Attending The Burbank Card Show!

I attended the Burbank Card Show in Ontario, California two days ago (branding has a way, kids). It's the first show I've been able to go to since before Covid hit and I was excited to be in that environment again. I was going to make the journey despite not anticipating being a buyer. My pessimism on buying was twofold -- one, the show was likely going to be mostly ultra-modern and finding a Zack Wheat was unlikely. Two is the fact that I am currently trying to sell a bunch to finance a super rare Wheat card I have on hold. So if you've ever seen something on my site or you have general collecting interests, e-mail me or drop a comment. Who knows!

I met up with some friends, saw some old friends and acquaintances, and was treated to a nice dinner. That alone would be a win in my book. Add in seeing some truly awesome and unexpected vintage gems and meeting a former major leaguer (albeit it a Giant 😉, but a Giant who had a minor league deal from the Dodgers once upon a time) and it was a great day indeed! But I snagged some stuff too!

I assisted some of my friends in finding cards for their business and in doing so found a couple I wanted to buy myself. My efforts to help them ended up persuading them to give me the four cards I eyed for free as a thank you for my help. I'm a cheap date, really.

All four came from the former major leaguer's table (Ryan Sadowski, super nice as were his folks) and all four hit different areas of my vintage collecting passions. First up, a trimmed but beautiful 1966 Topps Sandy Koufax. It was in Ryan's $10 bin originally and even with the trim at the upper left it presents nicely.

Next up, long-time friends of the blog may remember I have a very soft spot for 1800s Allen & Ginter. It was one of the earliest vintage areas I became interested in as 2010 Ginter got me into collecting cards in general. I could not pass up setting aside another card from the $10 bin in this 1889 N19 A&G Pirates of the Spanish Main. William Fly is the English Pirate featured and even with some paper loss on the reverse and some specks of p.l. on the front it is gorgeous as can be for a 134-year-old piece of cardboard.

Fly was killed by hanging in Boston and his body was put on display to warn other pirates. Here are his reported final words:

"Our Captain and his Mate used us Barbarously. We poor Men can’t have Justice done us. There is nothing said to our Commanders, let them never so much abuse us, and use us like Dogs."

Another $10 gem now in my clutches is this trimmed strip card of President Teddy Roosevelt. It hails from the 1924 W562 Strip Card set featuring Presidents and Presidents alone. I picked up an 1800s card of Honest Abe a while back and Teddy was just a cool find in the midst of so many sports cards at Sadowski's table. I am not going to start collecting Presidential cards and if I ever did they would most definitely be of the 19th century variety. Into the random vintage PC it goes!

The final item I desired and worked off like a child laborer is this Jack Dempsey....something. I have not been able to identify it yet but whatever it is, it has certainly seen better days from a condition standpoint. Pinholes, creasing, minor paper loss, and a dog bite -- what hasn't happened to old Jack here. It's a stellar item nonetheless and I really liked it when I dug it out of the $15 pile. It is indeed a fine addition to my very modest Boxing PC.

Well, there's my show recap. Fun, free-ish cards, free food, and friends made for a stellar 14-hour day. Hopefully more shows will be in my 2023 future and word is a big one is coming to Anaheim later this year. Whether I am still a Californian by then remains to be seen, but one way or another I'll be at another show this year!

Boxing Pickup: Henry Armstrong 1938 Churchman's Cigarettes, SGC 55

Very rarely if ever would I be okay with paying double for a card based on what I valued it at. This is especially true if the card really doesn't fit a primary collecting need/want. However I made the decision to do just that at a card show back in February. I really wanted to buy something and for $10 I picked up a card worth $5 tops despite it being really cool and really old. Here's my newest boxing addition:

This beautiful 1938 Churchman's Cigarettes Boxing Personalities card of Henry Armstrong is slabbed an SGC 55 and was one of the oldest cards at the show that day. A consensus top 5 boxer of all-time, Armstrong was featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight champion during his time and the only boxer to hold titles at three different weight classes simultaneously. He faced 17 world champs in his career and beat 15 of them and had a tremendous nickname which actually ended up selling me on buying the card: Homicide Hank.

Young McGovern: 1921 Romeo Y Julieta Black Border, Slabbed a PSA 2.5!

Here's a long-ago eBay pickup I sent in to PSA through my old job and never got around to posting about. I like boxing cards enough to pick one up every blue moon or so. When I saw this set online I couldn't resist and settled on one in my budget. Thankfully, Young McGovern is also a stellar name, so it worked on that level too.

The card hails from the 1921 Romeo Y Julieta Black Border set and returned to me as a PSA 2.5. It's a simple posed shot and I really like the set name on the front of the card. Black bordered cards are also usually dynamite and this issue is no different with those as a prominent feature.

Young McGovern is quite the mysterious figure as I can't find any info online about him. Nevertheless, it's a cool and unique addition to my modest Boxing Collection.

Joe DiMaggio and Jake LaMotta Pickups

I've always enjoyed the 1951 and 1952 Berk Ross sets. The checklist features a wide variety of athletes and anything oddball vintage tends to spark an interest in my collecting adventures. A 1952 Berk Ross Roy Campanella was the first card I ever purchased after working at the card shop before PSA, and it was bought on my first day working there. Neither issue happens to be a set I chase religiously but every once in a while you can get a star at a nice discount compared with the mainstream issues like Topps and Bowman.

I was able to snag these two 1951 Berk Ross cards from my old job on one of my trips back to Los Angeles since my move. Yes, the Joe DiMaggio is half a card....but at least it's the good half, and it's a more than welcome and quirky addition to my Vintage Collection.

