Fishing For Nick Johnson On The Bay Red Edition

OK so the title of this post almost blows the sensationalism out of this post. Lately when I've been shopping on Ebay I just get the BINs and the fixed price listings, not the auctions. This beauty of a card and one of the pieces to a Rainbow was only $4.99 + $2.50 shipping. It is the latest variation in the 2010 Topps Baseball Nick Johnson Rainbow I've been assembling.

2010 Topps Baseball Factory Set Red 181 Nick Johnson Marlins #d 214/299

(Front and Back)

 This is the Factory Set Red Parallel version that is serial numbered to 299. But that wasn't all the seller I got this card from also included some bonus FOOTBALL cards. Now fortunately I don't mind too much when dealers sweeten the pot by including bonus cards from a different sport, but I'm sure there are some buyers who get really ticked about this. Sellers Please at least include the same sport, some folks are just one sport collectors. A few years back I would have been really ticked if I had gotten some basketball bonus cards. I'm still not huge into basketball but back a few years ago I didn't want to have anything to do with any hoops cards. Oh back on track here is what I got I won't go into detail on them as only one of them will remain part of my PC. I have them all marked in my Zistle since I was toying with the idea of building the set but I'm not sure on that. 

Anyway here are the seven 1993 Topps Football cards that were included as a bonus:

34 Tom Carter Draft Pick Redskins (PC)
35 Jeff George Colts (Might keep this one, not sure)
36 Larry Centers Cardinals
37 Reggie Cobb Buccaneers
41 Haywood Jeffires Oilers
42 Alfred Williams Bengals
43 Aaron Wallace Raiders 

 1993 Topps Football Bonus Cards:

(Front and Back)

A Berra Full of Yogis

For as long as I can remember Yogi Berra has been an icon of Major League Baseball. He is one of the classic vintage players that I keep a lookout for to find a deal on his cards. Most of the cards issued during his playing years and somewhat his managing years are bloody expensive. Anyway I thought it would be fun to show some of his cards that I have. So I will just show some of them mostly because I don't have all of them scanned (and I noticed one of these I didn't have the back scanned silly me)

First here is a card from when he turned coat from New York Yankee to New York Met. It is his 1965 Topps card. This is also a fortunate but sneaky way to mention my "Strive for '65" Goal to have that entire set by April of 2015. I got it from Ebay for a steal back in 2012 for $7.95 + $2.25 shipping. (here is my mention of the card on the TCC forum Steals board. The thread lies because it has been scanned since then).

 1965 Topps Baseball 470 Yogi Berra Mets

(Front and Back)

Next up: From 2005 Donruss Signature Series. I forget if this was a purchase or a trade. Purchase I think along with a handful of other HOF cards. I might have overpaid but I don't recall.

2005 Donruss Signature Series HOF-32 Yogi Berra Yankees

(Front and Back)

Now one of those modern retro cards from 2009 Goodwin Champions made by Upper Deck. I have two of these I think one I had bought and the other I either pulled from a pack or traded for it. I think at one time I might have had 3 of these. Anyway I was lazy a few years back when I scanned it. I had scanned it in the toploader and never got around to scanning the back so the back image appears "Courtesy of COMC.com"
 

2009 UD Goodwin Champions 62 Yogi Berra Yankees

(Front and Back)

Ooh this next one is pretty darn cool. I got this one back in the day from the original source of how you normally got them. It is a food product card. It is card number one from a five card gimmick "pop-up"card set of Hall of Fame players. The idea was to pull the tab on the top up and the card "pops" open. I never to my best recollection "popped" mine. I took it out of the original plastic wrapping. Maybe a bad move there. To think at one time in the late 90s I was tempted to sell it, but NOT NOW. I plan on keeping it I was insane then and didn't remember who was on the card. The number is on the front "1 of 5" but it is not a serial number 1 of 5. I want to get the other four cards some time (hmm I noticed a full set on the bay I started watching it). In 1995 Stouffer's food included these "Legends of Baseball" cards in some of their frozen dinner products. Hmmm back in '95 they might have still made "TV Dinners" for standard ovens with the aluminum foil with special instructions on if you wanted to microwave the meal. I forget exactly what product it came in. Was it meat loaf, or turkey w/ gravy?

 1995 Stouffer's Legends of Baseball Pop-Ups 1 Yogi Berra Yankees

(Front and Back)

Yogi has three sons two of which went into professional sports like dad. Dale followed dad's footsteps into baseball. Here is a father/son card from Topps 1985.

 1985 Topps Baseball 132 Father Yogi Berra Yankees Son Dale Berra Pirates

(Front and Back)

While son Tim decided to go into Football:

 1975 Topps Football 301 Tim Berra Baltimore Colts

(Front and Back)

I must have slept late.

Don't worry folks I haven't slipped into the Twilight Zone... or maybe I have. I realize it's been ages upon ages since I've done an update to this card blog. My main focus and concentration has been on things other than those small 2.5" x 3.5" pieces of cardboard with pretty pictures on them. For 2012 I will try to improve my updates here. I can't guarantee a specific number of posts per month this year but I will try to be more regular than I have been.

Anyway Super Bowl Sunday is fast approaching us (February 05) and Super Bowl XLVI (46) is a rematch of four years ago with the New York Giants and New England Patriots. Yes I know in my logo filled heading I used the old "retro" helmets of the Patriots. I prefer that helmet over their gaudy Silver ones they have now. It took me two or three years to realize that the streaks on the top were the tricorn hat the Patriot was wearing and not a patriotic streamer.

OK to keep this on the topic of cards let me see what random card I can pull from my hard drive archives...

2003 Bowman #222 Roderick Babers RC - Giants

I think this card is still in my possession. I'm not a big fan of The Giants or the modern Bowman Rookie heavy cards so this 2003 card I think I will have to schlep onto Ebay or send to checkoutmycards.com sometime (if I still have it, I might have slipped it into a trade with a Giants or Rookie Card collector).

Actually here is a better card from my PC to show:

1974 Fleer Hall of Fame - Y.A. Tittle

From the 1974 Fleer Hall of Fame (AKA: The Immortal Roll) set. Y.A. Tittle best known for playing with the Giants but he also played on the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Colts. These HOF cards were unnumbered. The following year Fleer came out with a similar set of cards that look very much alike except they had numbers on the back and the card fronts have a brown border instead of a plain white border. EEK I need to check to see if that card is really that far off center or if it was just my hack-crop job when I scanned it. It could be a combination of both.