Featured autograph - Brooks Robinson

I was thumbing through '2 for $1' old school / vintage bins of a seller I stumbled upon at a card show - I thought this might be just another card, but took a closer look and it looked like it was faintly scribbled on.

It looks like an autograph of Robinson, who passed away on Sept. 26 - maybe it's a testament of how generous he was about signing, where I might find an autograph card of his in a relatively unlikely place.

TTM autographs received: Luis Tiant

The former big league starting pitcher signed my cards in about a couple of months - I ended up picking up a couple of loose cards [1974 Topps and a 2021 Topps Chrome Platinum Anniversary] that ideally would look nice with an autograph and I ponied up to send $20 [$10 per card] to have my cards inked up.

Tiant was a player certainly before my time, but he pitched in the big leagues for 19 years and won 229 games - he is among the Hall of Very Good, but maybe deserved more consideration for actual the Hall of Fame.

TTM autographs received: Sonny Jackson

The former big leaguer from the 1960s through early 1970s signed my cards in a year and 20 days - I counted this one gone as an MIA request, so it was nice to get one of my SASEs back in the mail box and see what I'd sent signed, along with one of the penny sleeves I used for one of the cards I sent.

Some newer card show recaps #3

I’m trying to make something out of what was left of my time, going around to see what may catch my eye - I ended up seeing a 1989 Donruss Baseball’s Best set I relented to pick up.

I remember being envious of a childhood friend in possession of a loose Ken Griffey Jr. rookie year card laying around loose in his room 30 years ago - I finally got a graded version of the Griffey Jr. back in 2006 and didn’t realize centering on the back of the cards were generally ‘off.’

Even though it’s a nearly worthless card of a big league pariah - maybe another highlight was an early MLB card of Sammy Sosa, his only big league card from 1989.

I thought the cards were still factory sealed, though that might not be the case with the outer packaging - the cards are still in bricks wrapped in plastic, though might have been banging around in the display box after all these years.

I don't know if I should try to keep things 'as is' and preserve the set as best as I can or if I should just break things up - so I can make sure the Sosa and Griffey Jr. cards are actually in-hand and see what they look like as far as condition goes.

I stumbled upon a table with a ‘3 for $1’ vintage box - I'm up for having real, old cardboard in-hand, but at this point just haven't been that collecting to gravitate to them.

At the table, maybe the three or four row box of cards were set-up too neat, where there isn't that lure of not knowing what I may find - when clearly it's commons separated by year [from something like 1969 Topps through some scattered early 1970s years].

For the just the rank-and-file commons, I think the 1969 Topps tends to be boring and generic, while other vintage years don’t quite inspire the right perspective in me - I grabbed a trio featuring a 1974 Topps Sonny Jackson #591 [possible TTM], a 1971 Topps John Cumberland #108 [possible TTM] and a 1973 Topps Bob Didier #574 that has a pretty definitive tools of ignorance, plays at the plate image pictured.

I have 1990 ProCards AAA cards for Jackson and Cumberland [Cumberland was a one-time Angel] but those are kind of ugly cards picturing them as coaches - I wanted actual cards from their playing days and kind of found what I was looking for.

TTM autographs received: Richie Scheinblum

The one-time Angel from the 1970s signed my cards in about 10 days - he was the first Jewish player in Japan and had a couple of nice seasons with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp to wrap up a 13-year professional playing career.

2020 Topps Archives blaster recaps

Originally anticipating not being able to find anything at a big box store - I ordered 2 blaster boxes online that was MIA for about three weeks.

While the shipment was out of the seller's hands, it remained idle with the UPS somewhere - until tracking started to pick up again and a package finally showed up at my doorstep.

Box one

1964 Topps Giants pack

#64O-FTJ Fernando Tatis - the back seems off-center and/or miscut

Pack one

#79 Matt Chapman

#42 Jeff McNeil

#8 Kyle Schwarber

#142 Cal Ripken Jr.

