Baseball Cards

Best rookie cards I own. I eliminated PED guys (A-Rod, Manny, etc...except one) and Alomar. None are authenticated, but I think they're all near-mint. Drives me up the wall that that matters.

https://i.postimg.cc/W3Ch8k4p/01.jpg

Arenado - 2013 Topps
Bagwell - 1991 Stadium Club
Beltre - 1997 Topps
Bonds - 1987 Donruss (seems to have retained some value)

https://i.postimg.cc/N00Fw49f/02.jpg

Freeman - 2011 Topps
Griffey - 1989 Donruss
Jeter - 1993 Topps
Jones - 1991 Bowman

https://i.postimg.cc/0yk2pfCd/03.jpg

Johnson - 1989 Topps
Kershaw - 2008 Topps
Maddux - 1987 Leaf
Pedro - 1991 Upper Deck

https://i.postimg.cc/fWCPVfJh/04.jpg

Piazza - 1993 Topps
Scherzer - 2008 Topps
Thomas - 1990 Topps
Verlander - 2006 Topps

Wish I'd bought a dozen Kershaws when I could have--$4 or $5 online.

No Betts or Trout or Pujols or Cabrera, unfortunately.

Card show! Toronto has a big one at the International Centre twice a year--made the drive in today to meet my collector friend for dinner (he helps one of the vendors there) and buy lots of junk. First one I've gone to in a few years.

Should have brought my camera; there really is kind of a Hunter S. Thompson in Las Vegas feeling when you step inside, a universe unto itself. The three most expensive things I saw, all the same vendor: game-worn jerseys from Tim Horton and Rocket Richard, both $150,000 (I'd say half to three-quarters of what's in there was hockey-related), and a Nolan Ryan rookie card for $130,000. I know it would require a miracle for someone to steal this stuff, but why would you even risk that? Are you hoping for a walk-up sale on such items? ("$130,000? Sure--is there an ATM in here?")

Gretzky rookie cards everywhere, graded from 1 ($500) to 9 ($30,000--except I swear it didn't look like it was in that great shape...do people counterfeit grading?). In the scoundrel department, an O.J. rookie card (5.5) for $750, and an issue of Playboy with Trump on the cover for $450. Every booth had its name displayed. Best one: Vandelay Industries.

And then there are people like me who are there to buy cheap stuff no one wants (often found in boxes under the tables with the expensive stuff). Some of these were $5, some 2/$5:

1) Blue Jay sets (30 or 40 cards each) put out by Oh Henry! Bought seven, from 1995 to 2001. Not sure if that's all of them--if not, I know I'll start obsessively looking for the others.

2) A nice Blue Jay set put out in 2002, can't figure out by who. Halladay and Delgado are in there.

3) Minor league sets: 1987 Bakersfield Dodgers (best player: Juan Guzman), 1995 Charleston River Dogs (Fernando Tatis), 1992 Calgary Cannons (Bret Boone, Andy Hawkins, pitching coach Ross Grimsley), 1993 Ottawa Lynx (Matt Stairs, Blue Jay broadcaster Joe Siddall!), 1985 Utica Blue Sox (literally no one...Ken Brett was manager, though), and a 50-card Southern League All-Star set from '91 (three Frank Thomas cards, also Luis Gonzalez).

4) Two K-Mart sets: 1990 Super Stars and 1982 20th Anniversary AL & NL MVPs.

5) Other stuff: two Barry Colla sets, Frank Thomas and the 1992 All-Star Game (Colla's a photographer who used to put out his own specialty sets); 1994 Topps Stadium Club "Members Only" (it's embarrassing to even type that...); a McDonald's/Donruss MVP set from '92.

6) 10 loose Topps Heritage cards, including Cabrera on the Marlins, Maddux on the Padres, Beltre on the Mariners and Red Sox, and Rogers Hornsby and Mel Ott.

7) Two unopened decks of Toronto Maple Leafs playing cards. That one's really mysterious.

