Tuesday, August 14, 2012

A very Freehan weekend

(Note:  as this post pertains to both of my major collections, you'll find it here and over on Too Many Manninghams as well!)

Several cool but separate events conspired to produce a pretty great weekend of collecting for me.  It started off with receiving a card I had nabbed on eBay:
This is Bill Freehan's 1968 Topps (#470).  It was the only one I couldn't find on COMC and I didn't care for the prices or condition of the ones on SportLots, so eBay did the trick for me this time.  That leaves me needing just four of his regular issue Topps cards spanning his playing career as of this post.

Next, on Sunday morning, knowing I'd be meeting Jeff in-person as he'd be bringing his family to the Michigan Kid's Day (formerly known as "Fan Day") to get some autographs of Team 133, I was flipping through some boxes in my basement to pull some larger White Sox stuff I knew I had somewhere, including some 8x10s from various 90s sets back when they did that stuff.  Anyway, as I was flipping through an old photo album in which I had stored some cooler, older opened packs and some other lower-end pictures and autographs, I finally dug up something I'd been searching for for a while:
This is an autographed black-and-white photo of Bill Freehan that was given to me by someone years ago--coincidentally named Dennis, if you can believe it, which totally worked out for me!  Obviously since new autographs of his have dried up as he no longer signs, having something like this is a boon to my collection, and a thrill to own.  Freehan is the epitome of a "fan favorite" that sets like Topps' version did a good job of celebrating.  So now I'll be able to proudly display this somewhere instead of letting it stay hidden in some old album.

Speaking of Jeff, we have our usual ongoing trade thing going, and he surprised me by bringing something he had recently picked up for me:
Here we have a Bill Freehan 2005 SP Legendary Cuts Classic Careers jersey.  Although old Bill has a decent number of modern cards around, it's still difficult to find one I don't have, either in-person or sitting in my COMC portfolio waiting to be shipped.  Even better, this is my first Freehan relic, which puts me 80% of the way towards a Greg Z.-approved Freehan pentafecta!

Despite these three sweet additions (or rediscoveries, as it were) to my collection, I can always use more stuff of Bill.  After all, my blog isn't named "Too Many Freehans," now, is it?

4 comments:

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    1. Forget that, I'm gonna find another type of card to add and call it a "Sexyfecta!" I think it'll have to be a card #d 44/99--that would make it a very exclusive club.

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  2. What's the story about him not signing? I'm curious.

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    1. Unfortunately, his health has been declining the last couple years due to Alzheimer's, and I don't think he's even doing signings anymore. A lot of sellers are using that fact to jack up their prices, of course.

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