Last Day of Summer (of slabs)

So it looks like the Summer of Slabs will actually be the September of Slabs, since my payout from 4 Sharp Corners won't get here for another couple of weeks, and eBay requires any sports card purchased for $250+ to be sent to them for authentication even if PSA previously authenticated the card. 

I do have a couple recent purchases purchases to show & tell for the final SOS post (and #700 overall!) 

This Larry Doby counts as a Chicago White Sox card, so I only need the team photo to complete my second 1956 team set. It's kind of fascinating to me that I've only got one team set complete.. yet I only need 44 (non-checklist) cards across the entire set. 

I'd had my eye on an early '50s Bowman Doby issue, either '50 or '51 (they look the same) .. but the prices must have soared since the last time I looked. Neither card is in my price range any longer. 

Doby is one of several notable New Jerseyans to be recognized with an esteemed highway stop. I couldn't find a photo of the Larry Doby service area off the NJ Turnpike, so here's a more significant honor:

I also picked up a BGS slabbed single, this Charlie McAvoy Young Guns rookie card:

The photo is blurry because my scanner cant handle the chunky BGS holders. 

I'd been shopping for a McAvoy RC ever since he debuted with the Bruins, and now that he's entering his late 20s and no longer a Norris trophy candidate, the card has come down to a reasonable price (about $50.) I still like Chaaah-lee though. He'll probably be named the B's captain now that Brad Marchand has kissed Boston goodbye. And he's my third favorite McAvoy, after Will: 

...and my wife 😁

Hope you all have an enjoyable Labor Day weekend. Thanks for reading!



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p.s. WE GOT MICAH!?!!! 

2, 4, 6, 8... pocket pages

 I've got a whole mini-album full of two-pocket pages:

And another mini-album mostly filled with 4-pocket pages:

Those pages share space with seven 6-pocket pages:

And now, finally.... I have some 8-pocket pages!

I had a handful of oversized cards like these 1988 Topps BIG Baseball singles stored in top loaders, but I wanted the oversized top loaders for more important cards. So these are now in the mini-binder, along with...

My 5-card set of 1953 Bowman reprints and some random 1989 Bowman cards. I'm going to take that Walter Alston card out and put another '89 Bowman in its place:

This is the most random card to have a unique personal memory, but I remember opening a pack and lingering on Austin Manahan here. I told myself to remember this card, this was a significant card. I was eight years old. I probably didn't know the meaning of the word 'significant', but I knew why this card mattered:

Holy crap! This guy was born in 1970?!? I'm getting old. Someday I'll see a card of a player born in 1980!! 😳

Next time I'm on Sportlots, I'll risk two dimes on this single. It will probably arrive damaged and shoved in a taped-up top loader, but that's okay. 

Back to the Walter Alston. Remember those Greg Morris auctions I was watching? Yeesh:

LOLno. 

Damn Dodger tax.

Better, but still too much.

Ugh. Nope. I got none of 'em. Instead, I rolled the dice on a different Alston:

The price was right, but the faded scan was a concern. This seller also had a Don Bessent, but I was too hesitant to pull the trigger on both. 

Alston arrived today:

Oh, nice. It's not faded it all. It's crisp, clean... 

....and creased. 

Ah well. It's not visible unless you look at it under light. But this is why I buy graded cards. Not a bad deal though, certainly can't complain since it was $100 less than the ungraded Alston that Greg Morris was selling. 

****** Bonus Starting Lineup Showcase mini-post! *******

I like to window shop on eBay for SLU figures around my birthday and Christmas. Makes me feel young. There was a sealed Marcus Allen figure that looked clean, and the price was good, but I didn't have any personal connection to it. 

For about the same price, I picked up four loose pieces: two childhood faves and two that are brand new to me:

I had that Dan Marino once, and the last place I saw it was it was in the backyard of my sister's house. I went to look for it when she moved, but it was long gone. I've never owned a Buffalo Bills figure but the seller had Cornelius Bennett for a few bucks and I thought it would look cool to have a division rival rushing Marino. (Bruce Smith would have been too expensive!) 

