Congrats on completing the set!

thanks again! showed up today..

I got these a few months ago and finally got around to scanning them. I thought they were pretty cool.

http://photos.imageevent.com/mhgt/ho...ror%20back.jpg
http://photos.imageevent.com/mhgt/ho...ror%20back.jpg

[IMG]http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3avudw3v.png[/IMG]

My first post on here, grabbed all these today for an amazing price and wanted to share, all HOF'ers except Lamonica, various conditions but nothing terrible. Best local pickup Ive had in quite some time.

Way to go!

Is there a 63 Deacon Jones? One of my favorite cards.

Oddly enough there wasnt, the guy had a ton of 63 but no Deacon.

I picked up a couple of 55 AA cards in Steve Novella auctions recently. A couple of things jumped out at me:

-thought Nevers played more than 5 pro seasons
-had no idea Stanford used to be known as the Indians - was surprised to see that mascot on the card
-Henry's timing was pretty good - the start of his pro career lined up exactly with the start of the NFL in 1920

Sorry you didnt read my message on that Nag a while back in AH.
BUt i am informing/PM'ed about a Nag 1.5 that is for sell, if you reading this.

There were lots and lots of really great players in the 20s and 30s who either didn't play professional football at all or had short careers and quit. I think it mostly had to do with deciding that it was time to find a career to pursue as playing football just wasn't lucrative enough to make it worthwhile for most. For those athletes not interested in business, law, or medicine, it seems like coaching / athletic administration was the field of choice and so a lot quit football to become coaches or went straight into coaching after college.

I can probably rattle off 10-20 players that, if they had just continued playing the sport, would be in the pro football HOF today.

jeff

Right, that's a really good point Jeff. I actually did some research on players from the 30s that I'll share with the board before the end of the summer and I realized the same - for any career 3-4 years (even though that seemed short to me at first) I gave consideration to the player for my analysis. A lot of them had short careers/moved on like you said. Not sure of the effect of the depression - it could probably be argued some played a little longer due to lack of better alternatives - I have no idea on that one.

But Nevers? Such a huge name, I wouldn't have guessed that Grange's career was essentially twice as long..

There is a fair bio on Nagurski that came out about ten years ago by Jim Dent, MONSTER OF THE MIDWAY.

While I consider Dent the best college football author of this era this is not his best effort though still very readable. Apparently Bronko made twice the money wrestling than he did in football during those years. Perhaps a bigger factor was that he had a very private personality, he loved farm life and later he owned a gas station in International Falls and just didn't like travel that much.

I wrote to him twice, sending black and white 8 x10s and both times he signed them very quickly and sent them back, very nice man. I did the same with Grange back in the early 80's and he did the same. I always felt like I had the Ruth and Cobb of football!

Nevers footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pttgKlG8Vds

Enjoy!

jeff

My great uncle Jack Green(who is in 55 all american set) went that route. He had a lot of interest from teams but coaching paid him a lot more, he eventually ended up as head coach at vanderbilt. The $ back then for playing was terrible, hard to comprehend it with todays pro contracts.

Wow, that's cool! I'm working on a signed set of '55 AA cards and need Jack Green. Do you have any autographed cards?

jeff

Mike, thats awesome that you got Grange and Nagurski to sign!

I really enjoyed Dent’s book - I’m going to reread it at some point - one of the best things he did to me was bring a lot of the other Bears personalities to life (Luckman, Bulldog Turner, Musso, etc.). My one issue was that, in my opinion, he took some , um…. “creative liberties” - I don’t have a real problem with it - those are the parts that made it so readable - I just don’t think anyone could’ve known some of the details he added. Quick funny story - after I finished it - I checked the Amazon reviews and someone mentioned “written for a high schooler” or something like that - I guess I’m young at heart.

Last thing on the Big Nag, I found a story in the SI vault - from what I recall, he didn’t have great things to say about the wrestling career - he mentioned something to the effect of being promised big paydays he never got. Made me wonder if he wished he had stayed with football. He was definitely a private person like you said. Myron Cope tried to interview him for “The Game that Was” and I believe he said “I don’t have time to reminisce.”

