Tuesday, September 30, 2014

COMC vs. My Wallet - Part 1/2

I'll spare you the drama. COMC wins.

Here be the latest cards from everyone's favorite site for cheap vintage. Purchased with money that could have been spent on bills, groceries, investments, or home improvements. Ha! Don't be ridiculous.

1948 Bowman Johnny Wyrostek. My first from the set, which was Bowman's first.

1976 Greyhound Heroes of the Base Path Joe Morgan. This was a 6 card set consisting of 4 players, all stolen base guys. Clearly a play on how fast Greyhound gets you to your destination. Or something. They're oversized and perforated. The back...
... highlights the dubious honor of Joe Morgan's 7x runner-up-ness in the SBs. Excellent oddball.

1973 Kellogg's Gary Nolan. This looks like a hostage photo.

1977 Kellogg's Fred Norman. Oh man. Such 3-D.

1972 Topps Pete Rose IA, 1962 Toppps Chico Cardenas. The former finished the team set. The latter is an autograph replacement.

1971 Topps Coins Lee May. I definitely don't care about collecting the various coin releases. But this was staring at me for a buck. The trigger was pulled.

1962 Post Ken Hunt. I still have a bunch of Post needs, but so many are so rare. It's a joy to pick up any new ones lately.

1976 Isaly's/Sweet William Discs Tony Perez. I will forever love these discs and their odd promotions.

Part 2 tomorrow, kids. Don't forget to vote in the Ugstravaganza finals. Go Reds.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

The Red Cardboard Ugstravaganza Championship Battle

Oh man. We're at the end. We've survived the astonishing hideousness of 100 of the ugliest Reds cards in my collection. Go through the Ugstravaganza Page if you enjoy torturing your eyes. We're left with the Vegas favorite 2012 Goodwin Champions Pete Rose and the bracket-buster special 2013 Triple Play Jay Bruce. I cannot believe that Hal Morris Ultra-Pro went down. But the votes have spoken.

As always, vote for the ugliest card. Voting will close Sunday at noon eastern. Go Reds.

Championship Match-Up: #1 2012 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Pete Rose vs. #15 2013 Panini Triple Play Jay Bruce

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Some New Stuff - Part 3/3

The rest of the JustCommons loot. Yeppers.

1993 Finest Barry Larkin. Nice. I held it under a light at every angle hoping it would refract. No such luck. Hey, there's one on eBay for the low low price of $75. PASS.

Some 'vintage' Bowman parallels of my boy. So much dust.

Donruss Elite Extra Edition. So they kept most of the players from the regular Elite set, with the same photos, but then replaced some players. For instance, Graves and Casey are not in the regular set, but Dunn is, sans foil. Ok then.

A cavalcade of needs here. Love finding Corkys.

Aw man, did I screw up my catalog of needs? Did I order the wrong number? Do I have to check this set again for Reds? Why can't I properly organize myself? Oh wait. It says 'Reds' under his name. TOTALLY COUNTS.

Go Reds. And Go Bucks.


Friday, September 26, 2014

Some New Stuff - Part 2/3

More JustCommons goodies. Aw yes.

Hey, remember Just brand cards? Me neither. I kind of like em though. Especially that stupidly fancy Scott Carroll.

A couple more. And some Classic minor league goodness.

Mark my words. One day I will own every Reds O-Pee-Chee card.

Rube, Babe, Hod, Greasy, Bubble, Evar, Pid, Dolf, Morrie, Chick, Ival, Val. Man, names were so much better 90 years ago. These nearly finished my Conlon needs.

Finished the '86 and '88 Leaf team sets. Sweet. And these stupid Diamond King cards... There are 7 Reds in the first hundred cards, then Dunn, Casey, and Griffey show up again in the 300's. I had never seen em. Then I get these two. The fronts are EXACTLY THE SAME, but there is a different write up on the back. Weak shit.

2008 UD Documentary. Will I finish this team set some day? Not a chance. But I put a sizable dent in it...

Yikes. Go Reds.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Some New Stuff - Part 1/3

Got a big ol' stack of Reds from JustCommons. So many, in fact, that they won't fit into one, or even two, posts. Well, they would. But, you know. What would our blogs be without dragging out card packages, eh?

