Confession Time

Hi my name is Adam and I'm a horrible collector. 

It has been 4 years since I put anything into a binder.  

4 years ago started a box labeled "Virdon Cards to be bindered.  

I also started another box labeled "Red Sox checked need put away".  So I guess I put away cards without putting them away.

I have everything shipped to my office and my drawer is now overflowing. 

The picture doesn't really do this drawer justice.  There are about thirty-four Virdon pictures in that one stack at the top alone.  Many of them are 8x10s but some are postcard sized and some are half sheets.  that Pedroia and Boggs up front; stuffed team bags and there are more of them wedged in the back of the drawer. 

I have so much at my office now that I have started storing cards in a second drawer.  

So yeah, I am a horrible collector but I am a great accumulator!  

Happy Boxing Day

Another Christmas means another boxing day.  Like past years I'm going to treat you to some boxing cards.  I scanned the fronts and the backs because I'm sure many of these sets are new to most that might read this. 

1911 Wills Boxers Young Cohen

Since Boxing day originated in England I am starting of with a card from England.  Most people think that boxing day is the day you bring boxes you don't want back to the store.  While that is probably accurate today that isn't what it originally was.  It started as a holiday for servants where they got the day off and received a Christmas box.  They didn't get Christmas on Christmas because they were busy taking care of their employers.  This is a mini card. Like a Ginter mini but a little shorter. 

I don't know anything about this set other than I found this card on COMC for $2.  It is 107 years old and in such good shape.  I have nothing else that is over a century old in this good shape.  I also don't know much about Young Cohen. It looks like he was a journeyman fighter with a 9-9-1 career record.  Originally I thought this was a card of the Mob Boxer Micky Cohen but then realized it was way to old.

If you got Chocolate at Christmas I bet you are not boxing it up and bringing it back.  I'm surely not bringing this back.  This was the last card in my 1948 Leaf Boxing Set.  (the Rocky Graziano SP doesn't count)  Yes you read that correct, I built a 70 year old set.  You're probably thinking yeah boxing cards are cheap and in most cases you would be correct.  But this set has some real big names in it that are not cheap. (Dempsey, Jeffries, Johnson, Schmelling, Lewis, Tunney, Baer, Sullivan, LaMotta)

The back is just like a 48 leaf baseball card.  (the front is allot the same also)  They both have the same layout, font, text size everything.  The differences are where this one says "KNOCK-OUT BUBBLE GUM" the baseball cards say "ALL-STAR BASEBAL GUM".  Under that the boxing cards say "Collect this series of Boxing Greats" and the baseball cards say "Collect this series of Diamond Greats".  The mail in offer is even exactly the same only the substitute Knock-Out cards for Basecall cards.   

1938 Churchman Joe Lewis

 Sticking with set finishing cards this finished off my 38 Churchman set.  Yes I finished an 80 year old set.  These are a ton cheaper than 48 Leaf.  If you wanted to start collecting vintage boxing I would suggest starting here.

My grandma is 93 years old and loves boxing.  She has told me many times about how she used to sit in the living room and listed to Joe Lewis fights on the radio with her family.  

1910 ATC Champion Athlete and Prizefighters

Man, his set's name is a handful to say.   I guess that is why it is just shortened to T220 Mecca.  Those spots are not just spots, they are mold. 

Read the write up on this fight.  How crazy is that a 42 round draw.

1910 ATC Champion Athlete and Prizefighter - Pal Moore

No mold here but there is wome water damage to go with those creases.  

 This is Philadelphia Pal Moore who was one of the "Fighting Moore Brothers".  They were 7 brothers that all fought.  (though some not successfully and some as bare knuckle only fighters.)  How is that for a rough childhood.

1951 Ringside Bob Montgomery

Most people haven't heard of Bob Montgomery but he is a Hall of Fame lightweight.

I've always thought the number being inside of a glove was really cool on the 51 Ringside cards.  

