A Post post (Part 2)

I don't know if it's because they were the last year that Post did them (in this form), or if just less quantities were produced, but it seems like the 1963 Post set is a lot less prevalent than those from the previous two years. No matter what the reason is though, prices are definitely higher on 63's than they are for it's previous predecessors.

I haven't been to a show now in a few years, but going by online prices, '63 commons are usually at least double the price of those from '61 and '62. Some of the bigger names are the same, if not more. And of course, then there's the short prints, which I'm not far enough along with my set build to be looking for yet; but I would imagine that they're are gonna be up there in there in price too. I'll concern myself with those later though, for now I'm more than content to keep picking up cheap commons where I can.

Not being very far along with the set, I've had some decent luck as of late with said cheap commons (and one cheap HOFer as well), so following up last Sunday's post, here's what I've been able to add to my '63 set since October (not counting the three that are currently sitting in my COMC account)...

I don't know the reasoning behind the change, but it's a bit interesting to me that Post led off the '61 and '62 sets with the Yankees, then switched it up for 1963 by giving Minnesota the nod (bumping the Yankees to second).

After a strong showing in '62, Jim struggled a bit in '63, finishing the season at 10-10. He'd bounce back the following year though with a 17-11 record. In fact, the next couple of years were really good for him, as he wouldn't end up having a losing record until the 1971 season.

I wonder when was the last time that someone named their child "Cloyd"? Seems like that should've been considered a form of child abuse.

Tom finished 11th in the A.L. MVP voting for 1963. Looking at some of the numbers for the guys behind him, I think 11th was awfully generous by the voters. Yankees bump?

As was the case with the Dick Groat in last weeks post, it was very difficult for me not to add this one to my Frank Lary collection.

Frank was very much on the downward trend by '63. So much so that the Yankees even got the better of their arch-nemesis by going 2-0 against him.

One can't help but wonder how much different Jim's career would've been had he not been stuck in the Dodgers farm system for as long as he was. In a different reality he may've spent a better part of the 50's chasing home run titles with the likes of Willie Mays and Duke Snider.

Speaking of guys whose careers were impacted by later starts in the majors. I have no doubt that Ed's name would be more familiar (to casual fans) had he been called up sooner.

I thought prior to this post that 61's scanned the worst (for me), but after this many cards in, I stand corrected, 63's scan much worse. Look what's been done to my nice Bob Friend!

1963 was Bob's last winning season (17-16) in the bigs, or anywhere else for that matter.

I have a small favor to ask... it's been bugging the shit out of me, but I swear that Carl looks like someone else in this photo, or someone else looks like Carl in this photo; but I can't think of who! Does anyone else see it? If so, please put me out of my misery.

Roger led the majors in losses in both '62 (24) and '63 (22). Not a category that one wants to lead in. 

And I don't know if it's just me, but getting the first and last numbers from a vintage set always feels like a minor accomplishment. I don't have #1 (Vic Power) yet, but at least I now have #200.

I suspect that this '63 set is gonna be a slow build. As of this typing, I'm sitting at a very unimpressive 22/200. I am doing a bit better on my '61 (70/200), and '62 (73/200) builds though. I keep thinking that I should be further along on those two, and by that I mean it feels like I've got some more around somewhere, but I've gone through all of my player collections twice in the last year or so, and there's no more Post's hiding anywhere. Must just be a weird mental thing. That not withstanding, I've been getting a lot of enjoyment from these sets the last couple of months, and feel that they're very responsible for my recently renewed card interest; which truth be told, had been lagging something fierce.

A Post post (Part 1)

For someone whose generally as unfocused in all aspects of their life as I am, I've been surprisingly focused when it comes to card collecting the last few months.

I think I'm past the days of being distracted by shiny objects, and aside from a handful of guys, player collecting hasn't been doing much for me, so I'm pretty much left with just sets to focus on. And that's what I've been doing.

One of my primary focuses has been on the '61-63 Post sets. I've acquire maybe 30 across the three sets since October, and while most of them have just been commons, they've all been new to me, and even more importantly; each one of them is one card closer to completing their respective sets.

Not wanting to bombard folks with too many cards in one post (like I used to do), I thought I'd break the Post's into two posts, '61 and '62 today, and then, since there's more of them, give the 63's there own post next weekend.

Don Cardwell played on a lot of bad teams and more often than not, finished seasons with a losing record. In fact, all but three of his fourteen seasons were finished with a losing record. His first winning season would come in 1961 when he went 15-14 for a Cubs team that finished 64-90-2.

I generally strive for a bit better condition on my Post cards than this, but for less than two bucks I couldn't not get Saint Ron. Of course, one of the nicest things about Post cards is that they are one of the few types of cards that you can trim; and not be called all kinds of bad names my folks on the internet. And for the record, I did clean these edges up a bit before it went into the binder.

