August Pickups

[RNH]

Originally Posted by the 'stache

After getting Mr. Gibson in the mail, I was reminded of just how colorful the '75 Topps set is. So, I've decided to start working on the set. I already have this nice '75 Topps Yount. Only the teeny tiny little surface scratch on the upper right hand corner kept this card from being a pretty high PSA grade. Otherwise, the edges and corners are pretty much immaculate. Without that, this is probably a PSA 8, and higher if it weren't for a slight top to bottom centering issue. Still, this is a nice card for the '75 Topps set. When I get my PSA graded card, that will just go in the safe deposit box.



So now to a few new cards. I picked up my first group of '75 Topps, and they arrived today. I'd like to share them. They're exquisite. I'm going to try and build the set as close to near mint as possible. The Winfield and Yastrzemski were sold as EXMT+. I think the Yaz would grade a little higher, but think the grade for Mr. Winfield is spot on. There's a surface scratch on the upper right corner, and as far as I can tell, that's primarily the reason why this was graded the way it was. Once I've completed the set, I'll go back and look at the cards to see which ones need aesthetic upgrades, as the entire set will be displayed on my website. For now, it's a nice card, and gets me one step closer to 660.




I think I have a pretty good idea what at least two of my next few '75 Topps cards will be.

I am also putting the '75 set together. Beautiful set. Huge improvement from '74.

[shernan30]

The start of my 1956 Topps set and a few others thanks to a fellow board member.

[almostdone]

Originally Posted by shernan30

The start of my 1956 Topps set and a few others thanks to a fellow board member.

Great looking starter set. Please continue to post your progress on the 56. I think it will be the next set I start to tackle. Good job.
Drew

[pawpawdiv9]

Originally Posted by shernan30

The start of my 1956 Topps set and a few others thanks to a fellow board member.

Hey bro.....FYI Hunts Auction has several lots that have 56 topps in them. Check them out.. Lots 892-952, yep over 50 lots, some with 20 cards in a group.

[bobc88]

My small Dodgers sub back from SGC today. Two were cracked out of PSA 6 slabs, 2 were raw. The Sherry was an upgrade for my (8 of 12) set in progress. I'm having a hard time finding much wrong with the Podres...

54 B C Labine 081514.jpg
55 B P Reese 081514.jpg
60 Morrell J Podres 081514.jpg
60 Morrell L Sherry 081514.jpg

Bob C

[MattyC]

Found this centered Frank on the cheap. The Maris is now in-hand and the grade definitely is a head-scratcher-- but anytime such a nice card can be had for so little that is a good thing, so not complaining!

[KingFisk]

The Hunter is crooked in the case, looks much nicer in person....and the Dewey is outside of my hall of fame collection purview, but I think he deserves admission, so he's in Carl's Hall of Fame rookies...

[MattyC]

Awesome pickups-- both super strong for the grade. That Dwight Evans is a slept-on RC for sure.

[jb67]

MattyC,

You never cease to amaze me at finding such great low to mid-grade cards that look much higher than the grade. Needless to say since joining this forum your postings certainly have changed the way I go about evaluating a card. Thanks for the all the posts.

[MattyC]

Thx, brother. I remember when I first got back into the hobby after college, and fell gradually into the PSA Registry Set thing. I was having ton of fun-- at first-- but then this uncomfortable feeling began to dawn as I found myself buying cards that said GRADE "X" on them...but in my mind and heart I knew they were not as appealing to my eye as some cards in GRADE "X-Y." And the irony was that some of these special lower-grade cards were actually much, much less expensive than the higher graded ones that I felt were visually inferior, at least to my eye.

I also began to have a problem with paying exponential increases in price (i.e., the jump from 9 to 10) for what seemed to me an infinitesimal increase (and sometimes no perceptible increase, or even in some cases a decrease) in card quality. This seemed like a crazy inverse proportion in the economics of higher grades that led me to look at the the broad pool of lower and mid grade examples. I like rare things and I like a challenge, and I began to sense a fun and immensely rewarding challenge in finding the special, rare low or mid grade example that looks as nice as or nicer than a card that would have cost me much more.

All these musings led to the seemingly obvious epiphany that while there is no doubt utility in the TPG slabbing of cards, to embrace both a company's subjective grading standards and their rendered grades as law and gospel is a mistake. I felt that each collector, were he the one to set the standard, might place a much greater emphasis on certain aspects of a card over others, based on his own sense of aesthetics. Sometimes the collector will agree with a TPG's assessment of a given card, or which card is "better" than another, and sometimes the collector will disagree with the TPG. In the end, I believe the collector is always right when it comes to his collection.

If the TPGs always got it right when determining which card is "best," then logically we would never see a 3 sell for more than a 5, etc. And yet time and again we do.

For example, take a 9 that someone subsequently bumps to a 10. When the card was in the 9 holder, let's say a collector sees it and likes it, but is conflicted: on one hand he wants "the best" card, yet his eyes are telling him one thing while the stickers say another. Now if the collector lets the latter guide him, he winds up paying say $10,000 for the 10. Meanwhile, let's posit that another collector follows his eye, buys the 9 for $250, and subsequently reviews it and it becomes a 10. Now, with the two cards in the same numerical yet subjectively assigned grade (the TPGs are very upfront in stating what they render is merely an opinion), anyone can see the newer-minted 10 in this hypothetical is the superior specimen. And yet it was the same card whether it said 8, 9, or 10 on the sticker.

So once I unshackled myself from thinking the best card was necessarily the highest graded, I freed myself to seek the most beautiful card to my own eye, and also can save an enormous amount of money in the process-- which I would of course spend on more cards, LOL.

For example, for the price of a single card I owned in PSA 8, which I sold, I was able to purchase all of the cards I've posted on this month's thread, and even added a replacement of the card I sold that is three grades lower yet looks better to me (bolder color and better centering than the 8). I find myself constantly "upgrading" to special specimens of lower graded cards and thereby expanding my collection to include images I always loved but never had. But end of the day this is just how I approach cards and it's all about whatever works for each person.

[the 'stache]

I was able to add one more beauty to my collection. I'll get a better scan up when it comes in. But I'm giddy. Mark Belanger, one of the greatest defensive players the game has ever seen, and a man I feel should be in the Hall of Fame.



It's not a coincidence that the Orioles were American League Champions 5 times, and World Champions twice, while Belanger was playing short for the Orioles.

In my opinion, there has never been a better left side of the infield from a defensive standpoint. Belanger and Brooks Robinson were both full time starters at the same time between 1968 and 1975. That's 8 seasons, a total of 16 Gold Gloves available. They took 13 of them. Brooks Robinson, of course, won 16 Gold Gloves in total. Belanger won 8 Gold Gloves as a shortstop. And since 1950, only Ozzie Smith has had a higher defensive WAR than Robinson's 38.8 and Belanger's incredible 39.4. Ozzie Smith beat out Belanger with a 43.4 WAR. But he also played 557 more games than Belanger.