Shadow Shots and a hint

Bad new today. Looks like my septic back home blew last night. I have to run down there so I may be away from the blog for a a few days. Maybe not. Here's hoping it ain't too bad. Either way it is a shitty thang to happen. Pun intended. My way of making lemonade.

 A fawn or a small dog running.

Just a crazy shadow. Don't know what to make of it. Maybe a sea turtle pushing its way across the beach.

Water faucet.


As for the Hint for the contest on a recent post: I've seen the same last name pop up twice, it is close but the first name(s) seems to be off.


Have a great weekend!

Contest check up

I hid a contest inside the text of a recent post. The prize: a scuffed 1974 Topps Winfield RC. The quest is to figure out what 4 cards I am missing from that particular set. A number of people guessed just once (there is NO limit). So far 2 of the 4 have been guessed. I'm not saying which 2. You'll have to figure that out, but it shouldn't be hard if you're following the comments and replies. 2 down and 2 to go. Come on folks, the set itself is a short set.

Something to say about Topps Series 2

With my Stadium Club team set expected any day now I had better get these Braves posted. And afterwards the Cups and a 2nd gripe.

Horizontal cards aren't my thing. Other than the Albies a vertical shot would have worked just as well, maybe even better. I like my cards in a binder and horizontals just mess that all up. Of course if the entire set was that way, it wouldn't be an issue.

13 Braves cards from series 2. Done. Just need the rest of the parallels and the inserts. That is until Update comes out.

Now on to the Cup cards. You can see the Minter card above.

Seriously, they had to make a Cup for Ohtani pitching and hitting? Who knows maybe Update will have a SSP Ohtani with a cup of him fielding a ball.


Bring on my Stadium Club Braves, I'm ready.

Blowing it up!

My 2019 goals that is. Here you'll find all but 1 of the 1951 Topps Braves cards (technically 2).

The biggie of the lot.....Mr. Warren Spahn.

There is another version of this card where the line under names says Hartford instead of Reliable Boston Brave. I guess I want it too.

Those are the Red backs that i got, the other two missing cards are also red backs. #2 Sid Gordon, and 52B (Holmes).



The rest were Blue Backs.

Another big name.

Bob Elliott was the worse condition of the lot.

I picked these up off of E-bay from the same seller. He had the other two cards but they were higher than the Spahn, no way. I am happy knocking these vintage Braves out. Now I'll have to get them again when I build that complete set or may not.

Lookie lookie it ain't a cookie

I grabbed these vintage Bowman at the Tampa show Saturday before last.

Obviously, these 1950 Bowman are not in mint condition. Rather well loved or say extremely well loved.

A view from the back.

I even managed to get two needed Braves in the lot.

I pulled these cards from a 6 for $5.00 box at a dealers table. I grabbed all of them. Thirty one in total with 1 dupe. I asked the guy how much for all of them. he said $20.00, done (.65 cents each.....you bet). I also bought a 1500 count box of inserts for $20.00 from him too. Just a bit over a penny a piece for those. 

Have a great night!

Weirdest interaction with a card show dealer.

The last time I went to the Jacksonville card show was back in May. I didn't go in June, and I really don't want to go next month either. I do need to see 2 of the vendors. One wants me to buy a million cards from him, and the other is my favorite dealer anywhere anytime. I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do. On to the story.


I've been going to the Jax. card show every month (99.5% of the time) for 5 years. Without a doubt I know that I am the biggest customer to show every month, and usually to most of the vendors too. I've always tried to balance things out among the vendors. There are the one and outer's that I usually just glance over what they have and move on. I'm serious, the vendors usually fight over (not physically) who is buying my lunch when the "dealers" place their food order. So, the last time I was there a frequent vendor, was there and I noted to myself that I had never so much as looked at his tables in the past. Pretty much organized. Cards in binders or boxes in order except for some 64's. He had them priced at a buck each. I already know and any other dealer there knows ain't no way in Hades I will be paying a buck a pop, especially when I'll pull a hundred cards or more. This guy who had to know who I was, was like oh man, I'm sorry they're not in order. I said no worries, I went to my vehicle and got my book came back in and sat down at his table (this was around lunch time), the food order had already been placed. I had a spicy chicken sandwich coming from Chic Fil A.

