A Blue Wave

One of the players I have been collecting the longest is Vida Blue.  If I recall correctly it all started with Rickey Henderson followed quickly by Willie McCovey.  Next I started adding Dave Winfield cards to my collection which was then followed by Jim Rice and Vida Blue.  Rice was abandoned a couple years later but my quest for Vida Blue cards has continued. 

Vida's rookie card was in the 1970 Topps set and he had player era cards through 1987.  I have most of those missing just a few postcards and rare oddball issues.  Blue played in the Senior League and had a few cards from there in the early 90s and also appeared in some of the oddball sets put out throughout the 90s.  Fleer and Topps included him in some of the sets celebrating Super Teams, Great of the Games and post season success in the early 2000s.  He was included in some of those annoying (to player collectors) sets that featured stamped and autographed buy-backs for both Donruss and Topps.  Again, I have most of these cards minus the 1/1s and ultra rare cards.


From 2006 to 2010 he only made 1 appearance in a major release in Topps Triple Treads, I have his base and all the parallels minus the Sapphire /25 and the Platinum 1/1 but have yet to pick up one of the relics he shared with Reggie Jackson and Rollie Fingers (this is something I should rectify).  He popped up in Limited in 2011, an unlicensed release where he had a numbered base card, jersey card and relic - all of which I was able to secure.

2012 and 2013 were great years for a Vida collector as he appeared in Topps Archives, Five Star, Triple Threads, Ginter, Gypsy Queen, Museum Collection, Tier One and Tribute.  There are some gaps in my collection here as many of the hits are low numbered but it was really nice to add to my Vida collection.  Since then he has only appeared in 2016 Prime Cuts and has completely disappeared from Topps releases.  Topps has seemed to focus mainly on Hall of Famers but I have been disappointed that he hasn't been included at all.

I have a daily eBay search of Vida cards that pops up in my email inbox daily looking to fill some of the gaps in my collection and I was pleasantly surprised to see this card pop up a couple weeks back:

Topps included Vida in a Throwback Thursday release this year.  There are weekly releases you can purchase on Topps.com that feature new cards on old designs, this one being the 1971 Topps basketball design.  I think this is a great looking card and I picked one up from a 3rd party seller on eBay.  It was the first new Topps card of Blue since 2013 and one of my first adds in a while.

What was really cool about this beyond having a new Vida card was that it started a minor Blue Wave of new cards I was able to add to my collection:

In addition to the new Topps card I have been able to add 3 new items to my Vida collection in the last week or two. 

 First up is this postcard.  This wasn't totally new to me as two of them have been listed on Ebay for quite some time.  I had them saved as a possible future purchase but the price magically got lowered right at the time the Blue Wave started.  These were put out in connect to Ted Williams, there are 2 versions of Vida but this is only one I have seen.  It happens to be autographed which is nice but wasn't necessary.  I recognize Vida's auto but just in case, a COA was included with the postcard:

Next up is the oddball card I have never seen and know nothing about:

It looks to be an oddball from 1999 put out by International Sports Marketing and licensed by the Major League Baseball Players Alumni but not MLB.  The front references the Campbell Soup Company and a Legands of Baseball Tour. This is part of a 13 card set, I would like to see a checklist of this set.  I am super happy to have this card in my collection - it is great to add new cards and even better when I didn't even know they existed.

Next up is an oddball item that looks to be perhaps a placemat:

As you can see from the first photo, these are fairly large in size.  It was put out by Home Federal Savings bank as a promo in the early 80s.  I hadn't heard of this item either so it was great to add it to my collection.  Luckily it came as a lot with several other Giants:

The Bob Knepper and Jack Clark are also from Home Federal Savings and as mentioned I didn't even know HFS had put out a set of these.

Now I do have a release from Eureka Federal Saving on my checklist and even have a copy of the Willie McCovey in my collection.  The EFS release came out in 1980 and I was able to pick up 4 of these in this lot:

I am aware of 8 of these in the EFS checklist and with the McCovey I now have 5 of the 8 only missing Al Holland, John "The Count" Montefusco and Johnnie LeMaster.  I would love finish off that team set and figure out how big the Home Federal Savings set is and how many are part of that.

After picking up perhaps 3-4 new Vida Blue cards in the last couple years, it was pretty awesome to bring 4 new items into the collection in the last couple weeks.

A Collection Goal Update at the Quarter Point of the Year

A couple days ago I thought it would be wise to check in on my 2018 Collecting goals and see what kind of progress has been made.  I haven't posted as much as I would like so I decided to make my progress check into a post.

