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?

California Raisins... and baseball cards

It's been said by many people, on many occasions, but the generosity of bloggers seemingly knows no limits. I have fortunate enough to be on the receiving end of such generosity a few times now, but this most recent mailing really takes the cake Cinnamon 'N' Raisin biscuit.

A few of you might remember that I just recently did a Goodwill/thrift store post which featured a California Raisins bank that I had found. When it comes to views and comments, the thrift store posts usually do surprisingly well (which I'm always grateful to everyone for btw), that one being no exception, and positive reception aside, that particular post ended up yielding something else as well, that being... more Raisins!

Greg, from The Collective Mind, inquired in the comments section if I had any of the Raisins figures, knowing that he was talking about the Hardee's figures, I said that I didn't have any -- he then sent an email saying that I needed to keep an eye on my mailbox, and like twenty minutes later a box showed up in my mailbox (twenty minutes may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it did arrive pretty darn quick).

The box had a bag of Raisins (see above), and a team bag of cards (see below). Greg deciding to send me these was special for a couple of reasons: a) It's the first time that a fellow blogger has sent me something that wasn't card related, and b) We haven't had a lot of contact up to this point, so for someone that you don't know all that well to send you something like this is kind of amazing, it also speaks to the character of the sender.

For anyone who might be unfamiliar with, and actually care about, them -- Hardee's first introduced the first four figures in 1987, which could be had for .99 cents apiece after purchasing two breakfast biscuits or a desert. Six more figures were released in 1988, Hardee's then went the plush route for their '89 campaign, and after skipping 1990 altogether, they brought back four more PVC figures in 1991 -- but by then, Raisinsmania had pretty much run it's course, so...

I can't remember if there were any Hardee's locations in Portland at the time, but I know that I never had any of these as a kid, although I do remember seeing some of the figures at friends houses. Even if Hardee's was in, or around, Portland at the time, you still couldn't have convinced a young me to eat at a fast food place that didn't have Happy Meal's, and as mentioned in my previous post, I was a huge California Raisins fan, but the pull of the Happy Meal would have been too great even for them.

By the by, Greg didn't specify exactly what he would be sending, so I was more than pleased to see that he had included the entire second series (1988), with an extra Captain Toonz, which is pretty cool since he's my favorite from that series.

It was funny too, I was so enamored with the Raisins that I almost didn't even notice the cards that were at the bottom of the box -- oh, but before I get to those, I've got to show you the bag that the Raisins came in:

See that, such a wonderful touch! [Editor's note: If anyone out there is thinking "What's the big deal, it's just a Ziploc?", well, feel free to leave now, because you obviously don't have a sentimental bone in your body, and you've probably clicked on the wrong blog by mistake]

I added a new tab to the top of the blog not too long ago, "Recent card interests" -- and yes, I know that title sucks, but it's all I could think of at the time -- anyway, Greg obviously took look at it before sending the Raisins, and was kind enough to include some cards that fit some of my recent interests.

I started an Ichiro collection a couple of months ago, so far it's just made up of inserts/parallels/refractors, I'm not opposed to adding base cards, I'm just not ever anywhere that has base cards (other than vintage, there is almost never any base at the card show) to look through. All three of these cards were new to me, with the 2004 Opening day being my favorite trio.

Oh man, I looked these up to figure out what set they were from, and then promptly forgot! Now they're in a binder, and I'm feeling a bit lazy on the morning of this writing, so I'll just call them mystery Ichiro's! But rest assured, just because I can't tell you what they are off the top of my head, doesn't mean I don't appreciate them, or Greg for sending them.

Now don't get me wrong, the Ichiro's are great, especially considering the fact that I wasn't even expecting them, but the real MVP of the cards sent, goes to this 2011 Cognac Yogi Berra. My want for these Legends variations are another thing that was added to the new tab, I only have a few so far, and Yogi wasn't one of them. As an aside, I've scanned these Conac's multiple times now, but I still can't get over the funky image that's produced from the scanning process, it's like it practically creates a whole new card.

Thank you again for sending the figures, and the cards, Greg! Receiving these meant a great deal to me, more so than I'm able to fully express with words alone, so hopefully my appreciation for them was at least partially conveyed here today.

Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

Old cards from an old card show

It's only taken me three and a half weeks to get to it, but here it is, the vintage portion of my purchases from the almost a month ago card show.

