Vintage Knicks eBay Pick Ups

One of my goals for 2013 was to finally start building Knicks team sets. I have a bunch of Knicks cards, but I haven't had time to really put them into 9 pocket pages and binders as I have been concentrating on getting my Yankees and Jets collections into some sort of order. With the Knicks in the playoffs and playing well, I have been wanting to pick up some Knicks cards to add to my collection.

One of my other main goals is to pick up more vintage cards. I have been doing this with my Yankee team sets and my Jets, to some extent. Now that I working on building Knicks sets, I want to start adding vintage almost right off the bat. Luckily, I came across an eBay listing for 3 1972-73 Topps Knicks cards that could start me on my way toward my goals. After winning the auction for the extremely high price of $4.95, I got me some vintage.

The first card I got was a Bill Bradley. The future Senator was a starting forward on 2 World Championship winning Knicks teams. He was also an NBA All Star, Had his number 24 retired by the Knicks and was inducted into the Basketball Hall Of Fame. He was backed up by a future coach who would go on to win 11 Championships as a coach, Hall Of Famer, Phil Jackson.

Right off the bat, I love the way these cards look. they just scream 1970's with the lettering and choice of colors. Then there is the lack of background. No arena, no crowds, not even a gym. Just a yellow background and the player in a "basketball" pose. I like the simplicity in that. Nothing to distract you from the player whose card you are holding.

Probably one of the smartest players to have ever played for the Knicks. And I mean smart as in brainiac smart. As a player, he was a 7 time All Star, an NBA Rookie Of The Year, an NCAA Champion, won a Gold Medal in the 1960 Olympics and won a Championship as a member of the Knicks. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall Of Fame in 1980 and named to the NBA 50 Greatest Players. After his retirement, he wrote 3 best selling books and works as a educator and memory expert.

What strikes me about this card is the jersey. There is no orange New York across Lucas's chest, but his last name and number stands out. It's like the photographer told Lucas to turn the jersey around and wear it backwards. I'm sure Topps didn't have the licence to show the NBA team logos and uniforms, but this is ridiculous. They couldn't just wipe out the lettering? Still, it's pretty unique to see.

The last card I bought in the lot was a player who I have read so much about and has become one of my favorite players without my ever seeing him play a quarter. Dave DeBusschere was known as the missing piece of the Knicks puzzle. He was drafted by the Detroit Pistons out of the University of Detroit. He was traded to the Knicks for Walt Bellamy and Howard Komives. He won 2 World Championships with the Knicks, was an 8 time All Star and had his number 22 retired by the Knicks. He was also named to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players list.

My memory of DeBusschere was during the 1985 NBA Lottery, when the Knicks won the first pick of the upcoming draft, DeBusschere, who was the Knicks GM at that point, pretty much jumped out of his chair and banged his fist on the desk in front of him. The Knicks used that pick on a center from Georgetown named Patrick Ewing. I bet you didn't know that DeBusschere was also a baseball player, pitching 2 seasons for the Chicago White Sox. In those 2 seasons, DeBusschere went 2-3 with a 2.90 ERA.

DeBusschere's death from a heart attack in 2003 broke my heart, personally. It was around this time I was learning more about the 2 World Championship teams and how much DeBusschere meant to that team. I had hoped to have the chance to meet him one day, but unfortunately, I never got the chance to.

I am a huge fan of the 2 World Championship Knick teams. I love watching film about them and reading about them. I have always wanted to collect those 2 teams and now, with this awesome purchase, I have begun that collection.

The Knicks cards I am now needing from this set are:

#32-Phil Jackson
#52-Dick Barnett
#88-Dean Meminger
#165-Walt Frazier

Now, unless I am not looking at a complete checklist or there were no cards made of them, I see two big names missing, Willis Reed and Earl Monroe. Now, I'm not the most knowledgeable about basketball cards (just yet), so I am now wondering if there are cards of them in this set.

Not only do I need to hunt down the cards I am missing, but I need to find out the riddle of the missing Hall Of Famers. Riddle me this, Batman!

