Early Bird Gets the Walrus

Sundays are normally my day to sleep in. I'll usually force myself to stay in bed until around 7am.  Unfortunately, I woke up at around 3:15am a couple of Sundays ago and couldn't fall back asleep.  Instead of tossing and turning, I went downstairs and started catching up on blogs.

That's when I stumbled across Josh's post (over at Royals and Randoms) advertising a $25 coupon on eBay.  I immediately headed over there to see if the code still worked and as luck would have it... it did.

Here's the newest addition to my Classic Cards Collection:

1973 Topps #142

This card might not be as iconic as Munson's 1971 play at the plate card or as valuable as his 1970 Topps rookie card.  But it's still pretty awesome.  I love how The Walrus is perfectly centered in this photo and the fans behind him have this "ghostly" blurred feel to them.

I've been looking for a graded copy for this collection for a few months now, but I refused to spend over $30.  Budget cuts have also killed my motivation to check my daily eBay saved searches which has caused me to miss out on a few auctions.

I happened to notice this card and the reasonable centering.  Unfortunately it had a high BIN price of $49.99.  But I added it to my watch list in hopes that the seller would lower his/her price.  Fast forward to the $25 coupon and the $24.99 (+ $4.62 shipping) price tag was something I could live with.

At the time I wasn't sure why eBay offered up such a generous coupon.  The next morning I received an email thanking me for being with them from the beginning.

I'd like to pass the thanks along to Josh for sharing the coupon code.  It definitely turned my inability to fall back asleep into a positive collecting moment.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Summer Is Here

Summer might not officially start for another week, but my summer break starts today.  Obviously there are a lot of differences between last summer and this one.  A few directly impact my life in regards to collecting.

The biggest change is that I won't be teaching summer school this year.  This will only be the second time in my twenty-two years of teaching in my district that I haven't taught during the summer.  The last time it happened was fourteen years ago.  I took the summer off, because I was transferring schools and I wanted some extra time to pack up my old classroom as well as set up my new one.

This year, the program I usually teach is focusing on online instruction, which completely takes the fun out of teaching (at least for me).  It was a tough decision, but ultimately my co-teacher and I decided to take this summer off.

How will this impact the way I collect?  Well... my summer school paychecks normally cover my the two mortgage payments I make when I'm not bringing home a paycheck from the school district.  This year, I'll be tapping into my savings to cover the mortgage... which is fine since that's what it's for.

That being said... my hobby cutbacks will likely continue until at least September.  The good news is I'll finally have some free time to organize and dig into my collection.  There are a few things I've been wanting to write about, but I have to look for the cards in boxes that have been buried for years.

And now that I'm officially on break, putting together a bunch of PWE's from my mystery bag giveaway is at the top of my list of things to do.  I haven't touched the cards in probably a month, because I was focusing on work and honestly didn't want to think about them.

The other thing I really want to do is finish more sets that I have laying around.  I have a couple of posts dedicated to that topic, including one involving a few Kellogg's sets from the 70's.  But that's for another day.

Today's post summarizes a very cool care package I received from Tom over at The Angels, In Order.  I figured I'd kick off this summer with this summer related item:

I'm not sure if this is a decal or a vinyl business card, but it's a nice addition to my surfer collection.  My nephew has really gotten into surfing, so I'm hoping to drive over the hill and watch him in action sometime this summer.

Next up is a Oscar Meyer oddball card:

Nothing says summer like eating an Oscar Meyer hot dog at the ballpark.  Sadly, that's another big change this summer.  It doesn't look like I'll be attending any A's games, but I'll definitely be barbecuing some hot dogs or at least Italian sausages.

If the season does get off the ground, it looks like regional play is a possibility... which means the A's could see the Texas Rangers and Don Wakamatsu several times this summer.

Wakamatsu is the Ranger's bench coach and is half Japanese.  His father was born in the Tule Lake War Relocation Center during World War II.  I'm very excited to add this to my Japanese Athlete PC.

Tom often writes about his successful TTM experiences.  I assume the Wakamatsu is one of them.  He also sent me these two autographs:

I'm familiar with Billy Kilmer.  He was a Pro Bowl quarterback for the Washington Redskins during the 70's, but he also played for the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints.  I hadn't heard of Joey "Flash" Dunmoodie, but apparently he's a professional boxer who last fought in 2015.

The centerpiece to Tom's care package was this awesome SR-71 handbook:

I've been fascinated with the SR-71 ever since my father told us he worked on the top secret aircraft back in the 60's.  

