Your Information Resource for Vintage Baseball Cards
eNews Issue #71 (March 2010)      www.oldcardboard.com

Please Note: If images are not loading in this email, click here. Welcome to Old Cardboard, the most complete reference resource for information about collecting vintage baseball cards and related memorabilia.  More information about this eNewsletter and its companion website and magazine are found at the bottom of this page. Contents: 1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar 2. Senator Bunning Plays Hardball; Takes Political Heat 3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website 4. A Vintage View of Vintage Collectors 5. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings) 1. Updated Auction and Show Calendar The following is a summary of vintage card events coming up in the next 30-45 days. For the most current listings on additional vintage card shows and auctions, see the Show and Auction Calendar on the Old Cardboard website.

OC eNewsletter Sponsor

March 2010
19-21	Rosemont, Il	Sun Times Sports Collectibles Convention (see website for details).
24-25	Phone/Internet	Huggins & Scott Auctions (see website for details).
24-25	Phone/Internet	Clean Sweep Auctions (see website for details).
April 2010
1	Phone/Internet	Lew Lipset Auction (see website for details).
8	Phone/Internet	Collect.com Auction (Sports Auction #4; see website for details).
14	Phone/Internet	Hunt Auctions (see website for details).
14	Phone/Internet	Grey Flannel Holiday Auctions (see website for details).
16-18	Strongsville, OH	Strongsville Show 2010 (see website for details).
17	Phone/Internet	Memory Lane Springtime Classic Auction (see website for details).
22-23	Phone/Internet	Heritage Signature Sports Auction (see website for details).

