2003 topps Barry Bonds, Kevin Youkilis RC, Pedro Martinez Opening Day Game Card thing, UD Victory Nomah, 2000-something topps Total Junior Griffey, 1980 topps Yaz, Future Stars (feat. Jesse Orosco, Joe Morgan, and Jim Palmer.

 Why Purchased: For the almost-vintage Hall of Famers.  I didn’t even notice the Youk rookie till I had already decided to purchase it.

Keepers: None I guess.  The Griffey doesn’t interest me very much, and the others I can probably find good homes for.  Let me know if one is to your liking, but keep in mind the 1980 cards are not in the best of shape.  I’m beginning to think that pre-1983 cards in mint condition don’t, and maybe never did, exist, because I’ve never seen one.  And the only minty fresh ’83s I’ve seen were pack pulled by me.  Oh dear, I’m ranting again aren’t I?  Terribly sorry.

Notes: I didn’t recognize Youk without the facial hair.  It’s so inherent to him that I must’ve figured he was born with it.

More cards need rounded corners.  I can’t believe we haven’t started moving in that direction already.  How much easier keeping cards in proper condition would be without having to worry about dinged corners.

Feelings mixed on Topps Total, but without any other companies producing any baseball cards of note, it would probably be good to come back during whatever the biggest lull in the card-buying year is.  I guess I’d like it personally just so there would be an easily attainable and relatively affordable rookie card on a clean (if uninspired) design of whoever is deemed the hot player of the moment.

Man, Jesse Orosco looked so young!  No wonder he went on to pitch so long, he was the inspiration for Rookie of the Year, making his debut in his very early teens.  It’s like those “when they were young” cards, except it’s actually his rookie!

I like to think Joe Morgan is saying something all haughtily & getting basic information wrong in the interview taking place on his card.

All I can think of for Jim Palmer is “The hair, man. The hair…”

Mind-Blowing Statistics: In his very first year of professional baseball, Kevin Youkilis had a .504 OBP (in 276 plate appearances), walking 73 times to only 31 strikeouts!

Presidential Smackdown!... Err, Campaign Matchups, 2008 topps Alex Romero RC, Scott Rolen, 2004 Bazooka Pudge Rodriguez Red Chunk parallel, 19xx Circa Thunder Alex Rodriguez Boss '98, 2006 Brian Roberts Bazooka Stamps, 1982 Baseball's Greatest Sluggers Frank Robinson, 2002 topps Opening Day Mariano Rivera, 2002 Alex(is) Rios RC

Why Purchased: Because I collect Frank Robinson, and also for the Alex Rios RC & A-Rod Thunder insert.

Keepers: Just the Frank Robinson I guess.

Notes: There’s something unflattering about Willkie’s photo there, but I can’t quite place it.

The Pudge is an extra thick parallel.

The A-Rod should be extra thick.  It is embossed, like Action Packed, topps Embossed, and those sweet Kamen Rider cards I got from Shot Not Taken a few trades ago (hopefully another trade coming in the next couple months, btw), except it’s a thin as a regular card.  It should be special, embossed cards are one of the rarest of technological card treats, after all.  But with the back all raised up where it is on the front, it just feels kinda weird.

Wow, that’s the exact same design as the Heritage Stamps of the last few years.  The back is mostly blank, brownish cardboard with only the brandage at the very top, “STAMP XX OF XX” and the player’s name directly under it in small print in the middle, and legalese at the bottom.  I’ll show it off when I do a massive card back dump post someday (I like to record a lot of various card backs for posteriority, hehe).

The Greatest Sluggers card is just simple and classy looking.

Rios I just thought a White Sox fan might enjoy.

Mind-Blowing Statistics: I could’ve had this post done two hours ago if I were capable of staying on task.  But seriously though, I figure anyone that isn’t coming here for the cards is coming for the old Benchwarmer posts from back in the day (people still get here via searching Brooke Morales and Jaime Hammer every single day), and everyone who is coming for the cards already knows about Frank Robinson’s legendary exploits already (last to pull off the Triple Crown, MVPs and championships in both AL & NL, etc).  Because nobody ever comes for the art.  Seriously, I’m not even that bad, but my art posts barely do any better than days when I don’t post at all.  Wait, what were we talking about?

Heh, actually I just revealed a bunch of interesting stats in that incoherent babbling.  But now I must go.  I’ve gotten over the violent ills, but these allergies are making me cry harder than Field of Dreams, Rudy, and Serendipity combined.  Don’t judge me on that last one.  Best damn romantic comedy since Waiting to Exhale, it is.  I should probably just shut up now.  Seeya.

