A journey to the dark side....

Way back in the day, I ranted about graded cards. I didn't like them. I still don't like them. But despite what my girlfriend says, I'm not a dinosaur.

I understand the need for them. The hobby is changing. And graded cards are where it's heading. Heck, it's already there. 

In an online world, buying and selling graded cards is easy. No muss, no fuss. Each party knows exactly what the value is. With raw cards? Not so much. Extremely subjective. 

Now don't misunderstand me... I'm not running around acquiring these hunks of plastic all willy nilly. But I'm not cracking them out of their cases like I used to either.

Well, almost never.

There are a few exceptions... like when I literally trip over one at a local card show that slides into my wheelhouse. 

There it was. And cheap too. I had no idea just how cheap until much later. I now feel bad about it. If I run into the seller again, I might throw some cash his way. Somehow a hockey collector ended up with a baseball card and didn't know what it was worth. Being junk wax, I mistakenly assumed it was priced correctly.
Ah well, I was probably going to hell anyway.

What say you? Do you like graded cards? Do you crack them out of their wee prisons?

Card Show Pick Ups....

One of the advantages to not having blogged in a significant amount of time, is that I do have fodder to share. Provided I can find it again....

I present to you a find at the last card show in these parts before the world ended.

Behold!

Whoa. My scanner dislikes cards in holders. Steve looks a wee blurry.
Anyway, Mr. Avery was sitting there, looking all lonely amongst a plethora of modern hockey singles. Our eyes met, we shared a moment, and he came home with me.
All for $5.
Kinda like Tinder.

For those of you younger than the t-shirt I'm currently wearing, Steve was the number four starter for the Braves for many years.
Behind Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, and Tom Glavine. So yeah, he never really got much of an opportunity.
He was an All Star in '93, winning 18 games.

But I'll always remember him for his post season heroics. Especially in the 1991 NLCS against Pittsburgh. He held the first place Pirates scoreless over 16 1/3 innings. One of the best "where the hell did that guy come from?" moments that everyone loves.

1956 a year with many meanings.

say the year 1956 to me and a lot of images go flowing through my head. It was a very influential year on my life. No, I'm not that old, I wouldn't make an appearance for almost another two decades. But 1956 still influenced who I am.

 

Mainly because of this.  LINK <--- clicky--="" clicky="">

I lost a lot of family in those two weeks. A lot of branches cut permanently off of the family tree.

 

One of my passions is cars. Yeah, I'm a car guy. Or rather more accurately a former car guy. Not much money left in the budget right now, or even the space to do it either. But it's still there, lurking under the surface.

And what car guy doesn't think of this when hearing 1956?

(I realize some of our female readers may be more inclined to remember the T-Bird or Baby Birds, and that's cool too.)

That's such a cool pic... if I ever need another hobby, it would be vintage card advertising. There's some really great stuff out there.

 

But for most of you reading here today, 1956 simply means this.....

some really great baseball cards. No fancy cars, no massacre or politics, just the unpretentiousness of beautiful cardboard.

 

I picked up these two at that card show I was rambling about in my last post.... the seller had a very big pile of these on his table. Including all of the Braves except for Aaron and Spahn.

For all of the Braves there were four marked at $30 or more... the rest he said were $10 each.

 

Now that's a bit steep. These can be had for under $5 most places.... but here in Calgary, the opportunity to shuffle through a stack of these, choose a couple, and purchase them, here, in person, was too much. So I bought two.

 

You've already seen Ernie there above. Ernie is a must have for any Braves fan. What a great man.

 

The second card was a bit tougher choice for me... so many to choose from, none of them wrong. But I finally went with Andy. Andy is smiling at me. And maybe the play at the plate in honour of my North Texas friend came in subconsciously too.

Other than being off center, the Pafko is amazing. Sharp corners, great colour, gloss intact. Amazing.

Both are dark backs if you're into that type of thing...

So while I always think of other things when talking about 1956, for today, it was just about baseball cards. And my two new friends. Who after 57 years have finally found their permanent home. Their journey is over.
 

let's Play Ball

not sure if you heard all of the cool kids talking about it or not, but there was a card show here in Calgary this weekend. A big one. Well.... a big one for Calgary. It was quite small actually, but we take what we can get here.

 

There was one seller, whom I'm pretty sure we will never see again here, had some vintage baseball.

 

I know!

 

So I bought three cards. I'll show the first off here. It's a little bit older than what I normally feature on here, but just to keep the kids interested, I'll tell you it's a ROOKIE CARD!!!!! MOJO SICKZ!!!

 

*ahem*

 

Here is my very first Play Ball card. It's from the 1940 set. Meet Johnny Cooney.

 

 Johnny was what we'll call a defensive specialist. In a 20+ year career, he hit over .300 six times, finishing with a career average of .286. And a whopping 2 home runs.
In 20 years.
He actually held (maybe still does) a record of most games played before hitting his first home run. His rookie year was in 1921 and a mere 18 years later*, in 1939 he hit his first home run.

Then the very next afternoon he hit his 2nd (and last) home run. Talk about a streak hitter.

Johnny was on a table of one of those sellers that puts high sticker prices on and then puts up a sign exclaiming 50% OFF!!!!!!

Whatever. For $5 he came home with me. A lot like a girl I knew in college. *BOOM*

Johnny Cooney < --------------------- LINK

Born March 18, 1901, Died July 8, 1986. Interred Manasota Memorial Park, Bradenton Florida.
Section 12, Row D, West wing south side, grave 2


*Johnny didn't play between 1931 and 1934.

You can't even make a phone call for that anymore...

.25 cents. You can't get much for .25 cents anymore. Not even a phone call. IF you can find a payphone that is.

But I found something I wanted, and yes, it only cost me .25 cents.

 

At a card show, one of the regular sellers brough a big box filled with small sets from the late '80s and early '90s. Mostly hockey. Stuff that really no one wants, but everyone had at one time when they were sure it was part of a well thought out retirement plan.

 

You know what I'm talking about.

1991 Score Young Superstars set.

1990 Classic set

1991 Upper Deck Hi number set.

1991 The Tuxedo set.

 

You get the drift. Nothing worth grabbing. In fact, it might be better if it was burnt for warmth.

 

But at the very bottom, tucked in a corner, was this beauty. Still in it's original package.

 1992 Kellogg's 3-D All Star set. 10 cards, sealed for freshness.

How much is this package of goodness? .25 cents was the answer. And just like that, it was mine.

My buddy Brett asked me, "Are you going to open it?"

Hell yeah! It's mine now... not going anywhere.

Now I'll share it with you. Aren't you lucky? Of course you are. It's why you come here.

According to my up to date and highly accurate 2009 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards, this is the highly sought after Canadian version. What are the odds?

Like a lot of Kellogg's cards, they're oddball sized at 2 1/2" x 2 5/16"

 being the Canuck version, you of course have bilingual backs.

 The American version had only English backs naturally.

 Also, the Canadian cards were found in boxes of Frosted Flakes...

 while the U.S. cards were distributed in boxes of Corn Flakes.

 So you can tell the difference in the sets from the front, and back.

 Schmidt seems to be the most valuble card in the set...

 I was hoping to find a Brave inside, and I did!

 Quisenberry was on the front of the package...

 ... and Schmidt was on the back.

 Pretty decent player selection, but not who I expected in a 1992 set.

Pops seems a great way to end off in a Post dedicated to Cereal cards.

See what I did there? Post cereal? Pops? As in Corn Pops?

Card Show Bounty Baseball style....

At the last card show of the year I managed to pick up some baseball cards. Hard to believe, but there was a couple of sellers there with baseball cards.

Of course, the one list I forgot to bring was my vintage Topps Braves wants/needs. No matter, carry on.

