Holy Trading Cards Batman!

I don't really have any vintage Batman pieces from the 1960's, especially from that magic Bat-Year of 1966 when the T.V show debuted and everyone went Bat-GaGa, especially the merchandising. Seems like there was everything Bat related that year. If you could slap a Bat on the title, then chances were you were selling it. Bat Shirts? Done. Bat Bread? Sold. Bat Toliets? Um.... you get the idea.

However, I do own a few cards from the 1966 Topps Batman sets. I stumbled on them during visits to sports card shows. I usually find them sold as singles for 1-2 dollars a pop. Anytime I find them, I buy them. I know trying to buy a complete set of these cards would cost me a pretty Bat penny. Plus, I love the chase. The hunting of these cards and try to complete this set reminds me when I would buy packs of baseball cards and try to complete the sets. Call me old fashioned, but, to me, it's more satisfying and gratificating completing a set and being able to slam that binder cover closed when completed.

I don't know much about these cards other than there were multiple sets released. A black bat, a blue bat and a red bat set. Some sets had a red back, some had a blue back. Others had a puzzle back. I have even heard of there being multiple puzzle backs. iye, yi. yi. Trying to complete these sets may make me grey, but I'm willing to look like Old Man Winter to get this done.

Here are the cards I do own:

This one is in worse shape than any of the others I own. I will keep it for now until I can upgrade it.

Love how he has green eyebrows here. Looks like the Rock.

Too bad this mask wasn't on the show. Julie Newmar wearing this would have looked puuuuuuurrrrfect. I'm sorry.

Is it me or does Robin look sleepy?

 

Gulliver's Travels, staring the Caped Crusader.

 

The Penguin's so smooth. Fighting Batman with an umbrella AND smoking a cigarette. Smooth Criminal.

 

 

I've always wondred, does Robin wear chain mail shorts?

Ghost Rider's pissed.

See Batman, Liberace's got nothing on me. Ho, ho, ho. Ha, Ha, Ha.

I have yet to pick up the Laffs Batman cards and I see those at the card shows as well. I will grab some eventually. I just want to grab a few more of these cards before I start another set. By the way, if any one has any more info on these cards they can share, it would be greatly appreciated.

This is a set that will be a thrill for me to try and complete. I love vintage cards and I love Batman. 2 of my passions rolled into one. The Hobby Gods have smiled upon me. Hopefully, there will be more cards for me to add to my collection at the card show I'm hitting up tomorrow. I will post new additions, if any, tomorrow. Check back then.

Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel.

Its Finally Happened.

Right now, I'm in the laundromat, watching my clothes wrestle each other in the dryer, bored out of my mind. I decided to try to post a picture-less blog to give you all a quick update to what I've been up to the past few weeks. Plus, I get to test this Blogger Android app that I downloaded off the Android Market.

I finally decided that I've had enough of binders. I currently have close to 30 binders that house my Yankees, Jets, Devils, Knicks and Islander cards. I am running out of space to put more binder. Plus, to be honest, I'm thrilled with having to shell out 3-7 bucks a pop for binders, then 15 dollars for 9 pocket pages. With all the cards I pick up during a calender year, I will have to buy a home that has a massive library just to house the binders. Plus, I have close to 15 boxes of cards I have yet to organize. Sheesh!

So, I finally have joined the many masses that are puting their card collections into monster boxes, top loaders and penny sleeves. Not exactly what I wanted when I started collecting again, but with room at a premium, I have no choice.

So, I have started with Topps. I have made dividers from index cards and been moving the base into the box. I plan to keep the inserts in the binders as well as the player collections I have of Mark Teixeira, Martin Brodeur, Mike Bossy, Mark Teixeira and Patrick Ewing.

I'm hoping this works out for me. I'm tired of having to decide how I am storing my cards, especially between my Team Collectors group, trades, box breaks and ebay, I get a lot each month.

I also have been looking to build up my Knicks collection. Of all the teams I collect, they are the team I have the fewest of. So, I've been picking up a few cards as well as some Ewings. Its been coming along nicely and pretty soon, I should have a nice Knicks collection.