2. Senator Bunning Plays Hardball; Takes Political Heat Senator Bunning (R-KY) Jim Bunning, the 78-year-old Hall-of-Fame pitcher and now United States Senator from Kentucky, played political hardball on Capitol Hill earlier this month. He single-handedly held up a $10 billion spending bill not because of its content, but because it would add to the already out-of-control federal deficit. Bunning's move placed a temporary hold on a broadly supported bill intended to extend unemployment benefits, stall cuts in Medicare payments to doctors and fund highway projects, among other things. Although highly controversial, the Republican Senator's main point was to require the government to fund the bill from existing funds rather than debit the federal deficit even further (see side panel below). His actions resulted in a delay in passing the bill for nearly a week, but not without severe criticism. While Bunning's actions both on the baseball diamond and in the US Senate have often been controversial, the point he made in the Senate earlier this month addresses one of the most critical issues affecting our future. Simply put, Congress must stop borrowing and spending--even for worthy purposes. Whether any given issue is Democrat or Republican, right or left, liberal or conservative, it is essential that the "pay-as-you-go" fiscal approach that Bunning proposes be implemented for our country to continue to prosper. Without balancing the federal budget, our future as a country is doomed to bankruptcy that will burden generations into the future. As Bunning argued, "If the Senate cannot find $10 billion to pay for a measure we all support, we will never pay for anything." As Larry Forgy, one of Bunning's political allies from Kentucky later said of Bunning's action: "It's the equivalent of hitting a mule between the eyes with a two-by-four to get its attention. He is drawing attention to an issue, and if he has to draw criticism to himself in the process, he's willing to do that." A Xavier University-educated economist and father of nine, Bunning entered politics after retiring from baseball. He is known for taking a hard line on government fiscal policy but has announced that he will not run for re-election when his current term expires. During his days with the Detroit Tigers and the Philadelphia Phillies, the right-hander faced the likes of Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1996. Bunning's 1957 Topps Rookie Card is shown here. His earliest five "rookie cards" can be viewed in the Hall of Fame Rookie Cards section of the Old Cardboard website. His baseball career statistics are provided on the baseballreference.com website. He was the first pitcher to record 100 wins and 1,000 strikeouts in both the American and National Leagues. He is also one of only a handful of pitchers to pitch a no-hitter in both leagues. At the time of his retirement from baseball, his 2,855 career strike-outs placed him second only to Walter Johnson. Bunning pitched his first no-hitter on July 20, 1958, for the Detroit Tigers against the Boston Red Sox. His second, for the Philadelphia Phillies, was a perfect game, which he pitched against the New York Mets on June 21, 1964. Bunning's perfect game was the first in the National League in 84 years. He is one of only six pitchers to throw both a perfect game and a no-hitter. The others are Randy Johnson, Sandy Koufax, Addie Joss, Cy Young, and most recently Mark Buehrle. OC eNewsletter Sponsor 3. Latest Additions to the OldCardboard.com Website We are continually expanding the Old Cardboard website with more set profiles, checklists and card galleries. Recent (past 30-40 days) additions include: Set Profiles have been added for: 1903-05   Burr McIntosh Photo Prints Set Checklists have been added for: 1903-05   Burr McIntosh Photo Prints 1912-14   H813   Boston Garter 1929-30   W463-1   "Four-on-One" Exhibits Set Galleries have been added for: 1903-05   Burr McIntosh Photo Prints 1929-30   W463-1   "Four-on-One" Exhibits Updating the website with checklists and full set galleries for additional vintage sets is an ongoing project, so check back often to check out the latest additions. There are now many thousands of card images on the website and the list continues to grow. We welcome and encourage feedback with checklist additions, card images, error corrections and suggestions. Please send all input to editor@oldcardboard.com. 4. A Vintage View of Vintage Collectors Editor's Note: The following article was originally printed in the December 13, 1973 issue of the Chicago Tribune, written by the newspaper's staff writer Don Yabush. It was reprinted in the March 1974 issue of The Collector Talks, an early hobby publication. The masthead for TCT names Rick Cocciemiglio as Publisher and Dave Miedema as Editor. Interestingly, it also names George Brace as Photographer and then-teenager Robert Lifson as "Card Wizard." The article represents a perspective of the vintage hobby from nearly forty years ago, written by someone outside the hobby. Egan with 30,000 card vintage collection While the hot stove baseball scene is getting warmed up by off-season trading among the big league baseball clubs, there's another big league operation that's also in full swing--swapping among baseball trading card collectors. And if you think collecting baseball cards is for the small fry only, you've struck out. Richard Egan will thumb you out for that kind of thinking. Egan is a 32-year-old chemist who lives at 108 N. Shaddle Av., Mundelein, and he freely admits collecting baseball cards "has gotten to be a disease" with him. "I MUST have 30,000 cards, all carefully filed or cataloged. I trade, buy, or sell cards to improve my collection. I guess I have a collector's personality--we have to collect something." Egan said he's not a professional dealer. He buys, sells, or trades only so he can improve his growing collection. He refuses to put a monetary value on the collection, tho he admits it is insured. Tho his collection appears formidable, Egan figures that more than 100,000 different baseball card set have been printed in their history which goes back to 1886, when the Old Judge Cigarette Company issued cards featuring the players of the St. Louis Browns, New York Metropolitans, and others. EGAN FIGURES that his most valuable set of cards [he prefers complete sets for his collection] is the one issued in 1910 by the American Caramel Company. It is a set of nearly 200 cards showing players of both leagues. He thinks he may have the only complete set of this issue. But Egan is not alone in this field in the Chicago area. There are Richard Boe, Libertyville, a La Salle Street stock broker; Don Steinback, Romeoville, a bank accountant; William Loughman, Elmhurst, an airline pilot; and James Rowe Harvey, a tool and die manufacturing official. They compose the Chicagoland Collectors Association of baseball card collectors. They, and some other who dabble in the hobby, will stage a 1974 Baseball Nostalgia Expo in September next year in the Sheraton-O'Hare Motor Hotel, Rosemont. WHEN BASEBALL card collectors get together, there arise tales about THE baseball card--the fabled Honus Wagner card of which there are only 12 known to exist and which have sold for $1,000 or more at auction. The cards were published in 1910 as a selling incentive for a tobacco company. But the great Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop was aghast that his name was tied to tobacco. Besides, he wasn't consulted or even paid for the use of this name and pictures, so he threatened suit. the printing was stopped short, tho some did go into general circulation. Most cards, Egan explained, are valued from a quarter up to a couple of dollars, depending on rarity and age. Cards have been issued with products ranging from smoking tobacco, breakfast cereals, candy, and the now popular commodity, bubble gum. ABOUT 60 years ago, the Cracker Jack company offered a set of 176 cards for only a dime. Today one of those cards commands a much higher price, wrote Charles [Buck] Barker in the association's convention program earlier this year. Bubble gum trading cards were enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, N. Y., when the entire collection of 1971 Topps Baseball Cards were put on display there. About 250 million of the pasteboards are printed annually. That's a lot of cards. But there are millions of kids who collect them each year, along with an estimated 50,000 adults, like Egan and his friends, who work hard keeping up with the hobby. Hobby pioneer Richard Egan, the subject of the above article, wrote early hobby guides, especially on pre-1930 Candy and Gum ("E") cards. Soon after the newspaper article appeared, Egan contributed a 45-page section on E-Card sets that was printed in the first edition (1975) of the Sports Collectors Bible. 5. News Briefs (A Digest of Recent Hobby Happenings) Reminder: Show Schedules Ramp Up.  Several Spring and Summer sports conventions with considerable vintage content are scheduled over the next several months, beginning with the Sun Times Sports Collectibles Convention this weekend in Rosemont, Il., a Chicago suburb. That show will be followed next month with the Strongsville Show 2010 in suburban Cleveland. Then on August 4th through 8th, the National Sports Collectors Convention will be held, this year in Baltimore. A complete schedule of all major vintage shows and auctions can always be viewed on the Key Events Calendar section of the Old Cardboard website. The Calendar also includes links to each show/auction for locations and additional details. Vintage Texas Hold'em Tourney Series in 5 two-way Ties.  After completing two tournaments in Old Cardboard's 2010 Texas Hold'em tournament series for vintage card collectors, ten players are now on the Leaderboard that shows the unlikely circumstance of five 2-way ties. These ties are sure to be broken at the next tourney set for this Tuesday, March 23. We hope to see you there and wish the best of luck to all. Additional details can be found on the Old Cardboard webstie. Lyman and Brett Hardeman Old Cardboard, LLC. Old Cardboard, LLC. was established in December 2003, to help bring information on vintage baseball card collecting to the hobbyist.  Produced by collectors for collectors, this comprehensive resource consists of three components: (1) Old Cardboard Magazine, (2) a companion website at www.oldcardboard.com and (3) this eNewsletter. The Old Cardboard website contains more than 500 pages of descriptive reference information for baseball card sets produced fifty years ago or longer.  Each of these set summaries has a direct set-specific link to auctions and a similar link to 's powerful search engine for further research.  The website also includes a Show and Auction Calendar, an eBay Top 50 Vintage Sellers List, and much more.  As a result, the Old Cardboard website makes a great "Alt-tab" companion for vintage card shoppers and researchers.  Old Cardboard eNews provides current hobby news, upcoming shows and auctions, and updates to the website and the magazine.  It is published around the middle of each month.  For a FREE subscription to the eNewsletter, or for subscription information on Old Cardboard Magazine, please visit the website at www.oldcardboard.com.  If you find this information resource helpful, please tell your friends.  We need your support and your feedback. Thank you.