Sports Cards Ate My Brain

 We move on to my Bowman collection, with the exception of two Tiger cards it is all Braves. I've seleted one card from each of the years I have one from and then will narrow it down to my favorite. This is here by default as my only 1949 Bowman.  I just picked this card up recently. 1950 gives us Buddy Kerr.  I chose this because the other 1950's I have are all boring portrait shots. I have to go with Del Crandall for 1951.  I have a nice collection of the Braves All-Star catcher and this is an error card also, though the name was never corrected. This 1952 Bob Chipman is a little rough but I like the stadium background. I got this lovely Johnny Pesky earlier this year along with another 1953 Bowman Color Tiger card. My only 1954 so it is here by default but I still do like this card even if it does look like someone hand cut the signature and glued it on the card. I do not have a 1955 because I hate the fake TV design.  I'm sure I will eventually pick up somet...

When I got my large stimulus check I made a large purchase on Beckett Marketplace from a single vendor. I was going to scan the cards and do this post much sooner but had some family issues in March that delayed the scanning. Part one of that purchase fills some set holes and fit in with my vintage Tigers and Braves collections. 1939 Playball 115 Ralph Kress This is actually my second 1939 Playball cards but my first Tiger.  Playball cards are extremely affordable compared to other sets from this area and I will probably purchase more before the end of the year. 1940 Playball 57 Max West The only 1940 Playball card in my collection fits with my Braves PC.  I used to have a Johnny Evers card from this set but sold it about 10 years ago. 1949 Bowman 213 Red Barrett My first 1949 Bowman card gives me at least one Braves card from every vintage Bowman year. Part 2 of my purchase features some fills from my player collections.  Hopefully I will post them in a more timely ...

  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....

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.

Over a few purchases I have bought roughly 8 packs of Bowman 1st Edition and 7 packs of Bowman Jumbo.  I have not hit anything that will make me a millionaire but I have also not busted out. I've achieved the base triple (1st Edition, Bowman, Chrome) of Jasson Dominguez. The same with Bobby Witt Jr. and Robert Puason. I've gotten one numbered card from 1st Edition. A Chrome Refactor and a Bowman Yellow "paper." Out of the Jumbo packs I've gotten three autographs. A Quin Cotton Sparkle. A Glennallen Hill Jr. Purple.  (Who else feels old that Glennallen Hill's child is old enough to be drafted.) And my best pull: This nice Robert Puason Sparkle autograph. Overall I have been pleased with what I've gotten but not amazed. As with any Bowman product I'll wait 5-10 years before I really know what kind of value I got.

As I stated a few posts ago, I found a stash of 2010 Bowman and Bowman Chrome of the various different varieties and found some decent cards of some good major league players that were not the top names in 2010. Here's some of what I found: 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects DJ Lemahieu 2009 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects Dallas Keuchel 2009 Bowman Draft Prospects Gold DJ Lemahieu 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects Nolan Arenado 2010 Bowman Chrome USA Stars Francisco Lindor 2010 Bowman Chrome Prospects Green X-Fractors Gary Sanchez. I found a few other cards that I haven't scanned including a Christian Yelich. The lesson here is to hold on to those Bowman cards for a while when they are not immediately hot players.

I got my first vintage Bowman card a few years ago and have picked up several Braves cards at shows over the past 3 or 4 years.  I don't admit to liking all of the sets but I really like a few of them. The 1950 set is comes as smaller cards than standard.  I like the clean design.  This is outfielder Willard Marshall on card 73.  Here is Willard again from the 1951 set.  I like this better than the 1952 set.  The only real difference is that the 1951 set has the name on the front and the 1952 has a facsimile signature.  As you can see, these cards a little taller than the 1950 cards.  This is card 98.   I bypass the, very plain, 1953 Bowman set and pick up on 1954.  This card is only slightly smaller than the Topps cards of this era.  I have a nice Del Crandall collection.  This is card 32. The 1955 set is ugly to me.  It's the wood grain TV set.  I have one card of Bill Bruton. In my current, c...

My concept here is loosely inspired by last week's Big Bang Theory episode in which Sheldon registers to be selected for an expedition to Mars. I started thinking about what I would be able to take with me on such a mission and decided I could take no more than ten 9-card pages from my card collection.  I also decided that each part of my collection cannot have more than one page.  The cards must fit into a regulation page as far as height and width but I am taking liberties with how thick some of the cards are.  This means my 1956 Topps Ernie Johnson had to be left out but some thicker memorabilia cards are included. Here are my ten page themes. 1. Braves 2. George Brett 3. Other Baseball 4. Football 5. Hockey 6. Basketball 7. Soccer 8. Golf 9. Other Sports 10. Non-Sports cards Here are the nine Braves cards: 1957 Topps 117 - Joe Adcock This is a perfect card to me and represents why I love the 1957 design. Joe looks like all of the 6'4" 210 lbs...

I picked up a bunch of Braves a couple of weeks ago at a card show and also got a needed card in a trade. My 9th 1951 Bowman Braves card is #228 Bob Chipman.  It has a significant crease but was very cheap at the show. This is the card I got from Dennis over at Too Many Verlanders .  1953 Topps 217 Murray Wall.  The top of the card is actually very good.  The bad edge is actually scanner glare. I'll be highlighting my other show pickups over the next few days.

My new favorite vintage vendor was at the most recent show I attended about 3 months ago.  I bought 20 cards as that was all my budget would allow. I filled in 2 1950 Bowman's that I needed.  These give me a little more than half of the Braves in the set. 55 - John "Buddy" Kerr The back tells us that, as of 1950, Buddy held the record for most consecutive games without an error for a shortstop at 383 games. 74 - Johnny Antonelli (From the cardback) In high school he pitched 3 no-hitters and 5 1-hitters, striking out 231 batters in 103 innings, giving up 36 hits. I got 1 more 1950 Bowman that I thought Dustin over at Coot Veal and the Vealtones needed but I didn't read the want list correctly and he already had it.  242 Dick Kryhoski.  It is up for trade if anyone wants it. I'll post the of the cards I got over the coming days.  Some of the cards are not baseball so I'll post those last.

I only have 4 Bowman cards from 1953 - 1955.  The cards are much bigger than the previous years.  They are as tall as the Topps cards of the era but slightly narrower. The images are smaller than the actual cards. 1953 - A "pure" card design.  This was the first year Bowman used photos. This is from the color set.  I do not have any cards from the black & white set. 83 Jack Daniels - Played only one year in the majors in 1952 and hit .187.  The Braves moved to Milwaukee right before the beginning of the 1953 season so Jack is shown as a Boston Brave. One of my favorite card back designs from the 1950's.  Good information and finally some stat lines from Bowman. 1954 - The colored box for the faux signature detracts from the design. 16 Jim Wilson - Jim played for the Braves for 4 seasons.  Two with Boston and two with Milwaukee.  He won 12 games in 1952. I like the bat and ball motif for the name and card number and...