APRIL 2024 CARD SHOW PART 1: PATRICK'S QUARTER BOX

GETTING A PROPER APRIL CARD SHOW POST UP IN APRIL, HELL YEAH. THIS SHOW WENT LIKE MOST OTHER SHOWS. SCOUT OUT THE VINTAGE TABLE AT THE FRONT, GLANCE AT SOME CASES FULL OF STUFF I CAN'T AFFORD. REVEL IN THE COMFORT OF THE QUARTER BOX [YOU ARE HERE], PASS BY MORE TABLES WITH HIGH/NO PRICES, DIVE INTO DIME BOX CARDS, MAKE THE LOOP BACK TO THE VINTAGE TABLE AND BLOW MORE MONEY. THERE WERE NO COLLECTORS SELLING THIS TIME, AND WHILE ONE TABLE WAS SELLING BULK BOXES THERE WAS NO PRICE ANYWHERE. SINCE MY BUDGET WAS TWENTY BUCKS FOR THE SHOW THERE WAS NO NEED TO ASK. THE QUARTER BOX HELD FUN SURPRISES AS USUAL BUT I ALSO SPLURGED ON A CARD AT THE SAME TABLE

I MENTIONED THIS IN THE PREVIEW POST, BUT MURPH HERE IS THE LAST AND FINAL CARD NEEDED FOR MY 1981 FLEER SET. THE NEXT TO LAST AND NEXT TO NEXT TO LAST CARDS WERE BOUGHT IN MY COMC BINGE AND IF I KEEP TO MY SCHEDULE YOU'LL BE SEEING THOSE IN EARLY SEPTEMBER. I DEFINITELY OVER PAID AT TWO BUCKS BUT IT FELT GOOD TO PICK IT UP IN PERSON. SINCE THERE'S NOT MUCH NEW TO SAY ABOUT THIS HERE'S THE ENTIRE 81 FLEER BRAVES TEAM SET AS A BONUS

THE PAGES ARE OUT OF ORDER AND I DIDN'T NOTICE THE RING SHADOWS UNTIL IT WAS TOO LATE BUT IT'S CARDS AND I NEED TO GET MOVING ON THIS POST. ALONG WITH THE TWO DOLLA MURPH  I PICKED UP TWO DOLLAS WORTH OF QUARTER CARDS STARTING WITH SOME FRIENDS FROM THE LAST QUARTER BOX POST

THREE MOAR SHAKEY'S PIZZA CARDS! I WAS HOPING SOME OF THESE WOULD BE LEFT AFTER LAST TIME AND PRETTY MUCH ALL OF THEM WERE STILL THERE. I STILL LEFT BEHIND QUITE A FEW BUT THEY WERE MOSTLY COMMISSIONERS AND EXECUTIVES. TOMMY MCCARTHY PLAYED HIS BEST SEASONS FOR ST. LOUIS BUT SPENT A FEW YEARS WITH THE BOSTON WHATEVER-THEY-WERE-CALLED-BEFORE-THE-BRAVES* SO IT ENDED IN MY PILE ONCE I READ THE BACK OF THE CARD. ED WALSH CAUGHT MY EYE AS HE IS THE ONLY HALL OF FAMER I HAVE A T-206 CARD OF IN MY COLLECTION. THIS CARD EVEN USES THE SAME PICTURE! THEN AGAIN SO DO A LOT OF OTHER CARDS. THE LAST ONE IS CARL HUBBELL, WHO'S JUST A GREAT PITCHER

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING WITH THESE CARDS AS I DOUBT I COULD PUT TOGETHER EVEN A PAGE OF THEM BUT THEY'RE FUN AND THAT'S THE POINT OF A CARD SHOW

