Strive For '65 Saturday: A Three Card Monty

STRIVE FOR '65 STATUS:

26 May 2018 Strive for '65 | 1965 Set Build | Master Want List Current card count: 273/598 (275/600) 46%

Here is the link to my last update from the end of December. So five months later I have only 3 more cards to add to this set build. While I was checking the Trading Card DataBase, to add this trio into it after receiving the cards, I had a bit of a shock. I saw that all three cards were already checked off there and thought I had mistakenly gotten three duplicates. I mistook the pink "want it" ("Need It") for "Have It". The color highlighting was not registering to my mind. I was just seeing the check mark. That is one of the dangers of marking stuff there on your "Want List" instead of just leaving the dang thing blank. I am glad I am not going crazy in that sense. I did need all three cards for this set build.

Wednesday 23 May 2018:

Received a small photo envelope with three cards from three Sportlots auctions. I got each card for the 25¢ opening bid plus a total of $5.75 shipping ($3.75 first item the $1.00 for each of the rest) The cards are in fantastic shape for 53 year old cards. They have some centering issues not perfect but much better than some of my others from this set. So here they are:

 351 Jim Perry Twins

Jim's brother Gaylord was featured in my last post from this series (link at the beginning of this post). I am fairly certain that it was not just a coincidence. As you can see Gaylord is mentioned on the back of Jim's card and in case you were wondering yes Jim is mentioned on the back of Gaylord's card.

 521 Philadelphia Phillies Rookie Stars: Dave Bennett and Morrie Steevens

Interesting how Morrie spells his last name with a double "e". It is even more interesting that I didn't notice his last name being misspelled with the more common "correct" spelling. Then again I didn't do any digging on that I just figure it is something that has a big chance of happening.

 537 California Angels Rookie Stars: Marcelino Lopez, Rudy May and Phil Roof

This card is interesting in that for a Team Rookie Stars card it has 3 players not just 2. I personally like it because Rudy May and especially Phil Roof were fave PC guys from my childhood to chase. Back then my PC players if they weren't Senators or Orioles were either super stars I had heard of or just guys I liked their names or I happened to have more than just one card of. In the late 1970s I was "super collecting" some players without realizing what "super collecting" was. It wasn't called that then. I don't think there was a name for it yet. Just as "scrapbooking" was a thing before it became a popular hobby in recent years.

The Latest Additions:
Wednesday 23 May 2018:
351 Jim Perry Twins
521 Phillies Rookies: Dave Bennet, Morrie Steevens
537 Angels Rookies: Marcelino Lopez, Rudy May, Phil Roof

Introducing Maildazed From The Pazt

Maildazed From The Pazt: A NEW blog Feature

Introduction and Logo Key

Sometime in 2015 while contemplating my naval massive backlogged "to blog about sometime" queue/pile/boxes/hoard of cards I came up with an idea. Dangerous I know. I have many large lots of cards from mail-days gone by that still haven't been sorted into my collection. My collection is a bunch of small groups of sometimes related cards that should be a massive organized and well oiled trading card machine. Sometimes I have an accurate record of where, when and who they came from. Most times I have no idea. Yeah a massive lot of them have been sitting for years and years waiting to be blogged about. I know there are still some sets I'm itching to blog about and show off, but haven't gotten around to them. Some of them other bloggers have beaten me to the punch. There are also many cards that sadly will never be mentioned at all. Some of those at one time were in the "to blog about" queue but I decided to remove them from the queue. All these problems are due to this long queue line and being too damn proficient at procrastinating and letting things get out of hand. What should be a small effort is a super monumental task. Ultimately if I could just get everything completely organized THEN I could comfortably blog about stuff better. I would also feel better about trading and knowing what I had for trade. Did I mention the time it takes to scan stuff that delays things as well? Along with procrastinating on the scanning. There was also something about being organized. Whatever that is.