As you may recall (or if not you can click on the link above) I decided to go micro and specific on my goals this year which is a reversal over the past couple.  I will copy my list from the post and share some updates in blue and pictures.

Set Building

• Complete 1969 Topps Set (currently need 8 - Bench, Kessinger, Cox, Reggie RC, Mantle, Santo, Fingers RC, Teddy Ballgame) - I have a COMC order coming in soon that should result in exciting news but I have some progress in my possession.

The left side of the Cubs Infield brings me down to 6 needs

An awesome 2nd year card with the Rookie Cup Bench brings me down to 5

• Start new vintage set - I have a couple of ideas in mind but haven't settled on a set quite yet.

• Collect Donruss, Topps Series 1 & 2, Topps Update, Opening Day and 2-3 other 2018 sets - Doing well here, bought a Master Set of Topps Series 1 and built a couple of the retail insert sets I liked.  Bought a box of Opening Day, completed the set with the box and the insert sets through Sportlots.  Bought a base set of Donruss along with the 70 (!) variations.  Decided against Heritage and Gypsy Queen although Gypsy Queen is still a consideration.

HOF Auto collection

• Get to 100 different players (currently at 94) - I posted the addition of Smoltz and LaRussa here, I posted autos of Hoffman and Vlad on my HOF Ballot post here, plus I added this great looking on card auto of Jeff Bagwell.  This brings me to 99, just need to track down 1 more to make my goal.

2014 Panini Prizm 54/75, despite the lack of logo, this is a great looking card in hand. I love the big on-card auto

Reading

• Finish and post on 6 sports books - I have 2 different baseball books right now that I am reading and a bunch ready to go.  Even though I am behind pace, I think I will get there.

• Catch up on Sports Illustrated and ESPN magazines - The stack keeps growing and I doubt this will be a made goal.

49ers Vintage collection (1950s-1970s)

• Get collection into a binder - All done, spent a little time in late February going through all my cards, sorting them by year and paging them up.  It has been fun flipping through a couple of times already. 

• Reach 200 different cards (currently at 152) - I currently sit at 182.  I have even gotten a few through trade.  I feel good about this goal, shouldn't be hard to hit.

USC Football

• Get collection organized - haven't spent any time organizing this part of my collection.

• Establish focus and add 200 new cards - I have yet to gain a focus.  I have added around 75 new cards with a few coming in trades, a couple of purchase and most from the large collection I bought and am working my way through.

Giants

• Add 20 NY Giants era vintage cards - I am already over half way to this goal but none of my pick-ups have been blogged about.  I have an amazing Return from the Purge that will be coming soon, a huge pickup to finish off a vintage team set and a multiple card purchase from an eBay seller.  I will share one card I picked up in a Sportlots auction.

 

An awesome 1952 Topps pick-up.  This is the black back version and one of the last players I need for my Giants team set that aren't in the dreaded high number series.

• Add 100 1970s-1990s cards - I have already far exceeded this goal. Most I won't blog about but I was helped by picking up a 28 card 1993 Topps Inaugural Giants team set, a 28 card 1983 Giants postcard set, a 30 card 1987 Topps Tiffany set, a 21 card 1980 SSPC HOF card Giants team set and 54 cards in a Beckett.com order.

• Reduce parallel want list to 150 cards (currently at 233) - I haven't added any 2018 cards to the list yet as I have picked up the wanted parallels.  I have only knocked about 10-15 cards from the list.  This goal will be a challenge, reasonably priced early 00s Topps Gold cards and some of the earlier years of Ginter minis are tough to come by.

Player Collections

• Willie McCovey - pick up 2 items off want list from playing career - nothing yet

• Rickey Henderson - pick up 5 items off want list from playing career, get checklist up to date - I have 2 in hand and believe my COMC incoming order will get me to this goal.  Still need to get the checklist up to date.

This 2005 Absolute card is the Spectrum version numbered 057/150, I also picked up a 1989 Topps Big

• Dave Winfield - reach 850 different cards (currently at 805), get checklist up to date - I have added 7 and here they are.  Still need to get the checklist up to date.

• Reggie Jackson - reach 700 different cards (currently at 626), get checklist up to date - I have added 10 to get to 636, here are 9 of them.

• Vida Blue - pick up 3 items off want list - any new Vida is getting credit here including the awesome custom from Baseball Card Breakdown.  I also picked up this cool patch from 1979.  That leaves me just 1 short and I have a couple awesome cards to share in a future post that will complete my goal.

Can't tell what team he should be on, right around the time he moved from the A's to the Giants.