Before diving in, consider yourself warned, it's really long, a bit on the rambly side, and probably full of typos (way too long to proof read), so with that in mind... bon appétit:

The first table I hit, was literally the first table you saw when you entered in to the smaller of the two gyms that made up the card show. The only other time that I had seen this dealer, was at the last big show that I attended way back in September. If you click on that link, this was the guy who had the 3/$1 vintage boxes, which I had did pretty well at, so of course I was psyched to see what he had brought this time.

I looked at the sign, saw 3/$1, so I went to work on a two row shoe box, pulling out cards left and right. When I was done with the box, I proceeded to start removing cards from a binder of '61-67 Topps that he had apparently added to the mix just for this show. About halfway through the binder, another patron showed up and started to talk with the seller, asking him what kind of stuff had he brought for sell. The dealer mentioned this and that, and then said "oh yeah, and all these over here (pointing n my direction) are 3/$2", 3/$2? I looked back at the sign, and I'll be darned if it didn't say $1 each or 3/$2.

Clearly this was a case of me seeing what I wanted to see, because I could of swore it said 3/$1. Talk about a record scratch moment!  At this point, I had already made a stack of 30-40 cards, but at 3/$2, those cards became a lot less appealing, not to mention now quite a few of them would be considered overpriced. Now that I knew they were more expensive, I had to go through and figure out which ones were still worth getting. I ended up keeping seven, including the three 61's above, I decided to stop working on the set last year, but I'd still like to complete the manager's subset.

Here we've got a sunset card and an almost sunset card. The '63 Pumpsie is technically not a sunset card, but it is the last card of him to be issued while still on an active roster. He's got a card in the '64 set, but he spent the entire season (as well as the next) in AAA.

The '64 is truly the last card for Bobby Shantz, he went 1-3 for the Cardinals before being traded to the Cubs, before finishing up the season with the Phillies.

The '66 set fell by the wayside last year as well, but I still had to have this Astro Aces card. And Max Alvis is a high number (#520), so that was a pretty nice find for my set.

Even though I ended up getting far less from this seller than I had initially thought, I'm still pleased with the seven cards that I did walk away with, but man oh man, if they had truly had been 3/$1...

This next dealer was one whom I hadn't ever seen at one of the shows before. His tables were packed with people, and his prices seemed to be all over the place. With everyone seeming to be jostling for position at their respective boxes, I could tell that I wasn't going to be spending very much time here, and I was right, five minutes and three cards later... and I was done.

I've mentioned before that I'm under no illusions in regards to thinking that I will ever be able to complete the 1953 Topps set, but I still enjoy picking up cheap decently conditioned singles when I can, Ken Heintzelman was the only one found that fit those requirements (he was $2). I hadn't been familiar Ken in the least, if anyone's interested, I found this nice write-up on the Baseball in Wartime site.

I didn't see too many 67's during my brief stay at these tables, but I did find this awesome Tribe Thumpers for fifty cents.

Even though it's not on my want list, and I rarely mention it, but I am collecting the '72 Topps set, albeit very slowly. If I were to have sat down before the show and made a list of my top five most wanted cards from the set, this Cubs Team card would have been on that list. It's not a high number, and it's not really worth (monetarily speaking) anything, and I'm not a Cubs fan (not a hater either), but I've just always liked it from the moment I first saw it. And now after forking over two quarters, I can cross this one off that non-existent most wanted 72's list.

There were probably more deals to be had from this dealer's offerings, but like I said, too many people and not enough personal space! Maybe some other time.

The next couple of 1971-72 Topps came from the same guy that I got my Dr. J rookie from a couple of years ago. His usual spread is made up of 20-25 monster boxes, full of nothing but vintage from the three major U.S. sports, and everything is a $1 each. He's got some higher priced stuff as well, but those monster boxes are what he is known for.

This show was different though as all of his $1 boxes were now $5 boxes, which was kind of disappointing. I suspect that he might have bought another large vintage collection (he does that fairly regularly), that was probably nicer than his normal offerings, so why not try and get a little bit more for them. I sort of half heartedly looked through a box or two, saw a couple of interesting things, but not interesting enough to pay $5 apiece for.

All was not lost though, as he had a small display set up at one end of his tables, this display had a bunch of cubby holes in it, each of which contained an 800 ct box of cards from various sets... and all those cards were one dollar each.

