Three horrific autographs

I had originally planned on doing a number of posts featuring horror related collectibles throughout this past month, unfortunately that plan didn't work out so well, the reason being that pretty much everything I would have wanted to talk about is still in boxes from last year's move.

When I moved I left my ginormous display case behind as there was almost no way it would have survived the cross country trip intact. And even though I have gotten a few smaller display cases since moving, I still haven't found anything nearly as big as the one I had, which means a good portion of my stuff remains boxed up, much to my soul's dismay.

I briefly thought about doing a series on Halloween decorations, of which I have much. That would have been a very easy series to do, especially considering all that stuff has been up since the middle of September. The only problem with that idea was that it would have just ended up being me waxing poetic about things that I've had since early childhood, and then quickly devolving into a "they just don't make things like they used to" series of posts. So for the sake of views (or lack thereof) I scrapped that idea pretty quickly.

Even with all that being said, I at least have one thing, or rather two things available for a suitable Halloween post. Said two things being a pair of signed 8x10's that were gotten earlier this year via eBay. Both were purchased from Our Disappearing Planet, which is a UK based save the planet type organization, that has a fairly large list of celebrities that sign stuff for them on regular basis an in attempt to raise funds for the organization.

First up is a fun still from the set of 1974's Madhouse, signed by Linda Hayden, which also features an absolutely wonderful image of the great Vincent Price. There were quite few signed photos of Ms. Hayden available at the time, but this was the one I Had to have. I'm not going to provide any sort of review here, but this movie, which also stars the equally great Peter Cushing, as well as Robert Quarry (Count Yorga), was one that I enjoyed a quite a bit when I first saw it in the early 90's. This was one of those films that was borrowed from on a fairly regular basis in later horror movies of the 80's and 90's.
                

  

Next up is a dual signed photo of Shane Briant and Madeline Smith from Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell:

This was the sixth and final installment of Hammer's Frankenstein series, which starred Peter Cushing as Dr. Frankenstein. I fully agree with the people that say this is Hammer's goriest movie, which is why it might be my least favorite of all the Hammer horror pictures, as I have always been of the opinion that you don't need gore to make a good horror film.

Both Shane Briant and Madeline Smith were no strangers to horror movies, which is why even if I'm not a big fan of the film that the still comes from, I still very much wanted this photo.
                
Hopefully by this time next year, everything will be unpacked and easily accessible, so that I may provide some more appropriate Halloween season related posts for everyone's reading enjoyment.

And remember, the things that go bump in the night can't get you... if they're too busy Dancing!
        

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TTM Triumph #32: Don Kaiser

Since everyone seems to be about all things Cubs as of late, I figured I might as well get in on it too. Although my minor contribution to the craze will only be to show yet another semi-recent successful return:

Mr. Kaiser's major league career only lasted three years, all with Chicago. Due to his phenomenal high school career, which saw him win 49 of his 50 outings -- with seven no-hitters and two perfect games, Don received a $50,000 signing bonus from the Cubs in 1955.

During his rookie campaign he saw limited action, in the form of 18 total innings, all of which were in relief. Don's first start came on June 2, 1956 against the Dodgers, in which he threw a 2-hit shutout. Unfortunately for him, and the Cubs, this would be his best outing in the majors. Just a year and a half after that start first start, his career in the big leagues would be over, finishing with a 6-15 record and an ERA of 4.15.

Many thanks go out to Mr. Kaiser for signing my card.


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Would you believe me...

...if I told you that I got this 1969 Topps Dick Dietz from a repack? Well, as far fetched as it sounds, it's completely true. This card came from a recent 100 card Fairfield repack, which just so happened to be my first one purchased in at least the last six months or so.

I had never heard of anyone getting something this old from a repack before, so to say I was surprised, would be a bit of an understatement. It's also pretty amazing that this card is in such great shape considering I've pulled a couple of really well loved cards (one of which, you can see here) from these in the past.

I don't know if this card was supposed to be considered the "hit" or not, but I will consider it as such, especially since a vintage set need (I forgot to mention that I didn't already have this one) is much more important to me, than a sticker autograph of someone that I've probably never even heard of before.


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TTM Triumph #31: Jon McGlocklin

After a mere three week wait, I got a nice return from the Bucks longtime television analyst:

Averaging 16 points a game during the regular season and  nearly 15 ppg during the playoffs, Jon McGlocklin was a key component on Milwaukee's 1971 championship team. His ability to shoot from distance made for a very effective in and out pairing with Lew Alcindor, which was able to reduce the amount of double teaming that Alcindor received -- thus allowing him to be even more effective than he already was. An eleven year pro, Mr. McGlocklin was also an all-star during 1968-69 season after averaging almost 20 points a game.

