Garage Sale Grabs #1: Private & Personalized

When it comes to shopping for collectibles locally... I prefer flea markets over antique stores, card shops, card shows, social media, or garage sales.  That being said... there's no way I'm passing up the opportunity for a private garage sale with items specifically catered to me.

That's what happened back in April when this woman was helping out with her friend's estate sale.  She had invited me to a street sale, but by the time I arrived, some of the sports related items had already been sold.  She told me there were still plenty of boxes that hadn't been sorted or organized at her house and invited me to come over the following weekend to see for myself.

When I arrived, she had four tables spread out in her driveway and garage with a ton of sports and card related items.  The gentleman's collection was truly impressive.  Unfortunately most of the interesting stuff was more than I was willing to pay.  I did find a few items within my budget...

Purchase #1:  1967 Topps Posters Lot  $50

This was the item I was most excited about.  I really love the design of the 1967 Topps Posters and when I saw that the lot included Mickey Mantle, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron, I immediately set aside the lot.

1967 Topps Posters #6

1967 Topps Posters #11

The posters were stored in two pocket PVC pages (the thicker gauge plastic pages that people used in the 80's), which made removing the posters a challenge.  They're printed on very thin paper (like newspaper), so they're very fragile (especially along the folds).  

1967 Topps Posters #12

1967 Topps Posters #15

As a result, more than half of these posters are torn or have missing pieces.  I should have examined them at the garage sale.  If I had, I would have asked her to reduce the price or put it back.

Purchase #2:  Ticket Stubs  $40

Giants vs. Dodgers 9/30/99 Ticket Stub

This ticket stub is from the last San Francisco Giants' game at Candlestick Park, which is one of the ballparks from my childhood.  As much as I wanted to add this to my collection, her asking price was a little steep.

I asked her if she'd toss in this ticket stub:

Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Roberto Duran 6/20/80 Ticket Stub

She had a stack of these at the flea market.  This was another situation where I should have paid closer attention to what I was buying.  I thought this was an actual ticket stub to attend the fight.  However the fight took place in Montreal, Canada... not Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

In other words, this was a ticket stub to watch the fight on CCTV at the Sioux Falls Arena.  At least it's content for a blog post.

Purchase #3:  Vintage Lot  $70

The third and final purchase ended up being the best deal... with a pretty cool surprise.  It consisted of ten vintage sports cards:

The key card was the Willie McCovey rookie card:

1960 Topps #316

This is a card I have wanted to own for a long time.  I always assumed it was a high valued card (even in poor conditions), but lower grade copies like this one can be found for under $50... sometimes under $25.

I also added this reasonably priced HOF rookie card to the stack:

1952 Bowman #5

Hidden among the eight remaining cards was this interesting surprise as this card ended up being worth more than the McCovey and Minoso combined:

1963 Post Cereal #119

At first glance, it looks like your standard 60's Post Cereal card.  However after doing a little digging, I discovered that Willie Davis is one of the short prints in the set.

There's also a Jello version of Mr. Davis which is more common and affordable.  The easiest way to spot the difference is look at the red line in the stats area.  If it ends where the blue stars end, then the Davis is from a Jello box.  If the red line extends well past the blue stars, then it's a Post Cereal card.

Well that wraps up my first trip to a garage sale in years.  Not sure if I'm gonna start seeking them out on a regular basis, but if I do... I'll start a Garage Sale Grabs series.

It's not high on the priority list, but you never know.

Until then...

What's the coolest item you have ever found at a garage sale?

I look forward to reading and responding to your comments down below.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Mascots, Mustaches, and a Mystery

Sometimes collectors collect the craziest things.  I know, because I'm one of those collectors.

Back in March, Topps released their Celebration mega boxes which contain cards of one of my favorite side collections: mascots.

When I found out they inserted mascot relic cards into packs, I knew I had to own a copy of this card for my A's PC:

2026 Topps Mascots Relic #MAS-ATH

A few weeks ago, this card popped up for auction on eBay.  I entered my $5 bid with a few seconds remaining in the auction and discovered I was the only guy interested.  After paying $3.50 more for shipping and taxes, it finally arrived in the mail last week.

Yup.  You're staring at a mascot relic card.  Is this thing silly or what?  I mean... does anyone really believe that Topps cut up Stomper's jersey or pants and embedded a swatch into this card?  It's highly unlikely.  But as an A's and Stomper fan, I had to add a copy to my collection.

Right around the time I started searching for this relic card, Bob over at The Best Bubble sent me this:

2008 Topps Opening Day Tattoo #NNO

The 2008 Opening Day Tattoos were inserts featuring team logos and mascots.  I might have to look into finding a nice starter set of these on eBay.

He also sent me some other cool items for my A's collection.  Let's start by checking out some autographs:

This card appears to be a custom created by or for Mr. Jones:

Doug Jones Custom Card #NNO

It contains his full career stats, so this card was created sometime after 2000.  I honestly don't remember Jones playing for Oakland.  I mostly remember him for his mustache and his years in Cleveland.

Here's another memorable 'stache:

1984 Fleer #453

My facial hair game is weak.  Davey's was not.  Rest in peace Mr. Lopes.

Bob also tossed in a few oddballs and inserts:

The shiniest was this Tim Hudson refractor:

2000 Topps Chrome Refractor #275

This card is gorgeous.  These days Topps has drowned collectors by flooding the hobby with refractors.  Things were different back in 2000.  Back then, you'd find one refractor in every twelve packs.  In other words, when you pulled one... it was worth celebrating.

