Trade With Joey - Vintage and More In An Easy Deal

I got a nice package of stuff in the mail the other day from my good friend, Joey.  I sent him a bunch of Red Sox cards and a Phil Niekro Sweet Spot bat auto.  In return, Joey sent me a stack of vintage stuff (mostly Bowman) that he had. This 1955 Billy Pierce might be the best card in the bunch.  I took it out of the top loader and was amazed at the shape that the card was in.  There was still a great deal of gloss on the card, and the edges and corners were really sharp.

This 1952 Bowman Gerry Staley is also in great shape.  I love the '52 design.  Once I finish my 1948 Bowman set, I may consider doing another one of their sets.  It will be really tough to decide which one, though.

This Joe Adcock card was a little rough, but still was really cool.  Adcock was a great player in his day, but is always overshadowed by his teammate, Eddie Mathews and later by Hank Aaron.  He had a really good career, clubbing 336 homers, but his other stats don't really stand out.  Doesn't matter, though, this is still a really awesome card.

Finally, I got this quad relic card from Joey pretty cheaply since there is a good bit of damage on the card.  It is a quad bat card of Thome, Thomas, Juan Gone and Delgado.  One of the guys on the card is already a Hall of Famer and another (Thome) will be.  The other two guys could make a case for themselves, but I highly doubt they ever get in.  Oh well.  It still is a really cool card.

Thanks for the deal, Joey!  I really appreciate it and I know we will do a bunch more in the future!

Sportlots Pickup - 1959 Topps

I bought a bunch of cards I needed for sets from Sportlots this past weekend.  The first batch of which came in this evening.

I was excited to see that the package was all of the 1959 Topps I had bought.  I didn't get any stars, but I did pick up this high number Billy Pierce.  Actually, this pierce is the final card in the set, so I guess you could say it's all downhill from here.

I thumbed through my set so far tonight as well and realized that Pierce has at least 3 cards in the set.  He has this All Star card, a base card and a highlights card.  Not bad for a great pitcher and an even greater TTM signer.

So, I have updated my 1959 needs list, in case anyone is feeling generous.  Cool thing, too, is that I just reached a deal on Instagram tonight for 11 more, so I'm knocking quite a few of these out.  That will give me room to concentrate on some stars coming up, so it'll be nice to get some commons out of the way.

TTM Success - Bill Pierce

I got my 33rd TTM success on Friday, September 9, 2011 (the same day as my Phil Niekro success) from former pitcher Bill Pierce.

I mailed to Pierce on August 26, 2011 and got the ball back on September 9, making him a 14-day TAT.  Not too bad.

Pierce played in the majors from 1945, 1948-1964 for the Tigers, White Sox and Giants.  He twice won 20 games (in 1956 and 1957) and retired with a record of 211-169, 3.27 ERA and 1,999 strikeouts.  Looks to me like he was a pretty good pitcher who should get a little more love for the Hall of Fame.  Not saying he should get in outright, but a little more thought toward it, maybe.  His HOF balloting was unimpressive (5 years on the ballot and averaged 1.36% of the vote), but I can think of recent pitchers getting much more support with similar numbers.