TOP THIRTY CARDS FROM NIGHT OWL'S JUNK DUMP GIVEAWAY BOX - #10-1

 wooooo it's the top tem notherfuckers

WHOOPS WHAT HAPPENED THERE. LET'S JUST JUMP RIGHT IN AND SPEAK OF THIS NO MORE

#10 - 2018 STADIUM CLUB BO JACKSON

I KNOW UNLIKE THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE I'M NOT REALLY A BIG FAN OF STADIUM CLUB BUT DAAAAAAAAAMN THIS CARD LOOKS GOOD. I SHOULD MAYBE QUIT THINKING ABOUT STADIUM CLUB IN SET BUILDING TERMS AND MAYBE TO A FRANKENSET OR EVEN JUST A SINGLE PAGE PER YEAR OF SUPER COOL CARDS LIKE THIS

#9 1986 TOPPS TRADED TOM SEAVER

1986 TOPPS I AM ABSOLUTELY A BIG FAN OF. ALSO TOM SEAVER. RED SOX? MAYBE NOT. BUT AIRBRUSHING? HELL YES. I HAVE LIKE FOUR OTHER COPIES OF THIS CARD AND I DON'T CARE, IT'S GREAT

#8 - 1992 SPACE SHOTS SERIES 3 RUSSELL "RUSTY" SCHWEICKART

SO I WAS GOOGLING AROUND TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHAT YEAR THIS CARD WAS FROM AND DISCOVERED THAT THERE WAS A BIG SCANDAL WHERE SCHOLARSHIP MONEY FROM A CONTEST AND PROMISED DONATIONS TO THE ASTRONAUT MEMORIAL FUND FROM THIS SET'S PROFITS WERE NEVER PAID. SHADY SHIT HAPPENING DURING A COLLECTIBLES BOOM? SHOCKING. THE SET IS STILL PRETTY DOPE AND I WISH I COULD FIND A BUNCH CHEAP

#7 - 1980 KELLOGG'S PETE ROSE

FOR JUST ABOUT EVERY VINTAGE SET I TRY TO COLLECT, PETE ROSE IS ONE OF THE LAST FIVE CARDS I NEED. INCLUDING THE 1979 KELLOGG'S SET. IT'S SO DAMN NICE TO GET ONE OF THEM EARLY ON IN THE SET BUILDING PROCESS

#6 - 1965 DONRUSS FREDDIE AND THE DREAMERS

IN A WEIRD BIT OF SYNCHRONICITY, RIGHT BEFORE I GOT THESE CARDS I SAW A HERO HABIT YOUTUBE VIDEO ON THIS SET AND THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A NEAT CARD TO TRY TO FIND. THEN THIS ONE ARRIVED. THIS PICTURE HERE IS ONE OF THE MOST BRITISH THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN

#5 2021 DIAMOND KINGS WILLIAM CONTRERAS

AWW YEAH! WILD BILL ROOKIE CARD! PLAY THEM TRUMPETS!

IN MILWAUKEE NOW, BUT PLAY THEM TRUMPETS

#4 1959 TOPPS ROCKY COLAVITO BASEBALL THRILLS

JUNK BOXES SHOULD NOT CONTAIN GREAT LOOKING 1959 TOPPS CARDS, BUT THIS ONE DID. AND EVEN BETTER, I DIDN'T ALREADY HAVE THIS CARD! THIS WOULD EASILY BE THE #1 CARD ON ANYONE ELSE'S LIST BUT I AM A WEIRDO WHO LOVES STUPID STUFF

#3 - 2020 TOPPS BIG LEAGUE RONALD ACUñA JR STAR CARICATURE

I'M NOT CRAZY ABOUT BIG LEAGUE, AND THIS IS CHARITABLY AN ODD LOOKING CARD BUT IT'S AN ACUñA INSERT I DID NOT HAVE AND HAD NOT SEEN BEFORE, SO YOU BET I'M SUPER HAPPY TO GET IT

