Red Sox Circus

A while back one of the guys that I consider one of the Original Card Bloggers, Indians Baseball Cards, Always, had a sign up for people to grab unmailed teams the PAD Circus cards.  I quickly grabbed up the Red Sox.  I figured I would get a small box of cards but to my surprise what showed up was a 800 count box of cards. 

It was great going through all these cards.  They brought back many memories of David's Circus breaks.  It was always fun reading through each pack break watching to see if one of "my guys" happened to show up and then trying to draft any Red Sox that I could.

It has been a long time since I did a post about cards from another blogger.  I think have conquered some of my scanner problems so I chose a top 10 from Tribecards.  

Ok, so the scanning isn't perfect yet.  But man is it allot faster. I don't see many unlicensed cards.  So while many people hate them I find them fascinating.  Besides it isn't every day I get a card of one of the God Dust Twins that I do not already have. 

This is a fun card.  It reminds me of one of these comic cards from the early 90s crossed with Wacky Packs.  

The one that got away.  Everyone knows that the Red Sox traded away Bagwell in perhaps one of the most lopsided trades EVER.  They got one month of service from a reliever named Larry Anderson for the Future Hall of Famer.  I had a minor league Bagewell before this but this card was new to me.  

I am not really a Game Used collector but I do try to get one of each Red Sox player.  I didn't have a Mooke GU until this showed up.  There were a few other GU in the package but since Mookie hass my favorite current Sox player since Ortiz retired he gets the scan treatment.  

Some might not consider this a card but it is card sized and made by Upper Deck so it is a card to me.  For years Nomar was the Red Sox' best player and his cards were some of the most sought after cards in the hobby.  All the cool insert sets had Nomar cards in them.  Nomar has been out of the league since 2009 but people still hoard his insert cards.  It is always nice to get one.

I have a few 1969 Topps Super cards.  This Ortiz made to look like them is nothing like the originals.  Not only is it not super sized it is made from just regular card stock.

Another unlicensed card.  This one probably wouldn't even look unlicensed if I didn't know it.  Papi just happens to be in the perfect pose for no logos to show up.  Not only did I scan it crooked but the scanner doesn't do it justice at all.  

I Love Williams cards.   This black and white photo looks great on card.  

Another Williams card.  This time from early Upper Deck and it's one of the earliest "insert cards".  

OK, so I cheated.  This is more than 10 cards but come on round vintage cards from a set I didn't even know existed, how cold I not pick them.  To be fair I only scanned a couple of the ones David sent.  Two guys from the NESN booth.  Remy used to be my favorite TV announcer but not anymore.  Eck has taken over as my favorite announcer in the last couple years.  

Thanks for all the great cards David!!!

Parts of Sorting Sucks!

For once I read a Night Owl post and resisted writing a book in his comments and instead made my own post. (but it took a couple days)  Usually when I leave a comment on a blog it is a way to long comment that nobody sees but the blog owner.  So maybe I'll make this a habit and post all my comments here.

So, yeah sorting is usually great. A fun thing where you get to look at and touch your cards and it is somehow even therapeutic as all the numbers start to line up and you fill blanks.  However part of the sort can suck.

I have a friend in MO that I used to get cards from all the time.  If you got Bipped (if anybody even remembers Bipping) by me all those cards came from my buddy Joey. I live in AZ now and that all the time has now become a couple times a year he sends me a text that says "PayPal me $25".  Soon I'll get a I'm always eager for that package but it comes with some suck too.  Kind of like a disclaimer, you will enjoy this package but there is some headache involved. 

Look at this package I got from Joey.  I know the lighting sucks cause I'm no photographer but what you see is five team bags.  Four of those team bags have some kind of Bowman card on top and all of them have some kind of Bowman inside.  Bowman is that headache.  I don't speak Bowman.  Bowman and I don't get along at all.  I'm not a rookie guy so I never bought the stuff to get to know it.  All I know is when I have to sort them by year, the only way to tell them apart is that little tiny TM date (that is probably correct but every now and then is off by a year because Topps shovels new cards at us before a calendar flip).  After you deal with the date then you have to decide if a card is a Bowman Chrome card or if it was a regular Bowman Chrome Insert card.  Now usually a letters and numbers mixed together mean insert but evidently Bowman is different.  There are Regular Bowman Prospect Inserts and then there is a whole other Bowmen Set called Bowman Prospects that uses letter number combos just like the insert set, not to mention they use the same pictures half the time.  They tried to tell us that RC Logo was going to make things simple, HAHA!!!   

Sorting is fun, except for Bowman.  Bowman makes sorting Suck!!

Now That Is Customer Service!!!!

