Autograph Goodness: George Foster, Kenny Kelly, Freddy Benavides, Bill Gullickson

George Foster. You know who George Foster is. I actually already had an IP Foster auto, but it was on one of those K-Mart Topps throwback cards and I never liked those. This was so inexpensive I performed a very rare replacement. My favorite Foster fact is that he was the only player in the entire 1970's decade to hit 50+ home runs in a season. Let's hope the veteran's committee puts him and Davey Concepcion in the Hall of Fame together.

Kenny Kelly played 26 lifetime games for three teams (Rays, Reds, Nationals). Seven of them were with the Reds in '05. He went 3 for 9. Decent.

Freddie Benavides played in 4 seasons for the Reds, Rockies, and Expos. His first two seasons were right after the Reds 1990 World Series, hitting .246 in 98 games.

Bill Gullickson started 64 games for the Reds in '86-'87 amidst a 14-year career with the Expos, Reds, Yankees, Astros, and Tigers. He was 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting in 1980 and finished with 162 career wins.

Go Reds.

Exhibition

Been scoring cards from the 1947-1966 Exhibits Supply Co. set. Nice and oversized. Pretty good Reds checklist. These 5 put me at 7 of the 21. Pretty good.

Vada Pinson. Criminally underrated Reds Hall of Famer.

Herman Wehmeier. Nine years pitching in Cincy.

Ewell Blackwell. Reds Hall of Famer.

Grady Hatton. Nine years in Cincy including an All Star year.

Bucky Walters. Reds Hall of Famer, 1939 NL MVP.

Go Reds.

1909 T206 Bob Spade

Boom. This puts me at 11 of the 23 Reds in the set. One day I will have them all. Then I can start working on the back variations! I pretend I won't. But I will.

As for the player, Spade pitched in 55 games, including 47 starts for the Reds from 1907-1910, going 24-21 with a 2.83 ERA and 113 K's. He then finished his career in the second half of 1910 pitching in 7 games for the St. Louis Browns. When he passed away, he was very poor, so fans raised the money for his funeral, which is fantastic.

Go Reds.

New Larkins and a Big Johnny

Current Barry count: 738

1993 and 1994 Kraft Singles. Unpulled. Adding to the giant collection of 90's unlicensed Barry Larkins.

The Bowman's Best is a 'preview' card, differing only from the regular card via the card number on the back. Score was a little more blatant with their pre-release SAMPLE.

Top left: Finished of my Topps Kids set with that one.
Top right: There were way too many late-80's Fleer sets like this for me to keep track of.
Bottom left: Toys R Us rookie card? Hell yeah.
Bottom right: One of a billion Topps Sticker Backs

A couple of the famed Star cards, but these are the ad-back versions. Which is strange.

And a 1977 Sportscasters Johnny Bench. Goes well with my Johnny Vander Meer from the set. A mammoth 6" x 5" or so. Me like.

Go Reds.

The Smartest Card Collector in the World

That is me. How smart am I, you ask? Here is how smart I am.

I went to a card show two weekends ago. I bought a bunch of Reds autos from a guy, being sure to check my 'haves' list to avoid doubling up. I only wish to have one official and one IP auto of everyone. Among the purchases, this Gary Varsho:

Varsho had an 8 year career, 1 of them in Cincy. Plus it's a Kahn's card, and I love Kahn's cards. But he is also a great TTM guy. So great, in fact, that he was a part of my latest TTM sending spree, a spree I did not sync up with my 'haves' list.

So what comes in the mail three days later? This:

TTM VARSHO OF THE SAME FRICKIN CARD. Unbelievable. Perhaps I will convince myself these are color ink parallels. Standard black and super-rare blue.

Good job, Red Cardboard.

Go Reds.