• Ben Petrick- reach 230 different cards (currently at 221) - This is going to be a tough one to accomplish, most of the cards I need are pretty hard to find with lower print runs.  I have got 3 pretty awesome new cards.

You can see that the Maximum parallel is numbered 203/323, the Bowman Gold Refractor is 54/99 and the Pacific Extreme LTD is 42/45

• Chili Davis - reach 465 different cards (currently at 453) - no activity on the Chili front so far in 2018.

• Dave Parker - reach 160 different Pirates cards (currently at 140) - only 1 pick up so far but it is a pretty cool one.

I love me some Hostess cards!

• Fred Lynn - post about new player collection, reach 280 different cards (currently at 252) - I still haven't posted about this new player collection but I have been adding some cards.  My collection now sits at 270 cards.  I don't plan on showing off any cards until I get the first post out.

• Ronnie Lott - reach 900 different cards (currently at 868) - I am at 873 but should be able to move the needle much quicker with the 2018 football releases.  Here are 3 cards from 2017 Select, I would like to track down most of the rainbow at some point.

These are numbered 015/149, 04/75 and 12/25

• Roger Craig - reach 380 different cards (currently at 361) - I have only added 1 card, it is a great dual auto that added to two of these collections.  I will have it's own post coming up.

• Dwight Clark - reach 125 different cards (currently at 109) - I have added 5 to get to 114 and will show off 2 of them here.

This counts as 2 on my checklist as the card and coin are listed separately.  These came from a regional grocery store, Save Mart back in 1996

• Fred Dean - add 5 cards (currently at 25) - I shared 1 in my blog bat around post and also picked up this one.

• Harold Miner - add 2 new cards (currently at 252) - Even at 2 this was a stretch goal, not much of his I don't have.  I did track down one postcard sized new card of his and shared on the blog bat around post.

• Charles Barkley - reach 700 different cards (currently at 645) - I have added 7 cards, 2 in this trade, and these 5.

• Patrick Ewing - reach 550 different cards (currently at 505) - 3 new ones here.

For some reason that green border on the UD MVP card really stands out to me.  The Larger then Life insert is a nice shiny gold

• Chris Webber - reach 750 different cards (currently at 710) - 4 new CWebbs added to the collection.

The upper left card is from his college days and the first card on my checklist, it had eluded me for some time and I am super happy to finally own a copy

Reflecting back on my progress so far, I have to say I am pretty happy.  It seems the areas that have been most lacking are my USC football collection and my basketball player collections.  I am interested to see if my focuses shift in that direction.  I am not going to "force" myself to go after certain cards to make a goal, I use the goals as guidelines and go after what feels good.

Have you reflected on your 2018 goals?  If so, how are you doing?

Returns from the Purge - Baseball Card Breakdown

A little ways back I put flat rate boxes for each team up for grabs.  I was interested in clearing out some space and clearing off my sorting table.  Those efforts were a big success as I got rid of all but 2 team stacks.  I stated that I didn't want or need anything in return.  In some cases I figured I owed some of you cards anyway and in other cases I was just glad to clear some space.

However in typically blogger fashion, quite a few bloggers sent back some good stuff to thank me.  I have done a terrible job of scanning and posting past packages that have been sent my way - so bad that I have given up the pursuit of catching up (sorry!) however I am committed to sharing the returns from my card purge.

First up are cards from a great package from Gavin over at Baseball Card Breakdown.

I am going to start off with the best two cards and in a rare feat on this blog I will also show the front and back of both cards:

These are both customs and I had seem both before on Gavin's blog and lusted over them a bit.  I don't think I ever reached out to show an interest but boy was I happy when these popped out of the middle of a stack of cards in this package.  My Vida Blue collection is fairly extensive with most of my needs oddball regional cards or low print run recent releases.  I set a modest goal to add 3 Vida cards to my collection this year and I am off to a good start here.  The MadBum Puig confrontation was hilarious - Bumgarner yelling at Puig to not look at him is very typical of his character and the 1990 Fleer custom captures it perfectly.

I got a nice little stack of Topps Pro Debut cards.  Even though I bought a couple boxes of this stuff back during the first couple years it came out, I haven't gone to the trouble of making a want list of the Giants players in set.  I was happy to see all these in this package and add them to my collection.

Here are some more prospect cards, none of these ever hit it really big but all were needed for the Giants binder.  I have a big box of Giants logo cards, stickers and holograms that I keep saying I will put into a binder some day, these 2 logo cards go into that stack to patiently wait.