Also two books, $10 each: Sayonara Home Run! The Art of the Japanese Baseball Card and The Card (about the Honus Wagner T206).

Somewhere in the building, today or tomorrow: Dennis Rodman, William Shatner, and some wrestler (couldn't tell you who).

Good thing I'm two hours away, else I'd probably be back Saturday.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5489541/2024/05/13/bobby-witt-jr-game-worn-cards/?source=user_shared_article

In the second game of the 2024 season, Bobby Witt Jr. went 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles. But unbeknownst to anyone watching (well, almost anyone), Witt was playing with something unusual in his uniform pocket.

His baseball cards.

“I grew up my whole life collecting cards,” Witt told The Athletic.

A day earlier, reigning National League Rookie of the Year Corbin Carroll led off for the Arizona Diamondbacks doing the same thing. He played in his team’s 7-3 win over the Colorado Rockies with his own baseball cards in his pocket.

Witt and Carroll thus became — according to trading card grading and autograph/memorabilia authentication company Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) — the first two athletes to experiment with “game-used cards.”

A card graded a 10 is defined as “a virtually perfect card.” That means four sharp corners, a well centered image, and blemish-free on the front and back. At the opposite end of the scale, a PSA 1 grade means, “the eye appeal of the card has nearly vanished in its entirety.”

It should come as no surprise that none of the cards Witt and Carroll carried on them through a Major League Baseball game earned a PSA 10. In fact, the game-worn cards are now among the lowest graded examples of each card in PSA’s database. For example, a 1965 card that was taped to a wall and ripped off some of the front when removed, with a thumbtack hole and maybe stained by some marker — that gets a PSA 1. For someone to get, say, a PSA 3 with any card made in the last 20 years — you have to really try to get it that bad. Witt, for instance, knocked down the grades on his cards by sliding into second base on one of his doubles and on a stolen base attempt.

But it could have been worse.

“I put them in my left-back pocket, and I slide on my right. So they weren’t as banged up as they could have been,” Witt explained, adding that he didn’t check on them during the game.

Adding to the damage?

“I knew they had sweat marks on them, so they wouldn’t get good grades.”

…

But even with the wear and tear, Witt’s cards graded higher than Carroll’s did.

The final tally:

Corbin Carroll 2019 Bowman Draft: 1
Corbin Carroll 2023 Topps Heritage: 3
Bobby Witt, Jr. 2022 Topps Heritage: 4
Bobby Witt Jr. 2022 Topps Update: 2
Witt added that he and Carroll talk about cards, but they haven’t discussed the outcomes from the game-worn cards yet.

“If one of these had a scuff on it or a bent corner because Corbin was sliding into second, I think that has extra allure to it,” said Hoge. “Collectors will look at how used or how impactful it was for the game-worn aspect.”

Also, I still need to photograph some of the haul clemenza sent me, I put them away ASAP!

Game-used cards ("used"): what a bizarre concept.

My collector friend told me there's been a scandal or two with the authenticators. Not surprising--it really does seem like a bogus adjunct industry, created solely to drive pricing up. I can see wanting to make sure your Wagner or Mantle card isn't a fake, but at the lower end of the scale, should you really need to authenticate Freddie Freeman and Yordan Alvarez cards?

Got some surprise cards from gyac yesterday, all from the 2023 Topps Heritage set. They look great--not sure which of the '70s sets they're modelled on. Four of them:

https://i.postimg.cc/XqZYkxqd/witt.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/bYMJwXVT/bello.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/rwGFjDVn/gallen.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/ZqVYkXy6/kirk.jpg

The Kirk card kills me--that must have been the day we had him at shortstop.

(Notice the classic "Topps All-Star Rookie" trophy on the Witt card.)

1974 design

That's the one, thanks.

https://i.postimg.cc/RZb9XwrT/oscar.jpg

(Sorry, wasn't thinking about the team nickname, just Oscar Gamble.)

Oh that rules, it’s nice to see the design template!