June Pickups
 

Just got this Mays in the mail. Love the action shot! Possibly a new favorite.

Great looking Mays...love that card. I recently got the same card back from SGC, not nearly as nicely centered as yours.


This came in the mail today for my latest 68 set...nice clean raw Mick. I've always loved the 68, doesn't seem to get as much love as the others...

https://i.ibb.co/S7bHFx0/68-Mick.jpg

I have been going back and forth about putting a 68 set together. But there are some killer cards in that set that keep me just thinking about it at this point.

Butch..

Well centered, great picture! That’s an amazing 2.5

Mays sliding in is a great image, one of my favorite 50's cards. Very nice pickup

Thanks for the compliments guys!

That 68 Mantle is a good looking card also. I was think about picking up one in the near future.

Picked up this 55B for my Mantle run, thought it had great eye appeal!

https://createauctioncdn.azureedge.n...0_1_246380.jpg

Great looking Willie.

I love multi-HOFer leader cards.

https://baseball-trivia-game.com/images/70_ll_b.jpg

Hit the local annual WSSCA Sports Collectible Convention here in Lynnwood Washington this morning. 57 vendors...solid show. Not as much vintage as last year but easily the most I've seen for a Washington show.

Lot's of way over Ebay pricing as per usual...some vendors were more interested in visiting and sharing their collection than selling...lol...but some good deals were to be had. Picked up a few 53's (FINALLY got Jim Gilliam!) and others. Got a great deal on this nice raw 68 Mays...my second set is coming along nicely.

https://i.ibb.co/rc3FQJ3/68-Mays.jpg



My brother is down to 7 67 highs for his set, picked up a really nice Red Sox team at a very nice price...but not much for Topps high numbers. Love hitting the local shows! Wish we had more...(attendance seemed rather good as well).

Picked up another 53-55 Dormand...I sure love these. Sitting at 14, with 4 currently waiting to be graded with SGC right now. This will be a long slow build...loving the challenge. Jerry Coleman...


https://i.ibb.co/xF7nqvW/53-Coleman.jpg

1968 Mantle
 

Picked this up from a board member. Thanks Reed!

https://i.imgur.com/qFMvStml.jpg

Sometimes you gotta celebrate the (extremely) minor victory. Anyone trying to put together a real sharp, centered 1972 Topps set knows the pains of finding certain cards that fit the bill. Ken Boswell In Action, from my Mets, is a wickedly hard card to find anywhere near centered top to bottom (and this is the red streak variation). The curve above his name is always found just a hair away from the top border. He was positioned next to the Hank Aaron IA card on the print sheet, so he shares the same toughness in centering as Hammerin' Hank (try to find a centered one!!), but lacking the star power, he is often ignored, but I'm thrilled to land him...

Attachment 520035

Shoulda dusted him off before scanning. :rolleyes:

Nice Boswell Jolly...I had to check mine...nice and exmt...and OC...:) I gave up looking for centered 72s!!!



So...I've learned one thing when subbing for grading...I've learned I don't know sh**. I thought the Hodges card had the best shot at a 6...nope, came in last of the 4 recent 1953-55 Dormand cards I sent in. 4.5. I give up guessing! I bought these raw hoping to get 5 or 6s...so all in all not bad. But...I am happy with these grades considering their age...35% of the set complete...inching along.


https://i.ibb.co/6Z2QrRT/1953-55-Dor...7278-Front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/KzSB008/1953-55-Dor...5550-Front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0jSfYFB/1953-55-Dor...7885-Front.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/bJ2N3PF/1953-55-Dor...4884-Front.jpg

More for the Lou Brock collection

Kellogg 3 card panel and 1970 square cornered Super

I've been adding a few rookie cards of HOF managers. This one is not easy to come by.

Nice Darren! 72T is a tough centered set. And I think if I am not wrong, there are 2500 cards in that set

Also nice Peter. That's a pre-rookie to the 69T.

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It certainly feels that way. I have like 350-ish out of 787 so far I think.

Mays continues to be a popular pickup, despite the calendar shifting to June...

https://baseball-trivia-game.com/images/72_mays_ia.jpg

It’s not much, but I just got this the other day after a failed attempt to secure a 58T Aaron in a PSA 4 on MySlabs. The seller had already sold it elsewhere and accidentally left it listed on the site. It would have been a good buy.

It left me itching to pick up something for a similar price, so I burned myself out scrolling for a couple of hours going back and forth through listings and comps of Koufaxs, Clementes, Mays’, and Aarons.

I’m still kind of new with vintage, so although Mantle crossed my mind I assumed even a decent looking later year card would be too expensive, but I gave it a shot and found this.

The auction was already at $230 which I thought was a good price. I was so tired I forgot to check comps and put in a manual snipe for around $300 which I later found was $100 more than the average value of the card. Oops. Unfortunately, the last bidder was also prepared to pay as much so I didn’t save any money…

It’s only my second Mantle besides a few other multi-player cards I have, and I like it. It has decent color, no snow, and the edges look okay.

I wouldn’t say it’s undergraded, but it looks way better than other 3s I own. The centering is a little off, but not enough to bother me. I just wish I was more attentive to know the prices before bidding—which is what I was doing for the other cards I was looking at.