I don't have a want list or actively go after 49er cards but when I get them I keep them, they are my favorite team.  I am hoping for a bounce back season with Garapallo at QB for the entire year.  Kendall Hunter showed some promise as a rookie but never really panned out.  Navarro Bowman is one of my favorite recent Niners, he was a beast!  I was sad to see him go in their youth movement but will always remember his great career.  This CC card was off my 2013 Pinnacle want list.  I bought a couple boxes on Black Friday a couple years back and decided to go after all the insert sets.  I will most likely never get there but if you happen to have some inserts from the set laying around, check my want list.  By the way CC co hosts a podcast named R2C2 - I really enjoy it and it has made CC one of my favorites.  You should check it out, some great, funny conversations, good insight into baseball and some pop culture talk.

There were some great Giants HOF and legend cards in this pack.  My collection has a serious gap in those Topps Retired cards, so cool to add 4 in on package. I have a strong liking of cards featuring the HOF plaques and this Mathewson one is a great add.  The Mel Ott is a reprint but since I will never own the real one it is a great alternative.

Gavin also included a couple of relics produced about 15 years apart.  I remember the excitement when Shinjo was added to the Giants, he didn't produce like we hoped but was a solid player.  I really enjoy the nice big orange swatch on the Beede card - orange rules!

As you can see, this package included a ton of great cards.  The Ishikawa card is numbered to only 25!  It is such a great looking card.  The reserve negative cards are pretty cool looking and I didn't have any from last year's Topps release.  The Arroyo Heritage card is the action SP - he was in just about every card release last year and now he is gone.  I am curious to see how he does in Tampa.  He always passed the eye test to me, he looks like a ballplayer on the field, but his stats just didn't match how good he looked. 

I decided to end this post with my favorite, non-custom card of the package.  This awesome Roger Craig autograph card.  I have a pretty extensive checklist, although my want lists don't include autos and relics, my checklist I keep does.  One of my favorite things to uncover in trade packages are cards that don't appear on my checklist as I never would hunt them down as I wouldn't know they exist.  This Roger Craig fits that, he wasn't on my checklist.  My checklist is primarily built off the Beckett.com pricing database and once I got this I went to Beckett to see how this was missed.  For whatever reason (probably because much of his playing career was with them) Craig's card was listed as a Dodger so he didn't show on Giants search.  I am very happy that this card arrived and that Mr. Humm Baby rightfully resides on my checklist.

Gavin, thank you so much.  This was an amazing return package of cards.

COMC Adds to my Player Collections with a Special Nod to Dwight Clark

My final post from a COMC order back in April focuses in on my player collections.  I have found my attention drifting more towards my player collections over the last few months probably driven by the terrible season the Giants are having.  I am still trying to pick up all the Giants base cards along with a few parallels and relics but not as aggressively as the past few years.

First up is a new McCovey, always great to add some parallels from the 2014 Panini HOF set.  I have cracked a few boxes (I love the 2 HOFer autos/box) and really like almost all the cards from the set. This Crusade card brings my want list for this parallel set down to one die cut card /5 for my McCovey collection.

It has been tough to find many new Vida Blue cards to add to my collection, most of what I need is pretty rare.  I was able to pick up this nice pennant and a couple of minis from Panini Golden Age.  The pennant card is actually fuzzy like felt, pretty cool oddball.

While my want list for Rickey Henderson is much longer than my Vida want list, finding affordable cards from his playing days that I need is sometimes a challenge.  With a couple of offers and some deep searching, I was able to add these 5 to my collection.

My most prominent football player collection is of fellow USC alumnus and HOF CB/S Ronnie Lott.  My Lott collection may have benefited the most from my COMC orders over the past couple of years and this order brought 3 more home.

I believe my sheer card count, Chris Webber is my biggest basketball player collection although I have collected Charles Barkley and Patrick Ewing much longer.  I collect cards from throughout his career but always prefer cards from his Sacramento Kings days.  I was able to pick up 2 relic cards at very reasonable prices.

One of my player collections that doesn't get much attention is that of 49ers great Dwight Clark.  Although he only played 9 seasons, he is one of the most beloved players in Niners history.  He was a part of one of the most memorable plays in NFL history and "The Catch" launched the 49ers dynasty of the 80s and early 90s.  To this day I can remember exactly where I was and who I was with when "The Catch" happened even though I was only 10 years old.

Prior to asking for this purchase to be shipped I decided to do a quick search to see if any new Dwight Clark cards were on COMC.  To my surprise, Clark had been featured on a few recent releases, none of which were represented in my collection.  I went on a bit of a shopping spree as you will see below and grew my collection quite a bit.

