who wants to deal for vintage?

despite acquiring and posting some pretty nice vintage stuff lately (here's a 1953 bowman color billy herman card that i picked up on the cheap),

i am still in need of quite a bit.  and, since i not too long ago pared down my sampler vintage topps sets to just dodger team sets, i've got a lot of spare vintage.  so, why not make a trade?

now, i realize that dodger cards from the 1950's sometimes command a pretty penny. i'm not suggesting that you trade me a 1952 topps roy campanella card for a 1954 bowman fred baczewski, but you are certainly welcome to if you'd like.  what i'm offering is a minimum of five-for-1 vintage deal.  my top priority here would be the 1955 topps card that i'm missing.

that would be ed roebuck, because i've recently obtained the joe black,

clem labine,

and gil hodges

cards from the set.

i find it interesting that the cartoon on the back of hodges' card

is pretty much the same as the one on the back of jackie robinson's 1953 topps card - the subject, anyway.  i guess topps figured that kids would forget that nugget of information within a couple years' time.

i found the hodges online, and picked up the black and labine cards at the card show i went to recently.  when i told the dealer i was working on a 1955 topps dodger team set, he said 'hey - just like rocky.  you know, the kid from the movie 'mask''.  i did not know, as i had not seen that movie.  a quick check of imdb does indeed show that the character was working on a '55 topps dodger team set, and while i need ed roebuck to complete the set, he needed rube walker.

anyway, i've updated my 1950's want list, and added it below.  i've also updated my nefarious 9 list on the sidebar.  even though there are some decidedly modern cards on the nefarious 9, i'm willing to trade vintage for them - say a minimum of 3-for-1 for the non-vintage nefarious 9 needs.

here's how it works.  you find one of the cards listed below from your collection, on ebay, comc, sportlots, or uncle bill's attic and let me know that you'd like to trade.  i'll send you a minimum of five cards from the 1950's (or 1960's if you prefer) in exchange. we can work out specific teams or cards if you prefer.  again, if you have a high-dollar card from my list, the bounty would be higher.  condition is not too much of an issue, although the labine above is probably as bad as i'd want to go on some of these cards.

here's the list of cards i need from the 1950's:

1950 bowman - 21 reese, 22 robinson, 23 newcombe, 58 furillo, 59 branca, 75 campanella, 76 barney, 77 snider, 112 hodges, 113 hermanski, 166 hatton, 167 roe, 194 cox, 222 morgan, 223 russell, 224 banta

1951 bowman - 7 hodges, 31 campanella, 32 snider, 56 branca, 80 reese, 117 miksis, 118 roe, 189 palica, 190 hatton, 260 erskine, 299 king

1951 topps red and blue backs - blue 42 edwards, blue 48 cox, red 16 roe, red 38 snider

1952 bowman - 8 reese, 44 campanella, 128 newcombe, 224 schmitz, 240 loes

1952 topps - 1 pafko, 20 loes, 36 hodges, 51 russell, 66 roe, 188 podbielan, 198 haugstad, 250 erskine, 273 palica, 314 campanella, 319 walker, 320 rutherford, 321 black, 326 shuba, 333 reese, 342 labine, 355 morgan, 365 lavagetto, 377 dressen, 389 wade, 390 nelson, 394 herman, 395 pitler, 396 williams

1953 bowman black & white - 26 roe, 52 branca, 60 cox

1953 bowman color - 14 loes, 46 campanella, 117 snider, 124 dressen, 129 meyer, 145 shuba

1953 topps - 76 reese, 134 walker, 255 howell, 258 gilliam, 263 podres, 272 antonello

1954 bowman - 10 erskine, 58 reese, 90 campanella, 122 furillo, 138 hodges, 154 newcombe, 170 snider, 186 meyer, 202 shuba, 218 roe

1955 topps - 195 roebuck

and you can see a sampling of the cards available for trade by checking out these posts and looking at the non-dodgers in them.  here are some other cards from 1953 and 1954 that would be available as well.

what say you? can you help a blogger out?