But it’s good to finally know, even this late in the game, that it’s still possible to pick up a decent looking Mantle for a good price. [emoji28]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...c70b03908a.jpg




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I had a lower grade Mantle for sale on BST a few years back. VCP was $200, I thought it was pretty nice, and was asking $240. A member made me an offer of $190 for the card. He said he bought $200,000 of cards a year and always paid less than VCP average.

I told him God bless you, he was making a lot of sellers happy buying $200,000 of their below average cards.

The point is that some cards are nicer than others, even with the same grade, and some people are willing to pay more for the nice ones. Keep working on your eye as you build your collection and I think you will realize it's worth paying a little more for the good stuff.

Bought from a net54 member. My first Koufax card!

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...b2f64717_c.jpg

Man, to keep in touch with Sandy's Judaism, I would call that card as delicious as kugel!!!

Great looking card!!!

For '61 Yankees fans: I just picked up a couple nice rookies from The Battersbox.

I had no idea what that meant, so i googled it. Then I had to read a bit to get a feel for the context, and had a good laugh.

Thanks, Dave

Going on vacation for the rest of the month (including a short stint in Cooperstown!) so this might be it for me for the month.

Seeing a picture of a sweet group of old cards like that makes my heart happy!!

One hell of a mail day. Haven't had one quite like this in a very long time.

You've got a great postal service! Nice!

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Picked up a nice group of 1954 Bowmans.

I like that Newcombe card. Don't think I've ever seen that before.

Awesome 54 Furillo!

Thanks guys. I feel like several of these images I had never seen. The set is growing on me.

Yowza!! Slap my ass and call me Becky!!!!!

Thanks. I think? :p

Father's Day Present
 

My daughter got me a box of 22 out of 33 1969 Topps deckle edge cards. The 11 remaining are stars, but all are readily available and affordable. I might as well have all 33...

This centered, sharp-cornered 1976 Topps #300 Johnny 'The Sand Dunes Enforcer' Bench is one of my (and probably everyone else's) favorite cards of all time...or at least from the 1970's. There's a bit of harmless black at the top border and maybe a bit of a Cincinnati snow flurry, but it cost about 1/7 of what a straight (spring-thaw?) 9 goes for, so I was happy to grab it...

Attachment 522086

Very nice!

Happy to add quite a rare card to my Red collection. The '55 Robert Gould, (if you have the statue let's talk).
And a '61 Mays/yaz duo off of eBay for a great deal. For my set.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ba0aa3c5c0.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...114ec98d6e.jpg

Picked up a nice Brooksie.
-

One May pick up/June delivery and 2 June pick ups June deliveries.
Down to 6 remaining to complete my 52 Topps set. :)

Great looking pickups Dale. Quite strong eye appeal on all three of those cards.

Congrats on getting your magic number down to just SIX!!!

Thanks, Larry.
I appreciate that. :)
Edit: Just realized the mark on Russ's cap was on the saver and not the card.

Nice pick-ups, Dale. Glad to see you keep making progress on the set.

Thanks, Jay.
Slowly but surely I'm getting there. :)

This card(?) may not be everyone's cup of tea due to its centering, but it is semi-interesting. There are no 1967 Topps Pin-Ups #23 Harmon Killebrew cards graded PSA 10 and no straight PSA 9s, either...just two with qualifiers - this OC one and another nearly identical one. That's it. So, depending on your pop definition, it could be said that there are "none higher."

Attachment 522472


It's funny how just like virtually all of his 1972 Topps 'In Action' cards, this guy (and the other OC one) has that same leftward tilt happening.

Oooh! Nice 61 Brooks, Phil!

This should count since its Jackie Robinson , I picked this up today at a Mooresville NC Food Lion, which a portion of the puchase is being donated to the Jackie Robinson Foundation

Great pick up Ron, I think that particular issue has a lot of upside potential. And if I'm wrong, hey, at least you got a can o' nuts.

My wife thinks Im nuts

Stoked to finally have been able to pickup a clean copy of this card. Yes, it's OC top to bottom, but that combo with the full bleed borders on '63 in terms of "noticeability" doesn't bother me in the least. I've had offgrade copies of this card with the same proportion centering s-s, and they were just dealbreakers. Other than that, very happy with the color, surface, and lack of print damage overall on this one.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...5b8cdbcb14.jpg


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Nice! I would take that card all day!


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Emphasis added. That exact thing (along with 1962s and 1968s) is covered in my next round of 'Collectorisms'...if I ever hunker down and start trying to finish it!!!

I would trade for that Mantle any day of the week. Frickin' awesome!!!!!!!

Great mailday from SGC! Also, not wanting to start any political conversations, but I am very excited to finally add Obama's signature to my collection!

A heavenly coffee.

Another Kaline! (14 down, 8 to go)

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...5d24370b_c.jpg

Thanks Darren. I figured if anyone could empathize with "low" centering, it would be you. Actually I found it interesting in my research on this card (uh, obsessively looking at graded copies...) that the majority of them are centered a bit high t/b. Even higher grade copies. Once every 10 cards or so you will find one centered like this one. Also interesting, the very light speckle of pink print dust on the upper border on this card also appears on many of them that have a slightly thicker upper border. I could spend hours and drive myself nuts just trying to find patterns in print oddities.

