Package from Beckett - Triple Play Sports Cards

The third and last beckett.com purchase was from Triple Play Sports Cards. Since they are local, my wife picked up the order for me when she was over in that part of town. There were about 100 cards in the purchase. There were a few odds and ends baseball cards, but probably 80%-90% were hockey cards; Dallas Stars and Minnesota North Stars to be exact. There were cards from 16 different years, and here are some representative samples from each of them. 

2005-06 Upper Deck. There were many Marty Turco cards in the lot, and this was my favorite with the opponent leaping at him like that. He is my favorite Stars goalie ever. 

2012-13 and 2013-14 Upper Deck. These sets have vibrant color and great action shots. Upper Deck has mastered the borderless hockey card much better than Topps has done with baseball.

2010-11 and 2011-12 Upper Deck. Upper Deck just gets how to make hockey cards. They're sharp, crisp, and exciting.

2008-09 and 2009-10 Upper Deck. I always liked Sergie Zubov. I don't know anything about him personally, so maybe that's a mistake. I just like the name. Zubov and Mike Ribeiro had about five cards each in the lot.

2006-07 and 2007-08 Upper Deck. I actually forgot that Eric Lindros had played briefly with the Stars. Jussi Jokinen is just one of five different Finnish player Stars cards in this timeframe in the lot.

2001-02 Topps and 1997-98 Upper Deck. Topps design from this year looks ancient compared to Upper Deck's of the same year directly below it. That's a great picture of Brenden Morrow though. The Upper Deck design shown here is nearly identical to that of their baseball issue.

2001-02 and 2004-05 Upper Deck. By this time Upper Deck had permanently gone borderless with their hockey flagship cards.  They were a good 12-15 years ahead of Topps. I didn't collect hockey at the time, but I'm curious if their switch to borderless cards caused much of a stir in the hobby.  

1973-74, 1976-77, and 1977-78 Topps. Now we're really jumping back in time. That's mainly because my 80's and 90's team sets are near complete. The border of the 73-74 set reminds me a lot of the Philadelphia brand football cards of the late 60's. I didn't mean for this post to come across as so anti -Topps. I've actually been very pro-Topps generally over the years. 

This wraps up my posts of recent hockey purchases. I don't have any more in the works. Maybe it'll take another new hockey season to start them up again.

Old Red Sox Card from 1928

For team set collectors like me, there are certain periods of time that are quite a challenge to find cards. I know part of the problem is that the team I collect, the Boston Red Sox, have been around forever, 1901 to be exact. While it's not a big enough complaint to make me switch allegiances, it sure would be a lot easier collecting cards of the Colorado Rockies or Florida Marlins. Even older teams like the Seattle Mariners or the Toronto Blue Jays wouldn't be all that bad because Topps has been making cards since before their inception. Yearly predictable flagship sets started in 1948, so if the team you collect is younger than that, you are very lucky!

Two eras that are particularly troublesome for collectors of very old teams are the mid to late 1920's and the World War II years. There just weren't a lot of sets being produced. This card is from 1928 Exhibits (W461). Exhibits was a Chicago-based supply company which sold cards via vending machines at amusement parks. They issued baseball and football cards, as well as wild west, boxing, and actors. This is my first card from 1928.

To say that it's postcard sized would be redundant because it actually double serves as a post card. Check out the back! See the fingerprints of some chocolate fingered kid from the amusement park that day?

I don't know too much about Bryan "Slim" Harriss here. But with a nickname of Slim, that girth in his buttocks region must not be him but something in the background. He pitched for the Red Sox from 1926 thru 1928 going 28-42 and leading the league with 21 losses in 1927. Maybe he got his nickname from his win-loss percentage (which was better than the team's those years, by the way).

Package from Beckett - Burbank Sportscards

The second package from my Beckett order arrived the other day.  It was from Burbank Sportscards in Burbank, CA.  I think I've probably bought more cards from them than from any other place, ever.  They were there when I opened my beckett.com account in 2001. I don't buy from them as often as I used to, but when I do, it's a fairly big order.  This package brought 52 cards to my door, from all sports and even a non-sport.

