Jackie Robinson HR Ticket!

Since my entry into the ticket world there have been a few must-haves on my mental list of things to find on my eBay adventures. Some have proven easier than others and some have proven to be more expensive than others. When those two categories overlap, I am an unhappy collector indeed. What that has to do with today's showcased piece, I don't know, as it wasn't overly expensive and wasn't the hardest thing to track down. Rambling, I am.

Nabbing a stub from a game in which the one and only Jackie Robinson went deep was an absolute collecting necessity and eventually patience paid off with this beauty from a 1952 contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Jackie left the yard for the 75th time in his illustrious career while driving in three runs, walking twice, and scoring one run. Other notables from the game:

• Roy Campanella had a hit
• Duke Snider had two hits, a walk, and a run scored
• Gil Hodges had a hit and a run scored
• Pee Wee Reese had a hit, a RBI, and a run scored
• Carl Erskine threw a complete-game shutout
• Ralph Kiner had a hit and a walk

After purchasing this raw online, I sent it in for grading and got a 3 from PSA.

Anyone else start dabbling in tickets or think they might?

1951 Topps Teams Brooklyn Dodgers, Slabbed a PSA 1

Here's a piece I searched and searched for and could not be happier to finally have (I mean, I've had it for a couple of years, but you know...). It's another of those underrated and underappreciated vintage issues that for whatever reason gets little love but features a slew of stars on one piece of cardboard.

This absolutely fantastic 1951 Topps Teams card features the '50 Brooklyn Bums. There are two versions, Dated and Undated (the 1950 is either present or gone). I'm now realizing all of this time later that this raw copy I bought and submitted is labeled incorrectly.

The team shots of the '50s are absolutely awesome and the yellow border on these really pops. They are super tough to find in good condition and this PSA 1 is well-deserving of that designation.

What I truly love is the amount of stars these give collectors the opportunity to have in their collection with just one item. Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Duke Snider, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges -- that's 5 HOFers, not to mention the other Dodger stars of the time like Don Newcombe and Carl Furillo.

It's a most welcome addition to my overall collection and specifically to both my Campy and Jackie PCs.

Kid K and The Duke

A few more cards from my good buddy Davey, one of my favorite customers. He passed along three beautiful new additions to my Kid K Collection. The Bowman's Best -- a green refractor numbered 50/99 -- is my favorite of the troika. Bowman's Best was easily the best product of 2016.

A Duke Snider 2016 Gypsy Queen mini also made its way to me, and it happens to be numbered to his number as well (4/99).

Many thanks for your generosity Davey!

Part 3 From Chavez Ravining: Kershaw and Martin Lead The Cardboard Way

Today is Part 3 of the Chavez Ravining Loot I acquired early in 2015 (Parts 1 and 2 are here). Alex sent along a nice assortment of players and today we'll focus on by far the best player among the many whose cardboard I received.

Kid K! I somehow didn't even have Clayton's base card from 2013 Topps Chrome and now I have 5 pieces to that rainbow. It's scans like these that remind me why I enjoy chasing rainbows.

Three more base/parallel additions to my Minotaur PC.

I already own the two Russell swatches -- in fact that Spectrum was a card I owned before trading it to Alex -- but I'm always happy to add dupe hits to my collections. I still hope to one day complete that Martin Spectrum rainbow but considering I've made no progress in years, who knows.

Finally, I've been ending these posts with some randomness mixed in. So here are four more cards I like and am happy to have.

More thanks to you Alex!

Don Newcombe and 1954 Bowman.

I'm an insanely huge fan of 1954 Bowman. My boss and I go back and forth on the merits of the set (it's got Campy in it, which is really all that matters to me) and I shall continue to conduct the train and welcome all aboard for 1954 Bowman Town.

So you can imagine my glee at adding yet another Brooklyn Dodger from this masterpiece of a set. Don Newcombe's offering in the set is gorgeous, with the righty finishing up his motion after releasing a ball in what I imagine to be Ebbets Field (maybe). This is my fourth Dodger from '54 Bowman, joining the aforementioned Campanella as well as Duke Snider and Pee Wee Reese.

I mean, I'm going to HAVE TO put together the team set, eventually.

