Blog, Batta, Blog!

Thanks to a quick-shipping Rob Lifson.

Just got this team cabinet, of a team from Medford, New Jersey.

The photo quality is so crisp and unblemished, the corners are so sharp, and the overall image quality is so strong, I'm inclined to think this is a modern print, spray mounted on a vintage mount. Knowing nothing about photos, I have no idea what to look for.

What do you guys think?

Yep, here's more evidence of the Foundation of Great Collections and their astounding ability to read the names on the cards in front of them. Guess the QC guy was sick they day they slabbed this card - thankfully I was able to tell the difference between Hugh Jennings and Walter Johnson, and thus make the right decision when hitting the BIN on this card.

Frequent competency issues coupled with a fundamental lack of understanding of your own customer base does not make for a promising business outlook.

Gold Medal Foods cards don't really qualify under any of the sets I'm currently collecting, but since I have a small fascination for the 1934 Tigers and Cardinals, since this is a small set, and since I always wanted to collect this set anyway, I allowed myself the luxury over the holiday of placing a bid on a lot that was listed incorrectly, in the wrong category.

I won the lot - thanks to my friend Dan's snipe program failing to fire - for a ridiculously low price. When the cards arrived, I was extremely pleased with the quality (and with the original envelope they came in - which I subsequently seem to have lost).

Sent 'em in to SGC, and they all graded very high. Only two cards from this set have ever graded as high as SGC 92, and this rogell is one of them.


Here are the others, equally pleasing:

Here's the Henry Johnson Confectioners Ruth, a card I never thought I'd ever get to meet in person.



This one has me thrilled to own it. So thrilled, in fact, that I was able to overlook the lateness with which I received these three Mayo Hall of Famers - quick additions to the Nifty Fifty, as they were once owned by Casey Stengel.

For those of you who don't know, I am the proud owner of about 500 pieces of correspondence that various people had with Casey Stengel over the course of his lifetime, from the early 1900s right through to his death in 1975. The correspondence includes fan letters, letters from family, telegrams, and communications with various celebrities. I keep them organized chronologically, in a 5" binder, and reading the binder cover-to-cover is the best Casey Stengel biography you'll ever find (with apologies to "Forging Genius").

As a result of owning that correspondence, I'm proud to own these three cards:





These pickups also nearly double the size of my 19th Century collection, which now numbers eight cards.

I did mention in an earlier post that my friend Tom has a collection of cards of the Yankees who have had their numbers retired.

I always thought that was a cool idea, and as a guy who's collection began with Yankees stuff and slowly moved in a different direction, I thought it would be a cool and worthwhile addition that wouldn't take up too much time or become too expensive.

The Yankees have retired the following players' numbers, in order: Billy Martin (1), Babe Ruth (3), Lou Gehrig (4), Joe D (5), Mickey Mantle (7), Yogi (8), Bill Dickey (also 8), Roger Maris (9), Phil Rizzuto (10), Thurman Munson (15), Whitey Ford (16), Don Mattingly (23), Elston Howard (32), Casey Stengel (37), Jackie Robinson (42), Reggie Jackson (44), and Ron Guidry (49).

Before long, I would anticipate adding Derek Jeter (2), Joe Torre (6), Paul O'Neill (21), Mariano Rivera (42), and Bernie Williams (51).

Acquiring just one really nice card of each of those players would make up a really nice little collection.

And adding in a collection of Dodgers' retired numbers, which I intend to do sooner or later, would make it nicer. The Dodgers have retired the following numbers: Pee Wee Reese (1), Tommy Lasorda (2), Duke Snider (4), Jim Gilliam (19), Don Sutton (20), Walt Alston (24), Sandy Koufax (32), Roy Campanella (39), Jackie (42), and Don Drysdale (53).

Anyway, I went shopping almost as soon as I decided to do it, and bought two cards: a PSA 9 Mattingly Rookie (Donruss), and an SGC 92 1967 Topps Elston Howard.

Once I started talking about it with friends, I received a care package from my friend Frank, who has the coolest collection and is a super-nice guy. Inside I found this:



Kind of a cool gift, perhaps to ease the guilt of slaughtering my team in Simnasium baseball on a regular basis.

Anyway, that's one of the two new offshoots that I added to my collection. The other, I'll blog about soon, after I accumulate a few more cards.

Hope you had a nice T-Day.

Got some great stuff on the way. Life is good, and the Thanksgiving holiday was very nice to me, as far as cards are concerned.

