primetimepawich
Verified Trader ,
Greetings from Joe Pawich.
Well, another Spring Expo has come and gone. For yours truly, it was again a bust. Oh, I wasn't there in person, but I had a few pairs of eyes looking for me. Thanks to Turco Tim and LSOH Eli (and any silent lookouts who may have had their eyes open for me too) for doing their due diligence for me. But I guess Larry Murphy just isn't marketable enough to make an Expo appearance. Each year I hope for something, ANYTHING to show up and make it a success for me. This year I was hoping for a Motown Madness nameplate letter. April in particular was a quiet month for me, with only really a Motown Enshrined Red /9 from HI's Sacrebleu to tide me over. But May has brought a small handful of pickups thus far, including one which I felt necessitated this thread. So here we go...
04/05 ITG Franchises US East Original Sticks #EOS2 Spring Expo Superbox Larry Murphy
I'll start with this one. Back when this product was first released, my Murphy collecting goals weren't as extensive as they are now. I picked up some nice copies of some of his GU cards, maybe a show card if it was too nice to ignore, but I wasn't diligent about collecting all variations. Now I am and am pretty much up to speed. Murphy cards from this product are not too uncommon to come across today, but show cards from that year are very much so. Thought I had 'em covered until this popped up on the Bay recently. Turns out the seller was Leor Manson, a SCFer I've dealt with there before who picked this up randomly in a recent lot he'd purchased. Leor's a Pens collector, so if this had pictured Murphy with them, it might have been off the market. But a Washington card? That was fair game
A nice piece for the limited Caps portion of my PC.
81/82 Topps #W100 Larry Murphy RC Proof BGS MINT 9
This one's kind of an oddball. I was intrigued by it ever since it first hit the Bay, though I wasn't a fan of the original asking price. Don't know much about it besides the documentation the seller had. Eventually it started going on sale, and with the end of Ebay Bucks, I had an almost $13 windfall to find a home for last month. It was a perfect storm. I waited to see if anything else PC came up to put it towards, but when nothing did and the deadline was looming, I bit the bullet, lowered the cap hit and bought it. Safe to say this is a pretty unique item. It's neat to own part of the foundation of Murphy's original Topps RC, so price notwithstanding, I had to have it. Anyone else here own anything like this?
And the grand finale...
Last weekend, I met up with HI's own fearless leader Jeremy at his home to collect this from him. He had exported this from the Expo, where he had graciously acted as the middleman and received it from HI's own "Whonos" Ray.
Apparently, Ray had shown this card here a few months ago. I never saw that post at the time. Instead, I had first spotted this card in a random Photobucket search and traced it back to him. Certified autos and GU cards are the foundation of my PC, but those who know my collection know that uncertified autos are a big niche part of it as well. This card combines the best of both worlds - GU with a surprise auto that wasn't supposed to come with it. I had to have it, and immediately contacted Ray about it.
Ray had pulled it himself, and was somewhat attached to it. He was big on the Forever Rivals product in general and tempted to go after the Stick Racks set. When I inquired, he told me the Expo would settle all. If he found what he was looking for, he would stay the course. If he didn't, they would be made available to help out player collectors.
When I saw a recent post from him indicating he was helping too many player collectors and no longer pursuing the set, I dropped him another PM to ensure I was on the callback list. We worked out a price, and Ray assured me I would get it once he was back and settled from Expo. True to his word, he messaged me soon after saying Jeremy had the card and details.
The card was this:
12/13 ITG Forever Rivals Stick Rack #SR-33 Larry Murphy /10 Autograph
And the details were:
He was gifting it.
That's right - a guy who doesn't know me, has never met or done business with me and owes me nothing, flat-out gave it to me. He pulled it himself, liked the card, and whether you liked Murphy as a player or not, this card was still worth "something", at least to me. A completely unexpected act of kindness from a guy who's clearly a credit to both HI and the hobby in general.
Thank you so much, Ray. And thank you Jeremy for the assist in getting it safely to me. It was great to see you again and get the chance for a 1-on-1 visit. And thanks for providing us with a great site where people like Ray make such special things happen.
