Slabbed Single Sunday

I've added about a dozen new graded cards to the collection so far this year - not counting the 1956 Topps set build which is just a handful of cards away from 75% completion. The initial plan was to get three or four posts out of my recent COMC pickups and eBay flips but the mini-stories weren't substantial enough on their own. Instead you get a 4-in-1 post, starting with:

The most expensive card from my COMC order was this mid-grade sunset season food issue of the legendary Hank Aaron. I've had this on my wantlist for a while and didn't see anything else worth spending $29.99 on, so I grabbed it. I've now got three vintage graded singles (plus a bat relic) of Hammerin' Hank; I should have four but the 1962 Topps card I bought on COMC a few years back was rejected by PSA for 'recoloring' 😡


This won't make sense to most of you. but I'm working on a project to acquire at least one PSA-graded baseball card (in EX 5 or better) for every year from 1950 to 1980 and have every team represented within that mini-collection. So I would need one Senator pre-1961 and another one post-1961, one St. Louis Browns card and one Orioles card, one Brooklyn Dodger and one Los Angeles Dodger, and so on. [If I decided to seriously pursue this project, the 1956 Topps set would count toward years but not teams.]

I haven't had a PSA membership in several years, and I've missed the fun of picking up cheap vintage singles on COMC, sending them in to PSA, and stashing (or selling) the newly-slabbed and graded cards. Unfortunately, like a lot of companies, they jacked up their prices during Covid and priced out the working class collector like myself. And you don't get any free submissions with a basic membership anymore.

So, when COMC offered a PSA grading special right around the holidays, I cashed out my Christmas bonus and submitted some cards. Here are some of my favorites:

All of these were COMC pickups, and came back at grades I was pleased with (though I was hoping for higher on the Sheldon Jones.) The Boyer and Dryden are modest upgrades over the amount invested, but I planned to keep both regardless. Apparently I have a good eye for 1953 Bowman Color cards; years after picking up a Billy Loes that graded out a Near Mint 8, another sight unseen purchase graded high: 

This was probably the best ROI of any single in my PSA-via-COMC order; it's probably worth twice the total of the card + grading fee.

I also had a 1953 Bowman Color Gus Zernial that graded a 6 - but I sold it on the site and bought these:

$18 for a high-grade vintage single of a well-known baseball lifer, and $13 for an old friend...

..though I didn't notice until scanning this that the bottom left corner of the case (top left in this scan) is a bit cracked. Still, I'm happy with this "trade".

Not everything I submitted was a winner, however. A 1933 Goudey single that I thought would be a 2-3 graded out at a 1.5. The Johnny Mize 1948 Bowman I bought on a whim was nowhere close to mid-grade (got a 3 on that one) and the other Gus Zernial I submitted came back a 5:

If I do another blog series this year it will be on the history of the Philadelphia/KC/Oakland Athletics, but I've got to get my audience back first. A lot of my regulars have been busy, or are no longer blogging.

BGS slabs seem to have fallen out of favor with graded card collectors. I haven't bought any in a while but I always like the way modern cards looked in their holders. There was one COMC seller practically giving away dozens of former Boston Red Sox prospects who never stuck, and I was tempted to grab a couple at these prices:

For the price of two Red Sox I instead opted for a low-numbered refractor of an active pitcher/DH who has missed significant time recovering from Tommy John surgery:

Brendan McKay probably won't make much of a major league impact but I couldn't resist adding this to my Blue Rays mini-collecion for well under $10. It pairs nicely with the pack-pulled Evan Longoria I sent to BGS about 15 years ago.

Can you tell it's time for me to get a new scanner? The McKay scan makes the gold BGS label look silver, and the more recent scan of this Longo (on the left) is far worse than the scan from my Sports Card Tour post six years ago (on the right).

My phone isn't much better, as I will demonstrate shortly. Not sure if it's the lighting in my card room or the camera itself, but card photos from my phone often come out blurry.

Here's a Michael Jordan All-Star card I picked up for my 1988-89 Fleer set. Scan on the left, phone pic on the right:

This classic card didn't cost me a dime out of pocket; the $65+ shipping was paid for by my eBay flipper friend. I'd sent him a bunch of cards to sell on his store page (okay, I did have to pay shipping for that) and he spent the proceeds on this at my request. He's the reason I plan to attend a card show next weekend; some of the cards he's sold for me were pickups from his local shows and I'm planning to return the favor. If I find some vintage singles - slabbed or unslabbed - for my PC, that's a bonus.