Got some more '38 Goudeys for sale this week, along with an N172 Tim Keefe that I upgraded.

Picked up a few cards amidst the drama this week.

I decided to start a New York Yankees Retired Numbers set this week, in honor of my friend Tom, who does the same thing. Started off by buying a nice shiny 1984 Donruss Mattingly in a PSA 9 holder that looked like it would cross to SGC, and a 1967 Topps Elston Howard in an SGC 92. If the Mattingly doesn't cross, I'll find another one.

Then I decided to start a Lena Blackburne player collection. Lena was a weak-hitting nobody who discovered Lena Blackburne's Baseball Rubbing Mud, the stuff they rub on baseballs prior to every major league game, as well as most minor league ones. Harvested from a hole on the Jersey side of the Delaware River, the Rubbing Mud is really cool - looks like chocolate mousse. I started with a Topps T205 Buyback of Lena, and will try and pick up each T-card back combination as well as the few other cards of Blackburne that are out there.

Also upgraded my N172 Keefe - hope to have the new one before Thanksgiving.

Sold off 13 of my 15 PSA Goudeys and got very strong prices on most of 'em. Sold off all my W502s (the reason this blog started in the first place, heh) but a few. Still to come - two more Goudeys and my old N172 Keefe.

Happy Thanksgiving, if I don't talk to you.

These are 2007 Upper Deck Goudeys.

Never have I so enthusiastically collected something modern; at least not since the 1953 Topps Archives set ten years ago or whatever it was.

These cards are a pretty wild cross between '33 Goudeys and Diamond Stars; the "base" set consists of 200 cards (I think) with either red or green backs. You can build a complete set of each. Then, there are a bunch of high number "short prints", and a run of cards that look just like 1938 Goudeys.

The cards are the size of regular Goudeys, and they're printed on regular cardboard. There are flaws in the stock, and centering problems, and dings on the corners, and all sorts of other manufacturing imperfections, just like the good old days.

The cards themselves are mostly current players, but up in the high numbers there are guys like Reggie Jackson and Bill Mazeroski.

Buy a box for $100 or so, and you can play the modern card lottery with lots of autographed cards, game-used memorabilia cards, and even repackaged cards from the REAL 1933 Goudey set (or you could just shell out $10 and buy a real 1933 Goudey common in roughly the same condition as the repackaged ones). I got a David Ortiz jersey card; I'm trying to think of the best way to destroy that.

Anyway, pick up a box of these babies; I don't think you'll be disappointed if you're a vintage collector.

Well I made the first addition to the 50 Card collection today.

I picked up a nice T222 Hughie Jennings in SGC 40 from Just Collect. Per the "rules" of this part of my collection, that means I needed to designate another card for assignment, with the purpose of giving it it's unconditional release.

Therefore, let's say goodbye to Monte Irvin, and one of the nicest 1954 NY Journal American Irvin cards graded.

Bye, Monte:



I picked this card up at a Fort show, raw. Sent it in to SGC for grading and was pleasantly surprised by the result.

On another note, I'd like to draw your attention to the new website for Robert Edward Auctions. My company designed it, and I think it's kinda cool. We're proud of this one.

Oh, and I'm still tired of hearing about card doctoring. And I'm also tired of people who lie about the importance and value of their cards when they think nobody will know better.

I've gone off the deep end.



I'm not entirely sure why I did this, how I'm going to pay for it, or what I'm going to do when it arrives. But it's been on my want list for a long time (so has a house down the Jersey Shore, but I'm not going to go out and buy that tomorrow), and I had the opportunity to get one A) in a grade I could afford, B) that looked fantastic, C) in the right holder, D) at the right price. Or at least something remotely resembling the right price.

Bought a few other items as well, including a cabinet card of Jake Beckley from the Halper collection, a lot that contained an M116 Rube Waddell, and a couple cheap items from Mastro.

I am, indeed, working on re-tooling the website thingy. I've just gotten a bit preoccupied with life, and thus have not had time to devote to it.

But I do own a '52 Mantle.

Picked up my first red Cobb this week, thanks to James from 54. Also got a Delong Chuck Klein in the same deal - my first Delong. On the flipside, I'm mourning the departure of my very nice T213 Sam Crawford, as I had to dangle Sam out there to get the Cobb.

Everything's a give and take. Red Cobbs are easy to come by, but this is a nice one and I was able to help James with a T213-2 set he's working on. Those are two good things. I'll find another T213-2 HOFer at some point; they're not that tough.

