Lenny Dykstra has Something to Say - Special Spot the Sig! Announcement coming up on Wednesday!

1995 Score #22 Lenny Dykstra

This Wednesday Team Phungo will have a Very Special Announcement regarding the Spot the Sig! competition. Until then I would like to congratulate Autograph Cards for picking up their third auto and plating a pair of runs. I will have a full run down of the Bonus round and scores later in the week.

Anyone that has not entered still has until noon on Tuesday to get a chance at the STS! Bonus.

The Card

This has to be one of my all time favorite cards. Lenny Dykstra giving it to an ump. It is likely from a game on May 8th 1994, meaning the Umpire is probably Angel Hernandez. If this the game I remember, Dykstra got upset with a bad call by Hernandez and then drew a line through the opposite batters box where the ball had passed - I don't know maybe 10 inches outside. The replay did agree with Lenny's estimate. Regardless, Angel was not going to be shown up and ejected Dykstra.

Great Ejection, Great Memory, That's Baseball - Oh and the Phils won the game, That part I don't remember.

Bleck - The Mets have Signed Chris Coste

Chris Coste is not going to make or break a team, heck Paul Bako was an upgrade - regardless he will always be a Fan Favorite in Philadelphia. And he will always be a member of the 2008 World Championship Philadelphia Phillies.

I will hold of my best wishes for Mr Coste until after his time in New York is over.

Stretch Time - Spot The Sig 7th inning

We are in the 7th inning of the Spot the Sig Contest and there is a very tight race with only three autos remaining. There is a Five way tie for first place, with several players all at 1 run. Card Buzz and Paul's Random Stuff have both managed to pick up two autos While Play at the Plate and Autograph Cards each have one. These four Sig Spotters are all on the leader board along with Nachos Grande. While he has not ID'd an auto Nachos Grande has diligently persevered with the Bonus questions and managed to manufacture a run and is in very good standing with the bases loaded.

Enough pre-game Here is this weeks auto:



The above auto is worth a Triple.

Bonus

This weeks bonus question is a new feature for Spot the Sig! This is the Phungo Book Club Bonus - Here are some of the selections from the Phungo Library (Click to Enlarge):


One of my favorite musicians, Warren Zevon, once said "We buy books because we believe we're buying the time to read them." I am not sure he was the original. A similar statement is also credited to German philosoher Arthur Schopenhauer.

Regardless this seems to be the case in the Phungo household - we have significantly more books then we could possibly find the time to read. This is why in the photo above one finds 18 books, however, I have only read ten of them. For the bonus your task is to pick out one of these books which I have read.

There is a ground rule for this weeks bonus. Each book can only be picked once. If you guess a book that has been previously picked by another contestant, your pick will be considered invalid. The Book Club Bonus will be worth a Single, all runners advance one base.


Spot the Sig! standings going into the 7th.

Nachos Grande - Reds: one run scored. Bases Loaded.
Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: one run scored. Men at 2nd and 3rd.
Autographed Cards - Royals: one run scored. Men at 2nd 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 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.

STS Football Edition - George Blanda

2004 Playoff Prime Signatures #73 George Blanda (#d 42/150)

NFL Hall of Famer George Blanda played an amazing 26 seasons spanning 4 decades. His career started in 1949 with the Chicago Bears. Blanda actually retired following the 1958 season due to a disagreement with Coach George Halas over Blanda being moved to Kicker only duty.

Blanda would re-emerge in 1960 as the Quarterback for the Houston Oliers of the brand new American Football League. Blanda led the Oilers to the first two AFL titles and he was also a member of the 1967 Oakland Raiders who lost to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl II.

Blanda played football as a Kicker until 1975 when he retired at the age of 48. Today he is the third leading scorer in AFL-NFL history. His 2002 career points do not even include 236 TDs he threw as a quarterback. Blanda is still the league leader in Career Extra Points and attempts (943/959)

George Blanda is part of the great lineage of quarterbacks to come out of Western Pennsylvania.

For The Collector:
I picked up the above 04 Blanda Auto for $7.86 via auction a few months ago. A Hall of Famer that played in the AFL and was born in the 1920s - I like that deal. The lowest Blanda Auto in recent eBay sale was an 08 Press Pass Legends card that went for $16.25.

