For the past three years, I've been an active member of the Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club (GBSCC).  While it is sometimes difficult to attend the meetings, this month's meeting featured Red Sox legend Rico Petrocelli as the guest speaker.  Rico was great to have at the meeting and offered some cool stories from his career with the Red Sox.  The Luis Tiant and George "Boomer" Scott stories were funny and really provided a peak into the great Red Sox teams from Rico's playing days.

He was also kind enough to sign two autographs for everyone in attendance, so I brought a card with me and purchased a picture at the meeting for $1.  

A big thank you to Mr. Petrocelli for his time at the meeting, and I would encourage anyone in the area to attend the meetings in Woburn, MA.  For more information on the Greater Boston Sports Collectors Club, please visit the website: www.gbscc.com.

I was fortunate enough to attend a Card Show this past weekend (9.8.12) in Burlington, MA that was put on by my good friends at Vintage Sports Promotions (http://www.vspsports.com).  The draw on this particular day was the opportunity to meet and get an autograph from Pumpsie Green.  In addition, there was a 60th birthday surprise party for my wife's boss that night and he is a huge NY Yankees fan with a man cave decorated with NY Yankees memorabilia, so I figured I would check to see if there was  a cool gift for him at the show.

When I arrived at the show, I purchased my autograph ticket for Pumpsie Green and also bought a cool 8x10 photo for him to autograph.  Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green holds the distinction of being the first black player to play for the Boston Red Sox.  Pumpsie couldn't have been nicer and was kind enough to sign the picture with his uniform number added to the signature (see picture below).

I was strapped for cash at the show, so I wasn't able to make too many purchases.  I was able to find a pretty cool copy of Life Magazine from 1949 that featured Joe DiMaggio on the cover (see picture below).  I thought the cover photo was great and I was certain my wife's boss would love to add it to his collection of NY Yankee memorabilia.  I sent a picture of the magazine to my wife for her approval and was able to haggle the seller down to a reasonable amount.  Needless to say, the gift was a big hit at the party and her boss was beyond excited to receive the magazine.

Overall, the show was a huge success.  I was planning to make it back on Sunday to meet Jake LaMotta (a/k/a "The Raging Bull"), but I wasn't able to make it back to the show.

I hope you all enjoyed this post and keep collecting!!

On July 12th, I posted a blog entry that discussed how Bryce Harper and Yu Darvish will become two of the most graded Topps Allen & Ginter rookie cards in history by Beckett Grading Services. (original post here: Bryce Harper or Yu Darvish? A New Allen & Ginter Record WILL Be Broken This Year!)

To update my previous posting, as of today (September 5, 2012), the Bryce Harper rookie card has been graded 29 times and Yu Darvish has been graded 28 times.  They are very close at this point and it's too early to tell who will take the lead in the long term, but it's interesting to see how close they are at this point.

On a similar (but different) note, it's interesting to see the difference in the quality of the cards being submitted for grading.  Bryce has 29 cards submitted and 24 of those have been graded a BGS 9.5 or better (82.8%), while Yu has 28 cards submitted and only 16 of those have been graded a BGS 9.5 or better (57.1%).  Is this a case of poor judgement when submitting or are the Yu cards harder to find in Gem Mint or better condition?

Interesting enough, no other base rookie cards have been submitted to Beckett for grading yet (excluded the two Topps Vault submissions).  Where's the love for Brett Lawrie?

Until next time, keep collecting and thanks for reading!

Two cards, that's all that really interested me.

I purchased two cards the other day from 2012 Upper Deck's Goodwin release and they were the only two cards on my want list from the release.  As a big fan of Allen & Ginter, you would think that Goodwin would have more of an appeal for me.  However, what Ginter provides in terms of a baseball release (with MLB license) with oddballs mixed in, Goodwin lacks any license and the sports players are pictured in funky outfits.  I mean, have you seen some of the outfits these guys are wearing in the pictures? 

The two cards that did pique my interest feature two athletes that you rarely see in a sports card release: Joey Chestnut and Jim McMahon.  As a life-long fan of the Chicago Bears, Jim McMahon was my favorite player as a kid and my bedroom walls had posters of him all over them.  I thought it was cool that they put a jersey card in the set and I was able to pick it up for a reasonable amount.

As a fan of the "sport" of competitive eating, I HAD to have the Joey Chestnut autograph as he's my favorite guy to watch.  Also, his autograph card in the Goodwin product cost significantly less than his past Allen & Ginter release.

I really wish I could like this product more as the card stock would be outstanding for TTM (through the mail) autograph requests, I just don't see the value in purchasing this product in a box form when I could easily just purchase the two cards I was really interested in.

What do you think of the 2012 Upper Deck Goodwin release?