If I go, I'll have at least a couple post-show blogs to cover my pickups. If I don't, then perhaps I'll start that Athletics series a little sooner.

Thanks for reading!



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Saturday Show and Tell

Before the second half of NBA Week begins I thought I'd squeeze in a recap of all the cards that have arrived at Collector HQ this week. We'll start with the first pair of PWEs for the Swap Meet:

The mysterious Elliptical Man who never provides a last name sent 15 singles, including loads of legends:

I knew Moses Malone was great - but I didn't realize just how dominant he was until researching my 1982-83 "Topps" Basketball set. Tim Hardaway will be a Hall of Famer eventually.. right?

Very nice mix of cards here. Thank you Brendan!

Jeff, author of the blog Wax Pack Wonders, contributed 14 cards:

1980's Fleer! I'm now back up to 32% of thie 1988-89 set, after purging some PSA singles.

These six Reggie Miller cards bump Karl Malone off the top spot in my collection; I have 54 Mailmen and I now have 56 Millers - not including his cameo in the Hardaway card.

Six Hakeem Olajowon cards round out the PWE.Thank you Jeff!

I bought a pair of hockey cards from Harris Sports Cards on eBay:

Tyler Seguin is the 27th card I've added to my 2015-16 Exquisite set build. There are 30 cards in this subset/base set, but try telling that to TCDB. I was excited to add the Whalers logo sticker to my order for $1. Couldn't find it at any of the online retailers I frequent, and no one had it for trade on TCDB.

I tried filling sets through Sportlots. Bandit24 offers free shipping if you order more than 80 cards from him.

I ordered 109.

My 1986 Topps Football set is complete; these are all upgrades. Pat McInally invented Starting Lineup figures.

My wife had about 80 of the 180 cards in the 1994-95 Upper Deck SP insert set and I've nearly completed it for her. I'm down to just 8 needs, with one card on the way from Baseballcardstore.ca.

2013 Topps is almost complete. I just need three Mike Trout cards, the Manny Machado rookie, and nine other randos. 2013 Topps Update is less complete. I'm at about 85% of the 330-card set.

Another very ambitious set build I'll probably never finish - 2018 Topps Chrome. The good news is I've got 61% of the set. The bad news is I still need the Ronald Acuna RC, the Rafael Devers RC, and the Shohei Ohtani RC. Yikes.  The Ron Artest Hoops Decade RC has a roller mark on it. I'll probably have to upgrade.

1995-96 Playoff One on One is another one of wifey's starter sets I'm trying to finish. I've added about 40% of the 2019 Score football set over the past couple of months - and at far less than the cost of a blaster.

I picked out a couple of cards for my team PCs, including a Xander Bogaerts insert and an Aaron Rodgers base card. By the way, every single card in my order was 18 cents.

Except for this Wayne Gretzky sticker from 1985-86 Topps. This was kind of an impulse buy at $3.95.

I made some room in my Hartford Whalers binder (by taking out New Haven cards) so I started filling in those empty slots. Also picked up a couple of Colorado Rockies cards. I might add the Rockies and Scouts to my list of team collections, since they are part of the Devils' lineage.

Made some progress on my 1988-89 Topps set build - but not quite as much as I intended.

How did I manage to order two Rick Vaive cards? I could have filled in another need. Oh well :/

These are all in nice shape, but the Hrudey is way off center on the back. I might have to upgrade that one.

Finally, the main focus of this order was finishing off my 1992-93 Topps Archives basketball set. I needed 15 cards and Bandit24 had them all. They were the first cards I placed in my cart. Everything else was secondary.

Feckin' hell. Gold parallels.

All of them were gold parallels. It's a nice bonus, I guess. But now I have to go get those 15 base cards.

I've already spent the $1.98 in loot (and a $0.36 refund) on more cards from Bandit - but I didn't bother trying to order these again. 

Have you ever received parallel cards when ordering base set fillers? Did you notify the seller?

Thanks for reading!




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First!

 The first sports card I ever remember seeing is this 1985 Topps Bob Baumhower single:

It was wedged in the back seat of my parents' station wagon. My dad never mentioned collecting football cards; it might have belonged to my (half) brother. I can't imagine how seeing this helmetless, non-descript headshot of a non-descript player, whose name is listed sideways on a black-bordered card, got me interested in the hobby.

