Card Show Purchase #6: The One that Sent Me Back to the ATM

When I was a kid anything older than 1984 Topps was positively ancient. An older friend of a friend had a TON of ancient cards (pre-1984) and his 1977 Thurman Munson ruled them all. I guess it's because I was so young, but I never understood the big deal about the tragedy surrounding Munson until I was much older. That said, he's always held a special place in my collecting heart.

So: having made all my other purchases, I just happened to be perusing this other dealer's special "half-off original price, nothing over $5, everything comes in a screw-down case" box. I still can't believe it, but this was at the back of the box:

It's got more than a crease or two and the guy who sold it to me lamented that it was a "$100 card that was hardly worth anything" (whatever that means!), but I politely asked him to put the Munson aside while I ran to the ATM for reinforcements.

"Good arm, great desire." No truer words were ever written about Munson.

So, there you have it. If you are a condition guy my haul from the show is pretty substandard. Seeing as how I'm not a condition guy, this was the type of show I've been dreaming about since I got back into cards. Serendipity, great prices, great cards, pure awesome!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Card Show Purchase #5: 1956 Ernie Banks

This card is the last one from the guy with the junk vintage box.

He was sharing a table with the guy next to him (the guy who sold me Eddie Moore) and, after I'd already made my original purchase, this dude points out the 1959 Banks to me. 

In fairness, I had NO intention of buying this. I a) already own a 1950s Banks, and b) didn't have near enough money left to purchase it. Anyway, just being polite, I asked how much. He asked his friend, the guy with the vintage junk box. Response: $7.

For $7 I could go over budget on a 1959 Banks. 

I really like the 1959s, cartoon, insightful text, and all. I know he'll always be Mr. Cub, but if he'd played in NY we'd talk about Banks being THE greatest shortstop of all-time. Imagine: a SS who with a high SLG % than Willie Mays!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Card Show Purchase #4: Stan the Man

The last card from the vintage junk box from the Fargo show last weekend. But can you call this card junk?

OK, so my Stan the Man has the structural consistency of tissue paper. However, it was about 95% off book (as if book means anything these days!). 

When I first came across this card and thought to myself, "A Musial I might be able to afford!" As with the other cards from the vintage junk box, this one was marked a TON more than I would have paid for it ($10) but the guy selling it brought it down into my range. 

I'd never taken a hard look at any Musial cards or even looked much at hit stats. The first thing I thought when I got this home was, "That's a lot of years and a lot of excellence."

So that's number 4, two more to go!

Have a good one everybody and good night Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Card Show Purchase #3: From the Way Back Machine

Second card from the random vintage box is the oldest one I grabbed at the show. It's also the cheapest.

A 1920 W516-1 Hank Gowdy Strip card. Who knows if it's authentic, but who counterfeit a Hank Gowdy? The paper feels right, the colors look right, good enough for me. At any rate it wasn't even $2. AND it's the oldest Braves card I own, which is awesome.

Hank Gowdy had a 17-year career playing catcher and 1B for the NY Giants and Boston Braves. In 1920 he's coming off of a decent year in which he batted .278. That said, he's more of a clutch performer. For example, in the 1914 WS he set the series record for catcher BA, hitting at an amazing .545 clip against the Philadelphia A's.

Also according to Baseball Almanac, he was the first American ballplayer to enlist in WWI. He also later enlisted in WWII, and the ball field at Fort Benning bears his name.

Great stuff about a ballplayer I had never heard of before Saturday. And I got a great card CHEAP!

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Card Show Purchase #2: 1959 Fence Busters

Overall the dealers at the Fargo show weren't terribly organized. Not that that's a bad thing, it's just once you've seen some of the guys who frequent the Raleigh, NC shows you kind of expect to show up to a card show, ask for what you want, and have it handed right to you. There's plenty of room for serendipity, but not quite as much.

So, I was rummaging through what looked like a Braves-heavy section of this guys vintage box and this card popped out:

It's not mint but with Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthew it doesn't need to be. And man do they look young here!

But what it that supposed to be in the background? It that a busted fence or an odd fractal threatening to swallow up Matthews?

Pretty sweet that a card about "Fence Busters" has a guys sliding and stealing bases on the back.

Even so, the original price on the card had it WAY out of my price range. There was a lot of great vintage there, vintage I hadn't budgeted to run into, so I was already over budget. Long story short, after bargaining I landed this 50s classic for $6. 

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Card Show Purchase #1: Eddie Moore

Looking at vintage make me feel better about going down 1-2 to the Rangers. OK, not really, but still.

At the card show this weekend there were about 8 guys selling cards. Of the 8 maybe 3 were serious dealers and the remaining 5 were just guys selling cards.

I noticed Eddie Moore at the table of one of the guys selling cards. It was the only thing near that old he had and he seemed relaxed so I asked to take a look.

Eddie himself looks a bit wistful. He's at the end of his career and just staring off into the distance, like he knows that when you go from the Browns and Giants to playing with the New Orleans Pelicans the end is pretty much near. That said, as their starting 2B in 1933 Eddie led them to a Southern Association Championship. That and, with those blue eyes, I imagine he was quite the lady killer no matter where he was. 

The back of the card is full of Goudey goofiness. His name isn't really "Eddie"? Was that just made up? BBReference lists him as "Edward Charles Moore," while Wikipedia agrees with the Goudey here. (The Wikipedia entry, btw, is pretty nice!) Gotta do more research on that and figure out what the deal is. 

Anyway, it turns out Eddie was an insert in UD Goudey a few years ago and was one of the big hits this guy pulled from his case. After some more discussion I put Eddie back down and walked away, because I wasn't there to spend my limited budget on a single but awesome vintage card. 

Fast forward to when I'm buying cards at the adjacent table about 1/2 hour later. When I'm finished there the guy simply stands up, hands me the Eddie, and says, "I'll give it to you for $5." I still can't believe that! 

Judging by the show, my hypothesis is that local guys are now selling vintage at even lower than ebay prices---is that the same where everyone else lives?

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!

Rays-style crazy

Things have been wild for the past 7 or so months.

I got my book to the publisher (yay!), spent a month in Mexico (yay!), and started the new semester back in August. Good God, it's now October!

Anyway, I'm getting my act together. I've you been in touch about a trade, I'll email you this week.

New goals: I'll be posting at least once a week. At least one trade a week.

I finally got to a card show this weekend down in Fargo. I'll put up the haul later this week, but it'll center around one question: do people sell vintage at these prices all over the country? I was shocked.

Also, a neighbor who's moving dropped off his collection yesterday. This is AWESOME, and I'll be passing a lot of that goodness along by Friday.

Have a good one everybody and goodnight Pumpsie Green, wherever you are!