Flea Market Finds - 6/13 Video edition

I promised a grab bag rip, and you got a grab bag rip. I got waaaaay too excited over a pile of junky cards, but there was some neat stuff in there. Below are the top 10 cards from the pack as determined by me:

#1 Crime Dog

#2 Prime Time poster

#3 '83 Topps League Leader blank back oddball

#4 Kirby

#5 Keith Dan & Jose

#6 Molly

#7 Julio

#8 Chicken Man

#9 Old Blue Jays sticker

#10 Pedro as a Dodger

Also, here's the complete list of cards in the pack.

2006 Topps Alex Rodriguez
1990 Score Kirby Puckett
1993 Score Select Paul Molitor
1983 Topps League Leaders (cut from sheet) Willie Wilson
1981 Fleer Fungused Dwayne Murphy
1981 Fleer Tom Donohue
1981 Fleer Buddy Bell
1981 Fleer Jim Clancy
1984 Donruss Eddie Milner
1983 Donruss Craig Swan
1983 Donruss Luis Leal
(2) 1982 Fleer Roy Smalley
1985 Topps Sixto Lezcano
1985 Topps Joel Youngblood
1985 Topps Ron Romanick
1985 Topps Dwight Evans
1985 Topps Luis Leal
1985 Topps Dane Iorg
1985 Topps Keith Hernandez All Star
1985 Topps Al Bumbry
1985 Topps Joe Cowley
1981 Fleer Pat Putnam
1997 Leaf Fred McGriff
1981 Fleer Ron Hassey
1981 Fleer Roberto Ramos
Texas Rangers sticker
1991 Donruss Rafael Palmiero MVP
2003 Upper Deck Pedro Martinez
1997 Collector's Choice Jose Canseco The Big Show
1994 Score Bobby Munoz
1994 Score Brad Pennington
1994 Bowman Kenny Felder
1997 Pinnacle Mark Thompson
1997 Pinnacle Greg Myers
1990 Topps Rafael Belliard
1996 Donruss Vince Coleman
Toronto Blue Jays sticker
1993 Topps Clemens/Maddux All Star
2005 Topps Pedro Martinez
1998 Topps Pedro Martinez
1994 Fleer Pedro Martinez
2005 Upper Deck Classics Jack Clark
1994 Bowman's Best Julio Franco
1994 Pinnacle Kirby Puckett
1997 Leaf Barry Larkin
1986 Topps Wade Boggs

The Posters:
1997 Fleer Sports Illustrated Deion Sanders
1997 Fleer Sports Illustrated Andres Galarraga/Vinny Castilla

Not too shabby for a buck! If you really want to see the horror that is Fungus Card, leave a comment and I'll fish it out of the bin and scan it for you.

Last of the basketball cards (at least 'till the playoffs)

Here's the rest of the vintage hoops cards. Sick of 'em yet? Don't worry, the NBA playoffs are still a couple of weeks away. I'll spare you the hoops 'till then.

1974-75 Kermit Washington

Punch one guy in the face and that's all anyone talks about. Kermit was a good player! He was a big enforcer who could clean the boards, block some shots and keep anyone from messing with Kareem. And hey, Rudy T was about to mess with Kareem. If Tomjanovich up and bum rushed President Carter instead of Kareem that day, Secret Service would have taken him out. That's what Kermit was, Lakers Secret Service. Ok, so it was scary. Thanks to the incident the NBA codified their fighting rules which has been good for the game even if it gets silly when people are suspended in the playoffs for getting off the bench and stepping their pinky toe on the court during a fight. Rudy got better and ended up a title winning coach. Did you know Kermit coached a team to a championship? He led the 2004-2005 Asheville Altitude (the whaa?) to the NBDL title.

Seriously though, he's a good guy who is active in charitable works. And check out the biographical blurb - he's in a class with Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, Dr. J, Artis Gilmore (Why the hell isn't he in the Hall of Fame yet?!?!) Paul Silas and Walter Dukes as the only players to average 20 points and 20 boards in college. No one's done it since Kermit.

1973-74 NBA Checklist

This checklist is a little sad because someone obviously started checking off their basketball cards, but gave up after just 6 cards. Why did they do that? Thay had some good cards - Tiny Archibald, Nate Thurmond, Clyde Frazier... Did they just get bored? Did a friend or big brother chide them for marking up their checklist? Were they sorting their cards in the middle of the freeway and then - WHAMMO? It's a mystery that may never be solved. I felt bad for this poor neglected card so I checked off the box for the checklist and the box for the next card coming up...

1973-74 Garfield Heard

This photo is legendary. You hear me?

LEGEN -

wait for it...

DARY.

He's shooting a jump shot in the bathroom. And trying to figure out how the hell he's going to put arc on the ball when he's already skimming the ceiling. If there's a better photo on a trading card that prominently features grout badly in need of scrubbing, then I'd like to know about that photo. I don't think it exists, quite frankly.

