New Pick-Ups - From Philly Show

Okay all, here are some pics of what I was able to pick up at the show last weekend.

I'm very excited about this first item as it knocks another Jersey City card off of my list. I've been wanting this T201 fairly bad for about a year now but just haven't found one that I really liked for a good price. This one was just right for me and I snatched it up from Clean Sweep the minute I saw it.

It's an example picturing William Abstien (1b) on the front and John Butler (c) when it's folded over. I've always heard that these are fairly thin fragile cards so I've been wanting to see for myself when I picked this card up. While it is thinner and more susceptible to creasing than other cards of the era that I am familiar with, it's not as thin as I had originally thought. I can see why there are a lot of examples with bad damage around the crease from being folded in the past though.

This being the only Jersey City card in the entire T201 set, I have finished this set's checklist. Woohoo!

Moving on...

Here is a new T206 with a back stamp. You'll be hearing a bit more about my fascination with these cards in an upcoming post, but now I'll say that I was quite happy to pick up this fine example ot Nichols.

As you can see there is a large H stamped on the reverse. It appears that the stamper wasn't pleased with his first attempt and decided to stamp another two times.

Next we have a couple more 1949 Remars, Loyd Christopher and Bud Foster. These cards are not exactly difficult to find, but I really like the fact that they represent the Oakland Oaks Pacific Coast League team of the late forties and early fifties. Plus the 1949 set has a nice card of Billy Martin and the '46 and '47 sets have Casey Stengel in them. I'm finding these cards fun to collect because they are so affordable and I can pick them up now then for something different than my usual pick-ups.

This last pick-up is very special to me.

I've been picking up cards with a certain type of back stamp for a while now and I was able to pick this one up from a very nice hobby veteran named Ted Zanidakis. He is very knowledgable when it comes to the T206 set in particular and has completed the set several times and handled thousands and thousands of T206's in his time in the hobby.

This Mike Powers example has a rare Hindu back with a purple number 42 stamped on it. I love T206's with these purple number stamps on them (again, more about this in an upcoming post). I've also always loved the Powers cards, so this is a happy addition to my collection.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my new pick-ups. I had a really great time at the show and hope to make it to many more in the future. I feel lucky to live close enough to drive to the show for a day and still make it home afterwards.

Enjoy the hobby all, it's a great one...

Pics of the Month :: September 2008

I hope you enjoy this month's pics everyone. I almost missed the end of the month again, sorry about that. Please let me know if there are any players you would like to see some pics of and I'll try to locate some of them for you

Whoa! Everything is spinning....I'm feeling Dizzy!

Dizzy Dean, Cardinals 1934 World Series against Detroit

Dizzy Dean, 1936

Dizzy Dean 1934 - 37

Enjoy the hobby all, it's a great one...

All pics were borrowed from www.baseball-fever.com

100th Philly Show - A Great Time Was Had

Ever since I knew I was going to be moving back east from CA, I was hoping to get a chance to go to the Ft. Washington Show.

If you've never heard of this show, you should check out the website here, especially if you live withing a few hours drive of Reading, PA. I know what you're thinking, "Philly Show, Ft. Washington Show, Reading, PA? Which is it man?" The show has moved around a little bit since it started in 1975, so it's been known as a few different names. You can read a little about it on their website.

I got a chance to go to the show last night and it was awesome. There were a lot of national dealers in attendance as well as many auction houses including Mastro, Huggins & Scott, Clean Sweep, Hunt, American Memorabilia, and Heritage Galleries. PSA and SGC were there taking submissions while GAI had a space reserved but nobody was there.

Now, I had heard that this show was a treasure trove of vintage cards and memorabilia, but I had no idea what I was in store for. There was so much stuff that I almost didn't make it through the whole show in the three and half hours that I was there. I walked around slowly taking it all in, the cards, the gloves, the game used jerseys and bats, the pennants, the programs, vintage hats, Spalding guides, trophies....I could go on and on for a while here, but I'll spare you the boring reading part and move on.

I was able to pick up a few things on my wantlist, which is very exciting for me. I'll scan them and get you some images to look at soon. I wanted to get a quick post in today while everything was still fresh from last night. I wish I could go back, but I don't have the time the rest of the weekend. I'll try to post again tonight, or tomorrow with some images and some more details about the trip.

Enjoy the hobby all, it's a fantastic one...

T206 Horizontal Subset

When I first started getting into prewar cards, I was naturally drawn to the T206 set for it's colorful lithography, the shear size of the set and it's availability.

After beginning to learn about the set and after looking at hundreds of images of different cards, I found that I was very much drawn to the horizontal poses in the set. I found out that there are 6 cards in the set in a horizontal format. They are: Birmingham, Mullin, Murphy, Pattee, Pelty and Powell. I decided rather quickly that I wanted to obtain this subset of six cards.


