SOME DOLLAR BOX PICKUPS FROM A DIFFERENT ANTIQUE MALL

 I AM FORTUNATE TO LIVE IN AN AREA FILTHY WITH BOUGIE ANTIQUE MALLS AND ONE REASONABLY CLOSE TO ME HAS A FULL BLOWN CARD SHOP WITHIN ITS PREMISES. THIS PLACE HAS EVEN HOSTED A COUPLE MINI CARD SHOWS IN THE PAST, IT'S A PRETTY DOPE PLACE. I HAD SOME TIME TO KILL BEFORE AN APPOINTMENT AND CHECKED THE PLACE OUT. SADLY MY PHONE HAD .001% POWER SO I WAS UNABLE TO TAKE A MILLION PHOTOS OF COOL SHIT (AND DEAR READERS, THERE WAS A TON OF COOL SHIT) BUT I DID FIND AND RAID THE DOLLAR BOXES SO YOU GET A FEW PICS OF NICE CARDS TAKEN AFTER THE FACT

BUYING SOME BASEBALL CARDS AND GETTING THEM PACKAGED IN A TINY LEOPARD PRINT BAG IS ONE OF THE UNDERRATED JOYS OF FINDING CARDS AT SHOPS WHERE CARDS ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT THE PRIORITY. THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAS HAPPENED TO ME EITHER

2020 TOPPS UPDATE RONALD ACUÑA TURKEY RED

I BEGRUDGINGLY LOVE TURKEY RED. I BOUGHT AN ABSOLUTELY ABSURD NUMBER OF PACKS IN 2005-6 WHEN IT CAME OUT, WAS A LITTLE CONFUSED BY THE 2007 SET AS I HAD NEVER SEEN ONE OF THE ORIGINAL BOXING CABINETS BEFORE, GOT CONCERNED WHEN IT BECAME AN INSERT SET IN 2010 AND GAVE UP ON IT COMPLETELY WHEN IT BECAME AN ONLINE FOOTBALL EXCLUSIVE. TIME HAS PASSED THOUGH AND FINDING THESE 2020 INSERTS REKINDLED MY ENJOYMENT OF THE SET. THE IMAGES JUST LOOK SO GOOD. I WAS EXTREMELY HAPPY TO FIND THE ACUÑA CARD IN THE BRAVES BOX, MARKED DOWN FROM THREE DOLLAR TO A BUCK AS WELL!

HOWEVER, THIS CARD IS GIVING ME THE WEIRDEST CASE OF PAREIDOLIA I'VE EVER HAD. EVERY TIME I LOOK AT THIS CARD I SEE DARRYL STRAWBERRY IN THE SHADOWS ON RONALD'S NECK. AND IT'S THE FIRST THING I SEE. I CAN'T NOT SEE IT NO MATTER HOW I TRY. I WENT AS FAR AS GOOGLING DARRYL STRAWBERRY SO I COULD PROVE TO MYSELF THAT ISN'T DARRYL STRAWBERRY, THAT'S A NECK BECAUSE I FELT LIKE I WAS CRACKING UP AND

IT'S DARRYL STRAWBERRY. I AM CRACKING UP. SOMEONE WITH BETTER IMAGE SEARCHING SKILLS THAN I HAVE PLEASE FIND THE ORIGINAL PHOTO THIS CARD WAS BASED ON SO I CAN FINALLY SEE A NECK 

2020 TOPPS RONALD ACUÑA 1985 TOPPS 35TH ANNIVERSARY

I LOVE FINDING CHEAP ACUÑA CARDS AND I PROBABLY COULD HAVE JUST CLEARED OUT THE BOX OF DOLLAR RONALDS BUT THERE WAS A LOT OF GOOD STUFF IN THAT BRAVES BOX. I COULDN'T PASS UP ON THE 1985 TOPPS  35TH ANNIVERSARY CARD, IT LOOKS TOO DAMN GOOD. THIS SERIES OF INSERTS IS A BIT FRUSTRATING AND I'M CERTAIN TOPPS WILL RESET BACK TO 1987 TOPPS AGAIN BEFORE TOO LONG BUT THE INDIVIDUAL CARDS LOOK GREAT

