Thursday, July 31, 2014

Superman That Show - Part 1/4

A thousand apologies for that pun in the title. I'm better than that. Wait. No I'm not.

While many of you are divesting yourself of wealth at The National this weekend, here's a cavalcade of awesomeness from yours truly divesting himself of wealth at the big quarterly show in Columbus recently. So much goodness I've felt the need to break it into four parts. Here be part one, full of vintage cardboard.

1969 Topps Pete Rose. We'll start here, though I did post this card already in my 1969 Topps Completely Red post. This was sorely needed to replace the 0/10 Rose I had had in the binder. I found it nice and cheap, so the decision was made for me.

1954 Bowman Saul Rogovin. This is one of three variations of this card out there, due to stat corrections on the back. I assume this is the most common one. Not accounting for variations, I'm one card away from the '54 Bowman team set. Sweet.

1963 Topps Bill Henry. A lot of '63s have eluded me for a long time. Found this one in a 50 cent bin.

1952 Topps Johnny Wyrostek. What a good looking card. The same dealer had a bunch of '52 Topps for dirt cheap because the backs were ugly from having been glued to poster board or something. However, I've been slowly peeling the offending paper from the backs and I'm left with some very crisp cards. If I weren't such a cheap bastard, I'd get these graded.

1952 Topps Ed Erautt. A little off-center but crease free.

1952 Topps Bud Byerly. This is the only '52 that's in bad shape. By normal standards, that is. It's more than acceptable to add to my collection. Also, it's a slightly rarer black back.

1952 Topps Hank Edwards. No creases. Mostly centered. Excellent. This brings my '52 Topps Reds collection up to 14, which is the 50% mark for the set. Progress from here will be tough, as it's mostly high number uber-rarities. No big deal.

Part 2 tomorrow. Go Reds.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

A Pair of 2014 Bowman Golds

Apparently Bowman decided that their gold parallels from the past two years have been too plentiful. So they reduced them to a paltry 50 copies. Yeesh. This did not stop me from picking up a pair.

2014 Bowman Gold Mike Leake #15/50

2014 Bowman Gold David Holmberg #12/50

And here's a bonus greenie.

2014 Bowman Green Johnny Cueto #93/150.

Go Reds.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Completely Red: 1969 Topps

Everyone likes this set, right? I don't find it terribly great. What I do find great, though, is having completed any team set from the 60's. I've actually had this set completed for a while, but I just couldn't acknowledge it due to this...
I mean, just, yuck. But I went to a show recently and snagged a much nicer replacement...
Ahh. Much better. But back to the set, there's a lot of verycloseups, sans cap, which i don't care for. But we have three Sporting News All Star cards, which are pretty nice, and the Bench All Star Rookie card is very excellent. But all Bench cards are excellent. Also, a nice smattering of RC's and Reds Hall of Famers. So maybe the set ain't so bad. 

STATS:

Cards - 31

RC's - 4 (Steve Mingori, Jose Pena, Wayne Granger, Darrel Chaney)

All Stars - 11 (Pete Rose, Clay Carroll, Tommy Helms, Johnny Bench, Leon Wagner, Alex Johnson, Tony Perez, Jim Maloney, Lee May, Gary Nolan, Jim Merritt)

Hall of Famers - 2 (Johnny Bench, Tony Perez)

Reds Hall of Famers - 8 (Jim Maloney, Tommy Helms, Clay Caroll, Wayne Granger, Gary Nolan, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Lee May)

Flat Tops -5

Alou Brothers - 67%


Checklist:

 2 NL Batting Leaders - Pete Rose / Matty Alou / Felipe Alou 
 26 Clay Carroll 
 70 Tommy Helms 
 81 Mel Queen 
 95 Johnny Bench 
 120 Pete Rose 
 142 Woody Woodward 
 187 Leon Wagner 
 213 Gerry Arrigo 
 234 Dave Bristol 
 259 Bill Short 
 280 Alex Johnson 
 295 Tony Perez 
 318 Jack Fisher 
 339 Rookie stars - Steve Mingori / Jose Pena 
 362 Jim Maloney 
 382 Pat Corrales 
 405 Lee May 
 418 Tommy Helms AS 
 424 Pete Rose AS 
 430 Johnny Bench AS 
 448 Bob Tolan 
 469 Chico Ruiz 
 492 Tony Cloninger 
 518 Fred Whitfield 
 551 Wayne Granger 
 581 Gary Nolan 
 613 Jim Beauchamp  
 624 Rookie Stars - Darrel Chaney / Duffy Dyer / Terry Harmon
 635 George Culver 
 661 Jim Merritt 

