Transmogrified into being: My two Dicks

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a very immature post, you should probably just stop reading now. Actually, delete the bookmark to this blog completely, we'll all be better for it.

Back when we could still trade on the Transmogrifier, everybody wanted my Dicks but I wouldn't let anybody touch them. I decided I just couldn't live without Dicks, so I gave Topps some money and they delivered me some fine looking Dicks. Now that I have my Dicks in my hand, let's see how they measure up. Penis.

1969 Topps Dick Bosman

Not in great shape but pretty typical of the cards I own from the '60s. The gloss is scuffed at several spots. All four corners are starting to get rounded. All four edges have at least one ding or nick. There are three small creases, one by his hand, one near his shoulder and one at the top left corner. Centering is off 35-65 on both axis. Even with the flaws it still looks decent as there are no real catastrophic problems with the card. This is your typical garden variety '60s common card.

The back looks great. The orangy-pink is strong, The black ink is bold and there's a kickass cartoon with a racing theme where Dick is driving one of those bullpen carts shaped like a baseball in competitive drag racing competitions. I wonder if Dick drove faster than he could throw?

1967 Topps Dick Kelley 

My other Dick is kinda dirty. All that black schmutz all over Dick's uniform is more wax stains. 1967ers gave a good tip on how to get rid of crusty stuff on your Dick on my last wax-stained post so I pulled out a tube sock, rubbed it off and did a final buffing with a kleenex. Now my Dick is as clean as a whistle. (I warned you right up there at the top but you didn't listen). Even cleaned up - I wonder if this is technically card altering - Kelley is still not in better condition as the Bosman. All four corners are rounded to the point of starting to fray, the edges are dinged, there's a small crease in between the V and E in Braves and worst of all, there's a scuff right on Dick's face. A card can take a lot of abuse and still look good, but paper loss on the player's face is not one of them. It's still in acceptable shape for a card from 1967. I once had a '67 Diego Segui card that had been attacked with a hole punch. That was a sad looking card indeed.

The back is a little dirty and the green is faded, but like the front, it's acceptable. I had this card in my team set already so I was hoping for maybe getting an upgrade. No dice. This one goes in the box with the rest of the '67 commons.

Interestingly enough, both of these cards were acquired through straight code redemptions. I guess Topps just likes giving me the Dick.

Dime Box Kryptonite #4 - Goudey SPs

Okay, these cards didn't come out of a dime box, they were in a 50 cent box. I am still powerless in their presence.

Killer! I've actually driven on Killebrew drive. I regret not going to a Twins game in the old BaggieCheaterDome when I was up there for work a decade ago. I did get a cool Chipper Jones MLB showdown box and a Corey Koskie promo card from the Wizards of the Coast shop at Mall of America though.

Wright! I played third base in my softball days so I have a soft spot for Davey even though he plays for the enemy. Yes, the Mets are still the enemy even though they've been rendered a joke due to a Ponzi scheme. Of course, right now the Braves are fiercely fighting them for fourth place in the East. Why oh why can't we have a decent April??

Top 20 Intermission - Checkin' Lists 56 & 65

One of the things I always focus on at a card show is vintage stuff off my wantlists. Yes, I get distracted by shiny dime boxes, but like a dog that returns to its vomit, I always end up at the vintage tables.

While I would very much like to buy up every single vintage card I see, I'm a temporarily embarrassed millionaire at the moment so I have to make some hard choices with my card purchases. '50s, '60s or '70s? One really nice card or a pile of crummy ones? Chase the team or the set? I narrowed my focus this time on four years: 1953, 1956, 1965 and 1972. Didn't do too badly either. Pretty dang good with 1972 actually. 1965 and 1956 got a few numbers checked too:

1956 Topps #119 Larry Jackson

How much would you pay for a rookie card of a pitcher who would go on to win 194 games in the bigs? Larry pitched 14 years in the National League for the Cardinals, Cubs and Phillies. He won 194 games and had an above average career ERA of 3.40 to go along with 1700 Ks. In 1964 he won 24 games and finished second to Dean Chance in the Cy Young voting (this is where there was one winner in all of baseball). Tack on four all-star appearances for the righty from Idaho and you got a nice little career there. Think Steven Strasburg will end up with those numbers? I got this rookie for a buck. Yeah, rookie cards!