2019 TOPPS CHROME UPDATE HANK AARON 150 YEARS OF BASEBALL

NOW YOU KNOW WHY I DIDN'T JUST WIPE OUT THE ACUÑAS. CHEAP HANKS ARE EVEN BETTER. I COVETED THIS 150 YEARS OF BASEBALL INSERT FROM THE BASE TOPPS SET AND CHECKED A WHOLE BUNCH OF TARGET BLISTER PACKS LOOKING FOR IT WITH NO SUCCESS. THE CHROME UPDATE VERSION IS EVEN BETTER THOUGH, ESPECIALLY SINCE IT'S A SHINY REFRACTOR. I LATER LEARNED THAT THE ENTIRE INSERT SET FROM CHROME UPDATE ARE ALL REFRACTORS BUT THAT DOESN'T BOTHER ME ANY. ALL CHROME/PRIZM/OPTIC/FAKE PLASTICKY METAL CARDS SHOULD BE REFRACTORS. THEY HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY, USE IT!

2020 TOPPS CHROME UPDATE HANK AARON A NUMBERS GAME

ANOTHER CHROME UPDATE INSERT AARON CARD FROM THE FOLLOWING YEAR. CHROME CARDS HAVE NOT BEEN ON MY RADAR SINCE THE EARLY 00S AND CHROME UPDATE EVEN LESS SO. AND I'M CERTAIN THAT IF I HAD SOMEHOW BOUGHT A BOX OF THE STUFF IN 2020 FOR FORTY, FIFTY, A HUNDRED BUCKS OR WHATEVER THE STUFF COST, I WOULD ABSOLUTELY NOT HAVE PULLED THE AARON. THIS CARD LOOKS SO FANTASTIC IN PERSON TOO, THE SHINY REALLY MAKES THE BLUE AND RED POP. I'M ALSO PLEASED THAT THE TWO AARON CARDS HAVE THE CLASSIC MILWAUKEE UNIFORM AND THE 1974 ATLANTA UNIFORM ON THEM. THAT KIND OF VARIETY IS NICE ON NEWER LEGENDS CARDS

2018 TOPPS HERITAGE LUCAS SIMS/OZZIE ALBIES ROOKIE STARS

SINCE MY ACQUISITION OF NEW STUFF STARTED TO TAKE A NOSEDIVE A FEW YEARS AGO, ONE OF THE PLAYERS I FEEL I'VE REALLY NEGLECTED IN MY COLLECTION IS OZZIE ALBIES. ALL-STAR SECOND BASEMEN DON'T GROW ON TREES, ESPECIALLY ONES AS FUN AS OZZIE. THIS ONE IMMEDIATELY CAUGHT MY EYE AS IT'S A ROOKIE CARD THAT DOESN'T HAVE THAT RC LOGO PLASTERED ON IT. IT LOOKS JUST LIKE AN ORIGINAL 1969 ROOKIE STARS CARD! EXCEPT FOR THE TRADEMARK SYMBOLS AND LEGALESE AND WIDER BORDER AND SLIGHTLY WONKY FONTS. THAT PURPLE IN THE TEAM NAME CIRCLE IS SPOT ON. OZZIE'S ROOKIE PARTNER LUCAS SIMS ALSO GOT THE BRAVES ADAM DUVALL WHO PAYED BIG DIVIDENDS. LUCAS IS STILL PITCHING IN THE REDS' BULLPEN AT LEAST AS OF THIS WRITING

2021-22 DONRUSS TRAE YOUNG

I CAN'T BUY AN ACUÑA CARD AND NOT PICK UP A TRAE AS WELL, BUT THE BASEBALL BOXES VASTLY OUTNUMBERED THE BASKETBALL ONES. NEW HOOPS CARDS ARE A LITTLE MORE SPENDY TOO, BUT I DID MANAGE TO SNAG THIS DONRUSS BASE CARD OUT OF A DIFFERENT DOLLAR BOX. AT THE FRONT OF THE STORE THERE'S AN OLD CARDBOARD PACK DISPLAY BOX THAT WAS FILLED WITH TONS OF RANDOM JUNK AND TRAE WAS HIDING AMONGST THE ODDBALLS. I FOUND SOME OTHER COOL STUFF IN THERE LIKE A RANDOM VINTAGE KELLOGG'S CARD BUT AS I HAD NO JUICE IN MY PHONE I COULD NOT CHECK MY WANTLISTS. THERE'S SOMETHING SPECIAL ABOUT THE PHOTO ON THIS CARD BUT THAT IS ACTUALLY THE SUBJECT ON A FUTURE COMC BINGE POST SO YOU'LL HAVE TO WAIT TO FIND OUT 

