I recently missed my favorite annual card show in Kalamazoo, due to the small coincidence of my daughter being born on the same day. However, I still have a card show from a few months ago in my bank. This show happened in Holland, Michigan, a town known for its windmills and tulips and Dutch culture. Go figure.
Few know, though, that the Dutch are also famous for their great deals on vintage cardboard. And thanks to them, one of these cards could be yours, if you go and enter the Vealtones Vintage Contest.
I snagged this 1952 Bowman Monte Irvin from this one dealer who was getting rid of a bunch of sweet vintage. I actually paid less than the price listed at the top of the card. And what a steal. I love the batting cage background and how Monte is captured here looking so inquisitive.
Another infamous Giants Hall-of-Famer here with the legendary Leo Durocher. This is my first card of his, and I'm thrilled to own it.
Not a Hall-of-Famer but a respectable player: Hank Bauer. He's looking mighty noble here, chin up against the shadowy stadium risers.
One more. Carl Erskine. Another very cool background here. It looks like some kind of old-timey ad behind him. I wish I knew what it was. I love the look of the three different cobbled wall materials. And, of course, Carl's wind-up is so cool. Bowman did a great job to capture his leg and then run the signature up it. I have always wondered if the players chose where to put their sigs.
Moving on from Bowman, I couldn't pass up a good deal on a Johnny Podres 1958 Topps. I may have picked this up thinking trade bait more than personal collection. Any Dodgers collectors who don't have this card?
I also scored this card, along with all the others above, from this same dealer. And I think this card was the biggest steal of the day. I absentmindedly snagged it out of the 3 for a dollar box, thinking it looked cool. I didn't realize until I got home that this is Tiant's 1965 rookie. How about that! This goes right into the iconic rookies personal collection, and becomes one of my best cheapo box finds.
Eddie Kazak's 1953 Topps card came from a different dealer, and it cost me 2 bucks. Not the same steal that the Tiant was, but a nice addition to my vintage Tigers team sets. My '50s Topps sets are still in very early stages. So, this card is cool, but it's just not as cool as any of those '52 or '53 Bowmans. The headshots from this set are meticulously detailed, but they're just a little too boring for me.
To wrap things up, here are a few bargain box finds. Great names and great cards, and I think these were out of a quarter box. I've always been a Lou Brock fan, so his 1968 All Star card was a good find for me.
Tomorrow, I'll try to post the rest of this show, mostly my dime box finds. Don't forget to head over and enter my first contest for some '50s vintage of your favorite (or second favorite) team.
As many of you know, I just became a father to a beautiful baby girl, Ms. Evy Jo. To celebrate her and my approach on 200 posts and 2 years of blogging, it's time for a contest.
This will be the Vealtones' first contest, and it's long overdue. What will we be giving away? How about some vintage.
It might be something like this Diamond Stars Zeke Bonura, a card that's beat to hell, but I think most of you out there appreciate well-loved vintage.
Or maybe you'll get something like this Ned Garver from 1952 Bowman, my favorite vintage set, a beautiful card with a little ink on the back.
Or maybe some good ol' Topps.
Or maybe something really fresh, a creased woodgrain TV.
Well, what you get depends on your entry. To enter, leave a comment listing your favorite team, or, that is, the team you'd like to get a card from. Since I'm giving away vintage, it needs to be a team that existed in the '50s. And I will be giving away a card from the '50s or earlier, real vintagey vintage. Keep in mind, though, the card is likely to be well-loved and probably won't be a hall-of-famer, but I'll find something good for you.
In your comment, please also list a backup team, too, just in case I can't find anything from your first preferred team.
To enter, you must be a follower of the blog. I want to make sure the winner is one of my actual readers, is someone from the blogging culture that has given so much to me. Be sure to enter by this Friday at 10:00 PM, Eastern time zone. Then, I'll do three spins on random.org and choose the winner.
Again, list in the comments your favorite team and a backup team. The prize will be a vintage card from one of those teams, and I'll try to find some extra goodies that fit your collecting interests. Feel free to share the news about the contest on your own blog, but don't feel obligated.
Thanks for entering. You bloggers have brought me so much joy and made me feel welcome over the years, and now I'll repay that by sending you some piece of beat-to-hell 60-year-old cardboard.
I started collecting Al Kaline seriously a little over one year ago. I love looking into my favorite team's history, and player collecting legends like Kaline allows me to do that. Lately, I've been looking back even farther.
Charlie Gehringer, the Mechanical Man, is a player I've been chasing. This is my favorite Gehringer card I own. It's a manupatch from 2004 Sweet Spot Classic. A very cool card and a classy design with lots of foil. I only wish Charlie's picture was a little bigger.
I kind of love the back, too, how it congratulates you for scoring a "souvenir logo" the same as if you got a piece of game-used or an auto. Really, there's probably more honesty in this congratulations. We all know about those sketchy scraps of possibly-Mechanical-Man-used pants.
All the same, I'd love to snag a Gehringer GU, and I'd absolutely love to get one of his autos, which always oddly say "Chas." Or an original vintage card. But Mr. Gehringer's cards are not plentiful, and they're sure as hell not cheap. If any one ever runs into any of his cards, I'd trade you heavily for one.
Here's to the Mechanical Man, part of the Tigers best years in history, Mr. Consistency, some of the best stats you'll see for any second basemen ever.
I'll be posting about his teammate, another new player I've been collecting, very soon.