In the alleys and backwoods of the card forums I frequent. I have mail day threads and blogs where I post about what I got and usually from where or who and sometimes how much it cost me. The accuracy is not always detailed but generally good to OK. In 2007 shortly after joining the TCC site I started a blog there on their blog system. It started off as a place to post what I had for sale/trade, but morphed into a mail day blog. Now I am the only one who "blogs" there at all. Most people post their mail days in the specific Mail Day board there and show their scans/photos on the Show and Tell board. I seriously need to make sure all my entries from the blogging area are saved elsewhere because TCC has had some long downtime periods and since I'm the only one blogging there they might decide to close that section down sometime or the site will disappear. My saving effort is barely started with maybe two years worth of the 11 years of posts I have there.

Details of what I had gotten are pretty fuzzy for the early days. I didn't always have all the info sometimes didn't even bother mentioning how much I spent on the cards or left off the specific date received and there are way too many times I didn't keep up with the posting so I had to do a recap to catch up. Some stuff slipped through the cracks at that point. Card lots of 30 or more cards I only mentioned by number or just a selective group of maybe up to two dozen cards if I mentioned them at all. I've had to do recaps in recent months also. Those recaps are often from a couple of months of slacking time. There is usually enough info to scrap together an almost interesting post about a small or sometimes large lot of cards. I can also just show the dang cards which is what I usually end up doing with no story

Often when I mention my mail days elsewhere I clearly remember doing so and telling the tale of that particular card, set, or lot of cards. Then when thinking of something to post for this my regular blog I think "Well I've already talked about that card" when in fact I haven't. Not here, there yes, but here NO. Thus my "Blogged But Not Blogged" feature. Many times I haven't even cataloged the card in my Zistle collection lists, [this shows how long this particular post has been in the draft queue], or my Trading Card Database list. Sadly Zistle is now owned by Beckett and in danger of being a thing of the past. For the most part I have stopped adding to it.

Sometimes I've scanned just the front of a card. In the early days the front was all I scanned. Sometimes I still only scan the front if I think I won't talk about that card in great detail or it is part of a huge set that I can only show off a few cards of at any one time. Then when I look to add a scan somewhere I see the card and think that all is well with this blogiverse when it obviously is not. So I am often very wrong and I'm doomed. Doomed I Say! It's Hopeless! We're Doomed!

I often wonder if I should attempt yet another blog and make it exclusively mail day info? Hmm? I only have 11 years worth of TCC blogging to copy/transfer over. Seems like 100 or 1,000 though. The problem with that is eventually the mail day blog would become another blog that I would have to make at least one post per month on. I already have 3 blogs with that self appointed task. Some months I barely get something up.

OK enough background exposition talk lets get on with the showing off of cards. Heck since this is the first one of these let me just do the dang Logo Key: Some of the links below the thumbnails of the cards lead to a post on my Curly W Cards blog.

OK so this is the original colored scan logo I had intended to use.

As you can see in three of the corners there is part of an envelope or package those are for the background. I have since recycled them so I'm not sure who they would have come from. I made this logo shortly before or at the time I got the idea to identify the cards in these logos I put on my blogs. At the time some of those cards I had just gotten in the mail but the majority of the cards shown here are from a pazt maildaze from a checkoutmycards (often referred to only as COMC) order of 44 cards. Technically it was my second order from there, but my first order ever from there was wiped from their database when they redid their website a few years back (after being sued by the Big B). Some cards there still only have partial information. I plan on detailing the 44 card order in this feature sometime. It should be one of the in process posts in my draft queue. I have only ordered from COMC 4 times. Actually only "shipped" 4 times I currently have 7 cards I have bought in the last year that are in the "to be shipped" area of my dashboard there. I would order more often but you have to add rickin' frickin' money to your membership "store credit" account kitty.

