The Fleer Autograph Project - Part 26

It is 10:30 PM and I just got home from a business dinner. Since I am not a certain Night Owl, and it is way past my bedtime, this will be a quick post. 

Waiting for me at home is the 26th card in my quest to get as many of my 1963 Fleer cards autographed.

This is one I have been waiting on a while.  I had just missed a Yaz signing when I decided to undertake this quest a year ago. I have dutifully watched for another such signing and one finally came around again this past weekend.  I've identified one more organized signing for this project and several TTM opportunities.  Hopefully, next year I will hit the 50% level (33 cards of the 66 card set).

Best Mail Day Ever!

My 21st wedding anniversary was at the end of September.  I asked my wife for Anthony Causi's iconic photograph "Mariano Entering the Game" as a gift.  Not surprisingly, as Mo was winding down his final season, it was back ordered.

Well, it arrived today.

I love this photograph as I think, as a (very) amateur photographer, that it stands on it's own merits as art.

But, the story gets better.  My wife asked for, and I got her, tickets for the Pearl Jam concert when they played OKC.  And, in quite the coincidence, that concert is tonight.

What I am listening to: Better Man by Pearl Jam

Califragilistic

I haven't been too active lately and it has been a while since I made any progress on any of the modern sets I am working.  I've been sitting at 5 cards to complete 2011 Tristar Obak for just about a year.  By chance last week, I made a few searches on Ebay for cards I needed and was happy to find a 5 card lot of 2010 and 2011 Obak Cal Ripken cards, including this one:

This is the last short print I needed towards completing 2011 and I got it for about $6 delivered.  This was quite the steal because I had never seen it on EBay other than as a Buy it Now, or on any of the retail websites like COMC, for less than $12.  With only 4 base cards to go to finish that set, I am going to try and knock it off before the end of the year.

What I am listening to: Nightbook by Ludovico Einaudi

Redemption.....of a sort

After the complete washout at last week's OKC show, I decided to head up to the monthly mini-show at Al's Sports Cards in Edmond.  Al had mentioned in one of his email notifications that there was a new vintage vendor, so I decided to check it out.  There was indeed a new vendor and he did indeed have vintage.  But only stars and minor stars. No commons.  Another regular seller had a really nice 1973 Mike Schmidt rookie card, but he wanted $125 and I wouldn't go over $75 for that card.  That guy doesn't bargain much, so I didn't even bother making an offer I knew he wouldn't accept.

So, I ended up talking a bit with Bill from Wichita and (believe it or not) Roger from Sports Memories of Oklahoma.  Roger is the fellow I was hoping was going to be at the show last weekend but, as it turns out, he was doing a show up in St. Louis. He wasn't selling today. Rather, he was buying and I watched him close a deal with Bill for a lot of around 100 1954 Bowman cards (including the Mantle) for somewhat over $600.  It was a pretty sweet deal that Bill had offered me last weekend, but I passed on since I don't have that kind of scratch laying around.

Bill did cut me a pretty sweet deal, though. I got 55 1955 Topps and 30 1956 Topps cards for around $100.

That was money I was planning on using towards the 1973 Schmidt rookie, but the opportunity to get a stack of cards from two sets I really like was too good to pass up.  Of the 30 1956's, only 3 were duplicates for me.  This puts me at 76 cards, out of 340 total, from that set.  

There were 48 unique cards in the 1955s I bought and only 1 duplicate against the 9 I already had.  That brings me to a total of 56 cards out of the 206 card set.

So, this will likely push completion of 1973 into 2014, but I think that is worth it.  To get so many cards from these two awesome sets for a little more than a dollar each was awesome!

Surprise Pickup

Sigh.  The perils of living in the country.......

October Card Show Haul

I wouldn't say the show was a complete bust.....

...but I am not sure mankind has invented a device to measure the distance between my card show experience and a complete bust.  You are looking at the sum total of my purchases.

And to top it off, the roads were so clogged up from game day traffic, I didn't even bother going to the LCS and look at that Schmidt rookie card. 

Added in Edit:  And, the final insult?  The Aaron card above I spent $12 on?  Already had it.

Card Show Weekend!

This weekend there is a two day card show up in OKC.

It has been a while since I've done much hobby activity.  In the last two months, I have completed one trade and spent a grand total of  $2.25 on one Ebay purchase.
 

I had scaled back because, as I have related elsewhere, we discovered that one of our mares was pregnant and I had to build a whole bunch of foal safe fencing in a short time.  I had about 1000 feet to build and quickly knocked 200 feet off.  All that time,I had something nagging at me.  The pregnancy diagnosis was done via a blood test performed by an assistant vet fresh out of school.  I just wasn't comfortable with the diagnosis (particularly since she was an assistant to a vet that we only use when our regular guy is unavailable), so I loaded the mare up in the trailer and took her in to our regular vet for a proper pregnancy check (don't ask, suffice it to say that it involves a shoulder length rubber glove.)  Well, good news, she wasn't pregnant after all! The fencing project needed to continue, but the time pressure was off.


Of course, it was at about that time our dishwasher decided to die and, since there must always be complications, we had to pony up a small fortune to get an ADA compliant dishwasher because our kitchen counter was 3/4" too low for us to get a standard sized dishwasher installed.  So, to make a short story long, I am still broke.  With the holidays coming up, this weekend is probably my only hobby related activity until January.  So, I am going to need to make it count.

My goal will be to knock off at least half of the remaining cards I need for my 1973 set (70 base cards and 18 unnumbered checklists.)  This will depend on Roger Nuefeldt, from Sports Memories of Oklahoma, being there.  I am hoping he will be, since it is a two day show and he hasn't done a local show since early spring.  If he is there, it is likely I can knock off most of the high number commons I need and maybe one of the higher value cards. 

If he isn't there tomorrow, my intent will be to pocket my cash so that I can 1) stop off at one of the local card shops on my way home, pick up the Mike Schmidt rookie card they had in the display case the last time I was there, and 2) have a bit left over for filling some 1973 needs cheaply on EBay.   Whether that happens or not is always questionable, since I have a tendency to get all Tommy Boy at a card show and never leave empty handed.  But, given the upcoming holiday lull, I am going to to do my darndest to stay focused on 1973.



What I am listening to: Rogers Park by Justin Townes Earle