My favorite card in the group is this rookie card of Pete Maravich. It's pretty beat up on the corners and has a crease. That means it's in my price range!

This "big card" of Artis Gilmore is also a favorite. He was one of my favorite non-Lakers as a kid. He was the only player I saw stand eye to eye with Kareem. I mostly remember him later in his career with the Spurs, but he was still a solid player.

This is Maravich's third card, also only in the lot because of condition. But that's all right by me; I'm glad to add it to my collection. There were also a couple of Lakers stickers. It was the only way I could find to get these guys on Lakers "cards" this year.

These Panini Prizm Prizms were a couple I didn't know about until seeing them in the trading card database.  I thought I had all the Lakers.

There were only two football cards; both Finest Refractors of Tim Tebow.

I'm in a Star Wars mood since the Solo movie came out, so I picked up the ones I didn't have yet that Burbank had.  These are about half of what I got.  I'm at 309/330, or 93.6%, on that set build.

And there was hockey.  This Barry Gibbs from 1972-73 completes the North Stars team set for that year!  And this Keith Aldridge is my first Young Guns card! Most of them are just way more than I want to spend on a hockey card, but this one was pretty cheap.

And there were a couple Mike Modanos.  This is my first Finest Refractor hockey card!

And then there was baseball.  I mentioned before that I was going for the Red Sox team set of 1993 Pacific Spanish.  These two and two others in the package complete series 1.  I still have all of series 2 to go.

This 1997 Fleer Nomar Garciaparra completes the Red Sox team set for that product.  And Andrew Moore here and about 15 other Elmira Pioneers from that same issue complete that team set.  It's the first time I've done a minor league team set card by card.

Tommy John was the only vintage baseball card as most of Burbank's are overpriced in my opinion.  Skeeter Newsom fills out 1983 TCMA a bit more for me.  The blemish on the edge is hardly noticeable in real life.  In fact, I wasn't even aware of it until seeing the scan.  I like this set because it tries to get some cards out there from the WWII years when not much was produced.  I only wish there were more than a handful of Red Sox for each war year in the set.

And finally, there were some odds and ends rookies and updates that were there too.  Here are a couple examples.

Package From Beckett - Card Gallery

The first package from Beckett arrived today. It was from the seller Card Gallery. The entire purchase was cards off my want list.

As you might have noticed, I'm on a big hockey kick right now. I picked off a whole bunch more from my Stars and North Stars team set builds.

Dino Ciccarelli was a big name around here before Mike Modano came along. He was a solid point a game guy.

This Joe Nieuwendyk from 2000-01 was the last Topps I still needed from that year. I like how the shades on the ice blend so well with the card border. Mike Keane was another of my favorites. Too bad he was only on the team four years.

Solid dents were made in the early 80's Topps and O-Pee-Chee too. They were mostly no-names. 

There were also some odds and ends Red Sox.

All four Red Sox in the 1995 Fleer Update were there.

As were all nine or so from 1996 Fleer Update.

Lastly, there were some cards from the 1992 Elmira Pioneers minor league set. I kind of gave up looking for a team set of them, so I'm starting to buy them one by one. This package from Card Gallery had just under half the team set in it. There were no big names, so I didn't scan any of them. 

Old Red Sox Card - Rube Walberg

As employee of the month at work I received some Visa gift cards as part of the prize.  I had saved them and planned to spend them on the Minneapolis trip, but actually only spent a small part of them.  So upon returning, they were burning a hole in my pocket!  I had to do something about that.  So over the past couple of days I've been doing just that.  I've made card purchases on eBay, Beckett.com, and at a LCS.  Hopefully, I will receive them in the coming days and share my findings with all of you!

 

The first package arrived yesterday.  There were only two cards in this one.  The first is a 1936 National Chicle Fine Pen Premiums (R313) of Rube Walberg.  My collection had been mostly limited to the Wide Pen Premiums of Goudey that year, so I still didn't have Rube.  It's in really decent shape for 82 years old, and the price was right.