a 52 card pick up, 13 at a time

not too long ago, i showed off some new to me steve garvey cards.  one of those came from a deck of playing cards - the dodgers' version of the 2005 baseball hero deck.  i later went out and bought the whole deck of cards, and figured they were worth showing off.

i noted in the title that it was a 52 card pick up, but actually, there are 55 cards in the set.  three 'jokers' are included - long time managers walter alston and tommy lasorda, along with even longer-time broadcaster, vin scully.

each suit is broken up into specific teams/eras of the franchise, with the clubs focusing on the brooklyn years - and primarily the 'boys of summer' years of the late 1940's and early 1950's.  let's see what we have in this suit.  aces are low in this deck, as the card values mirror the fielding positions...

don newcombe as the ace of the staff, plus roy campanella behind the plate. gil hodges, jackie robinson, billy cox, and pee wee reese make up the infield, with hall of famers zack wheat and duke snider sharing the outfield with rightfielder carl furillo.  the high cards have dazzy vance, clem labine, and carl erskine in the bullpen, plus jake daubert coming off the bench.

most of these cards represent the latter years of the brooklyn franchise, with the outliers being zack wheat, dazzy vance, and jake daubert. it's nice to see them getting some attention though.

this is daubert's first appearance on the blog, so i'll go ahead and note that he was the first franchise player to win the mvp award (1913), and the second to win a batting title (also 1913) after dan brouthers was the first in 1893.  daubert followed up that season by winning the batting title again in 1914.

taking the trade train from p-town

tom from waiting 'til next year let me know that he had found some oddball dodger card, and asked if i would be interested. of course i would! so, the cards were sent my way, and my collection is all the better for it.

the package included some 'swell' cards, including actual swell cards, of which one was this 1990 swell baseball greats steve garvey card

i've got one in the garvey binders, but needed one for the dodger binders.  excellent.

there were also quite a few 1975 (some say 1976) sspc cards, such as willie crawford

crawford was traded after the 1975 season to make way for reggie smith in the outfield so i can't really complain about the dodgers not keeping him around, but he had some solid years as their right fielder.  crawford won a world series ring at the age of 18 in 1965, and helped the club return to the fall classic in 1974, too.  he almost became a double dipper as part of the team of my youth, but didn't make the club out of spring training in 1977.

there were a bunch of pacific legends, too, like this 1990 clem labine card

labine was a 2-time all-star and a key cog on the dodgers' 1955 world championship team, so i'm glad to see him get some cardboard appreciation.

here's a very cool 2009 tristar obak duke snider card

he's shown as a member of the fort worth cats, which puts this image from 1946.  snider spent that season with the dodgers' double-a affiliate, playing alongside future dodger coach monty basgall.

tom was kind enough to include an insert card of the reigning cy young award winner and mvp, clayton kershaw - a 2014 donruss diamond kings card

modeled after the 1984 version of the diamond king subsets.  you all know who the first dodger diamond king was, don't you? yes, it was steve garvey.

here's a 2012 bowman chrome prospect card of o'koyea dickson

he was a 12th round pick in 2011, and spent 2014 at double-a chattanooga.  will he make the jump to okc in 2015?  let's wait and see.

here are a couple more cards from the package that may not otherwise have warranted a scan - 1994 donruss billy ashley

and 1987 donruss brian holton

this may well be the first time anyone has bothered to scan a 1987 donruss brian holton card.  you're welcome.

thanks for the cards tom!

my pared down 1954 topps sampler

earlier today i (hopefully) posted my 1954 topps sampler.  since scanning and writing that post, i have extricated the non-dodgers and reassembled the remaining cards.  so, my 1954 topps sampler is now a 1954 topps dodger partial team set.  here's how it looks:

as with my 1953 topps sampler to team set, i have added a card in between.  this time, it's duke snider's card

i picked this one up at the last card show i went to.  my vintage bargain bin guy was there and gave me a good deal on duke.

i think all of these players have been featured on the blog before, except charlie thompson.

thompson was better known as tim thompson, and his big league career as a dodger began and ended with a 10 game stint in 1954.  he was later traded to the kansas city a's and also spent some time with the tigers.  welcome to the blog charlie.  i mean tim.

