30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Goofy and Good Lookin'

During my down time, there's truly nothing better than binge watching a new Netflix show or napping after a long day of work.  Third on the list?  Well that depends on my mood.  But reading sports card blogs is definitely up there.

Reading your blog posts are often the inspiration for new additions to my collection.  About a month ago, I read Night Owl's tribute to Walt Alston which reminded me of how cool the 1960 Topps manager cards are.  I immediately headed over to COMC and eBay in search for my very own Alston.  Sadly... I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

But during my search, I did manage to find another card from the manager subset.  I present to you the newest addition to my Athletics collection:


I don't normally make a habit of collecting A's managers, but this card was too awesome to pass up.  In addition to the sweet card design, I love the goofy smile on Elliott's face.  He sorta reminds me of my mom's favorite comedian... Jerry Lewis.


The back is a little miscut, but the outstanding cartoon artwork makes up for it.  Outside of seeing this manager card, I had never heard of Elliott.  But according to the card back, he was a 5x MLB All-Star and the 1947 National League MVP Award winner.

After doing a little research, I discovered that Elliott's Athletics had the worst record in baseball, which is probably why 1960 was the only year he managed at the Major League level.  Sadly he passed away six years later at the age of 49.

Why target a graded copy?  Well... I've yet again started a new project.  This time I've dedicated one of the bookshelves in my office to graded copies of classic, cheap, cool cards.  So far there's the Elliott and these two...


With this project, there's really only one golden rule.  I will not spend more than $20 for any single card, which means individual card grades will vary depending on card's value and scarcity.  So far all three of these cards have averaged less than $13 per card.  There's another card I recently grabbed off of COMC which will lower the average price even more.

How about you?

Has a blog ever inspired you to purchase a sports card?

Well that's it for today.  I hope y'all are enjoying your week.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

7 comments:

Collecting Cutch said...

Back when I was running the Treasure Room and collecting all things Pittsburgh, I was inspired all the time to purchase and search for cooler older inserts and vintage cards. Now that I basically just collect Andrew Mccutchen, the surprises of more unique cards are few and far between.

Man said...

I appreciate to $20 strategy-let some other person throw some bucks down to get graded-having to fill out the paperwork and mailing it off. I know some folks don't appreciate Manager's cards but I sure do-love his goofy smile

night owl said...

Without a doubt. Multiple times.

Corky said...

On quite a few occasions I have ended up chasing down a card because of what I read on another blog.

BobWalkthePlank said...

I'm constantly inspired by other blogs. I would say at least once a week I see a card and look for a Pirates version.

acrackedbat said...

i have a few Manager cards too. It will happen at some point- when Topps needs a "new" idea - and there will be an insert series or perhaps a full set with this design. And...I will bite.

Fuji said...

collecting cutch - i'm sure cutch and pirates fans are often finding things on your blog they'd love to add their collection. heck. i'm sure there have been at least a few times your collection has inspired an eBay search.

bman - lol... didn't even think about it that way, but you're right. let someone else pay the psa fees.

night owl - well as this post attests... your blog has returned the favor

corky - kinda off topic... but your blog has inspired a few of my blog posts. i hope you keep up the monday questions

matthew scott - thank goodness for card blogs!

julie owens - maybe topps should use the 1960 manager designs for a special insert set (or even subset) for next year's archives. i'd be all over it.