Check Out My Stanky Pie!

I sniped a couple of nice vintage cards off eBay really cheaply while I was traveling last week.  They were waiting on me when I got home.

This is my second Eddie Stanky card.  It was only few of bucks, and I really like these old Bowmans.    $2.25 shipped for a 1950 card of a pretty well known player/manager?  Sa-weeet.

This is my first 1950 Callahan card.  Pie Traynor was a HOFer so this was another  great pick up for only $3.25 shipped.  I like these Callahan cards.  They are small sized cards, and the illustrations are done with some kind of “dot” process, and are not standard sketches.   You can see the craft of the card better in the scan. 

 

You can also read the back better in the scan.  For a small card, that type is microscopic.  Either that or I'm getting old.

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!

Cleve’s Auction Night: My Absentee Pickups

Should I get credit for skipping Cleve's auction this Tuesday and instead spending Valentines night with the lovely wife?  Or did I technically “attend” the auction since I put in write in bids beforehand and may or may not have been thinking the whole night about what I may or may not have won rather than listen to her yammer about whatever she was yammering about? I kid of course!  We had a lovely dinner together sans children, and as I mentioned, she gave me a swell Valentines gift. 

But there was a lot of good stuff at the auction this week, and I put in bids on about a dozen items, hoping that most of the other guys would be in the same boat as me and skip the auction to be with their significant others.   My hopes were dashed when I found that I only one two auctions.  They were solid pickups, so I’m not too disappointed. Here was the first purchase for $5:

What you see is a lot of 61 vintage Topps cards anywhere from so-so to ultra-crappy condition.  I bought this assortment to fill out my sampler album.  For those that don’t remember every word of every one of my posts, one of my goals this year was to build a sampler album of one 9 card page for every Topps base set from 1952 to today.  I will deliberately and systematically trade out and upgrade the "starness" of the players and the condition of the cards over the years.  But for now I at least have a full page of 1959 Topps, and a good start on my 1964 page, including Rusty Staub's 2nd year card. 

Again, these cards are not in great shape in general, but I would love to be able to send the ones that don't make the sampler album to good homes if anyone is interested or needs some set fillers. 

I also got this 1967 Al Kaline for $3.  It’s in good shape, and a neat looking card.  It too will go in the sampler album. 

Grades:

Vintage Assortment  $5  A-:   That's $.08 a card, people.   Not a lot of stars and many cards are in bad shape, but this was a cheap way to fill in my sampler album. 

1967 Kaline $3  B+:  Nice card of a HOFer.  Can’t complain about that.

Cleve’s Auction Night: This Isn’t Going To Stop Is It, Napkin? Part 1

It’s been awhile since I’ve had a reaction from the lovely wife regarding my trips to Cleve’s.  She mostly just takes a quick look at what I bring home, nods or snorts, depending on if she approves of the pickups or not and goes about her business.  So when I came home tonight with my usual armload she asked the question from the title -“This isn’t going to stop, is it Napkin?”  

It was more of a statement than question, and was posited more with acceptance than indignation.  She was pretty blown away with Cleve’s generosity with me the other day.  Plus, despite her teasing, I think she knows how much I enjoy this stuff.    But the question made me think a little, and what I realized kind of depressed me.  It IS going to stop someday.  Cleve won’t hold these auctions forever.  One of these days he’ll hang up his spikes and close shop.  I don’t think it will happen soon, but it will happen.   Apparently, well run shops with owners who care about the hobby like Cleve are apparently a rare breed.  That’s really a shame.   And selfishly, I dread that as when eTopps decided to pull the plug, another source of cards (and blog material) will be taken from me.  I can’t imagine anyone will take over the auctions when Cleve has had enough.  He’s too well connected and has too many sources across the country to be easily replaced.  

But, like I said, I don’t think it will stop anytime soon, so I’m going to enjoy the auctions while I can.   This week was really, really solid.  Here is part 1 of what I got:

  This 1960 Topps Whitey Ford is in fantastic shape.  I would bet it would get a very nice grade if I were to send it in, which I'm not. This is one of the few 1960 Topps cards I have, so it will make a great addition to my sampler album (which I've not yet started).  Great deal for $6 I think.