But yes thank you, very happy with the card. It's got a lot of NM qualities, including the corners - but I think the centering would hold it at a 6 if I sent it in. Which isn't happening, at least anytime soon...

Sweet, one of my favorite Kaline cards.

52T high numbers
 

Dale, congrats on snagging a few more nice looking '52 Topps high numbers! The finish line is getting a little closer for you. :)

Very elated to have found this epic card from my youth, 1974 Topps #1 Hank Aaron - All-Time HR King, at a very decent price (not eBay), and decided it was time to grab it before the prices continued to climb...

Attachment 522859

And the centering is actually better than it appears, as the shadow cast by the plastic thing on the left obscures some of the white there.

June pickups
 

I was able to add a few more cards to my 1952 Topps set this month. Still have miles to go though... :(

https://www.collectorfocus.com/image...ous/81196/june

Nice Aaron! That card brings back tons of memories for me. 1974 was the first set I collected and the Hank #1, along with the Aaron Specials cards, are super memorable since I grew up near Atlanta and enjoyed following the home run record chase.


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Thanks, Tom. :)

Those are great looking cards you've picked up, and if that is the standard you're after, you're going to have a great looking set come completion.

Good luck the rest of the way!

There was a discussion regarding off-centered cards in the pre-war forum and both sides (perfect centering vs having the card) had very strong opinions. Your 63 Mantle is a nice card by any stretch of the imagination, but being slightly off from top to bottom shouldn't detract from its collectibility. I think much of the impression that a card is less desirable if it's off-center has to do with the image and layout. My modest collection is probably around 70% off-center one way or another. For me, the individual card wears off-centering better than on other cards. Yes, I do try to upgrade certain cards that are way off-center which in turn detracts from the image, but in most cases, I'm quite satisfied. Now, rounded corners, wrinkles, and creases are an entirely different matter.

Happy collecting to all!

Phil aka Tere1071

Complete and off-centered: 1953 Bowman Color; 1971; 1972; 1974; and 1975 Topps Baseball

In progress and also off-centered: 1970 and 1973 Topps Baseball.

Just got this one today: 1967 Laughlin, showing Dizzy and Daffy Dean.

Thanks Phil. Yes, I would agree that cards with different design elements going on at one border can disguise centering issues better. The '63 Topps full bleed colors at the bottom and their "placard" effect do this; so do '53 Topps and the partial full-bleed element that is going on in that set. I once had a '53 Warren Spahn that was a PSA 5 (MC) and though the border was very thin at the top, the overall effect was just not such that it really caused difficulty on the eyes because the difference in the bottom design hid it. Centering is much more noticeable IMO on vanilla border issues like 1957 Topps, 1969 Topps, etc. etc.

Boy, some great cards this month guys!

Here's my take. 67 Brooks is still on its way to me. Now need just 4 to complete 1967 (Carew, 567 Hamilton, Colavito, 592 Shellenback/Willis). The 71s are all OPC.

Nice. I picked up that '67 Belanger raw recently. Still was not cheap.

Attachment 523344

I meant to ask, what stadium was the 1974 Topps #1 Hank Aaron taken in? The 1973 All Star game was held in Kansas City, and the scoreboard has the same trademark shape, but no crown appears atop it (which would've added that much more pop to the card had it appeared looming over Aaron's head, but I digress)...unless Topps airbrushed it out for some reason, although it doesn't really look like they did. There seems to be a couple of Reds(?) warming up in the background. Searching for footage of the game didn't really provide any help or answers.

Any idea if it was definitely KC?

I think the crown is there and maybe just difficult to see? That would definitely appear to be the base of the KC scoreboard and the green structure underneath that supported it.

It's possible that the scoreboard has a detachable top section? Or did? Maybe when events other than Royals home games were being played, they removed the Royals' crown? Just speculation, but it might make sense.

Here are three shots of it. The first is sometime during the 1970's, I imagine? Native son, Harry S Truman, passed in December, 1972, so perhaps this pic was taken in 1973? He is adored out there, so it could be from any year, but the pic seems to be 1970s-ish.

Attachment 523368

This is obviously a recent picture, but someone must have sprayed it with 'Corona-B-Gone,' because there's no crown up there...

Attachment 523369

And this is a screenshot taken after the narrator stated that Kauffman Stadium hosted the 1973 All-Star game. The lower part of the huge crown is very evident, so it was obviously there. This is quite puzzling...

Attachment 523370

Perhaps, it is an airbrushing job by the Topps art department, after all? We're so used to seeing their godawful 'retouching' work on caps and uniforms, that maybe this was a much easier job, just cutting and pasting parts of the bluish sky around to mask the area? Who knows why...but it could be?? What further points to that is the fact that all (or any) of those prominent, white, vertical support beams are nowhere to be found (or just faded into the sky) on the Aaron card.

very cool collectible

This awesome 1969 Topps blank back Hank Aaron arrived today.:)