Archive for Eddie Mathews

Thrift Treasures 92: A baggie to DYE for …

Posted in Thrift Treasures with tags , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2015 by Cardboard Icons

Have you ever wondered how prevailing autographs and game-used cards are in our hobby? Well, they are so prevalent now that I occasionally find them at thrift stores.

  
Over the last year or so I have managed to unearth a few certified autos and GU cards in baggies just like the one pictured above.  None of them have been very valuable, but still … They are what we’ve dubbed “hits” and they’re sitting among forgotten toys.

This week I located the Baggie shown above and as you can see a foil sticker auto was peaking out at me.

Whose the auto? Well, the headline probably gave that away …

  
He’s not a hard auto to get, but this one is limited to 125.

There weren’t any other hits in the bag. In fact, much of it looked like this:

  
But it did have a 2001 Topps gold parallel numbered to … 2,001

  
And what appears to be the equivalent of a single retail pack of 2002 Fleer Greats of the Game. I love looking at the stats these guys complied.

Mickey Cochrane tallied a .320 batting average over a 13-year career. 

  
Check out Tony Perez’s 1970 stat line: 

  
Paul Molitor could hit … Just 3,319 which was good for a .306 career average.

  
Eddie Murray wasn’t too shabby either. He is a member of the 3,000 hit/500 HR club. I got to see homer number 498 during a doubleheader in Oakland late in 1996. (8/16/96, game 2)

  
A fellow Eddie in the 500 HR club. 1953 and 1959 were monster seasons for Eddie Mathews.

  
Total cost of these Treasures: $2.99

You can see more Thrift Treasures posts Here

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Just when I thought it was over …

Posted in Newspaperman with tags , , , on December 21, 2010 by Cardboard Icons

As the year comes to a close, so does the Topps Million Card Giveaway. It’s getting to the point where everyone seems to be scrambling to unload quantities for quality. No one is being fooled. Almost no one is biting at the offers of 45 cards from 1980 to present for even a common from 1960.

Personally, it had been weeks since I’d completed a trade on the site. For all intents and purposes, I figured I was done. Of the 37 cards in my portfolio, I’d probably take delivery of a dozen or so and then cut the others lose.

And then came Scooter.

Six months ago I traded my 1956 Topps Bob Friend card for a 1967 Topps Eddie Mathews. My reasoning: A good condition vintage card of a Hall of Famer was better than a vintage semi-star. As a side note, I was able to find a 1956 Topps Bob Friend at my Local Card Shop for like $3.

Since completing that trade, I’ve received numerous offers for my 1967 card featuring an aged and balding Eddie Mathews. None of them enticed me one bit. At least not until I received this offer on Tuesday night:

My Eddie Mathews for their 1961 Phil Rizzuto HI Series.

Was this a joke? Was this some odd reprint that was being offered to me?

Nope. It was a legit offer. And I held my breath as I quickly clicked “accept” for many times in the past I saw offers that intrigued me only to have the MCG site crap out before I could complete the deal.

As you can tell, the trade went through and in a nut shell I turned by 1956 Topps Bob Friend into a sweet 1961 Topps Phil Rizzuto.  Holy Cow.

 

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The appeal of the 1953 Topps set is too much to resist

Posted in Newspaperman with tags , , , , on August 8, 2010 by Cardboard Icons

Ask anyone what their favorite vintage Topps set is and they’ll more than likely tell you the 1952 Topps set. Why? Because it was the “first” standard Topps card set, and because the set houses many high-dollar cards including probably the second-most iconic card in our hobby, the Mickey Mantle. But if you ask me, the 1953 set is by far he most compelling of the early Topps baseball sets.

I applaud Cardboard Junkie for his efforts in completing this masterful set — it’s a task that one day I’d like to chase.

The cards are beautifully designed, both front and back. The front’s feature bright-colored artistry, that for he most part features damn-good portraits of the players. Oddly enough, however, the Willie Mays in this set might be the ugliest vintage Mays to exist. Sadly, I can’t say that I own one.

But I do own a few Red Sox commons, as well as the first card from the set, none other than Jackie Robinson, and as of Friday, I now own the Eddie Mathews.

The Mathews card, the image of which will always be stuck in my head, party because of Dayf’s site header image, is probably as close as I’ll ever get to actually owning Mathews’ rookie, which is the very last card in the 1952 Topps set and carries a hefty price tag — Beckett lists it at $10,000, they sell on eBay for no less than $1,000 — or the price of an actual 1951 Bowman Mickey Mantle.

The Mathews rookie is a high-number shortprint. Coincidentally, this 1953 Topps card of the hall of famer is double printed. Go figure.

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Goodbye Old “Friend”

Posted in Newspaperman with tags , , , , , , , on June 22, 2010 by Cardboard Icons
It’s not every day that someone offers you a vintage card (pre-1979) of a Hall of Fame player on the Topps Million Card Giveaway site. So when someone makes the offer, you’ve got to at least listen.

Such was the case Monday when I was offered a 1967 Topps Eddie Mathews card for my 1956 Topps Bob Friend. Neither card is going to be called the best card in my collection, but that’s a pretty fair trade of two cards of decent value — not exactly something you hear about on the site every day.

While most cards being given away in this promotion are commons from their respective sets, Friend is a semi-star who had a pretty decent career, and Mathews, as you know by now, is a Hall of Famer.

I suppose there is something to be said about the year each card was released. By no means is a 1967 Topps card as rare as a 1956. But neither card is really rare at all. It should be noted, however, that the MCG site only has three 1956 Topps Bob Friend cards available and only two 1967 Eddie Mathews.

Anyone make any noteworthy trades on the MCG site lately?

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