1962 Topps Green Tints

I've been fascinated by these variations on the 1962 Topps cards numbered 110 - 197 where the cards have a green tint to them

The are of course affectionately called Green Tints or Greenies.  I've showed a few examples below showing the green tint next to the regular card for comparison.

You can clearly see the green tint on the card to the right.  There are other tell tale signs of a green tint versus a regular card too.  For instance, the button on the shirt of the on greenie is more visible than on the greenie.  Each green tint card has a slightly different cropping of the picture.  Some are easy to tell while others are not.  Notice also the wood grain is much lighter on the green tine version that the non green tint.

Here is another side by side to see some differences..  This is the Conley side by side.

Of course I'm choosing examples where the Green Tint is fairly obvious so you can see them easily.  There are many of the greenies however that are not so easy to tell apart and it takes years of studying them to know which is which.

One more clear example of a greenie next to a regular issue.  You can see the cropping difference in the Indian's logo on Barry's left arm. 

Now, some greenies are easy to spot because they are completely different images between the greenie and the regular image  For example...

 

 

In the case of the Lee Walls cards, the green tint is on the left and you can clearly see the green sky.  I believe there are six examples where the greenie doesn't share the same image as the non greenie. 

 

1. 129 Lee Walls
2. 139 Hal Reniff
3. 147 Bill Kunkel
4. 174 Carl Willey
5. 176 Eddie Yost
6. 190 Wally Moon

 

There are 87 Green Tints in the set and they are very fun to chase.  I'm actually working on getting all the greenies before I even start the 1962 set.  Once I have all the greenies then I'll list the rest of the set and go for that.  So far I have 39 examples. 

I really like these variations for some reason and hope you do as well.

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

Typical Zeenut Condition Issues

I feel the need to pontificate on Zeenuts for a bit.

Zeenuts are a great cards to collect.  They were produced of 25 years by the Collins-McCarthy company.  From the years 1911 through 1938 there were very nice cards produced of the Pacific Coast League teams and players.  I don't want to talk about how great they are in this post, but rather how they ended up the way they did all these years later.

Let's me honest with each other here, some of the Zeenuts are wonderful looking cards.  Especially the ones from 1918 with the red borders or the ones with original coupons still intact.  But I'm talking about the ones that are just beat to hell.  The ones that look like they went through the washing machine in your jeans pocket.  Take a look at these examples I'm found in less than 10 minutes of looking. 

 

 

 Believe it or not, these are typical condition cards for the later year Zeenuts.  I have no idea what kids were doing with these card back then.  Here are a few more examples.

 

Of course not all Zeenuts look like this.  But I see them all the time and just laugh.  What seriously happened to these things.

 

I have plenty of beaters in my collection and I love them.  But I really like these Zeenuts too.  I'll have to pick some up just to have them in hand.  Let's see some more just for fun.

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

1952 Topps Mantle PSA 9

A PSA 9 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle just sold in the recent Heritage Auction.

Heritage Auctions just sold a PSA 9 1952 Mickey Mantle for $2.88M including the buyer's premium.  This auction was very interesting as many wondered if the card would bring $3.5M or $4M.  The last super high end Mantle to sell at auction was a PSA 8.5 and that one sold for $1.135M. 

I had my doubts that the 9 would reach $4M and seemed to be in the minority on a popular message board.  Some were even saying they thought it would bring $5M.   I thought they were all crazy.  I was actually surprised it went for what it did.  I was thinking closer to $2.5M. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy for the seller that he got what he did. 

Now folks are wondering what one of the three PSA 10's would sell for if they went up for auction.  Some have said $6M, while others think that is too low.  What then?  $10M? 

Personally I think these estimates are crazy.  I don't think people were holding out for one of the 10's and didn't bid on this 9.5.  So then if a 10 were up for sale, why would they push it so much higher?

I'm sure it would go for more than the 9.5, but not that much more.  What do you guys think? 

Enjoy the hobby all...it's a crazy one.

Recent Pick Up

Another recent pick up to share...

Here is another recent pick up that I was lucky enough to get.  I've been slowly (very slowly to be honest) working on the E90-1 set and I recently picked up a couple new cards.  I used to own a copy of the Charley Hall card and sold it years ago.  I had it as part of my horizontals collection and wasn't really working on the E90-1 set when I owned it.  But I've always been upset about selling it.  So I was very happy to pick up this new example.

 

 

It's right in my condition ballpark.  I usually pick up low condition cards and this is another.  If you're looking for real high end stuff then this won't be the blog for you.  Sorry.  But I love these cards and love to share them with you. 

 

This puts me at 8 of the 120 in the set.  I have another card incoming but it's not here yet so I will share it when it gets here.  I'm having fun with this set guys. 

 

I hope you liked my new pick up.

 

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

A Recent Pick Up

I Recently picked up a new card in the Spring Love of the Game auction.

The Spring Love of the Game auction closed March 24th and they had a lot of great items.  From postcards (lots of postcards) to memorabilia to cards.  I saw several lots that I liked and followed throughout the auction.  Most of them were for caramel cards with the lot of horizontal 1909 Obaks in my sights as well. 

I placed my bid on the E98 Mordecai "Miner" Brown card pictured here and was lucky enough to have won it.  It was fun following the auction and anxiously wondering if my max bid would hold or not.

The under bidder pushed my bid up my max but it held out and in the end I became the new owner of this beautiful card. 

This is my third E98 and my second HOFer from the set.  I never thought I would be collecting this set.  Years ago it was priced way out of my range, but I always liked it.  The prices for most caramels has come down a bit in the last five or so years and some of these cards can be picked up at more modest levels now.

I'm still not sure if I'm actually going to collect the set or just pick up a few cards that I like.  Time will tell I guess.

I also have the Fred Clarke and Hal Chase.  Both of them have the same green background as this Three Finger Brown example.  My Chase is from the Lionel Carter collection.  It's in poor condition (really poor to be honest) but I love it because it has the Carter pedigree on the SGC flip.  I'll likely do a post with those cards in the future so keep an eye out for that.

I hope you like my new E98 as much as I do. 

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

A New Post After All These Years

Well, hello everyone.  It's been a long time since I posted anything on this blog but my wife has encouraged me to start posting again so here I am.  Nothing very interesting in this post, just a welcome back to myself.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the ol' blog again.  See ya.