In Today's Mail

This is Dustin Pedroia's 2004 Justifiable card produced by Just Memorabilia. I picked it up via buy it now, knocking one off my want list. Pedroia split 2004 between two Red Sox minor league teams, Sarasota and Augusta. But he didn't have a card in either club's team issued set that year. I didn't know until recently that Pedroia had cards in 2004, so I am glad to have this one.

Another Card Book

This is a little gem of a book. It has pictures of all the Topps Red Sox cards from 1952 through 1988. I used it years ago when I was building my first Red Sox team sets, then it was buried in a closet for a number of years, then I finally brought it out again a couple years ago when I started working back through the years. I'd bring it into card shops with me and put a little X above the ones I had. Every card in the book has an X now. I wish there were up to date versions of the book.

This weekend I finished my Red Sox Want list. I also made some purchases I will tell about when they arrive.

How I Know the Old Red Sox Cards

I already talked about how I go about collecting Red Sox teams going forward. To aid myself in tracking down Red Sox cards going back in time, I bought this Vintage Baseball Cards book several years ago. It has checklists of every known card set EVER. It ends in 1980, which makes sense because in 1981 the scene started becoming more crowded. It's supposed to be a price guide, but I use it more as a checklist. It's five years old now, and I'll admit I haven't looked to see if there is a more recent edition. I figure few if any undiscovered sets come up very often, so from a checklist perspective I'm probably OK. I know there are resources online for this sort of thing, but paper, highlighter, and pen feel right for card collecting. ☺

Is anybody else using this book to help collect really old cards?

My want list is now current back to 2000, and pre-1990. I'm hoping to update the 1990's this weekend.

Some of my Favorite Cards, Part 1

Aaron Sele and I were friends when we were really little kids growing up in Golden Valley, MN. Within weeks of my family moving to South Dakota, his family moved to Washington state. I've never seen him since. I picked him as my first player collection because he was on my favorite team, and he was the only major leaguer whom I had met.

The two cards pictured are 2003 Leaf Certified Materials Mirror Black 1/1's, one being the jersey version. I picked both of these up seperately on ebay in 2003. Even if your player collection isn't of a super star, it can still be very expensive at times. These didn't come cheap as I recall. I know the jersey was buy it now, and I jumped as soon as I saw it. I had to bid against others on the other one. 

These are some of my favorite cards. Although not Red Sox cards, they look really cool with the refractor surface over the black border. I used to really like refractors, especially Finest and Topps Chrome.

President's Day

I spent a good chunk of my day off going thru Beckett checklists and updating my want lists. I went player by player thru 2002, 2003, and 2004. There are several new additions to the want list if you can help me out.

My goal each year is to obtain one card of every Red Sox player. I start with the Topps team set, followed by team sets of their minor league teams. Then I see who's missing and scrounge around through other brands to find them. I prefer cards from the main sets over higher priced relics, autographs, parallels and low print runs. But sometimes that's all there is.

I was really surprised today to learn that Dustin Pedroia had a few cards made in 2004. That was totally under my radar all these years. I'm hoping to fill that one soon.

Red Sox To Trade 1967

They call 1967 the year of the impossible dream. I wasn't alive then, but I've read a lot about it. In grade school I had to write about the day in history to which I would most like to travel back in time to witness in person. I said the last day of the 1967 baseball season to see Yaz finish off the triple crown.
If you were a card collector that year, these are the cards you would have had in hand. You can tell which seasons were special to a team by looking at the value of that year's team card. The 1967 Topps Red Sox team card will cost you a pretty penny. I've personally always associated the following year's cards with a team's season. I love the stats and information on the backs of the cards. These 1967 cards have 1966 stats on the back. I prefer the 1968 set when reminiscing about 1967. Anybody else feel the same way?
I have also added five cards from 2006 to my want list.

Red Sox To Trade 1965 - 1966

Red Sox To Trade 1962 - 1964

Here are the Red Sox I have for trade from 1962, 1963, and 1964.
The wood border in 1962 is similar to what Topps did again in 1987.  I wasn't even close to born in 1962, but I remember the 1987 set when it came out, and I didn't much care for the wood look. It has since grown on me.
1964 is the year I start to have lots of Yastrzemskis to trade.
If you want me to jump ahead to any later years from which you want to know what I have, just leave a comment.

Red Sox To Trade 1960 - 1961

Here are my Red Sox cards from 1960 and 1961 that I have for trade. Please contact me if you're interested.

Red Sox To Trade 1952 - 1959

I've accumulated a lot of Red Sox doubles in my quest to complete team sets each year. I probably have more Red Sox to trade than any other team. I'm going to roll pictures out of what I have to trade a couple at a time. Let me know if you want to make a trade! If you know any vintage Red Sox collectors, please send them to my blog.
Also, I added a couple from 2008 to my want list.

Valentine's Day

As this cover shows, we Red Sox fans had our share of bad Valentine's Days. (Sorry, bad pun) But this year was a lot better for me. I've been buying a lot of Red Sox minor league team sets recently. (Pawtucket, Portland, etc.) I had them paged and lieing around loose. Today my wife surprised me with new binders for them all for Valentine's Day. She's a keeper!

The Card That Started It All

I got this 1977 Topps Carl Yastrzemski in my very first pack of cards. Something about the picture and robust stats on the back made it my favorite right away. Even though I was in a family and town full of Twins fans, I became a Red Sox fan and was hooked on card collecting because of this card. I now have two or three others of this same card in much better condition, but this will always be my favorite.

Interestingly, I can identify the cards from that first pack because my mom wrote my name on them. After that, and for the next two years, I wrote my first initial "E" on them myself.

Here goes

Hmmmm.....So what do you post in your first blog?  What kind of introduction do you give?  How much time do you spend on getting it just right when nobody is out there yet?

The purpose of this blog is to open doors with other baseball card collectors.  I've gotten to the point that the remaining vintage Red Sox cards for which I'm looking are getting very hard to find.  Hopefully, this avenue will lead to the right connections.

Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow.  Here's to a great season!