1956 Topps #280 Chico Carrasquel

Quick! Who was the first Latin player to go to the All-Star game? That's right, Chico! Chico went to the All Star game four times as a member of the White Sox. He still couldn't hold off fellow Venezuelan shortstop Luis Aparicio and got shipped off to the Indians for the '56 season. He had his best season at the plate as in Indian in 1957, hitting .276 with a 100 OPS+. Let's just say Chico was better known for his defense. This card was also a buck, probably because someone bookmarked it on the corner by his name.

1956 Topps #247 Bill Sarni 

Play at the plate! Who is that, Jackie? Jim Gilliam maybe? This is why 1956 Topps is the best. If you're wondering about the NY scribbled up top, that's because Bill was traded to the Giants during the '565 season. Sadly this was Sarni's last MLB season as he retired after suffering a heart attack before the '57 season.

1965 Topps #41 White Sox Rookie Stars

The coveted double rookie card! So were these guys champs or chumps? Bruce Howard pitched for 6 years, all but one for the Sox. He ended up winning 26 games, and fathering future Royals infielder David Howard. Marv Staehle played one full year in the majors for the Expos but picked up a few games in six others. He has two items of note in his career: His only home run was hit off the immortal Lowell Palmer, and he played 22 to games for the Braves in 1971 resulting in a difficult high series card I had to chase down for my team set.

 

Let's finish up with the first series checklist. I'm somewhat humbled by the fact that I have more first series 1965 Topps cards than the original owner of this card. You can tell this guy is a serious collector, he checked off the card and filled in the box on the checklist. That's dedication there.

Transmogrified into being: 1967 Topps Clay Carroll

I already had this card in my team set, but hey! I might get an upgrade! The card I have has a light wax stain on the front. Let's see how my mogged card turned out.

I have two 1967 cards of Clay Carroll and wouldn't ya know it, they both have gum stains on the front. At first glance it's not a terrible looking card. Corners are soft but not mangled. No creases. Off-center but aren't we all. When you look closely at the gloss on the front, you notice a bunch of little scratches or scrapes. It looks like someone may have grated this card up against something to get that wax off. You have to really look at the card so see it and honestly the wax stains are more distracting.

The back is ok for a card from 1967. It's yellowed a bit like most of the cards from that year that I've seen. Every once in a while I see a really minty fresh card from this year with a blinding white back and my mind gets blown. You mean the backs aren't supposed to be bile green and beige???

Hand Collated kindly took a Red off my hands in exchange for this card. Mr Hand put out a good primer on this giveaway over a month before it went live and he pretty much nailed it. Some of the comments on that post are classics too. I wonder if that kid ever got his Bob Feller?

Guess Who's Back

Back again.

MARIO'S BACK



Tell a friend.

'cause we need a little controversy....

Card Show Top 20 - #11 Hey Shiny

Quick post tonight as I barely slept last night and I'll get no sleep tonight since the Braves are on the west coast. Here's the last card outside my card show Top 10. the show was in february i am so slack why is my life such a disaster

In my stated goals for the show, I managed to meet or exceed them all except for the Michael Vick thing because ol' puppy kicker wasn't there that day. Number four on my list was this:

4) If I see a J-Hey that I don't have and the price isn't jacked up, buy it.

Well, here ya go! A Jason Heyward rookie card that I did not have in my possession before I found it in a dollar box. That's right, shiny J-Hey rook for a buck. FOOLS, FOOLS THE LOT OF THEM!!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

This card was on a table with a bunch of random piles of low-end mojo and stuff stacked into those little 100 card count plastic boxes. What the hell are those things called again? Everything was a buck, or six for five. Mostly parallels and inserts from the past couple of years. Baseball was the majority but some feetsball and hoops cards showed up too. I scrounged through them all and nabbed the shiniest Braves crap I could find. Over on the corner of the table was a pile of empty toploaders and some papers. I spied a couple of cards underneath the detritus and lo and behold was this Heyward. I asked the harried shopkeep if this was part of the six for five bucks deal and he confirmed it was indeed! Apparently there was a small stack of them, but he conjectured that the rest went in a "five for a finger" discount. A great laugh was had by all and I bought that Heyward card almost instantly. Around these parts, you're not finding any Heyward card for under five bucks so to get one for a buck is a wonderful thing.

