Say Hey Hey Willie

I got a great deal on an excellent card in a Sportlots auction. Not sure if it is a true White Whale or not. It is a vintage card of a Super Star of the game. I am a little surprised I didn't have to fight tooth and nail for it. It is that classic 1959 Topps Baseball design, based on the 1958 Topps Football. When I first started looking back to vintage cards before my time I discovered the Baseball version first I think. Well whichever I found first I like the overall design. I don't remember how old I was when I first saw the design but I think I was kind of young and it may have taken me a year or two to realize that they are in fact the same design. OK so the football is oval and the baseball is a circle so what?

Of course it isn't in the greatest of shapes but it is good 'nuff for my collection. So the financial damages were $15.50 plus $3.95 shipping. Not bad. The low starting bid of $15 was what drew me to the auction. I think I put $25 as my max bid, maybe just $20 due to lower condition. For some cards I don't mind well rounded super soft corners.

1959 Topps Baseball: 50 Willie Mays Giants

Catching A White Whale: 1968 Style

Well "Thar She Blows" I snagged a White Whale for my vintage PC on Wednesday 26 September 2018. [OK this post has been sitting in the queue a while]

The Classic Tale of a White Whale

This particular Ivory sea monster is the rookie card of a huge superstar and a childhood hero. When I was in elementary school from about 3rd grade to 6th grade the school principal had a yearly school-wide "write a book" project. Long story short my first year of that project my book had a cameo of this childhood hero. A children's book written by a child that reads like a child wrote it. Maybe one day I'll blog about it on my regular blog ( I started a draft for the post). One year, I think it was that same year, a kid wrote a story about "Charlie's Angels" but misspelled "Angels" as "Angles" so it might have been a math book.  but I digress...

This featured card is a card that easily starts over priced at over $50 at beginning bid on Ebay with BIN fixed rate prices of $100, $200 or more depending on condition and occasionally which variant it is. Yes this card has an Error version and a Corrected version. I got the corrected version. It would be nice to one day get the error version but I'm not going to hold my breath on it as it goes for at least twice what this version goes for.

I got my reasonably good conditioned copy for a nice price, not quite a steal but hovering around the high end of my comfort range. Not quite to my Maximum but getting close around the starting to sweat zone. I got it from Ebay at the opening bid price of $29.95 with $2.95 shipping. Around the same time I won this copy looking at completed/sold auctions I saw a miscut copy (listed as being "mint") that went for $18.51 with only 2 bids. Some reprints have gone for $2 to $12. So I didn't too to bad.

Smart collectors can tell that I am delaying the identification of the card for dramatic reasons. If this were an episode of Pawn Stars we would cut to a commercial break for even more suspense.

The White Whale Card I harpooned back in September of 2018 is:

1968 Topps Baseball: 247 Cincinnati Red 1968 Rookie Stars:

Johnny Bench and Ron Tompkins

I mentioned I had the corrected version. Some may wonder what the "error" of this card is. On the back the mini bio for Johnny starts off  "Johnny impressed the Reds..." the error misspells the word "the" as "tne" using an "n" instead of an "h". As I said I have the corrected version.

BTW: I still have another White Whale post in my draft queue that has been sitting there for years. My biggest procrastination delay for it of course has been not scanning stuff (The white whale plus some related cards from it's set). That White Whale was a more determined to catch it than this one was. Sort of. I had been watching this card off and on for several years at Ebay. I also had it as number 3 on my Capt K's Coveted 10 list and forgot it was on it til around 10 Jan of this year 2019.

Coveted Ten Cards

OK I'm giving into peer pressure here. Other bloggers have a list of their most desired cards, their "White Whales", their "Elusive Eight" or what-not. Each blogger uses a different term for them to try to make their list unique. I think one blogger may have made a challenge ages ago and set  a trend for card bloggers to help out with these lists by sending another blogger one of their listed cards gratis. These are lists of the cards they are currently looking 'near and far', 'high and low' for. For some they have been looking for these cards to complete a set, or fulfill some collecting desire for many many years. For some it maybe only the last couple of hours because they discovered a new set to seek.

I am joining this Qard Quest. I've decided to make it a Top Ten, I could have made it a small five or perhaps a dozen or a large 20, but 10 I think is just about right for this thing. I'm calling it "CaptKirk42's Coveted 10". OK maybe I'll think of a better name later on, but I wanted use some kind of alliteration with the title.

I will try not to make this a list of all super expensive very hard to get vintage cards because then I would never be able to update and change the list. I'm not even sure what my real top ten most hunted are at this particular moment. The list will start off in no particular order, but as I get cards from the list I will remove the one I got and add a new card to the bottom of the list. That way eventually they will sort of be in a most desired order of preference. For now they will mostly be baseball as that is the sport I most collect and my checklists are more updated on.

