Election results. MVP results. A day off to celebrate veterans across North America. A new episode of The Mandalorian. I'd say this has been a pretty upbeat week for the most part.
Let's look at a few of the highlights from this week's card bloggers...
#1: Underrated, Undervalued, or Both?
2018 Stadium Club Autographs #SCA-WM
Do you know who led the American League in hits in 2018 and 2019? If you answered "Whit Merrifield", then I'm guessing you're a fan of baseball stats or you recently read Shoebox Legend's post from earlier in the week. He makes a great point about Merrifield being underrated.
I remember not knowing much about him prior to pulling his signature from a blaster two years ago, but I've been following him ever since.
2017 Stadium Club Autographs #SCA-TAN
Another guy I feel is underrated (and undervalued) is Chicago's Tim Anderson. He's another hitting machine who doesn't receive a lot of hobby love.
I picked up this on-card autograph on COMC a year ago for $3.75... which seems like a bargain when you consider he won his first batting title last year. This year he came in second place to DJ LeMahieu.
#2: A New Favorite Number
Last Sunday, Jim over at cards as i see them showed off some of his 2020 Topps Fire singles and wrapped things up with a passionate... "bring on 46".
I commented that 46 is my new favorite number...
1982 Fleer #603
2004 Topps Gold #64
2013 Chrome 1972 Topps #72C-CKR
Here are a few guys who wore/wear #46 on their jerseys. By the way... if jersey numbers are your thing, Night Owl wrote a great Friday the 13th post last night featuring baseball players wearing #13.
#3: Bargain Hunter
If I had to describe myself in two words, I'd probably say "bargain hunter". Living on an educator's salary in Silicon Valley has forced me to collect on a budget. And I love it when fellow bloggers write about the great deals they come across on their blogs.
1956 Topps #107
GTT wrote about some recent LCS pickups that included some of the amazing $2 vintage. It included a 1978 OPC Eddie Murray rookie card and a pair of 1956 Topps hall of famers. One of them was card #107... which happens to be Eddie Mathews.
#4: Premature Set Completion
Our hobby is full of acronyms: SP, PSA, UER, NM, DK, LCS, and RC. The list goes on and on. Yesterday, I was introduced to a new one over on Diamond Jesters. Matt calls it "PSC" which stands for Premature Set Completion. It's the moment when you realize a set you thought was complete is actually missing a card.
I can't speak for everyone, but I know that I've experienced PSC a few times over the years. I feel as a set collector/builder... it's bound to happen to you at some point. Trust me (and Matt)... it's not a good feeling.
On the other hand... it feels fantastic when the exact opposite occurs. I've been sitting on this 1997 Stadium Club set build thinking I needed one more card: #374 Tom Pagnozzi.
1997 Stadium Club #374
My 1997 Stadium Club baseball set is officially complete.
#5: Real American Hero
2000 Fleer Greats of the Game Autograph #NNO
The final post I'd like to share was published over on Horizontal Heroes by Commishbob who covers Topps' final full horizontal flagship set. Unlike the other posts featured today, this one was written back in September when he featured card #262 in the 1960 Topps set: Hank Bauer.
That's where I learned about him enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps a month after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. His post opened my eyes to another real American hero and motivated me to track down this on-card autograph (that I found sitting in one of my boxes). I highly recommend you clicking here and reading more about Mr. Bauer and his service to our country.
Okay that wraps up another This Week in Blogging post. Here are today's questions of the day...
Who are some of your favorite underrated/undervalued athletes?
How would you describe yourself as a collector in two words or less?
Have you found any good bargains (hobby or non-hobby related) lately?
Have you ever experienced PSC?
Looking forward to reading and responding to your comments. Happy Saturday and sayonara!
13 comments:
I don't know.
Budget, strange.
No.
No. But I'm not really a set builder.
Good players to have auto cards from.
1. You don't have to tell me how good Merrifield and Anderson are since I get to see them more than enough in the AL Central!
2. I've definitely experienced PSC multiple times and had to go through all of my sets to make sure I wasn't missing anything else (but STILL had it happen again anyway!)
What a great Bauer!
I have found very few bargains lately. Haven’t even picked up anything good on social media marketplaces for a few months. I have had pretty good luck over the last 2 years buying random boxes and collections via FB/Craigslist.
Not sure I’m underrated guys. Maybe Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arrenado?
Rays collector?