1991-92 FRONT ROW UPDATE DIKEMBE MUTOMBO CHARTER MEMBER SILVER FOIL

THIS WAS THE LAST DOLLAR CARD I PICKED UP AND I HAD TO MAKE SOME TOUGH DECISIONS. BACK IN THE CORNER OF THE SHOP WAS A TABLE FULL OF BINDERS FILLED WITH JUNKWAX SETS AND THERE WAS A DOLLAR BOX OF OLD 90S BASKETBALL CARDS. I FOUND A 1994 FLAIR GRANT HILL ROOKIE THAT TEMPTED ME BADLY BUT CHOSE THIS DIKEMBE MUTOMBO DRAFT PICK CARD INSTEAD. I REALLY LIKE GRANT HILL BUT I LOVE DEKE AND WHILE THERE ARE A TON OF FLAIR CARDS OUT THERE THIS ONE IS SORT OF AN ODDBALL. AND YOU KNOW HOW I LOVE ODDBALLS. THIS ONE IS EXTRA ODDBALLY AS IT IS NOT EVEN FROM A THE DRAFT PICK SET, IT IS AN UPDATE TO THE DRAFT PICK SET. I'D SAY FRONT ROW WAS DOUBLE DIPPING DIKEMBE BUT IT'S MORE LIKE THEY WERE QUADRUPLE DIPPING AS THERE WERE MUTOMBO CARDS IN THE FRONT ROW PREMIER SET, HE WAS IN A TOP TEN DRAFT PICKS SET AND ALSO HAD HIS OWN SEVEN CARD CARD SET BEFORE THIS ONE. AND THAT'S NOT EVEN COUNTING ALL THE PROMOS AND PARALLELS. SPEAKING OF PARALLELS, THIS ONE'S GOT FOIL! BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE:

IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE POINT WHERE TRADING CARDS OFFICIALLY STOPPED BEING FUN LITTLE BITE SIZED RECORDS OF YOUR FAVORITE PLAYER AND THE ARTIFICIAL SCARCITY FOR 'ADDED VALUE' STARTED TAKING OVER HERE'S A NICE LITTLE DATA POINT FOR YOU. IF FOIL IS GOOD ON THE FRONT, IT'LL BE GREAT ON THE BACK! STAMPED RIGHT ON TOP OF THE STATS. I LOVE THE WILD WEST OF JUNK WAX SO MUCH, NO ONE KNEW WHAT THE HELL THEY WERE DOING AND WERE WILLING TO TRY ANYTHING TO SELL MORE CARDS. THIS TICKLED ME SO MUCH I HAD TO PUT POOR GRANT BACK IN THE BOX. HOPEFULLY HE'LL STILL BE THERE ON MY NEXT TRIP

First Topps Insert of 2015

September Vintage Card Show - All Star Hank

Yeah it's November and I'm finally getting around to showing off the stuff I got a month and a half ago at the most recent card show I went to. Y'all are fortunate I haven't deleted the blog altogether and moved to Pinterest by now. Anyway, this show took me by surprise and I was woefully under funded and disorganzed but I still managed to kick some ass at this show. Unlike some other show hauls I've shown off here I did not pick up one card that was a complete slam dunk over everything else. While I had the opportunity to blow my wad on one card I decided to spread the wealth around on a small pile of cards. About 17 or so if I recall correctly. I'll start off with the 'biggest' one of the bunch though since who knows when I'll post again. I haven't been the most consistant of bloggers this year you have to admit. So, better late than never, have a Hank.

