New Virdon Odds and Ends

My 50 time a day Virdon ebay search has bore fruit over the last few months.  No new cards but I did get some odds and ends

This is a 3.5x5 photo. It's dated July 84 in the bottom corner.  This is the only photo I have where it's dated like that in the photo itself. I own a white 1984 Virdon jersey and hat, it might be the exact one in this photo. 

Another 3.5x5 photo.  This one has Manager Bill Virdon 1983 handwritten in pen on the back. 

I don't know when this picture came from. Blue  with Astros on the front with a blue hat wasn't worn by Houston until 1983 and by that time Virdon was on Montreal. I was thinking it must be some mystery spring training only uniform. Then I realized it's not a jersey at all because there are no buttons, he's wearing a pullover. The trees in the background does mean it was taken spring training though. It really irked me though because it looked so familiar. That's when it came to me. 

He's wearing the same thing in his 82 Donruss card.  I would bet it was taken on tree Dave far even. 

Those Pesky High Numbers

When I first moved to Phoenix there was a blog called Pack War ran by a guy that went by Corky. Since he lived on Phoenix he sent me a list of all the card shops on the area that he knew of. The very first one I visited was called the Hot Corner in Mesa.  It's kind of far away from where I live so I haven't been back there for probably 10 years. I was in the area this past week though so stopped in.  

Really what I was looking for were three row PSA height boxes. (Evidently these have been discontinued  because I can't find any except for a guy in ebay that has them for ridiculous prices)  The thing is I don't want them for graded cards I only want them because the dividers that I use between years don't fit in a regular size box because they have to be taller than a top loader. I can use two wide but the wide fits better in an Ikea cube shelf without wasting a bunch of space. 

What they had instead of the boxes was a couple monster boxes of vintage.  I searched through two whole monster boxes and I only found two cards I needed, both high numbers. 

This Reggie Smith In Action card was the first card in the 1972 section of the box. An easy score like that got my hopes up but it wasn't to be tar was the only 1972 that had that I needed. 

Those monster boxes went from 1962 to 1975 and there only other card I found that I needed was this 1965.

Since they were both high numbers I was kind of scared to ask how much they wanted for them.  The Jay Ritche is in exceptional shape so I figured for sure they were going to add a premium to it.  But when I asked the guy he said only $1 each.  Yes please! If only they had a bunch more I needed. 

A Minor Problem

 I mentioned before that I used to have cards shipped to me at my work.  Cards would languish there for extended periods of time before I would get them put away.  I have been catching up on that recently and came across some stuff I forgot about.  I'm not sure who sent it but I recently found a complete 1998 Pawtucket Red Sox Team set in my stuff to put away. (I suspect it was friend of the blog and Red Sox super-collector Mark Hoyle but it was so long ago I just don't remember for sure)

The team set was already in nin card pages and just needed to be put into the correct binder.  Only there was this.

The holes are in the wrong page.   I have never seen a page like this before.  Actually I have never seen any problems with any Ultra Pro products before.   Because of that, Ultra Pro is the only kind of supplies I buy.  I'm still going to use this page but it is going to used for a PWE instead of card storage. 

The aforementioned 1998 minor league team set doesn't have much going for it.  If you are not a Red Sox fan the only player you might recognize is Trot Nion.

There are a few others that eventually got a call up too but none that made a big impact.  The one that is recognizable to Red Sox fans is Lou Merloni but not for his exploits on the field.  He is now the Red Sox color guy at NESN.  

The Red Sox had some great color guys over the years in Remy, Eckersley, and then Youkilis.  Merloni is ok, he has grown on me the longer he has done it.  I still think Youkilis, who filled the gap after Eckersley, was better but even then he was only a part time announcer.  Youkilis is a respected former team player and at the same time he is modest and self depreciating in a way that is just perfect for TV.  Eckersley was the exact same way and Eck was my favorite color guy that ever covered baseball and the playoffs are REALLY missing him right now. (I don't count Vin Scully as color because to me he was mostly a one man booth otherwise my all time favoritewould be Scully)

Oddly enough the only card in the set with multiple players on it is Merloni and Nixon. It's like they knew who was going to be best remembered. 