i only need three dodgers to complete the 1953 topps team set, but one of them is jackie robinson.  if anyone has an extra jackie, or a ben wade or jim hughes card to spare, please let me know!

my pared down 1953 topps sampler

i've removed all the non-dodgers from my 1953 topps sampler set.  here is what i am left with.

that's 12 of the 21 dodgers in the set.  i just need some guys named robinson, reese, campanella, etc.

for those of you with eagle eyes, you've noticed that there are 12 dodgers instead of 11 that were included in the sampler set post earlier today.  that's because in between the time i scanned the cards and got around to posting, i picked up a charlie dressen card.

sorry, that's chuck dressen.  i also mentioned earlier today that my approach to the sampler sets was to not worry about position differentiation, just team, color combos, and subsets.  that meant that i didn't have a manager card in the 1952 set (dressen is a high number), and until i picked up this card, i didn't have one in the 1953 set either.

card show recap - the final dealer

i went back to the vintage bargain bin dealer to end my time at the show.  he had tried to tempt me earlier with his '90% off bowman box'.  here's what i picked up before hitting the road.

1976 shakey's roy campanella

yay oddballs
1974 topps hank aaron special #3
1959 topps baseball thrills rocky colavito

somebody collects catches at the wall, i believe.
1955 bowman smoky burgess - because somebody else collects catchers in gear
1951 bowman dan bankhead

i did not realize that dan bankhead was the first african american pitcher in big league history.  he debuted in august of 1947, just a few months after jackie robinson.  he hit a home run in his first big league at bat, and his only appearance in the 1947 world series was as a pinch runner.

1951 bowman billy cox

1952 bowman preacher roe

1953 topps clem labine

1955 bowman don newcombe

the bowmans all have some paper loss on the back, but the fronts look good.  i took a long, hard look at a 1951 bowman campanella but couldn't pull the trigger.  i would say maybe next time, but this dealer informed me that he is relocating to north carolina and is not sure how often he will return to the twin cities.  of all the bowmans, i think i like the 1952 cards the best.  the colors seem to pop a bit more, at least on the dodger cards i have from that set.

so, how much do you think i spent on these cards? make your guess in the comments.  i'll have the answers (and winners) tomorrow.

i was a craigslist genius

remember those great posts over at bad wax about the people advertising on craigslist who wanted thousands of dollars for some 91 donruss cards?  good times.  earlier this year, i was able to parlay some junk wax stuff into this - a 1956 topps sandy koufax card.

i was visiting my parents and needed to clear out my old closet.  i had left mostly complete sets behind, and it certainly wasn't worth shipping a 1989 topps set, or any of these other sets, back to myself.

i did bring a couple of sets back with me, plus some loose cards that i had forgotten about, and i also scavenged some cards from my 1981 fleer set, 1991 upper deck set, and a couple others before posting the above photo on craigslist. in addition to those partial sets, there was a 1989 topps set, 1990 topps set, 1991 topps set, 1990 donruss set, 1994 topps set, 1992 topps set, 1993 topps set, a score set from 1991 i think, and a few others too.  i asked for $50 with same day pick up for the lot.

 

i received two bites.  the first guy wanted the cards.  the second guy wanted to know if $50 was for the whole lot.  i met up with the first guy in a nearby grocery store parking lot.  he got out of his truck and walked towards me holding a beckett. 

 

turns out he was mostly concerned with the derek jeter cards in the 92 and 93 topps sets.  we opened the sets, but the cards were out of order (thanks topps).  i assured him that i had not taken cards out of those sets (except for the throw-in gold parallels topps put in the factory sets back then) and he handed over $50.

 

so where does sanford koufax fit in, you ask?  i have mentioned before that my dad collected cards for a couple of years as a way to spend time with me.  while i went for post-1970 dodger topps team sets and steve garvey, he went for stars and earlier dodgers.  now he was looking to sell his collection.  i offered him $50 for the koufax (he had a complete run of sandy's cards, but this was the only one i needed).  i also said i would take the fam out to dinner.  sold.

