Seeing Red, Three Times

I could space these out just so there are new posts to make.  There's not much to say on any of them and that would be pointless.  I bring you three mail days in one post.

I decided to take the plunge and attempt to complete the 2016-17 Parkhurst Red parallel set.  The most expensive card will be the Auston Matthews.  I got it in one of the blasters that I opened.  That made this decision much easier.

The top group of cards is 19 from Robby (@robbyt86 on Twitter).  We've made a couple of trades and he was able to help me out once again!  The second group is 25 that I bought off Sportlots.com for a quarter each.  The bottom group is 50 cards that I picked up in an eBay lot.  

2016-17 Parkhurst Red #174 Andrew Shaw

I was also fortunate enough to get a couple Andrew Shaw cards in there.  I didn't have one yet, but one was being held by a friend until we complete a trade.  It's always nice to knock one of the few needs that I actually have off the list.  

I will try and pick up a few more lots before working on a checklist.  If you have a solid lot of these that you're not too in love with, feel free to let me know and maybe we can work something out! 

A Strang Mailday

It's been awhile since I've added to my T36 set.  I had to take a look back through my eBay purchases to see that the last one probably arrived in October.  That'll happen when you're not willing to pay for overpriced buy it now eBay items.

1911 American Tobacco Auto Drivers #22 Lewis P. Strang

1911 American Tobacco Auto Drivers #22 Lewis P. Strang

I've already picked up cards from this set of other Indianapolis 500 drivers, including a winner.  Now I have THE card of the pole sitter for the Inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911.  This is the only card of Lewis P. Strang listed on either Sports Card Forum or Trading Card Database.

Strang was relieved during the race and the car finished 29th, completing just 109 of the 200 laps.  He was passed on the first lap and did not lead any laps during the race.  It would be his only appearance in the 500.  In an ironic twist of fate, he was killed less than two months later "while driving along a country road at no more than four miles an hour."

LINK:  Vanderbilt Cup Races - Lewis Strang
LINK:  Hemmings Daily - How Strang met his death
LINK:  The First Super Speedway - Mr. & Mrs. Lewis Strang

This card is my fifth unique front from the set of 25.  I have seven total (out of what I think are 100 cards) now.  If you haven't read my posts from Bean's Ballcard Blog, I suspect that there are four back variations for each card, but I haven't been able to confirm that so far.

I just wish more of these would come up at auction so that I could get them at a realistic price and add to my collection at a much faster pace.  Patience may be a virtue, but it's annoying!

A Pre-War Mailday

On Thursday, I received an envelope with a handful of cards from Anson.  He had some old tobacco cards that didn't fit into his collection and I promised to give them a good home.

If you don't know Anson, you can follow him on Twitter at @AnsonWhaley. He has a great site, Pre-War Cards (@prewarcards) and also contributes on Sport Collectors Daily.

Now, the cards...

1925 Turf Cigarettes #13 Motor Racing

1925 Turf Cigarettes #13 Motor Racing (back)

I don't know much about this card.  I can't seem to find much information on it.  The only thing that my quick search turned up was this at prewardcards.com.

1936 John Player & Sons - Motor Cars #26 Maserati

1936 John Player & Sons - Motor Cars #26 Maserati (back)

1936 John Player & Sons - Motor Cars #27 Mercedes-Benz

1936 John Player & Sons - Motor Cars #27 Mercedes-Benz

1937 John Player & Sons - Motor Cars Second Series #31 M.G. Midget Series "T" Two-Seater

1937 John Player & Sons - Motor Cars Second Series #31 M.G. Midget Series "T" Two-Seater (back)

I believe that I already have some of the cards from the 1936 set.  It looks like I will be putting this set together.  I've seen them online and they aren't too expensive, considering the cards are 80 years old.

1938 Churchman's Cigarettes #9 Dave Crowley 

1938 Churchman's Cigarettes #9 Dave Crowley (back) 

I had mentioned boxing cards as well and Anson also included it.  Looks like it's time for me to do some more research.

Thank you so much, Anson!

So It Begins...