The Donruss 04 Playoff Prime Autos are stickers, but they are imbedded in the card which sharpens up their look a bit. Some of the other big name vets in the Auto set are Jim Brown, Jack Lambert, Ozzie Newsome and Paul Warfield.

The George Blanda Rookie is the 1954 Bowman #23 which is going for $51.90 and up.

Dumbruss


2004 Playoff Prime Signatures #73 George Blanda (#d 42/150 b-side - click to enlarge)

This is one of my complaints with many retro cards of stars from the past - Why do the card companies often put the stats for the players final year on the card? I mean if you are going to only put one years stats on the card, how about 1961 when Blanda was an All-Pro and led the league in TDs and Yardage?

Spot the Sig!

This card would have likely been a double had it been a baseball player or a more recent football player. I bumped it up to a triple because Blanda was outside of the box for the typical STS! auto. This didn't fool Laurens of Card Buzz who spotted the sig for the second consecutive week and once again did it in under 5 minutes!!! The Triple puts Card Buzz on the scoreboard and very much in the running as we head into the final three innings.

I will have to dig out some more toughies to keep everyone interested.

Bonus

The scores for this years turkey day games were:

Green Bay 34 Detroit 12
Dallas 24 Oakland 7
Denver 26 New York 6

STS players nailed each of the first two games as Night Owl hit the Green Bay Score and Nachos Grande picked the Dallas game. Cardboard Junkie narrowly beat out Nachos for the Denver score as he was 5 below the Broncos 26, while Nachos Grande was 6 above.

Each player will get a single for the bonus which will plate a runner for Nachos Grande and get Cardboard Junkie on base for the first time in the game.

Spot the Sig! standings after six innings.

Nachos Grande - Reds: one run scored. Bases Loaded.
Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: one run scored. Men at 2nd and 3rd.
Autographed Cards - Royals: one run scored. Men at 2nd 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 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.

Happy Thanksgiving and Trade Bounty from Play at the Plate

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

One of the things I am thankful for is all the folks I have traded with since going on-line. I try and do a minimum of one trade a month and frankly am amazed by the folks who are doing 3 or 4 trades a week. It takes me a week just to get myself organized enough to thing about a trade.

Brian of Play at the Plate and I were both involved in the same group break held over at Saints of the Cheap Seats. One of the cards that I received was a Carl Yastrzemski Relic that PatP was interested in, I swapped that for a Chase Utley relic and we expanded the trade out. Here are some of the cards that have been added to the Phungo Collection.


2008 UD Sweet Swatch #SS-CU Chase Utley

In additions to the Utley the lot included lots of great Phillies cards.

2002 Donruss Diamond Kings #21 Scott Rolen
2009 Topps Chrome #139 Ryan Howard

I have recently started building player collections. Utley is in my player binder as are some other Phils like Jamie Moyer and Garry Maddox. I am also working on non-Phils collections. These players include Johnny Damon, Bill Lee, and I am thinking about Jeff Conine. Mike Mussina is among this group.

2002 Topps T206 #67 Mike Mussina (Tolstoi Back)

Topps has come out with another T206 series and Cardboard Junkie has a pretty thorough discussion of the back variations from the earlier T206 retro sets. The Tolstoi variation is considered "Uncommon".

I have a pretty varied Want List, and Brian did a great job of scouring it and found all kinds of different goodies - including a Brandon Meriweather Auto!


And this Football Relic:
Is it Brett Favre?!?!?!



2008 Stadium Club Beam Team #BTR-JB John David Booty

No silly - It's John David Booty. I don't think Booty ever took a snap as a Viking and is currently on the Tennessee Titans practice squad.

Once again I would like to thank everyone I have traded with in the past year and look forward to getting more trades out in the future. I don't always give the trade posts as much attention as they deserve, but I dot try and post something on each trade.

I can only hope that everyone is as happy with the cards they receive from Team Phungo as I am on my end.

Thanks Again, Happy Thanksgiving and Go Broncos!

Still time to get your football predictions in for STS Bonus

You have a little over 12 hours to get your football predictions in for this weeks Spot the Sig! bonus. To find out more click here.