Wanna have a catch?

1970 topps Ernie Koy (1x Pro Bowl), Roy Jefferson (3x Pro Bowl; 1x First-Team All-Pro), Dan Abramowicz (1x First-Team All-Pro), Don Herrmann, 1968 topps Gino Cappelletti (5x Pro Bowl; 3 double-letters in one name!), Carl Kammerer, Earl Gros, '70 Tim Rossovich (1x Pro Bowl), Chuck Howley (6x Pro Bowl; 5x First-Team All-Pro; 1x Super Bowl MVP)

Vintage, it’s all vintage!

1970 topps Bill Munson, 1971 topps Floyd Little (5x Pro Bowl; 1x First-Team All-Pro; Hall of Fame class of 2010), 2010 topps Peyton Manning (11x Pro Bowl; 5x First-Team All-Pro; 1x Super Bowl MVP; 4x NFL MVP; 1x Offensive Player of the Year), 1994 Upper Deck Troy Aikman (6x Pro Bowl; 1x Super Bowl MVP; Hall of Fame Class of 2006), 1990 Fleer All-Pro Joe Montana(8x Pro Bowl;3x First-Team All-Pro; 3x Super Bowl MVP; 2x NFL MVP; 1x Offensive Player of the Year; Hall of Fame class of 2000), Jerry Rice (13x Pro Bowl; 10x First-Team All-Pro; 1x Super Bowl MVP; 2x Offensive Player of the Year; all-time leader in rec/rec. yds/rec. TDs/TDs/yds from scrimmage/all-purpose yds; Hall of Fame class of 2010), Barry Sanders (10x Pro Bowl; 6x First-Team All-Pro; 1x NFL MVP; 2x Offensive Player of the Year; 1989 Offensive Rookie of the Year; Hall of Fame Class of 2004)

Vintage Hall of Famer!  Yes, this was basically the best $1 grab bag pack thing ever.  Pretty much puts that McDonald’s dollar menu commercial to shame, eh?

Also, 1994 Upper Deck football is pretty.

Pretty much everything but the Jerry Rice is available for trade.

That’s it for this one.  So long, and thanks for stopping by!

Until our next…

2008 topps U&H Josh Hamilton, 2003 Josh Hamilton/Carl Crawford, 2010 topps Cole Hamels, 2007 topps Roy Halladay and Travis Hafner Own the Game, 1994 Post Tony Gwynn, 1979 topps '78 Bears Team Leaders x2, 2003 Bowman Franklin Gutierrez prospect

Why Purchased: The beat up Bears Team Leaders, Future Stars Hamilton/Crawford.

Keepers: At least one of the Bears Team Leaders.

Notes: The Hamilton/Crawford is the actual card, not the Yo Momma version, which I also have in original back form.

Also, the reprint is somehow apparently worth more?  Lolwut?

I like the design on the Post Tony Gwynn a lot.  Who says a promotional product tie-in cards can’t look nice?

Mind-Blowing Statistics: The reprint is worth more… Oh wait, I can do better than that.

James Scott’s 759 receiving yards in 1978 is the third highest single season total posted by a Bear in the 1970s.  Only his previous season’s 809, and Dick Gordon’s 1026 in 1970 are better.  On a related note, I’d like to nominate Bobby Douglass as the worst QB in the HISTORY of the NFL.  Ho.  Lee.  CRAP!  How can you be THAT bad and get significant playing time off & on for an entire decade?!  Yeesh… Andre Ware and Ryan Leaf, eat your hearts out.

(stats via Pro-Football-Reference)

Until we tweet again…

1992 Fleer Nolan Ryan, Barry Bonds, Vinny Castilla RC, 1990 Score Frank Thomas RC, Juan Gonzalez RC, Larry Walker RC, Bernie Williams RC, Curt Shilling RC, Mark McGwire

Why Purchased: The ROOKIES!

Keepers: The ROOKIES!  At least for now anyway.

Notes: Somehow, this all-junk wax page might be my favorite of the entire bunch (maybe).  It’s so cool to see so many rookies of stars that I grew up watching, even if The Big Hurt and The Big Shill are the only likely Hall of Famers (holding out some hope for Walker too!) of the bunch.

It’s so weird to see Shilling in an Orioles uniform.

