Washington Wednesday: The Magical Wizard of Lodz

The Magical Wizard of Lodz

This episode of Washington Wednesday I am featuring a card I hinted at in my Trading Thursday post that had the 2015-16 Panini Donruss Basketball cards I pulled from two packs I had gotten from my local Dollar Tree store. If I recall correctly the first pack wasn't too thrilling for me. The second pack though started off with a Bang er Zap?

I pulled a Homie Wizard card. The Starting Center for the Wiz Marcin Gortat. Gortat was born or rather grew up in Lodz (Łódź), Poland. He began his professional career in Europe and was drafted by the Phoenix Suns round 2 in 2005, but continued to play in Germany til 2007. His rights had been traded to the Orlando Magic in 2007 and he made his NBA debut with the Magic in 2008. He was traded to the Suns in 2010 and from there traded to DC in 2013.

2015-16 Panini Donruss Basketball: 69 Marcin Gortat Wizards

Here are three other Gortat cards I have for my PC. I pulled them last year (2015)  in my blog group box break. Probably the last time I'll do one of those too much work and responsibility. It wasn't until I pulled these cards out to scan them that I noticed that I had a nice run of recent years without skipping a season.

 2012-13 Panini Prestige Basketball - 59 Marcin Gortat Suns

 2013-14 Panini NBA Hoops Basketball - 76 Marcin Gortat Suns

 2014-15 Panini NBA Hoops Basketball - 152 Marin Gortat Wizards

Back in October on my Mascot Monday post I mentioned I needed to find the Washington Redskins card from the 1992 Pro Set Football Spirit of the Game sub-set I featured in the post. I have since acquired that card. It was going to be the next Washington Wednesday post, that is this post, before I had pulled the Gortat card at the beginning of this post. I haven't scanned it yet, but anyway I guess there is no real surprise what the next WW post will be about.

Trading Thursday: The Return?

 TRADING THURSDAY:
15 Dec 2016

Trade Info | Master Want List | What I Collect

The Return?

I'm going to try this again another blogging adventure that is just for my own personal fun and enjoyment I guess. The original intention of this series of posts was to get some of my trade fodder gotten rid of. Now I think it is sort of acting as a way to generate a trade list without really having a trade list.

This Week's Offerings:

Yeah that says what it means.

A few weeks back, I got some packs of cards from the Dollar Tree around the corner from me. Among the items I got were a couple of 2015-16 Panini Donruss Basketball for $1 each. I got two packs of 5 cards for a total of 10 cards. I pulled a Wizard  (I'll mention it in my next Washington Wednesday post possibly) so I got one PC card from the batch the other 9 cards I will trade or give away.

2015-16 Panini Donruss Basketball:
43 The Rookies: Nikola Jokic Nuggets - Traded
60 Luis Scola Raptors
64 Nikola Mirotic Bulls
75 Eric Gordon Pelicans
180 Blake Griffin Clippers
107 Dwyane Wade Heat
117 Gerald Green Heat
188 Nerlens Noel 76ers
197 Elfrid Payton Magic

Previous Offerings: 

Previous posts/offers are listed here.

This One Is On Eleven: Some traded away. Check to see what is left.
A Fifth Of February: All cards still available
Experiment Number One: All 3 cards still available

CFL Trading: All team lots available

Updated 15 May 2017

Sports Collectibles New Link

Do you like Sports equipment, Sports Memorabilia, Sports, Sports, Sports and MORE Sports? Of course you do. I was recently contacted by a site called Sports Collectibles to participate in a link exchange program. They even featured my blog on their Blog page. How cool is that?

Anyway they sell mostly sports memorabilia, and autographed sports memorabilia collectibles. They also have autographed cards as well but specialize in the other stuff. All their signed autographed items come with a COA.

Their prices look to be in the standard competitive range for new stuff. They have occasional discounts and giveaways so please check them out. They currently have a 10% discount going on, limited time. I'm not sure how long that will last. Some of the signed stuff is a bit high for my liking but then hey I'm real cheap.

