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Date sent: 3/10/09
Date returned: 5/29/09
I don't think that I'm ever going to send a jersey card in a TTM request again. If you've been reading my blog for a little while you'll recall what happened when I sent a TTM request to Mike Mussina with jersey cards included.
I sent a 2004 Topps All-Star Stitches card to Jamie Moyer back during Spring Training. The request came back today. The jersey card was there and it was signed. The only problem were the huge creases and tears down the middle of the card. I've included scans of the front and back for you to see.
I'm certainly not accusing Moyer of anything but when you grab the card with both of your hands and start to bend it around the creases the damage sure looks like it could be a result of that action.
The card was sent in a top loader and returned in a top loader. The envelope that the card came back in was not damaged and there wasn't any damage to the top loader.
All this being said, I'm very happy to get a return from Jamie Moyer. He is an ageless wonder and is a true rarity of today's game. Moyer has 249 wins for his career so he most likely won't stick around long enough to get to 300 wins as he'll turn 47 after the season.
I think I'll stick to sending rookie cards with my TTM requests. I think my experiment with sending jersey cards is over at two requests. I'll have to dig a Moyer rookie card out of my 1987 cards over the weekend and get another request out next week.
Rocky Nelson was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1959-1961, retiring after the 1961 season. He hit a two run home run in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series, later won on Bill Mazeroski's home run the bottom of the ninth.
The most amazing stat I could dig up on Nelson is that he won the Triple Crown twice (1955 and 1958) while playing in the International League. Yes, it's the minor leagues but winning the Triple Crown is quite an achievement at any level.
Rocky Nelson passed away in 2006 at the age of 81. I hadn't originally planned to try and add deceased members of the 1960 Pirates to my collection but couldn't pass up this card when I saw it on eBay.
I had a tough time when it came down to bidding on this auction. I had no idea what a card like this would be worth. It's not like you can obtain Nelson's autograph anymore. Plus, I'm only collecting these autographs on 1960 Topps cards. What are the odds that I would ever find another 1960 Topps card autographed by Rocky Nelson? How many could there possibly be?
The auction was only at $1.75 with 10 minutes left when I sat down to think about what I would pay for the card. With a couple minutes left I decided to bid $30.00 for the card. I just couldn't pass up the chance as I didn't see how another one of these would be popping up on eBay any time soon. I ended up getting the card for $6.01. I consider that a heck of a bargain for a 1960 Topps card in reasonable condition autographed by a deceased player.
I'll keep my eyes open on eBay now. Maybe I'll be able to add more cards to this collection that I didn't think I'd have the chance to.
Date sent: 4/11/09
Date returned: 5/26/09
I'm excited to get this request back. I haven't received too many requests back that have gone out to young prospects. I sent this one as soon as Brett Wallace was assigned to AA Springfield out of Spring Training. He just got called up to AAA in Memphis so maybe he cleared out his requests when he moved cities.
Wallace is the future for the Cardinals at third base and may get called up at some point this season. The Cardinals have started three different players at third base this season and are waiting for Troy Glaus to return to the lineup from shoulder surgery.
Wallace batted .281 with 5 home runs and 16 RBI in 32 games with AA Springfield. So far with AAA Memphis he's batting .342 with 1 home run and 4 RBI in 9 games. That's a nice start for him in AAA after getting off to a slow start in AA to start the season.
I don't know about you but I go through a lot of padded envelopes because of eBay. I've always ordered in the past from uline.com but had the brilliant idea last week to look on eBay. It's funny, I'm always telling friends and family to look on eBay before they purchase anything but I never took my own advice for padded envelopes.
I got such a good deal last week that I wanted to pass along the info on my blog. Just in case there's anyone else out there paying too much like I was. I picked up a case of 250 #00 envelopes (5x10) for $15.50 shipped. That's only 6 cents per envelope! The seller that I purchased this from on eBay was justpoundsandounces. They have many fixed price auctions but I got my deal from an actual auction. It was in the middle of the afternoon when I won so that may have had something to do with the great price.
I want to make it clear that I'm in no way affiliated with this seller. I'm just hoping that this helps someone out there cut costs on their shipping supplies and then be able to pass those savings on to their bidders.
