Antiquing

I made a trek to Missouri last week for the holidays.  I lived outside of St. Louis growing up, so I enjoy making return visits.  After spending the better part of the day in the car with a three year old, and a nine year old, there is no better feeling than driving the last few miles of Illinois and seeing the Arch. 

My parents actually no longer live outside of St. Louis, so it is now just a dinner stop before we drive two hours further west.  At some point on every trip we make time to do a few things around town.  

I used to always make stops at card shops in St. Louis, but those have dwindled since my favorite shop in South County has closed.  I am also pretty sure that my kids would riot if I made them sit in the car for 12 hours, and then took them to a card shop.  It would not be pretty.  

We spent the majority of our time in Columbia, Missouri.  If you are not familiar with Missouri, it is halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City, just north of Jefferson City.  The University of Missouri is there.  I toured the card shop scene in the town a few years back, and I just avoid it altogether when I go there.  There is also a Target, but it's in the mall.  It's a hot mess.  

Luckily, my parents like antiques, and my father spotted a bunch of baseball cards in one of the local antique malls.  I spent a little bit of time visiting one morning, and found some pretty good deals on some vintage cards.  If you are a Missourian, or nearby, it's the Veranda Antique Mall off of I-70.  

There were some non-vintage cards there too.  Plenty of junk wax era cards that were being sold in binders, football and basketball cards, and all sorts of other nicknacks.  This was the sweetest non-baseball card item that I found at the store.

I should have looked up my old Durham Bulls team sets to see how much the Steve Avery cards were worth back in 1989.  Probably a pretty penny.  Some other time.  

On to the cards.  

Again, I mainly checked out the vintage card boxes, which had a lot of 1960s and 1970s baseball cards.  Many of the cards were $1, a few were slightly more.  I think I spent a total of $25 in the store, and walked away with roughly half a dozen cards. 

Here is my haul.  I scanned both the fronts and backs of the cards.  

Curt Simmons.  Cardinal.  

Tommy Harper.  Seattle Pilots.  

Wilbur Wood.  White Sox.  Raleigh Capitals.  Strikeouts.  

Rich Nye.  Cardinal.  Bird expert.  

Walt Williams.  Durham Bull.  

Doug Rader.  Durham Bull.  Part of Bill McCool's card back.  

Gates Brown.  Durham Bull.  

Ron Santo.  Hall of Famer.  

Dave Kingman.  Strikeouts.  

Mickey Lolich.  Strikeouts.  

Ken Singleton.  Durham Bull.  Actually, Raleigh-Durham Met.  

Jim Bunning.  Hall of Famer.  

Mickey Lolich.  Durham Bull.  

Harmon Killebrew.  Hall of Famer.  

This was a pretty good haul.  

Cards, And A Bull, For Some Cubs

A quick trade post.  I am a little behind with a few stacks of cards on my desk, this is one group of cards that got lost in the shuffle for a week or two.  I picked these up from Shane, who can be followed on Twitter, or at his blog Off The Wall.  Good baseball card follow.

We worked out the trade around a group of oddball Cubs cards which had been sitting in card closet for a few years.  They were given to me by a college friend who was dumping off different parts of his collection.  I was sent a Facebook Message one day about a box of baseball cards, a few days later there was a box on my front porch loaded down with all sorts of 1980s Cubs oddballs.

As a Cardinals fan, it was really hard to fit them in with any part of my collection.  There were not any Durham Bulls players in those sets either.  Eventually, the Cubs cards just ended up in a random box, but luckily they have found a good home.

Which brings me to what came back in return for the Cubs cards.  Obviously, some cards that better match my collection.

Let's start off with a pair of Ozzie oddballs.

I was actually surprised to find that I did not have either of these cards.  I don't have any Wonder Stars cards in my collection, but I do have a bunch of the Jimmy Deans.  These were the prototypical oddball cards from the 1990s.  Love them both.

One other modern Cardinals card from the package.....

This is from the 2013 Topps Archives set from the 4-in-1 insert.  I like all the 1980s and 1990s stolen base guys on one card.  I was big into the steals, very nice.  

A few older cards.  

Next up is Reggie Smith from the 1975 SSPC set.  I always think of Reggie Smith as a Red Sox or Dodger, but he was with the Cardinals for a few years in the middle of his career.  Might be one of the better Cardinals players who really lacks a presence in my collection.  Not sure why, but just have never gone there.  I am a big fan of the SSPC cards too.  Simple designs are sometimes the best designs.  

Which brings me to my three favorite Cardinals cards in the package.  Love those cereal cards.  

First up is a 1962 Post Cereal Curt Simmons card.  He the majority of his career as a Phillie, but had some good years with the Cardinals in the early parts of the 1960s, including the 1964 season, which ended with the a World Series over the Yankees.  These Post cards are fun.  

Next up.  