I also got a fairly large (for me) submission back from SGC this week. A 38-card submission of tobacco cards as part of their January tobacco special - my T205 set has suddenly grown quite a bit, and my T206 Cy Young is now in the right holder. Next week I'll get back the balance of the submission, which consists mostly of PSA stuff I'm crossing over to SGC. If the stuff crosses, that is. There's also a few W502s in the submission that I'll be able to add to my set.

I also shipped a submission off to PSA last week - two cards, both '38 Goudeys, both resubmissions. I'll let you know, of course.

Picked up some new, oversized cards at SGC today.

The T3 is one of two in my collection (the other is a beat up Waddell). The R303 is one of many that I own, but is one of my favorite cards - I love the photo. The Newsboy Ward is now forever protected from further damage.

But it's the R311 Cochrane that captivated me. I have a number of R311s, and I've always liked them, but in a slab, this is one dynamite card. I'll likely try and complete the set in graded form now that I see what they look like in the black holder. Stunning, IMO.

I forgot to give props to David Vargha for pointing this card out to me on eBay a few months ago. It's more of a picture than a card, I guess, but it's from 1948 and is a Cleveland Indians team issue. Does the picture look familiar?

I found a whole bunch of E121 (or W575-1) Henry Johnson Confectioners cards over the last week or two. I snagged a Cobb for a bargain price at the SCP auction last year, and thought it would be cool to start collecting these. I know there are people who are E121 fanatics out there; I'm not really one of them. But the Henry Johnsons are, in my opinion, pretty cool. So I've been keeping a lookout for these, and have managed to latch onto a dozen or so, including a bunch I just picked up from a very nice seller's website.

The Wally Schang is easily the nicest HJ I've ever seen; the image is crisp and the card is in pretty good shape. I also got a Johnny Evers, my second HOFer. A few of the others I picked up have star-shaped hole punches in them; I think these are cancellations of some kind and so does the one person I've met who I would consider an "expert" in these cards.



I'm always looking for these, so if you have any, feel free to get in touch. I'll even buy a fake one from you, if you have one.

One thing that makes me crazy is when people try and oversell the scarcity of these, though. They're scarce, yes. Are they worth the $350 one guy had a common SGC 40 selling for at the Reading show? Hell, no. I bought my Cobb - a PSA 4 (MK) - for $400. I know I got a bargain price, but not THAT much of a bargain. Of all the others I own I've never paid more than $30 for a common.

That being said, if you've got any, I'd love to buy them from you.

It's been quiet lately, as I'm still reeling from the expense of the two DiMaggios I picked up in the recent auctions. Of course Mastro has a few high-grade '38s in their upcoming auction that I might take a crack at, but I'm waiting a while for some potential news that I may disclose later this week, for the masses of people who read this blog.

Meanwhile, I've still managed to pick up a few new cards. A few more midgrade W502s (and a Net54 post) have gotten me to a total of 17 cards in that set, but no closer to solving the mystery of the backs. Thanks to some of the people on Net54, I've started a database of W502 backs, but it's not an easy proposition to catalog.

I also picked up 7 new Henry Johnson backs this week, doubling the size of my collection of those. A few of them have star-shaped hole punches, as is the case with one of the others I currently own. I think the star punch represents a redemption of some kind, but there's absolutely no way to know this for sure. One of the new Henry Johnsons I picked up is an Eddie Collins, so he'll join Ty Cobb as one of two HOFers in my Johnson Confectioners collection.

Lastly I picked up a few R311s to add to my collection, all off grade. I just think they're cool, and usually pretty cheap.

A few comments on the maelstrom/witch hunt going on at Net54 right now:

I generally think that alterations in the baseball card hobby are rampant, and anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themself. There's way too much money involved in this hobby, and anytime money is part of the equation, there's the temptation to be dishonest.

Anybody who's been a part of this hobby for any length of time knows how difficult it was to find a truly high-grade vintage card in, say, the 1980s. And they're everywhere today. Granted, some of these cards have shaken out due to the increased availability that the internet has brought us - I once heard someone postulate that building a '33 Goudey set in 1985 may have taken a lifetime, but building one today might take a month - but a good portion of these cards have been altered in some way.

