In an effort to focus my limited resources (MONEY) on items that will either help me build sets or enhance my personal collection.

One area in my personal collection that I'm looking to enhance is my collection of vintage era, graded rookie cards of star players.  Using some funds I received for my birthday (Jan. 22nd for those keeping track!), I was able to bid on and win a beautiful BVG 8.5 (my favorite vintage grade) Ozzie Smith rookie card.

Look for more PC additions throughout the year and feel free to drop me a note if you see my veering too far outside of my collecting focus in 2013!

Until next time, Happy Collecting!

Finally, I've waited ALL YEAR for this upcoming weekend.  While I couldn't make it to the National this year (or ever, actually), I've been able to attend the last few Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club (GBSCC) Sports Card and Memorabilia Show at the Shriner's Auditorium in Wilmington, MA.  Mike Josselyn at Sure Shot Promotions (www.sureshotpromotions.com) organizes the autograph signings and his team does an OUTSTANDING job.

Here is my plan for the show this weekend:

Friday November 2nd:  This will strictly be a "viewing only" day for me.  As a member of the GBSCC, I get free admission to the show so I don't mind spending a little time there on Friday to see the setup and the inventory of the dealers.  No autograph guests, so I think the crowd may be pretty small.

Saturday November 3rd:  I'll be pretty busy on Saturday as there will be a LOT of autograph guests that interest me.  The full lineup includes (as of today): Ozzie Smith, Pedro Martinez, Fred Lynn, Ramiro Mendoza, Cecil Cooper, Will Middlebrooks and Jake Lamotta.  I plan on getting autographs from Ozzie, Pedro, Lynn and Lamotta.  I would love to get Cooper and Middlebrooks, but I think I'd rather use those funds elsewhere during the show.

Sunday November 4th: I'm going to try to attend on Sunday as well, but we'll see how the baby cooperates at home.  Full autograph lineup includes (as of today): Aaron Hernandez, Doug Mientkiewicz, Brooks Robinson, John Bucyk, Shawn Thornton, Ellis Burks, Troy Brown and Ricky Gutierrez.  I'm planning to get Brooks Robinson and Ellis Burks, with possibly Doug Mientkiewicz on my in-progress 2004 WS Team Ball.

Overall, I'll be looking to fill my set needs and add some cool PC items at the show.  If any dealers are reading, bring Ginter commons from past years, BVG graded cards at good prices and LOTS of Red Sox stuff.

I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that my work week will allow me time to get a custom t-shirt and business cards made to promote my site.

Check out the flyer below and email me at kevin@thesportscardguy.com if you plan on attending.  I'd love to meet some new friends at the show!

Now if I only could have bought something borrowed and something blue!  I added two new items to my Personal Collection since my last post.  I've done some "Fall Selling" of items from my collection that no longer interested me and decided to reallocate those funds (50% towards daughter's college fund / 50% towards my personal collection).

My "old" addition is a beautiful 1941 Play Ball Ted Williams card that is graded a BVG 4.  The card is beautiful, decent condition (especially for 1941) and was won in an auction format which is my preferred method of purchase on eBay.

The "new" addition is a 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter Bryce Harper rookie card.  I wrote about this card and the BGS 9.5 population that is likely to surpass past year Allen & Ginter cards.  It has the subgrades I was looking for and was at a price that I thought was reasonable.  While there is no guarantee that he'll end up in the Hall of Fame someday, it's the "must own" card from 2012 Allen & Ginter.

My apologies for the lack of updates recently, but my wife gave birth to our first child on September 18, 2012.  We are blessed to add a baby girl, Kylie Elizabeth, to our family.

Ok, back to sports cards!

I was fortunate enough to add a few new items to my Personal Collection since my last blog post.  I've posted photos below and will be adding them to my Personal Collection galleries.  The first card is a 1941 Play Ball Jimmie Foxx card graded a BVG 2 and features him in a Boston Red Sox uniform.  I've been focusing my collection more around graded vintage cards, mostly of Boston Red Sox players, and Jimmie Foxx was a player that I hadn't added to my collection yet.  It's graded low, but we all know that these vintage cards cost a good amount even at low grade.  The second card is a 1954 Bowman Hoot Evers card that is graded a BVG 6, and I decided to add this card as it's a Boston Red Sox player, the card didn't cost much and it's graded a BVG 6 which is typically the minimum grade I would look for in vintage cards (depending upon the cost).  I was also fortunate enough to add another card from the 1959 Fleer Ted Williams set, but I think my hope of completing this set in BVG 8.5 form may end up being impossible.  Regardless, I am going to attempt it and at the very least collect a graded copy (any grade) of the full set with the option to upgrade at later dates.  The last two cards are modern era cards that appealed to me for a number of reasons.  For obvious reasons, I love the BGS encasing of the cards especially seeing as they are cut autographs.  I love the cut autograph aspect of the cards and the fact that the autographs were cut from actual pictures rather than just plain index cards.  I had the opportunity to meet Bob Feller before his passing at an autograph signing and he was such a nice guy, in addition to being likely THE best pitcher in the history of the Cleveland Indians franchise.  Bobby Doerr is someone I haven't had the chance to meet but is right up there with Johnny Pesky in terms of being one of the most iconic Boston Red Sox players in history.