Hank cards have been getting pricer as of late, but this one had snuck into the bargain box. '60s All Star cards can very often be tricky to track down, but luckily for me the NL All Stars are in the reasonably common 5th series instead of the somewhat scarce 6th series like the AL All Stars. The photo of Hank here is fantastic. The centering, not so much. I'm somewhat fascinated by that bottom border though. It looks like the yellow ink stopped early and left the bottom wood grain pink. I'm not even sure if that's a printer error or what. At any rate I approve of my pink-bordered Aaron.

The back is badly centered too. I never understood the cards that were miscut on one side and perfectly centered on the other. It pleases me that this card is off-centered correctly, which is a very unusual OCD reaction indeed. I did notice a mistake on the back as I'm pretty sure Hank hit 3 homers against the Yankees in the 1957 World Series and not the 1953 Series. Best part about this card though? It did this:

Awwww yisssss completed 1962 team set page. I'm actually pretty close to completing the '62 team set now. Or extremely far considering I still need those high number rookie cards. Stay tuned for moar old Barves on the next edition of "Card Show Haul From Weeks Ago".

June Vintage Card Show Loot: Floaty Head Goodness

Best thing about cards from the '60s: the league leader cards are cheap as hell and stacked with stars. The '60s also has a particular fondness for disembodied floaty heads. ESPECIALLY the 1963 Topps set. Check out this beauty:

 Frank, Stan and Hank of the same freaking card. Tommy Davis and Bill White weren't slouches either. There's about 14,000 hits on this card. Serious, serious star power right here.

AND IT AIN'T NOTHIN COMPARED TO THIS MONSTER:

HANK. FRANK. ERNIE. CHA-CHA. AND WILLIE-FREAKING-MAYS. ALL ON THE SAME CARD.  Ain't even estimating on this one. There are Two Thousand Eight Hundred And Ninety Two career home runs on this card. All without Biogenesis. Think about this: On this card, ORLANDO CEPEDA IS THE SCRUB. Holy crap I love this card. It also allowed me to do this:

'63 Topps Team set complete page. So many bright colors. The third League Leader card ain't too shabby either. Gibby, Drysdale and Sandy-Frickkin-Koufax? And Bob Shaw too boot! If only the high numbers were this fun to collect...

June Vintage Card Show Loot: 16 Hanks on 4 Cards

I already had these for my Braves team set, but I figured why not get 'em again for my 1974 Topps set. Here's the really old ones that will elude me for quite a while except for the '56, which is the pride of my collection.

 

Got three out of four of 'em here though. Got a lead on the fourth too, if I can manage to pull the trigger on it.

Batting .500 on this card. I wish I liked the 1966 and 1967 sets more.

Got all four of these though! The only Braves card from any of these sets that I still need is the High numbered Don Baylor rookie. It shall be mine. I like this card the best because it is miscut and you can see that odd Side B thing on the border. No idea what the heck that means. Any of you vintage geniuses out there can feel free to chime in if you know.

These four cards were in the bargain box for a decently bargainy price. Only four out of five of the tribure cards were in there so I scanned the last one from my team set just so for completeness' sake.

Gotta love the Hanks.

June Vintage Card Show Loot - Part 1: The Best

Time to show off the Vintage show loot I teased this weekend. Previously I counted down to the best card I picked up at a show with varying results. This time I took my crippling writer's block into consideration (Heritage Frankenset, anyone?) and said hell with it, I'm starting at #1 this time.

NUMBER 1 CARD: 

1955 Bowman Hank Aaron

Isn't that a beautiful light standard? The fake wood grain is also quite classy. And check out that font! Bold but understated, not flashy. And it's also a friggin second year Aaron card.

The last few times I've been to this card show I've been tempted by a pricey card and mostly stayed away. I've passed up Yogis and Satchels and at least one Jackie. Last year I did bite the bullet and snagged a Phil Niekro rookie for a little more than I'd usually spend. Once I get over a certain price point, it gets really hard for me to pull the trigger. Do I want one nice card when I could fill a couple dozen holes in my 1956 Topps set with the dough? That didn't happen this time. I looked through the cheapskate case (not to be confused with the bargain box, which was hit with great ferociousness) passed on another '53 Yogi that was slightly more expensive than the last one I saw, saw a '56 Topps Aaron that I already had (and was probably picked up by MadduxGlavineSmoltz) aaaaaaaaaand then I saw this card.

