Today was one of the best maildays I've had in a long time.
Few things in my life beat coming back from school and seeing a stack of packages filled with baseball card goodness. Today just reinforced that fact.
The first package came from Daniel over at "It's Like Having My Own Card Shop".
He'd recently featured a post where he won an auction for a few 1975 Topps wax pack wrappers and had a couple extras available. I thought it would be fun to have one for myself, since 1975 was the first year my dad seriously got into collecting. A nice little father-and-son memento, if you will.
I'm not sure why, but I try to save a wrapper from a pack of each set I open. Maybe those will have a similar purpose later on.
Daniel was also nice enough to send some cards of my hometown Cubs along with the '75 Topps wrapper.
These were my two favorites in the bunch. "Sweet Lou" watches the team in disgust. Or maybe he's just really cold. Or both.
I was surprised I didn't already have that '09 UD Goodwin Champions card (a very under-appreciated set) in my Fukudome collection. He was a bust for the Cubs, but I still collect him nonetheless.
Thanks for the trade, Daniel! Hope you enjoy the cards coming your way!
This card is on double-secret probation. It's in the toploader and sleeve and everything.
I've been trying to complete the 100-card 2007 SP Legendary Cuts "Legendary Americana" insert set for a couple years now. Each card is numbered to 550 copies, so it won't be easy.
I've previously stated my love for these historical sets in one of the first posts on this blog. This insert set is my favorite one in that category.
I'd been stuck at 81 out of the 100 for a while now. There were a few I still needed out there, but they were overpriced and I didn't have the cash to overpay for them.
But then, by some miracle, my mom found some deal where if you make five purchases with a specific debit card, you get a free hundred bucks.
So with some fresh new spending cash, I was able to buy all the ones I needed that were still floating around on the 'net. I bought 15 of the inserts I needed for my set, which leaves me just four cards away from completing the set. I figured if I'm going to overpay for them, it might as well be with free money. Right?
I ordered three of the ones I needed off Ebay, which arrived today. (My first single card purchase off Ebay in a long, long time.)
That Daniel Webster is one scary lookin' dude.
It's kind of fitting that I bought these two together. Ulysses Grant and Robert Lee, arguably the top generals of each side in the Civil War.
But back to baseball cards.
I also just recently completed a trade on "The Bench" which netted me a 200-count box filled with 1985 Topps Traded and 1986 Fleer Update singles.
It's almost impossible to find any of those early/mid-'80s Traded/Update cards, at least in my experience. I've barely found any in dime boxes over the years.
I was surprised that there were still a few good rookies left in the box. I don't necessarily collect Ozzie Guillen, but that one's going into the PC.
This was the one card I was really hoping was in the box.
It was.
Al Oliver is one of my favorites. I'd owned a card of Oliver in every uniform he wore except the Dodgers before this package arrived.
But today is a new day. And yes, I am now the proud owner of a card featuring Al Oliver as a Los Angeles Dodger.
But that card was unexpectedly trumped by another card for the honor of "best in the box"...
I almost jumped in the air when I pulled this one out of the box.
Although I knew that Gamble had a couple short stints on the South Side of Chicago (in 1977 and '85), I didn't think there were any cards issued of him in the uniform.
Just goes to show that there's always something new to learn in the hobby. (There's even another one I found online, his '85 Fleer Update issue. A new dime box quest.)
Book value on this card? Fifteen cents.
Personal value? A lot more than fifteen cents, that's for sure. You can't put a price on personal value.
Baseball cards are a great example of that.
No comments:
Post a Comment