Throwback Thursday - 04.11.2013

Every Thursday, I post a card showing a ballplayer wearing a throwback uniform from my collection. Hopefully, he will be wearing it well, with proper pants blousing. I'll try not to duplicate a uniform. The picture may be from the front of the card, or the back. Enjoy the uniforms from years past.

Alan Trannell 1997 Pinnacle - Detroit Stars

The road more traveled.

Every once in a while, you hear a story in sports, or in business, or politics - wherever - that talks about the incredible odds someone had to go through to get where they are. The hard life in the inner city from a broken home of a parent that died young, raised by an aunt that worked 14 jobs to pack the paper sack of the lunch carried over a 10 mile trek to school in a rough neighborhood.

Sometimes, a trade package goes through the same journey. We'll get to that one in a bit. But first, a little look see at a bunch of card I received from Nate at Uncle Doc's Card Closet. If you aren't already following, get over to his site and enjoy/salivate over his storage area for cards. Nate put a call out for mid '90 Donruss. I remembered a fair amount of them when I did my team sort months back, so I dug through all the teams and pulled everything I could find. In return, Nate beat on my A&G needs. Here's just a couple of the many I received.

Trading can be weird. My total of that great '08 Thome card numbered zilch until a month ago. First I got the black bordered mini from the Night Owl a couple weeks back. Now I have the base. Nate also hit my 2011 needs. Here's my want list pre-trade:

And post:

Pretty much halved both my 2008 and 2011 needs. Thanks a ton, Nate. Keep posting your needs cuz I got a lot of cards I could send.

So, the well traveled cards? It all started with a comment about a Kate Upton card.

Oh hi - I'm not interrupting, am I?

From there, Dennis from Too Many Verlanders and I struck up a conversation. Dennis inquired about a 6 swatch Red Wings card in my trade bait and we were off. He offered to help with a couple player collections in return for that card, and whom am I to turn that down. Funny thing on the way to 2x3 Heroes Ground Zero - Dennis sent the package to ANOTHER Jeff he was working on a trade with. The other Jeff, being cool (all us Jeffs are way cool), forwarded the cards to me, and they arrived today. And worth the wait this envelope was. Let's start with the Big Hurt.

I have to break Nick's heart with another autograph card, but the nice part is I have none of these, so they are all welcome additions. Moving to the best team in the NHL...

BOOM! My 2nd Roenick TTM auto. Just like the Thome above, I had zero Roenick autos, and now I have two received in the past 4 weeks. This card was the surprise, which makes me glad I surprised Dennis with a non-posted Red Wing jersey card. Ok - so the help to my player collections started with a few additions to my Petrick section.

The relics complete my first player trifecta with auto, rookie and relic cards. That micro card is just that - micro. Glad to add more Ben's to my collection. Ben had a birthday the other day and is still doing well with his DBS. Lastly, Dennis completed the flawless floor routine with these two gems.

OH YEAH! Mark two more off the Pierce Project with a '63 Series Foes and a '59 Ace Hurlers. Both are in beautiful condition - way nicer than I would have picked up.  I swear that Ace Hurlers is right out of a pack. Thanks again Dennis. If you want to road trip another envelope of similar contents, you have my permission.

Repack Wars: IAOFSWMRFTP!*

*I am out of Star Wars movie references for these posts.

So we have Topps Flagship, Heritage and Gypsy Queen available for purchase. I have flagship set complete but for one card (on it's way), Heritage a work in progress (that I am completing via trades), and GQ which I have a set on it's way (via a case break). So really, I won't be making any more card purchases until Allen & Ginter is released.

He also says he wants to start a player collection of Bip Roberts.

So let's rip 20 packs out of a Walmart repack box. Twenty of the best cards - one per pack.

Let's get the crap out of the way. 2009 Upper Deck Documentary. What a boring set and a pack to match. A decent shot here of knuckler Wakefield with his pitch about to be released. 

 

Every repack has my hated 09 OPC. Besides the crappy design, this was a semi decent pack. But I am going to bypass the Brewer stadium card and a Braun insert to choose this card of Pedroia. So close to great framing, but close enough for the win.

The first of 3 packs of Upper Deck X. From a 2008 version, we go with the Yankee Legacy card. Yeah, the pack was that bad. Then again, can't go wrong with a shot of Whitey Ford.

Pack two is from 2009. It was a tough call, but I am picking this die cut Konerko.....over the regular cut Konerko. Yup - got them both in the pack, one right after the other. 

And another pack of 2009. A lot of red in this pack, and I think that influenced why I picked this blue and orange of Porcello. Rookie card helped, too. 

2008 UD Timeline is a standard in repack boxes. And since I picked another Yankee Legacy card from this pack, that speaks for the design a lot. How often do you see a mostly clean cut Munson, though?