Hakeem Olajuwon was only $5, and even though I have a sealed Olajuwon figure from 1994 I couldn't pass up his '88 figure. The only other first series basketball figures I have are an open Larry Bird from Jon Pennysleeves and a sealed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

Marcus Allen did make me curious to search out other Raiders, and Todd Christensen was an easy choice. At $12 it was the most expensive piece in the lot, but well worth it for a tribute to Travis James:

Dress a Barbie, Max. Lmao. 

Thanks for reading!





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Summer of Slabs 06 - Sets, etc.

The "final boss" of my card collecting career is the 1956 Topps set. My original plan was to get every single card in PSA 5 grade or better. Here's the latest acquisition, a Rip Repulski 6: 

Down to 48 cards, which means most of what remains is either a hall of Famer (Mays, Reese, Doby, etc.) or a tough common that rarely appears in mid-grade. A fully slabbed set probably wasn't feasible before 2020, and it makes even less sense now. I've filled in some spots with ungraded cards whenever I can find an affordable option. In some cases, the ungraded copies are even pricier than slabbed singles.

Here's a Walter Alston I'm watching. The Dodger tax is real with this one. 

When this ends, it will likely be over $75 total. For those who think graded cards are a waste of money, here's a copy of the Alston card that would have fit my needs:

That's about as much as I would want to pay for a Manager card, even if it is a "RC" of a Hall of a Famer. 

I'm hoping to pick up at least a few '56s from Greg Morris this weekend, but the bidding is always competitive. That's why I prefer to use Buy It Now.

Picked up this Joker RC for under $200. It's a lot for a Donruss card, but I got one really cheap on COMC a few years ago and flipped it for a nice profit. I'm building a bit of of a current/recent greats RC collection, and usually buy Chrome or Prizm because anything higher is out of my budget. However I went with the Donruss RC for Nikola Jokic because I preferred the price and the action shot over his posed Prizm photo. 

Also because I have the complete 2015-16 Donruss basketball set. 

I love graded cards. and I love building sets. A lot of collectors avoid slabbed singles because they're old school set builders and want to have every card in its pack pulled, natural state. I totally get that.

A lot of people buy graded singles as an investment. The authentication gives the owner some peace of mind. They're easier to resell if you suddenly have financial issues because of a natural disaster, or family illness, or because you have two kids who are approaching college age and you're no longer a two-income household. I totally get that, too.

My slabs and my sets are mostly separate. Except when they're not.

Here are three (more) graded singles in my collection that I can't sell because they are part of a complete set:

2018 was the last year I collected more than one baseball set, and it's a good thing I did. I have complete sets of Topps, Topps Opening Day, Big League, and Stadium Club along with Topps Chrome. Much of the appeal of those sets is tied to the Shohei Ohtani RC, and it's unlikely that someone looking for this Chrome RC would be interested in the whole set when they can just buy this one card.

This Michael Jordan All-Star card is one of a handful of slabbed 1988-89 Fleer singles in my collection. I do not currently have the complete set of this; I sold my base MJ (PSA 7) to raise funds for an upgrade. One of the other cards in that consignment was a Dominique Wilkins PSA 9, which I didn't really need in PSA grade. I'll pick up a 'raw' copy for a couple bucks, eventually.

The 1988-89 Fleer set looks a bit off in my basketball binder, because I've got empty pockets for those half-dozen singles in the PSA box. My 2000 Finest baseball set has a space for the Johan Santana RC, and I've considered selling the BGS copy to pick up an ungraded card for the binder. Maybe one day.

Which leads me to 1993 SP, one of my all time favorite sets. I've got the baseball and football sets completed in one binder. Except for the Derek Jeter RC, which was also sold with the intent to upgrade.

I can't possibly afford a PSA 9 copy of this iconic card, and I'll probably pay more than I want to for an 8. But there's another card I'm tempted to upgrade. Not nearly as iconic, but a staple of my teen years - and in my opinion, a nicer looking foil SP RC:

I grew up in New England during the Drew Bledsoe era. I remember when Bill Parcells joined the Patriots, when Robert Kraft bought the team, when they updated their uniforms, and when they drafted Drew. The franchise was a laughingstock through the late '80s and early '90s, and there was a ton of excitement over the new-look Patriots. 

A couple years later, when Bledsoe started resembling Dan Marino, this card blew up. I had a dealer come to my house and personally deliver a copy to my door. I think I paid $65, a "friend" price (they were selling for $75!)