 

he also threw in a 1954 topps card that i needed, clem labine  

i left behind a full run of nolan ryan cards (didn't even ask how much for the 68 rookie), tom seaver, mike schmidt, george brett, carlton fisk, etc. 

 

i did, however, get him to add one more card to my collection, a signed 1963 topps jim gilliam

that is super sweet!  i now have cards signed by all the dodger retired numbers except for jackie and campy.

some may wonder why i had to pay at all for the cards. well, they aren't mine and i have never assumed that they would just be given to me. i am sure that my dad would have given them to me if i had asked for them, but i didn't.  i was pleased to find out, however, that the prospective buyer of his collection fell through, so the rest of the cards are still there.

so that's how i turned a few junk sets into a 1956 topps koufax (and more).  for the record, i borrowed $5 from my dad later in the trip, so the cards just cost me $45 plus a dinner.

giants cards can be useful

i believe the dodger/giant rivalry to be a bigger deal than yankees/red sox or cubs/cardinals or twins/brewers or whatever other manufactured rivalries that bud selig wants to try to peddle.  growing up in southern california, we disliked all things about no-cal, and the giants were at the top of the list.  these days, i count san francisco as one of my favorite cities to visit, but i still dislike the giants.  so, you had better believe that i was more than happy to send some cards featuring the san francisco nine out of my collection, and in return receive some pretty cool dodger cards.  it's all thanks to arpsmith, whose cardboard obsession focuses on the dodgers' foes, and who was kind enough to agree to trade with someone who bleeds dodger blue.

here's a 1959 topps card featuring johnny podres, clem labine, and don drysdale.

in 1959, podres was 3-0 against the giants, with a 2-hit shutout in one of the games.  labine, meanwhile, was 1-0 with 2 saves in his appearances against the giants, while big d was 4-2 in 7 starts versus san francisco.  no wonder a giants fan was willing to part with it.

i also received a former nefarious 9 card - a 1984 fleer tom niedenfuer

as is often the case in our little community, i needed one of these and now i have an extra as i also received a copy from mrmopar recently.

there were some pretty big cards in the package, too.  literally.  like this 1988 topps big mike davis card

along with his oversized 1989 bowman card

but, as much as i appreciate the walk that mike davis earned in game 1 of the 1988 world series, he was not even the best davis in the package.  that honor goes to willie davis, who appears on tony gwynn's 1992 pinnacle 'the idols' subset card

i know i have shown that card before, but it is so cool that i wanted to show it again.

arpsmith also noticed that i am still trying to finish my 2008 upper deck timeline set, and he moved me a couple of cards closer to that goal.  he sent along a jay bruce

and a prince fielder card

and also included an andre ethier jersey card

ethier returned to the lineup last night, as did matt kemp.  so, it makes sense to close with a kemp card, like this 2012 topps heritage new age performers insert.

thanks for the trade arpsmith!

seeing double

topps is not alone when it comes to recycling photos.  i recently received some cards in the mail from nick at dime boxes that included a healthy dose of dodgers from the pacific legends cards from the late 1980's.  like carl erskine

and carl erskine

at first i thought i had received doubles, but that was just because of the photo.  clearly the design is different, and pacific (not that pacific) used lowercase letters in 1990.  that's the 1988 pacific card up top, by the way.  the backs made it easier to differentiate.

in addition to oisk, there was campy

and tommy davis

clem labine

and don...newcomb?

newk also showed up (with his name correctly spelled) on a 1989 swell card

i don't have too many of the 1989 swell cards - in fact, this might be the only one.  i do have a few of the 1991 swell cards, but didn't have manny mota until the package arrived from nick

it's always nice to get a new card featuring one of the players on the team of my youth.  there were also some more recent cards, like this 2004 bowman jereme milons card

milons is still playing ball in the frontier league these days.  he moved on to the diamondbacks' organization shortly after this card was released, never getting above high-a ball with the dodgers.

finally, another player from the team of my youth - knuckleballer charlie hough

this is a 2004 topps all-time fan favorites card, and it looks great.  the photo is from earlier in the 70's, but would have fit in with the 1974 set nicely.

thanks nick.  you've got me excited to wade through some dime boxes at the next show!