Unexpected Expenses & Surprises

Life is full of unexpected expenses and surprises.  Last month it was repairing my AC unit.  Yesterday it was replacing the alternator in my daily driver.  Oh man... what an adventure.

The story began on Thursday morning when I woke up early to hit up the Capitol Flea Market.  I noticed a slight hesitation when I tried starting my car.  It caught my attention, but didn't stop me from seeking treasures at my former favorite flea market.  The issue occurred again at the flea market, so I went straight to O'Reilly Auto Parts.  That's where I purchased my battery last summer.  They said it was fine, but that the alternator was dead/dying.  I immediately called my mechanic and he told me I could bring it in that day or tomorrow (Friday).

I was meeting up with some co-workers (we're all on spring break) for lunch on Friday, so I made plans to have my friend pick me up from the shop (after I dropped off my car).  We'd go to lunch and Trader Joe's, then she'd give me a ride home.

Unfortunately when I tried starting my car in the morning, the battery was dead.  Normally my portable jump starter would easily fix this issue, but it came up short.  AAA came to the rescue and got my car running.  However before letting me drive off... they had me turn on everything in my car (fan, lights, radio, etc.) and run the car for five minutes.  It lasted about three.  In other words, I wasn't driving my car anywhere until the alternator was replaced.

AAA originally sent out a truck that specializes in "jump starts", so they had to send out another truck to take me to my mechanic.  It was sort of embarrassing, because it sort of looked like my car was being repossessed.

Anyways to make an already long story... a little shorter... my mechanic installed a new alternator and had O'Reilly give me a new battery (it was under warranty).  As expected... it wasn't a cheap adventure.  Between that and the AC repair from early March... I had to dip into the rainy day fund.  But that's life.  It just means that I won't be making any large hobby purchases in the near future.

That's okay, because I have plenty of stuff to blog about... include some recent purchases I've made.  One of them was a 1996 Pinnacle Mint coin starter set I bought off of Greg over at The Collective Mind:

1996 Pinnacle Mint Football Coin Starter Set

Last month he left a comment on one of my Flea Market Finds posts where I bought the John Elway coin from this set.  We started exchanging some emails and he offered to send me what he had for free.  With the rise in shipping costs, I couldn't accept this offer unless I could pay him a nominal price for the set and cover the shipping.

I'm pretty stoked to add these coins to my collection.  I actually bought the 1997 and 1998 baseball coin sets back in 2023, but they didn't include this special coin display that Greg included.

He also tossed in a bunch of bonus material, some of which he mentioned in our emails.  The one I was most excited about was this awesome Brett Favre coin:

1996 Pinnacle Mint Nickel Coin #NNO

This shiny silver coin is so cool.  Pinnacle actually released a fine silver version of this coin, but you can easily tell them apart by looking at the back.  On the fine silver coins, they stamped the words "fine silver" under the word "CLUB".  According to this Beckett thread, both versions were inserted in packs.  However the fine silver coins came with a COA card.

The Favre was paired up with this Heath Shuler:

1996 Pinnacle Mint Nickel Coin #NNO

Pinnacle Mint also produced die-cut cards that collectors could match up with the coins.  Greg included twenty-one of them:

I'll definitely be hunting down the four remaining coins, but I'm not sure about the die-cut set.

Finally, he also sent me some cards for my PC's...

2024 Topps A&G Mini Exclusive #394

When I first pulled this card out of Greg's mailer, I just assumed that this card was your standard Ginter mini.  But in the process of writing this post, I discovered a very unexpected surprise.  This card was originally inside of his Masyn Winn rip card.

I completely forgot that he had damaged this card when he removed it and that I offered to give Shota a loving home in my Damaged Card PC.  What's even crazier is that I didn't even notice the damage and it's now sitting among the rest of my Imanaga cards.

Speaking of damaged, he also tossed in these miscut cards from the early 80's:

1981 Topps #472

1981 Topps #23

1981 Topps #323

These three look like they might have been lined up on the same sheet at one time.  Now they're lined up in the miscut section of my Damaged Card PC binder.

