Penultimate '56 Update

The next time I post about my 1956 Topps set build will be the last. It has to be. This set is going to be completed this summer. I've got the date and the final card all planned out. But first...let's take a look at the six cards that have eluded me for nearly a decade, and why I still don't have them:

Card #1 - William Harridge

Here is a list of all card #1 subjects of 1950s Topps sets (excluding 1956) 

1951 - Eddie Yost(blue) / Yogi Berra (red)
1952 - Andy Pafko
1953 - Jackie Robinson
1954 - Ted Williams
1955 - Dusty Rhodes
1957 - Ted Williams
1958 - Ted Williams
1959 - Ford Frick


If kids were going to squeeze and bend the top card with their rubber bands it's probably better to make it a commissioner or league president. I would not want to pay a Card #1 premium for a Ted Williams. 

That said, look at how the 1956 Topps Set starts off:

Looks like one of those Look N' See non-sports issues if you ask me. Considering all the other card #1 subjects of the era I actually lucked out here. That said I'm not surprised that the first card is one of my last needs. Who wants to spend $50 on a faded, off-center single of this guy? Not me. Not yet...

Card #61 - Bill Skowron

I'm surprising no one when I say that two of the last six cards I need are Yankees. This set features Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Whitey Ford, Billy Martin, and two tough "commons" in Irv Noren and Bob Cerv - plus the final card in the set, Mickey McDermott. 

Skowron is a non Hall of Famer, in the more common First Series, and it's not his RC. So why is "Moose" one of the last six left on my list? 

I donno... I'm picky I guess. Especially with centering. And based on my own independent analysis the centering of nearly every Skowron single is unsatisfactory. Here are some cheap copies:

It's within my budget to get a graded copy, but that's been a struggle as well. This copy has hat bubbles. This one has a faded name bar. This one is giving me a headache. No way that's a PSA 5. Just... ugh. 

How about this one? Looks promising until you zoom in. Dang it. 
This one? Nope, off-center. This one? Off-center and print crud on the name. 

What is it about the 1950s version of Brandon Belt that flares up my OCD? I just can't pick a copy I like and .. hold on... I see it.

It's centered. It's overpriced.. but it's centered. 

Okay. Let's just get this over with.

Nope. Hat bubbles. 

Card #221 - Bob Friend

I have no Friend and I have no real reason why. Maybe it's your personality. 

Bob Friend became a bit of a cult hero to me when I was assembling my all-time team rosters. Maybe that's why I kept kicking this can down the road, assuming that one day I'll be able to afford a high grade copy. 

Welp... there's only one graded copy on eBay right now - at any grade - and .. it's still not in my budget. 

The other cards have somewhat valid reasons for being left on the board. But this just dried up in mid-high grade, for some reason. I might have to settle for a free-range Friendo. 

Side quests

Even though I've set a personal deadline to complete this set within the next three months (and a limited personal budget to complete said project), I may get sidetracked a bit with upgrading here and there before adding the final piece of the puzzle. 

Actually, I've already driven myself in a circle, upgrading a card for no reason. Twice. 

I have a stack of 40 oversized top loaders for non-graded copies. Most of these are sufficient. Two or three - such as card #336 Ellis Kinder - should be upgraded, slab or not. While shopping for a decent copy of William Harridge I noticed that my copy of card #2 Warren Giles(NL president) has a very small crease and should probbaly be upgraded as well. I don't care which 40 cards are in the top loaders and which ones are graded but I'm definitely not getting graded copies of these guys.

Some slabbed singles of above replacement-level players are still reasonably priced and if I have a raw copy in a top loader I might free that space up for something that is not feasible to buy graded. And so, I picked up a PSA 5 copy of Giants pitcher Johnny Antonelli to upgrade from a non-graded copy. 

However I failed to note this in my very detailed catalog of the set and I unknowngly upgraded the upgrade. 

Sigh... let's get back on track, shall we?

Card #332 Don Larsen

Anyone want to guess why I still haven't acquired this card? Yep. Because of one single game. The Yankee premium is bumped up to 3x for a memorable moment such as Larsen's immaculate outing in that year's World Series. I've got to pay Hall of Famer prices for this card, graded or not. 

Very good? No no no -- this man was perfect. 

Card #NNO - Checklist 1/3

Unmarked chekclists are tough to find, especially from the early years of Topps. There's obviously a premium for well-centered copies with vibrant color. I bit the bullet on Checklist 2/4 and paid HOFer prices for a card that isn't neccesarily part of the set - though I always counted these in my project. 

The acceptable copies I've seen for checklist 1/3 are priced higher that the price I paid for 2/4. It's almost certainly going to be the most expensive card remianing. It will not be the capstone card however. 

When I reached 80% completion I started to think about the cards I had remaining.Should I get what I can when I can, or should I select a final card for this set build? Once I studied the names left on my list one jumped out at me. Yes! That's the one. Finish with him. 

Card #260 Pee Wee Reese

My mom bought me two 1956 Topps cards as Christmas gifts when I was still a teenager. I helped her pick them out, from the LCS that nurtured my fledgling collection and the dealer that became such a family friend he ended up being Mom's date to my sister's wedding. 

Those two cards purchased over 25 years ago started me on this decade-long journey. Those two cards were: a Brooklyn Dodger/Hall of Famer and a Hall of Fame shortstop of a New York-based ballclub:

They were not graded whens she bought them. I submitted them to PSA a few years later. 

So why not complete the puzzle with a Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Fame shortstop? 

Pee Wee Reese will be my birthday gift to myself - along with a box of 1986 Topps (the first set I ever collected) and maybe a Starting Lineup figure or two.  I can't expect Mom to pay for this, and I wouldn't ask her to. I just hope she's still physically able to come to Jersey and see the completed set she inspired. 

