Bought into a Break

There may be many aspects of baseball card collecting that fall into the category of "gambling", if you will. The XRC craze in the 1980s and Rated Rookies and Future Stars was a form of it. Think of all those people that bought 1987 Topps Pat Dodson cards! For every Bo Jackson or Rafael Palmeiro, there are at least three dozen Pat Dodsons and Tim Pyznarskis. 

Modern gambling in baseball cards is rampant with all the multitudes of "breakers" looking for their "sick hits" (or hitz -- I refuse to buy from anyone that changes the s in a word to z). Set breaking is also a form and I have to admit I have participated in a few of them hosting by Burls.  I probably learned of his from Steve. I've had some success through this (1964 Topps Pete Rose graded PSA 7) but generally my yield is probably underwhelming. This is the luck of the draw; this is the gamble.

A couple of weeks back Burls broke a 1969 Topps set. I want a 1969 Mantle. It's his final Topps card. So I bought five spots in the break. I did get a Mantle! 

Just not the Mantle I was going for!

I did win one of the graded cards. "Ted Shows How" is Ted Williams holding a bat with Something called Mike Epstein of the Senators ostensibly paying attention. It's a PSA 5 which does about as much for me as a hair dryer (I am hair follicley challenged). 

The other three cards are a mixed bag: Danny Cater (44), Manager Jim Lemon (294), and The Sporting News All-Star Denny McLain (433).  

I probably did not get my money's worth and these cards are all going to be traded or put up for sale (including the aforementioned Pete Rose). If you are interested something, please reach out. 

Thanks for stopping by!