Amazing Trade with Reader Alvin: This Ain't No Bull

I don't get many trade requests from collectors who don't have their own blogs. I'm always surprised to find out anyone is reading besides just other bloggers and my sister now and then, and someone in Russia, according to my stats.

Enter El Toro Alvin. The Bull contacted me flashing some player names I liked. He said he had some GUs and autos of the fellas I like. My interest was piqued. And then he sent some scans. My chin dropped, and I let him pick all he wanted off my trade bait page. I'm always willing to trade a bunch of cards for a few or even one, like this one:

Oh my God, right? I have a couple Kaline autos, but this is my new favorite. I love the design of these 2007 Ultimate autos. The red, gold, and blue is a super classy version of patriotic. All the foil is just done perfectly, and everything draws the eye to that fantastic auto. It's just the perfect card.

This card alone was worth a bunch of my bait. But Alvin had more to offer.

This is only my second Ripken GU. They're tough to come by, and I dig this one. Quite a night and day difference in design from the last card. Look at all that gray. And everything draws the eye to...gray. I'm hardly complaining. I love this card for its simplicity and 'cause it's Cal. And Alvin is awesome.

But there's more.

 I'm seeing less Miggy GUs these days, ever since he won MVP last year. I don't foresee his cards getting any cheaper any time soon. It's always neat to see these cards where he was so young and small.

 

 

 And finally, Alvin sent this Pudge GU. Always great to see a stripe. I dig the designs of this card, though the red and white have nothing to do with anything really, which I suppose is why they washed out Pudge's color. Two Marlins cards in a row. Thank goodness they fed the Tigers so many delicious players or we probably wouldn't be seeing the playoffs.

 

Thanks again to Alvin. This was a smashing good trade. He collects Royals, gold refractors, and Bowman autos from what I can tell. If you have a chance to trade with him, do it!

Off to Watch the Tigers, and Kaline Approves

Once a year, for my birthday (which isn't for another couple of weeks) I mosey down to Detroit to watch the Tigers play. I've had some bad luck at games in the past. One year I saw both Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen get seriously injured in the same game.

But last year was better, and tonight should be great. Thanks to Stub Hub and my wonderful wife, I'm sitting 35 rows back from home plate. Closest I've ever been. Should be a great view.

To celebrate here's a random off-centered scan of a Kaline I recently acquired off the Bay. I'm feeling as bright-eyed and smiley as young Kaline tonight. Here's to a Tigers win!

New Old Kalines

I've been hard at work adding to my Kaline player collection. A key part of that is finishing the Topps base card run. Though, likely, I'll probably never truly finish this run because of a certain 1954 card.

But a 1959 Kaline, that I can do. I snagged this one off eBay for around $5. It took a lot of searching to find this card for that price. It's probably not that amazing of a deal considering the horrendous centering issues, which I completely do not care about. This is a beautiful card. And it's from the same set as my first vintage card, a famous card I received from my dad when I was kid, and a couple decades later it would inspire this here little blog. There's a story to this, and there's, of course, the card: 

Mr. Veal is happy to finally be reunited with his teammate.

Now, I just wish these two could have been paired on this card:

Nothing against Maxwell, but Coot and Kaline against a pink backdrop would have been cardboard perfection. But this card will do. This one was right around $2, and an absolute steal. It came with a nice screw-down. 

What else? This:

1966 Kaline. I feel like I've seen this card reprinted so many freaking times, though really only in the 2011 Topps 60 Years of Topps set, and I just have a bunch of doubles. But nothing beats an original. I appreciate the uniform with the big 6 on the shoulder so much more now that it's on a piece of slightly yellowed cardboard. The condition is pretty decent, and I nabbed this one for under $4 shipped.

Slowly, slowly, I'm filling in the gaps, getting closer to that Topps run. I'm on the hunt for a destroyed 1956 that I can afford. I'll let you know when I find it, and I will find it.

Brad's Blog Rocks the Trade

Many of you are well aware of great blog aptly titled Brad's Blog: it's a blog and his name is Brad! Make your way over there for some great posts about Phillies and a pretty damn slick collection of Mantle vintage.

Brad and I got a trade going a couple months ago. I had a bunch of Phillies hits and vintage and inserts I needed to find a good home for, and Brad became that home. What I didn't expect was the awesome generosity he'd show me.

He sent me this glorious Al Kaline auto. I have a couple of his autos, but this one is now my new favorite. It's a great picture and a design completely made for autos. This card is totally my jam. This trade is my jam. Brad is the bomb for sending this. OK, my '90s exclamations of joy are not doing this amazing trade justice. Let's get back to the cards.

Here are some extras for my player collections. Love the Chrome Heritage, and Pudges in gear are always cool.

He also sent along some sweet Fielder senior cards.

Speaking of '90s Tigers, it's Sweet Lou Whitaker, encased in gold. I love finding Whitaker cards I don't have, and this one is a lot of fun. 

Here's the back of this card. It's a Sweet Lou smorgasbord collage: batting, fielding, and looking confused in the background--the many faces of Lou.

Just to show you what an awesome trader Brad is, these were some of the extras he never mentioned. I mean, the guy just tossed in a Bryce Harper kind-of-rookie for fun. I love it, as well as the International parallel of some Tiger I'd never heard of.

To wrap this trade up...

Here's a beauty of a card. Blue refractors are always nice, but when they feature Mr. Verlander, well, hell, that's a near-perfect card. 

Thanks, Brad, for the amazing trade. I'll be looking for Phillies cards for you. For the rest of you, be sure to head over to Brad's Blog for some great reading and maybe a some great trading.

Kaline Masterpieces

Of my recent Kaline purchases, this Gallery card has to be one of my favorites. I'm starting with this picture, because, heck, I wanted you to see this masterpiece teased in the blog rolls so you'd come on over and take a closer look.

And take a closer look! This card is truly a work of art. I absolutely love this set, and once I knew this card existed, I had to have it. I love everything about it. This has everything that works on an art card design. The one thing I can't quite figure out is the rainbow spectrum on the left. It feels a little like I'm looking at a Sherwin Williams paint swatch. But I don't mean to complain.  This card is awesome. 

One new work of art calls for an old work of art.

It's a little dinged up and off center, as all of my vintage Kalines are, but that takes nothing away for me. I especially dig the big 6 on the shoulder. I snagged this for under $2 shipped.

This one comes from the virtual dollar box that is eBay. This might be my lowest numbered Kaline, which is mainly why I bought it. That and it's shiny and die-cut. Otherwise, it's kind of a terribly designed card. The picture is blurry and looks completely out of place on this super-futuristic-lasers-shooting-out-my-eyeballs card. Still, it's absurd anachronisms definitely have a place in the collection.

Compare the last virtual dollar box card to this beauty. Now, this is how you do a super-shiny card of a vintage player. This is an awesome-looking card. But not quite the masterpiece like at the top of this post.

A Brief Break with 1963 Kaline

For those of you that teach or take classes, you know how crazy this time of the year is. This semester has been especially insane, and I find myself missing baseball when I need that distraction the most. It happens every year.

I know I'm neglecting the blog, and I consider it a privilege to be able to write to you collectors out there whenever I can squeeze out a little time.

This weekend, I managed to finally update my want lists after a ton of great trades. I need to get some more going and I need to post and thank the great guys who've sent me stuff lately. But for now, here's one cool card added to my player collection lists.

 

 It didn't come from a trade, but instead the ol' eBay. It's a pretty battered example of a 1963 card, which means I nabbed it for a song, under $3 shipped. And I think this is one of the better '60s Kaline cards. I was happy to add this to my newly updated player collection lists. 

Card Show-off: Awkward Dime Boxes and Questionable Kaline Ink

I went to a card show earlier this summer, and I suppose I better post about it, since I just went to another show this weekend. Once things start doubling up, that's when I know I better get to it.

This show was in St. Johns, Michigan, and was small, a part of a fair the city had going on. The guy putting it on is one of my favorite regular dealers at other shows, so I had to check out his go of it. It was interesting, if for nothing else than for its intimacy, a dozen dealers crammed into a barn where you might expect to see a 4H exhibit. It was rainy, and the roof leaked, and the dealers had to keep moving their boxes. A few drops hit me while I was sorting through dime boxes. It sounds a little scary, I know, but also the perfect scenario to find some hidden treasures.

Like some sweet vintage out of the discount boxes. The Jerry Coleman card on the left marks my first 1951 Topps card, and I only paid 50 cents for it. Not too shabby.

And of course some obligatory dime box Pudges.

And dime box Ripkens.

And maybe my best dime box finds: two cards I actually needed for my 2007 Bowman Heritage set which I seem to be getting nowhere on lately. Anyone got some help to offer out there?

I'm always on the lookout for key rookies. I'd needed the Oswalt for a while. And in the middle we have the super star Juan LeBron, otherwise knows as the error card featuring Carlos Beltran. And then a very Zack Morris-looking Derek Lowe rookie. Is there a more embarrassing set out there than 1992 Bowman?

Dime box awesomness. Bowman often has terrible first-year photos, as seen above, but these are three of the coolest ones I've seen. Happ's posed shot is straight outta 1952 Bowman. Love it.

My first Aaron Hill rookie, and a Chrome-tacular Jason Bay rookie for a dime. Remember how awesome he used to be? As awesome as this airbrush job Topps did?

Finally, my dollar box finds. The framed Ripken is such a great looking card. The Diamond Kings Kaline I may have overpaid for, but it was pretty much a throw-in with the others. But what about that Goudey Sport Royalty Kaline?

Well, that seems to be an auto. But is it real? The dealer said nothing about it, and it's not certified. For a buck, it's worth owning, but I just can't tell. It looks close to the certified Kaline autos I have.

Close, but I don't know. The "K" looks off, as does the "e," but maybe that's because of the terrible fat pen used on the Goudey card. I also feel like Kaline's auto would be so easy to fake since it's such legible cursive. What do you guys think? Real auto or was this dealer's third grade daughter just practicing her handwriting?

I Bought a Fake and I Liked It

A few nights ago, I was reading yet another article about fraudulent memorabilia sellers, which Cardboard Conundrum had some wise opinions about. You've all read about these fake memorabilia assholes before, I'm sure. And it got me really thinking about how much I care. I guess it would take something away from my cards, to find out my piece of Pudge isn't real.

I'd be saddened, sure, to find out some college kid trying to earn an extra buck took batting practice with a random bat, scuffed it up, and then his boss sold it to Upper Deck so that they could throw it in the wood chipper. Sure, I want to believe this is Pudge's bat, that he used it, and, in my mind, he hit a freaking grand slam with it.

And do I want to believe Miggy wore this pinstripe rather than some gibroni who besmirched it by rolling around in a gravel parking lot to make it look all game-used? Well, hell yeah. Of course I want that. I want to believe.

Would I still pay two bucks for one of these cards to be shipped to my doorstep if I didn't know for sure. Yep. I want this stuff to be real, and I hate to question these issues, but when it comes down to it, these cards are still cool. And that's also why I always look for the bargain; if it's not real, I still have a cool card for cheap.

If I really cared and worried, I'd just buy vintage. But then there are tons of vintage counterfeits out there and sneaky reprints. Even scarier to consider. Maybe. But sometimes a counterfeit can be pretty great, too.

I picked up this card on eBay a few weeks ago. It was clearly marked a counterfeit, but I almost couldn't believe it when I saw the condition. Who would counterfeit so much damage? When you think about it, one might be less inclined to think such an ugly card (which would have a much lower, seemingly bargain price) would be a fake. And that's what makes this a work of art, in my book. Everything looks perfect on it. The size is right. The colors looks right, faded perfectly. And the wear is really amazingly detailed.

Enhance.

Not only did the counterfeit artist put in some scuffs and iconic crinkles, Kaline has what look like fine knife scratches across his forehead.

And on the bottom, in a brilliant blur of colors, we find the counterfeit artist's abstract painting turned water stain/tape stain. And what vintage card would be complete without some dinged, peeling corners?

 

 

The back is perhaps my favorite part of the card.

 

Once again: Enhance!

 

 

I love how the artist made sure the stain carried over to the back and actually looks much worse. If he put it on the front, he knew he'd risk too much of a price drop, though I bet this card would still bring in around $100 if it was real and in this condition.

 

Just looking at this card, my amateur collector eyes couldn't identify this as a fake. However, when I hold it in my hands, I can actually feel that it's too thick to be real. They must have used a thicker card stock that could handle more counterfeit abuse.

 

Anyway, the main point of this all is that I love this card. I'm happy to have it in my collection, which has a place for fakes. On the other hand, I knew what I was buying and paid a counterfeit price for it. The situation is a little different if one was buying super upper-tier cards and getting fake patches.







Spankee Shares His Mistresses

Those trades just keep on coming. I contacted Spankee at My Cardboard Mistress, offering him a few cards I thought he might be interested in and he sent me some awesome stuff.

Here are a few cards we talked about in the trade. The Perry/Iorg auto is about as shiny as shiny gets. Shiny to the eighth power, to be exact.

We'd also talked about this one:

I'm not really a Gypsy Gueen collector, but I love getting new Kalines, and I'm a sucker for framed cards. This card is just stunning. As classy as the Perry/Iorg card is shiny.

This card was a complete surprise. Spankeea didn't even tell me he was sending it, though it would have been the keystone of our trade, and it just goes to show what a generous trader he is.

Here's some other surprises:

A low-numbered Pudge card and a shiny blue Clete. Clete's a Twin now, but I still dig this card, the ball frozen in mid-air, the fancy blue chrome-ness, and just the fact that "Clete" is a cool damn name.

He also sent some nice Ripkens for the PC. I'm getting closer with this Upper Deck Road to the Hall set, but this is my first Iron Men card, a set I'd also like to complete one day. There sure were a lot of Ripken insert sets in 2007, and a lot of pairings with Ripken.

This was a trade that just kept on giving. Various minis and refractors.

Some more great Cabreras, including a numbered orange parallel from 2012 Bowman. I'm glad to pick up some 2012 Bowmans, since I still haven't, and probably won't, be buying any of this product this year. So I'm glad to snag these cards in trade.

We both collect Verlander, so adding these Verlander cards to the PC was a nice suprise in a trade full of surprises. I especially dig the Heritage duo card with Weaver. Something about that picture looks a little shopped to me, but maybe they really posed together.

Finally, the biggest surprise of all:

Some super creepy, ultra-rare X-Files cards. Not sure how these ended up in there, but I like it. I like the whole thing. Thanks, Spankee, for a great trade.

Card Show Show-off: Kaline, Rollie, and Ambiguous Keller

I usually start off my card show reviews with the dime boxes, but I'll flip things around this time and start with the big purchases. I went to this show a little over a month ago. It was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a mall show, but still good despite proximity to Gap mannequins and mind-numbing muzak.

Here's my big splurge. A pretty epic Kaline get for the player collection. I'm not a hug fan of 1960 Topps and all the extreme close-up portraits, but I love this card. There's some whimsy in Kaline's eyes and an awkward half-smirk. The color design really works well here, too, the yellows against the red, the old Tigers logo pulling it all together.

Here's the back, just for fun, complete with goofy cartoon rendition of Kaline catching a fly ball. Who knew he had so little hair under his cap?

This Kaline card was marked for $6, but I talked the guy down to $5 and got him to throw in this card for free:

I just always like these combo cards from the early Topps sets, and getting this card for free made the above Kaline all the sweeter.

I also picked up some game-used for a hell of a bargain:

My Rollie Fingers collection is quite casual, but he just looks so damn cool on cards I can't turn down a good deal. I love the green jersey here, which obviously is not from a Brewers uniform. I usually hate these kind of team mash-ups, but it works for this card.

When I first started collecting, as a kid, Boggs was my guy. The reason I liked him is kind of ridiculous: his mustache looked like my uncle's facial hair. Well, that was enough for me. And now I have a little bit of jersey from Mr. Flaming Mustache Fried Chicken Eater.

I also found a great dollar box from a guy dealing almost exclusively Tigers cards. Usually in Michigan Tigers cards are way over-priced, but I found some crazy bargains.

A 2005 Verlander rookie for a buck? Yes, sir, I'll take it. Plus it's from one of my favorite mid-2000s sets, Diamond Kings. I have to say, though, that this is just a horrible portrait of Verlander. I don't think it's just because he's missing his facial hair. There's something seriously wrong with Verly's mouth.

This was in the dollar box, too, a 1950 Bowman Charlie Keller. It's in fantastic shape. I couldn't believe this card was in the dollar box, and I even dared to ask the dealer if this was a reprint or an original. He gave it a glance, said it was original, and the whole time I was worrying he'd say, Oops, that's not supposed to be in there. But, no, he sold it to me for a buck. I still can't really believe this is an original, but I can't see anything that screams reprint on it.

The size is right, the printing and color look correct. There is a weird thing going on with the five stars logo at the top right crowding into the text. Here's a comparison with a card up on COMC:

The "Charlie Keller" in red at the top also looks like it's spaced a bit different. So, what do you guys think? Reprint or the real thing? I'd greatly appreciate your sagely insights. Regardless, for a buck, it's certainly worth the gamble. Hell, I might have still paid a buck for a reprint.

So, pretty nice hits from the card show. I stayed on target pretty well, mostly picking up cards that actually fit into the collection. Next post, I'll show off those sweet cheapo boxes.