What Is A Vintage Sports Card Collector's Best Friend?

And the final (for now) giveaway winner!

Author

Mike Junk Wax Hero
September 23, 2024

Happy Monday! I wrote another article for Collectibles On SI, this one about the record sale for a Caitlin Clark card. I hope you’ll check it out! I also have a story coming to the newsletter about an SI story that became a bust, even though I like the story.

If you are a vintage sports card collector on a budget like me, you need to find creative ways to get the cards you want so that they look great but also fit in your budget. Some look for pinholes, which basically guarantee a grade no higher than a 1. I, however, look for cards with amazing fronts and terrible backs. Same concept: the grade is a 1 or 1.5, but the front looks much better. The back is not important to me.

That’s how I managed to get this killer 1949 Leaf Ted Williams:

A vintage collector’s best friend is something that brings the price (grade) way down, but doesn’t affect the appearance of the card. I asked my Twitter following to send me their best cards with bad backs, and they delivered:

I couldn’t get this one to embed for some reason, but here’s a hyperlinked screenshot:

In Partnership With The Pennysleever

Another friend to vintage collectors is good supplies. Small American family-owned business The Pennysleever is offering 10% off to my readers, using code JWHNEWS. And I find their supplies to be superior to the big companies’ supplies.

Do You Want Politics Mixing With Sports Cards?

Last week I polled my readers, and they overwhelmingly said NO!

Only 3 out of 162 respondents (2%) responded “Yes! The more, the better!” or “Maybe a little.” This is, of course, far from a scientific poll. And my lead-in column probably affects some responses. But it was still surprising to me how few of you want politics with your sports cards content.

I might do an upcoming video on this.

YouTube Comment Of The Week

On Sunday’s Clearing the Bases episode, I briefly talked about a sports card criminal named Mayo, and talked about my aversion to the condiment. This caused some pretty funny comments:

Upcoming Videos

I owe an ACE100 video. I also intend to get the GAI slab scam video out very soon.

And I have another Attic Find Friday that I hope to get to this week.

Channel Highlights From the Past Week

The biggest highlight was this Attic Find Friday:

It’s funny, this was a new story. It hit the web earlier in the week and as far as I could find there were zero YouTube videos about it yet. And I went to the subject’s Facebook page and found dozens of photographs of the cards that were in neither article and shared them in the video. And I still had comments complaining that a) the story was old, and b) I didn’t show enough cards. Some people just won’t be happy no matter what.

I got my dual-auto Nolan Ryan / Jerry Koosman rookie card back:

My Pickup Of The Week

I got the Scott Cooper 1993 Finest refractor recently, and now the Mike Greenwell:

Brief Horror Movie Review of the Week

I went to see The Substance on Sunday. I had no idea what to expect, since I don’t watch trailers and don’t read synopses. The first two hours were absolutely amazing — unique, fast-paced, gory and gruesome, masterful acting and videography — and then the end got weird. I downgraded it from 5 stars to 4 because of the end, but it’s still great.

Final (For Now) Giveaway Winner

The final giveaway winner is [email protected]. If that is you, please reply from that address with your mailing address. You have won the PSA 7 1982 Topps Yaz!

I’ll be announcing another newsletter giveaway in the near future!

Daughters Are A Driving Force in the Hobby, a great Collectibles On SI article by Horacio Ruiz

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