#136 Ty Cobb

#60AR-SO Shohei Ohtani

#208 Chris Sale

#216 Robel Garcia

Pack two

#64 Joey Votto

#87 Juan Soto

#27 Mookie Betts

#186 Willie McCovey

#177 Hyun-Jim Ryu

#152 Corey Kluber

#259 Anthony Santander

#219 Rollie Fingers

Pack three

#37 Kyle Lewis

#73 Ryne Sandberg

#60 Carl Yastrzemski 

#180 Gleyber Torres

#133 Tony Gonsolin

#308 David Ortiz - Big Papi

#281 Lou Gehrig

#226 David Wright 

Pack four

#52 Catfish Hunter

#91 Jordan Yamamoto

#156 Clayton Kershaw

#108 Mike Piazza

#121 Frank Robinson

#76TT-320 C.C. Sabathia

#273 Adrian Morejon

#248 Christian Yelich

Pack five

#24 Xander Bogaerts

#57 Ozzie Albies

#109 Randy Johnson

#172 Zac Gallen

#199 Giancarlo Stanton

#60CC-SM Just Dingers - feat. Will Smith and Max Muncy

#271 Jose Ramirez

#265 Ryan McMahon

Pack six

#54 Max Muncy

#93 Mallex Smith

#4 Nick Senzel

#158 Brooks Robinson

#194 Christian Walker

#69AR-GT Gleyber Torres

#270 Jose Abreu

#284 Wil Myers

Pack seven

#92 Matt Carpenter

#48 J.D. Martinez

#197 Danny Jansen

#174 Trey Mancini

#132 Buster Posey

#B55-8 A.J. Puk

#292 Yu Chang

#247 Craig Biggio

Box two

1964 Topps Giants pack
#64O-NH Nico Hoerner - this was bent coming out of a blaster, probably due to my boxes bouncing around different places.

I don't know what to make of it besides trying to store the odd-sized card in an 8x10 top loader and hope the applied pressure flattens the card out eventually - even if it takes a couple of years.

Pack one

#77 Paul DeJong

#23 Francisco Lindor

#163 Max Scherzer

#138 Blake Snell

#112 Stephen Piscotty

#60CC-YH Master & Apprentice - feat. Yelich and Hiura

#258 Roger Clemens

#244 Brendan McKay

Pack two

#7 Shohei Ohtani

#82 Luis Aparicio

#29 Robin Yount

#170 Rowdy Tellez

#143 Brandon Crawford

#307 Chris Sale - The Conductor

#300 Freddie Freeman

#277 Joe Morgan

Pack three

#95 A.J. Puk

#51 Brock Burke 

#3 Charlie Blackmon

#120 Carlos Correa

#127 Roberto Alomar 

#237 Trevor Hoffman - Purple parallel serial #’d 043/175

#254 Rougned Odor

#253 Aaron Nola

Pack four

#26 Keston Hiura

#33 Will Smith

#25 Jackie Robinson

#122 Sandy Koufax

#107 Kerry Wood

#60AR- EJ Eloy Jimenez

#236 Bryce Harper 

#295 Kyle Seager

Pack five

#80 Ramon Laureano

#40 Sam Hilliard

#149 Roberto Clemente

#184 Trent Grisham

#200 Marco Gonzalez

#76TT-316 Randy Johnson

#241 Ronald Acuña Jr.

#246 Kole Calhoun

Pack six

#34 Brusdar Graterol

#75 Mike Mussina

#14 Harmon Killebrew

#146 Ketel Marte

#131 Eric Hosmer

#309 Noah Syndergaard - Thor

#207 Carter Kieboom

#202 Anthony Kay

Pack seven 

#53 Lou Boudreau

#31 Alex Bregman

#113 Hunter Dozier

#134 Jon Lester

#129 D.J. LeMahieu

#B55-23 Logan Allen

#293 Anthony Rendon

#220 Chipper Jones

More TTM autographs received in 2020

I got the bug to put together autograph requests through the mail after writing exactly one TTM request in 2019 - to have a purpose I've tried to write to former Angels guys, whose unsigned cards I ended up with, but autographs I don't have in my collection.

It might be a little hard to account for everyone, but I'll make the best I can trying to add more names to my Angels all-time autograph collection - it is nice to get something back that goes into my regional collection, even if it is more autographs of rank-and-file types that played years before I was born.

Pictures of these successes were saved in my scan folder and I decided to use them in a blog post that maybe my last before going on a spring hiatus - not like this place has been is buzzing with traffic, but for the 1-3 dedicated readers I might have, this might be my last post for a while.

Beyond the glory addition - Bob Moose

Rummaging through the old-school / vintage quarter box at my card shop, I picked a 1974 Topps card [#382] featuring a player with seemingly funny looking hair - go figure, I don't have a mini-collection devoted to hair styles, so maybe I could add this to my facial hair collection.

After finding out more about Moose through this Card Corner feature on the Baseball Hall of Fame Website, I decided to add his card to my beyond the glory mini-collection - there is kind of a cross over with my infamous mini-collection but my beyond the glory mini-collection is more inspired by professional athletes who may have had a narrative attached to their playing careers besides just making some mistakes and getting in the news for it.

A card of notable professional athlete who prematurely loses their life is added into this collection - maybe someone who passes while still being an active player or someone who passes in a somewhat of an odd set of circumstances.

I learned Moose threw the wild pitch that led to the series ending run in the 1972 National League Championship Series - a successful MLB pitcher otherwise, he passed away at 29 due to a car accident.

TTM autograph received: Steve Blass

Blass signed and returned my card in about a week or so - the former big league pitcher from the 1960s through early 1970s still has some notoriety attached to his career, usually mentioned whenever a pitcher [or even a position player] has apparently their ability to throw the ball.

1974 Topps Tom Seaver #80

I picked this card up for a sampler run of PSA graded Topps cards from 1952-1980 - I've always associated old-school [anything between 1974-1985] or vintage [1973 and older] cards as something 'old and valuable,' especially when the cards came out before I was alive.