After listening to David Wright (@LongFlyBall on Twitter) on last week's episode of Beckett Radio, I am hooked the 1991 Topps set.  Like any good, all-American 12-year old I had plenty of of these in 1991 but I am starting from scratch.

Much has been written about the errors, variations and glow backs.  I'm not going to post that here.  If you don't know and are interested, check out Junk Wax Gems and this article from tanmanbaseballfan.com.

My first purchase was a 500-count vending box off eBay.  It is also the first vending box I've ever purchased.

Starting from scratch and only taking glances at some of the information on the web, I didn't know too much about these.  I thought that the glow backs were rare but to my surprise the they accounted for more than 75% of the vending box.

The glances I've taken at online info has discussed the sheets, so I broke down the cards by sheet and whether or not they are glow backs.

***None of the cards were with the bold 40th Anniversary logo.***

It's possible I miscounted somewhere and that's how I ended up with 512.  Or maybe I got lucky.

My three favorite cards from the box are glow backs.  I will probably try to pick up all back variations of them (along with Will Clark).  Sorry for the off-center picture but I wasn't willing to take another.  I wanted to show a picture of the glow back, but I had no luck getting good pictures.

You may or may not have caught it in the chart above, but there was one card in the box that does not have a sheet designation for it.  It's also entirely possible that I am blind and missing something in my old age.  It's something that I will be looking more into.  It's a shame this card has a defect/marking on the back in the doubles column.

There's a final card I want to show from this box.  I'm sure I've seen it a million times and on it's own, it's just a cool picture.  It's having the knowledge of this and a card that would be produced later that makes me wonder if any player has ever had a more...shall we say, interesting...couple of pictures on their cards.  It is the only thing that I will probably ever know Oscar Azocar for.

Oscar Azocar 1991 Topps

Oscar Azocar 1993 Stadium Club

I ordered a couple more vending boxes today, so there will be more 1991 Topps analysis to come.

One Trade Closer to Completion

Six days ago I wrote a post about a Twitter trade pickup for my 2016-17 Parkhurst Hockey set.  Three of us on Twitter helped each other inch closer to completion and earlier this week I received a mailer from Robert (@robbyt86 on Twitter).  Thank you so much, Robert!  

After getting this lot of cards into my set, it stand at 355 of 400 cards, or 88% complete.  Just 45 more to go and I have another 20 coming from a collector on the Sports Card Forum boards.  Once I receive those, I will bump my post in those forums in hopes I can complete a final trade to knock the rest of the cards off.  If not, I may just have to go the Sportlots.com route.  If you opened any of these and have some to spare, you can find my set needs here.  

Chasing that (Blue) Rainbow

The Andrew Shaw player collection is getting that "THAT" point again.  If you are a player collector, you know the point.  There comes a time where you have all of the easy(er)-to-find cards.  This was has been on the radar awhile but I've just been waiting on the price to drop.  After ending yet another auction as the second highest bidder, I decided to just make an offer on one and see if I could just cross this one off the list.

2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Platinum Blue Rainbow #AS Andrew Shaw

2015-16 O-Pee-Chee Platinum Blue Rainbow #AS Andrew Shaw (back)

The most accurate statement I can make about the collection as this time is "then there were two."  The only two "easy-to-find" cards I need are the 2016-17 Parkhurst Red and Black parallels.  I say that, but there's a fellow collector that has the red for me.  There are blacks available, but I'm waiting for a better price.  I don't want to spend $5 on a parallel card.  

Other than those two cards, everything I need is either numbered to ten or less, an unnumbered but scarce card or one the six cards from the 2016-17 SP Game Used set that hasn't been released yet.  Of those, four should be relatively affordable.  The ones numbered to 15 and 6, I'm not sure what to expect.  

THE ANDREW SHAW PROJECT STATS:
137/183 (74.9%) of all cards per Sports Card Forum
128/141 (90.8%) non-1/1
9/42 different 1/1s (21.4%)
10 additional cards not listed on SCF
Numbers as of January 18, 2017

The Unlikey Duo of Parkies and My Alma Mater

If you say "Parkies" to a card collector and anytime comes to their mind, it's like a hockey card.  There aren't any NHL alumni that played at my alma mater, West Virginia University.  The card that arrived today was a John Bove/Bovey card from the 1952 Parkhurst CFL set, featuring him with the Ottawa Rough Riders.

