Cooperstown NY / Hall Of Fame

At the beginning of October, my wife and I went on a fall color trip to New York.  We flew into Syracuse NY, and our first stop was Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall Of Fame.  We spent about a day and half there, than worked are way up to Lake Placid NY.  The scenery was fabulous!

(View from atop Mt Baker of the McKenzie Mtn Wilderness area)

(start of the High Gorge Falls)

Cooperstown / Baseball Hall of Fame .....

This was my first time there, and plan to go again.  If you never been, I highly recommend it. I also would go again in the fall because it was less busy than other times of the year (Induction weekend).
I'm within 10 years of possibly retiring, and my wife always ask what my plans are.  She's afraid I will just sit around the house bothering her 😎.
While in Cooperstown, I looked at her and said, "This is where I'm going to retire!!" I could work part-time at any of the card shops in town and even the HOF.

Its a thought !!!! 😊

I know I didn't hit all the shops, but these are the ones I did visit. (not in any order)
  Seventh Inning Stretch , Pioneer Sports Cards , Baseball Nostalgia Inc , Mickey's Place ,     Yastrzemski Sports, Cooperstown Bat , and Safe at Home Ballpark Collectibles.
Lots of cards and collectibles to look at.  Here is what I found in the $1 boxes...

(1968 Topps Game 2 Carew 1 Kaline and 1958 Hoak)

(Killebrew 2014 Allen & Ginter's and 2004 Toops All Time Fan Favorites)

(Royal's pick ups - 2019 Topps Archives Bo Jackson and 2 Leaf signature cards Nunnally and Valera)

(cards for the George Brett collection)

(1986 Fleer Micheal Jordan Rookie Card !!!!)

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(REPRODUCTION !!!!)

HALL OF FAME !!

Here I am with my friends!  They forgot to tell me to wear my suit !!

Loved all the memorabilia and artifacts that are there.

(Babe and Ted each completely made from one piece of laminated basswood.  All wood, no cloth, leather or stone) 

(Brett's pine tar bat)

Here are the two big ticket items I (we) bought...

We walked into Safe at Home Ballpark Collectibles, and I started browsing around at all of the great memorabilia they have.  Mean while, my wife was up front talking with one of the owners and I could here her say that a curtain item was really cool.  She came to the back of the store, where I was, and said "you need to come look at this".  I thought to myself, as we walked to the front, hey I might be able to spend a little money here.  This is what they were talking about....

The owner had just gotten back with a large purchase of framed autograph jerseys, approximately 15 of them,  and this was one of them..

I asked what he wanted for it and he said make an offer.  While I was contemplating my offer, I said it would be great if he had a Harmon Killebrew jersey as well.

And he did ....

Now I'm looking at both, wondering how much am I willing to spend here.  I decided to only go for one, but which one.  Because I'm a Royals and Brett fan, I choose the Brett jersey.  He accepted my offer and dropped it $50 bucks! What!!! So I started looking at the Killebrew jersey again, which made my wife really nervous.  He accepted my offer for the two, and they are now proudly displayed  in our family room.  Both came with COAs.

FYI --- for the best Ruben Sandwich ever -- go to Double Day Cafe !!!!

Thanks for stopping by
Keep On Collecting !!

Jeff

2019 Topps All Star Rookie Selection...

Here is Topps 2109 All Star Rookie Selection....

Pete Alonso   –   1B,  New York Mets

Yordan Alvarez   –   DH,  Houston Astros

Nick Anderson   –   P,  Tampa Bay Rays

Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.   –   3B,  Toronto Blue Jays

Keston Hiura   –   2B,  Milwaukee Brewers

Eloy Jimenez   –   OF,  Chicago White Sox

John Means     –     P,  Baltimore Orioles

Bryan Reynolds   –   OF,  Pittsburgh Pirates

Victor Robles   –   OF,  Washington Nationals

Will Smith   –   C,  Los Angeles Dodgers

Mike Soroka   –   P,  Atlanta Braves

Fernando Tatis Jr.   –   SS,  San Diego Padres

Topps again (not always) will put the All Star Rookie Trophy cup on each players base card in series 1 and 2 of the 2020 Topps set.

Also, as in the past two years, they issued a Topps Now card of each player with the cup.  These are only issued through Topps.com.  You can also find them on eBay from resellers.

Thanks for reading...

Keep On Collecting

Jeff

Just Need One More......

All I need is ONE card Rodney !!!!!

                                    (Those Miller Lite commercials were the best!)


