Trippin' Balls

I know I've mentioned a few times on here in recent years how much I enjoy mis-registered cards. I don't come across them nearly as often as I'd like, and when I do, I'm not willing to pay the exorbitant prices that are usually attached to them. Occasionally though, i.e. once or twice a year, I'll happen upon one that isn't being sold by a delusional seller; like this absolutely wonderful George Saimes that I got off of the Net54 a couple of months back.

The '67 Topps football set is already the most psychedelic looking sports card set ever produced, so it seems sort of apropos to find such an acid trip of a card on that design. Has any card ever looked more Crimson and Clover than this one? If so, I've not seen it. One can only imagine what the full sheet must've looked like.

I have 5 or 6 cards that are this off now(I only like them when they're full on whack-a-doo), but this one is definitely my new favorite.

Other kinds of extreme printing errors appeal to me as well, and since I'm talking about such things, it seems like a good time to show off this wonked up TCMA card that I got from COMC last year...
 

There's an awful lot going on here, so hopefully I'll be able to break it down properly. First off, this is card #269 Al Worthington, except instead of Al's picture, you've got Al Pilarcik (#212) in the forefront, and Preacher Roe and Johnny Podres (#239) in the background. The colors are a tad off in the scan, but that doesn't away from how wild this particular card is. And what's more, it's kookiness isn't confined to just the front.

As you can see, it was supposed to be Al Worthington's card, but even his write-up wasn't safe from the ghost of Billy Cox (#83).

I'm not even sure how such card can happen, but from what I've seen, a number of other kooky cards were produced during the printing of this set. Whether they ever actually made it into packs, or were secreted out the backdoor, I do not know, and honestly, I don't really care. I do know however that it's a crazy-awesome card, and I feel very fortunate to have been able to get it.

Bad scans from a good trade

I don't know if any of my fellow bloggers can relate to this or not, but sometimes I will scan, or photograph, an item, load it onto my computer, without paying much attention to it's quality, save it to a folder for future use, and then when it comes time to use it; then, and only then, do I finally notice just how poor said saved image was. 

Given my absolute hatred of scanning, I'm a bit surprised that this doesn't happen more often. In the past, I would sometimes go back and try to redo whatever the item was, but again, I hate scanning, and have gotten to the point where I can barely bring myself to do it these days (that's also part of the reason why posting on this blog has slowed down so much). So with that in mind, I not-so-proudly present two poorly scanned cards that made their way East earlier this year, courtesy of a trade with Gavin, resident expert in all things pertaining to Topps Retired Autographs, from Baseball Card Breakdown (and 1991 MusiCards Blog).

Gavin added a trade bait page to his blog a while back, which subsequently saw me reaching out to see if I'd have enough to be able to swing a deal for two of his offerings; and spoiler alert, I did!

Bobby Thomson is a guy that I say I collect, but I'm not sure if my 5-6 cards of him qualify as much of a collection. I only seem to be acquiring about one new card of his about every two years, which doesn't help in building up any kind of real collection. I do, at the very least, now have a really nifty autograph of his though (which isn't speckled btw).

 

While lacking a bit in the 50's department, my Johnny Podres collection is a bit more respectable. Although once again, this card here represents my lone autograph of his. They're a bit hard to see here, but this card features another nice shot (to go along with his '67 Topps card) of the old barracks at the Dodgers Vero Beach training facility (which I already covered a few years ago).

I've talked about both of these guys multiple times before, so I don't really have a lot more to say about them, or these cards (hence my taking so long to cover this trade. Well, that and the bad scans). I really do dig the cards though, and am thankful to Gavin for the trade.

It wasn't too long after this that another, this time somewhat unexpected, PWE showed up from Gavin; and in that was one of my favorite gets this year...

Gavin had told me that he would make one of his sun-bleached '91 Fleer mods (that were all the rage last Christmas) of Bo for me, and as you can clearly see, he did. He didn't say when though, and I thought that he might not be able to do it until summer, so like I said, I was bit surprised that it showed up so soon. 

