Bargain usually means used and abused

Since I quit blogging my collecting pattern changed.  I no longer buy new cards. I still collect new cards but I don't actively seek them out.  I switched to just buying complete Red Sox team sets then I even quit that.  I focus solely on Virdon and vintage Red Sox.  Probably 90% of what I pick up is Virdon.  My vintage Sox purchases are almost always of the bargain variety.  Here is my latest Bargain:

1940 Playball Joe Cronin

Bargain usually means used and abused.  My newest bargain is Hall of Famer Joe Cronin. This card has really been used and abused.  I can't imagine what kind of person could fold a card down the middle twice like that.  I can't make myself do it to a common card from the late 80s early 90s not to mention a Hall of Fame member's card.

Somehow the back fared better than the front.  You can still see creasing but it isn't near as obvious as on the front.  The scan actually makes it look worse than it really is.  In hand you can barely notice the creases on the back.

Revealing my White Whale

Evidently only one commentor was curious what my White Whale that I posted about was.  So after waiting on USPS to do their thing, here it is:

1955 Hunter Wieners Bill Virdon

It may not look like much but is has been a loooooong time coming.  How bad have I wanted this card?  I have searched ebay for it every day for 10+ years.  Twice I have even given someone a handful of one-hundred bills on their way to The National to buy it in any condition.  But both times they came back with only my money.

Why was it so hard to find?  Well Hunter was a St Louis meat packaging company.  In 1954 and 1955 they put Cardinal players on the side of their hot dog packages.  Evidently for some reason people in the 50s were not to keen on saving their hot dog wrappers.  That means they are very scarce.  How scarce?  As an example it is a 30 card set and only 71 total cards have ever been graded by PSA.

In hand this thing is way smaller than I ever expected.  I always expected it to be oversized, regular card width but tall.  Like an Exhibit card cut in half from top to bottom.  It is in fact undersized by both height and width.   You can't tell from the scan but the sides have a couple little nipples where it was attached to the other part of the wrapper.  The only "cut edge is the top, the bottom scuffed up but looks to have a "factory cut".

While the front looks great that back doesn't.  Good thing it is in a case because I think that is hot dog mold.

A little (lot) more about my search for this card.


Now I had said in my original post that I have never seen on before but I have found where one was sold as part of a lot multiple times.  However each time was long after the fact.

I did kind of have a shot at buying one once.  When I first started the blog in 2008 I found one image for this card online and swiped it then added it to my Virdon wantlist on this blog before I moved it to google sheets.

So I had this image on the blog for years then out of the blue I get an email one day.  The guy said I have the 1955 Hunters Bill Virdon that you want.  Not only is it the card you want it is the exact one you stole the image of, you can tell because how it is hand cut.  He said he was selling his collection and wanted to offer me this card before he sold it as part of a big lot, how much would I give for it?  I made him an offer and never heard from him again, no response.  Guess I didn't offer him enough.  (side note - the offer I gave the guy was more than I just bought this one for)  Month's later I found an already completed auction on some oddball antique site where it was sold as part of a lot.  (For ALLOT!!)

Funny thing is when you go to PSA and look at the registration report, right now, look what comes up.  It's that same card I grabbed the image of, that I was offered then not responded to, then sold in a lot, and now it's PSAs example of the card itself.

Lost in the Draft Folder - Cardboard Collection Group Break??

So, I got like 40 hits on my White Whale post.  That isn't too bad after taking off a couple years.  (Strangely enough my most read post is was the one right before the Whale post.  The 2015 post with the picture of a Topps car sticker.  It has THOUSANDS of hits.  

Anyway, I found a draft in my Blogger from 2013.  Only someone that has taken a few years off of blogging can find a 5 year old draft.  I had saved a title "Cardboard Collection Group Break" and had two scans, no other info.  So evidently 5+ years ago I was part of a group break and I got at least these two cards.  Seems and odd thing to get from a break in 2013.  Maybe I got skunked and this was a conciliation package?  

John Valentin is an often forgotten valuable part of the team in the 90s.  He hit at or around .300 for almost half a decade yet is almost totally forgotten.  Topps didn't forget him though.  Here is a nice Stadium Club action shot, sort of.  It really a Chrome version of Stadium Club.  

                                      

Also in my draft folder was this currently underrated Topps Laser card.  I remember when Laser came out, they were crazy expensive per pack.  Even the commons were sought after.  That crazy expensive back then was probably only like $5 but they still seemed glaringly overpriced considering they are pretty darn ugly. Now they are in dime boxes wherever dime boxes are found.

There she blows! When you find your White Whale

My heart skips a beat.

Scratch that, it skips a whole bunch of beats.

I'm short of breath.

My hands tremble.

My mouth is dry.

I'm Shocked!!

I shouldn't be that shocked.  I've done this search every day for the last 10 years.  But still it's hard to process.

I closed it and opened it again.

Yep, still there.

Heart still pounding.

Now to wait. 9 Days 6 Hours 5 Minutes.

Nine days is a long time. 

I check all the time, is it still there?  Yesss!!!