The other wonderful thing about this card is the product it came from. Bowman Platinum is one of those mediocre late year sets where Topps is trying to fill out every last product they're allowed under their license and their heart isn't really in it anymore. It's like the guy who was tasked with designing this mess was mad because he wanted to work on the '11 flagship and he got stuck with this thing instead so he half-assed it. My problem: I still liked the set. Even though I fully acknowledge that it is a cynical money grab designed to soak mojo hunters right around the holidays I still kinda like it. It's ugly as sin, sure. The checklist is your basic boring 100 vets + some prospects with the slight twist that a few of the vets were replaced with TEAM USA teenagers. The packs are too expensive and they don't have enough cards. All of these things suck and I would normally never buy this ever. However:

1) HEYWARD ROOKIE CARD!
2) RACK PACK WITH FREE SHINIES!!!
3) HEYWARD'S ON THE PACKAGING!!!!!!
4) SQUEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I admit I am a complete goddamn fool for buying even a single pack of this crap, let alone about a half a dozen racks. Jason Heyward just has that effect on me, I can't resist. (In related news - Fredi finally has moved Jason up in the order, this makes up for that dumbass bases loaded suicide squeeze thing he did) I would see one of those lovely Jason Heyward rack packs hanging up in the card aisle and any logic or sanity I may have possessed evaporated and one or two would end up in the cart. HOWEVER - the nanosecond I bought this card all that was done. Since that day I haven't even looked at a pack of that junk, let alone bought one of them. This card has saved me probably 50 to 60 bucks worth of impulse racks and blasters chasing down that dang Heyward. Best buck I ever spent. On that day. Well, at that table. I think. There was some good stuff at that table.

The rest of the Top 20 List...

#20 Reds' Heavy Artillery

#19 Blue MadDog

#18 Lil' Jimmy

#17 Real Fake '52

#16 First Topps

#15 Bogus Boog

#14 V103 Tree

#13 Sertoma Rico

#12 '55 Finishers

#11 Hey Shiny

#10 What the Dickens

#9 '60 Spahnnie

#8 Lonely '53

#7 Super Chief

#6 Original Frank

#5 Hoops Inspiration

#4 Rocket Robin

#3 Wizard Off Kilter

#2 Shenanigans Were Called

#1 The Holy Grail of Commons

(wasn't this post supposed to be a short one??)

Card Show Top 20 - #12 '55 Finishers

Ok, it's time for me to stop being a schmuck and to start posting again. Ok, so the hobby landscape is a vast oppressive desert in a monopolistic world. Ok, so exclusivity has given us K-Mart products with Tiffany prices. Ok, so I'm still coming to terms with the fact that I'm down to one decent card shop in the Metro area. Ok, so I'm still having withdrawal symptoms after going to a card show with vintage out the wazoo and knowing that I'm not going to see that again for a couple of years at least unless I decide to take a weekend off and drive for 13 hours. Doesn't mean I can't still post about the cards I got! I'm gonna actually finish something I started and complete my card show posts! Mainly because I scanned all the cards weeks ago and it's less work to do that! YAY FOR LAZINESS!

At the show there was one dude with tables full of boxes. Dime boxes, quarter boxes, 50 cent boxes, dollar boxes, all kinda boxes. I picked through a 50 cent box after I had scrounged through all the rest. I almost missed the thing, I didn't even know that box was there until I came back a second time. It was full of a lot of insets and rookies mostly. Cards that were at one point the most interesting thing that came out of some freshly ripped wax, but now is an afterthought. Mixed in amongst the shiny mess was this:

A 1955 TOPPS STAN MUSIAL CARD?!?? IN A 50 CENT BOX??? GARGYLES! SLYKICKS! WHAT IS THIS WITCHCRAFTERY???

