obectively, brian earned some vintage

i received a package from brian, the brains behind highly subjective and completely arbitrary, a couple of weeks ago now.  i had just sent out 12 packages and a couple of pwe's of my own to various folks, but now need to compile a return package for brian.  there will be vintage included in that package, because brian sent me some older dodgers.  i asked 'who wants to deal for vintage?', and brian responded.  have a look.

1963 topps peel-offs don drysdale

hadn't seen these before.  the backs actually encourage the kids who bought these packs to peel the back off and stick big d on folders and the like.  i'm glad that the kid who got this one didn't follow directions.

1971 topps tattoos wes parker

i did not realize the the mid-80's tattoos were a revival of a previous issue, but here you have tattoos from 1971.  nice of brian to send my way.

1954 bowman carl erskine

there was also a 1954 bowman george shuba card which is a nice upgrade for me, but the erskine was new to my collection. i realized after i opened the package that i hadn't deleted shuba from the want list.  that is sloppy want list maintenance, folks. i'll try to do better.

brian also included some more modern pieces, although still quite interesting.  this is a 1982 national baseball hall of fame sandy koufax card

it's the type of thing you might see in a panini set these days. it's really simple, but way cool, to have hall of fame plaques on a standard card rather than a postcard.

speaking of sandy, here's a 2015 topps archives card that brian also sent

how cool are those two kids over sandy's shoulders?  it would be great to see myself on a card like this.

from koufax to kershaw, with a 2015 panini diamond kings clayton kershaw card

i see now that kershaw (as of 7/9) had the lowest career era of any starter over the last 100 years.  lower even than koufax.

2015 topps heritage hyun-jin ryu holofoil parallel

another dodger lefty, though he hasn't realized as much success as the previous two.

2003 donruss studio hideo nomo studio stars

studio stuck with the credit card insert for many years. too many, in my opinion.

last card of this post is a 2015 donruss carl crawford jersey kings relic card

the card says 'los angeles' but the relic screams 'tampa bay'.

thanks brian!  i'll pull some cards together to send back your way soon!

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?

where in the world is my wallet card? - local card shop edition

i paid a visit to the newest local card shop in the twin cities recently, and obviously, wallet card was along for the ride.  we got there a bit early...

the shop has been open for a little over a year now, and it's owners are a couple of regulars at the monthly card shows.  

once i got inside on this particular day, i was drawn to some of the bargain vintage - fifty cents a pop - and picked up a 1954 bowman fred baczewski card

i am not collecting this set, nor am i a reds collector, but the lack of the facsimile autograph, coupled with the mention of mickey mantle on the back of a card from 1954

was enough to get me to bite.

there were some 1956 topps cards for only slightly more, and i picked up a couple for the double play binder - tommy carroll

and pete runnels

funny that pete is enough of a nickname that it needed to be in quotation marks.

back to the cheap vintage, here's a 1955 bowman bob talbot

because i couldn't leave it there for fifty cents.

this is not a 1955 bowman card

but rather a 2001 bowman rookie reprint of don zimmer.  yes, there were modern singles to be had at the shop, too.

oddball stuff was in strong supply as well, as i picked up a few cards from the 1977-84 renata gallaso releases.  this particular card is from the 1983 set featuring the 1933 all-stars (the very first all-stars).  it's the national league team card

and it features a couple of dodgers - coach max carey and tony cuccinello.  here's the back

with connie mack and john mcgraw 'choosing sides'.

there was also a box of autographed cards going for fifty cents apiece, and i couldn't leave this 2006 grandstand st. lucie mets card of their trainer behind

although i won't be keeping it.

i will hold on to this 2003 grandstand vero beach dodgers card of willie aybar, though.

this wasn't all that i came away with from the shop - some of you will benefit from the haul by way of trade packages.  as for the shop itself, there's lots of good stuff there, and if you visit the twin cities i encourage you to check it out!

off hiatus and off my want list

who sends a 1954 bowman billy loes card

as part of a blind trade package? luckily for me, tony at off hiatus does. or did, in my case.  billy is really caressing that baseball there - i hope he's more careful with it than lennie and his rabbits.  this card is gloriously worn and it's one less '54 bowman that i need.

here's another brooklyn dodger sent by tony - it's gene hermanski

on what appears to be a card made for the 5th national convention held back in 1984.  here's the back of the card that led me to that conclusion

i'm guessing that hermanski was signing autographs at the convention.

now we get to the los angeles dodger portion of the post, with some great oddball cards.

