Another vintagely awesome PWE

I love PWEs. Seriously. They could contain anything. They could be all of my favorite player. They could be all Bip Roberts. They could be vintage, new stuff, prospects, refractors. Anything.

Mark H sends some of the best PWEs out there, and this past one was no different. I mentioned something about some vintage Knicks once, and Mark of course said, "I've got some old Knicks for you."

But I'll get to that in a minute.

My favorite card, by far, was this Dr. Bobby Brown card. I had never seen one of these and had no clue what set it was from. Mark informed me it was from 1952 Berk Ross. No clue. So I hit the interwebs and here is a snippet I stole from PSA's website:

The 1952 Berk Ross set consists of 72 cards, each one 2” x 3”. Manufactured by the Berk Ross Company of New York City, card fronts have a posed “hand-painted” color likeness with the player’s name in white script. The images are framed in white. Card backs feature the player's name, position, team, personal data, and a line of statistics from the previous season. A headline at the top proclaims the set as the “Hit Parade of Champions.” Key cards include Joe DiMaggio (though he retired at the end of the 1951 season), Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Jackie Robinson, and Ted Williams. (The DiMaggio and Williams cards were not available in the 1952 Bowman or Topps sets, making the Berk Ross examples highly collectible). This unnumbered set is also anchored by a plethora of Hall of Fame subjects and stars including Richie Ashburn, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, Bob Feller, Gil Hodges, Ralph Kiner, Johnny Mize, Pee Wee Reese, and Duke Snider. The set has a few notable errors: the backs of the Ewell Blackwell and Nellie Fox are switched, while the Phil Rizzuto card was issued with two different poses – one bunting and the other swinging. (http://www.psacard.com/cardfacts/Hierarchy.aspx?c=223#)

Sounds awesome! I need to track down the Rizzutos.

And the Knicks! Here are the Knicks. While I collected basketball cards growing up, I really know next to nothing about vintage NBA cards, so these designs are all new to me. They are from 1975-76 Topps.

Lastly, I have to show this. First, Action Packed is cool, so no issues there. Second, I'll always have a special place in my heart for Russ Davis, as he was the key prospect the Yankees sent to the Mariners in the Tino trade. Thanks, Russ!

Mark, as always, thank you!

JBF Epic Boxes: Packs 5-6

Here are two more packs in the Jaybarkerfan Epic flat rate boxes that he sent my way a while back. Each pack was like a repack of my favorite team. It was a blast to go through.

I'll stop boring you with my gushing and show you team bags 5 & 6:

Pack 5

First up, a nice slew of Mattingly. I always loved that illustrated Upper Deck card.

This Ted Williams set is so underrated. I actually have this Bobby Brown card autographed, and it looks great. Just a simple, classy looking set.

So Ricky Ledee was supposed to follow Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio in the line of great Yankee CFers. He didn't quite pan out, although his tenure in the Bronx did have a lot of big moments, including starting the 1998 World Series. He also hit a HR and made a game-saving catch in David Cone's perfect game. The next year, he helped bring over David Justice in a trade. See? Ledee did a lot!

 And the card of the pack? This Ralph Houk! What a cool card. It's from 1987 TCMA.

Total cards in pack: 49
Running total: 147

Pack 6

This team bag starts with even more Jeters. I may need to do a postmortem and recap how many Jeters were included. There had to be 20 or so.

I love both of these cards. The Gardner...that's just a ball player. The Adrien Hernandez is cool too. Minor league cards are so much fun. Look at those ads! Hernandez was actually called "El Duquecito" or "Little El Duque." Unfortunately, he didn't have a very successful career.

The card of the pack? This 2013 Topps Target Red Parallel of Francisco Cervelli after a walk-off hit. I love the emotion. And look who is there to join Mr. Cervelli! An ARod cameo. Zippy Zappy, do you need this parallel? If so, it's yours.

 

Total cards in pack: 41
Running total: 188

TTM Success: Doc Brown...Bobby Brown, that is

I got a cool TTM success from Dr. Bobby Brown, former Yankee and AL President. I sent two of the same cards from this Ted Williams set and asked him to keep one (I put a post-it note on the card with the request). He ended up signing both. I now have two of the same card signed, which is ok, but I really did wish he had kept one.

I looked at a lot of his cards online, but decided on this Ted Williams issue to send because I liked it so much. It's got a great classic pose and I like how prominent the Yankee logo looks. I ordered two of the same card from the same seller on SportLots. I might look for an early '50s Bowman to send to Brown, but in the meantime, I really like this success. His signature is very neat, especially for a man his age.