January Vintage Show Top 20 - #2 Wantlist Fail Part 2

Yes I realize it's barely still June. I'm going at my own pace and no one can stop me. Except me and my laziness, I guess.

 Ok WAY the hell back here about 6 months ago I told you all about how I misplaced my wantlists and scribbled 'em out hastily a half hour before the show started and ended up messing up things royally and that's how I paid five bucks for a 1960 Frank Torre card in crappy condition that I already had in probably EX. That was not the only wantlist cock-up of the day. When I frantically wrote out my wantlists, I used my Braves binder as a guide and wrote down the numbers of all the ones I was missing. How do I write down missing numbers, you ask? Well, in this binder every open pocket is filled with something. usually either a slip of paper or a black & white printout of an image of the card I ganked off eBay with the card number written on it. Makes it easier when I fill a slot and I'm trying to figure out where it goes. The printed out cards make the page look nice too. Check out this page from 1964 Topps:

See how good that looks when you can see what all the cards look like? And the missing Tops In NL and Tommie Aaron cards still stick out for reference of which cards I still need. Nice, huh? I've done this in my Vintage Braves and 1953 Topps binder so far. I might do it for my '56 Topps binder too once I hit  60-70% complete. Don't wanna waste too much ink. Keen-eyed readers probably noticed one other odd thing about that page. If you didn't get it yet, I'll give you a couple minutes.

See it? How one of the cards looks a little too minty fresh? And the green is just a touch off? Or maybe you're a font geek like me and are writhing in agony at how incredibly wrong the Braves font is on the Hank Aaron card? Yep, that's not a real '64 Aaron. That's one of the reprints from 199? Topps. Don't remember the year, not gonna figure out the year. Look it up on BaseballCardPedia if you care so much. And don't tell anyone in the comments! Let 'em work for it! So yeah, that's not a real 1964 Topps Hank Aaron. This is:

That's the stuff. Right color green. Right font. Just a little beat up. Just like a real 1964 Topps Hank Aaron should look. So I needed three cards from that particular page in my binder.

I only wrote down two.

Aaron was not one of them.

Well, actually, Aaron was both of the cards I wrote down. Just not Hank Aaron all by his lonesome #300. That one I didn't write down because that 199X card was just so lifelike.

Wantlist fail! Again!

So then I saw this card in the bargain box. I saw two of 'em actually. I don't remember the exact price but it was a single digit odd number greater than 5. I don't know why I remember that when I can't just remember the damn price, but my brain is weird so deal. I looked in my wantlist, to my surprise did not see that I needed #300, looked at the card again, looked at my wantlist, looked at the card, and decided, fuck it, I need it for my 1964 Topps set that I am not technically building right now but oh well I NEED HANK. Turns out I did need Hank after all!

Moral of the story:
Not all failures are fail.
If you see a vintage Aaron for under a tenner buy the damn thing.
GET YOUR WANTLISTS TOGETHER YOU LAZY OAF

And actually I have gotten my wantlists together! I rewrote most of the major sets and series into a small easy to carry notebook that I used at the May show. I also found my red folder full of wantlists. Too late for the May show. I'm freaking loaded for the August show though!

One more card left! Actually more like five because I skipped a bit! But I don't care! I need to put this coutdown to bed already!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #4 Awwww, come ON.

You all know I'm rather fond of the 1972 Topps set. This might be the best card in the whole shebang.

I don't need to write nothin' about this card. A picture says a thousand words. This one's at least 2500. I don't know where the heck the ump that made that call is right now, but I'm booing him. Booooo! How can you make a call like that?! Wherever Clemente thought that pitch was, that's where it was. You suck, ump.

The card itself looks like it was run over by an office chair, but who the hell cares. It's Clemente with one of the best card photos of all time. The back of this card makes me wonder about the other obsessed team/player collectors out there. Do collectors of Tom Seaver and Tony Oliva fell their collection is incomplete without the full color puzzles of their players from the '72 High series? If so I feel for 'em. '72 high numbers are a pain in the ass, I don't even wanna think about finding all those puzzle cards.

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #7 Joy of a Completed Page

All righty then. A while back I showed off the cheapest '53 high number I could find. This one was slightly more expensive but I needed to pick it up. Behold Morris Martin of the Philly A's.

I love '53 Topps but the solid background cards seem a little cheap to me. They remind me too much of crappy '52 Topps cards. The paintings are still cool and all, It's just... I dunno. I want to see paintings of the grandstands with old outfield ads I guess. I passed up on Morris more than once until I realized I HAD to get him this time.

Morrie had arm problems in '52 but managed to pitch 58 games in '53 for the A's and hung around the league for 10 years as a reliever. It's actually a miracle he ever pitched at all as he served as an engineer in World War 2, fought in D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and was wounded several times. Considering Morrie caught shrapnel in his pitching hand and almost lost his leg in the war he had a damn fine career. And he got to play on the same team with a guy named "Pecky".

So who did I have to get this card? I noted a few cards on my want list as "must gets" for a certain reason. This reason:

Joy of a Completed Page of 1953 Topps High Numbers including a Hall of Famer. Morrie might be the best looking card on that page, plain background and all!

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #12 '59, Dude!