I wound up spending an hour going through those 64's with a break at the half way point. The food was there, I went to the table outside of the card room where the dealers were eating, had my sandwich and back in I went for the last thirty minutes. When all was said and done, I had $103.00 dollars worth, keep in mind ALL COMMONS, no stars, and NO high numbers. NM BV has these at $4.00. I'd say at best these were EX, at best. I'm thinking a quarter a piece, but I didn't say a thing. I had my stack, handed it to him and said you have to work a good deal for me. (I didn't say it, but after all I did do ALL of the work). He comes back and say $95.00. I quickly said no way, too much. I didn't even counter offer as He was NO where in the park. He immediately responded by calling me a "F-n A-hole", screamed it out loud. he should have kicked out the place it was a hotel and children could have been present. Just as fast I quickly turned away from his table and was walking away. he again, yelled you F-n A-hole and said you spent an hour at my table like that was my fault.......?  I kept my cool, and proceeded walking away I was really pissed off, and just as I was hitting the corner to see my buddy (the one who wants to dump a Million cards on me) to settle up with him and leave. I  was that angry. He again yelled out the same thing (that's 3 times), by that time I was at the corner which just so happen to be the organizer corner, I went straight up to Frank and said I won't be back. That clearly ticked him off. I went over to Eddie (my buddy) He had some 64's out too. I wound up pulling every card I had already pulled from the idiot and had marked off of my printed want list, plus a dozen more STARS and high numbers plus an EX-MT 69' Hank Aaron. Eddie says give me $100.00. I did.


I really don't want to go to that show again as long as that guy is there. I hope Frank learns that the $75.00 he makes off of this guys table doesn't make up for the thousands of dollars each year that I won't be spending there.  Only time will tell.  Anyways, that is my weirdest interaction with a card dealer.

Best Baseball Card Ever

Obviously, this is subjective. To each their own......they say (and I agree).  Some collector's have A favorite player, someone else might think a vintage card is the way to go, yet others may only know and relate to non-vintage (or un-vintage in some circles) players or current ballplayers.

Sampling of each are below.

Me........I am a bit (tad, little, smidgen, teeny) different. Okay, maybe I am big-time different. I am pretty sure my favorite card in my collection is my Hank Aaron RC. That is if I really had to pick one. I have a lot of favorites and tend to describe those as "one of my favorites".





"NOT MY ACTUAL CARD".  Mine is back home. I borrowed this image from the web.


But do I think that card is the best card ever made? No, I do not think that card is the best card ever made. The "best" card ever made could be in terms of quality, but I don't think that is what Daniel is looking for. The "best" card could be that minor league brand "Best", but I don't think that is what Daniel is looking for either. Again, "best" is subjective in all ways of looking at it. Best action shot, best head shot, best portrait, best card design, the list goes on and on and on and on and on ....you get the picture.



There are best "turning two" cards, best "play at the plate or wall" cards, best "superman" cards, best "dirty uniform" cards, best "bunting" cards, best "high five" cards, and even best "bubble gum" cards. All of which at some point were mini collections of mine. For instance, my favorite "mini" collection is my "Bubble gum" collection.  No, not a single one of them will fill the category of "best card ever made". At least not for me.




No, I have a card in my mind. This card makes me stare at it every time I look at it or a scan of it. It is a card that puts me in "AWE" every time.

Yes sir (and Ma'ams) this card to me.....KEY WORDS....."to me" is the best card ever made because of the way it makes me feel (AWE) when I look at it. It's just great, fantastic, fabulous, inspiring, and whatever positive adjective you can come up with. I love this card. So........to put an end to this post it is all subjective and to each their own for whatever reason they choose.  All I can really say is that I hope the future will bring more cards that make me feel the way this one does. It should which means this card might get put on the bench, but until then.........


I hope I win, I hope I win, I hope i win, I hope I win.........  :)

Shadow Shot Saturday

I was really hoping that I'd be here this weekend sorting tons of goodies that I brought back from Tampa. Alas, no such of thing will be happening. We'll just have to look at some shadows for a minute.

Great diving shadow.  (This would easily qualify as a Super Man card).

Topps Stars cheated with the fake shadows. I don't see anything here I just wanted to bust some Topps Chops.

Okay, if you ain't used to being in the kitchen you might not see this one...... a raw chicken.

