Phungo Challenge: What Kind of Garbage will we find in this Pack?

Found this at the local 5 below recently:


They are from Cards One and I imagine are really similar to a pack opened recently on A Pack to be Named Later.

Here are the Odds (click to enlarge):


Sounds pretty similar to the Topps Cards Your Mom Threw Out giveaway. Although each pack will contain a "Historic Star Card". For those of you that can't read the small print there is 1:5 for 20+ Year Old Card, 1:10 for 30 and 1:100 for 40. For those of you actually interested in this product the cost is $1.06 (incl PA tax). Packs contain 15 cards.

I have 3 packs of this stuff and I am entertaining guesses on the Most Historic, Most Vintage, and Most Collectible cards I pull from "Historic Vintage Collection".

You have 24 hours to get your guesses in - or 48 or 60 hours - basically till I get around to posting the packs.

Best guesses will be honored in the Phungo Challenge Hall of Fame.

Winners of previous Phungo Challenges and Pop Quizzzes so far in 2010 have been

PatSeacher from In Search of Pat the Bat
Rod from Padrographs
NicoLax from NR-MT

oh and if you want some actual useful information - stop reading this and go and watch "Modern Family".

The Original 1961 Topps - The Inserts

There are many inserts in 1961 Topps. Today we will take a look at some of these "subsets".

1961 Topps #50 1960 AL Strikeout Leaders
1961 Topps #25 Reds Heavy Artillery (Vada Pinson, Gus Bell, Frank Robinson)

In 1961 Topps produced it's first League Leader Cards. Like this card featuring Jim Bunning and Early Wynn, several of the 1961 Leader cards feature Hall of Famers. If you would like to pick up vintage cards of Hall of Famers and your on a budget, you may want to look into league leader cards.

Multi-Player card returned again in 1961, This Reds Card with HOF Frank Robinson was among them. I don't believe the Phils have a multi-player card in the 61 set.


1961 Topps #310 World Series Game 5: Face Saves the Day
1961 Topps #361 5th Series Checklist

The World Series cards which debuted in 1960 return for 1961. One of these World Series Cards features Bill Mazeroski's historic Homer that defeated the Yankees in the 1960 Series.

1961 is the debut of checklist cards in the Topps Set. I like the cool pictures on the top of these checklists. I am pretty sure that these are photos rather than painting and may be the first time in action pictures were featured on a Topps card other than World Series games.

For a previous look back the Phungo 1961 Topps feature on Phillies Cards click here.

Links
Phungo HoF index Frank Robinson

2010 Topps Opening Day - First Pack

I am sure you are aware of this product. I picked up a single pack at Target, 7 Cards $1.05 including PA Sales Tax I am guessing.

First Opening Day Card of the Year:

Daniel Hudson. I actually like this card and drew it in the half dozen or so retail packs of regular Topps I picked up a few weeks back. It is probably the only rookie card that I don't mind the RC logo on. Unfortunately the additional opening day pushes the red white and blue from a nice small touch to two dueling logos.

Phils Cards

Unlike those half dozen packs of 2010 flagship Topps which yielded only one Phils card, this pack produced 2 including a serial numbered Shane Victorino insert. The light blue does nothing for me. Well certainly not as much as the Red did back in 2008 - which bordered the Phils cards perfectly.

The Rest

Other than stinkin Mr Met, A nice selection of cards. The Oswalt is a particularly good looking shot - Swoosh meshes into the card well - only draw back is Miller Lite ad in the background.

Farewell Scottie Reynolds

I don't think I have ever gotten more attached to a college athlete than Scottie Reynolds. Reynolds is the exciting point guard who led the Villanova basketball squad the last three years. Despite the disappointing finish to Scottie's senior season, History will likely view Reynolds as one of Philadelphia's Sports Heroes.

Scottie Reynolds burst on to the local basketball scene late in his freshmen year scoring 40 pts on UConn in a single game. He wouldn't do that every night, but he became more than a scorer. He became a basketball player. Reynolds has several shortcomings that will likely keep him from being an impact player at the next level, but he does possess some skills, a lot of heart, and high degree of basketball intelligence that should allow him to play professionally in some capacity.