Next up is another card Greg pulled from his 2024 Topps Allen & Ginter box breaks:

2024 Topps A&G Foil Filagree #201

Yamamoto was outdueled last night by Paul Skenes, but he still pitched really well and is having a pretty stellar season.  This is a very nice addition to my collection.

Here's the third and final Ginter card that Greg sent me:

2023 Topps A&G Spotless Spans #SS-28

This card celebrates Rickey's 84 stolen bases before the 1982 MLB All-Star Game which took place on July 13th.  That's 84 stolen bases in 88 games.  To put that into perspective, the last time anyone stole 84 or more bases in a single season was in 1988.  The player?  Yup.  Rickey.

I don't remember this particular piece of baseball trivia, but there was a better than average chance that I attended at least a game or two when he swiped one of these 84 bases.

Oh and I almost forgot, here's another cool card from the 1996 Pinnacle Mint set that was part of this purchase:

1996 Pinnacle Mint Gold #9

I would have loved to pull this out of a pack back in the 90's.  These gold parallels were inserted into packs at a rate of 1:48 packs (or 1:3 hobby boxes).  This copy isn't in mint condition, but until I find an upgrade this card is going into my Brett Favre PC.

Thank you Greg for selling me the 1996 Pinnacle Mint Coin starter set and tossing in some really generous bonuses.  I spent about an hour scrolling through your "want" pages... but didn't come up with anything yet.  I'll start looking through your player collections next.

As for the rest of the people taking the time to read this post, I hope you encounter more unexpected and pleasant surprises in life than unexpected expenses.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Twenty-Four of 24

Last week, I was on my annual trip to Ashland, Oregon when I heard the news that Willie Mays passed away.  It was one of those moments where it felt like everything around me paused to allow me to soak in the news.

Mays was literally one of the greatest to ever play the game, but he played his final MLB game a little over a week after I turned one.  In other words, I never had the opportunity to watch him play in person.  Even if I had, I wouldn't remember it.  Thankfully there are enough interviews, documentaries, statistical data, and highlight films out there to cement The Say Hey Kid's legacy.  Plus he has been a Bay Area resident and fan favorite since the Giants left New York and moved to San Francisco in 1958.

I've never considered myself a Giants fan.  However I am a baseball fan and a collector who likes collect just about anything related to the sport.  Over the years, I've added a few of his cards and collectibles to my collection and today I wanted to show off twenty-four of them as a tribute to him.

Most of the stuff are cards, but there are a couple of other items included.  Originally, I was going to rank them... but that was easier said than done.  Instead... I've just put them in chronological order.

Here we go...

1955 Red Man #7

Yeah, I know.  Many of you aren't into slabbed cards.  But when it comes to vintage, it gives me a little peace of mind.  The ranking thing might not have happened, but I guarantee this card would have been in the Top 5, along with this card:

1956 Topps #130

The 1956 Topps baseball set is my favorite baseball card set design of all-time, so you know this card is going to be one of my favorite cards of Mays.

1956 Topps #31

If you're wondering why I included Hank Aaron's card in this post, it's because the painting of him sliding into home was actually based on a photograph of Willie.

1963 Topps #3

One of my favorite side PC's is my collection of Topps league leader cards that depict only hall of famers.  This card is the coolest one I own, because it features five of them... four of which were first ballot hall of famers.

1964 Topps #9

San Francisico Giants fans must have been pretty excited to see three of the top four home run hitters in the NL hitting for them.  They led the National League with 197 home runs that year.  The Atlanta Braves were a distant second with 139.

1964 Topps Giants #51

I absolutely love this oddball issue.  In fact, it's one of my favorite baseball sets from the 1960's.

1962-65 Jay Publishing Photo

This is one of those non-card items I was referring to at the beginning of the post.  This photo is printed on super thin paper... almost like newsprint.  I'm guessing they were mass produced, because they sell for a fraction of what vintage baseball cards sell for.

1966 Topps #1

I'm guessing a kid who pulled Willie's 1966 Topps card would have been pretty stoked back in the day.  He was coming off his MVP Award winning season in which he led the National League in a bunch of different categories including home runs, slugging percentage, and on base percentage.

1966 Topps #215

How could I not include this card?  My only complaint about this card is the photo selection.  It would have been so much cooler had they all been looking in the same direction.

