30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, January 21, 2019

Jack of All Trades


What kind of collector are you?  Set builderVintage collectorAutograph houndRookie card hoarderPlayer and/or team collectorGraded card guy or galSome or all of the above?

I'd fall into the latter, because I literally collect a little bit of everything.  However if you were to analyze my hobby purchases over the past few years, I'd guess that more than 75% of my budget is spent on autographs and vintage singles/sets.

I started collecting autographs in the 90's with products like Signature Rookies and Be A Player.  My deep appreciation for vintage didn't come until I returned to the hobby a decade ago.  I guess you could say I'm trying to make up for lost time.


Last week, I received a fat PWE from (vintage specialist) Mr. Hoyle that contained a bunch of Money Ball Era Oakland Athletics.  But neatly folded between them was this Bert Campaneris:

1967 Topps Poster Inserts #2

If you're not familiar with Campy, he's a fan favorite who was an integral part of the Swingin' A's that won three World Series Championships back in the 70's.  And although he's known best for being a shortstop, he was the first player in MLB history to play all nine positions in a single game.  Sort of a jack of all trades.  He is also one of thirty guys in MLB history to hit a home run on the very first pitch thrown to him.


But getting back to this vintage piece of baseball memorabilia... isn't this 5x7 Campy gorgeous?  Printed on something closer to newsprint than standard cardboard and aged to golden perfection, this collectible is the epitome of awesomeness and it's one heck of an addition to my A's collection.  That's why I felt the need to show it off three different times in this post.

As I mentioned earlier, Mr. Hoyle also included some Money Ball Era A's in his PWE:


Here are two cards that really stood out:

1999 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #23

1999 Topps Gold Label is just about the furthest thing from a vintage piece of cardboard.  It's shiny, features gold foil, and I'm pretty sure this card features more plastic than cardstock.  That being said... I absolutely love the two action shots of Giambi superimposed on the Oakland Athletics logo in the background.

2001 Pacific #311

When it comes to baseball card manufacturers, Pacific is the student in the back of the class that never talks to other students, raises their hands, or draws any attention to themselves.  They're just there.  Well... at least to me.  Sure they produced some popular inserts like the Christmas ornaments and the Cramer's Choice Awards, but they're base cards always featured way too much gold for my liking.

Well after seeing this 2001 Pacific Mark Mulder, that's starting to change.  I've never taken the time to search for my favorite card of him, but I'm going to guess that this has to be a contender.  It features a decent card design with fantastic photography.

Are these two cards as beautiful as the Campy?  Sure.  In their own way.  See... as much as I love and deeply appreciate vintage cards, I'm just not ready to be labeled solely a vintage collector.  I prefer to be a jack of all trades.

That being said... I did run out yesterday and purchase my second Beckett publication in as many months:


By now you've heard about Night Owl's published article in the February 2019 issue of Beckett Vintage Collector.  If not, he wrote an excellent piece about the 1976 SSPC set.  I won't spoil anything for you guys, but I highly recommend finding yourself a copy.  It's really well written and filled with interesting information regarding the Topps lawsuit and set history.  But my favorite part was going back and forth between the article and COMC as I looked up cards as he discussed them.

Congratulations Greg!  This is quite the notch on your Card Blogfather belt.  And thank you Mr. Hoyle for this generous PWE filled with Oakland Athletics goodies.  I've added your name to my hit list and will start getting some Boston stuff together to send out.

Until then...

2009 Topps American Heritage #51

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day and sayonara!

14 comments:

Nick Vossbrink said...

If Mark had a blog he could just repost the blogposts everyone writes about their Mark Hoyle maildays and it would be one of the most interesting baseball card blogs on the web.

acrackedbat said...

Nick has something there! Vintage beauty, that poster! I've added a lot of odd singles from 53-78 this past year. Not necessarily star cards but chosen for the interesting photo selections or brilliant color.

Nachos Grande said...

I love the old school Gold Label cards so much (and Pacific too for that matter)!

SumoMenkoMan said...

I'm definitely a set builder and completionist. Great care package for sure and I am excited to read Night Owl's article.

GTT said...

I'm an anything-that-catchs-my-eye collector with a touch of team/player/set also.

Mark Hoyle said...

Hopefully you could use some of those cards. Someone sent me a package full of A’s cards a while back. Had me confused with another collector. Campy was one of my favorite players as a kid

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

I've been in that last category, but moving away from it, slightly.

Jon said...

Mark truly is one of the most generous collectors out there! I'm a big fan of Bert's too, in fact I just picked up a nice copy of his '68 Topps card on COMC the other day, it's not as interesting as your poster there, but it's still pretty neat.

GCA said...

Campy is a PC for me. One of these days I'm going to design nine customs of him at each position on the diamond.

Peter K Steinberg said...

Nice cards from Mark. He's been generous to me, too. I met him once, as well, which was special. I'm probably a little bit of everything so far as collecting goes. I like sets a lot, but I also really like individual cards.

night owl said...

Thanks for picking up the mag!

I was once a jack-of-all-trades collector, and I still am to a degree, but I feel myself focusing more and more on vintage.

Fuji said...

nick vossbrink - that's a great idea. i'd also love to love to see him share his knowledge on vintage stuff.

julie owens - that's awesome. i love vintage cards with interesting photos. picked up a few here and there over the past few years myself.

nachos grande - me too. gold label offered lots of shine and great images. wasn't a fan of pacific's stuff until recently. but their stuff has come on strong as of late.

sumomenkoman - night owl's piece is fantastic. and i love seeing the vintage sumo sets you're building

gtt - sounds like a solid plan.

mark hoyle - one day i'm hoping to build an a's frankenset, so i can definitely use some of those cards. thanks again for the generous care pacakage.

john miller - which direction are you headed?

jon - i'm thinking i might chase down a complete run of bert's topps cards. he definitely would have been one of my favorite players back in the day.

gca - awesome idea. can't wait to see your customs.

peter k. steinberg - that's cool that you had the opportunity to meet mark in person. i'd love to have the opportunity to meet more fellow bloggers in person. hanging out and talking shop would be awesome.

night owl -thanks for writing that excellent article. it opened my eyes to a few things on a set i truly treasure.

acrackedbat said...

I just want to add a thank you. You never assume all your readers are male. There are a few of us gals who truly appreciate and enjoy the hobby. I also meant to include that I'm mostly a player and vintage collector.

Fuji said...

I'm sure I've screwed up more than I'd like to admit, but I try my best to appeal to all genders and most age groups :)