It's tempting to pick up a PSA 9 copy for this card for my PC. The foil edges are just as condition sensitive as they are on the Jeter - and it's a fraction of the price!

Can't justify it though. I already have this card. And I need to set aside cash for the Walter Alston :/

Thanks for reading!




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MLB mini helmet set / relegation tiers

I had a baseball blog topic idea in the works, and then Gregory at Nine Pockets sent me back to my childhood with a post about baseball mini-helmets available at Dairy Queen from the 1980s to at least 2005. 

Though I never saw the Team USA helmet cup in Gregory's post I have seen quite a few different MLB team helmets over the years. It took me about two decades and several dozen trips to DQ (and probably other ice cream franchises) to acquire one of every major league team, and some of these are three of four logos out of date. But here they are, secured in a single shoebox:

And here they are, displayed on my computer desk. National League teams:

The Nats hat is an easy way to tell I'd been collecting these well into the aughts. The Dodgers dupe was given to me by my (wife's) niece. 

Here's the American League, featuring some of the oldest sundae cups in the collection:

The Fenway Park 100 Years helmet was purchased at a Red Sox game. 

I wish I had some specific memories of which one was first, or which one was the hardest to find. There were definitely a couple of times I asked about a specific team and they were sold out, but which ones? For some reason I think the Tigers were a tough one. 

If I see any ice cream shop, franchise, or truck selling these I might peruse the options for old time's sake. A Guardians helmet would round out the AL nicely, and some NL teams could use an update, particularly the Marlins, Pirates, and Brewers. The box might not fit any more cups though!

Since we're talking about MLB teams, I thought I'd share a fun "what if" inspired by an episode of Ted Lasso:

 

You don't have to know the difference between Manchester United and Manchester City to know that English football has relegation. The episode goes on to explain that American teams with no chance of finishing near the top of the standings simply play out the schedule to half-empty crowds. There's nothing for the Pirates and Rockies to play for in mid-September because they're not fighting to survive. 

But... what if they were?  

In my opinion, the only "American" sport where relegation makes any sense is baseball. The NFL and NHL have strict salary caps, and enough parity that there's no sad-sack franchise so perennially awful that they're a blight on the game (not even the Sabres or Jets) 

The NBA has some garbage franchises that could conceivably be relegated (do we really need the Wizards or Hornets?) but no true minor league to relegate them to (the G league isn't on par with MiLB or AHL)

With no salary cap, another labor dispute fast approaching, and multiple teams either actively trying not to compete or halfheartedly trying just enough to keep collecting revenue sharing checks (to say nothing of the messy minor league system) if there was ever a time to consider relegation for pro baseball, this is it.*

*I still don't think it's even a remote possibility, but humor me here.

Let's take the top 20 teams in MLB since 2020 and keep them in the top tier. 

Chevrolet S-Tier League presented by YouTube TV

	American League		National League
1	Houston Astros	1	Los Angeles Dodgers
2	New York Yankees	2	Milwaukee Brewers
3	Tampa Bay Rays	3	Atlanta Braves
4	Toronto Blue Jays	4	Philadelphia Phillies
5	Seattle Mariners	5	San Diego Padres
6	Cleveland Guardians	6	San Francisco Giants
7	Boston Red Sox	7	New York Mets
8	Minnesota Twins	8	St. Louis Cardinals
9	Baltimore Orioles	9	Chicago Cubs
10	Detroit Tigers	10	Cincinnati Reds

So what do we do with the ten remaining teams? Put them in a league with ten "minor league" clubs. There are a handful of cities that have lost MLB teams, served as temporary hosts of MLB teams, or are bidding for future expansion teams. Let's throw them in the mix and see what we get:

Budweiser A-Tier League presented by T-Mobile

	American League		National League
1	Texas Rangers	1	Arizona Diamondbacks
2	Los Angeles Angels	2	Miami Marlins
3	Kansas City Royals	3	Washington Nationals
4	Oakland Athletics	4	Pittsburgh Pirates
5	Chicago White Sox	5	Colorado Rockies
6	Sacramento River Cats	6	Montreal Expos
7	Las Vegas Aviators	7	Nashville Sounds
8	Portland Beavers	8	Buffalo Bisons
9	Salt Lake City Bees	9	Norfolk Tides
10	Charlotte Knights	10	Memphis

I selected some triple-A teams from larger markets to round out the A-tier. Memphis would need a unique name since their minor league club is called the Cardinals. (Hound Dogs, perhaps?)