I'll be shipping this him, so he can check it out.  Normally, I'd visit him in August... but this he's not looking to have any visitors this summer.  Just another change in this year's summer plans.

I'll wrap up this generous care package with this 1973 Topps Thurman Munson:

A few days ago, Dime Box Nick wrote about the 1973 Topps set on his blog and highlighted his ten favorite cards.  All of his choices were solid picks, but I personally would have included the Vida Blue.  And after more consideration, I think this Munson would make my Top 10 as well.  Topps did a fantastic job of cropping the photo on this card.  I like how Munson is nicely centered on the card.

Unfortunately, Topps struggled to cut the card correctly... which left the card a little off-centered.  But that's okay, I enjoy miscut cards... especially when they vintage and feature guys I collect.

Thank you Tom for this awesome care package!  It was an excellent way to kick off my summer break.  I hope you and your family have a safe and fantastic summer.

What about the rest of you...

Any cool plans for this summer?

While you're thinking about your response, let's go back to the mid 80's and listen to some Don Henley:

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Flea Market Finds #131: Cards, Concert Tickets, Comics, and a Can

As the temperatures continue to rise here in California... the flea market hot streak continues as well.

Two Saturdays ago was the monthly Branham High School flea market.  It's by far the smallest flea market around, but it usually produces at least one or two purchases due to a high percentage of sports memorabilia dealers.

In fact, the first dealer I walked up to had cards...

Purchase #1:  Baseball Cards  $20

2003 Flair Greats Classic Numbers Dual #NNO

This card was the centerpiece of this twenty dollar purchase.  I'm one of those collectors who still values memorabilia cards... especially when they depict two legends like Bench and Munson.  Unfortunately I didn't realize that this card had a slight crease (near Bench's jersey number) until I came home.

The other three cards are nice add-ons.  I've been looking for the 2009 Goodwin Gwynn relic for awhile now, while you can never have enough autographs of Goose and Pena.

Purchase #2:  Samurai Blue Cards  $1

My buddy Tony opened up a couple of boxes of 2018 Prizm World Cup, so I put together a partial team set and offered him a buck.  I'm missing card #125 Eiji Kawashima, which I hope to pick up eventually.

Purchase #3:  The American Premium Guide to Baseball Cards  $5

I had never seen this book before, but apparently there are plenty of copies floating around out there.  At the time, five bucks felt like a steal for a price guide that predates Beckett Baseball Magazine.  However after some research, I discovered it's pretty much the going rate.

Oh well... I'd rather have this book over two packs of 2018 Topps Series Two any day of the week.


Purchase #4:  1984 Drake's Set  $1

Apparently I missed out on buying vintage hall of famers by about 30 minutes.  This guy was cleaning out his childhood collection and he had 60's and 70's Topps hall of famers in poor condition for very good prices.

By the time I arrived, the 1984 Drake's set was the only thing I was really interested in.  I was pleased to see that it contained this hidden treasure:

I'm a huge fan of oddball rookie issues.  

Purchase #5:  Joe Morgan: A Life in Baseball  $1

There's a guy who sets up at Branham with tons of crates filled with LP's.  I didn't find any records to purchase, but he did have this Joe Morgan book.  Normally I probably wouldn't have bothered picking it up, but I noticed that it came with a special collector's edition baseball card:

The card alone was worth a buck to me.


Purchase #6:  1977 RC Cola Tom Seaver Can  $1

In addition to the Joe Morgan book, the gentleman had a few 1977 RC Cola cans.  At a buck each, I was tempted to buy all of them.  However storage space is limited, so I just grabbed the Seaver. For being 41 years old, it's in surprisingly good condition.

Purchase #7:  Masters of the Universe Comic Books  50¢

I wasn't a very big Masters of the Universe fan when I was a kid, but the price was right so I grabbed the pair.  In regards to value, this was probably the best deal of the day.


Purchase #8:  Concert Ticket Stubs  $5

This is one of those deals that seemed like too good of a deal to pass up.  There are a lot of cool artists ranging from Santana to Aerosmith.  There's approximately 25 different tickets, plus a bunch of duplicates.  I figure I'll try to flip a few and recover some of my expenses.

Well that's my latest round of flea market purchases.  I walked around the Capitol Flea Market this past Sunday and went home empty handed, so I guess the flea market hot streak has officially ended.  Let's hope Mother Nature's heat wave will end as well.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

1979 Topps #204

Back in 1978.. Pete Rose tied a National League record by hitting safely in 44 consecutive games.  If things go as planned, today I should reach 10,000 steps for the 44th day in a row.