I was randomly searching around and I found this excellent lot of 1948 Leaf Boxing cards. It is actually the full set of 18 cards and half were graded. This was my favorite surprise find of the spree. I jumped on it after seeing pics of Jack Johnson, Sugar Ray Robinson and Jack Dempsey. The BIN price was $1500 plus 15 dollars shipping. I wasn’t pissed about the shipping considering there were 18 vintage cards and some were graded. The average cost of these boxing cards was only 84 bucks, I was happy with this deal. I know now that many of these cards can be found cheap. A '48 Bob Fitzsimmons for 10 bucks?
I bought one of thoese for real! Okay, speaking of deals…While looking at ’48 Leafs I came across this PSA 9 of Hall of Famer Luke Appling for only $309.00.
Probably not a wise buy with the clock ticking, but considering what I “paid” for the other ’48 Leaf cards at a lower grade seemed like a true great deal. I know the other cards were rookies or early cards and Appling was on his way out, but still… I did also drop 8 bucks to ship this one and I stayed with ’48 Leaf for the next one.I found this PSA 6 Larry Doby card for 3500.00 After getting a PSA 8 of Jackie Robinson from the same set for $3700.00 I couldn’t pay this much for a 6 of Doby.
I wanted this card really bad, but I kept on looking and found a PSA 2 with the wrong back for $650.00. I wasn’t thrilled with that either, but I would be bummed to have Paige, Musial, Robinson, Appling and NOT Doby. It is a wrong back, but the back is of Danny Murtaugh, so that was kind of nice, too. In retrospect, I wish that I put principles aside and bout the 6, but I am glad I got one…I am at $33,553 with just a couple of minutes left.
First order of business was buying the first Clemente rookie that came up-I got this PSA 5 for $749.00. I have seen ungraded cards at shows for more money that didn’t look this good and it was $5000 less than the first one I found.
I went Yankees again, but I have no shame because I “own” a 1934 Goudey Lou Gehrig. A PSA 3 for $1200.00.To balance out my Yankees purchase I bought a Ted Williams card. A 1941 Play Ball for $995.00.
I know Williams has a lot of great cards and I was tempted to go with the ’48 Leaf, but I love ’41 Play Ball.There are a ton of cards I still need-more Satchell Paige, some ’53 Topps, more ’51 Bowman, more… I decided to keep with the variety and chase a few more Hall of Fame hurlers, first stop Sandy Koufax.
I found this PSA 8 rookie card of The Left Arm of God for $2150.00 plus 12 bucks shipping. My Dad knew Koufax and was his favorite player of All Time. He doesn’t collect, but he would think it was neat, plus I know I could trade bait this to the Night Owl the next time he finds a Carl Crawford card that I can’t live without…I wanted to go Warren Spahn and then Steve Carlton and then more Satchel Paige, but I was down to 70 seconds and needed to burn up 10 grand. I was SWEATING! First pick was this amazing 1937 O-Pee-Chee of Rapid Robert Feller.
I had never seen this card before and really didn’t know it existed. Feller was just 18 years of age when this card came out-is this his rookie? Again it wasn’t on my radar, but a PSA 7 of Bob Feller from 1937 was too much to pass up. I dropped $3,995. Plus 10 bucks shipping on it.My stop watch said 14:34 and I had almost 8 grand left to go and I was stressing big time. I called on Joltin Joe to bring it home… I was able to find a card of him as a San Francisco Seal (not a Yankee) and I burned up $5775 in the process.
It’s a 1933 PSA 1 Zee Nut PCL Joe DiMaggio. I jotted this one down just as the alarm went off. Shopping spree over. I was pretty disappointed in myself. The 15 minute time limit did me in. I started off being so organized with a great plan and after 12 minutes it all went out the window and I just started jumping at high ticket items. Although they are neat cards I didn't want to spend the bulk of my budget on the Joe D, Mantle and Feller cards. I wanted more cards of Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige and I REALLY wanted to pick up autos of Satchel Paige, Roberto Clemente and Jackie Robinson and I can't believe I didn't get a single card of Willie Mays. For the record, I search new listings for Danny Tartabull everyday and I knew he didn't have any big ticket cards available, otherwise I would have picked them up. My final total was $48,429.00. That means I left $1571 on the table. Ouch. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so damn picky. That’s it, thanks for reading along with my entry in the Sports Cards Uncensored 50 K Shopping Spree Blog Bat Around. Go Rays! Troll out.
My math is fuzzy sometimes, but I think that Ted Williams was 38 in 1957, but he did win a batting title the following year at age 39 when he hit .328 in 1958 to win his 6th batting title. In 2004 Barry Bonds won a batting title when he hit .362 for the Giants-he was 39 also. Since Williams was born in August and Bonds was born in July, I think Bonds became the oldest ever by a couple of weeks, but Williams didn’t need the juice to do it! The back of the card also shows Williams’ managerial record in 1970 with the Senators who were 70-92. The star of that team was the Capital Punisher, Frank “Hondo” Howard who led the AL with 44 homers and 126 RBI-a feat that Williams accomplished (leading the AL in homers and RBI) a few times himself. Hondo also started in left-field for the American League All Stars, a position that Williams held 12 times himself. Teddy Ballgame retired without winning a World Series ring, but left behind one of the most amazing stat sheets in history. He is widely regarded as the Greatest Hitter That Ever Lived even though he missed three full years (in his prime) to military service. He returned in ’46 after spending 3 years away from the game and batted .342 with 38 homers and 123 RBI-that began his nickname of the Comeback Kid-he came back from a lot of things, but in ’46 he came back from war. That was the only year that Williams’ Red Sox made it to the World Series, they dropped it in 7 games to the St Louis Cardinals and Williams hit .200 in the Series. A few bits of statistical trivia from the Cliff Clavin vault… Williams batted over 300 in each of his first 17 seasons. Never in his career did Williams ever top the magical 200 hits total that Baseball Writers place SO much importance on. He also didn’t reach the magical 3000 hits mark, but is still considered by most (this Troll included) to be the best hitter ever. I’m just saying, too much importance is placed on those figures when determining greatness… He DID win 2 Triple Crowns (only player other than Rogers Hornsby to do that) and nearly won a 3rd. His .482 career on base percentage is the highest of all time. His slugging percentage of .634 is second. His career .344 batting average is 7th of All Time, but it is the highest of any player who played after 1950. He was elected into the Hall of Fame (first ballot!) in 1966 and he campaigned for Negro League veterans to be inducted as well-5 years later Satchel Paige became the first. Writing about the Red Sox isn’t exactly my forte, but sooner or later any baseball fan is gonna have to acknowledge the greatest hitter ever. Thanks so much for the card Jeff D! It broke back a ton of memories… It couldn’t have been easy for someone who was used to being the best to coach the worst, but he did aight. I will end this with a quote from Teddy Ballgame himself: “A man has to have goals. . And that was mine, to have people say 'There goes Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived.” I love this game, I love this hobby, troll out!
