2014 Sportlots purchase: more Michigan PC guys

Last month I put together another nice bunch of purchases on Sportlots, and while I still need to post my set wantlist additions over on TMV, I also wanted to show off five Michigan PC pickups I grabbed from one of my more reliable suppliers of such cards:

Red Berenson 1969-70 Topps

Back on Wednesday I showed off a couple new Reds and mentioned that I was the proud owner of his regular OPC/Topps run from '69-70 to '78-'79, but hadn't yet posted his '69-'70 Topps issue.  Well here it is!  It's tied with the OPC version as the oldest in my Berenson collection for now, and of course this one's in much better shape.  I'm just a card shy of 50% at 27/55 in his run.

Steve Boros 1986 Topps Traded Tiffany

For some reason Sportlots seems to be a pretty good source for Tiffany cards--two of today's scores, including this Boros, came from a seller there, and I've landed a number of others before as well.  This '86 Traded Tiffany was an exciting addition because it leaves me needing just one to complete Steve's collection, and that's the '84 flagship Tiffany, oddly enough.  I should be celebrating having Boros' run completed very soon, but for now this is card #15/16.

Dave Campbell 1974 O-Pee-Chee

Moving on to an even more exciting card for me, here's another vintage OPC of Dave Campbell, which was a sight for sore eyes as far as I was concerned because I now own 100% of Campbell's PC!  Sure, it's only 10 cards, but it's still fun to have completed another Michigan guy's collection, and Dave is the 6th to earn that distinction.  That group includes Topps cards in 1969 and 1970, then OPC/Topps versions from 1971-74.

Chris Getz 2013 Topps Update Wal Mart Blue Border

Next up is the most modern card in the bunch, another entry in the rainbow of Chris Getz from 2013 Topps Update.  As a matter of fact, it happens to be the final card I needed to complete that project as the 9th in the group.  I'll make sure to show off the rainbow in a future post, but for now this card featuring a great photo of Getz sliding is my 72nd of his 106 entries to-date.

Scott Kamieniecki 1991 Topps Traded Tiffany

Finally we have the other Tiffany card I found this time (from the same seller that had the Boros) in the form of this very young Scott Kamieniecki from '91 Traded.  As you can imagine I was happy to find both from one seller since that saved me a bit on shipping.  This was the last I needed in terms of Kam's 1991 cards (he has six of them), and I continue to make steady progress on his collection which now stands at 84/90.  With a bit of luck I may dig up his tougher-to-find '98 Pacific Online Web and Winners cards before the end of the year, and that would put me in a good position to close out his run as well.

With these posted I'll likely be moving on to new COMC purchases shortly, with another eBay win to mix things up a bit.

2014 COMC purchases: Dave and Don

After showing off some Steve Boros pickups on Friday I decided to go back to the vintage well today with two more guys:  Dave Campbell and Don Lund.  I introduced both guys in a post a couple months ago, and at that point all I had was Campbell's RC.  Luckily COMC proved to be an excellent source--as always--for adding to my PCs:

Dave Campbell 1970 Topps

As I said, my only previous Campbell card was his '69 Topps RC, but he'd appeared in three seasons for Detroit by then.  The following season he was a member of the Padres by virtue of a trade that brought pitcher Joe Niekro to the Tigers.  Here he is with San Diego on his second-year Topps issue; he wasn't included in that year's OPC set as it didn't include all the Topps high numbers.

Dave Campbell 1971 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

This is the first of three straight pairs of Campbell's OPC/Topps issues I picked up.  Fortunately they were very low numbers (#46) so I didn't have to pay through the nose for expensive high numbers!  The OPC version has a lot of French writing on the back which makes it much easier to distinguish the two.

Dave Campbell 1972 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

Dave's 1972 cards include stats from his 1970-71 campaigns with the Pads, and those were the only two seasons during his career in which he appeared in more than 100 games (154 and 108, respectively).  Don't be shocked, then, that they were his two best seasons.  Once again the OPC version has some French text on the back, plus the very helpful "printed in Canada" notation.

Dave Campbell 1973 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

The Padres are well represented in the Hall of Ugly-Ass Uniforms, and here's one great example courtesy of the 1973 sets.  '73 also turned out to be Dave's final season on the West Coast as he was traded to the Cardinals mid-season.  There's an interesting difference in this pair, by the way:  the cartoon on the back of the Topps' card has text that was drawn while the OPC card clearly used type instead.

