Meeting a Friend of the Blog and Landing a McCovey White Whale

A couple weeks back I got an email from fellow Giants fan, reader of the blog and all around great guy Jim aka mrhaverkamp.  Jim was heading down to Southern California from his home in Northern California (Giants country!!!) to visit some friends and was wanting to get directions to the local card shops I have reference on the blog and perhaps meet up at one of the shops.

We exchanged numbers and I gave him directions.  A couple days prior to when he was planning on being in my area he called and left me a message and as luck would have it I was down with the stomach flu.  I missed a chance to meet a couple fellow LA based bloggers at a card show a couple months back and I was worried I might miss another opportunity to meet the first person face-to-face that I was introduced to through the blog.

A day or two later I started feeling somewhat human again and texted Jim to let him know that I was available to meet and he got back to me and let me know around what time he would be at the shops.  I cut out of work at the right time and we ended up meeting at one of the shops.  We had a chance to visit and get to know each other for 30-45 minutes over sandwiches and soup talking cards and Giants, it was a great way to spend a long lunch break.  Lucky for me, mrhaverkamp came bearing gifts.

First up he gave me some 1970 set help:

 I have a copy of this McCovey in my Willie collection one and the Alston fill a set need.  I set a goal for 2013 to complete the 1970 set up through card 459 and this along with some other recent pick ups puts me 3 cards away.  Two are the Munson Rookie and Reggie Jackson so I am not sure I am going to make the goal this year but I got darn close.

Next up some 1973 set help:

 Dick Allen may be one of the most underrated players in history.  I am loving the background of the Kaline card, I am sure with a little research I could figure out where the Tigers spent their springs, obviously somewhere with palm trees.  Similar to the 70 set, I am working on 1973 as well with a 2013 goal of finishing up through 528.  I am 4 cards away from that goal with the biggest name again being Reggie Jackson.  With only a little over a month to go, this may also be a goal that is so close, yet so far away in 2013.

Finally, Jim handed over this card:

Holy White Whale!  Those of you not too familiar with the 1969 may not catch the rarity of this card. Maybe 20-25 cards in the 5th series printed the players name in white lettering as a variation.  The normal McCovey has his name in yellow like the team name.  This card has been on my McCovey want list from the start and I have run across very few for sale.  Those for sale were typically in very poor condition and priced well outside my range.  I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am to have this in my collection.

Jim, it was great getting a chance to meet you and to get to know you a bit.  I thank you immensely for the cards and have a couple of things set aside for you already as a gift in return.  I need to seek out something to sweeten the package to help balance out the McCovey.