Completely Red: 1995 Score, 2008 UD Spectrum, 2005 SP Legendary Cuts, 2005 Fleer Authentix

1995 Score

605 cards, 24 Reds

Checklist:

13 Hector Carrasco

67 Johnny Ruffin

93 Jacob Brumfield

123 Tony Fernandez

153 Eddie Taubensee

197 Tom Browning

207 Jerome Walton

226 Hal Morris

252 Brian Dorsett

254 Barry Larkin

266 Deion Sanders

270 Jose Rijo

319 Cincinnati/California

336 Kevin Mitchell

356 John Roper

359 Lenny Harris

366 Reggie Sanders

391 Thomas Howard

403 Brian R. Hunter

418 Joe Oliver

455 Bret Boone

471 John Smiley

530 Rob Dibble

535 Jeff Branson

-------------------------------

2008 Upper Deck Spectrum

100 cards, 3 Reds

Checklist:

24 Ken Griffey Jr.

25 Brandon Phillips

26 Adam Dunn

-------------------------------

2005 SP Legendary Cuts

90 cards, 3 Reds

-------------------------------

2005 Fleer Authentix

125 cards, 3 Reds

Checklist:

 6 Sean Casey

 32 Austin Kearns

 66 Adam Dunn

-------------------------------

Go Reds,

Card Show Cards - Part 4

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3
-----------------------------------------
Here be the rest.

All but one base from 2016 Ginter. Plus some inserts. Either this is a way overproduced set or just everyone happened to have 100 boxes busted at this show.

2016 Topps Berger's Best. I don't know why.

Some autos of dudes who didn't made the Reds big league roster. All made it to AAA ball, though. Here's the rundown:
David Gil: Reds minors 2000-2004. Other minors 2004-2008.
Brock Till: Reds minors 2003-2007. Other minors 2008.
Calvin Medlock: Reds minors 2003-2007. Other minors 2007-2009.
Edward Valdez: Reds minors 2002-2006. Other minors 2006-2015.

2016 stuff. You've all seen it.

Ooh now we're talkin. 1991 Topps Sticker Backs. So many variations!

Couple Dunns I didn't have. Awesome.

And some dime/quarter box finds. I love dime boxes so much. So much.

Go Reds.

Card Show Cards - Part 3

Part 1  Part 2
--------------------------------------
Today will be a pile of autos I picked up. I've hit 300 Reds and an additional 100 minor leaguers. Noice.

 Craig Tatum. 77 PA in 26 games with the Reds in 2009. Then two years with the Orioles.

 Tom Shearn. Entire big league career was 6 starts and a relief appearance with the Reds in 2007.

Mike Lincoln. Two years with the Twins, three with the Pirates, one with the Cardinals, then finished his career with 102 relief appearances for the Reds 2008-2010.

Rob Murphy. Started his 11 year career with 199 relief appearances for Cincy 1985-1988. Then spent time with the Red Sox, Mariners, Astros, Cardinals, Yankees, Dodgers, and Marlins.

 Norris Hopper. Spent entire career with the Reds: 440 PA 2006-2008.

Scott "Moneyball" Hatteberg. 1995-2001 with the Red Sox, 2002-2005 with the A', then finished his career with 1,017 PA for the Reds 2006-2008.

 Brady Clark. Began his career with 242 PA in Cincy 2000-2002. Then spent six more seasons with the Mets, Brewers, Dodgers, Padres, and Mets again.

Doug Bair. Began with the Pirates in 1976, then the A's, then 220 relief appearances with the Reds from 1978-1981, then nine more seasons with the Cardinals, Tigers, Cardinals again, A's, Phillies, Blue Jays, and the Pirates again.

Go Reds. Miss ya, Brucie.

Card Show Cards - Part 2

Part 1
--------------------
More? More.

Start off strong with two oddballs. These are from some price guide. They have a 'quick reference' to some choice card prices. Barry Larkin's 1988 Donruss is going for 20 cents! It's a bull market! SELL! SELL!

Donruss Throwback Threads Deion lovin'. Why throw Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and Brian Jordan on the same card? Oh right. They all played in the NFL. Got it.

2016 Topps Foil Cozart, Iglesias. Hey, these two are still on the team! Huzzah!

Bowman stuff. Refractor /777. Hometown. Mini.

Bunch of Platinum parallels out of a quarter box. Sure.

I curiously had zero from the UD Special Edition Gold Foil set until now. And remember when companies like Donruss included serialed cards at the tail end of their base sets? I don't, because I wasn't collecting back then. But I bet it was obnoxious.

Colorful chromies. I miss these two dudes.

Closing with some refraction. That top Johnny is a Green Refractor, numbered out of 200. Not a bad quarter box pull. Also not bad: Votto refraction. Shibby.

Go Reds.