ONE OF THE BIG B'S ON A CARD WITH A BIG B FOR THE DESIGN. THIS CARD SAYS BOWMAN'S BEST BUT IT IS REALLY ONE OF FIVE SUBSETS FOR TOPPS FUSION, THE GREAT GRANDPAPPY OF PANINI CHRONICLES. THAT MESS OF A SET HAD CARDS FROM FIVE DIFFERENT SETS: BOWMAN'S BEST, STADIUM CLUB, FINEST, GALLERY AND GOLD LABEL ALL MASHED UP IN ONE PACK AND IT FLOPPED SUPER HARD. I BOUGHT A FEW PACKS AND DID VERY WELL FOR MYSELF INCLUDING PULLING A ROCCO BALDELLI AUTOGRAPH BACK WHEN HE WAS THE HOT PROSPECT DU JOUR. I WANT TO BUILD A LITTLE FRANKENSET OF ONE PAGE PER PRODUCT BECAUSE IT'S A FUN SET BUT ABSOLUTELY NOT WORTH BUILDING A SET. I KNEW I NEEDED A BOWMAN'S BEST CARD TO HELP FILL OUT A PAGE BUT DIDN'T REMEMBER WHICH CARDS I ALREADY HAD SO I TOOK A LEAP OF FAITH ON THIS ONE AND WAS REWARDED WITH A CARD I NEEDED. FOR CERTAIN DEFINITIONS OF NEEDED

HERE'S THAT BOOTLEG CRACKED ICE CARD I SHOWED OFF IN THE PREVIEW POST. HERE'S THE REAL FUN BIT:

ONE OF 10,000 CARDS! THESE ARE AS RARE AS DONRUSS ELITE INSERTS! THERE'S NO SERIAL NUMBERING ON THE BUT YOU CAN TRUST SPORTS STARS USA, RIGHT? RIGHT?

I FRIGGIN LOVE 90S STUDIO BUT THERE WERE A TON OF STARS FROM THIS SET IN THE QUARTER BOX AND GREG WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT CAME HOME WITH ME. PART OF IT WAS MY BUDGET OF ABOUT FIVE BUCKS A TABLE FORCED ME TO MAKE SOME TOUGH CHOICES. THAT WASN'T ALL OF IT THOUGH, AS I WAS LOOKING AT A WANTLIST WHERE I HAVE MAYBE A QUARTER OF THE SET IT WAS HARD TO SPEND A COUPLE BUCKS ON CARDS THAT WOULD BARELY MAKE A DENT EVEN IF THEY WERE GUYS LIKE RANDY JOHNSON AND CAL RIPKEN JR. I GOT SOME 70S VINTAGE CARDS FOR A QUARTER AT THE SAME SHOW SO I FEEL LIKE I MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE

I DON'T COLLECT THESE FOIL SCORE PARALLELS AT ALL AND ACTUALLY GET ANNOYED WHEN I FIND THEM WHILE SORTING. SHINY BAGWELL THOUGH. AND HE'S GOT BUBBLE GUM! I'M TRYING TO HAVE RESTRAINT BUT THERE'S ONLY SO MUCH I CAN RESIST

I LOVE THESE PACIFIC INVINCIBLE CARDS WITH THE PLAYER PORTRAIT INSIDE A LITTLE ACETATE WINDOW. AND I LOVE GARY SHEFFIELD WHO HAD TWO GREAT SEASONS WITH THE BRAVOS. EASY PICKUP EVEN WITH THE HATED MARLINS LOGO MESSING UP THAT BEAUTIFUL FOIL.I ALSO FEEL LIKE THIS IS THE BEST LOOKING OF THE INVICIBLE SETS

THIS IS THE FIRST JARRED KELENIC CARD I'VE ENCOUNTERED IN THE WILD SINCE THE TRADE. ALL JARRED HAS TO DO IS PLAY GOOD DEFENSE AND BE A LEAGUE AVERAGE HITTER TO BE A MASSIVE UPGRADE FOR THE BRAVES THIS YEAR AND HE'S SURPASSED THAT SO FAR. LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING HIM ON SOME CARDS WEARING AN ATLANTA UNI SOON

PATRICK IS AN EAGLES FAN SO THE QUARTER BOXES ALWAYS HAVE A FEW EAGLES PLAYERS IN IT INCLUDING MICHAEL VICK. I HAVE BEEN VERY GOOD ABOUT RESISTING BUYING THEM ALL UP SINCE I DON'T REALLY HAVE A HANDLE ON THE VICK CARDS I ALREADY HAVE. THIS ONE GRABBED ME THOUGH, YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW WHY

SERIAL NUMBERS! I CANNOT RESIST THE SERIAL NUMBERS. DO TWO THOUSAND NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY SIX PEOPLE EVEN COLLECT VICK CARDS ANYMORE? PROBABLY NOT! I ALSO THINK I MIGHT HAVE THIS INSERT ALREADY. I FINISHED A FLEER SET AT THIS TABLE, I'M ALLOWED TO BE A LITTLE FRIVOLOUS AS A REWARD

BASEBALL-REFERENCE SENT THE BEANEATERS AND RUSTLERS NAME TO THE SHADOW REALM ALONG WITH PLUTO AND THE NEW WILE E. COYOTE MOVIE AND I'M STILL BITTER ABOUT IT

For the Price of a Pack

Got this stuff at a card show last year for approximately $2:

1953 Johnston's Cookies Dave Cole. One of those vintage sets I need to drop everything and complete already.

Big ol' crease in the middle but any '50's large size card for 50 cents is a good deal in my book.

