Another Card Show in Indiana

I was fortunate that a card show existed in Indiana yesterday.  It was about 45 minutes from home so I decided to check it out after doing some work around the house in the morning and getting in a short run.

As I left for the show my wife called to let me know that Bobby Hull was signing at a mall close to our house.  Not a big deal since I don't really have an interest in autographs.  There was not much traffic, it was easy to find, the parking lot was crowded and the show offered free admission.  That was a nice start. 

It was a solid crowd, there were at least 50 tables and the facility did a good job of keeping the spacing between rows.  Still all good.

I took a few laps around and the two things I noticed most were new insert cards and unopened boxes, mostly the blaster boxes seen at Target or Walmart.  I did see a few graded Kellogg's cards but that really isn't my thing.  

No photos since I didn't buy anything.  I don't know if I will go back to another show there.  I was debating going to the show or to the Baseball Card Exchange.  Next time I will go to BBCE.    

A Snowstorm Gave Me a Chance to Check out My 1970 Topps Set

I didn't feel like doing much after shoveling so I grabbed another set to check out between classes on an unplanned virtual learning day.  I will stick with the plan - just give my thoughts without any research.

The off-center cards in this set can look bad like the one below.  The line from above doesn't look good.  

The color of this checklist made it much easier to read than some other 1970s sets.  I didn't mark most of these ones.  For all of you youngsters (thanks Steve Stone), notice that it is the 1st Series. 

I had forgotten that they used cursive on this set.  No one uses cursive and I doubt that my students could even figure out how to write the letter z in cursive.  

The White Sox uniforms from the 1970s are all over the place.  They are blue, then red, then dark blue with softball shorts.  

The leader cards are great looking on the front.......

....but even better on the back.  Look how many leaders are listed 

When there is a tie, sometimes four leaders are shown.  How about this one with six?

The Kessinger card is one of those cards that just makes me happy to be a collector.  It looks just like it did when I was a kid.  

How do these line get so close to a card that is not that far off-center?

Lots of cards from this set show players at the bat rack. I do like that, but........

....way too many cards that are hatless or air-brushed like Sparky's.  That was always an easy thing to do when new teams joined the league.

We always were fine with getting managers that were once star players.

Like the Kessinger, this card really makes me want to go out and get more cards from 1970.

I always like the helmets without the ear flaps.

Getting a checklist that previewed cards that would be showing up later in the year was a tease.  Seeing that there would Sporting News All-Star cards was awesome, even if we only could see five of the position players on this checklist.

I really liked the card backs - a cartoon, full stats and a bit of text.  

Finally, the remaining all-stars.  

Two years in a row with great all-star cards.

The backs of the cards were great too. 

The Koosman does't look right to me.  Why?  The one I had in my box for years had the eyes burned out by someone who gave it to me.  

Hawk and his batting gloves.  

Floating heads in the team picture.  I want to look it up but I won't. This isn't the only time this has been done on a team card.

This is a pose we see more of in newer cards.  Someone maybe noticed their arm in this card.  

A classic pose.  I wouldn't like this for a common card, but for a Hall of Famer, that is fine.  

Photographer to his/her boss - "How can we make Mickey Lolich look really short on his card?"

The cartoon mentions that Selma was a cheerleader for the Bleacher Bums in 1969.  I have the record that they recorded from that season.  A bit premature since they didn't even win the division.  

Is Gene's real first name Fury?

Will the New ebay Shipping Policy Change How You Buy - or Sell?

 This has been talked about for a while and now it is happening.  

New ebay Shipping for Trading Cards

This will allow for shipping costs of $1 or less, which will include tracking.  

I rarely buy individual cards on ebay - Kellogg's, Sportscaster or anything else.  Why?  A $1 card ends up costing about  $5 - $6 when adding shipping and tax.  Maybe this new policy will change things.  

This might also allow me to get rid of some of the basketball cards that I really don't collect.  

If I needed a common card, like Steve Kline, I would rather wait to find it than pay at least $5 for it with shipping.  

If dealers and collectors get on board with this I may start buying cheap individual cards.  How about you?  Will your buying or selling habits changed based on this news?

 

Time To Check Out Some of My 1976 Topps Cards

 In keeping with my goal of checking out my other cards, here are some of my 1976 Topps cards along with a few comments that came to mind without any research.

For the fourth year in a row Topps had Hank Aaron on the first card in the set.  Just another reason we knew that he was the best guy in baseball.  

From 1967 to 1972 card #1 featured the league leaders from the previous year or the team picture of the World Series champs.  I used to know who was card #1 in every Topps set up to 1990, but now I can only think of some of them.  How many can you name?

Stennett's card was a painful reminder of the Pirates crushing the Cubs.  FYI - we never had any previews of subsets or anything in 1976.  We found these things out by getting a checklist or getting a subset card.  My friends and I would try to see if we had all of the checklists so that we could find out what was included in the set.  

What a great hat.  The NFL would fine players for that.

Yes, this is still me marking up my cards.  No online lists, no home printer, no internet, etc.  This worked for me.  

One of my final two cards for the set.  Almost.  

We loved the back of the cards and we were excited that Fred was born in Chicago.  His was one of the most chased cards of the year.

The game action was really great in 1976.  I always liked the design too.

Baker and Spencer.  The last two I needed - almost.

In the early 1970s it seemed like all of the A's were going to the Hall of Fame.  They all made big free agent money.  

I used blue pen as usual.  

Old school - two hands on the mitt.  

More great action shots.

I liked seeing the stadiums in the background although the scoreboard is usually more interesting.

One of my favorites.

He doesn't look really fast here.  Sorry, that's not just the track coach here talking.  I saw him play for the Cubs.  Nice background star here - is that Mike Schmidt?  I'm going to stick to my plan and not look into it.

This just looks like a slow knuckle ball will be heading in soon.

There's Wrigley Field.  

My friend went to one game in college and got a BP ball that Hendrick hit.

I was needing a few of the rookie cards to complete my set.  I did like these cards.  

I just needed Spencer and Baker until I ended up getting this checklist and a few traded cards in what we thought was a normal pack.  How about that card numbering?  I really needed to fill in the checklist since they were not consecutively numbered.  

What made the traded cards worse?  They were not well done at all.  

It gets worse.  Airbrushing, no action and I was getting a bunch of them in each pack.  

Everyone knew Ed Armbrister after the 1975 World Series.  

Everyone knew Dave Winfield long before and after the 1975 World Series.  He looked like a giant here. 

"That George Brett card is off center" said no one ever to me in 1976.  It was just part of my set.  I know now that it is a condition sensitive card, but I will stick to the no research plan.   

Brooks can't even look at the Brett card since it is so off center.  I should have listened to Robinson.

I'd forgotten that Bull had such a big year.  He also had longer sideburns that the other two. 

I never liked Rose because he always found ways to win and I was never a Reds fan.  Topps did get some great cards for him.

More great action shots - one of AL's best.  

More great action shots - one of NL's best.  

This was one of our favorite subsets.  We were playing Strat-o-matic baseball at this point so we knew lots of stats about the old timers.  

Carter was always fun to watch.  The trophy worked well with the 1976 design. 

I was tempted to buy a pack at BBCE yesterday, but I didn't see anything older than 1980 on display.  Good thing too, because I probably would have been too cheap to actually make that purchase.