1964 Salina Stamp Jim Braddock

Braddock is better known as "The Cinderella Man" from the movie.  If you haven't seen it go find somewhere to stream/rent it and watch it today!  Amazing story.  This is a regular old stamp so I'm not going to scan the back you have seen the back of a stamp before.

1996 Ringside Gold Spotlight Signatures - Vinny Pazienza

1996 Ringside is another good boxing started set.  The easiest way to get this set is to trade for my dupe set.  I built this set along with all the insert sets.  Trying for inserts I built a whole extra set.  (or 3 but I'm down to one extra set now)  I finally gave up and bought the Gold Carbajal card though it took about 15 years to find one. There is something about boxers and amazing stories.  The Vinny The Pazmanian Devil has a movie Bleed for This made about him because of his crazy life and comeback.  This card is autographed though you can hardly see it.  

Stop here and read the back of that card.  See what I mean about comeback.  After this card was made he went on to win two World Championships.  

This isn't a normal run of the mill auto either.  This is pulled from a pack.  Instead of a little blurb in writing like card companies do now these had the blurb embossed right on the card.  It doesn't show very good in a scan but you can faintly see the embossed seal between my arrows.  As far as I know I have the whole auto set but there is no list of them anywhere I have found so you never know if another one might pop up. 

That feeling of old cardboard

Don't you just love the feeling of really old cards?  I'm talking all the stuff through the mid 50s.  They are so much thicker and sturdier than all other cards.  Plus old cards are just cool.  Not just mojo cards like this 1950 Bowman Ted Williams but all of them.  

1950 Bowman Ted Williams

(more scanner shenanigans) 

It isn't in the best shape with it's round corners, crease, and some color loss but it is still a 1950 Ted Williams!

The card back uses one of Williams' lesser known nicknames.  Everyone has heard him called "The Splendid Splinter", "The Kid", and "Teddy Ballgame" but you don't see him called "The Thumper" much.  

1936 Goudey Bernie Friberg

Look, someone chewed the gum right off of Bernie's card.

1936 Goudey John Welch

I got this John Welch from the same seller on eBay.  I buy cards from this guy all the time.  Well not all the time but at least a couple time a year.  Usually everything he sells is in pretty bad shape.  This one looks really good, until you turn it over.

1936 Goudey

Whoever the kid was that had this card back in 1936 was on top of it.  Welch played for the Red Sox from 1932-1936.  He only played 9 games for the Sox in 36 before being released and then picked up by Pirates where he appeared in relief 9 times which concluded his playing career. So whoever did the writing on this card probably did it during that short 9 game window.  

1940 Playball Harry Hooper

Harry here has seen better days too.  It looks like a dog got his card, took a bite, and decided to spit it out.  You can see what looks like teeth marks running the length of the card.  But my binder won't care about those teeth marks one bit.

1933 Goudey Rick Ferrell

 This card has definitely seen better days, not to mention some liquid.  Even tough it has a stain from liquid on it it feels just as sturdy as all the other old cardboard.  Pour some water on  a new card and see how it holds up.  I bet it doesn't last another 85 years like this one has.

1934 Goudey Bill Werber

 This was the last 1936 Goudey I needed for the team set.  Except for T205 this is my oldest complete team set.  They seem to be cheaper than most other old cardboard.  For one there is no Williams you have to shell out major cash for and all the regular cards have that picture of Gehrig in mime makeup.  A yankee mime.  I can't believe I even bought them.

Major Hit 1/1

So I thought I would do a little test.  Does throwing 1/1 on a post draw in a bunch of extra readers?

It works for eBay.  At least people think it does.   I'll soon find out.

Issues with Team Issues

I have problems with team sets.  First of all, most of them have no markings on them so it's hard to figure out what year there are from.  There are also sometimes subtle differences that are hard to catch like their name is spelled in ALL CAPS or with Just The First Letters Capped.  Sometimes they will use the exact same card of a players for years in a row while changing the photo used on the rest of the team.  All in all it is a pain to track down team issues.    