Topps completely disrespected the man who would make The Shot with this card. You have the bathroom jumper on the front, and the cartoon back has ouchie stars coming from Gar's crotch. What the hell, Topps? Respect the Garfield!

1975-76 Campy Russell

Kermit, Garfield and Campy. What a group of awesome names. Campy didn't get his nickname for his outdoorsmanship or love of musical theater, his middle name is Campanella. Gotta love the Cavs jersey with the stripes. Sometimes I think the NBA awards bonus money for the ugliest uniforms.

This is Campy's rookie card. There were four rookies in the pack, Dennis Awtry, John Long, Kermit Washington and Russell. I wonder if there are more rookie cards in vintage basketball sets than in baseball sets. Perhaps due to less players, less cards and more player churn? The extra ABA cards probably provide a lot of rookies in the '70s sets. Someone needs to do a statistical analysis on that.

1987-88 Fleer Charles Barkley Sticker

We finish up with the Round Mound of Rebound's second year Fleer sticker. This set is the only one from the ealry Fleer releases where I didn't buy any packs. I probably would have if I had ever seen any. I have a few cards from the set but nowhere near a complete set. It's a shame because I really like the design. The stickers are pretty cool too, and were a neat chase set back then. I wonder how many of these stickers ended up getting stuck on something?

Fleer wasn't stingy with the word count on these stickers, which was another cool thing about them. They were efficient too. No flowing prose for them, just factoids separated by ellipses. There's a lot of information packed into these cards! You can see Barkley's progression into an All-star and eventually a legend.

Good stuff for four bucks! Beats the hell out of a hobby pack of UDX, that's for sure.

Even more old basketball cards

Yay! We have a College Basketball final! That means it's all over tomorrow! No more college basketball more months and months! I don't care for the two teams in the finals but as long as they don't play again later next week I'm cool with it. Here's five more cards from the grab bag of 20 (?) cards for 4 bucks.

1973-74 Jerry Lucas

This pack was chock full 'o Hall of Famers. Jerry won an NCAA championship with Ohio State, a gold medal with the 1960 Olympic team and trainwrecked a basketball franchise owned by George Steinbrenner before playing a single minute in the NBA. He later won a title with the Knicks, before retiring to make a living by remembering things.

The man was a rebound machine, but also a talented magician! Watch him pull a rabbit out of his hat! (again?!?)

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!

He doesn't know his own strength!

1974-75 NBA Checklist

Here's the companion to that ABA checklist I posted. The poor sap was not only missing the Julius Erving card but also didn't have Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Sounds like most of my sets!

1975-76 Washington Bullets

Elvin Hayes, Hall of Fame. Wes Unseld, Hall of Fame. Any wonder the Bullets won the NBA title in the '70s? Clem Haskins had to retire before the bullets won that title and later got involved in a brouhaha as coach of the Minnesote Golden Gophers.

You see a lot of Hayes and Unseld on the back of this card. Combine the two and you've got the number of times Earl Monroe lead the Bullets in a statistical category. Well, at least from 1966-1975. Wes and Elvin piled up a lot more stats when it was all said and done. I hate the new Nickname-that-shall-not-be-named. They're the Washington Bullets and they have weird red white and blue stripey uniforms forever as far as I'm concerned so get off my lawn you Harry Potter reading whippersnappers!

1974-75 Nate Thurmond

Ho hum, another Hall of Famer. Nate had 14437 points and 14464 rebounds. Now that's a ballplayer. Nate is also a bit of a ninja, as he is well camouflaged into the background on this card. Now you know how he got all those boards.

Fouteen thousand rebounds gets you a Rolls Royce. Now you know kids! Work on those ninja skills and you can have a car with a flying lady hood ornament. Note that the Warriors used to be the San Francisco Warriors. Golden State always bugs me. It sounds like a college team for one thing. I want NBA basketball not college basketball so forget Golden State. the other thing is that San Francisco is a world-class city, why euphemize that one into Golden State? I could understand if it was the Fresno Warriors, but let Frisco be Frisco. Yes, I have a ton of neurotic hangups about NBA franchises and their choice of team names, wanna fight about it?

1988-89 Fleer Charles BarkleyAll-Star Team

This photo and especially the WTF look on the poor Clipper's face is awesome. Look at it. Savor it.

Most of the pack was '70s basketball, but there were a couple of Fleer cards in there too for good measure. This one shows pretty well why Barkley was such a good rebounder. 1988-89 Fleer was the first full box of basketball cards that I bought and it's a pretty nice set. Lots of rookies and it has sort of held it's value, at least compared to most of the other stuff released at that time. I'm a Barkley fan too, so this is a nice one to find.

Late tonight or early tomorrow I'll post the last five. Then... a surprise!

More old basketball cards

Here's the next five cards from the four dollar grab bag of vintage basketball cards.

