i went for blue on black friday

it's been well over seven months since black friday, so i am a bit unsure why it has taken so long for me to post about some of the cards i purchased that day.  especially since one of the cards i bought on ebay that day was this 1952 bowman duke snider card

it was cheap, thanks to some rounded corners, scuffing, and a bit of paper loss, but to me it looks the way vintage ought to look.  that is a pretty card.

i have been on the lookout for a 1972 topps venezuelan steve garvey card for a long time, but have only seen one come up for sale in that time. it was prohibitively expensive.  on the other hand, i picked up this 1977 topps venezuelan davey lopes card

for what i thought was a reasonable price.  these cards are really thin, with nothing on the back, by the way.

most of my black friday shopping was done on comc, where i picked up a 1950 bowman bruce edwards card

along with a 1951 topps blue back

ralph branca card

this was my first blue back - there are only three dodgers in the blue back set, and they seem to be a bit tougher to find than the red backs.

i found some post cards - 1961 post john roseboro

1961 post larry sherry

and 1962 post stan williams

that weren't butchered too badly by the scissor wielding children of the 60's and gladly added them to my cart.

it wasn't all vintage, however, as i purchased a couple of 1983 permagraphics cards of pedro guerrero

and fernando valenzuela

along with a 1983 topps glossy send-in valenzuela

i am pretty sure i have this card already, as i sent in wrappers for these sets pretty regularly, but i bought it anyway because it didn't look familiar.  i still haven't checked to see if it's a double or not.

the last couple of cards are blue and shiny.  from 2012 bowman, i grabbed the matt kemp

and duke snider

blue sapphire rookie reprint cards.  my black friday duke purchases spanned 60 years, now that i think about it.

this was money well spent without getting up early and fighting the crowds - i think i'll make a habit of 'blue' friday...

the only thing dull about this trade package is the pair of scissors used to cut the first card...

nick at dime boxes and i have completed a couple of trades recently, and here are some cards from the most recent package i received from him.  this 1962 post tommy davis card

was very likely liberated from its box by a young boy using the butter knife or perhaps a spoon at his kitchen table.  it's got some great character and i am thankful for it.  it was also the oldest card in the package, although this 1988 reprint of whit wyatt's 1941 goudey card

features an earlier dodger card.  wyatt had a big year in 1941, leading the league in wins (22) and shutouts (7) while finishing 3rd in the mvp vote.  he had a solid run as a dodger (80-45 with a 2.86 era over 6 seasons) as they converted him to a starter and reaped the benefits.

here's a 1980 laughlin famous feats card of hugh casey

who was 10-4 as a reliever in 1947.  rg laughlin was the guy who did the illustrations for the fleer world series sets in 1970 and 1971, as well as the sticker backs in later years.  he was on his own in 1980 and produced this set, which also features jackie robinson.  i picked up a jackie card, but i'll show it another time.

1984 milton bradley championship baseball steve sax

saxy was an 'nl super star' not too long after replacing davey lopes at second base. i find it interesting that milton bradley was allowed to use the team name but not the logo on these cards.

1990 score young superstars jose gonzalez

score used the term 'superstar' lighting in 1990 with jose gonzalez.  yes, he was a highly regarded prospect, but 1990 was his sixth season and he had not done anything to make us dodger fans feel like he was going to be a superstar.

1997 score eric karros showcase parallel

karros, on the other hand, won the rookie of the year award in 1992 and was a very good player. not a superstar, though.  that term was saved for the 1993 rookie of the year, mike piazza.

here's an all-star insert piazza card from 1994 o-pee-chee

the italian-american superstar slugger is wearing the roy campanella/don drysdale commemorative patch on his right sleeve, and the tim crews patch is partially visible on his left.

continuing with the rookies of the year, here's the 1994 nl roy raul mondesi on a 1996 fleer emotion xl card

i do not know what sort of emotion 'fense' is.

well, i bet you thought the next card would be of 1995 rookie of the year hideo nomo.  that would be incorrect.  instead, it is of short time dodger pitcher ricky nolasco on his 2014 topps museum collection card

topps went all-in with nolasco in its 2014 products, and he was a twin before any of them were released.  i wonder if we'll see a bunch of nolasco sticker autos on twins cards in 2015 releases.

thanks again nick! we'll trade again soon, i am sure.

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!

maurice morning wills, dodger double dipper

as of june 24, 1962, dodger shortstop maury wills had 39 stolen bases on the season.  he went on to steal a then record 104 bags and win the mvp award in the process.  today, june 24, 2014, dee gordon has 39 stolen bases to his credit so far this season.  will dee steal 104 bases?  will he win the mvp award?  will he eventually leave the dodgers, only to return a few seasons later as wills did?  only time will tell.  in the meantime, here's a dodger double dipper post.

