The Quest for a White Whale Comes to an End

This quest was a long and frustrating one, but after 17+ years it is finally over. Way back in 2001, Topps released a 10 card insert set featuring some of the more well known stars of the Negro League. From the moment I saw this set staring back at me from a pack of Flagship(series 2, I think), it was one of my favorites. I finished the set relatively quickly and was excited to see that Topps Chrome would apply its shiny base and refractor technology to the set. I immediately knew I'd have to track down a refractor version of my favorite player in the set, Josh Gibson. In the weeks after Chrome was released, I happened to find 2 different copies at my local card show. I was young and the asking prices weren't in my collecting budget so I had to leave them behind. I remember seeing a few more on eBay and the end result was the same, too rich for my blood. As time went by, I had trouble finding any available copies at all. Over the years, I had a few near misses which I wrote about in this post showing my top 5 white whales. I couldn't even find a picture of a sold copy of the card for that post so I just subbed in a picture of the base version. I published that post in early November 2017. Close to six months passed and there were no signs of an available copy on either eBay or COMC. Then it happened. I was performing searches on COMC for a list of cards that I don't usually find available. I typed in '2001 Topps Josh Gibson' as I'd done a hundred times before. Only this time, among the few results was a copy of the refractor I was searching for. It was listed a bit high for my liking, but fortunately I had earned a good bit of credit by doing challenges. I added some store credit via PayPal just for good measure. I wanted to be ready for negotiation. I quickly made an offer I could live with. It seemed like it took forever for the seller to respond(it was actually only a few hours). They countered and I felt it was reasonable(and I didn't want to lose out again) so I accepted. A huge weight was lifted! However, I knew that I wasn't very likely to request shipment until the Black Friday promo. So, seven months after I purchased one of my most sought after cards, I finally had it in hand and here I am finally writing about it four+ months after that. Better late than never I suppose.

I only wish the scan actually did this card justice. It is extremely satisfying to finally acquire a card I'd searched for so long to find. Quite honestly it's a feeling I'd really like to replicate again in the near future(fingers crossed). Anyway, thanks for reading.

Single Card Post Sunday

Today I'm going to start a regular new series of posts: Single Card Post Sunday. I'm not going to set any rules on what type of cards show up here, they'll mostly be ones that I want to share that don't fit easily with another theme or group.

Before I share the first card in this series, I wanted to take another moment to make the suggestion that you guys check out the latest Nachos Grande group break. It'll be the final one of 2015 and it should be a lot of fun. Chris always runs a great break. So, if you haven't claimed a team yet, click here to check out the few remaining teams. Let's help him sell this break out!

Fittingly, I start this new series of posts with a true baseball pioneer. Rube Foster was one of, if not the greatest, African-American pitchers in the first decade of the 1900's. Some say he was unequalled on the mound, even by the likes of Satchel Paige! When Foster's playing career was over, he founded and served as president of the National Negro League. Known as 'the father of Black Baseball', he was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1981.

This card hails from a great insert from 2001 Topps Chrome, called What Could Have Been. It highlights ten great Negro League players. I completed the flagship version of the insert set way back in 2001 and currently have more than half of the Chrome set that I still need to hunt down. I've toyed with the idea of chasing the refractor set as well, but in searching eBay, singles are often priced higher than I'd want to pay. I was lucky enough to find this one floating around on Listia and won it for a reasonable amount of credits. It stands as the only refractor from the set that I currently own. Perhaps this pioneer will lead me on a new collecting endeavor as well.