My Best Card That I Didn't Show Until The End

I suppose "best" is a subjective term.  Still,  I would wager that if collectors were to line up all of my cards and were asked to pick one as the centerpiece of my collection it would be this T-206 Ty Cobb:

I bought this a long time ago, in my single days, when I didn't have get to spend my discretionary income on the Lovely Wife.  I probably had no business buying this back then when my income was only modest at best, but I sure wasn't spending my money on girls, clothes to impress girls, apartment decor to impress girls, or anything that would have remotely made me more attractive to girls.  Good lord it's a miracle the Lovely Wife found something salvageable in me, because man, I was a big dork.  Not the awesome, cool cat you know now.

Now that I have this Cobb card, I'm glad I spent the money I did (for those curious, I got it for around $300+ on eBay back in the late 90's if I remember correctly).  And I'm going to say this right now- if one of you experts sees this and thinks or knows it's a fake DO NOT tell me!  I'm going to my grave believing this is real.  I am somewhat tempted to send this in for authentication and then turn around and sell it for a profit and buy a card of a person more palatable to my sensibilities, like Christy Mathewson or someone else that wasn't a bigoted murderer.

But, I acknowledge that this is the crown jewel of my collection.  I'll also re-show a card that I bought to kind of "go" with this Cobb card:

 

I love the story of Cobb and Lajoie battling it out for the batting title in 1910.  This link is a good recap for those interested. 


My T206 collection isn't huge, but I'm proud of it and I'm glad I was able to share some one last time!

Postcards From The Hall

The lovely wife and I bought new bedroom furniture recently, and before it was delivered, we cleared out all the crap that was under our old bed.   (As an aside, we splurged and bought a tempur pedic mattress.  Holy crap, it is the best money I have ever spent!)   I found a few boxes of stuff I had kind of forgotten about, and SURPRISE, most of the stuff was related to baseball.

Before we had children, the lovely wife gave me the gift of a lifetime by booking a trip to Cooperstown NY, (and some time in NYC) to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame.  One of these days I'm going to post pictures from the trip, but that is not my purpose today.  I also won't spend a lot of time explaining that if you have never been to the Hall, you absolutely should.  Because you should.  I am chomping at the bit to go back, and when the kids are a little older, we're going.

No, today, I just wanted to show some cool postcards I bought while at the Hall, including the above postcard of the Hall of Fame itself.  I also picked up a handful of other really beautiful post cards of paintings by Arthur K. Miller.   I don't need to wax poetic about these, other than to say I really wish there was a card set based on these paintings.  (Who knows, maybe there is.  Is there one, you experts?)   Here are the ones I have:

Babe Ruth

Ty Cobb

Joe Jackson

Jackie Robinson

Honus Wagner

I don't remember buying these, as the trip was almost 10 years ago.  But I sure wish I had bought more of them.  I'm going to have to do some searching and see if these are available anywhere else because they are incredible.

Trash or Treasure?

At a recent card show in Fayetteville, I was rummaging through a dime box and finding all sorts of crap I didn’t need, yet didn’t pass because they were a dime.  There was a whole bunch of product called “Action Packed” from 1993 which I was not at all familiar with.  The cards had raised images on thick, strange cardboard, and there were tons of HOFs and Legends.   I was certain it was more overproduced 90s offerings, and turns out I was right.

However, these are actually not bad little cards.  The images are raised on the card, although you can’t tell in the scan.  And the backs are pretty informative.  I picked up about 25 of players I was interested in.  I also thought the Abbot and Costello card was neat.   I wish the older player cards had been printed in this same color theme rather than the sepia. 

So even though I know these are worthless, I’m glad to add them to my collection.  My call:  Treasure!

Big Fun Game Pick 1

With the first pick of the Napkin Doon Big Fun Game- Gypsy Queen Edition, Spiegel83 selects prize #3:

Retired base card lot.  These were all of the base cards of retired players in the blaster box.  Ty Cobb, Al Kaline, Tris Speaker, Tony Gwynn, Rogers Hornsby.

The Lost Collector is next and can steal this card, or choose from another remaining prize (1,2,4-10)

Gypsy Queen Rack Pack- NOT GAME PRIZES!!

I mentioned in my Gypsy Queen Big Fun Game announcement that I bought a rack pack to get a taste of the set.  I had pretty good luck I thought:

I was pretty stoked about the Brett Cecil auto.  There is something about the Sticky Fingers set that intrigues me.  Also, the green bordered cards came in separate mini pack, and I don't know the story on them, but they are nice looking. If I decide to take on a Gypsy Queen long term project, building a set of these may be it. I also like the insert sets and the Mantle card is very cool. 

And here is the base, save a couple of cards.  Love the Cobb card. 

All of this is open for trade by the way.

Gypsy Queen is growing on me, and I can't wait to see what's in the blaster for the game!  There is still plenty of time to sign up.  Thanks to all who signed up, thanks for all of the new followers, and thanks to those who promoted the contest on their blog!

I'm off to a card show this morning, so hopefully I can come back with some cool trade bait!

T206 Goodness: Napoleon Lajoie

I have a small handful of vintage T206 cards.  For those of you who have printed and studied the Napkin Doon Baseball Card Solar System, you know that my T206 Ty Cobb card is the center and focal point of my baseball card collection.    Not sure why-  the more I read about Cobb, the more I can’t stand him. 

If someone was to force me to limit my collecting to one, and only one set, I would stick to the T206 cards.  They can be expensive, but these are the cards that are the most interesting, and can be shown off with pride to anyone, even non collectors.  In fact, my Chick Gandil (1919 Black Sox fame) card was the first card I showed my wife (then girlfriend).  I told her about his involvement in the scandal, and how these cards were packaged in cigarettes 100 years ago.  She probably doesn’t even remember it now, but I assume that was the moment she fell in love with me.  Or took pity on me and didn’t have the heart to dump me.  Either way, I credit that card to helping me snag her.

So when I come across a player of that era with an interesting story, I try to find a way to get a card on the cheap off eBay.  Trust me, the Cobb card was not cheap, and I had no business buying that thing.   But that was years ago, and I’m glad I have it now.  

Less painful a purchase was this Napoleon Lajoie card, although it dented my wallet as well.  Like the Cobb card, I bought this one several years ago.

Napoleon was a superstar of the era.  So much so, that when he was sent to the fledgling Cleveland franchise, he gave them instant credibility to the point where fans voted to change their team name to the Cleveland Naps.   I also picked this card up because of his rivalry with Ty Cobb.  If you aren’t familiar of the story of the famous “Chalmers” batting title race of 1909, here’s are some links:

Long Version

Short Version