Team Set Holes

As you have come to expect from me, I like to break my card show purchases into a number of posts so that I get a good week's worth of posts from my day at the show. This card show was no different, either.

This one is my final post from that last show. Basically, it's random Brewer cards that I needed for my team set collections.

Let's start with the most recent ones -- Aramis Ramirez and Mark Reynolds from the Update set.

Escobar played every single game for the Kansas City Royals this year. He was in the Greinke trade with Lorenzo Cain.

Now, for the fun stuff -- Hostess! That Bando card looks like the photo is from the Old Comiskey Park and was taken in front of the old exploding scoreboard.

Those two were from 1978, while this next Bando is from 1977. Along with the Fosse, it shows that Topps wasn't the only company to employ airbrushers back in the 1970s to put guys on different teams. All three of these cards were a quarter each.

This 1979 Dick Davis card was a condition upgrade. Davis reportedly was a major cocaine user in the early 1980s, according to Lonnie Smith's testimony during the 1985 Pittsburgh Drug Trials.

Before I bought this copy of the 1983 RBI Leaders from the 1984 Topps set, I already have at least two copies of it. It's just that one of them is autographed and both of the other two are in my Cooper player collection.

These next four were all great finds from the first dealer table at which I stopped. Three of the four are from the higher numbers in the 1972 set, so they did cost a little bit more (50 cents or $1) than a basic common, but all of them are in good shape and were needed for my team collection.

As was the case with the Cooper RBI leader, I have this card already. It's just in the Ted Simmons player collection.

I used to have this card somewhere. I think it was in the 1984 Donruss set I sold in 1989. No matter. Found another one for a quarter.

Randomly, two former Brewers prospects in the 2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition were in the quarter box. I guess it was because they are former prospects. Gindl was DFA'ed in September by Milwaukee, while Adams got to the Single-A Midwest League before getting blown up for an ERA near 6 in 2009.

In one "star" box, I found three 1984 O-Pee-Chee cards of three former Brewers now in the Hall of Fame. For a quarter a piece, I made sure that I got two Molitors for myself as well.

Finally, I picked up this chrome-y reprint of the 1976 Topps Hank Aaron card from 1999. I may not collect him as a player collection, but his appearances in both my Brewers and Braves team sets mean that I have to chase all of his cards for one copy.

As it was, I was slightly underwhelmed by the show this month. I spent more money this month on fewer cards. Certainly, that was because I loaded up on some more expensive vintage cards, but the dime boxes just weren't as productive this time around. So, I had to turn to the quarter boxes which means higher prices and fewer cards.

I may just need to shake things up and attend one of the other shows. Or, I may just need to take a few months off from the show.  We'll see how things progress, as I have some big changes in my life coming up.

eBay Wins and Losses

A Robin Yount collector from Oregon has been selling off parts of his Yount collection on eBay recently.  It takes everything I have in me not to bid on everything and try to win everything.  I won a pretty good number of items, though I did not get any of the "White Whale" relics.  Those relics rocketed past $150 each, so I didn't go there.  But, here are some of my wins from those Yount auctions:

1979 Hostess L-shaped Panel

1975 Hostess Panel

1976 Holiday Inn MSA Disc

1991 Cadaco Disc

1994 Ameritech Calling Card given out at the game at which Yount's jersey was retired in 1994,
Serial numbered 40614 of 63000 (see, it's rare!!)

2004 Topps Relic 

2004 Leaf Certified Materials Fabric of the Game FG-100, numbered 20/29

2001 Topps Hit Parade Relic

2003 Leaf /Donruss Trademark Threads, numbered 11/19

1992 ACE Novelty Pin (hey, it was $1!)

I also got a Gary Carter card which isn't in the greatest condition, but I didn't have it before and it is a complete panel Twinkie card:

Two more items -- and yes, I told you, I spent too much money on eBay lately!

First, this is one I hinted at yesterday.  It's a set issued by McDonald's in 1970, though it does not have a McDonald's logo on it.  I was able to buy four of the six uncut sheets in the set, so now I'm on the lookout for the other two sheets.  

Here's one of the sheets.  It's a little bigger than my scanner can handle, so please excuse the cutoff photos.

Finally, I purchased the complete set of 1976 photos of the Brewers team that the A&P grocery store issued.  Here are the two major stars in the set: Robin Yount and Hank Aaron.

This last set shows what a good design without a license can look like -- get the guys to take off their hats and make the set a portrait set!  It helps kids to identify their favorite players too!

I also bought several boxes of unopened cards -- one off eBay of the Series 2 1991 Stadium Club and the remainder from DA Card World.  Oh, and then there were the mass of unopened packs and the repacks that my wife insisted I buy when we went to Target this past week -- she insisted I buy them because she wanted me to have plenty of work in sorting and opening so that I wouldn't buy any more!

It worked -- I've only "bought" one thing since then, and I got it using credit from selling on eBay.