I went through a number of the boxes, but the only one that I ended up getting anything from was the 1971-72 Topps basketball box.

This Bob Lanier rookie, condition wise, is a little rougher than the majority of the cards that I have for the set, but the price was certainly right, and I just really want this set to be done... maybe I'll try to get an upgrade at some point, and maybe I won't, I'll figure that out at some later date.

Bob Lanier is one of those player's you really never hear about anymore, which is kind of amazing seeing as how he's a hall of famer who just happened to averaged a double-double (20.1 ppg, and 10.1 rpg) during his 14-year career.

After getting this quintet, plus one other from COMC last week, I am now a mere 13 cards away from completing the set!

These two came from Jim's (favorite seller) 25 cent boxes, which is where pretty much everything else that I have already shown came from. He doesn't usually have a lot of vintage, so these were a nice surprise. I already had the '75-76 Elston, but I thought it might be in better shape than the one I already had -- it wasn't -- so sometime in the near future, it will be sent out with a TTM request.

Normally I like my '77-78 Topps to be in a little bit better shape than the Grevey above, but it's a gray back, so I was willing to make an exception.

After finishing up with the quarter boxes, I moved over to Jim's boxes of "hits". It was while I was going through those boxes that I started noticing the wares of the seller who was setup just to the right of Jim. It was the stuff in the glass case that initially caught my attention, as I was seeing vintage cards of star players for, get this, reasonable prices!

Anybody who's ever been to a card show knows that when you see vintage cards of star players in a glass case, 9.9 time out of 10, those cards are going to be overpriced, and by show's end, will remain unpurchased.

I continued to go through Jim's boxes, but I found myself leaning to my right in order see more of what was in that case, all the while becoming increasingly more nervous that someone was going to swoop in and clean out that case before I had a chance to really see what was all in there. With that in mind, I asked Jim to hold on to my cards and that I would be back to look through the rest of his boxes, which he didn't have a problem with (he's cool like that).

Now to that case... or so I thought!

As I was sliding over a couple of paces to my right, I happened to notice a small box that was sitting on top of, and towards the back of the case that I was so desperately trying to see more of. This box looked like it was holding maybe 25-30 cards in top loaders with a "$1 each" written on it... which I almost couldn't comprehend the meaning of, and not because it was a dollar box, no, I was having trouble because there was a 1952 Bowman Casey Stengel staring at me from the front of that box!

It was probably only a few seconds, but it felt like minutes as I picked up the card and turned it over, then looked back at the "$1 each" in black sharpie, back to the card, back to the sign, rinse and repeat. I just couldn't process it, and to one in particular I said aloud "I can't believe that no one has bought this for a dollar! I was then brought back to earth by the seller's curt reply "well, it could be yours for just one dollar". Great I thought, "another crotchety old guy, cause there just ain't enough of those wandering around". If I hadn't wanted the card so much, I would've walked away right then and there, because I just don't have the patience to deal with rude people anymore.

Even as I type this post out three weeks after the fact, I still can't believe that I got this card for a buck, I mean sure it's got a little a paper loss on the front, but who cares... it's still an amazing card!

After finding this card, I had visions of more spectacular finds being had from this box, such was not the case, as I did pick up a few more things of interest, but nothing that was on par with Casey.

This '59 Duke has certainly seen better days, but for $1, he'll make a nice placeholder until I'm able to find a better copy.

There were about seven or eight really nice looking 72's grouped together, if they were low numbered commons, a dollar a piece wouldn't be a very good price, but I thought I might have stumbled upon a couple of high numbers, so I of course had to turn them over to check. No high numbers, but a couple of the backs were lighter in color than the others, and you know what that means right?

OPC! I'm not actively collecting the '72 OPC set, but this is the first time that I've ever come across any vintage (In my mind, that's '73 or older) OPC, so I couldn't not buy them.

I've gone back in forth wondering whether or not that $1 box had already been hit or not, as I didn't even get to it until like four hours into the show. On one hand there wasn't very much there look through, but on the other hand, I can't imagine that somebody would have left a '52 Bowman Casey Stengel behind. Either way, I'm happy to have gotten what I did from it, although in retrospect, I realized that I didn't turn over any of the 65's and 66's that were in there... and now I can't help but wonder if they might have been of the OPC variety too.

