Trading Anyone?

Just a quick note to let you know that both the Dodgers and Cubs lots are still available. Click on each team to see what I'm offering up for trade.

No reasonable offer will be refused, however it does have to be off of my want list. I need to finish these sets! Trade me a dozen cards, trade me a hundred cards, trade me one card, but help me finish these sets!

If you are interested in trading for all of this, either leave a comment or email me at swingandapopup@gmail.com with what you wish to trade. First person to contact me wins the entire package of Cubs and Dodgers.

Thanks for reading and let's trade!

Cards From The Binder (Chapter 6)

A lot of bloggers seem to be "binder guys". Not me. However, my collection is not completely void of binders. I do have a few, and these posts give you some insight into what I deem "binderworthy."

Authors note: There is no criteria to a card being "binderworthy" other than I didn't know what the hell else to do with it.

I've mentioned before that my luck in pulling autographs from packs is pretty dismal. I would say about 99.9% of the time that I've pulled an autograph out of a pack of cards is because I bought a box that said "One guaranteed autograph per box" or something like that. Like a box of 2004 Upper Deck ProSigs.

And I always get future Hall-Of-Famers like Willie Bloomquist. A win-win!

I actually quite despise the term "win-win", but since I'm using it sarcastically, it fits.

These next few cards fall under the "For the life of me, I cannot remember where I got these from" file.

This is a 1993 Nabisco All-Star Autographs Ernie Banks. Researching this on the internet, I found this bit of information on the Beckett website.

"Available by sending two proofs of purchase from specially marked Nabisco packages and 5.00, each card features an autographed color action photo of a former star on its front and comes in a special card holder along with a certificate of authenticity. Don Drysdale tragically passed away between his signing the cards and the beginning of the promotion. Nabisco honored all requests until they ran out of cards on Drysdale. The cards are unnumbered and are checklisted in alphabetical order."

I definitely did not send away for these as they were given to me, but I can't remember by who. A (very) quick search of ebay found this card going for $20. I don't have the "special card holder", though for any of these.

Here is the back of the card.

Here is the COA.

 

I also have Brooks Robinson,

Catfish Hunter,

Phil Niekro...

and Willie Stargell.

The last card in this post has nothing to do with the Nabisco autos. This is a promo card (remember when those were the rage?), that is for 1999 Upper Deck SP Authentic. I probably got it from the inside of a Tuff Stuff magazine back in the day. It seemed every sportscard magazine I bought back then had some type of a promo card inside it.

Trading Thursdays - Chicago Cubs Edition

As I've mentioned on this blog before, one of the things I enjoy most about the blogosphere is trading with other bloggers. I don't make it to too many card shows, and it's often times very tough to find the cards I need to complete the sets I'm working on.

I've gotten closer to some sets thanks to the trading I've done, and hopefully I've been to help other bloggers with their collecting goals as well. So I've been thinking for a while about how I can help initiate some trading with other collectors/bloggers that I may not have connected with yet. Of course, I'm certainly up for trading with collectors/bloggers that I've traded with before.

So every Thursday I post a collection of items representing a specific team. It will generally consist of mostly cards from that team, but it could also include a media guide, a yearbook, a pack of cards with a player from that team on the wrapper, etc.

If you are interested in it, either comment on the blog or email me at swingandapopup@gmail.com, with what you want to trade for it. No reasonable offer will be refused, however it does have to be off of my want list. I need to finish these sets! Trade me a dozen cards, trade me a hundred cards, trade me one card, but help me finish these sets!

I only have a small percentage of my "wants" uploaded. This is a huge work in process, and I am adding new want lists up weekly. I also keep track via a sidebar on my blog letting readers know what lists have been added in the past week. There are also some "junk wax" sets on there that I haven't finished. I know some of you are sitting on some '88 Score, 92 Leaf, etc., and this could be a chance to unload some of it to someone who needs it!

This week I feature the Chicago Cubs. However, nobody claimed last week's lot of Dodgers, so if someone claims the Cubs lot, they will get the Dodgers lot as well. You can see that here.