My newest Personal Collection addition is a card that I have been wanting to purchase for over a year.  The time was finally right and I made the purchase.

Carlton Fisk is one of the best, if not THE best, catchers of all time and a Boston Red Sox legend.  As a fan of the Red Sox, this was a key rookie card that I wanted to add to my collection.

Let's not forget that the card also features Cecil Cooper, who had a pretty solid MLB career as well.  The card arrived in the mail today and it may be one of my last big purchases for some time.

Baby on the way + uncertain job status (hopefully cleared up later today) = limited funds for collecting. Let's hope that changes soon. Until next time...

I was thrilled to open my mailbox today and see that my most recent eBay purchase had arrived.  I purchased a 1950 Bowman card (ungraded) of Mr. Boston Red Sox himself, Johnny Pesky.  I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Pesky in person at an autograph signing and he couldn't have been a nicer guy (he was quick to complement my wife on how beautiful she was too!).  Johnny has been a staple with the Boston Red Sox for almost his entire career and I always love to see him at games when he's able to attend.  I'll eventually send this in to Beckett for grading/encapsulation.  The card is in pretty good shape considering it's a card from 1950.  

It's been a few days, but I was happy to see that a few of my recent eBay purchases arrived today.  For starters, my 1976 O-Pee-Chee (OPC) Carl Yastrzemski BVG 9.5 arrived in the mail today.  There were two of these up for auction at the same time this week (different sellers), so I'm happy that I was able to get one of these at around the same price as the other one that was listed.  As a collector of Carl Yastrzemski, I'm shocked that I was able to land this OPC version in a BVG 9.5 for the price that I did.  WINNING!

I also received two cards that are part of a project that I started working on at the beginning of the year.  I'm not a fan of PSA graded cards, but I decided to try and put together a 1952 Bowman team set of cards graded by PSA (to help ensure the quality of the card).  I figured I'd start with a low grade that I can find and afford, with the chance to always upgrade individual cards when possible.

After my two arrivals today, I'm currently five cards shy of the sixteen card team set.  One of the cards was a pure upgrade, a 1952 Bowman Johnny Pesky PSA 6 that will replace the PSA 3.5 I had in my collection.  I was able to add the Maurice McDermott PSA 6 to my collection as well, so currently 10 of the 11 cards that I have are at least a PSA 6.  With a few months to go until 2013, I'm feeling pretty good about my odds of completing this team set before the end of the year.

I guess that's a question I keep asking myself.  I'm at a point where I can spend as much as I used to, and need to really define what I collect.  

My favorite product that is released on an annual basis is Topps Allen & Ginter.  There are so many things that I enjoy about the set: the sketches, non-sport inclusions, the card stock (perfect for TTMs), the framed relics/autos (great for grading) and the chase to put together a complete set.  I think that when it comes to major modern day purchases, I'm going to limit myself to Topps Allen & Ginter.  I purchased WAY too much 2012 Topps Series 1 this year and have been stuck with a lot of base sets that I just can't seem to trade/sell.  I like the Gypsy Queen, but not enough to buy a ton.  I think I'll pick and choose Red Sox cards and other cool, unique cards from different modern sets, rather than buy boxes or bulk of any particular release.

My return to collecting was the desire to get graded BGS 9.5  copies of cards that I could never afford when I was younger (80's and 90's cards to be specific).  Ripken RC, Boggs RC, Mattingly RC, etc. were all on my list but I moved away from it a bit.  I think I'm going to try to refocus my efforts on getting some of those "key" cards that should be a part of every baseball fan's collection.

Lastly, I have been really interested in vintage cards lately and I think trying to find some of the star player vintage cards in BVG 8.5 grades (the proxy for "high raw value" in Beckett) has some appeal to me.  I have added a few cool ones lately and have a few below BVG 8.5 that I might look to upgrade at some point.

That's it!  That's all I'm collecting.  I swear.  Well, cards of Red Sox players too.  Maybe a few packs of stuff here and there.  I guess I can't help it....I love Sports Cards!!!