Just Because Football is Over, Doesn't Mean "It's Baseball Season"

I kept seeing it over and over on Monday.  "It's baseball season."  I get it, I really do.  It's America's past time.  Baseball dominates both the trading card and blogosphere landscape.  It's never "baseball season" in my world.

It IS racing season, though.  IndyCar starts up soon and the Month of May will be here before I know it!  This mail day is an Indy 500 one.

1954 Parkhurst Race Against Time #32 – Bill Vukovich (front)

This is my second copy of the card and both of them have been liberated from Canada.  I wrote about the first one here, on Bean's Ballcard Blog.  It didn't cost me much, but it's not a card that I see too often.  I'll continue picking up all copies that I find, if the price is right. 

I Wish I Knew More

One of my favorite pieces that I've written and posted on Bean's Ballcard Blog is a piece titled "Frustration in the Unknown."  It's a piece about how little information there is on collecting vintage racing cards.  There's just not much information on them, even in the interwebz age where you can find "anything" on the web.

These cards were produced nearly 40 years after the ones in the article above, yet I can't find any more information on them than this from Beckett:

"Oversized versions (approximately 3" by 4") of six cards exist featuring the fronts of 12 Hawes Wax cards (#9/26/29/31/33/35/37/38/39/40/43/44) placed back-to-back. Reportedly, the six cards were part of a game produced in Canada that also included additional cards of non-racing subjects. These six cards are valued at approximately $20.00 each."

I picked up five of the six cards in one eBay purchase.

Front 

Back

Front

Back

Front

Back

Front

Back

Front

Back

While I'd not seen these before (and I've been looking for cards from the set for almost a year), two listings of the oversize cards came up within a month.  Unfortunately I didn't get the other one, which did have the sixth card.  While I didn't get it this time, there will be another opportunity.  Patience is key for me when searching for vintage cards.

I planned to slowly piece together the regular set, but last year, I found a complete set at auction for a very nice price and snagged it.  It cost me about 20% of what it was going to cost me to piece the set together.  If you're interested to see the set, I have scanned the pages here.

Now that football season is over, I am getting back into racing mode.  It will be another two months before IndyCar starts, but I have the 24 Hours of Daytona to look forward to.  Before we know it, it will be the month of May and time for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, the Indianapolis 500.