To get you into the football spirit I have busted open a couple of packs of 2008 UD Icons which I found at Kmart tonight for a whopping 52 cents (including PA Sales Tax)



2008 UD Icons #78 Troy Polamalu
2008 UD Icons #42 Reggie Wayne

The remainder of the pack consisted of:
#81 Antonio Cromartie
#45 Maurice Jones-Drew
#9 Willis McGahee

No Vikings, No Eagles, pretty Meh. For a more complete review and slightly more exciting pack - If your a Cowboys fan - check out my other pack break over at A Pack to be Named Later.

Can Somebody Explain this to Me?

2009 Topps Heritage #272 Scott Olsen

This is a perfectly fine card of former Marlins and current Washington Nationals pitcher Scott Olsen. Well perfectly fine until you flip it over...


2009 Topps Heritage #272 Scott Olsen (b-side/click to enlarge)

Check the cartoon. As far as I can tell this is a basketball cartoon - yet the caption states:

"Scott Once K'd 15 In a 7-Inning Start in the Minors"

I don't get it - am I missing something here?, or should this one be filed under Sloppy Topps?

Spot the Sig! - 6th Inning

It is time for the 6th inning of Spot the Sig! This week Auto is good for a Triple.


Bonus

This is Thanksgiving week and one of the many traditions involved in the holiday is falling asleep while the Detroit Lions get slaughtered on National TV. Well Team Phungo in an effort to give you a stake (and some interest) in this bevy of lame games which will be broadcast on Thanksgiving day is asking you to guess the scores of each game.

There are three games and a bonus will be awarded for each game. Your challenge is to pick the winner of the game and the number of points scored by the winning team. Whoever picks the correct winner and closest to the Winning teams score gets the bonus for that game.

The Three Games are:

Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions
Oakland Raiders @ Dallas Cowboys
New York Giants @ Denver Broncos

The person that correctly picks each game will receive a bonus of a Single. Two or more teams can pick the same team and score combination. If there is a tie both teams get the Bonus, but it will be downgraded slightly to a Walk. One person can collect more than one bonus - therefore it is possible for a single team to pick up a total of three singles off this weeks bonus.

Since these games will not be played till Thursday, I will leave the bonus open till noon on Thursday.

Spot the Sig! standings going into the 6tth inning.

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

2004 Topps Heritage Faux Blaster - 1955 Topps Returns

The Phungo Faux Blaster is basically $20 worth of cards out of a single product or in a certain theme. Today we are examining 2004 Topps Heritage.

04 Heritage looks back at 1955 Topps, the first of the Topps Sets to feature Landscape/Horizontal cards. Here is one other link dedicated to 1955 Topps.

I picked up Five packs of the 04 Heritage at a show last month and opened the first pack over at A Pack to be Named Later. Recently Matt F of Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius has been busy opening a lot of quality 1980's and early 90's wax.

Here is what came out of the remaining 4 packs

Pack 2
304 Rocco Baldelli
1 Jim Thome
160 Carlos Quentin (early card but not a RC)
66 Kyle Davies RC
NPA15 Josh Beckett
67 Tim Salmon
270 Ramon Ortiz
103 Hideo Nomo

The Inserts (click to Enlarge)

Pack 3
86 Ray Durham
325 Alex Gonzalez
212 Darrin Erstad
133 Wes Helms
F10 Flashback Robin Roberts
4/4 Checklist (on some really thick cardboard)
277 Ty Wiggington
178 Shane Reynolds
322 Junior Spivey

Thome Short Print with Thome Base (Click to Enlarge)


Pack 4
353 Brad Lidge (Astros)
372 Eric Karros
189 Braden Looper
392 Jamie Moyer (Mariners)
1 Thome (SP)
76 Placido Polanco
285 Neifi Perez
199 Javier Vazquez

Phillies Past and Present

Pack 5
44 Jimmy Haynes
143 Brad Fullmer
280 Brian Giles
55 Brendan Donnelly
195 Flash Gordon
53 Jose Contreras
215 Randy Johnson
107 Jarrod Washburn

The five packs pretty much came up as promised. The lot didn't contain a "hit", four of the five packs contained either an insert or a short print. As far as I can tell the last pack does not contain an insert. The Short Print I pulled was of Jim Thome and 1 of the three inserts was of Robin Roberts - Very happy on the Phils meter. Pack four was probably the pick of the lot as it contained two Phils including the Thome SP, plus two future Phils who would make up part of the 2008 World Championship pitching staff.

