Sweet Mailday! Added to my newest collection: 500 HR Club RC's. **Updated with new card scan 8/31**

slum22

I have decided to start a collection of 500 HR club RC's. The last member I will collect will be Eddie Murray (no interest in the steroid era RC's). I will probably begin my 500 HR Club collection with Ted Williams for now (and go backwards as I go). The reason I am starting this collection is because as a kid my dad would take my brother and I to card shows and my favorite memories were getting autographs of the 500 HR club members of the time. At the time the living members were Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Harmon Killebrew, Willie Mays, McCovey, Schmidt, R. Jackson, Banks, Matthews, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron and then Eddie Murray. We ended up meeting all of them (except Murray and Ted Williams and completing an autographed ball with all but those two). Now I am going to chase their cardboard to go with their autos.

I picked this up a few months ago


And then this arrived yesterday


Very excited for the crispness and centering on both of these. Can't wait to pick up the rest!

Edited: to add Hank Aaron (how did I forget him in the original post, lol?)

lawnmowerman

Great cards. Thanks for taking the time to share.

BaltimoreYankee

Nice cards and great idea for a collection!

jmaciu

Steve, yet again, thanks for sharing some spectacular cards!!! The Robby rookie is an awesome PSA 7!

YogiBerraFan

Great looking cards

DanBessette

Great cards, great guy!

vintagefun

Great stuff Steve. Love that F Robby.

Jim

Cooptown

Very nice. The 500 HR Club is what I am currently focused on, but on the auto side. I am collecting signed balls of each member individually. I currently have 9, and adding Eddie Murray HOF weekend. I would love to see pics of your 500 HR club autos as well.

slum22

Thanks for the nice comments everyone. I am really excited to start my new project off with a couple of nice cards. I followed some advice on the boards and really was patient in buying these. I knew I wanted to find cards that were nice for their grades even if it meant overpaying VCP by a little. Luckily, I was able to work with sellers on eBay during some eBay bucks promos, so I got 8% and 13% back in eBay bucks on the Murray and Robinson. Those rebates will help with funding the next purchase. I will probably use this thread to update future additions. Hopefully, over the next couple years I can make some progress. I have prices and grades in mind for most of the cards. I am going to have to be patient since I like to collect a lot of different things. I am really excited to take on this project.

Cooptown--I will try to get some photos of the autographed ball the next time I go to San Diego. I moved to WA for work a year and a half ago, around the same time I got back into collecting cards. Most of my collection is in WA, because most of my buying occurred after moving here. All my autographs are still at my San Diego house because I didn't want to risk losing damaging them in the move. Good luck with getting your autographs. IIRC have one ball autographed by either 9 or 10 players (I believe everyone besides Williams and Murray) as well as single signed balls for most of them as well. I got them all in person at card shows in the early 90's.

Dnice

Love these centered beauties.

cincyredlegs

Very nice cards Steve. Great job on the centering as well. The Robby is a blazer.

Mark

ThoseBackPages

LOVE THAT F-ROB!

slum22

Dnice and Mark--Thanks. I am really happy with the centering for both of the cards. I think the eye appeal is strong for both. Both the 78's and 57's are sets where cards can be tough to find with solid centering. These definitely passed my eye appeal test.

Thosebackpages--I've wanted a Frank Robinson rookie since I was in junior high and I first saw one at my local card shop. Never did save up enough for that one, but I'm excited to pick this beauty up now. I think he's one of the more underrated players of all time. If my memory for baseball history is correct he is still the only player to win MVP on both leagues. Add in a ROY and manager of the year and he is one of the more decorated players of all time. And of course the 586 HRs.

slum22

Just flew into California. Here are some pictures of one of my 500 HR autographed balls. As I said in my previous post. All of these autos were picked up in person at card shows with my dad and brother in the early 90's. I will try to post some single signed balls from my collection another time. Thanks for looking.

Dboneesq

Steve ... thanks for sharing. Best of luck on your new project. Going with the '51 Bowman or '52 Topps for THE MICK?

slum22

Doug,

I know it is probably heresy but I have always preferred the look of the 51 Bowman with the shot of Mickey in a batting stance with the blue sky background. Since that is also his true RC it makes it an easy decision to go for that in this project. The harder decision for me is whether to go for the 1939 Playball Ted Williams or the 1948 Leaf. I prefer the look of the Leaf card but if I want to do true RC's I suppose I will have to pick up the Play Ball at some point.

I just realized that I posted the same picture twice on the auto ball above (for the panel with Killebrew and Matthews). I then got out my other ball and noticed it was signed differently (the first one above has Aaron on the sweet spot and the other ball has Mantle and Mays on the sweet spot). I will post pics of the second ball when I get a chance.

slum22

Here is my newest pick up. I had been waiting on this card for a while waiting for one with decent centering. This one has a little more tilt than I was hoping for but I got in pretty good price wise by using the latest 4x ebay bucks deal. Even with the tilt I think it has better than average centering. It is a pretty nice example in hand (the black spot on the left side of the case is on the slab not on the card) and I am happy to have card number 3 in my collection. Thanks for looking.

Dboneesq

WTG Steve ... nice to see you progressing on your new venture.

Cubby

Very nice!