ROW 1:

1976 Sugar Daddy Sports World (Series 2): FOOTBALL: 4 Sonny Jurgensen Redskins

1956 Topps Baseball: 49 Pedro Ramos RC Nationals

1959 Topps Baseball: 74 Directing The Power: Jim Lemon, Cookie Lavagetto, Roy Sievers Senators

1959 Topps Baseball: 465 Baseball Thrills: Sievers Sets Homer Mark Roy Sievers Senators

ROW 2:

1962 Topps Baseball: 88 Ralph Houk MGR Yankees (Yogi Berra in background)

1969 Topps Baseball: 650 Ted Williams MGR Senators

1967 Topps Baseball: 348 Tug McGraw Mets

1965 Topps Baseball:  574 Roy Sievers Senators

1955 Topps Baseball:  48 Bob Kennedy Orioles

1955 Topps Baseball: 13 Fred Marsh Orioles

ROW 3:

1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert: (Back) 9 Brooks Robinson Orioles

1972 Topps Baseball: Traded: 754 Frank Robinson Dodgers 

1973 Topps Baseball: 30 Tug McGraw Mets

1973 O-Pee-Chee Baseball: (Back) 30 Tug McGraw Mets

I am working on posts for my COMC orders so those will most likely be the next few "MFTP" posts. My last COMC order was 2 years ago. I have a huge watch list over there and about 7 purchased cards waiting to be shipped. I want to make a huge dent in purchasing my watch list before having any more cards shipped.

COTW: Classic Quads OPEY

2009 Donruss Classics Football: Classic Quads: 10

Merlin Olsen, Alan Page, Carl Eller, Jack Youngblood

I made a post on my Curly W blog discussing ideas for my Senators Singles feature on that blog. It is my Senators/Nationals version of this "Card of the Whenever" feature. Just simply a snazzy way to show off one card posts. For that blog I have often considered posting single card posts more often similar to card blogs that specialize in showing off just one card daily posts. Hmm I have a set or two that I have thought about making a separate blog for but that is just in the thinking pre-planning stages, not an actual green light project. The same question of frequency pops up here for the COTW feature. Do I make these things more frequent? I want to but I know I will never have the motivation or stamina to make it a daily thing, not even a weekly thing which is more achievable than daily. The last time I did a CotW it was tacked to the end of another post.

OK so here is a card I had all but forgotten I had. OK I probably did forget about it. I'm sure there are parallels to it I could pursue but I bet they wouldn't have the cool reciprocal serial numbering of this one. Oops I gave away an ancient Chinese secret code to this blog.

I have often liked the Donruss (Original Donruss not the current Panini using the Donruss brand) Classics and the insert sets. Oh man I miss the original Donruss products. Here is one of the base Classic Quads card, at least I think it is the base. It gets confusing when everything is serial numbered. This is a mighty impressive quartet. Merlin Olsen and Jack Youngblood from the Rams with Alan Page and Carl Eller of the Vikings. Check out that serial number. CORRECTION UPDATE: It is the Silver Parallel, the BASE version is not serial numbered.

2009 Donruss Classics Football: Classic Quads: Silver: 10

Merlin Olsen Rams Alan Page Vikings Carl Eller Vikings Jack Youngblood Rams

052/250

I don't recall when or where I got this card from. It might have been either from Ebay or Sportlots. I know it wasn't from CheckOutMyCards because I have the records for my purchases from there and this card is not in the few orders I have made there. If it was from a group box break then it was a very fortunate hit. I did a quick and dirty search of my TCC blog since I started recording my mail days there starting around mid 2007, but saw no indication of this card. It could have come in a huge Team Traders Rams package that had too many cards to count.

Oops it isn't the base version it is the "Silver" parallel. I have updated to identify it as the Silver Parallel.

Updated: 02 May 2018 2;10pm

Topps Now: Trump Now

In today's political madhouse drama, mostly due to Democrats fighting tooth and nail to impeach President Trump by any means possible with wild and weird ways that are by no means constitutional and some of them not entirely legal just because they hate him, it is difficult to say anything positive about President Trump without being given the third degree by somebody somewhere. If you say something negative well then you are applauded and in the running for citizen of the year.