I've got a few more 61's sitting in my COMC account, but it'll be a while before I get those. I've done a bit better with the 62's though...

Usually overshadowed by brother Ken, Clete still had more than a respectable career; and one that most guys going into the pros would love to have. He also ended up with one more ring than his brother, though I'm sure playing for the Yankees played a bit of a part in that.

The good folks of Post wound up being a bit off with their prediction. Early finished the '62 season with a record of 7-15, which left him sitting at 299 wins. #300 would come the following season (his last). Between his gout and the mileage that he had incurred, those last two seasons sound like they were an absolute slog to get through. Of course, if he hadn't lost a few seasons to the war, he probably would've reached 300 a few years earlier, and most likely would've been retired before this set was released.

This card isn't a short print, but does tend to sell for a bit more than your average card in the set. Don't ask me why though. It's not a HOF bump, because there are a number of those from the set that sell for less. And to my knowledge, there aren't a lot of rabid Early Wynn collectors out there. I guess if anyone knows what's what, I'd love to hear about it.

After a poor start to the '62 season, Willie was traded to Cleveland after just 11 games. He put up serviceable numbers with the Indians, but still started the next season in the minors. He got called back up but struggled mightily during limited playing time, and would be done in the majors by seasons end.

1962 saw Albie set personal bests in games played (which naturally led to bests in plate appearances and at-bats), runs scored, doubles, and triples.

Harmon might just be the most common HOFer from this set, and is therefor often the cheapest. I probably could've held out for a nicer copy (I did clean this one up a bit though), but this one came in a small lot. I have no doubt a better one will probably be gotten in another lot (there's one in practically every '62 Post lot that ever shows up on eBay) at some point, and when it is, this one will be given away to whoever needs it.

Joe is one of only 18 players to hit four home runs in a single game, which he did against Brooklyn in 1954. I tend not to have a great memory when it comes to watched sporting events, but I do vividly recall watching Mike Cameron accomplish this feat back in '02. Of course, that game was also memorable because Seattle scored ten runs in the first inning, with four of those runs being a pair of back-to-back home runs by Bret Boone and Mike Cameron.

It's nice to have the both of the Boyer boys out of the way, at least for '62. I've noticed a big push in recent years for Ken to make the HOF. Admittedly, I'm terrible at figuring out who should and who shouldn't be enshrined, but with that being said, I've looked at his numbers on multiple occasions and am not seeing what the pro-Ken crowd is. I do see a really good player, just not one whose career screams HOF.

Despite my recent focus on set collecting, there are occasions where it's very difficult not to add certain cards to player collections instead. This is one of those instances. It's not terribly expensive, so I can get another one at some point, but the temptation to add it to Dick's pages was very strong.

I mentioned at the beginning of the post that I have some more Post's sitting in my COMC account, which were gotten during the recent Black Friday sales. I saw a number of a people lamenting online this year over the lack of deals during the sales, which is funny, I did quite well as far as finding things that I thought were good prices go. I'm not gonna try to bullshit anyone by saying that this years offerings were as good as they were ten years ago (those days are not coming back), but all-in-all I did pretty well. The lack of free shipping this year was kind of a letdown though. I was still gonna have my stuff shipped after the sales ended, but after thinking about it some, I figured I might as well wait until after the new year to do so. At least that way I'll be able to avoid the rush, and possibly be able to add a few more cheapies to the shipment in the meantime.

My first BAG

I removed all of my TCDB trade bait sometime around the beginning of January (and then gave away most of the newer stuff in a series of free stuff posts a few months later), so I was temporarily perplexed by an email I received a few weeks ago saying that someone had proposed a trade transaction. And of course those emails don't tell you what's what; you have to go login to the site to get the skinny.

Turns out that said proposed transaction came from our very own, Tom, he of the resurgent, The Angels, In Order. And what's more, it wasn't a trade proposal in the traditional sense, it was a blog appreciation gift, or BAG, as the kids might be calling it.

I'm familiar with the RAK (random act of kindness), as I've been fortunate enough to receive a few over the years, but a blog appreciation gift is a new one to me. Are BAG's the new RAK's? If so, I'm all for it. 'Blog appreciation gift' sounds much more meaningful, or at least it does if you're a blogger on the receiving end of one. I suppose it wouldn't have the same effect if you weren't a blogger. See what you're missing non-bloggers. If BAG's are gonna become a thing, that'll be just another reason for everyone to ditch those lesser mediums (Twitter, YouTube, etc.) and start a blog :)

Anyway, this BAG consisted of three cards, including the Bo Extra Bases, which is a card I just saw for the first time in one of Tom's recent posts. I'm mostly only interested in stuff from Bo's playing days, but I never bought any packs of Extra Bases, and I still haven't looked through all of his cards that I might want; so that's how I've apparently been able to go almost 30 years without seeing this particular card. Any other time, this card would be the star of the envelope, but the second card stole the show for me...

John Anderson is one of my all-time favorite character actors. If you have a favorite television series from the 50's-80's, he probably appeared on an episode. He certainly appeared on a number of my favorite shows: The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Project U.F.O., Night Gallery, and MacGyver, to name a few. He also had bit parts in two of my favorite films, Psycho and The Satan Bug. The only two cards he ever got where he's this visible are both in Pacific's Eight Men Out set. I think I have both of them on my want list, as I need a couple for various themed pages/collections, the two primary of those being the Perry Mason and Twilight Zone collections. Which one will this particular card go in, I do not know yet.

And I mentioned that this mailing consisted of three cards, but the third one is for my Portland Beavers collection, and since I don't like to double-dip, I'm gonna hold back on showing that one here and instead use it to dust off my Portland Beavers blog (and start a new series) sometime within the next few weeks.

Many thanks to Tom for the BAG. It was greatly appreciated!

Bo: Then and Now

It's a trivial thing, I know, but still, I kind of envy other bloggers who've kept track of how many mailing they've received from other people. I suppose I might've done so had I A). Thought I'd ever be blogging for so long, and B). Thought anyone would ever actually send me anything. But I didn't, so I haven't.

Again though, it's hardly even worth mentioning, but it would be nice to have a list with some numbers that I could quote when posting about a mailing from someone; especially today's someone.

I may not have a list to tell me how many envelopes I've received over the years from, Bo, from Baseball Cards Come to Life!, but if I did, he'd probably be at, or very near, the top of said list. Heck, I've even sent enough in return that his address is one of a few that I actually have memorized. As a quick aside, it's funny to think that when I was a kid, I could, and did, remember dozens of telephone numbers, as well as numerous physical addresses -- and today, I can't remember any phone numbers (or at least any that are more than three numbers), and have maybe four addresses in my mental rolodex; ironically all belonging to folks that I've never even met, or spoken to on the telephone. Odd times for sure. Anyway, back to Bo...

He was kind enough to send an envelope earlier this year, which I still hadn't covered on here, and now just a few weeks ago another one arrived --which I guess was all the incentive I needed to finally give some public thanks. 

Most of the cards from the oldest envelope were claimed from Bo's trade bait posts, including the Vida Blue/Gene Tenace rookie up top. And while I've never been, and never will be, "rookie card guy", I still appreciate being able to add that one to the Gene Tenace pages. I don't know if I'll ever be willing to splurge for the OPC version.

One of the few exceptions to the above 'claims' statement, was these two. I really can't remember why Dick and Wes were in here, which I suppose is why I shouldn't be waiting so long to do these kind of posts. As the young radicals might say, I need to "do better". I do collect Dick Groat though, and rarely ever add any cards to that collection, so... any Dick is good Dick 🙈🙉🙊.

As far Wes goes, I still don't know what to do with him. I'm sure that I'll figure out something at some point though.

I believe that this was my third copy of Boog's '64, and while I hadn't planned on doing a page's worth of this particular card, it's awfully tempting for me to want to do so whenever I see a one whole row filled with any of the same card. The presentation of the League Leaders card is very interesting with Harmon looking directly into the camera, and Boog and Reggie looking in opposite directions below him. 

Catfish is another one of the early 70's A's guys that I collect for reasons that are still unknown to me. And even though I haven't put much effort into it lately, nor have I even tried to figure out how many more I need, I am still attempting to collect all of the action cards from the '71 set. 

There's a part of me that wants to collect all of the late 80's/early 90's magazine cards. There's also a part of me that wants to add Gregg Jefferies to my list of player collections. Thankfully, I've been able to resist both wants... so far!

We never ate a lot of frozen pizza's when I was growing up, and on the rare occasion that we did, it was usually Tony's. I do remember when this set came out though, but I didn't like Tombstone enough to try to get my mom to get one so that I could get any of the cards. It is nice looking design though, despite the lack of logos.

I do collect Jamie, but I don't really want every single card of his right now, and I never remember to look for any of his more interesting cards; which leaves me with not much of a collection. I'm pretty sure that this one was just a tossed in extra, and it was much appreciated!

That takes care of the old envelope.

I knew that Bo had a few cards set aside for me, but didn't think he'd mail the two that I knew about, so I was a tad curious to find out what would be padding out this newest unexpected envelope...

Bo sent me an email a few weeks ago to let me know that he had a few extra Posts available. Leo here ended up being my only need (at least in the condition that I'm striving for with my Posts). I could've swore that I already had this one, but after checking my list, and double-checking in their binder, it turned out that I didn't. I guess I had just seen it enough times online that I thought that I already gotten it. I've been focusing on my Jell-O and Post sets quite a bit lately (you'll be hearing about this in the very near future), so it was really nice to be able to mark another '62 off of the list.

