MrMopar's New Dodgers Autograph Thread (and other interesting items on a slow mailday)

[mrmopar]

Pages /35. Goes with the purple one I got before.


Picked this up because his signatures always seem to be in lighter ballpoint. 2nd year/1st solo card.

Brief Dodger Antonio Perez, shown as a Mariner. He hit the card market timing just right and has a ton of pack certified autographs, but none with the Dodgers that I have seen. He lasted parts of 4 seasons with 3 teams, his biggest offensive contributions coming from his 2 seasons with LA in 2004-05, although mostly 2005 where he played in 98 games and hit .297.

 

[mrmopar]

pretty sure I had this one. I like the Rollins Dodger cards, but prefer a cooler looking design. This was a decent price, so I ended up winning it w/o really trying too hard. Not a fan of the A&G design though. DULL.

/79

 

[abide]

I was a bidder on that 2023 Topps All Star red parallel Shawn Green 7/10 auto, sold on ebay 3/19, $21.50 +S&H, and also tried to get one 6 months ago. But typical of me, I put down a $5 bid as a kind of bookmark, intending to come back to it on the final day for bidding. And then forgot. I win about 1 in 20 cards I bid on, with about 10 bids rising above my limit, and 9 that I forget to come back and raise my bid. Maybe I'll get one, or maybe not. I'm happy to get one a month, which is my average. I think about 2 of 4 Shawn Green auto cards [as a Dodger] I bid on, I lose to you. ... LOL
I tend to have more success on the Shawn Green D-backs, Blue-Jays, and Mets

 

[mrmopar]

I was a bidder on that 2023 Topps All Star red parallel Shawn Green 7/10 auto, sold on ebay 3/19, $21.50 +S&H, and also tried to get one 6 months ago. But typical of me, I put down a $5 bid as a kind of bookmark, intending to come back to it on the final day for bidding. And then forgot. I win about 1 in 20 cards I bid on, with about 10 bids rising above my limit, and 9 that I forget to come back and raise my bid. Maybe I'll get one, or maybe not. I'm happy to get one a month, which is my average. I think about 2 of 4 Shawn Green auto cards [as a Dodger] I bid on, I lose to you. ... LOL
I tend to have more success on the Shawn Green D-backs, Blue-Jays, and Mets

i don't chase too many S. Green autos these days, although I do see one every once in a while that catches my eye. I like the Archive type sets and if I can get low serial numbered autos cheap enough, then those are nice wins. Most of what I win is because it's "cheap" in my opinion. Once in a while I see something I really want and will splurge, but I lose most of that stuff anyways like the 1948 Bowman Pete Reiser autograph that ended this past week for example.

I know what you mean about missing things. I use Gixen, but sometimes forget to load bids and end up losing stuff. Hate to forget to bid and see something sell for a fraction of what I would have bid, but it happens.

 

[mrmopar]

I won one of these a long time ago and can't remember which year, but it's buried away. Hoping it's 78!

I saw the 77 & 74 bats go up for auction with low opening bids and chased them, winning both for way less than expected. I seem to recall these going for $100+ in the past. I didn't pay that combined, including shipping and tax.

I need to dig out an old yearbook, because I recognize all of the names except one. Probably a clubhouse guy.

Garvey no name plate

This college FB program was a bit of an impulse buy, but I really got it to document the Dodgers image. And it was cheaper enough.

That is one that I have seen on a number of wire type photos and even some of the team issued photos. This proves that the photo was taken no later than 1974, which is nice to know. That might help better date the items.

Hooton Au. This was a cool theme set (Decade 70s). Wish they would have done other decades later.


Garvey is not featured on front, but I collected all the wrapper team checklists sheets from 1974-1982 for the Garvey collection. This was cheap, so i grabbed another.




Finally, a rare non-auto, non-Garvey new pick up. I really like the 1961's clean, simple design (especially on retro issues) and gold is always a nice color parallel to have and it's Kershaw, so I won this 4 card gold archives lot. I don't think these are anywhere close to hard to find, but it's a nice looking card.

 

[mrmopar]

Forgot this one and i was probably close to scan max on the previous post anyway.

I have this card, but finding and winning 6/xx has always been a chore. I don't usually have the same competition for 60/xx or 66/xx. I see those as almost as cool for jersey number match.

This one went for more than I wanted it to, but maybe because most of these are scooped up and in collections now. It's easier to find and win specific serial numbers when issues are new and tons of them are for sale.

