Throwback Thursday

 Nothing fancy, just a post of some "recent" vintage (pre 1980) pickups!

I found a seller on eBay that had some very sharp vintage. More than I would pay for cards at a show, but still I thought a fair price for cards that aged very well. Jerry Kindall is from my hometown of Minneapolis, MN!

I bought Bob Elliott, Frank Linzy, and Angel Scull as upgrades to cards I already had. Davey Johnson is a '67 Venezuelan release- hence the odd/missing border. I found that card looking for more 1964 Topps VZ for that Quixotic set build. 

Showing a little love for the other pastimes, including my first vintage Parkhurst card! 

Here's a look at the back of the "Parkie." ooh la la!

A few more cards that are just barely off the beaten path- an OPC of Andre Dawson, 1977 Cloth Sticker of Mike Schmidt with the Liberty Bell Bicentennial arm patch, a 1960 Leaf Junior Jim Gilliam, and a non-sport tobacco card that struck my fancy:

This is a 1910 "T30" Hassan Tobacco card. This is from a set of 25 cards with Arctic scenes. Just thought it was pretty! " F.N.A.G.S. " was pretty odd, I tried to figure out what it stands for, and I got as far as "AGS" being "American Geographical Society". Albert Operti is the painter that the card's image is based on- he was born in Italy but  grew up in England, then came to the United States and joined Robert Peary on an exploration of Greenland and the Artic in 1896 and 1897. 

Before we get too much farther, here's the backs of those foreign language cards from VZ and Canada!

One more oddball for the road, a 1977 Sertoma Stars Tony Oliva

And the back . . . When Tony came to the U.S., he used his younger brother Pedro's passport. That way he was 18 instead of 21 in the eyes of scouts. 

These all came to me in the mail over the course of the pandemic, generally I'd fall down one rabbit hole or another to find these cards, I don't think a single one of the cards in the post was the card I was looking for when I started. 

Where do you turn for cardboard inspiration? Have you been exclusively buying online this past year, or have you been to a Card Show / Shop / retail location?

Thanks for reading!

Face to Face

I've been buying some cards regularly (about once a month or so) from a seller on Facebook, and it's been working out pretty well for me. I was skeptical at first, but now I've purchased cards from this same seller 5 or 6 times now and the cards have always arrived, and the prices are competitive with what I find for Twins at my local card shops and card shows. I can probably get better deals if I hustled for these same cards on eBay, but to be honest, I'm paying as much for the leg work as anything else.

This seller will contact me and send a bunch of photos. I pick out the cards that I like, we negotiate a fair price, and that's all. By finding a short stack of Twins for me, I generally can get a good deal by buying several at once. No drama if a card is not for me, I just politely decline and we move on.

This Pinto card was tossed in as an extra this time around, even though he was up front about when he was shipping, he still felt that it took longer than usual to get the cards to me.

I also asked about Ichiro and Beltre cards, as I was looking to add a few more to my collection.

A game used base!

I think it is right to be a little wary of these. Playoff went so far as to show a photo of the actual base, as well as a blurb about the game in which the base appeared. The game was at Dodger Stadium, Ichiro went 1-4 with his 20th double of his rookie season. He was hit by a pitch as well, and scored a run. That means he spent a little time at every base in the game. The Mariners won 9-2.

Sometime You COMC What You Want To See

I have the great fortune of living in a metro area that has multiple card shops and monthly card shows. However, even with that great luck, I miss a lot of those monthly shows, and the shops are just far enough away that I only go when I make time to go.

 But the internet is always open!

Thanks also to the internet, I've finally got a list of every Puckett card I need, which meant I knew all of the above were new to me. Never been too confident about those Fleer sets, there are so many of them and they all run together - Exciting Stars, Baseball's Best Sluggers,  League Leaders - at shops and shows, I would just look at them and think... Do I have this one already?

Still burning and churning on collecting all the Fernando Romeros... He's still only in three sets, but because of parallels and variations, I've found less than 20% of his cards

Of course, we can't forget about old friend Kennys Vargas! He was passed up for promotion when Robbie Grossman broke his thumb last week. Mitch Garver instead got his MLB debut last night as he is a little more versatile and can cover a corner outfield spot. In AAA, Byung Ho Park got a start in left field - his first appearance in the outfield since he was nine years old. Vargas will need to really start hitting, or learn how to pitch!

These were all needed - I'm still looking for the die-cut versions of the Donruss preferred cards above

I could have sworn that I've purchased the Miracles patch card before, but I never found it after moving into my house... either I imagined it, or it was somehow left behind!

Last but not least, a new paralell of his first Bowman card, and one of his few official rookie cards (from 2014). I have 167 different Kennys Vargas cards, which is still only good for 38% of his total.

Still on the lookout for his 2015 Topps Series 1 Clear Parallel /10 card. There's a bounty on that card! If you see it I will shower you with cards and $$$

Midsummer COMC pickups

My summer organization project continues, I'm now up to sorting and cataloging my Kirby Puckett cards. All the time spent on this project is the same time I usually use for blogging, and I haven't been to any card shows for some time. I did add some new cards last week, ordering on COMC after trying to fill in some gaps.

After yet another great "Short Term Stops" post on Nick's Dime Boxes Blog, I picked up some cards of a few guys in less than familiar apparel.

Geez, Topps, that's cold. I'm sure Cespedes lives somewhere.

Keeping up as best I can with 2017 releases . . .

A New Kennys Vargas! And one "old" one with a buyback stamp on it! And the most overused design in Topps history gets even more love in 2017 . . . 

Last but not least, there was a very good deal on this Rosario autograph from Topps Finest. I think these look pretty good!

If At First You Don't Succeed . . .

. . . buy it online. So I dragged myself to two Walmarts this week, hoping to score some Bowman Platinum. Both places were sold out, but I had a back up plan already in place. My good friend, the Internet! I have been buying small lots of Twins from a seller on Facebook, and he let me know that he had a bunch of Bowman looking for a home.

Here's what the back of base cards look like, for those curious, nothing groundbreaking here. Similar to Finest.

Twins! Everybody wants the hits, but the base cards are all I was really looking to get.

Fernando! He's going to be called up soon to get his shot, I can feel it!

In addition to Bowman Platinum, there were some Twins-centric goods available. Max Kepler isn't a superstar, but he's speedy. He's a plus defender and has a sweet line drive swing that is still developing.

Miguel has continued to hit the ball hard after finishing second in the Home Run Derby, smashing two homers against the Yankees in the three game series at Target Field.

A Starter turned reliever, Tyler Duffey has been solid, eating up lots of needed innings for the Twins when their regular starters falter (which has been often this season).

And one more Romero for the road! This last one was found on eBay, it's serial numbered to 99 on the back.