December Pick Ups
 

I just got this 64T of two all-time greats who left us this year. RIP Willie and Orlando.

That is a beautiful card, Al. Well done!

Clean 64!



Ok, bought my first ever 1953 Bowman color card, I've never owned one. I have the complete 54 & 55 Bowman, and was inclined to stop there, but just made the decision it was time to work backwards and add to my Bowman sets. Excited to jump into a new set, been a while since I've built anything outside of duplicate 60's sets! (That wasn't doing it for me...)

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And so it begins! These are beautiful cards...

Fantastic card Al, John the 53B color is such a beautiful set, have fun on your journey.

Just a gorgeous White Sox common here.

Nice card there! I never really appreciated the simplicity and clean lines of the 64T set, but lately it's been growing on me.

As a fellow Sox fan, I've had in the back of my mind a project to gather cardboard of as many HOFers as I can in Sox uniforms. But I only have a spattering so far.

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Thanks! Sox HOFers aren't too tough. Even the ones they've got are hardly inner circle, or even middle circle HOFers, for the most part.

Not a December pickup, but I just noticed Pete Ward's 1965 card says he was the AL's top rookie in 1963. He wasn't, that distinction went to teammate Gary Peters.

For the most part that's true, and there aren't that many to get. There are, by my list, 34 HOFers that played for the Sox, 5 that managed the team and 3 that were in the front office. That's about as far as I've got on research so far.

Many of those 34 players only wore a Sox uniform for a year or two, so I don't know if there is anything out there for them at all, other than a Conlon tribute card. I don't expect there is a Johnny Evers or Chief Bender Sox card, and maybe not Red Ruffing or Edd Roush either. Hank Greenberg was a White Sox executive for a couple years, it would be cool if there was a Sox team set that included him, but I don't know of anything.

If you have any of this stuff catalogued already, send me a PM and I would love to discuss. Or we can just hijack this thread, if you'd rather.

I recently added this fairly well-centered 64 Topps Bob Gibson to my collection for the run of his cards I’m working on. I’m starting to appreciate the design of the 64 set, echoing some of the previous comments in this thread.

That Gibson may be the nicest 4 ever. Congrats.

Thanks, Brad. I’ve had a lot of luck here of late finding some nice mid-grade cards for my Gibson run.

I was happy to add this short print to my Star Cal set.

Philly Show pickups:

A couple from my SGC return today:

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How's this for patience paying off?

Only 18 months after I sent it off, (June of last year) I got an unexpected TTM return in the mailbox yesterday. By this time, I had no clue who I was still waiting on, LOL.

None other than the Spaceman, Bill Lee. He added a note about playing here in Winston-Salem, NC - (which I was too foolish to do the research to realize.) But Winston was a Red Sox farm club up through the 1970's. Glad to see this and Bill back on his feet - I know he has had several serious heart related incidents lately.

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He just threw that on the back of the return envelope?? That is hilarious!!!

This is the type of stuff that makes us all smile. Awesome!!!!

That’s a great one, John. That is so Spaceman for him to throw in the comment on the envelope about the one hitter, LOL.

Yup lol.

Thanks.

Also, in apologizing for it being so late, he wrote "Dying didn't help." :eek:

I assume he meant "almost" dying? LOL. He is still among the land of the living. To my knowledge, at least.

Schrödinger's Spaceman? ;)

Just got this one in yesterday. Might be very bad timing if the news from this morning is true.

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I can't believe it. After you posted this I looked it up:

"Rickey Henderson, a Baseball Hall of Famer and MLB’s all-time stolen bases leader, has died, The Post has confirmed.

He was 65 and passed while in the Oakland area on Friday after battling pneumonia, per TMZ."

Too young.

Stunned to learn this!

How is it that ESPN's site - neither their landing page OR the MLB page - makes no mention of this yet??

That’s why I said…if it’s true. I’ve seen rumors all day about it. Even on TMZ and the local news. But nothing on MLB or ESPN.

It's reported in the San Jose Mercury News, NBC Sports Bay Area, Newsweek.com, NY Post and the Sporting News.

Still nothing on ESPN...

Also saw a headline about Rickey Henderson. It's being reported on ESPN and MLB.com now. Pneumonia are the early reports.

He was fairly young, and I think had a good claim to best living player after Willie Mays died. Has to be Yastrzemski now, right?

Mike Schmidt????

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These guys were in my mailbox this morning.

Not terribly exciting, but I am working slowly on a ‘62 green tint set. And anytime I can find an additional crispy ‘72 high number - that’s a good day in my book!

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Airbrushed 'Holtzy' is particularly hard to find decently centered, so that is a very nice addition!!

Some really sharp '59s to show off this morning. The Pearson looks like a 9 to me!

Today I finished my 1968 Topps Baseball’s Card set with the arrival of the Ryan rookie card and # 490 Superstars. Earlier this month I purchased the 68 Bench rookie card as well as the 68 Mantle. I also added an SGC 3 67 Mantle as well as the 69 Fingers rookie card. All I need, other than more money as I emptied the entire budget to get these few cards, are the 67 Clemente and Rose along with the Mantle and Ryan for my 69 set.

Does anyone have the Bob Tolan stamp from the 1969 Topps stamps? I need it to complete my Reds album.

Happy collecting!

Phil aka Tere1071

Still seeking to trade for in lower, but not trashed condition:

1967 Topps Baseball insert posters
1968 Topps Baseball game card inserts
1969 Topps Baseball complete stamp albums Tigers & Twins
1970 & 71 Topps Baseball scratch offs
1971 Topps Baseball Coins

That’s awesome, Phil, congratulations! What an accomplishment to finish a set with those two rookies. What’s the average condition? Raw or graded or mixed. Show some pics, man!

I’m working on the 65 set in an EX-MT average condition. Got about half the cards, but none of the Mays/Aaron/Mantle or the Carlton rookie yet.

I wanted to comment that your 59 Pinson brought back memories. I received my first 59 Topps back in 1973 when I was in sixth grade. Another collector at my school had the Pinson and despite offering him the equivalent of my next three upcoming birthdays, he wouldn’t trade it (Pinson was a member of the Angels at the time). Because of that “rejection,” the 59 set is one of my favorite designs.

As for my 68 set, I would rate it in overall good to very good condition. In order to complete the set I had to purchase stars in lesser condition. The Ryan and Bench cards are in poor to fair condition, the Mantle is in fair to good condition. Maybe I’ll post them, but there are better specimens to view. The root of the set was my best friend’s childhood collection. He loved his cards as a fan of baseball, not as a collector, so they were well-worn. Upgrades would have been too costly, but I thought it would be a nice tribute to him to add the missing cards in the way he kept them.


Happy collecting!

Phil aka Tere1071

Phil, I would love to see the highlights of your completed '68 set. There is absolutely nothing wrong with lower grade cards. The older I get, the more I gravitate in that direction. It sounds like your set has the added bonus of serving as a tribute to your childhood friend. That is very cool.

I actually picked this up a couple of months ago. While not baseball, it is at least postwar. :D I definitely plan on picking up postwar baseball again as this new year progresses.

That’s a beauty. Congrats!