2025 National Pickup - John Donaldson Signed Card

While at the National, Jesse and I came across a vendor that had these signed cards showing Joe DiMaggio coaching a few Oakland A's.  I believe one of the guys seared is Catfish Hunter.

I bought the card because it is signed by John Donaldson, a North Carolina native, and someone I have met at the Wilson Hot Stove Event.  I figured the card would look cool in my album.

It turned out, the vendor knows Donaldson personally.  Donaldson signs a few of the cards and the vendor sells them, giving the money to Donaldson.  So, I was glad I picked one up, because Donaldson is a very nice guy.

A Box Break Leads To A Trade

I joined a box break on Instagram some time ago (I was on vacation, actually) and the results finally were revealed last week.  I bought in for 3 slots at $4 each ($12 total) and ended up with the Cubs, Red Sox and of course, the Orioles.  The biggest thing about the break, though, was that I got the numbered to 10 parallel of Cubs prospect Javier Baez.

Now, I'm no prospector and when the facilitator of the break let me know I pulled it (thanks to him for being honest, too), he immediately asked if I'd trade it.  I told him I absolutely would, if he had some good vintage cards.

Well, he first showed me the above Catfish Hunter RC, which I was really close to calling it a deal at just that card.  However, I got a bunch more pictures on my messenger, and I wasn't about to turn them down.  In the end, I got the Hunter RC, the below Red Schoendienst from 1960, a 1959 Topps for my set (Joe Ginsberg), 1962 Juan Marichal, 1968 Phil Niekro, 1974 Reggie Jackson, 1968 Gaylord Perry, 1972 Willie Mays (in action), 1967 Boog Powell, 1965 Paul Richards and a 1971 Schoendienst.

So, by my count, I got 8 Hall of Famers (one of which was a RC), one set need, one Oriole legend (Powell) and a former Oriole manager.  The cards were in various stages of condition, with the Schoendienst being the worst of the lot, but I am so very satisfied with the trade.  I know that Baez card might be hot now, but these Hall of Famers will forever be Hall of Famers.

Finally, I did get some good Orioles, like this Chris Davis.  I also got the chrome parallel of Baez, so I still have a little trade bait left over!

Cards From Vacation

One of the things I enjoyed while I was on my vacation was that there were several card shops right near where we were staying in Michigan.  I visited two different shops (one of the shops, I visited twice) while on vacation and left them with a great many cards for my collection.

One of the shops had a box of really rough vintage cards that he hadn't gone through, yet, and I was working on a trade on Instagram for some 1954 Topps, so I offered to sort the box for the guy.  He had no problem with that, and I really enjoyed it.  I found some rough treasures, and had a good time chatting with some of the other patrons of the shop.

I found the above 1955 Bowman Ralph Kiner in the box.  It has seen better days and I almost put it back in the box, but part of me figured that no one would appreciate it the way I would, so I added it to my pile.  It pretty much became a throw-in in our overall deal, so I was glad I added it.

This 1953 Bowman Warren Spahn had also seen better days, but I love '53s, so I made sure to add it as well.  I have the Musial and Reese out of this set, and each card I see looks really awesome.  The 1953 set is one of the best-looking in all of the card sets out there in history, so anytime I can pick one up, I try to.

On that note, I saw this Nellie Fox 1953 Bowman and wasn't too interested, initially, but I figured that I really didn't have any of Fox's cards in my colection, and it, too, was a 1953 Bowman, so I added it to the pile as well.  Fox is one of those guys that you kind of forget is a Hall of Famer, but he is, and had passed away long before he was enshrined, so he was one of those guys who never got to enjoy being a Hall of Famer.

I had seen this Robin Roberts posted on other blogs before, but when I saw the opportunity to get this one for $2.50, I jumped all over it. Roberts is shown as a Yankee on this card, but he would never pitch a game for them.  He had been purchased by the Yankees from the Phillies in October of 1961, only to be released by the Yankees in May of 1962.  He was picked up by the Orioles on the same day and would have a bit of a career renaissance in Baltimore and was pivotal in adding veteran leadership to that young pitching staff.  He was released by the Orioles in July of 1965.  Had he been able to stick with the Orioles for one more year, he may have been able to collect his first World Series ring.  A World Series Championship was something that Roberts would be missing from his Hall of Fame resume.

Sometimes, when I look at vintage cards, I really enjoy seeing the old, obsolete teams and their jerseys.  I picked up this 1966 Topps Catfish Hunter for a steal.  I had my choice of this or a 1967, and I chose this one.  I felt that it showed off the uniform much better.  The current A's colors are correct, but seeing the KC hat just seems odd.  This is a great shot of the future Hall of Famer, and a 2nd-year card, no less.

Here's another with a cool retro uniform.  I took significant chunks out of my 1959 and 1969 sets while vising the shops as well.  I forgot to count how many from each set that I purchased, but I know I had more 1959s than 1969s and I got more big name 1959s as well.  Along with Hall of Famer, Schoendienst, I got Early Wynn, Louis Aparicio AS, Nellie Fox AS and a bunch of high numbers.