The other pack of Timeline didn't have a Yankee Legacy card, so a bit of debate and I picked this gold Niemann. 

2010 Topps Update. While I got a Million Card giveway card (I bet it was a Mantle!), we have a throwback uniform. It was a no brainer. 

2007 Fleer Ultra. Usually you get some great photos in Fleer. Yeah, the beauty was there, but boring beauty for sure. High cuffs wins in an unexciting pack.

Another 2010 Topps - series one this time. The pack was okay, but it's hard to choose one piece of cardboard over one that pictures Frank Robinson with his MVP award. 

Remember 2008 Upper Deck? This pack had more interesting images than the pack of Fleer. While there is a card of Ichiro honoring his 1000th hit, and a Diamond Debut of Matsui, there is something about the red glove and the hint of the red front number on this card of Saito that caught my eye.

Fast forward 2 years to Upper Deck's last baseball release in 2010. Not a way to leave the baseball card industry with these dreadful cards. Price's Baseball Heroes insert is winner by default. 

Third pack of 2010 Topps - update. Double play card. No explanation needed. Moving on.

 

2011 Topps series one. Did Topps used a red filter on this card? Doesn't Jay's uniform look pink?

2011 Topps Heritage. If not for this refractor of Marson # to 562, I would have gone with a checklist. 

Last pack of 2010 Topps - series one. Gold Laroche, CYMTO of Orlando Cepeda, but how about this snowcone card of Cody Ross? Nice photo. 

 

2009 Topps Heritage high number pack. First timer in a repack box. I remember why I bought just one pack of  '09s Heritage offering. These are so hideous. I was putting the stick of gum on the scanner, and then decided to go with this chrome.

 

2011 Bowman Platinum. A pack of nobodys. Default choice is the x-refractor of Keon Broxton. 

Another first timer in the repack boxes with Topps 2009 Ticket to Stardom. Why did they put a photo of Chipper's kid on his card? Seriously - what year is that photo from?

2009 Upper Deck Icons comes through again. This is the 3rd relic I have pulled out of an Icon pack found in a repack box. Decent pull too. What's with the mesh hat, Bruce? Funny - the other two cards in this pack were Dice-K and Verlander.

Another Repack Wars in the books. The Sutter saved what was a very bad box up to that point.

HA! I just realized I gave Sutter the "save" for the box. Unintended joke FTW!

Let's see that again

Who doesn't love vintage? In fact, we love vintage so much, Topps now produces cards that mimic vintage. And in the past couple years of flagship, they reproduced vintage. They need to get back to giving away vintage, but I digress. Reproducing vintage give us the chance to kind of, sort of, own the real thing. But it doesn't. I'm not really sure where I am going with those last couple lines.

When you get there, let me know.

I guess my point is there is good vintage reprint and bad vintage reprints. I picked this up on Listia last week for about 500 credits. It was listed a couple times before, but with shipping cost. The seller finally got wise and did free shipping, so I snagged it.

A 1919 White Black Sox team reprint set. Hey - it's ChiSox and it's basically free, so why not? All I had to go on in the auction was the box, so opening would be a total surprise.

I have no clue what this is a "reprint" of. Here's a sampling of what you get. These cards are just slightly smaller that your standard baseball card. Pretty boring card with just a photo of the player with his name a position. I would scan the back, buuuuuut it's totally blank Nothing but white as far as you can see. 

Is there some kind of problem here?

Pretty lame for a reprint set. Me thinks the "reprint" part is of the photos. Now, how about the 8 players that got the toss from Judge Landis?

WHOA THERE! Easy on the borders - we have small children here. And I like how Shoeless Joe gets both a base Black Sox card and the only colorized card in the set. In true Topps homage, the manufacturer just used the same image. These cards, however, do have some bio info on the back. 

Now, the reprints from "Cards Your Mom Threw Out" or the short prints from 2012 Archives pale to the 1953 Archives reprints that Topps put out in 1991. If you are going to reprint, then reprint!

These were beauties. Besides the extra info on the card back, they held pretty true to the original, even though the card stock was REALLY white. 

Again with the white? Do I need to tear out your larynx?

The best of that '91 Archives are the cards on the bottom - right and left. These were "the cards that never were" - creating cards that did not exist in the set. I think they are terrible because there is no real effort to make them match the '53 set. And I find them fantastic because there is no real effort to make them match the '53 set. Topps feet-first foray into reprints really runs the entire emotion extent. 

Reprints. Somedays they are bad and somedays, not so much.

Smoke up, Johnny!

The other day I posted the cards I received from Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater blah blah blah. (Dude, get a shorter URL!). In his cards was the first true tobacco card I received. Technically, that is not true. In the trade sense, I spoke the truth. However, about a month ago, I won an eBay auction for 15 tobacco cards from various years. I snagged it for $3.69 with shipping. I liked the look of the cards, so I bid and won. Never spent the time to show them off, so here goes. Let's see what we can find out about them.

