Spahn is a Giant!

One of the neat little things I've acquired lately is a card of the Great Warren Spahn. Capital "G". 

Ok, so it's not so little. It's big. Like, giant. A 1964 Topps Giant in fact.

These are fantastic cards. And can be had for cheap. A Spahn like this one, in near mint condition can be had for under $5. Unless you live outside of the U.S. In which case American sellers will charge you a MINIMUM of $24 shipping for just one card.
But that's post for another time.

I recently read a post about someone laying the smack on modern cards. They're garbage. They're the same every year, etc... I think it was Owl, maybe? Anyway, the point is, is that I can't argue. Sure I want the shiny new cards of Freddie and Ronald. But …… after I get them and they go in the binder.... that's usually the end of it. That's where the appreciation stops. Where if I find a 1965 Topps #487 Woody Woodward (still missing that one), I'll coo over it for weeks. AND I'll revisit said card repeatedly over the next few months. I'll remember how and where I got it. How good it made me feel to fit it in it's home. It's not a binder. It's a home.

Maybe that's just me.

So for those not familiar with the 1964 Topps Giant series, it's a 60 cards set, including 7 short prints.
For size comparison, Tom Glavine popped by to help out.

Do any of you have any of these at home in your collection?

a big Braves Thank you kind of day....

this is the first of a couple of thank you posts aimed at thanking everyone who swaps cards with me, or just out and out sends me stuff for no reason.

This is one of those cases.

A reader named Mark, who has made quite a name for himself with several random PWE's flying throughout the blogging world, sent one to me. Me!

And wouldn't you know it, it just so happened to contain some much wanted Braves. How fortuitous.

Let's start off with a card that I know I have, probably more than once, but have no idea where the hell it is.

The good news is now that Mark sent me another, I should be able to locate my copy quite easily.

A Pedro Torrealba rookie!

 That's a pretty cool 'stache.

Hooray for the multi rookie cards of the seventies.

Ralph Garr and Garry Hill

This next one arrived the same day as I got another one from COMC. Ain't that the way?

But how about this beauty in all of it's technicolour glory?

and in honour of finding out that Yes indeed, night owl and I both call the 1972 Topps set the "Psychedelic Tombstone" set, perhaps one of the few times we've ever agreed on anything, I leave you with these.

two 1975 Topps minis.

Very nice.

Thanks for the Braves Mark!!!

When is a PWE not a PWE?

When is a PWE not a PWE? Why when it's pink of course. Then it becomes a PPE. Only this particular pink package *cough* wasn't so plain either....

 

For those of you who remember a PWE from The Card Chop awhile back... this is another one from the same source. What I didn't know at the time was that Steve had sent me not one, but three PWE's in late January, all at the same time.

One came a couple of weeks later. One arrived within a month. The last showed up Friday. A scant six and a half weeks later.

 

Apparently, it went on some kind of postal adventure. And at one point, decided to take a swim.

 

Yeah.

 

Talk about being put through the wringer.

 

Twice.

 

I get some of the damage... there was a top loader in there and we all know you can't put top loaders in PWE's. They jam the machines and get .... munched.

But that doesn't explain the water damage. This baby got soaked. The paper has that feel of being underwater for awhile and them being dried out. Very brittle now too....

If only letters could talk.

But enough about the outside, let's see what was inside.

How about a 1987 Sportflics Tom Glavine card? Yes, I said 1987....

you can kinda see Tom in the bottom right, struggling to be recognized over all of the others. I'm not sure who at Sportflics decided it would be a good idea to put 12 guys on the front of a baseball card using only four frames, but I'm pretty sure they're from either Washington or Colorado.

Let's move on to the Johnson's.

1968's Deron....

and 1969's Bob.

nice hat Bob. Get one for Deron, won't you?

How about a 1957 Del Rice? Someone thought Del was just spiffy and gave him two stars for all of his efforts.

Del was also glued into a book at one time. We've got some extra paper on the back to prove it.

No gluing Johnny Logan! No siree Bob. (Johnson)

Johnny got tacked onto the wall with a thumbtack like a lot of other stars in the day. Somewhere near a sunny window I'd say, judging from the colour loss.

Thanks for the fantastic vintage, all with stories to tell.... now with one more somewhat soggy story.

My first PWE! and a few overdue thanks...

Living in the North has it's advantages. I personally like it. However, it has it's disadvantages as well. Particularly within our little hobby.

 

Trying to buy one card on ebay and having to pay between $13.50 and $33 shipping. For ONE CARD! Needless to say, I haven't bought off of ebay for almost a year now.

 

Mail delivery. Due to the problems with potential Polar Bear extinction, all package delivery has been moved to the sled dogs who used to do just lettermail. The extra weight has slowed them down considerably.

 

However, I just received my first PWE from the "Lower 48 PWE Explosion."

 

It came from Steve at The Card Chop. He managed to stuff five vintage Braves in the envelope.

 

1956 Topps Bob Buhl. I tried to recreate that throwing motion in my bonus room the other day. I knocked over a lamp and popped out my knee. Kids. Don't try this at home.

 

Sticking with Mr Buhl, we find his 1961 Topps card. What the hell is he looking at? Couldn't the photographer at least try to get his attention?

a 1967 Denis Menke -  I think Steve's Chihuahua got a hold of one of the corners on this baby...

there were also two 1955 Topps, but blogger ate the scans... who knows what blog they popped out on. Keep an eye out for them, would you?

A couple of other bloggers also braves the Northern Polar Express mail route...

Night Owl needed some light reading, so he took a peek at my wantlists and found two cards that I needed.

Of course, one of them HAD to be a mini......

and the other one came with a wee note.

Hall of Famers? Where? This is a fantastic Tony Cloninger card...

I have no idea what Owl is talking about....

And all the way from Texas, Mr Play at the Plate sent me a Brave on TV.

and a very shiny Chipper... (along with a couple of others not seen here)

and a really cool metal John Smoltz! This thing is very thin, very heavy, and very sharp.

I could shave with this thing.

This PWE thing might catch on around here.... at least, I hope so.

Thanks guys!

it's vintage week... Day 1

continuing on with my Check Out My Cards order, (I have to or I'll never get these cards put away into their binders and then they'll get lost and then I'll end up buying them again swearing the whole time because I'm sure I already have these but they're not in their binders and I never posted about them so where the hell are they anyways? Arrrgh.)

 

Now that I finally have electricity again, I'll put up a series of quickie posts featuring the vintage.

 

Yes.

 

The vintage.

 

1959 Topps Carl Willey.

 

and it's pink.


my 1959 Topps needs... #'s 40, 212, 380, 450, 467, 551, 561, 565, 567, 571
...some heavy hitters in that bunch.

...one day...

I'm about to go Felix Millan all over your ass...

My collecting pendulum has been swinging again. (I'll pause while you get a visual.)

 

As most of you are aware, I didn't go after any baseball sets this year. Heritage tempted me with all of it's pretty colours, but I held fast. 

 

Ginter sang it's siren song, but it fell on deaf ears this year.

 

All I wanted from this year's cards were my Braves. More on that in another post.

 

Football was the same. Granted, someone gave me a large chunk of the Topps base set, and I will try and complete it, but trade partners are hard to come by for that set. We'll worry about that another day... or maybe we won't.

 

Which brings us to my beloved hockey. With OPC, I was all in.... and I'm damn near finished the base set, the parallel set, and both insert sets.

I hear Upper Deck comes out very soon. But I may, for the first time in five years, pass. Maybe blame the fact that there are no games being played... but I think that's only a small part of it.

 

I updated my wantlists the other day.... I always have a printed out version on paper to take with me to shows, trade nights, what have you. Yeah, I'm old school. While everyone else at trade night has Galaxy SIII smart phones and tablets.... I still use paper. Again, maybe that will change.... but it's okay if it doesn't... I'm happy with my paper.

 

The point is, that after updating, my hockey section went from seven pages down to four and a half.

That felt good.

Instead of adding to it, I was crossing sets off. I liked that feeling.

 

So I think I'm done for awhile of buying new stuff.... other than what's on my lists of course.

 

So if there's no new stuff being bought... it must be old stuff, right?

 

Right.

 

I placed an order with an old online supplier that I used to use a lot, but haven't visited lately.

 

Sure enough, he had scads of cards I needed.

 

We'll start off slowly.... with our old buddy Felix.

 1968 and 1969 style. Can you imaging the uproar if Topps used the same photo in back to back years now? Oh wait. They do that. Never mind.

