Attachment 552218
My 1912 La Azora Cigars Fielding Ty Cobb is the rarest Cobb I own. Only 7 have been graded. Pretty sure Lichtman owns 3 of them. He was nice to let me get one of his.


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Thank you Brian.
I smiled, at yours.
Ben

"I love baseball history backstory; especially when it involves cards."

I figure this thread is a good one for me to introduce myself. I've just started my vintage journey, but as a late 90s-early 00s Mets fan this was the card that really got me into baseball cards and it's still my favorite. Nice meeting everyone!

Here's one that I was admiring today. Really like the pedigree. Adds a little bit of umph to me.

I had just turned 10 years old in the summer of 1965. Baseball and baseball cards were the biggest things in life. The Cardinals had just won the World Series. My Dad went to Game 7 (with clients, not me, but I'll get over it some day) and I still have the program and tickets. The program has since been signed by each of the Game 7 starters. Anyway, I have been collecting cards and opening packs for the better part of 60 years. Nothing will ever compare to the feeling I had when I saw these two cards for the first time. The Cards Celebrate was the first of the World Series cards I got that summer. The colors, the image, the smell of the gum . . . in response to the OP's request to show a card that makes you happy, I'm grinning ear to ear.

My first cigarette card of any kind, Livingston with a Sweet Cap Red 42 reverse. Dad got it for me when I was 9 or so for Christmas and started a tobacco card addiction.

I should probably try and rainbow the card. I have a Sovereign back too

1975 Topps original hand-painted photo for the card:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...t%20McAdoo.jpg

Proof of the card:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...oo%20proof.jpg

Now I just need a scan of my card!

These cards all brighten any day in my eyes. The guys with the beaming smile are the low-hanging fruit here. Give me a totally unimpressed Bill Russell over those guys any day.

And in the heights of 90's Basketball insert ridiculousness, I still can't believe they went for the translucent acetate, Smuckers-inspired theme. Insane, but it kinda works...?

The Mantle was part of a huge lot my estate sale agent buddy brought my way years ago. There were 13 Mantles and scads of other stuff from all sports.
I wouldn't normally love a card with writing on it, but for some reason the idea of some kid scrawling "No. 7" over the front of his pack-pulled '53T Mick has always felt right to me. I just love it. :)
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Found this card in a raw lot in a Hunts auction many years ago, unfortunately someone else noticed it and I had to bow out as it got to over 7k.

Several years later I was fortunate to make a trade with a good friend for it, thanks Jamie!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4a041070_b.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/saFTH35.jpg

This guy makes me smile, and I don't even know his name, because he happens to be attached back to back to the most famous American athlete in the Bulgaria Sport Tobacco set that was released in Germany in 1932.

Brian

A set that is pretty worthless junk era stuff but I like them.
RayB

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...20Card%201.jpg

This is the kind of crap we ate for breakfast when I was a kid. In 1972, Danish Go Rounds had baseball cards too.

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...rounds%203.jpg

It was a very big deal for a 7 year old...

Even though collecting vintage baseball can be an uphill battle, items like this Wheaties panel still make me smile.

Brian

Not to mention a gem like this Teddy Ballgame card depicting his struggle in quicksand to keep from being sucked into the radioactive tailings pond.

Brian

Not a pre-war but, my 1968 Mickey Mantle is one of my favorites, and makes me incredibly happy. It was the first Mantle I ever recieved, after getting a surgery done as a kid, I thought it was the greatest card ever, then. I still think it is, now. Represents the beginning of my journey into vintage.

I grew up hearing stories of The Mick. He's the reason why I collect, what I collect.

https://i.imgur.com/vOK00uA.jpg?1

The two cards pictured here make me very happy, for similar but ultimately different reasons.

In 1961, I was six years old. I'd begun watching baseball games on TV with my dad, and I guess I grasped as much of the game as a six-year-old could. I understood the rules, but the statistics were beyond me (there's only so much math a six-year-old can handle).