1974-75 Paul Westphal

Another nifty design from the '70s. The name down the side would be seen 10 years later in the baseball set. The action background was seen 20 years before in the 1955 All American football set. The day-glo colors were pure '70s. Paul is a Celtic here, but had his best years as a player and eventually coach of the Phoenix Suns. 

Why are all the girls in the cartoons beauty queens? Why no Mother Teresas or Golda Meirs or Gertude Steins? I don't know why they would ever be mentioned on the back of a basketball card from the '70s, but still. The beauty queen has a mad crossover dribble though. 

1973-74 Chet Walker

Looks like Chet is getting stripped by a Milwaukee player. I had never heard of Chet before, but he was a scoring machine in the '60s and early '70s. Chet is a seven time All-Star with almost 19,000 points in his career. 

Chet was a rookie with the Syracuse Nationals the year before they became the Philadelphia 76ers. He also won a title with the 76ers in 1967 as a teammate of Wilt Chamberlain.

1979-80 James McElroy

Jim played with the New Orlens Jazz but moved on to Detroit the year they moved to Utah. He also played a few years with the Hawks but 78-79 was Jim's best season in the pros. 

Can someone explain to me why the team kept Jazz as a nickname once they moved to Salt Lake? It's not like the Osmonds were known for their Dixieland sound. 

1975-76 Dave Bing

Detroit legend Dave Bing gets no respect on this card. I love the look on his face as he stares at the cameraman. "Why the heck are you photographing me while I stretch? What's the matter with you??"

The 19667-67 NBA Rookie of the Year had played his last game for Detroit when this card came out. Two more years with the Bullets and one more with Boston and he retired. He was elected tot he Hall of Fame in 1990.

1979-80 John Long

In the last post I mentioned that some '79-80 basketball cards were among the first I ever owned. One of the ones I got way back when was this card of John Long. I've always associated Long with the Hawks even though he only played one year with them. Probably because I had this card for so long. Notice the Washington Bullet player int he background. a ton of photos from these old sets were taken at Washington home games for some reason. 

This was Long's rookie card and the Detroit native had a pretty solid rookie season for the Pistons.  He had a good ten year run as a starter before he started coming off the bench. 11 more cards to go and we'll be through that grab bag. There's a few more Hall of Famers, more checklists and a sticker yet to come!

Is there a basketball tournament going on?

I guess it's like Kansas or Duke in the finals or something? I honestly hadn't noticed. I'm just glad that Georgia State Basketball is no longer interrupting my indie college rock on Album 88 anymore. I got to post basketball stuff though, so here's the first of 4 posts featuring the contents of that 20 card vintage hoops grab bag I bought at the card show a couple of months ago for 4 bucks. I broke it up into four posts because I don't want to upload 40 images all at once.

1972-72 Dennis Awtrey

Red, red card and blue, blue eyes. The eyes would pop out even more had I not screwed up the scan. Awtrey actually had a decent career in the NBA, 12 years performing the "big white guy in the paint" role to perfection. I just like the card for that groovy font for the team name.

Topps used this design for their Basketball Heritage set a few years ago. It's probably the last vintage Topps basketball design we'll see from Topps for a long time, unless they swipe a few for their next Wrestling Heritage set.

197?? ABA Checklist

I can't remember the year and I don't feel like figuring it out right now. Topps had two checklists for the year, separated into NBA and ABA players. This is a well checked checklist.

Notice the poor sap was only missing 10 cards from his ABA set and one was Dr. J. That makes me sad for that poor collector from 20 years ago.

1973-74 Dave DeBusschere

Hall of Famer with over 14 thousand points and a couple of rings. Better known among card geeks as having a1963 Topps rookie card for his time with the White Sox. All the All-Star cards from this set had the action photo with the floating head on the corner.

1973-74 was Dave's last season, and the cartoon points out his new gig as the Nets' new GM. Gotta love the green text on a red background.

1979-80 John Drew

Yeah, a Hawk! Drew was a great scorer for Atlanta and was the guy they traded for Dominique Wilkins. Cards from this set were some of the first I ever had. I pulled them out of a penny box. I thin kI loked them because the basketball with the team name circling it reminded me of Saturn. I was a very geeky little boy.


Now this is how you use red on the back of a card. Black on red, everything's readable except for maybe the card number.

1975-76 Willie Norwood

Now that is a classic face. Rembrandt would have loved to paint that face. That face isn't even ruined by the goofy airbrushing of Willie's Detroit Pistons Jersey with, um, Pistons colors. Suns colors are blue and orange! The really stange thing is that Willie didn't play a single game with the Suns, he was with the Sonics (R.I.P) in '75-76. I have an urge to find a green Sharpie and correct this travesty.

This is one of my favorite basketball sets. The design is nice and simple, there's lots of interesting photos in the sets and it's a fairly large set packed with ABA players if I remember correctly. The back is fairly unique too with the big circle o' bio information.

I hope you enjoyed that because I have 15 more cards to show odd before the Championship game. Hooray for old basketball cards!