Lucky Streak Continues…

So last month, Isaac pulls an instant winner Rick Ankiel autograph ticket at the Winter Warm-Up. Saturday, he gets a 36 card jumbo pack of 2009 Topps in his Valentines basket. He didn’t pull an autograph, a relic, or a Cardinal legend, much less a base Cardinal, but he did pull this:

At first he thought it was a silk card. He really wants to pull a silk card. He doesn’t want to buy one, just pull one… Wrapper says the insert rate for the Legends Stamp cards is 1:755 packs (not sure if that is all packs, retail packs, retail jumbos, etc…) and is easily the rarest thing he’s gotten out of any pack. Ever the set builder, he set this one aside, put the base cards in order, then promptly logged into ToppsTown to start building that online set. You go buddy!

Don Hamerman: Found Baseballs

Everyone owes it to themselves to view Don Hamerman’s photographs of baseballs in various states of disintegration.

From the artist:

”I began collecting these baseballs in the winter of 2004-2005. Discovered in the park near my house where I walk my dog daily, they went unnoticed by others. Abject, rejected and forlorn, their state depended on the season of their discovery. Some hid in the high grass, gutted by lawnmowers, or under leaves, rotting, the leather skins long since decomposed. Covered in ice crystals on a February morning or shrouded in summer moss, they all hinted at mysterious pasts.”

Check out this Hamerman interview on 20x200 for more background.

I was fortunate enough to grab these before they sold out… and the small sizes sell out very quickly. I’m hoping they offer more from this series this spring… maybe another double header on Opening Day? Oh yeah, like all 20x200 editions the “base” is numbered to 200, with larger editions numbered to 20 and 2.

Hemi

Mossball

Stricken

Untitled (Elephant)

Weekend Card Show Review

I took Isaac to the monthly St. Louis Sports Collector’s show on Sunday as we haven’t gone in a few months. I thought I’d blog a few random observations on the show but will focus on one event that serves as a microcosm of the hobby, good and bad.

We were looking through the 10 cent boxes (great stuff in there: 06/07 Turkey Red Ad backs, Isaac found a bunch of Sizemore & Braun cards, 08 Heritage, etc…) when a dealer on the backside of the table noticed Isaac and offered him this card: a die-cut UD X Longoria Rookie card. He gave it to Isaac out right even after I asked him if he was sure. That’s the good part.

The bad? He had it priced at $12.95!!! I imagine the thought process went something like this:

- Before the show: Longoria is hot. Let’s price these high and wait for the $$$ to roll in.

- Half way through the show: Man, it doesn’t look like this is going to sell… I’ll offer it at half off to anyone who touches it.

- Hour left in the show: Hey, check that little kid out, haven’t seen a kid that young around here in months. I’ll just give it to him… just a piece of worthless cardboard anyway.

The better? Isaac thanked him (without prompting) and immediately said he wanted to send it to Dave at Fielders along with a stack of Rays Cracker Jack mini’s & stickers he pulled out of the box (Dave, I hope you need them ‘cause they’re on the way). Turns out Dave already has this one so he put it in his favorite player binder… in the back with a Pedroia of all things.

Overall, the show was a good time (except for the eerie encounter with a 36 year old collector, still living with his parents, telling us how great the big Turkey Red & Allen & Ginter cards looked taped to the walls of his room… uh, look Isaac! THAT booth across the room has Cardinals stuff. Let’s go… quickly). There were actually quite a few dealers who gave Isaac freebies when he walked up including Cardinal Heritage dupes, free packs, and stacks of random cards. The best part of the day was opening five packs of 2009 Topps over our lunch at Steak ‘n’ Shake.

Grover Alexander Update

The Grover Alexander original artwork I ordered while in Mexico arrived last week while I was in Arizona. It unexpectedly arrived framed and was definitely more stunning in hand than online. Unfortunately my camera skills do not do it justice. The artist, Mark Penxa, also has his online gallery available on Flickr.

The Babe In The Negro Leagues

Another opportunity to combine my interests in art and baseball on this blog. This print by Mark Ulriksen was from a 2008 World Series double header on 20x200, an online art gallery / blog offering affordable prints, photographs, and originals in limited editions. This one is numbered 33 / 200! Perfect!

From the artist:

“The Babe in the Negro Leagues is a personal piece. I took the opportunity to portray one of my baseball heroes in a setting I also enjoy, the advertising-cluttered outfield fences at stadiums of yore. The hand-painted quality of the old typography in the signage is somehow more authentic and attractive than anything one sees today.

While the Babe barnstormed the world in the off-season and played one of his last games against the New York Cubans of the Negro Leagues, this portrait is purely hypothetical.”

The second half of the twin bill: Stars and Stripes. Numbered 198/200.

More From the Vintage Buy

How many posts can I milk from one shop visit? Let’s bleed this one dry and find out… This time a Topps type-card stroll through the 60’s + 1.

1960 – Bill White

1961 – Nada

1962 – Bob Duliba

1963 – Carl Sawatski. That might be one of the best baseball names I’ve never heard. Can you imagine ESPN highlights whenever he’d bash a homer?

 

1964 – Ray Sadecki

1965 – Ron Taylor

 

1966 – Dal Maxvill.

1967 – Nada

1968 – 1967 World Series Highlights

 

1969 – Ron Willis

 

1970 – Chuck Taylor. Sir, my son wears your shoes… red ones of course.

Here are the other posts:

1959 Topps Heritage

1957 Topps

Lost In The Shuffle

Brock

Gibby

Only a few more to go…

1959 Topps “Heritage”

Isaac loves the 2008 Heritage but, being six, didn’t understand that the set was based on the Topps 1959 design. Fortunately, these were part of the vintage haul so he could see old and new in person. I’m considering building Cardinal team sets around these random cards from various years but imagine that could be a fairly costly proposition given the likes of Musial, Gibson, Brock, Carlton, etc… We’ll see.

Jim Brosnan

Phil Clark

Gene Oliver