Dave Campbell 1974 Topps

St. Louis wasn't Dave's final career stop as just two months after that deal in '73 he was flipped to the Astros for former ROY Tommie Agee, who played the final 26 games of his career with the Cards.  Campbell, meanwhile, got into nine games with the '73 Astros, then 35 more the following season before hanging 'em up.  I don't have the OPC card to go with this Topps version, but that's the last of Dave's run that I don't have!

Make it an exciting 9/10 in Dave's collection with the final piece due to arrive soon! 

Don Lund 1954 Bowman

I'm happy to finally have some cards to show off of Lund, yet ANOTHER Wolverine/Tiger.  While I haven't landed his '53 Topps RC yet--gotta find one that isn't so expensive--I did manage to start things off with this classic '54 Bowman.  It hails from the days of cards being a bit larger than today's standard of 2 1/2 x 3 1/2, and it looks great despite its age.

Don Lund 1954 Topps

Here's the former Michigan football star in his Topps issue from the same year.  I'd take this one over the Bowman since it has more going for it, including that terrifying Tigers logo!  Lund was actually signed as a free agent by Brooklyn in '45, and he was with them until the St. Louis Browns grabbed him off waivers in 1948.  The Tigers purchased him the following year, and he was with them for a few games in '49 and again in '52.  1953 was his best campaign as he appeared in a career-high 131 games, but it was back to normal in '54 with just 35 appearances, and then he retired.

Don Lund 1991 Topps Archives 1953

With two of Lund's three vintage issues secured I went after his modern cards.  First up is this reprint of his '53 RC out of the 1991 Topps Archives set--yep, they made that product that far back!  It's a bit annoying for me that I don't have the actual card to pair it with, yet, but I will as soon as I can.

Don Lund 1994 Topps Archives 1954

Here's another Archives issue from a few years later, and four decades after the original's release.  Obviously I do have the original '54 to go with this one, and the reprint does a pretty good job of capturing the vintage version, but I'd go with the latter and its true cardboard-ness any day!

This was a good start for my Lund collection as I now have four of his eight cards.  Besides the aforementioned RC, I'm lacking a gold parallel of the '94 Archives, then a couple autographs(!) out of 2003 Topps Heritage, and those should be fun to chase.

It was fun having more vintage stuff to show off, but I'll go back to modern cards in my next post to close out this latest purchase.

Announcing three new baseball PCs: Boros, Campbell, and Lund

Stay tuned for a new post from Jeff this evening, but first, I have some personal collecting news related to the blog:  I'm announcing three new baseball PCs!  All three have small enough runs that I'm going to do my version of "supercollecting" them--shooting for 100% of their regular print run and then adding any "others" and 1/1s just for fun.  Here they are:

Steve Boros

Flint native Boros was a Michigan SS from 1956 to 1957, at which point he signed with Detroit as a "bonus baby" (this was before the draft) and left Ann Arbor.  He played parts of seven seasons with the Tigers, Cubs, and Reds before his playing career ended in 1965.  He then pursued a managerial career, earning the gig as Oakland's leader for 1983.  Steve was ahead of his time in using computers to analyze stats for advantages, but was fired after a mediocre start the following year.  The Padres came calling in 1986 after '84 pennant-winning skipper Dick Williams resigned abruptly, but lasted just a season in San Diego.  He later returned to the Tigers in multiple capacities towards the end of his life, and was also inducted into the Wolverines Hall of Honor.  He passed away in 2010.

Boros has 16 cards for me to chase, starting with vintage issues from during his career ('58-'65) plus cards in '83, '84, '86, and '87 covering his managerial years.  I made an executive decision to list his six recent Topps Heritage buybacks as "others" because I don't think they really fit under his standard releases.  I have his '86 Topps Traded and '87 Topps (above), and I'll be looking to add more soon!

Dave Campbell

I first mentioned Campbell about a month ago after I picked up the above card at a show, thinking I'd scored a nice vintage Tigers RC and not realizing it was another Wolverine/Tiger combo!  A native of Manistee, Michigan (way up north on Lake Michigan), the man they nicknamed "Soup"--because obviously--signed with Detroit as a free agent after a successful career with the Wolverines that included Michigan's 1962 NCAA title victory (coached by the guy below!).  He appeared in more than 400 games over parts of eight seasons with the Tigers, Padres, Cardinals, and Astros and was involved in trades for two notable players:  Joe Niekro and Tommie Agee.  Campbell has since done quite a bit of color commentating (and video game work!) for several teams.

My collection for him currently consists solely of his '69 Topps RC above, but I look forward to tracking down his nine other vintage cards when I can.