This is a much anticipated moment tonight for the Tampa Bay Rays as David Price makes his first start of 2009. It's only his second start of his career. He made one start late last season and then pitched in relief during the ALCS and World Series. His fantastic performance in the playoffs last year had all fans waiting to see what he could do in '09.
The Rays are in Cleveland and the first pitch will be somewhere around 6:05PM EST. Fausto Carmona will take the mound for the Indians.
It will be interesting to see how Price performs tonight. He had to be disappointed to be sent back down to AAA to start the season. I think that's evident by his stats at Durham. He went 1-4 with a 3.93 ERA in eight starts. He did pitch well in his last two starts so there were signs of a turnaround.
You're lucky if you have any Price cards on eBay ending tonight. Collectors will scramble to pick some up if he has a strong start tonight.
Date sent: 5/16/09
Date returned: 5/22/09
This is my tenth return in my quest to get 1960 Topps cards signed by all living members of the 1960 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates.
I sent three more requests today. Those went to Dick Groat, R.C. Stevens and Joe Christopher. Stevens and Christopher do not have 1960 Topps cards. I got a 1959 Topps of R.C. Stevens and a 1961 Topps of Joe Christopher.
Cards that have already been sent but have not been returned are George Witt, Don Gross and Roman Mejias.
The requests that have not been sent yet are Vern Law and Bob Oldis. I purchased those cards off eBay and they should be here any day now.
The only living player that doesn't have a card is Dick Barone. He only played one season in the majors, that was 1960. I'm not quite sure what to do for his autograph. Maybe I'll just send an index card.
My post from yesterday inspired me to go buy another Topps Heritage blaster from Target. I think this is the fifth one I've opened. Here we go pack by pack...
Pack 1
Khalil Greene
Brandon Lyon
Jim Leyland
Luis Cruz
Alex Gordon
Chase Headley
Jeff Mathis
A.J. Burnett
Pack 2
Chad Tracy
Ramon Ramirez
Jesse Litsch
Washington Nationals
Coco Crisp
2008 World Series Game #2
Mark DeRosa
Troy Glaus
Pack 3
Scott Lewis
Nick Blackburn
Chris Perez
Cardinals Coaches SP (have it)
B.J. Ryan
Yuniesky Betancourt
Kurt Suzuki
Javier Vasquez
Pack 4
Jeremy Guthrie
Raul Ibanez
Rickie Weeks
Shaun Marcum
Ryan Doumit
Jake Peavy
Ichiro
Randy Wolf
Pack 5
Ross Gload
Vernon Wells
Carlos Pena
Kevin Kouzmanoff
Aramis
Mike Lowell
Phil Coke
John Maine
Pack 6
Gaby Sanchez
Yunel Escobar
Charlie Manuel
Joe Blanton
Mike Pelfrey
Gavin Floyd
Ryan Howard
Miguel Cabrera
Pack 7
Matt Harrison
Miguel Tejada
Jeremy Sowers
Grady Sizemore
John Smoltz SP (Braves logo. have it)
Brian McCann
Manny Acta
Matt Joyce
Pack 8
Juan Pierre
Cole Hamels
Evan Longoria
Adam Jones
Red Sox Coaches SP (have it)
2008 World Series Game #4
Adam Dunn
Kila Ka'aihue
Well, this was a bust for me. I already have the three SP cards. This is the third Smoltz Braves SP that I've pulled from blasters. This is also the second blaster I've opened in a row that didn't have any chrome cards. All the previous blasters I had opened had a regular chrome and a chrome refractor.
Hopefully any of you out there that became inspired like me had better luck than I did. I'll stick to filling my Chrome and SP sets through purchases of singles instead of blaster purchases.
Have you been wondering like I have how you could have opened so many 2009 Topps Heritage blasters and not pulled one SP variation card? Well, the Beckett Blog has a story about a guy that we can blame for that. Todd Neuman hit the jackpot by pulling 51 Heritage SP variations in a single blaster he purchased in Mayfield, KY.
This is one of those once in a lifetime boxes that every collector dreams of but few experience. I remember my brother and I combining to get around 20 Jose Mesa cards in 1989 when opened two or three boxes of cards one day. Sadly, that was not the collecting jackpot and we realized it at the time. My brother coined the phrase "a mess of Mesa's" that day.
