LAWIG: recent pickups

It's a little late, and I wanted to get up some kind of post today, so let's have a look at what I got and highlight some recent pickups from ebay and the flea market. I haven't been on Listia for a while because there are just no deals over there anymore.

A couple three times a year, my wife and I will hit the Kane County Flea Market. First weekend of each month, so our first visit was a couple weeks back. In the past, there has just been a single guy in one of the buildings ("swine" I think) with cards. And his prices are a joke - straight Beckett on everything. Did find someone else one visit, but haven't seen him since. Well, this visit I found 4 more guys with cards. Nothing great, but I did pick up the entire series 4 of the Renata Galsasso set released in 1981. Set me back two bucks. But a great set to find, and now I have to work on the other series.

This is no ordinary 2014 Golden Age but a SP. Two things about the short prints in Golden Age. First, they are all have "SP" in their numbers . Topps, feel free to steal that idea. Second, they tend to be ridiculously expensive. Check COMC or Sportlots and look at the prices. I have never pulled a short print, so Spectacular Bid is my first of any year. And while the shipping was high at $3, winning the card for two quarters lessened the blow.

It's not the rookie card, but getting a 2nd year of Nellie Fox for under $13 shipped, in this condition, is worth it. Off center, and it's discolored, but otherwise the condition is amazing. All the '52s I followed would quickly get too far out of the range I was looking at. This one came in at 50% of my high end, so I couldn't be happier. I am also just short of the 75% goal of the Fox Project, so I'm happy about that as well.

All purchases = happy.

LAWIG: Everything has to go!

As anyone that lives in the northern half of the continent can attest to, one of the sure signs that spring has arrived is the sings pointing to a garage sale. You folks down south get those year round, along with flea markets. Here, they usually stop around November and start to reappear come April. For us, garage sales mirror the baseball season.

A couple times a year, the White Sox throw a garage sale (awesome segue FTW!). I have wanted to go in the past, and finally made the trek to Comiskey (I'm still calling it that - screw naming the field for a cellular company you can't even use in the park it's named after without roaming!). One sale is held at the Sox convention in late January. The other is usually not long after the season has ended. A little bit of everything is available at the sale. I should have taken more pictures, so you are stuck with my descriptions.

My wife tagged along, and we got there right when the sale started. Still, there was a line about 150 or so people deep. The sale is held in a break room about 20x100, but they still limit the number of people going in at one time, which is a great idea. Not overly crowded sorting through all the items for sale. Fortunately, for those in line, Southpaw showed up. Or "White Sox Mascot" for those of you following along with Topps Opening Day Cards.

It's not that hard to find my name. It's right on the website.

It took just over an hour to get to the room with all the items. While waiting, they wheeled in 3 turn styles for sale. Two were from the current park ($350 each) and one from Old Comiskey ($1000). Yeah, both were out of my budget range. However, when we got inside, there was plenty to be had. Old, discontinued t-shirts and other items were along one wall, but nothing my size. Abreu bobbleheads, but I am not a bobble collector (bobblector?). Then had unused lineup cards for sale for a few bucks, but I passed as where would I display one. The used cards were also available, but again - out of my budget. Along one wall - nothing but used jerseys. Price range mattered based on the player. I thought for sure a jersey was out of the question, but there were plenty for $40. And these are not replicas.

 
They are the Majestic Cool Base with sewn logos, numbers and name plates. I decided on this one, based on my wife reminding me 64 was the year of her birth.

With the memorial patch on the right sleeve, I know this was a uniform from the 2014 season. There were high hopes for Rienzo, but he just never panned out here, and he's not doing well in Miami either. Still, great uniform. You could have gotten away jerseys, BP jerseys and the 80's Sunday throwbacks.

Across from the uniforms was a square of tables with game used caps (still had the players number written on the underbill), cleats, bats (expensive) and other game used items. The caps were super cheap, $5 for a fitted New Era cap, but I couldn't find one for my head. How does no one wear a size 7.5 cap? Oh well.

Coming around that, you had some autographed baseballs and pictures. I had one of each in my hand. The pictures were just $2 each and certified with the MLB trackable hologram. I picked up one of Brent Morel.

Nice image for the wall. I like Morel and wish he panned out better on the south side. The ball I had was of De Aza, but I put it back when this counter had baggies of game used baseballs. Sure, $20 for a game used seems silly, but since I can never seem to snag one, I need to take one when I can.

Yup, That's a brick next to it. There are still bricks from old Comiskey available, and $10 is a fine price to pay in my book. According to the hologram, the ball is from the April 24th game of this year against KC and was a single by Avasail Garcia off of Danny Duffy in the bottom of the first.

All total, I dropped $72, and each penny is a write off for charity. My main reason for going was to possibly score some of the memorial patches for Billy Pierce from this season, but none were available. But since I scored a DJR patch, maybe the right jersey at the next garage sale will have what I am looking for.