New Adds to Yankees Autograph PC

I attended the Westchester County Sports Card show last weekend. I initally went just to meet former Yankee Stan Bahnsen. I didnt want to spend too much money and thanks to the dealers there, I didnt. Almost everything was overpriced so I didnt buy much of anything except vintage New York Jets cards from the 60's, 70's and 80's for 10 cents a piece. The most I spent was 2.00 on a 1969 Don Maynard card. I have been meaning to try and put together all the Topps Jets team sets and I'm now on my way to doing that. I also came to the conclusion that if I am going to come home with a nice haul, I better stay away from game used and autographed cards. Not that there arent any deals to be had. There are. It's just that the Yankees are always over priced, the Jets are on their way to being and finding Knicks and Devils stuff is pretty hard.

I did manage to add 2 hard to get (well, for me anyway) autographs to my Yankees autograph collection. First up is this signed Matt Nokes card.

If you have been a regular reader of my blog, you would have seen an earlier blog where I wrote about how Nokes had sent back my request RTS. It was the third time I had sent out to Nokes and he didnt sign. So I found this signed card in a pile with other signed cards for a buck. Now, I finally got you Nokes, mwhahahahahahahahaha!

In the same pile was this signed card by another former Yankees catcher, Don Slaught. He was another who I wrote to and never got back. With Slaught though, I wrote to him when he was coaching the Pirates and he got canned right after I sent in the request, so I'm guessing he just never got the request. I was never able to find another address for him, so I was happy to pick this up for the PC for a buck as well.

1 new add to the Yankees signed baseball collection, 2 new adds to the Yankees autographed card collection and a bunch of new Jets Topps cards. All in all, a pretty successful day for my collections and I barely spent 10.00 for the day.

2010 Mark Teixeira Cards

With The 2011 baseball cards set to be realised within the next month, I wanted to take a sec and reflect on the 2010 Mark Teixeira cards I was able to add to my Teixeira PC during the past year. The collection stands currently at 222 cards and I'm anxiously waiting for the new releases so I can add more to the growing collection.

Here are the cards I bought, traded, begged, pleaded and cajoled for in 2010:

Topps


Topps Finest base

Topps Legandary Lineage Teixeira/Gehrig insert

This was an insert I picked up at a card show for a penny. Love that price

Topps Peak Performance

Allen & Ginter base

Topps 206 base

Bowman base

Topps 206 Gold Border Paraell

Topps Attax

Allen & Ginter This Day In History Insert. Teixeira's bithday is April 11th, same as mine.

Topps 206 mini

Topps Legandary Lineage Teixeira/Mantle

Topps Heritage All Star

Topps National Chicle base

Topps Opening Day Toppstown card

Topps 206 base 2

Topps base

Topps Heritage

Topps Turkey Red insert

League Leader cards

Now for the Upper Deck cards. Bear in mind there wasn't much due to UD losing the MLB license:

Pure Heat insert

Upper Deck base

Biography inserts

Obviously, this is not all the Teixeira cards that were released in 2010. I am still working on getting to as complete as possible. I would most likely have to pass up the high dollar cards, but that's fine as long as I'm happy with my collection.

I'm sorry for the cruddy pics. I really need to get a new camera or buy a scanner.

I will also be working on getting my Teixeira have list on here. I'm always looking for Teixeira cards, GU, autos, posters, bobbles, figures, etc.

Bring on 2011 Topps!

2011 Is Just Around The Corner...

With the calender just about to turn it's pages into a new year, this is the time to reflect on another year passed and anticipate the possibilites of a brand new year. A clean slate to start fresh and accomplish goals everyone sets for themselves at the start of the new year.

