Merry Christmas!

2009 09 29 Phillie Phanatic with the Rockettes

The Phanatic sure knows how to enjoy the Holiday. And I sincerely hope you enjoy yours.

Everyone here at Team Phungo would like to thank all the bloggers, readers, card enthusiasts, baseball fans and traders that have helped to make this a rewarding hobby and a fun year. Here's to looking forward to even more cards and more fun in 2010!

Philly Card Show Report - 2009 12 05 - Tobacco Cards

Getting back to some of the things I found at the Philly Show.

1909-11 T206 Gabby Street

I could not let a couple of low end T206 cards go. This T206 is of Gabby Street who was a light hitting catcher for several teams in the early 1900s. However, He is also considered a significant mentor in the development of Hall of Fame pitcher Walter Johnson.

After his playing days were over Street had a fairly successful career as a manager including a World Series Championship in 1931.


1909-11 T206 Doc Crandall

I picked up one other t206 of Doc Crandall who according to his wiki page is basically considered the first relief pitcher. His Baseball-Reference page concurs as he led the league in games finished 5 times and his career 2.93 era is still ranked 64th all-time.


1910 T58 Flying Fish

I know very little about the above T58 card. There are a series of non-sports tobacco cards from the early twentieth century with different themes (T37 Autos, T25 Actors, T42 Birds etc) According to the back of the card there are 50 cards in the fish series. Semi-related Flying Fish is a favorite beer among the Phungo Phaithful.

For the Collector
I really don't know much about these 100 year old cards, I am not really even sure that they are authentic. At any rate the cards went as follows $4.00 for Street, $9.00 for Crandall and $1.00 for the Flying Fish. Of course all are in fair/poor condition as you can see and all three cards are Piedmont Backs. The t206 museum site is where I go for my info on the classic set.

$10.00 is likely my breaking point to consider a T206. They are not a priority for me and here I was lucky enough to find two cards of players with interesting backgrounds. A graded (Good) Gabby Street, which is significantly nicer then my corner deprived version recently went for $21.85 on ebay. Doc Crandall went for $21.77. I was unable to find any recent sales on t58 cards, there is a BIN of a nice flying fish card for $13.45 - and there are a couple others in this set that have a BIN of $12.00

For a look back at some of the other cards available at the 09 Philly Show check here and here and here.

2008 Topps Heritage Double Box Break

I picked up two boxes of 2008 Topps Heritage at the Philly Show earlier this month.

I have been working on the original 1959 Topps Set and thought building the companion Heritage set would be an interesting project. The two boxes went for $90.00 combined and these are the results:

Each box is composed of 24 packs of 8 cards each. Within each box there are 3 rows of 8 packs. Within each of the rows, I think 7 of he 8 packs contained either a chrome card, short print or insert. And one of the special cards per box is a relic or auto - usually relic - I think the odds of pulling and auto are about 1:10 Boxes. There is also a 1:2 box chance of pulling a buyback of an original 1959 Topps Card.

Buyback
1959 Topps #161 Frank Baumann
1959 Topps #161 Frank Bamann (2008 Heritage 50th Anniversary Buyback)

Unfortunately the #161 card of The Red Sox Frank Baumann was not one that I needed for my 1959 collection,but I will keep it as part of the 1959 Topps Auxiliary Collection. For even more detail on the opening of this Buyback please check this entry over at A Pack to Be Named Later. This card came from box 1.

Relics

Fortunately these Game Used Relic Cards found the right collector. I don't open a lot of boxes, and I doubt I have ever pulled a Phils auto or relic. I usually just pick them up via trade or auction. Still it is neat to actually get one in a box I have opened. I fall in the camp of Phillies Fans that appreciated Bobby Abreu - He had his shortcomings but I always thought he was a strong contributor and he was fun to watch. The Howard Relic is nice with a stripe on the jersey and is from the most common Relic Group D. The Abreu bat card came from Relic Group C (1:90).

Both relic cards were pulled from a pack in the leftmost row of the box - Howard was the 7th or 8th pack in the row from Box 1. Abreu was the relic from box 2, column 1, 2nd pack. Bollocks for me as I typically pull my Packs from the Right Hand side of the box.

Parallels - Chrome

Box 1 yielded 4 Chrome Cards one of which was a refractor parallel - Unfortunately the Ubaldo Jiminez card has a slight scar on the Right Hand side.

Box 2 yielded 5 Chrome Cards. Pudge is a Refractor. Box 2 also feature a 2nd Refractor of Ryan Braun which I did not feature here as his regular chrome card is above. The Refractor Chrome cards are numbered to 559 while the regular chrome are numbered to 1959.

Flashbacks




Between the 2 boxes there were 9 Flashback cards 4 News FBs and 5 Baseball Flashbacks. The Brooks Robinson Card was present in both boxes. The Top set of 4 cards above is from Box 1, while the latter set is from Box 2.

New Age PerformersGood and Bad here - The Good is that one of the New Age Performers Card was of Ryan Howard. The Bad is that both boxes contained Mr Lackey. Between the two boxes I got duped on both the NAPs and on the BB FBs. The Howard Card was contained in box 2.

Then and Now

No Dupes here. Only observation from here is that both of the "Then" halves of these cards are higher Cache players. Johnny Podres was the pitching coach of the 93 Phils and will forever be the Yoda Like Zen master for that staff. And of course Eddie Mathews is far to cool to be paired up with Diva Rodriguez. Mathews and A-Rod were from Box 1, Podres and Bedard Box 2.

I placed the Short Printed Ichiro All-Star card here as well. Box 1 yielded 9 SPs while Box 2 had 8, although 2 of the Shorts in Box 2 were from Box 1. Between the two boxes I received 15 unique short prints.

The Numbers

Box 1
Base = 165/420 (39%)
Shorts = 9 (11, 315, 381, 427, 430, 431, 457, 464, 493)
Chrome #d1959 = 3 (24, 40, 43) Chrome #d559 = 1 (77 Jiminez)
Baseball FBs = 3 (1, 7, 10)
News FBs = 2 (4, 6)
New Age Performers = 1 (8 Lackey)
Then and Now = 1 (Matthews/DivARod)
Relic = 1 #CC-RH Ryan Howard
Buyback = 1 #161 Frank Baumann

Box 2 Base 169/420 (40%) - numbers in red below are dupes from box 1.
Shorts = 7 (11, 433, 437, 454, 464, 479, 490, 492)
Chrome #d1959 = 3 (37, 57, 90 ) Chrome #d559 = 2 (24 Braun, 28 Ivan Rodriguez)
Baseball FBs = 2 (5, 7)
News FBs = 2 (3, 8)
New Age Performers = 2 (8 Lackey, 10 Ryan Howard)
Then and Now = 1 (Podres/Bedard)
Relic = 1 #CC-BA Bobby Abreu
Combined Set Building Stats
Base 276/420 (65%)
Shorts 15/80 (18%)
Dupes 58

Ok, I made up my own rules for set building. The first thing I did was throw out differentiating between the Green and Black Back Parallels. If I had one of the two cards for that card number, I crossed the number off my list - I will not let Topps control my set building - It's my hobby and I will collect as I see fit!

Secondly I have decided to build the base set threw #425. There are 5 Short Prints in there (11, 231, 315, 381, and 409). Above 425 is mostly short prints with a few base thrown in the mix. Perhaps at some point in the future I will verify that I have all the "Hi" Base cards but not right now.

Overall I came up with just under 2/3 of the base set, which is about what I expected. The Cards that I already had in the Phungo Collection that did not overlap the box break numbered about 40(including short prints). I still need 127 cards to complete the base set.

The only disappointment was having FOUR duplicates (5 if you include the Braun Chrome) in the insert cards. That is a bit high I think, I purposely picked two boxes next to each other in hopes that would minimize collation issues.

