what's more 'holsum' than a baseball card trade?

this latest trade post comes courtesy of tony at off hiatus. he sent me the front end of a trade package (i'll send a return package very soon), and it was chock full of good stuff.  here's a 1990 holsum superstars orel hershiser card/disc

holsum was a bread company - i would have guessed dairy. this is now the only holsum card i have in my collection, and i didn't even know it was coming. that's one of the best things about this whole experience.

here's another oddball from the package - a 1983 donruss action all-stars fernando valenzuela card

and even more fernando goodness in the way of a 1988 panini sticker

there were more stickers to be found, including the late bobby welch

and matt young

who was traded with welch to the a's prior to the 1988 season. i was happy to see welch (and young, too i suppose) win a ring in 1989 after the dodgers got theirs in '88.

here's a 1986 fleer mini steve garvey card

which we've also seen recently in one of the steve garvey binders posts.

it's pretty cool to find vintage cards in a trade package, and tony came through with a couple of cards on cards from the 1957 topps set - lindy mcdaniel

and bobby gene smith

he also hit one of my needs from the 1971 topps set with this fantastic rodney cline carew card

thank goodness the doctor who delivered carew on the train wasn't named fester fonebone.

thanks, too, to tony for sending me cards!

vintage - old and new - from the card show

when is vintage old and new, you might ask?  well, when topps buys back its old cards, stamps 'em, and puts them in packs of 2015 cards, they are both new and old.  such is the case with these three cards - 1974 topps charlie hough

1979 topps vic davalillo

and 1979 topps lance rautzhan

i bought them at the card show a couple of weeks ago,  they were twenty cents apiece.

i spent a little bit of time in the vintage bargain bin, picking up some set needs.  i needed this 1971 topps yankee team card

and this al kaline card from the '71 set

was the lowest numbered card on my want list.

i picked up $10 worth of 1965 topps cards, the best/worst of which was this juan marichal card

fifty cents for marichal.

after paying up one dealer for some of the vintage, he threw a 1957 topps ted williams card down on the table.  did i mention i was collecting the 1957 set?  the card is trimmed and notched, but hey - it's ted williams and card number 1 in the set.  i bit.

it's the first williams card that i own from his playing days, and should be the last.  i was stoked to find one that fits my collection for less than the price of something that costs $10.01.

there were more cards obtained at the show, but those were via trade.  i'll show some of them on friday.

so it begins - the (mostly) regular issue steve garvey binders

i've got essentially four full binders of steve garvey cards and assorted items (not to mention my garvey posters, prints, first baseman's glove, louisville slugger bat, and signed balls).  two of them feature oddball items (which i've shown over the past few months) and the other two feature (for the most part) standard sized cards.  over the course of the next unknown amount of time, i'm going to show you the contents of those two binders.

here we go - page 1:

this first sheet features:

1. 1971 dell today's team stamp
2. 1971 o-pee-chee
3. 1971 topps
4. 1971 topps dodger team
5. 1972 topps dodger team
6. 1972 topps
7. 1973 o-pee-chee
8. 1973 topps dodger team
9. 1973 topps

here are the backs, just remember that they are reversed since i just flipped the sheet over to scan it

a couple of notes about this sheet - i obviously decided to include team cards (topps only) as the garv is in the front row of the 1971 card, the third row of the 1972 card, and the middle row of the 1973 card.  also, the dell today's team stamp is also sometimes referred to as the 'mlb official stamp'.  the only garvey release i am missing from this period is the 1972 topps venezuelan stamp. good luck to me.

here's the second sheet:

featuring:

1. 1974 o-pee-chee
2. 1974 topps
3. 1974 topps dodger team
4. 1975 hostess
5. 1975 kellogg's
6. 1975 o-pee-chee
7. 1975 o-pee-chee 1974 mvp's
8. 1975 o-pee-chee 1974 nlcs
9. 1975 topps

and the backs:

in case you're wondering, garvey's in the middle row of the team card.  here i'm missing only the 1975 hostess twinkie card (it has a black bar on the back, which the regular hostess card - as seen above - does not).

this is the third sheet of the binder:

featuring:

1. 1975 topps 1974 mvp's
2. 1975 topps dodger team
3. 1975 topps 1974 nlcs
4. 1975 topps mini
5. 1975 topps mini 1974 mvp's
6. 1975 topps mini 1974 nlcs
7. 1976 hostess
8. 1976 kellogg's
9. 1976 o-pee-chee

these are the backs

garvey's still in the middle row on the team card.  you might notice a couple of things here.  first, i am missing the 1976 hostess twinkie card (again with a black bar on the back), and the 1975 sspc card is not where it should be. instead, i have a 1976 o-pee-chee card there.  that's because i used to catalog the sspc card as a 1976 release (which is how it's listed on the official beckett garvey checklist).  since starting this blog, however, i have come to refer to that set as the 1975 sspc set based on the copyright date on the back of the cards.

so, there you have the first three sheets of cards in my basic steve garvey card collection.  there will be more.  lots more.  stay tuned.

graded garveys from the oddball binder

i've got a few four-pocket pages in my steve garvey oddball binder that hold graded cards.  i did, for a very short time in the early 2000's, buy into the idea of graded cards.  i sent a few off to be graded, including some modern cards, before i thought better of it.  i also bought a few graded steve garvey cards during that short stretch.

the first sheet has a garvey 1971 topps rookie, his fantastic 1974 topps card, a 1975 topps mini, and a 1978 topps, which is a masterpiece

i wanted a rookie graded, and got one with a qualifier.  that right there made me realize that this is not something on the up and up.  it's an 8, but it has issues.  then it's not really an 8.  bccg grading is a quicker/cheaper grade which again makes little sense.  the '75 came in a lot - i didn't seek that one out like i did the others there.

the second page has a gem mt 10 1978 topps card, plus a 1980 topps and two 1981 topps cards

the 1978 card in gem mt 10 was a requisite for this garvey collector.

next up are a couple of cards from 1982 donruss, plus a 1983 topps and a gem mt 10 1987 fleer glossy

garvey's last topps card as a dodger provided a bookend to the 1971 rookie.  the fleer glossy was a cheap gem mt 10 grab.

the last page features a 1988 score glossy gem mt 10, and two cards i sent off myself - a 2001 fleer greats of the game card, and a 2002 topps tribute card

like the rookie, the 1974 and 1978 topps, and the 1983 topps cards, having a graded 1988 score card (in this case glossy version) was necessary.  i obviously knew i wasn't going to have a complete run of garvey base cards graded so i wanted to hit the main points.  sending those two modern cards to be graded was a mistake and unnecessary.

still, if anybody has a graded garvey card they don't want/need, i have an open spot in my binder!

the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman, part one

it is well known that jackie robinson began his major league career as the dodgers' first baseman in 1947.  unfortunately, i do not own a 1947 bond bread card of jackie's, nor do i own a 1948 leaf card to show in this space.  with that being the case, i'll start the evolution of the dodgers' first baseman with the guy who replaced jackie at first in 1948, gil hodges. this is not a departure from the norm, using a fantastic 1952 bowman card to kick off an evolution post (this is a baseball card blog and i don't have many pre-1950's cards in my collection), but it sure would have been nice to see that leaf card of jackie up top.  maybe someday.

gil hodges (1948-1959)

yes, hodges' 1952 bowman card is fantastic.  i enjoy having it in my collection.  the dodgers enjoyed having hodges' bat in their lineup following his conversion from catcher to first baseman in 1948.  he hit a total of 361 home runs for the dodgers, including 344 during the 12-year span in which he was the team's primary first baseman.  the club also won two world championships (and 6 pennants) with him at first.

norm larker (1960-1961)

norm!  larker (shown on his 1961 topps card) took over for hodges in 1960 and promptly went out and finished second in the national league batting race, .002 behind dick groat and .004 ahead of willie mays.  he was an all-star that year, but came back to earth in 1961, hitting .270 in just 95 games.  he was drafted by the colt .45's in the expansion draft prior to the 1962 season, and he became the very first first baseman in houston's history.  if there were an astros blogger out there doing this same sort of post, larker would be at the very start.

ron fairly (1962-1964)

with larker gone, fairly moved to first from the outfield.  yes, i am showing his 1965 topps card even though he was back in the outfield when the 1965 season rolled around.  before that, however, he enjoyed three solid seasons as the dodger first baseman, averaging 12 homers and 74 rbi.  he was playing more outfield by the end of the '63 season, making way for bill skowron.  as a result, he made only late-inning appearances during the 1963 world series.