Here's the second-to-last card I need for my 1959 Topps Braves team set, a Sporting News All Star card of Del Crandall. The last card I need for the set is the Warren Spahn which I could have sworn I had already. I can almost see the thing in my hands. I don't know where or how I got it, but I really think I have that card already. However, the depression that would occur if I knew that I had a 1959 Topps Warren Spahn card in my collection but had absolutely no earthly idea where the hell it was would greatly outweigh any joy I had in completing the 1959 team set. So I'mma just say this is the second-to-last card I need and leave it at that. Maybe I should go ahead and buy that Spahn on COMC, the other one will be sure to turn up immediately.

Ok, so it's miscut. That stuff happens in vintage. Judging by the teeny little sliver of color on the bottom of the card it looks like Del's downstairs neighbor on the uncut sheet was also a National League All-Star card. That miscut could actually be 1% of a Hank Aaron All-Star card! There's actually a decent chance that it is at least a Braves card as Fred Haney, Wes Covington, Warren Spahn and Hank all had All-Star cards in '59. That's what you get when you go to the World Series two years in a row.

The best thing about the backs of the All-Star cards (other than the red and black ink that should have been used on the entire set instead of the Christmas colors they went with) are the cartoons. A cartoon covering almost the entire back of a card is something we should see a lot more of in my opinion. I tip my hat to whomever did the lettering on this card. That crazy Crandall font is a joy to behold.

Wait, there's three different versions of the '59 Spahn? Ouch, this team set is going to take longer than I thought to complete.

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #13 Cheapest High Number I Could Find

Yeah, I know it's May. I have no idea when the next card show will be in Atlanta so I need to stretch this out as long as possible. As much as I want to hop in the car and drive to the next White Plains show, gas is expensive. So here's a card.

For the next 28 card shows I attend I vow to buy at least one 1953 Topps card I need. I'm not going to lie, a few of those cards might be from the World On Wheels set but I'll do my best to finish up the baseball set. Well, I'll do my best to finish up the commons and a few of the stars. Jackie? Heh. Mantle? HeheheHah. Mays short print? HeeeeheheHEEhahah. Sam Calderone? NAILED IT.

This was the most expensive card I bought at the show, running $14.50. Sam played for the Giants for a season in 1950 before serving in the military in 1951 and 1952. He was back with the Giants in '53 and scored a rookie card in the '53 high set. Sammy played with Milwaukee in 1954 after being involved in a trade for Johnny Antonelli. His '54 Topps card was the first one I ever got for the 1954 scarce 51-75 series. The guy has two Topps cards ever and both are short printed. Thanks to the Archives sets, Calderone cards are plentiful now. This wasn't the only '53 card I scammed at the show, you'll get to see the other one before the Mayans doom us all, I promise.

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #14 Clubbed Cub

Top 20 January Vintage show post... in April. Aww yeah, the blog is a trainwreck. I don't even remember half the cards I bought anymore so each post will be a surprise for us all! If I recall correctly, Roger planned to have another show in Atlanta this Spring, but the website's down so I'll have to wait for the little green postcard to know for sure. I'm slightly broke at the moment since I splurged and dropped a $20 on Check Out My Cards when I found something I'd never seen before so hopefully there will be more vintage next month. Hopefully I'll be in the top 10 by then... Ok, here's #14 out of 26 cards what were picked up at the Vintage showback when the NFL playoffs were still going on.

1964 Topps Ernie Banks in broken in condition. If it weren't for the hideous orangey pink grapefruity looking backs '64 Topps might be my favorite of the '60s. The design is sharp. Big bold team name on top, a bar with the player name an position at the bottom and a big photo in the middle. AND THAT'S IT. Done. Don't need much more than that. Most of the pics are nice big portraits too. I've learned to really appreciate the old style portraits on cards after 15 years of almost nothing but action shots on Topps cards. Oh look, the pitcher is pitching. Oh look, the batter is batting. Oh look, the same pose 98 times in the same set. Oh look, I'm falling asleep. Gimmie a big 'ol portrait like Ernie's here.

353 homers for Ernie by the time this card was printed. Ok, so the card is beat all to hell. Someone even rubbed a coin on the back to get the quiz answer. But it's ERNIE. And this card was dirt cheap too. My memory is fuzzy but I think it was only a couple bucks. You want this card or a retail pack of Topps? Fine, it's in terrible condition. Big crease on the top, big chunk out of the side and the corners aren't anymore. It's ERNIE. I'm a certified Cub hater after an unfortunate chain of events in 2003 and even I can't get enough Ernie.

One thing defined my card show experience and that was that my wantlists were a disaster. I didn't specifically have any '64 wantlists with me so I picked up this one on faith even though I knew I had to already have one already. Can you believe I didn't have this card? I couldn't. To this day I still think I have one of these somewhere but it's probably just an Archives card or one from the Yo Momma Threw Out set. Still worth it even if it was a double. IT'S ERNIE.

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what month I'll post the next one!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #15 Kid Stuff

Ok, time to get back to this series. Skipping about due to my Mets pledge. Also because I can't manage to get #15 written and I'm kinda scared to post #16 now, but that's beside the point. Here's another card from the last Vintage show because I really need to get these all posted before the next Vintage show hits town. And it's a Met! that I paid too much for, but oh well!

Awwwww, Tom Seaver looks ADORABLE. The kid's kinda skeevy looking though. Looks like he's up to somethin'.

