Card Show Top 20 - #16 First Topps

Note: if you want to cheat and see some of the Top 20 cards early, I make a cameo in Stale Gum's recap of the Freedom Cardboard show.

Screw 1952 Topps! Red Backs are the real first Topps Baseball set! Pay no attention to the '48 Magics!

Here's a lovely specimen of '51 Red Back. All those creases? The big tear at the bottom? CHARACTER! Plus it's easy to pick this card when you're playing the game and you need to plunk someone after they pull a Home Run card on you. Senator pitcher Sid Hudson looks like he really wants to nail someone too. Them Senators can be mean! I particularly enjoy the cartoon of a hapless batter getting beaned in the face in the upper right corner. Get 'em Sid! Dust that punk! Two bucks for cardboard violence. Brilliant.

#20 Reds' Heavy Artillery

#19 Blue MadDog

#18 Lil' Jimmy

#17 Real Fake '52

#16 First Topps

#15 Bogus Boog

#14 V103 Tree

#13 Sertoma Rico

#12 '55 Finishers

#11 Hey Shiny

#10 What the Dickens

#9 '60 Spahnnie

#8 Lonely '53

#7 Super Chief

#6 Original Frank

#5 Hoops Inspiration

#4 Rocket Robin

#3 Wizard Off Kilter

#2 Shenanigans Were Called

#1 The Holy Grail of Commons

1951 Topps Wantlist

I just might decide to attack the Red Back set this year... I also might decide to ask Natalie Portman out on a date. To Chuckie Cheese. Large pizza and all the game tokens she can eat!

IT COULD HAPPEN

Red Backs -- 12/52

1 Yogi Berra -- New York Yankees
2 Sid Gordon -- Boston Braves
3 Ferris Fain -- Philadelphia Athletics
4 Vern Stephens -- Boston Red Sox
6 Allie Reynolds -- New York Yankees
9 Roy Sievers -- St. Louis Browns
10 Mel Parnell -- Boston Red Sox
11 Gene Hermanski -- Brooklyn Dodgers
12 Jim Hegan -- Cleveland Indians
14 Wayne Terwilliger -- Chicago Cubs
15 Ralph Kiner -- Pittsburgh Pirates
16 Preacher Roe -- Brooklyn Dodgers
17 Dave Bell -- Pittsburgh Pirates
18 Jerry Coleman -- New York Yankees
19 Dick Kokos -- St. Louis Browns
20 Dom DiMaggio -- Boston Red Sox
21 Larry Jansen -- New York Giants
22 Bob Feller -- Cleveland Indians
23 Ray Boone -- Cleveland Indians
24 Hank Bauer -- New York Yankees
25 Cliff Chambers -- Pittsburgh Pirates
26 Luke Easter -- Cleveland Indians
27 Wally Westlake -- Pittsburgh Pirates
29 Bob Kennedy -- Cleveland Indians
31 Gil Hodges -- Brooklyn Dodgers
33 William Werle -- Pittsburgh Pirates
34 Grady Hatton -- Cincinnati Reds
35 Al Rosen -- Cleveland Indians
36 Gus Zernial -- Philadelphia Athletics
38 Duke Snider -- Brooklyn Dodgers
39 Ted Kluszewski -- Cincinnati Reds
40 Mike Garcia -- Cleveland Indians
41 Whitney Lockman -- New York Giants
42 Ray Scarborough -- Boston Red Sox
43 Maurice McDermott -- Boston Red Sox
44 Sid Hudson -- Washington Senators
46 Billy Goodman -- Boston Red Sox
47 Tommy Glaviano -- St. Louis Cardinals
48 Eddie Stanky -- New York Giants
51 Eddie Robinson -- Chicago White Sox

Blue Backs ain't happenin'.