Jake "Raging Bull" LaMotta was an easy add. It's a really cool posed shot and one of those random boxing cards I can't help but picking up here and there.

Judah Jack "Kid" Berg: 1938 Knockout Razor Blades F.C. Cartledge Prize Fighters: PSA 8!

I found a card while rummaging through a collection at work that my boss had purchased. I instantly knew I needed to own it and after trading in a few items, the beaut was mine along with a couple other cards I had my eyes on.

Here's Jack "Kid" Berg from the 1938 Knockout Razor Blades F.C. Cartledge set. What first attracted me to the card was the Star of David on his trunks. Some cursory research reveals he always boxed with the Star on his trunks although he was more culturally Jewish than religiously Jewish. That's the same for me, which makes me like the guy even more.

Berg is a fascinating guy. He was the World Junior Welterweight Champion in 1930; the British Lightweight Champion in 1934; finished with a record of 157-26-9 with 57 knockouts; owned a restaurant, became a film stunt man, and joined the British Royal Air Force post-boxing; and may have had an affair with Mae West.

I don't have much vintage boxing but I enjoy picking up a single here and there if the card speaks to me on some level. Berg, a boxing HOFer, fits that criteria.

My First Foray Into 1951 Topps Ringside: Jim Jeffries, Heavyweight Champion!

One of my significantly less-stressed collections is vintage boxing cards. I picked up my first in a small purchase from Ernest of Blue Heaven fame over 5 years ago and if the price is right and I stumble upon one I'm more than happy to snatch it up.

1951 Topps Ringside is the epitome of vintage boxing in my eyes and I really wanted to add at least one from the iconic set to my collection. The Marciano, Robinson, and LaMotta are at the top of my list but prices are far too high for me to pull the trigger on one of that troika. Another one caught my eye, however, after we found a handful at work and threw them up online.

So, my first '51 Ringside features none other than Jim Jeffries, one-time heavyweight champion of the world (and apparently of the forest as it looks like he's standing atop a vast array of trees -- that may have drawn me to this card).

It did. Massively, as that's one gorgeous shot and fantastic piece of cardboard.

The simple yet great back complete with a short life story of Jim and his impressive resume. I'll almost certainly add a few more and one day grab my Big Three.

Some Vintage eBay Pickups From A Blogging Buddy, Manupatches & Mustaches.

A while back I scored a couple of nice auctions full of vintage goodness from eBay. The auctions happened to originate from our fellow blogger Eric, who runs Manupatches & Mustaches. A couple of cards in particular stood out to me when I was looking at Eric's auctions, and I was fortunate enough to take most if not all of them down (my memory is somewhat hazy as all of this occurred months ago).

One card that caught my eye is a fantastic example of why there should be more beards on cards. This 1917 Will's Cigarettes card commemorates Allied Army Leaders and features His Majesty King George V. That is one phenomenal beard the King's sporting, though his eyes betray him for what he so clearly is: a zombie.

The next card I really wanted to land was this fantastic Player's Cigarettes card from 1905. Issued by John Player and Sons, it presents the German flag and arms pre-Hitler. As a Jew and a former History major, I find Germany to be an interesting case study, and this German flag is just awesome. Mostly because it's the pre-1933 German flag, but nevertheless, it is quite cool.

I couldn't pass up this fantastic piece of boxing cardboard from 1910 Mecca Cigarettes of George Foster. I seem to remember it being the cheapest out of everything that came my way, along the lines of 99 cents before the combined shipping rate. It hails from the T218 Prize Fighters subset.

Those were the main cards I felt I needed to grab, and everything else was just gravy. Let's get to the rest, beginning with the above card of Japan. I have a feeling Spiegel or Fuji may be interested.

This Lion card is just awesome, for some reason. I don't know, but it's taken a decent amount of my attention. That would explain the solo scan. I did enjoy the astronomy class I took in college.

I could easily see the Hollywood-themed card heading to Sam at The Daily Dimwit, as I believe his wife collects Hollywood cards. I hope I'm right, because I've been desperate to come up with some stuff for him, as we're working on a trade.

And finally, I got lazy and scanned these horizontal cards together. It does allow me to show how well Eric packaged everything, and the helpful stickers on just about every card alerting me to their birth year. Click to embiggen for a better look at these seven cards. There are a few British-themed, which is probably appropriate, as I've been watching more British programming, enjoying British comedians displaying their craft, and finding a lot of my recent music through The Graham Norton Show, a British chat show which just so happens to be the best chat show anywhere in the world. It puts the unfunny Leno & Letterman to shame.

Eric wasn't done there though, as he sent along a few nice and new Kemp and Kershaw PC additions as a "just because."

All in all, I was and still am stoked with this purchase, as I picked up 14 truly vintage cards for what was around $11-13.

Thanks Eric! These have found a good home with me (and with whomever may eventually get one or two of them in the future)!

Cash For Cards Deal With Blue Heaven

I purchased two cards from Ernest of Blue Heaven. Check out the many items he has up for sale or trade.

The first card I purchased from Ernest is a 2009 Topps Finest Redemption Autographed Rookie Card of one of my favorite non-Dodgers, Tommy Hanson.

The second is not only non-Dodgers, but also non-baseball. I've always wanted a really old card, something that can truly be called vintage. My goal is to acquire an 1800s Allen & Ginter baseball card, but until then this 1909 E75 American Caramel card of boxer Jimmy Britt will just have to do. Hey, it's over 100 years old. In my book, that's pretty awesome. It's almost as old as Tommy Lasorda.

Thanks again Ernest, and good luck selling some of your vast and impressive collection of sports regalia.