I keed, I keed. I'm sure Lil' Tom Seaver was perfectly wholesome. That little league field looks like it's in the middle of a refugee camp, but I might just be used to the professional grade East Cobb fields. Rich folks are CRAZY 'bout their baseball 'round here. It may not be immediately obvious from the wacky font and little yellow stars, but this card is from the 1972 Topps set. 1972 Topps chock full of wacky subsets padding out the 787 card set including the In Action cards, Award Trophy cards, Traded cards and these kid pics. All these subsets are making it difficult to work on this set as all the super-duperstars in the checklist have twice as many cards to chase. If not three or four times. Tom has FIVE cards to chase in this set, the base, In Action, two league leaders cards and this Boyhood photo card here. That's a lotta Seaver. Tom Terrific cards are expensive too. He's like the Met version of Mantle. I overpaid for this one to the tune of a fiver, but it was worth it to plug another hole in my '72 set.

The backs have a nice little writeup on Tom's amateur career. Little things like this are why 1972 Topps is the best set of the '70s. Also the LSD-inspired border design, but I digress. Have I mentioned that Tom really should have been a Brave? I have? Imma gripe again. William Eckert is a Fink. Tom was still one of those larger than like figures when I was growing up. I'm still kind of miffed that the Big Red Machine decided to break down as soon as Tom got traded over there. I relished pulling those Seaver cards out of '83 Topps, Donruss and Fleer even though as a Braves fan the rest of the Reds could go jump in a lake. I even enjoyed pulling his cards when he was slumming with the Sox. I don't think I managed to get my hands on a Seaver card from his first stint with the Mets until I was in my 30s, but it was worth the wait. Still got two more to track down from the '72 set though - oy vey!

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #18 At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now

FYI for everypony: If you're in the Houston area this weekend, Sports Memories of Oklahoma (the dude I bought these cards from) is going to be at the TriStar card show at Reliant Stadium this weekend. If you end up going, say hi to Roger for me.

Yes, I used the word everypony. It's Applejack episode day! Errrrrr... make that Derpy episode day!

I've set myself up for failure with this series of posts by writing the first two too well. I'm not sure exactly what is the reason behind this. Perhaps I got really geeked up over the vintage show. Maybe it's all the caffeine I've ingested this week. The recent internet unpleasantness (I don't even want to say the name) got me riled up, maybe that got the juices flowing. It might be that I've got a bunch of sketching projects to complete and I'm procrastinating by writing a lot. Who knows, maybe all the ponies have recharged my batteries. This post - I can tell you right now - is not going to be good.

The problem is this card is one I had to get, but I'm not really jumping up yelling and screaming about it either. Come February when I start hitting the top ten I'm going to be bouncing off the walls like Pinkie Pie visiting the Hershey's chocolate factory, but today (and honestly for the next few posts in this series) I'm just not going to be all that excited. I'm happy, but a quiet, reserved sort of happy. The happiness of doing a job that needed to be done, and doing it well enough. A solid workman-like happiness. Those things are all kinda boring though and so also this post shall be. Here's #18.

OMIGOSH

HOW CAN I CALL THIS CARD BORING

FRIGGIN HALL OF FAMER

1972 TOPPS!

THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME

PONIES HAVE RUINED MY MIND IF I THINK THIS IS BORING

Hear me out, people. I admit, this is not a boring card by any means. '72 Topps with the blue psychedelic tombstone border. Posed shot with the ubiquitous facade in the background. Not really a semi-high number, but it's got a card number in the 500s which is kinda impressive for a '72 card. And it's of HALL OF FAMER Bert Blyleven! I was griping and beeyotching about his Hall snub for years! Not quite as loud as I screamed about Santo, O'Neil, Minoso and Miller, but he was definitely in the Top 5 of players I whined about not being in the Hall of Fame. And now I have his '72 Topps card for the set? What gives?

There are several factors keeping me from acting like a squeeing fangirl all over this post. First of all is the price. If I had found this sucker in a quarter box I would have been dancing in the streets. (brief aside: I did a search for that link and Google told me that I had already shared it in a blogger post last year. I'm starting to think SOPA isn't the thing I should be worrying about. Oh well [insert last line of Orwell's 1984 here]) The fact of the matter is I got this for 4 bucks which is probably a pretty fair price for it. It's in good shape, coupla dings, slightly off center. I needed the card for my set and I acquired it fairly from a reputable dealer in a grand example of how Capitalism is supposed to work. Booooooring!

While I needed this card for my set, I haven't actually placed my '72 Topps series 4 cards into a binder yet. I probably should go ahead and do that, but I've been trying to finish each series one at a time and I haven't done it. Honestly, after I knock out series 3 and 4, I ain't completing no '72 series for a loooooooooooong time. Series 5 is tough and the high numbers are just stupid. I have about 3 times the number of high series cards from 1953 Topps than I have for the '72 set. That's just not right. So while I have knocked out a hole in my collection, I never got the tactile sensation of actually placing the card in the binder. Things like that are important. Sure, I'll do it soon. Whenever I get arsed to stick the rest of series 4 into pages, but it just won't quite be the same. The card for Tuesday's post (like how I've got all this stuff scheduled out in my mind?) suffers from the same issue as Bert, but I at least have a clue on where I'm going to go with writing that one.