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


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TTM Triumph #30: Louie Dampier

This week saw the return of my longest outstanding request so far. After 11 months I got my card back, signed of course, from the ABA's all-time leader in points -- Louie Dampier:

Along with being the all-time points leader, Louie Dampier was also the ABA's all-time leader in games played, minutes played, and assists. He was also only one of two players, to play all nine years of the ABA's existence (Byron Beck being the other). A seven time all-star, Mr. Dampier was a member of the Colonels 1975 championship winning squad. In 2015, he was inducted into the Naismith hall of fame.

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


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A little slice of the National?

Two weeks ago, the show in Nashville had it's biggest outing yet. Made up of 120 tables form 65 sellers, who amazingly enough, were representing ten different states. Even after a couple of weeks, I'm still an awe of that last bit, the fact that people from 1/5 of our United States were in attendance just seems a bit mind boggling to me.

As a kid I worked at my Uncle's comic book shows, which were much larger than this, but it was by far the largest card show I had ever been to. They also had Beckett there doing their grading thing and the JSA people, but since that stuff doesn't do anything for me, it didn't really add to my overall experience. Denny McClain was supposed to be there as well, but cancelled at the last minute, he is now rescheduled for February when it looks like they will be trying to duplicate the size of this particular show.

As per usual, much was gotten, but I have tried to provide decent sampling here to give an overall sense of what was to be had.

1953 Topps took a long time to grow on me, and now that it has, it's like a fungus that can't be gotten rid of (too graphic?). It's really only been in the last year or so that I have started buying single that I find on the cheap.

As an aside, the last line on the back of Fred Hatfield's card mentions that he was a paratrooper during the war -- which to me is very interesting. Unfortunately google wasn't able to provide any additional information. Thanks for nothing, internet!

The above statement about '53 Topps applies to the 1954 set as well.

I already had the '58 Topps Cleveland team card, but this one was in so much better condition and the price was right, so I opted for the upgrade. For those that don't know, a fellow in the midst of his rookie campaign by the name of Roger Maris, is among the pictured members of the Tribe.

The above six cards came to a total of $15, and were my only vintage baseball purchases of the day.

It has been about seven or eight months since I had found any sizable quantity of 90's refractors in a dime box, and while the 25 or so that I found at this show probably doesn't qualify as a sizable quantity, it still wasn't a bad haul either. These two featuring David Justice were my favorites.

Although not from the 90's, this 2000 Stadium Club Chrome refractor of Shannon Stewart trying to make a catch while playing through a rainbow, that just happened to touch down in left field at the exact moment this photo was taken, is pretty cool as well.

I don't know when Bowman switched from atomic refractors to X-Fractors, but in my mind, this 2001 Bowman Chrome Shawn Green X-Fractor is still an atomic refractor and it is AWESOME! Whether I want to or not, I'm pretty sure that I will now be working on a set of these, albeit very slowly.

Somehow these 1992 7-11 Superstar Action Coins had flown under my radar. I guess that's what happens when you don't like Slurpee's, you miss out on little discs of lenticular goodness.

A different angle to show the action side of the coins.

While there's nothing particular special about this 1995 Studio Gold, by that I mean it's probably normal 10 cent box fodder, I had completely forgotten about of it's existence. What a fun concept this, and it's platinum counterpart, were.

What can I say about 1998 UD3 Die-Cuts, other than they might be my second favorite baseball parallel set (just behind 1998's Pinnacle Zenith Z Gold) from the 90's. I just can't tell you how much I love these. Unfortunately for me though, I almost never find them at shows and they seem to be overpriced online, which means I don't have nearly as many as I would like. But even finding one for a quarter is still certainly better than finding none.

2008 Topps Chrome Trading Card History Ichiro Refractor #'d 18/400

Another new site for me in the form of a 2007 Turkey Red William Harrison Presidents insert. For a dime, I couldn't not get it.

This marks the start of the basketball portion of the post. To any potential 'baseball or bust' readers, don't worry, I won't be offended if you stop here:

My lone vintage basketball set need of day features the Bucks celebrating their one and only championship. Down to 26 needed on the 1971-72 Topps.

Pretty much all this year, my main interest basketball wise, has been 90's inserts and parallels (with some Prizm tossed in for good measure). So I was pretty darn happy to find a 1997-98 Z-Force Rave parallel for the paltry sum of $3. This was actually the first one of these I have ever found in the wild, and is now the fifth card I have from the set.

The back for anyone that cares. Below are a couple more parallels that are not often found at shows by me.

1999-00 Hoops Decade Hoopla Plus Steve Nash

1999-00 Topps Gallery Player's Private Issue Jason Kidd #'d 173/250

And just a few inserts:

1996-97 Topps Hobby Masters Hakeem Olajuwon #HM29

This 1998-99 Topps Finest Producers Allen Iverson refractor looks so much better in person. And at $3, it was a really good buy.