I did however experience a true collectors jackpot years later by watching a friend of mine open a box of 1989 Pro Set Series 1 Football. I believe it was 1991 at the time the box was opened. He ended up with 27 William Perry cards. I could be wrong but I believe that card wasn't supposed to be released in the product and was replaced by another card. That's what made it so rare and valuable. At the time the card booked around $100 and he sold most of them for $50 each. It was crazy. A quick search of eBay just now showed that you can easily pick one up now for less than $5. The rareness of the card was most likely overstated.
I doubt that the rareness of the 2009 Heritage SP's is overstated. I think that Todd Neuman just had a really lucky day.
I've noticed while searching eBay over the past few weeks just how many high dollar Michael Jordan insert cards are out there. I'm talking about true insert cards, not autographed cards or memorabilia cards.
The card pictured is a 98-99 Skybox Thunder Noyz Boyz insert that sold for a whopping $330 on eBay. Don't believe me? Have a look at the auction here. They were inserted 1:288 packs so the card is legitimately rare.
Personally, I think it's crazy. There are endless examples of non-autographed, non-memorabilia Jordan inserts selling in the $200 - $400 range. Just search completed auctions on eBay and you'll find loads of them. Most of them look as hideous as this one too.
A quick search of eBay and a few wax sites like Dave and Adam's didn't yield any 98-99 Skybox Thunder boxes. I'm wondering if there are some really cheap basketball boxes out there with possible high dollar Jordan's. It could be a fun purchase if you're looking for something to break that could lead to a really rare Jordan insert.
If anyone knows of any boxes like this or has already had this idea leave your experiences in the comments section. Hopefully someone has and came up with a card like this already. It would be fun to hear about it.
I'm always curious to see what the new marketing and sales trends are on eBay. Sellers come up with all sorts of innovative ideas to sell items. eBay also does their share by improving functionality and offering great features like Buy It Now and Make An Offer.
One of the newer trends I've noticed in the trading cards area is the "You Choose" sales style. The seller will offer up a large list of cards, usually from the same set, and allows you to choose a pre-determined number of cards from the list. I've noticed these more and more as I've been working on my 2009 Topps Heritage SP set. The most common type of auction is for the seller to allow you to choose 10 SP cards from their list. Here is an example auction.
The great thing for the seller is that this style of auction tends to yield more money per card than selling them individually or even as a lot of 10. I've picked up SP singles for $1 and picked up a lot of 10 for just over $12. The auction that I linked to above is about to end and it's at just over $36. I've chosen not to go this route as a buyer as my cost per card would be more than I want to pay. But it got me thinking about the possibilities as a seller.
I posted yesterday about CheckOutMyCards.com. I think that's a great site to sell cards that that book for anything over $4 per card in Beckett. The reason I set the $4 minimum book value is because I'm figuring I can get at least $1 for it. It's really not cost effective to sell any cards for less than $1 because of the selling fees.
As we know, there are a lot of cards that book below $4 each. What do we do with all of those? Well, I figured since buyers are responding well to the "You Choose" format for cards from the same set, why not try auctions with cards from different sets?
I've had cards sorted by player and stored away for a while. I picked out all the cards with $4 and higher book value out of those boxes and sent them off to COMC some time ago. So, I started some player auctions today that list all of my cards from a certain player and allow the buyer to choose 10 cards from the list.
I started out with Derek Jeter, Ken Griffey Jr., Cal Ripken Jr. and Nolan Ryan. I set the Buy It Now price at $7.99 and the minimum bid at .99 cents. I'll keep you posted on the results. I put them up for a week so they'll end next Sunday. Hopefully the results will be good and I'll have a viable option for getting rid of a bunch of cards from my childhood that I'd rather not have in my closet. I'd then have more money to buy cards that I do want want to have in my closet.
I'm curious to see what any of you reading think of this format and whether you'd use the same idea. What about the Buy It Now price? Too high? Just right? Click here to view my Ripken auction.
I love seeing gem mint examples of older cards. I always wonder how they stayed in such great condition after all the years. I've opened some wax from the 70's in the last few years and not everything comes out in great condition.