The thing is, I'm not talking about super-talented chemists sitting in a high-tech lab turning VG Wagners into NMT specimens. I'm talking about modest guys, cleaning cards, stretching/trimming corners, taking out wrinkles, lightening creases, removing stains. It's easier to do than you'd think. Plus, for the investment of a few thousand dollars in a vending box of mid-60s Topps, why WOULDN'T an unscrupulous seller give it a shot? Turn a few 7s into 9s with an X-Acto and a few other common items, submit them for grades, and hope for the best? The downside risk is minor. The upside potential is huge.

This basement restoration really only needs to yield one success in every 8 or 10 cards to have been worth it. And that's just mid-60s commons. What happens when you buy a lot of T206s glued to scrapbook paper - as was sold in the last Heritage auction - soak them off, and try and stretch/trim a few? What would a NM-MT HOFer bring, versus the cost?

The only thing that surprises me about the whole episode is the disclosure on the part of the major auction house. That, of course, is where the maelstrom started. Until this weekend, it's all been speculation. Now we know.

The question is, does it change your collecting habits? In my case, not really. I want a grading company that can protect me from DETECTABLE alterations, particularly on what little high-grade stuff I buy. I don't really buy a lot of high-grade stuff, though. Look at the HOF set items on my website. That stuff makes up the bulk of my collection, and it's not until you get to the commonly available 1960s and 70s material that the high grades start. Sure, there are some high-grade older cards, but almost all of them were purchased raw and self-submitted. I'm just far more interested in scarcity than I am in picking up common HOFer cards in high grade.

That's just me, though. I'd be interested in hearing from you.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Joe DiMaggio.

Joltin' Joe came to me for an unprecedented price that my wife would shoot me over, an absolutely stunning SGC 70 with stellar centering, dynamite corners, and unbelievable print registration that may be the best I've seen in a '38. Most definitely undergraded, despite the lightest of invisible wrinkles in the upper-right corner. The card is a 7.

But it does look great in that holder, eh?

I'm all comfoosed about what to do now. I've got 47 cards in one holder and one card in the other, and the guys that make the holder the 47 cards are in are on my shit list. Would it be ballsy to cross my whole set, now just a fraction away from #4 on the ATF list?

Oh yeah, these came too:



A veritable bumper crop of W502s; I've picked up something like 8 of these this week, and discovered a cornucopia of new back variations. To the point where I started a thread about it on Net54; almost as many people comment on this blog as have responded to the thread, though, so I'm not quite sure I'm going to dredge up the type of information I'm hoping to find.

I'm up to something like 18 cards now.

Yep, I have officially lost my mind.

I mentioned in my last entry that I snagged a PSA 6 DiMaggio for my '38 Goudey set. It came in the mail this week, it is a sweet-looking card for sure.



I have purchased entirely too many 38 Goudey DiMaggios in my life; this is the 5th one I've owned, and I just bought another one tonight, and I am clearly losing my mind. However, I'm done now, as I can't see myself springing to bring either card up to a 7.

Watch this site, there will be PSA 5 DiMaggios aplenty, and they'll both be for sale.

Oh yeah - snagged a bunch of W502s over the last week, too - five in total. More on that stuff after I catch my breath.

Ayuh.



Boy, these look tiny. This program is acting all kindsa funky since I reinstalled it.

Anyway, these are the three new W502s I was telling you about. Whoever "you" happen to be.

I'm learning something about the backs of these cards, because at this point I have four different ones among the eight cards I have from the set. And I haven't picked up a Home Run back yet because Wealthy Collector Who Shall Remain Nameless smoked me on a Cobb last month.

Anyway, the four backs I own:

1) "ONE BAGGER - Hold What You Got" - printed vertically on the card, facing to the right.
2) "ONE BAGGER - Hold What You Got" - printed vertically on the card, facing to the left.
3) "ONE BAGGER" - printed vertically on the card, facing to the left
4) Blank back.

I'm pretty sure that there's no resource on these cards, and everyone I ask about them says "Umm, they're scarce. And a lot of them have glue on the backs."

So I don't know how they were printed, who released them, what the purpose of the game on the back was, why they were printed in two different directions. For all I know, they were issued by multiple companies like their cousins of the same year (Yuengling/Tharp's/Harrington/Sweetman).

I'm up for a good mystery, though.

-Al

Boy, what a week.

Wednesday I won two more W502 cards in the Goodwin auction. A very nice Stanley Harris and Ray Schalk, bringing my grand total to 8/60. I was actually very pleased with this, since the cards came to me for less than $180.