I have done a bunch with these Kellogg's cards over the past six months, but mostly with the 1980s sets.  Nothing really from the 1970s.  This McGlothen is from the 1975 set.  Beautiful card.  I have barely touched these 1970s Kellogg's, I would really like to add more of these at some point.  This is a great start.  

I like the back of the McGlothen card.  The sketch in the top left hand corner, the old Cardinals logo in the top right corner, all the copyrights across the bottom of the card.  Definitely an interesting card back.  It even has his hobbies up at the top, feels like the 1990s Studio cards might have copied off of these.    

The last Cardinals card, which is tremendous.  Another Kellogg's card.  

This is from the 1970 set.  One of the best oddball card sets of all-time, such a great looking product.  The other Kellogg's sets have all sorts of colored borders and designs, but the 1970 set has this simple white border.  I think it makes the pictures really pop.  

The back is really pretty standard with the stats and player vitals at the top of the card.  These last two cards really make me want to go out and find some more of the 1970s Kellogg's cards.  They are a project for another day, but still going to get added to my baseball card to do list.  Even if it does not happen for a year or two.  

Last card in the package, and the only Durham Bulls related item.  

Jim Morris was a popular player in the early 2000s.  The movie "The Rookie" starring Dennis Quaid was based on his journey from high school science teacher and baseball coach, to player for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.  He was actually a Minor Leaguer for the Brewers and White Sox back in the 1980s, played a few seasons, but blew out his arm.  He made a bet with the players on his high school team that if they won their district championship he would try out for a Major League team.  There is more story in there, but he made his way through the Rays system, which included a stop in Durham, before he reached the Majors.  

It's a decent movie.  Not Bull Durham though.  

Overall, a really great trade package from Shane.  Some great cards in here that will have a good place in my collection.  

A Bargain, All Because Small Children Are A Hazard To Baseball Cards

There are two children who share the same roof as my baseball cards.  The older of the two, who is currently seven, has been great around my baseball card collection.  He went through a short phase with one of my 2001 Topps Sean Casey cards taking the brunt of his cardboard curiosity.....

He dabbles in baseball cards and helps me open packs from time to time.  There is a 1986 Sportsflics cards that shares space on his dresser with Ben the Beta Fish.  There is a Tony LaRussa bobblehead up there somewhere too.

Then there is the one year old.

This picture isn't current, mainly because I do not want to encourage the destruction of cards, which is already a huge issue with this one.  She's mobile, curious, and not afraid to break things.  I try really hard to keep my cards put away, or at least out of reach.  However, about a month ago she figured out how to pry open one of the shoebox storage boxes where I keep my autographs.  The carnage was limited to a Topps Archives Jose Cruz.

It was Jose Cruz, so it could have been much worse.  I also wasn't too worried about replacing card.  I think I had originally picked up the card because it was $2 at a card show.  Well, that was until there was a really good deal posted on a Facebook card group with a Jose Cruz Archives auto.

In fact, there were two....

and a whole bunch of other cool Archives autographs too.

Some of them are kind of blahzay.  Randy Jones was cool for about two years in the mid 1970s, but I am not sure about the rest of his career.  He's got a nice signature.  That's a positive.  Outside of this Randy Jones card, I was really happy about the rest of the cards in this lot and I paid roughly $2 a card after shipping.

Frank Howard on a blue bordered parallel.  It's numbered out of 199, which is high in today's world of baseball cards, but I always like getting autographs of the 1950s and 1960s players.  I believe that "The Capital Punisher" ended his career in the early 1970s, but I always think of him as a Dodger and Senator.  The bad version of Frank Howard, 1970s, was on the Rangers and Tigers.

On to cards with connections with teams I follow....

Jeff Conine, not a Cardinal and not a Durham Bull, but his son plays for Duke and should be a high draft pick next summer.  Apparently Jeff hangs out and takes in a few Duke games.  I don't bother people during baseball games, especially parents, so this seems like a safe route to pick up a copy of his autograph.

Most of the cards in this post are from the regular Archives sets, but this one is from the 65th Anniversary set last year.  Kind of a hot mess of a set.  Cool looking card fronts with mismatched card backs.

Eduardo Perez.  LaRussa era bench player and current, I think, ESPN employee.  Although, they've fired all of their employees, so I am not sure Eduardo is actually still there, or if he's off announcing a 1-AA college football game somewhere.....

Long time Astro, one time member of the Cardinals.  His Cardinals career last two months: September and October of 2006.  This happened.  Jose is on the right side of the picture wearing jersey number 13.

Two more Cardinals from the 1960s.  

Curt Simmons spent most of his career with the Phillies, but he had a great year with the Cardinals in 1964 helping the team win the World Series.  This is from the 65th Archives Anniversary set.  Simmons signature looks a little shaky, but it's still a great looking card.

I posted another copy of this card, it was a blue framed parallel, a few weeks ago.  Not a Cardinals card, but Francona was on the team for a year or two in the mid to late 1960s.