In downtown Lawrence we have an antique mall that brings together the finest back issues of Life magazine and U.S. Silver dollars anyone could ask for. One of the dealers there has a random selection of book value priced baseball cards that I look through when I'm downtown. Some of the cards had been re-priced and I found this for a $1. I love these odd ball cards that someone decided to grade in hopes of finding that Gem Mint Greg Gagne Rookie and satisfy the tens of collectors that might be interested.
Greg was one of my childhood heroes as he was the Twins shortstop during their two World Series wins. He then left the team for free agency and the deep pockets of the Royals.
Don't buy these. Don't ever buy these. Don't even make direct eye contact with them because they will take your money and give you only poor quality chrome cards.
I've been inspired by the 1,000,000 card giveaway to go back and strengthen my vintage collection, not so much with stars, but with important/interesting cards. This brings us to this beauty:
1969 Topps #653 Aurelio Rodriguez [Error Card]
This is one of the classic error cards as that isn't Aurelio Rodriguez on the card but Angels bat boy Leonard Garcia.
Everyone knows that Aurelio wouldn't be caught dead on a baseball card without giant sideburns!
Here are two error-free Aurelio cards:
1975 Topps #221 Aurelio Rodriguez
1974 #72 Aurelio Rodriguez
On a sad note, Aurelio was killed in a car accident in 2000. Of all the players to play major league baseball, there have only been three named Aurelio.
These 1,000,000 Card Giveaway cards keep getting better and better! I bought three packs today at Target in a failed search for new Heritage and ended up pulling two Giveaway cards. It should have taken me 12 packs to do that so the Card Gods were smiling down on me today.
My first player's name made me flash to the Arrested Development joke.
Tobias Funk created a new position which combined an Analyst with the a Therapist and was called an Analrapist. That's pronounced ah-NAL-rah-pist people!
I can only imagine the taunting Ernie McAnally got as a kid...and probably ass...I mean as... an adult too.
1972 Topps #58
And my second card is actually a card a needed for my 1979 Mariners team set. Old and useful...a lot like William Shatner.
What’s a better Valentine’s Day gift than really old baseball cards? Maybe a coupon for a free hug? [any Modern Family fans out there?]
The answer is nothing.
I had been almost exclusively buying cards online from Checkoutmycards.com. The selection can’t be beat but with that kind of overhead their shipping/handling cost are getting to be pretty high. Luckily, I stumbled upon the online store for my favorite card shop, Three Stars Sportscards in Roseville, MN. They have a huge selection on-line and I’ve recently been shrinking my non-short printed 1971 Topps needs list through them. Their store is a Beckett Marketplace web page so if you can stomach that then I would highly recommend it. If you buy more than say 10 cards the shipping is half as much as Checkoutmycards and the packaging time is just as fast.
Their prices are great too...especially if they have multiple copies of cards at different conditions. I like my vintage cards “a little loved” if you know what I mean. I like them to have been kept in huge stacks with about fifty rubber bands around them by some 10 year old in 1965. So I was able to get two well loved cards of two of my favorite players, Harmon Killebrew and Luis Aparicio, which many collectors would stick up their noses at.
1962 Topps #316 Harmon Killebrew
1961 #440 Luis Aparicio
The card was listed as "poor" on the web page but there wasn't an actual photo of the card included in the card listing...so you're never quite sure what you are getting. Seeing the front I thought I had lucked out and when I flipped it over I liked it even more. You see, I have a long history of baseball cards, tape, and paper notebooks and the idea of another kid doing it is absolutely great to me.
A lawsuit was filed today against the Kansas City Royals mascot Slugger that said during the course of a game back in September the mascot throw a hot dog into the stands hitting a fan in the eye and detaching his retina. My only question is what was more painful...a detached retina or watching the Royals play in September?
I can always count on Reader Michel to send a great package of cards every once in a while. Sometimes it’s all baseball, sometimes it’s all non-baseball. The latest one was all non-baseball which was a refreshing change from my recent focus on the new 2010 cards.
Michel took a bunch of 2008 Masterpieces off my Needs List. In the very long list of bonehead moves that card companies have done in the past few years, discontinuing football and baseball Masterpieces has got to be near the top.
2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces #73 Lester Hayes
2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces #98 Fran Tarkenton/Adrian Peterson
2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces #47 Joe Namath
2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces #39 Herm Edwards
Two Packers I didn’t have thrown in to add some green and gold flavor.
2008 Topps Chrome #TC80 Donald Driver
1997 Fleer #426 Desmond Howard
He also included a whole bunch of great basketball cards:
Let me join the chorus of “What do we want? More Holograms! When do we want it? Now!”
1997 Upper Deck SPx #26 Kurt Thomas
1997 Upper Deck SPx #45 Damon Stoudamire
Of all the negative and disappointing feelings Bullets/Wizards fans must have for Chris Webber at least he was no Gilbert Arenas.
1996 Skybox NBA Hoops #174 Chris Webber
Best “Detlef” to ever play the game. Period.
1995 Upper Deck #148 Detlef Schrempf
Karl Malone’s greatness is too much for the rules of space and time. His dunks rip a hole in the space time continuum.
1996 Skybox #90 Karl Malone
I would have liked to have been in the room when they pitched the idea for 1996 Stadium Club. I imagine it went something like this:
“Now, we’ve done a lot of focusing grouping these ideas. We even went on a weekend retreat to the Ozarks. It was a very transformative trip. The Ozarks inspired us…they really got inside of us. And so let me present our design. We went with a pretty simple and clean design until you get to the bottom 10% of the card. Then WATCH OUT because this is where the action happens. We’ve got the players name…wait for it…on a raised ridge! YEAH! This was inspired by The Ozarks and has the same vision and innovative thinking that has made Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas famous for centuries! So, what do you think?”
“Can you make the name all shiny?”
“Well, another trait of the people of the Ozarks is a love of shiny things so I don’t see why not.”
These four cards are all from my pack with my 1,000,000 Card Giveaway card...I didn't really notice it at first but all these photos look more like they should be from the Upper Deck set...ignore the lettering in the bottom left corner and no logos are to be found anywhere.
Before I begin usual broadcast of my all 100% negative thoughts about 2010 Topps I must say that this card is at one time great because it's a Tom Seaver card and horrible because of the substandard presentation. Great idea, poor execution...a lot like this blog.
