January Pickups
 

Very nice Garvey Rookie, Rob. Tough to find those '71's in nice condition with the black borders so easily chipped.

Thanks Phil! I do wish SGC had a lighter colored insert so the card can display a bit better.

I picked this up for a dollar on ebay:

http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/...77dynamite.jpg

It has a beautiful poster of Travolta, but I picked it up for another insert:

http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/...7dynamite1.jpg

It is the second different Rod Carew I have found for my collection on these Dynamite panels. I didn't realize Lou Brock was on the panel too until after the auction ended despite him being right next to Carew.

J.R. Richard is not too bad either.

Dewey as well! Great pickup!

sigh.... as a Lou Brock collector I now have another search I have to do...

John Travolta Dynamite magazine.....

That's how I felt when I found my first Carew in a '79 issue of Dynamite. It's a real pain because sellers rarely list which cards are in the magazine if they haven't already been ripped out.

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...amite+magazine

Checking a previous thread we had on these, it would seem you have at least a couple other Brocks to chase.

Been wanting a 1982 Cal Ripken All Star Program insert for a while now. Finally found one cheap on checkoutmycards..

Picked this up last month, but finally got a chance to look at it properly. The scan doesn't do it justice, the colors are deep and saturated and the registration is better than some of the '53 singles I have. I have a few uncut sheets but this one is my new favorite.

http://www.legendaryauctions.com/Lot...22850a_lg.jpeg

Nice pick-up, David. I didn't even know that one existed. Is it a punch-out "card" similar to the SSPC cards from the 1978 All Star Program?

Phil, all I know is that it's hand cut, unnumbered, with a bi-lingual write-up on the back because the game was in Montreal. Other than that, I don't know much about the set. I just knew it was a Ripken that I didn't have.

Here's a link to an ebay auction of the full program with photos of the insert pages..http://www.ebay.com/itm/1982-MLB-ALL...item1c143e76cb

Anthony - Congratulations on a fantastic pickup.

Doug

Very cool, David. Those look like they are about the size of the Topps stickers of the early 1980's era?

yes, around the same size..

That's a beauty. I love the Mantle at the bottom. Nice pick up

Anthony-that might be the single nicest pickup I've seen-holy moly!

Amazing Anthony :)

I received these today.

While they pale in comparison to Anthony's uncut sheet (does my jealousy show? Insert smiley face here), a hole in my collection has been quite nicely filled.

Doug

Stuff
 

Anthony---awesome

Doug--I picked up those two stamps a few years back and then ended up with a progressive proof of the Gehrig from Topps Vault. The only reason I got them was, like you ,"to fill a hole" ,,,in my case for items listed under Topps in the SCD Standard Catalog. Glad to know someone else out there is as weird as I am. But at least we are normal compared to bobsbbcards ;)

Here are some cards I picked up from my buddy Chris for my Dodger collection.

Hey, that Campy card looks very much like one I traded to a dealer back in 1989 for an Ex Whitey Lockman. The Lockman was priced at eight bucks, so I guess the market has fluctuated somewhat. I love well-worn cards, even in the slabs.

Anthony - What a huge pickup! And with two of the key cards of that set on it. Wow.

Real happy with these 2, btw any could scratch removers for tpg plastic holders? Thanks.

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/q...lpm/Munson.jpg

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/q.../mathews57.jpg

Anthony - The 1953 Bowman pickup is fantastic - best uncut sheet of that vintage I've ever seen, and the presentation is beautifully done. Congrats.

Mantle, Shmantle...
 

Check out the Big Bear in the second row - have always loved that card.

Nice pickups Patrick. Love the Munson!
Drew

Love that Munson!

Bowman Printing Process
 

Should be another thread, I know, but examining this sheet closely, I had to wonder: even if this 32-card sheet was cut down from a larger 64-card sheet, why does it have at least two sides that are handcut? You can see very uneven cutting on the left side near Reese and along the top above Minoso. I doubt it would have anything to with Bowman's earlier problems with the 1952 football cards, as that involved a 36-card sheet that was too large for the 20-inch press. So, maybe someone just decided to cut more than one side of this sheet for some strange reason?

I have heard from kids or nephews of at least three Zabel Brothers employees as a result of my blog and all of them indicated that sheets were brought home for them to play with and that in most instances they cut them down themselves.