Steve Largent was once the NFL's all-time leader in receptions (819), he's now 15th on that list. I can't believe so much time has passed that he's dropped that low on the list. I can still remember being at the Redskins vs. Broncos game in 1992 when Art Monk passed Steve Largent with his 820th catch.
When Largent retired he also held records for most receiving yards (13,089), touchdowns (100) and consecutive games with a catch (177). He was a seven time Pro Bowl selection and was elected to the NFL Hall of Fame in 1995. Largent truly was in a class of his own as a receiver in his early years.
You can view the auction here.
One day I hope to own a gem mint vintage card like this one. The trouble will be deciding which one to own.
Earlier this week, Mario over at Wax Heaven posted about purchasing some cards for his Canseco collection from CheckOutMyCards.com. I joined the site about three months ago and have been meaning to post about it. Mario's post inspired me to do that.
I've purchased and sold cards on CheckOutMyCards.com. I actually started out selling cards on the site before I ever made a purchase. I'd been thinking about it for a while and initially tested it out by sending 10 vintage baseball star cards that weren't in great shape. I was quite pleased when they all sold within a week of being posted on the site. I set the prices a bit higher than what I could get on eBay and had no trouble getting it.
Since then, I have sent over 1,000 cards to be added to my account. I've sold 45% of those cards to date. I price my cards anywhere from 50% - 95% off of Beckett book value.
The beauty of CheckOutMyCards.com is the process of adding your cards to the site. You package up your cards and send them off. That's it. They scan the front and back of your card, look up the book values, add credit to your account when they sell and ship them out. It's so easy. They charge anywhere from 15 cents to 50 cents per card to add them to the site, depending how fast you want them added. Once your cards sell, you can use your credit to purchase other cards or cash out. You can request a check or a Paypal payment. They take 20% off your payout if you choose to cash out. When you consider eBay fees + Paypal fees + your time, this is not a bad deal.
The great part about this site is that you can sell cards that don't traditionally sell on eBay. True collectors seem to be a large part of the purchasers. I've noticed that I'll sell multiples of the same player to the same buyer or multiple cards from the same set. The best part is that there's no rush to sell your cards, they can just sit there until they sell.
I'm thrilled with the site so far and will continue to use it for selling and purchasing cards. In fact, I'm sending off another shipment of 150 cards tomorrow morning. I've also made a couple purchases in the past two weeks. I found some 2009 Topps Heritage SP singles that I needed and I got some 1960 Topps Pittsburgh Pirates cards for my autograph project.
Shameless plug: my cards on checkoutmycards.com
The site has a "make an offer" feature, just like eBay. Feel free to make me offers on any of my cards. The prices are low but can always go lower.
Date sent: 2/21/09
Date returned: 5/14/09
When I first started thinking about doing TTM autograph requests back in February, two people came to mind immediately that I wanted to send requests to. Those were John Wooden and Vin Scully.
I sent both requests in February and received back my signed card from Mr. Wooden less than a week after I had sent the request. I was so happy to get that back. A short time after I received it he came down with pneumonia and his family asked that the autograph requests stop.
I'm so thrilled to get this request back from Mr. Scully. I sent it way before the season started but was beginning to wonder if I'd ever get it back. He signed my 8x10 photo beautifully in blue sharpie.
Listening to Mr. Scully announce a Dodgers game is as close to perfection as you're going to get. He knows everything about every player that takes the field and always has a story to tell. His style was developed on radio where you have to paint a picture for the listener. He never changed that when he started doing games on TV. I have the MLB Extra Innings package and I always turn over to Dodgers games to listen to him do at least an inning. There's nothing quite like it.
Date sent: 4/27/09
Date returned: 5/14/09
This is my ninth return out of twelve in my quest to get autographed 1960 Topps cards from all twenty surviving members of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team.
Gino Cimoli came over to the Pirates in 1960 from the St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, you can see he's in his Cardinals uniform on his 1960 Topps card. Gino is probably most famous for his lead-off single in the bottom of the 8th inning in game seven of the 1960 World Series. The Pirates trailed the Yankees 7-4 entering the bottom of the eight and lead 9-7 after the 8th. Cimoli's hit started the rally and he later scored on Dick Groat's single.