Anyway I decided to get a couple of Topps Now cards that feature President Trump. These cards show Trump receiving a customized jersey from the World Series Champions. Sure there are two Barack Obama cards that are similar maybe more. However there have been many athletes and full teams that have declined the White House invitation to meet with the President specifically President Trump after winning their sports most prestigious trophy. No matter what they claim declining to go to the White House to be honored as a team for winning your sport's championship because of who POTUS is, is a political decision and the fact is a great majority of people hate Donald Trump. When Obama was in the White House there were a few players that were no shows but not entire teams. In basketball the Golden State Warriors made it clear they would not make the trip to the White House because of Trump so Trump uninvited them. The Warriors visited the African American Museum instead. I'll just leave that statement to say what it will. These Trump cards are proof that there are some teams that have made the annual trip to the White House during his administration and continued the tradition and honor.

Usually on these trips the team presents the President with a customized jersey with his name on the back and the number one, or the number President he is (45 in Trump's case), or in the case of the card with the Astros the last two digits of the championship year.

On to the cards for this post. Both are Topps Now cards I got them from Ebay on Monday 23 Apr 2018.

The first is from 2017 and celebrates the Chicago Cubs historic 2016 World Series win. They presented President trump with a customized Cubs jersey with the number 45.The card is number 308 I got it for $5.99 plus $4.49 shipping.

The second card is a 2018 Topps Now number ST-9 and celebrates the Houston Astros 2017 World Series win they presented Trump with an Astros number 17 jersey. I got this card for $6.25 plus $1.35 shipping. The Astros card is an odd one since it doesn't say anything about the event on the back.

For further reading on the tradition of a championship team visiting the White House:
Why White House visits by champions are a U.S. tradition - ESPN (6 Mar 2016)
How Did Athletes Visiting the President at the White House Become a Tradition? - Rolling Stone (9 Feb 2017)
The traditional White House visit began with the 1924 Washington Senators - Washington Post (28 Feb 2018)

Blogged But Not Blogged: Roman Gabriel WLAF

This is the type of post that I have probably done many times before, I call this type of post "Blogged, But Not Blogged" at least I will call it that from now on. Long story short since Aug 2007 I have been blogging about my card mail days over at TCC on my blog over there, and since July 2012 duplicating those posts in a mail day thread at the TCZ forums. I started the TCC one partly as an attempt to post trade bait but it morphed into more of a mail day posting board. There are many cards I have mentioned in detail at those sites that I have never blogged about here on what I consider to be my official trading card blog. A few times, mostly in the early days, I mentioned a card in my mail day and even scanned it (at least the front) but never blogged about it over here.*

This is the story of one such card:

On Monday (24 Sept 2007) I received an order from Sportlots.com I was waiting on. A Roman Gabriel 1991 Pro Set World League "Collectible" card #24 (Inserted in 1991 Pro Set NFL packs).

I didn't realize it would be coming from Canada. Anyway I thought it was a card I didn't have but it turns out I had it. I have the full World League Set, but not all of the Inserts to the NFL set which are slightly different thus part of my confusion. My older card had a surprise. Little did I know that what I had always assumed was some odd Gatorade spray caught on film, seems to be some sort of damage to the card. I never thought anything of it because it was the only copy of the card I had and it didn't look like damage. This was before the Internet so I had never seen the image "online" before. Oh well. It appears the "spray" is possibly some kind of low ink or dirty printing plate printing error.