I'm really surprised that there weren't more takers on Bo's recent OPC trade bait post. People are always goin' on about OPC this and OPC that, but when someone comes along and offers up a bunch of 70's OPC for trade, it's radio silence. Were I working on any of those sets, or even a team collector, I would've been all over those extras -- as it stands though, Gene was the only card suited to my interests. It probably won't happen very often, but this an instance where I was able to get the OPC version before the Topps.

1991 Upper Deck might be the best football set, photo-wise, ever. And I'm probably wrong, but it also feels like it was the last football set to have multiple shots of blood spattered/smeared jerseys. I'm guessing that this wasn't Dennis' blood, and judging by those eyes, he was looking to shed some more. 

I didn't think I needed this card, and I see that my list on TCDB says that I already have one, and was apparently wanting another? I haven't gotten into the Reggie Roby/Dennis Smith binder yet, so I either wanted an upgrade, or something went awry when I was making that list. If it turns out that I didn't need an upgrade, it won't be the end of the world, as there's certainly worse cards to have two copies of.

The next three cards were very unexpected, especially coming from Bo. He obviously took a few minutes to look at my TCDB want list too, which was nice of him to do. I had (or still have, I think I forgot to go mark these off) four cards from the Pacific Lucy set on there, including this one, which just so happens to be Aaron Spelling's only real card. 

Most of the time when I add cards like these to my want list, it's because I want them for a themed page, and often times, said cards are the only examples for certain people, in this case; Bob Jellison and Elizabeth Patterson respectively. Unfortunately for me, it's been so long since I added these two to the list that now I can't remember which pages I wanted them for. I have no doubt that it'll come back to me, I just need to take a few minutes and figure it out (probably by looking through their list of credits). I also think that the timing of this envelope was a bit curious, as I was just finishing up Lucille Ball's autobiography, Love, Lucy, when these arrived. A very enjoyable book, by the way.

I know that we're a few days past Thanksgiving, but nevertheless, I'm thankful to Bo for all of our interactions, and envelopes sent, over the years. I'm also thankful to him for being so supportive of all of my various blogging endeavours. He's one of the few people that reads, or at least scrolls through, all three of my blogs; and I always appreciate his doing so.

I was planning to try and get caught up with the last two old envelopes from bloggers (Jeff and Fuji) before the end of the year, but another one just arrived from Tom a few weeks ago. There's at least two other posts that I really want to do as well, so I don't know, trying to squeeze in five posts during December will be quite the feat (for me). I think it'll be a Christmas miracle if I do.

Doing my part

She may not be able to actively participate anymore, but if some group out there wanted to promote the joys of reading, an image of Marilyn Monroe holding a book might just be what they need for a successful ad campaign. I would have to imagine that it would, at the very least, help improve literacy amongst the male half of the population. 

It doesn't come across in the scan, but this particular hologram is easily one of the most impressive I've ever seen in terms of it's 3-D effect. The background details really pop when you turn this card. I know that it's old technology by 2023 standards, but I still find myself being quite enamoured with holograms, especially those of this quality.

This was another Sportlots purchase from earlier this year. And at 20¢, I consider it to be one of my better buys for the year. 

An Unusual Bat Around

[Here's my entry for Matt's Blog Bat Around]

#30

I have had zero luck this year in adding any more copies to my "hoard" of 1961 Topps Billy Muffett's. Online prices have gotten silly, I don't do shows anymore, and my attempts to trade for any via the TCDB have all been met with silence. Once those avenues have been eliminated, there aren't a whole lot of other options available. Cue the email from, Greg, everyone's favorite Borgophile (if that hasn't already been trademarked, I'm doing so now) over at The Collective Mind, who let me know that he found one of my coveted Billy Muffett's at a recent show. 

I'm not the sort that people usually go out of their way to find things for at shows, so that, combined with my having been shut out on any new additions thus far in 2023, makes this a greatly appreciated mailing. That being said, if someone was gonna find a copy at a show for me, Greg was probably gonna be the one to do so. Finding things on other people's want lists is kind of his thing.

I hadn't had any reason to get into the binder that this "hoard" is in as of late, so had anyone asked me prior to yesterday how many I had, I wouldn't have been able to tell them. Turns out that this was #30. That might not sound like a lot to some, but I think thirty copies of a card from 1961 is pretty impressive. 

Greg, being Greg, also sent along another fella to keep Billy company...

I didn't have time yet to look and see if I needed this card, but it doesn't look overly familiar. I feel like I'd remember an instance of Reggie defying gravity. And if I do somehow already have one, it's certainly not a bad card to have two copies of. I suspect that at some point down the road my Reggie collection is gonna have a few pages that are just dedicated to multiple copies of certain cards.

Thanks again to Greg for taking the time to find one, or possibly two, of my wants. They're greatly appreciated!