I just received a few more cards in the mail this week from eBay purchases so I'll be sending those out to be signed by the weekend.
As I mentioned the other day, I am a Capitals fan and season ticket holder. I will be attending the game tonight so there won't be a traditional blog entry today.
If you have nothing to do tonight you should check out the game. This could be one of the all-time classics tonight. It's what the NHL wanted all along and it's what they got. There's nothing quite like a Game 7.
Go Caps!
Ichiro is the greatest hitter of all time. Yeah, you read that right. Not only did I say it but I truly believe it. He kind of flies under the radar a bit because he plays in Seattle and he doesn't hit home runs. I don't think most people have taken the time to soak in what he's accomplished in his first eight years in the majors.
Eight 200 hit seasons
.330 career batting average
Averages 40 stolen bases per season
Has played all but 16 games in his career
Eight Gold Gloves
2001 AL MVP
2001 AL ROY
Ichiro is 35 years old and on pace to have 3,000 hits by the time he's 40 years old in 2014. If you add in his 1,278 hits he amassed in Japan, that would put him ahead of Pete Rose in all-time hits. OK, I know that we're not going to count those hits but it's an interesting thing to think about.
The thing that amazes me about Ichiro is that his production hasn't slowed a bit. He played all 162 games last season and batted .310 with 42 stolen bases. That's a heck of a season for a 34 year old player in his 17th year of professional baseball. He's off to a good start this year as well with a .315 batting average.
I think the statistic that cannot be ignored are the 200 hit seasons. He has eight in eight seasons. This is an incredible accomplishment. Consider that Pete Rose is the all-time leader with ten in twenty four seasons.
Collectors may want to think about picking up a rookie card or two of this great hitter and putting them away.
Talk about a card that you rarely ever see, let alone graded gem mint. This is a 1988 Burger King Florida Gators Emmitt Smith card. This card predates his first NFL release by a two years. The card was distributed by Burger King as a regional promotion.
There is no doubt this card is rarer than his 1990 Score Traded, his most valuable rookie card. Does that mean that it's highly sought after by collectors? Not really. There's never been a huge secondary market for regional (police, school-issued, etc.) sets in the hobby. I personally like them. I don't think they're much different from the minor league sets of the 70's and 80's but those are far more popular in the hobby.
No matter where you stand, this is a great card. This is a highly counterfeited card so having an authentic one is great, gem mint even better. One lucky Emmitt Smith collector will add this to his or her collection tonight for a bargain. Maybe one day collectors will appreciate these releases more than they do now.
You can view the eBay auction here.
The 1960 Topps design has always been one of my favorites. I starting building a set as a kid and slowly work on it to this day. I was so excited when Topps announced that they were using the 1960 design for 2009 Heritage.
I recently started building the 2009 Heritage set. I've purchased a few blasters here and there when I've been able to find them. I figured the easiest thing to start on would be the SP portion of the set. Although expensive, it's only 75 cards so I figured I'd try to knock that out first. I have 35 of the 75 cards so far. I have six doubles so I was wondering if any readers had extras to trade or sell.
Drop me a note in the comments if you have extras and maybe we can work something out. I'll get my wantlist up this week to make it easier. For now, here are my doubles:
426 Scott Rolen
428 Jermaine Dye
445 John Smoltz - 2
448 Kevin Millar
492 Kosuke Fukudome
I will start off this post by stating that I am a Washington Capitals fan. I'm a season ticket holder and I will be at Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals tonight in DC.
That said, I cannot believe the prices that Simeon Varlamov cards are commanding on eBay. The kid is off to a great start but came crashing back down to earth last night in Pittsburgh. I hope that it was just a bad night and he'll rebound with a victory tonight.
For those that know Capitals history, you know the misery that the Pittsburgh Penguins have caused this franchise in the past. You may also recall another Washington Capital phenom goalie named Jim "Ace" Carey. Long story short, he was a goalie for the Capitals in 1995 and 1996 that had two fantastic regular seasons, only to come crashing back down to earth in the playoffs twice against the Penguins. He was never the same again.
Am I saying this will be Varlamov's fate? Not at all. I really think this kid is the real deal. I think last night was hiccup and he'll rebound tonight with a victory.