#2 1980 TOPPS YOU'LL DIE LAUGHING STUDIO 54

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE TRADING CARDS OF OLD MONSTER MOVIES BUT HAD NEVER STUMBLED ACROSS ANY FROM THIS PARTICULAR SET BEFORE. I REALLY APPRECIATE THE TOPICAL NATURE OF THIS JOKE, YOU'RE NOT SEEING A STUDIO 54 GAG ON A MONSTER CARD AT ANY OTHER TIME BESIDES 1980. THIS PHOTO IS FROM THE FILM "MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS" WHICH I'M PRETTY SURE I HAVE SEEN BEFORE BUT CAN REMEMBER NOTHING ABOUT

#1 - OLD-ASS THING I CAN'T REMEMBER CLAIRE WINDSOR

AT ONE POINT I FIGURED OUT WHAT SET THIS WAS FROM BUT I FORGOT ALREADY AND DON'T WANT TO GO THROUGH ALL THAT SEARCHING AGAIN. CLAIRE WINDSOR (ORIGINALLY NAMED OLA CRONK) WAS A POPULAR SILENT FILM ACTRESS IN THE 20S KNOWN FOR GLAMOROUS ROLES. THE MOVIE MENTIONED ON THE CARD IS FROM 1922 AND IS PARTLY LOST, THE LAST TWO REELS ARE NOW MISSING. BUT HUNDRED YEAR OLD CARDS DON'T DROP FROM THE SKY VERY OFTEN AND EVEN THOUGH I DON'T KNOW THE SET, THE ACTOR OR EVEN WHERE TO WATCH THE FILM THIS LAST LITTLE BIT OF EPHEMERA LETTING US KNOW IT ALL EXISTED IS PRETTY FANTASTIC

BIG THANKS AGAIN TO NIGHT OWL FOR CLEANING ALL THE CRAP OUT OF HIS CARD ROOM!

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!

June Vintage Show Top Ten #2

Two to go in the top 10 vintage countdown. This one is pretty self-explanatory.

1972 Topps # 309 Roberto Clemente

Just a player tossing a ball around at the ballpark.

There were a few beat up superstar vintage cards I thought about getting. Once was a 1960 Topps Ernie Banks that was kind of painful to put back. I couldn't pass up on Clemente in the '72 set though. If this one is #2, can ya imagine what the #1 card could be?

June Vintage Show Top Ten #3

All righty then. back to the countdown. Today we have a card from a pre-war set about Indians featuring a white dude who founded Texas.

1933 Goudey Indian Gum No. 61 Sam Houston

The groundbreaking 1933 Goudey baseball card set had a sister non-sports set featuring Indian Chiefs. If you look on the back of a '33 Goudey card you'll see an ad at the bottom "Made by the originators of INDIAN GUM". Well, these cards were the inserts in those Indian Gum packs. There are 216 cards in the set, but the set was issued in a gigantic number of different series so there are 432 cards in the master set when you account for all the variations. The cards are even more colorful than the baseball series, and if you find the '33 baseball cards to be too pricey, you can find copies of the Indian set really cheap instead. While the early cards in the set focused on Indian Chiefs, somewhere along the line it devolved into a Wild West theme and cards were produced of distinctly non-Indian subjects such as General Custer, Billy the Kid and The Pony Express. Sam Houston was at least an adopted member of the Cherokee Tribe and fought for Indian rights while in the US senate.

There is absolutely nothing I can say about Sam Houston that isn't better said on the back of this card.

This adventurous daring pioneer when a mere boy left home and joined the Cherokee Indian tribe. At the age of 21 he was fighting the Creeks in Alabama receiving wounds from which he never fully recovered. In 1836 with 783 men, he surprised the Chief, Santa Anna, and in fifteen minutes killed and captured all of the 1300 Indians including Santa Anna himself. Always the good Indians' friend, while a Texas Senator at Washington, he arrayed himself in full Indian costume and pleaded the cause of the Redman.

They just don't write card backs like that anymore. Things I learned from this card:

• Sam Houston was a member of the Cherokee tribe.
• Sam fought people from Alabama, which is perfectly reasonable for anyone from Tennessee.
• General Santa Anna was an Indian Chief of the Mexico tribe. Wait.. what??
• Sam was a member of the Washington Senators, and helped engineer their move to Texas by wearing a Cleveland Indians uniform. 
• Sam is a great fan of Redman, which means he probably also loves the movie How High.