I don't keep track of my acquisitions throughout the year, so it's not really possible for me to rank them, say in an end of the year post, but if I did/could make such a list, this would definitely rank in the top 5; possibly even top 3. It's just a really neat card, that brings me a lot of joy to look at. I figured the only place in the Bo binder for this would be next to it's original yellow kin, the only problem is, when I went to do so I found, much to my surprise (and chagrin), that I don't have a copy of the original card. I don't know how that was possible, but it was. It'll pain me to do so, but eventually I'll 'breakdown' and get one of those 20¢ copies from Sportlots. Now, if Gavin could just figure out a way to make a blue-bordered version, I'd have one wicked cool looking row for the Bo binder. As it stands, I'll probably just have to get to copies of the original to go on either side of this one in the binder so that it'll balance out the row/page (that's how my collecting OCD works).

Old habits die hard

A lot of good things have been showing up on eBay lately (non-sport autographs and hard to find cards for my Portland Beavers collection) and I've been having some success with my bidding, which has been both good and bad. Good from a collecting standpoint, but very bad from a financial standpoint. I've mentioned it before, but with very little money to play with these days, usually if I win something on eBay of any real cost, it means that I need to sell something else to cover that won item. This may sound sucky to some, but I have a lot of unwanted things, so this cycle just acts as a motivator for me to get rid of said unwanted things.

This routine has also made me reevaluate a lot of my stuff, finding out that I no longer care about certain things that I had been fond of, and conversely, finding out that I still care about certain things that I previously hadn't. Such was the case when it came time to put up my various Post Cereal cards. I had already pulled out various cards for player collections, but was still left with a decent sized chunk of 61's and 62's, and a much smaller selection of 63's. There was a small amount of '63 Jell-O's that also needed to be dealt with.

I had decided a couple of years ago now that set collecting was no longer for me, and even though I still felt a little something for the Post (and Jell-O) cards, they were still added to one of my boxes of cards to sell. However, when it came time to list them, I found myself having trouble doing so, sort of.

Upon seeing again how many cards I had from '61 and '62, and still feeling some affinity for them, I decided that I just couldn't list them, and instead put them in a keepers box; thinking that maybe someday I'd give the sets another go. The same couldn't be said for my 63's (Post and Jello-O). Having only about 15 or so of each (after those that fit into player collections had been removed), I figured I was so far away on those that I might as well cut my losses and sell them. Which I did, and very quickly too. I want to say that that was back in February or March when I had been making a big push to list my abandoned set builds. 

Fast forwarding to last month, I started feeling like something was missing with my card collecting. Thankfully it didn't take long to realize what it was; I needed a set to build. This led me to getting out my stacks of '61 and '62 Posts, and deciding that someday was now, and that I was gonna start working on the sets again. 

The first step was to decide if I wanted to remove all the cards from player collections, and even though I didn't really want to, I did it anyway. The second step was to make checklists...

For 1961, I found that I had 57 of the 200 cards. Not bad, not bad at all. Above is what I figure are the best cards from those 57 (I haven't looked up short prints yet, so I may have one of those and not even know it). This set came in two different versions, the ones on boxes, and the ones you could get through the mail. Mine are all from boxes, and those will be the only kind that I'll be seeking out.

As far as the 1962 set goes, I've got 59 of the 200, and as you can see above, and below, I do have a few of the bigger names.

I can't remember if I ever mentioned it on here or not, but a few years ago (maybe five?), I accidently won an extra Clemente on a Sportlots auction. I wanna say it was around six or seven bucks, so it wasn't the end of the world, but was still something that I didn't really need. Since it is fairly nice, I took with me to a card show not long after getting it in hopes of either recouping my money, or at the very least, trading it. None of the dealers who regularly buy from people would even look it at the time. Later that day, since I was already there, I also took it to the card shop in Nashville, hoping that the owner would have some interest in it. He didn't. I was told, and I believed him, because he isn't the sort to mince words, that no one ever came in looking for Roberto Clemente or Post cards. Obviously the card world has changed a bit since then, and looking online now, it appears that there'd probably be more interest in it now than there was back when I got it. Ideally, I'd like to trade for another need, but given how poorly my attempts to pull off formal trades online have gone thus far, I'll probably just have to sell it, and then use that money for some set needs.

After bindering the the 62's, I found that the most cards I had for any one page was four. This by far was the better of the two. And what's more, I was able to add another card to it during the recent pre-Black Friday sale on COMC when I picked up Elston Howard (#8) for $1.48.

I realize too that I've stated many times here on the blog over the last couple of years that I was done with set collecting, forever, which now makes me look like a real hypocrite. Yep, I'm full of shit. But wait... it gets worse!