1958 Joe Adcock. These first 6 cards cost me $15. Not great, but something about beggars and choosers comes to mind.

 1954 Bowman Jim Wilson.

 I was thrilled to add this ultra rare sideways variant of this 1972 Hank Aaron card. This could also qualify for Night Owl's badass club in my opinion.

 A 1955 Gene Conley. And I already have it. Always bring your lists kids.

 a 1975 Topps Mini of Johnny Oates. And I already have it. Always, ALWAYS bring your lists kids.

 I was able to add another card to my 1976 Topps set. Only 24 more to go!!!!!!

 I got these next two cards for a $1 apiece. Both black bordered Braves from 2009 OPC baseball.
Brian McCann and

 Jair Jurrjens...

 These next two cards were gifts from two different attendees.
First, a John Smoltz that you can literally use as a mirror. The scan does not reflect that (see what I did there?) But it is that shiny and smooth.

 and a Gold 2011 Bowman Chipper!!!

I also got a few vintage cards not seen here, but they have been mailed off to other bloggers. Or soon will be.
It was great to be able to browse some old baseball cards again.

What $17 and the last card show of the year brought me...

I went out to the local rec centre for the last card show of the year. I took my usual $20. Let's see what I procured.

I actually bought quite a few cards this time, which is unusual. Normally I come home with 4 or 5 cards. 15 cards came home in my pocket. All for $17.

Maybe the best of which is this beauty. A 1967 Philadelphia Dan Reeves Rookie.

 A wee off center and a couple of creases... but for $2 I could not say no. This makes 3 cards I have out of the 11 card team set. Only 8 more to go!!!! The seller said he'll bring more Cowboys next time for me to go through....

Hmmm... I need a coin to find out the answer. Or I could Google it. How times have changed.
Not too bad though... 16 touchdowns and over 1300 yards. And to think you just thought he was a Hall of Fame coach.

For the rest of my card show booty, you'll have to cross over to my other blog, Just A Bit Offside. Thanks. See you there.

The new season begins for card show booty.

This past weekend brought the very first card show of the 2010/11 season in Calgary. It's a small show held in the lobby of a curling rink/hockey arena. If you were with me the last couple of years, you've heard me talk about it before. This is the show where I learned that most card dealers are paranoid xenophobes. Remember?

Anyways, a new season brings new hope. I walk in to see the same dealers near the entrance as last year. But it's an 'L' shaped hall, let's see what's around the corner....... meh. Not much. Oh well, let's dive in.
The first dealer on the right as you walk in the door. He actually has a little stack of 1971 OPC baseball in the middle of one of his tables. Around 40 cards.... all commons. Surprise! No price. Okay bud, how much? Here's where it gets good. And I'm not making this up. He looks over at me, looks around, looks back at me with this wide-eyed expression, and says to me, 'Hang on a minute.' and leaves. He crosses over the hall to a dealer around 30 feet away and preceeds to BUY A BASEBALL BECKETT FROM HER!!!! He jogs back over madly flipping through the pages until he finds the page listing for '71 OPC and begins to tell me what certain cards in the set book for.
Sweet mother.
He finally stammers out that he'd let some of the cards go for around $2 each. Others might be more.
He doesn't even know what the hell he's selling.
I chuckle and walk away, not even looking at whatever else he has. How many people around here are collecting the 1971 OPC baseball set? You lost out dumbass.

Not a lot else at the show caught my eye, except for one guy off in the corner. He had a few monster boxes of cards that were all labeled, sorted, and PRICED! Every card had a price. And it had nothing to do with Beckett either.
I looked through a few rows of cards, grabbing 5 I knew I didn't have.

A 1971/72 OPC Doug Favell
Three 72/73 OPC's.... first Rogie Vachon

Dunc Wilson

and Jim Rutherford

finally, a 70/71 OPC Al Wilson.

This guy prided himself on top condition cards, and these are. His sticker price on these came to $8, he gave them to me for $5. Without me asking.