Whenever I pick up packs in bulk from the a dealer at a show, I try and get a then to throw in some sort of a bonus. With the 5 packs of 04 Heritage I also picked up a pack of 2003 Fleer Tradtion which is featured in this post. That pack produced 10 cards the Highlights were a Sammy Sosa insert, Drew Henson SP, and an early Jake Peavy card.

Summarizing the 2004 Topps Heritage Faux Blaster: No big hits a couple of inserts and short prints. Who knows maybe the packs were searched, or I got the end of the Heritage box.

Overall I came away with 50 total cards broken down as follows:

36 2004 Topps Heritage Base Cards
1 Short Print Variation (Thome)
3 Inserts (Robin Roberts, Josh Beckett, Herb Score/Kerry Wood)

7 2003 Fleer Tradition Base Cards
1 Short Print (Drew Henson)
2 Insert (Sosa, Jeter Puzzle Piece )

The Heritage cards included 7 Past, Current or Future Phils of some significance which made the Faux Blaster a success, otherwise I would have considered it mediocre. Regardless, I think I would prefer this Blaster to a Blaster of 90 current topps cards.

1955 Topps

Lets take a look back at some of the other 1955 Topps related cards in the Phungo Collection:
1955 Topps #11 Ferris Fain

Ferris Fain played his first 6 seasons (1947-52) with the Philadelphia Athletics. During his career he posted an On Base Percentage of .424, which ranks 9th all time! Fain was basically a singles hitter (48 career Homers) with a lot of walks and it is doubtful he would have ever gotten consideration for the Hall of Fame. He also only played 9 seasons, one short of Hall of Fame qualification.

2004 is not the only time that Topps has recycled the 1955 design. They have done this as far back as 1975 when Topps had a subset featuring the Topps cards of the Leagues previous MVPs.


I am sure that most of you are also aware that Topps has used the design for a Mantle Subset and included a handful of 1955 style cards in their Fan Favorites Series:


2005 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites #84 Johnny Podres
2008 Topps Mickey Mantle Home Run History #HHR536 Mickey Mantle
(click to enlarge)

2003 Fleer Tradition - Jeff Conine

2003 Fleer Tradition #297 Jeff Conine

For a look at more cards from 2003 Fleer Tradition check out the latest Phungo post at A Pack to be Name Later

STS Profile - Adam Lind

2007 UD SP #130 Adam Lind

Adam Lind has really raised his profile in the past year. The 26 year old DH/LF just earned his first Silver Slugger Award with a 35 Homer (5th AL), 114 RBI (3rd) season. He was in the AL top 5 in a number of other offensive categories as well (TBs, 2BH, Slugging, XBH)

For the Collector

I picked this card up late this past spring for $3, and it is basically in that same range today even after Lind's productive season. The 07 Sweet Beginnings Auto which is on card went for $4.35 earlier this month. The 04 SP Prospect Auto (sticker #d to 400) went for $52.

For more info definitely check out A Cardboard Problem which has a number of postings on Adam Lind cards and Autos.


Spot the Sig

We have a new player as Laurens of Card Buzz was the first to Identify this weeks auto and he gets a double for his effort. I would have to guess that Madding is familiar with Mr Lind as he picked up this auto in a quick four minutes.

Bonus

1955 Topps #53 Billy Taylor (b-side)

Play at the Plate had another big week picking up the bonus and scoring a run to move into a tie for first place atop the Spot the Sig! standings. The featured cartoon was from a 1955 Topps card of Billy Taylor. If I have some time this week, I will be looking a bit more at 2004 Topps Heritage which mimics the 55 set. If you were with us last week, this probably looks familiar to you as an 04 Heritage Pack break was involved in the Bonus Question. The 1955 Topps cartoons can be differentiated from the 2004 variety because the trademark line runs between the toon and the stat line on the Heritage edition.

I am continually surprised that anytime I run out a cartoon, there is somebody that actually has the card and can find it - no matter the era.


Spot the Sig! standings after five innings.

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

Spot the Sig! 5th Inning

Hard to believe we are almost half way through this edition of Spot the Sig!

I think this one should be a little easier than last weeks chicken-scratch and it is good for a Double and All Runners Score.


Bonus:
If your having trouble with this weeks auto, well we have a Cartoon that will hopefully brighten up your day.