I picked up a Pirates Team set that I haven't been able to identify.  There are 9 cards, all with facsimile autographs, which I am assuming it is a complete team set but I don't know for sure.  All the photos on them I have seen used on different sets before like 60s Jay Publishing, 61 Kahn, and 64 Sports Science and they are all semi glossy with a blank back.  The real kicker though is that they are all 3.5 x 2.5 and I can't find any early 60s team issues that are that size.  So what are they?

EDIT:  Somehow I broke the blog.  Don't know why the funny letter background change is happening. 

So when you come across something like this how do you identify it? Maybe throwing it on a blog and pleading for help will work.  Probably not when I only have a few dozen readers.

Something Quick, Something Game Used

Today I have a sick kid.  All my kids are different.  It's crazy that they are all raised exactly the same way by the same people and are soooo different.  Different in the way they act, their tastes, their looks, their moods, everything about them is different.  The only way they are alike is that they are all pretty smart, though even their smarts are different.  One of mine is is great at math, one is great at reading and writing, and the third is just in kindergarten so while I can tell she is smart it's hard to tell what is going to be her forte.  (as you can tell that writing thing didn't come from me)  All that said I have one kid that is A WHOLE LOT whinier that they other two. Guess which kid I get to stay home with?  Lucky me.  So I'm doing a quick one. 

Still battling the scanner.  It took like 10 minutes to edit this photo and it still looks off.  Somehow it got squished top to bottom but not left to right.  It's like an 8x8 now.  I'll get it right one of these days.

This is an 8x10 of Bill Virdon when he was the bench coach for the Astros in 1997.  How can it be 1997 when the little date at the bottom says 2008?  Well for starters he wasn't the bench coach in 2008.  More importantly is I have that shirt.  No I don't mean I have just a white Astros jersey from 1997 I mean I have "That Jersey".

I picked up this Game Used jersey earlier this year.  It is one of my three game used Virdon Jerseys.  Actually it was my 2nd, I got my 3rd afterwards.  Two Pirates and this Astros.  I just need a yankees and an Expos one now.  I'm always afraid to let one get past me because I'm afraid Topps will get hold of it and I will be chasing serial numbered Game Used parallels for years.  I'm going to frame them one day but I don't have any of them framed yet.  On every single one he signed the front of the jersey instead of the back by his number and I want it mounted with his nameplate showing. 

Trip to the card shop - AZ Sports Cards

There are a bunch of card shops in the Phoenix area.  A couple are mostly gaming cards, one is seasonal, and one only has new stuff.  My favorite by far is the one that is nowhere close to me.  It's called AZ Sports Cards and is on the turn off to the Dodgers/White Sox spring training facilities way on the west side.  (I'm live on the east)  I rarely get over there, however when I do I always find some good vintage cards to pick up. (Last time I got a bunch of 39 Goudey, this trip was good but not that good)  

So when I pulled up to AZ Sports Cards it was getting late and the guy was actually in the process of locking the door.  He had pulled one of those big metal grate/gate things about halfway closed but when he saw my truck pull into the lot he shoved it back open and waved me in.  I apologized for keeping him open late and he said that it was Murphy's Law I showed up.  He had just decided that it was too long since he had a customer that he would go home early.  

Anyway, his displays are filled with almost all new stuff.  But sprinkled here and there are groups of vintage cards but even more importantly there boxes marked vintage in there that you have to ask to see.  He pulled out about four of those double wide boxes and I started searching.  The first box didn't produce much.  One measly card in not so great shape.  

First off these images are all wonky.  For some reason they all show as washed out.  None of these cards are like that.  I'm trying to figure out the best way to scan cards again.  I used to have this scanner that I could put 15 cards on at a time and scan them all as one and then it would break them into 15 separate images.  It was pretty sweet for the blog.  I don't have that printer/scanner anymore so I'm playing with the best way to scan cards.  I think I just have a bad setting because nothing else has scanned this crappy yet.  We'll see in the next few days if my scanning gets better or worse.

