I think he ended up as a 'scratch the itch' TTM guy, where I had a random card of his to send out and ended up with one more - however he had apparently moved where there were no new address available in the meantime, so I waited until other collectors started reporting new successes with an updated working address.
I did realize it wasn't the weekend and it may take time for guys possibly setting up - to be on that weekday grind with real life stuff in the way.
I don’t know if it was the same guy at this particular table I stumbled on, but I recognized some old school / vintage material from the very first show I attended this year - there maybe a couple of binders with vintage football sets on display and a showcase with some modern and / better stuff.
There were was a couple of piles of $5 cards and I doubt I would find anything - but I ended up with a 1973 Topps Carl Yastrzemski #245 and a 1985 Fleer Kirby Puckett RC #286.
The Yastrzemski was the mutton chops Yaz card featured an episode of The Simpsons, so there was some novelty there - I saw the Yastrzemski displayed before, but the table setup changed up over the past several shows.
With ‘here and now’ interests taking priority, maybe the Yaz was just another card collecting dust in a seller’s stash somewhere - but I was able to to find it again today and it’s worth $5 to have it in-hand.
Come to think of it, I’ve never had a Puckett rookie so it maybe a start to looking for his more common rookie cards - the 1984 Fleer Update is the XRC to have, but that maybe a card that I'm not going to run into anytime, while I still kind of think his 1985 rookies were kind of ‘second tier’ at best.
Puckett was a larger than life superstar during the junk wax era and I ended up with his share of cards - he was a gamer and was on his way to posting more significant counting number through his mid 30s, sbefore he was diagnosed with glaucoma late in his career.
When he was playing, there was never a bad thing spoken about him on or off the field - but he was a flawed human being, who wasn’t the most savory of characters, especially after retirement.
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 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.
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.
I got Kaat's autograph in-person 25 years ago when during the pre-Internet days, I might get a glimpse a guy on TV and bring his card to my local big league ballpark in case he might show up with a particular team [Kaat was a broadcaster with the visting New York Yankees] - I don't think I ever saw him again, but must have gotten another autograph [through the mail] in the early 2000s.
I'd gotten Kaat's 1973 Topps card from COMC [?] because few vintage pitchers hitting cards exist otherwise - I don't think 'image dominant' mini-collection cards particularly need an autograph, but I thought I might as well send my card to the 81-year old, who presumably is still able to sign in the here and now.
I've never thought much about Evans except as an older veteran guy pictured on junk wax era cards through the early 1990s - as is, I picked up his multiplayer rookie card because with Harold Baines getting into the Hall of Fame, it might reopen the door for a better all-around player like Evans.
Evans was a longtime star for the Boston Red Sox, but not a national superstar in terms of sentiment - as the story goes, through the first part of his playing career, Evans was a good defensive right fielder with a competent bat, but his year-to-year numbers as a hitter didn't quite 'pop' until he was in his 30s.
Evans fell off the HOF ballot 20 years ago, but there would have been a campaign to get him in the Hall of Fame like a Bert Blyleven or Tim Raines - instigated by a generation of writers / bloggers more inclined to look not just at the counting numbers, but also the advanced stats to push through their personal pet projects.
As a more substantial long-term project, I've tried to focus into finding PC cards that I hope will make my overall collections a bit more well-rounded - even if the cards feature more of the old-timers, rather than the latest and greatest players from the past five years.
The idea of owning the particular card was probably kind of foreign and strange to me - I assumed a raw, ungraded card was worth at least $200 at one point and it just wasn't realistic to grab one.
Obviously a Schmidt rookie card would be much more significant if he was the only one pictured on a 'stand alone' card - as is, maybe I just don't appreciate the quaintness of the centerpiece player [John David Hilton], who played in a full season of MLB games [161] spread over parts of 4 years and hit .213 with an OPS of .564.
I want to say I mainly remember Cey roughly 25 years ago because he was pictured on ads posted in the sports page of my local paper - touting / endorsing some kind of get rich quick investment scheme with baseball cards.
