1966 Topps Baseball Wantlist

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Random Cool Stuff

Random image
I was not able to do much thinking about a post topic the past few days. I have been planning my 50th in Portland,OR -a beer safari. Technically I will not there on my birthday-but whose picky! I thought I would share a few images of items I ran across on the Bay and one random triple auto I acquired. The first one is the "If I only had the money!" Someone was offering the complete run of Topps Football in complete sets-many graded. For the BIN price of $34,999 it could have been yours. 
Let us file the next one under "You couldn't do this now" Here is Minor League card of fan favorite Lance Berkman-it is wrong in so many ways. The nipples alone would be an issue-but at least they had a sense of humor!
I am going to file these away in the category of "If I could fly, I'd be coming right back home to you" 

This one under "I didn't know the Rockets played football"
and this one under "Look Ma no cavities"
and this one under "White guys can jump"
Last but not least this one goes in to the "Autograph obsession has gone to far" file. I bought a couple of boxes from Steel City Collectables and they included a pack of MSL Soccer and USA Football. From the USA Football pack I pulled a triple auto!!! of some........under 16 Canadian! players, are you kidding me? Though a couple of kid's autos are more legible than many pros. Maybe in like 10 years they will be in the CFL. 


Saturday, February 18, 2017

Next Stop, Sacramento #4

A while back friend of the blog Mr. Haverkamp commented on my posting on Wally Moon in which I showed Wally on the cover of the April 22 1957 SI. Skip ahead a little while and I had the joy of running into Mr. Haverkamp at the Serramonte Show last month when he so kindly provided me the magazine!!! Thank you-I have a box of minis for you.

He found me going through the vintage dealer from whom I grabbed a ton of vintage Cardinals’ football cards at the San Leandro Show. Chatting while hitting the boxes I pulled the following cards-1958 Topps Chicago Cardinals Carl Brettschnieder Rookie Card, 1966 Philly Gum #196 Referee Signals,
and after a reader commented on the 1968 Topps cards having two different paper varieties-cream and white I decided to pick up these varieties-however, being in the middle of my great organization project I didn’t know which ones I already had! SO, I picked up #8 Jim Bakken (cream),  #112 Jerry Stovall (white),
and #138 Ken Gray (white). I also dug up a 1969 4 in-1’s Roy Shiver, 1971 2nd Series unmarked Checklist (who doesn’t love checklists?), and a 1971 Jackie Smith.

Well that is a wrap on the too infrequent card show.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

In Denial about Alex Reyes

So yesterday it was announced that future Redbirds' pitching star Alex Reyes will have Tommy John surgery and miss the season-I am still in denial.

The 1969 Football Cardinals-Hey at least they were consistent!

Here is # 44 John Gilliam booking down the field for the Big Red against the Steelers on October 5th at home.

I had to check to see if I had already written about the 1969 Football Cardinals because their Wiki entry looks so much like the previous one. The Cardinals (Chicago and St. Louis) reached the 50-year mark of being in the NFL-but they also met the dubious mark of 21 straight seasons with out getting to the playoffs! They were 4-9-1 and gave up the second most passing touchdowns at 38 in pro football history! Hey at least they accomplished something. This really gets to the point about moving franchises-especially since we have seen the Rams and the Chargers move recently and possibly the Raiders-it always seems like the loosing teams move as if THAT is the issue-you put a good product on the field and fans will come. You put a crappy team on the field then start asking for a new stadium or else then the already small crowds dwindle. Which of course the owners say that they have no support-yes this is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. This team had one “rookie” card for Larry Stallings, who had already played with the Big Red for 6 years! The one rookie who didn’t get a card but played in 13 games was fan favorite-and one of my personal favs, Roger Wehrli who was a Defensive back and would play in 193 games in the NFL all with the Big Red.  He was in the top 10 for two seasons for fumbles recovered, interceptions, and interceptions returned for T.Ds. He would also play in 7 Pro-Bowls. It has been said that “Roger Staubach claims the term "shutdown corner" originated as a description of Wehrli”. Oh yeah, did I mention he is in the Hall of Fame!


Topps was the only major card producer as was the case the year before. Topps issued a 264 card set in two series-both at 132 each. What I think is unique is the differences between the two are easy to see. Series one fronts have no border! While series two has a white border. So a few of the backs, 10, feature a puzzle of Fran Tarkenton.  Packs of 1969 Topps included one of my favorite football insert the 4-in-1’s and the team mini-album meant to be used for the stamps.


