1910 Standard Caramel Deacon Philippe

Not something I would usually seek out, but I stumbled across one of these and somehow won with a $15 bid. From 1910 it's one year newer than the oldest card in my collection, but it is right up there with the oldest and coolest. It's not a tobacco card, it's a caramel card, 1910 Standard Caramel. Char'es "Deacon" Phillippe is a player I remembered reading about when I was a kid, though I had to look him up again to remember why. In 1903 he won the first World Series game, and he won 20 games in six different seasons. By 1910 the 38-year-old veteran was primarily a reliever, but went 14-2 with a 2.29 ERA, leading the NL in winning percentage.

The card is pretty thin, not paper thin but thinner than the typical baseball card. Even the back is cool with the checklist full of baseball demigods. "Base Ball" Stars! They even note that the drawings are "from original photographs". Modern technology! I also love the font at the bottom, which is very 19th century looking.

His last name is misspelled, making this an error card. What I did not know until looking him up just now is that he has a famous relative, a distant cousin who became an actor, named Ryan Phillippe. When Phillippe and actress Reese Witherspoon had a baby in 2003, they named him Deacon after Ryan's famous relative. Now Deacon Phillippe is an up-and-coming young musician and actor.
 

Cake or gum? 1977 Cesar Geronimo

Last time it was a 6-0 win for gum. Will cake get on the board here?

It looks like there is a steamboat in the background of the Hostess card, but I guess it's just the grandstand. Topps also has a spring training shot, in a more conventional location.

 Originally a Yankees prospect, Geronimo was a Rule V selection by the Astros in 1969. After three years in Houston with little playing time, he was a throw-in in the trade that sent Joe Morgan to the Reds. Though never a star like Morgan, Geronimo developed into an integral part of the Big Red Machine. The center fielder won four straight Gold Gloves from 1974 to 1977. In his best years he hit for some average with doubles power and a little speed. His production tailed off significantly when he turned 30 in 1978. He ended his career with three seasons as a backup outfielder in KC. Overall in 1,522 games he hit .258 with 161 doubles, 51 HR, 392 RBI and 82 SB. After his playing career, he was involved in many coaching and development endeavors in his native Dominican Republic. He is now retired.

Garage sale: a great opener and an OK sequel

First off, RIP former Yankee star Tommy John. He shared his favorite card with this blog in 2013. 

For the first time in a very long time, I got some good cards at a garage sale. I picked up two 800-count boxes and a binder for $30.

I'll start off with the binder, the first few pages of which were vintage. I needed the '63 Mauch and Purkey cards. 

The binder was heavy on Red Sox, including a lot of vintage team cards. Ironically enough there's a Tommy John Yankee card mixed in.

Most of the rest of the binder was junk wax stars mixed in with some cool 90's inserts.

Some more modern stuff too.

A '72 Johnny Bench sneaks in there.

The other two boxes were mostly from the "new junk wax era" of 2020 - present, but it was a nice mixture of all kinds of cards, and as you can see from this list, star heavy. Most of this list is probably all of the future hall of famers now playing. Except for Ohtani.

The inside of the box matches the description, Acuna, Alonso, Altuve, etc.

Aaron Judge cards!

 I enjoyed the "common inserts" as well, especially as they were mostly shiny parallels.

Fortunately it wasn't all 2020s cards, but they went back a few years.

Lots of refractors.

They don't photograph well but I like the old Denny's cards.

The other box was more of a mixed bag, but it was half full and he let me augment it with cards from other boxes.

Lots of mixed cards.

Quite a bit of shiny.

Threw in too minor league sets and an oddball Tigers set.

He insisted these Bobby Witt Jr and Bo Bichette cards were valuable, though I doubt it. Bichette has been a big bust for the Mets.

Some '89 Topps football cards to work on that set, all of them are big stars.

I pulled a few Bo Jacksons for Al.

An '84 Topps Traded need, a '73 high number checklist that will make good trade fodder, and some other odds and ends from a big box of mostly junk wax.

That box did have a lot of OPC and Leaf cards, predominantly of Pirates.

In that mix were two '84 Traded Pirates cards I don't need, and what I first thought was a traded Bill Virdon but it's actually a Tiffany. And then notice that '85 Topps card which is a little smaller than the standard sized cards. Talk about something you'd never expect to see at a garage sale!

Yes, there were five 1985 minis, all Pittsburgh Pirates! I had read about this set but had never seen any in person before. Apparently this was a Topps test run in Canada, never issued in the US, and there are only 132 cards - according to TCDB these are the only Pirates in the set.

It's hard to find much information on them online, they seem to be pretty rare. The Beckett book I have from a few years ago has them at $10 each, but also says there were less than 100 made. The backs are brighter than a standard Topps card, not as bright as an OPC or Tiffany.

I probably should have left well enough alone at that point, but when I got home I was thinking about other cards I saw but didn't buy. I reached out to the guy on Craigslist and went back this morning to look at more cards. I ended up spending another $30 but didn't do nearly as well. Kind of like Fuji a few weeks ago, the "private garage sale" sounds better in theory than it actually works.

Some of the cards I'd remember seeing had sold later. I did pick up another long box of rookies. This time he was asking $20 instead of $10. Still some good card but too much of it was 1980s. This was all players who had good careers but were not HOFers.