Jeff - thanks for the Nevers footage! It reminded me, in the NFL Top 100 they do have game footage of one play. Strangely enough he’s lined up at wingback and runs a sweep - strange because by the accounts I’ve read his teams played the double wing and he took all the snaps as the fullback.

And finally, pretty cool we found another relative of one of these old time players. Another confirmation that the money wasn't good enough to keep these guys in the game (as players).

I have a number of items he had signed but not a 55 topps card, I'll have to do some looking, his son ended up with all his football related stuff when Jack passed but his son unfortunately passed away a couple years ago so I'm not sure where all Jack's football related stuff ended up after that.

My additions for the day...SOOOOOO happy to get the 2 tall boys! Sorry for pic quality.

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/...psq7xhghos.jpg

Recent auction pickup
 

more chicles....
 

Nice high grade 50 Bowman! I really like that set.

I had a... expensive week - there was a seller on eBay that was originally selling a 35 Chicle set as a BIN. The set was nice - the highlight in my opinion was that the high numbered cards were mostly all midgrade whereas those seem to come up more often in low grades (I talked to a few other collectors though and the consensus was that the pricing for the set was high). Recently, they decided to break up the set. The pattern seemed to be that cards would show up as BINs and then switch to auctions later (with 99 cent starting bids - my favorite). I had my eye on the Hinkle and the Presnell. The Hinkle I needed, but the Presnell would’ve been an upgrade. The day I decided to buy the Presnell, it switched to auction and I wound up loosing the auction as it sold for a price higher than the BIN!

The good news is that I won the Hinkle (which means I'm down to 6 cards to finish the set - 3 high numbers and 3 low numbers). One thing I tend to do when I see a bunch of Chicles being auctioned off is throw out bids even on some I don’t need just in case they sell for below my valuation. And sure enough…. I wound up winning a Knute Rockne as well.

I feel they both sold low - obviously the Hinkle is poorly centered, but it’s not the only one I’ve seen that has the very narrow right border. I like the card’s color - I think it’s reasonably well preserved and the price was right.

Here are the images:

Chipping away at who knows what
 

that Hinkle has really nice registration. congrats John.

Thanks Andy - I appreciate it - its also a signature centered variation which is another reason I went after it.

Nice!
 

Waterfield, as well as Van Bronklin, don't seem to get much hobby love. Then again, a lot of the greats from the 50's don't seem to (Graham, Motley, etc.).

It seems most collectors favor 1952, or even 1951, over 1950 Bowman. But of all the Bowman releases in the 40's & 50's, 1950 remains my favorite. Some great rookies, not nearly as many centering issues, and the unique size all appeal to me.

I finally tracked down the elusive Jim White from the set and need only 6 more to finish off my PSA mid-grade set.

Happy hunting with your own set!

Snorto~

Thanks Snorto for your comments. I have/had no plans of building this set, just wanted to get the Baugh and Tittle then it turned into getting quarterbacks then Motley and other big cards and then the artwork. What's the story on the Jim White? Is it a tough card to locate or is it because of its centering that makes it tough? I do like the 51 and 52 Bowman set but I'll know what that turns into once it's started especially the 51 Baugh, what a sharp card! Look for more posts, I'm sure there will be more...

Hey Guys - new member here, but have been a longtime member on BO. I've recently decided to shift my PC to Vintage HOF PSA RC's (very happy with my choice so far). I wanted to show off a few recent football pickups. I'm also doing the same for Basketball and Baseball.

http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/v...psa7rkrm99.jpg
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/v...psdtlcmaum.jpg
http://i683.photobucket.com/albums/v...pstbiv7k2y.jpg

Finally.... Namath RC
 

I've been collecting HOF QB RC's for over 5 years now. I finally found a reasonably centered, lower grade Namath RC that I could overpay for and sell at a loss a few years from now!

This made me laugh - nice Namath!

Welcome and great cards to start with! Keep'em coming.

jeff

nice cards. way to go.

