the week. Alas, it was raining when I woke up and the forecast was for more of the same until evening. So, I decided to go to the show.
My main goal was to make some progress on my 1972 Topps set, for which I am only 47 cards away from completing. Secondary goals would be to make some headway on any of the several other sets I have in some notable state of completion (1955, 1956, 1968, 1970.)
The show was sparsely populated with a dearth of both sellers and customers. But, my main vintage guy was there and I settled in at his table. He didn't have many 72s and none that I needed. 37 of the 47 remaining 1972s I need are high and semi-high numbers, so progress has slowed down considerably. I get skunked more often than not and when I do knock some off the want list, it usually is only a handful of cards.
So, without much luck there, I turned attention to the secondary sets. I was similarly blanked on 1970, where over half of the remaining 144 cards I need are high and semi-high numbers. Luckily, that is where my bad luck ended (until, at least, the evening Thunder-Jazz game. Hoo-boy.)
I managed to find 47 cards I needed for the 1968 set I started recently when I won an auction for a reasonably priced starter set. I now have 348 of the 598 cards; good for about 58% completion. I already have the Mickey Mantle card in the set, but lack the Nolan Ryan rookie card.
I also managed to locate 8 cards for my 1955 set and I stand at having 116 of the 206 cards; good for 56% completion. That sounds pretty good until you understand that Al Rosen is the biggest star I have in a set that includes Sandy Koufax and Roberto Clemente's rookie cards. Needless to say, this set will take years to complete. And when I use the plural of year, I don't mean 2 or 3. This will probably be a five plus year project.
1956 Topps is another story. I managed to find 12 cards I needed, bringing me up to 86% complete (295 of 342 cards are in my possession.) With this set, I do actually have a number of the major star cards including Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Hank Aaron, and Roberto Clemente. The major cards I don't have yet are Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Pee Wee Reese, and the second checklist card.
Looking back through my history, it seems I picked up my first 1956 cards during the summer of 2011. Which means I have been working on this set for 7 years now. That Mantle card will hurt, but it would be cool to finish in under 10 years. So, I am going to start planning ahead. Note: I have a handful of 1955 and 1956 duplicates if anyone is working on the set and has a wantlist. Condition is low to mid-grade.
So, that is about it. I am still keeping my eye out for affordable autographed 1961 Fleer cards and I am planning on hitting a couple of local card shops in May to work on 1968. But, I don't expect to go to the June card show since the main vintage vendor will not be there. I'll probably skip August also, since it will be only two weeks before our annual fall trip to Cedar Point and I'm going to save money for Fast Lane passes so we don't have to wait in interminably long lines to ride the roller coasters. It is possible I will head to Cleveland in early August for the National Show, but I haven't decided yet. So, I cannot speak to the level of blogging activity in the months ahead. Not that it would be all that noticeable given that I have been averaging about two posts a month for the last 4 years. What I am listening to: Family System by Chevelle
It has been a while since I added anything to my Paul Blair player collection. But, something came up recently that I didn't have.
Strictly speaking, I have this card already. It is from Upper Deck's 2004 Timeless Team set. It is one of two different cards featuring Paul Blair: one as a member of the 1969 Orioles and another as a member of the 1970 Orioles. Yeah, I don't get that either.
Anyways, these cards come in a number of variations. There is, of course, the base card version. Then there is a bronze version numbered to 50, which is the card above. Then there is a gold version numbered to 5 and a platinum 1/1. Additionally, there is an autographed version. I have all but the platinum 1/1 for the 1970 team version. For the 1969 team card, I only have the base and the autographed versions. I probably have seen the others, but didn't recognize them. In my Ebay searches I tend to scan images quickly and zoom in on anything that isn't familiar. With a total of 16 saved searches, there isn't much choice. But, I guess I need to change that now.
What I am listening to: Caleb Meyer by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings
