My 1981 Topps Joe Montana rookie card

It’s been a long time since Bay Area football has been this good.

For about a decade, football fans in the San Francisco Bay Area have been subjected to sub-par football on both sides of the Bay in the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders.

Raiders fans have been Raider fans.  Every year calling their shot that they will return to the Super Bowl and each year they fall short of even making the playoffs.  Good drama for sure, but still horrible ball.

And the Niners? People hated Alex Smith.  They wanted him gone.  He was no Joe Montana.  Or Steve Young.  Or even Jeff Garcia.  Hell, he was barely one rung above Jim Drukenmiller.

But then things changed.

The Niners hired Jim Harbaugh.  They began to win.  Alex Smith stopped throwing dumb passes for pick sixes.  And the defense started knocking fools out.

And suddenly everyone is wearing the red and gold with pride again.

It’s interesting to see what winning can do to a fanbase, no matter how serious the fans are.

But even though it has been 10 years since San Francisco has even made it to the playoffs, this feeling is not something I have forgotten.

THIS is how things were when I was growing up here.

I’ll say this right now:  I don’t call myself a Niner fan.  I don’t pretend to be.  I don’t go around puffing my chest out saying “I have been there from the beginning.” 

When time came to choose favorite teams when I was 10 or so, I chose the Buffalo Bills.  I loved Bruce Smith, Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas.  I loved their status as perennial Super Bowl contenders who always got their asses handed to them when it was crunch time.

Hell, I even had a bitch-ass physical education teacher — a huge Cowboys fans — make fun of me in front of the entire locker room while I wore a Bills hat a day after the Cowboys defeated the Bills in Super Bowl XXVII.  He proceeded to say “Bills, huh?  You know what “BILLS” stands for right? Boy I Love Losing Super Bowls. HAHAHA”

Dude, I was 12.

Jerk.

Anyway. While I claimed the Bills as my team, I distinctly remember the atmosphere here when the Niners were king.  Kids, parents and even teachers were into football.  In elementary school we actually spent an entire class making posters in favor of the Niners as they prepared to play the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII.  Of course they won.

And years before that, I remember having my first ever Big Mac with a Coke. Joe Montana was on the cup, and Ronnie Lott was on my first true trading card, which hailed from a set given away at McDonald’s.

The Niners were EVERYWHERE. Proof that football is a big deal here … when the teams are winning.

And from an outsider prospective, they call this Bandwagon Fanaticism.

There’s probably some truth in that.  But what you have to realize is that lots of people my age (31) grew up here in an era when the Niners were second to none.  Whether they were true fans or not, the people here always ended up cheering for San Francisco anyway.

And as the Niners prepare to take on the New York Giants in the biggest 49ers game in probably 16 years, they are all cheering for them again.  Even Raiders fans, who probably wouldn’t admit it you asked them.

I leave you with this. A gem from the 1980s.  A song I heard A LOT when I was  a kid but completely forgot until earlier this year when my wife — who is not a sports fan — started singing it one day after we watched a game.

2006-07 Topps Full Court

I was clicking around my favorite site on the ‘Net the other day and came across one of the coolest cards I’ve seen in a long time.  I figured it was nice enough to share with all of you.

Check out this 2006-07 Topps Full Court Dennis Rodman Photographer’s Proof card.

I don’t do much in basketball, so this five-year-old card is new to me.

Great job by the photographer capturing Rodman in mid-air, parallel with the court.  Very Cool card.

I dig through the shelves and racks at thrift stores, garage sales and the like looking for something that I can keep for myself or flip for something awesome for my baseball card collection.

One day this summer I discovered a game-used jersey belonging to Hall of Fame Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver.

I tweeted a picture of the uniform, and a few months later, I was asked to write a piece for Beckett Sports Card Monthly documenting the incident, and this extension of my hobby.

The magazine hit my local hobby shop shelves on Tuesday and should be in your stores now.

Whether you decide to buy the magazine or just read it is up to you, but I do encourage you to pick up the magazine and give the article a read. It’ll give you a taste of what kind of success I’ve had thrift store hunting.

Many people see second-hand stores as a place where poor people shop.  I see them as bearers of history and sometimes treasure.

You can see additional Thrift Treasures posts HERE.

There was a time when hobbyists clamored over errors and oddities among baseball cards.  Wrong name, no name, missing logos, etc.  People loved them.

Now?  Not so much.

If you haven’t figured out what make’s this 2003 Ultimate Collection Signatures Gary Carter a Horrible Card it’s the fact that the catcher is shown hitting left handed.  And it’s not because he actually hits left handed, it’s because someone at Upper Deck was too lazy to find a photo that actually fit their design. They decided instead to flip the negative of the picture as if no one would ever notice.

Well I did.

Ugh … this card is just horrible.