I don't care what the little birdie told you, Ernie Johnson was a Brave For Life.

Pops! This was one of the last boxes unchecked on the 1974 Topps checklist. I can upgrade later if I want.

I buy new stuff too! Especially shiny Aaron inserts in the quarter box. I still don't understand why the border is blue though.

Kinda random post, but I have to keep reminding myself these things especially since Series 1 is about to drop on our heads.

September Vintage Card Show - '53 Set Needs

I have no idea how to write about baseball cards anymore so here's a 1953 Topps high number card I bought six months ago.

OMG BEAR

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

September Vintage Card Show - '54 Set Needs

The holidays are literally murdering me right now but I want to post cool stuff but I also want to be lazy and this card is already scanned and ready to go and I really need to finish posting these before 2014 but I probably won't make it and what I really really need to do is get an editor because this sentence is dreadful.

Have yourself a merry little RAABLONSKI

 

Here is my ranking of pre-standard size Topps sets:

#1) 1953 Topps. Best set of all time now and Forever

#1a) 1956 Topps. Best set of all time that doesn't have an actual Master Class Painting on every card

#3) 1951 Topps. Really neat oddball set that I wish was easier to find

#4) 1954 Topps. Great color and photo, but the flipped card backs infuriate my OCD

#5) 1955 Topps. The Beta version of 1956 Topps that had many bugs that needed to be worked out

#9001) 1952 Topps. Completely overrated ugly pile of impossible to collect junk AKA the precursor to all modern day Topps sets

Don't get me wrong, I love the set. I'll take a '54 Topps card over most anything. When I'm knee deep in  vintage cards at a show this set tends to take a back seat to other needs. I didn't completely neglect the '54s this time out, I'll take a cheap beater card of a '50s All Star any day.

September Vintage Card Show - '55 Set Needs

Things I love:

1) Barves
2) Pizza
3) Nintendo games
4) Diminutive enchanted equines
5) Comics
6) Bleep-Bloop music
7) Iron Chef (Japan, not that American sellout crap)
8) Beer
9) Hobbits, Wizards, Dwarves and Dragons all causing mischief and mayhem
10) Cheapo old large sized Topps cards

Have an example of #10.

Is Don Zimmer in the Hall of Fame? No? Then the Hall of Fame ain't shit. Don Zimmer IS baseball. He's been in professional baseball longer than you've been alive and probably longer than your mom's been alive. He's still a senior advisor with the Rays organization and is one of the reasons I've adopted the Rays as my AL team. Now look at this card. Look at Don's face. Don it perplexed.  Don does not understand how some dumb kid could slop ink all over his card. He got ink on Don's face! He got ink on Don's shoulder! How can this happen? This is a 1955 Brooklyn Dodger card for Don's sake! Don is confused but I am happy because that dumb inky kid got me an o-fficial Don Zimmer rookie card for cheaps.

 

 Now here's the back. It mentions ponies so immediately I am intrigued. Apparently Don was so awesome that someone in St. Paul tried to kill him. But Don is the baseball version of James Bond and he punched that guy in the face and punched a few balls for good measure. Some of them were baseballs. Check the stats. Them are fielding stats right there. Does Topps do those any more? Eh? DOOOO they? No idea. I get stats from Baseball-Reference nowadays, not ballcards. The Major and Minor league stats are all mooshed together on this card which is slightly confusing. Only two lines of stats too, Year and Life.That's right, Life. Because Don is a Lifer.

September Vintage Card Show - '56 Set Needs

Either my scanner is busted or the computer it's hooked up to is busted or maybe they're both busted or perhaps I died in a tragic violent accident and the idea that I am typing on my laptop right now is just a desperate dream of my subconscious soul in the afterlife, refusing to accept harsh reality and finally accept my own death so I can move on in this astral journey. I'm thinking it's the USB port on the computer though or maybe the cable if I'm really lucky. In other words, no team set right now, I'm going to show off more card show pickups from months ago because they're already scanned and what else is a wandering soul to do? Have some 1956 Topps cards.