I don't know much about Mr. Walberg so I had to look him up.  He played for the Red Sox for four years at the very end of his career.  He both started and pitched in relief.  His best days were with the Philadelphia A's, and he pitched in each of their World Series from 1929-1931.  When he came to Boston in 1934 he was 37 years old and pretty average.  An interesting thing about Rube Walberg is that he had four managers during his 15 year major league career, and all four are in the Hall of Fame.

Since I had already paid for shipping, I perused through the seller's other cards for sale and found this 1966 Topps Willie Stargell.  It was only $2 which I thought was a great price for it.  Other than Red Sox, I don't have too many cards that old, but I couldn't pass up on Pops.

So here's the rest of the story about those gift cards.  As the employee of the month recipient, one day at a company-wide meeting I stood with the CEO in front of the company having a bunch of nice things said about me, and receiving my prizes.  Just under three weeks later I was sitting in that same CEO's office having him tell me they were going to proceed without my services.  About one-tenth of the office was let go that day.  It just goes to show that nothing is certain, and anything can happen.  Now it's a couple months later and I'm in another good spot.  This was my first week on a new job, working remotely for a company in Dallas, and still in software development.  And my new boss lives in Boston and is a huge Red Sox fan!  He told me if he'd known that about me earlier we could have just skipped the interviews.

Package from Stealing Home

Since the beginning of my blogging days about 15 months ago, there have been a handful of other blogs which I've followed since day one.  One of those is All Trade Bait All The Time.  Whether you have an affinity for beer (I don't) or baseball cards (yes, I do, big time!) you will enjoy reading it.  He goes by Stealing Home, and Tom and I have been emailing back and forth about a possible trade off and on for months.  I have a high end card he wants, and he's been doing a lot of work hitting local card shows out there in California to come up with comparable goods in return.  Yesterday, I received his package in the mail.

 

This is my very first hockey autograph card!  It's hard to make out in the scan, but it's Darryl Sydor from the 1999 In the Game Millennium Signature Series.  Most of the rest of the cards were off my want list of Minnesota North Stars team set needs.  A whole bunch were knocked off the list!

 

Here's Gilles Meloche the year before and the year after the new style goalie face masks came out.  Who can't look at that 1980-81 mask and think "CREEPY?"

There were more cards from the 1982-83 O-Pee-Chee set than from any other, over half the team in all.

And of course, a couple Red Sox were in the package for good measure.  I needed them both.  This was actually my first look at the 2018 Topps Salute of Johnny Damon.

Thanks for the trade, Tom!  Well, I guess it's not a trade until I get yours in the mail too.  Look for it soon.

Minneapolis 3/3

Two Fridays ago now I was in Minneapolis and found myself needing to kill some time.  I had been to one card shop, then made an in-person trade with a fellow member of the trading card database.  Papa Hawk Sports & Collectibles was one exit down the freeway from where I was at.  So despite not having the best luck there last time, I grabbed a shake at the McDonald's drive-thru across the street and headed south one exit.

This time I had a lot better luck there.  First I picked up three Red Sox I needed from 2018 Donruss.

They had 16 cards from 1977 Topps Star Wars that I still needed, all from the green and orange sub-sets.  That puts me at exactly 90% complete for that set.

Speaking of which, I saw the Han Solo movie yesterday.  It was so-so.  I've traditionally been a huge Star Wars fan, but even I now think they are putting out too many movies.  They're not as special any more.

Spoiler alert: jump down to the hockey card pictures if you don't want to know anything about the movie...........  So how old is Han Solo supposed to be?  By putting Darth Maul in there, they seem to have thrown the timelines off.  He shouldn't be alive at this point in Han Solo's life.  He was killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi when Anakin Skywalker was still a little boy and Luke was years from being born.  I always put Solo as being maybe ten years older than Luke.  But given Darth Maul's appearance when Solo was in his early 20's, he'd have to be 40 years older than Luke, or almost Kenobi's age.  Has anybody made sense of this apparent contradiction?

Back to cards.  By far I bought more hockey than anything else.  They were all Minnesota North Stars or Dallas Stars team set needs over a 40 year timeframe.  Here are just some of the favorites.