wes parker (1965-1972)

skowron left the dodgers after one season, and fairly moved back to the outfield with wes parker taking over at first.  he became part of the team's all switch hitting infield (with jim lefebvre, jim gilliam, and maury wills) and helped the dodgers win the world series against the twins.  parker also won gold gloves in 6 of his 8 seasons spent playing primarily at first (including 1971 - the year of the topps card shown above).  in 1970, he led the national league with 47 doubles, but he was always better known for his skill with the leather, compiling a career .996 fielding percentage as a first baseman.  he retired following the 1972 season at the age of 32.  parker is the only non-hall of famer on rawlings' all-time gold glove team.

bill buckner (1973)

buckner's 1974 topps card lists him as a first baseman because he played in 93 games (83 starts) at the position in 1973.  he hit .275 and played in 140 games overall that year, and was moved back to the outfield in 1974, where he was seen climbing the wall in atlanta trying to get to hank aaron's 715th career home run.

steve garvey (1974-1982)

there aren't a lot of steve garvey cards from his playing days that i haven't shown on the blog yet, but that 1980 kellogg's card is one of them.  the garv took over the first baseman's job and wound up winning the all-star game and national league mvp awards in 1974.  he held on to the job until he left the club as a free agent following the 1982 season, amassing 8 consecutive all-star starts, 4 gold gloves, 4 pennants, and a world series championship during that 9-year span.

greg brock (1983-1986)

brock, shown on his 1986 o-pee-chee card, was a triple-a phenom who had the misfortune of being asked to replace garvey in the dodgers' lineup and maybe even continue the dodgers' string of rookies of the year (they had owned the award since rick sutcliffe won it in 1979, with steve howe winning in 1980, fernando valenzuela in 1981, and steve sax in 1982).  unfortunately, brock hit just .224 with 20 homers in 146 games in his rookie year, finishing 7th in the 1983 nl rookie of the year balloting.  the dodgers still won the west, however, and brock was 0 for 9 in his first taste of postseason play.  the following season, he hit .225 while playing in only 88 games, but still spent more time at first than anybody else.  in 1985, he helped the dodgers return to the postseason with what may have been his best season with the dodgers - he hit .251 with 21 homers and 66 rbi in 129 games.  he got his only postseason hit of his career that year, a home run in game 2 of the nlcs.  he was hitless in his other 11 at bats of the series.  following another lackluster season, brock was traded to the brewers for a couple of tims - crews and leary.

franklin stubbs (1987-1988)

stubbs had been the dodgers' left fielder in 1986, but moved to first to replace brock in 1987.  he had a 'brock-ish' season, however, hitting .233 with 15 homers and 52 rbi in 129 games, 111 of which included some time at first.  in 1988, stubbs appeared in 84 games at first for the dodgers, 54 of which were starts, which was more than mike marshall (54 games, 51 starts) so he gets the nod here for the year that was so improbable.  that's his 1988 score card, by the way.  stubbs started all five games of the '88 world series, hitting .294 with a couple of rbi. interestingly enough, stubbs went to the astros in a trade prior to the 1990 season, but signed with the brewers as a free agent for the 1991 campaign wherein he replaced greg brock as the first baseman for the brew crew.

eddie murray (1989-1991)

the dodgers were likely tired of a lack of production from the first base position since garvey's departure, so they traded for hometown guy eddie murray following their world series triumph over the a's.  steady eddie showed up in 1989 (i was excited to see him in dodger blue on his 1989 upper deck card shown above) and played in 160 games (159 at first) but hit only .247.  he did drive in 88 runs, however, and in 1990 he led all of major league baseball with a .330 average.  too bad for murray that willie mcgee was hitting .335 when he was dealt from the cardinals to the a's (mcgee hit only .274 with oakland, dropping his composite average to .324 for the season).  murray left the dodgers after the 1991 season as a free agent, opening the door for a rookie named eric karros to win the job even though the team had traded for todd benzinger just in case.

no willie, but mickey and the duke were at the card show

look at this.

that's a 1965 topps mickey mantle card that i picked up from the vintage bargain bin dealer at last weekend's local card show.  at a glance, this card has soft corners but is not in too bad of shape. the wrinkles in the upper right corner are not very noticeable and show up much more clearly on the scan. i picked it up for a very reasonable price. i am now all in on my 1965 topps set, knocking number 350 out of the way early on.  it's the third mantle i have from his playing days - i have the world series card from this same set as well as his 1969 topps final tribute.  someday, i'll own his 1957 topps beauty, too.