So here's what up for trade this week:

1987 Donruss Rafael Palmeiro

1986 Donruss Davey Lopes DK

1986 Topps Gary Matthews

1984 Topps Dick Ruthven

2010 Topps Randy Wells

2003 Upper Deck Sammy Sosa

2007 Topps Heritage Ted Lilly

2007 Topps Chrome Derrek Lee

2002 Upper Deck MVP Francis Beltran

2002 Topps Total Pat Mahomes

1990 Bowman Damon Berryhill

1989 Topps Big Pat Perry

2013 Topps Ian Stewart

2013 Topps Archives Alfonso Soriano

2013 Topps Heritage Matt Garza

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Hallmark Heroes Ernie Banks

2008 Upper Deck Goudey Rich Hill

2009 Upper Deck Xponential Derrek Lee

2009 Bowman Chrome Rich Harden

2008 Upper Deck SP Authentic Marquee Matchups Carlos Zambrano/Prince Fielder

2011 Topps Update Reed Johnson

1996 Canadian Club Classic Billy Williams Auto

If you are interested in trading for all of this, either leave a comment or email me at swingandapopup@gmail.com with what you wish to trade. First person to contact me wins the entire package of Cubs and Dodgers.

Thanks for reading and let's trade!

Reds For Red Sox

Earlier this month, Matt over at Red Cardboard posted a bunch of cards that he was offering up for trade. Immediately I went to the Red Sox part of the post and kindly asked (at least I think I asked kindly) if a select few were available. I picked out a few Reds for him that I hoped would be acceptable in return, which was a lot harder than I thought. Apparently the Reds are a team that I am rather thin on if you're not looking for base cards. Although it's not officially a trade yet (because I just mailed his cards out today), here is what he generously sent me.

2012 Bowman Prospects Xander Bogaerts. This is going to get interesting in a year or two. You can't keep Middlebrooks, Iglesias and Bogaerts, so somebody is going to have to go. Last year the consensus was Iglesias. Now I'm not so sure.

2012 Bowman Platinum Prospects Brandon Jacobs. Since I asked for this card, he has been traded to the White Sox for Matt Thornton. I haven't paid any attention to anybody's opinion about the trade, but I'm not really thrilled with it.

2013 Topps Heritage Joel Hanrahan. Out for the season, and probably done with the Red Sox.

Finally, the card that most sparked my interest, simply because I did not have a Ryan Dempster card in a Sox uniform. It's kind of hard to tell if it is airbrushed or not, but it doesn't matter to me either way.

Thanks Matt for the trade!

And The Winner Is.....

Before I let you all know who the winner was, I want to thank everybody for taking the time to paticipate. Like I mentioned previously, I have enjoyed writing this blog and especially reading everybody elses. It has really made the hobby much more enjoyable for me.

So in case anybody forgot, here is what was up for grabs.

A 72 card hanging box of 2013 Topps Series 2.

The interns here at the Swing And A Pop-Up headquarters were hard at work this weekend tabulating the responses and preparing them for randomization. So which entrant will enjoy the fruits of their labor?

And the winner is...Baseball Dad! And in a strange twist of fate, he also had the number 2 slot as well. So not only did he win, he also topped the list of losers. I don't know about you, but I think that's pretty impressive.

I also noticed Hackenbush occupying the spot usually reserved for me when I enter contests.

Congratulations Baseball Dad! I'll get this out to you this week!

Thanks to everybody for participating!

A Couple Of Reminders

In celebration of my last post (which was my 100th), I wanted to show my appreciation to all the bloggers out there by holding my first contest. The prize up for grabs in one of those 72 card hanging packs of Topps Series II. If you haven't already thrown your name in the hat, click here to go to that post and register. The contest ends tonight at 11:59 PM EST.

Secondly, I didn't do a Trading Thursdays post this Thursday, because I'm holding the contest instead. However, last weeks post featured the Brooklyn/LA Dodgers and is still available. Click here to see what is available for trade.

Hope you all are having a good weekend and stay cool!

I'm 100!

....in posts, that is. Yes, you read correctly, this is my 100th post. I hope that any of you out there who have read any of my posts have been able to get some sort of enjoyment out of them. I know I enjoy reading all the blogs I subscribe to (and there are many more out there that I haven't subscribed to that I should).

There is a very cool assortment of card blogs throughout the blogosphere and have brought a aspect to card collecting that I didn't even know existed a few years ago. So I want to thank everybody that I've traded with, everybody that's read my blog and everybody that's commented on my blog for making my first 100 post very exciting and very fun for me.