And one other complaint and a curiosity - I received very few of the hero numbered cards in this box. I didn't get any of the cards that ended in hundreds, and only 2 of the 4 '50' cards. I didn't pull #1 Vlad Guerrero either. Mathematically I would of expected to pull 6 of these 9 hero numbers but only came up with two. Could it be that some of the star cards were quietly short printed?

If you need even more 2008 Heritage info click here for the A Pack to be Named Later entry for a pack from box 1.

Or click here for a little bit more insight on the buyback.

Sources and Links
Ryan Howard PC Index
Bobby Abreu PC Index
Bob Gibson HoF Index
Eddie Mathews HoF Index
Minnie Minoso Index

Dick Allen on MLB Network's Studio 42 tonight

Philadelphia Phillies Alum Dick Allen will be Bob Costas guest on the MLB Network's Studio 42 program tonight at 8PM Eastern. I am sure the show will rerun several times in the future too.

Allen played in Philadelphia before I was really cognizant of baseball, consequently I only know hime by reputation. His two tours of duty with the Phils are generally considered tumultuous but productive.

(click to enlarge)
1964 Topps #243 Phillies Rookie Stars Richie Allen/John Herrnstein
1975 Topps #307 Home Run Leaders-1974 Dick Allen/Mike Schmidt

He was known as Richie Allen when he first came up, but Allen eventually let it be known that he wanted to be referred to as Dick Allen.

The 1975 Home Run Leaders card is great for any Phils collector as it features both Allen and Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt.

In a different era Dick Allen may have been a Hall of Fame player - 351 Homers, Rookie of the Year (1964), AL MVP (1972). His Career OPS+ of 156 ranks 19th all time - The only players above him that are HOF eligible that are not in are Mark McGwire and two guys from the 19th century.

For The Collector

The 1964 Topps card is the Richie Allen Rookie card. It really isn't listed in many recent auctions - a poor condition card went for $3.00. The card is really barely above a common.

There are several 07 Sweet Spot Dick Allen Autos that have sold recently including one numbered to less than 100 that went for $5.84 shipped.

Is this non-sports swatch worth $1300?

A six volume 3500 page Autobiography of Hugh Hefner has recently been published. This article in the Philadelphia Inquirer has more details on the book(s).

What caught my attention and may be interesting to trading card collectors - aside from the fact that most card collectors are male and have some degree of respect for Mr Hefner - is that each of the 1500 serial numbered copies will contain this bonus:

Special bonus: includes a 7 x 7 cm piece of Hef’s legendary silk pajamas.

First Baseball Cards contained Relics now they are part of $1300 books.

Perhaps if the relics were from one of the Playmates, I could see paying a grand, but Hugh's jammies - that would go back in the buck bin for me.

If your interesting in purchasing the opus click here.

Congratulations Card Buzz

Congrats to Card Buzz on winning the Fall 2009 Spot the Sig! contest.

I hope this STS victory takes some of the sting out of all the Players the Angles are losing via Free Agency right now. Thanks for all those that participated and Card Buzz can you email me your mailing addy - I would like to get a Prize Package out to you, but it will likely have to wait till 2010 - My email is accessible via my profile.

Card Buzz identified 4 out of the last 5 autos in the STS! contest, Adam Lind, George Blanda, Chone Figgins and this weeks Paul Konerko.


2008 UD Masterpieces Stroke of Genius SG-PK


Fall 2009 Spot the Sig! Final Standings:

Card Buzz - Angels: - 4 runs scored!!!