one of the other new york centerfielders of the 1950's joined my collection at the show as well.  i was really looking for a 1955 topps duke snider (i saw a couple but they were in really nice condition and too pricey for me).  one of the dealers i talked to told me his dad was a big fan of the duke (and the brooklyn dodgers) and seemed surprised that i would be interested in such an old player.  he had a short stack of snider cards including this 1962 post issue

like the mick, this duke was decently priced - i got it and 40 dime box beauties for 10 bucks.  unfortunately, i didn't find a '65 willie mays for my set, so i'm not able to be "talking baseball; willie, mickey, and the duke".

i found this 1960 leaf jim gilliam card

in a fifty cent bin, along with a couple of cards i needed for my 1971 topps set - both of which were managers.

gil hodges

and earl weaver

i also picked up another copy of the original 'tatooine' card, featuring brooks robinson looking for droids

my brother and i saw this card for the first time in our local comic/card shop, and we laughed about the guy on his knees looking for stolen death star plans.  thus, 'tatooine' cards were born.

from the dime box i mentioned earlier, i found a couple of new double plays - a 1998 upper deck sp authentic craig counsell card

and a 2000 upper deck spx carlos febles card

complete with the 'turn ahead the clock' jerseys.

here's a 2001 upper deck sp legendary cuts card of hall of famer travis jackson, also from the dime box

i bought it because of the black armband on his left arm.  he's wearing it for his former manager, john mcgraw, who died in 1934.

i also grabbed a couple more 1965 topps cards from the fifty cent box - another mickey, although its lolich

and another yankee - tony kubek

back to the mantle - here's why i was able to get it on the cheap.

i tend not to worry about card backs too often.  this card looks good in the set binder - that's what counts to me!

do iou?

i decided sometime in may that i needed a better way to track trades.  previously, i had used email folders to remind me of trades that had been agreed to - i had one folder for 'i have sent' and one for 'they have sent' and one for 'completed', and i would move the email around based on the status of the trade until it was in the 'completed' folder.  it worked for most of the last 5+ years, but now there are some packages that show up without warning (which is great), and so email is not all inclusive when it comes to trades.  

for example, i owed the writer's journey as jason sent me some cards unannounced.  included in his envelope was this 1983 donruss greg brock card

brock and i have a complicated relationship, thanks to the fact that he was supposed to replace steve garvey in 1983.  not his doing, but what was a 12-year old to do but wish that brock continued to be blocked by the nl iron man.  regardless of how i felt, this card was a hot commodity in my neighborhood in 1983 due to brock's 44 home runs in triple-a in 1982.  my friends and i were perplexed, however, by the text on the back - brock was a '1983 donruss rated rookie'

we didn't know what that meant.  the guy at the card shop didn't know either.  it became clear in 1984 when donruss moved the designation to the front of the cards that it was just another way of saying 'future star' and the like.

jason also sent a 1982 kellogg's ron cey

and a 2014 topps stickers carl crawford

i put together a return package and sent it off  - you can read about it here.

i also knew that i owed reader mark who sent some cards for my 1971 topps set

and i recently got the return package in the mail.

i know that i still owe dennis from too many verlanders for sending me a pwe with this card inside - a 2002 fleer fall classic steve garvey/tony perez rival factions insert

i've also received some cards from dennis as part of his recent giveaway that i will show off later.

anyway, in order to help me track my trades and not lose track of who i owe, i have added a 'trade tracker' gadget to the blog.  it's over there on the right (if you're reading this with the mobile version of the site, you need to select the web version to see what it).  it's pretty self explanatory, i think.  'incoming' are cards that i have received, and 'outgoing' are cards that i have sent.  (1) indicates which package was sent first to initiate the trade, and (2) indicates which package completed the trade.  any incoming packages marked with a (1) means that i owe cards to the sender.  so, you can see that i currently owe not only dennis, but also bo and pat at the hot corner (since march!), and you can also see that i have recently started and completed trades with fuji and the rhubarb runner.

i will probably leave completed trades up for a month or so (or until i publish the trade post which sometimes takes longer).  in addition to cards for dennis, bo, and pat, i am also working on packages for people (patp, nick, dollar store), and i don't know if these are return or initial packages to be honest.  i will assume that they are all return packages just in case.

the whole point to this is that i don't want to leave anyone who has sent me cards without a return package.  if i owe you cards, please leave a comment or send me an email, and i will add you to the tracker and send some cards.  like i said earlier, i tried my best to keep track, but i may have missed someone at some point.  and, if we haven't traded before (or even if we have - and thanks very much, by the way), rest assured that i will complete a trade so let's make it happen.