Say Hey Hey Willie

I got a great deal on an excellent card in a Sportlots auction. Not sure if it is a true White Whale or not. It is a vintage card of a Super Star of the game. I am a little surprised I didn't have to fight tooth and nail for it. It is that classic 1959 Topps Baseball design, based on the 1958 Topps Football. When I first started looking back to vintage cards before my time I discovered the Baseball version first I think. Well whichever I found first I like the overall design. I don't remember how old I was when I first saw the design but I think I was kind of young and it may have taken me a year or two to realize that they are in fact the same design. OK so the football is oval and the baseball is a circle so what?

Of course it isn't in the greatest of shapes but it is good 'nuff for my collection. So the financial damages were $15.50 plus $3.95 shipping. Not bad. The low starting bid of $15 was what drew me to the auction. I think I put $25 as my max bid, maybe just $20 due to lower condition. For some cards I don't mind well rounded super soft corners.

1959 Topps Baseball: 50 Willie Mays Giants

Some vintage Baseball

I bought 3 cards from another member at TCC and he added 2 bonus cards plus some wax packs (I'll make another post for the wax packs, I've gone over my limit on labeling to include all the years of everything and the other 2 brands.)

OK so I bought:

 1964 Topps 260 Frank Robinson Reds

 1964 Topps 306 "Giant Gunners"

Willie Mays & Orlando Cepeda

1973 Topps 90 Brook Robinson Orioles

And Got BONUS CARDS:

1979 Topps 417 All-Time Record Holders

STRIKEOUTS Nolan Ryan (Season) & Walter Johnson (Career)

 1982 Topps 636 Philadelphia Phillies Team Leaders

 '81 Batting & Pitching Leaders

 Pete Rose & Steve Carlton

 

In the same package I also got some BONUS unopened wax packs 1990 Donruss & 1990 Upper Deck, Plus a 1989 Topps Wax Pack with a wrapper that is majorly miscut (and a piece of stale gum which is in at least two pieces now). I will post pics of those packs in another post sometime.

Love/Hate Reprints.

When it comes to reprints, or redoing anything really I almost always prefer the Original over the reprint (remake). For me it is especially true for Trading Cards. The biggest problem of course is some of the really nice Original cards I'd like to own sell at ridiculously outrageous prices, that I wouldn't even be able to purchase a small shaving off of the corner.

As a Kid I flat out refused to have anything to do with reprints. I kept to my guns on the matter until sometime in the very late 1970s to early 1980s when I bought some "retro" "All-Time" commemorative team sets though the mail. Produced by TCMA in various years. I don't have any of those scanned right now, maybe I'll get around to some of them soon. These sets were made somewhat on the cheap and are very simple looking, but they are a great way to get cards of players from yesteryear who you normally would not be able to afford even the cut corner from an original. Now these specialty sets are not really reprints so my self rule of NO REPRINTS was still intact.

When I started discovering trading card "trading" community websites then I started getting some reprints usually from generous traders who will send any old card of your favorite team or players, even if you personally don't want those particular cards. So sometimes you need to just Nod & Smile.

It wasn't until this past May (2009) that I purposely purchased a reprint card knowing that it was one (or actually that it was a high possibility). I got the card from an auction at sportlots.com for $12 plus shipping for a total of $15 the absolute MAXIMUM I ever want to knowingly pay for a reprint card no matter what the card. The seller stated in the auction outright that they didn't know if the card was an original or a reprint so I guessed and was right that it is a reprint. I wish I knew the year of manufacture though.

The card I got was a reprint (I don't know the year of reprinting but suspect it to be sometime in the early 1980s, perhaps made for one of those trading card collection books, except the sides of the card are regular cut not perforations as some of those cards are) of the 1951 BOWMAN Rookie Card of WILLIE MAYS. The card is smaller than today's standard size card and even has some mock card ware to give the feel of an old time card:

1951 Bowman Willie Mays RC (Reprint unknown year)

If anyone knows of possible reprint dates let me know.