Go Reds.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Completely Red: 2005 Topps Total

I think we look back and marvel at the size of Topps Total and Upper Deck 40-Man sets, but if you include the Update portion of recent Topps flagships, you'll find all these sets are comparably gigantic. The difference is repeated players. For instance, 2005 Topps Total features 33 different Reds on 25 cards and 2013 Topps features 27 different reds on 33 cards. So maybe I'm not as romantic about the Total/40-Man runs as I had thought I was, though I still want them back, with a true 40-man roster showing this time. If the Reds professional organization paid you money to play baseball, I want you to have your own card every year. Do it, Topps.

Total dropped their set size this year, their last, by doubling-up some lesser know players. Weak sauce. Among the palyers who only merited half of a card are Edwin Encarnacion and 4 RC's.

STATS:

Cards - 27

RC's - 4 (Craig Tatum, Javon Moran, Tyler Pelland, Jesse Guitierrez)

All Stars - 8 (Ken Griffey Jr., Jason LaRue, Danny Graves, Eric Milton, Sean Casey, Adam Dunn, Rich Aurilia, Edwin Encarnacion)

Reds Hall of Famers - 2 (Ken Griffey Jr., Sean Casey)

Umm...Who? - Around 15


Checklist:

 29 Javier Valentin 
 31 Brandon Claussen 
 53 Paul Wilson 
 60 Ken Griffey Jr. 
 76 Jason LaRue 
 87 Felipe Lopez 
 95 Wily Mo Pena 
 138 Danny Graves 
 159 Eric Milton 
 183 Ryan Freel 
 185 Sean Casey 
 190 Adam Dunn 
 231 Joe Randa 
 251 Ramon Ortiz 
 424 D'Angelo Jimenez 
 525 Austin Kearns 
 573 Rich Aurilia 
 593 Jose Acevedo - Kent Mercker 
 605  Ryan Wagner - Aaron Harrang 
 617  David Weathers - Ben Weber
 659  Luke Hudson - Joe Valentine
 676 Matt Belisle - Josh Hancock 
 707 Ray Olmedo - Edwin Encarnacion 
 731 Craig Tatum - Javon Moran
 746  Tyler Pelland - Jesse Gutierrez
Go Reds.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

TTM Goodness: Chris Sabo, Terry Pendleton

Two nice autos for ya, this fine day.

Chris Sabo was my favorite player as a kid, surely for no other reason than those sweet Rec Specs. 'Spuds' was drafted by the Reds in 1983 out of the University of Michigan. He debuted for Cincy in 1988, garnering his first of three All Star nods as well as winning the NL Rookie of the Year. In the 1990 World Series he hit .563 with 2 HR and 5 RBI in the four-game sweep of the A's. After 6 years as a Red, he spent partial seasons with the Orioles, White Sox, and Cardinals before wrapping up his career back in Cincinnati in 1996. He would go on to coach in the Reds' farm system and would be inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 2010. Signed is a 1991 Leaf #65.

Terry Pendleton was drafted by the Cardinals in 1982 and began his 7-year stint with them in 1984. In that time he won two Gold Gloves and batted .259. Then, in 1991, he signed with the Braves and out of nowhere went 22HR/86RBI/.319BA, lead the league in hits, batting average, and total bases, and won the NL MVP, edging out Barry Bonds. He would follow that season with his only All Star appearance. Five years with the Braves was followed by a year and a half with the Marlins, a year with the Reds (1997), and finally a year with the Royals. Pendleton would soon after join the Braves' coaching staff. Signed is a 1997 Fleer Ultra #535.

Go Reds.

Monday, July 21, 2014

1964 Kahn's Wieners #26 - Bob Purkey

Kahn's, for those of you who aren't aware, is a meat processing company in Cincinnati, known mostly for their hot dogs. They began inserting rather large cards in with their hot dogs in 1957 and continued into the 1960's. The cards were limited to the Reds, Pirates, and Indians, as these regions were about the extent of their market. After some time off of the card game, they began making Reds team sets in the 1980's, and for a few years, Mets team sets as they made their way into Shea stadium. They're still putting out Reds sets, as they've been ubiquitous at the Reds ballparks for forever.

1964 was the first year the cards were full color, and they look pretty great. This is my first card from the set.


Nice and mangled. But, hey. Let's see how well YOU look after being shipped shrink-wrapped with a bunch of hot dogs. Here's the rear, with my all-time favorite slogan to grace a baseball card.