The first hockey card I ever remember seeing is this Ulf Samuelsson single from 1988-89 Topps. It was one of a pack's worth of cards scattered in dad's sock drawer, along with an Old Spice shaving kit, weed rolling papers, and a couple pairs of socks. My dad never mentioned hockey and I never saw any packs of 1988-89 Topps anywhere. Ulfie probably wasn't the first card I saw but it's the one I remember because I recognized the Whalers logo.

I do remember my dad bringing home a pack of 1988-89 Fleer basketball cards one day. I don't think I had any interest in the NBA until the next year, and I didn't recognize any of the names.

One of the cards in that pack was Milwaukee Bucks center Randy Breuer. If I focused really hard I might be able to remember another card or two. (I'm almost certain there was an All-Star subset card in that pack.)

I don't actually remember the first baseball card I ever saw. I do remember that the first packs of baseball cards I came across were also Fleer products. We were in a WaWa and I spied an opened box of 1986 Fleer adjacent to the shelf with Wonder Bread. I picked one off the top and brought it home. Really wish I could remember any specific card I pulled for certain, the logos were more interesting to me than the players. I know I pulled an Expo and a Pirate. I don't think I pulled a Yankee.

I'm about 98% sure Pat Clements was in that pack. 

Do you remember your first sports cards?

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Cashing Out With Trout

I've been absent from Blogger lately, keeping busy by binge-watching Dead To Me, hand-counting every card in my collection to see just how close I am to 100,000, and spending time with the family. My daughters' last day of "school" is tomorrow and it's been a tough three months for them. Both of them had the same second grade teacher (two years apart) and neither one had her for a full year - which is a bummer because everyone adores her. And they won't even get to see her next year because she's leaving our school district, which we're all kind of upset about but between you and me I'm a little bit relieved because this woman is so frickin cute that I sat out at least one parent/teacher meeting.


Also my wife and I will celebrate our 15th anniversary exactly one month from today. I've been selling some cards on eBay in order to scrape up some cash for a decent gift. 

This is the big-ticket item. I've never sold a single card for so much money. Heck, I had a Mike Trout prospect card - a blue refractor autograph BGS graded mint 9 - and didn't get nearly as much for that card. Because I was an idiot and sold it during the two-month period when he wasn't Mickey Mantle. 

In a way I'm redeeming myself for that major mistake. I pulled this card out of a $20 blaster. I had it graded and planned to keep it in my collection until he retired, likely as the greatest player in baseball history. It was a $500 card two years ago and I hardly gave selling it much thought. I knew it hadn't hit its peak. But with the baseball season in limbo and Trout's place in the hobby - and the game - pretty much set in stone I don't know how much higher a non-numbred, non-autographed card could go. So I accepted a best offer and cashed out. 


The buyer had a user name which indicated that he was a true fan of Trout and the Angels, so I'm happy to send it to someone who will appreciate the card rather than profit off it (he says while profiting off of said card...) Since we're dealing with feeBay I will have to cough up 10% of the sale price. In order to cover the cost of the listing I had to sell this:

And this, and this, and this:

And these:

Yep, I broke up my 1988-89 Fleer Basketball set. I kept some superstars like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Hakeem Olajuwon. However the spike in everything Bulls-related after The Last Dance made me throw in the towel: I still needed both Michael Jordan cards, the Scottie Pippen RC, the Dennis Rodman RC, and the Horace Grant RC (not to mention Reggie Miller's RC.) 

The good news is, even after paying these fees and saving for my wife's anniversary gift I still have room in the budget for a "big piece" or two. It won't be an epic Shoebox Legends-level flip but I plan to add some quality cards to my collection. There are still some legends I need to cross of my 1956 Topps need list. I'd like to add some high-end autographs from Panini Immaculate Collection. And I'm targeting a classic rookie card of a Hall of Famer. Guess I'll have to settle for a 'virtual' card show instead of attening the National this year. We'll see how it goes.



Thanks for reading!

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Set Fillers and other Dime Box Finds

Continuing with my card show haul...

One of my goals was to cross off as many 2018 Topps baseball needs as possible. In fact it was the only checklist I brought with me. I'm old school. I maintain and print my own list, because it takes up less space than a TCDB page.. and because I don't have a smart phone.

I did find a seller with these singles, but he wasn't the dime box guy..so I'll cover my purchases from him in the next post. Since I wasn't expecting to find any other set needs - especially in a dime box - I had to grab and guess. 