Joe Pawich
Well, another Spring Expo has come and gone. For yours truly, it was again a bust. Oh, I wasn't there in person, but I had a few pairs of eyes looking for me. Thanks to Turco Tim and LSOH Eli (and any silent lookouts who may have had their eyes open for me too) for doing their due diligence for me. But I guess Larry Murphy just isn't marketable enough to make an Expo appearance. Each year I hope for something, ANYTHING to show up and make it a success for me. This year I was hoping for a Motown Madness nameplate letter. April in particular was a quiet month for me, with only really a Motown Enshrined Red /9 from HI's Sacrebleu to tide me over. But May has brought a small handful of pickups thus far, including one which I felt necessitated this thread. So here we go...
04/05 ITG Franchises US East Original Sticks #EOS2 Spring Expo Superbox Larry Murphy
I'll start with this one. Back when this product was first released, my Murphy collecting goals weren't as extensive as they are now. I picked up some nice copies of some of his GU cards, maybe a show card if it was too nice to ignore, but I wasn't diligent about collecting all variations. Now I am and am pretty much up to speed. Murphy cards from this product are not too uncommon to come across today, but show cards from that year are very much so. Thought I had 'em covered until this popped up on the Bay recently. Turns out the seller was Leor Manson, a SCFer I've dealt with there before who picked this up randomly in a recent lot he'd purchased. Leor's a Pens collector, so if this had pictured Murphy with them, it might have been off the market. But a Washington card? That was fair game
A nice piece for the limited Caps portion of my PC.
81/82 Topps #W100 Larry Murphy RC Proof BGS MINT 9
This one's kind of an oddball. I was intrigued by it ever since it first hit the Bay, though I wasn't a fan of the original asking price. Don't know much about it besides the documentation the seller had. Eventually it started going on sale, and with the end of Ebay Bucks, I had an almost $13 windfall to find a home for last month. It was a perfect storm. I waited to see if anything else PC came up to put it towards, but when nothing did and the deadline was looming, I bit the bullet, lowered the cap hit and bought it. Safe to say this is a pretty unique item. It's neat to own part of the foundation of Murphy's original Topps RC, so price notwithstanding, I had to have it. Anyone else here own anything like this?
And the grand finale...
Last weekend, I met up with HI's own fearless leader Jeremy at his home to collect this from him. He had exported this from the Expo, where he had graciously acted as the middleman and received it from HI's own "Whonos" Ray.
Apparently, Ray had shown this card here a few months ago. I never saw that post at the time. Instead, I had first spotted this card in a random Photobucket search and traced it back to him. Certified autos and GU cards are the foundation of my PC, but those who know my collection know that uncertified autos are a big niche part of it as well. This card combines the best of both worlds - GU with a surprise auto that wasn't supposed to come with it. I had to have it, and immediately contacted Ray about it.
Ray had pulled it himself, and was somewhat attached to it. He was big on the Forever Rivals product in general and tempted to go after the Stick Racks set. When I inquired, he told me the Expo would settle all. If he found what he was looking for, he would stay the course. If he didn't, they would be made available to help out player collectors.
When I saw a recent post from him indicating he was helping too many player collectors and no longer pursuing the set, I dropped him another PM to ensure I was on the callback list. We worked out a price, and Ray assured me I would get it once he was back and settled from Expo. True to his word, he messaged me soon after saying Jeremy had the card and details.
The card was this:
12/13 ITG Forever Rivals Stick Rack #SR-33 Larry Murphy /10 Autograph
And the details were:
He was gifting it.
That's right - a guy who doesn't know me, has never met or done business with me and owes me nothing, flat-out gave it to me. He pulled it himself, liked the card, and whether you liked Murphy as a player or not, this card was still worth "something", at least to me. A completely unexpected act of kindness from a guy who's clearly a credit to both HI and the hobby in general.
Thank you so much, Ray. And thank you Jeremy for the assist in getting it safely to me. It was great to see you again and get the chance for a 1-on-1 visit. And thanks for providing us with a great site where people like Ray make such special things happen.
Joe Pawich