Schmidt is probably considered the best third baseman of all time though Cey was a fine player to be sharing this card with John David Hilton and Schmidt - I'm not sure if he was ever considered a national star back in his day, but Cey was a Dodgers slugging third baseman who finished his 17-year career with 316 home runs.
I can imagine some bored knucklehead having this card in hand and drawing tears running down Fryman's face with a bubble saying, we lost - it's quaint and crude, but at the same time, it gives the otherwise forgotten card some character.
It might be cute to hunt down these 'defaced' beaters and trying to decipher the meaning behind those scribbles - whether it's something written on cards or something added to the image.
Jeff Torborg c/o home - the former MLB player and manager personalized and signed two cards in black ink and kept a 2003 Topps I sent; this request was mailed 12/7/11 and received on 6/4/12.
I was thinking about it lately and I hadn't gotten in on any Diamond Giveway action for the longest time - I ended up with about eight code cards [two pulled from packs] from the three 2011 Topps Value Boxes I purchased and wondered what to do with them?
I know I'd like to go to the Diamond Giveway Web site and enter the codes sooner than later - whether it is nefarious or not, there is a certain gambling element in play as you plug in a code and hope for something, anything of note.
I ended up entering two of the codes Sunday night and got a 1973 Topps Dave Marshall [who?] and a 1983 Topps Super Veterans subset card of Phil Niekro - maybe I should have save the rest of the unused codes to sell, particularly when the code cards are good for $3 or $4 each.
Chances are however, I'll probably end up entering the rest of the six four remaining code cards - after scratching in another set of codes Monday night.
Maybe I could have gone retail and picked up a blaster of 2011 Topps Opening Day or even a blaster of 2011 Topps - but I stopped at the card shop after I'd gotten my haircut because I was still feeling a little empty after I'd gone on a card show trip detailed in my previous post.
The card shop I go to on-and-off is sort of quaint - while it seems up to date as far as the newer products and the layout of the store is fairly organized, the actual experience being in the store makes you feel like you've walked into some collector's closet.
I was going to dig through the quarter box, hoping for some 2011, late 2010 commons - but I was hoping for something different, something to catch my eye. The box of $3 jerseys with mostly hockey cards, a few football and no baseball wasn't really what I was looking for.
I went through what seemed to be a 5,000 card box of 1984 Donruss that was all commons and wasn't really of much interest - despite the fact I did want to see what was inside after a previous visit a year ago.
I went through some old-school Topps cards that caught my eye - but the problem as much as I'd like to get to have some nice old Topps cards just because they maybe 35-40 years old, I only want to immediately collect the cards of players I may know something about. I also know I was going through mostly commons, so there maybe a disconnect as going through the older cards and not recognizing the rank-and-file players pictured on them.
I think my immediate goal were to perhaps look for old school Topps cards I may have seen online as being chronicled for whatever reason - maybe a cult baseball player or a baseball card with a unique characteristic.
After picking out three other cards, I think paid too much [$10] for the 1962 Topps American League Home Run Leaders [#53] I saw in one of the shop's showcases - it is beater of a card but was drawn to it because it features Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle and encapsulates the 1961 American League home run race between the both of the Yankees' sluggers.
I thought I was getting a well-worn, beater card to have in-hand and show off - but I saw all the marks on the back of the card was like, 'd'oh!'
With the Angels' 50th Anniversary celebration, perhaps I need to brush up on my knowledge regarding former Angels like Rick Reichardt, pictured on his 1968 Topps card [#40] I picked up for $1 - about 10 years ago I had a friend who was only 18 at the time, but took time to learn about Halos of the past and write to them for their autographs.
I've seen this 1973 Topps card of Willie Davis [#35] on some other blogs and wanted to add it to my 'awesome action' collection of cards - it seems either Davis was either hit by the pitch or perhaps he was brushed back according to this blog.
I was leafing through a binder of 1975 Topps commons and this 1975 Topps card of Oscar Gamble [#213] stood out - I think I already have his 1976 Topps Traded card, so I got 1975 Topps version as another tribute to the African-American ballplayer who like his hair, hit their prime years in the mid 1970s loud and proud.