My favorite card purchased at the show, was this 1997-98 Topps Stadium Club Triumvirate Illuminator Scottie Pippen. At $5, it was also my most expensive purchase of the day. And like the A.I. refractor, this card looks even cooler in person.

2000-01 Upper Deck Slam Air Supremacy Vince Carter  #S2

At ten cents, this 1998-99 Skybox Premium Allen Iverson Soul of the Game was a nice find as well.

A trio of 1999-00 Upper Deck NBA Legends Players of the Century

These too were dime box gets. I am moving pretty quickly towards completing all the 2015-16 Donruss "Kings" sets.

It wouldn't be a post as of late, if it have some Prizm in it. This green Magic was the only one I found from the 2013-14 set.

I was able to find about 25 more of the yellow and red's from the 2014 edition. These two were my favorite of the group.

While it isn't all that surprising to find a 1999-00 Skybox Autographics of Jumaine Jones for a $1, it was a bit of a surprise to find one of the hand numbered examples for that price.

Ironically the last card here is the first card I bought at the show. Honestly, I didn't really know what it was when I picked it up, but I was guessing it was some kind of proof. Turns out I was right, in that it's a 2013 Panini Black Friday Proof of Lebron James (obviously!), and according to The Cardboard Connection, the proofs are limited to 5 copies of each color. I'm fairly certain the seller didn't know what it was either, which is kind of funny, since I found out later that he owns a card shop. I'm guessing if he did know, it would have been priced at more than $2. Originally, I bought it for potential resell, but now that I know what it is, and of it's scarcity, I think I will be hanging on to it.

All in all, I have to say that it was a pretty good show.


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buybacks as i see them

Back again with another batch of buybacks that Jim (GCRL), who is now at the helm of cards as i see them, was kind enough to send my way.

Since the current highest number I have for this ongoing frankenset is 721, I figure that with this group and the previous two, Jim has now contributed to 1/7th of this set build so far.

This lot was a bit different than the previous two, in that it contained a quite a few players of note, which meant this post took a little longer to put together (not that I'm complaining)  than the last two.

On the last day of the 1976 season, Hank Aaron got the final hit and RBI of his career, off of Dave Roberts.

Tim Foli was the number one pick in the 1968 draft, and played a major role in Pittsburgh's '79 championship.

In May of 1981, Bo McLaughlin was hit in the face by a line drive that not only nearly ended his career, but it nearly ended his life. It's amazing think that a fellow, who's injuries were so severe that doctor's thought he might not survive that first night in the hospital, would be able to recover enough to come back and pitch in September of the same year.

I think by now everybody knows the story of the 1970 No-hitter thrown by Dock Ellis, while under the influence of LSD (not to mention the laundry list of other incidents that he was involved in). On a bit of a side note, I finally saw No No: A Dockumentary a few months back, and I must admit I was somewhat disappointed with it. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I thought it was terrible, it just didn't seem to be as good as everyone was making it to be at the time of it's release.

You could say Lenny Randle is infamous for two different incidents. The first being in 1977, when he punched and severely injured his then Texas manager, Frank Lucchesi, after losing his start at second base to Bump Wills. His other bit of notoriety came in 1981 as a member of the Mariners, with the famous "no blow rule"...

Much like Dock Ellis, I'm sure everyone is already familiar with the antics, on and off the field, of Bill Lee. I know a lot of the other card bloggers are fans of his, but to me, it seems like he was always trying a little too hard to be weird. But, it's still nice to have a recognizable name in the set.

Cesar Geronimo had the great fortune (or misfortune) to be the 3,000th strikeout victim of both Bob Gibson and Nolan Ryan.

Looking at Lee May's career stat line of 354 HR's, 1244 RBI's, and 2031 hits. With a lifetime batting average of .267 over 18 seasons, left me wondering when those numbers would have been enough to make it in to the hall of fame. They certainly are enough for him to garner any consideration in this day and age. But I have to believe that if he had put up those numbers sometime between the 30's to maybe the mid 50's, and he was eligible before say the mid 60's, that they would have earned him a spot in the hall.

Seeing the Kingdome in the background of the Mariners team card above, takes me back to watching Seattle's home games on television as a youngster. Which then reminds me of what an ugly stadium that was, especially that hideous Astroturf. I am of the opinion that newer ballpark's aren't usually better looking than the ones their replacing, but in Seattle's case, Safeco Field was around 10,000 times better than the Kingdome.

This batch also gave me four more cards in the 600's, which is really nice, since I had only one previously.

Jim, thank you for sending another great group of cards. And you will be happy to know that at the card show I attended last weekend (see next post), I came across a bit of a Dodgers mother lode, some of which will be headed your way in a couple of days.


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