Not gonna fib, I've completely forgotten why I picked these particular 4 cards to add to my '56 Topps set. This one might have been a buck but I don't think so. It's a Pirate card with the odd batting helmet hat and it looks like it's a rookie card and I don't like the birthday. Part of me wants to check to see Art's career on Baseball-Reference but a small voice is warning me that it's quite possible that those two innings with four earned runs are all there is to see. I shall simply wonder, for now.

Here's Smok(e)y Forrest of the Cincinnati "We hate those damned commies" Redlegs. They hated commies so much they changed the primary color on the uniform to blue and looked like a Chicago Cubs farm team. That's dedication to hatin' commies. When I was about ten years old I went to a local card shop and one of the cards I picked out was a 1959 Topps Smokey Burgess card. The guy behind the counter actually made fun of me for wanting to buy a Smokey Burgess card. That guy was, is, and will always be, an asshole.

So, anyway, fuck that guy. This card has an awesome shot of a play at second base.

WHAAAAAA MICKEY. I know why I picked this card, Mickey's a helluva player even though nobody knows who the hell he is anymore. Look at the back, he's wearing TWO PUFFY HATS AT THE SAME TIME. Now look at the front. Someone's lying in a cloud of dust looking through an umpire's crotch. Do you see that on today's flagship? Nope.

BOOOOOOOOOOONE. Is the MLB done with Boones yet? We got Ray, Bob and Bret, is there a fourth hiding somewhere in the minors ready to continue the tradition? Maybe Boone IV said forget all the baseball nonsense, I'm going to work in the automotive industry but TRAGEDY it was destroyed by home runs. Thanks Obama. Ray's action photo is the actioniest and that's saying something in this set.

September Vintage Card Show - Random Crap - Casey

lol it's december and I've barely posted any of these things

GTFO YOU LOOSER

Casey is one of my favorites and I've been subconsciously building a player collection of his without realizing it. His 1940 Play Ball card still eludes me however. This 1959 All Star card is cool and a scarce high number.

It also has drawings on the back! That sly ol' Casey... talking all funny... that couldn't possibly backfire and get him fired after a World Series loss and land him on an expansion team.

Oh.

Damn Yankees.

September Vintage Card Show - Joy of a Completed Team Set

Aww yeah. Team Set Wednesday. All ready to post a team set. But wait! I have a request from a reader! Scan all the backs of the cards! Because reasons! But that's a lotta work and I'm lazy. But I've only got about 3 readers left and I don't want to piss off a third of my fanbase. How am I going to get the hell out of this one?

Screw it. Posting a Vintage Card Show pickup instead.

Here's "Eddie" Miller of the Boston Braves Bees Braves. Well, he's a Bee on the card but the Bees were back to being Braves by 1941 when this card was released. Not sure why "Eddie" is concidered a nickname with the guy's name is Edward but Play Ball had a nickname gimmick going on and they stuck to it like glue. This is a pretty nice looking card for one that's 72 years old. If you get to be 72 years old and and you're only a little right of center with a few spots and wrinkles here and there you're doing pretty good for yourself. It does kind of look like he got the sunburn Richard Dreyfuss got in Close Encounters of the Third Kind though. People just didn't know to use high SPF lotion when witnessing alien beings back then.

And look at this! It's card #1! It's the Andy Pafko of Play Ball! Ok, there were two other Play Ball sets before this one but it's the first one in color. There were two Topps sets before 1952 Topps too so there. Eddie was a decent little player back in the day that no one remembers at all anymore. Seven time All-Star and picked up some MVP votes here and there in the '40s. Had some WARs and such if you're into that sort of thing too. Nice pickup, eh?

BUT WAIT THERE'S MOAR

Hey Babe, wanna wrestle? Ok that was inappropriate and I screwed up the quote but I can't help it. Beavis and Butthead have had a signifigant influence in my life. Which explains a lot, actually. But anyway, here's my Babe. Not Ruth, but a Babe nonetheless. It's a little worse for wear than Eddie what with all the creases but when 72 years old you reach, look this good you will not. Hell, I don't look that good now. Babe didn't have quite the career Eddie did, but he had a good 12 year run with an All Star selection for Philly in 1943. He didn't have much of a career for the Braves Bees Braves at all, only playing 44 games with the club before getting sold to the Cubs.