Let's do one more, shall we?

Our double-A replacement would consist of cities with small and large populations. Imagine the Durham Bulls or Albuquerque Isotopes in the bigs? Could happen in this scenario.

He Gets Us B-Tier League presented by FanDuel

	Eastern League		Southern League
1	Indianapolis Indians	1	Durham Bulls
2	Rochester Red Wings	2	Omaha Storm Chasers
3	Syracuse	3	Birmingham Barons
4	Toledo Mud Hens	4	San Antonio Missions
5	Hartford Yard Goats	5	Oklahoma City Comets
6	Columbus Clippers	6	Arkansas Travelers
7	Scranton/WB RailRiders	7	Reno Aces
8	Richmond Flying Squirrels	8	Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp
9	Louisville Bats	9	Albuquerque Isotopes
10	Harrisburg Senators	10	Round Rock Express

Syracuse would need a unique name. I had hoped to place a team in Austin, but I guess Round Rock is close enough. 

Other major markets that would have to settle for teams in the Florida Oranges Vitamin C-tier League presented by LifeLock include Newark, New Orleans, Orlando, San Jose, and Vancouver. 

Do you think a relegation system would work in North American sports? 

The PSA-graded singles I purchased for my birthday have arrived. I'll post up a few this weekend.

Thanks for reading!

It's the hope that kills you

 New slabs are coming, but I'll pause the series until they arrive. 

My wife was supposed to have surgery yesterday. And technically she did have a procedure. But not the one we wanted.

Quick recap: she was on chemo for just over a year. The cancer did not spread past her liver/colon, but various side effects prompted her doctors to keep changing her meds. One was so bad she lost her appetite for three weeks, dropped to 110 lb, and was too weak to climb stairs or talk more than a few seconds. It was a nightmare. That was in February, when she spent a week in the hospital. They switched her chemo, attached a feeding tube to her, and sent her home with boxes of liquid meals. She got better.

We were referred to a surgeon at Sloan Kettering, who told her that he could remove all the tumors if she gets her strength up. He gave her two jobs: eat, and walk. She kind of ate more. She did not walk.

Oh, and she would have to stop her chemotherapy treatments in the weeks leading up to surgery. 

She was tentatively scheduled for late August/early September, but moved up to August 7 because that was the earliest all three of the surgeons would be available at once. Her appetite returned. She stopped using the liquid food. She had good days and bad days. Sloan scheduled her for pre-op testing and scans.

Meanwhile, I binge watched Ted Lasso - a show I'd been meaning to watch since it premiered five years ago. I wanted to watch it with my wife, but we weren't about to subscribe to whatever streaming service it was on just for one show. DVDs are still a thing. I re-installed my old computer because my new laptop doesn't have a DVD drive, and watched the first few episodes. 

If you're not familiar with the show, it's about a folksy college football coach who is hired by an English Premier League team (AFC Richmond) to coach the other football. He knows nothing about the game and his presence is seen as a farce by both the press and the players. 

The owner only hired him to sabotage the club - which her awful ex-husband loved more than her. It's a little bit Major League at first, but not for long. 

Ted Lasso doesn't know a damn thing about tactics - his assistant/best friend Coach Beard helps out with that, along with the club's kit man (think clubhouse attendant) Nate Shelley. Slowly Ted wins over his team with his endless positivity. He convinces them to believe. He hangs a sign above the doorway. 

I had a checkup with my doctor last Monday. My wife and I have the same GP (who is an awesome lady) so I asked her to come with. She got a call on the way there and didn't answer it. 

When the doctor's assistant led me into the exam room I had my wife come with me. We waited together. Her mother called me. Why the fck is D's mom calling me? 

The surgeon was trying to contact her and she didn't answer. So they called her emergency contact - my mother in law - who also couldn't get a hold of her. And so D tried to call her surgeon's office. I asked her to go out in the waiting room so I could focus on myself. My blood pressure would go sky high if she spoke to her doctor while I met with mine. 

My awesome doc finally entered. I told her what was wrong, and why my blood pressure was high. She prescribed a mood stabilizer and told me she wouldn't scold me for the daily energy drink consumption since I have so much on my plate right now. When the checkup was over, she sent me to the waiting room until her assistant was ready to draw some blood. Then she saw my wife, and hugged her. 

