Monday, October 2, 2017

A story to tell

Before starting this story (a short one, sort of).....My prayers go out to those affected by last night's horrible shooting.

Awhile back I mentioned about driving to the North Georgia to check out 250,000 cards. I did go, took my Uncle's mini van so I would have a way to transport them back should I purchase them. Well, it must have been meant for me NOT to have them. I mean the signs were all there:1) for starters as I was exiting I-75 to merge onto the Atlanta by-pass (285), the van stalled and wouldn't start up. There I was sitting smack dab in the middle of the 6 lanes. I was just 19 miles from the card shop. It was 1:06pm......For anyone who knows that area and that time of day, and the traffic ugh........! (making lemonade: 2 truckers helped me get the van off to the (left side of the highway). 2) After cooling off, I was able to make it about a mile down the road crossing over to get to the right hand lanes when it died again (I could number 5 more times the van broke stalled out each having to cool in between each "journey"). It took nearly 4 hours to go those 19 miles. Once at the card shop I knew the van would cool off plenty to get over to my aunt's house 5 miles away, after all I was there to look at those cards. It didn't take long (the first box) to realize I did not want to just buy the lot without looking at each box. This dealer knew I was only interested in the baseball cards, and specifically 1995 to current. 3) reason 3 the cards were mixed sports and mainly mid 80s-90s. That's not to say they wasn't anything else in those boxes. There was some 60's, 70's and 95 to current in them too. i actually looked through (quickly) 4 or 5 boxes. I set one box aside as it might be a good one. There was a total of 65 5000 count boxes. I made the decision to not get them, not a $5.00 a box. 4) reason 4 .. had I bought them the extra 2000+ lbs of weight to a vehicle having apparent transmission and fuel system issues, not a good idea. I did however hit up the guys "LESSER CONDITIONED" VINTAGE. He had 1 3000 count box and a 1500 count box. Now the cards were sleeved and in top loaders, so the number in the those boxes I'm not sure. Longer story short, I brought home both boxes. Spent more than I had planned too, not to mention I had to take all of those cards out of the sleeves and top loaders, as I don't store cards with them. I also had to sort them which I never really mind that task, although it is seldom a very fun activity. So far I have sorted them all, turns out there were 3x the cards i didn't need than the cards I needed for set builds which was still significant. I was also able to pull several hundred HOFers for the PC's, although it maybe a very long time before I can update or check any of those files. But still there were doubles in those too, so I will be hosting a contest.  

I won't be posting from that trip every single day, but most days until I've covered the 1952-1979 Topps cards, 50's Bowman, misc, and PC guys which is where I will pull the prize.

SIMPLE RULES:  Follow this blog, and comment (comment on the blog posts showing cards from that trip INCLUDING THIS ONE). Only 1 comment per post per person. No limit of entries either, the more you enter the more chances to win the prize.


So Let's get started with the 1952 Topps.



Not all of the cards are in poor condition, some are actually in excellent condition.





Black back and in really good shape too.











Another decent shape black back.






I've always been a guy who said any card is better than no card.







 so, when you have 1952 Topps in bad shape..........







and look Stanley signed this card, lol.
















9 additions for the 407 cards set. (MY FIRST 9, LOL). I have checked the cards off of my paper lists, I still need to put them on the webpage.

Closing out again with prayers for EVERYONE!


35 comments:

  1. Man, what an ordeal! Sounds really stressful.

    Can't go wrong with all these 1952s though!

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    1. Just wait. to see the rest of the goodies. I'm an optimist, so I handled it pretty well, considering I absolutely despise Atlanta traffic.

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  2. Hmmm, maybe you should sell some cards and get a new van?

    '50s cards seem to go with creases like PB&J.

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    1. The van is my Uncle's (94 yo), and it does fine unless you drive 70 mph for a few hours, then all of a sudden slowdown. I won't be making any more long trips in it for sure. As for 50's cards just wait.

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  3. Always nice when you can pick up any cheap '52 Topps!

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    1. who said they were cheap, lol. jk. They are my first 52's.

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  4. My anxiety would probably get to an almost unbearable limit were I to get stuck right in the middle of a freeway like that. God bless truckers!

    At least you ended up getting some really neat (I'm assuming) stuff, as it would have really sucked to have gone through all that, only to come away empty handed.

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    1. I'm pretty cool under pressure/stress, but that doesn't take away from the suckiness of it all, lol. Check back each day and see more of what came back with me.

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  5. Nice 1952:s my lcs came across a card collection too. Had some 52's that someone else was looking at but came across a couple of Billy martin mgr cards (one was OPC)

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  6. Zernial - my fave in this lot. i don't miss 6-10 lanes of traffic at all. if i hit three lanes here, someone is driving on the shoulder!

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    1. I'd prefer 2 lanes (1 lane each way), and no one in front of me.

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  7. I love seeing St. Louis Browns cards. There aren't many of them given how early in the modern baseball card era they moved. Thanks for the contest.

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  8. That Zernial is such a cool card. Anyways... I feel your pain. One time in rush hour traffic, my Mazda MPV (owned it about 10 years ago) overheated while I was in the middle lane. After a few minutes some guys helped me push it off to the side of the freeway. The next day one of my co-workers came in laughing and told me how she was upset because someone had caused a traffic jam and made her late picking up her child. She thought it was the funniest thing in the world when she drove by and saw it was me. She said it was well worth the late fee.

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    1. I'm sure it wasn't funny to you (at that time).

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    2. I didn't notice her drive by, but when she brought it up the next day... I was able to laugh. I was like... uh, how come you didn't offer to help? but she mentioned that it would have been way to hard to get over and she was running late to pick up her kid.

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  9. That sucks that the trip was so trying on you and the van, coming home with the vintage had to help ease the frustration.

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    1. a little bit, but I hadn't planned on going over what the 250K cards was going to cost.

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  10. That Zernial has been on my want list for a long time now. Looking forward to seeing what else those boxes had in store!

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  11. There must be something about traveling through Atlanta..I also had a bad experience, but mine was more middle of the night gigantic lightning storm with rain so hard and fast I couldn't see the car 10 feet ahead of me. I had to pull over under an overpass bridge and wait it out. I'm happy you got there in one piece.!

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    1. lol, I don't like driving at night, or in the rain, and most definitely not at night in the rain. One of the breakdowns I had I was able to hit an underpass, that was a godsend to get out of the sun.

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  12. Oh man John...sorry you had such an ordeal getting to the shop. Look forward to seeing the cards!

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  13. Nice haul. Cool '52s Oh and a Brown card double cool.

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  14. I'm glad you at least got something good out of that trip. The Sauer is a beauty.

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  15. I remember you mentioning those 250,000 cards. Sounds like you did better though just getting the vintage.

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    Replies
    1. we'll see. I'll let everyone put a value on the lot when I'm done posting them. Maybe make it a contest too, we'll see.

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  16. Love the Gus card. Has to be fun going through all those!

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