Speaking of sampler album, I bought this lot of 1972 Topps Cards for just that purpose.  For $3 I got this nice little assortment of stars, all of which are, like the Ford above, in great shape:

Finally, from the vintage side of my auction winnings, I got this lot of 1965 Topps embossed cards for $3.  I was mostly just curious about them, since I don't own any.  They will go in the Topps sampler album too. 

Vintage Grades:

1960 Topps Whitey Ford- $6   A:  A vintage card of a Hall of Famer that is in near mint condition.  Hard to beat that.

1972 Topps Lot $3  A:  Great looking cards, and all of well known players.

1965 Topps Embossed Lot  B+:  These aren't all in great shape, and not exactly star players, but they're still pretty cool looking, and only $.60 per card.

Cleve's Auction Night- "Are you serious Napkin?"

Yes, the lovely wife was in for yet another shock tonight on my return from the weekly sports card auction at Cleve's Sports Cards.  I came home with quite a haul, for a small time collector.   Instead of goody boxes, this time I brought home goody binders.  Let's see how I did:

Let's start with one of the main reasons I went tonight.  I had my eye on this box of screw down cases, and hoped to get it under $10.  I did.  $7 got me this box of 34 holders, and I was very happy to see that 6 of them were the magnet types.  Full disclosure-  I spent $38 total tonight.  This particular purchase paid for the evening for me in my estimation.
Purchase grade: A+  I'll take $.18 per screw down/magnet holder any day of the week.  And they are in great shape.   I'm just ticked that I didn't jump on the box of 50 brand new 9 pocket pages that went for $3.

On to the cards:

I didn't scout this card out before hand, and didn't need it at all, but when no one else was biting for $2, I grabbed it.
Purchase Grade:  B  It is a Topps Certified auto, but I just didn't need it.  Although, if I can get something good in trade for it, I will give myself a better grade.

1956 Sandy Amoros and a 1969 Micky Mantle Checklist Card.  These were separate purchases, but in the interest in keeping the post a reasonable length, I combined these cards.  I always try to pick up some vintage of players I don't have at these auctions, thus the Amoros.  I'll take any Brooklyn Dodger I can find, and this beauty was only $3.  The Mantle was $3 as well, and it's now the only vintage Mantle I have.  Purchase Grade:  A- For the Amoros.   I'll take Brooklyn Dodgers for $3 in great condition every time.
C For the Mantle.  I didn't get a good look at this card.  It has been checkmarked.  I also would like an earlier Mantle than 1969.  I was too impulsive on this one.

1958 Roberto Clemente- $5.  This is actually the second 1958 Clemente I've got from one of Cleve's auctions.  Again, I did not scout this one out ahead of time and didn't see the big creases in it from my perch in the back of the store.  Still, I think I would have bought it for $5 anyway had I known.  It's Roberto Clemete for crying out loud.
Purchase Grade B-  It's creased, but it's Clemente and it was $5.  Hint:  I can definately see this as a potential prize should I decide to do another Big Fun Game in the near future...

1960 Ernie Banks- $7.  This was my card of the night.  I do not have a vintage Banks, and this one was in fantastic shape!  There is a little ink on the bottom of the card and some dings along the edges, but I'm very happy with it. Purchase Grade- A+  I would have had to pay twice this amount for a card in this condition online.  It was a HOF player that I wanted but didn't have yet.  Best buy of the night IMO. 

Tomorrow, I'll cover the goody binders that my wife rolled her eyes at.   She's lucky I didn't really go crazy.  I held off on a lot.  There were several pages of (9) 1956 Commons that I could have had for $3 each.  I'm starting to kick myself over that miss.  There was a Gayle Sayers autographed football that went for $17.    There was a cool ticket from a Yankee game at Yankee Stadium from the 50s that went for $10.  There were several unopened wax boxes from the junk wax years that went for $3 each.  See baby, it could have been worse.  Much worse. 

But, so far, what do you think?  Can you please explain to the lovely wife what a great job I did?  And yes, most all of this (and what I show tomorrow) is up for trade, except the Banks.