The Trade That All Future Trades Will Be Judged By

This sorted pile of cards doesn't look like too much from above...


...but when you get down to ground level things look more interesting...


Over these next few posts I'll highlight the box of cards I received from the Cardboard Junkie that all future trades will be judged by.

Show and Tell #53: Trade With Cam

Here are some highlights of a trade I did with a reader Cam. I sent some Astros his way and got back a nice green jersey Barry Zito...

2008 Upper Deck Timeline #TM-BZ Barry Zito Jersey Relic

...an Aaron Rodgers rookie that I didn't have yet...

2005 Topps Total Football #483 Aaron Rodgers Rookie

and a stack of Royals and Twins including these two Francisco Lirianos. After starting red hot with a 4-0 record, he's had four rough starts and now sits at 4-3.

2007 Fleer #RS-FL Francisco Liriano Rookie Sensations

2007 Upper Deck 1st Edition Update #401 Francisco Liriano

Thanks Cam!

Genius Covers: The Amazing Spider-Man #247

So we are going to go from "Cover of the Week" to "Genius Covers" so I don't feel guilty about doing more than one of these a week. Today we have The Amazing Spider-Man #247 from December 1983. This a semi-unique cover for Spider-Man in that he is not actuallyfeatured on the cover, just his shadow is used instead.

This issue features both John Romita Sr. and Jr. on the artwork. I'm not too familiar with artist jargon but J.R. Jr. does the "breakdowns" J.R. Sr. does the "finishes."

As well as reminding me of the great shows Monchhichis [you don't see a lot of back-to-back "h"s in words, do you?] and the ultimate product placement cartoon, Rubik: The Amazing Cube, be sure to watch out for Menudo popping up now and again!


Previously on Genius Covers:
G.I. Joe #30
The Mighty Thor #475
Daredevil #262
The Spectacular Spider-Man #180
The Amazing Spider-Man #246

My To Do List

Oscar Gamble and The Smoke Monster

I'll take Night Owl's Oscar Gamble and raise you one Oscar Gamble.

1973 Topps #372 Oscar Gamble

Maybe it's just that I'm trying to pretend that the Lost finale and all of Season 6 wasn't "Night Court in it's 5th season LAME" but I'm seeing the Smoke Monster everywhere.

Show and Tell #52: Thorzul's Legendary Cuts Group Break

In Thorzul's latest group break I received only two cards and really I couldn't be happier. My teams were the Royals and the Expos [no Mariners were included in this set's checklist so I subbed the Expos instead] and picked up a Bo Jackson card I didn't have before...

2006 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts #97 Bo Jackson

and a jersey relic of The Hawk!

2006 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts #MM-AD Andre Dawson Jersey Relic #114/225

Harper Lee, Truman Capote, and To Kill A Mockingbird

My all-favorite book is To Kill A Mockingbird and it is the only book I've ever read more than once [someday I hope to come back to The Stand and see it is as awesome as I remember when I was 16.] I didn't realize that the book's author, Harper Lee, had a card in last year's Topps American Heritage Heroes Edition [which is a lot like CSI: Reno Special Victims Unit] until recently and so I tracked down a copy from Checkoutmycards.com. The photo is from one of Lee's rare public appearances to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom [one of the lamest names of an award ever] in 2007.

2009 Topps American Heritage Heroes Edition #MOF-13 Harper Lee Medal of Freedom


Not too shabby for a person who published only one book. Which brings me to what I really want to write about, the idea that Truman Capote really wrote To Kill A Mockingbird. This idea is mainly fostered by the fact that Harper Lee didn't/hasn't published any works since TKAM was published in 1960. Plus the fact that her closest friend was a world famous author and she collaborated on his most famous work In Cold Blood. I've never really believed it and in personal letters Capote sent to relatives before TKAM was released he wrote glowingly about "Harper's book." I'm sure he edited and collaborated with her, as she did with him, but I don't doubt Harper Lee wrote it.

Heartbreaking Damage #1: Dave Hoskins

Picture it: you buy a Jumbo box of 2010 Bowman and don't get a Stephen Strasburg autograph [hell, maybe you don't get an autograph at all]. You really want a Stephen Strasburg autograph. You can't live without a Stephen Strasburg autograph. You can't buy one on eBay because you blew all your money on the jumbo box. What are you supposed to do?

Why not take a page from a kid in 1955? He really, really, really wanted the rookie card of Humberto Robinson, the first Panamanian player in the majors.

I'm sure he bought pack after pack of Topps all with no luck. He saved his allowance for weeks...did every odd job for the old ladies of the neighborhood but still no Humberto. At last he reached his final level of frustration and grabbed his ball point pen.

And so we have Dave Hoskins becoming Humberto Robinson.

1955 Topps #133 Dave Hoskins

If only a few strokes of a pen could transform your unwanted cards into eBay gold.

Get To Your Local K-Mart Like Yesterday

Check out A Cardboard Problem for more details as to why you need to go to a K-Mart near you. I picked up four of the discount blasters of 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum for $5.99 and here are the results:

Some of the base, which are beyond shinny:

2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #71 Frank Thomas
2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #61 Johan Santana
2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #79 Greg Maddux
2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #40 Lance Berkman

Each blaster had one blue something or other...they aren't really refractors...or numbered...they're just blue versions of the purple base cards.

2009 Upper Deck Spectrum Blue #28 Brandon Phillips
2009 Upper Deck Spectrum Blue #19 Kosuke Fukudome
2009 Upper Deck Spectrum Blue #15 Jonathan Papelbon
2009 Upper Deck Spectrum Blue #47 Vladimir Guerrero

Each blaster also had one of the Upper Deck 20th Retrospective cards...I got Jesus and a guy who thinks he's Jesus:

Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective #368 Dow Jones Closes Over 3,000
Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective #7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective #53 Ken Griffey Jr.
Upper Deck 20th Anniversary Retrospective #128 Randy Johnson

And now we get to the whole point of buying these things...the relic cards. I struck gold on my first blaster with the Derek Jeter jersey and overall I think I did very well.