For those of you that have played Spot the Sig! before, you are likely aware that to get the cartoon bonus you will need to guess the card number upon which the above Daffy-Nition appears. This weeks bonus is good for a single and runners advance two bases. If the correct card number is not guessed the person who guesses closest to the card number gets the bonus. Only the first guess for a given card number will be considered for this bonus - in other words duplicate guesses cannot get the bonus.

Spot the Sig! standings going into the 5th inning.

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


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

Topps Cover Jinx Continues - 2009 Topps U+H first pack break

This past spring we reported on the PED epidemic spreading throughout the Topps Cover Players.

Well the trend sort of continues as Topps latest cover boy Tim Lincecum finds himself in a totally different type of drug trouble.

I wonder which Topps 09 Cover Player will be? a PED or Marijuana User?

One other thing, I think it was Chris over at Stale Gum that noted that Topps chose to airbrush out Manny's Dreads for the 08 Topps wrappers.

The design of the current Topps U&H cover seems to accent Tim Lincecum's "rebellious" locks. Is Topps stating that they are more comfortable with Lincecum's long hair then Ramriez's Dreads?

Regardless, I really was just using this as an excuse to bust open some Target U&HIGH packs in honor of Mr Lincecum.

First 2009 Topps Series 3 Pack

first up the numbers are STILL UNREADABLE!!!

#UH53 Clete Thomas
#UH176 Diory Hernandez
#UH200 Randy Johnson
#UH157 Josh Hamilton All-Star
#UH239 George Sherill

#UH320 Classic Combo Mark & Daniel Schlereth

How great is this card, I often listen to Mike and Mike during drive time, and it really interesting to hear the elder Schlereth discuss his sons career.

#UH113 Francisco Rodriquez All-star

#UH62 Russell Branyan Gold (#d1179/2009)

#PP23 Propoganda Poster Nick Markakis

#TTT65 Topps Town Raul Ibanez

#UH119 Bud Noris
#UH76 Scott Rolen

Nice first pack a Great Propoganda Poster. A Gold Card and A Raul Ibanez insert.

I picked up two other packs while I was at Target. I wasn't nearly as happy with those packs - I didn't pull any Phils and I actually pulled a duplicate of the Konerko/Dye 300 Homer card - 36 stinkin cards and I got my first dupe - bleck.

#PP21 Mark Texiera (b-side)
#LGU24 Legends of the Game Update Paul Molitor
#TTT57 Topps Town Joey Votto
#TTT54 Topps Town Adam Jones

The Molitor and the Tex are nice inserts and I also pulled a Nolan Reimold RC but still bummed about not getting any Phils base cards out of the three packs.

2009 10 31 Card Show Swag - Concord Mall, Wilmington DE

1975 Topps #185 Steve Carlton

I am going to be featuring a couple of posts this week on some of the cards I picked up at Concord Mall card show last weekend.

I was very pleased with the show - the 2.5 hours I allotted myself was clearly not enough time.

I spent the bulk of my time filling in some Phillies cards - both recent and 70s vintage as well as 50s vintage and 60/70s HOFs.

Today I will feature some of the 70s cards. At the top of this post is a 1975 Steve Carlton card which was in small batch of Phils cards that I picked up for 25 cents a pop.


1971 topps #439 Greg Luzinski/Scott Reid RC

There was a dealer there that had tons of off-condition vintage dating back to the 50s all at a buck a card. This Greg Luzinski Rookie Card was among the cards I pulled out his stash. We all know that Luzinski had a great career with the Phils and has lent his name to one of the Phils marquee concessions in their new ballpark. Scott Reid's baseball career was significantly different - He appeared in 38 career games for the Phils in 1969 and 1970.

In two separate purchases I picked up both Ollie Brown cards from the Topps 1975 set.


1975 Topps #596 Ollie Brown (mini and base)


Topps offered a miniature version of their 1975 set as well as the regular sized version. I really like the minis and tend to pick them up whenever I see one, definitely if it is a Phils player. The 1975 is a fairly iconic set and I wonder if I would like the minis as much if they were done for a less notable set like 1970 Topps. The Mini came from the same quarter bin as the 75 Carlton above. The base card came out of a dime box.

As I mentioned above the Luzinski dealer featured tons of vintage cards a at dollar a piece. Among the were these two early 70s gems.