The big thing that leaves me sort of flat about this card ( heh - card, flat) is the simple fact that Bert now is a bona-fide Hall of Famer. Two years ago, this card probably jumps at least a half dozen spots on the countdown and I would have written a flaming rant full of piss and vinegar about how the BBWAA is a bunch of Morans and the Hall of Fame voting is a joke and they should really just nuke Cooperstown from orbit and blah blah blah blah. TIPS FOR ASPIRING WRITERS: Wanna find something easy to write about? Find a topic that pisses you off. You can write rant all the live long day about injustice and stupidity. You'll have a great time writing and your readers will rally around the flag. A great time is had by all! Writing about something that is exactly the way it should be? That's harder.

Bert Blyleven is a Hall of Famer. WELL DUH. Dude's got 3700 strikeouts! He was an All Star! And he pitched amazingly well for a bunch of shitty horrible teams! And he won two World Series Championships when he finally got on good teams! OF COURSE he's a Hall of Famer! And now he is. And I bought his card. For a fair price. And I can can now check off one more Hall of Famer on my '72 Topps checklist. Oh goody.

No, really, I'm happy about this. I'm smiling on the inside. This is a really great card. Out of thousands of cards at that show and hundreds upon hundreds of cards in my price range, this was one of only 26 I deemed worthy enough to come home with me. I enjoy having this card, really I do. I just can't bring myself to jump up and down about it. Sorry about the boring post. I promise the next one will be more action packed.

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #19 Dollar Box Gem

According to my self-imposed schedule, this card should have been posted yesterday, but the blog was blacked out in a stand to try to keep freedoms on the internetz. Fat lot of good that did, as the very next day the Feds shut down MegaUpload to teach all us geeks a lesson. Noone said the birth of the Information Age wasn't going to have labor pains. So now servers have been confiscated, over 9000 file share sites are still in operation and everyone who bought a subscription to MegaUpload for perfectly legitimate uses just lost their data forever and not a goddamn thing was accomplished just so the politicians running for reelection can woo back the Hollywood donors for the 2012 campaign. At least there is a Presidential campaign going on so real issues that affect every American's life will be discussed.

Ah well, fuck it. I've seen this kind of movie before (legally, not pirated) and I know all the possible endings, and every single one of them is dreadfully entertaining. Why sweat it? I'mma write a blog post about cards instead.

Once I was done with my orgy of bargain box scrounging I had nineteen cards total. BUT... I specifically had a request to do a top twenty card show series. Well, there was no choice! TO THE DOLLAR BOX!

Actually, there was no specific dollar box. The entire bargain box was littered here and there with dollar cards and there was a separate box filled with some old crummy Bowmans that were a buck a pop (2 for Yankees and Dodgers, grumble). Roger uses a system of dots on the sleeves to make it easier for him to sort through the bargain cards. A yellow dot means the card is a buck. I was being a high roller this time and only picked up one dollar card out of the non-sports pile in my initial card grubbing. There was also a little stack of cards from the '50s for a dollar each. That's where this one came from.

Ain't it purdy?? it's a 1953 Bowman card. You can tell by the design. Or rather, lack thereof. 1953 Bowman is a helluva set that I should really respect more than I do. I'm far too blinded by 1953 Topps though to really appreciate the set the way it deserves. What a kick in the ass for Bowman. They take the time, effort and expense to produce the first card set with really fantastic quality photography, and their competitor puts out a set that is worthy of hanging in the Louvre. Ok, maybe not the Louvre. It could certainly hand in MOMA though. It's like meeting a beautiful, funny, smart girl who likes the same music you do and then she introduces you to her sister Natalie. (might want to hover over that link before you click on it so you know what you're getting into) Just ain't fair, I say.

This card is well loved, but you can still make the picture out from behind all the wrinkles. And what a picture! The batter kneels, bat in hand. Two more bats at the ready, resting on his knee. He glares to his left at an unwelcome intruder into his photo shoot. Ten minutes after this picture was taken that interloper would be dead, his lifeless corpse dumped behind some trashcans in a nameless alley in the Bronx. He would later be found by a junkie who boosted his wallet to buy some smack. That junkie would get busted for puking on a cop, get sent to Rikers for a stint, find Jesus while in the joint and turn his life around. He worked as a dishwasher for a small pizza joint in Brooklyn run by an immigrant who came to America in 1932 after leaving his family an Napoli. He was eventually promoted to the kitchen and did so well, he took over as manager when the old man retired. He married a widower from Queens whose husband was killed in a tragic ferry accident and the used the money to buy the pizza place, where they worked together, the husband cooking, the wife doing the books, until his death in 1975 from a stroke. Widowed for a second time, she cashed out the parlor, moved to Jamaica and smoked grass with local reggae musicians until passing away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 92 naked on the beach with a bottle of rum in one hand and a half smoked blunt the size of Pittsburgh in the other. Yankee Stadium is also visible in the background just like 97.4% of all Vintage Bowman cards ever. Moral of the story: don't mess with people with Boston when they are getting their picture taken. They get tetchy. So who is this alleged vicious killer?

HOOT

How'd you like to be bludgeoned to death by a long ball hitting fly chaser named Hoot? Muck up his photo shoot and find out! While everyone oohs and ahs over the front, the backs of 1953 Bowman is where the true genius of this set lies. A blogger recently asked what would be on a perfect card back, and this right here comes pretty close to the mark. Text is readable. Card number is on the top left and big enough to see without your glasses. Player name large and bold in a font that could be Comic Sans' great grandpappy. Bographical stats and a nice paragraph on the player. Career and 1952 year stats including fielding stats. And the true kicker: a blank line for 1953 stats! Anyone ever seen one of these with the stats written in?

