My Trip to Cooperstown - Part 1 - The Vintage and Relics

A couple months back I had a work trip to Saratoga Springs, NY for a few days and my wife was wonderful enough to allow me to tack on a couple extra days on the trip and take a quick detour over to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  It was my second trip, I went 2 years back, and while it wasn't quite the religious experience as my first trip, I still had a great time.  Many of the displays were the same although I did get a chance to see the new Giants World Championship exhibit (2 trips, 2 opportunities to see an exhibit celebrating my team as the champs).  There was also a vacant area that was between exhibits but it is still great to be able to see all the great memorabilia and walk among relics from the greats of my favorite sport.

In addition to the museum itself, Main Street in Cooperstown is cool with memorabilia dealers and sports card dealers lining the streets.  I, of course, had to pick up some cardboard goodies for my Giants collection.  My first trip focused primarily on vintage Giants as I had just started my quest to collect Giants.  This trip had more of an oddball feel to it.  I am going to split my purchases into a few different posts so I will start with my vintage and relic purchases.

I only brought home one vintage card, this 1951 Bowman Sal Maglie RC.

I got this at a store that shares the name with Boston Red Sox HOFer Carl Yastrzemski which happened to be the place where I scored most of my vintage last time.  The store had moved a block or two closer to the museum but still had lots of cool stuff.  The prices in Cooperstown are typically pretty high but this place seemed to be the most reasonable as well.  This card is far from mint but I usually don't worry about that and I love the Bowman cards from this era.

Next up are 5 relics I picked up at a couple different stores:

 This Topps Pristine relic of Jeff Kent is a nice looking shiny card and Kent is one of 3 Giants in the set.  I just got a second one in a package this week which I will be sharing later and I like the look of this set.

 Next up is an SP Legendary Cuts relic of Omar Vizquel from his stint with the Giants.  The set is title Destined for History and I do think Omar was a historic player.  I wonder how much HOF consideration he will be given.

 My last Giants relic is this Classic Seasons card of will Clark from 2005 UD Classics.  I feel like I have been picking up cards of Clark and Kevin Mitchell from this set forever and new ones keep popping up.  I have no complaints though, I think this is a nicely designed card.

 My final 2 relics are of Dave Parker.  I have started picking up cards of Parker but only those where he is donning the Pirates uniform.  This is my first time starting a player collection where I am not going after each and every card.  It is just that I remember Parker best as a Pirate and I love the uniforms of that era.  The SP Legendary Cuts card isn't overly exciting but I do like the Pirates P inked onto the wood, a very nice touch.

While the prior card isn't that exciting to me, I really enjoy this Diamond King Gallery of the Stars design.  It has 2 relics, a jersey and bat to go with a great picture of Parker wearing the bright yellow jersey and great hat.  Two very nice pick ups for the Parker start up collection.

I will continue to show off the other items I acquired on the trip over the next few days.