The vintage just keeps pouring in!

First, a quick update on the '74 Traded set.

 As you can see, twelve more traded cards arrived this past week - the rest should be here soon - as well as the checklist. It is quite miscut, but unmarked.

 Now, on to the "real" vintage - 1973. Hah, yes, just one year earlier. So what makes this real? It's a full Topps issue before 1980 and I'm going to try to put the set together.

Matthew of Number 5 Type Collection offered up his extras from the '73 set, and I said I'd take what was left after everyone else had their pick. He emailed me and said he was sending me some 1973 cards. What I received was about 10% of the set stuffed into a bubble mailer! So, I have no choice (as if it was pulling my leg) but to say thank you! Instead of showing you scans of 60 cards, I picked the ten best parts of the lot:

10. Vintage Giants

This is San Francisco. Vintage Giants (heck, even no-name mid-1990s scrub Giants) go for a premium here. Receiving a Giant was a great way to start off this list.

9. World Series Action

 A great action shot here helps celebrate the A's first World Series victory in Oakland and the start of a dynasty. And the A's, too, are a local team, sort of. Nobody respects them on this side of the bay.

8. Tommy John

 The man had a career-saving surgery named after him. What's not to love?

7. The Next Willie Mays

 Well, Cesar Cedeno didn't quite live up to the hype, but he was named to four all-star teams and won five Gold Gloves.

6. Tim McGraw's Father

 Tug McGraw is probably more famous as a 1980 Phillie, though he was with the Mets when they won the World Series in 1969.

5. Bert, you're shouting again, Bert.

 To understand the title of this card, you have to watch this video.

Hey, I'm writing this at 1AM, after spending a day at the zoo with a couple of one-year-olds. Be glad I'm not posting tons of videos of giraffes peeing.

4. B-Wil and R-Car. (Or, A HOF Duo)

 I hate modern nicknames. That's why I applied them here. Don't they sound lame?

3. A Twins Hero

 Tony Oliva's number is retired by the Twins. Interestingly, all of the Twins retired numbers are of players who played in Minnesota - none of the Washington-only players have been honored (but then, I don't think Walter Johnson ever wore a jersey number).

2. Mustache In Training

 It's getting there. Really, it's a well-established mustache, but the handlebars aren't there yet.

1. They aren't really part of the set, but they're still cool.

Topps tested team checklists in the 1973 release, issued with blue borders and orange backs. Both cards are nicely miscut, and the back of Yankees card shows that the original collector was about halfway done with the set.

I have a small handful of prior-purchase '73 Topps cards sitting in a stack to deal with, but otherwise I sit around 10% complete with the set thanks to Matthew! There were some duplicates in the lot, which are available for trade (hopefully you can send me even more 1973s!) - 274, 285, 290, 291, 291, 409. Yeah, I have two extra Rogelio Moret cards.

I'm excited to be starting my first full vintage set, but this is an all-or-nothing attack on set building on a tiny budget. My goal is completion (except, perhaps, the Schmidt rookie, and maybe the other $30+ cards) by March. It won't be easy - I'm working off basically no budget while still keeping my interests in the other collections. Condition isn't important, though I'd prefer not having total beaters.

Moneyball! and cards!

Jim is a blog reader who's developed into a friend over the past year - he lives across the bay so we've found time to get together a few times. You'd remember him from this trade post.

We made plans and Thursday afternoon we screened the new Moneyball film. I thought it was excellent, and for the first time I can remember since American Beauty and Almost Famous I was able to sit through a drama without wondering when the film was going to end.

I'm sure you're familiar with the film if you're a regular reader of this blog - Brad Pitt's character (Billy Beane) hires Jonah Hill to bring his Bill James style of scouting to the Athletics. Drama ensues with a typical Hollywood "Brad Pitt's character is the good guy" ending. As I hinted above, it's a great film about baseball, not just a great baseball film. Jim noted there were women in the theater who probably wouldn't be found at a screening for Major League or The Natural. The setting is the 2002 Oakland A's season, from their loss in the ALDS to the Twins in 2001 through the playoffs. You can tell it's Oakland - the shots of the Oakland port and stadium guarantee that. The story is inspiring and moves quickly enough, with just the right amount of actual baseball included to make it fun for fans of baseball movies.

Speaking of which, how long has it been since we've had a real, good, baseball movie? The last I can recall is A League Of Their Own. Has it been that long? Am I forgetting something?

