Unexpected Rico Carty Sighting

One of the lesser known museums around Atlanta is the CDC Museum located at the main offices of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention near the campus of Emory University. We recently had friends visit us from out of town and my friend really wanted to check out what the CDC museum had to offer. 

Along with an impressive display of info-graphics on the multitude of information the CDC collects about nearly everything, they also had displays on the problems that the CDC has helped eliminate including some amazing posters that supported the campaigns. 

And around one corner I came upon a poster showing Rico Carty from his days with the Atlanta Braves spreading the word about tuberculosis. Rico was born in the Dominican Republic and so the poster is in Spanish. It highlights Carty's battle with the disease which cost him the entire 1968 season. 

Carty is one of my favorite players from the 70's and he came back and had some amazing years with the Braves. He hit an outstanding .366 during the 1970 season which led the league in batting. He added 25 home runs, 101 RBIs, and he made his one and only All-Star team that season. 

Everyone makes fun of the horrible airbrush jobs Topps did on their cards in the 60's and 70's but their Canadian counterpart, O-Pee-Chee was able to do some nice jobs on their edited cards. Take   Rico's cards from 1977 Topps and O-Pee-Chee. Without looking at his career stats, the viewer would be hard pressed to pick which team Rico joined over the course of the season.  

Where Was The Most Unexpected Place You Have Found Trading Cards For Sale?

As trading card collectors I think that we have all experienced the pleasant surprise of finding trading cards for sale in unexpected places. It could be finding some cards dropped off at your local Goodwill, or a dollar store, or possibly shop that you would never suspect to find some cardboard for sale. 

I recently had an interesting experience in that third category while visiting the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in downtown Atlanta. In their gift shop located in the house next to King's birthplace home I came upon two smaller complete sets featuring Negro League players. The top set is from the early 1990's and was produced Historic Limited Editions who were known for their postcard series including sets of veteran Yankee and Dodgers players. These were limited to 5,000 sets as the back of the cards say and the shop was selling them at $15.95. 

The bottom set is probably the most famous and complete Negro League set featuring the top stars from the league. The set was issued in 1986 by Fritsch Card Company and includes 119 cards 

in total. As you can see the front has red text while the reverse side has blue. The museum was asking $24.95 for the complete set and looking at eBay that seems just a little over what they typically go for. 

I passed on the sets at the time as I didn't have the patience to figure out if this was a good deal or not but if I make it back there I will probably pick up the Fritsch set. So that is my story, what's yours? Where was the most unexpected place you have found trading cards for sale?

Wax Pack Gods Release A Great Baseball Card Blog Resource

As you may have recently read, the Wax Pack Gods site released an e-book entitled The Ultimate Guide to Baseball Cards on the Web. It is available for free as a download on their web page and you can also scroll through the e-book's contents on their web page.

It is a treasure trove of information about baseball card blogs and baseball card reference information that you may not be aware of. They have a very comprehensive list of the leading trading card blogs (and a few I had been missing out on) and Heartbreaking Cards gets a mention in there as well (check out Chapter 6)! It looks to be a great resource for collectors discovering baseball card blogs and for those returning to the hobby after a long absence.

It is sort of a who's who of all the different types of blogs out there from set specific ones to general card diary's like mine. It's also a great tool and everything you need to know if you want to start a card blog of your own. Check it out!