Lots of copies of Willie McGee, Danny Tartabull, etc. Rookies. Best trade fodder is the '75 Fred Lynn in very good condition, much better than most of the '75s I own.

I saw some boxes of '90 Leaf and I knew I had my wantlist on my phone and only needed a few cards. He told me to take both boxes for $5. I haven't sorted yet but my guess is it won't make much of a hit, especially as it's probably all commons. If you have a want list PLEASE send it my way, I'd love to make a big dent in these 1000+ '90 Leaf cards.

This page was in a binder of nonsports cards he said he bought from someone who was Canadian. (Maybe that's where the Canadian cards from yesterday came from?) Maybe there's a hockey collector who can use the two hockey cards (Ray Ferraro and Joe Sakic). There's an extra Sandberg there too.

Finally, he had a big box of stars that I pulled a few oddballs out of. $5 for these. My favorite by far is the 1992 Phil Rizzuto Money Store promotional card.

 

 

 

Cards from Night Owl

I got a nice little envelope from Night Owl.

Heavy on N.O.'s favorite year of '75, with four Topps minis and a Hostess card of Neon Cleon Jones. (I don't think he was ever called that, but he probably should have been.) There's also a nice shiny card of Camilo Doval, one of the worst Yankee pitchers in recent memory, and best of all a '55 Topps high number!

Glad to have some nice quick blog material come in the mail today. I've got a big garage sale haul to sort. Yes, garage sale haul, in 2026!
 

 

The Kim Rudolph collection

I found a lot on eBay that was mostly cards I didn't need, but it had three that would get me close on a couple of vintage sets. The seller had a vintage football lot too, I bid on both with the minimum bid and won. With a few exceptions, the cards are in great shape, except for the Kim Rudolph autograph on every card.

Clemente and McCovey are the two big names I still needed from the 1967 Topps Posters.  I still need Matty Alou and Bobby Knoop, those should not be too difficult to get. Luis Tiant gets me to just four needs in the '69 Topps set - Reggie, Mickey, Nolan, and a high number common of George Stone. There was also a '69 Topps Decal I needed, as well as a couple of back variations.

There were lots of cards leftover that will be tradebait, certainly for OBC but for blog traders too - as usual, if I have a better conditioned card I'll trade that one, the writing doesn't bother me. Starting off with a whole lot of '69 semi-highs, with a few big names in there.

Two '67 Topps posters available.

A whole lot of '67s, again with a few HOFers.

A few older cards, including most of a '59 Mantle baseball thrills!

The football lot was mostly cards I needed. My first five 1968 Topps Standups. All punched out but they look great. A lot of '69 stamps and one 1971 need. Some big names in those stamps.

My first '68 Topps poster. 

A whole lot of '68 Topps needs. I don't think I've gotten so many at once before, and I'm really appreciating the design of this set more.

Some '67 Philadelphias, including a great card with the Giant's Jerry Hillebrand taking down the Eagles Earl Gros with a nice open-field tackle. I love the cards with the action photos from Yankee Stadium.

Some football trade bait, a couple of '71s and a few '69 stamps.

 

1986 Renata Galasso Mattingly Puzzle #5

It's a night card! The Hit Man looks like he's having fun with this pose.

 

Series 2

Once again I decided to knock out the set by getting it all at once, a collated box from eBay for $30, so less than a dime a card. 

As usual there is a lot of sameness to the photo selection, but I was able to find some interesting cards. That Wyatt Langford card looks like a pretty good double play photo, except he's an outfielder!

I thought that Eric Wagaman card was a poorly photoshopped Marlins uniform - I forgot that's what the Twins uniform looks like these days. The Mike Tauchman card is definitely an AI uniform, though. My first thought on seeing the card was HoJo! Really looks like him there. And I had to include Trent Grisham who had a big day today, two HRs.

The JP Crawford card is a true DP card, with as high a leap as you'll ever see. Cool that there are separate cards for Ohtani as a hitter and a pitcher. He's at that level where you have to show his card whenever you get one. And that card at the bottom that looks like generic "players signing autographs" is actually Mike Trout and Zach Neto ripping packs. Which is a great idea for a card but lousy execution because you can barely see the cards.

Overall not bad. Not nearly as good as cards used to be, but better than a couple of years ago. Speaking about finding something to like about modern cards, I have never liked any of the "city connect" alternate uniforms. Until I saw this Astros uniform that looks like an astronaut's spacesuit. That would be awesome if it was Houston's regular uniform.

 

Wallet Card at the Village Plaza Hotel

The Hotel Colborne was constructed on Washington Place in Greenwich Village in 1915. By 1960 the name had changed to the Village Plaza Hotel, and around that time this sign was painted on the side of the building, with the note in the blue stripe that it was air conditioned. By this time, it had devolved from a luxurious tourist hotel to a single-room-occupancy welfare hotel. In 1967, one of the residents and her hippie boyfriend were killed in what were known as the "Groovy Murders". The comments section for the post on this hotel on the Ephemeral New York blog are a fascinating discussion on the people involved in that incident from those who were actually living in the Village as runaway teens at that time. In recent years, the building has become co-op apartments, but the old Village Plaza sign remains.