The biggest 1969 I got was this Pete Rose All Star for $12.00.  Not too bad.  I also ended up with a Lou Brock All Star card as well, and a few other base cards for the set out of a $1.00 box.

So, those are all of the cards I picked up while I was away.  I felt like I did very well.  I also did a really good job of keeping up with them as the trip went along.  I had brought along a Rubbermaid tote box and kept these with the cards I brought to show Dustin and Andrew.

Thanks for taking a look.  The next several posts will be about all of the mail I had received before I left and while I was gone.  Stay tuned, as the blog will be back of in full force again.  I hope you all missed me!

Card Show Pickup - 1969 Topps Set Needs

I only picked up two cards each for my 1959 and 1969 sets when I was at the card show.  Today, I'll show you the '69s.  First up is the above Catfish Hunter card that I got.  That's a really young Catfish in the old school A's jersey.

The other 69 Topps I got was this Lou Piniella RC.  It's kind of funny how many manager RCs are in this set.  So far I have picked up the Bobby Cox, Earl Weaver and Piniella RCs.  Not bad.  I got both of these cards together for around $5, so that was really good.  I got them around the same time I got the Torre RC, but I think this was from one or two tables down from there.  I just now noticed that the Piniella RC is from the Seattle Pilots.  That's pretty cool, too.

Hall of Fame Signed Baseball - Catfish Hunter

I'm wore out.  It was a nice, long day at the card show today.  I passed out links to my blog to several people, so let's hope that I get some reads from it.  I saw some friends of the blog today.  I also met fellow blogger Scott and his family, which was really nice.  What a great group of people they are.  Scott had an amazing pull, but that is for him to tell over at his blog, so click the link here and hopefully he will get it posted soon.

I had my own share of good luck today as well.  I spent $5 and got 3 1959 Topps for my set, one 1951 Bowman for my good friend Andrew and a 1952 Bowman Ray Scarborough for another friend who collects him.  Not too bad, I think.

I also got my 66th Hall of Fame signed baseball, from another dealer and his son (who were also really nice guys and it turns out, they are from Greenville, NC also) whom I traded my Evan Longoria jersey along with $25 to get this ball:

I have been needing Catfish Hunter for a while now.  I was going to get one from another good friend, Dustin, but he had forgotten his ball was inscribed to him and I thought it would be better if he kept it.  So, I was able to add this one and Dustin was able to keep his.

James Augustus 'Catfish' Hunter was born in Hertford, North Carolina in 1946 and played in the majors from 1965 to 1979 for the Kansas City/Oakland A's and the Yankees.  He won the Cy Young award in 1974 when he went 25-12 with an ERA of 2.49.  He also won the World Series in 1972 through 1974 with the A's and 1977 and 78 with the Yankees.  He had a career record of 224-166, 2,012 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.26.

Hunter was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1987 (his 3rd year of eligibility) when he was named on 76.3% of the ballot.  He passed away in 1999 due to complications of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Awesome Mail Day Part 3 - Sportlots Pickups

Not only did I find two of my returned mailers in my mailbox on Saturday, I also found a bubble mailer from my Sportlots order.  I wanted to knock some set needs out and realized that I hadn't ordered from them in over a year.

 First off, I figured I'd knock a couple '59 Topps out.  I'm not officially pursuing this set, yet, but I saw that the seller I was buying from had these two cards that I knew I needed, so I added them at the last minute.

 I'm not sure why, but I'm liking the mint green of this Eddie Yost card.  I prefer the more vivid colors in this set (especially the red ones), but this color is actually pretty nice.  I think, aesthetically, 1959 might be one of the best looking sets.  I'm also a fan of 1954's look, too.  You all also know my affinity for the 1955 release.

 I knocked several 1970s off of my list, the most prominent was this Don Sutton.  We go from the awesome look of the 1959 set to the rather blase 1970 set.  I don't mind the gray, but it's kind of blah.  I've warmed up to it since I have been putting it together though.

 I picked up several 1971s as well and this group had a good many Hall of Famers.  First was this Jim 'Catfish' Hunter.  A really sharp looking card (which, incidentally, I already had, oops).

 I replaced the Mazeroski that I already had in the set.  That one was very rough looking and this one is much sharper.  The Pirates uniform really looks good with the black border of this set.

Finally, one of the bigger cards I got was this Reggie Jackson.  Wow, what an awesome uniform.  I got this card for $8.00.  Not bad, I've seen it go as high as $20.  This one is far from mint, but it fits right into the set.

In addition to these cards, I also knocked 3 cards off of my friend's 1963 Fleer want list.  Always good to be able to chip away at what he needs as well.

If you guys haven't tried Sportlots yet, I highly recommend.  They are awesome if you need a few more odd cards to complete a set.

Even more 1970 topps

Got 5 more 1970 Topps in. Thanks to Steve from wait-til-next-year for this Catfish Hunter. Now that I am working out of the Greenville office, I have been driving in and around Hertford where Catfish was from. Pretty cool.