Autographed Cards - Royals: 3 runs scored. and a Man on 3rd.
Nachos Grande - Reds: 2 runs scored. Bases Loaded.
Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: 2 run scored. Men at 1st and 3rd.
Play at the Plate - Rangers: one run scored. Man on 1st.
Night Owl - Dodgers: Bases Loaded.
The Wax Ripper - Yankees: Men on first and 2nd.
In Search of Pat the Bat - PHILLIES: Man on First
Thought and Sox - Boston Red Sox: Man on First
Cardboard Junkie - Braves: Man on First
Beardy - Orioles: On Deck
Indians Baseball Cards Always - Indians: On Deck
Padrographs - Padres: On Deck
Nr-MT - Yankees: On Deck
The Mojo Hand: On Deck


Spot the Sig! Winter 2010 Edition

And in case you haven't heard, the Spot the Sig! Winter 2010 Edition will be held over at Padrographs. Rod plans on starting on January 3rd, and I am looking forward to it, for more information click here. Good Luck to Rod and all competitors in the Next Spot the Sig!

Spot the Sig! 9th Inning!!!

We are headed into the 9th inning of a very tight Spot the Sig! competition. Basically the top 5 players could each win this edition of the competition. And Wax Ripper could force extra innings. Since this is the last scheduled inning of STS! there will be no bonus just the mystery auto.

But fist lets see where we stand.

Spot the Sig! Standings going into the 9th inning:

Autographed Cards - Royals: 3 runs scored. and a Man on 3rd.
Nachos Grande - Reds: 2 runs scored. Bases Loaded.
Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: 2 run scored. Men at 1st and 3rd.
Card Buzz - Angels: - 2 runs scored. Man on 3nd.
Play at the Plate - Rangers: one run scored. Man on 1st.
Night Owl - Dodgers: Bases Loaded.
The Wax Ripper - Yankees: Men on first and 2nd.

In Search of Pat the Bat - PHILLIES: Man on First
Thought and Sox - Boston Red Sox: Man on First
Cardboard Junkie - Braves: Man on First
Beardy - Orioles: On Deck
Indians Baseball Cards Always - Indians: On Deck
Padrographs - Padres: On Deck
Nr-MT - Yankees: On Deck
The Mojo Hand: On Deck

and Finally The 9th inning Mystery Auto:
The 9th inning Auto is good for a Home Run!

This is the last inning of Spot the Sig! but If you like to see more details click here.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for participating and hope all the Auto enthusiasts out there enjoyed the contest as much as I do. Quite a few of the Sigs were guessed very quickly and I may have to add in some more tough ones next time around.

Spot the Sig! Winter 2010 Edition

And in case you haven't heard, the Spot the Sig! Winter 2010 Edition will be held over at Padrographs. Rod plans on starting on January 3rd, and I am looking forward to it, for more information click here. Good Luck to Rod and all competitors in the Next Spot the Sig!

Philly Card Show Report - 2009 12 05 - Dime Box A&G

click to enlarge
2006 Allen & Ginter #270 Napolean Lajoie (mini)
2006 Allen &Ginter #271 Lloyd Waner (mini)
2006 Allen &Ginters #280 Bill Mazeroski

Just a quick note that I was surprised to see 2006 Allen & Ginter cards in the dime box. Not so much on the Mazeroski card but I never expected to see the Minis for under a quarter.

Phungo 5 Pack - Topps 2009 Heritage Hi Numbers....

In lieu of getting a blaster I picked up 5 packs of the 09 Topps Heritage High Numbers at the Philly Card Show. If you want to read a specific pack break on the first pack check here for my post over at A Pack to be Named Later.

The five packs were as expected 30 heritage cards and 10 U&H cards. Every back broke down as 3 Heritage followed by 2 U&H then the insert and the final 2 heritage cards.

I got two Phils, The J A Happ card below and a John Mayberry card which is featured in the APtbNL post. Former Phil Jim Thome was also present.

This action shot of Thome may be picture 4 in the link.

The Inserts

Rookie Performers Tommy Hanson, Chrome Trevor Hoffman, and Then and Now featuring a player from my favorite AL team and my least favorite NL team. Hopefully Wright doesn't play long enough to be paired with Mike Schmidt in a future Heritage T&N. The other 2 inserts I picked up were short prints of Andrew McCutchen and Penn Alum Mark DeRosa.