I have them linked on the right hand sidebar in the Links to Other Stuff section.

Washington Wednesday: 1971 Ted Vactor Redskins

1971 Redskins Rookie Card 159 Ted Vactor

Quite awhile ago in the Blog Bat Around post I did, I was going to tell the tale of this card. However it no longer fit the criteria of a card I used to own since I have a copy that was acquired a few years back. I might even now have two copies, not 100% sure about that fact.

My story is from circa 1975 maybe '76 but '75 seems more likely. I was over at the house of a childhood friend who was a year older than me and lived just a few houses away. I think I might have done a little trading with him also that day I don't recall. The main event, the trade I regret (regretted for several years until I got a replacement) was with another boy. Before I mention the kid I traded with I'll talk about the trade.

It was an All Topps (remember this was mid-1970s there was little else around but Topps) football cards All Redskins trade and/or Ex-Redskins. Something like a five to one trade. To some collectors I may have gotten the better end of the trade since I got more cards, higher profile players and they all were roughly the same vintage but I didn't feel like it. It took some persuading for me to even make the trade. I remember some begging and pleading maybe some crocodile tears and the ante being raised by the addition of another card or two just for this one card. I think only 2 or 3 cards were in the mix to begin. In total I got 5 cards (I think) to the one card I traded, and at the time thought I would never see again. Remember this was the 1970s before the early 1980s Trading Card Boom and subsequent overproduced "junk" years. This was a few short years before my LCS would start from literally a "hole in the wall" (back corner room), and the Internet wasn't even a concept yet. It would be another 5 years or so before personal computers would become a reality.

I don't recall all 5 cards specifically but I do recall the first two:

1973 Norm Snead

(OK so he was Giants at the time. Notice he is playing the Skins on this card)
1974 Bill Brundige

 and John Wilbur

maybe Ken Houston?

Maybe also a current 1975 Redskin. I think it was in '75 but as I said it could have been '76. I don't recall the exact count but I'm fairly sure the Snead and Brundige were in the bunch The Snead was my first 1973 Topps Football card, or one of my first. It might have even been one of the "bonus" incentives to make the trade. Anyway I got a small poker hand of cards for just one card. This one:

1971 Topps Football 159 Ted Vactor RC Redskins

(front and back)

Yep The Rookie card and only card that Ted Vactor appeared on during his playing days, and probably even at all. It still appears to be his ONLY card. Oh and the kid I traded with? Ted's son Tori Vactor. Tori was super collecting as many copies of his father's card as possible. During the 1970s that would be quite an accomplishment. I don't think the term "Super Collecting" was around back then. Maybe it would have been called "Hoarding".  At the time of the trade I think he had 2 or 3 copies already.

The Vactors lived across the street from our elementary school. During outside recess Tori was one of four kids who were the "Fantastic Four" the best athletes of the class who would take on everyone else in all the different sports and cream us. I didn't hang around with Tori so I didn't meet or even schmooze with his NFL Dad. I was at the house once I think and even then just at the front door with another friend to see if Tori was available to play football or some other sport/game with a group of friends. It was on a weekend or during the summer vacation maybe. I recall he was sick, or he had to babysit his little brother who was sick. We were in the same elementary school class for a few years and attended the same Jr. High, he went to a different high school. He played football in high school but I'm not sure if he played in college or even went to college.

Sometimes I wonder how many of his dad's card he eventually collected? Has he kept them since? Or his brother?

Mascot Monday: The Return With A Rivalry

Mascot Monday: A Division Rivalry

Yes it has been ages upon ages since I've done one of these. Well over a year. This one is a bit different from the other installments because the Mascot(s) I am covering is(are) not the Official Mascot of the team they are cheering for. This episode is actually about two Unofficial Mascots, and both of them are real people just plain fans dressed up in simple costumes not character heads and costumes. I am talking about a big Rivalry in Football. The NFL NFC East Rivalry between the Cowboys and Indians, Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins to be exact.

Wilford "Crazy Ray" Jones

Crazy Ray with Official Cowboys Mascot "Rowdy"

and Zema "Chief Zee" Williams.