Go Reds.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Show Country for Old Men - Part 3/3

Part 1, here.
Part 2, here.
---------------------
Wrapping up the show haul today. Aw yiss. How to start? Let's see...

Boom. Griffey inserts. 2001 UD Vintage Glory Days, 2001 Topps Gallery Star Gallery, 2001 Fleer Tradition Grass Roots, 2000 Skybox Technique. Nice.

2000 Topps Gold Label Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3. I assume there's an increasing rarity among Classes. I don't really know. This set is like Tek-lite, I suppose.

2012 Bowman's Best Devin Mesoraco, 2014 Topps Archives 1983 All Stars Johnny Bench, 2000 Skybox E-Ticket Sean Casey.

1999 Fleer Mystique Barry Larkin, Sean Casey, 2002 Fleer Platinum Kearns/Broussard, Pena/Claussen. Yep.

Not a card, but it was 10 cents. A Pro Athletics Outreach booklet of Frank Pastore. PAO is a Christian leadership organization for professional athletes that Patore was involed in. Worth the dime.

2000 Bowman Autographs Scott Williamson. In the $1 bin and I had no autos of the 1999 ROY. Easy decision.

Random inserts. 1999 UD Textbook Excellence Greg Vaughn, 1999 UD SPX Power Explosion Greg Vaughn, 1996 Sportflix ProMotion Reggie Sanders, 2000 Skybox Preeminence Sean Casey. I didn't even know Sportflix had inserts until now.

And we'll close out with MORE GRIFFEY INSERTS WOOOOOOO. Ahem. Pardon. 2001 Fleer Tradition Lumber Company, 2000 Upper Deck Legends Reflections in Time w/Hank Aaron, 2001 Fleer Tradition Diamond Tributes, 2000 Skybox E-Ticket. Righteous.

Go Reds.

Friday, July 18, 2014

Show Country for Old Men - Part 2/3

Part 1, here.
---------------------
Let's keep the show snags a-comin, eh? Today we've got some brand new stuff and some older stuff.

2014 Panini Prizm. Same song, third verse for this set. These are a little slicker than the previous years, I suppose.

2014 Allen & Ginter. Been beaten to death on the blogs, and I have nothing original to add. This is probably my favorite design, I will say.

Some slick 2014 inserts. Two of the three Billy Hamilton 2014 Topps The Future is Now (A Victorious FEET! GET IT??!!? Ugh). 2014 Bowman Platinum Diamond in the Rough Ismael Guillon. 2014 Bowman Chrome Top 100 Prospects Phil Ervin.

2001 (I think) Donruss Collections Deion Sanders, Barry Larkin. Chrome-ish reprints of "classic" Donruss releases. And we have some 2014 Panini Golden Age Pete Rose and Vada Pinson, properly beheaded.

Some randomenss: 1987 Sportflices Legends Joe Morgan, 2013 Panini Elite Michael Lorenzen, 2013 Panini Prizm Blue Henry Rodriguez (very good looking in hand), and 1988 Starting Lineup Eric Davis.


Some miniature pieces of cardboard: 2014 Gypsy Queen Mini Frank Robinson, 2012 Topps Mini Miguel Cairo, 2013 Gypsy Queen Mini Jay Bruce.

1983 Reds Yearbook Dave Concepcion, Russ Nixon. These came out of a team-issue magazine. Nice.

1968 Fleer World Series Yankees/Reds. Yeah, the Reds lost, but that Reds logo on the card makes this viable for the ol' collection. And we have a 1978 SSPC George Foster. I didn't even know SSPC put out cards in '78. Yet another team set I need to hunt down. Someday.

Closing up the show tomorrow, nerds. Go Reds.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Show Country for Old Men - Part 1/3

First up, I finally got to the post office and got all the contest packages mailed (except Erik Eckstein - contact me, brozilla). So rejoice, contest winners. The fate of your cards is in the hands of the government.
--------------------------------------------------------

There was a mini-show last weekend on the south side of Columbus. There's a huge show at the end of the month, so I should have saved up and not gone to this one. But I am weak. Luckily, this show featured my favorite type of dealer, and the namesake of these posts: The jaded old guy who has turned completely bitter and lost all semblance of caring. The one who just wants to move his merchandise. He keeps buying large lots, barely knows what's in em, and just wants someone to take em all. He can't escape the circle of buying 10,000, selling 3,000, buying another 10,000 with the profits, selling 3,000, repeat, repeat, repeat, until the end of time. He wants to stop. He just can't. Lucky for me, and those like me, when I can spend an hour digging through his stuff, come up with a big ol' stack, and inform him that after all this time, I've got fifteen dollars worth of stuff from the 5/$1 boxes. Sorry buddy. This is your fate.