Days go by and my nerves build.

Finally it's the day of, I look at it over and over again.

The time can't pass fast enough.

It keeps getting closer.

2 hours

1.5

1

40 minutes

20 minutes

At eleven minutes I quit checking and just watch it countdown.

My alarm, that I set a week ago, so I don't miss it goes off.  Two more minutes.

I realize I'm sweating.  The I'm going to need a shower kind of sweating. 

I don't hear my heartbeat but I feel it in my ears.

Bump-Bump-Bump-Bump-Bump-Bump

I enter a big number, the biggest number I've ever paid for a card or even bid before.  Heck, I've bought a car for less. (a very crappy car, but still a car)

Resume the countdown

At 7 I submit because I always submit at 7.

6

5

4

3

2

1

And then the noise. Notification, Email, Paypal all trying to ring through at the same time.

My wife, who has been staring at me because I've been pacing the living room for a half hour asks, "did you win?"  I respond with, "yeah."  But it doesn't come out like YEEEAAAHHH!!! as I expected before hand.  Instead it's a whisper, "yeah".  I've waited a long time for this; I should feel euphoric but I don't.  Instead I just feel.... Relief. 

I sit in my chair. 

I relax for the first time in the last few hours. 

The beating in my ears slows and goes away.

Then the next beating comes to my ears.  "How much did it cost?"

I think to myself why does it matter, did I ask you how much those ugly boots with the fluffy shit coming out the top cost; but I  respond with, "it wasn't so bad". 

"How much is not so bad?" 

Jokingly I say, "well we don't have to cancel Christmas anymore."

"HOW MUCH DID IT COST?"

Am I the only one who thinks things are funny that their spouse does not?

"It didn't even come close to what I thought it would, you won't even notice it's gone",  I say.

Satisfied she goes back to watching her program.

But, for me the wait starts over because it's 6 to 8 days shipping and even more importantly there is always a new whale to chase. 

I saw this on my way home from work last night

Another collector obviously. It makes me wonder how many others I pass on the road in a day.

Are You A Cardboard Hoarder?

I bet many of you are like me and you hoard every little baseball card item there is.  I have a big stack of those hologram stickers from the junk wax era.  I don't even remember what brand used to put them in packs but I sure have a bunch of them.  Am I ever going to do anything with them?  Probably not.   Is someone ever going to ask me if I have a A's hologram sticker?  Again Probably not.  I probably won't ever even stick them but I still have them.

Hopefully you are that same way and have some useless baseball card stuff laying around because I just found a Virdon something that many of you may have hoarded away.  Remember Sportflix Trivia Cards?  You know those little Trivia Cards that came in the packs that most people discard(ed)?  Turns out #10 from 1986 Sportflix has a Bill Virdon back. The problem is I don't have it in my hoard.

Every now and then I find an oddball Virdon item out of the blue like this.  Things like View Master Reels and Trivia Pursuit cards are not on most collectors radar so they don't end up on any player checklist anywhere.  They are bitter sweet things to find.


Hopefully someone out there and has a big stack of Sportflix Trivia cards taking up space in a box somewhere that can PWE one to me.  (I guess I need to be just as hopeful someone out there is still reading after no posts for almost 2 years)

I don't know if posting will be a regular thing.  More regular that the last two years I would guess but I doubt I go back to a post every day.

Would You Like To Be A Fantasy Manager

I have a Fantasy League that consists of bloggers and former bloggers.  (I had to let former bloggers in there or I couldn't play myself)  This will be our 5th season playing and I lost a couple managers.

I need to find 2 replacement managers for the two following teams.  It is a deep keeper league so keep that in mind when choosing.

Team 1 (Formally Dayf, AKA. David, AKA Cardboard Junkie's Team)

Ryan Braun
Freddie Freeman
Josh Hamilton
Jason Heyward
Matt Holliday
Evan Longoria
Brian McCann
Brandon Phillips
Buster Posey
Jurickson Profar
Andrelton Simmons
Troy Tulowitzki
Ben Zobrist

Rex Brothers
Jim Johnson
Craig Kimbrel
Lance Lynn
Mike Minor
CC Sabathia
Jeff Samardzija
Ervin Santana
Julio Teherán
Adam Wainwright
Alex Wood

Team 2 (Formally RedSoxCollector.com's Team)

Brandon Belt

Adrián Béltre

Robinson Canó

Starlin Castro

Shin-Soo Choo

Coco Crisp

Ian Desmond

Eric Hosmer

Austin Jackson

Desmond Jennings

Adam Jones

Jason Kipnis

Miguel Montero

Carlos Santana

Clay Buchholz

Cliff Lee

Francisco Liriano

David Robertson

Fernando Rodney

Danny Salazar

Max Scherzer

Justin Verlander

Jered Weaver

If you want one of the teams just comment here.  First come first serve*.  

*If Dayf or Gordon claim their team here in the next 2 days I'm going to let them have it even if someone else already claimed it.  Maybe they changed an email address and I didn't know (although I tried 2 different ones for David; he may just have Ponies on his brain and forgot how to answer emails.)