 However... it was just when I actually held the cards in my hand did I notice for the first time that there is a baseball in the photo. Apparently someone is tossing ole Felix a ball.
Felix doesn't care.... he's too busy staring into your soul.....

To finish things off, how about a glorious All Star card?

Like my good friend Paris used to say.... That's hot.

Like those 3 cards for under a buck hot. Seriously.

I think I'm going to like my new pendulum. Three more cards scratched off my list.

Cardboard swapping - Vintage style.

The other day I mentioned this post would be Dodger style, now I say it's vintage style. Which is it? Glad you asked. It's vintage style, featuring cards from two different Dodger bloggers. I know there's like 47 different Dodger bloggers out there now... but today we'll focus on just two.
First we have cards from g.c.r.l. He sent me a large stack of cards off of my Topps Braves wantlists from 1994-99, as well as a smattering of current faves. As a nice surprise, he also included two cards from long ago. I won't subject you to scans of 1995 Terrell Wade rookies. But I will show you these:
1975 colourful goodness

and look! Not a mark on it. How does a card like this ever survive? Someone must  have just pack pulled it a week ago or something.....

gcrl also included this beauty.

From 1957. This is technically a Team Card, not a Team Checklist as there is no checklist on the back.
Thanks for hitting up the wantlists Jim! I'll have a return volley your way soon....

Those of you who read night owl's blog, may have seen a post he did upon the completion of his 1971 Topps set. I was able to help him out and send him the last card he needed, #630 Roberto Clemente.

In return, owl sent me some random Braves, including a perfectly round Chipper Jones, as well as some older cardboard.

1962 Mack Jones.

Mack was coming off his rookie year, so I guess that's why he got the painted/airbrush/photoshop treatment. But Mack was damn happy to be there!
Then a few '71's to cap things off.
#306 Jim Nash

#359 Ron Reed, rocking the warm up jacket under the jersey look as he casually winds up to pitch while surrounded by chain link fence on all sides.

#374 Clete Boyer. Clete looks like he's batting while standing on the backstretch at Talledega in front of the catch fence.

#494 Braves rookies Garr and Kester. Ralph Garr played 13 seasons in the bigs including 8 with Atlanta. Rick Kester pitched 40 2/3 innings over parts of 3 seasons with a 0-0 record and a 5.98 ERA.

#587 Sonny Jackson. Sonny rocks the eyewear on the front, but plays it cool and casual on the back. You'll have to take my word for it.

#605 Orlando Cepeda. Orlando is winding down his career here. Next year he begins a four team, four year road to retirement. The Braves trade him to Oakland for Denny McLain.

#668 Gary Neibauer. I think this is a High Number!!! (not needed capital letters, but I don't care) Gary pitched in 75 games with a 4-8 record and a 4.78 ERA over his 5 year career. Nowadays, that line is of your least used pitcher during the season.

Thank you gentlemen! These are much appreciated and wanted.

Vintage Troll.... Part Deux.

These are the other vintage cards that Troll sent over, but they just didn't fit with the 1965 theme of the last post. Again, we'll play the Got 'em,  Need 'em game.

we'll start off with a beauty...

 I wonder if Spahn ever threw a knuckleball as part of his repertoire? Anyone know? And how would you like to just sit back and listen to that conversation going on right there between those three pitchers... Awesome.
Need 'em!!!

 Braves team card. 1963 edition. Good luck identifying all of those blurry faces. That may be Eddie Gaedel on the far left in the tux.
Need 'em!!

 1961 Chuck Dressen - Manager.  Chuck managed the Braves in '60 and '61 going 159-124
Chuck passed away part way through the 1966 season at the age of 67.
Got 'em... but upgrade!!!

 1963 Ty Cline - I babbled about Ty in the last post... This card came two years earlier. And he is still pictured in his Indians uniform, whom he played with in 1962.
Need em!!!!

Ahh... my buddy Carlton the doorman. (Those of you who got that obscure reference are OLD!) We're looking at his rookie card here. I wonder how I figured that out without three oversized logos, a special insert subset, and it being short printed at the back end of the set? We just did people. And it worked fine, thank you very much.
Carl pitched 8 years in the bigs, the first 5 with the Braves, before retiring as a Met at the end of the '65 season. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 78.
Need 'em!!!

Thanks again Troll... up next... Vintage Junkie.

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.