Clipping Coupons

So, for only the second time this year I went to a card show.  I masked up and drove up to the city.  Even though the two sellers I normally spend the most with weren't there, I did have a very productive outing. But this post is not about that.

This post is about eBay. Last weekend, I saw rumblings on Twitter about a $25 off coupon code that everyone was trying. It was apparently for folks who have been on eBay since the beginning. I haven't been on since the beginning, but I have been on for exactly 20 years (I joined September 1, 2000.) So, I tried the code to see if it worked and it did.  So, what did I get with my $25 off?

This signed 1960 Fleer Luke Appling is the 15th signed card I have from that set. The set itself is only 79 cards and, of those, only 40 of the subjects were still alive at the time the set was issued.  So, I am now sitting at a respectable 37.5% of the possible cards in an autographed form.  With a quarter C-note off, this card was mine for a bit over $25. I also knocked off my goal to have over half of the possible 1960-1963 Fleer cards in signed form by the end of the year. For the three sets, which total 299 cards, I have estimated that it is theoretically possible to have 201 signed cards. This puts me at 101.

Luke Appling played 20 seasons for the Chicago White Sox in the majors between 1930 and 1950, missing only 1944 for military service and never making the post season.  He was a good hitter, winning batting titles in 1936 and 1943. He retired with a .310/.399/.398 slash line. Obviously, he didn't have much power, with only 45 homeruns in his career. However, he was a legendary contact hitter, only striking out 528 times in 20 seasons.  In fact the back of this card says "Although not in the record books, he was one of the greatest foul ball hitters in modern times."  One fun anecdote I stole from his SABR biography goes as follows:

As one story goes, Appling once asked the tight-fisted business manager of the Sox for several balls to sign for friends. The business manager refused, citing the Depression and that each ball cost $2.75. Appling turned and walked out without a word. That afternoon in his first at bat he fouled off ten consecutive pitches into the stands. Turning to the club official in the owner’s box, he said, “That’s $27.50 and I’m just getting started.”

He had a long career as a minor league manager and major league coach right up until his death in January 1991. In an interesting coincidence, Appling appears on one of the cards I got at yesterday's show, a 1960  Detroit Tigers Coaches card. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1964. 

What I am listening to: What've I Done to Help by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Miscellany - NonSports Edition

Two posts in the same week?  I am back, baby!  Okay, not really.  But I did manage to find a couple of cards I needed for my non-sports tobacco card collection.

This is the final card I needed to complete my 25 card 1889 Kinney N230 Famous English Running Horses set. It is diamond cut and a bit short side-to-side.  I don't know if it has been trimmed, but I am not trying to put together a high grade set, so it doesn't really matter. I am mainly looking for affordable eye appeal and this has it. Now I need to get serious about N229 (Famous American Running Horses) and N231 (Great American Trotters.) I have exactly 3 and 1 from these sets, respectively.  They seem much harder to come by. eBay searches turn up a lot of N230; considerably fewer of the other two. But, that is what the chase is for, no?

This my 10th card from the 1890 Allen & Ginter N18 Parasol Drill set.  It is a 50 card set, so I have a long way to go.

What I am listening to: The Saint of Lost Causes by Justin Townes Earle

Miscellany

Life continues to be busy and my hobby activity has been hit and miss.   Mostly miss, though I have picked up a couple random things.

This is a 1968 Sports Service Photo for my Paul Blair collection.  I have held off on adding photos to a card collection, but I have finally weakened.  I don't know a lot about Sports Service and some cursory research doesn't result in much.  It is something I need to look into.  I'll probably start over atNet54 and go from there.  This photo is actually 4 1/4 inches by 7 1/4 inches.  And, of course, I don't have any two pocket pages to put it in.

This is the final card I needed to complete my 1994 Ted Williams Card Company set.  It is the checklist card for the Dan Gardiner subset. Interestingly, I expected that this card just reused artwork from the player cards in the subset.   To be sure, some are very similar, but none are exact matches.  I find that level of attention to detail admirable and makes me wonder what could have happened if this card company continued to issue sets after 1994.  I'm not particularly fond of the card backs, but I really like the card front designs, which show the same level of attention that I reference relative to the checklist card above.

In fact, now that I think of it, it would be fun to a post on the set.  Of course, working on those few 1970 Topps card back sets I did was fun and I have managed to not follow-up with a new entry in that series in forever. Winter is coming soon and I'll have more time then.

Anyways, now that I have the 1994 set complete, I have updated my Want List sidebar to show what I need to complete the 1993 Ted Williams set.

What I am listening to: Rogers Park by Justin Townes Earle (I have posted this once before, but I just heard last night that JTE has passed away at the age of 38. If you get a chance, listen to his "Harlem River Blues" album. It is brilliant.)

Ask and Thou Shalt Receive

A couple posts ago, I showed off some framed bookplates that featured artwork from the Duke N101 set. I mentioned that I didn't have any cards from that set.  Shortly thereafter, a dozen or so cards from that set came up individually on eBay.  Most ended up selling right in that $15-$20 range. I low bid hoping to bottom feed my way into at least one. And I did get exactly one.

