Archive for Hall of fame
OTD in 1929 Yankees become first team to use numbers on jerseys based on batting order
Posted in Newspaperman with tags Babe Ruth, baseball, Hall of fame, Lou Gehrig, rooki, sports, Yankees on April 16, 2013 by Cardboard IconsMy sister possess a childhood gem
Posted in Newspaperman with tags autographs, baseball, baseball cards, Hall of fame, signed baseball on January 16, 2013 by Cardboard IconsI was at my sister’s house yesterday with my kids and on her son’s shelf I saw a piece of my baseball history.
Way back in 1991, we went to a Tigers-A’s game in Oakland and we were fortunate enough to get a few autographs, including the signature of Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson.
Funny thing is I can’t find MY autograph, but my sister has her’s now sitting on her son’s shelf. There are three other signatures on this ball. Can you name them?
Hint: two of them are Oakland players, and one is a Tigers pitcher.
Can’t pull one, might as well buy one
Posted in Hall of Famers with tags baseball, baseball cards, Hall of fame, Score, Stan Musial on September 13, 2012 by Cardboard Icons
Over the last three weeks, I’d been taking a step back in the time machine and reliving memories of my early collecting days. This road down memory lane included the purchases of two 1992 Score Series 2 boxes to take an extremely LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG shot at pulling any of the four 1992 Score Franchise Autographs, cards that were signed by Carl Yastrzemski, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, or all three.
That quest included a very cool memorable pull of an unsigned Musial card, which was the same exact card I pulled in 1992 when I was 12. You can see the “dramatic” reveal in this video.
But that fun and inexpensive jaunt through two decades of every-changing baseball card technology history really made me want to own the signed version of the Musial.
True, I am a rookie card collector, but I have a soft spot for once-unattainable cards of my youth. One of my favorite sets (or series of insert sets) is the Elite Series cards from 1991-1993. I’ve started my photo gallery of the ones I own here.
Anyhow, back to Musial.
Despite the horrific odds of actually pulling the autograph of Musial — or Yaz or Mick — the cards are pretty affordable considering they are one of the first true pack-seeded certified autographs. So I set out to buy a Musial and I did. And when it arrived on Thursday, I was even more delighted to see this note attached to the interior packaging:
Amazing. So I am getting this gorgeous card from the ORIGINAL owner?! I’ve got to send this eBay seller a message asking him to write me a few paragraphs about his experience pulling this card. And when — if — he responds, I will publish it here.
A quick word of warning though. If you’re out to buy one of these for yourself, please … PLEASE … make sure it is a certified copy issued through Score and not Score BOARD. The REAL, pack-seeded cards look like this on the back. They are hand-numbered in black calligraphy pen. Adds to an awesomeness if you ask me.
Rookie Card Upgrade: 1973 Topps Mike Schmidt / Ron Cey
Posted in Hall of Fame Rookie Cards with tags baseball, baseball cards, Hall of fame, rookie cards, Topps on June 27, 2012 by Cardboard Icons
For a long time, my philosophy on vintage rookie cards was that it was better to own one now — regardless of the condition — than save and wait for one that was in great shape.
Generally speaking, I still practice this this type of collecting. I figure it’s best to say I own a card than not.
And when it came time to purchase a 1973 Topps Michael Jack Schmidt (and Ron Cey) rookie card a few years ago, one with rounded corners would suffice so long as it was authentic.
For a good three years the one pictured above served as my Schmidt rookie.
That is until I found a better one of course.
Thanks to a bad auction title, I managed to upgrade from a Schmidt with rounded corners to one that looks like it was just pulled from a pack. And once I sell the “authentic” one, the upgrade would have been achieved for less than triple figures.
You can see more Hall of Fame rookie cards here.
2 more HOF rookie cards have arrived, including a Yankee legend
Posted in Hall of Fame Rookie Cards with tags baseball, baseball cards, Bowman Whitey Ford, CheckOutMyCards.com, Don Sutton, Hall of fame, Topps on June 16, 2012 by Cardboard IconsMy latest Check Out My Cards order arrived last weekend. And while much of it is of little fanfare, a few of the cards are worthy of showing off. I’ll spread them out over a few posts as I have some thoughts I want to share on different topics. But for now I’ll concentrate on a pair of Hall of Fame rookies that I recently acquired from the site.
Let’s get the big one out of the way first:
1951 Bowman Whitey Ford rookie card, graded BVG 2.
I’ve been hunting for one of these Whitey Ford rookie for years, but I never felt comfortable with my options for the price range. High book on this card is $2,500 and typically I like to stick to the 10-percent range on the really expensive stuff, which means I wanted to pay no more than $250 for one of these. And every time I had searched for a Ford in that price range, I was not overwhelmed with the options.
And then came along this graded beauty on COMC … at a price less than 10 percent. Oh, and it’s already graded by Beckett Grading, which is where I was going to send the card anyway.
Not a lot to say about this one other than the fact that I needed it for my rookie card collection and the price was right. High book is $60, got this for $10. Not a bad price for the condition.
See more Hall of Fame rookie cards here.
