yazfan71

Well, it's October & Carl is no longer the last man to win the Triple Crown. I wonder if Topps knew something that the rest of us didn't? Their Heritage release earlier this year put Yastrzemski & Cabrera together on a card in their Then & Now insert set. Now if only they had the look of the '67 set instead of the '63 Topps issue, the card would have made for one of the greatest premonitions of all time! Unfortunately for Cabrera, his team suffered the same fate as Yastrzemski's Red Sox by losing in the World Series. Now, we'll just have to wait to see if he can get the MVP Award from the league as Carl did. And before you say "Well, he won the Triple Crown, he has to get the MVP as well.", this is not always the case. Chuck Klein in 1933 was beat out by Carl Hubbell, Lou Gehrig in 1934 lost to Mickey Cochrane & Ted Williams, who won it in both in 1942 & 1947, was beat out for MVP honors by Joe Gordon & Joe DiMaggio. Now how's that for a kick in the teeth? But, enough with the history lesson & on to this months haul!

The month started off with a beautiful pair of vintage photos from 1965 of Mike at Fenway Park when he was only four years old. These took a little longer than expected for me to get as the eBay seller accidently sent the wrong pictures. They did pick up all expenses to return the others when they sent the correct ones though, which was really nice.



The first week ended with an auction win for the 2012 Historical Stitches insert card of Carl that had eluded me through the course of opening 9 retail boxes of the product. This is why I should never buy boxes! I also won a pair of auctions for both of the League Leader cards from the 1971 Topps release. It was about time I picked those up, as I've had the O-Pee-Chee versions for years now.

The second week brought me a couple more auction wins of Carl's cards. One was the 2011 Topps issue, the other was the 1977 Topps Turn Back The Clock that I won for $.01. I know I had that card but for the life of me I have no idea where it ended up. Apparently I've made too many moves over the years! But, for a penny, I'm not going to argue!

The third week of October brought me a card that I never thought I would win. I put a bid in on a 1/1, which I normally never do as they go up so high in price, with about 4 hours left to go on the auction I had to leave for work. My maximum bid wasn't even $20 so I thought I'd be outbid in an instant, if not by snipers in the final seconds. Imagine my surprise when I got home from work that next morning to see that I had my 2nd 1/1 for only $12.50! If it hadn't been for the last second sniper I would have won it for $7.75, but I'm not complaining! I ended that week with a buyer accepting my best offer on the 1995 Topps Legends of the 60's Medallions bronze card. I still haven't figured out why Topps would have this one made depicting the 1966 Yaz instead of the '67, but it is a welcome addition to my collection!

Week 4 brought me my only trade for a PC card of the month for one of the 1995 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes cards. I also got some bad news when my 1970 Dayton Daily News Bubble-Gumless Yastrzemski came back from the bulk BGS submission here on the site with "Service Unavailable". Beckett is really starting to make me sick! Now, I didn't expect this particular item to receive a grade since it is after all just a clipping from a newspaper, but I thought it would at least get slabbed authentic like my 1962 Post & Post Canadian issues did. They worst part is that they never really gave me a reason as to why their service is unavailable for this item. Beckett lists this "card" in Carl's checklist on their website, so why does it not qualify for their service? I think between this incident & the issue that I had with one of Michael's cards that I am done for now trying to have my PC encapsulated by them until they get their act together down in Dallas. I know for sure that I have a few more questions for them when I see them at the National in Chicago next year, this is certain!

The final week did end on a bright note though as I got to listen to Michael's games on the internet as Vanderbilt had their Black & Gold 3 game series. Michael was co-Captain of the Black team & even though they lost the series 2-1, Michael did drive in what ended up being the winning run in Game 2, which I'm sure brought a smile to his grandfathers face!


Special thanks goes out to:
Jamesngin - 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes #18

eBay wins:
1965 Boston Globe Photographs of Mike (2 different)
2012 Topps Historical Stitches Patch card #CY
1971 Topps AL Batting Leaders #61
1971 Topps AL HR Leaders #65
2011 Topps #25c
1977 Topps Turn Back the Clock #434
2008 SP Legendary Cuts Memorable Moments #154 1/1
1995 Topps Legends of the 60's Medallions #6

SCF SuperCollector status: Carl - 12.0%, Mike - 33.3%, Michael - 100%

Thanks for the read!