Today I made the nearly 2 hour drive from my home up to Nashville to go to the card show at the Lighthouse School. I arrived about 15-20 mins before the 8AM opening time, so I was in the building pretty early on for this 8AM-2PM bi-monthly show. Today they were supposed to have 110 tables, although I will say several tables were empty. The biggest issue of the day was that the air conditioning in the gym where the show was being held was out (something to do with an auto accident earlier in the week). So being mid-June in Tennessee it was humid and hot. Luckily, being there early I was planning to be done well before the heat of the day set in.
At the show there was a wide array of shiny cards from all sports plus Pokemon and other similar non-sport cards. My interest, as always, is vintage baseball cards though. Luckily, there were a few tables with a good selection of post-war vintage from the late 40's through the 70's. These dealers also had a few Goudeys, tobacco, and other earlier sets but alas no T206's were found today. So, I kept my initial focus on my 1955 and 1965 Topps sets, which I am getting painfully close to completing.
I found both of the 1955 Topps commons (#180 Clem Labine and #185 Don Ferrarese) to complete the commons needed for that set. The Ferrarese ran me $4 and the Labine $10, which isn't too bad given these are high numbers. My 1955T set is a "beater set", so I was looking for some lower condition, raw examples and these two fit in perfectly. The Clem Labine is a bit o/c top to bottom and have some corner wear/creases, but otherwise presents well. The Ferrarese is centered nicely with some corner rounding and edge wear on the left edge. Now I am down to just needing the Al Kaline, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Yogi Berra to complete the set. The Kaline and Berra can be found affordably. The Aaron and May are going to run me $150-200+ each. The Koufax and Clemente will run several hundred $ each, if they can be found.
Next, I picked up 4 nice hits to my 1965 Topps set. The 1965 Topps set was the first vintage set I started after picking up the Mickey Mantle and a stack of low grade commons back in the 1980's at a card show in Memphis, TN. I have since tried to keep this set as close to EXMT as I can, so finding cards that both fit condition-wise and that I can afford is a little difficult. I am now down to needing just 23 more cards to complete the set, most of which are stars including Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Carl Yaz, Harmon Killebrew, Phil Neikro rookie, Yogi Berra, Eddie Mathews, and Tony Perez rookie. The cards I picked up today include #320 Bob Gibson, #330 Whitey Ford, #377 Willie Stargell, and #513 Yankees Team. All are in the EX/EXMT range, with the Yankees team card being a bit better perhaps. The Yankees team card ran me $25, White Ford and Willie Stargell each cost me $20, and Bob Gibson was $25 I think.
In addition to the above, I picked up a 1958 Topps Luis Aparicio All Star #483 for about $3 and three raw, low condition 1952 Topps commons (#71, 116, 123) for around $22 total. The Luis Aparicio is a bit o/c bottom to top and around VG/VGEX. The 1952's are around F-G which is fine as I will probably make that another beater set (except maybe for some of the stars).
Finally, I have picked up a few T206's lately from Net54. I got a Cad Coles Southern League card for $100. This card has some period writing on the back that I thought was really neat. The writing includes the date Aug 08-11 indicating when this card made it into the original owner's hands I suspect. Pretty cool!
Other T206's I have picked up in the last month or so are:
Camnitz Arms at Side with Polar Bear back for $35
Congalton with Polar Bear back for $60
Jeff Pfeffer with Polar Bear back for $70 (adds one more back to my Pfeffer back run bringing the total to 5 backs so far)
Needham with Polar Bear back for $55
Stovall with Old Mill back for $80
As you can see from the above, I am focusing more on non Piedmont/Sweet Cap backs to help diversify my set. I have 37 "off backs" with the best being a Carolina Brights on my Jimmy Collins. My T206 set stands at 107 cards currently, plus I have about 7 dupes (including the Pfeffer back run cards) beyond the set.
Some of the other T206 cards I am looking to acquire in the near future include an Adkins, an American Beauty 350 No frame back example (the last of the off backs I need before I get to the Broad Leafs and rarer backs), more southern leaguers, more HOF'ers, and more Polar Bear, Sovereign, Old Mill, EPDG, and Tolstoi backs to continue diversifying my backs breakdown.
I have acquired 10 T206's thus far this year, including a Bender and Griffith HOFers. I really hope I can add another 15 cards to my set by the end of the year, but we'll see. Inflation is heating up and I am sure tough financial times and other tumultuous days are ahead for America for the foreseeable future.
