Great Addition to my USC Trojan Collection

I have made mention of my USC Trojan Football collection a few times on the blog but haven't really shared much in the way of cards.  This is due in large part to not spending a lot of my time or my funds on this collection in the last 2 years.  There were several factors that came into play that drove me in this direction including: 1) I started my Giants collection (I had collected GU/Auto before but I have expanded to everything), 2) the sanctions placed (unfairly in my opinion) on my former school started taking a toll on the team, 3) not too many exciting new players to collect and my collection of the older players, which I actually prefer, got to the point where new additions were expensive and/or rare to find.

I did make a goal this year to jump start this part of my collection again but I am still working on exactly what I want to focus on.  I will say that this card I received over Christmas has helped me get excited about my USC collection once again.

This is a nice OJ Simpson Rookie card from the 1970 Topps set.  I was given this by a friend of my mom's who has several copies of this card from when he was younger.  He is thinking about asking me to sell his collection (not overly excited about the idea as it is a lot of work but I would do it for my mom if asked).  My mom brought me this card several months back to ask me to figure out a value so I looked at some finished auctions and gave her a price.  I said I would pay slightly under the eBay price if he was interested but he decided against it.  Then a few months later it is mine as a gift!

This is definitely an iconic football card.  We all know OJ's post football challenges and he obviously isn't a model human being.  But as a football player he was amazing.  He actually has some significance in my life as well.  In the late 70s I checked out a book from the library about OJ and was immediately impressed with him.  He was a Heisman trophy winner and set the all time single season rushing record.  Around the time I was reading the book he was traded to the San Francisco 49ers and they immediately became my favorite team - I lived in a Raiders house so this was a little controversial at the time.  My dad and mom have come around to the Niners since.  I really credit OJ with helping lead me to my favorite team.  After 1981 it may have happened anyway but it was pretty cool in my neighborhood to have been a 49er fan before The Catch.

I also started following college sports, and particularly USC as a result of reading that OJ book.  Every picture I saw had the sun and the palm trees and a great football tradition.  Many years later, I applied to and got into USC. The half tuition college scholarship was just enough to allow me to attend and I am a Trojan for life.  Based on all the above, I think most would see how I just prefer to focus on the first 40 years of OJ's life.

The card itself is in nice condition and features that classic OJ smile.  The 1970 design is pretty nice itself with the banner across the bottom and the football to show the position.  I really like the back as well.  The orange color fits the time frame well in my opinion and it fits The Juice perfectly. OJ has a solid but not spectacular rookie season.  I love the cartoon.  Most people remember OJ from some of his acting gigs including the Naked Gun movies and his Hertz rent-a-car commercials.  I was surprised his TV career started so early. Maybe it was living in LA that got him his kick start.

I am still trying to work out what I am going to target in my USC collection this year but whatever direction I decide to go would have included seeking out this iconic card.  I am very happy that I now have it in my collection.

You know you are a little out of control as a team collector when...

A little while back I walked into my LCS and the owner greeted me with a "hey I was just thinking of you".  He knows my collecting interests well and this usually means a nice USC patch or auto card, a  unique Giants card or sometimes even a new 49ers card but this time he caught me from a different angle.

He had just pulled out 2 huge boxes of auto cards that were in penny sleeved and filed alphabetically by team.  I had never seen these boxes before, he had them stashed in the back, but he explained they were autos of lesser known players, usually prospects that didn't pan out, and that about once per year he goes through the boxes to see if someone was a late bloomer and needed to be promoted out of the "scrubs" box.  He said he noticed a few Giants when flipping through it and thought that I probably could use some of them in my collection.

There weren't any new products out I was interested so I figured what the heck and dove right into the box.  Here are the fruits of my labor:

As you can see, no star players and only a couple players that had more that a cup of tea. Reflecting back on the purchase I had to think, why did I really need these cards?  These aren't star players, as a matter of fact I don't even remember a couple of them really ever being prospects.  I don't have any memories tied to these players like I do when I look through my McCovey cards or my Henderson cards or even recall books I have read about players before my time.  The reason of course is that I am a team collector and if possible I will take and enjoy any Giants card that I don't already have in my collection.  Yes a little crazy and a little out of control but it is the truth.

In addition to these 29 Giants autographed cards I picked up a few cards from his newly placed quarter box:

 I found some more Giants I needed, that 8 person card in the top middle wasn't even on my checklist and I love finding cards that I had somehow missed.