I sincerely hope that Reynolds has a basketball future, and look forward to following it, regardless of it's magnitude. He led the 2nd wave of the return of Villanova Wildcats basketball, and it was always wonderful to watch him play.

This card is from the Original Phungo Cards released in 2009. The game was played in the legendary Pavilion over Thanksgiving weekend of 2008. Villanova beat Towson that night. It was one of about a half dozen times that I was able to catch Reynolds playing live. The games I saw included a couple of NCAA tournament games that Villanova won last year in route to their 2009 Final Four appearance.

Tonight the NCAA tournaments continues without Villanova and Reynolds. I still love March Madness and will be watching but the 2nd weekend will not be the same as the last couple of years when the Wildcats gave everybody in Philadelphia a rooting interest.

Philly Card Show Report - 2010 03 13 - Vintage Hall of Famers

For a previous post on the March 2010 Philly Show featuring Vintage Phils Cards click here.

Today I am featuring HOF cards that I picked up.

1964 Topps #29 Lou Brock
1962 Topps #475 Whitey Ford All Star

Cool to find a Lou Brock card from before he was traded to the Cardinals. I think each of these rough cards went for a buck a piece but don't remember now. The early vintage All-Star cards 1958-1962 are all usually pretty reasonable except for 1961.


1957 Topps #215 Enos Slaughter
1973 Topps #341 Jim Palmer

The back of the Slaughter card was well "slaughtered" but it was in the 3 for $1 bin and I couldn't turn it down. The Palmer is from the first iteration of the Boyhood Photos in 1973. This card was also in the 3fer bin.


1967 Topps #241 1966 AL RBI Leaders
1969 Topps #175 Jim Bunning

I am not a big League Leaders card fan, but this one was to big to pass up. Both of these were in the $1 bin.




1971 Topps #380 Tony Perez
1974 Topps #61 Luis Aparicio

Two more HOFs I think from the 3fer bin but can't remember. Aparicio was known for playing the White Sox but finished his career playing for the Red Sox. I believe this is his final Topps Card from his playing days.

2010 Topps Heritage First Pack

My first 2010 Heritage pack was a Retail Pack from Wal-Mart, where the packs go for $3.16 including PA Sales Tax. The pack proved to be a bit insert heavy.

2010 Topps Heritage

#22 Ross Ohlendorf
#295 Rick Ankiel #251 Jarrod Washburn

Nice first couple of cards. Hats off to Ohlendorf for being the First Heritage card of 2010. Wonder if he has ever been first at anything else before. Ankiel is now with the Royals - not sure if he kept the -stache. Washburn remains a free agent, but still gets a Heritage card from the 2 months he spent with the Tigers in 2009.


#114 Buster Posey
#105 Tim Hudson
#180 Robinson Cano (b-side)

I like the second half of the pack much better. Three pretty decent young players. I chose Cano for the B-Side Rep basically because he is a stinkin Yankee. Buster Posey only needs a rookie cup to have three different rookie designations thrown on his card.


#BF1 Baseball Flashbacks Roger Maris
#61RM-13 Maris Chase '61 13th Homer
#TN7 Then and Now White Ford, Justin Verlander

I like the Baseball Flashback card. Nice action shot of a player that has basically been denied his place in history twice.

Can somebody explain the Maris Chase cards going for bonkers bucks on ebay?? several #13 cards that appear similar to this one have gone for $7 plus shipping. According to the packs they fall one every four packs. They cannot be that uncommon.

I am pretty sure the Then and Now came out of a different pack. If someone can explain to me why Mr Verlander has been married to Mr Ford on this card, It would be appreciated. According to the leader board on the flip side of the card Ford finished 3rd in the league in Ks while Vernlander led the league - no symmetry there. It's not like the Tigers didn't exist in 1961. How about Jim Bunning he was a Tiger and was among the strikeout leaders in 61.