Makes you wonder how ridiculous all these blog posts will be 80 years from now.

Bowman Beaters - Chicago White Sox

I got five minutes to type this one out. Here's some beat up old White Sox cards.

Minnie Minoso! Should be in the Hall of Fame. Probably will eventually get in once it's too late for him to appear at the induction ceremony. I've been over all that before so I'll skip the bitterness today. The condition of this card is terrible, massive paper loss on the back and front. But who cares? It's Minnie! I have no idea what Minnie is doing with that bat.

Chico Carrasquel, the original Venezuelan shortstop. Pee-Wee Reese blocked Chico in Brooklyn so the White Sox got his All-Starry abilities. This card also has a lot of paper loss on the front. These were two players I had to snag for a quarter regardless of condition. Chico and Minnie for four bits? Gotta take that.

Bowman Beaters - New York Giants

Let's post one of these at two in the morning, shall we? Because my sleep schedule is all screwed and I've clicked on everything in my bookmark folder already. Here's a couple of mangled New York Giants.

 Longtime Giants player and future manager Alvin Dark. Al started his career as a Brave, winning the Rookie of the Year award in 1948. He got traded to the Giants in 1950 and went on to several All-Star appearances and a World Series championship in 1954. He later took the Giants to the World Series again as manager in 1962, and won it all as manager in 1974 with the Oakland A's. Like Vern Law from the last post, this card is not in the terrible shape most of the quarter cards were. No parer stuck to the front and no paper loss on the back. Just a very large water mark on the top and right side of the card, and a crease going across the top that looks like the card got caught in something. Not a terrible looking card, although I am not a fan of the light wood borders from the first series.

Ah, now this is much better. Hank Thompson is one of those players that were terribly important to the history of baseball but no one knows about. You know who Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby are, right? Well Hank here is the third black player to play in the majors after integration. He integrated the St. Louis Browns in 1947 along with Negro League star Willard Brown, then he did the same thing for the Giants two years later along with Monte Irvin. Hank didn't get a chance to integrate another team as he finished out his career with 8 solid seasons with the Giants playing third, second and the outfield. Hank Thompson has firsts all over the place and his cards are cheaper than Jackie's. Actually Jackie Robinson doesn't have a 1955 Bowman card due to the contract fights they were having with Topps. Larry Doby doesn't have a 1955 card at ALL. If you want a groundbreaker in 1955 Bowman, Hank's your man.

June Vintage Show Top Ten #4

Every time I his a card show that has any decent vintage sellers at all, I do not allow myself to leave the premises without knocking out at least one card on my 1953 Topps Wantlist.  Right now I am still at the point where I can usually find a card I need for under 20 bucks. That window is shrinking rapidly. Eight out of the 14 low numbers I need are Hall of Famers. Several of those are HALL OF FAMERS with bold, italic, underlined large red font. Thankfully there are still a lot of commons I can pick up out of the high series numbers. This high series card is not a common, it's a Hall of Famer.

1953 Topps #228 Hal Newhouser

Lefty "Prince" Hal Newhouser absolutely ruined the American League from 1944 to 1946. His totals for those years: 80 wins, 27 losses, five saves. 20 shutouts. 674 Strikeouts. 1/99 ERA. 2 MVPs. One World Championship. Hal relied on good control and a ridiculous curve ball to get batters out. Hal's number was retired by the Tigers in 1997, five years after he was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's committee. Miserable spoilsports will point to the fact that Hal's best years were in wartime and that he only had 207 wins and he was a Detroit Tiger and not a New York Yankee, and that the only players that should be allowed into the hall of Fame are the ones who have bold, italic, underlined large red font by their names, but to those spoilsports, I say fie. Fie and phooey. Harold Newhouser beat the Cubs in the seventh game of the 1945 World Series and for that alone, he is a Hall of Famer to me.

The career stat line on this card shows that Hal got his 200th win in 1952. His arm was pretty much kaputt after that one. He won no games in 1953 and his final year in 1955. In '54 he had a comeback as a reliever for the Cleveland Indians and got in one last World Series. At the show there were a handful of '53 short prints I needed. Hal was the only Hall of Famer in the bunch so I opted for this one to add the the collection for this trip.