Chief Zee with Redskin player Santana Moss

Both men were ultimate SuperFans of their respective teams. They were similar in that they were recognized by their team's fandom and their team as being a sort of Official Unofficial Mascot for the team. Both men were enthusiastic for their team. They butted heads often (as can be seen in the card I'm going to show), but I'm fairly sure it was a friendly rivalry. I'd like to think that both men respected each other the way their teams respected them. After all they despise the other's team not the other man. Right?

Now the card from 1992 Pro Set Football from the Team "Spirit of the Game" sub-set this is card #363 The Dallas Cowboys card. I think it is the only card either man is officially on. I don't have the Redskins card #374 yet. It doesn't have Chief Zee it has a bunch of fans holding letter and symbol signs that read "Hail To The Redskins" as the card has the lyrics to the Team Fight Song on the back. I will need to get that card and make a Washington Wednesday post about it. I have one of those ready in the queue for this Wednesday about a trade from long ago from my childhood.

1992 Pro Set Football: Spirit of the Game: 363 Dallas Cowboys

While searching for images of the rival mascots, I found this image of an autographed copy of this card on the site Redskins Hog Heaven. Actually I found it first via Google, then the site that had post it.

I don't have this autographed card, but would love to find one that is. I would also love to find an autograph of Chief Zee. I had never met him. I haven't been to a Redskins game. Sadly both men are no longer with us on this side of life. Ray passed in 2007 and Zee passed away earlier this year (2016) nine years later.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here.

COTW: AAGPBL Maddy English

1994 Ted Williams Baseball 95 Maddy English AAGPBL Racine Belles

You guessed it, it is the end of the month and I didn't have anything prepared so I am rushing something out to make my self-appointed blogging quota of at least one post per month. Fortunately for this month I sill have a few images that I have uploaded to the photo album of this blog that I haven't blogged about here. I scanned this card and talked about elsewhere. I had posted this card sometime last year I think over at the TCC forum in one of those all-out contests where contestants show off cards they have that fit a certain category as picked by the contest holder/judge and then usually forum members vote on which they think is the best. I came in third over all I think. I forget what the category was, maybe female athletes, but this is one of the cards I posted. A few years back I used to use my photobucket to post pics on the forums, but I don't use "the bucket" much any more. I mainly just keep it as an alternate storage space. At that time I started using the albums from the blogger blogs since I could then easily blog about any cards I posted on the forums, or blog about something first then post on the forums.

So here we go a single card from the 1994 Ted Williams Baseball set. I may have blogged about this set before or the Ted Williams card company that made the set. If not you can Google the card company (or Bing if people Bing anymore). It is one of the seven cards from the "Women of Baseball" subset that features key players from the AAGPBL (All American Girls Professional Baseball League) the woman's league featured in the movie A League of Their Own about women's baseball during WWII.

 1994 Ted Williams Baseball 95 Maddy English AAGPBL Racine Belles

(Front and Back)

Accompanying A Strive Set Build 69 Style

As a life-long collector it is odd that there are many many (read most of the damn things) Topps Flagship sets that I still need to complete. Now days with the very short printed super high number cards even base set collecting has become impossible. Many collectors seem to start a set build and then wham bamm they are finished in a year or two with little effort. No matter how much it costs to complete or how many high value cards are in the set. Even if there are a bunch of super short printed cards. Well that is what it seems like to me anyway.

One of my big goals, as readers of this blog may know, is to complete the 1965 Topps Baseball set for my Strive for '65 set build. I'm already over a year and a half behind in that goal. Update to the set build. One of the common themes other than purchasing the cards from a Sportlots auction was that I also got some 1969 Topps Baseball cards to help with that set from yet more Sportlots auctions. I had three packages that had the 1965 and 1969 combo, one had some bonus stuff. Well not technically bonus since they were auctions also, they just hitched a ride on the Hippie '60s Trip. Now the cards in no particular order.