I picked up two '53 Bowman cards at the show, the other was Herman Wehmeier. That card looked a lot better and I'm kind of fond of people named Herman right now, but I couldn't leave a dude name HOOT off the top 20 list, could I? Nah. Not when he's got that bat in his hand.

Now that the gov'mint is bound and determined to destroy the internet over a severely broken copyright system, the question remains: just who the hell owns the copyright on this picture? It's a 59 year old photo from a defunct company. Topps gobbled up their competition in '56, so do they own it? Does the original photographer own it? Since I scanned this particular image with this particular pattern of scuffs and creases and wrinkles, do I own it? Does no one own it? Well if by some freak legal accident I happen to own it (not bloody likely as I don't have a team of lawyers at my beck and call) I say copyleft the sucka! Go little assemblage of 0s and 1s! Fly, be free! Go out into the interwebs to find your fortune! Stay away from that area labeled 2 Girls, 1 Cup, though. You don't wanna go there. I believe in you little .JPG! Be all you can be! It's not like they can take stuff in the public domain and drag it back into copyright, can they?

Oh Goddamnit. Et tu, Supreme Court?

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

January Vintage Show Top 20 - #20 Wantlist Fail Part 1

And the countdown begins...

It's my firm belief that if you're going to a card show, you have to have a plan of attack. If you run in there willy nilly you'll get overwhelmed by the cardness and lose your grip. You could end up leaving with a pile of bad relics and a 1990 Fleer factory set. Even if you have a plan, strange things can happen, but it's best to be prepared. My plan for this show was predicated upon my wantlist. Or rather, the lack of one.

I have a bright red folder with about 50 pages worth of printed wantlists. All my Heritage up to 2009, all of my A&G up to 2010, 2002-2003 Topps206, Topps 1951-1956, about 8 other Topps vintage sets, All my Braves Team sets and about a half a dozen other odds and ends. All in one place, sorted, cards crossed out as I acquire them. I haven't seen the bloody thing in months. Luckily, I have my wantlists backed up here on the blog. Ok, some of them haven't been updated in three years, but they're there. And I can print them out whenever I like! Well, at least when my printer is working, that is.

So here's what happened. I was procrastinatory as usual and didn't take a half bloody hour to write out my wantlists or put them in a text document so I could print them elsewhere. It's the morning of the card show.  Due to an enormous cock-up on my part I thought the Jason Heyward signing was at BP Sports in Marietta on the same day as the card show. Was an honest mistake, the e-mail BP sent me had "Jan. 14" and "Jason Heyward signing" on it and that's all my mind registered. It didn't occur to actually read the thing and see that the Jan. 14th referred to the card show I was already going to. So that morning I got up bright and early (9:57am) and watched My Little Pony.

WHAT.


WAS PINKIE PIE EPISODE!


WHAT WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!

So after I watched the episode (twice) I got to scribbling down my wantlists on scratch paper real quick like. It was 11:00 and I wanted to be out the door by 11:30 to get to the signing. I was forced by time restraints to narrow down the stuff I was going to look for immensely. Like the Carlin routine A Place For My Stuff, I was forced to create a smaller version of my wantlist, just the stuff that was really important.The things that made the cut:

1953 Topps. I wrote out the whole thing and reality checked it against my binder. Out of EVERYTHING I collect, this is the main really really main for reals main focus.

1979 Topps. I only need two bloody cards for this damn set. Don Sutton and the Pedro Guerrero rookie. Can't find the gorram things anywhere.

1972 Topps Series 3 and 4. At the last card show, I completed my 1972 series 2 set but due to poor planning I left several cards I needed from series 3 on the table. I wrote out both series 3 and 4 this time! Series 5 would take a half hour to write out. Series 6 isn't even worth writing out. If you find a cheap '72 high number, just buy the damn thing.

Braves team sets 1933-1967. I should really just print out 100 copies of this and leave a pile by the door so I can pick up one on the way out every time I leave the house. This is when time really started to crunch and the writing got scribbly.

1956 Topps cards 1-107. I started writing this out and decided "screw this" If I find something epic or dirt cheap I'll think about it.

I then jotted down a half a dozen cards I vowed to buy instantly if I found them in my price range:
1940 Play Ball Casey Stengel
1958 Mantle/Aaron
1962 Topps Bob Uecker
1964 Topps Phil Niekro
and a couple others I forget.

So due to my lack of planning, this became the plan:

1. If there's a high dollar card like that '53 Yogi Berra I passed up last time that I can afford get it. 
2. If not, attack the cheap '53 high numbers.
3. Then, attack the '72 want list.
4. Then cross your fingers for '79 completers. 
5. If money left, then browse bargain box for Braves.
6. Get at least one cool non-sport card just because.
7. After that, if money left, free for all. 

I'll go ahead and spoil it for you, here are the results of that hastily cobbled together plan.

1. EPIC SATCHEL FAIL
2. Win
3. Win
4. Fail
5. Win
6. Win
7. Epic Win

Pretty goot success ratio, even if I shall see C-Note Satchel looking at me sadly on my deathbed, a tear in his eye lamenting the life we could have had together. Oh well. I got 26 cards instead and left with over 30 bucks in my pocket. But this post is about Fail! Wantlist Fail! Here is my fail, coming in at #20 on the countdown.