I kind of want to see if this particular project becomes a more significant, satisfying chase - while eBay effectively saturated the market, it makes it easier to look for cards whose values were inflated 25-30 years ago, even if they weren't quite the big money old-school/vintage cards serious collectors continue to chase today.

So far I only have 3 of 28 cards [a 1960 Willie Mays and a 1961 Eddie Mathews are the other two I bought years ago] for this project - there maybe a couple of other cards I can use, though they maybe tied to another part of my collection, so I might only decide to use them if they are the final two cards I need.

Award winner adds - Rookies of the Year

2011 TRISTAR Obak Autographs Red Don Schwall #A40 - I picked up a certified autograph of the 1961 American League ROY with the Boston Red Sox.

Maybe the bat swatch looks kind of blemished, but for about $3 - I grabbed this otherwise nice looking relic card of the 1962 American League ROY.

1970 Topps Expos Rookie Stars Garry Jestadt/Carl Morton #109 - Morton was the 1970 National League ROY and this card was the last, impulsive 'BF' pick-up with whatever funds I had left [maybe about $0.77] to spend before I was going to have my stash shipped.

I actually have a 1977 Topps card card of Morton, but it pictures him on the Atlanta Braves - so that kind of doesn't count.

1974 Topps Gary Matthews #386 - I have a random in-person autographed 1987 Fleer card but pictures Matthews in a Chicago Cubs uniform.

I wanted a team appropriate card close to Matthews' 1973 National League ROY season with the San Francisco Giants - the bonus with this $0.40 pick-up is the nice horizontal action image of Matthews sliding into third base [with the third baseman and third base coach pictured].

1974 Topps Nolan Ryan #20

This card represents my first 'big purchase' as far as my Angels frankenset goes - besides hunting down loose cards already in my collection, the fun part of building up a collection is getting picky and trying to find particular cards that seem interesting or relevant.

A caveat is admittedly not being an expert on the nuances of old school / vintage cards - it's one thing to find off-condition, well worn cards as 'cardboard relics,' but there are cards tampered with [trimmed, re-colored, et al] that I may end up picking up along the way.

2014 Topps Series II five pack recap

I picked up five random packs for $2 each at my LCS - I pulled another buyback card but these maybe my last loose pack purchases of flagship Topps until update comes around.

Pack one
#443 Jeff Kobernus
#439 Jackie Bradley Jr.
#388 Yovani Gallardo
#545 Jeremy Affeldt
#SST-17 Jacoby Ellsbury - Saberstats insert
#530 Danny Salazar
#555 Adam Eaton
#624 Alex Presley
#623 Chad Billingsley
#658 Wade Davis
MLB The Show 14 code card

Pack two
#466 Ryan Dempster
#553 Michael Pineda
#592 Simon Castro
#350 Carlos Gonzalez - Gold parallel serial #'d 0807/2014

1974 Topps Chuck Seelbach #292 - 75th Anniversary foil stamped buyback
#626 Tommy Hanson
#342 Brad Miller
#646 Dan Haren
#355 Jarrod Parker
#601 Jason Hammel

Pack three
#540 Ike Davis
#458 Vinnie Pestano
#468 Wilin Rosario
#573 Adam Lind
#478 Billy Hamilton
#333 Wil Myers - Red Hot Foil parallel
#371 Scott Kazmir
#389 Geovany Soto
#420 Lucas Duda
#510 Matt Den Dekker

Pack four
#613 Mark Teixeira
#634 Gaby Sanchez
#550 Prince Fielder
#491 Felix Doubront
#PP-175 Jedd Gyorko - Power Players code card
#397 Tim Lincecum
#496 Jose Abreu
#416 Josh Reddick
#640 Kyle Blanks
#356 Jose Reyes

Pack five
#521 Anthony Rendon
#404 C.C. Lee
#366 Zack Cosart
#619 Chris Johnson - Gold parallel serial #'d 0087/2014
#FS-20 Chris Sale - Future Stars That Never Were insert; the card has some sort of residue running horizontally [it's kind of like a gum stain from days when Topps used to put gum in packs] in front of the card that I tried to remove with nail polish, but isn't coming off.
#451 Luis Garcia
#611 Patrick Corbin
#337 Zach Walters

Mail day - 1974 Topps Dave Winfield #456

I picked this Dave Winfield rookie card online up for $7.99 plus $2.50 s/h several days ago and it came in the mail Tuesday - I'm kind of surprised this came in the mail, since I hadn't actually sent payment for it yet.

I picked this card up because I'm hoping to build up a personal collection of rookie cards of mostly Hall of Famers who starred from mostly from the 1970s through the early 1990s - just so I can say, I have so and so's rookie card in my collection and I only bought it for a few bucks here and there [even if the cards aren't going to be in mint condition].

I'll probably get the payment for this card out sooner than later - after all I already have it in-hand and I don't want the seller to wondering where the payment for the card went.