More Decorations

 I made some more small room additions. 

I've bought this frame the same day i bought the shadowbox I posted about a week ago.  This is one of the old style ones that are not user friendly. The only way to change out the cards is to force them out the sides and over the frame.  The new ones are at nicer and the banks come off so the cards slide out real easy.  With this one,  half of the cards slip out of the hard cases when you put them into the frame and you have to pull the out and redo them.  The cases themselves are c4appy and slip down in the cases after time too. These are all doubles acquired over time. You can't tell from the fronts but two of them are Venezuelan even. 

This road sign sits over top my bathroom door.  It's from my home town but I didn't take it off the side of the road I bought it off ebay like two years ago. Of the Bill Virdon Blvd signs I could have ended up with this one not close to home, literally.  I used to live maybe 200 yards from the corner that this sign came from. 

Cards From Cards on Cards

How's that for a title. This is only the second time I've used it. 

Kerry recently sent me a batch of Red Sox cards.  I'm really late getting to this post, this recently was actually over a month ago.

This is my first Little Papi card.  I don't know if that's really his nickname but as the son of David Ortiz it should be. He was drafted in 2024 and has only played A ball so far. 

Without these two guys the Sox wouldn't have made the playoffs, if Roman had still been around I think they would have got a lot further than they did too. 

I don't know what this card is.  All I can come up with is 2023 World League Promo. I see there's an Otani and an Acuna but that's all I have figured out. I don't even know what company put then out. 

I don't chase refractors but I sure do collect them. 

This finished off a team set for me. When I buy team sets they usually don't come with the leader cards so I end up having to chase them all. 

When these cards came out, if you would have asked me which one still played for the Sox in 2025 and gave me two guesses, I would have got them both wrong. 

Opps, accidently scanned Xander twice.

Relics are another thing I don't chase but I sure do collect them. Kerry sent me two different color swatches even. 

Another team set finisher. No more chasing 2021s.

New to me Pedros are some of my favorite cards. 

My daughter started a new school this year. She came home one day and said there is a kid in her class who's dad played for the Red Sox.  Turns out it is Pedroia's son. 

New to me Nomar cards don't show up at my house very often. 

My collection is seriously lacking in stickers. Panini Topps all of them in just about every year. 

Thanks for the package Kerry, I'll be starting a new stack of Cardinals for you. 

Weirdness Or More?

Signa Cut cards are ugly they always have been but I still chase all the Virdons. In 2012 they put out a bunch of Bill Virdons.  

The were two Signa Cut sets in 2012: Regular and Bronx Edition.  Both were advertised as Gold/25, Green/10, Red/5, and Purple/1. That means there are eighty- two of them out there.  I completed the rainbow in the regular version long ago. 

The Bronx Edition has been totally different story.  I've never seen the Purple card numbered to 1,  which is totally understandable.  It probably got ripped by someone and it stayed in their collection.  Here's where the weirdness comes. 

That is the Bronx Edition numbered to 10. I've never seen the other 9 that are numbered to 10 and i search more than daily. I recently got the one numbered 4/5.

The 2012 Bronx Edition cards numbered to 25? I've never even seen one of them. It's crazy that a card numbered to 25 has never shown up when a /10 and /5 had shown up.  I call BS on there actually being ten of them numbered to 10 and he's why.  That cards numbered 4/5 i just got, it was my 5th one numbered to 5.

In thirteen years I was able to acquire every single one of the cards #/5 but not a single #/25 have shown up and only one of the #/10 has.  That seems like more than plain weirdness too me  I think maybe those 34 other cats may just plain old not exist. 

For 2013 I have /25, /10, /5, and I've never seen the #/1.

A Completed Team Set

When I got back into collecting cards in the early 2000s I bought a Red Sox Team set checklist on eBay. It consisted of all the Bowman and Topps team sets up through 2005. For each year there was an fill size checklist punched for a binder and there were mini checklists for a binder.  I pitched that whole binder of checklists years and years ago. The mini checklists I have mostly got rid of as I finished team sets.  There are a few of the minis that are still around though because they were in an empty slot of my binder. When I eliminated my binders a while back I got rid of the rest but for some reason not this one. 