I've got to be honest, I cannot find any information about Villous horses.  There is a lot of naturalist engravings and prints from the Victorian era. But, nothing modern. I have no idea if this references a breed or if it is a proper name.  Going to have to ask my horse friends that are more knowledgeable than I am.

What I am Listening To: No Man's Land by Bob Seger

Fleer Autograph Project and More

I feel like things are getting back to normal.  Well, not really, but I am getting back to a less moribund level of hobby activity.  I am still not looking at going to any shows any time soon, so I am concentrating online.  This week saw a few things arrive,

This Frank Howard card was the card that was stuck in the Los Angeles distribution center for two weeks. It finally arrived and is the second to last card I need for my 1970 Topps set and for the complete run of Topps baseball sets from the 1970s.  The final card I need is Johnny Bench, which has been selling for prices way beyond what I was comfortable paying.  Granted, I was only looking at trusted sellers, who will command a premium.  I'm going to have to get a bit more serious about this one. I'd love to get that '70s run complete.

A new addition to my Paul Blair PC: 2004 Upper Deck Timeless Teams Auto Gold. As best as I can tell, there are 7 versions of this card (4 base and 3 autos at varying levels of scarcity/serialization) and I now have 3 of this card.  There is a second Paul Blair card in this set related to the 1970 team and I have 4 of those.  Since there are Platinum base and autos for each card that are 1/1, I don't expect I'll ever get all 7 versions of each card.  In fact, the serialized versions of these cards come up on eBay so rarely, I doubt I'll ever even get close to 6 out of 7.  Not a problem since that is what the chase is for, no?

Finally, I added two new cards to my signed 1960 through 1963 Fleer project. Since both Lloyd Waner and Marty Marion were prolific signers in their retirement, I was able to add these at a reasonable price.  To a certain extent, as it relates to 1960 and 1961, I am still bottom feeding. I think I am getting to the point that I am going to have to start opening the wallet a bit wider to add more.  Which will conflict with my set building. So, I expect this to slow down (not that it was ever fast to begin with.)  I do have a goal to get over halfway before the end of the year. Which raises the question as to where I stand.  Glad you asked. Here is my progress:

I have exactly one more card to add in the next 4 months to get to that goal.  I have not decided yet whether that will be another low cost addition or if I should splash out a bit more.  Stay tuned!

What I am listening to: Got the Time by Anthrax (a cover of the Joe Jackson original if you can
believe it):

Theme: Ink

Still haven't made any progress on that next post in the promised series on 1970 Topps card backs. In my defense, we had a huge storm a few weeks back and I lost 7or 8 large post oak trees and large limbs off at least a half a dozen others.  So, in addition to all my normal chores, I have been slowly cleaning up that mess.  

So, I am going to half-ass a post here of things that have an admittedly tenuous link to ink, in it's various incarnations.

A new addition to my Johnny Antonelli player collection, this is a 1960 Topps tattoo. I've got to get my Antonelli collection organized.  It is fine in the binder, but I haven't really done a good job of organizing the spreadsheet of haves and wants.   It is supposed to be hot this weekend, maybe I'll work on when I retreat inside after doing my morning projects outside.

One of the three remaining cards I need to finish the 1970 Topps set is this 7th Series checklist, unmarked by either pen or pencil.  I actually have bought one of the two remaining cards for that set, but there is a problem.

That is right, the card shipped and has been sitting in Los Angeles for over a week and a half.  This was purchased from Greg Morris Cards off of eBay. I have come to expect that such shipments will usually take 2 or 3 days to clear the LA distribution center.  But, this is way beyond that.  While I get that the Post Office is struggling with difficulties imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, I have to say that this isn't that.  This isn't a long simmering degradation in service. This happened all of a sudden early in July. There are stories being reported in the media about changes being made by the new Postmaster General that are bollixing up service, they aren't really breaking through the general election year noise being generated by the political class at the moment.  Here is a good article discussing the issue.

And finally, a new non-sports addition to my collection:

In a recent auction held by Vintage Non-Sports Auctions, I managed to pick up the two bookplates shown framed above.  They use the artwork for 16 of the cards from the 25 card 1892 N101 Duke "Breeds of Horses" set.  I am led to understand that these bookplates were contemporary to the same era.  Anyways, I just got it back from the framers yesterday.  I was looking for a Victorian feel and I think we captured it. Even if the Arts & Crafts wall color doesn't really match up well.  Now, I actually have to start building that N101 set. I don't have any yet, as they have tended to sell individually for $10-$20 dollars. That isn't horrible, but I have been able to acquire other horse themed tobacco card *sets* in the same range and it has been a little off-putting to get one card for that price.

Anyways, hopefully I will whole-ass a post soon.

What I am listening to: You Can't Rule Me by Lucinda Williams

PC Addition, Eh!

After a long period of dormancy, I've made some additional progress on my Paul Blair collection.  A new addition came in yesterday:

This is the last of the O-Pee-Chee cards I needed for the PC. It commemorates Blair's game winning home run in Game 3 of the 1966 World Series.  It was hit off Claude Osteen, who had otherwise pitched a brilliant game.  OSteen's final line was 3 hits, one walk, and three strikeouts in 7 innings pitched.

This is the 142nd unique item in my Paul Blair PC

What I am listening to: Follow You Like Smoke by Elizabeth Cook