BB Cards as Xmas presents
 

Well, another year has passed and that fat old fart still hasn't brought me an Anson in Uniform (N172) . If another year passes without that card then I'm gonna stop believing...

Just out of curiosity, does anybody ever receive vintage baseball cards for Christmas? I can remember about 25 years ago my brother gave me a T206 Matty and an N28 Mulvey without me even telling him what I wanted or liked. I opened the package and needless to say that was a huge surprise. My best source of cards could be my wife but she wouldn't know the difference between a T card from a lipton tea bag...

Oh yeah -

Merry Christmas to All

every day
 

Almost every day I get 1-3 cards in the mail. Santa comes year round......and Hanukkah Harry too!! Hope everyone is enjoying the season!!

My wife gave me a half dozen graded t206's for Christmas a few years ago, but the rest of my family wouldn't have a clue as to what to purchase.

We were always a collecting family, so I would get a lot of baseball items over the years. One of my favorites I remember would have been when I was in high school in about 1975 -- my parents got me a complete 1962 Topps set, minus the high numbers. They were stacked in a small cardboard box --every card looked like it just came out of a pack. About ten years later at a card show, I bought the complete run of high numbers in equally amazing condition to complete the set. I still love that set!

Greg

eBay gift cards
 

Do eBay gift cards count? Oh yes!

Cards for Christmas
 

Under the theme of "it's the thought that counts", my sister got me a block (opened from packs then stacked/plastic sealed about 100-150 cards) of Stadium Club 1991 Cards from a local Atlanta Sports Memorabilia Shop. She said "I knew you were collecting and I thought these would go good with your set".

Didn't have the heart to go into this, left it at "these are great, thank you" .. she wouldn't get it, most likely think "E-Series" was something internet based like eBay or eTrade

I got the T206 book...and an ebay card. Quite happy with it.

.
 

That's awesome! Let me know if you decide to go after the set. I think I have a million or so of those in my father-in-law's closet.:D

He helped me move a few years ago, and he saw the cards after I left with the last load. He called me later and said that I almost "accidentally" left thousands of baseball cards in the old house. Lucky for me, he scooped them up and took them to his house so I could come get them. That was in 2002.

I generally buy a few vintage cards I want and then wrap them and give them to my wife to give me for birthday, Christmases. Otherwise I would end up with the Stadium Clubs as well!

One of my favorite things of the year is the gift exchange in my trading group. OBC (some of the members post here as well) every year exchange secret santa packs of vintage (pre-1980) cards. This year I was very happy to run down and open my envelope to a bunch of '53s incl. a Minnie Minoso! A few years ago my secret santa sent me a t205! Either way...'50s or '10s...the cards are still completely appreciated and the gift is always the first one I open every year.

Joshua

Cards For Xmas
 

Every year, I make sure that my son gets a complete set of Topps trading cards. That way he will have a complete run of sets from the year he was born to current.

X-mas
 

I think next year, I will just ramdomly send cards to fellow board members with no return address. That's what X-mas should be.

Rawn

The last 2 years
 

I've been in Secret Santa groups

In 2009 it was the Card Informant Message Boards -- now gone

In 2010 it was the PSA message boards

Both times; sent and recieved cards for the holidays

One of the best aspects of these types of boards is that we can do something like that.

Rich

How can I get on your mailing list :D

Mailing
 

Send interests to rawn@hotmail.com. I'll see what I can do.

I got a SGC 30 T206 Rube Waddell Portrait and the T206 players book. Santa Claus was very good to me.:)

no cards but baseball books
 

Well I didn't get any baseball cards for Christmas. So, I'm looking on the B/S/T boards now. However, I did get two good sounding baseball books in addition to the 2011 Standard Catalog. The first book is "Fifty-Nine in '84" the story of Hoss Radbourn. The second one was "The Last Boy" a Mickey Mantle book. Got them both from my wife, so she did a pretty good job picking them out. I also found a book about Don Larsen (called Perfect I think) at Books-A-Million for $2 the other day. So, I'm set for baseball reading for awhile.

My wife normally buys me something every year. This year was a '61 Bart Starr. Some year I'll get that Goudey Gehrig or Ruth. She's learned how to read my wantlists and listens to me blab on about cards.