Let's check out Part 1, which is a parallel bonanza.

Some 2013 Gypsy Queen White Frames. Noice.

Refractor goodness. That LaRue is my first refractor from 2001 Topps. Apparently they have a non-glossed back and are referred to as 'retrofractors'. Alrighty then.

More refraction. The Platinum Purple Buckley is wicked shiny, yo. 

Hmmm... somebody tore up their local Wal-Mart card aisle in 2011.

And then again in 2012.

Okay, seriously. There were so many blue Topps parallels in this guy's boxes. He clearly cleaned out every Wal-Mart in his county. I wonder how many shows these poor Topps cards have been to before being rescued by yours truly.


1999 UD Black Diamond Double Paul Konerko #'d/3000 and 1997 Donruss Elite Turn of the Century Chad Mottola #'d/3000. Oh man! ONLY 3000 copies exist of these! Cha-ching!

2012 Bowman International Scott Rolen
2012 Bowman Silver Ice Aroldis Chapman
2014 Topps Blue Jay Bruce
2009 Topps Black Brandon Phillips
All good lookin'.

The madness continues for two more parts, kiddies. Go Reds.

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Completely Red: 1995 Score Summit

I find this 200 card set to be quite nice. The design is solid, the stock is good, and there's just the right amount of foil. The design for the rookie cards is kind of goofy, though, but the regular base cards more than make up for it. I think Score was dying around this time, even though they were throwing out a bunch of 'high-end' sets. Too many years of cheapness, I guess. That's too bad, because this set shows me they were capable of being good, but were too entrenched in the low-end market.

As far as the Reds in the set, we have 8 cards, including 3 non-RC rookies (Belk and Sullivan both had cards in 1994 and Mottola had cards in 1993). The Reds team wasn't exactly stacked around this time, so it's a pretty weak talent showing overall. To most, that is. Not me. I love everybody.

STATS:

Cards - 8

RC's - 0

All Stars - 2 (Barry Larkin, Bret Boone)

Hall of Famers - 1 (Barry Larkin)

Reds Hall of Famers - 1 (Barry Larkin)

Non-Rookie ROOKIES - 3

Circumcised Bats - 4


 
 
Checklist:

10        Barry Larkin
36        Deion Sanders
39        Willie Greene
51        Hal Morris
59        Bret Boone
144      Chad Mottola
167      Tim Belk
171      Scott Sullivan

Go Reds.

Monday, July 14, 2014

Sportlots Keeps Taking My Money - Part 2

Oh hey, so, I apparently scheduled this post incorrectly prior to going out of town. I know you all have been staying up all night in an insomniatic haze, staring blankly at your computer screens waiting for the second part to my previous Sportlots post, so my apologies are as voluminous as Devin Mesoraco's stat sheet.

Let's wrap this up.

1986 Topps Rose. Hey, remember when Topps was allowed to put Petey's face on a card? They even put out a 150 card set in honor of his record-breaking hit. And even though we have a Phillies uni, an Expos uni, and a SOFTBALL uni, I'm still choosing to count all of these as Reds cards.

And here's six more. That sliding painting is pretty great. And the bottom middle card, I think, may involve some Nachos Enhancing Drugs, IF YA KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

Picked up about half of the 1988 Fleer Glossy team set. They actually changed the color on the backs to blue, making these much easier to identify than their 1987 counterparts.

Finished off the 2001 UD Victory team set. Not a terribly exciting set, but it's nice to finish. Nice Angels jersey, Seth Etherton.

Also finished off the 2003 UD 40-Man set. The New Releases rookie subset is pretty slick, I say. Overall, considering this was a 'cheap' set, it's pretty high quality. Come back, Upper Deck. I can't quit you.

Sneaky parallels here. 1996 Stadium Club Silver. The base set had gold foil. These rarer parallels have silver foil. That seems backwards. The silver works better.

Then the TSC subset features silver and blue for the base, but silver and gold for the silver parallel. Um, yeah. 
 
And we'll close with a surprisingly tough group to find: 1992 Fleer Update. This was the first time I'd seen anything from this set since I started back up. I have no idea why these are so hard to find, but I no longer have to care. Excellent. Warning: Be wary of Bippage.

Go Reds.