I miss the Expos…

The color scheme on the Castilla makes me keep having to remind myself that he’s a Brave, not Pirate.

Mind-Blowing Statistics: The only one that’s really coming to mind is that when I punched up ’92 Fleer on Check Out My Cards, that top row were the top three ungraded cards listed, and the only ones with a book value of at least $1.  Sad.

Also sad, is that someone got a ’92 Fleer card graded.

Page two is awesome, but it is done.  More pages to come.

Until our next…

1987 Clemens All-Star, 1987 Bo Jackson, ???? Daryle Lamonica, 1983 topps George Brett, 1983 topps Joe Montana (Record Breaker), 1970 topps Bob Brown, Jackie Smith, 1968 topps John Hadl, 1970 topps Ben Davidson

Why purchased: Very early career Montana (close as I’ll likely get to his rookie anytime soon); Hall of Famer (Jackie Smith); Daryle Lamonica card I have no idea about; Vintage!

Keepers: Just Montana for the time being.  The rest are available.

Notes: I actually already own the Bo and George Brett, both pulled from packs myself, but they are cool cards either way.

It appears Bob Brown is also a Hall of Famer as well.  Very cool.

All the non-Hall of Fame football players on the page (Davidson, Hadl, Lamonica) made First Team All-Pro at least once (Lamonica twice), and have 14 Pro Bowl selections between them.  Oddly, Hadl and his loonytunes stats has the most Pro Bowls with six.

Seriously, I have no idea what the Lamonica card is supposed to be.  The back is very similar looking to the Deckle Edge baseball cards, so I assume it is from the late-’60s as well, but I dunno.  Also, it is beat to hell.  None of the vintage I picked up was in perfect condition, but very few were that bad.

All the binder pics were taken by my ridiculously expensive webcam.  They didn’t come out perfectly, but pretty nice for any webcam at 800×600, methinks.  Also, I haven’t tinkered with any settings, so it may yet be able to be further improved.

Mind-Blowing Statistics: John Hadl had 33503 career passing yards, but only completed 50.4% of his passes and had more interceptions (268) than touchdowns (244).  Looking at his stats year-by-year is even crazier.  It’s hard to fathom how he was allowed to start long enough to put up such impressive yards and touchdown numbers, while being so… so bad, to put it bluntly.  I’d just chalk it up to different eras and less emphasis on statistics in the past, but it’s pretty hard to ignore those numbers.

Jackie Smith’s best year was in 1967, when he caught 56 passes for 1205 yards, good for 21.5(!) yards-per-catch.  He also had receiving 9 touchdowns, more than doubling any other season of his career.  But forget about that.  He went for 21.5 yards-per-catch.  With over 1200 receiving yards.  As a tight end.  The guys that are specifically paid to be deep threats these days are rarely able to put up numbers like that.  He also put up an impressive by any standard 16.5 YPC for his career on nearly 8000 receiving yards.

That’s it for page one.  Thanks for stopping by!  There’s much more vintage to come, but next time we’ll be making a stop in junk wax country.  But it will be a fun (and rookie-laden) trip, I promise.

Until our next…

Ah, but that’s not why you called.  I happen to have some fun stuff I’m getting prepared to blog about.  For the past several months, they’ve been holding a small monthly flea market at the shell of our once thriving mall.  I asked my dad if they had any cards when the parents made it out there at the beginning of the year, and he said they did, but didn’t elaborate.  So I’ve been wanting to go ever since, to see what was there myself.

On Saturday, I finally made it out there.  I wasn’t expecting much, but I had $23 with me just in case.  And am I ever glad I did.  There was a guy there with cards.  He didn’t bring the whole card shop (of which he apparently owns one nearby, according to the business card), but he had a very nice selection of cards to peruse.  He had cards available ranging from the late ’60s to within the past couple years, in baseball, basketball, and football.

He seemed to be an old school Beckett-adhering type, but his cards were priced to move.  He mentioned to another person there that wandered by that his philosophy was that if a kid saw a cool card they liked, they should be able to afford it, which sounds like an awesome philosophy to me.  As such, the vast majority of his singles were $1, and almost everything on up seemed to be reasonably priced (I think I spotted a Felix Pie auto for $50 in the one little bunch hits behind glass, but that is easily forgivable when pretty much everything else was so reasonable).