I've also decided to chase the 1962 Post Canadian set as well. And I'm doing so despite only having one card from it (I think that this is the third time that this Ernie has appeared on the blog). I really should think twice about this one, especially given what happened just a couple of weeks ago.

I found someone on the TCDB who had 19 of these up for trade, so I sent them a message to gauge their interest. It seemed high, so I went ahead and started trying to find things off of their wantlist. While doing so, I noticed that their profile said that they like doing bigger trades, so I decided to try and make it into a bigger trade. I spent a good three hours looking for things, and probably another hour just composing the trade, only for them to turn it down and say that they don't like to trade with my sort. Apparently, I didn't get the memo that asking about the condition of vintage cards that I can see is now a faux pas? I guess I'm that sort. It's ironic too because I was told by a fellow blogger some years ago, that I should try and avoid this person. Unfortunately, I saw that they've been trading with other bloggers recently, and that combined with their huge positive feedback rating made me ignore that old warning. Obviously I should've just listened to it and saved myself the four hours. Lesson learned though, don't ignore warnings from fellow bloggers; they usually know better -- especially when it comes to the TCDB. [I'd still try again if they ever changed their mind though]

And I may be the sort who asks questions about card conditions, but I'm not the sort who makes year-end lists for the blog. However, if I was, this would surely take the #1 spot for the biggest card related disappointment this year. It's been weeks, and I'm still pretty bummed out by it.

Oh, and about this whole deciding to 'start up some old sets again' thing, yeah, it gets even worse...

After bindering up the '61 and 62's, I got to thinking about 1963, you know, that I mentioned selling 15 or so cards from, yeah, that one. Digging through player collections yielded a couple of big names, although the Maris isn't ideal with that cut. Still an okay start though, I guess. None of the 15 cards that I sold would be overly difficult to get back, as I see a lot of them in almost every single lot currently on eBay. I guess I'm doing this one again, too. But wait, it gets worser (and yes, I know, that's not a word)...

I'm picking back up with the '63 Jell-O's too. This was what I still had left. The majority of the one's I sold were poorly cut, and were not SP's or HOFers, so with a little patience, those won't be too difficult reacquire.

A couple days after paging everything up, I remembered that I had overlooked at least one card, and after setting out to look for it, that one card ended up yielding four.

A couple more '63 Posts that I had held onto. Dick Groat came from my miniscule collection of his, and Maury came from a page of his stuff that I have. That page looks a lot less interesting now :(

To the '63 Jell-O's, I was able to add, Boog, who came from the Boog collection, and Curt, who came from a page of his stuff that I've got going.

And in case anyone is wondering, yes, I know, there are some expensive and hard to find cards in these sets; don't harsh my mellow. I'll deal with those later. I'm under no illusion that any of these sets will ever be completed, but since making this decision, that feeling of something missing that I mentioned earlier has dissipated, and I've really been enjoying the process so far; it feels like old times. Well, sort of, I don't feel like I absolutely have to complete the sets to enjoy them, like I used to.

The only real negative for me so far is that after looking at these sets online for the last couple of weeks, I've come to the conclusion that if I want to work on these, I'm gonna have to start going to shows again; because the online prices are just not very good anymore. That being said, I did get that Elston that I mentioned earlier, as well as a '61 Lee Walls (for 55¢) and a '61 Bobby Shantz ($1.34) during the COMC BF sale. Other than those though, the pickings were awfully slim on COMC, lots of beaters for way more than they should be. Sportlots and the Beckett Marketplace don't appear to be much of an option either. And eBay seems like it takes so much more effort these days, especially when trying to land set needs at reasonable prices. Having been away for so long now, I'm not sure if anyone who's setting up at the twice-a-month Nashville shows would be bringing any Post, so I think I'll just wait until the next big show in March. 

There used to be this couple that only set up at the big shows who only did vintage, and I remember them having many binders full of Post cards. And I guess even if they aren't going there anymore, with probably close to 800 tables, one would have to think that somebody would have some Post for sale, right?

Sorry, can't do it

                             
It's St Patrick's Day! Conventional blog wisdom says that I should be doing a post about green cards, or something pertaining to a pot o' gold, but my Irishness would never allow me to do something so cliché (I have no problem with other people doing it though).

