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.

COMC Delivery Part 1 - Errors

I saw that people are having to wait a long time on their COMC orders.  Evidently I'm lucky though because I requested shipment on 6-3 and got my order on 6-9.  It was a very small order though.  I am going to break it up into a couple posts.

If you thought from the title COMC screwed up my order that is not the case,  Everything I ordered came in.  Part of what I ordered were Bill Virdon Printing Errors that I had never seen before.

Before I get to the errors this is what a 1979 TMCA The 50s #100 Bill Virdon should look like.  It is in color but just barely.  Now to the print errors.

As you can see this card lacks all color on the front but it does have a normal back to it. I actually like this better than the original.  The original looks like it was colorized after the fact.

This second error has the blue from Russ Meyer's card on top of a black and white version of Bill Virdon.  For whatever reason it has a blank back.  

This one is really screwy.  It has all the color but black from #161 Roger Maris superimposed on top if Virdon's back and white photo.  The back has an upside down #162 Bob Cerv superimposed on top of a regular Bill Virdon back.

When this shipment came in I logged into COMC to see when I requested the shipment because it came so fast.  I did a Virdon search and there are more Virdon printing errors from this set.  I skipped all the ones that were only back errors and bought the one that had a front error.  This is a yellowized version of the 79 TCMA card.  It has a normal back. Makes me wonder if a blue and a red one will pop up some day.

I Did It Too

Recently Night Owl posted about picking up some 52 Topps Dodgers.  I did kind of the same thing though mine was a Red Sox.

 He got a better deal than I did as mine cost $8.01 on eBay to his $5.  $8 was perfectly acceptable to me. This card has no creases but there are no corners on Walt either. That is perfectly acceptable for any 52 Topps in my collection. 

I have totally ignored the back variations of 52 Topps, so much so I almost forgot they existed.  When Night Owl mentioned the back variation I thought to myself, "Oh yeah, that was a thing" otherwise I don't think it would have register with me.  But 52 Topps has always been my least favorite vintage Topps set.  I just don't get the appeal.  It is the first Topps set, but not really the first Topps set, I just don't get it.  But I got this one.  There are still three more Red Sox in the low numbers that I need to grab but I'm not after them, I only pick them up when they fall in my lap for a low price.  

I Need An Otriz For My Autograph Project

I am planning on getting 20 autographs of 2004 Red Sox players and putting them in a wall frame from Michael's. I have decided on the following 20.

• Aaroyo 
• Bellhorn 
• Damon 
• Embree 
• Foulke 
• Lowe 
• Pedro 
• Mientkiewicz 
• Millar 
• Mirabelli 
• Mueller 
• Myers 
• Nixon 
• Ortiz 
• Manny 
• Roberts 
• Schilling 
• Timlin 
• Varitek 
• Wakefield 

I still need six cards to complete this.  

Mark Bellhorn

Pedro Martinez 

Doug Mirabelli 

Mike Myers

Dave Roberts 

Curt Schilling 

Besides those six I want and extra three cards to complete my frame because:

For Arroyo and Ortiz I only have horizontal cards. And for Doug Mientkiewicz I only have a twins autograph.  I posted about trading for the Arroyo today I'm posting about the Pappi. 

I have this 2009 Topps Finest Autograph but like Arroyo is horizontal instead of vertical.  Will anyone out there swap Ortiz autographs? 

Doug Mientkiewicz, Mike Myers, and Dave Roberts in a Red Sox uniform are all going to be a problem.  None of them ever had a certified autograph in a Red Sox uniform. It's hard to believe the guy that caught the last out and the guy that made the steal were never issued a Red Sox autograph.  There are actually very few cards of them in a Red Sox uniform at all.  I may have try the TTM route which I haven't done since I was about 12. (Edit... Roberts has a Red Sox autograph in 2018 Topps Fan Favorites but the only one I see for sale is 200)