So as I promised on my last post, I am going to do something on this blog I've never done before.

HAVE A CONTEST!

 

Granted, the prize isn't anything overwhelming, just one of those hanging boxes of 2013 Topps Series 2.

 

 

Whaddaya want, I'm on a budget.

 

Entering is real easy, all you have to do is comment on this post that you want to participate. (How else would I know?)

 

There is one rule however...you have to subscribe to my blog to enter.

 

I know, it's a lame-ass way to boost your number of followers.

 

So you have until 11:59 EST on Saturday night to enter. To make it fair to those who have had a history of sitting through my disjointed attempts at complete thoughts (i.e. you have already subscribed), you will receive 2 entries in the contest.

 

If you subscribe to my blog and enter the contest after this is posted, you will receive 1 entry.

 

Good luck to everyone!



Programs! Get Your 55 Year Old Programs! (The Finale)

Here is the third and final post about my 1958 Red Sox program. You can read about the first two here and here.

"Where there's a man"...the advertising back then was so much different than it is now.

Marlboro's are still quite popular, in fact they are the largest selling brand of cigarettes in the world.

From what I could find out, Booth's Gin is still being made, but the "High & Dry" version isn't. I'm actually quite surprised how little information I'm able to find out about some of these companies.

The "Wonderful Souvenir" is actually the 1958 Red Sox Yearbook. It's also called an "attractive pictorial book" later on in the paragraph. You could buy it at Fenway Park or order it by mail for 50 cents, plus 10 cents postage.

According to dollartimes.com, $1.00 in 1958 is equivalent to $8.08 today. So using that information, if I ordered the yearbook and paid 60 cents for it, today that is equivalent to $4.84.

Checking the Yawkey Way Store (which is the souvenir shop across from Fenway Park), the cost of the 2013 Yearbook is $10.00 plus $10.00 shipping and handling (which is ridiculous).

Pete Runnels was playing in his first year for the Red Sox in 1958. He played mostly at second base and hit .322 with 8 home runs and 59 RBI's. He missed the batting crown by 6 points to Ted Williams, who hit .328. He died in 1991 and was elected to the Red Sox Hall Of Fame in 2004.

Lou Berberet was traded to the Red Sox from the Senators on May 1st of 1958 and played in 57 games for the Sox hitting .210 with 2 HR and 18 RBI in his only season with them.

I think both of these players were featured on this program because the last team both played for was the Senators.

I found a listing for a State Street Bank and Trust Company located at 1 Lincoln St. in Boston. I'm not sure if it is the same bank or not. I looked up a couple of the addresses from the program, and the building at 24 Federal St. which housed the Union Trust Office is now for lease, and the Copley Square Office at 587 Boylston St. is now a CVS. You would have thought in 55 years the bank would have changed names multiple times, but maybe not.

We've already talked about what happened to Seagrams on this post, so let's move on to R.G. Sullivan's 7-20-4 Cigars.

They are still being made (although their website only listed 3 places in the United States you could buy them), and they are now based in Londonderry NH (around 10 miles south of Manchester).

Whiting's Milk was sold to Dairylea Cooperative (then called Dairyman's League Cooperative Association) in 1966. According to dairylea.com it defines a cooperative as "a jointly-owned commercial enterprise (usually organized by farmers or consumers) that produces and distributes goods and services and is run for the benefit of its owners". Well that certainly helped me understand what one was.

According to a forum post on ancestry.com, Dairylea lost a lot of money and shut down Whiting's Milk in 1973. Dairylea's website does mention some financial difficulties in the 70's but does not mention Whiting's by name. There also seems to be some confusion as some websites state Hood bought Whiting's, but this same forum post says that Hood bought the land that Whiting's previously occupied (although I could not confirm that).

There wasn't much regarding Daisy Meadows in regards to Whiting's Milk. I'm assuming it was just a brand as I see mentions of "Whiting's Milk under the Daisy Meadows brand..."

Check out how cheap the souvenirs were back then! I do find it odd that the tie clasp or bill clasp are the only things that have (including tax) next to it.

I wasn't able to find anything current on Melrose Whiskey, what happened to it, if it is still made, etc. I found a couple of online auction where I could buy a bottle, but they offered no info as to the status of the brand.