 

[mrmopar]

I might just stop trying to win these, as I am willing to pay less and less for them. This one was /3 and I still won it! It's quite ugly.

A couple cheapo retro design certified cards


Very excited to get this one on a best offer. It's /15, which is nice in itself, but the card itself is just amazing. Madlock didn't have a lot of Dodger cards and this set was one of the better looking late 80s oddball issues. Add that fantastic action shot and you have a great all around card. As a fan of 91 Fleer as well, I always enjoy a nice yellow border too.

Finally, this interesting lot of Dodger stuff from the mid 80s. It looks to me like a collection from a non-collector. Probably someone who went to games back in that time frame and accumulated stuff along the way. Pins, PCs, autographs, etc. Got a nice deal on it too.

 

[mrmopar]

A trio of Garvey. /7, /50 & /50.


Pair of Kiermaier

 

[mrmopar]

Lopes

Another gold archive, this time Snider. Not chasing them specifically, this one just kind fell into my lap.

 

[mrmopar]

Keeping with the low $ theme, a few more "nobodies". Paxton I got 2 of them from same seller, same time.

Billy Cox pin.

This was pretty cheap, but it's also yellowed and cracked. Still a cool piece. I may have a better one, but the pins have been buried in a box somewhere for a while. Cox was lost in a huge line up, many of which would go on to Hall of Fame careers. He was no offensive cannon, but his defense was apparently his calling.

 

[mrmopar]

Garvey /49


Kemp /10


Thurston /10

 

[mrmopar]

Garvey /15


Garvey Carousel I didn't have already!


This cheap lot of assorted auto cards was mostly Dodgers, thus why I took a shot. Kemp & Jackie not signed, I knew this going in.

Dressen & Mossor 3X5s


Funky black ink flaw

 

[mrmopar]

Sometimes I scratch my head as i watch new Garvey cards selling. I don't know if people see some of the low print run sales and think Garvey would be a good one to flip, or what. This card was tough for me to land at a price I thought it should sell for. I am patient with regular cards though and will eventually get my copy at my price. It's the low numbers you can't be tentative about if you really want them, because you may never get another shot. There were dozens of these listed and selling for $20-30 or more???? Garvey has long been a $10-15 auto unless the card was special or from a popular set. I have picked up some for $5-10 at times even. The supply of his certified stuff is massive. This is not helping my case when I go to sell, of course. By then, Garvey will likely have died and maybe that will help in the long run. For now, just trying to grab some of the new issues and not break the bank.

 

[BucCollector]

Garvey Carousel I didn't have already!
View attachment 363185




Which Carousel back is it, and which ones do you have/need?

 

[mrmopar]

I don't know if there is a "complete" list. Nobody bothered to catalog these from what I can tell. There are a few threads online where people have shared addresses informally though. They are also ripe for counterfeiting though, if anyone wanted to do so. What would be truly amazing is if one of the original stamps surfaced!

I actually forget what the City, State was, but I went and alphabetized them after getting this one so that I could quickly check on future copies. Actually, these come up infrequently enough as it is that I don't mind dupes, if they are not priced crazy. I'll take some photos of what I have next time I am in the binder.

 

[mrmopar]

Garvey /25 & /32. I like to add new Garvey cards still, but I have to admit that most don't excite me the way they used to do. So many new garbage, unlicensed cards are starting to pile up, many with excessive parallels as usual. He is still considered to be my main focus, but I get more thrilled with new autographed cards I pick up now and wish I had focused more energy on those in the 2000s instead of trying to hoard low print run Garvey cards.


A couple nice Kellogg's that were sharp. I have them, but for the price, I figured why not.

Wills Auto

Lux /10. No longer a Dodger, so probably won't chase too many more of his, although I do have another one incoming.

 

[mrmopar]

Garvey + GU /5


Eric Davis Au /25. Even after all these years, 92 Bowman looks so fresh to me because they were impossible to find. It's always the sets that are tougher to find that stick in your head as being cool.


This is the one that I have been waiting for. This will not come as a surprise to anyone with any time in the collecting hobby since the mid-late 90s when these first made their debut, but it is proof in case there are still any believers out there that all relics are legit!

2024 Lead Game Used bat /5

Clearly this makes a great and highly collectible relic card, a bat relic showing the actual engraving from the barrel. About the only thing that beats this bat card would be a name plate or perhaps the knob, right?

WRONG!