Rookies

Picked up both versions of the Gerardo Parra card - he was the top of the rookies in the 5 packs other than McCutchen.

Etc
Photoshop anyone?? or did the Giants send Garko to spring training after picking him up on July 27th.

STS Profile Chone Figgins

2007 UD Stroke of Genius Auto # SG-CF Chone Figgins

Chone Figgins is a Seattle Mariner pending a physical. He was an Angel from Anaheim/LA or California. This made this one an easy one for Card Buzz to knock out a Triple, although I am not sure how happy he is with Figgins moving to the division rival Mariners.

For the Collector

I picked up this auto in the spring. It went for $3.82 via auction. The low recent auction on Figgins Auto is for an 08 Topps Stadium Club Beam Team which went for $4.50. $7.09 was the low On Card Auto from 09 UD Goodwin Champions.

Bonus
Sadly nobody got the bonus, despite 23 players being on the Phungo Roster. Some of the names on the team represented by Bloggers in this Years STS (or teammates of players guessed) included: Russell Martin, Carlos Lee, Miguel Tejada, Joey Votto, Rafael Soriano, Jair Jerjenns. Rodrigo Lopez was my lone Phillies player this season.



Spot the Sig! Standings after eight innings:

This is it, we are down to one more inning and we have a very close competition. Last year PatSearcher ran away with the competition which was over by this point. This Spot the Sig! will go down to the very last week and potentially longer. Basically anyone who has scored a run or has two or more runners on can still win this edition of Spot the Sig!

Autographed Cards - Royals: 3 runs scored. and a Man on 3rd.
Nachos Grande - Reds: 2 runs scored. Bases Loaded.
Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: 2 run scored. Men at 1st and 3rd.
Card Buzz - Angels: Torii Hunter hits a gapper turns on the jets and heads for third with an RBI Triple. 2 runs scored. Man on 3nd.
Play at the Plate - Rangers: one run scored. Man on 1st.

Night Owl - Dodgers: Bases Loaded.
The Wax Ripper - Yankees: Men on first and 2nd.
In Search of Pat the Bat - PHILLIES: Man on First
Thought and Sox - Boston Red Sox: Man on First
Cardboard Junkie - Braves: Man on First

Beardy - Orioles: On Deck
Indians Baseball Cards Always - Indians: On Deck
Padrographs - Padres: On Deck
Nr-MT - Yankees: On Deck
The Mojo Hand: On Deck

You are welcome to join the game at anytime. If you need more Spot the Sig! details click here.

And in case you haven't heard, the Spot the Sig! Winter 2010 Edition will be held over at Padrographs. Rod plans on starting on January 3rd, and I am looking forward to it, for more information click here.

Philly Card Show Report - Splurge the 1959s

1959 Topps #514 Bob Gibson

If you are building a vintage set you at some point have to decide how you are going to handle the star cards, special cards, short prints and Hall of Famers. Because of the laws of supply and demand, these cards are typically both harder to locate and more expen$ive.

For the most part my 59 set is made up of cards I would describe as in good condition. I avoid cards that are written on, torn cut up etc. Dinged Corners and surface wear don't bother me to much.

That brings us to 1959 Topps #514 Bob Gibson. This is THE rookie card of the 1959 Topps Set. It is also part of the somewhat scarcer high number series of 59 Topps. I already have all three Mantle cards from the Set and the Mays base card, so I was well aware that this was likely the next big fish from the set.

This card has some minor creasing, surface wear and soft edges. If I were a Cardinals fan and wanted a Gibson Rookie to be the center of my collection, I would probably have passed on this card.

But as a good card of a big name Hall of Fame player that I need to build a 50 year old vintage set - This card is perfectly fine.
For the Collector

This particular card went for $30. On ebay a card in similar condition just sold for $34.99 shipped. A noticeably better conditioned card went for $39.98 which appears to be a pretty good deal to me. Beyond that there are several auctions that finished in the $85-$100 range. A really crisp graded card top ended at $1384.00 on November 22nd.



