A Whole Lotta Vintage Goin’ On

Yesterday’s post was about “new” old cards. This one is also about new old cards, but ones that are now old again. You see, these were picked up back in October – almost 10 months ago now. I really need to get this blog up to speed.

Anyhow, back in October I caught wind of a local hotel card show – one other than the monthly endeavor run by Darryl, and it was happening out in Sugar Land, where my parents live. So, on that Saturday, we took our daughter down to see my folks and spent some time down there – and in the middle of the day, my father and I snuck off to the hotel card show for an hour or so.

The primary reason for hitting this show – other than its proximity to my parents, was the fact that one Mr. Rick Rhoden would be there – a tough customer when it comes to signing autographs TTM. So I sleeved a couple 1990 Astros cards depicting Rick at the end of his career, and was all set to get some ink and cross another name off the Astro-graphs list.

There was only one problem – I forgot the cards on my desk. And none of the eight dealers in this tiny conference room had thought to bring any cards of him either. In the end, someone dug up this 1986 Pirates Leaders card of him and gave it to me. So I’m still hunting for a true Rhoden Astro-graph, but for now this will hold its place in my binder.

Wait, Marc – I thought you said there were old cards in this post? Is that it?

Oh, heck no. I mean, I wasn’t going to go out and blow a bunch of money at this little show, but I was definitely going to make the most of it. All told, I think I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 bucks on these. Now, on to the vintage!

I nabbed another nice pair of vintage Astros needs at the show as well. It’s sort of funny – I’ve had the “high numbers” finished from the ’65 team set for a while now, but I still need 10 cards to finish it off – the big one being the Joe Morgan rookie. While Bond is a lower numbered card, the Skip Guinn knocked a tough high number (#741) off my team needs for 1971.

You’ve already seen this Denny McLain on the blog – with some ink. I picked up that ’51 Bowman Eddie Robinson thinking it might be one of the cards I send to him for an autograph. I’m still really undecided, but I do have a custom of him as a spring training instructor (he was the director of the farm system) for the Colt .45s back in 1962. So I need to get it figured out.

Here’s a little more TTM fodder. There was a nice 8×10 of Friend in the old Motherlode stack, so I thought I’d send another card or two along with it. The 1960 was an obvious choice, given that the ‘Buccos won the World Series that year. Helms, the 1966 NL ROY with the Reds, has been a bit more consistent with his mail of late, and he spent ’72-’75 in a Houston uniform. I have his auto, but my return got smudged so I think I’ll try him again. I love the old deckle edge cards, and for a buck it was a no-brainer.

I know I made this decision 10 months ago, but I have officially decided to chase a 1957 set. I mean, the likelihood of me ever completing it will be extremely small, but I’m going to see how close I can get. I love this design, even if the text gets a bit wacky at times. Nick V. has mentioned in a few posts that this feels a bit like a precursor to modern Stadium Club, with its commitment to photography and minimal text. These guys aren’t in terrible shape – not true beaters, but they’ve definitely got their soft corners and light creases. I couldn’t pass up a guy named Rip and that swell-looking Harry Simpson portrait.

The true gem, though, was this Elmer Valo bat rack card. How great is that? These were all found in a dollar box, too! You can’t beat that with a stick.

I love the 1970 set, and you’ve gotta love a dude named “Mack Jones.” Someday I’ll build this one, but for now I’m just picking up cool strays.

The final card I’ll show off from this little card market (it was so, so small, even for a hotel show) is this beauty. A near-pristine Bob Watson rookie card from 1969. It’s a semi-high number, clocking in at #562. It also brought me within one card of having the Astros high numbers knocked out for the set – I still need #614, a rookies card of Tom Griffin and Skip Guinn. I was surprised to find this puppy in such great shape, and again around the one-to-two dollar mark.

All told, I picked up a nice little stack of vintage, had a little fun with my dad, and added a Rick Rhoden sig to my collection. Not a bad way to spend an hour on a Saturday, even if it was 10 months ago.