So overall, that Friday in Minneapolis was well worth getting up early and arriving with ample time for card hunting.

Minneapolis 2/3

Last Friday mid-afternoon I found myself sitting in my car at Twin Cities Sportscards in Golden Valley, Minnesota.  They had needed to close up the shop early to make a trip to a show out of state.  I was supposed to meet a guy there that afternoon.  He's not a blogger, but he goes by Noy on the trading card database.  We met at this same card shop over a month ago, and had arranged thru TCDB to meet again the next time I was in town.  I had quite a few cards from his want list to give him.   To kill a little time, I decided I'd enter the cards I had just purchased that day into the TCDB on my phone, hoping Noy would show up soon.  And after about ten minutes, he did.  After trying the locked card shop door, he looked around the lot.  He must have seen my South Dakota plates, and walked on up to my car.  I'm glad I hung around a few minutes.  I wasn't expecting anything in return, but he had brought along a nice return package of cards for me.  Here's a look at what was inside.

This is my first manufactured relic card.  It couldn't have been of a better player as far as I'm concerned.

There were three great additions to my Yaz PC.

 And three for the Clemens PC as well.

And three hall of famers knocked off the 1972 set build.

These are my first 2018 Bowman cards.

There were some 2018 Bowman Chrome Prospects of the Red Sox as well.

There were a whole bunch of Minnesota North Stars cards.  That's very fitting since I had been digging thru old North Stars just minutes before in the card shop. 

Overall, Noy overdid himself. I wasn't expecting anything in return, and instead I think he outgave what I gave him. Thanks for the trade, Noy! The cards are much appreciated!

So how did I spend the rest of the afternoon? I'll get to that in part 3.

Minneapolis 1/3

This weekend I was in Minneapolis for a graduation.  So I took the opportunity to drive in early enough on Friday to have plenty of time at a local card shop.  My destination was Twin Cities Sportcards in the suburb of Golden Valley.  I was there about a month ago, but didn't have time to really dive in.  So that was the plan on Friday afternoon.

When I woke up Friday morning, I had what I thought was pinkeye.  At that early hour, there was nothing I could do about it in South Dakota, so I made the drive to the Twin Cities and went right away to a MedExpress Urgent Care.  Thankfully, it was either allergies or an irritant of some kind in there and not pinkeye.  I filled the eye drop prescription, grabbed a quick lunch, and to Twin Cities Sportcards I went.

I had some really good luck.  This 2018 Donruss Rated Rookie of Rafael Devers was probably my favorite pickup.

I also found four 2017 Yaz cards I didn't have yet to add to my PC.  Here are my favorites.

My 1973 Topps set build was helped along.  I still need the Rookie Third Basemen card with Mike Schmidt on it.

I now have only five left to complete the set!

I picked up another 1975 Boog Powell to replace the one I mistakenly traded not too long ago.  So I'm back to one card left in 1975, the George Brett rookie.  The shop owner had just recently sold his entire 5000 card box of 1974's, so I didn't get a chance to find the last two I needed.

All the NHL playoff talk lately had me in the mood to chip away at my North Stars and Stars team set builds.

I picked up a bunch and am only showing a few here.

These are my first cards from this year's Upper Deck set.

This Bobby Doerr wasn't specifically on my want list, but it's one of those that talked to me the moment I saw it.

I was employee of the month in December so I had my prize of hundreds of dollars of Visa gift cards I planned on spending at the store.  But unfortunately, the owner had to close early on Friday afternoon to hit the road early for a trip to South Dakota and a coin/card show.  So I was graciously booted from the store with less than $20 spent so far.  I had planned to dig deep into his 5000 card boxes of 1970, 1971, and 1972.  So his loss.  But overall, he didn't know my intentions, and he's such a nice guy I don't hold it against him.  His store is one of my all-time favorite LCS's.  There were a couple other guys in there who were obviously regulars, but they included me in some really fun and engaging conversations about their collections, want lists, recent buys, etc.

So what to do with the rest of the afternoon in Minneapolis?  I was supposed to meet a TCDB friend in person while there, but had to leave before he showed up.  Stay tuned for part 2.