[this is the seventythird installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, clyde king, paul waner, hughie jennings, ron negray, broadway aleck smith, george smith, johnny cooney, jim fairey, frenchy bordagaray, doc casey, waite hoyt, luis olmo, clyde sukeforth, willie keeler,  harry howell, germany smith, johnny allen, marv rackley, and bobo newsom.]

maury wills debuted for the dodgers in 1959.  his first card is arguably the 1960 topps 1959 world series game 5 recap card 'luis swipes base', a card i addressed here.  he would have a few cards manufactured by other companies before appearing on a topps card again.  here's one of them - a 1962 post card

and another - a 1963 jello card

both cards note wills' prowess as a base stealer - he led the league in that category each season from 1960 through 1965.  the jello card references the old stolen base record set by ty cobb of 96 steals in 154 games.  actually, cobb played in 156 games during his record setting 1915 season, and although wills stole his 104 bags over a record 165 games, he made sure to steal two bags in game 156 to bring his running total to 97.  this was the year after roger maris broke babe ruth's single season home run record, and i would imagine that baseball purists and ty cobb fans would have demanded an asterisk had wills fallen short of 96 steals after 156 games.  i guess it's worth noting that wills had 100 steals after 162 games, but twelve and twenty years later, it wouldn't matter as lou brock had 118 steals in 1974 when the cardinals played only 161 games, and rickey henderson set his record 130 steals in 1982 when the a's also played 161 (henderson only appeared in 149 games that year!).

as for wills, he remained the dodgers' shortstop through the 1966 postseason, after which he was traded to the pirates to be their third baseman in 1967.  it was that year that he finally signed with topps and received a regular 1967 topps base card of his own, although it's a more scarce high number.  i showed my beat up copy in this post, along with a bunch of his cards that should have been that i created.

here's a 1969 topps deckle edge card of wills in a pirates uniform

although the 'p' on the hat has been removed because wills became a member of the expansion montreal expos following his two seasons in pittsburgh.  he has the distinction of being the expos' first shortstop and the first expo ever to bat.  really, the first expo ever to appear in a game, as montreal opened their inaugural season in new york against tom seaver and the mets.  he was also the first expo to strike out, the second one to double, the third one to score a run, the first to record a put out, the first to record an assist, and, fittingly, the first to steal a base.  wills only stole 15 bases for the expos in 1969, mostly because he was traded back to the dodgers in early june.

wills reclaimed his shortstop position upon his return to the dodgers, moving eventual rookie of the year ted sizemore to second base.  he eventually gave way to bill russell, and his career came to an end with the close of the 1972 season.  here's wills' 1972 o-pee-chee card

to document his second go-around with the dodgers at the major league level.  i state it like that because wills had actually left and returned to the dodger organization a couple of times before.  after signing with the club in 1951, he was claimed by the reds in the 1956 minor league draft and spent 1957 with their minor league affiliate in seattle.  wills was returned to the dodgers after the 1957 season, but then was sent to the tigers a year later.  they returned him to los angeles just before the 1959 season began, and the rest is dodger history.  to clarify, wills is still only a double dipper because i only consider those players who played as a dodger at the major league level before leaving the franchise and then eventually returned and played as a dodger in the big leagues again. sorry ted lilly, shane victorino, scott proctor, etc.

i included that link up above to the post featuring the 1959-1967 wills cards that i had created.  i should give credit to topps for creating the 1962 wills card that should have been.  they first used it in their 1975 sets as part of the mvp subset, the mini version of which i showed in this post.  it showed up again in the 1982 kmart set

and again in 1987 topps as part of the 'turn back the clock' subset.  the kmart set was released a year after there were some other maury wills cards issued by fleer and topps, except those showed him in a seattle mariners uniform. he managed the m's in the latter part of the 1980 season and also for a month or so to begin the 1981 campaign, becoming just the third african-american to manage in the major leagues.  since then, wills has been a coach or baserunning instructor for about half of the major league teams, although i am glad that the last few years seem to have been spent primarily with the dodgers and the likes of dee gordon.  let's see what dee can do this year!

here's to you maury, a dodger double dipper and maybe, just maybe, a hall of famer, too.

neal before zack

earlier today i posted some cards i received in trade and made a monty python reference.  in this post's title, which features cards sent by jeff at 2x3 heroes in a pwe, i have made a superman 2 reference.

it's not perfect, but it's the best i could do in this moment.  here's a 1962 post charlie neal card

 followed by a 2013 topps chrome zack greinke card

consider your hand crushed.  or, since it the execution of the reference was far from solid, perhaps your hand should only be mildly discomforted.

there were two other cards in the envelope, one of which was this nice 1998 fleer tradition mark bellhorn card

thanks jeff.  i've got some pwe ammo ready to head your way soon...

the last of the lcs

this weekend, i've been posting cards that i picked up at the two local card shops over the course of a few visits made in the last few months.  this final post is all dodger goodness, and the cards shown here all came from the shop that doesn't want me to use a computer to browse their inventory.  however, it seems as though they aren't opening new product, as the nickel boxes remain capped at 2011 releases.

they do have some vintage boxes sitting out, and i was able to find a 1962 post willie davis

and another copy of a 1963 post maury wills

this one is (if you can believe it) cut better than the other one i own.  i was kind of hoping that one of them was actually a jello card because i can never tell them apart.  but, it would seem that they are both post, as the red line is not flush with the stat text.

moving on, here's a 1987 leaf candy city team duke snider card

that is essentially a reprint of the 1983 donruss hall of fame heroes card.

i found some 1994 topps finest for a dime apiece - tom candiotti

and brett butler

as well as a bunch of piazza stuff.  this one is a 1995 pinnacle zenith card

and this one is a 1997 fleer checklist

i am guessing that piazza had a deal with rawlings.

i am also guessing that it's piazza there in the catcher's crouch on this 1996 pinnacle denny's hologram of hideo nomo

that also features super scout mike brito.

here's a 2010 topps history of the game insert of jackie robinson

and a 2011 topps prime 9 insert/redemption card of sandy koufax

the star/hof box was filled with these types of cards which were available from card shops as redemptions for inserts in series 2 that year.  i guess not too many folks bothered to redeem them at this location.

i don't know if or when i will get back to this lcs.  if i knew that there would be some new stuff in the bargain boxes i might be more interested in a return trip.