Blue Backs -- 5/52

1 Eddie Yost -- Washington Senators
2 Hank Majeski -- Chicago White Sox
3 Richie Ashburn -- Philadelphia Phillies
4 Del Ennis -- Philadelphia Phillies
5 Johnny Pesky -- Boston Red Sox
6 Red Schoendienst -- St. Louis Cardinals
7 Gerry Staley -- St. Louis Cardinals
8 Dick Sisler -- Philadelphia Phillies
9 Johnny Sain -- Boston Braves
10 Joe Page -- New York Yankees
11 Johnny Groth -- Detroit Tigers
12 Sam Jethroe -- Boston Braves
13 Mickey Vernon -- Washington Senators
14 Red Munger -- St. Louis Cardinals
15 Eddie Joost -- Philadelphia Athletics
16 Murry Dickson -- Pittsburgh Pirates
17 Roy Smalley -- Chicago Cubs
18 Ned Garver -- St. Louis Browns
19 Phil Masi -- Chicago White Sox
20 Ralph Branca -- Brooklyn Dodgers
21 Billy Johnson -- St. Louis Cardinals
22 Bob Kuzava -- Washington Senators
23 Dizzy Trout -- Detroit Tigers
24 Sherman Lollar -- St. Louis Browns
26 Chico Carrasquel -- Chicago White Sox28 Harry Brecheen -- St. Louis Cardinals
29 Granville Hamner -- Philadelphia Phillies
30 Enos Slaughter -- St. Louis Cardinals
31 Lou Brissie -- Cleveland Indians
33 Don Lenhardt -- St. Louis Browns
35 Tommy Byrne -- New York Yankees
36 Cliff Fannin -- St. Louis Browns
37 Bobby Doerr -- Boston Red Sox
38 Irv Noren -- Washington Senators
39 Ed Lopat -- New York Yankees
41 Johnny Schmitz -- Chicago Cubs
42 Bruce Edwards -- Brooklyn Dodgers
43 Willie Jones -- Philadelphia Phillies
44 Johnny Wyrostek -- Cincinnati Reds
45 Billy Pierce -- Chicago White Sox
46 Gerry Priddy -- Detroit Tigers
47 Herman Wehmeier -- Cincinnati Reds
48 Billy Cox -- Brooklyn Dodgers
49 Hank Sauer -- Chicago Cubs
50 Johnny Mize -- New York Yankees
51 Eddie Waitkus -- Philadelphia Phillies
52 Sam Chapman -- Cleveland Indians

These cards don't belong in a quarter box

That's where I found them though. It's a travesty that such brilliant cards as these languish in a quarter box while glossy stickered autographs of limp-armed pitchers that have never advanced past Double-A get to live in the case. I rescued these beauts recently and now shall show them off.

1972 Topps Harmon Killebrew

 It astounds me how little respect Killer gets in hobby circles. He's the '60s version of Jim Thome. This card here is an absolute classic and is one that made me really fall in love with the 1972 Topps set. Of course, I have several of this card already, so the first person to comment here and e-mail me your address will get this sent to them in a plain white envelope. Gotta be quick now...

1976 Topps Willie Stargell

You ain't getting this one though. No one touches my Willie. I need to check the binder to see if I need this one or not. When you find cards this fabulous in a quarter box, you gotta go for it, doubles be damned.

1978 Topps Nolan Ryan Highlights

I swear I've got this card already. Or at least 12 of the reprints. Topps trained me to believe that all Nolan cards are made of pure platinum fibers that can one day be formed into an artificial heart that will pump life-giving blood through my veins for eternity, making me immortal through the Power of Nolan. Pretty sure this is actually reject cardboard from the cereal box factory, but I can't shake the early-'90s propaganda so I got it. I might give this one away too in a separate post once I can confirm that I have it already.

1975 Topps No Hitter Highlights

Honestly, I can kinda see why this one was in the quarter box. But it's Nolan, and the platinum fibers and all, and my cholesterol ain't all that good, so... you know.  Here's the most ridiculous find in the quarter box:

1951 Topps Red Back Dale Mitchell and Gus Zernial

1951 Topps in the quarter box? Preposterous, you say? Actually, since that large cache of unopened '51 Red back wax was found back in the '70s, no one wants crummy looking Red Backs since so many pristine ones are out on the market.

