My First Vintage Roberto Clemente!

Working at a card shop -- particularly one that specializes in vintage -- can have its advantages. I see cards I've never seen before, get to personally examine them if something catches my eye, and I get an up close and personal look at other people's collecting interests which allows me to analyze if something needs to be added to my personal collection. One customer we have is a huge Roberto Clemente collector and it's been a joy to watch him collect. Also, holding so many beautiful pieces of Clemente cardboard is pretty damn sweet.

I knew I had to add a vintage Bob and remove a large hole in my vintage PC. Though I had many options to choose from I wasn't looking to break the bank and I do enjoy oddball releases. 1964 Topps Giants fits nicely into both categories in addition to being a really aesthetically-pleasing set. The above beaut is my very first piece of vintage Roberto, and the best part about it was the price: it was free!

We had a customer looking to sell a huge collection of basically everything from the 50s to the 90s: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Roughly 90% of what my bosses buy is 60s or older, and we dug through his stuff for about 3 hours before my boss bought about 4000-5000 cards to add to our inventory.

The gentleman was very nice and told my boss I should be able to pick out a card for my hard work. I wasn't going to oblige unless I got the go-ahead, of course, and when I did the decision was an easy one as I've had my eye on a Clemente for some time (and the '64 Giants card in particular).

The seller also let me pick through what he had left after the transaction, so I partially filled an 800-count box with a ton of mostly non-sports stuff. Eventually, I'll post on some of those cool cards. In the meantime, a long-overdue welcome to the collection, Roberto!