Purchase: Ryan’s Vintage Cards

Bill September 15, 2022 1 Comment

I never get involved with sales from social media folks. I’ve been tempted to do it plenty of times, but I don’t usually pull the trigger. Most times I save posts and tell myself I’ll get back to it only to be a week late… oh well. But a couple months back I actually took action on one.

Ryan from @RyansVintageCA on Twitter and @ryansvintagecards on Instagram was selling his usually history packs and on that particular weekend there was a chase for a ’59 Mantle. Not having any Mantles in my collection I guess sparked me to dive in and actually do it. I got one of his usual deals for 20 packs of 25 cards including one autograph for $95 shipped.

I figured it would be fun no matter what comes out of it. So here’s how things turned out at a high level.

Walking Down the Hall

There were plenty of Hall of Famers in the packs. These were just a few of the older ones that I thought were interesting. Being a Mets fan I of course have to put “The Franchise” at the top of the list. But the others are pretty sweet too. The 1982 O-Pee-Chee of the wizard with the “Traded to Cardinals” on there is pretty sweet.

I might be considering a little TTM action on the other two for Carlton and Perry.

For most of the Hall of Famers I got, this is more the era of cards that I got them within. I know I got multiple of Gwynn and Henderson. I like the Randy Johnson batting… I mean it doesn’t even happen anymore. I do like seeing cards from this era because I had stopped collecting then. Not that I don’t have plenty of them now, but they seem a little less common to me because of that.

Overall I would say I got what I expected to get here. A good smattering of Hall of Famers, All-Stars, Stars, etc.. And to be clear these aren’t all of this type of cards and players I got, this is just what I’m highlighting.

The Old Stuff

This is one of the reasons I was excited for this type of thing. I only have a couple handfuls of cards pre-1968. So anything from the 50’s and 60’s seems like gold to me. It really doesn’t much matter the condition or the player either. In no way do these fill holes, these are probably some of the only cards of have from some of these years.

I think there were three potential TTM players in here to. I know I see Osteen and Wise, but I think there’s one more in one of the cards within the stacks in the picture.

A Little Bit of Ink

As an autograph collector this was another thing that got me interested in what Ryan does. I got two Hall of Fame autographs in Alan Trammell and Time Raines. I actually already have a Trammell in my collection but the Raines was a big surprise. I think it’s also great that he’s in that awesome helmet too.

Vida Blue was another great return. I got him via TTM earlier this year and while I think I got him in an A’s uniform, I think the card wasn’t the greatest quality.

Every pack has an autograph and this is the rest of the stack. Overall it had two Hall of Famers, two that I would consider All-Stars (multiple All-Star games), two “stars” maybe one All-Star game appearance or a kind of bigger name, and then the rest were split between some solid players and journeymen. The majority of the autographs were on cards from the 90’s but there were seven cards from the 80’s that were signed.

And of Course…

The other thing I was looking forward to was the TTM stack that I might get out of this. It was definitely a good selection of cards that went back to the 60’s and into the 00’s. I think this is probably a stack of at least 50 or so. And of lot of them were not just a card of a player, but an interesting card or a card I didn’t have. That Toby Harrah at the top is a great example. I’ll be excited to get a ’75 mini back signed if I can.

This was super enjoyable for me. If you want to compare it to opening a regular pack from today I would say the better parts for me are… 1) a guaranteed autograph, 2) so much variety of types and years of cards, and 3) more TTM opportunities (I know this one isn’t for everyone though). I had a ton of fun, so much fun that I’ve already bought and received a second batch from Ryan (he had a deal for $85 recently). I’ve already gotten those cards and have resisted opening. I told myself I had to get this post out first.

If you wanted some data on what I got, check out the charts below. I tracked the years of cards that I got in each pack. It’s a pretty good spread of cards in each back. Sure there are spikes where you think they might be. I think someone who is a set collector and has a lot of years of sets completed probably would have fun but maybe not see the need. But if you have holes in your collection, you are younger and your collection doesn’t go back so far in quantity, you’re an autograph collector, etc…. I would be you’d have a lot of fun. Plus Ryan was easy to deal with and seems like a nice guy.