October Pick-Ups...
 

Well, guess it's time to get the new month started.

I grabbed up this 1963 Fleer Koufax...

Attachment 420526

It's graded a PSA 7, but it definitely has some staining on back in two of the corners (the scan makes it look a helluva lot more dark and conspicuous than it really is) that PSA either missed or didn't think was unnatural (?), so it's a bit of a bummer. However, I'm happy to have Sandy's smiling countenance on board!!

Awhile back, I got a '59 Mays AS psa 7 that had the same kinda thing on the front. It was a little more obscure and I didn't even notice at first, especially since I naturally wasn't expecting anything like that on a slabbed 7. So I ended up stuck with the lot that it was sold in.

I always assumed someone had switched the real PSA 7 out and pulled one over on me. But after seeing that Koufax, who knows

In complete fairness to the seller, he made no bones about it and openly talked about the stain in his listing, even calling it/referring to it as a PSA 7 ST.

Very Excited to show this one off. One of the highlights of my ever growing collection. Had to pass on a similar one earlier in the year, this one's definitely a beauty. Thank you to Charlietheexternimantor for such a smooth transaction. Introducing the 1952 Berk Ross Mickey Mantle.

https://i.imgur.com/fPZ9bdC.png
https://i.imgur.com/IvOglZr.png

Added the Duke to my 1952 low-number working set.

Wrong back cards are always cool

Is that a wrong back from an entirely different product? Now that's interesting.

Exactly what I was thinking. Did they ever do this as some kind of advertising sheet, or would this just have been an accident at the printing plant?

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/zoIAA...k7/s-l1600.jpg

postmarked in 1953

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/DE4AA...JA/s-l1600.jpg

Looks to be 1951 from the patch on the sleeve; I like the proper name signature.

Adam - That Minoso is off the charts! Very nice pick-up.
RayB

What I was thinking as well.

Great grab, Adam.

59 Aaron
 

Despite the pitfalls of buying on Ebay, I've picked up some truly exceptional deals in auctions. I am very proud of this one that just arrived, its easily NM in my opinion, and I paid well below recent sales.

Sick!!!!

Yes. I’ve got many blank back Brock cards and a handful of wrong baseball backs but this is different

At Last.
 

Finally got a Wilson Franks that wasn't beat to hell. One of the most beautiful Williams cards IMO, glad to put a check mark next to that one. Also a nice 53 Jackie.

Both are great cards! That Williams is especially nice. It's a card that I would like to own someday. Well done!

Recent eBay pickup...

Great stuff! Nice Jackie and Ted Williams.

The 1974 Carlton looks great for an 8!

Congrats on that Williams! Top shelf

Thanks. Something about that card triggered my obsessive gene. It's also funny if you look at that card and imagine Teddy Ballgame fouling off a pack of weenies.

They are on eBay frequently and they usually sell in the $100+/- range. Nearly all of them are from the 1973 second series sheet 133-264, but I have seen some from the first series sheet 1-132. I don't know if they were a test run with leftover Wacky Packages backs, a mistake, or someone at the plant fooling around, but they are always perfectly aligned on the front and the back which is unusual because in other similar situations the backs are almost always misaligned from the fronts. What I wonder is were they cut up back in 1973 or did someone cut up sheets in the past ten years to sell them individually on eBay?

Picked up a 1960 NU BASEBALL HI-LITES card to display with my Fred Snodgrass autograph. Honestly, I thought they were regular card size, but it's kinda cool that they're bigger (display wise that is).

Picked up awhile ago
 

On my way to a quartet of 1956 set building.

This is the type of card I like to refer to as 'the reality of the wax pack.' Sure, according to the grading standards PSA established for themselves, the card is technically off-centered. No argument there, but this is undoubtedly what 99.9% of the cards coming out of Topps packs looked like in the summer of '64...imperfectly centered. However, the snow-white corners are sharp and beautiful, and I would never look at this quartet of sluggers and immediately think, "Hey, that card is off-center!!" No frickin' way!!

Attachment 421953

Considering the other cards in this thread, the one I picked up isn't much. It's rather the equivalent of "bringing a knife to a gunfight" or something similar.

Still, as a lifelong Phillies fan, I really like this card. Ruthven was a key pitcher on the 1980 staff that finally won a World Series...the first one in the team's then-97-year history.

It was on my eBay watch list for a while. After looking at it for the umpteenth time, I decided to just buy it. At less than $16 shipped, the card was well worth it to me.

Beautiful Ruthven, Eric - great cards in this thread, overall, but yours is what it's all about...

