52 (Bowman) Pickups: A Last Few To Show

Obviously, I won't nearly be close to finishing my 1952 Bowman set when I turn out the lights on the blog next week.  So I will take this last opportunity to show a few more of these magnificent cards:

I picked this up for a few bucks at Cleve's, and it's the epitome of what I like about the Bowman set.  It was affordable, the picture is beautiful, and the card is unobstructed by anything other than a player signature.  Wonderful, wonderful card.

I also have a few stars to show too:

 I don't remember how much I paid for this Joe Adcock, but it's a striking card as well.

Last but not least is this Early Winn.   Not only does he have a great name, but he's a Hall of Famer with 300 wins, and his cards are still pretty affordable.

Quick Cleve's Post

This week is going to be pretty busy for me, so posts will likely be even more half-assed than usual. 

I only picked up a few write-in wins at Cleve's this week, one great and one I don't even remember bidding on and don't know why I did it.  First the one I'm happy about:

Elvis Andrus just gets better and better and is one of the most fun players to watch in MLB.  I've been wanting an auto of him for a while now.  I'm not sure I see Elvis Andrus anywhere in that scribble on the card, but I'm not his penmanship teacher.

I also got this, although I don't faintly remember bidding on it:

This game used bat card of pitcher Early Wynn is fine and all, but I don't have any idea why I bid on it.  I know I did because I saw the bid card with my writing on it.  I've got another vintage card of Wynn so maybe I wanted to get something else of him.  It was only $3, so no harm no foul.

Grades:

GQ Elvis Andrus Auto  $5:  A    Now that I have an Andrus auto, I have autos of all of my favorite Rangers. 

UD Ovation Early Wynn Relic $3:  B   Can't complain about a relic of a HOFer for $3.  I just don't know why I needed this card.  It's up for trade if anyone is interested.  (Maybe I got it as trade bait?)

Cleve’s Auction Night: March Begins With a Whimper

I don’t mean that the card I won at Cleve’s auction this week wasn’t good,  I just mean I ONLY have one good card to show you.  

I guess “technically” I bought the card shown below in February, since I won it at Cleve’s auction Tuesday.  But I paid for it in March and had already posted my February purchase tracker, so this counts toward March.   I’ll fight any man who says otherwise.   With my fists.

Sorry, didn’t mean to get snippy, I guess my research on Wynn is rubbing off on me.  Apparently he had a pretty nasty disposition.   The name “Early Wynn” doesn’t seem like it would belong to a guy with a temper does it?  Every article I found on him said he was as mean (on the mound at least) as he was talented, and many noted that he said he would knock down his own grandmother if she was at the plate.  

I’m sure I’m repeating myself, but this is the kind of stuff that makes me love this hobby.  I knew that Wynn was a HOF pitcher, so I bid spent a measly $3 on a card from 50+ years ago.   I was fortunate enough to win the card, so I wanted to learn more about him.  What I found was that he was a pretty interesting and accomplished player.  I’m not sure why I thought this was fascinating, but according to Baseball-reference.com, Wynn is the most “linked” player in baseball history?  Wikipedia can explain it better than I can:  " (This means that, if a value of 1 is assigned to any player Wynn played on the same team with, and a value of 2 assigned to any player who played on the same team with a player with a value of 1, and so on, and the mean value is found by considering each player in baseball history, Wynn's value is lower than any other player's.)"  There’s some good, solid bar trivia for you, courtesy of Napkin Doon.  

I actually* put write in bids on several items, and really thought I had a good chance at some 1950 Callahan cards of the Tinker-Evers-Chance trio (on separate cards).   I’m pretty disappointed I didn’t get them because they are pretty nifty, yet affordable.  This Early Wynn card was all I managed.   This is my first 1957 Topps card, so that year now has a page in the sampler album.

Grade: 

1957 Topps Early Wynn $3 A:  HOF card that’s in pretty great shape.  This is why I love Cleve’s auctions!

*Does it seem like I use the words “actually” too much?  It feels like I do.  I also think I use the words “just” and “really” too much.   Really, I guess I could just use an actual thesaurus.  See?  There I go again!