Billy Beane's character spits tobacco. A lot. I'm not sure if that was important to his character or not, but I certainly noticed it. Pitt does his usual good job of acting, but the surprising actor was Jonah Hill. There were several scenes that he pulled off that I wouldn't expect, most notably the trade scene during the turning point of the movie. Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of my favorite actors, and he did a great job as Art Howe, though I noticed that he came off as quite a jerk during the whole thing, never wanting to listen to Beane's plans and just overall playing almost a villain in the film. At some point he must have come around to Beane's way of thinking, but after the trade scene mentioned above he just sort of falls from the story. Perhaps that was meant as a way of saying Beane made Howe's job meaningless after a discussion they had around that point in the film.

Now I can't judge how true to the characters and reality the movie is, nor how well it follows the book - I was out of baseball and the Bay Area in 2002, and the book isn't in my library yet (that will change eventually). However, factual or not, accurate or not, it's a great film that I will probably end up seeing again (something I don't say very often, especially with dramas). I give it four baseballs out of five.

Now, I mentioned cards in the title. So I suppose I need to hold true to that part of the deal. Jim and I grabbed lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings. This was the first time I've been to BWW since leaving Atlanta, and man oh man, that wing sauce is AWESOME. Before eating, I gave Jim a nice Mike Schmidt I picked up a week ago:

I still owe him for the Sportscasters cards he brought me in June. Well, he said he had some stuff for me off my want list. He mentioned complete sets and junk wax, and I had an idea where he was going.

There were two factory set boxes in a bag that he handed to me as we said our goodbyes. One of them was for 2005 Topps, and I was about to chastise him for bringing me such a great item with nothing planned in return. He quickly brought me back to earth, when he mentioned and I saw that it contained this set:

Ah, 1990 Donruss. I actually like the design. Maybe it's the tiny, itty bitty part of me that appreciates that style of abstract paint-splatter art. I'd do something about the top part of the card, but I can ignore that. In typical junk wax fashion, I found nine players who amount to a net worth of about nine cents in the set.

The other set was in its proper box - the 1991 Donruss set. If you remember (how could you forget), the set came in two series, with each series being a different color. I prefer the green (blue was done to death with the 1988 Donruss set). I have a couple decent players in at the end, just for the fun of it.

Both sets came with the Rookies set, and 1990's included the puzzle!

Thanks a ton Jim, for a great time, and the cards! I've got some Chicles for you. A whole bunch of Chicles.

Another Sticker Post? You Bet! It's Crinkly Stickers!

Why are these stickers so infatuating? Is it their low price? The simplicity of the set? The reminder of a childhood spent collecting Paninis? The attractive, minimal design?

For me, it's all four. They're certainly cheaper than even flagship Topps cards - eight stickers for a dollar. Plus, I know that all eight stickers will be for the set I'm collecting - no random ToppsTown or Attax code cards here! I can't say that I dove into those Panini stickers too often, but I managed to sneak quite a few packs into the shopping cart over the years. So there must be some sort of attraction there. There is attraction in the design. We've heard already how good the design is - better than 2011 Topps, or 2012 Topps, and so on. I'm sure the design was originally planned as a flagship release, but it works fine here.

When I originally offered up my sticker pack busts, I asked for stickers in trade. I'm sure I've helped a few people get close to completing their set! One of the traders was Ted of Crinkly Wrappers, who has worked with me in the past - he sent me a whole ton of cards which I'm about to put to good use, and in another trade, off went a short print for a sparkle. By the way, Ted is running a very limited "break" that includes some awesome vintage! Signups end tonight, I believe. I'd love to participate but the cost is too much for a man with no job. That'd be me. Oops. He closed the break this morning. (Sorry, I tried.) Anyway...

I sent Ted a handful of stickers, and he sent me back a pile! I was able to pull one sticker for every team in the playoffs except the Rangers, who were included on a sticker with playoff hopeful Brewers. Plus, there were a couple of those legend foils!

There were a ton of other stickers in the package. A big thank-you to Ted for the trade! As always, I've added the stickers to the original trade bait page - I'm happy to trade any of the stickers I have that you need for ones I don't have! I'm getting close to starting to actually put together the set.

Now, for those of you who made it this far, in honor of the stickers and today's earlier post, here's a video. No, it's not the same video from the morning post.

I love mashups.