1988 kaybee superstars of baseball pedro guerrero

it's true - petey was still a superstar at that time. he had hit a career high .338 in 1987, but the dodgers brought him back into the infield in 1988 and his trade to saint louis that season was deemed to be addition by subtraction.

1988 starting lineup talking baseball steve sax

and fernando valenzuela

the only talkin' baseball i know has to do with willie, mickey, and the duke.  sadly, none of those guys were included in the set.

more oddballs of el toro - 1987 fleer mini

in which fernando is wearing his shiny pullover and a hat that was certainly not a game issue, and his 1986 fleer mini

which features an oddly cropped photo.

here's a little photo of don drysdale on a 2004 upper deck sweet spot classics manufactured patch card

that features the national league logo.  i think the american league logo is better, mostly because i think that the glove that the eagle is holding on to in the nl logo looks odd.  better to have a baseball in that talon, i think.

finally, here's a 2013 panini hometown heroes card of paul loduca

yes, this is a dodger card (note the 'los angeles' pennant in the upper left) even though the heart and soul of jim tracy's dodgers is wearing his mets gear in the photo.  as a met, loduca hit .455 against the dodgers in the 2006 nlds.

tony hit 1.000 with this trade package.  so much so that i'll show some more cards that he sent later on! stay tuned...

a memorial patch for junior gilliam

it's been 36 years since jim gilliam passed away.  he died on october 8, 1978 following a stroke he suffered in mid-september.  he was, at the time of his death, the team's first base coach and hitting instructor, but he meant a lot more to the franchise than that.  here's my 1954 bowman card of gilliam

gilliam had just come off his rookie season when this card was published - a season that saw him take over at  second base for jackie robinson and the dodgers and win the 1953 rookie of the year award.  gilliam went on to play for the dodgers through the 1966 season, winning four world series rings and playing in three other fall classics.  he had actually retired as a player following the 1964 season to become a coach, but injuries led to the dodgers activating him in both 1965 and 1966.  beginning in 1967, however, gilliam served the dodgers solely as a coach.

gilliam was known as a mentor to the infielders, including the likes of ted sizemore and, of course, steve garvey, ron cey, bill russell, and davey lopes.  lopes held gilliam in high regard and delivered one of the eulogies at his funeral.  then, in game 1 of the world series, lopes hit two home runs and as he circled the bases, he raised his fingers to the sky in tribute - perhaps the first time that the now commonplace salute was made.

here's a postcard from 1979 showing lopes at bat during the 1978 world series, wearing gilliam's number '19' in a memorial patch that the team added to the uniforms for the fall classic.

i used that photo a while ago to create a card that should have been from 2001 upper deck decade the 1970's

in large part because there weren't any world series highlight cards in the 1979 topps set, nor were any photos from the series used for any other cards that year.  that meant i had to wait until the early 2000's to see the patch on an honest to goodness baseball card.

this 2002 upper deck sweet spot classics card of steve garvey

shows the patch as he records an out at first base.  thurman munson is the runner, i believe, as this photo (including munson approaching the bag) was featured in sports illustrated.  upper deck used the photo on garvey's jersey relic insert, too

although it is paired on that version with a padres' jersey swatch.

in 2001, i got my first glimpse of the patch on a card, again thanks to upper deck.  they inserted this don sutton all-star game salute relic card in the flagship release

and used the photo again on the back

a similar photo was used on this 2004 upper deck sp game used edition patch card of sutton

although that's clearly a patch from one of sutton's oakland a's jerseys.

i've also found a few photos from the series online that show the patch, including this pregame photo of garvey

 this photo of lopes, ron cey, and reggie smith,

 and this photo of tommy lasorda arguing about reggie jackson's interference

that's the dodgers' reggie on whose uniform the patch is visible, which leads me to the card that represents gilliam's memorial patch in my binder.  it's this 2007 upper deck sweet spot classic reggie smith card

it's pretty fantastic.

gilliam passed away on the same day that the dodgers won the pennant, and the team retired his number 19 prior to game 1 of the world series.  gilliam remains the only dodger to have his number retired without being enshrined in the hall of fame.  he was just a few days shy of his 50th birthday when he died.