December Pickup Thread
 

This was delivered today. I picked it up to begin the expansion of my Steve Carlton run. It goes nicely with the 1972-80 base cards, plus the 1965.

With this pickup, I've coined a new phrase, "Slab Blind." I was so enthralled with this beautiful, sharp-cornered Willie Mays card and its epic centering that I completely, utterly missed the fact that the case was actually cracked and missing a piece at the bottom. Oy vey!! There was no mention of it in the listing, so it just passed under my radar. Perhaps the fact it's at the bottom of the slab made it easy to miss? Who knows, but very foolish. Lesson learned.

Attachment 490483

The seller is an upstanding guy, so I accepted a small, partial refund to pay (or approach paying) for a reholdering, if PSA is even still doing that these days. Thankfully, there is no evidence the card was switched out, and since the 'stain' is non-existent, if there's ever a new group sub, I will definitely be breaking it out one way or another to get it righted.

Nice. Carlton, besides his RC is ridiculously undervalued among 70's superstar pitchers. He has company in this department with Seaver, Perry, Palmer, Jenkins, and Juan Marichal. I get the Nolan Ryan adulation, don't get me wrong - but Carlton owns 4 Cy Young awards and for the most part his cards are dollar box fodder. Makes no sense.

That Carlton is a blazer.

Been lurking here a while and mainly post on Blowout forums. Think I would much prefer it here. I get caught up in the grading arguments and NFT's there and think this would be a better place for me. Focus on collecting what I want and none of the other nonsense that goes on in the hobby. I just started to put together the base run of Hank Aaron cards and I am focusing on making it as cheap as possible with cards which I consider have great eye appeal. Here is my fourth graded Aaron that arrived in the mail yesterday. It is a beautiful PSA 3 IMO.

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Filling in some holes in the Hank Aaron collection with this 1974 Laughlin and one of his Leaders cards I didn’t have yet.

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The centering on that Aaron is better than many 7s. Very nice card!

Welcome, Dandor. Enjoy the forums.

November purchase December arrival.
Just an upgrade to my other Karl Olsen black back card, which is a tough card to find centered and in decent shape. I'm a bit disappointed with this one in hand but that is nobody's fault but mine.

On their way back from Florida.

A card I’ve wanted for quite some time. Good color and image focus (which can be problematic on this card...) trump other condition issues for me at this point.

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I continue to chip away at my 1972 Topps baseball set. I received 49 cards towards that quest today. Some from COMC some really nice high number cards from mintacular on this site. The Frank Howard was also received from a net 54 member, 73toppsmann.

Thanks to both gentlemen on the card additions.

Cheers,

Butch

Very nice Paige

Ditto.

Been quite here lately, but added this Yaz over the weekend.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...0445d3bd_z.jpg

Thanks, gentlemen.

.

Arrived this week!

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That Brooks Robinson reminds me that it's cold and flu season. :D

Nah, that one was taken the day he was crowned Belching Champion of the Orioles. He beat Tito Francona, who was pretty heavily favored, in the final.

Love the '64 Aaron. I have a similar copy raw. That was my first Aaron base card as a kid in the late 80's. Never understood why 64's sometimes get a bad rap. Yes the design is simple, but that's a beautiful card.

I'm loving the Campy's ya'll are posting....keep 'em coming!

Neal, that 63 Koufax is beautiful.

Beautiful! Mine is centered as well, but nowhere near a 7.

A really nice way to end the year. The condition is what it is (and what I can afford), but the centering is magnificent. Just makes me smile to look at it.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...fdc510c690.jpg

Pretty good looking 1, Jarrod.

Congrats! :)

What a great way to finish of the year. Congrats on #311!

Thank you, fellas.

And Neal, that is my favorite Koufax card and what a beauty it is!

Gave up looking for a graded version of this card for my PC. I am not going to pay $50 plus for a PSA/SGC 7 version when I can get a nice raw version for under $12. If grading ever becomes reasonable again I will send it in to match my PC, but until then I will be introducing a lot more cards into my PC in a one touch.

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Nice Sutter and love the thought process….my OCD side says “come on, pay up” but my brain says this makes a lot of sense!!

That’s a beauty, aside from the 56 I think this one is my next favorite!!

The big three from 1972.

Wow, those look pack fresh!

I'm very happy with them. I'm not overly concerned with grading as they aren't going anywhere, but I have no idea why the Mays isn't higher. It is better than most of the 2021 heritage cards I opened a week ago.

Sheesh, SGC is tough anymore. But I will take cards that look like this all day long:

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I mostly lurk, but I am over the moon to have landed this card

https://i.imgur.com/MsTyBR8.jpg?1

Sweet!

Well, damn. And for the issue phenomenal registration.

Wow, I agree with you on that. Great Paige.

That Paige is easily the pickup of the month, if not the year. Great example, couldn’t ask for anything better.

Thanks fellas! My goal was a low grade copy with great registration. This card is perfect to me :)

Well done! Want to trade?