I was visiting my best friend when I spotted his older brother (who must have been all of nine) sorting cards of some sort on his bed. They were, of course, 1961 baseball cards. The brother explained that they were photos of baseball players, complete with all their statistics on the back, and that they cost a penny each (actually five cents for a nickel pack).

I told my father about this later that day and he was intrigued. He was an immigrant and hadn't collected cards as a child (although my mother pointed out that she had collected movie star cards found in packs of cigarettes she'd gotten for her father, back in 1930's Germany). My dad had become a huge baseball fan soon after coming to this country, and he thought that baseball cards were a terrific idea.

That Saturday, the family was on their way to New York City for our monthly shopping spree (we lived in Queens, which is technically part of NYC, but for New Yorkers, Manhattan is the "City"). On the way to the subway, my dad picked up the morning newspaper - and he gave me a nickel for a pack of cards.

I held off opening the pack until we were on the train. I unwrapped it - and there was Ralph Houk, newly-minted manager of the Yankees. Topps utilized an eye-opening red white and blue scheme for the manager cards that year. And so the first baseball card I ever owned is burned in my memory. Seeing the Houk card always makes me happy.

By the way, that's the actual first card you see pictured. Most kids threw out their cards at the end of summer, but my father was horrified by that. He got me a scrapbook and a packet of photos corners (remember them?), and he encouraged me to mount my card set every year. Which is why I still have all of my childhood cards, and is probably why I grew into a collector.

As for the T206 of Karger, Cincinnati, by the Seventies I was looking to branch out and collect much older cards. I connected up with an early dealer, a Jim somebody who lived in Brea, California. He said he was selling T206's for fifty cents each, and T218's for twenty five cents. I sent him a dollar for a T206 and two T218's (which I didn't know was a boxing set, but whatever), and included a SASE (remember THEM?). A week later, I got the envelope back. It contained boxing cards of Jim Jeffries and Jack Johnson, and this T206. I was officially a serious collector!

Alan Kleinberger

It's been a half century now, but is there anyone who can look at this card and NOT start giggling like a schoolgirl??? Topps decided that the best usable photo they had of Willie Davis showed him getting plunked????? My gawd!!!!!! :D

Attachment 552932

San Francisco
 

As a Bay Area native and SF resident, these all make me smile. From a long-gone time when the city produced top end sports talent.
Attachment 553024
Attachment 553022
Attachment 553026

I found this blue 1969 Mickey Mantle back in the early 1990's in a Hobby shop in NJ.

I've never seen another one like it. I'm curious, if anyone here has seen a blue one ?


https://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...Mantle50xx.jpg . https://photos.imageevent.com/tedzan...eMantle50x.jpg


TED Z

T206 Reference
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Ghosts, or those without supernatural inclinations, wet sheet transfers

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...8%20Barnes.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...20Rice%201.jpg
https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...hn%20front.jpghttps://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...ahn%20back.jpg

This one.

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...607_164440.jpg

So many beautiful card here! Mine is a cheap modern football.

I've been a Packers fan for as long as I can remember. One of my friends, who was drafted by the Packers to be a backup to Bart Starr congratulated me on MY Packers winning a Super Bowl back in 1997.

My wife conspired with one of my friends to give me a birthday present back in 2006. My friend asked if I had plans for a weekend, then picked me up Saturday for a road trip. I got suspicious when we got to Wisconsin, figured I was finally going to see a game at Lambeau. Sunday morning sure enough headed toward Green Bay from Appleton. When we got to Lambeau we drove past all the cars toward Employee Parking.

We walked in and headed for the elevator and to the field. I saw my friend's son, who worked for the Rams. My surprise was getting to work on the sidelines at Lambeau DURING the game! I got to walk in the tunnel under the stadium, walk on the field in pregame, and even catch a couple passes in pregame on Lambeau Field.

This card reminds me of that game. It's not worth anything, but it is signed and 1/1. I can't get a nicer one anywhere. It reminds me of my best birthday ever!