I found that there seemed to be a little premium attached to them and I figured there were just a lot of other collectors that had the same goal as I did. That didn't surprise. I later found out that not only is the Pattee a very attractive card (which I had always thought was why it costs a bit more than the others) but it is also from the 150 subjects only group. The Pelty card is also from this group. Cards from this group, which consists of only 11 (possibly 12) cards from the entire set, are a bit tougher to find than the other cards.

Of note, the Pattee card is theorized to have been omitted from the set after the first series because his last year in the majors was 1908. I must say, this sounds like a pretty good theory to me. What a nice image though, one of my favorites in the entire set. (Another of my favorites from the set, coincidentally, is the Mike Powers card which is also a 150-only card).

I was finally able to complete this little subset a little over a year ago. Of course, I could have done it much quicker, but I kept wanting to pick up different cards and so I added a new one every now and then. I do love seeing all six of them together and thought you might like to see them as well.

Thanks for sharing these with me everyone. Enjoy the hobby everyone, it's a good one...

Jersey City Skeeters in Training

I grew up in New Jersey and I love this state. So when I first started learning about Prewar cards, I was thrilled to find that Jersey City had a minor league team that was represented in the T206 set. In fact, the first Prewar card I ever bought was a T206 Hannifan, Jersey City.

I am always looking to add to my Jersey City collection and was very excited to have found this original cabinet photo of a couple of players (or at least one player) from the Jersey City Skeeters in Bermuda. The mount is in terrible shape, but as you can see, the photo itself is mostly intact with just the top right corner affected by the damage.

I was fortunate enough to have added this item to my collection a while ago and wanted to share it with you all. It is one my favorite items in my collection to this point. If you can help me identify the people in the photo I would very much appreciate it.

Also, written on the mount is "Burmuda" which is why I said the photo was taken there. Did teams, and specifically minor league teams, travel to the islands for games or training back then? I need to put some time into researching this a bit.

Enjoy the hobby all, it's a great one...

Not Exactly Prewar, But...

Okay, so this post isn't about prewar cards in particular, but it is about the

hobby. The entire hobby.

While going through a bunch of old boxes of stuff that I had stored away, I happened upon some interesting cards. A few of them are pictured at here. I couldn't remember where the heck these came from and I just sort of put them aside and kept rummaging through the box.

It wasn't until I actually flipped one of them over that I realized where I had picked these beauties up. It was at the 5th National Convention at the Aspen Hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey!

My family had just recently moved to New Jersey from Michigan and I was still a youngster. My dad took my brother and I to a "baseball card show" and I remember being completely floored when we got there. It was so huge I was actually a little scared to walk in at first. After a while however I was buzzing from table to table amazed to see actual Donruss rookies of Donnie Baseball.

I had no idea there was even a period of baseball cards called Prewar. I had never heard of a caramel card and wouldn't have known who Walter Johnson was if someone asked. This was 1984 though, the Prewar market wasn't like it is today (at least that's what I have gleaned from hobby veterans over the years).

I never knew I had been to National. I guess I didn't remember that part of the show. So all these years later, I have been reminded of this wonderful experience and wisened to the fact that I have, in fact, been to a National Convention in the past. And all because of the backs of these cards that I saved all these years in a box.

I love this hobby, Enjoy it everyone...

Card Shops

Well, I've been back in Jersey for about a month and have already found two local card shops and another store that has some cards but mostly vintage toys and kids stuff from the 70's and 80's.

Not a whole lot of vintage cards to be found however. The oldest were 50's Topps, which I do like, but nothing prewar. I didn't really think I would find any prewar stuff in a card store although I always ask the owner just in case. I actually had a guy in Colorado once look at me like I was an idiot when I asked him and he asked me to name some cards that I was talking about. When I rattled off a bunch of sets he just said no and went back to talking to his regular customer about shiny new stuff.

I really like card shops, even if they don't have a lot of vintage stuff. I do collect more than just prewar cards and I can find some things in local shops that I want. I'm working on a 1954 Topps set, 1975 Set, 1981 Set and several other regionals, but I can also always pick up supplies from a local shop and I just like to chat with the owner's and be around cards. If you're addicted like me, then you know what I'm talking about.

I do have to ask the question, "Why are so many card shops such cluttered messes?" Seriously, one of the shops near here looks like it was once a big bustling city made of sportscards and supplies (and mail?) that was recently bombed and hit with rockets and now looks like it is in ruin. Completely unorganized piles (or piles that have toppled) of cards on top of random half full boxes of supplies next to old issues of Beckett... You know what I'm talking about. If you ever have, or currently do, own a shop and it was like this, please let me know why. I'm very curious. Rest assured though that the mess does not bother me at all, I rather enjoy the hunt through it all to find the one 1975 Topps card that I can use for my set buried under a bunch of basketball cards.

If you are near any card shops, please support them and give them some of your business. I know that better deals are found elsewhere a lot of the times, but local card shops are a great thing and I feel that part of being active in the hobby, and making a contribution to it, is supporting the local shops. So let them know how nice it is to have them around and thank the owner for being there.

With that, enjoy the hobby all, it's a great one...