I am going to assume that the Blue Ship Tea Room is closed, because I can find nothing current about it. However, in 1964 the restaurant was sued by a patron who choked on a bone from a bowl of fish chowder. Apparently the specifics of this case is taught in law school.

She was not successful with her lawsuit.

I can find a Russell Blake and a Russell Howe, but not a Russell Blake Howe.

And that's too bad, because she does deserve to eat out, and she could have heard Mr. Howe recreate music by Beethoven, Chopin and Liszt while she drinks her Chase & Sanborn coffee. The brand is now owned by Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group (Italy). They also own Hills Bros. and Chock Full O' Nuts, as well as some other lesser known coffee brands.

"Forty Million Fans" is just an advertisement for Series E United States Savings Bonds. As of June 1980, you could no longer purchase these.

There is a company called J&A Specialty Distributors, which focuses on tobacco products, but I couldn't find any information on their history to see if it was the same company.

This next ad is one of the things that confuses me about Boston (other than the countless one way streets). 1200 Beacon Street Hotel, (which I am going to assume is located at 1200 Beacon Street) offers the "finest food in Boston", which is fantastic, but 1200 Beacon Street is in Brookline, not Boston. It is now a Holiday Inn, which like the ad states is 1 mile (or 1.1 miles according to hotelplanner.com) from Fenway Park.

Table Talk Pies are still around and everytime I see one of them, I am this close to getting it. Damn diabetes.

Armour and Company (which also produced Dial soap, as soap can be maufactured as a by-product of meat packaging) were the producers of the Armour hot dog brand back in the 50's. Now the brand is owned by Smithfield Foods,which is based in Virginia.

Man, these old whiskys are hard to track down. Nothing current on Park & Tilford, although like the rest of the whiskys, you can find some of the old bottles for sale online.

Ditto for the "Wholesale Tobacconist". I had never even heard of the word tobacconist before I wrote this post. When I say that I can't find anything current, it doesn't mean I didn't find anything, usually it was court cases...which is all I found out about the Bieringer - Hanauer Company.

That and 37 Leon St is now Meserve Hall, part of Northeastern University.

Rounding out the page is a blurb about the the Jimmy Fund. The Jimmy Fund has been partnered with the Red Sox since 1953 and supports the search for new cancer treatments and cures for both adults and children at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, the top cancer hospital in New England.

Two things you may or may not know about the Jimmy Fund;

1.) The origin of the Jimmy Fund involved the Boston Braves, not the Boston Red Sox.
2.) There actually was a "Jimmy", although that was not his real name.

I couldn't find anything about the "Double L" baseball contests, but Ballantine at one point was the fourth largest brewer in the United States. The company went into decline in the 1960's and by the 1980's Ballantine Ales were produced by numerous outsourced companies. Since 2005, the Ballantine brand has been owned and marketed by the Pabst Brewing Company, although production is outsourced to the Miller Brewing Company.

 

Schenley Distilleries was based out of New York City and had its headquarters in the Empire State Building. It was eventually purchased by Guinness in 1987. I do not see any Schenley products on their website.

 

Now as far as my guess about the game...the program features the Washington Senators. Back on one of the first pages it says the next night game is August 5th. Well, on August 5th...they played the Senators. It was the first game of a three games series.

 

According to baseball-reference.com, on that day Bill Monbouquette won his first game of the season while pitching a complete game in a 7 - 1 Boston win. Jimmy Piersall hit his 8th home run and Ted Williams hit his 19th.

 

Pete Runnels went 3-5 with an RBI and Lou Berberet didn't play.

 

I hope you enjoyed going through this Red Sox program with me. I found the majority of information on Wikipedia, but like I said earlier, I was surprised how little information I could find on a lot of these old companies.

 

As far as future posts go, I'm going to try to mix it up some so not every post is a "look what I got for cards in this repack" post, although for better or worse, that is still probably going to be the majority of them.

 

But I can promise you tomorrow's post will be something different.

 

Thanks for reading!

Programs! Get Your 55 Year Old Programs! (Part II)

My last post was the beginning of a three-part post displaying a 1958 Red Sox scorecard that I have. You can see the first post here. I'm going through it page by page and it is interesting to see all the different advertisements and what happened to the brands since then. Like todays programs, it is mostly advertising.

I also noticed while I was putting this post together that I missed scanning two pages, so this post will be a bit longer than the other two.

We all know that Coca - Cola is still around, but look at those ticket prices!

75 cents for the bleachers!

$2.75 for box seats!

...and you could buy tickets at Filene's?

The best part of this page are the three paragraphs to the right side:

"Physicians expecting telephone calls are requested to leave their names and seat locations with the attendant at Office Door in back of grandstand on third base side."

"Patrons finding articles are asked to return them to the office."

"We will consider it a favor if patrons will report to the office the slightest inattention or rudeness on the part of any employee."

They didn't have cell phones back then, so I would imagine you had to call the ballpark if a physician was expecting your call. Then someone from the ballpark had to find him and let him know he had a phone call. And pity the poor employee if he was the slightest bit inattentive or rude to the physician.

 

The Hancock Tower is now known as the Berkeley Building. At the time of this program it was the 2nd tallest building in Boston.

 

The weather beacon still works and flashed red and blue when the Red Sox won the 2004 and 2007 World Series, the only times the color schemes have been changed.

 

J. W. Dant Distillery Co. was bought in 1993 by Heaven Hill Distilleries. Their Wikipedia page lists J.W. Dant bourbon as a brand, but I couldn't find it on their website.

The blurb in the middle just mentions that it's the 26th year of the Yawkey regime and gives a little bit of history about the Red Sox name. They have been known as the Red Sox since 1908. Before that it was the "Americans", the "Pilgrims", and one I have a hard time believing...the "Speed Boys".

Hood is still around, Seagrams is not (although the brand still exists, the company does not). Seagrams was sold off to a variety of companies, most notably Coca - Cola and Diageo (England).

The middle of this page and the next one focuses one teaching you how to score a game. I've never done that. I should try it sometime.

Another ad for Coca - Cola, and the second cigarette ad of the program.

Old Gold is still being made by the Lorillard Tobacco Company, although the picture on their website just says Old Gold, not Old Gold Straights. They also make Newport and Kent, among others. Last year they were the first tobacco company to enter the e-cigarette market.

You can also find all of the symbols you need for scoring because....

...you'll need it when you score the game! This program is unscored, but it also doesn't give me any clue as to what day the game actually was. After researching on baseball-reference.com, I have a good idea what game this was, and I'll present my guesswork at the end of the last post.

Altria Group (formerly known as Phillip Morris Companies, Inc.) is the current manufacturer of both Chesterfield and L&M cigarettes. Kent was mentioned on the last page and searching for Oasis brings up nothing about cigarettes and plenty about the band.

Mennen is owned by Colgate - Pamolive in most parts of the world. In France it is owned by L'Oreal. The Mennen name however is being slowly phased out in many countries, however in North America the brand is still pretty well known.

Beats the hell out of me what mansmooth is. I'm assuming it's a type of fabric, because you can find some of these shirts on ebay, but back then you could get them at Jordan Marsh - The Store For Men.

It looks like Gem razor blades are still being made, but now they are for "Industrial Use Only". You're not getting one of those near my face anyways.

More cigarettes. The brand Lucky Strike is still around, although nowhere near as popular now as they were back then.

Canada Dry is still around as well, although I'd like to see how many would be "offended" by the "Men of Action" slant.

And in the middle of the page you have a list of all the home games of the 1958 season.

Narragansett sponsored Red Sox and Braves broadcasts throughout much of the first half of the 20th century. After changing hands a few times, the brewery closed on July 31, 1981. Production of the beer had moved to Indiana, but the quality was not the same and sales declined. The brand was purchased again in 2005 and has since been revitalized.

You can still buy Gulden's mustard in any grocery store (at least around here).

There's also a list of the away games from the 1958 schedule.

 

Carling Black Label is still being sold, however only in Canada and South Africa. The company is now owned by the Molson Coors Brewing Company.

 

By checking the Red Sox website, most of the dimensions are the same. The only glaring difference is that it is listed as 310 feet to left field rather than 315. I wasn't able to find out if Fenway Park is illuminated by more than the 1120 lights that were used in 1958. I'm sure it is.

 

Pheeew! Feeling nostalgic yet?