I feel my LCS either has stuff overpriced or underpriced. Since they’ve opened about a year ago, I’ve got a 1989 Fleer Ken Griffey, Jr., 1989 Fleer Billy Ripken black box, 2013 Bowman Platinum Trevor Story rookie, and 2013 Bowman Platinum Purple Daniel Vogelbach rookie from dime boxes, and a 2020 Randy Arozarena Topps Chrome card from a .50 cent box.
I purchased a 1992 Upper Deck complete set, which I don’t believe was sealed, and was missing a few of the cards around card #400. I’m not too worried about it not being complete.
2 Words - Set Collector. Definitely a nice week in collecting.
1.Trey Mancini and Nick Markakis 2.Set Collector. 3.No 4.No,because I always check the hand sorted sets before I put them away in my card houses.Many times in a 500+ set I get 2 of 1 card and 0 of another.
1. First guy I think of is Carney Lansford. Even his mustache was a little underrated.
2. I'll mirror SumoMenkoMan's answer and say Set Collector.
3. Found a good bargain on a softball bat on eBay recently, but haven't actually made the purchase yet.
4. Yes, a few times. Thankfully, the missing card(s) were all commons and easy to pick up.
1. I guess my favorite underrated player is Isiah Kiner-Falefa. I watched him play for the Frisco Roughriders (the Rangers AA team) for 2 years, and he's been a good player for the Rangers. He's versatile, (plays Catcher, Shortstop, and 3rd base) and won the AL Gold Glove award at 3rd this year.
2. I'm not sure how to describe myself as a collector. Yankee fan? Bargain hunter? Random collector? Vintage collector? There's a ton of things I collect.
3. Yes :)
4. I haven't yet, I don't think. My dad bought a 1972 topps complete set, and it was only opened this year. Not only did some cards have condition problems (he assumed they were in mint condition) I noticed that a couple of high numbers were missing. This reminds me that I was going to get those missing cards for my Dad, but I've forgotten.
1. Tim Anderson's definitely on my underrated list. Jose Abreu was until he won the MVP this year -- and I don't think you can call any MVP winners "underrated."
2. Random, scattered.
3. I bought a '62 Topps Lou Brock rookie for $9.99 + shipping earlier this year. I threw out a bid, not really expecting to win, but to my surprise I was the only bidder. Yay!
4. Nope, 'cause I'm not a set collector.
Congrats on completing the 1997 Set! That's brilliant! Wonderful. I love that Ed Mathews. What a beauty. I have suffered, yes, from PSC. But I don't like to talk about it. I feel like Kruk/Strawberry defines me as a collector. Which is probably sad.
Alt of players like merrifield go unnoticed when they play on teams like Marlins and royals
1. With the great crop of shortstops in baseball, I always thought Xander Bogaerts gets underrated. He doesn't get nearly as much love as Lindor, Correa, etc.
2. cheap, horder
3. I haven't found squat this year.
4. Well, since my post inspired this question, I guess we already know the answer! ;)
elliptical man - i'm sure some of my friends would use both of those words to describe me as well
dennis - that white sox teams is going to be fun to watch over the next few years. btw... there was a time when castellanos was a tiger that i felt like he was a little underrated.
the lost collector - you're lucky... there seem to be a few guys who battle it out on craigslist here in my area. probably the same guys who have cut into my flea market finds. i haven't tried facebook yet. maybe one day
jeremya1um - Blackmon is a beast... and Arenado is one of the best 3rd baseman in the league for sure. Whoa. Those are some nice 50¢ finds. Congratulations.
sumomenkoman - not sumo collector?
sg488 - nice call on mancini and markakis. i feel like nick is definitely a first ballot hall of very good player.
gregory - lol. i loved carney. definitely an oakland fan favorite. i enjoy collecting sets too, but i've sort of gotten away from building them
gtt - not really familiar with kiner-falefa. i'll have to look him up. good luck to you and your dad with those 72 high numbers.
nick - yeah... i would have agreed with you on abreu as well. that white sox team is so loaded... it'll be interesting to see how many superstars can shine on one team. congratulations on picking up that brock for half the cost of a blaster.
peter k steinberg - i totally understand. talking about our issues with psc can be difficult to talk about. yeah... kruk & strawberry would be the two words i'd choose to describe you... but i don't think it's sad.
sport card collectors - the small market teams sure have some hidden treasures to be found.
matt - xander is a great call. he's had solid numbers for several years now. haven't really targeted his cards, but considering he's a red sox... i imagine it's hard to find a lot of deals involving him though. psc will make you famous ;D
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