The Starrs Are Aligned

When it comes to blogging... my timing is terrible.  I'll see things on ESPN or on other blogs that inspire a post, but I don't have scans ready to go.  On other occasions... I'll have card images saved and ready... but no time to hammer out a post.

Well... the stars must have been aligned, because I was just thinking about Chris (a.k.a The Collector) yesterday.  The Green Bay Packers are hosting the San Francisco 49ers for an important game for both teams... and Chris is a fellow Packer backer.

This morning I was catching up on reading card blogs... when I discovered (over on Diamond Jesters) that he had taken down his blog.  I hope things are okay with him and his family.  Not sure if he'll ever come back to the keyboard, but if he's reading this... I wanted to let him know that he'll be missed.  He was one of those bloggers who put a lot of time and effort into his blog posts.  I hope he eventually brings it out of retirement, because his All-Time Teams and History of the Athletics are two series I was looking forward to reading again one day.

Anyways... getting back to the perfect timing... today I opened my COMC shipment from October (sorry... I'm a little behind) and wanted to show off the four Packers I picked up:

1998 Topps Chrome Hidden Gems Refractor #HG6

I bought this card back in April for $8.75.  I know this was a blog inspired purchase... but I can't remember the blog that inspired it.  Possibly Chris?  It also could have been Matt over at Cards over Coffee.  We share an interest in 90's inserts and parallels.

Next up is a Brett Favre promo card:

1993 Action Packed Rookie Update Prototypes #RU2

Pretty sure this was also a blog inspired purchase.  Maybe Billy (Cardboard History)?  Sorry... my memory sucks.  But I love 90's promo cards... especially ones that are less than a buck (74¢).

The final two cards are seat relics from Milwaukee County Stadium:

2001 Topps Archives Stadium Seat Relics #AS-PH

My parents are the reason I root for the Green Bay Packers.  They met and married in Wisconsin... and were Packers fans until they moved to the Bay Area in the 70's.  

2001 Topps Archives Stadium Seat Relics #AS-BST

I purchased these two cards ($7 for the Hornung and $13 for the Starr) in their honor, because they attended games at Milwaukee County Stadium back in the late 50's.

Tomorrow... their 49ers face off against Chris and my Packers.  Both teams are fighting for a playoff spot... and need to win this game.

Back in September, Chris sent me a padded envelope with some cards for me and my students.  There was exactly one Packer and one Niner:

2023 Donruss Optic #249

2023 Donruss Optic #173

If these two cards are being used to predict tomorrow's outcome... then normally Bosa would blow away Wicks.  But Bosa is out tomorrow... so the Packers have a chance.  Go Pack go!

Here's a 9-pocket page highlighting the rest of The Collector's care package:

Thank you Chris!  Hope everything is okay.  You'll be in my thoughts as I watch the big game tomorrow.

Let's go Packers!

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Same Family, Different Spelling

Seventy-two years ago... Eddie Gaedel made MLB history.

1961 Nu-Cards Baseball Scoops #426

I'm sure many of you are familiar with Mr. Gaedel and his pinch hitting appearance with the St. Louis Browns that made him the shortest person to ever appear in a Major League game.

If not, you can read about it on the National Baseball Hall of Fame website.  Just click here.

Today's post is about his much lesser known grandnephew:

2011 Donruss Elite Extra Edition Franchise Futures Signatures #76 

Back in April, Jeff over at Wax Pack Wonders showed off some new additions to his Lesser Known collection, which consists of baseball players who have family members who tend to be much more famous or guys who share their name with someone more prominent.

While reading his post, I remembered an ESPN article featuring Kyle Gaedele and his family ties to Eddie.  You might be thinking... the last names aren't even spelled the same.  But trust me, same family.  Different spelling.  Don't believe me... click here to read the article for yourself.

Unfortunately they never had the opportunity to meet each other.  Kyle was born nearly thirty years after Eddie passed away and didn't really know about his famous granduncle until he was invited to a special ceremony honoring the famous at-bat in Cooperstown.

As for me and the autograph, Wax Pack Wonder's post motivated me to grab a copy on COMC for $1.23.  Now I own the autograph of a lesser known guy related to the shortest player in MLB history.  The seller was probably just glad to unload the autograph of a minor league player that never made it past AA.

i might not write as much as before, but I'm truly grateful for all of the card bloggers out there for their dedication, passion, and hard work they put into their posts which open my eyes to hobby news, interesting ways to collect, collection additions, and every once in a while... inspiring me to add a card to my collection.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Not Just for Kids

Life can be full of regrets.  Luckily... I don't have many that keep me awake at night.  However when it comes to collecting... it seems like there are too many to count.

One that stands out is not collecting Sports Illustrated for Kids cards from the very beginning.  These days without a deep pocketbook and a little luck... it's going to be very challenging for me to ever complete the entire run of trading cards.

Every now and then I'll add a full 9-card sheet to my collection.  Last month I purchased this 2005 issue off of eBay for $9.12 ($2.99 + $6.13 shipping & tax):

I targeted this issue after discovering it has early issues of two future hall of famers:

It's cool to Chris Paul and Adrian Peterson in their college jerseys.

One of my favorite things about collecting these cards are the female athletes.

This sheet contains the very first trading card of Lindsey Jacobellis.  She is the most decorated female snowboard cross athlete of all-time.  She won two gold medals while representing the United States at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

The other female athlete featured on this sheet is Paula Radcliffe.  Before writing this post, I wasn't familiar with her.  But according to Wikipedia, she a very accomplished long distance runner from Great Britain who has won the London and New York Marathons three times each.

Unfortunately... outside of my current bi-monthly subscription... I don't add to my uncut sheet binders very often.  However... thanks to the generosity of fellow bloggers, I will add singles to my collection fairly often.

Back in April, Rod over at Padrographs sent me a stack of five:

Four of them are from the early 90's with the very colorful 90's like borders.  Here's a Carlton Fisk from the very first series:

In May... Jon over at A Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts had a huge giveaway and I was able to claim these twelve SI for Kids cards:

The Andre Rison ended up being a duplicate, so it's available if anyone wants it.

In addition to female athletes, SI for Kids also offers up trading cards of athletes outside the realm of baseball, basketball, and football... like tennis and soccer.

My favorite card in the lot is the Pam Shriver, who was one of the tennis players I remember from my youth.

Thank you Rod and Jon for adding a nice stack of SI for Kids cards to the collection.  And thank you to everyone who took the time to read this post.  Just remember... just because "for Kids" is printed on these cards... anyone can collect them.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

This is a little bonus for Rod, Jon, and anyone else out there who have an appreciation of books.

Towards the end of the school year, I was helping cleaning the classroom next door and I came across hundreds of chapter books.  I ended up donating them to a few Language Arts teachers and some of the students who were helping me out.

But I held onto these two:

Mountain of Mirrors by Rose Estes

Return to Brookmere by Rose Estes

These days... I don't add many books to my private library, but I was pretty excited to see these.  When I was a kid... one of my favorite series were the Choose Your Own Adventure books and these reminded me of them.

Now if I could only get my hands on an old copy of The Cave of Time.

A Pack Fresh Vintage Clemente

Today's post features a monumental purchase in my collecting history.  The card in this post is the most expensive card I have ever purchased over on COMC.  It took place back in the summer of 2011 during a time when I was scouring the site for deals on graded cards.

Unfortunately I knew back then that this card was expensive ($98.57), but I loved how clean this fifty-five year old piece of cardboard looked.  A few years ago, I met a guy who specifically seeks vintage cards that look like they've been freshly pulled from a pack.  He's one of those collectors who values edges, corners, and lack of creasing over centering and staining.

I'm sure he'd appreciate this card:

1967 Topps #400

I was blown away by the overall condition of this card... and the fact that it featured one of the most popular baseball players of that era only made the card more desirable.  As for the poor centering and the OC qualifier... that's what kept the price of this card under triple digits.

Assuming this card was pulled from a pack back in 1967, the lucky collector would have added a card of the reigning National League Most Valuable Player.  That year he finished third behind Orlando Cepeda and Tim McCarver in NL MVP voting after having another stellar year highlighted by 103 runs scored, 209 hits, 110 runs batted in, a .357 batting average, a .554 slugging percentage, and the highest offensive WAR in the National League.  He also won his seventh consecutive Gold Glove Award that year.  Dude was a stud.

Exactly fifty-five years ago, the Pittsburgh Pirates were in Cincinnati to face the Reds.  Clemente had a career day at the plate going 5 for 6 with a double, a home run, and four RBI's.  On Thursday, MLB will celebrate Roberto Clemente Day and pay homage to the 50th anniversary of his tragic passing.

