Major Happenings and An Angelic PWE

 I took a longer than expected break.  I made a bitter/sweet trip to Eastern Tennessee.  My oldest daughter graduated high school this year and decided on UT as her college of choice.  Of all my kids I was always closest with my daughter.  All those long hours of driving in the car to soccer practices and games all over the country gave us more time to bond than any of my other kids.  I spent two weeks driving her stuff across the country and getting her set up in her new place.  (set up means putting furniture together and staying out of the way.)  Then there was the long drive home alone.  I did listen to the radio broadcast if every Red Sox game during my trip and it was nice for them to go on that win streak right before the break.  I just hope it didn't kill their momentum.  

I came home to a PWE from Angels in Order.  It wasn't totally unexpected, he had emailed me for my address right as I was leaving town.  

His email said something about it not being much but little did he know it made a big impact, both on my collection and myself as it was a nice thing to come home to after the long "not vacation trip".  These two Minor League cards finished off my 19 Line Drive AA Red Sox team set.  

This 1992 Classic Best card of Tony Scheffield knocked of a team set for me also.  Like Fox and Randle above Scheffield never made it into the majors.

This Carlos Quintana card is the entirety of the 1989 CMC All Star Red Sox team set.  This also makes the first time I completed three team sets from one mailing. (that wasn't three complete team sets bought and paid for from the same eBay seller)  I don't even think I have had a COMC order that finished off three team sets before.  

My early 90s collection is riddled with Frank Rodriguez cards.  He played nine games for the Red Sox in 1995 before being traded for Rick Aguilera in July.  This was the first of seven seasons spent in the majors. 

When trying to figure out what to write about this 1992 Red Sox prospect I found out that there has never been an MLB player named Boo.  Lots of Bos but no Boo, though there was a former Red Sox named Dave Ferriss that evidently was nicknamed Boo who has a museum at Delta State University.  

Even with those three finished off sets this was my favorite part of the package.  Six 1982 Fleer Stamps.  Luckily Google image search is a thing because I would have struggled with putting a year on them otherwise.  The stamp portion of my Red Sox collection is severely lacking. 

The Yaz is really different.  I can't think of a single card that is a picture of someone posing for a picture.  

Thank you for the mail day Tom is was much appreciated and a heck of a pick me up for an otherwise terrible summer.  I will have a return package coming your way this week.  

Trade Bait Pays Off

Last month I offered up some Pirates stuff as trade bait.  Roger wanted some of it and a quick trade was worked out. 

Roger said he didn't have much off of my want list but he had a two Hostess I needed.  Not only did I need them but they finished off my 1976 Hostess Team Set. 

I thought all I was getting was the two hostess cards.  But Roger threw in some extras. My original assumption was since it says he as an All Star in 1964 that this would be a 1965 coin.  But it turns out that it is actually a 1964 coin.  This must have come out of the high number series for the All Star game to have already been over. 

This second coin was even harder to figure out.  It looks brand new.  The Stuart coin above has some scratches and it looks like a 1964 coin should but this one looks like a more recent coin, like it came out in the 1980s or 1990s.  I had to do one of those Google image search things to figure out that it was a 1971 Topps Coin.  I didn't even realize there were 71 Topps coins and this prompted me to add them to my want list.  

I threw in some extra Pirates stuff when I shipped his package but I don't think I added enough extras for the vintage coin throw ins.  Thanks Roger, I am going to get some more stuff sent your way in the next week or so. 

 

it's A Small World

 Anyone that has done much trading amongst other blogs knows about a small town in upstate New York called Watertown.  When I started the blog in 2008 one of the first places I sent cards was Watertown and I have been sending them there periodically ever since.  Fast forward a few years and someone I knew got married to a girl in North Carolina and a couple years later decided to move to his bride's hometown, Watertown.  The total number of people I knew in the state of New York was two and they both happen to live in the same town of 13,000.  This week I completed a transaction on Facebook with a guy named Matt and this showed up.

There is that city again, small world?   

First off some Pedro cards from 1998.  My late 90s and early 00s want list are filled with regular base Pedro cards I need.

90s and 00 Nomar cards are the same way.  I have a theory for this.  The hobby went into a lull in the late 90s.  At that time tons of people collected Nomar and Pedro; even if they didn't outright collect them they wouldn't have been thrown in with the commons they were sequestrated with "the good cards" even if they were base cards. My theory is a bunch of people stopped collecting cards in this time period and just put them away in a closet/basement.  All those Pedro and Nomar cards are just sitting around waiting to be let back out into the collecting world.

Mo Vaugh is a little like that also but not nearly to the same extent.  I see Mo cards a whole lot more often than I do Pedro or Nomar.  That Donruss Preferred Mo is one of those annoying SP cards tacked onto the tail end of a set.  