And then the price.

And then because Roger was across the room I pulled a card show no-no and reached around the glass and snagged that sucker before anyone else even had a chance to walk into the room.

Mind you, by this point I had only glanced at a couple rows in the bargain box so I didn't have much on my plate so far. Even though this card was going to cover about half that plate I knew I had to finally pull the trigger on a pricey one. It's Hank. From the '50s. There's a warter stain at the top and the right side is bent exactly as it would bend if some fool put it in a holder that wasn't big enough for it or stacked it in with a bunch of standard sized cards but who the hell cares? Honestly I have problems finding some Hanks from the '60s at this price, I hadda do it. This came at a price though, as this was the first card show I went to in years where I didn't pick up a '53 Topps card. I've hit that point where everything left is going to be a Jackson at least and I had to decide on priorities this show. Other things left behind: Yet another Niekro rookie in wonderfully horrible condition, a 1952 Topps Brave card I needed and not one but BOTH 1953 Bowman Joe Adcock cards. Oh well, Hank is better than all that.

Another thing I didn't do at this show was finish up any sets or series or team sets. I really wanted to complete something so I could show it off and let the world know how cool I was but it didn't happen. Struck out on '72 Topps cards. Sorta struck out on '74 Topps cards. Nibbled away at quite a few Braves teams sets but didn't seal the deal on any. I did pull off something that will go a looong way toward the completion of a set, but that's another post. Even this Hank didn't kill off my '55 Bowman set. I still need a couple of high series cards and '55 Bowman high numbers ain't easy, even for commons. BUT... while the very last card needed to finish off many a Braves team set will end up being the Hank, that's not the case with this one. Let's stare at it some more, shall we?



Aaaaaaaaaaaah..... it's so pretty. I could stare at this all day.

2000 Upper Deck Generations of Excellence Chipper Jones & Hank Aaron

No. GE5

via Nachos Grande

I refuse to make an immature joke in the title of this post.

I got no problem doing it in the body of the post.

HAY GUISE WANNA SEE MAH BALLS???

Of course you do, everyone wants to see my balls. Except my wife. She wants 'em downstairs with the rest of my useless junk. That was like a quadruple entendre there, but I digress. Fuji wants to see my balls, and I want him to give me some pussy, so you're gonna see my balls whether you want to or not.

One of the great collecting feats I've accomplished in my life was getting autographed baseballs from every Brave whose number was retired, not counting Jackie Robinson. This feat has been blown completely out of the water in the past few years since Atlanta is now in the process of retiring the number everyone who was on the team in 1995. But at one point, I had actually achieved this goal. Here's my balls, badly photographed because all my cameras suck ass at the moment.

First autographed ball I picked up ever was this Phil Niekro ball. I was working down in Conyers at the time and there was a little hole in the wall baseball card shop in a strip mall that I would check out from time to time. Lots of cheap Braves singles, not much else. One day they had this ball in the shop for $25. Phil's one of my favorites so I picked it up. I must have gotten this in late '97, since it has the H.O.F. - 97 inscription on it and I left that job that year. I didn't realize until after I bought it that it was an American League ball, but oh well, it's a Knucksie.

In the early '00s I was swimming in money (no kids!) so I splurged on this Eddie Mathews ball. Got this one at BP Sports down in Marietta. It was surprisingly inexpensive for a Hall of Famer 500 home run club auto but still more than I was accustomed to spending at the time. In retrospect, I wish I had taken a tenth of the money I blew on early 'aughts wax and dropped it on stuff like this instead.

The kids started showing up so I was no longer flush with cash. I found this Hank Aaron ball on Yahoo! auctions (anyone remember them?) for $50 and convinced my grandmother to make it my birthday present. The great thing about this pickup is that the card in the plastic case on the right was originally a 1958 Topps Hank Aaron All-Star card. It has since been replaced with the 1994 Topps gold card you see here. These ball stands suck by the way, the card holder broke and it was hard as hell to replace. the ball also falls out constantly unless you scotch tape the holder. Maybe I just got a crappy one, I dunno. The stuff inside the holder was more than worth it though.