Thank you. I appreciate the kind words.

I picked up another 1970's Topps card of a Philadelphia Phillies pitcher last week. This '72 issue focuses on the trade which brought Carlton to Philly. It would mark the beginning of spectacular run. "Lefty" would win the Cy Young Award that year, his first of four in eleven seasons.

Added this to my Koufax thread but pretty excited about this one....

https://i.ibb.co/Mcy44PY/B4-DF98-D5-...-A6-BD91-A.jpg

Picked up a Banks RC and a few more 52 high numbers at the Tampa show today. Inching forward on each of these sets.

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Nice Pickups everyone! Love those high numbered Topps!

October's been a good month collecting wise, as I knocked out another Mantle on my quest. Earlier in the year, I posted across two threads that I ordered a 53 Bowman Mantle through ebay, it was delivered to the wrong address, stolen and relisted by a different seller one state away. Since then I've been on the hunt for one as good looking if not better. I made a couple of posts on here, and on FB groups but I didn't find one that I liked at a good price point.

I struck gold on this pickup. As some know, I buy strictly for eye appeal, meaning that even if it came back with an A grade, as long as it looks good, I'll buy it. Gotbaseballcards listed this beautiful AA 53 Mantle on ebay, I watched it for a bit, multiple auctions ended, I contacted the store directly and low behold roughly a week later it arrives. Beautiful picture, slight corner issue in the upper right hand corner, but I could not be happier with it, especially at the price I paid.

https://i.imgur.com/2oUqIjv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Wit4wwY.jpg

Picked up this classic card.

Beautiful card, even if it’s technically (OC) it’s imperfectly perfect.

That's a really crisp Campy.

Thanks. I wasn't looking for it but thought the same thing, and picked it up.

Great looking, very well centered 52's! Congrats.

Great looking cards everyone. Been a while since since I've updated in post war but I can add this one which I finally received Friday.
Looks good to me. Other 52's match in size perfectly (laying cards on top through the slab) so not trimmed/doctored, imo. Now, just need to make my mind up to crack or not? The scratch/gouge is fairly deep so I'm leaning towards cracking.

Edited: need to take a better picture.

Picked up a perfectly (to me at least) centered semi high. At 300/310 for my low numbers now.

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67 Seaver
 

Got this one back from PSA.

Nice card. SP to boot.

Congrats on a great looking card.

That's a great looking Bill Denehy rookie card. Congrats on the grade.

Thank you. I perked up when running across this one, as I’ve been searching for nice SPs. Been trying to focus on centering/color more, so this satisfies.

Mail day!

https://net54baseball.com/picture.ph...ictureid=29057

Beautiful, congrats. To me this card is ridiculously underrated - for the points you make. It's his first card with the Phillies, the team he is best remembered on. Moreover, '72 for Carlton was one of the best seasons any pitcher ever had in the history of the game. If that was a Nolan Ryan card, it would be worth 4 or 5 times what Lefty is. Makes no sense. He's underrated everywhere, but that fact has always struck me about the '72 Traded.

Like you, I perked up when I seen this one, especially since it was from a CDN seller.
Not as nicely centered as yours, but still in really nice shape, imo.

The Reg-gie has a touch of snow around the face area, but it's a classical card that is pretty frickin' beautiful. The 1972 #52 Harmon Killebrew In Action is a card I am semi-obsessed with, having started a thread about it awhile back. For a ridiculously ubiquitous card, this sucker is nearly impossible to find without being completely off-centered and/or with a horrible leftward tilt. PSA 8's usually go for a song, but finding one as nicely centered as this guy is a tough feat.

Attachment 423914


To illustrate the point, I grabbed these five screenshots of PSA 9 cards that were sold. PSA 9!! Look at the centering and tilting involved. It is par for the course...

Attachment 423915Attachment 423916Attachment 423920
Attachment 423917Attachment 423918

Always loved 74 Carlton and man that 54 Wilson Franks Ted Williams is sweet-- one of my favorite cards in the hobby. Congrats, guys.

I’ve always loved this card. Amazing looking for the grade. Tough to find centered like this too.

October Pick-Ups...
 

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My purchases have tapered off a bit since their summer fury, but I did add this one recently. The subject of many "Hall of Very Good" debates - but still a great ballplayer who is underappreciated today on the whole - Vada Pinson.

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One of the truly underrated. Beautiful card. I have his 1960 Topps. By all accounts, a good guy as well as a good ballplayer. And he was born in Memphis!