Around The Card Room, Take 6

 I think I posted this item on here seven or eight years ago as an item I picked up from Topps Vault.  

I am not sure if the Topps Vault is still a store on Ebay, but it was more or less where Topps dumped out all of their odds and ends. I am certain that 90% of the listings on the Topps Vault were blank back versions of sports cards that were released between 1995 and 2015 along with tons of photo proofs.  

I loved the Topps Vault and bought all kinds of stuff off of there. Most of it was 1990s Cardinals and current Durham Bulls players.  

It always surprised me how cheap some of the items on the Topps Vault would end up selling for considering they were very unique. 

My favorite item by far is my Topps baseball card contract with Ray Lankford.

I framed the contract and have it hanging my card room next to my card closet.

Here is a better scan of the contract without the glare off the glass.  

Note the date of the contract ends on January 31st, 2003. Lankford played the 2004 season with the Cardinals as a left-handed bat off the bench, but never had a baseball card produced during that season. It was always kind of surprising that a veteran player like Lankford was excluded from the Topps set in 2004 and 2005, especially given how good the Cardinals were during that time. 

Guessing this was Ray Lankford's last baseball card contract with Topps.  

Darryl Porter. I Mean Darrell Porter.

I like to glance through the Topps Vault page over on Ebay every once in awhile to see if I can find a cool Cardinals or Durham Bulls card.  I have kind of moved on from some of the blank back cards that come out of current releases that I used to pick up the last few years.  No regrets in many cases about owning some cool one of a kind cards of players I really like, especially some of the ones that do not get a ton of cards made.  My blank back Taylor Motter might be one of my favorites....

Pretty sure I never even made a post about this card.  Motter is one of the universally beloved players amongst Durham Bulls fans.  I was so happy to pick up this card.  More recently I have really turned my focus on finding 1980s and 1990s Cardinals stuff on the Topps Vault.  Recently I came across one of the great Postseason actors in Cardinals history.  

1982 World Series MVP Darrell Porter.  

I have bought a few of the photo proof card in the past and really enjoyed go through the different Topps products from that year to match them up to a specific card in a specific set.  For example, I ended up with a Willie McGee photo proof card a few years back.....

which was listed on the Topps Vault Ebay Store as being from 1990.  The photo does not match his 1990 Topps base card....

but it might have been used for his Topps Big card.  Maybe.  

In any case, it was definitely used for his Topps Fan Favorites card in 2003.  

I was looking forward to taking in the same sort of trek with the Darrell Porter card.  Based on the photo posted on the Ebay Store I already had a good idea of where the search was going to take me.  It's not like there were a ton of 1984 Darrell Porter cards.  Here was the listing picture....

It looks a lot like the small corner picture on Porter's 1984 Topps card....

I started collecting in 1983, but 1984 was the first year that I collected the entire year with a realistic chance at assembling an entire set of cards.  I love the design of these cards and they still rank as one of my favorite sets of all-time.  

Well, the package arrived and the photo proof was actually a little disappointing.   It's a teeny tiny little photo of the former catcher.  Maybe because it's a small picture on the card?  I've never tried to mass produce my own baseball card set, so I am not entirely sure why the picture is so small.....

Your guess is as good as mine.  The best part of the card actually ended up being a Topps Company envelope that was stuffed into the package.  

I am not sure what the 1 23/32 number in the corner is exactly, but the 285 is Darrell/Darryl/Daryl's card number in the 1984 Topps set.  I guess this could also be the O-Pee-Chee proof since the top of the envelope has the OPC letter at the top, but the O Pee Chee card is just the same as the Topps card with the exception of the logo?

Anyway, I guess I have a tiny picture of Darrell Porter and a cool Topps envelope where someone could not spell his first name the correct way.  Glad there was someone editing something at Topps back then.  

A Venerable Old Card Part 14

Pretty excited to post this card.  Back in the mid 1980s, being a Cardinals fan, meant that you sort of watched a different style of baseball.  Whiteyball, named after manager Whitey Herzog, involved playing good defense and putting pressure on teams by using speed.  Everyone on the Cardinals, minus Jack Clark and whoever was catching, stole bases.  The biggest base stealer though was left fielder Vince Coleman.

Where did Vince Coleman come from?  Not exactly a huge prospect, but he showed up at the beginning of the 1985 season and started stealing bases.  During his first three seasons in the Majors Coleman totaled more than 100 steals each season.  Made Coleman a pretty popular player.