I finally got that last 1953 Bowman Black and White. 

Jim Piersal eluded me for long enough and I finely got one to complete my team set. 

I'm going to post the whole team set but it's not a pretty of a picture as everyone else's would be because my team set is top loaded and bagged and I'm not taking them out just for a picture. 

I finished of the color set long ago. So long ago that I can't remember who the last card was. 

When I finished the color set I probably only had three of the black and white and it's taken years to track them all down. When I say years to track down that means years to track then down paying what I'm willing to pay for them.  I finally got the Piersal for $11.

And now:

Boxing Cards To Trade

I know most blogs are baseball and a little bit of football but hopefully someone will want these boxing cards. I thought about listing them for sale but I'd rather trade them if possible. I also have a complete set of 1996 Ringside and a bunch of other random 90s cards that are not pictured. If your interested just let me know. 

48-49 Leaf

1938 Churchman Cigarettes 

1951 Topps Ringside

Hanging

I've always hated hanging picture frames.  It doesn't make sense because it's not hard to do and doesn't take long but for some reason i absolutely hate it. I think maybe I'm a little too picky about the straightness and it bothers me enough I don't want to deal with it. But on an effort to make the new house more my own I hung some stuff today. 

This is a bunch of Virdon stuff.  The autographed bat is one Virdon used for fly ball practice at spring training.  It has hung in my office for almost ten years.  Inside the bat case is an autographed ball, an autographed spring training used batting glove, and a canceled per diem check from the yankees.  On top is a 1981 Stop and Go Virdon cup (because I can't figure out anywhere else to display it) and a Springfield Cardinals minor league Bill Virdon bobblehead.  The photo on the left also hung in my office and it's a picture of him after he was presented with his 1960 World Series ring. On the right is a painting I got from someone that purchased it from the Virdon Estate auction after he passed. (I promise the two pictures are straight, it's an optical illusion from taking the picture from an angle.)

Probably eight or so years ago I bought a shadowbox with the intension of making a collage of oddball Virdon items I have picked up over the years and don't really fit in a binder. I made several attempts and gave up each time because I don't feel like I'm very artistic and a never happy with how it looked. So it sat empty behind the credenza at my office all these years. I made another attempt at it and I'm pretty happy with it this time. 

Every other time I tried to display a whole bunch of Virdon items and it would always look too busy and haphazard. This time I went for simple.  Included is the nameplate from his his 1986 home jersey when he was part of the Pirates coaching staff. The number is just an autographed number I got off of ebay. He wore 9 when he played for the Cardinals his rookie year.  At the bottom is the sign off Virdon's locker while he managed the Astros. The name was hand drawn but the logos are stamped on there with and old school hand stamper.  I had his minor league all star belt buckle in there next to the number but I couldn't find something that was about the same size to balance it out for the other side. I almost went with a card but I didn't like the horizontal buckle on one side with a vertical card on the other side so I opted to just leave it out.  

Adding To My Least Favorite Vintage

I have never understood why people like 52 Topps so much.  I feel like I am chasing exorbitantly priced, not first year Topps cards even though that is how history incorrectly wrote it up.  I might understand it if those really were the first Topps baseball cards, but there was 48 Topps Magic and 51 Topps Baseball cards before 52 Topps.  however I am not opposed to picking up a 52 Topps Red Sox when they present themselves.

This is my latest vintage Red Sox pick up.  Luckily it didn't have the usual giant price tag that comes with 52 Topps.  For $4 I can ignore rounded corners and the pencil on Ellis's neck.  