He was also willing to deal, as you’ll soon see.  So I picked out a few singles I liked (9 in total, I believe), all but one marked $1 or $1.50 (the two of which he gave me for $1), and two random 25 card grab packs for $1 apiece that had interesting cards showing.  Then I came to the side of the table where he had several binders laid out, each with about a dozen pages full of cards in them.  They were marked $1 per page, or $10 for a whole binder.  As it happened, I managed to find a dozen random pages I like from the various binders.  So he stuck them all in one of the binders, and gave it to me for $7!

So yeah, I spent all $23 I came armed with.  In total, I ended up with about 170 cards, the vast majority of which I very much like.  Needless to say, I completely obliterated the number of cards and enjoyment I would’ve gotten out of your average blaster (+ maybe one $1.59 pack), and will be heading out there again next month.  There were many things I had to leave behind this time.

Anyway, the binder pages will make up the vast majority of the posts to follow in this little series.  I’ll go over them card-by-card, one or two pages at a time, because there is just so much random coolness in each page.

I’ll also be getting a few packages sent out over the course of this month, and a few of the cards from the flea market may even find their way into some of them.

1/3 of of one of the most iconic basketball cards of all time, and a small preview of the craziness to come...

Flea Market > Blaster.  It is a fundamental truth.

The fun has only just begun…

I’m a fourth generation antique and collectible “dealer.” That is to say, I buy and sell things that other people collect, display, or cherish. I do so to make a profit. While this is not, and will never be, my full time job, I have a great respect for folks that do turn it into one. I have to, because I grew up in a home where half the income came from antiques. My father learned the trade from my grandmother, and carried it on to my older step-brother and myself. From 1970 to 2004, my father bought and sold stuff full-time. He had a used book store, an antique store, and an antique mall before “retiring” to eBay. While he still has a booth and a showcase at a local antique mall, he’s primarily buying stuff he likes, as opposed to whatever turns a profit. Still, without the income of my mother, who was a nurse, we would have never made it. There are few businesses as demanding as this one, and fewer as rewarding.

When I watch American Pickers or Pawn Stars on the History Channel, I get worked up over the unreality of these reality shows. Heck, I even get angry when I watch Antiques Roadshow on PBS. Yes, there are people like the two guys on American Pickers who go out day after day buying and selling. That is reality. The unreality is the prices they are paying  for so little profit. I don’t even know how they make expenses. Likely, the other reality for that program is that it’s made for entertainment and the History Channel is picking up the tab on much of what these two guys do. As for Pawn Stars, the most believable of the three programs, what you don’t see is what I would truly be interested in. The show focuses on the more “interesting” items and characters that walk into the shop. It doesn’t go into the bread and butter that keeps that pawn shop in business. I suppose that might be boring for some people. Antiques Roadshow is similar. We only get to see the greatest booms or busts, we don’t see the mid-range stuff. That show is too focused on auctions anyway, which are no way for a newbie to make a living. These days, many auctions are dumping grounds for the ultra rare or the ultra blah. Those auctions I’ve encountered in recent years are the leftovers of dealers, or remnants from past auctions. Sometimes you even see an item shuffled around from one auction house to another. Anyway, my point is that you have to watch these shows for the entertainment value, rather then “reality.”

The true reality is that buying and selling anything used, be it antiques, collectibles, furniture, jewelry, or even clothing, is a feast or famine vocation. It depends on how much stock you have and how quickly you turn it over. Your mission is to buy something and sell it quickly so that you can reinvest the money into the next item. What extra profit you have goes towards expenses, bills, food, and creature comforts. Heck, sometimes the profit is used to increase your bankroll so that you can buy more stuff to make more profit on. The goal is money, money, money. The best way to do that is to not screw around on items that you cannot at least double your money on, or guarantee a super quick sale. The last thing you want to do is throw money at something and have it sit forever in your car, shop, or garage. Sitting money is dead money and must be avoided at all costs.

Granted, everyone will screw up and buy that one thing that you’ll never be able to sell at a profit. You might not even break even. You take what you can get out of it and start over. No use crying over it. Take what money you have and buy something you can sell. These are rules pounded into my by my father and seen in practice my entire life. One week we ate well, because we did well at a show, in the shop, or at a flea market. The next week we might struggle. We learned to live with those ups and downs. Sometimes we’d hold back one really good item (if we could afford to save it) in order to have some money during the lean times. No matter how bad it gets, the worse thing you can do is give up. Likely as not, even if you wanted to, you couldn’t give up. This type of business is very addicting.

