Card Show Results

I went to a local show on Saturday. It was -26 out, but I had to go anyways to pick up a christmas gift, so I thought what the heck.
It's a smaller show that happens every month during the hockey season. Usually 10-15 different sellers with 2-4 tables each. No goody bags, no advertising... either you know about it or you don't.
As soon as I walked in I was greeted by a fellow behind two tables. He was very friendly, but didn't have anything I wanted. too bad, he was the kind of guy you wanted to spend money with.
I casually walked to, and browsed every table from every seller.
As far as the eye could see... hockey singles. And very few autos... almost exclusively jersey cards of various value. All overpriced. And I do mean, overpriced. At every table.
Only one seller had wax. Her "show specials" were last years Upper Deck Series 2 hockey at $65 a box and this years Upper Deck series 1 hockey at $85 a box. I can get these from the shop I usually buy at for $55 and $65 respectively. Not surprisingly, she also had around 40-50 of the latest Beckett Hockey laid out prominently at the front of her area. So I left her behind, and onto the next guy.
Boxes of modern hockey singles, with some '70's OPC hockey singles in grade VG at best. Nothing is priced. Great. Okay, here we go..." How much are these?" I ask. He says "the 'OPC are 3/4 Beckett, and the rest is 60% Beckett. Just for the show only, after that, they go back up." Should I explain to him how Beckett lists NearMint value? Nah... lost cause.
Only one hope left. This table, manned by a different dude every time, always has things besides cards. Sometimes books, pennants, figures, lunch boxes, whatever he can scrounge.
No dice here either. Although he has a sign saying to ask to see cards of other sports. Cool. Show me.
He proudly brings out his baseball box. 3 for $2 during the show. ExMt '89 Donruss and '91 Score. Um... no thanks. He also has a set. A 1991 Pacific Nolan Ryan Texas Express hand collated set, missing only three cards, for half price. $25 and it's mine. It's rare you know, he tells me... Ryan will be in the Hall of Fame one day.
Really?
Fascinating.
I have 17 of these sets, will you buy them for $15 each? No? How about $15 for all of them? They're rare you know.
Still no. Maybe I should've offered to take out three cards from each set....


I left with nothing. First time ever. I need to go visit Sportslots for awhile.....

Don't fall behind..

Dallas over the GMen...

Colts and Saints remain unbeaten...

Before the Southside Mafia gets here...

Awhile back, okay... waaaaaayyyy long ago, I showed off some football cards that the Peoples Champ sent me.
No. Not that one. This one. All you need to know is written write here. Actually, he sounds a lot like Tommy Hanson. But I digress.

The Wicked One also sent over a few of his treasured autos. Now I've been meaning to post them, really I have. But my camera and I have our little disagreements. It's a thing. You may or may not understand. I finally convinced it to cooperate. I think. Maybe not.

Anyways, The Don has been bugging me to get these up for all to see. I had better before he sends some of his boys up here. If you do, dress warm bro, it's -21 here at noon today.

First up, Cleo Lemon, Super Mark Duper, and Tomas Vokoun.

and Olli Jokinen, Stephen Weiss, John Vanbiesbrouck and some dude I haven't had time to figure out who he is yet.

These are frickin' sweet! Sorry the pics are so crappy. Maybe my camera won this round after all.

Thanks Wicked! You da man!

Front Page News

As a daily ritual, I peruse several online sports news sites. As I am sure, most of you do.
The usual suspects, CNNSI, FOXSPORTS, ESPN, TSN, etc...

Now if you click on each of those links above, you will find that the lead story on these SPORTS NEWS sites, is about Tiger Woods and his misdeeds, shall we say.

First of all, these are sports sites, and Tiger Woods is not an athlete, he does not play a sport. He participates in a leisure activity. He is damn good at it, the best in the world. But you don't see Tony O'Shea on the front page of any of these. Tony doesn't play a sport, but does participate in a rather difficult leaisure activity, and is the worlds best at it.

But please, save your hate mail for another time.... I'm not done yet.

Even IF Mr Woods was an athlete, these "articles" are not about his latest victory or defeat. They are about the sordid details of his private life. I hesitate to use the word private. In the time of world domination by 14 year old girls, we are subjected to Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook. Now, I am not an adolescent teen age girl. I do not need to know where all of my friends are every minute of every day. If I want to send a friend a message, I email them. Or if I have something to tell them, I pick up the phone and call.
I know. Old school.
But "journalists" and "media outlets" insist on informing us about every minute detail about every celebrities lives. Some celebrities crave the spotlight. Chad Ocho Cinco tweets while celebrating in the end zone. Britney Spears forgets her underwear. Fine. Do what you need to do to make yourself feel wanted. It's your show.
But other celebrities, like Mr Woods for example, go out of their way to maintain a private existance. Are their wishes respected by "journalists"? Or the "paparazzi"? No.

Why is this even a story worth writing about? Who the hell cares if Mr Woods slept with every member of the Baltimore Cheerleaders? I don't. Why do you?

This is a lot like a "story" from last week, where the son of Brian Burke, General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, "came out" and admitted he was gay.
Who the hell cares? Why is this a story? What you do in your own life is your business. Will it affect the way his Dad does his job? No.

When exactly did we go from reporters, who reported the facts of the story, to journalists, who insist on scrounging up discreet details about everyone's private lives?


I know I'm going to get a lot of heat here... but it had to be said.

a Vintage thanks, times two...

a lot of you know Matt from Project Baseball 1976 fame. He also has another blog with a simple theme, A Giant Blog. No, it's not a blog about tall people. But his favourite team, the NY/SF Giants. He's trying to do what I'm trying to do with the Braves, put together team sets going waaaay back.
I was able to help him with some 1970, '71 and '72 Topps that I acquired via trade and card show, and I sent them on to him to enjoy.

Last week, I received an envelope from Matt. Not of vintage Braves. Oh no. Inside were 31 glorious 1977 Topps football cards.
Beautiful. Never heard of any of 'em. Even more awesome. Thanks for the football Matt!

Now here's where it gets hinky. I think, but am not sure, that Matt also included a few 1976 Topps baseball cards as well for my set that will never end. The problem is this. I get so excited at the prospect of maybe one day finishing this set off, I literally rush to my '76 binder and stuff them in the empty slots if I can.
So we'll give Matt credit for some of those too!

Which leads me to the "times two" portion of the post. Our good friend, the main Troll himself, sent me a plain, white envelope, with what could only be a top loader inside of it. One card? Usually trades between us are sent by the pound.... what could this be? Well after I tore it open, inside I found a 1976 Topps Tom Seaver.
Again, no scan as it went into my binder in about 4 seconds.
Thanks Marck!!

I may one day finish this set. Doubtful... but maybe.

Chip away at the stone...

This just announced, TBS and Chip Carey have parted ways. LINK Good luck to you Chip!

Let's hope they bring Don Sutton back from radio... that would be awesome.

Let this be a lesson to all...

you better save it next time.... or else....




after hitting him over the head, he smacks the post again and skates away. Doesn't even check to see if he's okay.

Bargain Hunting Parts 4 and 5 - Great White North Edition

It was time to add some hockey to my bargain hunting excursion. Remember the rules? Under $5 basically. Free shipping if possible. I found two lots that I snapped up pretty quickly.

The first included this 1970-71 OPC Serge Savard - Hall Of Fame 1986
a 1971-72 OPC Brad Park Hall Of Fame 1988 - (Brad has a wrinkle on the front that stabs him right into his hip)

a 1971-72 OPC Yvan Cournoyer All Star with a crease just under "Right Wing"

a 1971-72 OPC Serge Savard - crease free, but with a soft lower corner.

a 1971-72 Topps Frank Mahovlich - Hall Of Fame 1981 - Frank was traded from Detroit to Montreal. Detroit wears red and white, Montreal wears red and white. Airbrush the logo and no one will ever know, right?

a 1971-72 Topps Gordie The Best Hockey Player That Ever Lived Howe. - Hall Of Fame 1972 - Gordie has a small wrinkle on the back of his card.

Have you been able to tell the difference between the 71-72 OPC and the 71-72 Topps?

No? That's because the only difference is on the backs. Silly.

Here we see the Topps Gordie As Close To God As You Can Get Howe...

and here's the back of the OPC Savard

Easy now, right? BTW, any tape you see is on the top loader, not the card itself. I hate, HATE peaople who put tape on top loaders. There is a special place in hell for people who put tape on top loaders.

If you've traded with me, you probably know that I recycle when I can. Bubble envelopes, top loaders, cases, etc... this is where all my top loaders that people send me with tape on them go. Yes. To you. Sorry. It's either that or throw them out.

That concludes Bargain Hunt 1 and a rant. All for $3.25

This next batch I got was all 1972-73 Topps Hockey. In beautiful condition. I should get these graded. Right after my lobotomy.


Yvan Cournoyer - Hall OF Fame 1982 -"The Road Runner" why don't current players have cool nicknames?

Yvan Cournoyer in action All Star card

Jacques Lemaire - Hall Of Fame 1984 -complete with printers dots and top loader tape.

Terry Harper - Terry was part of two huge trades, where the team trading Terry absolutely raped the other team.

Paul Henderson

What the HELL?!?! A Maple Leaf? How did a Maple Leaf get on this blog?!?! Well, it's Paul Henderson. A National Hero. That's how. If you don't know why Paul Henderson is a National Hero, then a Google you will go.

This lot was $3. I love this. I'm changing the way I collect because of this. We'll see how long it lasts.