Treat Yo' Self! I have Added my Dream Card to my Collection

I mentioned a while back that I would be starting a new job (well, an expanded role in my current job) at the beginning of next month. This is still true, but thanks to a change-up in the staff (someone quitting with no goddamn notice), my hours are going to take a huge jump immediately. And this is mostly fine. I have the time and I can use the money.

The promise of a few real big paydays to come put me in “treat yo’self” mode. I started making fantasy searches on eBay, looking at big-money cards that I never before seriously considered buying. After some pie-in-the-sky thoughts about getting a 2011 Update Mike Trout, I settled on its cheaper cousin, the 2012 Bryce Harper #661 rookie.

Topps was stricken with full-blown gimmickitus for this one, super-short printing one version, putting another (the one I bought) into factory sets, and including a third variation as a part of a special rookie set in factory sets. By the strictest definition, none of these can really be his rookie card – that designation falls to his 2012 Update “rookie debut” card – but I wanted one of these as a nice bookend to my 2012 set. I dropped $20 on it, which is about a third of what the Update card seems to be going for right now.

I rarely spend so much on a single card. I can’t honestly remember the most I’ve EVER paid for a single card. The most expensive card in my collection presently is the autographed 1987 Topps Barry Bonds that I picked up a few years ago for about $30.

It was issued by The Scoreboard a while back, long before authenticating holograms became a must-have. Doing a little detective work, I became almost totally certain the thing was legit and took advantage of the situation to snag an auto of one of the three or four greatest players of all-time.

But even after picking up the Harper, I didn’t feel entirely treated. I wanted something BIG. And, after a little digging, I found something big. It set me back almost $90 – FAR more than I’d ever paid for a single card before.

(takes a breath)

So here it is…

An AUTOGRAPHED 1976 SSPC Henry Aaron. My dear God…

A signed Hammerin’ Henry Brewers card has been at the top of my list for YEARS. When I started my all-time Brewers project, I realized that Bad Henry would be among the toughest of all-time roster to find signed and I had kinda resigned myself to never owning one. But then I stumbled upon this little beauty. It is, oddly enough, another card certified by the Score Board. Poking around again, I found some similar cards online and – with the certificate of authenticity included, the serial number of the back and the big clunky case (the Bonds I mentioned above came in a case just like it) I felt good enough in moving forward with the purchase. 

Because this card came from the early days of certified autograph cards and features Aaron as a Brewer (most collectors would prefer him as a Milwaukee or Atlanta Brave), the price was far more reasonable than most of the newer certified autos, more in line with those god-awful ugly Front Row auto’ed Aaron cards from the early 1990s. But for me, this card is as close to perfection as I can imagine. It is a mile better-looking than most of the recent Topps cert autos, which tend to be a bit garish with the foil and many of which feature sticker autos (which Aaron often signs outside the lines). It shows a tired man smiling politely, an aged legend on a young team preparing for an early-season tilt with the Yankees at Shea Stadium. The Schaefer Beer sign, the American flag, the overcast sky… the picture tells a story all on its own and doesn’t need any real design to make it iconic. Add a bold, blue signature and it becomes the greatest card in my collection.

On the backside, we learn that Aaron was once destined for the Brewers front office. He indeed did get a promise of a post-career job after he was traded to the Brewers, but a feud with Bud Selig during the 1976 season drove him back to Atlanta. In fact, Aaron was actually offered the job of managing the Brewers part-way through the 1975 season, which he turned down. The reasons for the beef with Selig were never made public and were eventually settled.

I haven’t put the card into Aaron’s spot in my all-time Brewers binder just yet. And probably I won’t Aaron occupies the 9^th spot in the page, which feels vulnerable to damage for some reason (even though I’ve damaged maybe one or two cards while in a binder in my whole life). I’m even a bit hesitant to have it out on my desk for fear of something happening to it.

What do you think I should do, blog pals? Sleeve it up where it belongs or lock it down in heavy Lucite?

The All-Time Brewers Project

I got back into collecting cards about 10 years ago, trying to build a sort-of master set of Topps flagship Brewers. I ended up expanding that quest to try to build a COMPLETE set of Brewers cards – as in one of everything ever – but I got lost in the 2000s, when a zillion different companies were making a zillion different sets that I really couldn’t care less about. Now that I am trying to refocus my collecting goals create some collecting goals, I’ve gotten away from the completist tendencies that had previously taken a lot of fun of the hobby. I want to rebuild my Topps flagship sets (decimated by my TTM habit) and built some Topps complete sets.

But I’ve still got that ‘collect ’em all’ bug. So, in a compromise with myself, I’ve decided to embark on what I’m calling the “All-Time Brewers Project,” in short, one card of every players who has ever appeared in a game as a Brewer.

I already had a good head start on this project, thanks to a 1994 Miller Beer promotion in which they issued stadium give-away sets of every Brewers player from 1970-1993. And, with a couple of late nights with a few cans of the sponsor’s ice-cold product and a stream of Simpsons eps on the TV, I manged to cobble together a set of about 640 of the roughly 820 players on the Crew’s all-time roster (these are rough estimates).





I also made some cute little year dividers. I’ve arranged them by the year of their debut, according to the all-time roster I found on brewers.com. As you can see, the Miller cards are, to put it mildly, a bit hard on the eyes. I’m in the process of swapping them out with more standard-issues when I come across them. But they are excellent for providing cardboard of obscure or short-term Brewers, like Dick Schofield, who spent about ten minutes of his 18-year career in Milwaukee and appears on no other card as a Brewer.



I’d also like to upgrade the binders I’ve got these beauties in. I stole was given these from an office job that was eventually laid off from.

Aside from the collector’s pride I feel in putting this thing together, it has already proven to be a pretty valuable research tool in getting me to more closely examine in the all-time roster. For example, I’ve learned that in their entire history, the Brewers have only had ONE African-American start a game at catcher. That would be Marcus Jensen, who had two tours with the team, in 1998 and 2002. Sadly, he does not have a Brewers card.



I’ve also transfer my Brewers autograph collection in the all-time binders. Of the 600-some different player I’ve got, maybe 100 are signed. I’d like to work on increasing that number as well.

I have a list of the Brewers I still need on my want lists page. A big chunk of the remainders never had a Brewers card issued, and another big chunk only have team-issue cards with them in Brewers dress. Oddly enough, Pacific – the one card company that I truly loathed as a kid – is a pretty good source of Brewers cards that no one else bothered with in the 1990s and 2000s, including the only card of Julio Franco in a Brewers uniform.



Mark Hoyle, who does not have a blog (at least I don’t think he does), but is on twitter as @markhoyle4, sent me a PWE of vintage Brewers that can in handy for upgrading the Miller cards. Thanks Mark!

There is a card show in the Milwaukee area on the 23rd, where I can hopefully find some more updates and autos and maybe knock a few names off my need list. But, as always, I’m accepting any unsolicited help.