I don't talk about it on here very often, but I am very proud of my Irish Ancestry (sometimes too proud), and hate the thought of posting a piece about the time some kids stole my Lucky Charms, or some other such nonsense. I do feel like blogging today though, and after doing a quick search through my scan folders, found a suitable set of items -- so instead of some generic holiday themed post, you're gonna get baseball cards, old baseball cards to be more exact. These will be old in terms of age, and acquisition, as these came from my pre-Rona (and pre-card boom) COMC shipment back in December of 2019.

Oh, and it looks like some of these are 'green', but I can assure you that that wasn't intentional, think of it more like one of Bob Ross' "Happy Accidents".

This is my favorite Gene Conley card, and has been since whenever it was that I first saw it. And it's not for the oft used faux pitching pose, nor the lack of baseball in his hand. No, my appreciation for this card is based solely on the raggedness of his attire. This is back when they didn't get a new jersey before each and every game. Other than maybe a few of the country boys, I can't imagine any of today's baseball players wearing a shirt with a tear in it for any length of time. And they'd certainly never go into a new game with an old ripped jersey/undershirt.

With a record of 0-6, 1958 was an atrocious year for Gene. This after going 9-9, and winning a ring with the Braves the previous season. But despite the bad showing, he would bounce back the following year when he went 12-7, and was selected to the All-Star team. 1959 also saw him winning the first of his eventual three rings with the Celtics.

I went hard after a '49 Bowman color Bobby Thomson on eBay a few weeks back. It wasn't in mint condition, and I seemed to be in the running until almost the very end, but as is often the case these days, it started going up, and up, and up with about a minute left, leaving me behind to the curse the waste of my time. Oh well, I'm over it (seriously, I am!), after all I've still got a decent little collection of his going, including this awesome '55 Bowman. 

It seems like it wasn't all that long ago that I was finding cards to add to my "Telstar Four" collection (this is made up of the four players that were featured in the Cubs v. Phillies live look-in during the Telstar broadcast), but apparently this '66 Altman was the last card that I added to that collection. It doesn't feel like it's been over a year, but it has been a long year, and probably wasn't hard for me to forget about such things. Now that I'm using the TCDB, I need to go back and make a new checklist, especially since I can't seem to find my paper copy.

Aside from is rookie card, Johnny Podres is one of the more affordable vintage stars to collect. For example, this really clean and well-cut '61 Post set me back all of $1.05. And granted, this was bought probably close to two years ago, but even so, I don't imagine his prices have gone bonkers like so many others have since. 1961 was a good year for Johnny too, in fact as far as wins and losses go, it was his best, as finished with an 18-5 record; and yet, he wasn't an All-Star! He made the team the year before, and the year after, both times with a less impressive record. I'm sure that there's a story behind that, but I don't know it.

Thanks to Bo, I'm finding myself looking in the background of vintage baseball cards much more often than I used to. I know that other people have an interest in backgrounds as well, so I did a quick search on this card. No old blog posts came up in the results (or at least there weren't any in the first four pages), and no website mentions either (non-sales websites that is), so does that mean that no one has ever talked about this particular background online before? I find it hard to believe that no one has, but I guess I'll go ahead and pretend that that's the case, and that I'm actually doing something original here (please don't burst my bubble if I am not in fact covering new ground).

I've seen enough photos on the blogs at this point of, and around, Dodger Stadium, to know that this building wasn't located anywhere near it. And despite the Tigers moniker, Johnny is clearly still wearing a Dodgers cap, so the next logical place to look for a building match would be around their spring training facility. After just a minute or two of searching, I found a match:

There's no date on the photo (someone else can research that if they want to), but it was taken at the Dodgers spring training facility in Vero Beach, which had been converted from an abandoned naval base (this was news to me), and clearly shows some of the barracks that can be seen behind Johnny.

I'm gonna have to break from some of my fellow bloggers who had expressed surprise over Mr. Aaron's semi-recent passing. Dude was 86, and had been in declining health for some years, it was only a matter of time before it got the better of him. It's just unfortunate that someone of such high character had to spend the last few years of his life ostensibly being forced at gunpoint (metaphorically speaking) to sign autographs so that his handlers could continue to increase their coffers. Hank's situation wasn't quite as bad as the one that poor Stan Musial found himself in, but it was still bad nonetheless, and I wish nothing but ill-will towards the kind of people who think it's acceptable to profit in such ways. Apparently my negative thoughts haven't been enough to affect any of these people's outcomes though, as I've yet to see a headline along the lines of "Entire Musial family wiped out by falling meteor" or "D*cks of Hank Aaron's handlers mysteriously fall off, doctors baffled!".

My accumulated Hank Aaron cards may be the most impressive part of my vintage baseball collection, which is kind of interesting, because I never set out to collect him, I've just been in the right places, at the right times, to acquire many of his cards for much less than they normally sell for; the above card being no exception. I can't remember how much it cost, but do know that I got this card from one of those famous, and now very infrequent, fire sales, the kind where the person is clearly looking liquidate all of their COMC holdings in a hurry. With the way the card market is now, I don't expect to see too many more of these sales anytime soon. Piece of advice though, if you do ever come across one, and you're early enough, don't dilly-dally around thinking that you have any real amount of time to browse and buy at a leisurely pace, because you won't, other sellers will pick up the scent and have that carcass stripped within minutes of it going live.

Most people reading this would probably consider Hank to be the biggie from this group, but this off-condition Roger Maris is tops for me. Few players have suffered as much for accomplishing a feat like Roger did when he broke Babe Ruth's single season HR record. Aside from his teammates, seemingly the entire world was against him breaking that record, including the then commissioner, Ford Frick. The death threats were so numerous, and apparently credible enough, that a bodyguard became necessary. The press did what the press does and hounded poor Roger mercilessly, far beyond the point of just harassment. And despite all of these 'distractions', Roger still went out and broke a record that many thought would never be broken. Of course all of the negativity endured throughout that '61 season, took it's toll on Roger, mentally and physically, which undoubtedly would go on to affect the rest of his career (and life for that matter). 

It's hard not to sympathize with tragic figures, and when it comes to baseball, I'd have no trouble putting Roger in the top 5 for that category. Also, unlike Hank Aaron, I feel like I have a real chance to complete Roger's entire Topps run; which is a goal that I really should start focusing on more. Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder what his rookie card is currently selling for? 

On second thought, I don't want to know, it'll probably just be depressing.

COMC Shuffle #23

Another week, another ten randomly selected items from last year's COMC hoard.

2013 Panini Golden Age Historic Signatures #DDG

Not gonna lie, this is one of my favorite autos from the Golden Age sets. My introduction to Donna Douglas came from the Twilight Zone episode "Eye of the Beholder", which as some of you might know is one of the more famous episodes from the show's history. I saw that years before ever seeing my first episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, or any of her other television appearances (Michael Shayne, Checkmate, Project U.F.O., etc.). I keep going back and forth trying to decide whether or not I still want to try and finish the Golden Age autograph sets, but even if I don't end up trying to complete them, this isn't one that I would be getting rid of.

2015 Topps High Tek Pattern 1 Grass/Waves Gold Rainbow Diffractor #9

I really like the 2015 Tek cards, although some of the colors and background patterns don't jibe too well with the uniforms, but that's not the case with the gold Eric Dickerson, as you might be able to tell from the multiple copies here, it's one of my favorites (I have a purple Tom Brady sitting in my COMC account right now that is really quite spiffy as well).

1995 Collector's Edge - EdgeTech 22K Gold #23

Barry didn't scan so well, so you'll just have to take my word for it when I say that he (in card form) is absolutely gorgeous in person. I used to know what the odds were of pulling one of these 22K parallels, but that knowledge seems to have been lost with time. I do know though that they only fell in one out of every couple of boxes, I just can't remember how many boxes.

1964 Topps #580

1964 was not a good year for Johnny, and one could say that it was sort of the beginning of the end for him. Between an elbow strain, then being hit by a pitch from Warren Spahn on the very same elbow, and eventually needing surgery on that elbow, Johnny only made it into two games that season, both of which were lost.

2012 Panini Black Friday Progressions - Yellow #6

It feels a little weird to buy a card of a relatively contemporary athlete that I've never seen play before, but that's exactly what I did with this Arian Foster Progressions, although I have listened to his podcast, so that's got to count for something, right?

