What I Collect

UPDATED: 13 Feb 2024

For Sports cards I am mostly about Baseball and Football with a little Hockey and a tiny bit of Basketball. Mostly I collect my "Homie" Washington teams: Nationals (Senators), Redskins (Now Commanders), Capitals, Wizards (Bullets), and their players (with the preference of them in the uniform of the team I collect), and VINTAGE (Pre-1980). The breakdown goes something like this:

BASEBALL:
Nationals/Senators and Expos
Browns/Orioles
Vintage (Pre-1980) with a current concentration on the '60s and early '70s.

FOOTBALL:
Redskins
Rams
Vintage (Pre-1980) with a current concentration on the '60s and early '70s

HOCKEY:
Capitals
Manon Rheaume

BASKETBALL: 
Almost Exclusively Bullets and Wizards mostly Bullets.

NON-SPORT:
This is my pickiest category, even a bit more picky than my almost exclusively Bullets and Capitals. I tend to go for Sci-Fi shows and movies, some Comic Heroes and Heroines, Vintage TV shows from mid 70s and earlier. Some Sketch cards and Auto cards of subjects that interest me.

MISCELLANEOUS:

NICHES:
Many collectors have oddball niches like players blowing gum bubbles, or play-at-the-plate pics. I guess I have some niches I collect like Checklists preferably unmarked just of the sets I collect. Players with names similar to mine: Kirk, Curt, and last name Andersen, Anderson and variations, My Birthday 4 April (4/4).  I also collect players who have the same name as entertainers or some other celebrity, character or athlete.

For most series/sets I collect I also try to go for the checklist cards preferably UNMARKED. For older vintage sets I tend to be a little lenient with marking, but only for older than 1975. I find myself getting a little more tolerant of lightly check-marked checklists and in general "poor old" trading cards that are beat up, creased etc... As some collectors say the creases, tears add character to the cards and give them an interesting history.

For most sports I collect the team mascots cards. The big exception is those awful 2012 Upper Deck College Football Mascot ManuPatches. UGH If they were just pictures not patches I'd be OK with them. Apparently they only made them in the patch variations. Double UGH they have released 2013 Baseball Mascots Manupatches.

I collect the 2" PVC NFL "Huddles" Mascot figurines from 1983 (Tudor). At the time there were 28 teams in the NFL and each team had a mascot character. Even if in reality there wasn't a mascot for the team. I have 6 of them loose-out-of-package which I had gotten back in the day and I am looking for the rest. I would also like to get all of them still-on-card in decent shape. The big problem is even the loose ones often sell for over $50.00 opening bid on Ebay. Some sellers start them at $150.00 that is way way too much. $45 max is what the loose ones should go for, the ones in package maybe up to about $60. My price ranges I am trying to get the loose ones for under $25 and in package for no more than $50.

I am also collecting the 1967 Stancraft NFL Team Playing Cards (check the link for which ones I have and which ones I need). At the time there were 16 teams in the NFL. There was also the AFL at the time but this "set" is just the NFL teams. I am NOT collecting the AFL teams, only the teams on my checklist. I am looking for full decks complete in box with the 2 Jokers, not single cards and not incomplete decks. It is a difficult task as all the teams are pretty rare to find. So far I've seen most of the teams on Ebay at least once, often times for way too much I'm trying to get each deck for less than $25 so far I've managed to get most of them for $15 or less. I managed to get the Dallas Cowboys deck for $5 + $2.50 shipping the day after receiving the deck I saw another Cowboys deck in worse condition (without the box I think) going for $12 opening bid.

I'd love to get some of the more well known 1963 Stancraft Playing cards with the individual HOF players on them. Many of those go for even more outrageous prices and that usually for just one card. There were two different backs for those cards a green version with team helmets from the league and an orange version with the team logos. So even getting one full deck is super monumental. I have seen the full deck on Ebay from time to time for way way too much, once or twice for a good opening bid but it quickly gets too outrageously high.

Of course there are always exceptions in almost all the categories like some players that have never been on my fave teams many of those are covered in the vintage collecting though.

I do not like relic cards much (GU or EU jerseys, shoes etc). I sometimes tolerate them, but I usually don't actively seek them out. I don't like the fact that the memorabilia gets laser cut into little one inch squares just so 10,000 people can "share" one player's Jersey, Glove, Bat or whatever. Although the bats are starting to win me over UGH. I used to avoid the "shinny" stuff Holograms, Refractors, Reflectors but like some of them a little bit. I don't like those oddball die-cuts (Royal Crown Crown Shaped UGH) simple die-cuts are sometimes OK.

Oh and I usually avoid College Teams especially undrafted guys and sometimes Minor Leagues. University of Maryland is a bit of an exception if the picture shows a MD uniform. If a player I collect has a Minor League card or two it depends on what it looks like or what set it is from. I also avoid the gimmicky stuff. I don't pay attention to College sports, and when guys transition from College to the Pros I don't remember what College the guy went to 20 some odd years ago. On the positive hand I do collect autos of my fave players and even some of the not-so favorite players from my teams.

Feel free to contact me for my mailing address to send me stuff of my fave teams, players or series of stuff I mention in this blog I say I am collecting. The worst that will happen is I'll say I already have a few dozen too many copies of it.

If you want to trade (or just gift me) my teams are Nationals/Senators. Expos, Redskins, Rams, Capitals, Bullets/Wizards and Pre-1980 vintage. I am mostly concentrating on the baseball right now. My master want list has some of what I am still looking for. I am trying to get all my lists updated, but I think there is still a very long way to go and an up hill battle scaling Mount Everest. I also do some Non-Sports, mostly sci-fi and before the overproduced years (pre mid1990s). The Non-Sport is my most picky category. I tend to be more whatever attracts my eye with Non-Sport.

Logo Keys:
Main Logo, Mascot Monday, Maildazed From The Pazt, NBA Team Logos


1 comment:

  1. I love Garbage pail kids
    larry stewart love Debbie Lee that went to
    Issaquah high school

    ReplyDelete