 I picked up these randomly for possible trades or just because I thought they were cool.  I hadn't recalled seeing that awesome Griffey card with the monster bubble.  No wonder they called him the Kid.

 Scored some 72 and 73 cards for the set quest.  Was pretty happy to get each of these for a quarter especially the Rollie pre-handlebar mustache. 

I also picked up these 1971 Topps cards.  I am not actively collecting this set but I figured picking up some HOFers and a rookie cup card for a quarter each was a pretty good idea.  Personally I think this was a dollar very well spent.

And as I too often do, I did pick a quartet of cards that I already had so I add a couple Giants to the dup stack and a couple vintage card to the vintage stack.

Overall this was a pretty nice visit to the card shop and I think it was $50 very well spent.

How About Some Love for Barry Bonds?

I will admit it, I am a fan of Barry Bonds.  Yes I have heard all the stories about what a jerk he is and I am sure most, if not all of them are true.  I realize that most likely he something outside the rules but, not that this makes it okay, I contend that well over half the players in baseball during the steroid era were juicing to some degree.  You have your Cansecos and McGwires who went all out and your Andy Pettittes who used to get over an injury. 

Tomorrow is the day the Hall of Fame inductees will be announced and it usually an exciting a day for me every year.  I am still looking forward to it but I know there will be disappointment because there is no way Barry Bonds will be making it in.  Yes I am a huge fan of the Giants and Barry was their best player for a long stretch of time so I realize my views are biased. However, look at his stats.  He is the all time leader in HRs and BB.  He hit .298 over his career.  He was 65 hits short of 3000 and would have gotten to that milestone if he wasn't frozen out of the game.  His last season he hit .276 wiht 28 HRs and an OBP of .480 (which happened to lead the league).  The man could still play.

As for awards, he won the MVP 7 times (plus he was robbed of one by Terry Pendleton in 1991 while with the Pirates), won 12 Silver Slugger Awards and 8 Gold Gloves.  He was a 14 time All Star.  Outside of the PED issue Bonds is a first ballot HOFer that would challenge Tom Seaver for the highest percentage ever.

I know I will not change anyone's mind, that isn't the purpose of this post.  I am sure that if anyone even cares enough to read this post and comment, I will get blasted - that's okay.  I merely thought I would celebrate Barry Bonds while the rest of the baseball world villainizes him.  You at least have to give me credit for staying loyal to my team and its players :-)

I have picked up quite a few Bonds cards and inserts over the past several months so I thought would be the right time to share a few of them.  First up is a larger than normal card (just like Barry's head!):

These come from a Stadium Club Finest release.  The card on the right is the normal sized card and I believe the Jumbo card was a box topper.  I enjoy the shininess of the card and the coloring is spot on for a Giant.

Here are a couple more.  The one on the left from Fleer Authentix is a cool foldout card that looks like a ticket.  Barry is showcased with his celebratory point to the heavens after yet another HR.  The cards on the right is a little hard to see but it is a wood grained cards titled Team Timber. This Team Timber card is pretty cool although it actually curls as if it were a piece of wood.  The left and right edges curl outward - the exact opposite of a typical Topps Chrome card.

Finally here is a trio of really nice Topps shiny inserts.  The first one is an All-Star insert. I love the look of this card, it appears like fireworks going off as he swings.  The middle card is a Topps Stars Walk of Fame insert, I think Topps Stars is underrated, this insert is representative of many of their releases. I am going to need to pick up a few more.  Finally the Gold Nuggets insert from back when Topps celebrated gold in the last decade.  The gold shiny card is pretty nice to look at the scan doesn't quite do it justice.

There is my quick tribute to one of my favorite players of all time and arguably the best player to ever play in MLB history.  He has my vote but I predict he will be named on about 1/3 of the ballots case.

I just want to leave you with this, the most commonly named player of the guys new to the ballot being discussed as likely to get in the HOF I have heard is Craig Biggio.  Ask yourself this, if you were a pitcher would you prefer to face Bonds or Biggio? If you were a fan would you rather see Bonds or Biggio come to the plate?  Biggio was a great player but Bonds was on a completely different level as a player and deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Vida Blue is a Five Star Player

One of my 2013 collecting goals is spending some time and some of my budget on my player collections that are not Giants.  I have Vida Blue listed in this group even though he did spend time on the Giants as more of his cards are of the Oakland A's variety, especially his new issues. 