1959 Topps #317 NL Hitting Kings Ashburn and Mays

I believer there are three cards featuring Willie Mays in the 1959 Topps set, this one also features Phillies Hall of Famer and fan favorite Richie Ashburn. This went for a reasonable $4.50. I also picked up the #20 Duke Snider card for $2.50, but it is in really poor condition, and looking back I probably should have bypassed that card.
Commons



1959 Topps #517 Joe Koppe
1959 Topps #440 "Lou" Burdette
1959 Topps #206 Carl Furillo
1959 Topps #359 Bill White

The Koppe card is really not a common, it is part of the High Numbered Series which start at #507. The "Lou" Burdette card is notable for the misspelling of his first name LEW short for Lewis. This card "inspired" the much derided 2007 Topps Heritage super-scarce parallel "Jon" Smoltz card. What is Carl Furillo doing in the bargain bin??. And finally Bill White, who was one of the first black players in the Majors and as the President of the National League (1989-94) was the first African-American to hold such an office for a Major Sports League.

The Joe Koppe card as well as 7 other hi numbers went for $1.75. The regular set commons of which I picked up about 30 went for 35 cents each.

If you would like to contribute to the Phungo 1959 Topps Set Building challenge please let me know, I have lots of common duplicates to trade. My 1959 Topps Want List is chronicled here.

Speaking of 1959 Topps and 2007 Topps Heritage

Yep this was Team Phungo's last splurge of the 2009 Collecting Year. I finally broke down and decided to build the Topps 1959 Homage set - 2007 Topps Heritage. The two boxes went for a reasonable 90.00 combined and I got the dealer to toss in some new hobby packs 09 Heritage High Numbers at a discount.

Welcome to the Hall of Fame Whitey Herzog!

Just watched Whitey Herzog speak about getting inducted into the Hall of Fame. If you get a chance to catch the interview, it is definitely worthwhile.

Herzog still knows his baseball and was very interesting, genuine, and humorous. Among the insights that he shared was his opinion that all three rounds of the playoffs should be 3 rounds and that MLB should not allow TV to dictate so much of the playoff schedule. For the post season games he stressed the necessity of using instant replay.

For the Collector
1960 Topps #92 Whitey Herzog

Whitey Herzog's Rookie Card is his 1957 Topps #29 card which has gone as low as $5.25 in recent auctions - there is probably a slight bump currently and the card will likely come down next year. The 1960 card featured here is a common and likely could be had for 50 cents, or less.

The only autographed Whitey Herzog card in recent ebay sales was a 2003 Topps Retired Signature Edition Autograph which went $11.45 and features Whitey in a Royals Uniform.


Sources and Links
Whitey Herzog HoF Index
ebay
Vintage Cardboard

Spot the Sig! - 8th Inning

Philly Card Show this weekend so I have been busy. No time for Chit-Chat.

This weeks auto is good for a Triple.



Bonus

For the first time in my decade or so long tenure as a Manager, Team Phungo won the Fantasy Baseball League's Championship. I have finished "In the Money" several times but have just missed winning it all until this season. In a real MLB situation I am sure I would have been fired for not being able to get my squad "over the hump".

For the bonus all you have to do is name a player from the 2009 Phungo Fantasy Baseball Squad.

Here are some hints:

Our league is NL ONLY. And oddly I only had one Phillie on my team - who was really a low tier/footnote in the Phils 09 season so I would stay away from picking Phils. We have a 10 team league, Active rosters consist of 23 players, and it is an auction and keeper league.

The Bonus is good for a Single, and each player can only be picked once. 2nd guesses of a specific player will not be granted the bonus.

Spot the Sig! Standings going into the 8th inning:

Autographed Cards - Royals: 3 runs scored. and a Man on 3rd.
Nachos Grande - Reds: 2 runs scored. Bases Loaded.
Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: 2 run scored. Men at 1st and 3rd.
Card Buzz - Angels: one run scored. Man on 3nd.
Play at the Plate - Rangers: one run scored. Man on 1st.