Here's a comment I got a while ago on my Zabel Brothers post, I have received similar message from other family members as well to this effect:

"Bowman baseball cards were printed by Zabel Brothers Co., Inc., at 5th and Columbia Avenues in Philadelphia. Later the same company printed the Topps cards. My grandfather William E. Zabel, Sr. was the President of the company and my uncle William E. Zabel, Jr., was the Vice President. The company's plant was quite large and they had maybe three dozen presses of various sizes and vintages. I seem to remember being told that it was the largest printer in Philly.

I was 8 years old in the summer of 1951 and my grandfather made a present to me of a full set of uncut sheets of the 1951 Bowman baseball cards which I thumb-tacked to my bedroom walls in our summer house in Ocean City, NJ. He gave me full sets of sheets of all Bowman cards through 1959 or 1960. I kept them in my closet along with individual cards (Bowman and Topps) that I also collected and traded with friends.

The Bowman cards were printed on a German-made multi-color press (I think it was a Heidelberg)from zinc plates, one for each of 4 ink colors. Before printing actually began. the press ran a sheet through each color, one at a time. I once had a full set of sheets of the 1953 Bowman cards of 1 color each (yellow, blue, magenta and black I think).

Like so many of us, my mother tossed all of my collection into the trash one year when I was in college, probably 1965.

In 1962, I had a summer job at the printing plant. For the most part I was relegated to compacting printers waste in a hot and humid basement room. But my uncle gave me a really dirty job going through thousands of the accumulated zinc printing plates in a HUGE basement storage area, cataloging them, and then deciding which ones to keep (for possible later reprinting) or throw out (because who would ever want to reprint them?). The plates were from maybe 20 years of all of Zabel Brothers full color jobs). I found the zinc plates of the Bowman and Topps baseball cards (one plate for each color). We decided that there would never be a reason to reprint the same sheets as the players change every year. So we threw them out. (Actually I think they were sent to a scrap metal dealer so it is possible they survived someplace, though I doubt it.) We didn't have any inkling that the value of the cards would increase over time, we just assumed old cards were worthless and kids would only want the current year's players. Not much foresight......

I can't tell you the year that Zabel Brothers took over printing of Topps cards but it would have been in the mid-to-late 50s."

Hunts Bread 3000 hit batters and aftermarket Kelloggs 3-D retail pack of some sort with Lou Brock on the front. I've seen aftermarket Topps packs, but never Kellogs, does anyone know anything about them? The other cards in the pack are Santo, Short, Beckert, Hisle, and Hundley.

"I have heard from kids or nephews of at least three Zabel Brothers employees as a result of my blog and all of them indicated that sheets were brought home for them to play with and that in most instances they cut them down themselves.

Here's a comment I got a while ago on my Zabel Brothers post, I have received similar message from other family members as well to this effect:......"

Dave: Thanks very much for your input - fascinating stuff indeed.

A new addition to my hall of fame collection, OPC Ozzie Smith RC...

53 wax pack
 

I picked this one up! I always wanted a 1953 Topps wax pack.

1953 Pack
 

Great pack. That was a tough one for me. Only 54, 56 and 58 seemed tougher

Don't own any graded unopened packs myself - are those PSA slabs made with exta deep pockets because it appears that the gum is bulging somewhat and would maybe crack or shatter if compressed?

57
 

My latest '57, a biggie, UER Aaron (not a lefty):

http://i434.photobucket.com/albums/q...pm/57Aaron.jpg

Sharp 57 Aaron Patrick. Deffinatly a card in my "someday" list
Drew

'56 Topps...
 

Picked up this Feller for my '56 Topps set...puts me about 1/3 of the way complete...

http://www.collectorfocus.com/images...200-bob-feller

Nice pick up Matt--great corners/centering on that Feller...congrats

Wild Tales
 

Then, on his next at-bat, Cool Papa hit a mile-high pop-up that struck him in the privates as he was sliding into home plate.

Finished my '79 Set!!!
 

Thanks Jarrod!

Some progress towards my 1959 and 1977 Topps sets, respectively...

1959 Fence Busters
 

Matt---while it is not a variation listed in SCD or elsewhere that I know, this card can easily be found with a appears to be hand scratched "A" above the joined shoulders of Mays and Ashburn. There is a PSA 8 on ebay now with the A

I entitled this Fence Busters, I meant Hitting Kings

Thanks! Not sure if I'm going to try for a Master set yet...but good to know! Matt

Eye strain
 

Was the "A" a block letter or script? - because, unless i'm imagining it, there appears to be a script "A" between them on Matt's card. Maybe it's just a surface ding though.

Dang it, Al!

Thanks for putting a hole in my 1959 set.

Sarcastically yours,
Doug

Just picked this up today.It's off center, but so am I.