I found this 1959 Bell Brand card in the $5 bargain bin at the National. It's my first!
Larry
<a href="http://s176.photobucket.com/user/larrytipton/media/Scan_1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w185/larrytipton/Scan_1.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Scan_1.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s176.photobucket.com/user/larrytipton/media/Scan%201.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w185/larrytipton/Scan%201.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Scan 1.jpg"/></a>

Picked up this little gem in a trade.

Got this in the mail couple of days ago. slowly chipping away.

Todays pickups, Nitschke is a little rough, but the price was right.

http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/...psmauhtfbf.jpg

Those are some nice FB HOF RC's there..........

Nat'l Pick Ups
 

'63 Fleer Set & '59 Bazooka Tittle and some empty boxes

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...psxrq0fgjm.jpg http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...pscekrudgg.jpg

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s...psi9norwkd.jpg

Jeff:

Nice Alworth & Dawson HOF RC's.

Nice National pickups! The borders on those 63 Fleer are really white. What's the plan for the boxes?

The boxes go in my display cabinet, - for clarity - they are empty.

Got it - I thought they were filled with cards :)

Nice Boxes!!

I am a baseball card collector, but love Jim Brown…I think he is quite probably the greatest of all American athletes.

Picked up this well centered/sharp cornered 1959 Gene Lipscomb rookie with a very small ballpoint ink mark on the "M" in is name. One of the most dominant Defensive Lineman in the game in the late 50's/early 60's, Big Daddy is almost certainly not in the Hall of Fame because of his overdose death.

Just one more card to finish my 1959 set, surprisingly not Jim Brown.... need Art Donovan EX+ (I'll take a VG+ with good centering).

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...ps58pwvlpu.jpg

way to go

Thanks Shawn. IMO the 1959 football set looks incredible! Happy to say I traded for 50-60% of the set. Nearly paid more in postage than cards :)

I like the 59s too - its pretty cool that you could build a classic set like that at such low cost. Ty, if you are looking for a complementary piece, they actually did a modern insert set version in 2013.

Agreed Dez! Football sets are affordable and relatively easy to collect compared to their baseball counterparts of the same era. The retro moderns I'll probably steer clear of, but like the 1959 Canadian Football.

Already started a '58 set that I'll collect in the same manner; trade for commons/minor stars, ebay HOF's, and pick up Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, and Bart Starr via auction house. The 1957 set is one of my absolute favorites and looms large on the horizon.

Picked up this nice Red Grange Wilson Football box recently at Auction. Pictures don't do it justice!

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...ebsize/010.JPG

jeff

Huggins & Scott, right? I was looking at that. Pretty sweet display piece.

You got it. Been looking for one of these for quite a while! Too bad the football did come with it.

jeff

Picked this up in the last Heritage auction -

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...ize/34%201.jpg

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...ize/34%202.jpg

WOW! Fantastic item! And it belonged to a HOFer to boot!

Love that charm, Mike, and glad it ended up in the right collection.

As soon as I saw it in the auction, I thought of you.

jeff

In 1930 the New York Giants played a benefit football game against a team of Notre Dame All Stars to raise money for the unemployed in New York City (see http://www.hapmoran.org/giantsnd/Gia...Dame_page1.htm) The contest was also promoted as a contest to see if the nascent pro game was equal to the venerable and very popular college game. The Giants won the day 22 to 0.

At the end of last month I was able to acquire a football commemorating the game. I would guess it was signed at one of the dinners or other events that accompanied the game. I’ve been working on deciphering some of the signatures and figuring the affiliations of each signer, and here is what I’ve come up with so far.