I have goals. Both personal and hobby related. For the sake of this blog (and not to bore any of you readers out there), I will just keepit to hobby related. I made a list of goals that are obtainable and realistic for me to accomplish. I mean, Icould be bold and say I want to add a Lou Gehrig cut auto to put next to the one of Babe Ruth that I already have, but it's not realistic. Therefore, here are the realistic goals I'm setting, hobbywise, for 2011:

1-Add to my growing bobblehead collection.
I started seriously collecting bobbleheads in the early stages of 2010 when I picked up three Forever bobbleheads up at the Westchester County Baseball Card Show. I snagged a Ford, Rizzuto and Jeter bobbles. It started me on a quest to add more nodders to the three I had already bought. Now, my collection stands at 50 and I want more. There are some elusive bobbles I have bid on and lost on ebay, like the AGP SGA bobbles the Yankees and Columbus Clippers have given away. I hope to add Ruth, Dimaggio, Maris, Stengel to my collection as well as Pettitte, Wells, Clemens, and Jeter. Then there is the 2009 World Series Champions bobbles. I only have Mark Teixeira right now. This is a set I really want to concentrate on finishing by the end of the year. Getting a better display case for them is also a priority. I've just about run out of room in the three shelf unit they are in now.
Adding more Jets, Devils and Knicks bobbles would be a plus as well.

2-More Yankee Vintage
In an earlier post, I showed off the oldest Yankee cards I have in my Yankees collection. A pair of 1956 Topps cards. As a team collector,I would love nothing more than toadd more vintage to my collection. I know adding cards from Mantle might not happen anytime soon,but I don't see why I can't add others. I always see Ford, Berra, Howard, among others at decent prices. Mybe a well loved Mantle will fall on my lap,who knows. Plus, I'd like to finish my 1971 Topps Yankees team set too.

3-More Yankee autos
Right now, my Yankees autograph collection stands at close to 150 diffrent Yankees on cards, balls, mini helmets, pictures, etc. I'm always looking for diffrent players I don't have in my Yankees collection. I really don't have a must have list,but I have an idea of who I need. I would also like to finish up this large black and white photo of the old Yankee Stadium from the upper deck,with the facade hanging overhead. I have been getting diffrent players to sign it and it looks pretty good. I might try for a few more and then get it matted and framed.
I also would like to start a signed Yankees baseball collection too.
During the course of the year, I will post blogs of the autos I have.

4-Finish Team Sets
I do have holes in my teams sets. I have team sets of Topps Yankees cards going back from the late 60's to the present. Would like to try and finish them.

5-Don't Forget The Others
Although I am concentrating on mainly my Yankees collection, I do have team collections of the Jets, Knicks, Devils and Islanders I don't want to ignore. Also, adding to my Mark Teixeira, Tino Martinez, Martin Brodeur, Mark Sanchez and David Lee PC's as well.

6-Organization Is Key
This is my main goal. I want everything in binders or Top loaders and penny sleeves as soon as possible. Waiting so long to do take care of this was the worst mistake. Now, I find myself digging through boxes, piling up cards and putting them in binders. It's a long process, but it must be done. I would like a final count of what I own soon.I also want to put create a spreadsheet as well. Right now, I have 22 binders of Yankee cards alone. I can honestly see that number grow to 30 by the time I'm done.

7-Improve The Blog
I'm always thinking of ways to improve this blog. One I would really like to do is change the picture on top. I would rather it show off the love I have for bobbles, cards, autos, and mcfarlanes. Also,I would like to find a way to throw Yankees, Jets, Knicks and Devils in it as well.

So, that's the list of New Years Resolutions I have for my hobby. They are goals that I think I can reach within this upcoming year. Will I do all of them, plus the personal ones I have set aside? Well, one of my best friends told me that if I can visualize it and if I have the drive, I can achieve my goals. My motor's running.

What are your goals?

What I Did During The Blizzard

As New York City got hit with a snowstorm the like we haven't seen here in quite sometime, and since my Jets got me PO'ed, I decided to do something to take my mind off it all. I worked on organizing my cards.

It's a goal I have for the New Year. Get all my Yankees cards organized by putting them into their binders. Right now, I have boxes of cards I recieved through trades, purchases or from my team collectors group that I open and put into boxes since I'm a lazy mutt. I have been doing this for months now and I looked at the boxes piling higher and higher and realized I needed to get them put away. And it's not just Yankee cards either. I have Jets, Knicks, Devils and Islanders cards I need to organize too. Since the Yankees cards take up about 75% of my card collection, I decided I would tackle it first.