It must have been about 10 years ago, I purchased a large quantity of cards from somewhere, and included in the box were about 5 or so 1994 SP Holoview Blue inserts.  I liked what I saw, and was wondering where I was when they came out because I didn't remember them.  ( Realized I was getting ready for my first born child, so there were other priorities).

  click here to    1995 SP Holoview Blue      to see checklist.

Over the years I kept adding to my collection.  I was finally down to two cards.

I just purchased this one off eBay.....

The Alex Rodriguez (RC) card.

The big question is, do I set him free from his encapsulate tome?  None of my other cards from the set are graded, and this is only a 7.  Do I dare try and hope not to damage the card????
Let me know what you think.

Back to the set. I am now only missing one card....

   #16  Michael Jordan

The Rodriguez card is the pricey card of the set, (I got a good deal on mine) but having a tough time finding a good deal on the Jordan.  It also is his (RC) card as well.  I don't keep searching for it continually, so one might have slipped through without my knowledge, but one day I will get one.

The National Convention is just around the corner.  Thinking about going this year.  Maybe I can find one there.

Thanks for reading......

Keep On Collecting !!

Jeff

OUCH !!! It Finally Happened To Me ......

(I know I haven't posted much here.  I try, but as we all know life happens first.  Hope some of you will still read when I get a chance to post😀.  I do frequent my blog so I can keep up with everyone.)

All these years of buying and trading, I have not had this happen .......

(poor PWE !!)

Yes, I have had a few PWE's and not many bubble envelopes come with a little damage, but the card(s) were safe.  But this poor guy looks like it got stuck on the conveyor and sat in one spot for awhile.  

Here was the out come ...

Poor Rosario didn't fair to well. 😢  
You can see where the top loader started to melt and was crushed.

This is a Topps Now card of Eddie Rosario after setting Twins record of 10 HR in April.
Print run was 183 and is now minus 1.
The seller didn't have any left, so he promptly refunded my money.

Luckily I had purchased 2 others before that one. 

You would think that a single top card loader would survive in a PWE. 

Think I will keep this set up on my desk to remind me to try and add a little more protection when I mail PWE's.

Keep On Collecting !!

Jeff

Fourteen Percent .....

My 1952 Topps set is now 14% done !!!!!  (No I do not think I will complete this set)

Keeping with my collecting budget of the 52's, anything I can find for around $5 or less, I will try to snag it.

Here are my latest pick ups.....

Now poor ole Monty has seen better days.  But he is in a good home now, and is my first HOF'er from the set.

Everyone saw the movie The Natural.  Well, the first line on the back of Waitkus's card reads..

That element of Waikus's life was part of the Hobbs story in The Natural.

Now for the creme de la creme....

I have my first PSA graded 52.  Sid played 13 years with the NY Giants, Boston Braves, Milwaukee Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates.  He had BA .283 / 202 HR / 805 RBIs.  Made the 1948 and 49 NL All Star Teams, and placed 4th in NL MVP voting in 48.  

KEEP ON COLLECTING !!

Jeff

In case you were sleeping ......

Like me some times....

Topps announced The 2018 Topps MLB All Star Rookie Cup Team ...

MLB All-Star Rookie Team
P/DH – Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Angels
P – Walker Buehler, Los Angeles Dodgers
P – Ryan Yarbrough, Tampa Bay Rays
P – AJ Minter, Atlanta Braves
C – Jorge Alfaro, Philadelphia Phillies
1B – Ryan O’Hearn, Kansas City Royals
2B – Gleyber Torres, New York Yankees
SS – Willy Adames, Tampa Bay Rays
3B – Miguel Andújar, New York Yankees
OF – Ronald Acuña Jr., Atlanta Braves
OF – Juan Soto, Washington Nationals
OF – Harrison Bader, St. Louis Cardinals

The Rookie Cup logo will be featured on the players’ 2019 Topps Baseball flagship cards, starting with 2019 Topps Baseball Series 1, which is scheduled to release on Jan. 30, 2019.





And they issued Topps Now cards of the players as well, along with autos and very short prints versions with autos.

Keep On Collecting !!
Jeff

2 more 52's - 13% complete !!

I was able to attend this past months local card show, and picked up these 2 beauties--

1952 Topps  Dodgers Johnny "Bear Tracks" Schmitz and Cubs Joe Hatten.  This puts me at 13% complete!!

What I found interesting about these two, after reading the backs of the cards, they were both involved in the same trade in 1951.

June 15 1951 the Cubs traded Johnny Schmitz along with Andy Pafko, Wayne Terwilliger, and Rube Walker   to the Dodgers for Joe Hatten along with Bruce Edwards, Eddie Miksis, and Gene Hermanski.

Keep On Collecting !!
Jeff