This is the largest of the cards in the lot. It's not like the minis we know in A&G, GQ and others. It's more Topps flagship or '75 mini size, but taller. The back talks of some mail in over that expired in 1997. Issued in 1995 as part of a 30 card set. The more boring of the lot you will see.

 

You got your standard animal cards. Top left is a 1971 Cadbury Schweppes Age of the Dinosaurs. The other three are from a tea company Brooke Bond. The squirrel is from 1985, the cheetah is from 1978 and the baboons are from 1992.

Now were are getting somewhere. The scan really doesn't appreciate these cards. The flag of Canada was issued by Player Cigarettes in 1928 - total set of 50. The 1st Btn Suffolk Regiment card in the upper right was issued in 1930 by Players also, one of another set of 50. The bottom card is from a company called Tonibell "Inventions that Changed the World - Periphery Camera", a set that totaled 30, put out in 1963.

 

See that card lower left? THAT is why I bought this lot. Just something about it drew my to the auction. This is a German card issued in a whooping 360 card set in 1934. Yes - Nazi run Germany at the time. Interesting list of stars in that set. The runner next to Dolly is Fanny Blankers-Koen from Holland on a 1992 Brooke Bond Olympic Challenge set. Above Koen you can learn how to lay sod from a Garden Hints series of 50 cards put out in 1938 by Wills Cigarettes. And the beautiful woman in the top left is from the "British Costume" series released in 1967 by Brooke Bond.

And the seniors of the lot. These are well loved, by the scans, but really beautiful. On the left is "Famous Crosses - Geddington Cross", a card issued by Stephen Mitchell & Sons, a 25 card set released in 1923. Middle is "Roses - The Queen Alexandra Rose" put out by W.D. & H.O. Wills inside Wills Cigarettes. Lot of card loss on this one, but still a nice card in my book. It's a set of 50 cards issued in 1912. She's holding up well for 101.

Finally, on the right in a bird that just reads "Bengali" at the bottom. The back is blank, so not a lot to go on. And I don't know if that nick on the lower left of the card is normal - the cut sure looks perfect and not a tear. We go to eBay one last time and BAM - it's an official N23 Allen & Ginter!

Unfortunately, the "checklist" is missing from the back of the card so the cardboard must have separated at some time in it's life. Plus, that angle cut shouldn't be there. Still, it's from the 1880's, and I am glad to have an actual Allen and Ginter in my collection. Especially since it set me back just a quarter.

Not too bad. Maybe I'll get a time machine and take up smoking.

Ponies, Pioneers and Ducks - oh my.

I am a little behind on posting a few trades, so I am going to knock out three in this post.

Let's start with your favorite Brony, and mine, Dayf at Card Junkie. Dave made a call out for 2009 OPC. Those that have read my Repack Wars series know my LOOOOOOOOOOVE for those cards. While I had sorted them all by teams, I had no problem digging through all the groups to get a nice stack over to Dave. He returned in kind a good beating to my A&G wants.

Just three of the stack that I received. Put those side by side & you can see why 2008 just shines as a release. Still, a rookie Hamilton is nice too. Plus, I will not bad mouth a woman that can beat me up. Thanks a bunch, Dave, for taking that OPC off my hands. Unfortunately, I will probably have more.

Next up is Jeff, a non-blogger reader and collector. Jeff jumped on some of the Kimballs dupes I had from my mini purchase, along with a few other cards. In return, he included these beauties.

In my initial Big Sort, I have zero of the "Own the Game" cards with Sox players, so it was nice to add a couple. Black bordered Crede? Yes please. And some more Walmart border flagship. Thanks a bunch, Jeff. Look forward to getting the Cubs needs list so I can get that team out of this house. :)

Lastly, we have one of the 48,773 Dodger bloggers in Greg at Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle. Greg has been my dumping ground for Matt Kemp cards, plus anything Anaheim Ducks. From my pulls, I have a running credit with Greg and he took the time to zero our account, and boy did he.

High cuffs, double plays and miscuts. Greg hit them all in this group. BTW - that vintage miscut has really nice centering on the back.

Nice '59 Turk Lown. With just a hint of those sweet stirrups.

 

I have seen Greg bless other people with old tobacco cards, so it was nice to get my own. At last, the highlight of the trade package was this well loved card.

Scanned both sides for you. Is it in poor shape? Sure. Is it now the oldest card in my collecton? You bet. 1933 Goudey and it is AWESOME! This card, and the others, are in return for a SSP Matt Kemp black border Turkey Red rookie and a couple autographs cards of some Ducks and a Dodger prospect. He thinks he got the better end of the deal. I think I did. That's what makes collecting fun - always trying to help out the other person.