Ernie Archives Gold

I picked up the gold parallel of Ernie Banks' 2014 Archives for my player collection.  It's all nice and shiny with the gold border.  These are numbered /199.

It still amazes me that a card of a Hall of Fame players with only 199 copies available can be bought for only a couple bucks.  Are there just too many different parallels available that the limited number of a particular card doesn't matter?

Are there just not enough collectors any more?

Whatever the reason, I'm thrilled to scoop these up for bargain prices.

Oh Thank Heaven For Billy

Today's Billy Williams item isn't a card, its a cup.

No, I didn't buy a game used cup.  That would be disgusting.

Instead, I bought this beauty...

....A Billy Williams 7-11 Slurpee Cup.  I don't think the artist did a very good job with the picture,

but the write-up on the back is pretty good.   The cup looks like it would be from 1973, since Billy's accomplishments from 1972 are in the text.  His career was peaking at this time and there are lots of nice things said about him.

The cup came via Ebay, but I am about 99% certain that I had one of these as a kid.  In the summer of 1973 I was in between sixth and seventh grade.  My bike could take me anywhere and the local 7-11 was one of those places (it was at the far east end of the Arena Shopping Center on 103rd and Cicero in beautiful Oak Lawn, Illinois).  I have very clear memories of biking there (it was about a 3/4 mile ride) and getting coke slurpees on hot days.  I remember the ballplayer cups and bring one or two home.

I also remember that over time the picture and writing faded due to being washed in the dishwasher.  The plastic was much sturdier than today's plastic cups, so the cup itself was good for a while.  But when it became faded, it probably got tossed.

It's nice to have one back.

Big Billy Relic

Earlier this year I picked up a big hunk of Billy bat compliments of 2014 Gypsy Queen.

When I saw a card with a big hunk of Billy jersey, I couldn't let it go.  The card had a BIN/BO, so I offered a whole five bucks for it and the offer was accepted.

So here it is....

...from 2005 Playoff Absolute Memorabilia Tools of the Trade....wow, is that name a mouthful!

The card has the Polo Grounds shot of Billy that Topps has been using to death over the past couple years.  Nice to know that Donruss could run a good picture into the ground too.  The swatch in a jumbo sized piece from a road uniform.  The material looks to be a more modern type, not the flannel Billy would have worn back in his playing days.  I'd guess that the jersey was from his days as a Cubs coach.

The card does have a serial number...58/85.  It is number 105 in the set.   The odd thing is that the Standard Catalog checklist for 2005 Tools of the Trade Jumbo Swatch only goes up to 100.  Beckett has a checklist of 200 cards for the set.  I wonder why the discrepancy?

This is the third card I've got from 2005 Tools of the Trade, and together, they make a nice little set.

New Billy Auto

If you are getting tired of posts about additions to my Billy Williams collection, then I guess I'll see you on Saturday, because each post between now and then will be new Billy stuff!

Today I've got a new Billy Williams autograph.  My goal is to get to 26 different autographs, which matches his uniform number.  I'm also trying to get cards that don't have repeat pictures.  So far, of my 23 autographs, there is only one pictured that is repeated.

Here is Billy autograph #24...

...from Panini's 2012 Price Cuts Notable Nicknames.  When I first saw this, I knew that I wanted it for the "Sweet Swinging Billy".  I was willing to overlook the missing logos in exchange for the nickname.

The picture is different from any of my other autograph cards, so that is a plus, also.  Based on the mustache and the longer hair, the picture looks to be from either 1973 or 1974.  Color in the picture would have looked nicer too, with the blue on the hat and uniform matching the blue Sharpie signature.

With this addition, I'm down to needing two more autographs to make my 26.  I don't have anything in particular in mind.  I'm just going to wait and see what my daily Ebay search turns up.

The Archives All Star

Oops! I accidentally scheduled this to go live at 7 PM instead of 7 AM.  Thanks for the heads-up, Matt!

The Cubs didn't fare to well among the Archives inserts checklist....only one card that I was interested in.

