Secret Santa Sign up and Dates

[tjisonline]

Great Sandberg card. Reminds me along the dumb trades Paul Owens made as our GM. Love this card.

Originally Posted by 4815162342

I apologize for not being able to join the Teams meeting, but I wanted to post the amazing gift that my Net54 Secret Santa sent to me.

I have admired and collected Ryne Sandberg off and on since I was a kid. There wasn’t anything better than having my parents drop me off at the mall on Saturday morning to take a few bucks into the local card shop to search for any Sandbergs I did not already have. At one point, I had every major issue in Beckett except for the virtually unobtainable early 90s inserts. As an aside, speaking of Beckett, one of my fondest memories was seeing my name in an issue one Summer in the mid-90s when I won a 6-month subscription for sending a small list of prices I was seeing from that same LCS.

It wasn’t until my parents bought our first computer with dial-up internet access that I discovered additional Ryne Sandberg cards beyond what was printed in the monthly Beckett. The earliest card I ever owned from that extended checklist was the 1982 Red Lobster issue. I only could observe the early minor league issues online and drool, especially the 1980 TCMA Phillies pre-rookie, which is his earliest card.

I regrettably sold my original Sandberg collection when I left home for college, but as I got back into the hobby off an me on in adult life, collecting T206 first and later E105 Mello Mints, I have bought back some of those Sandberg cards and memorabilia for display in my office. I even placed a few bids on a 1980 TCMA in Collector Connection earlier this year, but bowed out early.

Well, I was absolutely and pleasantly surprised at the unbelievably generous gift my Net54 Secret Santa sent to me, along with a terrific personal note:

This is now, by far, the centerpiece of my Ryne Sandberg collection. It has also motivated me to take a bit more seriously the project to rebuild the collection of my childhood. Thank you very, very much, Secret Santa!

Merry Christmas,
Daryl

[GrayGhost]

Knowing I'd love some tobacco, Santa was TOO GENEROUS.

[stat192]

Thank you Secret Santa for the great varirty of autographs

[GrayGhost]

some really cool stuff so far

[mrreality68]

Love the variety and the quality.

Glad I did it this year

[pawpawdiv9]

Got some nice cardboard
My brother loves the unopened box
Pulled some nice refractors
Thanks Santa 🧑*🎄

[nebboy]

My Secret Santa got me this:

[Svabinsky78]

I got this beautiful Hal Chase. Only my second T206. And I will be honest, I did not know how good of a player Chase really was. Also, something I did not know, sounds like personality wise he was quite a complicated person (putting it mildly). Really happy to add this card to my collection.

[tjisonline]

Originally Posted by Svabinsky78

I got this beautiful Hal Chase. Only my second T206. And I will be honest, I did not know how good of a player Chase really was. Also, something I did not know, sounds like personality wise he was quite a complicated person (putting it mildly). Really happy to add this card to my collection.

Glad you like it Phil. I still need that one (& the pink portrait) for my own t206 Hal Chase collection. Yeah, Chase would probably be in the HoF if he weren’t gambling degenerate & supposed game fixer
very happy it arrived on-time. Merry Christmas.

[Svabinsky78]

Originally Posted by tjisonline

Glad you like it Phil. I still need that one (& the pink portrait) for my own t206 Hal Chase collection. Yeah, Chase would probably be in the HoF if he weren’t gambling degenerate & supposed game fixer
very happy it arrived on-time. Merry Christmas.

Hal's story makes Pete Rose's gambling habits seems trivial

I found this interesting online article on him:

https://jacobpomrenke.com/black-sox/...-of-hal-chase/

[Bored5000]

My Secret Santa put a lot of effort into gifting me six different cards. I am always happy to get any Phillies cards, especially a pre-war Hall of Famer. I was only marginally familiar with the W516 set previously, so I was not even aware that poor Dave Bancroft was misnamed in the set.

You can't get much different than pre-war baseball and modern Formula One racing, but thank you, Secret Santa, for including one of my other interests. Ayrton Senna is one of my favorite drivers to collect because he was such a compelling (and tragic) figure, but I did not have any cards from the 1992 Grid set. I love any Senna cards that I did not have.

The Senna card is also the first time I have had a CSG slab in hand. They feel a little more substantial to me than some other slabs.

Thanks again for all your effort, Secret Santa. I love the cards.

[Bored5000]

I had to post my other four cards from Secret Santa separately. I kept getting a "failed" message. The top two cards are a pair of 1968 Topps cards. The bottom two cards are a pair of Upper Deck Hall of Famers. Thanks again, Secret Santa.