1970 Topps #462 Hank Aaron All-Star

1971 Topps #160 Tom Seaver

To me any Hall of Famer from prior to 75 is worth a buck especially for top tier HOFs like Aaron and Seaver. If you are looking for big time stars of the era, the All-Star cards are always more affordable then the base. I like almost any newspaper themed cards so the 70s All-Stars are among my favorites.

Tom Terrific is a Met, but it isn't often your going to find a card of his from the early part of his career for only a buck.


A few weeks back Dayf posted a vintage Falcons insert card to mark one of the teams victories. I had remembered similar Hockey Cards from the 70s. As luck would have it I found this beauty in the dollar bin.

1977+ O-Pee-Chee Glossy #3 Bobby Clarke

Both OPC and Topps issued this insert set which came 1 per pack in each manufactures 1977+ set. The insert apparently also comes with square corners, I have only seen the rounded corners as pictured here.

That concludes the 70s era portion of the Concord Mall Card Show. Hopefully later in the week I will get a chance to post some of the 1950s topps cards that were available.

STS Profile - Billy Butler: Swag from Saints Case Break

2007 UD Ultimate Collection Rookie Signature #108 Billy Butler (#d 146/299)

As I feared, this weeks auto turned out to be a tough one. For the first time in STS! history we had to go to a HINT to get for the Autograph to be Identified.

This auto came from a group break run by Dan over at Saints of the Cheap Seats. Prior to this break the only breaks I entered were budget breaks that were run by Thorzul and others. The bounty from the break came in this week and included a Carl Yastrzemski jersey card and a Ryan Freel base card.

2007 UD Ultimate Collection #13 Ryan Freel
2007 UD Ultimate Collection Star Materials #SM-CY Carl Yastrzemski

I am pretty happy with the cards I received in the break. Billy Butler is a good young player for the Royals, who would be more widely known if he played in a higher proifle city. He has seen increased playing time each of his 3 major league seasons and finished 2009 with 21 homers and a .301 BA. His OPS+ for 2009 was 124.

I knew this would be a tough auto for several reasons

1) It is a particularly bad auto perhaps in the HoF of bad autos - and once we started running down the K names that was definitely trouble.

2) Butler is a young player that is really not well known - and he runs below the top tier of prospects.

3) The card gives a slightly misleading hint - Butler is a first baseman as a major leaguer. He played a variety of positions on his way through the Royals system, including outfield.
4) He plays for the Kansas City Royals who many of us don't think about.

I initially thought that Butler had written the ""B"'s in his name off of the sticker, but that is not the case. The sticker is clearly large enough on both the top and bottom to contain the full letter. Butler simply doesn't always close the top and bottom of his B's. I checked a handful of his other autos and this seems to be as bad as it gets for him - His signatures vary greatly in readability, although you can see a pattern where the clear UD sticker autos that are significantly worse.

Bonus

If you went right down the middle you were good. There were 3 base cards of active players and a Then and Now insert of Herb Score and Kerry Wood (who was active in 09). Our Mathematician over at Nachos Grande correctly calculated that 4 cards would emerge from the pack, as did Wax Ripper - each will receive a single as their bonus.

Later this week I plan on posting the contents of 4 other packs of the 04 Heritage as part of a Faux Blaster report.


Spot the Sig! standings after four innings.

We have a rookie in the game, Brian from Play at the Plate lines a double for figuring out this tough auto after the hint. We are almost half way through the game and it remains anybody's game.

Paul's Random Stuff - Mets: one run scored. Men at 2nd and 3rd.
Autographed Cards - Royals: one run scored. Men at 2nd and 3rd.
Night Owl - Dodgers: Men on First and 2nd
Nachos Grande - Reds: Bases Loaded
The Wax Ripper - Yankees: Men on first and 2nd.
Play at the Plate - Rangers: Elvis Andrus hits a Double into the game to put a man in scoring position for our newest STS entry.
In Search of Pat the Bat - PHILLIES: Man on First
Thought and Sox - Boston Red Sox: Man on First
Beardy - Orioles: On Deck
Indians Baseball Cards Always - Indians: On Deck
Padrographs - Padres: On Deck
Cardboard Junkie - Braves: On Deck

Thanks all for participating in this particularly challenging installment of Spot the Sig!

A new Spot the Sig! autograph will be presented for the contest on Sunday Night, All are welcome to join the game at anytime. If you need more Spot the Sig! details click here.