Sports Cards Ate My Brain

  As a child growing up in the late 1970's in Georgia I watched the Braves a lot. My first baseball hero was Phil Niekro. Phil Niekro died last night after battling cancer. 2020 needs to end.

Are you looking for oddball cards of your favorite player or team that you might not have had a chance to get when they came out? Check out my list of oddball and food issue cards for trade. There are some Kellogg's, Hostess, Post and other sets and stars you might need or know someone who does. I'm looking to trade for 1976 Topps needs so let me know what you want and check out my 1976 Topps want list. I didn't realize that I hadn't placed the page in the list of trade pages on the right!

I was looking at some Tweets from people that had pulled or were selling cards with swatches and/or autographs of two or more superstars.  I was kind of jealous but I realized I do have some nice cards of this type.  Not necessarily superstars but still some good ones. First we have wardrobe swatches of two of the great characters from one of my favorite shows.  If you like mystery and goofiness watch Psych. My best basketball dual player patch card is this nice Karl Malone / Kosta Koufos card from SP Game Used.  It's very thick.  I'm not a big Jazz fan but I do like this card. I've got a couple of soccer cards with plain swatches of Premier League and MLS players. This is one of only two dual autographs cards I have in my personal collection.  It covers my Manchester United fandom. Even golf gets into the act with this nice dual swatch card of two lovely and talented ladies. My other dual autograph card in my personal collection is this Juan Marichal / Adr...

  For those of you that don't know, the KBO is the Korean Baseball Organization.  The major leagues of South Korea.  There are 10 teams in the league and they all feature up to three foreign players. ESPN2 has been broadcasting games live in the early morning Eastern Time so I have been able to watch games most days since I start work at 7:00 AM.  There are no games on Mondays. Since I don't give a damn about the World Series since the Braves lost the KBO is my last bit of baseball for the year.  The playoffs are approaching in the next couple of weeks. I recommend watching it if you are up early. When I was going through all of my cards a couple of months ago I ran across some players that are currently in the KBO. I could probably find more players but this is what I kept out. Once again, if you're up early give these games a chance.  It's decent but not great baseball and nice to have on in the background while I'm working.

  While looking through the pictures of my personal collection I came across the buyback cards that I've accumulated over the years. I don't have many of them and they seem random to me. Topps put a bunch of buybacks in products for their 75th anniversary.  This is a player I have never heard of but I like 1959 Topps so I'm happy to have this. This card I got out of a hobby box of 2008 Topps Heritage.  It fits in my PC perfectly as it is a Brave and I have a small collection of 1950's Crandall cards. Another Topps 75 buyback.  I have a regular copy of this card as part of my 1976 set build.  Maybe I should start looking for more 1976 buybacks. A 1984 Topps Paul Householder?  Rediscover Topps?  Why?!?! The final buyback comes from Bowman as part of the 70th anniversary.  At least this card is of a future Hall of Famer even if it is just a common card. Overall, I'm not a big fan of buybacks unless they are of a star player or from an older set....

Back in the 1990's and early 2000's if it was on a collectable card I bought it. I believe I bought a souvenir tin of Pokemon CCG cards in 2000 just because they were there. I have no idea where the tin or almost all of the cards went but I did hold on to one of them because it had shiny foil on it. (Who hasn't done that?) Beckett lists this card at around $20 so I've held on to it.   I don't have any idea how to play the Pokemon CCG but this holds a place in my PC with a Star Wars CCG Luke Skywalker, an X-Files CCG promo card and three Magic: The Gathering cards. At least I played Magic: The Gathering. But in the end, I have a Pokemon card.

Made another trade happen from Twitter and got 3 1976 Topps I need in exchange for a 1973 Steve Carlton.  That Carlton card documents one of the greatest pitching seasons ever.  The Phillies were 59-97 that year but Carlton was 27-10 and led the league in strikeouts. Wow! Here are the 3 lovely cards I got back in trade: That is Reds backup catcher Bill Plummer, Cardinals SS/2B Mike Tyson, and the team card from the Oakland A's.  This was the last great Oakland team from their dynasty.  They were the 3-time defending World Champions but lost to the Red Sox in the AL Championship Series. Thank you to the Baseball Card Kid for the nice trade. Please see my 1976 Topps want list for what else I need.

Daniel at It's Like Having My Own Card Shop was looking to add some Barry Bonds cards to is quest to get 762 different cards of the slugger. I had recently gone through all of my purge boxes and had taken out some cards of many great players including Bonds. The result was that I had around 40 cards that he needed. Since I am limiting my PC collecting he agreed to send me three lovely cards that I needed. This 1962 All Star card takes it's place beside the base Aaron as my oldest Hank Aaron cards. I didn't have an Aaron card from the 1968 set but this is a good start as it commemorates Hank leading the league in Home Runs in 1967.  It's easy to forget that Jim Wynn had some good years when you look at the other players on this card. Here is a 1970 Topps 1969 Home Run Leaders card to go along with the Aaron All Star card I already had.  Like Wynn on the previous card, Lee May stands out as the oddball player here. I seem to recall that Daniel and I completed a trade abo...

I've posted some For Trade pages and a 1976 Topps Want List page. I'm trying to complete the 1976 set. I'll be adding an 1980's For Trade and a Food Issue and Misc. For Trade list pretty soon.

Like the T206 set any true baseball card collector should have a 1952 Topps card in their collection. I bought one at a card show a few years ago that covered this base and also gave me a Braves card I needed for my PC. The dealer I bought this from had boxes full of baseball and non-sports cards for $3 each.  I also bought some Beatles cards from him. 1952 Topps is far from my favorite design and I like the 1952 Bowman cards better but, as I stated, I have to have one in my collection. This is not my first Torgeson card as I also have the 1951 Bowman. I would choose the Bowman card any day.

  I loved the show Psych so I bought boxes of the two series they put out that covered all of the seasons.  I loved the comedy and themed shows they had.  There were many great guest stars in the series but I got a an autographed card of who I now realize is my favorite actor. I never fail to enjoy anything I watch Anthony Anderson act in.  He played Gus' cousin Thane in a Psych episode. As I said before, Psych had many good guest stars over their episodes.  This is another autograph I got from the same box as the Anthony Anderson. I've also gotten some nice memorabilia cards from my boxes. A couple of months ago USA Network ran a Psych marathon which was nice to have on in the background while I worked at home. If you've never watched the show I recommend it as some comic relief during these tough times.

Both of my parents got degrees from the University of Michigan and we lived in Ann Arbor when I was in early elementary school.  This means I grew up a Michigan fan and still am. I've collected Michigan player cards over the years as part of my PC, Tom Brady being the obvious recent player that I collect. A few years ago I was browsing e-bay and came across an orginal Murad cards.  I was familiar with this set because of the Topps Murad themed basketball set from a few years ago, from which I have a Russell Westbrook mini variation. I decided to pay the buy it now price because I wanted this card so much.  It is now, by far, my oldest football card.

  I've been waiting for something in the mail and it finally arrived today. It's not any type of cards, however. I like all sorts of music and recently rediscovered someone on Facebook that is doing some live shows during the pandemic. I signed up for a membership on a Patreon fan site he started and as part of that I got a signed copy of a CD. I don't think I ever listened to any of the songs on the CD before I started watching the live shows but now like several of them. Shawn Mullins was a year behind me at my high school and I'm pretty sure we never met.  Probably saw him in a talent show or chorus show. My favorite song on this album is Pandora's Box. He had one top 40 hit in the 90's and I think he appeared on the Grammys. Shawn Mullins - Lullaby If you like this song or his other hit "Shimmer"   or just like listening to acoustic music check him out on Sunday evenings on Facebook.   https://www.facebook.com/ShawnMullinsMusic I like having a mell...

Any collector that is remotely interested in the history of baseball cards should have at least one T206 card.  I'm not talking about the various modern Topps sets.  I'm talking about the original tobacco set. If I ever become a billionaire I might pursue collecting the who set but I lucked out a pawn shop almost 20 years ago and came across this beauty. I don't see dirt, corner or edge wear, a slight crease, etc.   I see a beautiful baseball card. This is Rube Geyer from the St. Louis Cardinals.  He played from 1910 to 1913 and went 17 and 26.  So not a household name.  Still, it's a freakin' T206. It has the common Piedmont back so nothing major there. Oh, and the pawn shop was selling it for $3.

My dad taught me how to golf while I was in elementary school and he and I would play occasionally at local courses around Athens, Georgia. We also watch a lot of golf coverage on TV. The big three were all around when I was young but Jack Nicklaus quickly became my favorite player and I would imitate him in the yard with wiffle golf balls. Over the years I've purchased golf cards as they've come out, starting in the early 90's with the Pro Set releases. I really enjoyed the Upper Deck releases and bought a few of the more expensive packs when I could. When I pulled this card out of a pack I almost fell out of my chair. Having a card with three of the all-time greats represented tops my memorabilia card list.

After my rant from the last post I'll start highlighting my personal collection. This will be one card at a time and I'll explain why the card is special to me. 1976 was the first year I bought a pack of baseball cards.  I bought the pack at a convenience store on the way back from my first Braves game.  My friend's little league team had reserved the left field picnic area at Atlanta-Fulton County stadium and he took me along. We got there well before game time and watched batting practice.  One of the kids on the trip was standing on a picnic table and got hit in the face by a line drive by Jerry Royster.  I retrieved the bloody ball but, of course, had to give it away.  The kid went to the hospital and, as I understand it, was given Braves and Dodgers uniforms. Dusty Baker had moved from the Braves to the Dodgers over the winter and he was signing autographs.  I had no real idea who he was but I had a piece of notebook paper so I got in the line.  H...