Finding Some Organization In Chaos

 When I starting blogging again I didn't mean for the start and stop to happen.  I wasn't planning on a semi comeback I was shooting for at least twice a week posts.  Then things changed, but I guess that's life.  Back in February 2011 I wrote about a big change in my life, moving from MO to AZ.  Except for children being born I expected that to be the biggest change I was going to ever have to make.  Then this year hit.  In July I moved my daughter to TN so she could start college, then I came home and made a move myself.  I never thought I would have to start over a 50 but we don't always see what life is going to give us.  So new house (new address if your sending cards), new work, just about everything new.  There is a reason I collect old ballcards, I don't like new.  

There are some good things that come with new though.  I have kind of alluded to it before but I haven't had all the cards in my collection in one place in 10 years.  Probably 99% of the cards I acquire come from some kind of online transaction.  Since I spent all day at work on a computer I didn't spend any time on the computer at home.  So when I would purchase Virdon stuff I was doing it at work which caused a problem.  The Virdon stuff I don't have is mostly variations of things I already do have so I have to make comparisons before I do a purchase.  As an example I would find a Virdon postcard while I as at work but then I would have to wait until I got home to compare it to the postcard I already had.  That was bothersome so I moved all my Virdon stuff to my office.  That wasn't such a big deal Virdons at work Red Sox at home.  Only I used my work address for everything.  If you mailed me a card in the last 10 years, you mailed it to my office.  It started with a drawer in my desk.  I would get cards in the mail that needed added to my collection and I would throw them in that drawer to be brought home later.  No big deal it is just a few cards now and then but they started to pile up.  99% of them were in the vintage variety.  All my Vintage Red Sox fit in one 6" binder so I brought that to work too.  No big deal Virdon and Vintage at the office and the rest of my Red Sox at home.  Then I started buying the current sets each year.  I would order a binder and pages off Amazon which delivered to my office and then all the team sets would come to my office; once I filled that binder I just put it on my office bookshelf next to the Virdons and Vintage.  Then again a year later, and a year later, and it didn't seem like very long but all of the sudden I had 2017 to 2025 in my office.  Well no more office for me so now my cards are all under one roof again.  

Meet the new card shelf.  Those boxes on the top left are what used to be my vintage binder.  It is all top loaded up to 1980. The four boxes below those are partial team sets and inserts from 1980 to current.  None of them are labeled yet because I'm not totally happy with it.  Three row boxes fit on these shelves better than two row boxes so I am going to be swapping those out in the near future.  Below that is supplies and some autographed stuff I don't know how to display yet.  (That is an autographed crown, next to a boxing glove, ontop of a baseball glove, ontop of boxing shorts.)

The two boxes on the top right: one is autographs and relics, the other is a bunch of oddball stuff that doesn't fit in regular pages or binders. (the divider is taken out of one of those boxes.)  Below that is Red Sox doubles and all the cards from other teams. 

It isn't just a shelf, it is a whole closet.  Up top are all my binders.  The first one is boxing then it goes 1980 Red Sox to current.  That empty spot in the middle isn't there anymore, I filled up with my Virdon stuff.  I took the picture before I added the virdon binders in and reinstalled the the closet doors which I had to take off to get that shelf in there.  I like it better without the doors but I don't know what I would do with two giant mirrored doors so I put them back on.  

There are my Vidons in place half blocked by the door.  The first binder is Virdon cards.  There is going to be a change to this binder I just haven't decided what yet, future post I guess.  The second binder is my Virdon postcard to 8x11s.  I have posted about that binder before.  The third binder is magazine and program covers.  I don't know if I ever even mentioned that one on here before.  Magazines take up a lot more space than cards so I had to find somewhere to go with them.  The fourth binder is my unlabeled 2024 binder.  I is also stuck 2025 series one in there since I do not have a 2025 binder yet.  I still have lots of organizing to do still.  That black thing on the bottom left is my Virdon spring training fungo bat that needs hung.  That brown box on the right hold my Virdon 1982 Home Jersey.  

At least my cards are pretty organized even if everything else isn't!

Duped

I get excited when I see a Virdon item that I didn't know existed.  It doesn't happen often but when it does I try to jump right on it.  Recently there was a postcard that showed up on eBay that while familiar it was different.  