Awesome Doc looked for an open exam room. "Do you want me to come?" I asked. 

"You need to." My wife replied.

She had spoken to her doctor. The scans revealed that the cancer had spread. Surgery was no longer an option.

Oh, and she has 4-6 months to live.

At the end of Season 1, Ted Lasso's AFC Richmond are playing their former superstar's new club Manchester City. They need at least a tie in order to avoid relegation, but City are very tough. 

This episode is named after a phrase their supporters say to each other, "It's the hope that kills you."

Until this episode, the show was a much-needed distraction from D's health issues. But this one hit home. 

Work days have been really tough. Customers and co-workers bugging me about the most petty shit. I started taking the meds my doctor prescribed. They helped a little, until this past Tuesday.

I was in the office for about a half hour when my wife called me. Her surgeon wanted her to go to the emergency room. I told my boss I had to go, and he understood. Petty bullshit continued to pile up. 

The surgeon said she looked yellow, because her liver was backed up. They put in a stent to get her flowing again. She's already home. 

Will this improve her prognosis? Who knows. I'm trying to be optimistic. I'm trying to believe. 

Thanks for reading.

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Summer of Slabs 04 - First '56 team set complete!

There aren't many holes left to fill in my 1956 Topps set build, but they are spread out evenly among the 16 teams that existed at the time. Not including both League Presidents cards and both checklist cards, these are the remaining cards I need to acquire:

Baltimore Orioles (4) team card, Willy Miranda, Dave Philley, George Zuverink (tough one!)
Boston Red Sox (1) Bob Porterfield
Brooklyn Dodgers (6) Walter Alston, team card, Don Bessent, Pee Wee Reese, Jim Gilliam, Rube Walker
Chicago Cubs (4) team card, Monte Irvin, Bob Rush, Sam Jones
Chicago White Sox (3) team card, Larry Doby, Connie Johnson
Cincinnati Redlegs (2) Joe Nuxhall, Chuck Harmon
Cleveland Indians (3) team card, Vic Wertz, Hal Naragon
Detroit Tigers (4) Ned Garver, Frank Lary, team card, Bob Miller
Kansas City Athletics (3) team card, Tom Gorman, Bobby Shantz
Milwaukee Braves (1) George Crowe
New York Giants (2) Willie Mays, team card
New York Yankees (4) Bill Skowron, Billy Martin, Irv Noren, Don Larsen
Philadelphia Phillies (3) Jim Owens, Del Ennis, Andy Seminick
Pittsburgh Pirates (2) Bob Friend, Bob Skinner (apparently I'm avoiding the Bobs.)
St. Louis Cardinals (3) Rip Repulski, Stu Miller, Willard Schmidt
Washington Nationals (1) Carlos Paula

Most of series 1 is filled, only seven of the first 100 remained. So when I noticed that Paula was #4 n the set I jumped on eBay to find a seller who had a clean copy. The only one was in Quebec, so it took a while to arrive. In the mean time, I counted the remaining cards from every team and noticed that not only would card #4 leave me with just one player card to cross off my first series list (Skowron) I would finally complete a team set!

Here they are, your 1956 Washington Senators Nationals:

Now you know why this was the first team set I completed. Not a ton of star power here, huh? 

Luckily, Topps tossed in a 19 year-old prospect who tied for sixth on the team in home runs despite playing just 38 games in 1955:

I actually bought the Killebrew card sight unseen as part of an eBay purchase. The seller had some more 1956 cards (Pirates team, Yankees team, Mickey McDermott, and Killer here) that he hadn't listed. We negotiated a price and he shipped them with the original purchase - a lot of 20 mid-grade singles from this set. The snow on Harmon's hat isn't as noticeable in hand. 

 

There's one more 1956 Topps card on the way to Collector HQ as part of my bday purchase, but it won't complete a team set. Also, my 4SC Consignment ended (the smaller batch). It was a mixed bag. Some surprises but mostly lower than expected. Which is to be expected; auctions always end lower than they should when you're selling, and higher than they should when you're buying. 

Thanks for reading!

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Summer of Slabs 03 - Am I collecting catchers?