#BF1 Baseball Flashbacks Roger Maris
#61RM-13 Maris Chase '61 13th Homer

The B-sides of the two Maris cards for anybody that's interested.

Not a bad start to the year. I have already decided I am collecting only the Phils, plus one player from each other team from the base set. Undecided on the inserts.

Swag from Rhubarb_Runner

I highly Recommend trading with Twins fan Rhubarb_Runner from é rayhahn, rayhahn


Need I say anything more?!?!

Oh and he sent me some Phillies Cards too.

The New

2010 Topps #23 Shane Victorino
2010 Topps #300 Chase Utley
2002 Post #14 Scott Rolen
2010 Topps #146 Jimmy Rollins

I only picked up a couple packs of 2010 Topps so far, and really haven't gotten many Phils. It was great to get the three of these, who are all stars - The J-Roll card is my first Opening Day card of 2010.

The Rolen card is of course from the Post set of a few years ago. I have posted it here for comparison.

The Vintage
1963 Topps #29 Rookie Stars Including Ray Culp and John Boozer
1961 Topps #179 Joe Koppe
1963 Topps #13 Phillies Team Card

David knocked out several cards from my vintage want lists including the above gems from the early 60s.

The Retro
2010 Topps Peak Performance #PP-6 Steve Carlton

This Carlton card is an insert from 2010 Topps. It honors Carlton's 1972 Cy Young Season. Every once in a while you learn something from a baseball card. Carlton threw THIRTY Complete Games in 1972. It has not been done since in the National League, and likely will not be done again. Catfish Hunter completed 30 for the 1975 Yankees and is the only player to accomplish the fete in the Junior circuit.

With Glavine, the Unit, Smoltz all retired or semi-retired and neither Pedro or Bartolo Colon both not hooked up yet - there are only 4 active pitchers with over 30 CAREER CGs (Halladay, Liv Hernandez, Wakefield, and Jamie Moyer)

I could dedicate about 5 posts to the cards David sent me. He has a very comprehensive want list and I recommend you look it over. Plus he is pretty organized and can send you out great trade lists with lots o vintage.

Philly Card Show Report - 2010 03 13 - Vintage Phillies

Extremely busy with work, catching up on trades, and enjoying the first weekend of the Madness.

During the latest edition of the Philly Show, I pretty much focused on vintage. Including admission I threw down $81 - I will hit the highlights over the next week or so.

First off is the Phils

1950 Bowman #30 Eddie Waitkus

Anytime you get a bargain Eddie Waitkus card you pick it up. I will dedicate an entire post to Mr Waitkus at some point - but for now I will just mention that this card went for $3 and I was happy to have picked it up.

1957

1957 Topps #214 Phillies Team
1957 Topps #15 Robin Roberts

It must be Robin Roberts week here at Phungo, this is the 2nd consecutive post to feature a Roberts Card. The Team Card went for a dollar. Roberts was $5, a little bent up, but looks good otherwise. I doubt I a anywhere near finishing the Robin Roberts Phils Topps Run, but this card makes me one closer.

60s High Numbers and Other Stars

1965 Topps #310 Johnny Callison
1964 Topps #482 Phillies Rookies (John Briggs, Danny Cater)

I also picked up a bunch of 60s era Phillies High Numbers and Star Cards. Both of these came out of the three for a buck bin.

Other than the Phils, I picked up about a dozen cards for my Topps '59 set and a bunch of Vintage HOF cards. In the three for a buck bin I found about 25 Star cards and High Numbers from 1957-1974. For between $1-$8 each I added a handful of 1952-1962 cards of commons, stars and Hall of Famers.

I will try and feature some of the other cards in the coming weeks.

Swag from Sports Locker

James over at Sports Locker was good enough to contribute the above Robin Roberts Patch Card to the Phungo Collection. I am sure that you are all familiar with Sports Locker, but I just want to nudge everyone to check in over there to keep up with goings on and information regarding the National which is being held in Baltimore this year. James has taken the blogosphere lead in publicizing the event to collectors, and I am hoping to make it down to the show this year.