1967 Topps #423

This is one of those cards, I had seen hundreds of times over the years and in the back of my mind I knew I'd eventually buy it.  I'm just embarrassed to admit that it took me almost forty years to do it.

1967 Topps Posters #12

There was a time (before the Hobby Boom) when late 60's and early 70's Topps insert sets were pretty affordable.  This poster insert and the game card are both part of complete sets I purchased during that time.

1968 Topps Game #8

This card is part of a thirty-three card set... in which only eleven cards allowed a player to reach base safely.  Topps honored Mays with the best card in the set.

We've reached the halfway mark... and we're entering the 70's:

1970 Kellogg's #12

This Kellogg's card is another favorite of mine.  Like many other collectors out there, I'm a big fan of the Kellogg's lenticular sets of the 70's and 80's.  The 1970 baseball design is my favorite.

Up next is another collectible that doesn't fall into the baseball card category:

1971 Mattel Instant Replay #NNO

Eighteen years before Topps and LJN teamed up to release their Topps Talk Player and cards, Mattel did something similar with their Instant Replay player and records.  Unfortunately, I don't have own the player and I didn't find a recording of the Mays on YouTube.  However, there are several examples of other sports on there.

1972 Kellogg's #54 (RBI 1855)

1972 Kellogg's #54 (RBI 1856)

Your eyes aren't deceiving you.  I'm showing off two copies of Willie's 1972 Kellogg's card.  The one on the left is considered the "error" card with his incorrect MLB career RBI totals with the one on the right being the "corrected" version.

This set is littered with error/corrected versions.  Based on the PSA Pop Report, the corrected cards are slightly more common.

Next up is probably the most common card in this post:

1982 Topps Kmart #8

I'm pretty sure this is the first Willie Mays baseball card I ever owned.  Well... not this exact copy... but one just like it.

Back in the 80's the Kmart my parents shopped at had hundreds of these box sets that sat there on the display for what seemed like years.  At the time, I wasn't a fan of anything Kmart related... including this set.  But over the years, I've grown to appreciate this set.

1987 Topps Traded Bronze Premiums #5

This metal medallion replica of Willie's 1953 Topps card was once awarded to a dealer who purchased a case of the 1987 Topps Traded sets.  I included it in this post, because it's an oddball issue you don't see around every day.  If you're interested in seeing the other Topps Traded Bronze Premiums that Topps produced, click here.

1989 Kenner SLU Baseball Greats #NNO

While digging through scans and binders looking for items for this post, I picked this card because it has his nickname on the front of the card.  I also liked how Kenner listed his full MLB career stats on the back.

1995 Topps Legends of the 60's Medallions #1

Here's another Mays medallion.  Like the Topps Traded Bronze Premiums, this is one of those oddball issues that fly under the radar of many collectors.  However this medallion is much bigger and heavier.  

I've written about this set before, but in short... there were twelve medallions produced by Topps that were released on a monthly basis to Stadium Club members for $39.95 each.

1995 Upper Deck Autograph #AC2

I flippin' love this card!  If I ever made a Top 10 list of my autographed baseball cards, I'm pretty sure this would be on it.

2003 Topps Gallery HOF Currency Connection #CC-WM

I reserved a spot for this "coin" card, because like a few other cards in this post... it's different.

The encapsulated wheat penny was produced in 1958... the same year the Giants moved to San Francisco.

The last two items are signed memorabilia that are undated:

Say Hey Authenticated

I've got a pair of signed Mays photos depicting "The Catch".  One is 8x10 and the other is a 16x20.  Both are certified by Say Hey Authenticated which was his company.  I've heard mixed reviews on whether or not these signatures are legit.

Rumor has it that some unscrupulous people forged the Say Hey Authenticated holograms and used them on photos with fake signatures.  Since I wasn't there to witness him signing either of the photos, I guess I'll never know.

PSA/DNA Authenticated

Unfortunately, I didn't witness him signing this baseball either.  I bought this ball at the Branham Flea Market back in 2015 for $8 and had my buddy submit it to PSA to see if it was legit.  It passed, but with any third party authenticators... who knows if it's actually legit.  

Well there you go... twenty-four Mays collectibles in honor of #24.  Rest in peace Mr. Mays.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!