Night Owl - Dodgers: Bases Loaded.
The Wax Ripper - Yankees: Men on first and 2nd.
In Search of Pat the Bat - PHILLIES: Man on First
Thought and Sox - Boston Red Sox: Man on First
Cardboard Junkie - Braves: Man on First

Beardy - Orioles: On Deck
Indians Baseball Cards Always - Indians: On Deck
Padrographs - Padres: On Deck
Nr-MT - Yankees: On Deck

You are welcome to join the game at anytime. If you need more Spot the Sig! details click here.

And in case you haven't heard, the Spot the Sig! Winter 2010 Edition will be held over at Padrographs. Rod plans on starting on January 3rd, and I am looking forward to it, for more information click here.

Philly Card Show Report - 2009 12 05

I was real happy with how the Philly Card Show went for me this weekend. First off, I was lucky enough to meet another card blogger, Andrew, from Sports Card Info. We only spoke briefly - He was off to lunch, and I know better than to slow down a man who is ready to eat. Sports Card Info already has a pretty comprehensive review of the show posted. Sooz over at A Cardboard Problem has been running a series of posts - and I will try and to something similar.

Overall I was very happy with the show as I was able to score 40+ cards I need for the 1959 Topps set I have been building. I was also happy with lots of other vintage that I picked up. I spent a little more than I thought I might - but that is largely because of two splurges.

This is a scattered posting to give you an idea of prices that different thing were going for at the show.

The Bob Miller Card above was among a group of 1956 cards I picked up at a dollar a piece. I think I was able to find 3 Phils and 3 non-Phils in the group.

Vintage Dimes


The Dime Box I went through was pretty scattered, I mostly picked out 80s Junk and Retro/Vintage from the box, but there were a few 70s cards in there like The Mets Team card and Foster above.

3 For a Dollar

While scouring a 3 for a buck bin for 59s I picked out a mix of other cards including these below.



Good Rule of thumb, anytime you see a Brooklyn Dodger or New York Giant card for .35 cents, pick it up. 60s HOF same rule applies. The Pena Card was among about a half dozen serial numbered chrome cards I picked out.

Phillies Various Prices


I can't remember if Simmons was in the 3fer or regular dollar bin - probably the 3fer. The Carlton Card was priced as marked. The 75 rc is a mini out of the 3fer and Ray Herbert was the highlight of the dime box for me.

Damages

roughly the $$$ spent at the show broke down as follows:

$90.00 Hobby Box Splurge
$10.00 5 Packs 09 Topps Heritage Hi & Series 3

$33.30 1959 Topps mostly Commons and High Numbers
$30.00 1959 Topps Splurge
$32.50 Vintage Topps Bowman Fleer
$14.00 3 tobacco cards in garbage condition

$13.00 Miscellaneous Phillies

$4.00 Dime Box - Junk Wax
$3.00 Dime Box - Retro/Heritage
$1.50 5 Chrome/Serial Numbered cards
$1.20 Dime Box - Other Cards

$6.00 Admission
$7.00 Sandwhich and a Coke

$245.50

I was anticipating spending a little over a hundred bucks, and would splurge on the Hobby Boxes if something fell in my price range - and it did - saving that for a future box break post though.

Spot The Sig! Special Announcement!

Spot the Sig! is on the move!

Where it's going has something to do with this:

If you have been playing along you will know that this past weeks STS! involved ballplayer-author Jim Bouton as well as the Phungo Library.

This is the perfect segue into announcing that the next edition of Spot the Sig! will be hosted by a blog with some literary connections.

And the new host will be the always entertaining

PADROGRAPHS!

If you follow Padrographs you know that Rod is an avid Padres Autograph chaser and the man is also a lover of books. This combination should make for a fun and exciting Spot the Sig! contest.

Franchising

A few months ago Rod contacted me about the possibility of running the contest on his blog, and I thought it was a great idea.