Check Out This Duke Snider Night Souvenir Book From August 26th, 1960!

Sometimes when my bosses buy collections, random items will turn up that were basically throw-ins to whatever they purchased. A few months back they bought a large collection, and one item that turned up would have probably been sold for $10 to a customer. But instead of putting it out for sale, they decided to let me have it for the small sum of FREE.

Ooooh, oddball vintage! That's a phrase I always love to hear and an item that will always catch my eye. I certainly wasn't turning down a souvenir book from August 26th, 1960 that commemorated Duke Snider Night at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

My favorite part of this entirely awesome book is that the above incredible picture is prominently featured. The Dodgers played two on that day in 1960, with The Duke of Flatbush sitting out Game 1. In Game 2, he went 2-2 with a solo homer, a triple, and a walk as the Boys in Blue beat the Reds 2-0.

Many thanks to my bosses for giving me this sweet gift!

Because Seriously, Wes is The Man.

I received a couple of e-mails from the blogging Grand Poobah himself, Wes of Jaybarkerfan's Junk fame. The main gist of the e-mails was that I should expect a package to arrive, and as we all know when it comes to Wes and his bubble mailer giving ways, he sends some awesome stuff. And send awesome stuff he did.

Wes created this phenomenal custom card featuring his smiling mug decked out in costume, and he even went so far as to hand-number them /98. I received 5/98 and it's a fantastic piece of cardboard I will forever keep and enjoy!

A Paco Rodriguez RC REF signature fell out of the mailer next. It's my first auto of the former 2nd-round pick, and it's numbered 379/499 to boot. An even sweeter Eric Gagne relic is up next. Man, I'll always love that guy. So, so dominant before injury derailed his career. It scanned in horribly but is oh so pretty in-hand.

Wes sent along a wide assortment of cool cards so I scanned in my favorites.

As always Wes, you continue to outdo yourself time and time again, and this card blogging community of ours would not be the same without you. Thanks amigo!

Duke, Duke, Duke, Duke of Flatbush.

Robert of $30 a week habit fame is holding a truly sweet contest. The winner will walk away with a gorgeous 1954 Topps card of Edwin "Duke" Snider, The Duke of Flatbush. It's a card I've long desired, so you know this Dodgers' fan entered.

Go here to enter.

Trade With DocHoloday: Kemp, Kershaw, ALL YOUR DODGERS, and A Custom Archer Sketch Card!

I completed my second trade with Matt from DocHoloday. It was quite the gigantic trade, and he sent me a ton of amazing pieces of cardboard. You can see what Matt received by following this here link.

This sweet addition to my Bison Collection is numbered out of a scant /25 (12/25, to be exact). It's the XFractor parallel out of 2007 Topps Finest.

Clayton! This new Kershaw is a mini black framed relic out of 2013 Gypsy Queen. It scanned crooked each time and I gave up after three attempts. But still. Kid K!

More adds to my Kemp/Kershaw PCs. 13 new Bisons takes my Kemp PC over the 350 unique card mark. 8 new Kershaws always makes for a swell collecting day and the Russell Martin is a sweet, sweet refractor of a great play at the plate.

My Long Beach State PC gets a boost with this sweet Troy Tulowitzki bat slice, numbered 272/399. Tier One is such a pretty set, but one I will only pick up cheap singles from because boxes are crazy expensive.

A fantastic dual relic featuring a pair of sweater swatches from Bobby Ryan and Cam Fowler. It's numbered 258/300 to boot.

A potpourri of fantastic cards is up next. There's a sweet Julio Urias RC right smack dab in the middle; a troika of awesome Hyun-Jin Ryu rookies; a miiiinnnniiii blue Joc Pederson /250; Puig and Seager, Bowman Platinum style; a tremendous die-cut of The Duke of Flatbush; and a brand new Ryan Getzlaf parallel that's serial-numbered 985/999.

Some pure random goodness. The Piazzas are tremendous, especially the Diamond Duos card (Hideo Nomo is on the reverse) and the Star Attractions die-cut. A page full of Piazza cards always makes for a good day. The Zack Greinke Heritage is easily one of the best cards of the year, and I had never seen that Pee Wee Reese card before (it's quite pretty). The red Nolasco is really a red Puig in my book, and I've always enjoyed the AJ Ellis card on the top left.

