Card Show-Off: Hard Luck Houtteman and the Bargain Boxes

I didn't find a ton of stuff at the most recent mall card show I went to, but I did run into some nice vintage bargains.

This was my favorite find. For $3 I knocked a need off my vintage Bowman Tigers want lists. I didn't know much about Art Houtteman, but apparently he was a decent starter who spent 8 of his 12 seasons with the Tigers. He had the nickname "Hard Luck" for a number of horrific reasons: car accidents, noise headaches, baby death, and so on. Art's hard luck will now be remembered and appreciated against a green brick backdrop in my collection.

Here are some Tigers bargains out of the quarter and dime boxes. I had all of these before besides the Wertz, which was a steal. The rest were upgrades. I sure love me Tigers team cards.

Rounding out my Tigers finds are two Freehans and a Northrup. Those are big names for us vintage Tigers collectors. The Freehan in the middle is a 1971 Dell Today's Team Stamp. I really know nothing about this set, but I dig oddballs. I wonder if Dennis has this one.

It's not vintage, but it cost a dime and this is one of my favorite insert sets. I'm slowly moseying away at collecting this set. These cards are chunky as a thick hunk of Swiss cheese with just as many holes.

Last up, here are the modern treasures I found out of the dime and quarter boxes. All of these are numbered except for the Pill Ice parallel. Pretty great stuff. Probably most of it will find its way into trade packages. Always looking out for my blogging bros.

Next post, I'll show off the best of the bargain vintage.