After going through the box, it was time to finally see what was to be had from that case. One thing that struck right away, was that it didn't look like anything had been bought from the case yet, which as I would learn just a couple of minutes later... was an astute observation on my part. It was also, as I would learn, the reason for the seller's initial coldness. He was just a little annoyed that all these well priced things weren't moving, and he really seemed to warm up to me once I mentioned, while checking to see if I already had one of his, that I was working on the 1960 Fleer set. From that point on, the ice was officially broken.

It's a Stengel hot post! This "59 set me back $2.

Ooh a Larry Doby sunset card for $2, yes please! Larry only played in 18 games for Detroit in 1959, before being traded to the White Sox, so his final card could've just as easily been with Chicago.

Another hall of famer for $2.

This '62 Yogi was the card that originally called to me from the case as I was looking through Jim's cards. Normally, even in this condition, I wouldn't expect to this card at a show for anything less than $10... this had a $3 sticker on it.

Not only is this my first vintage Yogi, but it was also a very nice addition to my glacially slow '62 set build.

Even though I'm still a long ways away from completing the '69 Topps set, I have been very fortunate in the last couple of years to have found quite a few of the high numbers for some very reasonable prices -- in fact, heading into this show, I was down to needing just eight -- two of those eight being Fergie Jenkins, and Bobby Bonds' rookie, which just happen to be two of the pricier cards from the sixth series.

As you can see, Fergie is no longer a need. This fairly nice example was had for $5, which is around $5-$10 cheaper than it would normally go for.

That marks the end of my case purchases. I probably could have gotten a few more things, especially for some other folks, but some other people were finally starting to take notice of this dealer's wares, and it was getting late. Both of which were signs that it was time for me to move on.

After leaving this guy's table, I could tell that I was just about "showed" out, even on a good day, 3-4 hours is really all I can handle, and at this point I was over the three-hour mark. Before I left though, I knew that there was one more dealer that I had see, since his tables always seem to be the most crowded, I had intentionally waited until I was ready to leave before making my over to them.

If you clicked on that "September" link near the top of the post, than you'll have read about the husband/wife duo who's tables I hit last. For those not interested in reading a really long old post, the short of it is, they only sell vintage... lots and lots of vintage! They only set up at the big shows, and they have the largest spread, usually along one of the back walls, that way they have more room for the plastic shelving units that are chock full of vintage sets in binders. And I don't know how many glass cases they have on their many tables, but even those are nearly bursting with stacks of cards from basically any vintage set that you can think of.

I find their whole set-up to be quite overwhelming, between the sheer amount of cards, and all the people frantically searching for that "one" missing card (at least that's how it always seems to me), it's just too much for my anxiety to handle.

In that link to my older post, I talked about their discount box, which was all I really wanted to look through, especially since it seems to be the only thing that all the other people aren't looking through. Once I was able to find a spot to squeeze in, I was pleased to see that the small box of discounted stuff, had been replaced with a small tote (which was bigger than the box) of discounted stuff (I should of taken a picture). I should also probably mention that the prices of the cards in the tote, even though heavily discounted, still range in price anywhere from $2-$50, so there really is something in there for every budget.

I found the above 1957 Topps Hank Aaron almost immediately, set it aside, and continued looking. I did find a few more things of interest, but at that point I was nearing the end of the cash that I had brought with me, so I had to make a decision, either a couple of cheaper cards or... a '57 Hank Aaron, which by the way, I had no doubts as to it's authenticity, which is important, what with the large amount of fakes floating around and all. As you can tell by the picture up above, it ended up being not much of a decision.

The price on the sticker said $33, I offered $25, the guy countered with $30, and after thinking about it for half a second or so, I accepted. I had sold a thing on the eBay a few weeks before, and since said thing went for more than I thought it would, I had a little bit more paper folding money to splurge with. I'm sort of half-heartedly collecting the '57 set, so this was a really nice addition to that. And even if I don't end up sticking with the set build, this card was still a really nice addition to my collection.

I still have two more show posts to do, but now that it's been so long, I don't really know if their worth doing or not. On top of that, I've been on an all-card kick as of late, and am feeling the need to switch it up and do a few non-card posts, so...


Thanks for taking a moment (or two) to look at my page.