I do something similar. My wife will tell me how much she is willing to spend, then i buy that much on Ebay, and when the cards come in i give them to her and she wraps them and gives them to me for the holidays. I do this for other occasions too such as Anniversaries, Birthdays, and even Valentines Day.

Here is a great idea i came up with if you want something really expensive. A couple of times i have made a deal with my wife to buy me something really big and then we decide how many occassions it will be for. For instance, i bought my 1952 Topps Mantle PSA-1 this way, with my wife paying for it and it counted for a couple of years of gifts. Sometimes i will put my anniversary and Chanukah together and get something worth more than just one occasion's gift. But mostly i get around $100 - $200 or a little more sometimes for one occasion.

that would be kinna fun, passing on a card to a board member. Maybe set a limit of $10-50 and each person who contributes gets a secret santa. That would be pretty fun knowing your going to get some vintage card in the mail and not know what.

And for V-Day last year
 

My wife bought for me; or paid almost all of what it would cost; a 2010 Topps Heritage Box. We'll probably do the same this year -- whether it's a 2011 Topps 1 or Heritage Box.

She loves to open packs and see the "hits' --- but leaves the sorting to me --

Rich

My wife promised me (another one of those stupid cards) if I was nice to everyone on her side of the family this year at christmas dinner.

It will cost her!!! For my 5 hours of silence, because my tougue hurts today from the teeth marks.

My birthday is on Monday, so the wife offered to pay for the last Eddie Collins T206 I need to finish him off, the American Beauty. Birthday and Christmas all rolled into one present works out well for the nbice cards!

I have been stalking one since the summer and made the owner a good offer, well above market in my opinion, but did not get a reply. I am stuck with no Christmas or birthday present!

I have a feeling it will be in one of the Spring auctions, but being a cash only thing and with the BP on, I will be in the spot of bidding less than the offer I made. If I can land the AB card, I will be hoping for a Horner Cabinet of Collins next Holiday/birthday season. The rough one that sold last year in REA (I think), will be perfect. I plan on writing my letter to HO HO next week to add a Horner to his bag!

Enjoy the season,
Bob

Xmas
 

There you go Sean, there's another one that gets the spirit.

Rawn

Secret Santas
 

Ive been involved in many Secret Santas before on the old Beckett and now the last few years on Freedom Card Board. They are a lot of fun and what we usually organize, is a low end ($25-$30 range) and a High End ($100 and over). Everyone also gives a few examples of their collecting interests and/or favorite teams, so they get something that they will want as well.

There is also a B-Day
 

Group on the Freedom Card Board and you usually have to be on the board for at least a year before you can join but the person who runs this remembered me from my Beckett days and let me join

Rich

Greatest Birthday Ever
 

Back in 1968 my wife held a surprise Birthday party for me....Everyone that wanted to bring a present gave my wife the money and she went over to Chuck Blazina's house.....Chuck was a long time collector from the 50's & 60's....and was selling me stuff from his collection each week, he was king of the regionals at that time.....That night at the party was the greatest.....I opened up one present and there were complete sets of 1961, 1962, 1963 Post Cereal with the original mounting booklets.....other presents included Johnston Cookie Sets, Peter's Meat set, many Union Oil sets and many other regional sets.....I stayed up all night looking at and mounting all the sets.....She told me he had charged her $20. each for the Post Cereal Sets and not more than $100. for eveything else (of course this was 1968) What A Great Birthday

In years past I have given my wife a list of three or four cards from Leon's site that I was interested in purchasing. She contacted Leon to reserve one of the cards, sent payment, and Leon sent the card. Very easy (and thanks Leon!). This year I noticed Kevin Struss had a nice list of N172's. I gave my wife a short list of four cards and told her to pick one and surprise me. Attached is the one she chose, and I'm very happy. Thanks Kevin!

Dave,

She's a KEEPER (the card and the wife)!!!

I have a great family, my sister has been working on a 1959 Topps BB set for me for over 10 years. I never add on to it, it is her project. I get a nice HOFer or a bunch of commons in VGEX each year. This year she surprised me with a PSA 4 t206 common. My folks also gave me a T206 SGC 40. They always visit Bagger's at the Moeller show. Thanks for all of your help Dave!

My wife also knows my checklist and usually buys me some cards, this year it was a SAMSUNG, almost as good as cards!