I was only a few months old when he died in the plane crash while attempting to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.  However I'm grateful that his legacy continues to be passed on to fans.  He will forever be remembered for being a humanitarian as well as a hall of famer.

When it comes to our hobby, I can't imagine there are many collectors who don't appreciate his cardboard.  I know that the card featured today is considered a cornerstone card to my 60's collection.

Okay... here are your questions of the day...

Do you have a favorite Roberto Clemente card in your collection?

When it comes to card condition, what's most important to you?  Nice centering, clean edges, sharp corners, lack of creasing or staining?

As much as I love the featured card, my favorite is actually his 1956 Topps card.  And when it comes to condition, I think it depends on the individual card.  Most of the time an extremely off-centered card would bug me, but when the rest of the card looks this good... I'm able to over look the issue.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Building Sets and Enjoying a Lazy Sunday

The end of my summer break has arrived.  Officially, I return tomorrow for training... and greet the kids on Wednesday.  Unofficially... I went into the classroom every day last week and worked over thirty hours.

I was really hoping to sit back, recharge, and enjoy a "lazy summer"... but it wasn't meant to be.  I pretty much had something to do on a daily basis from the very beginning to the end.  The first half involved road trips and family time.  The second half involved card related stuff (organizing and card show preparation), comic books (I inherited a collection a few weeks ago), and getting ready for the new school year.  If that wasn't enough... I had dentist appointments, lunch and dinner dates, and day trips sprinkled in here and there.  Plus... I even wrote a few future blog posts that have been scheduled over the next few weeks.

That's probably how things are going to be around here for the time being.  The start of the school year is usually the busiest time of the year for me the last thing I want is for blogging to feel like a second job.  Sure I will occasionally write a spur of the moment post (like this one), but be prepared... most will be written in advance.

Okay... let's check out some cards I recently added to some of my set builds.  The first four were part of my most recent COMC shipment.  Let's start with this vintage Joe Rudi: 

1971 O-Pee-Chee #407

Is this photo cool or what?  It's like synchronized swimming on the infield by Rudi and his New York Yankee partner.

But the real treat is on the back:

Yup.  Another floating head for my 1971 O-Pee-Chee A's team set.  This card was either poorly cut from the factory... or trimmed.  If you look closely... there's sort of a shark fin rising from the upper righthand corner of this card.  No biggie.  It only set me back a buck and some change.

The next three cards were pricier:

2014 Topps Museum Collection #44, 64, & 66

I spent a little over $6 for these three base cards, but they finished off my 2014 Topps Museum Collection set build:

More importantly... I can now remove this bulky set from my "set build" cubby and free up some space for other sets.

And while we're on the subject of set building, Greg over at The Collective Mind recently sent me six cards for four different set builds.  Let's check them out in chronological order...

1980-88 TCMA Baseball Immortals #88

Love this set and was very happy to slip this McKechnie into it's 9-pocket page.

One down.  Seventeen more cards to go.

Next up is a starter set I discovered in a box a few months ago.  Not sure where or when I acquired it, but this Keith Hernandez gets me one step closer to completing it:

1982 Kellogg's #23

I still have a ways to go.  This set was distributed as a complete set through a mail-in promotion and weren't actually inserted into cereal boxes.  

So if you see singles from this set, you know it was originally from a complete set.

He assisted me with one more 80's set build...

1984 Topps #600

I could have sworn that this card was sitting in my 80's binder... but it wasn't.  

Much like the 1986 Donruss set build, I'm in it for the long haul.  I could easily finish it off by going onto Sportlots, but I refuse to pay 18¢ each for commons.

The same can be said for my 2020 Topps A&G set build:

2020 Topps A&G #'s 37, 245, & 248

The past few shows I was hoping to stumble across some dealers with a bunch of this base sitting in boxes, but I've come up short.  However thanks to Greg...

 I'm slowly chipping away at this set.

Thank you Greg for this set building 6-pack!

Okay... I've got the whole afternoon in front of me.  I'm going to head downstairs, heat up some tamales, turn on the tv, take a nap, and relax the rest of the afternoon.  I might not have gotten my "lazy summer", but I still have time to enjoy a "lazy Sunday".

Happy Sunday and sayonara!