1960 Topps Frank Torre. In dreadful condition. Normally I like Tiptons, but there's a feel to this one that depresses me. I love 1960 Topps for the bright, shiny colors (is it any wonder I'm obsessed with poniez?) and this one is kind of scuffed and faded. It looks like Frank is sadly looking out his front window, bat in hand, ready to play some ball, but it's pouring down raining. Raindrops streak the window, obscuring Torre's sad face, disappointed that there will be no ball played today. This would make a hell of a 1957 Topps card. Half that set looks like Silent Hill anyway, this would just add to the ambiance. Too sad for '60 Topps though.

Add to the sadness the fact that this card was pricey. Five bucks! For a 1960 Topps common in rainy condition! Oh, but it's a high number, you say. No, no it isn't. High numbers don't kick in until card 507. My guess it was priced so high due to the name Torre. Torre is a popular name among Yankee fans and Damn Yankees drive up the price of everything. That's my theory anyway. A better one than it was in the wrong sleeve at least. I didn't really want to buy the card. I almost put it back twice. At the end of the day, I looked at that card, and back at my wantlist, and said to myself, "Self, this overpriced crummy looking card is on your wantlist and even though it is too bloody expensive, you need to get this damn card for your team set instead of a bunch of dollar cards out of the bargain box you big dummy."

So I bought the Torre.

I got home that evening. Scanned all the cards. Updated the wantlists on the blog. Opened up the Braves binder to put things in their proper place... and there's Frank staring at me in my binder. 1960 Topps. #478.  Frank Torre. In friggin great condition too! Good corners, bright colors, a few print streaks on the bottom, but who cares. I had the bloody thing already! So what happened?

My Braves wantlist on the blog was out of date. Badly. I did a reality check after I discovered the Frank error and found about 20 cards I never knocked off the list. Since I pulled the list I took to the show from the blog list, there were problems. The really really dumb thing is I tried to do a reality check when writing it down, but rushed due to time constraints. So I could leave at 11:30 (ended up being 11:45 anyway) and be two weeks early for a Jason Heyward signing. Derp.

So, because I was lazy and unorganized, I ended up buying a 1960 Topps common for my main set for a fiver. LESSON LEARNED. Organize yo stuff! I'm going to get my wantlists together in a new folder. One I won't lose because I chucked it in the trunk of my car after a show. I'll do this right now! Well, it's late, maybe tomorrow. Actually tomorrow is bad. Later this week. Next card show isn't 'till April anyway. I got time. I wonder if the new pony episode is on YouTube yet?

Here's the complete list of upcoming posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

Card Show Top 20 - #1 The Holy Grail of Commons

Here it is, The card you've waited four months to see. The absolute best card I picked up from the Freedom Cardboard show last February. IT's worth the wait. I've been looking for this dang thing for over 25 years. I've asked for it at card shops, I've looked for it at shows, I've been outbid online, and I finally found it. It's mine. All mine. The greatest common card in the history of baseball cards as far as I'm concerned. BEHOLD: The HOLY GRAIL OF COMMON CARDS:

Angels sing, etc..etc...

1963 Topps #126 Bob Uecker 

The immortal Bob Uecker in his only solo Braves card. His rookie was on a 1962 4-in-1 high number rookie card that is expensive as crap. His 1964 card has him in a Braves uniform but with Cardinals on the top of the card. If you want a Uecker Topps card as a Brave, this is it. And oh what a perfect card it is....

Bob in the standard batting pose. His face is a unique combination of intense focus and slack-jawed bewilderment. The Milwaukee M overlooks a perfect bill that is not too curved and not too flat. The Screaming Brave howls on Bob's sleeve. Follow catcher Del Crandall is seen in the background bird dogging chicks in the stands. The inset photo has bob in the crouch, displaying the freakishly large catcher's mitt necessary to receive a young Phil Niekro's knuckleballs. The bottom border is blue and red, Braves colors. Gorgeous.

I've wanted this card since the mid 80's. I probably first saw Ueck in a Miller Lite commercial. Ha ha! He's not sitting in the front row at all! Then Bob showed up on Mr. Belvedere and my interest was piqued. The dude from Mr. Belvedere probably had a baseball card! I had already tried looking for a football card of Webster's dad (name that player - you have five seconds!) why not get one of Ueck too. Somewhere along the line I found out he played for the Braves. Then Major League came out. MUST. HAVE. UECK. CARD.

Problem was, I couldn't find one. Back in the '80s I asked the old Atlanta Sports Cards if they had any Bob Uecker cards. The shopkeeps' reaction to my query was just about the same as if I had said "Ronald Reagan is an alien Lobsterman from the planet Voltron". I dropped the subject even though I could have sworn I saw a Euck card there once. I looked around other shops and shows and found nada. Granted, most of the '90s I was caught up in Insertmania and vintage was not in the forefront of my mind. The new century came and with it came eBay and Yahoo Auctions. I saw many auctions for Ueck cards. The problem is, the people who were online buying baseball cards at the time were just as big of a nerd as I was and really really wanted their Uecker cards too. Cards were going for over $10 a throw, which is kind of nuts for a '60s common*. When a card came in my price range it would inevitably get sniped. Even the reprint of the dang card went for six bucks. My usual tactic of scrounging through bargain boxes was not turning up any Ueckers at all, and he didn't end up in any star cases either. Before the show, the '63 Ueck was on my top 10 all-time wantlist along with the '54 Aaron and the '40 Play Ball Casey Stengel.