2014-15 Panini Prizm Blue and Green Mosaic Prizms #174

I've mentioned on here more than a few times now about Larry Johnson being my favorite player growing up, so I watched as many Hornets games as I could, and once he was traded to the Knicks, I then watched as many Knicks games as I could. Neither of these teams were MY team, but after watching so many games of both, it was kind of inevitable that I would become a fan of some of LJ's teammates as well, Allan Houston was one of those guys that I eventually became a fan of. It was pretty hard not to like him, or his game. Not only could he flat out ball, but he was also (and still is) a high character guy, and by the late 90's those kind of guys were becoming rather scarce, which only made me gravitate towards him more.

1971-72 Topps #44

To say that the '71-72 season was not a good one for Eddie Miles would be an understatement, as he suffered a career ending Achilles tendon injury, although by then he had already seen ten years of action, and his once very promising career was already on the downward slide. That being said, you don't ever want to hear about someone's career ending because of an injury.

2014-15 Panini Prizm Yellow and Red Mosaic Prizms #160

It is virtually impossible for me to see, or hear about, Dikembe Mutombo, without thinking about this commercial:

                 

1962 Topps Mars Attacks! #12

This is going to sound absolutely terrible, but for as long as I can remember, I've always associated this card with this image of Ted Williams (sorry Mark):

Don't ask me why I associate the two, because I don't know, I just know that I can't see one without thinking of the other.

1972-73 Topps #65

Although he's not often credited for it in print, Tom Boerwinkle was a key component to the success of the early Bulls teams. As far as Bulls history goes, he's second in all-time rebounds (MJ is first?!?!), and he still holds the franchise record for most rebounds in a game, 37, which was set back in 1970.

Is it me, or did those ten cards go by really quick this week? Heck, the week itself has flown by, of course they all seem to be doing that these days... they just don't make weeks like they used to :(


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

The card show that almost wasn't

There was a card show last Saturday. I really didn't want to go. The universe didn't seem to want me to go. I went anyway.

Cards haven't been doing much for me as of late, nor has anything else, which is probably why I've only managed to eke out five (now six) posts during the month of February.

Depression has been kicking my butt for most of the year so far, and there has been some more money woes - both of these things are not good for one's want to collect.

Last weekend's show was one of those twice a year 180+ table super mega affairs, which I always feel some obligation to try and go to. Also, I have owed five different people a return package for a couple of months now, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to find some cards for them. Spoiler alert: I was only able to find stuff for 1 1/2 of said five people, meaning that the other 3 1/2 can continue to think that I'm an ungrateful bum.

On Friday, the day before the card show, I noticed that the front tire on the passenger side of my car (it's an SUV, but you know what I mean) was looking a little droopy, and it wasn't the low on air kind of droopy, so much as it was there's a slow leak kind of droopy. I hadn't had to go anywhere for the previous two days, so this was news to me.

I didn't notice the wonked up tire until right before dark, which is conveniently when it just started to rain again (more on that in a second) too. I've mentioned it before, but I kind of live in the middle of nowhere, and when it gets dark here, it gets really dark (almost no light pollution). Because of nightfall's rapid approach, and the now steady rainfall, my want to change the tire was non-existent, so I took the lazy way out and asked my mom if I could borrow her truck. My request was successful, not that I thought it wouldn't be.

With this newly acquired bit of stress, the anxiety I was already having (it walks hand-in-hand with the depression) had increased to even more uncomfortable level, which I knew was going to make for very little sleep that night, and I was right. I finally fell asleep sometime around 11pm and woke up just after 2am. With the alarm set for 3, I knew that I wasn't going to fall back asleep, so I just laid there listening to the torrential downpour that was occurring outside, wondering if I should just skip the show and try to go back to sleep, I didn't.

Even though I got up on time, I still ended up leaving half an hour later than I had planned. Thanks to the rain, I was having a devil of a time trying to get everything loaded into the truck, so I was late. This probably a good time to mention that it had raining almost nonstop for six of the previous seven days, the east coast and the Midwest have been getting hammered with snow, we got rain, lots of rain. From what I've heard, middle Tennessee, my not so humble adopted home, has received more rain this past month than any other February on record.

With all of this rain comes the inevitable flooding, which I've seen a lot of so far, as the creek that runs by the house has been claiming part of the front, and back yard, as it's own, for about half of the month now. Part of the driveway has been underwater at various points as well, which can make trying to go out a little more interesting. It's a gravel driveway, so slipping off of it is a possibility, especially when it's dark. If one were to slide off on in the flooded area, one would officially be f*cked. On the right is a small pond that has formed from all of the runoff coming down the hill, and on the left (and down) is the front yard, and while that area wasn't underwater, it is like a bog, if you go down there even 4-wheel drive ain't gonna do you any good.

