TTM Triumph #21: Dan Fouts

The first Mr. Duck:

A successful return from a hall of famer is always a good thing. I figure that anyone checking this post out already knows who Dan Fouts is, so I'm not going to bother typing up the extensive (and impressive) stats that were compiled during his career.

As always, I would like to send a big thank you out to Mr. Fouts.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

The obligatory card show post

My apologies in advance if this post seems a little ho hum, I have about as much enthusiasm to write it as I had in attending this past Saturday's show (which is next to none).

I had originally planned on skipping this one, but after a text from my favorite seller saying that he would be setting up, I begrudgingly decided to go. I ended up spending around two and half hours just looking through his stuff (mostly dime boxes) and less than an hour on the other 35 or so dealers.

This was a somewhat different show for me (this post will reflect that) in that I didn't get anything of a vintage nature, unless you count buybacks as vintage. I did end up getting my usual 300-400 basketball inserts (90's), which really are my kryptonite. And there is just no way those can all be shown. The other thing that was different was how much good stuff I was able find for others (probably some of you reading this), so obviously all those cards won't be shown either, which doesn't leave whole heck of a lot left to show. Hopefully what is here, will be worth the viewing.

I will start with what seems to be becoming a normal sight on this blog:

Yep... more buybacks! I think I got some pretty good ones in here. This group came to a total of $4.


I'm not usually a big purchaser of memorabilia cards, but I did find two that I really liked.

The first being this 2005 Maury Wills Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Materials:

I had never seen any memorabilia (or auto) cards of Mr. Wills that weren't Dodger related, so I thought it was pretty neat. I also like the fact that the material looks and feels old, and even though it's hard to see in the picture, it has stitching across the top and bottom.

The second one was this 2005 Don Gullett SP Cuts Classic Careers jerseys:

I mostly just bought this one because I don't recall ever seeing any cards like this for Don Gullet. Also, I thought the text on the back was interesting:

Do you see what I'm talking about? He's shown with the Reds, but the jersey is from his time with the Yankees. I don't know why, but I find that amusing.

I also picked up a trio of autographs.

2013 Panini Golden Age Tommy Davis Historic Signatures:

2008 Press Pass Legends Charles White Saturday Signatures:

1979 Heisman Trophy Winner

2007 Press Pass Legends William Perry Saturday Signatures:

The Fridge has a much better signature than I would have thought!

Up until Saturday, I had never had any interest in manufactured patch cards. But I did find an exception to my previous opinion of them, when I saw these Topps Pro Debut commemorative hat patch cards.

These first three are from 2013 and are all serial numbered to 75:

6/75
 

30/75

65/75

And one of the backs:

This last one is from 2014. And these were numbered to 99:

51/99

And the back:

I really like these cards. So much so, that I have already bought a few more on COMC. The four cards above were $2 each, which seems to have been a really good price.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

TTM Triumph #20: Ira Harge

My outgoing requests have slowed down considerably over the last couple of weeks, but there are still some successes coming in. Some of my favorites are the ABA only guys, like this one:

Mr. Harge had a very different career arc than the majority of athletes at the time, or even now, for that matter.

He played two years of college ball at Burlington Junior College in Iowa before transferring to the University of New Mexico, where he was able to turn the Lobos into a legitimate program for the first time in the history of the program. He finished is college career as a hero to the fans and more importantly, graduated with a degree in education.

He had been drafted by the Pistons in 1963 and again by the 76ers in 1964, but decided to go into teaching for a couple of years following college. Then in 1967 he joined the Pittsburgh Pipers of the newly formed ABA, and would go on to play for six teams over the next six years. Over those six years he won two championships, one with the Pipers in '68 and one the following year with the Oakland Oaks. Over his career he would average 10.3 ppg and 11.6 rpg.

During his playing career he continued his education by earning a master's degree in education (how many athletes have done that?) from UNM. After six seasons, he retired and returned to teaching.

As always, I would like to send a thank you out to Mr. Harge.


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

History on cardboard from Cardboard History

This will be the last in a quartet of trade related posts. The cards in this picture laden post are brought to you courtesy of, Billy from the always enjoyable (and informative!) Cardboard History.

Recently Billy posted his list of non-sport cards available for trade. And after seeing all the American Heritage cards on there, I had to inquire about a possible trade, which happened. I have not had a lot of luck in finding cards from this set, so it's really great to now have 48 more to go with the measly dozen or so I already had.

Also in this package were some thank you cards in response to some cards I sent Billy's way a while back, which you will see further down in the post.

Since it wasn't possible for me to pick out and feature just a couple of my favorites from this group of 2009-10 Topps American Heritage, I have scanned them all for your enjoyment (hopefully):

And from the 2009-10 Topps American Heritage Heroes Edition:

Here's where we get to the thank you cards part of the post. Along with the trade lists that were posted, Billy also showed a box of cards he deemed unfit for trading and asked if anyone was interested in any of them. And since I love me some vintage non-sport cards, I made sure to speak up quick. So because of that, and more importantly, because of Billy's generosity I now have some really great cards.

The really neat thing about all these too, is that I didn't have any cards from any of these sets. So even the couple of more well loved examples in here, are most appreciated.