We chatted about the old days, collecting these cards, laughing at some of the wonderful photoshopping. He'll see me again next month.

The other guy? Not so much.

Sebastien Daniel!

the last of my card show purchases was this Sebastien Daniel Sisti card. You might know him as Sibby Sisti.
A 1951 Bowman card #170
with a slight character mark in the lower left corner.

a mouse maybe? A hungry two year old? No matter. Sibby set me back $3. Normally I don't buy Tiptons (does this count?) but I couldn't resist.

Sibby broke into the league in 1939 with the Boston Bees, and stayed with the franchise until retiring with the Milwaukee Braves in 1954. Included in that is a stint with the U.S. Coast Guard 1943-45.

Sibby is also famous because of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book in which the book ends with the line, Good Night Sibby Sisti, wherever you are...

This now becomes my oldest baseball card. I have several tobacco cards going way back, but they all feature Indian Chiefs or Flags, or Actors....

What's your oldest baseball card?

Like Lemmings to a flame....

You knew I had to pick up some hockey while I was at the show... it's like a rule or something. Like Lemmings to a flame, or moths leaping off of a cliff, I buy vintage hockey.

I've been looking for a good copy of this card for awhile now to send off ttm for an auto. Phil and Dan Bouchard were the original Atlanta Flames. I sent off for Dan's auto last week, Phill will go next week.
A nice '73of Canadian Hero Paul Henderson for .50 cents. If you find cards of Paul for under a buck, YOU MUST BUY THEM. It's in our constitution.

You guys have that guy who warned you about the British coming, we have Paul Henderson. Both saved their nations from oblivion.

Paul is currently battling cancer... I feel sorry for the cancer. Go Paul!

Of course I picked up a card of the Road Runner.

Yvan is one of my faves from my childhood.

And a card of one of the Mahovlich brothers. This one is of the Peter the younger.

and of course what would that be without Frank the Elder?

Next, a couple of Rookie cards. First, Michel Plasse. Michel played for several teams in his career, but is most famous for his time in Colorado, playing for the Rockies.

Don Cherry, former coach of the Bruins and Rockies always has this to say about Michel whenever he sees a picture or "highlight" of him on TV.

"There's ole Michel Plasse, the Human Sieve."

I was sad to find out this week that Michel passed away in 2006.

Speaking of Don Cherry, the other RC I bought was of one of his two main goalies during his time with the Bruins.

Gilles Gilbert.

People often think that Gerry Cheevers was Don's main goalie, but it was actually Gilles. Four division championships in 5 seasons. Bounced out of the playoffs by Montreal every time.

Lastly, and completely random, Ed Giacomin, the Rangers All Time greatest goalie.

8 cards from '73/74 for $12. I'm a sucker.... but a happy one.

Wally Moon Wannabe?

Some more singles from the weekend card show.... Night Owl had asked to keep a look out for a Sandy Koufax. Any Koufax.... This was as close as I got. Well, actually, there was a gentleman there who had a 1966 Koufax that he rescued from some bicycle spokes somewhere. He had it on "Show special" for $300, down from $350. If I had cash, $280.
It's still there Greg. Sorry pal.

Anyways, from the same guy I got the '71 OPC from, I found this beauty for .50 cents.
Bill is so blinded by his eyebrows he is mistakingly hacking away at his Rookie trophy.
I also grabbed a few '75 OPC, including the Wes Westrum card. Better known as the San Francisco Giants Team checklist, unmarked, for a buck.

Yes, I put Dodgers and Giants right next to each other. What are you gonna do?

Along with Wes, I grabbed a couple of cards of rookies. Pitchers.....

and outfielders....

again, .50 cents each.

Later today, my hockey singles... (you knew there had to be some, didn't you?)

And then, the best baseball card at the whole show. Yes, even better than that $300 Koufax. It is Awesome with a capital "A".

Free internet cookies to anyone who can guess the card, or even the set....