There was one other Hall of Famer I could have picked up at the show. In the off-grade expensive card case there was a '53 Topps card I needed. It had a $50 price tag on it and with the show discount I could have picked it up for $44. In order to buy it I would have had to run to the bank and get out more cash which I probably could have gotten away with but really shouldn't have done. In the end, I decided to sleep on it, and if I really had to have it I could hit the show real quick on my lunch break on Sunday. As it turned out, that Sunday, my water heater sprung a leak which eventually turned into a flooded basement and about a grand on the Lowe's credit card. So I certainly didn't have the time to go get it and when all was said and done, really didn't have the money. I will end up regretting it however. I know this now and honestly I knew it as I walked out that door on that Saturday.

I left a 1953 Topps Yogi Berra on the table for $44.

A few years from now when the only cards I need for this set are HALL OF FAMERS and I look at the price tags for a '53 Yogi, I will regret it. Just as much as I regret not getting that '53 Jackie Robinson for $25 at a card show back in 1990. I'll regret it and then go take a hot shower.

June Vintage Show Top Ten #5

This is one of those cards I never thought in a million years I'd get at the June vintage show.

BUT I DIIIIIIIID.....

1965 Topps #16 Houston 1965 Rookie Stars

Aww yeah! A Sonny Jackson rookie card! Sonny was a shortstop and center fielder for the Braves from 1968 to 1974. Tommy's best year was in 1966 with Houston where he came in second to Tommy Helms in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. Houston traded Sonny to the Braves after the 1967 season for Denny LeMaster and Denis Menke. Sonny was on the 1969 NL West Championship team, but only played one game in the -

OK FINE.

IT'S A JOE MORGAN ROOKIE CARD.

I HATE JOE MORGAN WORSE THAN STEVEN STRASBORK

IF I WAS IN A ROOM WITH ADOLF HITLER, OSAMA BIN LADEN AND JOE MORGAN AND I HAD A GUN WITH TWO BULLETS I'D WAIT UNTIL GARY BETTMAN WALKED IN THE ROOM, SHOOT GARY TWICE AND THEN CONCETRATE REALLY HARD AND KICK JOE IN THE NUTS.

Cause, you know, those other two guys are already dead. And fuck Gary Bettman. Let's just say I hate Joe Morgan. This is me hating Joe Morgan:  >:O

I got Joe's rookie card though. It's got a big crease on the corner, it's way off center and there's a blop of ink missing on the back near the number. But it's also a 1965 Topps card from the 1st series and I'm actively collecting that series. It was also three bucks. Same as a pack of Bowman. Aren't Hall of Fame rookie cards supposed to be expensive or something?? I'm having my beliefs on card values seriously shaken lately.

June Vintage Show Top Ten #6

Real quick one because I'm busy.

1941 Play Ball #24 "Dutch" Leonard

Pre-war, decent shape, TWO BUCKS! blue ink. At least the blue goes with the border.

Did you know there are two Dutch Leonards? At least two... I got the All-Star righty knuckleballer, not the lefty Ty Cobb hater with the .096 ERA. I didn't recognize it when I grabbed the card (basically because pre-war card for 2 bucks) but I already had a card of righty Dutch from the 1953 Topps set. Even though the other Dutch played in the teens and twenties, I happen to have a card of him too... from the 1979 Topps set.

June Vintage Show Top Ten #7

Tonight we have some 1954 Topps action for the price of a 2011 retail pack.

1954 Topps #226 Jeshosie Heard

The little green dot on the card sleeve means it was two bucks. Yes, this is Orioles Day on the blog. Here's a '54 rookie card of pitcher Jehosie "Jay" Heard. I think it was the only Topps card Jay ever got, as he made two appearances for the O's in '54 before being sent back to the Pacific Coast League. Those two games were significant ones as Jehosie was the first black player on the Baltimore Orioles.