WELL EFF THAT NOISE!

I WANT THE CRUMMY ONES!

I LOVES THE CRUMMY!

I mean, come on... now when I play a game with my redbacks, I instantly know where the 'fly out' card is! Let's see you PSA8 people do THAT!

1951 Topps want list

Because this is the First Real Topps Set Ever, I don't care what the Topps marketing geeks say.

1951 Red Backs

1 Yogi Berra

2 Sid Gordon

3 Ferris Fain

4 Vern Stephens

6 Allie Reynolds

9 Roy Sievers

10 Mel Parnell

11 Gene Hermanski

12 Jim Hegan

13 Dale Mitchell

14 Wayne Terwilliger

15 Ralph Kiner

16 Preacher Roe

17 Gus Bell

18 Jerry Coleman

19 Dick Kokos

20 Dom DiMaggio

21 Larry Jansen

22 Bob Feller

23 Ray Boone

24 Hank Bauer

25 Cliff Chambers

26 Luke Easter

27 Wally Westlake

29 Bob Kennedy

31 Gil Hodges

32 Hank Thompson

33 Bill Werle

34 Grady Hatton

35 Al Rosen

36 Gus Zernial

37 Wes Westrum

38 Duke Snider

39 Ted Kluszewski

40 Mike Garcia

41 Whitey Lockman

42 Ray Scarborough

43 Mickey McDermott

44 Sid Hudson

46 Billy Goodman

47 Tommy Glaviano

48 Eddie Stanky

51 Eddie Robinson

1951 Blue Backs

1 Eddie Yost

2 Hank Majeski

3 Richie Ashburn

4 Del Ennis

5 Johnny Pesky

6 Red Schoendienst

7 Jerry Staley

8 Dick Sisler

9 Johnny Sain

10 Joe Page

11 Johnny Groth

12 Sam Jethroe

13 Mickey Vernon

14 Red Munger

15 Eddie Joost

16 Murry Dickson

17 Roy Smalley

18 Ned Garver

19 Phil Masi

20 Ralph Branca

21 Billy Johnson

22 Bob Kuzava

23 Dizzy Trout

24 Sherm Lollar

25 Sam Mele

26 Chico Carrasquel

27 Andy Pafko

28 Harry Brecheen

29 Granny Hamner

30 Enos Slaughter

31 Lou Brissie

33 Don Lenhardt

35 Tommy Byrne

36 Cliff Fannin

37 Bobby Doerr

38 Irv Noren

39 Ed Lopat

41 Johnny Schmitz

42 Bruce Edwards

43 Willie Jones

44 Johnny Wyrostek

45 Billy Pierce

46 Jerry Priddy

47 Herm Wehmeier

48 Billy Cox

49 Hank Sauer

50 Johnny Mize

51 Eddie Waitkus

52 Sam Chapman

12/104 cards from the set - 11.5% completed

Rowr.

I haven't posted a card from my vintage binge in a while so here's an oddbally one:

1951 Topps Animals of the World - Cougar

There was a whole slopload of non-sports cards in the bargain box and I had to pick out a few choice ones, especially if they were an old Topps card. There were a whole bunch of these cards in the box and it took me a while to finally choose a cougar as my Topps type card animal, but I had a really good reason for it.

NO. NO. WRONG. BAD.

Not that kind of cougar and anyways, she's a puma. No, I picked this card because the mascot of my high school was the Henderson Cougars.

Ok, so my high school is now a middle school. Our football team sorta played like a middle school team. True story: the five years I went to that school (grades 8-12, I didn't flunk!) we got massacred on our homecoming game every single year except once. My senior year we beat Druid Hills (traditionally the stoner school who couldn't play football worth a flip) something like 62-7. The kids from Druid Hills made fun of us after that because they actually scored a touchdown. Of course I was in the marching band tooting away on a tuba at the time so it wasn't my fault!

