2020 Recap: Your Favorite Pick-Ups And Why

[Exhibitman]

1947 Sports Exchange Mini Warren Spahn RC. After being repeatedly skunked on a Tip Top I did some further research and learned about this card, so I grabbed a full sheet. I could readily cut it down to a PSA 8 or better, but I don't give a shit; I have no intention of selling.



1947-66 Exhibit Lindell Holloway Back. I picked up my first Holloway Black Cow Sucker back at the 2019 National. This year I was able to fill in the 'no-cow' variation.



I wish I'd purchased it a few years ago.

[gustomania]

Probably my favorite pickup just because I love the 56 Koufax!

[jb67]

Great thread Adam.

I have been looking for the 68 Uniroyal Bench card forever. Pretty much figured I might not ever find one. Then all of a sudden this popped up. Then I managed to find the complete Uniroyal set in the album shortly after that. Funny how you think you will never land something and then all of sudden two opportunities present themselves so close together.

[hcv123]

Had been searching for about 30 years - full story in a thread I started when I got it a few months back. Still "floating" about it.

[DeanH3]

I found myself buying more 50's/60's this year due to the escalation of many pre-war cards. I decided to re-acquire some of my favorites I sold off to help fund my pre-war purchases many years ago.

'57 Mays. Such a tough card to find with nice eye appeal. This one checks all the boxes for me.



'61 Aaron. This pose has always been a favorite. Very different from the rest of Aaron cards.



An impulse buy that I have no regrets about. The clarity of this postcard is awesome. And I've always liked the pose. I was some what surprised at the relatively low population number.

[smrtn240]

Please sell me your strip card David

[gustomania]

Ok, so clearly liked this one so picked up another from MattyC

Originally Posted by gustomania

Probably my favorite pickup just because I love the 56 Koufax!

[Natswin2019]

This is probably my favorite post war pick up from this year. It was my first ever "big card" purchase after returning to the hobby.

[irv]

I've struggled with this question but I've concluded that picking up my last 3 cards to finish my 52 Topps low number run was likely the collecting highlight of 2020 for me.

I have also picked up some other great cards this year including my Page bio back/err on a 52 Topps Johnny Sain card, but I can't leave out some of the great hockey card purchases I made prior to the huge price increases everyone is now familiar with.
Real happy with those and my decision to pursue some of the cards I had in my youth.

[jchcollins]

I got out of a brief foray into the prewar business earlier this summer, just due to the overwhelming expense of it even in super low grade. Regardless of my available funds or ability to spend disposable income on cards, I apparently have an invisible limit in my brain that just thinks certain things are ridiculous - and to say that did not jive well with prewar vintage is a gross understatement. So, with some of the proceeds there I added these:

‘72 Aaron base card. I’m working on the set, but have always dug the color pop on this. Classic looking baseball card. This one was a PSA 7 that I busted, because I thought it was fairly undergraded once I actually got the card in-hand:



‘55 Bowman Banks. I’m a Cubs fan, and at some point had a raw lower grade copy of this card years ago. Always regretted getting rid of it:



Reggie RC. A card I have wanted since I was a kid, but for some reason had never managed to pick up before:



‘59 Mantle. This one I will admit was very much an LCS impulse buy, but when I saw how clean the surface on it was, I knew I was going to fork over the money. Even in higher grade, you normally don’t find this card without at least some minor print snow or print funk going on in either the background behind his head, or on the red. In my early 20’s, I briefly had a PSA 7 copy back when that was only about a $500 item. This one has a nicer overall surface and color than that one did:



‘71 Clemente. I’ve always just loved the pose on this card, and the fact that it was his World Series MVP year, and kind of Roberto proving to the world once and for all he was the real deal. I have owned it before, but only in lower grade raw versions. I thought a 6 was decent, since truly high grade slabs on this card exploded some time ago:



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[vintagebaseballcardguy]

As I mentioned in another thread, I got back to my 1950s collecting roots this year and sold off some modern and prewar to help finance it. It's been a good year, and I feel pretty blessed. These are the highlights for me. The '50 Robinson isn't exactly high grade, but I love it all the same.

[jchcollins]

Robert I'm still miffed I didn't pickup a '50 Bowman Yogi back in July when I got the Reggie and that Banks card. I nearly pulled the trigger on about 3 of them. Nice cards!

[vintagebaseballcardguy]

Originally Posted by jchcollins

Robert I'm still miffed I didn't pickup a '50 Bowman Yogi back in July when I got the Reggie and that Banks card. I nearly pulled the trigger on about 3 of them. Nice cards!

Thanks, it's always been one of my favorite Yogis. And, fwiw, I feel that way about your '55 Bowman Banks. Great card!

[jchcollins]

Originally Posted by vintagebaseballcardguy

Thanks, it's always been one of my favorite Yogis. And, fwiw, I feel that way about your '55 Bowman Banks. Great card!

I remember what happened now, I bought a '54 Topps Berra instead. That's probably a more sentimental card for me in terms of my childhood collecting. That would have made this list, but I didn't have a scan handy.

And PS you know I drool over that '52 Jackie. Outstanding baseball card!

[leaflover]

I think the HOF'ers from the '54 set might become a quest for 2021.