Until next time, go out and work on your collections!
Tip: Remember that raw, low-mid condition cards are perfect to expand your collection without breaking the bank.
At the show there was a wide array of shiny cards from all sports plus Pokemon and other similar non-sport cards. My interest, as always, is vintage baseball cards though. Luckily, there were a few tables with a good selection of post-war vintage from the late 40's through the 70's. These dealers also had a few Goudeys, tobacco, and other earlier sets but alas no T206's were found today. So, I kept my initial focus on my 1955 and 1965 Topps sets, which I am getting painfully close to completing.
I found both of the 1955 Topps commons (#180 Clem Labine and #185 Don Ferrarese) to complete the commons needed for that set. The Ferrarese ran me $4 and the Labine $10, which isn't too bad given these are high numbers. My 1955T set is a "beater set", so I was looking for some lower condition, raw examples and these two fit in perfectly. The Clem Labine is a bit o/c top to bottom and have some corner wear/creases, but otherwise presents well. The Ferrarese is centered nicely with some corner rounding and edge wear on the left edge. Now I am down to just needing the Al Kaline, Hank Aaron, Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, and Yogi Berra to complete the set. The Kaline and Berra can be found affordably. The Aaron and May are going to run me $150-200+ each. The Koufax and Clemente will run several hundred $ each, if they can be found.
Next, I picked up 4 nice hits to my 1965 Topps set. The 1965 Topps set was the first vintage set I started after picking up the Mickey Mantle and a stack of low grade commons back in the 1980's at a card show in Memphis, TN. I have since tried to keep this set as close to EXMT as I can, so finding cards that both fit condition-wise and that I can afford is a little difficult. I am now down to needing just 23 more cards to complete the set, most of which are stars including Hank Aaron, Pete Rose, Willie Mays, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Carl Yaz, Harmon Killebrew, Phil Neikro rookie, Yogi Berra, Eddie Mathews, and Tony Perez rookie. The cards I picked up today include #320 Bob Gibson, #330 Whitey Ford, #377 Willie Stargell, and #513 Yankees Team. All are in the EX/EXMT range, with the Yankees team card being a bit better perhaps. The Yankees team card ran me $25, White Ford and Willie Stargell each cost me $20, and Bob Gibson was $25 I think.
In addition to the above, I picked up a 1958 Topps Luis Aparicio All Star #483 for about $3 and three raw, low condition 1952 Topps commons (#71, 116, 123) for around $22 total. The Luis Aparicio is a bit o/c bottom to top and around VG/VGEX. The 1952's are around F-G which is fine as I will probably make that another beater set (except maybe for some of the stars).
Finally, I have picked up a few T206's lately from Net54. I got a Cad Coles Southern League card for $100. This card has some period writing on the back that I thought was really neat. The writing includes the date Aug 08-11 indicating when this card made it into the original owner's hands I suspect. Pretty cool!
Other T206's I have picked up in the last month or so are:
Camnitz Arms at Side with Polar Bear back for $35
Congalton with Polar Bear back for $60
Jeff Pfeffer with Polar Bear back for $70 (adds one more back to my Pfeffer back run bringing the total to 5 backs so far)
Needham with Polar Bear back for $55
Stovall with Old Mill back for $80
As you can see from the above, I am focusing more on non Piedmont/Sweet Cap backs to help diversify my set. I have 37 "off backs" with the best being a Carolina Brights on my Jimmy Collins. My T206 set stands at 107 cards currently, plus I have about 7 dupes (including the Pfeffer back run cards) beyond the set.
Some of the other T206 cards I am looking to acquire in the near future include an Adkins, an American Beauty 350 No frame back example (the last of the off backs I need before I get to the Broad Leafs and rarer backs), more southern leaguers, more HOF'ers, and more Polar Bear, Sovereign, Old Mill, EPDG, and Tolstoi backs to continue diversifying my backs breakdown.
I have acquired 10 T206's thus far this year, including a Bender and Griffith HOFers. I really hope I can add another 15 cards to my set by the end of the year, but we'll see. Inflation is heating up and I am sure tough financial times and other tumultuous days are ahead for America for the foreseeable future.
Until next time, go out and work on your collections!
Tip: Remember that raw, low-mid condition cards are perfect to expand your collection without breaking the bank.