Would You Buy This Card?

As a vintage collector there is so much damage that I am willing to overlook, creases and paper tears add a story to the card. Then there are cards like this 1895 May Cut Plug N300 card. The 1895 May Cut Plug cards are some of the earliest baseball cards and are highly collectible with even the lowest grades selling for a couple hundred.

This seller has posted a number of these cards over the past year, and the cards are in probably the worst condition that a card can be and still be considered a card. They look like they have had either water or fire damage and the seller has submitted the cards but they each have been returned due to the fragility of the card.

Would you buy this card for $65?

EDIT: I made a mistake and said that they were football cards, the 1895 May Cut Plug cards were college baseball not football. The 1894 May Cut Plug are football cards.

Monday Question Day- I HATE That Year?

Today is question day:

Most collectors have a year they hate collecting for their PC, what year bothers you?

Mine is 2011 for Ryan Bader. There are 128 individual cards over 3 sets, of which 61 are #1/1 cards/printing plates. For comparison, Bader only has 334 total cards so the 128 from 2011 are over 1/3 of all his cards.

Sellers Schilling Sales Sucks

I have been looking to pick up a 2008 UD Piece of History Superman Cape for quite a few years. It is a piece of the cape that Christopher Reeve wore during the filming of Superman III. Usually the cards go for $25-30 range and every time I have bid, I always end up losing by $1 or 2 in the last seconds

This auction showed up 2 weeks ago with a reserve. I bid, but my $26 bid didn’t top the reserve, so the card was reposted. The second auction ended at $25 and change, again, didn’t hit the reserve so it was put up a third time. Suddenly today, someone with 0 feedback bids enough to top the reserve. Of course, the bidder with 0 feedback has 100% bidding with this seller so there is no question about shilling. I called him out, he responded claiming innocence and saying I shouldn’t accuse him without proof.

What are the chances this card shows up for auction in 2 weeks by either this same seller (oh… the buyer fell through) or from the 0 feedback buyer?

The guy is a new seller, but he jumped right in to shitty selling tactics.

Mariners' Prospecting

This past offseason the Mariners made some major changes and with a rather light minor league system it can be difficult prospecting but over 2018 I slowly added a couple of cards of young players to my COMC order. I have made a number of poor prospecting choices over the past 25 years, so I keep my pickups inexpensive.

Here are a couple prospects that I added to my collection:

Braden Bishop- 2015 Bowman Draft Chrome Asia Black Refractor

Evan White- 2017 Bowman’s Best “Best of 2017” Autograph Refractor

Kyle Lewis- 2017 Bowman Draft Chrome Sky Blue refractor

Dan Vogelbach- 2017 Topps Gold Label Framed Autograph

King Of The Monsters

During the 90s hologram cards were the inserts to get when busting a non-sports box. I remember sitting with my best friend one day after work, we had both purchased boxes of 1994 Marvel Universe and I pulled a Wolverine and War Machine hologram card, they may have been the first holograms I ever pulled and they are still in my collection.

So, when I can find a cool hologram of a subject that I like, it makes me happy. I was searching some King Kong cards and by pure luck came across a listing for a 1995 Toho Godzilla hologram for a couple of bucks. I wish they were more common because I would love to add more to my collection.

Monday Question Day- Boob Tube Cards?

We got over a foot of snow this past Thursday and Friday so there was plenty of time to catch up on the shows on my DVR, which leads to today's question.

Is there a television show that you watch and would like to see a trading card set built on?

The shows that come to mind are both animated shows, Futurama and Bob’s Burgers. There is a Bob’s Burgers Target exclusive 6-card set that was included in a DVD release and I did pick up that set, but I would like to see a full set with sketch cards and autographs.

Toro Pride- Dan Divjak

I added a new former Mountain View Toro to my collection, and this one is a friend. I not only went to school with Dan, but we played football together and he was the team's starting QB during our senior year. After we graduated he headed down to Tucson to not play football, but hockey for the University of Arizona. Hockey was always his first love, so this wasn’t surprise. 

I didn’t even know he had cards until I came across them on TCDB so it is neat to add his cards to my collection. 

Would You Buy This Card?

Last week this 2007 SP Sign of the Times Griffey/Dunn dual autograph sold for $36, which is a deal with a Griffey autograph. But if you look, both Griffey’s and Dunn’s autographs are faded.

Would you buy this card knowing that in a few years that the signatures will be illegible?

The Art Gallery- 2015 Upper Deck Dinosaurs Neanderthal

This month’s Art Gallery display is from Sharon Gauthier, a freelance artist from Quebec. She is a talented artist who can work in multiple styles. She is a cartoonist so she has a very cutsie style but she also has a pseudo-realistic style, like this card. Not photo realism but accurate.

This sketch card is from the 2015 Upper Deck Dinosaur release, and this is my second sketch card from the set. This one depicting a Neanderthal following a successful hunt carrying an animal leg. I have no attachments to the card, I just liked the subject and colors.

Griffey Printer Scrap

I picked up a Griffey card that was being sold as an error, but it really isn’t an error. The card is a test card that was a printer’s scrap. The card began life as a 1995 Stadium Club Super Skills #SS11 but ended up being used by Topps to practice die-cuts that would later be used in both 1996 Laser Baseball and 1996 Laser Football.

While I am not certain who the football player is, I believe it to be Troy Aikman because it looks like a star on the helmet. I also think the image on the back of the Griffey card is the "front" of the Aikman card.