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...20ball%201.jpg
Hunk Anderson ND
Dale Burnett NYG
Red Cagle NYG
Frank Cardieo ND
Jack Chevigny ND
Gene Edwards ND
Benny Friedman NYG
Butch Gibson NYG
Hal Hilpert NYG
Frank "Bill" Jones ND
Elmer Layden ND
Lou Little Offical
Tim Mara NYG
Joe Maxwell ND
Saul Meilziner NYG
Ed Thorpe Offical
Tom Thorpe Offical
Ted Twomey ND
Joe Vezie ND
James J. Walker Mayor of New York

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...20ball%202.jpg
Red Badgro NYG
Leo J. Bundy MLB Giants & Yankee's legal counsel
Glenn Campbell NYG
Les Caywood NYG
Rudy Comstock NYG
Tiny Feather NYG
Mack Flenniken NYG
Len Grant NYG
J. A. Kavanaugh MLB Giants 1929
John Law ND
Jack Lenz Announcer at Yankee Stadium
Dr. Harry March NYG
Frank J. McCarthy ND '25 lawyer later VP PRR
Hap Moran NYG
George Murtagh NYG
Bill Owen NYG
Steve Owen NYG
K. K. Rockne ND (very faint)
Len Sedbrooke NYG
Charles Stoneham MLB Giants owner
Joe Westoupal NYG
Oscar Wiberg NYG
Doug Wycoff NYG

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...20ball%203.jpg
Jack Hagerty NYG
Hinkey Haines NYG
Ken Strong SI Stapes

http://photos.imageevent.com/ltsgall...20ball%204.jpg
Hunk Anderson ND
Joe Bach ND
E. T. Brannick MLB Giants front office press
Frank Collins ND
Dick Connell ND
Jim Crowley ND
John Gebert ND
Noble Kaizer ND
John Law ND
Elmer Layden ND
John McManmon ND
Don Miller ND
Rip Miller ND
Tim Moynihan ND
Joe Nash ND
Albert B. Nixon NYU Director of Athletics
Dick Stahlman NYG
Harry Stuhldreher ND
James J. Tierney MLB Giants secretary
Chile Walsh ND

Wow, nice pickups Mike! That pendant is the equivilent to a SB ring, right? I wish I had my GG in front of me, but in the recent issue's article "The Championship Rings of the Chicago Bears", I think there was a similar Bears piece pictured from one of the 30s championships.

Amazing autographs on that football - I wonder how that Ken Strong guy snuck in? :)

Hinkey Haines was not playing for the Giants that year either -

Both the pendant and the football are Hall of Fame quality display pieces. Congratulations! One word describes the pair...amazing!

Wanted to share my newest Chicle addition with the group. I feel like I compromised my standards regarding a clean surface a bit on this one, but the yellow background cards do tend to be a bit tougher to find clean and possibly because my eyesight is going, I like the way the card looks in hand. Burnett is definitely one I've missed on a few times, so for the most part I'm happy and the price was right which also helps (seller's scans below). Down to 5 now - oddly I need more low numbers than high numbers (#1 Clark, #21 Montgomery, #22 Kelly, #26 Dell Isola, #33 Smith).

Hi Dez,
I don't know why you're knocking that card. It looks like a solid 5 to me. It looks nicely centered as well. Congratulations!
Scott

Thanks Scott - I appreciate it - glad I posted it.

Better Burnett than I have, John! Great pickup.

jeff

New Arrivals
 

These three came today in the mail. One of my favorite sets from the 60's.

Nice 68's!

Thanks Jeff!

Nice cards Scott! - honestly that set doesn't even look familiar to me - I thought I knew what most sets look like from my days dabbling with HOF rookies - what are the "big" cards in that set?

1968 Topps
 

Thanks for the compliments.

Hey Dez,
The cards that you probably have in your HoF rookie set are the Griese and Floyd Little. The top cards are the Griese, Namath, Starr, Unitas, Sayers, Butkus, etc...

I like the set because its the first set to combine both the NFL & AFL after the first Super Bowl. The Packers and Raiders have drawn backgrounds in the set as they were the 2 teams in Super Bowl II.

Notable omissions are Deacon Jones & Merlin Olsen. Don't know why they didn't make them.

Hey Dez,
Just looked your sets up on the registry again. Sorry, thought you were doing a HoF RC set but you're doing the top 100 & 75th Team set so no, you wouldn't have any of the 68's in your collection.

They're pretty nice really. Most have bold, bright colors.

