2025 Vintage Pickups Thread

[Breakaway Dealz]

IMG_4675 by Matt Zawadzki, on Flickr

[rob024420]

[Sluggerrr]

[mattsey9]

With the arrival of Sandy Koufax in yesterday's mail, my 1958 Topps set is now complete!

[tedwilliamsfan]

Originally Posted by mattsey9

With the arrival of Sandy Koufax in yesterday's mail, my 1958 Topps set is now complete!

Nice! Completing a set is always a great feeling, and that is a great set to have. Congrats.

[Breakaway Dealz]

IMG_4818 by Matt Zawadzki, on Flickr

[corndog]

Was able to get this 1953 Bowman Color of Joe Nuxhall for cheap due to the pinhole.
I liked the color and the card smells great!

[Mahomie]

Nice cards on this page. Gotta love the smell of vintage!

[VanLingoMungo46]

Indeed. Long live it!

[Breakaway Dealz]

IMG_4830 by Matt Zawadzki, on Flickr

[Sluggerrr]

A couple recent pickups. Hat tip to towerymt's posts for putting me on the lookout for low grade Frank Robinson RC's.

[Breakaway Dealz]

Nice Monte Irvin! I live the design of cards from that years set.
That cards is on my list of cards I’d like to add to my collection..

IMG_4824 by Matt Zawadzki, on Flickr

[Sluggerrr]

Originally Posted by Breakaway Dealz

Nice Monte Irvin! I live the design of cards from that years set.
That cards is on my list of cards I’d like to add to my collection..

Thanks, and nice Spahn! I'm still looking for one of those. I actually got into 54 Topps 8-10 months ago when I got a nice Gil Hodges. It looks great for the grade so I thought the whole set might. I was wrong about that but it's still a nice set.

[corndog]

Added this to my Pete Runnels "sort of PC" for under $4.
My first Red Man Tobacco card - this is from 1955.
Not even a micro wrinkle in it's surface.
Runnels was a member of my church when I was a kid.

[TFP]

Finally got a Jackie for my 52 Set...


https://www.instagram.com/p/DG6704VJBLB/


Still 43 cards away from completing, biggest ones needed are Mays, Mathews, Campanella and Wilhelm.

[K111]

Originally Posted by Breakaway Dealz

IMG_4830 by Matt Zawadzki, on Flickr

Damn I never knew a card like that even existed

[corndog]

I acquired this 1952 Topps for less than the price of a reprint on Ebay.
I like to pick up printing and bindery flaws/errors and I like the looks and smells of the vintage cards.
This is my fifth 1952 Topps now.
It's condition isn't great but that's okay.
I like the man's story and now have his card.

Martin served in the Army as a combat engineer during World War 2 and was badly injured on two separate occasions. During the D-Day invasion on June 6, 1944 he was one of the first to arrive by amphibious boat and suffered shrapnel wounds to his hand, arm and neck. In a later battle he was shot in the leg and nearly lost a leg due to gangrene. A nurse had heard that he was a ball player and talked him into taking penicillin which at the time was an experimental drug. He credits the nurse with saving his leg.
During the D-Day operation, Army engineers suffered casualties of over 40 percent. Over fifty years later, Martin still could not talk about it his war experiences.

He recovered and entered the minor leagues in 1946 and ultimately the majors in 1949 where he pitched for seven different teams over his ten year career.

He passed away in 2010 at the age of 87.

There is an excellent read on Martin's life here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100601...B?OpenDocument

[Tonic3]

I’ll update this thread once I have the cards in hand, but my brother in law and I are in the process of purchasing a 1931 W517 complete set. And even better it’s the complete set of the 3 card strips. 18 stripes/54 cards in total including two Ruth’s, Foxx, Ott, Gehrig, etc…. Sooooo many HOFers.

I’ve posted one pic of what they look like

One question I have for the vintage experts….does any company grade/encapsulate the 3 card strips. It seems like sacrilege to cut them up so I’d prefer to keep them as strips. There can’t be too many complete/intact sets out there.

Thanks everyone

[sbfinley]

Originally Posted by Tonic3

I’ll update this thread once I have the cards in hand, but my brother in law and I are in the process of purchasing a 1931 W517 complete set. And even better it’s the complete set of the 3 card strips. 18 stripes/54 cards in total including two Ruth’s, Foxx, Ott, Gehrig, etc…. Sooooo many HOFers.

I’ve posted one pic of what they look like

One question I have for the vintage experts….does any company grade/encapsulate the 3 card strips. It seems like sacrilege to cut them up so I’d prefer to keep them as strips. There can’t be too many complete/intact sets out there.

Thanks everyone

1) Unless they recently changed sizes, no TPG grades the full strips. They are nearly 10' and none of the grading companies have a holder/insert large enough to fit them.

2) ****Unless you have handled several W517's or the purchase is coming from a highly reputable seller I would be extremely weary. Full strips are pretty rare, and full sets are even rarer. In the late 90's - early 00's a fair amount of full strip fakes hit the market and they are well executed. If they don't show heavy toning in the card stock they are highly likely bad. If possible grab a cheap copy off eBay and compare the borders and the number circle under a loupe.

[Mahomie]

Originally Posted by TFP

Finally got a Jackie for my 52 Set...


https://www.instagram.com/p/DG6704VJBLB/

Nice!

Recently picked up a 54 Jackie - not the best condition, but I can finally add one to my PC.

[Tonic3]

Originally Posted by sbfinley

1) Unless they recently changed sizes, no TPG grades the full strips. They are nearly 10' and none of the grading companies have a holder/insert large enough to fit them.

2) ****Unless you have handled several W517's or the purchase is coming from a highly reputable seller I would be extremely weary. Full strips are pretty rare, and full sets are even rarer. In the late 90's - early 00's a fair amount of full strip fakes hit the market and they are well executed. If they don't show heavy toning in the card stock they are highly likely bad. If possible grab a cheap copy off eBay and compare the borders and the number circle under a loupe.

Thanks for the advice and heads up. The seller isn't necessarily someone I know well but we've had multiple conversations and the provenance is pretty impressive. Her grandfather sold the strips (Champion Draw) in his store way back and the family actually has multiple sets between the siblings. Her family actually donated a complete set of the strips to baseball HOF a number of years back. The strips can also have a color along the bottom of either pink or green. If they had a green bottom kids got a small piece of candy and if it was pink it was a larger piece of candy. The cool part is two of the strips in the set we're purchasing have color at the bottom (one is green and one is pink/red). The strip with Babe Ruth throwing (in the middle of the strip) actually has the green bottom. Makes it even cooler in my opinion.
I've posted a picture of the display and the strips.

On a side note/question: It seems almost criminal to cut up these strips but at some point it seems we may have to. I certainly have never cut a strip of cards so is there a reliable company/technique traditionally used for performing the cutting? The last thing we want to do is damage them during the cutting process. Our hope though is to keep them intact if possible, but I'd want to find a good way of protecting each strip individually and I can't really think of a good way other than using an oversized toploader. Any other better options/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Breakaway Dealz]

IMG_4893 by Matt Zawadzki, on Flickr

[Breakaway Dealz]

Originally Posted by K111

Damn I never knew a card like that even existed

Fun fact is that Ed & John O'Brien are identical twins! I didn’t realize this until I read the back of the card

[Mahomie]

Originally Posted by corndog

There is an excellent read on Martin's life here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20100601...B?OpenDocument

He nearly died as a child after contracting diphtheria, and later survived being struck by lightning.

Whoa, great read - thanks for sharing.

[jtclockwork]

In honor of the Disney flop, here's a card from a better Snow White. Highest PSA example, pop 2.