Baseball Cards Come to Life!

Last year I showed some of the remnants of the ornate floral design in the former location of the Times Square flagship store of the Horn & Hardart Automat. Recently, the deli that was in another former Automat location, at 968 Sixth Avenue (possibly the one that this sign was advertising) closed, and during renovations extensive floral decorations were revealed, that must have come from the Automat that closed sixty years earlier.


I took the picture to make sure to capture these for posterity, figuring they would soon be covered up again.
 However, the new deli, called "Toast" has actually restored the design on the sides. Happy to see them refresh the beautiful old decorations.

Reader jlcre2003 (he has no blog, but check out his Trading Card Database page) took me up on my standing offer - I will gladly trade you modern cards for your vintage cards, and make the trade in your favor. In addition to what is already on my tradelist I have thousands of cards, many from the late-1990s early-2000s that are absent from many collections, that I have yet to add. I would love to flip them to you for your extra vintage cards, of any condition. In this trade I got a few dozen each from 1975, 1976 and 1977 Topps.

I'm getting into the homestretch in 1975 Topps - under 100 to go now.
 This card was the highlight for me - any time I can get a vintage Thurman Munson card that is a big deal.
 Lots of people love the backgrounds of 1970s cards and for good reason, so much going on here you almost overlook Brian Downing's flowing locks, a surprising look for those of us who just know him from his later, clean-cut junk wax days.
 Looking back, it surprises me that in the Bicentennial year that Topps didn't use this color scheme on all the cards. As someone born in 1977, it always slightly annoyed me that I just missed the Bicentennial and will almost certainly not see the Tricentennial.
 One of the fun things about picking up vintage cards of all conditions is to see the way people "updated" the team names on the cards. Carefully taping a small strip of paper over the team name is the neatest way I've seen. (Burroughs again - didn't realize until uploading the pictures that I was showing too cards in a row of the same guy.)
 Finally, on the lighter side, I wonder what Hector Cruz just found in his helmet?

It was cold and windy and rainy, but the game was played without interruptions, and the Yankees held on to win, 3-1! The Yankees scored their three runs in the third inning in a "rally" that went single, strikeout, walk, walk, walk, hit batter, force play. The pitching was great (Tanaka, Robertson, Betances, Chapman) making the three runs hold up. I've been to colder games but never windier ones - my hat actually blew off my head and landed two rows behind me at one point!

Short but sweet trade with Thorzul Will Rule. Sending him two of his '76 needs, including one of his "most wanted". In return, a 1959 card and a true classic from 1972.

Got a bunch of cool cards in a trade with The Collector. (If you haven't already, be sure to enter his contest!)


The trade revolved around some of his extra 1963s. Milwaukee Braves! K.C. A's! I love it.
 He is a Red Sox fan so they were well represented. Kind of jarring to see cards from 55 years ago, with the players wearing the same uniforms they wear today. These guys look like they could be 2018 Red Sox.
 He threw in some nice '70s cards as well. I already have the '78 and '79 sets so the Burke and Morgan are up for trade.
 Also a lot of modern Yankees! You hear a lot about the cards of Jim Abbott batting with the Angels and Brewers, but this is a nice one of him batting for the Yankees.
 He included several of the Yankees from the 1995 Topps Virtual Reality parallel set. What if the 1994 season wasn't ended by the strike? At the time the Yankees had the best record in the American League, but a lot of people forget they were fading fast in August and were probably going to get overtaken by the Blue Jays soon.
 He also threw in some Giants and Rangers. Bahr; Strahan; Toomer; OJ Anderson; Simms - Super Bowl heroes all. I passively collect football so I am keeping these except for the '88 Simms which I know I have already, and the Bahr which I think I have as well.
There are also a few Rangers, most noticeably Brian Leetch. Anyone collect hockey?

Fallout shelter signs used to be quite common, especially on public buildings. However, they are no longer accurate (they haven't been for decades) and New York City has now begun a campaign to actively remove them so they don't cause confusion. I'm not going to take a picture of every one I see but I figured I would photograph one for posterity before they are all gone. This one is on a church on W. 37th Street.

Now that I am collecting vintage I figured I would see what was in the local flea market. I keep reading about incredible deals on beat-up old vintage you all seem to find at flea markets and card shows. I don't think that's likely to happen here in New York though, too many collectors with too much money. I did pull some '73s and '72s from a dime box though; they were the oldest cards in the box. 126 common cards for $10, not bad.

The '72s . . .
 . . . and the '73s. I just scooped all the ones I could find, there were quite a few duplicates so I will have some to trade. Anyone with '73 needs let me know.
There were a few '73 high-numbers, that's pretty cool.