I continue to "chip" away at my 1952 Bowman sets and a nice stack of eBay wins arrived yesterday. Four "large" and thirteen "small" including these. John Badaczewski what a name for a football player!
Larry
<a href="http://s176.photobucket.com/user/larrytipton/media/Scan2083.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w185/larrytipton/Scan2083.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Scan2083.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s176.photobucket.com/user/larrytipton/media/Scan%2085.jpeg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w185/larrytipton/Scan%2085.jpeg" border="0" alt=" photo Scan 85.jpeg"/></a>

Great pickups, Larry and Scott!

Those '68s are killers, Scott, and I really like that YA Tittle, Larry. Sounds like you are making great progress on the small/large '52s.

jeff

Hi Larry,
Great pick-ups. The Bowman cards from 1950-1952 are some of the most beautiful cards ever made (football, baseball & non-sports)! I love the detail, down to the vent holes on Badaczewski's helmet!

How many cards are you short of each the large and small?

Scott

Scott I need 55 cards to finish the large set and 57 cards to finish the small set. So I'm about 60% complete for the 144 in each set.
Larry

1952 Bowman Football
 

Sweet...good luck Larry. I fell like the small is still an under-appreciated set!

More local history. Happy to pick up this 1949 Morgan Middle School Tigers football team photo (Ellensburg, WA). Found it at a garage sale in a stack of local family photos, $2 :)

I only recognize one of the players, Freddie Watterson, who was a batboy for the Ellensburg Cowboys semi-pro baseball team in the late 40's/early 50's (lower right). Probably lots of local names, plenty of research to do this week. I hope some of them are still near town.

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...pssjbiw3mw.jpg

Mail day! Also, may I just comment on how much I hate photobucket.:)

[IMG]http://i1347.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4jfalwlk.jpg[/IMG]

Photobucket gives me trouble too sometimes. Esp when I'm trying to edit my uploads to a more reasonable size. But it's free.......
Oh and I see that 1972 Topps HI number Floyd Little:D This morning I spent some "quality eBay time" and picked up three 1972 HI numbers I need. They are SO tough!
Larry

Larry,
I see you've knocked down another '52 Bowman large and a RC/SP to boot (Matson). Awesome!
Scott

Been a busy week for local sports history. Bought this collection of high school and college sports ephemera on a whim, not realizing how HUGE the collection was.

It seems to be the meticulous scrapbooking of a single CWU student named Marguerite Carpenter. A sports nut there are hundreds of newspaper articles on football, mens and womens basketball, baseball, and track events from Central Washington University and Yakima High School 1924-32. These articles were cut from the Student newspaper, which is nearly impossible to find (maybe 10 in CWU archives from 1924-31 to compare them).

Some of the more interesting items were the wood bound Yakima High School football scrapbook (this item seems to be ca. 1950?), and Yakima HS Letter with a 1934 tie tack attached. The womens basketball team is from 1932, coached by Miss Carpenter (pictured). A ca. 1930 WSNS pennant, the earliest in my collection now. Football, basketball, and baseball complete rosters with scores in the sports and activities pages of this scrapbook, just a great resource..... unfortunately no football programs.

Way too much to list, but an awesome addition to the local sports history collection. Probably a small amount of organizing then off to the Kittitas County Museum for these pieces, thank you bruinsfan....

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...psgxcsyhmn.jpg
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...psivfggxel.jpg

Not me Scott as #127 Ollie Matson remains on my wantlist...
Larry

Recent Aquisitions
 

Sorry Larry,
Got collections mixed up. brafcauknid, nice pickups!

Ty, quite a collection of local memorabilia. Do you collect local sports because you're a lifer from that area?

Scott

Thanks Scott, A CWU alum, but not a lifer (just 20 years in the Valley). I'm a volunteer researcher for the Kittitas County Museum, Historical Society, and CWU Alumni Association. A lot of time is spent digging through microfiche, finding and interviewing former student athletes for those groups. The collection is a by-product of that, but leads in a lot of interesting directions...

Probably not entirely a "FB Acquisition", but I've always found football to be more associated with the college experience. I'll resume with strictly pro football pick-ups soon, as Sterling just ended and I probably have a new 1962 Post Football habit.... :)

Down to Nags!