More 1964 Topps Venezuelan Progress (and a little bonus find!)

I'm still chipping away at this tough set, I am keeping my price at or below $10 a card, and limiting the budget month to month so I don't go broke doing this. It helps that I'm not going after graded cards and there seems to not be a ton of other collectors out there vying for these particular peculiarities. 

Really the only measure right now is glued backs / major paper loss. rounded corners are just fine, as these cards traveled a long way to get here. These cards have pushed me up over 200 for the set!

I almost passed on Nelson Mathews there, as there is a helpful "CF" written on the front, but I figured I won't find the same card any cheaper in that condition any time soon. I don't know how much upgrading I'll do on this set, it will depend on how close I can get to completing the set as is. 

I think the Tris Speaker trivia art on the back of Nelson's card is my favorite of this bunch too - another reason I'm glad I decided to add it. Mathews is not related to Ed Mathews, but Nelson's son T.J. Mathews was a middle reliever for 8 seasons in the 90s / 00s for Oakland and Saint Louis. FUN FACT.

 

The same eBay seller that has the 1964 Topps cards has a whole host of other random Venezuelan items like coins and paper money... and tobacco cards! This is one of several for sale from the same set, originally printed in 1943. This was the most interesting image of the group (in my highly subjective opinion). 

Any relation to José Briceño from the Rockies? The last names follow the mother's maiden name, rather than the fathers in most cases in Latin American countries, so this is probably not his great grandfather... who knows? Regardless, it was a fun little bonus to add to the collection!

Do you collect any cards from other countries (beyond the occasional O-Pee-Chee from Canada?)?

Thanks for reading!

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!

Day Twenty Nine - 1919-1921 W514 Gavvy "Cactus" Cravath

Day 29: A Favorite Card From Before 1950

Taking the lead from Tony at Off-Hiatus Baseball Cards this will be the twenty-ninth of 30 posts, using the prompts provided. I won't necessarily post one every day, but I will do one for each card, toss in a few "insights" (as insightful as I can be, anyway), and usually include an honorable mention or two, just because I'm like that.

Here's my pick! Gavvy Cravath was the premier power hitter of the 1910s. People bring up "Home Run" Baker, but his nickname came from a single World Series homer, not from terrorizing pitchers all season long like Cactus Cravath. Cravath's first name is actually Clifford - he got the name Gavvy as a shortened version of Gaviota, a graceful Pacific Coast bird that he either resembled in the outfield, or that he killed with a hard hit ball. The "Cactus" nickname is also due to his origins in the Southwest United States. He led the league in homers 6 times in the 1910s, including an at the time unheard of 24 homers in 1915. He has a great quote about the joys of being a power hitter in an era of "Small Ball" -- he declared "I steal bases with my bat."

Since these are one card posts, why not share the backs? Maybe when there's nothing on the back, it's less interesting. The W514 set were originally sold in strips of 10 cards at a time, and features 7 of the "Eight Men Out," including Shoeless Joe Jackson. There are 120 cards total in the set, Cactus Cravath is the only one I have. He's listed as a member of the Philadelphia Quakers, which was another name for the Phillies franchise at the time. I've shared it before, but I recommend reading his SABR biography - written by Bill Swank.

Some Honorable Mentions-

It's like I'm a Gavvy Cravath supercollector! Here's his T206 card.

Gabby Street was a Catcher for the Washington Senators from 1908-1911. This is a 1911 S74 Silk "card" - his claim to fame (beyond being an accomplished defender behind the plate) was catching a ball dropped from the top of the Washington Monument on the National Mall in DC.

Barely making the pre-1950 cut is this 1948 Leaf card of Johnny Vandermeer - the Cincinnati Reds hurler tossed two no-hitters in a row, a feat which I doubt will be matched. Pete Rose often said that it was this record that would never be broken, even safer than his hit record. He rightly points out the difficulty in matching it, but surpassing it would mean tossing three  no-hitters in a row in the major leagues. There's a High School pitcher in New Hampshire that has a streak of 4 no-hitters  going right now. The all-time record in High School is 6. Two different pitchers threw 6 consecutive no-hitters in High School. That's insane.