1950 Bowman Roy Campanella

Everyone should have a card of Roy Campanella.

When I saw this on eBay about a week ago, It had a buy it now price of $6.99.  I figured, why not?  I know, it's a total beater but it's a second-year card of the Dodgers great.

Ever since starting this blog a few years ago,  I don't even look for cards in nicer condition. My eyes just gloss over those cards that look like they were just unwrapped, and they especially gloss over their higher price tags.

I'd much rather have this poor old baseball card at a fraction of the price.

1909-11 E90-1 American Caramel Dots Miller

It's a funny thing how a player gets a nickname.

Some are easy: Rube, Killer, Pee Wee, Lefty. Some take a little more explaining: Piano Legs, Oyster,  Some are plain funny: The Human Rain Delay.

John Barney Miller was a world champion after his rookie season in 1909. The second baseman made his debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 16.

Most baseball fans wouldn't be able to name a single one of his teammates, except one: Honus Wagner.

The Flying Dutchman is arguably one of the greatest ballplayers of all time. An inaugural member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he won eight batting titles.

Technically speaking, even "Honus" was a nickname. His given name was Johannes Peter Wagner. "Honus" was probably a take off Johannes and "The Flying Dutchman" payed homage to his speed and his German (Deutsch) background.

One day, Wagner was asked by someone where his second baseman was.

He replied by pointing in John's direction and saying, in a heavy German accent: "Dots (that's) Miller."

1911 T205 Bill Carrigan

Dear Baseball Card Blog,

I'm sorry I have neglected you. It's been a long time — more than a month since I last paid you any attention. I know it's not an excuse but sometimes life gets in the way. Work. Family. The longer I waited, the harder it got to post again. I had to come up with something good. Something so bad it would justify the title of a poor old baseball card. I think I found something. I'm ready to post again.

Sincerely,
POBC

Okay, that's done with. This Bill Carrigan has all the qualities of a poor old baseball card: Plenty of creases, rounding, chipping and let's not forget that hole. It's great!

It's also a T205. A cousin to the famed T206 that we all know and love. This is my first T205. I haven't been avoiding them, I just never had one. How could I have avoided this beautiful set?

I have a feeling there will be more of these gems in my future. I bet "T205" will be a regular search in my eBay bar.

Oh, and by the way, I hope it won't be another month until my next posting.

1916 M101-4 Sporting News Joe Jackson (Reprint)

A few months ago, while searching for poor old baseball cards on eBay, this card popped up. The title said: "1900's Shoeless Joe Jackson Strip Card, Rough Card." The starting bid was $1.

Upon further review, the description went on to mention this card was a reprint. Normally I would not look any further, but there was something different about this old card.

I gave the card and good look and wondered if the seller could have been mistaken. The color was right, it had badly rounded corners and several stains and creases.

Again, it was listed as a reprint but it didn't look like it was recently printed. Could it be a really old reprint?

So I took a stab and put in a $1 bid. A few hours later, I won.

I wasn't expecting this to be a $5,000 card but the curiosity of exactly what this card was, was killing me. It arrived a few days later. Needless to say, I wasn't about to retire.

It looks like someone used a photograph of a poor-conditioned card of Joe Jackson and attached it to a piece of cardboard. They even took the steps of rounding the corners and bending the card to produce its deep creases.

To me, that's not a reprint — it's a fake!

On the bright side, it does make a nice bookmark.

1919 W514 Stuffy McInnis

This card is just plain dirty. I think it may be tar.

Can't you just see this card falling onto the fresh pavement in 1919?

I'm not sure how this gunk got on this card but it's caked on.

Stuffy McInnis is one of those players that you've probably heard of but not sure why?

He was a member of the Philadelphia Athletics' $100,000 infield of the early 1910s. A first baseman, McInnis teamed up with Eddie Collins (2B), Jack Barry (SS) and Frank Baker (3B). Some consider them to be the greatest infield ever.

And by the way, their salary would equal less than $2.5 million today.

Now that's a bargain.

Greatest comment ever!

Every now and then, I'll get an email alerting me of a new comment on this blog. Sometimes it's the highlight of my day.

Yesterday afternoon I got the best comment ever. It was from Reivax and he shared his story of his poor old baseball cards. (If you click on the photo above, you can read it yourself.)

These type of comments are what keep me writing. Thanks for the inspiration!