All that glitters isn't Golden Age

In the last couple of months I have found myself purchasing more and more from members of the Sports Card Forum. So much so in fact, that I actually bought more from there than eBay last month. Which is a good thing, as I'm always looking for alternatives to eBay.

After being a member of the site for a little while now and seeing how smoothly the buying process goes, I would highly recommend that everyone go check it out. There always seems to be good deals to be had from genuinely competent sellers. I should probably mention though, that while I endorse folks going there to make purchases, I can't say the same when to comes to the trading aspect of the site (more on that in a future post).

One of my recent purchases was a fairly large one, by that I mean a lot of cards were gotten. Since the seller was highly motivated, everything ended up being far less than the original asking prices. Amongst all the cards in said order, were quite a few cards from all three years of Panini's Golden Age, which is what this post will focus on.

My scanner doesn't seem to like cards from these sets very much, so prepare yourself for lots of subpar images.

 I will start with all the mini's first, and for all one of you out there that cares about the different backs, I have included those as well.

2012:

If I remember right, the Ty Cobb backs were supposed to be distributed at one per box. All though those odds didn't apply to me apparently, because when I opened my lone box of 2012 last year, I didn't get one. But, I'm not going to complain, since that was the box that I got the case hit in, which came in the form of an original 1933 Goudey Fred Fitzsimmons.

Moving on to the three 2013 mini's:

And the 2014's:

Three Bill Russell's + Three different backs = Happiness!

That's it as far as the mini's go. On to the inserts:

2012 Batter-Up #23
 

2012 Newark Evening World Supplement #'s 6 & 7

This was one of those times where even though I have very accurate checklists at the ready, I decided instead to guess at what I had, and didn't have, so this Joe Jackson ended up being a card I already had.

2012 Headlines #14

2013 Bread for Energy #4

2013 Playing Cards #29

I really like these playing cards. For me personally, these are one of the better inserts to come along in quite a while.

It's probably hard to tell from the scan, but this is one of the 2013 white bordered parallels. These are easily my least favorite thing that Panini did over the course of the three years worth of Golden Age. That being said, if you broke down my entire purchase, this probably cost around 25 cents. So, even if I don't like them, it's hard not get it at that price.

2013 Delong Gum #14

2014 Star Stamps #'s 1,10, and 20

Sorry for the crookedness on these, the static electricity on the scanner wouldn't let this group stay straight.

#'s 15 & 16

2014 Headlines #9
 

Serial #'d 42/50

This First Fifty parallel was only 25 cents too!

I was even able to get two box toppers, which are proving to be the most difficult things from these sets for me to acquire.

2012 Ferguson Bakery Pennants Blue #9

2013 box topper exhibit card #21

These cabinet cards are really great. The clarity of the image (in person) is absolutely amazing. This is card I wanted the most out of all the Golden Age stuff that I got in this order.

Now is where we get to the autograph and memorabilia portion of things. From here on all the images come via cell phone camera, so you should notice some much clearer images.

2013 Museum Age #38

This is one of the more common memorabilia cards, but at least mine has some stitching included in the swatch.

2012 Museum Age Authentic Collection Material #35

2014 Historic Signatures #GAM

That concludes the Golden Age part of that purchase. However, I have picked up a few more things in the last couple of months that I might as well tack on to this post as well.

First up will be an eBay purchase that set me back a whole $4:


2012 Historic Signatures #VB

Next is a Sportlots win from around three months ago. I was thinking of doing a single card post just for this autograph of Bo Duke himself, but I just haven't got around to it, so I might as well include it in here:

And since I finally just got my COMC shipment, it makes sense to add the couple of Golden Age cards to this post too.

2012 Historic Signatures #SC

2012 Authentic Collection Material #11

Another fairly common memorabilia card, but for $1.50 in credit, it was impossible to pass up.

I will finish up with my favorite of these three cards from COMC:

2013 Museum Age #27

During the Spring cleaning sale I got this for $5, which I thought was pretty decent, especially when looking now the lowest price for one is $30. I have been infatuated with her for as long as I can remember, which probably stems from watching way too many syndicated episodes of Bewitched on Nick at Nite at a very young age.

Outside of one card, this post get's me completely caught up with all things Golden Age. That "one" card is big enough that it will get it's own post sometime in the upcoming weeks.


How about this for a tie-in to the last card shown?

Thanks for taking a moment (or two) to look at my page.