The final card in his bubble mailer was this vintage oddball:

1971 Fleer Quiz #NNO

I had seen a few singles from this set pop up on blogs, but I've never owned one until now.  According to The Fleer Sticker Project, there's another A's card with a different set of questions, so I'll be on the hunt for that one too.

Okay, now it's time for the mystery portion of this post.  I found these sitting in a stack of mail: 

1984 Oakland A's Pocket Schedule

I'm pretty sure they were from a different care package from Bob.  However if I'm mistaken and you sent me these cards, please let me know down below.

This vintage Kellogg's decal was also with the schedule:

1970 Kellogg's Litho Fusion Decal

Thank you Bob for all of these cool A's collectibles!  Let me know if you also sent me the pocket schedule and Kellogg's decal.

Everyone else, here are today's questions of the day:

Who is your favorite sports mascot?

Who has the best mustache in sports history?

I look forward to reading and replying to your comments.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara!

Love/Hate Relationship

A large majority of the posts on this blog feature sports teams and players that I love to root for.  Today's post focuses on the opposite end of the spectrum.  I'm going to rank my least liked sports franchises of all-time while sharing a card featuring a player on that team that I actually admire and/or rooted for.

But before I begin, I want to give credit to two bloggers for inspiring this Blog Bat-Around post:  Joe @ The Shlabotnik Report and Mike @ Not Another Baseball Card Blog.  The blogosphere could use more interesting Blog Bat-Around ideas like this one.

Let's get started...

Honorary Mention #1:  Larry Bird

1993-94 Finest Refractor #2

Had I written this post twenty years ago, the Boston Celtics would have cracked the Top 5.  However my interested in professional basketball has tapered off since the early 2010's, so they're now just an honorable mention.

The one Celtic that immediately popped into my head for this post was Larry Bird.  He's one of those legends that I truly respect and admire.  I couldn't stand him while he was in the league, but these days I have no problem adding his cards to my basketball collection.

Honorable Mention #2:  Gordie Howe

1968-69 O-Pee-Chee #29

Back in the 90's, I hated the Detroit Red Wings.  They were essentially the New York Yankees of hockey and one of my buddies was a huge fan.  The Red Wings have plenty of legends and fan favorites worthy of collecting, but if I was going to go out of my way to collect one, it probably would be Mr. Hockey.

Chris over at Diamond Cuts & Wax Stains sent me that vintage Howe over a decade ago.  It's one of the most attractive hockey cards in my collection.

I couldn't write about Gordie without showing off his SLU:

1995 Kenner SLU Timeless Legends

Back in 1996, he was signing at a local card show for only $5, so I went out and purchased this SLU for him to sign.

Moving along, here are my five least favorite sports franchises...

#5:  Barry Bonds

2002 Topps Autographs #TA10

I've always had a love/hate relationship with the Giants.  Being born and raised in the Bay Area, the city of San Francisco will always be special to me.  The memories of attending their games at Candlestick Park with my brother are something I cherish as much as the A's games we attended at the Coliseum.

In fact, down inside... I don't really hate the San Francisco Giants.  It's the fans.  Giants fans outnumber A's fans and when they win, the team climbs these rankings.  Thankfully, they have been struggling lately... so they've fallen down to #5.

As for Barry... he has a love/hate relationship with baseball fans himself.  Personally, I loved watching him play.  And these days... I enjoy collecting his cards too.

#4:  Dallas Cowboys

1992 Beach Sports Autographs #AC1

This is another case of me disliking the fans more than the actual team.  I couldn't really think of any Dallas Cowboys that I would go out of my way to collect, so I went with this autograph of Michael Irvin that I pulled out of a pack back in 1992.  I'm not 100% certain, but I think this is the first autograph I ever pulled out of a pack.

#3:  Jackie Robinson

1956 Topps #30

The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants will always be in my Top 5 list of least favorite sports teams.  But neither creep into the Top 2, because those teams are practically untouchable.  Right now the Dodgers are higher than the Giants, because they're better.  Much better.  Fifteen years ago, the rankings were flip-flopped.

Over the years, I've collected a bunch of different Dodgers:  Fernando, Nomo, Kershaw, Freeman, and Ohtani.  But my favorite Dodgers card sitting in my collection is my favorite card of all-time.  Jackie's 1956 Topps card.

#2:  Lou Gehrig

2004 Topps Clubhouse Collection Relics #CL-LG2

I really, really, really dislike the New York Yankees.  But I loved watching Pride of the Yankees when I was a little kid.  It converted me into a Lou Gehrig fan.

This particular bat card was the highlight from a group break I joined over at Cardboard Collections.  I'm normally not into joining group breaks, but when I looked over the product checklists and noticed that the Yankees were still available... I immediately sent Colbey my money.

#1:  Jerry Rice

1986 McDonald's #NNO 

The San Francisco 49ers are arguably the most popular Bay Area sports team and it feels like they're always good.  And there's never been a shortage of family members, friends, and colleagues reminding me about their 80's and 90's dynasty.  To make matters worse... both of my favorite teams are their rivals.  Damn... I can't stand the 49ers.

That being said... I truly admire Jerry Rice and his career accomplishments.  This particular card is special to me, because I received it in a trade with my buddy Mike.  If you're new to this blog, Mike was a longtime hobby friend who passed away in 2023.  Ironically... he was a huge fan of the #1 and #2 teams in this post.

Well that wraps up this post.  Thank you Joe and Mike for kicking off this blog bat-around!  The Blogfather (Night Owl) himself was the first to respond to Mike.  I sure hope a few others join in on the fun.

Until then...

Happy Thursday and sayonara!