Blog, Batta, Blog!

A couple of days ago I posted a lengthy rant about a grading company. It was, umm, inspired by a ridiculous post on Net54.

After I posted it, I left it up for a few days. It got no comments, but I kept thinking about it anyway. See, in my professional life, I do some work for a grading company as well - a competitor of the company I was ranting about.

After giving it some thought, I decided to remove the original blog entry. Some people might question whether I can effectively separate my professional life from my hobby (I can), or whether I can post an objective statement on a grading company without letting my professional objectives seep in (I can), or whether I can even be honest on the subject (I can and always am).

Rather than have people question me, as has happened in the past, I've decided to remove the entry altogether and replace it with one sentence:

I don't think that Global is a good grading company, by any ridiculous stretch of the imagination.

Okay, so I'm fascinated by this nutty hobby.

In that you can have a complete change in interests - COMPLETE change. And go out and re-purpose your entire collection.

Thats what I'm in the middle of doing right now.

Over the last year, a minor housecleaning has turned into a virtual purge, as I've wiped out entire sets in favor of HOFers, and later wiped out an entire collection of tough postwar HOFers in favor of prewar.

And now, in midstream, I had a complete epiphany. All because of a message board post.

See, someone asked "If you were going to build a player set, who would it be?" And that really got me thinking - I'm a fan of a LOT of players - but I'm not really a player collector. And after some thought, I decided: Goose Goslin. Why? Because Goose Goslin is a Hall of Famer from my favorite period in baseball history, and he happens to hail from New Jersey.

Never mind that Joe Medwick is, too - I like Goslin better.

Anyway, that got me thinking. There's a lot of baseball history here in New Jersey. After all - the first organized game was played right here in Hoboken. Yogi Berra's here. So's Phil Rizzuto. Larry Doby lived in Jersey, and Don Newcombe was born here. Hal Chase and Kid Elberfeld lived in Mahwah when they played for the Yankees. The Cuban Giants were initially based in Trenton, Rube Waddell spent time in Camden, and one of the greatest minor league teams of all-time - the Newark Bears - were here. So were, of course, the Newark Eagles of the Negro Leagues. Jimmy Collins played in Jersey City. Derek Jeter was born here.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Anyway, in digging around, I found that there's really no comprehensive resource for New Jersey pro baseball. No museum that I'm aware of, no major collection of historical artifacts, nothing.

So I'm giving serious thought to re-purposing once again. I'm a big fan of New Jersey - I love it here - and I know that the state has produced a large amount of baseball history, particularly in the Negro leagues. So I finally joined SABR, and plan on doing some research, and beginning to seek out Jersey-specific memorabilia and cards.

Doing this will enable me to add memorabilia to what I collect (which is now mostly just cards), while doing the kind of detective work that I've become interested in while chasing down W502s and Henry Johnsons.

I'll definitely still work on the HOF collection, and I'll probably stick with the 502s, T205s, and Johnsons. But this seems like an exciting journey to me, with lots of twists and turns. And best of all, unlike the Henry Johnson Confectioners company in Almeda, California or the Goudey Gum Company of Boston that no longer exists, the places where NJ baseball history was made are places I can VISIT. Which is cool.

So on that note, I give you Leon "Goose" Goslin, New Jersey native and Hall of Famer.

Took the family to Disney World last week, hence the lack of blog posts.

I did, however, want to plug a couple of lots I have in the upcoming REA auction. Both are great lots, and both are thus far taking a beating - great bargains to be had. PLEASE bid!

11 Days left and you can get a reasonably high-grade 1953 Topps set for a song.

And a High-grade 1961 Topps near set as well.

Normally I wouldn't do this, but I was kinda hoping that the above two lots would fetch a strong enough price to keep my card budget healthy for the auction season. I hope that my stuff isn't getting lost amidst the monstrous amount of mind-blowing material in the REA and Mastro auctions.

The '53 Topps set, which includes more than 170 graded cards, can currently be had for slightly more than the value of the Mantle and Mays alone.

Thanks for your bid!

Yessiree, there are some stunning items for sale in the upcoming two auctions.

Mastro's got the Lionel Carter collection, a bunch of greaty HOF rookie cards, and some stunning Carl Horner photos.

REA has the Barry Halper collection, a slew of amazing prewar cards, the Olympic Constitution, and almost too many rarities to list.

Did you budget your money wisely?

I hope so - I have some stuff consigned in the REA auction.

Anyway, to coincide with the upcoming auction season, this website is about to get a complete overhaul. First off, I did NOT budget my money wisely, so I have sold many, many, MANY of my postwar HOFers in the last two or three weeks. Much of what you see on this website no longer exists in my collection.

Second of all, I've still been adding to it. Primarily T206 HOFers lately, as I believe I've picked up 10 or 12 of them in the last month or so, mostly with tougher backs.

Third of all, the design is getting a tiny bit tired, as far as I'm concerned, so I'm thinking of making some design modifications.

And lastly, I want to create more galleries to display my R311s, R303s, and my 1990 Donruss.

Just kidding about that last part.