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.

Sunday SIL: Trade playlist

It's been a couple weeks since I posted a SIL, so let's take a Gypsy Queen and Big Sort break and have some fun. For those that read my ramblings, you may notice the bottom of 95% of the posts contain a video - usually YouTube, but I have used a couple other sources once or twice. Hopefully you watch the videos. I take the time and effort to tie the music with the post in some fashion.

See, I am a big fan of music. I grew up the youngest of 3 boys. Back then, you had one tv in the house. Maybe a 2nd small, black and white set. But being the bottom of the food chain, there were plenty of times either I watched what my brothers wanted to watch, or I didn't watch the tube at all. So those times, I was up in my room listening to records with my head phones on. And when it came time for bed, I would stack a few LPs on my stereo set and listen while I fell asleep.

What the hell is this magic?

Music has always had a special place in my life. So, you ask, where in the world you going with this is regard to cards? Well, recently the Night Owl did a couple posts where he tied The Black Keys' "El Camino" & Van Halen's "1984" to baseball cards. So not to steal the idea, but spin of from it: let's look at the last cards I received from the N.O. (for the many Kershaws I seem to pull and mail to him), and associate each card to a YouTube video. Dive into my mind, if you dare.

First, and the card I knew would be in the envelope, is this beautiful black bordered 2008 A&G mini. I am going to avoid the obvious (you'll find out why) and go with a 70's classic.

Funny thing - Three Dog Night was one of the favorite bands of a friend of my oldest brother. 

If I was ever going to get a '75 Topps mini in my collection, it would obviously come from the Night Owl. This card was a little tough to tie to a song. I first thought of going with this great video of Eurythmics on Arsenio, because Annie is really belting it out acoustically (Beltin' Bill Melton). It's too much of a stretch, though. Instead, I am going with Modern English.

It works.

Here's a nice '77 Topps of Terry Forster. Here's where my first thought for the Thome fits better, based on his uniform.

The 1977 Topps are the first cards that show the new White Sox "old timey" uniforms on cardboard, as they just switched designs in 1976. So the song works in more ways than the obvious.

This card of Fisk stumped me when I first came up with this post idea. Until I took a good look at the card. See, this isn't a Topps release. This card is from 1991 and it's part of a panel of cards that were in Baseball Magazine. I can't find an uncut panel of the cards, but I left the scan a little wide. If you look close, you can see the cut and border around the edges. The card is cut on all 4 sides, so either there was a border that was cut off, or this card was the center of the panel. I'm picking option #2.

Once I considered the card was from the middle of the panel, the song just chose itself.

The envelope finished with this beautiful 1956 Sherm Lollar. Man, I do love '56 a lot. However, for this post, this card proved to be a pain. If we go "catcher", we don't get a lot of songs. Just readings of "Catcher In the Rye". Could go Dumbo with the ears, but that's cruel. And really - "Baby Mine" would be the only song, and singing that to Sherm is creepy. Any iteration of "Sherm" gets Civil War stuff. Leaves us with Lollar. Hey - I could go with any of a dozen "Lollipop" videos. But instead, I am going this route, cuz I think it's a pretty sweet mashup and the video is SOOOO easy on the eyes.

Hope you had fun with that. Now get out of my head and enjoy Easter dinner (if you celebrate). 

SECOND!

From JBAnama's blogroll, it appears I was not the first, but the second to find some 2013 Gypsy Queen in my local Walmart. I fired up my really crappy flip camera and live ripped what I bought.

Ok - if you sat through that, a hearty "thank you" and "I'm sorry" is both said with earnest. Since the color quality has a lot to be desired, here is a few scans to enjoy.

There's your base. I like the border color WAY MORE than last year. You can see that Gehrig card so much more in the scan. That, folks, is one beautiful uniform. Even if it is evil empire.

 

Here are your rack pack framed parallels. I guess they are ivory in color. Looking now at the Buehrle, that is a photoshop from a game at Wrigley. 

Some Abbott for Nick at Dime Boxes. Interesting his base is Angels and his insert is Yankees.

 

More inserts. Not sure how I feel about the Dealing Aces set. I get the playing card idea, but...I don't know. Maybe it's too busy. I think the No Hitters is a very nice insert set as the borders really compliment the team colors.

Glove Stories looks a lot like last year, so no scan. Sliding Stars has a new gray border. And those collision cards are sweet. SOOOO much nicer in black and white. Hey Topps - more like that please!

Alright - I'll work on the lighting for my next video. Maybe I can find some 2nd tier movie actress to rip packs for me. Or some has-been singer. I got options.

SECOND!

From JBAnama's blogroll, it appears I was not the first, but the second to find some 2013 Gypsy Queen in my local Walmart. I fired up my really crappy flip camera and live ripped what I bought.

Ok - if you sat through that, a hearty "thank you" and "I'm sorry" is both said with earnest. Since the color quality has a lot to be desired, here is a few scans to enjoy.

There's your base. I like the border color WAY MORE than last year. You can see that Gehrig card so much more in the scan. That, folks, is one beautiful uniform. Even if it is evil empire.

 

Here are your rack pack framed parallels. I guess they are ivory in color. Looking now at the Buehrle, that is a photoshop from a game at Wrigley. 

Some Abbott for Nick at Dime Boxes. Interesting his base is Angels and his insert is Yankees.

 

More inserts. Not sure how I feel about the Dealing Aces set. I get the playing card idea, but...I don't know. Maybe it's too busy. I think the No Hitters is a very nice insert set as the borders really compliment the team colors.

Glove Stories looks a lot like last year, so no scan. Sliding Stars has a new gray border. And those collision cards are sweet. SOOOO much nicer in black and white. Hey Topps - more like that please!

Alright - I'll work on the lighting for my next video. Maybe I can find some 2nd tier movie actress to rip packs for me. Or some has-been singer. I got options.

The Big Sort: Wayne Nordhagen

Can you really have too many Wayne Nordhagen's?

Actually, my sources are saying yes - yes, you can have too many. How about that?