Back to cards...

I know nothing about Lenny Green.  The cartoon on the back of his card says he was the Sally League batting champ in 1956.  I've never heard of the Sally League either.  I think, like me, Topps didn't know much about him and was stretching to come up with something and Sally League was it.

Box one was not so great.  Box two however was a goldmine. (at least for me)

I had a whole row of 1961 and 1962 Post.  Jackpot!

All of the Post were in really good shape except this Gieger.  You can't tell from looking at it but when I took it out of the top loader to scan it all the color is peeling off the cardboard backing.  I have never seen another ball card of any type do this.  Doesn't matter to me.  Once it goes in my binder I won't notice again.

 After all these 1962 Posts I am down to only needing Yaz,  Looks like $10 will buy them all day on eBay.  So I'll wait till I find one for $5.  There is on on COMC for $5 right now.  I'm going to pass on it.  Normally with vintage cards condition doesn't matter much to me but this one looks like someone chewed it off the box rather than cut it. 

This is the lone 1961 Post I needed even though there were more 1961s in the box than 62s.  That's just how the search goes sometimes.  I did find some 61s for another blogger maybe you will see them on his blog one day in the future.

While I searched those two boxes the store owner/employee pulled all the Red Sox out of the other 2 boxes.  He pulled a whole bunch of stuff out but I only needed one measly card, this 65 Mejias.  Rarely do I find cards anymore that are only $1. I'm to that point where just about all the regular Topps cards I need from 52-73 are high numbers so the prices are a little higher.  I'll find a card of someone like Osinski and think "why do they want $12 for this guy" only to flip it over and go "ahhh, he's #594". That didn't happen this time though.  Old Roman here just cost me a single buck and I'll take high number vintage Sox for a buck any time.

It's Dynamite!

Anyone else remember Dynamite magazine?  You should it was publised from 1974-1992 and was the biggest seller all time for Scholastic.  Even if you were not a kid during this time period you kid probably brought them home.  I found this one from April 1979 in an ebay auction and had to have it.  Now why would I want an almost 40 year old kids magazine?  Maybe, for the Superman poster advertised on the front?  Nope, some kid must have put that on his wall in 1979 because it's missing. Though it does still have a poster of Lynn-Holly Johnson as a skater in it.  You probably won't recognize her for her skating. 

But you might recognize her for this. 

This article inside reminds me of old times.  It tells you how to send a note with a rubber band.  Yeah you could use it to shot some paper to a friend with it but like the article says there is a better way.  You stretch it out write directly on the rubber band and then shoot it over to your friend.  The words just look like some squiggly lines until your buddy stretched it out.  That is the way we used to do it when I was a kid.  Now 10 a  year-old just send a text. 

I actually did learn something from this magazine.  Check out the last sentence of the rubber band article.  Now I'm going to have to bring home a bunch of rubber bands from work and try it out.

It does have some colorful comics in it but this isn't a comics blog.  You here for the same reason I bought the magazine, cards.

That would be a 4 card sheet of 1979 Topps Team Cards including one Bill Virdon.  (there are also Twins and Pirates on the other side of the staples)  I wonder when the last time a kid brought home a magazine from school with cards in it was.  I don' think they even do the Sports Illustrated for kids anymore. 

Tickets, Get Your Tickets

As a collector of a long retired player you don't often run into stuff that you haven't seen before.  When you do you run down the rabbit hole in case you might find more.  That happened to me not long ago when I found this ticket stub from 2000.

Fist I found this ticket.  Then I found out that this ticket stub was given out to Pirate Season ticket holders in 2000.  It is actually part of a collage made up of six season tickets. 

(Side note: The Pirates lost this game 7-5 even thought they hit three home runs.)

So once I found out that they put players on season tickets it was off to the rabbit hole for me.  Luckily or unluckily depending on how you look at it. I have only found one other set of season tickets that had Bill Virdon on them.  In 1999 the Astros released special season tickets to commemorate the final year of The Astrodome.

