Vintage purchase roundup

It's been a month since I did one of these, so four weeks of Greg Morris auction results.

Lots of fielding poses in this one, and some new-to-me oddball sets with the '52 Wheaties Bob Lemon and the two 1936 S and S game cards.

The next week would have been a dud if not for my first four '71 Milk Duds.

Pretty good mixture here, if lacking with star power.

Then last week I went out with a bang. Five '36 Goudey wide pens . . .

. . . my first eight National Chicle Fine Pens . . .

. . . and some really good vintage star power.

I say "going out" because I got laid off this week, and in this brutal job market it could be a long time before I find something else. I have savings so I'm not immediately hurting, but it was an easy decision to go cold turkey on eBay. I'm still up for small trades though - a dollar postage here or there won't break the bank. Hopefully it's not a long hiatus but it's a good time to go back to my roots as a low-end collector.

It was also a good month in general for random eBay winnings. A couple of '63 Posts with Yogi Berra...

. . . one of the top multi-player cards of the 1960s . . .

. . . another vintage Mays (with Topps's guess at the SF logo) . . .

. . . and a 1949 Bowman Ralph Kiner!

Even a couple of modern purchases worth a buck or two recently. I liked the look of these cards, part of a 20-card Kevin Maas set put out in 1991.

Finally, there was no way I could pass up this card for $2. A vintage photo of Mickey Mantle on a Manhattan street - that is certainly right up my alley! This is the corner of Sixth Avenue and Central Park South, site of the St. Moritz hotel, where Mantle lived for many years. One time Mantle and Billy Martin were caught dumping water out of Mantle's window onto the pedestrians below. Mantle spent so much time at Harry's Bar at the St. Moritz that he chose that location to open his famous restaurant in 1988. This photo looks like it dates back to the early 1970s, judging by the cards and the sideburns.