2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #SS-CK Clayton Kershaw Jersey Relic
2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #SS-JE Derek Jeter Jersey Relic

I got two Rays hot blasters too...

2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #SS-SK Scott Kazmir Jersey Relic
2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #SS-EL Evan Longoria Jersey Relic

Vic Power

Vic Power, almost as cool a name a Max Power. From the "every player has a unique record department," Vic holds the record of two unassisted double plays in the same game. He is also is one of 11 players to steal home twice in one game. He was also the first Puerto Rican player on an American League team.

Both of these cards are pretty dinged up and were found for rock bottom prices at the most recent Topeka card show.

1963 Post Cereal #1 Vic Power

1966 Topps #192 Vic Power

Heartbreakingly Great Names #18: Sherard Clinkscales

I've highlighted this card before and I think it needs an official Heartbreakingly Great Names post.

1993 Topps #706 Sherard Clinkscales

Cover of the Week: G.I. Joe #30

This week we have our first non-super hero cover with G.I. Joe #30 from December 1984. This issue's claim to fame is an appearance of the Dreadnoks and their leader Zartan...other than that is your pretty standard Cobra does some bad stuff and G.I. Joe stops them. This issue is all about the cover for me.

There were no awesome baseball card ads in this week's issue but we do have a beautiful advert for the Young Astronaut Program from NASA.


Previously on Cover of the Week:
The Mighty Thor #475
Daredevil #262
The Spectacular Spider-Man #180
The Amazing Spider-Man #246

My Own Little Fleer Sticker Project: Baltimore Orioles

As a younger kid when I was going to be the next Mike Mussina, my favorite baseball cap was the black Orioles cap with the realistic oriole as their logo and over the course of that year it went from jet black to a sad brown color. And so as I compare the logo on that cap with the logos of the Orioles in the past it's hard to believe the Orioles could be taken seriously back then.

Bobby Thomson and Herman Franks

I've always loved Bobby Thomson's 1952 Topps card. There is just something about it that makes me think of the cover of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

It is as if Bobby is the lone super hero and can single-handedly change the course of human events. Which is why I nearly lost my shit when I found this Bobby Thomson certified auto of a re-print of his 1952 card at an obscenely low price. This might have become my favorite autographed card that I own...I don't know for sure though...that would take some sorting and opening of boxes.

2001 Team Topps Legends #313 Bobby Thomson Autograph

Randomly, I had recently been digging through some of my vintage cards and I picked this card of Giants manager Herman Franks to highlight:

1965 Topps #32 Herman Franks

And it's great blue/green back:


I had no idea that apparently Franks may have been just as involved in The Shot Heard 'Round The World as Bobby was. Here's the rundown from Wikipedia:

In February 2001, Joshua Harris Prager of the Wall Street Journal reported that the Giants had positioned coach Herman Franks with a telescope in the Giants' clubhouse during the latter half of the season, including the game itself, and had stolen the pitching signs of the Dodger catcher, Rube Walker, subbing for the injured Roy Campanella in the playoff game^[7]. Prager concluded that the spy had signalled pitches to the Giants' batters, including Thomson, thus enabling Thomson to know in advance what pitch Branca was going to throw him. According to Prager's research, Franks was hidden in Giant manager Leo Durocher's office, which was positioned in the Polo Grounds center field and offered a line-of-sight view of the catcher. A buzzer system was installed so that Franks could signal a player in the Giants' bullpen, located on the field of play in deep left field. The player would then signal the batter as to what pitch was coming.

Andy and The Red Man

Here is my latest Andy Pafko pick up and this is also my first "tobacco card." No, it's not a T-206 or Allen & Ginter original...but a card from Red Man Chewing Tobacco's 1954 set.

1954 Red Man Chewing Tobacco #8 Andy Pafko [Missing Tab]

If you aren't familiar with this set ALL of the cards are this nice looking and they really put into focus the rotting piece of dog turd that some of the recent Chicle cards are.

Originally this card had a tab connected to the bottom of the card that could be redeemed [along with 49 other tabs...instructions are found on the back of the card] for a baseball cap. I hope to get another version of this card with the tab still attached. They tend to run about double the price of the cards with the missing tab.

Of course, the best part of this is the last line..."Red Man "Chewers" -- start a collection for your boys." Ah yes, chewing tobacco and children, a great combination.

Now That Is Some Good Airbrushing!

GCRL played the game "Topps or O-Pee-Chee?" today and I'll join in the fun...What we have here are two 1977 Rico Carty cards, one with him as an Indian and one with him as a Blue Jay. One is from Topps and one is from O-Pee-Chee. One has been airbrushed and one original...can you tell which is which without cheating?

The answer is down below.

And here are some other Rico cards:

1993 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes #27 Rico Carty

1966 Topps #153 Rico Carty

Here's the answer:

Card #1 is: 1977 O-Pee-Chee #114 Rico Carty [Indians]
Card #2 is: 1977 Topps #465 Rico Carty [Blue Jays]

Heartbreakingly Great Names #17: Johnny Wockenfuss

1985 Topps #39 Johnny Wockenfuss

Hammerin' Hank

Through the work of two trades with Reader Mike and user BattleSausage [best Blogger name ever? I think so.] I've been able to complete my Hank Aaron Baseball Heroes insert set that was in 1991 Upper Deck.

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #19

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #20

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #21

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #22

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #23

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #24

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #25

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #26

1991 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #27