Cookie Monster

Well, that's a twisted title I've found for that article...if anyone understands it, well, congrats, we think alike !

Anyway, I've been going on and on about my love for beat up vintage, but I got that beauty a couple of weeks ago, and I can't help but show it off. I wanted to keep it and make a whole post about some vintage baseball I've been winning on ebay, but as great a service as comc mailboxes is, it takes a looooong time for their packages to get here. The good thing as that I'll win an auction, then it takes a week for it to get to comc headquarters, then they send a picture of what was in the envelope so it's like having a skype meeting with it and getting to know it a little, and then I'll have it shipped to me, and I have time to forget all about, since it takes about a month to arrive. Anytime now....

I got it for $10, shipped to me directly. It's in a nice screw down I had from my earlier collecting days, before one touch and 100 pt cards became the norm.

Since this hobby is somewhat an obsession of mine right now (don't worry, I eat and sleep and interact with other people in real life. I even take showers), I have a whole bunch of side projects for my collection. The obvious ones are Blue Jays and Knicks cards (even though basketball cards under Panini are even worse than baseball under Topps), along with Griffeys.

But I'm also trying to compile a nice collection of significant cards that have impacted the hobby. Some, of course, are wayyyyyy out of my league and my price range, so let's forget about pre-war and 1952 Mantles, but most other cards can be found in bad shape for not that much, since Poor or fair cards are worth 5 to 10% the nr mint value. The difficult part is to find an auction that doesn't end in the middle of the night, I'm tired of being outbid on 1955 Ted Williams cards at the last second. And Mr Cub here s on my cute little list of essentials (Jackie Robinson, Berra, Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Koufax, Brooks Robinson are others I'm trying to get each year's card of). I wrote down book value for those (bv is relevant for vintage, I think. At least, I've noticed that the prices are pretty accurate, even for low grade cards), along with prices for them on comc and ebay. Let the hunting begin.

Significant cards from the 70s and 80s come much cheaper, especially since I don't really care about grade or condition. I'm sure Mattingly and Ripken RCs can be found easily for less than $10. The high numbered Mike Schmidt might prove a little trickier. And you know what ? I don't even own THE Griffey jr RC. I don't remember where I read this, but I think they estimate that there's something like 3 Million of them in existence. They can't ALL be graded...

That's the great thing about cards : there are so many angles as to how to collect. 

I'm not a big fan, but I'll try and get every Topps base card of Nolan Ryan.His career did span 4 decades after all, should be interesting to have them all lined up in a binder.

I'll also try and get one card from the playing days of each member of the famous 50 club, voted in 1996 for the NBA. It's actually pretty easy to accomplish, as vintage basketball is really cheap. There's only the matter of Bill Russell  that's going to complicate that feat.

And I'm pretty sure the number of lists will just go on and on and on and I'll never finish a single one. Which is fine by me. It's the drive that gets us going.