First a three card package the '65 was Marty Keough Reds. The two 1969 cards were 25¢ each:

4 NL RBI Leaders: Willie McCovey Giants, Ron Santo Cubs and Billy Williams Cubs

164 World Series 1968 Game 3: (Tim) McCarver's Homer Puts St. Louis (Cardinals) Ahead

Package two contained eight cards from 5 sportlots 25¢ auctions. [First picture at top of this post] I don't recall the distribution by auction of the seven '65 cards, but it resulted in getting one card duplicated. I also got one card I already had (the previous one of course is in better condition). I think it was a case of the needs of more cards outweighing not needing one card. The lone '69 card in this case is:

6 NL Home Run Leaders: Willie McCovey Giants, Richie Allen Phillies and Ernie Banks Cubs.

The final package only had one lone '65 card the Dave Vineyard (at 25¢) it contained a total of 19 cards from 7 different auctions (but yes the same seller) the shipping costs varied but came to $6.73 the auction prices ranged from 25¢ to $4.75. The grand total was $15.98.

The 1969 Topps Baseball: 8 cards 3 auctions two were for multiple cards at 25¢ each auction A's team lot and 2 Yankees, 2 Mets and the third auction was for card #12 at $1.25

12 NL Strike Out Leaders: Bob Gibson Cardinals, Fergie Jenkins Cubs, and Bill Singer Yankees

46 Fritz Peterson Yankees
72 Ron Taylor Mets
127 Kevin Collins Mets
143 Joe Mossek Athletics
195 John Odom Athletics
217 John Donaldson Athletics
313 Bill Robinson Yankees

BONUS CARDS: AKA Not '65 nor '69

1967 Philadelphia Gum Football: 1 card $2.25

120 New York Giants Team Card - Team Logo on front.

1982 Kellogg's 3-D Super Stars Baseball: 9 cards 2 auctions one of 4 cards at 25¢ and one 5 cards $4.75 (includes Parker and Cey). All in excellent condition with only a little bent warping.

9 Fernando Valenzuela Dodgers
25 Carlton Fisk White Sox
28 Robin Yount Brewers
46 Ron Cey Dodgers
48 Dave Parker Pirates
52 Chris Chambliss Dodgers
57 Dwayne Murphy Athletics
63 Vida Blue Giants
64 Eddie Murray Orioles

Strive For '65 Status Saturday: A Lone B'Bird

STRIVE FOR '65 STATUS:

20 Aug 2016
Strive for '65 | 1965 Set Build | Master Want List

 Current card count: 254/598 (256/600) 42.8%

ACK! I think my scan is a bit bright.

Lets see it has been a few months since I've added to this set build. The last update was in January it was one card only. This update is for one card only also. OK now I have to rewrite this thing because a second lone bunch of cards came in. Now the post title doesn't make any sense. So what? I'm too lazy to do too much changing. The first card came in late April I got it from Sportlots in an auction for only 25¢ + 59¢ shipping. The second lone card came in early June also from a Sportlots auction, but it had some companion cards from 2 other auctions so no so lonely. Come think about it and to double check the April card was with a couple of other cards as well. Lets see this latest not-so-lonely card was 75¢ plus 69¢ shipping. Hey cool it pushes my set build percentage up to the Ultimate 42%

So some more cards came so once again I need to recalculate the route set build percentage complete. Eight cards (1 was a 1969 card so I won't mention it here) came from Sportlots in 5 auctions at 25¢ each I haven't bothered to double check the shipping it was so long ago. One card was duplicated (490) and one I already had (471). This happens from time to time buying from auctions piecemeal. One of the duplicates is creased but it is inked slightly darker.

The Latest Additions:
Friday 01 Jul 2016: 7 cards (1 duplicated)
108 Don Mincher Twins
163 John Briggs Phillies
222 Bob Tillman Red Sox
420 Larry Jackson Cubs
471 Billy Hoeft Tigers
490 Earl Battey Twins (2)

Thursday 02 Jun 2016: One card only.
263 Marty Keough Reds

Wednesday 27 Apr 2016: One card only.
169 Dave Vineyard Orioles