Roman is my fave all-time Rams Quarterback (Down Kurt Warner Down). I was told some years ago that when I was 3 or 4 my family was worried there was something wrong with me because I didn't talk much, so I was sent for testing at an Easter Seals Medical Clinic for hearing tests and other such nonsense. I remember some of those visits, but not this particular story. At the time I didn't know the reasoning of the trips to this particular medical clinic. I just looked at them as any other childhood "trip to the vet doctor", except I recall I didn't like going to these extra ear tests. Apparently my folks thought I might be deaf or have some other physical or maybe mental problem. One of the physicians or maybe an assistant or technician there noticed me doodling pictures of little football men (mostly of a quarterback with the number #18 on his chest), and in talking to me discovered that I was a big Los Angeles Rams fan and that Roman Gabriel (#18) was my favorite QB. Well then they found out I didn't have any physical problem, I was just extremely shy.

The subject card of this post is from the 1991 Pro Set World League of American Football insert set from the 1991 Pro Set NFL card set. On the back by the card number these cards were labeled World League Collectible there are 32 cards total. I mentioned a confusion of these cards because Pro Set produced a 150 card WLAF set. I had bought the set whole in one of those small card boxes that has the outer sleeve of the box over the container box.

ON to the card:

1991 Pro Set Football: WLAF Collectible Insert: 24 Roman Gabriel Head Coach Skyhawks

Original "spray" card

1991 Pro Set Football: WLAF Collectible Insert: 24 Roman Gabriel Head Coach Skyhawks

Regular card

Side by Side

1991 Pro Set WLAF Football: 131 Roman Gabriel Head Coach Skyhawks

* This post is the first one that I drafted for this "Blogged But Not Blogged" series so the introduction is a little longer than other posts in the series. I wasn't sure of the order I would publish them in. As of the 01 April 2018 (now 28 Apr 2018) editing draft of this post two other posts from this series have been published before this one. I have created a "BBNB" label for this series. (OK kids you should be able to figure that one out) I usually cut & paste the original blog or forum posts and then edit and add onto them so things could get a little confusing with these posts. 

For this post the original posting in my "CaptKirk42's Collection" TCC thread (post #21) didn't go into too much detail. So this post is more of a rewrite than a direct copy. The previously posted stories were typical direct copy with some rewriting. It should also be noted that most of the images from the old TCC posts are no longer showing due to Photobucket's change to their third party sharing polices. Free accounts can't do it anymore. So many of these images will be newly uploaded scans, or copies of the original scan/photo. The first 3 images in this post are my original scans. The rest are newly scanned images that I have cropped better and straightened their angles via the free photo editing software "PhotoScape"

Fearsome Foursome Fan Faves

For collectors of vintage cards this design is an homage to the 1966 Topps Football design, which in turn is sort of an homage to the 1955 Bowman Baseball design. The most prominent feature is the wood grain look with the television screen image. In 2005 Topps produced an All-Time Fans Favorites Football set (although the TradingCardDataBase lists these as being 2004) The All-Time Fans Favorites set is similar to the Topps Archives type sets where they use older and vintage card designs for newer cards. Most of the designs from this set appear to be from the 1980s and late 1970s.

Here is a 4 card subset from that set the features the best players from my fave (and by fave I mean tied for number one) NFL team the Los Angeles Rams recently returned from being in St. Louis for 20 years (1995-2015). These four players individually had impressive careers primarily played for the Rams together they were known as the FEARSOME FOURSOME. OK one of a few defensive lines that went by that name, but the Rams were perhaps the most widely known. The Giants, Lions and Chargers have also had that nickname applied to their defensive line around the 1950s to 1970s era.

The Rams Fearsome Foursome were: Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy, Merlin Olsen and Rosey Grier. In my book they are the FEARSOME FOURSOME of note.

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Football - 19 Deacon Jones

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Football - 58 Lamar Lundy

Dag-nab-it I thought I had straightened/rotated this back image

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Football - 68 Merlin Olsen

2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites Football - 78 Roosevelt "Rosey" Grier

For Reference:

 1955 Bowman Baseball

 1955 Bowman Baseball: 104 Bob Porterfield Washington Senators

1966 Topps Football

1966 Topps Football - 32 Cookie Gilchrist Denver Broncos