Vida's card checklist has followed a pretty interesting path.  He started with 2 cards released in 1970, his Topps and O-Pee-Chee rookie cards.  On that card he is paired with a pretty solid player in Gene Tenace.   He has the normal regular issue and team issue cards throughout his career and pops up on some oddball issues like Kellogg's, Hostess and the MSA Discs with various backs.  As he played into the 80s, we start seeing issues from Fleer and Donruss and a few stickers and stamps mixed in.  He even made appearences on some 1986 Sportslifcs cards as a Cy Young Winner, No-Hitter pitcher and one of the best pitchers of the 70s.  His last card issues from his playing career are from his second stint with the Giants in 1987.

Post retirement, Vida has been in and out of the hobby.  He has a few Senior League cards from right after his retirment then shows up on a few oddball cards in the 90s. In 2000, 2001 and 2002 he had a base card and auto card in Greats of the Game (one of my favorite sets of all time).  He had a nice stretch from 2002 to 2005 being featured in a number of releases peaking in 2004 with 62 cards, many of them were autographed reprints with both Donruss and Topps going down that path.

After 2005 Vida disappeared and didn't return to a new release until 2008 where Topps included him in Triple Threads.  He has the various base and parallel issues and printing plates along with a series of relics that include Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers from the A's peak in the early 70s.  I still need to get my hands on one of those relics.

Vida experienced another 3 year gap until 2011 when he was featured with 3 cards in the Limited cards set, one of which I featured in my first post about my Vida collection.  In 2012 Vida came back strong to my delight.  First he was an SP and had an auto in Topps Archives.  He has 2 different relics in Triple Threads and Topps included him in Five Star.  I haven't gotten my hands on any of the Panini Gold Age yet but it looks like he has a base, some mini parallels a relic and an auto - very cool!

I was able to pick up a couple of his Five Star cards that I thought I would share.  I think this is a pretty great way to jump start my Vida collection.  Here they are:

Vida has 7 different cards in Five Star including 2 books.  These are the 2 with the highest print runs and most likely the only ones I will be able to acquire.  The next highest print run is a Rainbow parallel of the top one /25 - maybe that one is a possibilty.  In my dreams I could get the booklet that has Dennis Eckersley, Reggie Jackson and Rickey Henderson but that would go quickly into my Rickey collection (and with only 10 out there and tons of Rickey collectors it has no chance of happening.

So what do I think of Five Star?  The cards are beautful. They are extremely think and of super high quality.  I really like the design.  I am pleased these two cards have different pictures of Vida on each and Topps doesn't overdo it on the gold foil.  The autos are on card which is awesome.  I really have no complaints about these two cards, I really like them and am very happy Vida was included.

As for the product itself, I couldn't fathom buying any of it.  I got these cards fairly inexpensively and even though I am a big Vida Blue fan, pulling his card from a product that costs as much as Five Star would be beyond disappointing - I am guessing some anger would creap in.  The highest priced product I ever bought was 2011 Museum Collection and got lucky with a Griffey redemption I sold for more that the box.  Considering myself very lucky, I will not dip my toe into the high end products unless I hit the lottery or something.

I am looking forward to picking up some of Vida's newer issues and also filling in the gaps on the releases during his playing days.  If you happen to pull a Vida, don't get too disappoint, check out my want list and hopefully we can make a trade.

1973 Topps Set Quest - Post 1

One of my goals during 2013 will be to try and complete this 1973 set through card number 528.  The final series consisting of cards 529-660 are more difficult to obtain and more pricing and while I will be looking to add those to my set, my focal point during 2013 will be on the cards through 528.   This set is comprised as 4 series and for comparison sake, series 3 commons book for $1.25 and series 4 book for $3.  Also the high series has the Mike Schmidt rookie which will be the priciest card for the set.  2013 will hopefully see me go for the quantity and in 2014 I will focus on the quality high numbers.

Here are my recent pick ups in the quest to complete this set.  I believe all of them came from Sportlots.

 So I start of the post saying I am focusing on the non-high number cards and what is my first scan?  3 high number cards. Rusty and Fred were both photographed in old Yankee Stadium it appears. The Rookie Shortstop card features 3 players that never became huge stars but both Frias and Guerrero ended up playing for 8-9 years and played in around 700 games. I got the Rookie Shortstops for $1.30.  The other two were a quarter each plus $0.50 shipping each.