This guy here taught me algebra in the 8th grade. George B. Maloof, one of the few teachers (or people in general, actually) from high school that I miss. Godspeed, George. Interestingly enough, he taught my ungle algebra also. This guy could coach and teach! See his shirt? Henderson Cougars? MY SCHOOL. So I got this card instead of the gorilla or the quagga.

This card set was put out in 1951 as a follow up to their Bring 'em Back Alive set (which you'll see soon enough, muahaha). Since it's a continuation of that first set, the 100 card set is numbered from 101-200. It's a pretty simple set, the front is just a picture of an animal with a small colored background and plenty of white space. The back reads like an encyclopedia summary, with a little bit of horror at the end to give '50s kiddos a thrill. The wrapper seems to be emphasizing the educational aspect of the cards with the Animals of the Zoo theme. No worries, we'll get into lurid sensless violence soon enough (again, muahaha!) This is still a pretty nifty card from Topps that pre-dates their mainstream baseball set. And it's a Cougar! Go Cougars!

I Like This Card

Yeah, this is what the Mick's rookie card should look like. None of that '52 Topps junk that Sy Berger dumped in the ocean. A nice '51 game card. This is fake though, a promo for a 2007 Topps Mantle factory set. The set cost 60 bucks but I picked this up for a buck and a half. I'm tempted to take a pair of nail clippers to the corners to make them round like the originals, but maybe that wouldn't be the best idea. I also should have checked to see if they had the Ted Williams '51 retro card too, that was the other promo in the factory set. There was an official game used "whatever Topps could find in Mickey's closet" relic in the set too, but I'm not interested in that. Well, the plaid relic would be kind of neat, but it's really not necessary. One of these days I'd like to be able to afford an original '51 set, both red and blue backs. I'd like to win a set at a live auction, all graded PSA8 or better. That way I could take some pliers, crack 'em all out of their shells and challenge someone to a game with my brand new decks of game cards right there in the auction hall. I get to be the blue backs!

Card Show part 4 - The Braves

When I left off, I had just spent an excessive amount of time trying to pick out a dollar's worth of cards out of a dime box only to have the dealer try to give me one of those dime cards for free. I pointed out his mistake, paid my dollar and let him keep his dime. If I was a numismatist, I'd go to the coin show instead. I had been scrounging around the tables for over an hour at this point and I came to this conclusion: There was nothing else in this building that coupld possible be any better than what Uncle Whosit and the Card Museum Guy had to offer. It was time to shut it down and make my final purchases. First though, we have to rewind a bit and go back to Card Museum Guy.

As I said before, Card Museum Guy had some absolutely gorgeous cards in a shiny brass display and a row of cases. T206s, Goudeys, Mantles, Williams, Mays, Aarons, Clementes, Probably even some Ruths and Gehrigs in there too, just wonderful stuff all completely out of my league. There was a box in my league however and that's where I snagged all the cards in this post.

The Bargain Box

The three most beautiful words in the English language to a collector with an addiction. This was a hard core bargain box too, everything from Tobacco cards to vintage gum cards, Topps from 1951-1979, vintage football, vintage basketball, a huge pile of non-sport (foreshadowing...) and even one lonely Hockey card from the late '60s. You know how most bargain boxes are full of nickel cards and it is right in front of the dealer and he watches you like a hawk the whole time you are shuffling through 1991 Mike Greenwells? This sucker was loaded, was at least 10 yards away from both people working the booth and had 50 dollar vintage cards in it. Not joking. Card Museum Guy was so flush with inventory he could afford to leave a box of cards that would make most people's collections look like garbage sitting ignored miles away from the cash register when a particularly sneaky and speedy devious character could run off with an instant collection and be dodging tackles from the nice ladies selling the tickets up front before the old guy even noticed. I however, am an honorable junkie and paid for my cards. After much contemplation I chose these four to fill out my Braves collection:

1951 Topps Red Back Tommy Holmes - Hartford Variation

1951 Topps cards are tough. They're a weird size, they are goofy looking, most of them were played with so they ended up trashed and Topps has branded the 1952 set as "The First Modern Set EVAH" so they are not that popular. They are not as neglected as the 1948 Topps set, but they are still damn hard to find. I only had 3 of the 7 in the team set before this one here and one of those was the Spahn. When I saw Holmes here for $4.50, it was an insta-buy. This one here is the "Now managing Hartford" variation and not the more scarce "Boston" version.I'm not worried about variations in this set right now, I just want to find Gordon, Sain and Jethroe and finish it off. I've got over half the set now though!