As soon as I say it I knew it looked exactly like a postcard I already have but the one I have doesn't have the name block at the top.  So for $10 I jumped in it.  (actually I set a snipe bid and paid for it last second)  Here is the new postcard scanned with the one I already had.

I actually like the name and position block.  I probably would have put it at the bottom and not thetop but it looks like it belongs, it looks like a totally new to me postcard; only it's not.  That "BILL VIRDON OUTFIELD" is a label that someone stuck on the postcard.  In other words someone duped me and now I have a postcard dupe.  

There is a small silver lining.  The backs are reversed.  

I am pretty anal about chasing down Virdon variations but even I would not have chased down a reversed back to a postcard.  If the wording on the back was missing all together or even if it was just slightly different wording I would have chased it. (there are some Expo postcards I chased down English and French back) 

The Card That Started The Project

A couple weeks ago I was going through my Red Sox doubles looking for cards on Angels in Order's set wantlist.  In my doubles was this card.

 As soon as I saw it I knew positively, without a doubt, that this was not a double.  I don't really chase autograph cards so I have zero autograph doubles.  How it got in my doubles I have no idea.  I don't even remember getting it.  After I found the Piersall auto I also found two team bags in my doubles that was very suspect too.  The team bags I knew were the cards came from, one was a card show and one was a card store in the west valley but I don't know how they got mixed into my doubles.  I then knew I had to go through them all.  I has been many years since I went through my doubles.  I have been in Arizona for 12 years and the last time I went trough my doubles was before I moved here.  It took me about two and a half weeks of sorting almost every single evening but the project is finally done.  What a pain!  This is probably going to make me change how I store cards.  The final tally is 39.  I found 39 cards that were in my doubles and not in my collection.  Most of them were in those two aforementioned team bags but there were a few scattered here and there also.  

The reason the sort was such a pin is that I originally started putting near complete team sets in binders.  I stopped that practice years ago but those partial team sets that I originally put into binders are still in binders mixed in with the completed team sets.  After I sorted all my doubles by year I then had to get out the appropriate binder and the corresponding box of cards that had not been put in a binder yet and start comparing that to both my doubles and my checklist.  It was so time consuming!  And I don't even want to get started telling how much time I spent on just the confusing mess that is Bowman vs Bowman Draft vs Bowman Prospects vs Chrome with some of those aforementioned Bowman sets also having Chrome Inserts; plus the dates on the back of early 00s Bowman are not always the year the cards were issued.  So while I found 39 "new" cards to add to my collection I took out close to 20 Bowman cards that I had doubled up between my binders, my box, or had the same card in two different years.  

I  know it is blasphemy to many people but I am now seriously considering unbindering my whole collection.  I already did it with my "vintage" cards.  I couldn't make myself put things like a Yaz RC or Ted Williams cards from his playing days in the binder with the rest of the team set and this cause me to have a Vintage Red Sox binder with an additional Vintage Red Sox box that housed the cards that were not in the binder. I hated that the cards were not together so I unbindered all my vintage a couple months ago and I really like how they are stored now.  I top loaded everything up to 1979 and then team bagged each top loader because I hate scratched top loaders.  I made a label for every year and I put that label on some of those non rigid tall top loaders? I never saw the point in those flimsy top loaders and I just threw them away when I acquired cards in them.  To me they were always inferior and people just used them to save a few cents on top loaders plus they are too tall for a card box so they are also inconvenient to store.  But too tall also means that they stick up about an inch taller than the top loaders and perfectly display my year labels.  To overcome the inconvenient tallness, I got graded card boxes instead of regular card boxes so that everything fits with the labeled dividers.  I am really liking it and I think I am going to do the rest of my collection the same way, minus top loading and team bagging every single card.  Yes I will probably still use some top loaders on certain rookies and insert cards but not everything will go into a top loader like I did with my vintage cards.  I am on the fence if I will penny sleeve every non vintage card before I box them.  Right now I am leaning towards the penny sleeve but when I see how many penny sleeves I will need to buy I might just balk at it.

I now have all my doubles sorted by year.  I just need to find some Red Sox collectors that have want lists to fill because it will be so easy now.