Needless to say, as a card collector, there was no cool card in 1986 than his Topps rookie card.  All I wanted out of my weekly packs of baseball cards was a copy of his rookie card.  At some point that summer I finally pulled one, but it took a little bit of patience.

Years later I still really like the 1986 Topps Vince Coleman rookie.  After a slow second half of his career and the whole firecracker thing, the card has lost a little bit of luster in general.  Anyway, I was strolling the internet last week and saw that the Topps Vault had the photo negative for his Topps Super.  It's just like his 1986 Topps rookie card, but in 5x7 sized card.  Needless to say, I decided that this was a worthy card...

What to do, what to do....

I spent the past week eyeing another item on the Topps Vault in the hopes that I could add another unique Ray Lankford item to my collection of the former Cardinals center fielder.  I didn't actually think that I would end up winning the item since it also included a photo proof of Ken Griffey Jr. and Bernie Williams.  I am not sure how well the Bernie stuff sells on Topps Vault, but I have seen Griffey stuff on there and it is out of my price range.

Still I watched, I put in my bid, and at the end of the week I walked away with the item for less than $20.  I am still somewhat amazed that I landed this piece of Ray Lankford coolness.....

These photos were used to make the Triumvirate inserts which were sorted by player position that year.  Here's a look at what these three photos were turned into..... (Note- I always use my own cards on this site, but I do not own a copy of the Bernie Williams card.  The scan below is from COMC)

I am really happy to land these three photo proofs, but I am know trying to figure out how to display these three items.  Back in the day I won a few photo proofs of the St. Louis players, both Browns and Cardinals, in the 2003 Topps Gallery set.  I took the items and found some small black picture frames to display them in my baseball card room.  The items originally looked like this....

and here is the same item in the frame.....

I actually own three of them and they look nice in the frames.  I have them on a small section of wall stacked vertically.  Really nice.  However, the latest photo proofs I picked up from Topps are much more of a set making me want to display them all together.  Topps used some kind of adhesive to stick them onto a sheet of paper, it's just Scotch tape or something, but I can work around that.  I am actually thinking of taking them to a person that does framing and doing a nice matted display with the proofs and cards displayed someway, somehow.  I am looking forward to seeing what someone can do with these.....

Ray Lankford From the Vault Part 2

In the first part of this post, I showed off a cool baseball card that I found on the Topps Vault site.  My second Ray Lankford item is not really a baseball card, but it is a really unique item that I am excited to add to my collection.  The item.....

a player contract from Topps signed by Ray Lankford at some point during the 1998 season.  This is the second Topps player contract I have added to my collection, the other belongs to former Cardinals outfielder Kerry Robinson.  These unique collectables have been really popular on Ebay for awhile and are a fun way for player collectors to add a one of kind item to their collection.  This is going to get framed and matted sometime in the next few days.  I will share a picture or two on Twitter once it is hanging in my baseball card room.

Rays from the Vault

This is one of those posts where I feel like the scan I spent ten minutes trying to make does not really do the card justice.  I am not really all that into encased cards.  Never really like the whole graded card thing.  All of the Topps sets with slabbed cards, not my cup of tea.  However, every once in awhile I see an encased card or two worthy of my time.  Tonight's card is one of those cards......

This is another card from the Topps Vault.  I have about four other cards I have picked up from their Ebay store over the past two or three years.  If you have never checked out the Topps Vault page on Ebay, it's basically a whole bunch of odds and ends the card giant has hanging out around their offices.  Old pictures, slides, photo proofs, sample cards, and about anything else you could think they'd have sitting around.

This Archer gem is actually a blank back card from the Topps Mini set.  I am not sure what the purpose of the blank back cards are in production, but Topps has a ton of them.  For all I know they just make blank back cards so that collectors like me will buy them off of Ebay.  Either way, I am happy with my latest Archer 1/1.  Third one I have added during this past month.

The card also comes with the really cool and very official looking Topps Vault certificate.........

Of all my Topps Vault pick ups almost all of them have been Rays items recently.  I am going to make it a goal to add something really cool from the Cardinals, or maybe another team, in the near future.  I am going to go do my other job and watch Fantastic Mr. Fox....Have a good evening!