I had to go out and about yesterday to run a couple of errands and I decided to stop by the Target in the area to see if they had any cards.  I have to go to Target to look because my local Wal-Mart stopped stocking cards about a year ago when they put in about 1 million self checkout lanes. The situation at Target was dire as, unless I wanted Pokemon, it had been picked almost clean.  I did manage to get a couple of things just because they were there. It's hard to see but that is 2 fat packs of Prestige football and a Topps Opening Day blaster. I left the other Opening Day blaster on the shelf besides some Star Wars: The Mandellorean ones. It tells you how determined I was to buy some cards that I bought the blaster.  Opening Day is just completely pointless to me.  Topps claims it's for kids but it's just really a reason to put out some clones of their base cards to get more sales. Here are the highlights of the blaster: The left most card is a blue Opening Day pa...

All of the free time I've had from not having to commute five days a week and not going out of the house very often made me go through all of my cards in the past few months. An influx of money made me buy more cards than I normally do. I finally ran out of money and cards in storage and decided to really look at what I wanted to keep and what I could move in some way. Here is what I decided I don't need. There are more boxes at the bottom of the stack.  That stack of graded cards includes every graded card I have.  They are pretty much crap as most of them are BCCG cards from repacks bought over the years. The stack has many, many base cards of all sports but also includes some vintages cards, many Hall-of-Famers, and a bunch of memorabilia and autographed cards.  Most of these are from 2011 and before. If someone in the Atlanta area wants to take them off my hands and is willing to pick them up and carry them all down one flight we can negotiate. At this point I'm not w...

When I was 19 years old I was a member of Young Democrats.  On election night 1986 a friend and I went to the election headquarters of Wyche Fowler who was running for Senate against Republican incumbent Mac Mattingly. Fowler beat Mattingly that night.  I was hanging out with a local TV reporter and his producer who were covering the election and an unassuming man came over to talk to the TV reporter. He was introduced to me as John Lewis, who had just won the election for Wyche Fowler's former Congressional seat.  I congratulated Mr. Lewis and he said a few gracious words and then moved on around the room. I was an ignorant 19 year old.  To me the Civil Rights Movement meant Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  As a middle class white kid in the early 80's this is really all we were taught.  If I would have know then what an impact John Lewis had on American history I probably wouldn't have been able to speak to him because he was such an imposing historical f...

The next of my recent non-sports posts is Game of Thrones Season 8 from Rittenhouse.   Over the years I've bought boxes of just about every season as well as some boxes of the Inflexions line.  The only seasons I don't have at least one autographed card from are 4 and 5. This, of course, will be the last box of a season I'll be able to get new as the show came to a satisfying, yes I said satisfying, end. As usual with these boxes I got a complete set of the base cards. The box promised two autographs. This card was a surprise hit for me and can be well paired with the Season 3 Sophie Turner autographed card I have. This is only the second character wardrobe card I've gotten from the show and is part of the costume in the picture. Daniel Tuite played Lothar Frey who was one of the planners of the Red Wedding so we hate him.  I do like these "full bleed" autographs as there as also bordered autograph cards. As mentioned in a previous post there is a trend lately...

I decided to shop on Topps.com and they had 2019 Star Wars Masterwork listed.  I paid the most I've ever paid for a box of cards and I got two. Masterworks has four packs or miniboxes in each box and promises four hits. Here's what I got:   These are purple parallels of the base card. I got two of the base autographs. The first one is they guy who was the voice of the Emperor so not a thrill here.  I'm not a big fan of autographs from voice actors in the Star Wars universe as I do not watch the cartoons. The only autograph I care about from these boxes.  This is a rainbow foil parallel of Denis Lawson who played Wedge Antillies.  After the other two autographs it was very welcome to get a familiar character. Here are a couple of 1/1 sketch cards by Anthony Figaro and Matthew Hirons respectively.  This now takes me from two sketch cards to four in my collection.  As usual the artists have signed the back of the cards.  While these are not character...

I am a big Star Wars fan and have bought a box of just about every product that Topps has released lately.  I decided to get a box of 2020 Women of Star Wars. When I got the box I realized that there were fewer packs than I thought so a complete set cannot be completed out of a box as is usual with most Star Wars releases. Here are the hits: Amy Allen was an employee behind the scenes at Lucasfilm before she was chosen to play Aayla Secura in episodes II and III.  Aayla Secure originally appeared in comic books.  This is the blue parallel version of the card, numbered out of 50. The other big hit I got is this unique sketch card of Queen Amidala.  It is by Patricio Carrasco and his signed on the back by the artist.  This is only the second sketch card I've ever pulled after a Walking Dead one I got a couple of years ago. I was pleased with these two cards but don't plan on buying another box of this product unless it is on deep discount.