I recognized the bat from this card immediately when I saw this listed. Despite knowing this was not a game used bat, I wanted this card for no other reason than to have a smoking gun proof that these relic cards are lies. I was prepared to win this and ending up paying pretty dealy for it. Way, way more than it is worth, even as a limited parallel card /5. Still, I felt as though I needed to own this card to prove a point.

So, the last of the believers may be asking themselves right now. How can he possibly know that this bat was not game used? The language on the cards are now purposefully vague to ensure that they can take advantage of collectors, but how can you know for sure? Well, I can't to the extent that Leaf is playing a legal game that their attorneys probably already played out ahead of time just in case something like this came up. Read on though, because I can prove that this "GAME USED" relic is absolutely meaningless to Steve Garvey with regard to him and usage in a MLB game.

At this point, I will acknowledge that Leaf could have handed this bat to Steve Garvey at a celebrity softball game, a practice game or maybe he was playing a made up game where he was swinging the bat and someone was guessing who he was impersonating. The point being, "game used" really means absolutely nothing when it is not more specific to not only being from a Major League Baseball game, but that it comes from a regular season or playoff game during a MLB season and most specifically, from a time when the player was active and actually swung the same bat in that vintage game that the bat supposedly comes from. that vague language on the card is there to protect Leaf and shows that these ***-holes care nothing about you and me, they just want our money. Once again, no revelation there if you have been around the block.

After all this, you can pretty much assume that these wood chips are possibly from bats and stadium benches, maybe actually game used in some cases, but just as likely to be from store model bats or even worse, a home depot pallet!

Here is my proof. This commemorative bat was issued to celebrate "A Salute to The Garv" on April 11, 1988 and numbered to 1000 copies. I own a couple of these bats myself. Clearly you can see the April 11 date and the San Diego below it as they line up perfectly on my bat card. These bats were not used in a game, at least not one Garvey could have played in as an active MLB player. He announced his retirement in jan 1988, with his last game being played in 1987.

So there you have it. The only possible way this bat could have been game used, especially by Garvey, would be in a game that was unofficial and meant nothing. Absolute proof that Leaf and the other card manufacturers may be and in some cases actually are giving us a line of BS about these bat relics.

 

[abide]

I don't buy modern Leaf cards for my Player PCs. I have none, zero, zilch. I don't like unlicensed.

As far as the "licensed" makers of cards, Topps and Panini now, and Upper Deck, and the ones that are no longer, Fleer, Donruss, Skybox, Pacific, Pinnacle and so on.
There's been much debate about "game Used" stuff, and leading to "event worn" instead of game used, and there are fakes out there.
The stories about the card makers just slicing up a jersey they bought at Target, Walmart, Dick's or Big 5.
The stories about the card makers grabbing a jersey of player X, and using that in the relic cards of players A, B, C, D and so on.
You just gave me another reason.

 

[mrmopar]

Had pretty good luck with a couple jersey match cards. I can't stomach paying a huge premium and that tends to be the case now when one shows up. The Leaf 4X auto is 6/20 and the Archives refractor is 6/299.

Then I grabbed some discounted garvey items from another garvey collector who is selling off some of his collection. I can't seem to help but pick up dupes if I find the price to be attractive andor if the items are somewhat unique/obscure. The rookies are the jumbo Topps exclusive 5x7, numbered to /10, /49 and can't remember if the last one was numbered or not. If so, probably around /500.

 

[mrmopar]

I feel as though this is an under appreciated set. Fans needed to cut these tip cards from boxes of Raisin Bran in 1979. They don't seem to come up all that often, although thankfully they are not scarce either. I have several sets, but couldn't pass up a full set of box panels and the front of one to go with it.


Another boring, non-licensed low serial numbered piece I feel semi-obligated to still chase now and again. This is /10


Managed one more jersey match, this one 6/25


Got this relatively cheap for the series, while the brand new ones that are 3X as available are going unsold for $50-80+. People THINK they know the Garvey market. Most have no clue. This is last years /25


Went after this pretty hard after reading it was possible a case hit. I am sure I probably overpaid, but wasn't sure how hard they were to find. Seems most of the Zebra cards from these sets go for decent money. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time I paid too much. Got an Orange one as well.

A few APBAs, which I may or may not already have. I don'rt check if they are cheap. I just get them. These were advertised as 1981, 1976 and 1985. Not sure how you tell once they are pulled from groupings. Maybe you can't?