While looking through my box of PSA-graded singles to select a few for consignment, I noticed something: 

I have a lot of catcher cards in my collection. Baseball cards take up abut 60% of my PSA box (not counting the 1956 Topps singles, which have their own shelf) and out of those seventy-something singles, nearly a dozen are cards of catchers.

Out of curiosity, I tallied each card by position. Pitchers were well ahead with 23, as you'd expect. Outfielders were next at 19 (would have been 20, but I currently do not have a 1960 Topps Mantle)

Catchers lead the infield, in a bit of an upset over first basemen:

C -- 11
1B - 7
2B - 4
SS - 4
3B - 6

This was the count before I sent my consignment order. I'd actually had 12 catchers at one time, but I sold a Jason Varitek Topps Traded RC in a previous consignment since I had an ungraded copy. This time, I sent away the Sullivan and Lollar. It wasn't an easy decision, but this focus on The 144 spots in my box has helped me determine which cards are true long-term keepers. 

Del Crandall and Craig Biggio make the cut this time. Crandall was a cheap COMC pickup from one of my first orders. I'd found so many quality vintage cards around 2014-16 that I renewed my long-dormant PSA subscription and sent in a bunch. Crandall was one of three NM-MT 8s, and one of the reasons I kept trying to tap the COMC well for more vintage to grade. It ran dry around five years ago :/

Biggio stays because it's a rookie card of a HOFer. I almost sort-of had an "all 1990s team" going, but got stuck at a couple positions. I might revisit that one day, and if I do, I'll need this one.

The Astros legend would not be an all-1990s catcher, of course. That honor would belong to Mike Piazza: 

It's odd to me that Piazza's Fleer Update RC is more valuable (scarcity, I guess?) or at least counted as the "top" Piazza RC. I've always preferred this Bowman single. Campy was a COMC acquisition; I prefer this to his 1955 Bowman single though that one has more personal significance. A story for another day.

One reason I never assembled that all-1990s team is because some RCs are worth purchasing in high grade and some aren't. Ivan Rodriguez would be the AL's catcher, and I do have his Ultra Update ungraded. A half-slabbed, half-raw collection didn't look right. But I do have the original Pudge in a plastic prison:

These might not stay in my collection for too long. The '75 would be a keeper if the centering was better (those borders are tricky), while the '79 is nice to have but not necessarily in a slab. It's one of the two 1979 Topps cards remaining from a batch I'd bought on COMC. There were so many HOFers in 8 or 9 grade that I should have held on to - Nolan Ryan, Catfish Hunter, Eddie Murray, Fergie Jenkins, and others - but I kept the Fisk 8 and the Jim Rice 9.

Of course, no catcher card collection would be complete without the greatest catcher in MLB history:

This is the best Bench card in my opinion. At least it's the best Bench in my budget. 

There's your team of the 1970s catchers, with all due respect to Thurman Munson. Although maybe Fisk would start for the AL in the '80s? Gary Carter would be the NL's catcher for sure. I've tried finding his 1977 O-Pee-Chee single but they're tough. Might have to settle for Topps on that one.

1960s catchers are a mixed bag. There aren't any true Hall of Famers; Yogi Berra's career was winding down while Johnny Bench was just getting started. Bill Freehan would be the bridge there. I had a high-grade copy of his 1968 Topps single, but gave it to my father in law when he expressed interest in starting a '68 Tigers team set. That was a lot of fun to help him with. I hope I get to see that again one day.

Yogi cards are a bit out of my price range. I've kicked the tires on a '62 Topps and might have to pick one up if I'm really committed to collecting catchers. 

One more to show you. It's my highest-grade pre-war card, and another COMC pickup from back in the day:

Luke Sewell caught over 1,600 games in the majors over a 20-year career, and compiled a total WAR of... 4.6. Not great. But it's a 1933 Goudey, you take what you can get. And the reason I was able to get this one was the pen mark on the back.

It's more of a pen indent. There's another '33 Goudey catcher card that I've had my eye on for quite a while:

If I could squeeze one more 1933 Goudey card into my box (and budget), this is the one I would target. Unfortunately even a common card like Muddy here are much more expensive than they were a few years ago. 

Ruel was Walter Johnson's catcher in Washington, and helped the Senators win their only World Series in 1924. I've got more Sens to show and tell in my next Summer of Slabs post...

Thanks for reading!



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