I decided to go by brand and Topps would be the first one I start with. I had actually started the project about a week and a half ago. I first hit just the Topps base series. I have some cards that go back to the 50's and 60's. Not many, just a couple. Once I organized all of them and put them away, I tackled the Topps subsets. Allan & Ginter, Heritage, Stadium Club, TEK, Stars, 205, 206, etc. All those sets needed to be put away. I started right after the Jets lost their game to the Bears, yet backed up into the playoffs (thank you Washington Redskins), which was around 4:15 EST. I didn't call it a night untill 11:30pm and I still haven't finished. I threw all the doubles and triples into boxes to be sent to my tier 2 Yankees collector and for trades. And there was a lot too. Plus, with A&G and Heritage, I had to make sure I wasn't putting the paralls into the boxes as doubles. Anyone who collects A&G, how do you store your mini's? I just put them into 9 pocket pages along side the regular sized cards.

As much as it is as task to put away all the cards, it is also so much fun to me. I just sit and look over the cards and just soak in the designs, the feel of cardboard (or chrome) in my hands and it just takes me back to when I was a kid, organizing my cards and watching the Yankees game. I can still hear Frank Messer, Phil Rizzuto and Bill White call the game as I look over my cards. As much as I'm into other things like comics and Batman/Spiderman collecting and McFarlanes and bobbleheads, nothing brings me as much joy as when I complete a team set or get a Yankee autographed card I need for the collection. Things may come and go in life, but the one constant I have is my card collecting hobby. Always brings a smile to my face.

Thoughts During My Lunch Break

First, before I go on, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of our vets a Happy Veteran's Day. This country is a free country thanks to the efforts of all you great men and women. I'd also like to say a special prayer to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for this land.


I was doing doing a bit of thinking today. Has any of you ever felt like your collections were getting out of hand? Like you were spreading yourselves out a bit too thin? I have as of late. I have tried to add hockey, basketball and football to my collection as well as bobbleheads and figurines as well. Unfortunatley, my Yankees collection has been ignored, almost to the point where I really haven't added anything to it in quite sometime. I was looking at ebay this morning and I realized I am missing so much from this year's Topps. I'm pretty sure I do have most of the base cards, but I have none of the game used and autos. I'm really digging the manucatured bat barrell cards as well. So I have decided to go concentrate on my Yankees collection only for the time being. Unless I can make a trade, I will put all efforts into adding more goodies to the Yankees collection. I may actually post pics of what I own already so everyone can see the collection, which I think is pretty darn impressive.

I'll let you know what I add in the weeks to come.

8/2/2010-The organization continues

So, I'm a week into the card organizing and I have to say, it's more work than I imagined and I'm only working on Topps main sets. It's a bit frustrating, but fun at the same time as I am finding cards I didn't even know I had.

I had decided to start off with just organizing the Topps sets I have. I have cards from these sets that go back to 1956. Mind you, not all these sets are complete, nor do I have cards from every year. But completing these set will be a fun challenge. Only problem I see is that not all these sets will ever be complete. Unless I hit the lottery or find a very generous benefactor, I will not be adding a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie card to my collection or any of his cards for that matter. Heck, all his other cards would put a serious hurting on my bank account, so unless I find a deal, Mantle's 1950's and 1960's cards will probably not be added to my collection anytime soon. Doesn't mean I can't have a nice collection. Right now, my main focus is on cards released from 1970-present. whenever I can add a nice vintage card, at the right price, I will.

I started looking through all my boxes and pulling out all Topps main set cards. and organizing them in piles by year. After pulling the duplicates, I placed the cards in 9 pocket sleeve pages and placed them in order by year. So far, I have most of the 1970's done. I have cards from the 80's, 90's and new millenium already put in pages, I just have to go through them and make sure there are no inserts or dups. Then I have some 60's cards to organize. I hope to be done with all this within the next week or so.