Tip of the Proverbial Iceberg

I spent my morning doing work for my day job, but broke away midday to stop by my favorite local card shop Big D's Cards in Raleigh North Carolina.  I had picked up a few cards over the past few weeks that the owner Jimmy had been holding onto for me, plus added a few other things to my collection while I was in the store.  I sat down and watched the NC State/Duke basketball game and sorted through the cards and had to come up with a plan of attack to post all of the goodies that ended up in my collection this afternoon.  Just like the past two weeks have been filled with plenty of 2002 card sets, after sorting out all of my 2002 baseball cards, the next week might be all about one trip into the card shop.

Let's get started first with some of the single cards I picked up today.  As discussed in previous posts, one of the best parts of having a local card shop is the fact that you have an extra set of eyes and ears to help you build your collection.  I leave my house around 6:30 each morning and get home some time in between 5:00 and 5:30.  During my work day I miss out on all sorts of cards.  No problems, my card shop has my back.  So, the first card I added to my collection I saw about two weeks ago on the Big D's Facebook page:

I have really enjoyed watching Machado the past year and a half and not added many Machado cards to my collection.  I did pick up one Bowman autograph last year, but that was a sticker autograph versus this awesome on-card signature.  I sat on the card for a day and was not sure I was going to pick it up, but then Jimmy posted another incredible autographed card, which I decided to bundle together with this Machado.  My other card:

Yes, it's a Longoria autograph which is always on my radar, but that patch piece is incredible.  Just filthy.  I had to add this card to my collection and was happy that Jimmy gave me a chance to add this card to my collection.  I have Longoria autographs, but I do not have one with this cool of a patch piece.  In fact, I am not sure I have a Longoria card with this cool of a patch piece.  Besides picking up these two cards, I also did a little bit of wax.  That's for a few other posts, but before I left I picked up one more cool single card:

 

This card is a Topps Vault card which is the front proof for Longo's 2010 Topps Opening card.  I added a Leslie Anderson card like this a few months back.   Jimmy had picked up a lot of Longoria cards over the past week and still had this card leftover from the lot.  I am not huge on one of ones, but I do really like some of the stuff on the Topps Vault and it was well priced.  It came with the usual paperwork from Topps.....

While I only picked up three single cards for my collection today I felt like I came out really well with these cards.  All three are really great adds and would have made my day at the card shop if they had been the only card I had picked up that day.  Adding all three at once was awesome.  A tip of the cap to Jimmy for looking out for me and helping me add some amazing pieces.  If you live in North Carolina a trip to Big D's is a must, or if you are somewhere else in the country be sure to follow Jimmy on Twitter or Facebook. 

More Goodness From the Vault

One of my favorite Durham Bulls players, Leslie Anderson, has almost zero cards out on the market.  It's actually not quite zero.  More like one.  The Rays signed Leslie Anderson after he defected while playing for the Cuban National Team.  At the time of his defection, Anderson was 28, and was starting off at the bottom of the Rays organization playing for the Charlotte Stone Crabs.  Topps captured him in his Stone Crabs uni and included him in their 2010 Pro Debut set.  His only card.

So, as a fan of Leslie Anderson I guess you could say that my collection of his card revolves around the team sets sold at the Ballpark Cornerstore and finding the parallels of the Pro Debut card on Ebay.  Well, this week I was fortunate enough to land a really cool Leslie Anderson card.  I can honestly say, my collection may very well be complete.  Really.

I found the front proof, blank back, of the Topps Pro Debut card.  Topps often sells them on their Topps Vault account on Ebay.  This card was actually bought by someone and then resold.  For $9.  I was happy to have a one of a kind card of a one of a kind card.  Here's a look at the front proof which Topps sealed in a plastic case.

2010 Topps Pro Debut Blank Back Proof Leslie Anderson

Topps also sells the back proofs of cards on the Topps Vault, so maybe one day I can put the two proofs together and have the complete set of 1/1.  The blank back of the card features a Topps hologram with a serial number, certificate came with the card, and a 1/1 stamp.  

Leslie Anderson has been on the Durham Bulls the past four seasons and there is little hope that the Rays will actually call him up for a cup of coffee.  While I would love to see him stick around and play another season with the Bulls I think he might go somewhere seeking a chance at some playing time in the Majors.  In a lot of ways Anderson reminds me a lot of Justin Ruggiano.  He's not going to be an everyday player if he ever sticks in the Majors (Ruggiano should not get 400 ABs in a season), but could be a nice player to stick into certain situations.  Spring will tell.  In the meantime, I am off to find the back proof of this card.