Oh, and the seller threw this in for free

Come on, who doesn't love Yogi?

What Would I Spend $1,600.00 On?

One thing I love to do is to search the internet and find new blogs to read. I came across a blog called Drop The Gloves. There is a bat around blog where you are asked one question: How Would You Spend $1,600 For Cards On eBay? Here is the link to the blog: http://www.fightstrap.com/blog/2013/04/19/marathon-bombers-boston-and-a-contest/

 Admittedly, I had a hard whittling down the list I came up with. I came up with so many cool cards. Cards I have always wanted to add to my PC's, but after playing around with the list a bit, I was able to come up with 3 cards I would kill to have in my collections. They cover teams and players I collect, both vintage and modern. Here are the three cards I chose

1-2010-11 Mike Bossy UD The Cup Base Patch Parallel # 1/10-Buy It Now-149.99

I have autographs and game used cards in my Bossy PC. But I do not have a patch card in my collection. The one I chose has a gorgeous three color patch from what was the home uniform. Back when I first started watching hockey many, many moons ago, the whites were the home and the colored were the road unis. I miss those days.

2-2008 UD Premier Bat Barrel Mark Texieira-Buy It Now $449.99

I know. For that price, I could probably own a whole Teixeira game used bat. But since we are just spending our theoretical $1,600.00 on cards, this would be one card I would absolutely love to own. I'm betting this was a piece of a bat used from his days as a Texas Ranger, but I do not care. I have always wanted to own a bat barrel card and the chance to own one from one of my favorite players would be too good to pass up.

3-1965 Topps Joe Namath Rookie PSA 4.5-Buy It Now $990.00 

The number one card I have to buy before any other would be a 1965 Topps Joe Namath rookie card, the card to own from the 1960's. Originally, I was looking for a raw card as I generally do not collect slabbed cards. But the ones I saw were not in great shape, not that a grade 4.5 is. But this one looks better than the others and at the Buy It Now price, I could still pick up the other 2 cards for my collection. This card would be the centerpiece of my New York Jets PC.

So, there you have it. the 3 cards I would pick up if I could spend $1,600.00 on cards on eBay. I'm sure I probably could have gotten more if I played around some more, but if we are talking quality, then I don't think I could have picked a better 3 cards to add to my collection. Maybe one day, I will be able to. But for now, I will drool over these pictures. 

New Teixeira Cards For Me

This week, I was able to add 5 new game used cards to my Mark Teixiera collection. 2 of them came off eBay, while the other 3 came from one of my team collectors, so a big thanks to you Todd for the the new additions.

I picked this up this 2005 Donruss Prime Patches Triple Game Used Portraits card off eBay. The card has game used pieces of his glove, shoe and bat and is numbered 71/150. I got this bad boy for under 10.00 shipped.

Here's another eBay purchase for the Tex collection. I picked up this 2012 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection game used card with pinstripe for under 5.00 shipped. There is a slight problem though. If you look at the card, right under the lower corner, above his name, you will see a crease. There is a matching crease running right through the Clubhouse Collection wording. This might have happened because the seller shipped the card in a plain white envelope and in a penny sleeve. What a dork. I'm contemplating leaving negative feedback on eBay for him. I know I paid less than 5.00, but maybe the seller will learn for future reference in case they ship a high dollar card out.

The next three cards came from my buddy Todd. He sent me a bunch of stuff and these were for the Teixeira PC. Up first is this 2002 Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects Freshman Fiber bat card.

Next is another Donruss 2005 Prime Patches Portraits card. This bat card is numbered 12/100.

And finally, this sweet Leaf 2003 Certified Materials Blue Mirror bat card numbered 34/50. I have been eyeing this on eBay, as well as one similar for my Tino Martinez PC. This card is a great addition. Thank you so much Todd. Hope I can add more to the collection in the upcoming weeks.

The Start Of A New Collection: Pocket Schedules

I recently embarked on starting 3 new collections; 2 for the Yankees PC and one of a player that never played a game for the Yankees. Today, I am going to discuss my new Yankees pocket schedule collection.