Another birthday, another ball. I opted for the Warren Spahn ball this time which was a good thing because Warren sadly passed away the year after I got this one and the vultures came out and jacked the prices up. I also got this one from BP sports. On either the Spahn or the Mathews I forgot to get a COA, but I can't remember which. It doesn't really matter because I can't find the one COA I have anyway. I don't even care anymore because with all the shenanigans going on in the hobby 99% of everything is probably fake anyway. Including the stuff I got signed in person.

Dale Murphy capped off the retired number collection.  I got this one in 2007 for my birthday and was my second to last birthday present that I received from my grandmother. The ball was was purchased from Champion Sports Cards in Kennesaw which is my official LCS. This one is inscribed NL MVP 82, 83. Eventually I will pick up one that reads Dale Murphy - HOF but we'll have to wait for the veteran's committee for that one.

Since I got these balls, Maddux, Glavine, Bobby and Smoltz have gotten their numbers retired. Chipper's gonna get his retired next year. I knocked out these in ten years, you think I can knock out the next five in another ten?

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #2 Wantlist Fail Part 2

Yes I realize it's barely still June. I'm going at my own pace and no one can stop me. Except me and my laziness, I guess.

 Ok WAY the hell back here about 6 months ago I told you all about how I misplaced my wantlists and scribbled 'em out hastily a half hour before the show started and ended up messing up things royally and that's how I paid five bucks for a 1960 Frank Torre card in crappy condition that I already had in probably EX. That was not the only wantlist cock-up of the day. When I frantically wrote out my wantlists, I used my Braves binder as a guide and wrote down the numbers of all the ones I was missing. How do I write down missing numbers, you ask? Well, in this binder every open pocket is filled with something. usually either a slip of paper or a black & white printout of an image of the card I ganked off eBay with the card number written on it. Makes it easier when I fill a slot and I'm trying to figure out where it goes. The printed out cards make the page look nice too. Check out this page from 1964 Topps:

See how good that looks when you can see what all the cards look like? And the missing Tops In NL and Tommie Aaron cards still stick out for reference of which cards I still need. Nice, huh? I've done this in my Vintage Braves and 1953 Topps binder so far. I might do it for my '56 Topps binder too once I hit  60-70% complete. Don't wanna waste too much ink. Keen-eyed readers probably noticed one other odd thing about that page. If you didn't get it yet, I'll give you a couple minutes.

See it? How one of the cards looks a little too minty fresh? And the green is just a touch off? Or maybe you're a font geek like me and are writhing in agony at how incredibly wrong the Braves font is on the Hank Aaron card? Yep, that's not a real '64 Aaron. That's one of the reprints from 199? Topps. Don't remember the year, not gonna figure out the year. Look it up on BaseballCardPedia if you care so much. And don't tell anyone in the comments! Let 'em work for it! So yeah, that's not a real 1964 Topps Hank Aaron. This is:

That's the stuff. Right color green. Right font. Just a little beat up. Just like a real 1964 Topps Hank Aaron should look. So I needed three cards from that particular page in my binder.

I only wrote down two.

Aaron was not one of them.

Well, actually, Aaron was both of the cards I wrote down. Just not Hank Aaron all by his lonesome #300. That one I didn't write down because that 199X card was just so lifelike.

Wantlist fail! Again!

So then I saw this card in the bargain box. I saw two of 'em actually. I don't remember the exact price but it was a single digit odd number greater than 5. I don't know why I remember that when I can't just remember the damn price, but my brain is weird so deal. I looked in my wantlist, to my surprise did not see that I needed #300, looked at the card again, looked at my wantlist, looked at the card, and decided, fuck it, I need it for my 1964 Topps set that I am not technically building right now but oh well I NEED HANK. Turns out I did need Hank after all!

Moral of the story:
Not all failures are fail.
If you see a vintage Aaron for under a tenner buy the damn thing.
GET YOUR WANTLISTS TOGETHER YOU LAZY OAF

And actually I have gotten my wantlists together! I rewrote most of the major sets and series into a small easy to carry notebook that I used at the May show. I also found my red folder full of wantlists. Too late for the May show. I'm freaking loaded for the August show though!

One more card left! Actually more like five because I skipped a bit! But I don't care! I need to put this coutdown to bed already!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

Quickie LCS post

I shoulda been in bed 15 minutes ago, I have to be up again in less than 6 hours and I'm gonna be busy pretty much all day tomorrow. May as well write a post! On Saturday I went to the Braves' Open House at Turner Field with my son. I took a ton of crappy pics with my cell phone that I'm trying to get organized so I can share them this week. Opening Day's almost here! Gotta get ready! But I am most certainly not ready, so here's a few cards I picked up at the card shop before we went to the Ted instead. Here are the cards in the order I found them:

Hank's last card as a Brave in well loved condition. I needed this for both my main and team sets so I'll pick these suckas up all the live long day. This one cost a buck. Remember all those lottery tickets you bought last week? You could have bought this for the price of one of them tickets.

I have made it very clear that I am All In on J-Hey whether he ends up being the second coming of Willie McCovey or Brad Komminsk Part Deux. Even if he flops completely my extensive Michael Vick collection is assurance that I will still look upon my Heyward cards with fondness no matter what happens. This means I will gladly overpay for weird incomprehensible parallels in sets I despise as long as it has Jason on the front. Can you tell what the heck parallel this is? You get a +1 on your Card Nerdiness stat if you know!

I didn't think to bring my card lists with me so I scrounged the '65 box was hoping to find some cheap cards that I might not have. This .45 cost .50 so I snagged it and hoped for the best. I already had it. Not a total loss though, it could be the start of a Colt collection.

After the '65s I muddled through the '66s just because. The '66 high numbers are a colossal pain in the rump for a team collector. I still have not found that goddamn Chi Chi Olivo card anywhere for under $30. What is the deal with Chi Chi Olivo??? While passing up yet another Chi Chi card, I stumbled upon this one here. I had no idea this was even in the set and it sure wasn't ever on my '66 needs list. Good 'ol Topps and their Multi-team rookie cards. They didn't even know what to put in the team banner on the top left corner and just left it blank. 1966 Topps is a pretty bootleg design to begin with and this card might be the bootleggiest. If it weren't for that Braves cap, I'd swear this was an unlicensed card.

Ya knew there'd be a pony. Ya had to know. I practically telegraphed it with the Colt card up above. Two reasons I bought this card: I thought I needed it for my Goodwin set (I didn't) and the purple highlights in Smarty's mane make him look like Twilight Sparkle's brother.

Ok last one for today. I will always pick up an original Star Wars sticker out of a 50 cents box. ALWAYS. Especially if it is an X-wing. I need another one of these stickers so I can stick this one to my car.

There was one other thing I picked up, but I'm gonna save that for a video. Nope, it's not a wax pack either. You'l just have to be patient.

Affordable Aarons - Check

Chris Mays' article for Talking Chop today is on affordable Hank Aaron cards that every Braves collector should have. He lists out four categories of must-have-and-can-afford cards so I raided the binder to find examples of all four. I was going to try to pick cards he didn't mention in the post, but he mentioned just about every vintage Aaron in existence so I just went with four he didn't show a scan of instead.

(1) You should own a Hank Aaron card from the 1970s.

'74 Topps cards are cheap. Even the Hank. Hell, any card from the '70s seems to be cheap nowadays. A lot cheaper than they were in the '80s and '90s at least.

(2) You should buy certain Hank Aaron All-Star Cards.

The 1961 Topps All-Star card is a real bear, but pretty much all the rest are attainable. This '59 All-Star card didn't put me back too much. I got the '58 All-Star card as a throw-in with an autographed Hank ball I won on Yahoo! Auctions.

(3) You should buy a Hank Aaron card picturing other players.

The '57 Mantle-Aaron card will probably elude me forever, but you can pick up a nice '63 Hank & Ernie card pretty cheap. Heck, let's pick up two!

(4) You should buy a Hank Aaron any Vintage Superduperstar card in lesser condition.

'56 Hank is best Hank. Even with the holes, tears and warps. If you ever see a Mantle, Aaron, Mays, Clemente, Williams, Musial, etc. from the 50's all creased up with holes punched in it and a full beard augmenting the photo for dirt cheap and you DON'T buy it, you are no collector I want to associate with. Unless we are at the same card show and you see me heading for the table. In that case put the card down and back away slowly... you may lose an arm otherwise.