I know my postman by first name.  In this day and age I don't think this is a common thing anymore.  It feels like something that old timers would talk about; "back in my day your postman knew you by name."  Well my postman's name is Tom and he comes by the office every day to drop of the mail and say hi.  We have a mailbox outside but he brings it inside every day instead of putting it in the outside box.  It started because of my ball card packages.  They were too big to fit in the tiny box the post office supplies so he would bring them in.  Pretty soon he started bringing in the mail every day even when I didn't get a package.  Every day he'd say hi we would offer him a drink of water.  Maybe he was just doing to get out of the Arizona heat to for a few seconds of air conditioning but even so it felt above and beyond. 

Well Tom had a health problem and had to take a few weeks off of work. No Tom meant a having a smorgasbord of postpeople dropping off my mail.  Wouldn't you know it while Tom was off I bought something off of eBay that never showed up.  The tracking showed it as delivered but I never got it.  When I saw the post person come the next day I showed them the tracking and she just shrugged and said to take it to the main post office in the area and they would look into it.  I was going to but I never actually got around to it.  Around a week went by and Tom was back from his leave.  He came in the office and greeted us all and exchanged pleasantries.  We all said how nice it was that he was back and well again.  In the process of telling him how much better he was than all of the guys/gals that they sent in his place I told him about my missing package.

The NEXT DAY he brought my missing package to me.  It seems we are not the only place he actually stops and drops the mail at.  He delivers all business mail in person so at each stop he asked if they anyone had received a package that wasn't theirs while he was out.  In less than 24 hours he found my package that was missing for a week.  All because he goes above and beyond delivering the mail.  Thanks Tom!!

Above is the contents of the missing package.  It is a Pirates Team Issue from when Bill Virdon was Jim Leyland's Bench Coach in 1986.  This is actually the only copy of this I have ever seen anywhere.  Not only have I never seen it listed on eBay before I have never even seen the image before.  

A Mystery Card

The other day I showed that I bought something that I told myself I wouldn't when I posted that 1953 KC Blues Team picture.  Well I did it again.  I bought something I  have been avoiding.  An unlicensed 8x10.  I have always limited myself to Team Issues and licensed 8x10s.  (Like PhotoFile)  However when I saw this one I decided I needed it.

I've studied the photo in his hand and I can't figure out what card he is signing.  It looks like on the card he is standing and it has a white sky as a background at the top.  There is no Virdon card that I know of like it.  The closest I can find to it are 62 Kahns, 64 Kahns, 80 TCMA, or 81 Fleer. (64 and 65 Topps also both have a white sky, but they look to far off.)

His 81 Fleer checks off with the sky above him but it really looks like he is standing in photo above.

1964 Kahns checks off the standing and the sky in the background but the sky here looks blue not white like in the photo.  Plus Kahns is oversized.  

1980 TCMA has the right sky view and I can see how if held far far away he might look standing but that gold border...

1962 Kahns is the closest I can come up with.  It has the cloudy sky and he is standing  but the cards are oversized and it doesn't look oversized in the photo. 

So what is he about to sign?  Is it possible there is a regular sized card I don't know about?  The photo is from 83 or 84 so surly it isn't something homemade.

I Got The Blues

I hope nobody clicked this out of concern.  I am in no way talking about an emotional state.  I am talking about my latest Virdon pickup. 

This is a team 8x10 from when Virdon played in the yankees farm system.  He's in the top row, 3rd from the left glassesless. (if that is a word)  It would be during the 1953 season that Manager Harry Craft would see Bill reading with glasses on and told him to start playing with them also.  His batting Average jumped .100 points from 1953 to 1954.  I guess it helps to see the ball better.

I had always told myself I wan't going to chase stuff of his that was the whole team but these old minor league cards team issues are to great to pass up.  I bet you can recognize a few other names on this roster because many of them went on to big league careers. 

Zippers Who Knew???

It's been awhile, again.  Summer is busy for me.  This year it was busier than ever.  I took my wife and kids to Europe for vacation and some Women's Word Cup matches.  4 years ago we went to see the WWC in Canada, who knows maybe it going to be a tradition. Anyway we were gone for three weeks.  Then my wife and I went on a "real" vacation to make up for the three week "vacation" we took with the kids.  Our "real" vacation turned out to be horrible because we both were horrible sick the whole time.  Anyway even through our vacations I kept up my daily search of eBay and I have a slew of things to post about now.

I bought this while I was in Scotland.  Not in Scotland just on eBay while in Scotland.  (side note Scotland was the best part of the whole European trip and the whole family thought so not just me) 

I have never seen this exact photo before but I have a bunch that are a whole lot like it. 

You can tell that all these postcards were from the exact same photo shoot.  It has the same light standard off to the left and the same zippered uniform on.  Yep a zipper.  I had no idea that jerseys used to have zippers instead of buttons, none.  On top if that I have had these postcards for a long time and never noticed the zipper. 