My eyes lit up when I saw the green and white borders of 1986 Topps Football. Some of the cards tricked me - 2013 Topps Archives cards were sprinkled in, and a handful of the '86 singles were the same Eric Dickerson card pictured above. Still, five singles was five more than I expected to find. I ended up needing the top three; Greer and the Chargers card were dupes.

I found three cards from the 1988-89 Fleer basketball set. All of them were Celtics (not a surprise considering I was in New England) The Dennis Johnson card was in bad shape so I didn't buy it. The only Hoops Decade card I found was Sam Cassell. I haven't officially started that set yet, and I haven't officially become a Bucks collector, but I'm on the verge of committing to both.

The dime boxes were loaded with Donruss. I have the complete 2015-16 basketball base set so I went right for the rookies. Of the five pictured I guessed right on two: Vaughn and Holmes. I'm now at 90.4% of the set.

I found so many 2016 Donruss football that I actually contemplated building the set on the spot. (Already had about 40% thanks to cheap retail boxes.) Instead I saved time and money by putting nearly all of them back - a smart move since I only needed Largent and Driskell.

Had I spent more time in the basketball boxes I probably could have found more '92-93 Fleer Ultra needs. I guessed right on Dee Brown and Robert Horry (who has more rings than MJ, btw) which gets me to nearly a third of the set. 

My dime box stack was packed with Prizm. I'm building thie 2014-15 set almost exclusively from extra singles Jon sent me (and there's more on the way) so I only picked out a handful. Even though I already had 105 of the 300 cards in the set, I guessed right on all seven of these.

 Some of this year's edition, including my first Kristaps Porzingis card.

 

More Prizm, and another die-cut jersey (John Henson.) I couldn't pass up the Ricky Rubio Crusade card; it's too shiny to sit in a dime box.

 

There was a nice brick of 1999-00 Topps Chrome singles in the box. Some were stuck together but they all looked crisp and clean. I found David Robinson stuck behind another card.

 

More basketball cards, including my first Buffalo Braves card. I picked up Raptors and retired players in case Douglas or Jon would like to claim a few. Tried looking for Michigan alums but almost completely blanked on who went there..though I managed to remember Sauce Castillo.

I didn't find quite as many Prizm football singles; the bulk of his football cards were from Donruss and Playoff Contenders sets.

 

Not a lot of star power in Optic, aside from Rivers and Kelce. I didn't mind, considering Optic packs are $3-4 for four cards and this is probably what I'd pull if I bought one(or two.) Thanks for saving me $7.40, Dime Box Guy.

The player selection got better with Contenders Collegiate Cards.

 

 As you can see, I bought a mix of stars and not-stars, most of which came from sets I like. The exception here is Jordan Reed; I overheard my coworker tell the guys in our office that she dated him in high school.

Plenty of Packers were plucked from the boxes. These were all new to me.

I was less certain about the older cards pictured here, but I guessed right on them, too. The only dupe I ended up with was a 2016 Donruss Jordy Nelson. 

Wrapping up the football haul here. The Johnson is trade bait for any Steelers fan or collector of '90s inserts hint hint. O'Leary is headed to Douglas of the Dollar Store.

There wasn't a whole lot of baseball or hockey in this 190-card stack, for two reasons. A lot of the newer cards in the boxes were from base Topps/Upper Deck sets I already had (plus a lot of overproduction-era stuff I didn't want to waste my time on.) 

The second reason I bought less baseball is because I haven't cataloged my cards yet, so I'm not as certain of what cards I have in my collection. (The OD Posey was one of my favorite finds.)

In fact I only bought three Red Sox - and I bought both Mookie Betts cards knowing I already had them. Why? Because some guy asked the dealer if he had any Aaron Judge or Mike Trout cards. Nah, they wouldn't be in here said the seller. #BettsIsBetter

When I started shuffling through the rows of hockey cards the dealer commented to me that he was glad he brought them, since he doesn't usually sell much hockey. His selection was equal to the other sports, it just wasn't stuff I needed.

I'm not even sure I needed these Devils, but I didn't want to pass 'em up. Kinda wish I'd taken a close look at his hockey cards, but my wife was waiting for me in the car and after 40 minutes I hadn't left the first table yet.



That's when I decided to stop at 190 cards, pay my $13, and work my way around to the Packers fan at the other side of the room...



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