From COMC

Don Lund

You may remember Lund from...yesterday's post.  You're forgiven if you already forgot about that, though, since he appeared as a football player in the TK Legacy M Go Blue autograph set.  As I noted in the post, Lund opted for a baseball career instead, and he played parts of seven seasons with Brooklyn, St. Louis (Browns), and the Tigers (hey, another one!).  After his Major League career ended, Don helmed the Michigan Baseball team for their 1962 National Championship, and also coached for the Tigers.  He's in the Wolverines Hall of Honor as well, and the article I linked above about him in Campbell's words is a good read about the impact he had on others.

His checklist comes in at just eight cards, though it could prove to be a tough group to acquire:  the '53 and '54 Topps plus '54 Bowman might not be cheap, and then he has a pair of autographs (one numbered to 54) in 2003 Heritage.  I'm totally starting from scratch here, but I think it'll be fun chasing another Michigan Football star that opted for baseball, not to mention another Wolverine/Tiger double-dipper!

I'm planning on putting in some work on COMC for these guys soon, but as always if you have anything I'm looking for, please give me a shout!

7-13-14 card show report: Wolverine Wonderland

Earlier this evening on TMV I showed off some pickups from a card show I hit up yesterday, just my second of the year after going in April.  Over just two purchases I spent $31 on PC stuff and trade bait broken down into quarter, $0.50, $1, and $2 cards.  Here's the Michigan stuff from that haul:

Les Cain-Dave Campbell 1969 Topps RC

Although I was happy to pick up a cool vintage multiplayer Tigers RC, this one was also an accidental Wolverine pickup as Campbell (nicknamed "Soup," of course) played in Ann Arbor.  You now I love those Wolverine/Tiger double dips.  I count just 10 cards in his PC, so I may try to track those down too!

Bill Freehan 2006 Greats of the Game Copper (#022/299)

Milestone #1 today comes courtesy of another surprise, though I at least knew this guy was definitely a Michigan player.  I hadn't seen one of these Copper Freehans from the excellent '06 GotG set before, so I happily nabbed it, only to see it become PC card #75 of the catching great!

Dan Dierdorf 1976 and 1977 Topps

Next up, I dug out a pair of consecutive Dan Dierdorf vintage issues, both of which I think I found in the quarter box.  The left image just screams "face of a tackle" to me, while the right highlights his third straight Pro Bowl selection, and second in a row as a first-teamer.

Braylon Edwards 2011 Topps Chrome Refractor

A Braylon Refractor for a quarter?  Sure thing!  This one didn't scan well, at least in terms of showing off the card's Refractorness, but I've won that coin flip before, so it all evens out.

Desmond Howard 1996 Donruss Pres Proof

Alone with Braylon came this sweet insert of his Heisman-winning predecessor in the form of one of Donruss' venerable Press Proof cards.  This '96 version, "limited" to 2000 copies, also has a die-cut football helmet right next to his name.  Those two are nice additions to my football insert collection.

Ronald Bellamy 2003 SAGE HIT Autographs Emerald auto

I don't know if you'll believe me that this card set me back $2 while the next one was just a buck, but that's how things shook out.  The same guy that had the quarter/$0.50 boxes had this in his hits so I happily included it with some other stuff, and now I have four signatures of the "underachieving all-star."

Charles Woodson 2000 Fleer Tradition Feel the Game jersey

Who prices a Woodson relic at a buck?  Someone who's AWESOME in my opinion, assuming I'm the one who ends up with it.  The first guy from whom I purchased cards had lots of great stuff for $1 and $2 each, and that's where most of my money went yesterday, especially when it came to some fun trade bait for you guys.  For me, I landed my 10th hit of one of my favorite ever Wolverines, and another nice piece for the football PC.

Mike Cammalleri 2007-08 Upper Deck Be a Player Signatures autuo

Mike Knuble 2009-10 Be A Player Signatures auto

Steve Shields 1998-99 Be A Player Autographs auto

Lastly, the $1/$2 guy had a nice pile of hockey autos I wanted to grab, some of which are trade bait, and three of which are these Wolverines out of the extremely useful Be-A-Player brand.  In a nice look at the evolution of the set (not that they're displayed in chronological order), I ended up with 'graphs of hockey Mikes Cammalleri and Knuble, plus goalie Steve Shields on another card I somehow didn't have.  Those guys now own six, four, and seven hits in my hockey PC, respectively, as I close in on the 150-card mark.

I'm very happy with how far my $31 went yesterday, and I look forward to your reactions as soon as I can get the trade bait stuff out in the mail.  As for me, it's back to COMC/eBay/trade pickups and more soon!