My first auto of future reliever -- if he remains in L.A. -- Matt Magill.

And finally, a true surprise as Matt included a custom sketch card of one Sterling Archer! Much like the custom Archer sketch Gavin sent me, this baby is headed straight for my Archer PC. Seriously, if anybody wants to ever sit down and sketch me a custom Archer sketch, I will more than happily add it to my collection. If you wanted to draw Krieger doing something exceptionally Krieger-ish, that would be totally cool as well. Not that I'm hinting or anything....

Thanks for a truly phenomenal trade Matt! It was well worth the wait!

Trade With Bob Walk the Plank: Konerko and Lopes Autos Highlight Stack of Cardboard Goodness

I completed my second trade with Matt from Bob Walk the Plank. Matt sent these cards along as a complete surprise at the end of March, but I wanted to wait and post them once I had accumulated some stuff to send back his way. Matt once again outdid himself, and hopefully what heads his way will be to his liking.

My second Paul Konerko auto, and both are on-card and picture him in his Blue Crew uniform. This is definitely my favorite of the two as the more important parts of his jersey are visible.

Hey, it's my first Davey Lopes signature! Or Dave Lopes, as he and Topps went with. I'm not a fan of the Archives set but I do like the autos from it. I am still in need of Davey's signature on my Great Infield 8x10 project.

Ugh, what a terrible scan. It's my first Paul Lo Duca relic (I think) and it commemorates his 6-6 game on May 28th of 2001. Lo Duca actually follows me on Twitter and once responded to me, which is pretty cool.

Next up, a pair of new Kemps and a pair of new Kershaws.

Finally, randomness in the form of a Kevin Brown relic; a Shawn Green Dodgers/D-Backs swatch that will end up with Alex, as he'll appreciate it more than I will; a Duke Snider /100; and Snider and Jackie Gypsy Queen base cards.

Thanks for another great swap Matt!

Duke Snider: Legendary Lumberjacks.

There is just so much to love about this Duke Snider bat relic from the Legendary Lumberjacks subset of 2003 Donruss Classics. The great overall design, Brooklyn B, and smiling Duke of Flatbush combine to make this quite the pretty hit.

Numbered 207/250, the back of the card features an actual picture of the bat Donruss used, a rarity in today's cardboard relic game. I nabbed this from my former LCS owner for just $3.63 delivered with free (and local) pickup.

A Heroic Matt Kemp Rainbow + A Delightful Duke and DeWitt.

My favorite eBay seller came through again by listing a ton of Blue Crew pieces for great prices. I was able to take advantage of the free shipping offered and nabbed four new additions to my collection, including three amazing Matt Kemp pickups.

First up, a sweet Red parallel auto-relic #'d 07/50. This goes quite well with the Navy Blue /10 parallel I already have. Although red is only present on the numbers on the front of a Dodgers' uniform, it works really well on the card.

Next up, we move to the straight John Hancock portion of this post with a Beige parallel signature /25 (17/25 for my copy). I happen to be colorblind, so as much as I like '08 UD Heroes, it isn't exactly the easiest set for me to deal with.

The final Kemp is this gorgeous Blue autograph parallel, numbered 030/100. Blue is always a phenomenal choice for Dodgers' cardboard, and this is one card I'm extremely happy to add to the collection. I've built up a nice mini-rainbow of Bison cards from '08 Heroes, which I wasn't sure I'd be able to do.

Finally, a fantastic dual autograph -- numbered 31/50 -- featuring The Duke of Flatbush and Blake DeWitt. You can never have enough Snider autos, and I was a big DeWitt guy after seeing him play following his original call-up. I still feel like he never got a real chance after that 2008 debut, and I would love to see him re-signed to a minor league deal (he's currently a free agent).

Koufax, Campy, Drysdale and More!

I picked up a team card with some fantastic names on it. Koufax, Campanella, Drysdale, Snider, Reese, Newcombe, Podres....the way a team card should be.