“Horrible Card of the Day” is a series showcasing some of the hobby’s hidden gems. To see additional segments, check out the pull down menu on the right side of the home page … or click here.

There was a lot of card action on both sides.  TONS of people swooped in on Pineda rookies and rookie-year autos while the groans of many invested in Montero could be heard across the nation.

Me? I was a seller and a buyer.

I sold my sole Michael Pineda auto, a 2011 Bowman Prospect auto card featuring a signed sticker for $60.

It’s a card that had been depreciating in value ever since I pulled it from a pack earlier this year.  The card had two things against it:

1) It’s a sticker auto.

2) Pineda has signed a crap load of cards ever since the Bowman release, many of which are nicer and feature on-card autos.

So, what did I do with the $60?

I bought the Pineda card I really wanted: 2011 Topps Chrome autograph (on-card)

and added these vintage to my collection:

1955 Topps Harry Agganis rookie card

1959 Topps Roberto Clemente

and … a Hall of Fame auto:

2001 Donruss Classics Signifficant Signatures Steve Carlton

That, my friends, deserves one of these…

1963 Topps Pete Rose rookie card

Yesterday I made fun of my recently acquired 1952 Topps Hoyt Wilhelm, calling it the ugliest $1,000 book value rookie card I’ve ever seen.

I mean seriously, a high-dollar rookie card showing a guy with his eyes closed? Ugh …

And then a commenter reminded me of this ugliness.

Floating heads galore!

Make no bones about it, the 1963 Topps Pete Rose rookie is an important card no matter how many other unimportant heads are floating around his dome. Hall of Fame or not, the card is a must own.

But this is one ugly duckling! It just looks like a  bingo card, some kid’s potty chart, or a square Lego block that has been decorated with little faces.

But this begs the question … which of the two is worse?  And is there another $1,000 high book value rookie card we should add into this little debate?

It’s a lot of fun chasing rookies of big names like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, as well as guys you may have not heard of like Chip Lang.  But every once in a while you find a rookie card that is essential to your collection but you have a hard time pulling the trigger to acquire.

Exhibit A:  1952 Topps Hoyt Wilhelm.

1952 Topps Hoyt Wilhelm High Series rookie card

Fact: Wilhelm is a Hall of Famer.

Fact: This set is probably the most popular set in the hobby.

Fact: The card books at $1,000

Fact: I didn’t pay (or trade) anywhere near $1,000 for it.

Fact: Wilhelm had his eyes closed when the photographer snapped his picture for his first official card.

Is there an uglier rookie card that books at $1,000?

These Wilhelm rookies are considered tougher to get because they are from the legendary high series, a late release that saw a large portion of it dumped into the river instead of getting into collector’s hands.  This is the same series that the iconic Mickey Mantle hails from.

Wilhelm is one that I had to have for my collection.  There was no alternative.  And while the card is ugly as sin, I managed to get it for about half of what they usually go for on eBay or elsewhere.  And it is in pretty good shape; it’ll probably grade a 3 or so.

And to answer your next question:  Yes, it is real.

The Wilhelm represents two firsts for me.  It is my first High series card from the 1952 set.  And it now represents my first post highlighting the rookie cards of Hall of Famers in my collection.

See more Hall of Fame Rookie Cards by clicking HERE.

1951 Bowman Bill Dickey #290

This is one of those cards that just spoke to me. It yelled, grabbing my attention when I was looking for something youthful and shiny to buy.

It said, “Hey, Dummy, why are you going to drop that $10 bill on that unproven youngster when you can have the real deal right here.”

And I listened.

Dickey is a Hall of Famer.

Dickey is a Yankee.

Dickey is Animated.

Dickey had to be Mine.

And he was.

True, this card falls into the cracks of my vast collection that focuses mostly on rookie cards.

But look at this card.

Feel this card.

Hear this card.

Would you have passed this card up?

No I.

You’re probably tired of hearing about it, and I get that.  But if you use the site like I do, you’d probably be screaming about your personal collection additions too.

Take this 2000 Upper Deck Piece of History 3,000 Hit Club game used bat card for example.

It’s been a while since I’ve really bought a game-used card for my collection.  Once I obtained Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, I really had no where else to turn.  That is until I saw the opportunity to grab this Ty Cobb.

The early 2000 Upper Deck theme gamer sets such as this 3,000 Hit Club are very appealing to the eye.  Game Used cards have lost a lot of luster of the years, but cards like these always remind me of brighter days for the little slivers of wood and cloth clippings that have been embedded in our cards for the last decade or so.

The Cobb is something I kind of stumbled upon on the site, not really what was I setting out to buy.  But it’s a bonus when you can add such a cool card to your collection without 1) having to spend actual money from your bank account and 2) high shipping costs often seen on eBay.