What the math?

In an attempt to find some new/old blog material, I spent some time this week scraping the respective bottoms of my scan barrels, which by the way, isn't as fun as it sounds, but it did yield a few positive results, including a 2+ year old semi-forgotten eBay purchase.

Some of the details involved with this purchase have become a bit hazy after two years, but I do remember that it was a Sunday, and I was searching eBay for something (not Goudey's), which somehow or another ended up leading me to this card. The one thing that I do specifically remember about this card, was that the seller was running a one-day sale of over 50% off of all of their items, and I have seen many sales on eBay over the years, but I had never encountered one that was limited to just one day before.

The card did have one small issue, or "problem" if you will, in that some kid in year's past had a pressing bit of arithmetic, and apparently had no other paper, so they went ahead and used one of their baseball cards to find the answer.

Other than the aforementioned addition, and the slightly rounded corners, I didn't see anything else wrong with the card, certainly nothing that would warrant it's sale price of just a little over $3, so I decided to take the chance! The seller had a really good combined shipping discount, at this point I don't remember what they were, but I did find a few items for some other folks, all of which have long since been mailed out.

Once the card had arrived, I was pleased to see that it didn't have any more hidden issues, but there was still the matter of a math problem that needed solving.

I used a kneaded eraser (being a wannabe artist does occasionally have it's perks) to carefully remove the old graphite. It turned out pretty well, although if you turn the card just right you can still see some indentations, but that's okay, as I sort of already suspected that those weren't going to be removable.

As for the fellow who's card this is, Mr. Moore, or if I may be so informal, Jo-Jo, he spent his entire 12-years career with the Giants. Played in three World Series', winning one the year that this card was released. During his playing days, Moore was praised for his offensive, and defensive skills. Batted over .300 during five seasons. As a hitter, he had excellent intuition, striking out only 247 times in 5,427 at-bats. Made six All-Star appearances. Became a cattle rancher after retiring, which must of treated him well, because he lived to the ripe old age of 92.

Its not very often that I can say that I was in the right place at the right time, but this was one instance where I was surfing eBay at the right time, on the right day, and ended up getting a fairly solid bargain because of it.


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