I know one thing for sure, if he doesn't, you won't see cards of his like the one pictured above topping the $200 mark for much longer.
You knew it was coming at some point. Stephen Strasburg already had a 10-0 record with a 1.38 ERA and a load of strikeouts coming into the game. He's cleary going to be the #1 pick in the 2009 MLB Draft by the Washington Nationals. He's received more press attention than any college baseball player that I can ever remember. What else could he do? Throw a no-hitter, of course.
Strasburg tossed a no-hitter against Air Force last night, walking only two. He racked up another 17 strikeouts in the game. This guy is putting together an amazing season.
Head on over to the Upper Deck Blog and check out their coverage of the game. They live blogged from the game last night and have some great video from the ninth inning.
Strasburg autographed Upper Deck USA cards are selling in the $100-$600 range on eBay, depending on the card and the amount produced.
Date sent: 3/6/09
Date returned: 5/8/09
I started sending TTM autograph requests about three months ago. About a month after I started, in March, I started sending requests to veterans and prospects at their Spring Training sites. I think I sent just over twenty requests and I only got one return. That was from Matt Wieters of the Baltimore Orioles.
This return that came today really shocked me. It's from Neftali Feliz of the Texas Rangers. I sent this request back in March to Surpise, AZ, the Spring Training site of the Rangers. The request that I received today came from Oklahoma City, OK, the home of Feliz's current team, the Oklahoma City RedHawks. He must have taken his Spring Training requests with him when he left.
Feliz is ranked as the #10 prospect in all of baseball by Baseball America. He's off to a slow start in 2009 but remains a tremendous talent. Here is his player page on milb.com.
Date sent: 5/2/09
Date returned: 5/8/09
This is my eighth return out of twelve in my quest to get autographed 1960 Topps cards from all twenty surviving members of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates team.
This return made me think about some of the posts I've seen on the sportscollectors.net bulletin boards from members that send a sharpie with their request. You can see from the picture that Danny Kravitz signed the card in ballpoint pen. It would look much nicer if it were signed in sharpie. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to get another card back regardless of what it was signed with. It just made me think that I may want to send a sharpie with future requests to see how that works out.
What you're looking at is a 2009 Press Pass Gold Inscription "Autograph" of B.J. Raji. First off, there is not autograph on this card, it's just an inscription. I wrote about this same issue last week when I posted about the 2009 SPX Rookie Exchange Colby Rasmus rookie card. I'm not a fan of this and I hope it's not a trend. I just don't see the value in a player writing a couple words on a card (or sticker). I'd much rather have the autograph of the player.
OK, in case it wasn't painfully obvious at first sight, look at the inscription on the card again. Raji wrote "Sore Eagles" instead of "Soar Eagles" on the card. All the guy had to do is write two words and he messed it up. I wonder what his Wonderlic score was? There are 99 of these cards out there. I wonder how many of them are misspelled? Will this become a collectors item because of the spelling mistake?
Here's the crazy part, the card is at $180.05 on eBay with just over an hour left. I would LOVE to talk to the person that purchases this card to see why they purchased it.
You can view the auction here.
Well, today was another great mail day for my 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates TTM project. I got returns from Bob Friend, Hal Smith and Bennie Daniels. I sent the Friend and Smith requests on Saturday, May 2nd and got them back today. That's a total of five days. If you recall, my returns from Roy Face, Dick Schofield and Bob Skinner also came back in 5 days. The other return I received today was from Bennie Daniels. That request took a total of 10 days to come back.
This puts me up to seven of a possible twenty autographs from the 1960 Pirates team. I still have only sent a total of twelve cards out. I have a few more cards sitting on my desk that I still have to write letters for and mail out.
The cards that are still out there are George Witt, Gino Cimoli, Danny Kravitz, Don Gross and Roman Mejias.
I'm thrilled so far with the returns from the members of this team. You'd never see this from the modern players.
I'm going to run a contest for a free autographed Bill Virdon card. Mr. Virdon was nice enough to include an extra signed card of his with my TTM request. Since I'm only collecting signed 1960 Topps Pirates cards for this project, I figured it would be nice to send this card along to another collector that will appreciate it.