It'll fit splendidly in my Campy Collection, and was had for $5.50 delivered. The coolest thing about this vintage bad boy is that it's from the Dodgers' first year in L.A., which also means it features the last Blue Crew squad to call Brooklyn home.

Whomever previously owned this 1958 Dodgers' team card/checklist made use of said checklist to the fullest.

A Bison, Lost Along The Way, Roams From Kentucky To California.

Following up on yesterday's post, I mentioned one of the two "Lost In Transit" transactions worked out in my favor. I left the post with a bit of a cliffhanger, so let's get that resolved. The most recent of those two missing packages was Returned to Sender the day or day after I received my refund. The seller graciously offered to sell me the cards for a lower price than I originally paid.

With an extra $8 in my pocket, I added a card I've long had my eyes on: a 2011 Topps Tier One Crowd Pleasers on-card autograph of The Bison, numbered 53/75. Again, everything about this card just warms my collecting heart. A big on-card signature, it hails from a high-end product I'd never bust, it's short-printed, and Topps picked out a tremendous photo of Mattycakes which features him beaming and sporting the commemorative Duke Snider patch the Dodgers wore in 2011.

Kemp's reaction was mine when I found out the cards had been found back in Kentucky. Maybe it was the Crowders' or the Bennetts' fault. When I first realized they might be missing forever, my reaction was more along the lines of Russ' facial expression. With some cursing mixed in. The gold auto and gold stitching are a wonderful compliment to one another, and though it's got a decent-sized print-run (/99, 23/99 for my copy), I don't run across these Sweet Spot Signatures all that often. A fantastic new Russ, and it marks Martin Auto # 35 in my PC.

Trade With Cardboard Heaven: A Zack Greinke Royal Trifecta and Matt Kemp Goes Out of Bounds.

I completed my sixth trade with Cam of Cardboard Heaven fame. You can check out the first here, second here, third here, fourth here, and fifth here. Cam was in possession of a Matt Kemp card I wanted to get my hands on, and as time went along we expanded the deal into another epic trade.

Let's start with something my collection was lacking: a Zack Greinke autograph. It hails from 2007 Fleer Ultra "Ultra Graphs" and is numbered 120/199. Whenever he gets himself a Dodgers' signature or two, I'll be looking to add one, but for now one of him as a Royal will work just fine.

The original card that started our trade talks. It's the phenomenal "Out Of Bounds" SP of The Bison from 2013 Topps and I'm really happy I didn't buy one from eBay to placate my desire to acquire it. What a shot of Matty.

A Greinke Gold RC to go with my new John Hancock. I already have the regular base chrome version of this 2002 Bowman rookie (acquired from Dennis) so I was happy to land this parallel version.

Why not complete the entire Trifecta in one deal? Cam sent a relic of ZG from '11 Topps Heritage. There won't be a huge effort to complete the Pentafecta, though.

A HanRam RC from his BoSox days. Injured again....2013 is the year of injuries in all forms of baseball.

3 more new Mattycakes. That brings my total to just over 230 unique Kemp cards.

Finally, some randomness. I LOVE LOVE LOVE everything about the white Duke Gypsy Queen card. So awesomely amazing.

Thanks for another stellar deal Cam!

Hey, Look What You Can Get For Half A Blaster: 1954 Bowman Duke Snider

Wonderful and well-priced vintage goodness is hard to beat. Getting old-fashioned and actual cardboard for half of what a blaster of any current product would run you is an amazing feeling and a great way to add character to a collection.

For just a shade over ten bucks I was recently able to accomplish such a feat. This beautiful 1954 Bowman Duke Snider is one of my favorite vintage goodies and has some of the excellent character within it that speaks to the fact that this card was loved at some point by a previous owner. And now, it shall be loved by me (phrasing....boom). Seriously, vintage Hall of Fame Dodgers >>> ANY BLASTER.

The card back, for those of you that are excited by such things. The only flaw on this card is the noticeable crease running horizontally across the middle, but honestly, it's that crease which allowed me to acquire this card for the great price I was able to land it at. The card has held its color - the blue sky behind The Duke of Flatbush is such an amazing and appropriate touch - and Edwin's smiling face is not obscured, which is what matters to me most when I pick up pre-1970 cards.