Card #175 Doesn't. Even. Exist. Look, see for yourself. Does not exist. DARK-SIDED.

oh god there's a whitey ford in there too jesus take the wheel

Card 186. Doesn't exist on this planet. I must have fell into a space/time rift straight into a parallel universe where not only do these cards exist, but vintage '55 star cards are so common that they go into cheapo boxes. I am in the Twilight Zone. Or maybe the Outer Limits. Not the good one, the recent re-make that was cheesy. Well, more so. Nothing left now but to wait for the inevitable twist ending where I unwittingly wander into the Topps processing plant where they make all those leather parallel cards. GYPSY QUEEN IS PEOPLE

Bob Feller too?? Ray Jablonski or Norm Zauchin I could understand in a two for a buck box. This think is in mint condition too! It can't be a reprint, or else it would say reprint somewhere. Wait, actually the card doesn't exist, so it's not technically a reprint. Maybe there's a copyright date on the thing.

Ahhh, copyright 2005 The Topps Company, Inc. I done goofed. What the heck are these things anyway??

Ah, here's a Herb Score rookie card to finish out the set of phantom '55s. Turns out this is a promo set that was given away at the 2005 National. VIPs got to finish up their 1955 set, while us poor ordinary schmucks got to wander the aisles looking for a '55 common they could afford.

Of course, treasure one minute is junk box fodder and I completed my '55 set for two bucks. Or I would have if I had the other 216 cards. Which I don't. And won't. Ever. Doesn't mean I can't put 'em in my '55 binder! Take a gander at a real and a fake next to each other in the binder!

Whitey's trying to escape the binder but Charlie looks pretty happy about the whole thing. Time to finish that 1955 set! After the 1953, 1956 and 1954 sets since I like those much better of course.

Here's the Top 20 List since the show was three months ago and no one remembers anything about it, assuming of course I still have readers to remember anything:

#20 Reds' Heavy Artillery

#19 Blue MadDog

#18 Lil' Jimmy

#17 Real Fake '52

#16 First Topps

#15 Bogus Boog

#14 V103 Tree

#13 Sertoma Rico

#12 '55 Finishers

#11 Hey Shiny

#10 What the Dickens

#9 '60 Spahnnie

#8 Lonely '53

#7 Super Chief

#6 Original Frank

#5 Hoops Inspiration

#4 Rocket Robin

#3 Wizard Off Kilter

#2 Shenanigans Were Called

#1 The Holy Grail of Commons

Transmogrified into being: Team Set Finisher

Here's a nice one for Friday. No crumminess on Friday! I'll save that for next week.

1968 Topps Felipe Alou

Not much to say about the condition of this card. No wrinkles, no creases, no gum, no wax. All the corners while not razor sharp are very nice with no dings. It's slightly off center 65-35, but so is every other card from that year. No other card I received in the Transmogrifier promotion looks as good as this one and that's taking the burlap under a microscope design into account.

This is one of the cards I was specifically targeting while trading because even though this is a low series common card. Ok, minor star maybe. I have had all sorts of problems tracking it down. I couldn't find it at card shops, I couldn't find it at card shows, I couldn't find it a flea markets. I finally was able to swing a trade online for it:

Yep, I traded down from a 1961 card to get Felipe. Why? This is why:

Team. Set. Completion.

Well, technically there's a high series checklist out there with a floaty head picture of Clete Boyer that I don't have (with a variation, of course). I have reached that point in my collecting maturity that I can tell the OCD completist voice in my head to feck off, so it's all good. Team sets are for teams, checklists are for checking.

Transmogrified into being: A Couple of '78s

Let's do another one of these. Two for one special!

1978 Topps John Scott

I love 1978 Topps cards but I have a paltry amount of them compared to, say, the 1976 and 1979 set which I like less. Acquiring this card here is probably one of the reasons I initially decided to eventually have cards delivered. Up until then most of my trades were for Lemmers.

Condition on this card is really good. The top left corner is slightly dinged, the bottom left corner is slightly touched. The other two are sharp. Up-Down centering is about 65-35. Just enough off to notice but not enough to really matter. Gloss is good, no creases or wrinkles. No smoke or musty smell. This is a very nice looking 33 year old card.

The back unfortunately is miscut. It's cut right on the the blue border line. There may be a microscopic sliver of orange between the blue and the edge of the card, but I can't see it. John knocked a double for the Jays, so that makes up for it. PSA don't like it but I don't care.

I got the John Scott I needed for my set plus a bonus Ron Fairly in exchange for a '76 Leron Lee card. Was this the card I taunted Night Owl with? I can't remember, I taunt Night Owl too frequently to keep track. Ron Fairly I didn't need though, so it got flipped:

I traded it for me! Ok, not really me. But a Brave. With my name. That I already have piles of but who cares. I had to save the Braves from the sinking Transmogrifier.