Then the card show happened. There's a vintage seller that has showed up to the past two big shows in Atlanta. We only get one every two or three years, but this guy showed up. Uncle.. something or other. Uncle Larry? Floyd? Jerry? Lumpy? I can't remember the name even though I tried to memorize it so I wouldn't forget it later. Uncle Somethin's vintage cards. The dude had a massive table - probably four or five tables to be accurate - with vintage binders piled three deep all across the tables. Two or three or four different books for every vintage Topps set filled with commons and stars. some pockets were three or four cards deep. Basically if you were looking for a common card and he didn't have it, then it just flat out wasn't your day. the cards in the binders were a tad pricey, but they were all in above average shape. On either end of the table were bargain boxes. One side had a dollar box that held very little of interest to me. the bargain boxes on the other side were much better. I found my only '53 Topps card in that box along with some other goodies. Before I cashed out I looked at all the binders. It finally clicked. UECK! HE'S GOTTA BE IN THERE SOMEWHERE! I checked the '63 Topps low number binder, flipped to the 120s... and THERE! UECK! THREE OF EM! One was $4, the other two $3.50. I snagged this one for three-fiddy. A dream - my dream - fulfilled for the price of a happy meal. I had found the Grail. And I didn't even have to get taunted by Frenchmen.

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


* Yes, Bob Uecker is a common card by any definition of the word. The man has made an entire career out of being a common. That's why we love him.

Card Show Top 20 - #2 Shenanigans Were Called

Ok, this one turned out to be a big mistake. When I made up the Top 20 list I was really excited about this card but four months later I'm pretty meh about it. It's a nice card, and a good story, but... honestly I like the Robin card with the crazy Joker puzzle on the back better. And the Rico Carty advertising vehicle. And the Chief Knock-A-Homa team issue. Just stick this one at #20 and bump everything else up one spot and we're good.. So what is the 'good at first but boring the next day' card anyway? It's basically Mojo.

Yay, an autograph of Brewers desperately-trying-to-remain-a-top-prospect Mat Gamel. It's even got a swatch of what is probably a Futures Game jersey on it. It's nice enough I guess, It's a sticker auto but it's framed which always makes the dreaded stickers look better. The relic is shaped like a stamp on a ticket stub, which is weird but attractive. The picture's small and kind of crummy. There's random foil on the sides which is breaking up in spots. It's an ok autogamer. Here's the back.

Bluh, Ticket to Stardom. What a worthless freaking set. Topps refuses to do Topps Total or Bowman Heritage, but that horsepuckey sees the light of day. Useless. Sharp eyed readers have noticed that the card says "Dual Autographed Relic". So where's the Dual? Here it is:

Princess Fielder. Mr. "Imma lean in and stick my fat ass out in front of the plate and then whine to high Heaven when I inevitably get plunked by a ball that was over the plate". I used to like Prince until he pulled that crap in a series against the Braves. Now I hope he signs with the Yankees next year so I can boo him even more lustily. Same deal as before, tiny picture where you can't see his eyes, sloppy framed stickergraph, a bat swatch instead of a jersey, dumb foil that looks like it's flaking off on the right. Oh, there's a serial number this time, 11/39.

Wait a sec... if I showed you the front and back already... then what is this witchery? A card with three sides? Four, actually.

Yay, a book card. This is my first book card. It's nice looking I guess. The spine of the book is basically the front bit of the card which is the thickness of a normal card and looks a bit fragile. I have no idea how some of those huge MegaBook cards are going to hold together with 6 or 8 panels. I have a feeling that 100 years from now halves or thirds or quarters of book cards will be as common as the T202 Triple Folder cards that have been separated into three cards. Maybe the high end books get better binding agents than crummy Ticket to Stardom. The whole back (outside? cover?) shows more of the ticket motif.

Other than the stupid foil barcode the thing looks pretty good. It would look great displayed, but I have no idea how to do that without wrecking the card. So where did I pick up my first (and maybe last) book card? Remember the dollar box from Dimension X with all the weird crap in it? Yep, it was in there. It shouldn't have been, but it was. I asked the seller if this was supposed to be in a dollar box and he said "No, but you can have it". He only asked that I showed him where I found it to make sure nothing else out of sorts migrated to the dollar box. I showed it off later on to Stale Gum's Chris Harris and everyone around called bullshit that this card came out of a dollar box. Well it did. One of the more ridiculous pulls out of a dollar box you will ever see. And now I am completely apathetic towards the thing. Man, I'm a terrible collector.

It's really not a bad little card. It just needs a little love. Which I ain't giving it unless the Braves sign Prince Lardass to play first next year. Probably not even then. Why waste money on a pre-Madonna instead of letting Freddie Freeman develop? Maybe I can use this to bribe Thorzul into letting me cut in line ahead of Chris Mays for the Braves in his next El Cheapo group break...

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

OMG! We're almost done!!!

