A Close Out Sale

Somehow on eBay I came across a guy who said he was closing his store and was offering six card lots for a dollar apiece. He promised stars, game used, parallels, blah blah blah. Just for grins I bought three lots. Even with the $3 shipping I was looking at 33 cents a card. I figured at the least I'd get some PWE fodder and a blog post out of them.

He said it was a Dutch Auction which wasn't a term I was familiar with. Turns out it means the price drops until he finds a buyer. So I suppose the 6-card lots were higher previously. Whatever.

So, how did I do? Hard to say. Like the answer I gave to a friend who asked if I was disappointed with potus45. LOL It's hard to be disappointed when you have zero expectations.

I received baseball, football and hoops cards. Wouldn't have minded some hockey but that's OK. First off here is my favorite card of the group. I have never collected Frank Thomas and I missed out on a big chunk of his career since I wasn't following the game. But he seems to be a pretty nice guy and he of course is a Hall of Famer. I really like this card.

Next comes a numbered 2006 Topps card of someone named Mike Jacobs.

Best part of this card is the cartoon. Jacobs had a nice debut week apparently.

The most colorful baseball card of the group is this Upper Deck Don Mattingly. It looks like something you'd find in an SI for Kids issue.

I'm not going to go on and on about each card. This UD Clemens is a nicely composed one. I like how the design works with the photo. 

I guess Troy Polamalu is a star. At least his hair is/was. the Kelly/Aikman is an interesting oddball.

Chrome-a-lated Yao Ming. It's just as hard to read in hand as it appears in the scan.

I'm going to put this Emmitt Smith in my fantasy football binder. I always feel like I go my moneys worth when I can add a card to that collection.

Panini Travis Kelce. Texans host the Chiefs again this year according to the NFL schedule released yesterday. I'm tired of them. I think I've seen them four times in the last three seasons.

Another BoSox pitcher. My sons can't believe I rooted for his Boston clubs to win the World Series those couple of years he led them there. Well for one thing league loyalty runs deep for me. And for another I'll admit to being one of  'those' fans at that time...I only got interested when the series rolled around. I didn't feel the rival team animosity as much. Plus, I like Pedro. I have no idea why.

I have no idea who Michael Smith is.

Greg Maddox. This card just looks weird to me.

Big Chuck. He makes me laugh, in small doses.

A Topps Sammy Sosa. The odd 3D sort of effect is not working for me. Or maybe it's just that I don't care much for Sosa.

"Practice?" Just yesterday I saw that phrase as a bumper sticker on a VW Golf. I don't know what it was trying to say to me.

Normally I'd dig an Expos Vlad card. I just wish thet'd have stayed with their original unis.

There were other cards but you get the idea. For $3 plus $3 shipping I'd say it was worth it. But I won't buy more. I can spend six bucks at tomorrow's hotel card show and get 8 or 10 vintage gems. In fact that's what I plan to do. I'll report back.

I guess I collect Frank Thomas (the old one)

I picked up this '58 card of 50's/60's slugger Frank Thomas a couple of weeks ago for a handful of change. I've debated collecting the '58 set for the longest time. Back when I first joined eBay I began finding and buying random cards '58s. I have noted before that this is the first set I remember seeing as a kid.

It's garish and has too many head shots for sure. Despite it's flaws it holds a great deal of appeal for me. I can't see myself collecting and blogging another vintage set any time soon, but who knows?

But back to Big Frank. His 1960 card was on my 1960 Topps blog in May. I wrote a long post about his when I featured his card on my 1959 Topps blog. You can read that post by clicking here. But here are the highlights if you'd rather not click thru here are a couple of notes of interest:

-He was traded by the Phillies to Houston in 1965 for starting a fight with teammate Dick Allen on the field. Now considering that Thomas supposedly earned his nickname because of his lousy people skills a fight with the charisma impaired Dick Allen was probably a hot wager in the Phillie clubhouse.

-Bill James's win shares (of which I am clueless), sez he was the worst fielding third baseman ever among those among the top 300 in innings played at third.

I never cared much for the abbreviated stat format on the backs of some Topps issues but it does leave room for a lot of other issues and some classic cartoon art.

Not a bad card for fifty cents. 

Fuji Contest Haul ....'Break It Down'

I really have had a busy summer. Several road trips, some 'big' family trips, lots of home 'projects'. But the good thing about it that every time I've returned home I've had something cool waiting for me.

The latest was my contest winning goodies from Fuji. First up is a Big Hurt-Junior-Hammer package that included regular cards and MTV Rock n Jock cards of those three larger than life personalities. 

How do you like me know?

Funny, Thomas doesn't look as big as he did at other times in that Leaf card.

OMG, Stanley Kirk Burrell aka M.C. Hammer. He's swinging with the Mel Ott 'kick' on the MTV card. Unless you lived it you can't understand the hype/excitement/publicity that surrounded Hammer back in the late 80s/early 90s. The parachute pants were not a good look on anyone else besides him, though.

And here is Junior. Same stance as in the Kingdome, yes?

All in all a neat 'gimmick' to throw out there as a contest prize. Not many guys besides Fuji would have the idea. I wonder if he ever wore parachute pants?

But that wasn't all that was included in the package. There were items Fuji advertised and many others he threw in for kicks. I'll put some Oriole cards up in this post and save some of the other fun stuff for another time.

@AJ10's 2013 Topps in a maroon version. I can't figure out all the border colors that Topps tosses out there. But I am hip enough to know Jones' Twitter name. 

 

These next two guys are members of the Orioles' bullpen. And the way things are going either one could be the O's closer by the time this gets posted.

Ripken '86 All Star card. I like this subset. No mistaking that it's an All Star card.

I've never seen this card until now. Two Franks, no beans.

Two more cal Ripkens. A Fleer All Star...

And a Topps 50 year Ripken '82 Update rookie reprint. One of these days I'll tell the story of how I almost paid for a whole year of college with my Ripken rookie stash.

Jerry Hairston Fleer Ultra card. Cool picture, nice card. But......

I remember almost zip about Jerry Hairston. Here's why: