An Almost Entirely Vintage Month

This month saw my collection shrink by a net 520 cards, though in truth my "real" collection expanded by 8 names. A co-worker was telling me about her son getting really into baseball and spending a lot of time watching videos of other people's card collections. The next day I dropped off at her desk more than 500 cards that did not quite fit with my core collecting goals. The majority were sourced from the 1997 Collector's Choice set I picked up in March, though they were balanced out by an assortment of duplicate cards from the 1950s and a random Bryce Harper cards that had been given as a freebie in an earlier deal.

I previously wrote about landing some pretty big cards in March. After those acquisitions my regular card budget has been in full-time recovery mode. Half way through the month I was greatly surprised when another collector purchased a somewhat-hoarded Orel Hershiser card from me. I had come across the card in a bargain bin, and knowing its history, picked it up and listed it online. Two days and $80 later it was on its way to a new home and I suddenly had funds available to deploy back into cards.

Here's what I used that on: Four low-grade 1952 Topps commons, pushing my set build another 1% towards completion. A fifth '52 Topps card came in the short-sleeved form of Ted Kluszewski, a card that has until now proved elusive due to many sellers' rather "optimistic" asking prices. Minor paper loss in an out of the way area made this one more palatable. My Canseco player collection grew by two more with the addition of a 1997 Donruss Gold Press Proof (print run 500!) and the Tiffany version of his '89 Bowman. A 1971 Bert Blyleven rookie, a personal favorite, was also added. After sending payment to the Blyleven seller, I realized the name on his Paypal account was the same as that of a Brooklyn-based collector with a pretty impressive YouTube presence. Receipt of the card confirmed it was indeed the same guy.

New additions to the collection are expected to remain somewhat limited through the end of the year. I may pick up a few things at the margins but buying activity will be contingent on selling duplicates. In the interim, I have been working on improvements that will allow for more fun and better sharing of my collection . Stay tuned on this front.

Card Profiles Written in April

I got back into the writing mood this month, knocking out 9 profiles of cards from my 1952 Topps set building project. I'll write about the shiny stuff and wallet cards again in May, but for now here's the backstories on a whole binder page full of '52 Topps.

• Phil Rizzuto was released by the Yankees during the club's tenth annual Old Timers' Festivities. His replacement was even older.
  
• A guy who last played in 1950 saw his rookie card appear in the first series of '52 Topps.
  
• A backup catcher better known for his trash talking skills adjusted his banter after teaming up with Satchel Paige.
  
• Eddie Robinson sat out a contest and still played in 155 of his team's 154 scheduled games.
  
• Cracker Jacks, in all their forms, have a history of improving baseball.
  
• George Mikan had a teammate who managed to score only a single point in pro basketball. Good thing that guy could play the outfield.
  
• Johnny Mize was nearing the end of his career when he appeared in '52 Topps. His replacement was given the spot next to him in the checklist.
  
• A Brooklyn Dodger saw his playing time threatened by an irate manager and the Korean War.
  
• The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book had a lot to say about Rocky Bridges. That is good, because nobody can understand Rocky saying anything with all that tobacco stuffed in his mouth.
  

Don't build a boring collection!

Wallet Card + Eclipse

Here's a bit of fun from this afternoon: The solar eclipse was visible as the partial variety here in Virginia. I built a pinhole camera out of a cardboard box and some aluminum foil and and tracked the progression of the eclipse for about half an hour. Near the peak I added my wallet card to the mix, projecting an image of the partially obscured sun into the backdrop of this 1987 Topps Bo Jackson card.

[Belated] March Updates

I just walked in the door two hours ago after visiting some of the museums in Washington DC. Here's my wallet card making an appearance in the Dinosaur Hall of the Natural History Museum.

I think I was due to post a collecting update here, but I was having too much fun to get it done on time. In the past month I learned new ways to analyze distances (Haversine and Vincenty's Formulas!), something that will soon come in handy for a card-related project that is nearly finished.

Real-world work has been taking up a chunk of time, with my closest co-worker having his schedule upended by a family member's health issues. The result is me filling in for him more often on some pretty high level stuff, so my mental bandwith is getting pulled in all kinds of exciting directions. As much as a I love card collecting, the opportunity to jump right into some professional mega projects is more compelling. Yesterday I hired a new intern to join my team. The guy is coming off winning a hackathon, has a 1580 SAT score, and already has a better resume than most full time job candidates that I see apply for openings. It's going to be a fun summer working with him.

So what have I been up to in the card collecting world when I'm not ingesting too much caffeine and wondering how I ever would have competed with the latest intern back when I was in school?

I wrapped up research into an insanely difficult to find card from 1990 Donruss and posted the results on my primary blog. The card in question is the Aqueous Test Issue of Jose Canseco, which I have come to believe has somewhere around 25 copies in existence. I came across this example by sheer happenstance and luckily did not have to compete for it against some very tenacious Canseco collectors or against a legendary collector of the set who already has a copy. In fact, prior to the emergence of this example the card was considered to be tied with a small number of others as the hardest to find name in this obscure issue. I am beyond excited about this one.

I don't care what people say. 1990 Donruss is fantastic if you can ignore the overproduction.

I sent a letter to former pitcher Bobby Shantz asking him if he had any memories of playing with a distant relative of mine. Shantz is his only remaining teammate and wrote back in March. The arrival of his letter coincided with the arrival of freshly graded cards, the results of which I included in my writeup of Shantz's response.

Early in the month I had a strong urge to open some junk wax packs, but I didn't have any on hand. A search of card shops within a reasonable distance revealed a longstanding one I had never noticed before. I paid a visit and came away with a complete set of 1997 Collector's Choice to sort through. There is a lot of interesting photography in the set, like the shot below of Phillies catcher Darren Daulton playing the outfield.

With all this going on, I didn't write as many card profiles as I would like. My backlog grew a bit after I came across some highly discounted vintage cards. Most were commons, though a few were 1952 Topps high numbers so the term "common" is a bit relative.  I think the ratio of incoming cards to outgoing profiles is going to become more favorable as the year progresses.

All right, let's wrap it up. Here are the card profiles posted for my set building projects within the past month: 

1952 Topps

• Shortly after the 1952 season concluded the biggest National League home run threats would join forces at Wrigley Field. The Mayor of Wrigley Field (and 1952 NL MVP) showed newcomer Ralph Kiner all the best spots, especially where he kept a hidden cache of tobacco in the outfield ivy.
  
• Did they run out of paint for covering up old logos? Topps decided to count the Phillies' minor league home run champ among the Chicago White Sox outfielders appearing in '52 Topps.
  

1993 Finest

• A dissatisfied catching phenom and perennial free agent once built a baseball card collection based solely on guys the San Diego Padres had let get away.
  
• Coors Field is known for high scoring ballgames, though it is not always the Rockies' bats that account for all the runs. The highest scoring game in team history showed off the baserunning talents of Colorado's speediest player.
  
• John Dealt, Went: This anagram of one of the '90s best relievers describes the player who was part of six different teams but only took the mound for four of them.