Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez, baseball cards, Collector's Choice, Rare baseball cards, rookie cards, Silver Signature, sports cards, Yankees
Alex Rodriguez has one rookie card that is a must have, that being the 1994 SP card number 15. But among the rookie-year issues there are a few of them that fetch a pretty decent dollar. The Score Rookie Call Up, Leaf Limited Gold Rookies and SP Holoview Red all sell for several hundred dollars. But in my opinion there is one card that gets over looked, the 1994 Collector’s Choice silver signature. (more…)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: baseball cards, Topps, Brooklyn Dodgers, Andy Pafko, 1952 Topps, first baseball card, 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr., most valuable baseball cards
Ever since I received my Lou Gehrig rookie card in the mail about two weeks ago, I’ve been in a different place as a collector. All of the shiny stuff I’ve pulled from packs in recent years really has become irrelevant to me since that 1933 Goudey Gehrig arrived. I’ve not bought a single card in more than two weeks, but in the meantime all I can think about is baseball, its greatest players historically and their old cardboard. Over the weekend I picked up “Cobb,” by Al Stump, and while I’m only 30-some-odd pages into it, it’s fueled my passion for the vintage cards again. And because I am not in a financial place to purchase anything new at this point — and probably for the rest of the year — I decided to dig an oldie but goodie out of my collection to share with the world: 1952 Topps Andy Pafko. (more…)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: Major League Baseball, 1994 World Series, Montreal Expos, work stoppage, strike, baseball strike, 1995 Upper Deck, best teams in baseball, Pedro Martinez, Larry Walker, 1994 baseball season
Pop quiz: What team won the National League Eastern Division before the Atlanta Braves went on its epic run of 11 straight titles? You guessed it, the Montreal Expos. The Expos have been an interesting franchise in the decade before it was owned and operated by Major League Baseball and then ultimately moved and renamed. But in the one season of glory during the 1990s, the Expos seemed destined for the World Series. Unfortunately it came in 1994, the season that was cut short due to a work stoppage. There were no playoffs that year, and the Expos never got to find out how good they were. (more…)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: 1968 Olympics, 2008 Summer Olympics, autograph, Beijing, China, historical baseball cards, John Carlos, Mexico City, Olympic Project For Human Rights, Olympics, protest, shortprinted cards, Tommie Smith, Topps Allen & Ginter
It’s been four decades since Tommie Smith and John Carlos stepped on the track in Mexico City during the 1968 Olympics and made a “silent gesture” to the world. The image is one everyone has seen. The two black American athletes on the medal stand after the 200-meter dash with their glove-clad fists in the air, while Australian Peter Norman (Silver medalist) stood with them wearing the badge of the Olympic Project For Human Rights.
The Olympics and protests have gone hand-in-hand for the better part of a century, and with the 2008 Summer Olympics kicking off today, amid protests no less, I figured it was a good time to show off the 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Tommie Smith card. (more…)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: best pitchers in baseball, Brooklyn Dodgers, Don Drysdale, James Kevin Brown, Kevin Brown, Los Angeles Dodgers, Sandy Koufax, sports cards, Topps Combos
When I pulled this card to write about it, my initial reaction was that Kevin Brown had no place among Hall of Famers like Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. My focus was to be about why I think it is ridiculous to pair today’s stars with hall of famers, particularly ones as good as Drysdale and Koufax. But something clicked when I started looking at the players’ statistics: All three of these players were good, damn good. (more…)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: 1990 Leaf, 1992 season, baseball cards, Beckett Basaeball Monthly, Beckett.com, Carl Yastrzemski, Gary Sheffield, Major League Baseball, Padres, short-printed cards, Triple Crown
It’s been 41 years since Major League Baseball celebrated an offensive triple crown. The pitching version has been done a few times since Carl Yastrzemski last tallied the offensive version in 1967, a feat which consists of leading the league in batting average, home runs and RBIs. But it’s not like there’s been a shortage of contenders. in 1992, Gary Sheffield was a serious threat and this 1990 Leaf card was his best at the time. (more…)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: Arizona Diamond Backs, autograph, Bowman's Best, Dan Haren, rookie card, signed baseball cards, Team Heroes
Well, collectors, I’ve got quite a quandary on my hands. I’m in the process of eliminating some of the extra baggage in my collection and can’t decide which Dan Haren autographed rookie stays in my collection, and which one goes on eBay. Usually I’d just keep both, but I do that too often. And right now, more than ever, I really need to figure out what is for my personal collection and what is expandable.
The two cards I’ve torn between is this 2003 Bowman’s Best autographed rookie, and the 2003 Donruss Team Heroes autographed rookie #’d/100.(picture below)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: baseball cards, Topps, Beckett Message Boards, Dr. James Beckett, Beckett Price Guide, All-Time Favorite, Web Site re-launch, Beckett Media, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente jersey, bat
When you think of some of baseball’s all-time favorites, there is a litany of people come to mind. Ted Williams, Sandy Koufax, Babe Ruth, Brooke Robinson and so on. But how about Jim Beckett? Who you ask? Beckett, as in the founder of Beckett price guide magazines. One time only, Topps produced a baseball card for the hobby’s father of price guides, and while it follows the same design as the real 2005 Topps All-Time favorite cards, these Beckett cards were only inserted into magazines. (more…)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: rookie card, Jason Bay, Red Sox, Manny Ramirez trade, 2002 Bowman Chrome, topps uncirculated, ThePit.com
It’s funny how a change of scenery suddenly rejuvinates interest in a player’s rookie card. If you’ve been reading this blog this week, you’ve seen a pair of other posts discussing traded players, namely Manny Ramirez and Ken Griffey Jr. So you knew I had to post something about Bay, right? Bay is no stranger to cardboard glory. While he was hardly a household name prior to his move to the Red Sox, baseball fans got a taste of what Bay was all about in 2004 when he won the National League Rookie of the Year award. Then he had a pair of sub-pair seasons and seemingly disappeared. But now he’s back, and so is interest in his cards. (more…)
Filed under: Card of the Day | Tags: baseball cards, baseball, Hall of fame, Cardboard Icons, Lou Gehrig, Kevin Maas, busts, rookie card, Bowman Chrome, trends, 1933 Goudey, Eric Anthony, Brien Taylor, great baseball rookies of the 90s, fads, insert cards, Derek Jeter 1993 SP, Chrome Curl
JuLY 29, 2008, will be a day that lives in infamy. OK, in my little world of cardboard icons it will. That was the day that I had arrived as a collector. For 11 years now I’ve focused primarily on rookies. I had an epiphany at a card show in 1997 when I realized that I could trade two inserts (worth then about $60; which of course translated into $30 credit) for two prime rookies: 1984 Donruss Joe Carter and 1993 SP Derek Jeter that I could not afford to buy. Then it became an addiction to unload whatever I could for rookie cards. I got my McGwire before it skyrocketed; Bonds, too. But while those moves built the foundation of my mansion of rookies, it is this 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig that now stands tall like a billboard announcing my presence in the neighborhood.