I didn't know of this card until a year ago.  I stumbled upon the footballcardgallery.com function to filter by school.  The West Virginia University search turned it up, revealing one of the five oldest cards picturing a former Mountaineer.  I searched ol' feeBay and while none were listed, there was one in the completed listings.  It gave me hope that I'd both be able to run across a copy, and find it at a price I was comfortable with.

Fast forward until today...and this beauty is FINALLY mine.

1952 Parkhurst #71 John Bovey

If you noticed above (and I'm sure that you did), I listed his name as "Bove/Bovey,"  The footballcardgallery.com link states that the card is an uncorrected error.  John Bovey doesn't exist, despite what the card says.  I took a quick look at wvustats.com and it confirmed that the name is (or should be) Bove.  

John Bove on Wikipedia

John Bove on Just Sports Stats

1952 Ottawa Rough Riders Roster

John Bove on WVUStats.com

I was convinced that this card back was just, as Beckett used to list them, a "UER" (uncorrected error). 

1952 Parkhurst #71 John Bovey (back)

All information tells me that is information is correct.  In my heart, I believe it.

However, while doing a quick search on the interwebz for this post, something struck me as odd.  This story from ottawacitizen.com on Moe Racine refers to "Rough Rider middle wing John Bovey" suggesting that Racine try out for the Rough Riders.  Is it possible there was a John Bove and  John Bovey both on the Ottawa team in the 1950s?  I doubt that.  

This article on the Ottawa RedBlacks site, posted a little more than a year later, quotes Racine as saying "I was getting ready to play junior football in Cornwall, Ontario. Our coach, John Bove, had played with the Ottawa Rough Riders. Given my size at 6’3 and 250 pounds, he encouraged me to try out for the Rough Riders."

It certainly seems odd that two stories about the same man would list someone that convinced him to play football with two different names.  It's even more odd that they are the two names associated with the latest addition to my WVU collection.

My Day With the Cup #NHL100

Well it wasn't like this...

Or anything like this...

However, I did get see and get my picture taken with the Stanley Cup today.

Today the second greatest trophy in all of sport was in Dallas as a part of the NHL's Centennial Celebration.  The lady and I decided to go down to the AAC and check it out.  Never take for granted an opportunity like this because you never know when the opportunity will arise again.

In addition to seeing the Cup, there was a trailer that had some memorabilia and other displays.

There were some cool things to see that unless I some day go to the Hockey Hall of Fame, I would never see in person.

I love the photo opportunity that the NHL provided with this.  If you notice, my (our?) last name is at the top where the name plate would be, along with a number of your choosing.  They put 65 for me (since I was wearing my Andrew Shaw sweater) and she chose 29 since our birthdays are both on January 29.  That's kind of a big deal to us!  I mean, how many couples do you know whose birthday is on the same day?

I may not have the prettiest form, but for someone that never played hockey I feel that I get some pretty damn good velocity and height on the puck (that was actually a ball).  I did play a good amount of sports as a kid and even played softball up until about three years ago, but I think this is the most sports-related thing the lady has ever seen me do.  

Philip Pritchard (@keeperofthecup) was there (obviously) and graciously took pictures with anyone that asked.  It's not a bad job that he has and it definitely has made him a celebrity.  

Meet Phil Pritchard, Keeper of the Stanley Cup - Men's Fitness

NHL: What's life like for the keepers of the Stanley Cup - ESPN.com

Ten Questions with Phil Pritchard, the Keeper of The Stanley Cup ...

Because It's the Cup | The Players' Tribune

Anyway, on to the reason that we went...and there's nobody in the world that I'd rather have shared the experience with than this lady.  She's the best thing to ever happen to me.

It may not have been the greatest day of my life, but it was one that I will not forget until the good Lord starts taking my memories from me.