Six cards in twelve weeks. It will be a challenge. It will be expensive. I don't care.

I'm finishing this thing the way I started it.

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Spring Things

I haven't had the creativity to post anything here, but I am working on updating and remastering some old posts and new wantlists. I'm also making TCDB trades. Soooo many trades...

Our family has no plans for Memorial Day weekend (cause my "America first" in-laws will be in the UK lol) so I should be able to post the full Top Ten by position project during the three-day weekend. 

In the Meantime here are some things I did this spring that I wanted to blog about but just couldn't find the time to make each topic its own post:

I visited my mom in CT for a few days. The girls and I took a tip up to the WestFarms Mall in Hartford and I found an awesome card shop in Milford:

This place is a hundred times better than my LCS down the street. There were dozens of boxes with single cards to look through. I found 50-60 set fillers for various 2025 baseball sets including a Heritage SP and when I brought them to the counter the guy charged me $4 for the stack. Awesome. 

I also grabbed some random football cause I didn't have a lot of time to go through other boxes. But if you're a hardcore player collector looking for some obscure safety or lineman drafted in the early '00s .. JB probably has their card buried in these boxes. Really wish I had more time to explore those.

Around the perimeter of the store I found racks of blaster boxes and single packs from junk wax era sets to recent Prizm football and Upper Deck hockey issues. 2022-23 UD Extended fat packs for $2 each? I'll take all of 'em please and thank you. 

My eyes lit up when I saw the shelf with Topps baseball factory sets. I have 1988, 1990, 1991, and 1993 but it never made sense for me to buy 1989 or 1992 as the shipping cost was prohibitive. Grabbing these off the shelf for $15 each though? Heck yeah. Only issue was that when I got them home I noticed the 1989 set (my least favorite ever) was bursting out on one end. So I opened it and saw that all the cards were curled. Serves me right for buying a set I loathe. I've actually managed to trade about half on TCDB already. 

Next to the cash register there was a drum full of store-made mystery packs in manilla envelopes, roughly 30 cards each with at least one auto for $15. I grabbed two. I'll show those off one day if I remember. Solid value there. 

Also picked up two graded cards and a pack-box of Ultimate Collection hockey that was far worse than I could have expected. I knew there was no way that I'd get 100% of the value back but I was hoping for a nice patch card or something, even if it wasn't a great player. LOLno. I got a one-color relic of Justin Sourdif, a fake relic thing of William Karlsson (I like the player, but for that price, this better be a real hit) and an autograph of Jonathan Marchessault. $10 card probably. Absolutey set $150 on fire. Never doing that again.

BUT it was not the store's fault. There were four boxes behind the counter and the guy let me pick a number between 1 and 4. I picked 3. Do not pick 3. Ever. Now, do I think the other boxes were hiding a Connor Bedard patch auto? No. But I could have at least pulled a real relic hit of a star player. Maybe. 

Despite this I loved this store and plan to go back in the summer when I visit my mom again. 

I bought my youngest daughter tickets to Stars on Ice for her birthday. She's a huge fan of golden boy Ilia Malinin:

This is the only photo I took; the rest were video.

He did four solo performances including a fun one where he skates to Eminem's "Lose Yourself" while wearing a black hoodie and stonewashed jeans. Quite a character. 

The US team has a ton of personality, including fan favorite and Olympic champion Alyssa Liu:

And my girl Amber Glenn, who my daughter calls "bird lady" because she looks like a bird I guess? 

For the old heads, Jersey Girl Isabeau Levito is a more traditional skater - very elegant and lovely to watch, but not a lot of spice. 

I was wondering if there would be a unique or special moment for Isabeau since this is her home ice and all - but the only thing that might have been a nod to that was at the end - when Amber carried Izzy off the ice on her shoulders. Wish I had a picture of that lol. 

We got two seats tickets in a suite - which I would never be able to afford for a Devils game. From the Prudential Center website it looked like there would be food and drinks available to everyone, but that must only be during hockey season. Huge bummer there. Also our tickets were standing room only but a nice rich lady informed us that she wasn't using all of her seats and we got to sit in two front row seats. I'm still team Eat The Rich but I also refuse to judge all members of a group by the actions of a few. Thank you rich lady :)

My finances were kinda tapped out after the CT trip and Stars On Ice but then I got an email from American Airlines warning me that my wife's points were about to expire. I am deathly afraid of flying and D will obviously not be using them, so I converted them to a $75 eBay gift card. 

After a few days of shopping I had my eye on this card:

The seller has this on an auction with a starting bid of $60 or best offer. So I offered $75 and .. they did not respond. The auction was nearing an end without any bidders so I bid my $75 and.. it sold for $77. Two bidders used auction snipe tools in the last five seconds. I hate auctions. 

Instead I bought a card for my '80s/'90s legends project that I wouldn't have spent my own money on - but since it's "free" I figured why not?

Have you ever come across cards whose real value doesn't match your own personal value? Like you see something nice and think to yourself if that was $50 I'd buy it - but I'm not touching it at $75. It happens to me all the time.  

For example: I'd buy every single one of these 2025-26 Ultra hockey inserts that recreate 1993 Flair baseball:

If they were $1-3 each. Unfortunately they are numbered to 93 and if you're not picky about the player you can maybe get one for $5. I'm not paying $6 for this Sam Reinhart - but Victor Hedman? Sure. 

I'll have to see if JB's has any of these Flair '93s next time I'm in town to visit mom.

Have you been to any good card shops lately? If so, what did you purchase?

Thanks for reading!





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