1978 Topps Dave Campbell

This one isn't nearly as crisp at the Scott card, but it's perfectly acceptable for a '78. Left corners are dinged, right corners are touched. Left edge is a little rough. There's either a slight wrinkle or a flaw in the cardboard just to the right of Dave's cap. 65-35 centering again with the top border getting short shrift this time. Perfectly acceptable. PSA -2. Who grades '78 Topps anyway?

Dave was the Braves' top bullpen artist in 1977! Baseball-Reference even says he's the closer. Dave walked his batter, though. It makes me slightly sad when pitchers give up walks and hits in the '78 Topps game. They should be getting K's and outs. Of course then the shrewd player would just chuck all the pitcher cards I suppose. Of course if you're going to cheat at '78 baseball, you'd probably just get a stack of Home Run cards and be done with it. On the flip side, if you were to try to play a game using only the players from one team, this would be a boost for the Bravos. That's an idea actually...

I pulled out my 1978 team set and determined that the Braves lineup ended up with five singles, one double and ten assorted outs. Six for sixteen is a robust .375 average, but the slugging is a bit anemic at .438. However, five bases on balls gives them a .524 on base percentage! That's some serious moneyball right there. That would rank fifth in the NL in 1977. Of course you've got no power there at all. The Braves would have to dink everyone to death. I'll bet the Yankees got plenty of home runs on their cards. DAMN YANKEES!!!

1500 RBIs

I better crow about this milestone because Chippah ain't never getting RBI #3000.

(At least we didn't get no-hit so PHBBBBBTTTTT)

Transmogrified into being: 1977 Joe Kerrigan

See? I'm still posting! I haven't dropped off the face of the earth yet! (over/under is 10 more days) Here's another card from the Transmogrifier made tangible.

1977 Topps Joe Kerrigan

Good ol' 1977 Topps. The most middle-of-the-road unoffensive mediocre design in all of Vintagedom. I think Topps even swiped the team name font for a couple of sets in other sports. So, how did this bland card end up condition wise. 

Not great. 

Centering is slightly off, but no big deal. All four corners are dinged, but not badly. There's another ding on the right side in the middle. On the other side is a small wrinkle and there's another wrinkle on tip by the S. These things are ok for a 34 year old card. The killer is a solid crease going diagonally down from the J in Joe's name and grazing the top of his cap. This crease was caused by some straight edge too, it's not a typical crease caused by accidentally sitting on a card or sticking it in the bicycle spokes or getting crunched in a drawer. I completely missed it in the toploader too. You gotta always take vintage cards out of the toploader and inspect 'em good, kiddos!

Of course, being a rookie card of a pitching coach that I got for free* I don't really care. It fills a hole in a set and the card looks pretty good if you look at it in the right light. And check out the hottie at Ty Cline's ice cream shoppe! Yowza! Ty is serving up his special roofie beer float for the lass. Honestly, of all the cards I received, I was only disappointed int he condition of one of them, so remember that when I'm nitpicking the slightest condition flaw of each of the upcoming cards.

I got Joe in exchange for a 1976 Mike Jorgenson cards. 'Spo for 'Spo! You could never quite manage to trade year for year though...

*not actually free, terms and conditions apply, void where prohibited by law, Canadian winners must solve the following skill question: Prove P=NP, 27.9% APR, your momma dresses you funny and girls don't like you, the TSA is logging your IP and notifying your internet service provider, have a nice day.

Transmogrified into being: 1963 Topps Marv Breeding

Okay, time to show off all the cards that the Topps Million Cards Yo Momma Ditched in the Dump Online Code Transmogrifier was able to convert from random symbols printed on the back of an insert into real live cardboard ephemera. No more stalling and ennui for me, time to start posting like a mental patient again. (I give myself two weeks before I go off the rails again) I took all the pre-1980 cards I redeemed, mixed 'em up and will post them in the order that Random.org decreed to show off just how minty fresh these cards ended up being. The post-1980 cards I'll show later. There weren't any condition problems to speak of that I noticed. There was a Lemmer surprise, but that's a topic for another post.