Card Show Top 20 - #3 Wizard Off Kilter

Almost done with this card show. Then I can move on to the next card show. No, I haven't bought any Topps Series 2. I'll be able to find tons of it in repack boxes in about 6 months anyway. Has the mindbendingly absurd gimmick popped up yet? Topps usually saves their best garbage for Series two. Maybe a supadupa short print variation Stephen Strasburg card with the disembodied head of Bryce Harper blowing kisses in the background? Eh, don't care. Here's a card from a real set where men were men and gimmicks were Bump Wills.

1979 Topps Ozzie Smith RC

Wizard! In the fluorescent brown Padres uni! Rockin' the sideburns! Those suckas are dangerously close to Mutton Chops. And it's a rookie card! And it's about a nanometer away from being officially miscut!

One of the sets I'm closest to completing is the 1979 Topps set. It's not even one of my favorite sets of the period, I like bookends 1978 Topps and 1980 Topps much better. I just happened to have a bunch of it, and then people sent me a lot more of it and it sort of kind of piled up. No matter how much I accumulated though  The Wizard always loomed. That's one problem I've got with collecting vintage sets. Dang near every one has one or more key rookie cards that are pricey. Well, used to be pricey. Everyone's chasing SWEET MOJO HITZ or looking for completely perfect vintage cards to submit to PSA in hopes of landing that grade 10 cardboard wiener enhancer that they can wave at their fellow graded collectors. No one cares about the vintage garbage I collect.

THE PROBLEM: There was a time in my life when I actually paid attention to price guides. You know the one. I'd buy one about every other month depending who was on the cover and drool over all the Hi prices of the old vintage cards I'd never get my hands on. There were cards that cost over 100 dollars! Even the rookies from 1983 Topps that I already had were $25! That's a lotta money for a card! Or it was in the mid '80s at least when I was a broke kid. I blow $25 on retail bullcrap nowadays without batting an eye. But back then it was Expensive! So here's my problem: Thanks to Beckett Brainwashing early in my collecting career I have a Pavlovian response to iconic vintage rookie cards. First I go, "REALLY REALLY WANT". Then I go, "probably too expensive for me...." and slink off in shame. I can't break myself of this habit either, even though I could probably find just about every significant rookie from 1974-1985 for well under 20 bucks online if I looked hard enough. It's frustrating.

So I'm at the FCB card show. I'm at the Sports Memories OK table. That's the guy I bought a new pile of old goodies from on Saturday. I purposely saved his table for last knowing there would definitely be some good stuff to pick though. If anything was a sure thing at this show, that was it. So I do my usual routine. Check the cases. Look at all the high grade stars from the '60s. Ooooh. Gawk at all the beautiful cards from the '50s. Aaaaah. Gaze lovingly at the pre-war Goudeys and Cabinets and Tobaccos, Oh My!. Get to the Museum case with the 19th century cards and original Ruths and Gehrigs. Jizz in my pants. Then I go to the bargain boxes where I can actually afford stuff.

Roger must have picked up a collection before the show because there was an entire display of low grade Hall of Famers. I  found a couple of interesting ones on there that I considered getting but chose to hit the bargain box first just to see what I could find. I found the typical stuff, '50s commons off my wantlist, Braves for my teams sets, etc. etc. The bargain boxes consist of two 3200 count monster boxes and are organized thusly: Box 1 has a row full of non-sports cards and the baseball oddballs, row two and about half of row three are filled with vintage Bowman and the rest is filled with vintage football, basketball and other assorted sports. Box 2 is filled with Topps organized by year. The back of the first row starts with a section of everything 1973 and newer, then there is a separate section for every year going from 1972 down to 1951. At the very end are a few bargain Pre-war cards. I usually attack the boxes starting with the pre-war stuff, then I hit the 1953s, rummage around the rest of the large-size '50s cards (Except 1952, blecch), hit a few years like 1960 and 1972 that I really like, then work my way through the rest of the years looking for Braves.

I'll usually hit the '73 and up section last. Like, very last. After I've checked the Bowman and Non-Sport and maybe even the football. It usually only has a bunch of '70s stars that I already have. Occasionally a Hank '74 Highlight or Niekro will show up. I checked it last as usual and flipped through it pretty quickly not really expecting anything. It was late and I was getting worn out by my card frenzy so I sloughed through barely paying attention.  Gary Carter... Tony Perez... Steve Carlton... Lou Brock... Ozzie Smith Rookie... Carlton Fisk - dang I have two of that card - Ho hum, Bob Gibso- WAIT, WHAT??

I shuffled back. Ozzie Smith. Rookie. The EXPENSIVE 1979 card. In the bargain box. How much. Probably 20 bucks if it's a penny. I'm down to my last 20, no way I can afford this card. What's the price?

Five bucks. My face did this:

Ozzie in my pile. Forgot about the cards in the case. Went to pay. Roger left to pay his electricity bill so I paid someone who was watching his table for him. Felt like a thief. WIZARD FOR FIVE BUCKS. That cop over there is gonna bust me I know it. Finished up the day by picking up a couple items I had left before and was able to walk out the door without getting thrown in the hoosegow. I even talked to Roger on my way out, apparently it was legit. Ok, so it's a smidge off center. Anyone have a diamond cut 1980 Rickey Henderson? A '75 Topps Yount with a tack hole at the top? A '78 Eddie Murray with a hole punch through the rookie cup? There's a fiver in it for ya...

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