Collecting pocket schedules is something I have thought about collecting, but never really pursued them the way I would an autograph or a bobble-head. I always picked up a pocket schedule when I went to a Yankees game or was in a team store. I would pick it up, look it over then just casually put it aside, never really looking at it again.

I remember as a kid eagerly awaiting the release of the Preliminary schedules the Yankees would release in February. I remember going to Yankee Stadium with my buddies to pick up these larger schedules that would give you the dates of games, price of admission and would hawk their season ticket packages. As a kid, I would always look for the SGA dates, but those were never released on the preliminary schedules. I always saved them until my mom would tell me they were clutter and toss them out. I wish I still had them.

I have always wanted to collect yearbooks and programs, but with the prices on those being a bit high, I realize that pocket schedules fit my budget and also gave you a glimpse into where the team was at that point in their history. It's pretty cool looking through them, seeing where the team was on my birthday, what they gave out that year and the price of tickets at that point. The prices have skyrocketed from when I started going to games, I can tell you.

I don't have many in my collection right now, just 9 schedules, 6 of them are Yankees . I am pretty sure I have more somewhere, but here are the ones I have right now:

1970 Yankees Schedule. This I just picked up of eBay for a low price. I had seen other 1970 schedules go for as much as 20.00 and that was a price I was looking to avoid. I got this one for under 5 bucks and the seller included a 1966 Topps Yankees Team Card which I need for my Yankees card PC.

2004 Yankees Schedule. I had this one in a drawer with some other pocket schedules. The condition is not bad, but not great. There's fraying on the top of it. When I can, I will replace this one.

2007 Yankees Schedule. Another which falls into a less than perfect conditioned schedule. 

2008 Yankees Schedule. As with the others, the condition is not the greatest. Fraying on the bottom of the schedule this time. This season is near and dear to my heart. I got to the Futures Game for All Star Weekend and got to enjoy my final few times in a place I considered my second home. I am not ashamed to say I cried while watching the Yankees take the final lap around the Stadium as Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" played in the background. I miss that place to this day.

2009 Yankees Preliminary Schedule. Without a doubt this is in the worst shape of all my schedules. Would actually be in perfect shape if not for all the water marks on it. The good thing about collecting pocket schedules is that these are all easily replaced at a great price. 

2013 Yankees Schedule. Picked this one up at the Yankees team store recently. The Yankees have started printing up multiple schedules with different players on the cover. I have this Jeter.

And this Teixeria, which I keep in my Teixeria PC Binder along with the 2008 Braves Schedule with Tex on the cover. I also picked up an Andy Pettitte Schedule which I forgot to scan. 

I also have a few non-Yankees pocket schedules:

2012-13 New York Knicks Schedule with Carmello Anthony, Tyson Chandler and Amar'e Stoutmire on the cover. Grabbed this at MSG when I was in the area. I also grabbed a 2012-2013 New York Rangers schedule which is definitely for trade. 

2009 Staten Island Yankees Schedule. I was a season ticket holder with them for 5 years and this is the only schedule I managed to pick up. I will pick up this years when I take in a game, for sure.

2007-08 New Jersey Devils Schedule. It's beat up, that's for sure. But I won't be replacing it as it's from my very first Devils game. I have been a fan since the 1990-91 season and never made it out to the Meadowlands to see a game, but went to the celebration they had for the 2002 Stanley Cup, go figure. I had this schedule in my pocket the whole game and it came out in pretty bad shape because of it. Because of the sentimental value, it will stay in my collection. 

My goal with my Yankees pocket schedule is to collect from 1970 seasons to present day, same with the Jets and Knicks. With the Devils, I'll start with their first season and move on from there. I just need to find pocket pages that fit them as the nine pocket pages are too small for the current schedules.

I am looking forward to add to my pocket schedule collection. I think it's a fun and cheap way to enjoy your teams history as well as they are cool to look through. If you also collect schedules, leave the link to your collection in the comments below. I would love to look at your collection.