As mentioned, I left late, so I didn't get out of here until 5am. Made it through the driveway just fine, and spent an hour of the hour and forty five minute drive in white out conditions. I don't mind driving in such conditions, it's what I learned to drive in afterall, but I do sometimes worry about being out there with all the other people who tend to drive like they've never seen rain before. Thankfully it was just me, and the usual steady stream of semi's, truckers drive in the rain all the time so one doesn't need to worry about their driving abilities, or lack thereof.

I arrived at about 6:40, still raining. I knew I was going to have to park far away, so for the first time in my life, I actually took an umbrella with me - my backpack isn't waterproof, and I didn't want the boxes inside to get all wet. The son of the guy who runs these shows was walking out of the smaller gym (the big shows are in two gym's) just as I was walking in, and apparently he just couldn't resist the temptation to say something pithy my carrying an umbrella. Nice. Normally I probably would've directed a few choice four, and twelve, lettered words in his direction, but... depression, so I just kept walking. I won't forget the slight though.

Dealers were still setting up in the small gym, which was fine, because I never start there anyway, all the good stuff is an the bigger gym. Just as I walked in, I heard something that almost made me turn right around and start heading home. I heard guy off to my right ask "So much for both of the Smothers Brothers and the Max Baer Jr.?". Being mildly obsessed with Golden Age, I knew exactly what he had to be asking about, that being autographs from the 2013 set. The reply to his question is what made me want to leave before I even started looking. "How about $2 each?" was what I heard from the dealer... $2 f*cking dollars each! Are f*ucking kidding me! Christ, each one of the Smothers Brothers usually sells for $15-20 range, and Max can go anywhere from $10-20. I'm fairly familiar with this dealer, and he has never had anything like this before, so the odds of me actually looking through his autograph's box would've been low even if I had gotten there earlier, but still, did I have to hear that right as I walked by? It annoys me because I still need all three of those autos, and that was like one of those deals of century kind of situations. Most of me already didn't want to be there, but after having to hear that exchange, I knew that I was going to be having an even less enjoyable time than I had expected, and I was right!

I'm sure that some of you are starting to wonder if I'm ever gonna shut up and get to some cards, and my answer to that would be, yes... here's some cards:

This card was actually my last purchase of the day. I got it from the husband/wife duo who just come for the big shows, with their 5 or 6 table spread of nothing but vintage. I heard the guy mention that they just bought a huge collection, which isn't unusual for them, but what was unusual was that they brought a lot of that stuff here first, before they set up at The National whenever that is, usually it's the other way around - so I guess you could say that the folks attending The National are going to be getting some of Nashville's leavin's :)

I always just look through their "scratch and dent" tote, because everything else is a little too high for me, although this time they had multiple totes of bargain stuff. I spent way too much time looking through these totes to only end up buying one card, most of the prices were condusive to what I wanted to spend. I already had one copy of this card, and I still need a couple more, for $2 I was able to cross one more off of the list. Pretty good team that '57 Braves, loaded with familiar names - Aaron, Ball boy Blossfield, Conley, Mathews, Spahn, and Thomson.

The next two cards came from the guy that I got the '52 Bowman Casey Stengel for a dollar from awhile back. I didn't see that he was there again until late, he had his cards laid out on the table this time, most were still just $1 each, lots of empty spots where cards had been, so I probably missed some more deals, which is what happens when you're only one person, and there are this many tables.

I don't know if I've already mentioned it on here or not, but I recently started a Johnny Podres collection, which I had planned on adding this card to, "had" being the keyword there. I didn't notice it until a few days later, but the card has an indent/wrinkle thing going on, which is something that wouldn't bother me if I had seen it and still went ahead and bought it, but finding it after the fact is really bugging the sh*t out of me - burned by bad lighting again! Now I have to find another one for me, and figure out who to send this one to.

This was a much better dollar spent than the Podres. I already had this card, but mine was in much worse shape, so I opted for an upgrade. My other copy will be another one that'll eventually be sent out to some (un)lucky blogger.

It's been awhile since I've added anything to my 1972-73 set build, this Wilt all-star was a big (get it, cause he's tall) addition, and I was just starting to wonder if I even wanted to bother finishing the set. This one certainly isn't mint, but collector's always want Wilt cards, so this one has jumped up in price over the last couple of years, and nicer examples are no longer affordable... at least not for me.