Forgive my ignorance, fellas, but what is meant by registration? Is that meant in reference to the PSA barcode number?

registration refers to how the inks align with each other. Poor registration can create a fuzzy out-of-focus image, inks that overlap each other where they shouldn’t, white gaps where there should be none, etc. The better the registration, the sharper the image.

Here an example of a card with poor registration. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, though. I LOVE cards like this. :o

Nah, it's NFS/NFT

Very nice looking card

Great eye appeal

Yeah, you can't say a card is well-focused, you got to say it has great registration. And you can't say the colors are bright, you have to say the card really pops. And most of all you can't say a card looks good, no, you have to say it has good eye appeal.

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Ha! Thanks, guys. I've always known what that looks like, just didn't realize it was called registration. I'd say something like, the lines are so sharp and crisp, and the colors are vivid, et cetera.

No lies detected :D:p

Registration Poker :
 

I'll see your McDermott , and raise you a Gernert......


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..

If you love cards like this, you should work on the 1948-49 Leaf set. You'll find plenty like this.

Very excited to add this one:

https://baseball-trivia-game.com/images/55_williams.jpg

Real nice 4!

Thanks...I thought it had really good eye appeal for a 4.

I've only recently started dabbling in lower grade cards...I was afraid it'd make me crazy.

I'm happy to report that I can look at this 4 all day long, however, and feel nothing but happy! :D

Nice looking 4. That card should go in the "low grade high eye appeal" thread.

Won these two in an auction last night. Very very excited as Ive been trying to get my hands on some decent low grade copies for a while.

Love The SGC Discount!
 

Nice stuff. I think I'm starting to come full circle with low grade. It's where I started out as a kid, partially because that was all I could afford - but also partially because in general, that's what was available. Makes you wonder sometimes about all these PSA 8 and higher vintage cards you see today. Walking into a shop in the 1980's, it was NOT the norm to see pack fresh cards from the 1950's in the case. I digress.

I moved from low grade vintage as a kid, to mid- and even high grade as an adult collector at some point when I had the means. But lately I have realized that I think I'm just as happy with VG and even worse range cards. I have had my phase where the hobby was about money and grading. But now I'm ready for it to be about the players and the cards again, and I think I'm just done with all the hoopla beyond that. As long as a card is in LG ("Looks Good") to me condition - that's really all the effort I sometimes feel like putting out anymore. Oh yeah, this can be a way to help out your wallet as well!

Congrats on the Mantle, Jarrod! It sure is a beauty...I'll be in the market for a 52T Mantle possibly next year. I can only hope it's as nice as the one you have now!

A couple of the new HOF class. Thrilled about the Hodges!

I'm the same way as you and totally agree for a couple of reasons.
1. I can only really afford low/mid grade cards as a freshish(2 years) out of college almost 25 year old.
2. By nature I think spending house money on a piece of cardboard seems dumb if you can have a similar piece of cardboard for a fraction the price that looks almost as good.
3. I like cards that look like they're old, that's half the fun of collecting vintage cards. They're little pieces of history, it's cool to wonder what they might have seen in their existence.

Exactly. I'm 44 and in some cases could afford to extend the budget, but I'm weary of doing that. They are just pieces of cardboard. As much as I love them - the idea of regularly spending, say a thousand dollars on just one of them - does not make sense in my rational mind. Good luck. :)

Great low grade stuff here.
Congrats fellas.

Low grade can truly keep the vintage hobby alive. A lot more of us can play and collect in void between Modern and High Grade Vintage with these sorts of pick ups.
Love the pics.
RayB

A tough black back to find in nice condition. Real happy with this copy.
Only 3, 8's of this card exist, none higher, in a black back. I knew this card was tough, just not this tough.
https://www.psacard.com/cardfacts/ba...back-79/739364

Wrong spot - delete (oops!)

I love that Paige but you shouldn't discount your Mantle in the running for best postwar pickup of the year! Awesome card and congratulations!

I've wanted one of these for quite some time...

https://baseball-trivia-game.com/images/75_brett.jpg

1957 Ted Williams #1
 

Picked this up at a recent auction

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Wow, that's a great looking '57 Williams! Congrats!

What’s better than DIY holiday eBay pickups? An unexpected GIFT from a N54 member and good friend! Thanks Robert!!! Another major addition to this subset, the rest of which I should easily be able knock out in ‘22…[emoji3526]

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Wow! Noce cards. You have a food friend.

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Nice card Dale!

Sheesh! NICE cards from a GOOD friend.

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Some pickups from the local card shop today - a few nice 1955 Bowman high numbers, 1961 Topps high numbers, and a 1963 Topps Freehan RC:

https://www.collectorfocus.com/image...s/79396/bowman

https://www.collectorfocus.com/image...397/1961-topps

https://www.collectorfocus.com/image...eous/79398/mix

Thanks, Tom. :)

The final piece for my '62 set. Finding a centered example wasn't easy for this card.

Great centering on that one. When I see cards that normally I don’t care for centered like that it really brings it to another level, nice job!!

Merry Christmas, my friend!

Bill, is all of your 62T set that nice and centered? If so that is one amazing set.

Here is my last 66T high number, getting close to finishing the set.