Thursday I went bananas in the Huggins and Scott auction. It was T205s this time, and I dropped some cash on a lot of 33 low to mid-grade raw cards, and some more cash on a lot of 11 SGC-graded midgrade cards (mostly 50s and 60s), including a Christy Mathewson with a Sovereign back.

I really wanted to add one of the four big cards in the set (Cobb, Young, Johnson, and Matty) before the end of the year. The Matty is probably the smallest-dollar card, but picking up a nice SGC 50 with a tougher back was a pretty cool thing.

I'm now about 40% complete, which is something I never thought I'd ever say.

Weird week this week for '38 Goudeys.

A few weeks ago I made a major trade with a friend, where I acquired eight upgrades for my set. Initially, one of the upgrades was for card #276, Zeke Bonura. My friend had a PSA 6, I had a PSA 5. We included it in the trade, but when he saw my PSA 5 he was really unhappy with it, so we swapped those two cards back. I was bummed, because I didn't think I'd ever see that card in a grade higher than PSA 5.

Of course just a week or so later a PSA 6 was listed on eBay; I won that auction and ultimately upgraded the card.

Then came the card that's currently my personal holy grail; the #258 Bobby Doerr in PSA 7. This is a tough, tough card, and suddenly one was listed on eBay. SMR (which is an utter joke) is $385 for the card, I figured $650 would win it. Initially I set a snipe bid for $680, just to be safe. Then I started thinking of how disappointed I would be if I lost the card for $690, so I upped my snipe to $725. Then I started thinking how few and far between this card is made available in this grade, so I upped my snipe to a whopping $865, thinking I should win the card with $200 or so to spare.

Of course I lost it, to the only other 38 Goudey guy I know of who needs the card. He paid $875.

So I'm still stuck with my PSA 5.

Well, so far I'm 2-for-4 on the W502s that have been offered over the last week or so. Here's the cream of the crop, an SGC 80 Artie Nehf, the second-highest-graded Nehf on the planet (there's an SGC 86 out there somewhere). I have an off-grade Meusel coming, and I missed a Cobb and a common, but I'm not done yet, either.

Snagged a bunch more T205s this week, which was nice, including a Zach Wheat - my favorite T205 card, in SGC 60.

I also got some oversized grades back from SGC this week, although it will be a while before I actually get the cards. I sent them some R303s that I needed scans of for an article I'm writing for SGC Collector magazine, and many of those came back 70s and 80s, which was great. I also snuck in my T3 Nap Lajoie (SGC 50, which I kinda expected, but it's a NICE 50), and my Newsboy John Ward (SGC 10, which was also what I expected). Can't wait to see those oversized bad boys in the new holder.

Kevin Saucier sent me this cool Sportflics Bruce Sutter card for my HOF set - apparently it's some sort of test issue, and tough to find. I know nothing from Sportflics. But he sent it as a donation to the collection. Kevin is a cool guy.

No sooner do I make my "final" blog entry, officially declaring an "I give up" on the W502s, then they start falling out of the sky.

First, I win a nice one on Ebay. Then, I find another decent one on the B/S/T forum on Net54. Then I lose a nice Ty Cobb on Ebay. Now there are two more on Ebay and two more at one of the larger auctions. I'm primed and ready.

Picked up five T205 commons tonight, plus a T205 Jennings. Over the weekend I got my favorite card from the T205 set as well - Zach Wheat. For the Wheat, I splurged and got a higher-grade card than I've been normally getting for this set - this one is an SGC 60.

At some point over the weekend I realized that the two sets I'm currently building are the 205s and the 502s.

Scans to follow.

A few posts ago, I included a scan of the PSA 5 Tris Speaker I latched on to in one of the smaller auctions earlier this year.

As promised, I crossed it to SGC. Here it is.


In case you can't see it because the scan is too small, it graded out as an SGC 50. That's right, a 4.

Evidently the back is covered in glue. You really can see it, I don't know why I didn't notice it in the PSA holder. I'm surprised the glue hasn't been removed, considering where I bought it, but I'm not about to remove it myself. I already have a ridiculous offer for the card - and I know why. Removing the glue turns this card into a much higher-graded example.

I did manage to pick up a nice Tris Speaker this week, a PSA 5. It's not the highest-graded copy available, as there's an SGC 84 floating around somewhere, but when you search for three months and find one card, it's awfully difficult to be picky.

Here he is - pretty nice for a 5. It will go off to SGC with my next submission.