The real estate mantra is “location, location, location.” The mantra for anyone in the antiques and collectibles biz is “condition, condition, condition.” I shake my head every time I see those American Pickers buy some rusty piece of junk and half-there doohickey. I don’t care if the rusty half-there doohickey is rare. It’s still a piece of junk that you don’t have time to restore, nor search out someone to restore for you. Leave that crap where it sits and buy something you don’t have to mess with in order to make it salable. Your time is far more valuable than any possible profit you might gain. It’s one thing to clean off cobwebs and dirt… Quite another to sandblast rust, clean off 30 years of cat excrement, and rebuild from scratch. If it looks nice, and you know you can sell it, then buy it. Once you begin musing on the possibility of “fixing it” or “someone might want it…” then leave it alone.

So, now the important things are laid out. Profit must be maintained and made quickly, and you never waste more time on an item than is necessary in order to sell it. Now comes the most important thing I’ve ever learned in this business: Patience. Every summer I would go with my father on his “buying trips.” These trips radiated out of Central New York and into the Adirondacks, Thousand Islands, Ontario, and once or twice down into Pennsylvania. One time we even went to Brimfield, MA to a giant antique show. This is very conservative compared to other folks in this racket. Many, many dealers will buy up and down the entire Atlantic coast. Some dealers will buy from one side of the country to the other and every where in between, while at the same time doing shows and flea markets. However, Dad preferred to stay close to home. Between these trips, stuff walking into the store, and going on “house calls,” he did all right. Doing all right does not mean he made money every time he went on a trip. I can fondly remember going on these 2-3 day journeys without having the money to stay at a motel, eat out, or even buy a candy bar. We stayed in the car, had a cooler full of bologna, mustard, bread, and cheap store brand soda. One week, we could travel from home in Interlaken, NY to Massena, NY and not buy a single thing. The next week, we’d have our car full before we even got to Oswego, NY. No matter what happened, Dad never freaked out or got frustrated. He knew he’d find something to make up for lost time and miles. Often times, he did. Sometimes, not so much.

Experience comes with the territory. I may be lucky to have family who are in the business, but that didn’t make it any easier for me to learn the ropes. My father is a veritable fountain of knowledge unparalleled by any dealer I have met in my lifetime. At 68, he’s Yoda and I’m still some farm boy looking at the stars. He never really sat down and taught me anything. I learned by watching him. I learned by doing it on my own. I made a lot of mistakes, and I still do. When I do, I ask Dad why something failed and he’ll tell me (usually by remarking that the item is “common” and therefore likely note salable). Sometimes, I buy things that he would never buy in a million years because he doesn’t look for that stuff, or understand it. Usually, this happens when I buy anything from the 1960s or 1970s. Dad is very old school in his buying, but he’s branched out recently.

Another unwritten rule in this business is adaptation. Adaptation keeps you from growing stale, especially if the stuff you buy goes out of fashion. Stuff tends to cycle in popularity and you have to ride those waves. You may not like Depression Glass, but if it’s selling you better keep an eye out for it. If those canoe paddles that were popular last year suddenly stop selling, liquidate them and find something else. When I see Dad buying G.I. Joes (the small kind, mind you), I know he’s doing it because he’s aware of the popularity, not because it’s something he likes to sell. That said, he’ll usually sell them to me, and then I’ll sell them to someone else. There are ways to make these partnerships, and while it may be easier with family, they do help when out on the road. Those extra set of eyes may see things you’ve missed. They might see things you want, and you might see things they want. You help each other and in the process you help fill your pockets. Still, you can’t afford to get stuck buying the same things over and over. Learn the market. Pay attention to what people are buying and selling.

The best thing about this business, besides making a score, is the people you meet. You will make friends and you will make enemies. You will get to know, or at least see, some strange characters. You might even sell something to someone famous. You really can’t have this connection if your business is focused online, as mine has been in recent years, but you will still mingle with people when you’re at yard sales, flea markets, auctions, or shows. There will always be that person you and your cohort (if you have one – I have Dad) will snicker about. There will always be that person you like seeing, even if you haven’t seen them for a few years, and talk like you’re old pals. This is a club. We are collectors, dealers, pickers, and flippers. We drink bad coffee from concession stands at flea markets, eat soggy tuna fish sandwiches while we hawk our wares at a show, sit in the rain at country auctions for that one item that makes it all worth it, and dodge doggy landmines when we go to a yard sale. We’re good, affable folk. We’re making a living, surely, but it’s nothing like what you see on TV. It’s better.