Up first is a healthy sampling of 1952 Topps Wings:

And one of the backs:

Next is a set that not only did I not have any cards from, but I hadn't even heard of it before. Which is always fun, to get something that was previously unknown and have to go seek out all the pertinent info. So anyway here are the four from 1959 Sicle series A:

And one of the backs:

And finally two from 1963 Topps Midgee Flags:

So in closing I would like to say thank you again, Billy. The Heritage cards are fantastic and the "rejects" are absolutely wonderful!


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Buybacks from The City of Champions part 2

This will be a very quick one card post to show off a 2009 Upper Deck 20th anniversary buybacks Sil Campusano, that Josh (@JoshSamBob) was kind enough to send my way:

Before getting this card, I was unaware that Upper Deck had even done this. It looks like it was just a one time deal to commemorate the '89 set. In case you're wondering (I was), the answer is yes, they did stamp at least few of Junior's rookies. And according to past sales on eBay, they go for a hefty sum. So I guess I will have to look elsewhere for a card #1 to start off the frankenset.

As for sil Campusano, I don't remember him during his playing days so I did a little checking. Apparently he played three years in the majors, two with Toronto and one with Philly. His only claim to fame seems to be that in 1990 (then with the Phillies) he broke up Doug Drabek's (Pirates) bid at a no-hitter with a single in the ninth with two outs. I'm guessing Mr. Drabek was none to happy to have a career .202 hitter ruin his chance at a no-no, but he did still get the win in the 11-0 shutout.

Thanks again, Josh! This one will really stand out amongst all the other Topps buybacks.

Thank you for taking a moment to look at my page.

There's no need for the torches and pitchforks

Recently I had the good fortune to complete a trade with Jim, currently of GCRL fame, and soon to be of Frankendodger fame.

This trade saw my buybacks frankenset more than double in size. I even ended up with a couple of duplicate numbers already, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as I can pass along the doubles to Jeff for his set.

So without further ado:

I wish I knew what the mysterious "164" written on Dave Rader's card meant.

Thanks again, Jim. These really helped with the set build. I am very much looking forward to your new blog. And as someone who grew up a big fan of Universal's monster movies, I have to say that the title image you created for the blog looks absolutely fantastic!


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

 

These couldn't have all come from a dime box

I have been trying to write this post off and on, for a week and a half to no avail. Every time I have gotten a little bit written, I have ended up going back and deleting it.

You might be wondering why has this post been so problematic to put together? Well... honestly, it has simply been a matter of being overwhelmed! I was overwhelmed when I opened the package of cards that are going to be featured here, and I'm still overwhelmed by the thought of trying to do a proper post to showcase every thing.

You might also be wondering at this point, who or what was the source of this overwhelming package of cards? Well, you (and more importantly I) can thank Nick of the world famous (too much?) Dime Boxes -- The Low-End Baseball Card Collector's Journey blog.

After my recent post discussing my new found interest in buybacks, Nick asked if I would be interested in the only one he had available, and of course I was. This then led to a proposed trade.

The trade ended up being unbalanced, in my favor (I would have preferred to have it be the other way around). This was due to the fact that Nick didn't let me know that he was sending the equivalent of a card show in a package, so now it will be up to me to try and square things up.

Since vintage baseball is always popular with the readers I will start with that portion of the package.

First up we have a '72 Topps Rick Wise IA and a well loved '65 Topps Frank Thomas (the original Frank Thomas). Both of which would be pretty neat, but...

...if we turn them over...

...you can clearly see that these aren't in fact Topps, but are instead products of are neighbors to the north. I only have a few pre-1974 OPC cards, so these are very much appreciated.


And for the rest of the oldies:

Having only one of these meant that set needs were filled across six different sets!


There was a large contingent of A&G in this package as well. These first three were a complete mystery to me:

After a quick google search I was able to find out that these are customs, and apparently pretty popular customs at that. The fellow that made these is clearly very talented and it's not hard to see why they are so popular.

This next one is just crazy:

A 2012 Michael Buffer mini  hand #'d to /25! See, Crazy! I don't even know what to say about this one.

And here's a whole mess of minis from various years:

And some inserts:

I didn't know who Lakey Peterson is, but this is still a cool memorabilia card:

There was also a sampling of Panini Golden Age minis in here to, which are very much appreciated:

Also included were two Golden Age inserts, a base card from the 2014 set, and misc. Randy Couture insert:

Here's a fun fact about me that nobody will find interesting: At one time I lived less than half a mile from Randy Couture! Fun fact!!!!

Rounding out the bulk of the package was a healthy sampling of cards from many different players of yore sets:

 It's hard to believe that I didn't have any of these! Talk about some major set helping.


And I thought it would be fitting to end on the card that was the starting point for everything else you have just seen:

Who would of thought that a 1978 Topps Larry Parrish buyback could have been the initial card that led to this treasure trove in a package that Nick sent.

Nick, I don't think I can properly express my gratitude for all of these cards. So, for the moment, a thank you will have to suffice. Also, you will be happy to know that I am actively building a pile for you in an attempt to balance out our lopsided trade.

Thank you for taking  moment to look at my page.