Ah ha, but look on the back! It's the Boston Braves now! Gotta love high series cards! Actually the switchover from the Bees to the Braves came in the middle series* as you can see from the COMPLETED TEAM SET Y'ALL

There's only 6 Beeraves in the set and I got 'em all now SO IT COUNTS. These two cards came as a bit of a surprise. I was actually thinking about dropping this portion of the budget on a single low-priced pre-war card when these two popped up. Just so happened to be the two I needed! Starting to think Roger reads my wantlists.

And here's the backs of 'em all since I scanned them way back when. It's easier to scan the back of one page than it is to scan the back of 30 pages. Pre-war cards should always be scanned front and back anyways.

So question time: You all really want to make me scan dozens of pages again to get the backs or will a list of the card numbers for each set suffice? Tell me quick because I'll need to scan 'em sometime in the next couple of days for the post next week. 

*Note - I'm assuming all this series stuff because the cards were printed on 12 card sheets and there are 72 cards and the last 24 cards are the scarce 'high' series and the first mention of the Braves is on card 25 which would make three series of 24 cards which makes sense even though it's all conjecture and I can't find anything to back it up in other words I just pulled it out of my ass which is the same thing respected journalists do nowadays so that's my story and I'm sticking to it

September Vintage Card Show - '52 Chip

stoled this from a dude on twitter but i can't remember his @name

Ok so the Barves moved again. Or, will move in three years but who's counting. This ain't no big deal, They've moved three times already. Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta to an Atlanta address but not in the same county as Atlanta so not quite Atlanta and there's a whole bunch of Georgia/Atlanta politics bubbling under the surface that you really really don't wanna know about but still pretty much Atlanta when you get down to it. That's gonna be difficult to fit on an away jersey. It'll probably all end up being a ruse by Liberty Media to burn their bridges with the city, then bungle the deal with Cobb County thus allowing them an excuse to move the team to Salt Lake City or San Antonio. Maybe even Miami, they could use a team. Well, we got three more seasons at the Ted anyway, and I'll probably drop dead of a stroke from watching too much Cable TV News by the time the team actually moves somewhere. To celebrate our nomadic tribe of warriors, here's a card from the first city they popped up in.

Old Bowman! Not 1948 Bowman, those are black and white. Not 1949 Bowman, those have a black and white picture with a solid color background. Not 1950 Bowman, those are small and square. Not 1951 Bowman, Those have a solid block with the name on the front. This is 1952 Bowman also known as 1951 Bowman with a fake signature. Also the back only has black ink instead of red and black ink. This is the set Bowman kinda screwed the pooch on, as they basically rehashed the previous year's set while their competitor came up with a product that was vastly superior. AKA Topps' business plan for the past few years. Oh wait! Silly me, Topps doesn't have competitors anymore.

So here's the back. Snooze city. No color, no stats, bottom third is basically an ad. And who the heck are Haelan Laboratories? Was Bowman gum created by Mad Scientists? Was Sy Berger actually a superhero who saved America from being poisoned by radioactive space gum sold by a front confectioner run by Cold War spies? Where can I get a baseball cap for 50 cents and five Bowman wrappers? Would it actually be cheaper to just buy the cap outright instead of buying five packs of 2013 Bowman? If I sent in the wrappers to Topps would the case breakers just get all the caps because they sent their wrappers in first? Why am I asking so many questions? Why am I being so evasive? What do I have to hide?

I don't know a dang thing about Bob Chipman other than he's a high number card and Bowman high numbers are as annoying as Topps high numbers but not quite as annoying as Heritage High Numbers. Actually I do know something about Bob, he pitched and won a game for Milwaukee in 1951. CAN YOU SAY FORESHADOWING. That would be like Topps putting "Freddie likes to eat wings at the Big Chicken" on the back of Freddie Freeman's card. Maybe Topps will do that next year. At least they've stayed put in Duryea, PA. I can't handle any more unexpected moves.

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 Cards Show Loot - Phifity-Phour Phillie

Paul Penson looks at me in disgust at how many blog posts I've slacked oph on lately.

I don't care because I philled a hole in my '54 set phor a couple clams.

Don't be a hater, Paul.