1965 Topps Embossed Lee Maye

This is quite possibly the ugliest insert set ever. You think Topps overuses foil now? Just look at these atrocities. The whole front is gold foil. A border is printed on top of the foil in blue for American League Teams (which isn't too bad) and red for the National League (which looks awful). Mercifully, the player's name is printed in white. The back of the card is completely blank except for a small ornate frame at the bottom surrounding the card number and the Topps copyright. The player's image is actually stamped into the foil. You can see Lee up there because the card is beat up and the wear on the foil makes the image more visible. I think Topps was going for a Hall of Fame Plaque kind of motif here but it turned out awful. These cards were in every pack though so they are pretty common nowadays. I probably overpaid on this one at a buck since it's in rough condition, but it was the last Brave I needed for this insert set and the only other place I know to find it is on eBay for a buck plus shipping, so I did pretty good on this one.

1962 Topps Stamps Milwaukee Braves Logo

They just get weirder and weirder don't they... In 1961 and '62 Topps inserted panels of two stamps into their packs. In 1961 the stamps were monochrome and looked like old timey postage stamps. In 1962 they did it more simply with color photos with a solid color background. They also added team logos to the set. This is the Milwaukee Braves logo with just a smidge of the Pittsburgh stamp below. I haven't found a whole lot of these and this stamp will keep Roy McMillan's stamp compony in my binder.

1949 Leaf Bob Elliott

Ok, back to the '49 Leaf card. In 1948 Bowman and Leaf jumped back into the card market. Bowman ended up more popular and Leaf dropped right back out until 1960. This set is tough. It was printed over a two year period and cards can be found with a 1948 or 1949 copyright on the back. The color is fairly crude, but no worse than the '49 Bowmans. The real pain with this set is that it is a 98 card set skip numbered from 1-198. This was probably designed to get kids to buy more bubblegum, but seeing how half the set is seriously short printed, who knows, maybe Leaf just forgot the print the rest of them. And when I say short printed I mean SHORT PRINTED. The prices are out of date, but my '02 price guide has the common cards listed at $25 in near mint, the short prints are $450. For a guy like Eddie Joost or Peanuts Lowry. With all the Brave short prints in the set I didn't even bother to leave a space in my binder for Leaf cards. Bob is now living with the Goudeys in a space reserved for a short printed '41 card. You know how I said '49 Leaf cards are tough? '41 Goudey cards are freaking impossible. One more thing about this card. Bob Elliott won the MVP award in 1947. Two years later Leaf couldn't even get his name right. That's why you didn't hear from them for another 11 years after this...

There you have it, 4 vintage slightly strange Braves cards all for the low, low price of $16. If Wal-Mart held card shows inside them, I'd never buy another blaster again. A funny thing happened while I was shuffling through these old cards. The dealer across the row came over and talked to Card Museum Guy. He was the guy with all those boxes filled with toploaders that didn't seem to have a price associated with them. Museum Guy commented that there was a feeding frenzy over there a little while ago. The guy told him that people were pulling cards out of his 10 cent boxes like crazy. Some guy just pulled out a Sammy Sosa rookie! He didn't care though because he was making sales and he bought the whole lot in Tennessee for one hundredth of a cent each. So he didn't even bother to sort them all out since he had so many and was just selling them all ten for a buck. "What's the margin on that, eh?" he said.

That... is a damn good margin. I also knew a deal when I heard one, picked over or no.

Up Next: THE DIME BOX.