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...20Maravich.jpg

So Seventies...Those unis look like packages for wash n dri.

https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/6b/9a/7d/...aa197192ef.jpg

Sorry about Willie getting conked but the card is in beautiful shape.

Alas, only a screen grab.

Every time I look at this card, I get the feeling of a perfect Saturday afternoon in June. I can almost smell the turf and hot dogs. I imagine an "old timey" sounding announcer giving the starting lineups.

http://jasoncarota.com/img/type/h_un...fmann_1949.jpg

I have always really liked this T206 McIntire card, and this scan makes me happy as it reminds me that I like them so much I have three of them.

And that Harry sure can-can dance.

Brian

T51 Williams Basketball
 

I just discovered this card in a stack of Murads that I have not looked through since the housing bubble. No idea that I owned it... found money makes me happy. :)

When I go back and look at the pics in this thread, I smile a lot. Great stuff, guys.

As someone who loves big borders, shown a million times for a reason...

Leon, I like big borders too, as is evident on my E220 National Caramel card of Raymond Schmandt.

A regular, bigger size border E220 of Kopf is shown for comparison purposes.

Brian

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...0Lovelette.jpg

Basketball HOFer Clyde Lovellette's real RC, when he was at the Olympics in 1952. He's the one on the left. :D

I smile at Leard's dangerous batting stance, or whatever you might call his pose.

My local library had a thin blue book called something like "Most Valuable Baseball Cards" when I was a kid, but it was really more focused on significant or odd vintage cards. Wish I could find that book again, it talked about the Hustler T206 claim, the E79/E95 ad piece, and lots of other non-money-centric notes of hobby history. I remember there was a whole page dedicated to this T213 Donlin and it's unique caption. I still can't figure out how they came up with the 7 years, but it's a card I love and is cheap.

Love this thread and all these cards

Love the diversity of cards

Keep them coming

That's awesome!

These cards, and the awesome stories behind them, are why I love this forum.

Here’s mine
 

These would be mine. Wrote to sgc to get ‘em entombed for fun, but there not doing stuff like this yet. Jeff

My version looks like ".200 batter 7 years" before breaking out a magnifying glass.

Brian

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi..._%20Fayard.jpg

The Nicholas Brothers

https://youtu.be/IoMbeDhG9fU

if you haven't seen them dance, it will make you smile for sure.

Yours is closer to my preferred condition!

That's a beauty Leon.

Matty dark cap is one of my favorite cards. Combine that with a tough Coupon back and I'm happy. :)

Superb card. Great centering. High grade for the series.

Centering is key! This is probably still my favorite, attainable card.
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Any Matty sideways makes me smile, including this E101.

Brian (but I frown if his backside is not upright)

Not sure how to break it to you, but your card looks altered.

These cards are always the best.

Thanks for sharing

I have been an avid collector for decades and bought collections by the shopping bag full in the late 70's and early 80's which allowed me to complete sets from 1957 to the present day. One set I feel in love with was the '56 Topps set and in particular, the Mantle card. The Mantle was one card that always called my name but I could never pull the trigger on as I just never had the funds.

Years later, I sold the collection and worked on more modern (at that time) sets but about five years ago the '56 set called my name again and I dove in with both feet. I purchased a big chunk of Frankbmd's collection but still, the Mantle eluded me. It wasn't until another collector here on the boards, who sadly, I lost touch with and cannot recall his user name posted he found his childhood collection and he had several Mantles. We were able to come up with a deal for one of his Mantles about four years ago and I have treasured it ever since. This card has great eye appeal and a crease that really does not take away from the overall appeal of the card. This Mantle and Franks cards are the cornerstone of my '56 set.

And a side note, A month or two before we worked out the MAntle deal, I found a 2012 Heritage Mike Trout just sitting in a box that I had no idea I even had. This card was found when it was on fire so I sent it off to SGC to get graded and it came back a 10 and I promptly sold it and used the funds from this sale to purchase the MAntle. I tend to look at the Mick as the card I literally got for free.