LAWIG: magic through the mail

Shortly after the Hawks won the Cup, I took a chance. I read that he was a decent signer, but considering the time frame and I'm sure the sheer amount of mail he would receive based on the Cup win, not to mention that maybe he would never get the request in the first place since he was retiring. I knew he would be leaving the states for his hometown with the Cup, and who knows when he would return. But at the cost of two stamps, I took a chance and dropped a couple cards in the mail, It took about 6 weeks by my guess, as I failed to note when I mailed them. They came back with a New Jersey postage cancellation, which confused me because I don't remember any of the few autograph requests having a Jersey address. However, considering he is still loved by the city of Philadelphia, and shows that love in return, the stamp makes sense as probably mailed from his home.

I wonder if he will appear with a Hawks sweater as a final tribute card in this year's UD release. Still a heck of a great return from star Kimmo Timonen. Thanks!

LAWIG: 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game

LAWIG = Look at what I got. Let's have some fun with a set I scored last week off of Craigslist. Every so often, like all the rest of you, I'll jump on Craigslist for baseball cards. Someone right up the road from me was selling a hand collated base set of the beautiful Fleer Greats of the Game set. I've been trying to build this via dime boxes for over a year, and only had about 3 dozen of the 107 cards in the set (nice prime number, Fleer). So to find this set for $10 - only a fool would pass that up.

In turns out every card was in a penny sleeve, so the set was in fantastic shape. After placing the entire set into a binder, it was interesting to notice who Fleer selected to print. For a Greats of the Game, there were a lot of big names missing - I'm sure because of licensing issues. No Babe Ruth, No Lou Gehrig, no Joe Dimaggio. Other famous players missing include Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner....you name it. It's not that there are not plenty of stars in the set. Here - look at the checklist:

Mantle, Brett, Feller, Brock, Ryan....it's pretty stacked. But let's look closer at this set, and from my own opinion, list the 5 best and worst players printed. I am only sort of ranking the 107 players in the set and listing who I think are at the top of that list, and the 5 that amaze me at being added. Feel free to tell me where I was right or wrong in the comments. In no particular order, let's look at the best 5:

 

Hard to find a better backstop in the game than Bench.

No brainer. Strikeout leader, no-hitters.

Card #1 in the set, prior to Topps exclusive license on his name and image.

His skills on the field, along with the greatest of him off the field.

This was a tough pick. It was between Feller and Seaver in the top 5, but decided on Tom Terrific based on his wins and ERA.

All the top five were first ballot Hall of Famers with vote totals of Bench 96.4%, Ryan 98.8%, Mantle 88.2%, Musial 93.2% and Seaver 98.8%. Besides who I listed at the top, there are plenty of recent retirees that would have fit better in the set. Fingers, Fisk, Santo and others, especially when you look at who those players could have replaced. Here's my bottom 5:

Phil was an All Star just 3 times in his career. Lifetime .260 hitter over 16 years with 7 teams. Need a better 2B in the set? How about Roberto Alomar, HOF with 90% on his second year on the ballot. Phil appeared on one ballot, 1994, and received 2 votes. You saying he was a current player at the time? Ok - Let's pick from Rogers Hornsby, Eddie Collins, Nap Lajoie and Jackie Robinson.

Herb Score? Did we need a certain number of Cleveland ballplayers in the set? Eight year career with a 55-46 record. Sure, he won the rookie of the year in 1955, but after his '55 and '56 seasons, he was done. Not sure I could find you another decent Cleveland pitcher, but how about two lefties that could have been in the set - Sandy Koufax or Billy Pierce. Two more? Lefty Grove and Carl Hubbell.

I am guessing the lack of a license for Gehrig is the only reason this Yankee first baseman is in the set. Three time All-Star and 3 Gold Gloves don't really sell him into a card when you have other far better first basemen. Off the top of my head, how about Harmon Killebrew? A total of 13 All-Star appearances and a HOF induction in his fourth vote in 1984. Pepitone? Zero votes in his only year on the ballot.

Who? Who in the hell is Gorman Thomas? I honestly never heard of this guy, and his uniform screams 70's, so you would think I would since the Brewers were an AL team at the time.  One All-Star appearance in 1981, plus two top 10 MVP vote getter finishes. Otherwise, he lead the league in dingers twice. Sorry, Stormin' Gorman, we should have had a different outfielder represented, say Willy Mays, Roberto Clemente, Ted Williams, Frank Robinson..... should I continue?

Yeah - two Milwaukee players made the worst list. Oglivie had three selections to the All-Star team, and did get a AL championship ring in 1982, but that's really all I can say for him. Hell, I think his fictional namesake is a more famous Ogie. Want a few more outfielders in place of Ben? Rickey Henderson, Billy Williams, Hank Aaron....

Great set? Yes. Greats of the Game? Well..... almost.