 Next up is a nice Walter Johnson card celebrating the Big Train as the All-Time Shutout Leader.  He has 2 cards in this subset including one for being the Strikeout Leader.  I won't be featuring too many of these in this Set Quest series of posts as I already have all but 1.  I still need the Babe Ruth All-Time RBI leader.  However once I secure the Ruth card, this might be a good subset to earn a full dedicated blog post.  I scored this card for $1.

The final trio of cards feature some pretty sweet 1973 star power.  Let's start with Yaz.  Pretty cool photo from spring training with a batting net in the background and most of a catcher.  Yaz's face in this photo captures him in the way I perceive him to be, fairly stoic and just there to do his job and do it well.  When I visited Cooperstown a couple years back I made some purchases at a Yastrzemski named sports card shop that is owned my a relative of Carl. I struck up a conversation with the guy - great guy who also gave me some good deals on vintage cards - and I guess Yaz has only been to Cooperstown a select few times.  Wants to avoid the crowds and would rather keep to himself.  He doesn't have too many certified card autos out there either.  This one set me back $5.40.

Picked up this Hank Aaron as well and it was near the end of his career after he had shifted to First Base.  The card features the former HR King prepping to catch a pop up and showcases his first baseman's mitt. As a former first baseman myself, I always enjoy a nice look at the unique leather for the position.  I picked this one up for $5.24.

 Speaking of star power, it doesn't get much bigger that the Say Hey Kid, Willie Mays.  As a Giants fan it seems wrong seeing him in his Mets uniform, he certainly seems like someone who should have stayed with one team for his entire career. Prior to going after this set I had several chances to pick this card up but it never really fit into my collection and always disappointed me a little due to his exile to the Mets.  Willie set me back $8.25.

My final pick up to share is Mr. Roberto Clemente.  Roberto is one of the most admired men in baseball history and is known for his play on the field, charitable work off the field and his too early and tragic death while going on a humanitarian trip.  I recently ran across an article about the bat used for Clemente's 3000th and final hit that was very interesting.  If you haven't read it I would recommend you check it out.  This is one of the most expensive cards in the set and I picked it up for $17.95.  If I was patient, I probably could have done better but I got into somewhat of a bidding war.  Plus I was able to combine shipping with 3 additional cards and the majority of the shipping was allotted to this card so it is somewhat artificially high. 

These recent purchases focused on a lot of the higher end cards in the set.  There are 22 cards in the set that book for over $10. I obviously won't be basing my purchases on book value but it is a good way to gauge my progress and understand which cards will set me back the most.  The Yaz, Aaron, Mays and Clemente all fall into this category which leaves with only 10 to secure (Fisk, Seaver, Bench, Reggie, Bob Boone RC, Ruth All-Time RBI, High Number Checklist, Dwight Evans RC, SO Leaders - Carlton/Ryan and the Schmidt Rookie.  Among the higher valued cards, I have already picked up the Gossage RC, the HR Leaders featuring Mays/Aaron/Ruth, Pete Rose and Nolan Ryan.


Here are some stats to start tracking my progress:

Total Cards added in this post - 8
Total Cards from 1-528 added in this post - 5
Cards added with BV $10 or higher in this post - 4
Progress on cards with BV $10 or higher - 12/22
Updated status towards 2013 goal - 466/528
Updated status towards complete set - 505/660

If you have any of my wants for trade let me know.  I will keep my progress updated on the blog as well and my want list up to date.

Making Major Progress on my 1956 Topps Giants Team Set

I have a folder set up on my computer with scans of cards that I have acquired since I started this blog or have pulled from my collection with plans of blogging about them.  I was thinking about blogging ideas and was looking through the folder and realized I have over 250 scans.  For each scan I made I had an idea about a blog post I could create from the scan but if I am being honest with myself many of the ideas have gone by the wayside.  I guess it is time to study the scans and come up with some new ideas. 

I have been doing better as of late on scanning incoming cards and immediately writing the post.  I will have to mix in some of the older scans with new stuff coming in to clear out my folder.  Maybe I should add timely posts after scanning to my 2013 goals???

When looking through my folder, I noticed the number of 1956 Topps cards I had picked up over the last 2-3 months towards my Giants team set.  When checking my want list I realized that I only need 1 more card to complete the team set, unfortunately it happens to be Willie Mays-  just like my 1955 Topps, 1963 Fleer and 1965 Topps want lists.  The joys of having the greatest player of all time as a former player on you favorite team.

Here are some of my 1956 recent pick ups:

1956 is one of my favorite vintage sets, I love the portrait shot up front with an action shot in the background.  This appears to be a picture of Mueller sliding into home with possibly Willie Mays directing him to slide, the play at the plate cards in this set are amongst my favorites.