More Goodness from the Topps Vault

Last night I shared a cool proof card of former Cardinals outfielder Ray Lankford which had been picked up originally from the Topps Vault.  If you are not familiar with the Topps Vault, it's basically an Ebay store that Topps uses to sell off its old pictures, proofs, and player contracts.  Some of the items are really fun to look at and every once in while I will pick up a card or something else from the store.

Most of my purchases from the Topps Vault would be best described as unique baseball cards I do shop the store for unique items too.  Mainly I am looking for cool items, which fit into my collection, and would look cool displayed in my man cave.

A few years back I picked up a set of photo proofs from the 2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame set from the Topps Vault:

2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame George Sisler Photo Proof 

2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame Jim Bottomley Photo Proof 

2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame Frankie Frisch Photo Proof 

 


There a pretty cool item that I decided to buy, for less than $10 each, after reading the descriptions of the photo proofs.  Each photo proof is roughly 4 x 5 and is a piece of transparency with a color picture printed on top of the clear material with a heavy piece of white cardboard dropped in behind.  I am not sure what the transparency paper is exactly, but as a teacher, it is stiffer than the transparencies you might have seen around a school back in the day.  The top of each plastic piece has a label which reads Kodak EPY which is a Tungsten based film used for slides.

Again, I am not sure what steps Topps takes in making their cards, so I am not sure where these cards fit into the process, but the cards do have labels underneath the pictures that are curious.  The labels identify the card year, player, team, and card number.  The last line is the curious part of these proofs which is the artist line.  Each artist line is dated, but the last two cards have a date listed in 2006, which is after production.  The Sisler card has a 2002 date.  I am not sure what to make of the dates on the last two cards, but it is certainly been a detail I have always found curious about those two proofs.

I have really enjoyed having these three items in my collection and have each of the proofs framed and hanging up in my man cave.  I put each in a nice black frame and have them hanging on a small wall right inside the door to the room.

Odd Ray Lankford

Sometimes I have a hard time figuring out some of the things that Topps puts for sale on the Topps Vault auctions.  It's fun to look at and obviously some of the stuff on there is cool to scout out.  I'd like to buy one of those Topps Player Contracts and hang it on the wall of my man cave, but there are also plenty of odds and ends too.  I am always amazed at the number of proof items they have up for auction.  Slides of players, sample photos, sample cards, blank back proofs, blank front proofs.  With all of those rough drafts and edits flying around you would think that Topps would make a few less errors.  

I actually already own a few cool proof cards, which might be worthy of a post at some point soon, and recently saw a proof which I could not pass up for less than $5 delivered.  

1999 Topps Gallery Ray Lankford Private Player Issue Proof 

The proof card is some sort of pre-production card used by Topps for something.  I am not exactly sure what their process for making a set of cards is these days, but this card is in there somewhere.  There are some slight differences between this card and the regular issue 1999 Topps Gallery Ray Lankford card.  First, this proof card is actually of the Players Private Issue card, not the base model of the card.  Notice the inscription in the top left-hand corner of the card showing it to be a Private Player Issue.  The Private Player Issue cards were a parallel to the base set which generally ran at one per box with a print run of 250 per card.  Here's a look at a copy of an Albert Belle Private Player Issue:

1999 Topps Gallery Albert Belle Private Players Issue 

The Lankford card and Belle card are nearly identical including the Private Player Issue script in the top left-hand corner of the card.  However, as mentioned before, there are two slight differences between the regular issue and proof issues of these cards.  

First up is the difference in size.  As you can tell, the Lankford card is both taller and wider than the Albert Belle card.  It looks like a huge difference in this picture, and is noticeable when handling the card, but for the sake of storage the proof card does fit inside a regular top loader.  My other proofs, I swear I will put them in a post this week, were big enough to frame and hang on the wall.  

The second difference is in the serial numbers on the back of the card.  The standard issue Belle Private Players Issue features the usual serial number written on the lefthand side of the card with the print run at 250 cards.  The Lankford card however is a proof which means that it is likely a one of a kind card and features.....

Absolutely no serial numbers.  The box for the serial number is on the card if you look carefully.  Very happy with my new Lankford addition.  Though a little bit of an oddball card a really cool and unique find from one of my favorite players.  More proofs and Topps Vault stuff later this week.