Ok, I promised I'd show off this trade for you this weekend and I shall be true to my word. I traded
all this stuff to Sewing Machine Guy. Twelve cards from the '50s, an Al Kaline sketch and cash considerations. While there were a few bonus Braves cards in the package, the centerpiece of the deal was just four cards. Here they are:
1953 Topps Allie Reynolds
Yankees form the '50s are hot commodities on the Vintage circuit for good reason. Besides the Mickeys and the Yogis and the Whiteys, even the more common cards are of some pretty great players. Take Chief here:
20-8 in 1952, 160 strikeouts, 2.07 ERA. Not too shabby. Allie came in second to Bobby Shantz in the MVP voting that year, coming ahead of teammates Mantle and Berra. His career ended after suffering a back injury in '54 and Allie came up one vote shy in the Veteran's Committee for induction to the Hall of Fame. This is one of the more iconic cards from the set and one of the harder ones to come by, especially for a bottom feeder like me.
1953 Topps Dom Dimaggio
Yes, he's You-Know-Who's brother but Dom was a pretty dang good player in his own right. Dom only played 10 full seasons due to serving in the Navy during World War Two. He held down center field pretty solidly during those ten seasons in Boston, earning seven All-Star appearances and lead the league in runs, triples and stolen bases in 1950.
This is another difficult card to find for the '53 set. Well, you can find it, but it ain't gonna be cheap. The Little Professor is wildly popular in Boston, He's a dang good player and Dom simply doesn't have a whole lot of original cards from this playing days. This one here is easily his
nicest from his playing days other than maybe his 1941 Play Ball card. As a result, it's also not one you'll find in the bargain bins. The next two you will never find in any bin, bargain or otherwise.
1953 Topps Pee-Wee Reese
Oh lookie, a Hall of Famer. And a Brooklyn Dodger to boot! Dodgers are sometimes harder than Yankees because there are fans in
two gigantic cities chasing after them. Not to mention all the nostalgia freaks like me who think the Dodgers should be moved
back to Brooklyn.
If you want to know why I love this set so much, look at the painting on the front of the card.
That's why. They should just rip the plaque off the wall at Cooperstown and tack one of these babies up on the wall in its place.
Ok, That's a pretty good trade right there. Oh, wait, I forgot. There are four cards in this trade.
1953 Topps Whitey Ford
When I put together my 1953 Topps binder, I printed out black and white copies of every card to use as placeholders until I could get my hands on a real copy. Six of those cards from the low series I printed in color and glued to card stock because they were the 'pricey' ones that I didn't think I would be seeing in a while. The six were:
Jackie, Feller, Mickey, Yogi, Satchel and Whitey.
Full disclosure: Whitey has a big crease right across the front. Additional disclosure: this card could be run over by a tank and it would still look good. When SMG offered these to me I about had a mild coronary.
So, waddya think? Did I get Renteria or Jurrjens in this trade? Before you decide, check this out:
Completed Page 1
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Completed page 4.
After this trade, I am now down to needing only 7 cards for my '53 low number set. Of course three of them are Jackie Robinson, Bob Feller and Satchel Paige. The other four have their numbers retired in Yankee Monument Park. Who wants to bet I can knock it down to 4 by the end of the year?