The pre-1980 cards were in more or less good shape for vintage specimens. I love a good Tipton, so I'm not overly concerned about how beat up these oldies are. Most fill a hole in a set or a pocket in a plastic sheet so as long as they are not disintegrating or toxic I didn't care how beat up they were. Not gonna lie though, some were - ahem - well loved by the previous owner.

1963 Topps Marv Breeding

1963 Topps was once my favorite set, but twenty-five years later it doesn't do much for me any more. Nowadays it reminds me more of 1961 Topps with a colorful bottom than anything else. I think the design similarities to 1983 Topps (circle with photo) and 1953 Topps (block of color on the bottom)  overly influenced my feelings toward this set. '53 and '83 Topps are two cornerstones of my collecting, so not surprising. '73 Topps I'm not crazy about. In '93 I was too dazzled by UV coating. '03 Topps I would prefer to forget. I'm actually kind of dreading 2013 Topps for fear that they'll screw up the design in a year ending in 3 yet gain. I really want to like the threes... wait, I was going to discuss this particular card wasn't I?

Ok, this isn't too fair on Topps, but the card the randomizer selected to show off first was the second worst conditioned card of the bunch. The corners are pretty decent on this one, other than the top left where it got knocked pretty hard at one point. Centering isn't great. There's some MSNBC centering to the left while the vertical centering is tough to determine on these cards due to the color swath at the bottom. It looks good enough on this one. In fact, the whole card looked great in the toploader despite the corner and centering problem. When I took it out, I discovered its horrible secret.

Water damage. Super major water damage. You can see the high water mark up on the capitol dome in the cartoon. That little corner up there looks like the only bit that didn't get soaked. The entire card is warped and curled like a 2010 Chrome card. The front is nice and glossy though, so oh well, it's just Marv Breeding. I'll slip that sucka in a penny sleeve and cram it in with the rest of my '63 set. It will flatten out eventually.

This one was acquired in a trade with The Writer's Journey. Not sure how Bill Henry came out. Yes, I took screenshots of all my trades on the old 'Mogrifier before it was mothballed. Remember, I'm insane.

Good Enough For Me

Cookie has entered the building....



After much bitching about transmogrifier card shipping fees, I must say that Topps ultimately ended up doing this very well. The cards arrived in decent shape (most of them at least), every last one of them was in a top loader and they used priority mail all for just under 15 bucks. Depending on how much they had to pay vintage dealers for the cards they may have even taken a bath on this promotion. I'm sure it helped move a ton of product though, well, other than the poor neglected value blister packs and Best of Chrome boxes that still sit on the shelves with their expired codes languishing away.

Finally, after all those posts, here is mah Cookie.

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

(how the heck did I end up getting obsessed with Cookie Rojas cards??)

2500 hits

I better crow about this milestone because Chippah ain't never getting #3000.

(Mantle only got 2415 so PHBBBBBTTTTT)

Baseball Card Detectivery

So yesterday I posted this card of Mac:

I wondered aloud who was in the background behind Brian (probably Chipper) and Laurens actually found the actual photo used from Getty Images. According to the description, this photo was taken during the August 4, 2010 game against the Mets at Turner Field and that McCann was throwing out a runner on the play. I dug up the box score of that game and looked to see if there were any plays where Mac thre out a runner. In the 4th inning Mike Pelfrey bunted Luis Castillo over to second base and was thrown out by McCann. I don't think that starting pitcher Kris Medlen would run toward the line on a bunt in front of the plate so most likely that's Chipper back there coming up to defend the bunt. Mystery solved! 

Speaking of Medlen, according to the box score he was replaced by Mike Dunn after this batter so this means the photo on this card is the last play made before he blew out his elbow and was shut down for Tommy John surgery. Aaaaaaaand now I'm sad. Meds is progressing in in rehab though so I'll just have to wait until August or so to enjoy this card. 

(and yes detectivery is a real word)

2011 Braves Team set - Mac

One more of these and then I promise I'll do something productive with my life.  Check out Big Mac in the tools of ignorance:

Whodat behind Mac? Izzat Chippah? No really, someone tell me who that is behind McCann. It kinda looks like Chipper but it out of focus and I scanned it in jpg format so it's even more blurry and my eyes suck anyway so I got no clue. Aw heck with it. LOOKIT MAC IN THE CATCHER'S GEAR!!!