 Most of the Giants have their name surrounded by an orange block but old Foster here has a green block.  Not sure of the reason for the variation.  This action play at 3rd is a great one as well but it appears the runner is going to be safe on this one.

 On this card of Jim Hearn we start to see some variation in the shade of blue used in the Giants cap.  I am not sure if the artist used some creative liberties or if the Giants did actually have caps of varying colors.  Maybe that is something worth checking out.  I read a post earlier tonight from Nick over at Dime Boxes who mentioned he may be interested in going after a collection of cards with players showing high leg kicks.  Jim here may fit the bill (and don't forget about the Dominican Dandy - Juan Marichal if you decide to go that route Nick). 

 In this card of Hank Thompson, the blue hat really comes alive. It also matches the blue box around his name, interesting. Looks like Hank made a nice stop at a ball in the hole.

 Here is the team card which is actually pretty tough to come by and this one happens to be in pretty good condition.  I guess I do have a 1956 card featuring Willie Mays!

 Marv just isn't a name you hear much of any more.  I think he looks like a perfect caricature of what I think of when I think 1950s ball player.  Buzz cut, kind big ears, little bit of a smirk and just a good old boy.

 Antonelli was a darn good pitcher and I actually just picked up a 1960 All Star card of his that I need to get scanned and feature.   His action photo shows him on the mound in front of a packed crowd and I really like the look of it.

Finally my last 100% new addition to the Giants team set features catcher Wes Westrum.  Every time I read or hear Mr. Westrum's name I think of a baseball coach I had when I was about 11-13 whose name was also Wes.  He was my buddy Jamie's dad.  Wes pitched a lot of batting practice and had a natural curve to his pitches.  He was right handed as was I and he started every pitch at your head and it would curve right into the strike zone. I helped us learn how to hit curves quite well and he was very consistent and accurate with it - to everyone but me. During my 3 years of playing on his team, coach Wes threw only 2 pitches that didn't curve and both ended up hitting me in the head.  Anyway, this card features a sweet play at the plate with a Cardinal base runner getting tagged out, way to go Wes.

I mentioned that these 8 cards were my only 2 100% new cards as I also picked up these 2 cards:

Both are very nice cards, I particularly like the stretch on the play at first on Gail Harris' card.  Many of the 1956 cards come in two variations, a white back and a grey back. These are both grey backs I added where I already had the white back.  If I was smart, maybe I should have scanned the back to show the difference. It appears Coach Wes' second non-curving curve ball may have caused a little more damage than I realized.  Anyway, since I was able to score these cards for under a dollar each (plus a little shipping) I decided to pick them up and mark them off the want list. 

If you look at my 1956 want list you will still see 8 cards listed including both versions of the Willie Mays card but the other 6 are all cards where I have one version.  Anyone know how and where to pick up some Willie Mays cards on the cheap so I can finish some team sets?

A Groovy Giants Gain

Recently I was surfing through the auctions on Sportlots and ran across this card:

 I was mesmerized by this card and immediately had to have it.  I ended up scoring it from $3.25 delivered.  I had never seen a card from this insert set and had only seen a McCovey base card and a McCovey relic from a different set prior to seeing this card.  My parents grew up in the hippie era and had quite a few music/concert posters featuring Woodstock era music acts (Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, etc.) and this brought me right back to our home study where the posters hung during my youth. The font is spot on and the teardrop yellow shape featuring the Giants logo and the pink/purple swirl showcasing that it is an authentic game-used bat are perfect as well.

 Let's check out the back and see if the motif continues:

Not too bad Topps.  The Woodstock border in spot on font continues around the back. I really like the font spelling out Orlando's name and the Giants team name.  The description is pretty cool, this is a Woodstock Memorabilia from 2001 Baby Boomers Baseball.

Interestingly enough, this 2001 American Pie set was not on my want list.  I created my list using Beckett.com and they don't list any of the players in this set by team.  I am surprised that I haven't even scored a base card from this set in a trade.  That is usually how I discover checklist gaps.  I did some research and think that all the base and inserts are now on my list.  There is also a Willie Mays version in this relic set, I borrowed this image from eBay:

A pretty awesome card, I may need to try and track one of these down as well although I don't see myself paying the $30 that this would cost.

In an odd way I got really excited to find some cards to add to my checklist and want list, especially a card that looks so cool to me.  Sometimes it is the little things in life that put a smile on your face.