The Orioles had technically integrated seven years earlier when the St. Louis Browns called up Hank Thompson and Willard Brown to the club in 1947. Jehosie was still the first for the franchise to wear a Baltimore uniform. Despite never playing baseball until playing on an Army team during World War Two, Jay went on to win a pennant with his hometown Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues and pitched well in the minors and Pacific Coast League. The 'toons on the back of the card feature his 20-win season and no-hitter in 1952. I actually passed this card up at least once at previous shows but I'm glad I finally picked it up. There's some real gems in the bargain box if you just look...

June Vintage Show Top Ten #8

Two of my favorite things in one card: 1960 Topps and the Ol' Perfessor.

1960 Topps #227 Casey Stengel

Look at this wonderfully beat up old mess. The card is looking rough too. Yankees are always at a premium when buying vintage cards, but thankfully the rich card snobs who love snapping up Yanks don't like the crummy grades. You know, the ones where PSA sends the card back to you ungraded  along with a restraining order. This is one of those cards. Big ol' crease right across the NY logo, another going right through his schnozz and grimy scuff marks everywhere. Looks like a Red Sox fan got a hold of this one. There was actually two of these in the bargain box. This scuffed up hot mess and one that was so worn that it had corners rounder than playing cards. I chose this one for some reason.

1960 Topps manager cards have completely cartoonized backs. Some of the other manager's cartoons have fairly generic faces drawn but not Stengel's. The artist made sure that Casey's cartoon looked as much as the Old Man of the Mountain as possible. Even the cartoon of his World Series exploits makes him look like a craggy Dick Tracy villain. The artist's tour de force in this set has to be Casey explaining exactly how he won all those pennants to a nonplussed Oscar Madison. "It's a habit I developed... George Weiss keeps sending me Hall of Famers, and I keep winning pennants..."  Note carefully that Casey was once the manager of my beloved Braves! Remember when Joe Torre was hired as manager of the Yankees and everyone was like " Torre? THAT bum? How the hell did he get the job? Got some incriminating pictures of George or something?" Yeah, it was pretty much the same thing for Casey after managing the hapless Braves (and Bees). I still claim Casey as a bona-fide Brave. Now I gotta track down his 1940 Play Ball card.

June Vintage Show Top Ten #9

A quick one for a Friday night, there's not much to say on this one...

1961 Topps #463 Milwaukee Braves Team

Yaaaay, a Team card. A very red team card. It looks like the photographer put them up against a green screen so he could put some nice trees or a bunch of puppies in the background, but he screwed it up because he was colorblind. Now instead of America's Team they're the Devil's team. Actually, the Braves weren't really America's Team until Ted Turner showed up. Just scratch that, forget I said anything. It's late.

Braves had a pretty nice team in 1960. They came in second to the World Champion Pirates that year mainly because the Pirates owned them. Spahnnie went 1-5 against the Bucs. Ouch. Batting leaders: Joe Adcock, Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron. Very nice. Odd thing about this card - it's #463. Problem is that Orioles pitcher Jack Fisher is card #463 in the 1961 set according to the 6th series checklist. The 5th series checklist shows the Milwaukee Braves team card as #426. So was Jack's number on the back of his card #426? Nope. Topps gave you two #463s and no #426 in 1961. The Braves team card is now forever #463a. Better than a super short printed #661 I suppose.

June Vintage Show Top Ten #10

Yep, going to do another countdown from a card show. I'm not going to drag this one out forever though. I'm going to have every post written in 15 minutes or else you'll get a half-written post. #10 is a favorite player from a favorite set with a special bonus.

1972 Topps #436 Reggie Jackson In Action

1972 Topps is my ether, and there is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. I binged a little last weekend with some Reggie Jax. There were quite a few In Action cards of some pretty high rollers in the bargain box including such legends as Seaver, Clemente and Killebrew. I settled in on Reggie because, well, I like me some Reggie, and also because there are special  subjects on the back of the In Action cards. Here's the back of this one:

FREE HANK WITH REGGIE! One of the special back subsets were faux newspaper clipping highlights from the previous season. On April 27th, 1971 Hank bopped one off of fellow future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry to join Willie and the Babe as the only players with 600 homers. I'm also impressed with the Atlanta Journal masthead on the top of the card. Topps got the font right and everything, something they haven't been able to do much lately. I'm in somewhat of a quandary now though... does this go in the 1972 Topps binder or the '72 Topps Braves Team set?