Look what I found

I made it back home for a few days last week/weekend. I didn't really get to spend a lot of time with Hunter (daughter) as I would have liked. But at least I got to have IHOP with her for Father's Day. Between her working, house shopping, and whatever else the twenty something's do I was sitting on the back burner most of the time. I did make the 2 hour trip south of Ocala down to the Tampa Flea market. Again, I felt a wee bit disappointed with the set up. They changed it since I last visited and now it isn't in as big of an area. Resulting in less space for more money so less dealers, which included 2 vendors I was hoping to see but they were not there. I did find a few things so it wasn't a total wash out. In fact one of the things I found was from a vendor from Jacksonville (he is trying real hard to sell me a million card lot). We'll see.....he is usually priced higher than I would like, I am a cheapskate you know (he knows it too). I want a deal on everything every time. Sometime you win and sometimes you lose. I try to keep it 50/50 with this particular vendor though.

Anyways, by now you folks want to see what I found (from that vendor).

1969 Milton Bradley game!

I purposely kept the cards upside down other than the one. You see there were 4 (four) cards missing and the person to guess which 4 correctly will WIN a 1974 Dave Winfield RC card. It isn't perfect, but it isn't bad. Scuffed on the front. So yeah, hidden contest here. HEADS UP, only 2 of the missing are super stars and then a semi star and a common. This is going to take a long time unless someone is just that freaking lucky which I am okay with.  BTW, these cards are SWEET, condition wise that is. You might think otherwise with the rubber bands, but no, they are great.

All of the other pieces seem to be present.

The inside of the box has the rules. So there you have the highest priced thing I bought in Tampa. I did make another purchase there but that is another post.


Have a great weekend!

Wacky Wednesday

Woke up this morning tired. (I usually do). I need to get more sleep and take better care of myself. Most of could probably say that. Okay, I feel better already. Let's look at some cards.

This is how you keep your uniform clean. Pray and let the other guy catch it.

This card would have been so much better if we could actually see the baseball card he is holding. Or at least I think it is a card. It does make for a nice cameo shot though.

Who can tell me what is going on in this photo?

Odds and Ends.

Tonight's post is just miscellaneous card show cards that I have no idea of which show other than Jacksonville.

Pretty sure these came from May 2019.

short post

ComC Trifecta

Post title says it all.

The Bench ain't purdy, but when it is strictly for the Topps AS Trophy Cup binder, this works.  These two were the biggest names on the list. Now I am down to just a few cards and that collection will be complete.  One of my goals for this year.

I picked up a vintage Miller, and a Johnny too.  Not on the goal list but hey it's cool enough to include with this post as it did come with these cards.

Three more T206 White Borders. Another Goal for this year.

I picked this card, as I had previously ordered it from comc and was sent Eckersly instead, they refunded and now I got the right one.

There are three versions of this card. The red letter is obvious, as is the yellow letter. They are different. However, the third variation is on the back and I am confused. It (the variation) is supposed to be about the number 98 being white in a black circle. Like the one you see below. I don't recall ever seeing the base version with the 98 black in a white circle. Have you?

BTW, I count those checklists as Braves team set needs.Check out third base. Knocking down a some tough Braves and some variations too. The Acuna is a Cloth Sticker. I got it cheaper than the base card is and I still need the base card.


Grabbing these variations and tough Braves was also a goal for this year. Completing the trifecta.

Knocking out some set builds was also a goal, and all of these go toward that goal. BTW, that top right card with Luis Gonzalez, has Jeter on the other side.  I still need a few of the Magic Moments cards but I closed out Aaron, Jeter, Mac, and Gwynn.

I finally have both versions of the Kris Bryant rookies. I grabbed two copies each so I have the PC good too.  Will call this icing on the cake.

2019 Topps Inception

These boxes are expensive for the number of cards, and I could not see myself paying for one. So what is a guy to do?

Base cards.

 
A couple of purple cards numbered to 150.

And an orange card numbered to 50.

Jumbo autographed patch numbered to 125. (Just so happens is a 1 per case hit)!

And an autographed patch card, not sure if this is a parallel or not.


Boxes come with 1 pack and only 7 cards. 1, just one autograph or autograph patch card per box. The hobby boxes cost $70.00 and up.

I went to Ebay and searched for Braves lots. I found the cards above. Had a BIN price and also a make offer which I made an offer and the seller accepted. With shipping..........$25.00.

That is a hell of a lot better than buying a box of 7 random cards. I got 9 cards, ALL BRAVES, a case hit, the what would be normal hit, and 3 color parallel cards. That's what I'm talking about.