The fronts are really sharp and vivid there were three colors used for the Cardinals-Blue, Yellow, and Orange. Again first series are with out borders and second with , players info was at the bottom in a white box. Player photos were headshots or posed action like shots.

Topps however dropped the ball on the reverse, which was white and green lettering on a black vertical background.  Two pluses-one there was a lot of info on the player a nice little paragraph, as well as they dumped the “magic” rub off backs! Instead a cool cartoon about said player.

Who doesn’t love the 4-in-1’s? The Cardinals would have a total of 10 of these, which includes a variation of the Charley Johnson one. According to Vintage Football Card Gallery one of the variations has Johnson's name in white on blue, and the other variation has his name in red on yellow-I have seen more examples this version on EBay than the other.


The one oddball I could find was Glendale Stamps, which included 12 Cardinals. The Vintage Football Card Catalogue doesn’t indicate how they were issued but the fronts have the players picture and the back player name and team, as well as instructions on how to use them. These were issued in team just bought a sheet while typing this. The exact one!

 This is what they look like when separated.

Score card We have 9 of 11 regular Topps (missing Larry Stallings and Charley Johnson) and 1 of the 4 in-1’s and Glendale 12 of 12.

Stay tuned to see if the Cardinals make the playoffs in 1970, hint they don't.

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Next Stop, Sacramento #3

OK, I think this series more go more than 3 posts-I am nearing the end of my great organization product of 2017. I have filed away al of the Cardinals' Topps and other manufacturers, the former Redbirds I hold on to, and then I just finished organizing other players I hold on to. Next up relics, game used, autos, and vintage. Any way, here are the non-Redbird or new and old Redbird autos picked up for $2 per. New Redbird Dexter-thankfully not Cub card-2014Panini Prizm.
Wow-when I picked up the next card I assumed he was with the Redbirds for a few seasons but alas only with the Birds in 1988 for 60 games Bob Horner 2013 Panini Home Town Heroes Left their Marks
Curent Redbird Jedd Gyorko has grown on me and for $2 I am.  2013 Bowman Sterling.
Former Redbird and member of the all-handsome team Mark Mulder-there are two versions of the card so I had to get them both. 1999 Just Rookies.

Now three random autos-Andre Thornton, Tony Fernandez 2013 Panini Home Town Heroes. The logo less Home Town Heroes have been fun to pick up.

Last auto picked up a Minor League Charley Blackmon 


Monday, February 6, 2017

Next Stop, Sacramento #2

I can't say I go out of my way to pick up cards of players and teams I don't collect but I do love certain card sets-Topps Reserve, Topps Pristine, Topps Finest, 2009 UD OPC. So i did add a few more from the Serramonte show the weekend before last-2005 Topps Finest Lance Berkman Red #344/399
2006 Topps Finest Morgan Ensberg Blue Refractor #262/299 
2006 Topps Finest Bobby Abreu Blue Refractor #251/299
2006 Topps Finest Roy Oswalt Blue Refractor #280/299
2006 Topps Finest Javy Lopez Red Refractor #70/250
2006 Topps Finest Kerry Wood Red Refractor #67/250

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Next Stop, Sacramento #1

This past weekend was the some what quarterly Toy/Card Show-as I have ranted before we only have a few in such a large metro-I suspect because we have a large population of immigrants the Card culture hasn't really taken hold yet-it will but it hasn't yet. I think the Card show at Serramonte may be a dying thing. Of Course, I only collect one team and once I have hit the vendors and wipe them out that is it. However, I noticed fewer card vendors than previously. Any who it was wonderful to see Mr. Fuji, the legendary blogger of San Jose Fuji and friend of the blog Mr. Haverkamp. I will do a two or three part posting. First off there was only vendor with a dime box. There were several with $1 boxes or 25 for 20-yep a real bargain. This first part will show the Yadi pickups, autos, and other Redbirds. Then I will show off the wonderful vintage magazine from Mr. Haverkamp and vintage football. So why Sacramento? I hear there is a show there-Sac is about 2 to 2 1/2 hours from us but does have several breweries we haven't been to. Weekend get away with mi sposa.

Yadi! 2014 Topps Chrome Top Shelf
Waino!


More Redbirds!




The Young Ones




To wrap up  post #1 Redbird Autos and relics-Sam the courtesy of Mr. Fuji whom I joined when he was in the middle of $2 autos and relics. The McCarver relic was the best score for $2