Spot the Sig! is a pretty simple concept and I hope everyone finds it to be an enjoyable challenge each week. There is some creativity in coming up with a Bonus questions that readers can identify with but might not easily be "Net" accessible. I look forward to seeing what Rod does with the contest, and I also look forward to guessing the autos presented by another blogger.

Beyond that I really don't know much of what Rod has in store for us, I would keep my eyes out over at Padrographs and expect a related announcement from him later today.

Down the road, I would love to see Spot the Sig! Run twice a year, once by myself and once by an outside blogger. If your interested in running a future STS! let me know via email and we can work on a timeframe.

Oh and one more thing -- a Special Stealth STS! auto:

If you are the first person to pick up this auto you get a bonus Double in Spot the Sig!

STS Profile - Jim Bouton

1999 Sports Illustrated Greats of the Game Autograph Jim Bouton (nno)

Jim Bouton was easily identifed by Zman40 of Autographed Cards. Bouton's playing career would be considered more very good then superstar level, certainly what he is remembered for today is "Ball Four"

Most of us have read "Ball Four" or are at least familiar with the book. Jim Bouton's official web page is actually www.ballfour.com - If your interested in a Jim Bouton Autograph they are $10 on a baseball or an 8x10 from the site, or you can order one of his books and have it signed for $10-$30 depending on the book.

For the Collector
This particular card went for $5.32 on ebay and pops up frequently in ebay auctions. I am really fond of the 99 Fleer SI autograph series there are 80 baseball players in the set including several Hall of Famers. The Photos are all drawn from Sports Illustrated Covers and there is a set of Football Autographs as well. Many of these Autos can be had for under $10 and all of them are on-card.

The Bouton 99 SI auto has sold 4 times on ebay in the last few weeks all for under $6 shipped. The lowest was $4.34. An 03 Sweet Spot Classic Bouton Auto went for $13.49 which was the highest of any Jim Bouton Auto Card sold.

.

Bonus

Only two folks picked up the bonus. I am a bad fan and have not gotten around to reading "Tales from the Phillies Dugout" - in my defense, it hasn't been in the Phungo Library real long. Paul's Random Stuff correctly picked "Men at Work" which is probably on my re-read list by now, and Nachos Grande picked "Word Freak" which the two of us discussed the merits of in a recent book review post of his. I have read all three Stephan Fatsis books and enjoyed them very much.

As far as the other books folks have selected, I have not read "Clearing the Bases". I picked up the book at a Signing, and am glad to have Mike Schmidt's auto in my collection, but reading the book as not been urgent. I consider the Lebowski book coffee table reading, and while I may have read the whole thing just by paging through it - I am definitely glad it is in the collection, the recipe of a White Trash Russian is worth the price of admission alone.

Spot the Sig! Standings after 7 Innings
Autographed Cards - Royals: Big Two-Run Triple from Alex Gordon gives AC 3 runs scored. and a Man on 3rd.
Nachos Grande - Reds: 2 runs scored. Bases Loaded.
Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: 2 run scored. Men at 1st and 3rd.
Card Buzz - Angels: Vlad Guerrero hits a long fly off the top of the wall for a Triple!
one run scored. Man on 3nd.
Play at the Plate - Rangers: one run scored. Man on 1st.

Night Owl - Dodgers: Bases Loaded.The Wax Ripper - Yankees: Men on first and 2nd.
In Search of Pat the Bat - PHILLIES: Man on FirstThought and Sox - Boston Red Sox: Man on FirstCardboard Junkie - Braves: Man on First

Beardy - Orioles: On Deck
Indians Baseball Cards Always - Indians: On Deck
Padrographs - Padres: On Deck
Nr-MT - Yankees: On Deck
You are welcome to join the game at anytime. If you need more Spot the Sig! details click here.

And as I mentioned yesterday stop back tomorrow for a very important announcement regarding Spot the Sig!

Sources and Links
Jim Bouton Index