Now For Something Completely Different

I have been holding out on everyone.  I have talked about and shown my Virdon, Red Sox, and Boxing Collection but I have never shown or talked about any of my other collections.  

These are 1910 E27 American Caramel Teddy's Trophies.  It is a 30 card set featuring animals from Roosevelt's 1909 African Safari to procure specimens for the newly founded Smithsonian Institute. He did just that collecting 11,400 specimens.  He later chronicled it in his book African Game Trails. (which one of these days I am going to buy a copy of.)

The card backs are all exactly the same.  A blurb about the hunt, a checklist, With Manufactured By American Caramel Co at the bottom.

Not all the cards are horizontal a handful of them are vertical.  You can hardly tell from the scans but these cards are surrounded by both a white and gold border.  The gold border really stands out in hand.  It is almost like it is gold leaf instead of regular print. 

It is a cool little set that I am about halfway through with.  I could probably go all out and finish the set tomorrow via eBay but instead I slowly pick them up when I see them for a good price. 

1960 Pirates 50th Anniversary Postcard

I know that my Strat-O-Matic post was pretty darn bland.   It was like hearing a lecture.  The scans were ugly too.  So I decided to add some color to this post.

This is a 2010 Postcard commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the 1960 World Series Pirates.  

The 1960 World Series is remembered for Maz's Game 7 Walk Off Home Run.  

These Postcards were put out by Mike Wheat Cards in a 28 card set.  

All My Strat-O-Matics in One Post

Yesterday I posted an APBA Virdon and mentioned Strat-O-Matic cards.  I know just as little about the Strat cards as I do the APBA cards. The main thing I have learned about them is there are an awful lot of different ones. Even though there are allot if scans this isn't going to be a pretty post.  Strat-O-Matic cards are the very ugliest of cards. 

The best that I can tell there are 3 main types of Strat cards.

1. Original - Printed in whatever year that say.  These are blank backed and have a slightly thicker card stock.  
2. Recreated - These have the same fronts but in addition they have a whole other set of things on the back.
3. Super Advanced - How anyone calls these super advanced is beyond me.  Yeah they have a little bit more color and the stats are a little different but Super Advanced they are not. 

On top of those three main types there are a few variations. The ones I have seen are color and cut but who knows if there are more.  Moving on to scans.

Starting at the beginning of Virdon's career this 55 Strat is of the Super Advanced variety. All of the Super Advanced have the first stat at the bottom as AVG. 

All the colors on the back are also a sign it isn't original.

If you compare the fronts of these 1956 Strats to the 1955 you will notice the first stat at the bottom is AT BATS.  That means that they are not Super Advanced.  

Since there is stuff on the back these are also not original.  They are however two different variations of recreated Strats because the colors are reversed between the two of them.  Maybe this could tell a more knowledgeable person what year they are from or maybe not.

The 57 I have is of the Super Advanced type. 

My 58 is also of the Super Advanced variety.  They seem to be way more common in this type.  

The back of this 59 makes it look like it should be Super Advanced but it is not.  It is a recreated card with that uses the coloring pattern of the Super Advanced but the AT BATS is the giveaway.

Here is a side by side comparison of the regular next to a Super Advanced.  The 1960 on the left is the first Original Strat-O-Matic card I have shown.  It however is a Red Ink Variable which I am told is less common.  Or at least that is what the eBay auction said.

The back is where you can see the difference in the original.  The blank back is a dead giveaway.

The two 1961s on the right sure look the same but they are not.

Even the scan of the back looks exactly the same.  What you can't see in the scan however is that the edge of the cards have little nipples from where they were attached together in a sheet.  The edge of one of these has no nipples.  It was printed individually instead of a sheet that one had to tear apart.  

This 62 is another recreated card.  It has no nipples just like the 61 I posted.  These are the only two recreated cards I have without the nipples.

A 63 in the Super Advanced variety.

This is an original next to a Super Advanced 1964.

Again another Original next to a Super Advanced.  

I got a whole bunch of these from Chris Rosen who runs Moonlight Grahams Marketplace.  I just sent him and email saying I am interested in any Bill Virdon gaming cards he had and he sent me a list of all he had.  

I promise next time I'll post something with a little more color.

Not Playing Games

I have a Fantasy Baseball Team but I have never played any of the baseball games like APBA Baseball, Strat-O-Matic, or anything like that.  That doesn't mean that I don't pick up the cards when I can. 

I just recently picked up some 1989 APBA Baseball Senior Circuit cards.  Now I have no idea how to play APBA or really anything about the cards or even what years they made cards however I pick up the Virdons when I see them.  

Does he have good stats?  The game looks confusing to me.  I saw the worksheets to play this before and it was enough to scare me off. 

I picked up these three team sets off ebay for hardly anything.  I bought then just for this one card.  If anyone wants the other cards let me know.