Today we'll check out the 2014's.

2014 Ginter Billy Hamilton RC. Good lookin card, here. Love the new Ginter. Love the sparse Ginter action shots. Love Billy.

The rest of the Ginter needs. The Phillips is the lone Reds short print. Thank goodness.

2014 Donruss Series 2. Only missing the Hamilton.

2014 Topps Mini. Not even close to the whole team set. But the whole set of reasonably priced ones.

2014  Topps Chrome. Missing the two RCs: Hamilton and Holmberg.

2014 Topps Chrome Refractor Brandon Phillips. Look how excited Phillips is to be on a refractor!

2014 Bowman Platinum Chapman, Latos. I like these better than most other Platinum releases. I mean, the design elements are on the side now. The side!

2014 Topps 1989 Die Cut Mini Joey Votto, 2014 Panini Golden Age Mini Vada Pinson. Noice.

Go Reds.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

1925 W590 Athletes Strip Card Ike Caveney


The set: Produced between 1925 and 1931 by an unknown source, these strip cards are smaller than most at about 1.5 x 2.5 inches. This was a 70 card set featuring 39 baseball players, 18 boxers, 1 cyclist, 2 football players, and 10 wrestlers. The backs are blank. Despite being printed for 7 years, I'm just gonna assume this one was made in 1925 since that was Caveney's final year in the bigs.

The player: James "Ike" Caveney began a minor league career at age 19 with the Chattanooga Lookouts in 1914. After a lot of moving around, he would debut in the majors for the Reds in 1922. He was noted as a great defensive shortstop while batting .260 over his four years in Cincinnati. In 1926, he would rejoin the minor league ranks, eventually becoming a player/manager, notable coaching a young Joe DiMaggio.

The acquisition: eBay. Seven bucks. Sweet.

Go Reds.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Completely Red: 1972 Topps

This team set is a hy-uuuuuge weight off of my collecting shoulders. We are all aware of the high number scarcity of this set, so the pickins have been slim, especially for the Pete Rosea and the Joe Morgan traded. Also, a massive 17 All Stars have put many of these cards at a premium. Some eBay-fu allowed me to sneak up on the back end and finish this set. And it looks great in the pages at precisely 36 cards.

Now the design, well, I know it's mostly loved. And after the gray 1970 and black 1971, Topps was certainly in need of some color. But geez. This is so gaudy. Maybe if I had been alive in the 70's, smokin some ganja and listening to disco I would understand it. But here we are. I'm still happy to have em all.

STATS:

Cards - 36

RC's - 3 - (Ross Grimsley, Ed Armbrister, Mel Behney)

All Stars - 17 (Tony Perez, Lee May, Ross Grimsley, Jim McGlothlin, George Foster, Dave Concepcion, Hal McRae, Clay Carroll, Johnny Bench, Gary Nolan, Jack Billingham, Denis Menke, Pete Rose, Jim Merritt, Julian Javier, Joe Morgan, Wayne Simpson)

Hall of Famers - 4 (Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, Sparky Anderson, Joe Morgan)

Checklist:

3 Bob Tolan
80 Tony Perez
89 NL Home Run Leaders
99 Ross Grimsley
121 Ed Sprague
136 Darrel Chaney
157 Don Gullett
236 Jim McGlothlin
256 George Foster
267 Dave Concepcion
291 Hal McRae
292 Hal McRae IA
311 Clay Carroll
312 Clay Carroll IA
358 Sparky Anderson
382 Joe Gibbon
417 Tom Hall
433 Johnny Bench
434 Johnny Bench IA
463 Bernie Carbo
475 Gary Nolan
524 Rookies Stars – Ed Armbrister / Mel Behney
542 Jack Billingham
559 Pete Rose
560 Pete Rose IA
586 Denis Menke
614 Ted Uhlaender
651 Reds Team
659 Bob Aspromonte
705 Pat Corrales
706 Pat Corrales IA
719 Cesar Geronimo
738 Jim Merritt
745 Julian Javier
752 Joe Morgan TR
762 Wayne Simpson

Go Reds