One card I could add to this list is the infamous 2012 Topps Series 2 - 661 Bryce Harper Nationals Super Stupidly Stymieing Short-Print Card. (or even the 2012 Topps Archives 241 Bryce Harper Nationals ALSO Stupid Short Print) I want to add it and maybe one day will, but at this time I don't think many collectors would part with it for free or for a very reasonable price. Even before it was printed it was being pervertedly overpriced in the $hundred$ and those who are fortunate enough to pull one from a pack if they don't want it for their collection just see Dollar signs and toss them up on Ebay for Thousands or at least a minimum of hundreds. Sometimes it really sucks being a Nationals fan when they have had the number one draft pick for a ton of years in a row and the guy is a Super Phenom.

Another card I could put on the list  but is probably too valuable for some is the 1982 Topps Baseball Traded 82T  Cal Ripken Jr. RC Orioles.

I'm curious if the 2008 Topps David Wright with Mr. Met is a real card or one of those blogiverse custom jobs. i thikn it was a real one for the Topps Education program thing they did for retail stores. If it is a legit card then I also want that one.

Here is the Inaugural list:

1. 1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert 5 Harmon Killebrew Twins (To upgrade my current copy that has a black X marked on the back that bleeds a little through to the front)
2. 1970 Fleer Laughlin World Series 4 Tigers vs. Cubs 1907 WS
3. 1962 Topps Baseball 88 Ralph Houk MG Yankees (Yogi Berra in Background)
4. 1975 Topps Baseball 220 Don Sutton Dodgers (thought I had it but just have the mini)
5. 1973 Topps Baseball Baltimore Orioles Team Blue Checklist card (unmarked)
6. 2011 UD Goodwin Champions 89 Alexander Ovechkin (Hockey)  Capitals
7. 2008-09 UD Legends Masterpieces Hockey 86 Mario Lemieux Penguins
8. 2011 Topps Lineage Stand-Up TS2 Ryan Zimmerman Nationals
9. 2008 Allen & Ginter Auto AGA-AF Andrea Farina (Rock/Scissors/Paper Champ)  I have a relic version I can trade for
10. 1975 Topps Baseball Mini 140 Steve Garvey AS Dodgers

White Whale of Iron Man

From Ebay I got a great deal on a White Whale card I have been looking to get.

1982 Topps Baseball #21 - Baltimore Orioles Future Stars Bob Bonner - Cal Ripken - Jeff Schneider for $12.24 delivered ($10.25 + $1.99 standard shipping) 

 

This card is often considered to be Cal's Official RC, as well as the usually more expensive 1982 Topps Traded #98T (which I don't have yet) both cards usually go for at least $20 on Ebay.

Graded 1982 Topps Traded #98T Courtesy of Checkoutmycards.com

With this card the Good/Great News is the condition is just a tad less than Excellent condition (a little flaking can be seen in the lower left corner on the front).

The Bad News is it was delivered in PWE with a forever stamp (shipping only cost them $0.44 and they charged me $1.99). OK they said "Standard Shipping" but you can send a bubble envelope and it costs about $2.00 more or less. For most sellers a bubble mailer is "Standard" especially for cards of $10 value or more (sometimes $5.00). Plus there was no Penny Sleeve or toploader UGH it was in an UltraPro "Cardsaver" (Like the pic below).

I transferred it to a penny sleeve and toploader. I dinged the seller a little on the shipping star and in the Feedback section I said "expected a little better than a PWE for the shipping", but I gave them positive feedback. If the card had been damaged from the poor shipping then I would have contacted them to try to work something out and maybe give a neutral if I was satisfied with the outcome, negative if they were uncooperative. I wonder what feedback they will give me if any?

On a side note I live in an apartment and my tiny mailbox is the one that has the lock for the postal carrier to load the boxes in my building so sometimes my mail gets extra folded because of the little extra metal bars at the top of my box. I had some packages the other day that had been bent a little good thing the contents had been protected well by their senders in those otherwise I'd have been quite annoyed at the postal service.

A White Whale From One Of My Fave QBs

SONNY JURGENSEN NFL Hall of Fame

One of my favorite QuarterBacks growing up was Sonny Jurgensen. He began his career with the Philadelphia Eagles but is best known for my Homie Team The Washington Redskins. Recently from Ebay I got one of the "white whales" I had been looking for quite a while.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term "White Whale" in the trading card hobby it basically is a card that you have been hunting for your personal collection (PC) that has been pretty difficult to acquire. Often a white whale will elude you for some time, often teasing you by showing up just out of reach. It is a reference to Moby Dick the white whale in the classic book of the same name by HERMAN MELVILLE. Moby was the nemesis to the main character Capt. Ahab.

Well this card, and many cards now-a-days thanks to the internet, is not so much a "White Whale" anymore. The card is the 1958 Topps Rookie Card (RC) of Sonny Jurgensen.


It fast became one of my favorite Sonny J. cards. Another of my fave Sonny J. cards is:

1971 Topps Game Card Insert

And also the companion to the Game Card is the Pin-Up.

1971 Topps Pin-Up.