It wasn't just 90s cards I picked up from Matt I also got some 2020s stuff including this Donruss Unleashed Mayer card that looks WAY better in hand than it scanned.  

Most of what I got was Panini cards.  Panini seems to make more parallels than Topps and a lot of what I got was parallels. I got lot of base too though.  When I started just outright buying team sets a few years ago I quickly noticed that there are not a lot of people selling team sets for panini products.  I am not sure why that is.  Maybe it is the no logos or maybe Panini buyers are more about the inserts and parallels and the base cards are deemed useless.

This card sure is different today than it was a week ago.  The best batter on the team is now on the Giants.  Heart of the City to persona non grata just like that.  To me it feels like a huge mistake to trade of Devers but I've got my fingers crossed it can turn out like the Nomar trade of 2004.  This card is another card that looks totally different in hand.  I would go as far as to say this is one of the very best looking cards, if not the best looking card, I have seen put out in many years.  It is a refractor and the skyline and water just pop perfectly.  

Thanks for the cards Matt and if anyone else runs into him he gets a recommendation as a good seller from me. 

Beggars Can t Be Choosers

 I picked up a Dave Roberts autograph for my 2004 Red Sox Autograph project.  I am trying to do this project on a budget. There is a single Certified Dave Roberts autograph on a Red Sox card.  It is from 2018 Topps Archives Fan Favorites.  There is one on eBay but it is $200 and I'm not giving $200 for it.  So I settled for an uncertified 2004 Upper Deck Update autograph.  

Dave Roberts steal was one of the most memorable things from the 2004 ALCS.  But as trade deadline pickup and not signing on for 2005 there are very few Dave Roberts cards in a Red Sox uniform.  And oddly to me, no cards of his stolen base.  (the aforementioned 2018 autograph is him scoring the tying run after that stolen base.) 

Also, how weird is it that the only Upper Deck Red Sox card of him came out in 2005 Update.  Not 2005 regular Upper Deck, 2005 Upper Deck Update.  When the Red Sox didn't sign him he played the the 2005 season with the Padres so I would have thought for the Update set he would have been on a Padres card.

COMC Delivery Post 4 - Knocking Out The Rest

 The is the last of my COMC delivery.  It is something dear to me that not many else collect, boxing cards.  These are all 1951 Topps Ringside.  Once I finished 1948 Leaf boxing (minus the Graziano which I will never own because it is more rare than a T206 Wagner) I focused my vintage boxing on the Topps 1951 Ringside set.  

Tony Canzoneri is a former champion that I never heard of.  All of these guys fought way before I was born but I have normally at least heard of the champions before. No this guy though.

Every so often I do a COMC search for 1951 Ringside boxing cards and sort it by price.  Then I buy all the cheap ones I do not have yet.  It works our pretty good, I get a handful of them every shipment.  I know that one of these days though I am going to have to bite off going after some of the big names like Lamotta, Baer, Wolcott, etc.

At 2x3 these cards are smaller than the current cards.  I find it odd that they didn't make them the same size as 1951 Topps Baseball.

It is kind of hard to see but this card as a perforated edge at the bottom. Some of the cards were issued one for .01 or a two card panel for .05.  They don't seem to carry a premium for the perforation.  Oddly I have never seen a two card panel of them that hasn't already been separated.  

The backs of these 1951 Ringside are some of my favorite backs of all time.  It is the glove that does it for me.  

COMC Delivery Part 3 - A New Old Virdon

Topps Buybacks suck for Player Collectors.  The Heritage ones are not so bad because there is the potential of like one per year.  But in 2014 when Topps started adding buybacks to everything it got messy quick.  Topps didn't issue any print runs or anything they just stamped a bunch of cards 75th Anniversary and us collectors find what we can find.  For 2014 Buyback Virdons I have:

• 1958
• 1959
• 1961
• 1965
• 1973
• 1976
• 1978
• 1979
• 1980

The one that came in the COMC shipment is the #147 1976 Astros Team Bill Virdon

Do I have all the 2014 Buybacks now?  Who knows?  Potentially there are 60,62,63,64 (x2). 72, 73 Variant, 75, 77, 81, 83, and 84 cards that were stamped with the 75th logo on them but until they show up there is no telling if they were even made.  They did the same thing in 2015 and 2016 just using different logos.

COMC Delivery Part 2 - 2004 Red Sox Autos

A continuation of my latest COMC order.

When I started this project I was certain I already had a Damon autograph card.  I was sure I had a 2005 Cracker Jacks auto of him.  It turns I only had a Cracker Jack game used card not an autograph.  This Tier One auto was a better deal than anything I could find on eBay.  

This may just be a placeholder because he isn't in a Red Sox uniform.  But there has never been an autograph card of him with the Red Sox so unless I do a TTM auto I am stuck with this one.  With the grey uniform it probably wouldn't even stick out that he is in a Tigers Uniform instead of the Red Sox.