Side note: I bought this card from the kid (I say kid, but he's probably around my age) that comes from Memphis to set up at these big shows, he also runs a show in Memphis, which is supposedly starting to grow, so collector's in that are who haven't already done so, might want to check out his shows.

Look at that, a hockey card! I had seen cards from this set many times over the last couple of years while doing the challenges on COMC, but I never knew anything about them - so when I came across this Lemieux in one of Jim's 6/$1 boxes, I felt compelled to grab it. For anyone who might not know, this comes from the 1988-89 ESSO NHL All-Star Collection set, but that's all I know, and it's all I need to know.

Side note #2: I dropped my cell phone on the laundry room floor a couple of weeks ago, it's a tile floor so you can probably imagine how well that turned out. The screen looks like a spider web now, but the camera still works, and I'm still using it for the stuff that the scanner can't handle (vintage). Having the screen all cracked has made trying to center photos much more difficult, so if you've noticed any of the oddly tilted pictures yet, that's why.

Hockey, and a graded card all in the same post, what the heck is going on here! I blame Chris for this purchase. I also blame him for the slight interest in graded cards that I seem to have developed. Bloggers are such terrible influences - mother's, don't let your children grow up to be bloggers!

Remember the guy with the stupidly low priced Golden Age autos that I missed out on, yeah well, he had a bunch of graded cards as well, which is another thing that he doesn't usually have. Most of them were like newer A&G, and Gypsy Queen, which I don't understand why anyone would get graded, but whatever, it's not my money being flushed down the toilet. Anyway, amongst all of that newer stuff were a PSA 7 1971 Willie McCovey and the Cubs team card above. I was interested in both, and was given a price of $15 for the pair, which seemed a little high to me, so I walked away.

After a couple of minutes I decided to see what they sell for on eBay, just so I could get a sense of what a good price would be. Turns out that the McCovey goes for more than $15 by itself. I walked back with the intention of trying to offer him $12 for the pair, he was on the phone when I got back over there, so I had to wait a minute. While I was waiting, I decided to take the cards out of the team bags that they were in. I'm glad I did, because the McCovey case had a bunch of scuffs and scratches, including a fairly deep scratch across the white section of the placard (I don't know if that's what the top part is actually called or not). I found it odd that those things couldn't be seen through a clear team bag, maybe because of the glare? Either way, I couldn't look past those scratches, so McCovey got put back. The Cubs case was scratch free, and at the newly quoted $5 sale price, I took it! Who would've ever thought that my most expensive purchase of the day would've been on a graded card, certainly not I.

Another graded card, seriously??????? I can't blame Chris for this purchase, at $1, I would've bought this one no matter what. I walked by table that had a shoebox of graded cards that said "$1 each". Like 95% of the box was nothing but cards from those not-so-legit grading companies, GMA, ACA, BBC, ABBA, CBGB - you know, those sort of places. Not only was Elvin here the only vintage card of the bunch, but he was also the only PSA card as well. I already have this card in my set, but for a dollar I would've bought another copy even if it hadn't been graded.

This is the rest of what I bought, mostly from Jim's 6/$1 boxes (lot's of 90's basketball inserts). It doesn't look like a lot now that they've been un-toploadered, but there's well over a hundred cards there. I will get to them sometime in the coming weeks (or months), since I don't plan on going to another show until at least May or June, there's really no rush to get everything shown here on the blog, plus I really don't feel like doing any scanning right now.

I ended up spending $39 on cards, and I bought a few much needed supplies, skipped a lot more tables than I normally would have though, if there were too many people (the weather didn't seem to stop anyone from coming) at a particular table, I just kept walking. Overall it wasn't a very fun show, and I know I probably sound like a dick for saying that, especially to those of you who don't live anywhere near a show, but that's how it was -- the best part of the day was getting to come home.

Epilogue: It never did stop raining on Saturday, but we did finally get a break on Sunday, hell, we actually ended up getting a couple of days of sun and blue sky. The water has receded, which was nice, more rain is coming though, which is to be followed by a couple of days of "butt cold" temperatures... yay!

As for the leaky tire, it had a screw in the side, which means it couldn't be plugged and had to be replaced...


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.