This is the All Star card of Fergie Jenkins.  He's listed as an All Star in 1972, though he also made the team in 1967 and 1971.  Now keep in mind that the guy won 20+ games in seven seasons.  Making the All Star team only three times sees low to me.  Different times back then.

The picture on the card is from Shea Stadium during the 1972 season, so the picture does match the All Star year.  That's the good news.

The bad news?

Its the same picture from 2011 Lineage.

Not unexpected.

The Archives Archives

With three years under their belt, I though it would be interesting to take a look at the Archives archives.  Let's look at all the different designs that Archives has used and compare them to the original.  I'm just going with cards in the base set, though other years were used in some of the inserts.

I've got them shown in chronological order according to the original design.

1954 - Used by Archives in 2012

 

The size of the Archives obviously won't match the size of the larger cards made through 1956.  The fonts for the name and team name don't match either.  And too bad Archives didn't use the original logo.

1971 - Used by Archives in 2012

 

The font for "Cubs" and the color are mismatched.  It looks like the name and position are a bit smaller, too.

1972 - Used by Archives in 2012

 

 The most glaring change is that the pink on the original is replaced by a bright red.  The stars on top are smaller and in a different position.  Finally the font size for the players' name is smaller, too.

1972 - Used by Archives in 2014

 

Most of this is pretty good except that all the Cubs cards in 1973 had the players' names in red and the team name in blue.  It never varied.  The Archives version has different colors for different Cubs.  Kyuji Fujikawa's card has the correct red and blue but not Ernie.

1982 - Used by Archives in 2012 and 2013

 

The Buckner cards give us the chance to compare an Archives with the original of the same player.  The design is pretty close, though the fonts on the original seem to be a little bolder.  Big change with the autograph.  Its a different signature in a different location.

1984 - Used by Archives in 2012 and 2013

 

The most glaring difference is with the color of the Cubs and players name.  They are a deeper purple on the original.  And again, the fonts for the player and position don't match.

1986 - Used by Archives in 2014

 

Why was the team name and position circle changed from red to blue?  That's a pretty significant design element to alter.  The black border on the top of the card comes down a bit lower on the Archives card.  No one have a ruler?

1989 - Used by Archives in 2014

 

This was probably the best job of matching up the design.

1990 - Used by Archives in 2012 and 2013

 

Fairly close match again, though the original has a slightly wider border.  Again, no one at Topps owns a ruler?

Five Random Cubs Cards

I've got 12,379 Cubs cards from 88 different brands listed on a spreadsheet. A random number generator picked five cards, one each from the past several decades.

1900s - 1970s: 1965 OPC #220 Billy Williams The front of the 1965 OPCs are identical to Topps cards.  The backs were different, though.  I've got an entire post on this card here. 

1980s: 1986 Donruss #510 Steve Engel  Only a super die-hard fan would recognize the name of Steve Engel.  I must confess that I have no memory of him at all.  His only major league experience was in 1985, when at one point in the season the Cubs entire starting rotation was on the disabled list.  The injuries created opportunities for young guys like Engel.  But clearly he wasn't a major league arm.  He went 1-5 with a 5.57 ERA while being used mainly as a starter.  His 1986 season was spent with AAA teams for the Cubs and later the Astros as he was traded in June as the player to be named later from a deal the two teams made in December.

1990s: 1995 Fleer Traded #130 Ozzie Timmons This is a card from his rookie season, 1995..  Rookie card, yes, but valuable, well, no.  Ozzie made the team out of spring training and played in 77 games as a reserve outfielder.  He had a strong finish to the season, batting .337 in his final 25 starts.

2000s: 2004 Leaf MVP Winners #2 Ernie Banks  Mr. Cub was the NL MVP in 1958 and 1959.  To commemorate this, Leaf used a picture from either 1968 or spring training 1969.

2010s: 2103 Cubs Team Set Giveaway #22 Aramis Ramirez This card comes from the second of four sets of card that the Cubs and Topps gave away at Wrigley Field last season.  This was the second time a card with the 1961 design was made for Ramirez.  He was also a Cub in 2010 when Heritage was using 1961.