After, it will be on to the other Topps sets like Allen & Ginter, Heritage, etc. That will take a while. I'm so not looking forward to tackling Upper Deck. at this rate, it will be the start of the 2011 season before I'm done.

Stay tuned....

Finally Started.....

Not my cards, but I just wanted to give you an idea of the project I'm tackling. See, I have been a member of my team collectors group for about 4 years now. when I first started, I kept up to date on putting base cards in their binders, everything else went into top loaders and penny sleeves. Somewhere along the way, I got lazy and when my treasures arrived, I just put them in boxes and told myself I'd put them away, eventually. Well, eventually came this past weekend.

I read a lot of blogs written by card collectors, like Wrigley Wax, Waxaholic, A Cardboard Problem and Emerald City Diamond Gems. All write terrific blogs and show off their treasures. Well, I want to do the same, so yesterday, I started to go through the boxes of cards. I came up with a game plan. Since I knew I wasn't going to be able to do everything in one day, Why not organize by company. Yesterday, I started with my favorite card company, Topps. I searched through a few boxes for Topps base cards. I haven't finished, but look to do so tonight during the Yankees game tonight. As I go along, I'll show off the goodies here and you all can see what I have.

I'm also hoping to catalouge what I have so as I get my cards, I can know right off if it's a duplicate or it's a need. I dont have an excel program, so I will be looking for a free "excel-like" program on line tonight as well.

I am really looking forward to searching through my boxes and seeing what I come up with. I bet I have some intresting stuff.

Told You I Had A Lot.....

See that picture above? Remember what I said last week about having some boxes of cards to look through? Say hello to my little friend...

2 monster boxes form the bottom with various size boxes creeping toward the heavens. All filled to capacity with Yankee cards. I guess I have a few doubles and triples in there. I'm gonna have some fun going through them and putting them in their binders, but I also know it's gonna take a while to finish. Maybe there are some cool inserts in there I forgot I had. Gonna start tonight during the Hockey and Basketball games. My game planis to go but makers. Tonight I will start with Topps cards only. I'll let you know if Ifind anything sweet.

It's 2010, but I'm looking at 1971

As a Yankees team collector, I try to complete as many sets as possible. One set I have been wanting to attempt to complete for a long time is the Topps 1971 set. Why? Because it was the year I was born. I hadn't really tried to start it until I saw some very nice cards on a table at the last card show I was at. I picked these up for less than 12.00


Neither Mitchell or Colson saw time with the Yankees in 1971

Kline was the Yankees number 4 starter in 1971. He finished going 12-13 with an ERA of 2.96 and had 15 complete games. He struck out 81 batters and walked 37 in 222.1 innings pitched. Not bad for a number 4 guy.

Hansen played in 61 games in 1971 and finished with a .207 batting avg, hit 2 home runs and drove in 20 runs.

White was the left fielder in 1971, as he was on the Yankees 2 world championship teams in the late 70's. In 1971, he batted .292 and hit 19 home runs with 84 RBI's and 14 steals. I always remembered him as a steady defensive left fielder.

Stottlemyer was the Yankees ace after Whitey retired. In 1971, he led the Yankees staff in wins with 16 and had the lowest ERA amounst the starters at 2.87. Most remember him today as the pitching coach on the 1986 World Championship Mets team and the pitching coach on the Yankees 90's dynasty teams.

I used to love the team cards for some reason. glad to see them back in the Topps Heritage series

Michael was the starting SS in 1971. From what I was told, he was a defensive wiz at SS. Wasn't much of a hitter though as he batted .224 with 3 bombs and 35 RBI. Was a better GM as he was the GM when George Steinbrenner was suspended and put the emphasis on getting players who played and wanted to win. He was behind drafting Jeter and trading for O'Neill and Cone. It was with his blueprint that the Yankees started to win again in the 90's and I always felt he was run out of his position too soon, although the Yankees won the titles AFTER he vacated his position, but Steinbrenner kept him around and he is currently an advisor to Brian Cashman, the current Yankee GM.

I think I have a few others. I really need to look throw the monster boxes I have.