Just leave a comment below on this post to enter. The deadline will be noon tomorrow. I'll select the winner by using the random number generator at random.org and will announce the winner tomorrow night.
Good luck and thanks for reading!
Date sent: 4/27/2009
Date returned: 5/4/2009
This is my fourth return out of twelve sent in my quest to get a signed 1960 Topps card of every living member of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates.
Bill Virdon was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1956-1965 and 1968. He was known as a premier defensive center fielder, winning a gold glove in 1962.
Virdon was also a manager in the major leagues from 1972-1984, amassing a 995-921 record. Virdon managed four different teams (Pirates, Yankees, Astros and Expos) in his managerial career. He managed those teams to the NLCS three times, losing all three times.
This was a very quick return and another key addition to my collection. I hope to report some more returns soon.
You don't see these every day. It's a 1952 Topps 5-cent wax pack. The pack is currently at $2,650.75 on eBay with just over eleven hours to go.
I'm not sure how or if you can tell if it's a high number pack that might contain Mickey Mantle's rookie card. Whoever purchases this probably won't open it anyway. It's such a rare pack that it's better left unopened.
Vintage wax like this has to be one of the best long-term investments in the hobby. There's just not much of it left and it will only continue to appeciate in price over time.
The same seller also has a more common 1952 Topps penny pack on eBay right now too.
Date sent: 4/27/2009
Date returned: 5/2/2009
Yesterday was an awesome mail day for my 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates Project. I got returns from Roy Face, Dick Schofield and Bob Skinner. I had just mailed them out on Monday of last week. How often do you send a TTM request and get in back in the same week? How often does that happen with three different players? The one that really amazed me was Bob Skinner. He lives in San Diego, CA and I'm in Alexandria, VA. He must have put the card back in the mail the same day he received it. I'm thrilled with these returns.
I mailed out seven requests on 4/27, so four of those are still out there. I sent out another five yesterday. There are twenty surviving players from the 1960 team. Sixteen of those players are highly reliable TTM signers, four of them are tough. I've sent a total of twelve cards out. I plan to get the next eight out within the next two weeks.
I still need to purchase cards of Joe Gibbon, Vern Law, Bill Mazeroski Bob Oldis and Dick Groat. There's a member on eBay that broke up a 1960 Topps set and the auctions are ending today. I plan on picking up a few of these from those auctions.
Upper Deck announced the first two 2009 Upper Deck SPX Baseball rookie exchange cards a couple weeks ago and I've been meaning to write a post about them since. The two cards announced were Koji Uehara of the Baltimore Orioles and Colby Rasmus of the St. Louis Cardinals.
The player selection starts of well enough but that's not my problem. My problem is with the autographs. The regular Uehara comes autographed in English while the limited version, numbered to 25, comes autographed in Japanese. I like this idea. The Rasmus is a completely different story. His regular version comes autographed but the limited version comes with an inscription of "Go Redbirds #28". That's it! There's no autograph on the card.
Will collectors really pay a premium for limited version of this card without an autograph? If I were a Rasmus collector I'd actually be upset to receive the limited card. I'd much rather have the autographed version.
You can check out the pictures of the Uehara on Upper Deck's Facebook page.
Date sent: 3/13/09
Date returned: 4/2/09
Ozzie Newsome was one of the greatest tight ends of all time. He amassed 662 receptions, 7,980 yards and 47 touchdowns in thirteen years with the Cleveland Browns. The receptions and yards still stand as all-time records for the Browns. Newsome also caught a pass in 150 consecutive games, the second longest streak in the NFL when he retired.
Newsome became the first African-American general manager in the NFL when he filled that role for the Baltimore Ravens in 2002. He has done an outstanding job of rebuilding the Ravens through the draft and free agency. The Ravens have a team right now that should be successful for years to come and much of that credit goes to Newsome.
Newsome is known as an exremely fast and reliable TTM signer. I've sent two requests to him and both have come back in under three weeks. He has a great signature and has included a HOF '99 inscription on both requests without me asking.
The first card I sent to him was a 1987 Topps. The second card I sent was, of course, his 1979 Topps rookie card. I've mentioned in many previous posts that I like to get rookie cards signed and this request was no exception.