Here he is on a ticket from June 17th 1999 against the Braves.  I think that they used a different player for every single picture.  Virdon isn't too lucky on a ticket stub though because the Astros lost this game 8-5.

What to do once you get your White Whale

So what do you do after you get your White Whale?  Well you adjust your sites to find another Whale to hunt. 

Believe it or not I have found two White Whales.  The Hunter Wieners Virdon I posted about a few times and my original White Whale the 1959 Topps Venezuelan Bill Virdon that I picked up out of a Discount Bin.  Yes you read that correct, a discount bin.  You see the Venezuelan looks EXACTLY like the regular Topps the only difference is they are on different card stock. 

Not the Venezuelan but they look exactly alike (other than this one is autographed)

So what other Virdon's are out there that are Whale worthy? Well here are the contenders:

1964 KDKA Tag Bill Virdon.  It is an insert from a Pittsburgh area laundromat.  I have never seen the Virdon, I only know it exists because it is listed on Beckett's site but I have never seen even a picture of it.  All I can find are a few of the other players.

1972 Post/Gazette - I have seen this one as part of a team set only.  Normally I wouldn't include a newspaper clipping but it is to "card like" to not include.  There is actually a set on ebay right now.  But I just can't pay the $200 for a newspaper clipping it would require to pick up the whole thing.

1973 Post/Gazette - Same thing as the 72.  I've seen it in set form but never alone.

Team Issues constantly pop up. I might have all of them but I might not.  I have a bunch of team issues that I just don't know what year they are from.  I probably find one a month that I have never seen.

JD McCarthy Kneeling Postcard

1966 James T Elder Postcard

Postcards - Postcards are allot like team issues.  There seems to be an endless supply of them and I just never know what they are.  I just grab them all when I see them.  The two I know are out there to be had are above.  I missed out of the McCarthy one because it was part of a lot and the Elder is listed on The Trading Card Database.

Signa-Cuts are out there for me to find. Signa-Cuts are the scourge of player collectors.  I'll pick them up when I find a new one.  There are 3 different 1/1 Signa-Cuts out there in the wild but since I already have three of my own 1/1 Signa-Cuts they don't feel very Whaley.

Buybacks - Another scourge to the player collector.  The bad thing about them is there is no way to tell what was made as a buyback and what wasn't.  It was bad enough when it was just Heritage but then Topps expanded it to their base set and did it for four years.  Is there one of every Virdon card for each year of the buyback 2014-2017?  Who knows?  I doubt there is a 64 or a 72 in any of the years because Virdon was a high number but you never know.

1973 Topps with ear

Here is a 2015 Buyback of the 1973 Topps with ear card.  Is there one without an ear, who knows?  I haven't seen it yet but it could be out there.

Heritage 1/1's - I already have one Heritage 1/1 Stamp card but there is another out there.  There is also a Heritage 1/1 Cut Signature card.  I know who has the Cut Signature.  He is a team collector and won't let it go.  So I know that unless something changes I won't ever get this one.

So out of all the stuff I don't have how do I decide which is going to be my White Whale?  It's the one that got away.

1961 Harmony Milk - I saw it on ebay once.  I had no idea what it was.  But it looks JUST like any other team issue.  I put in a pretty good bid for it that I thought was way higher than I should ever have to pay for it.  Nobody bid on it until there were seconds left and my bid got blown out of the water.  I was really shocked at the bidding I thought there was no way anyone would pay that for a team issue.  I mean it is the same picture as a half dozen other team issues this one just says Harmony Milk at the bottom.  So I got out my Standard and found out it that nobody knew it existed.  Harmony was super short printed and nobody knows what the whole checklist is and Virdon isn't one listed in the catalog.  So for 6 years I have been kicking myself that I didn't look at the catalog before bidding so for that reason the 1961 Harmony Milk Virdon is my new White Whale.