He pulled from a 2010 Topps pack. I believe that these may have come in the Target Blasters this year and represent each All-Star Game. This card commemorates the 1953 All-Star Game which was played a Crosley Field in Cincinnati.

Here is a close up of the patch showing the Old School Cincinnati Redstockings character.



You can sort of make out Cincinnati, 1953, and All-Star Game all on the patch.

Robin Roberts pitched 3 innings of shutout ball during the 1953 All-Star game which was one of 5 All-Star games started by Roberts.

The NL took the game 5-1 with Pee Wee Reese contributing 2 RBIs and while collecting the games only extra-base hits.

Thanks again to the good folks over at Sports Locker for adding this fine patch to the Phungo Collection.

Who's Autograph would You Stand in Line For?

1956 Topps #261 Bobby Shantz

As I mentioned earlier this week the Philadelphia SportsCard and Memorabilia Show is this weekend. In years past I have justified part of my admission by getting a complimentary autograph. Usually a lower tier player like Todd Pratt. This Saturday there will be no Free Autograph and I am curious who among the many signers you would consider standing in line for and handing over your hard earned cash.

Would you go the Cheap route and pick up an auto of Bobby Shantz (above) for $15?

Or go all out and get Cal Ripken ($132)

1992 Topps #40 Cal Ripken

1964 Topps #265 Jim Bunning

A more controversial choice may be Jim Bunning ($45)

The remaining signers are priced as follows:

Mickey Morandini $15 (Friday)
Von Hayes $15
Dickie Thon $15
Bob Feller $25 (Friday)
Jim Palmer $29

This is great - The crack staff at hat put together the web page over at Hunt Auctions describes Jim Palmer as 4 time Gold Glove Winner.

Not Hall of Famer, or 3 Time Cy Young Winner or even Six Time All-Star. Or how about this one Four Time World Champion! Nope Just Four Time Gold Glove Winner. They would go nuts if Jim Kaat was there.

For my time and money Shantz would be the way to go. I would also consider Palmer and Feller at those numbers. To me Bunning at $45 is insane money.

Speaking of insane the football prices on Sunday are all out of kilter Leonard Weaver $30 and DeSean Jackson $70??

Who would you pick, anyone, noone?

If you are planning on hitting the show, let me know. I am shooting for late morning and early afternoon on Saturday.

Swag from the Final Tribe Cards Giveaway!

I could post these for a couple of weeks, but I will try and keep this down to two or three posts:

David asked for some extra clubs that we may want and I picked the O's and Twins. He came through with a lot of each. Today I am going to feature the Phils:


2006 Fleer Decade Greats #DEC-SC Steve Carlton

This card will get its own post eventually - for now just wanted to post it and note that I enjoy the concept of producing a retro card dedicated to a decade of a players career. If this photo looks familiar, it is because you have seen the same picture on a 2008 UD Heroes card of Carlton.



2001 UD Hall of Fame National Pastime #68 Mike Schmidt

Ther other Hall of Famer from the Phils 1980 Championship Squad. This card looks a little better than the scan. The chrome sort of gets lost in the darker colors here.

And there were tons of other cards:

It took me most of the weekend to sort through the lot. I was impressed with how many of the cards filled some pretty specific needs in a variety of venues: Phils Topps Collection, Player Collections, Inserts, Bowman Draft Set, Phungo Games, and Singles from Sets that I had not seen.

Thanks for putting this together Dave, I am sure it was a truly Herculean effort and I am glad that you were good enough to put in the time to sort the cards and send out the great packages.

Philly Show this Weekend

The next edition of the Philadelphia SportsCard and Memorabilia Show is this weekend.

I am not sure if I will be attending, but am considering Saturday.

Hunt Auctions is continuing it's trend towards making the show more autograph oriented. There are 15 signers scheduled over 3 days. Baseball players Friday and Saturday and all Eagles on Sunday. There is no complimentry auto scheduled for Saturday, The comp on Sunday is Eagles Safety Macho Harris.