Not enough Hank for ye? Here's three more cheap and easy categories to chase.

(5) League Leader Cards

No one likes League Leader cards because 99% of the time player and team collectors don't want a card with someone they don't collect on it cluttering up the joint. The only exception to this rule is NL Pitching Leaders cards from the '60s. Dodger fans eat those up. This means you can get gems like this for peanuts.

Way better than Willie, Mickey and Duke, in my opinion.

(6) Vintage Topps Inserts and Oddballs

Topps put out a bunch of oddball sets and inserts in the '60s and '70s. Most of them only include one or two players from any given team. Guess who was usually the Braves' representative?

I've had this one since I was a kid. You have no idea the amount of willpower it took not to scratch off the game inside.

(7) Oddball sets

Topps wasn't the only game in town in the '60s, there were still plenty of oddball and regional sets floating around. Post, Salada coins, Milton Bradley, Exhibit cards...

And this Scoops card among many others. They are also usually much, much cheaper than a base Topps card.

Go out and get a cheap Hank! If I can do it so can you!

Ok, it only took 30 years and a considerable amount of insanity, but I did it.

June Vintage Show Top Ten #1

I had hoped to get the June card show list done by June, but I didn't. Oh well. It doesn't matter a bit because I have this card and this card is awesome.

1962 Topps #320 Hank Aaron

Ok, if you don't appreciate crummy looking cards the way I do just scroll up so the top of the curl in the corner is at the bottom of your screen and you have an awesome looking Hank Aaron card. If you do that, the card loses all its character, but you may do so if you wish. Go ahead, break my heart. Don't look upon this noble, battle proven warrior who survived a flood of biblical proportions and wears his scars with pride. Go look at some pristine mollycoddled card that was forgotten in someone's closet for 50 years and bought by some unscrupulous dealer for pennies on the dollar when uncle Jimmy croaked and subsequently entombed in a plastic prison for all eternity never to know the life experiences of cards like this.

You have to love people who abuse their cards. They not only make everyone else's cards more valuable through attrition, but they also allow scrounging bottom feeders like me to get awesome old cards for dirt cheap. I mean, look at this card! It's a Hank Aaron! From 1962! Back when I first started collecting, 1962 was OLD. Like, ancient history old. 1963 cards I could find. 1962 cards were just too old. They may as well have been authentic copies of the Declaration of Independence. In the original Klingon, no less! The thing just looks old, they're made out of wood. Antiqued wood. Not like the wood laminate 1987 cards. Those aren't old, those are cheap. They are a particleboard bookshelf compared to a solid hardwood Chippendale. The furniture kind. 1962 Topps is the Mona Lisa, 1987 Topps is Gary Larson parodying Frank Zappa's homage to Salvador Dali ripping off Marcel Duchamp doing a piss take on the Mona Lisa. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing, but what I'm trying to say is 1962 Topps is freaking OLD. And I got a HANK AARON. For like, SEVEN FIDDY. With the decimal point in between the SEVEN and the FIDDY. Just because the thing got a little wet and decided to take some bits of another '62 card along with it at some point.

Ok so you don't feel sorry for this card. It's ugly and spoiled and worthless and what the hell, man. Why do I buy this crap when there's some super cool mojo out there to get instead. Shiny stuff with bits of things embedded in them and actual authenticated scribbles right on the card.  This is a bad card and I should feel bad. You have no sympathy for this crummy card.

Well then, how about the other water damaged 1962 Hank Aaron card in the same bargain box as this one? The one I didn't get? The one that was left behind? The one that remained abandoned and neglected while this lucky card got to come home with me and be loved and get scanned and posted on the internet and go into a special binder in a place of honor with all its friends from the 1962 set. How about that card? That poor, Forever Alone card? Feel bad about that card? Yes, there were two of them in there. Two water damaged '62 Hanks. Dangit, why couldn't someone have screwed up a 1960 Aaron too. Heck, that other Aaron might still be in that bargain box. Don't feel bad... You may one day have a chance to get a crummy awesome card your very own!