I don't know if you all heard the news but about 2-3 days after placing my order, the announcement came out that Clark is suffering from ALS.  For some reason the timing struck me as odd, just days after getting so excited about adding a bunch of his cards to my collection, I grew quite sad with the news.

That finished off my April order, I can't believe how far behind I am in sharing my spoils but I think I have 2 more COMC orders scanned since this one.  Not sure if or when I will share those spoils but despite diminished time to focus on my collection and blog, I am still having a blast with this hobby.

Another Meet Up with Mr Haverkamp

One of the better friendships I have developed through the development of this blog has been with fellow Giants fan, Mr Haverkamp aka Jim.  We have sent a few packages back and forth between Nor Cal and So Cal and even met up a few times.  Lucky for me Jim has some friends down here from his time living in So Cal and comes down every so often for a visit.  A couple weeks back our schedules aligned and we met for lunch near the two LCSs I frequent.

One of the coolest things I received during our meet up was this awesomely packaged 12-pack of San Francisco's favorite beer (and one of mine too) - Anchor Steam.

Jim was shopping a little while back and saw these special 12-packs celebrating the Giants 3rd World Series in 5 years.  He picked one up for himself and shot me a pic and a note asking if I was interested.  Heck yes!  It pays having friends in the location of your favorite team.

Here is the top of the 12-pack, nice usage of the Orange and Black color scheme, it looks great either way.

I have always said that one of the best things about going to Spring Training in Scottsdale is sitting in the stands drinking an ice cold Anchor Steam in the hot sun straight out of the bottle.  It does make for a Perfect Game experience.

Finally, anything that partners up the logos from all 3 of the World Championship teams is a winner in my book. It looks like this is designed to be cut out and brought to a game.  My 12-pack is going to remain in tact in my card room.  It may be crazy to leave such great beer untapped but I don't want to risk damaging the packaging and I can always pick up some in So Cal without the great packaging.

This meet up wasn't all about beer however, there were of course cards involved.  I have been on a several year quest to finish my 1970 Topps set and after finishing paying for a big lay away purchase at my old LCS in Orange County I am in striking distance.  Jim brought a few cards off my want list and we negotiated a fair price and I got some serious help.

I believe this group of cards features 3-4 of the high numbers.  High numbers for this set go for a premium so it was great to get some from Jim.  I love the Bud Harrelson card of him signing autos, I wonder if the dude whose arm is featured ever figured out he was on a card.

Now we get into some of the high end cards, nothing like a pair of Hammer Hank Aaron cards.  I had been following both these cards on eBay and hadn't pulled the trigger which I am now thankful for.  These cards are both in nice shape and huge additions towards my set completion.

 Next up is a card featuring a great photo of one of my player collection focuses, Reggie Jackson.  I like his cards from his first stint with the A's as they combine his youthful appearance with those Amazing A's uniforms.  This card does not disappoint.  I have a copy in my player collection and a couple reprints but I was very happy to knock it off the set want list.

 The final 1970 Topps card in the exchange was this rookie card of Yankee great Thurman Munson. This card is in great shape and is one that is very hard to track down in any reasonable condition.  I was super happy that Jim was willing to part with this card to help me out.

Jim also tossed in a couple of extras:

This is a full Ho Hos box featuring one of my favorite players, Vida Blue.   While I had a cut out single in my player collection, I certainly didn't have this awesome piece.  It may not be the easiest to store but I actually have a large plastic container for items like this.

The final card was this iconic image of fully afroed Oscar Gamble.  I needed this for the set of 1974 cards I am working on.  For the record, here is the remainder of my want list:

1976 Topps Traded #80T Jim Kaat
1976 Topps Traded #250 Fergie Jenkins
1976 Topps Traded #592 Willie Randolph
1976 Topps Traded NNO Checklist 

I am closing in on the 1970 Topps set, after this exchange with Jim, here is my remaining want list:

1970 Topps #580 Pete Rose
1970 Topps #600 Willie Mays
1970 Topps #640 Al Kaline
1970 Topps #650 Sam McDowell
1970 Topps #660 Johnny Bench
1970 Topps #712 Nolan Ryan

Some pretty big names there but I have actually knocked 3 of the 6 off the list since I met up with Jim and I will be sharing them as soon as I get them all in hand.

Thanks for meeting up Jim and thanks for the help on my collections.  I have a few cards as a show of thanks on my way to you.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that the Giants can overtake the hated Dodgers and make it 4 out of 6!