Hall of Famers Cal Ripken, Bob Feller, Jim Palmer, and Jim Bunning will all be part of the weekend.

Admission has also been raised a dollar to 8 bucks. There are usually $1 off coupons in the weekend editions of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The price increase and the lack of a free auto are pointing me towards skipping this show, but I am sure I will cave.

Swag from Bill and Ben

I Wanted to put together a quick post to acknowledge a couple of recent trades.

I am going to lead-off with some a massive contribution that Ben Henry of The Baseball Card Blog made to the Phungo 1959 Topps Set. Ben is going through some serious downsizing and focusing of his collection - I sent some vintage cards Ben's way including the the classic 1971 Topps #5 Thurman Munson card and he sent me back almost 40 cards for the aforementioned 1959 Set.


The 59s included a couple of Phillies, which are hard to find (at reasonable prices) locally and a rare High Number card of Lee Tate as well as 36 other cards that I needed.

This is likely the biggest contribution I have had to the Phungo 1959 Topps Project since I started back in late 2007. If you want to see my 1959 want list as it stands currently or are just so bored you want to check my progress click here. As it stands thanks to Ben I have moved into the final 100 cards of the set, and am well ahead of where I expected to be at this point in 2010 for the project.

Reader Bill

I also made a second trade of vintage cards and other with reader Bill F from Alexandria VA recently. I sent some Padres and a couple 1956 cards his way for a bunch of 1971 Phils and some newer "retro" Phils cards. Bill was also good enough to contribute to the 1959 cause with a Buyback of Claude Osteen.


Loved all these card. I hadn't botthered to pick up any cards from the new T206 or the Goodwin Champs sets. ok maybe I did get T206. Yeah that's right I did get a single pack I think, but it yielded no Phils.

The colors on the Dick Allen make for a pretty sharp looking card. This is a set I probably should of given more of a shot in 2009.

The Barry Lersch card is from the High Numbered Series of 1971 Topps - you can follow Phungo quest for the 1971 Topps Phillies Team Set here.

February 2010 Pull of the Month and Million Card Give Away Dilemma

The dilemma is what should I do with my pull of the month?


It is one of the best cards I could of asked for - It is a Philllies Card. It is aVintage Card. and it is on Phils 1963 Topps Want List - Check, Check, Check.

Unfortunately somebody posted that the shipping is $2.92 per card + 53 cents for each additional card.

As much as I love this card - $3 to Topps is over the limit for me. Mauch is considered a great tactical manager, but he never reached the World Series - He was the Phils skipper who helmed the team during their historic 1964 collapse.

And his cards are basically commons. A quick study found that a 63 Topps Mauch card did recently sell for over $6 shipped on ebay - it was in EX-MT condition though. There were also over 50 commons that sold for under $2 shipped. I consider Mauch a common and can't see the 3 bucks.

For those of you that keep track of such things - my pull of the month came from a Mantle Card:


Meh of the Month


I could of just randomly selected almost any card that I got in my two rack packs of 2010 UD. And honestly the lamest card was probably the one of Target Field featured in my previous post - although I have started to see some better looking stadium cards from this set recently.

Instead I decided on this triumvirate of rather unflattering photos. I know Carlos Lee is a big man, and ditto for Kung Fu Panda - never thought of Marlon Byrd that way. But I think all three of these photos make these guys look a little chunky.

For a look back at January's Phungo Pull of the Month click here.

Phungo's Two Cents - 2010 Upper Deck

I am going to dedicate way to much time to this post - I found little to like about my first sample of 2010 Upper Deck Cards.

Full disclosure - if your here and have read much of my card specific commentary, it is likely evident that I am at Topps guy. Topps cards simply have history on their side - these are the cards of my youth and I enjoy that sense of history. So anything I follow up with here is likely tainted somewhat my a personal bias.

Ok now that I got that out of the way....

I had a fear that ones Topps got the exclusive MLB license that they would mail in the 2010 set. I think it is far more accurate to say that Upper Deck was the brand that mailed it in. I found 2010 UD boring and uninspired. I don't going with the Green Motif - which I have dubbed Green Eggs and Spam. if you know your not going to be able to use logos, why not use the team colors or at least the crayola crayons 8 base colors. Perhaps this would have been a violation of the Topps Exclusivity agreement - I don't know.

It's a Hit - Camden Yards Card


I don't really like the stadium cards, and I will get to that later, but this one here is a dandy.

Foul - First Card


Thumbs down on my first UD card of 2010 just because he is a member of the team that beat Phils in the World Series. The card is ok, the opinion is purely personal.

Mixed - Phillies

I picked up 3 Phils cards which is better then the 1 card I got out of 5 topps packs. A couple of set up guys and Jayson Werth. All three were members of the 2008 World Championship Phillies squad. I really like the Romero photo and consider it one of the better ones in the pack.

Foul - Tape Measures


These cards from this post are all from a pair of rack packs ($10.58 including PA Sales Tax). The UD Racks seemed to always have a lame insert. These cards are ok, but why not have the city name of the players? I mean they went to the trouble of naming the pitcher and the hand he throws with. Magglio Hit hist dinger on the Road, pictured in a Home Jersey. Votto hit his at home, here he is featured in a roadie. That to me is laziness on UDs part - Insert cards are supposed to be special treat them as if they are. The other two are probably 3rd jersey's so I am not sure on those two.

Mixed - Biography
I actually don't mind these - The two I got were probably the 2 furthest apart magnitude wise. Buerhle's card commemorates a great event while the other card is a footnote for a team that had little to cheer about last year. My biggest issue is that I have seen a lot of folks that have praised this set, yet 2008 Topps Year In Review was universally panned - it's the same stinkin set.

Home Run - Catcher Cards

UD knew that catchers in gear would not have many logos in view and they took good advantage of the situation. There were several good action shots of catchers in the 2 rack packs I opened.

Foul - b-sides


As usual UD left a good bit of exciting white space on the back of their cards.

Foul - Hidden Ball Trick?

I just got done praising the Catcher cards above then UD does this to me. The profile photo is in the way of the action in both catcher cards above and obscures the ball in the Inge shot. This is similar to something that handicapped 08 Topps when all the players had to "duck" out from under the Topps Logo.

miscellaneous nits

I don't like the cropping on the Samardzija. That may be nit-picking though. The stadium cards are generally boring. The under construction Target Field may be top of the list. And finally in general I do not like the Two player Team Checklist cards. I have almost always liked them before with only one player. maybe these will grow on me, but right now they are a thumbs down.

2010 Phungo Cards - Sidney Crosby

2010 Phungo #09 Sidney Crosby

ugh.

I am mostly over yesterday's game. Hockey is Canada's game and Canada is the 2010 Winter Olympics Host Country - and for those reasons it was good to see the Canadian team win.

I think it is time that we stop looking at USA Hockey as perennial underdogs. The Canadian and American squads were the only teams to be entirely made up of NHL players. I don't know a lot about hockey but while other countries may have professional leagues, I am not sure that they quite measure up to the caliber of hockey played in the NHL.

Going forward I would think that in the 2014 Solchi Olympics that team USA should come in as one of the favorites in Hockey, along with Canada and the host country, Russia. The Russian Federation perhaps had the most disappointing showing in the 2010 Olympiad and I would .

As with the past year, we have included some non-baseball subjects in the 2010 Phungo Set. I believe this is the first Phungo Hockey Card. I took this photo prior to a Pens Flyers game last January. If you ever get to the chance to go to a Hockey game, definitely try and check out the pre-game skate. It is the Hockey equivalent to Baseball BP. In Philadelphia they let you go down to the rows just off the ice. Just try and stand behind the net and not flinch as the pucks fly against the glass.

I have given Crosby card number '09' to mark the Penguins 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Championship. His position is 'c' for center and I suppose Captain also.

Congratulations to Team Canada and looking forward to 2014. USA! USA!