Card: 1948 Leaf Gum Co., Card #16

Team/Position: Philadelphia Eagles / Wide Receiver, Defensive End

Cost: $15.25

I had yet another chance to add a 1948 Bowman to my collection, but once again decided on the Leaf alternative.  It’s not that the ’48 Bowman set is ugly or the ’48 Leaf set is gorgeous, it’s just a preference thing.

The Leaf Gum Co., set offers a little bit of colour and a couple different variations; whereas the Bowman offering is a simple, but gorgeous, black and white photograph.  If you’re interested in checking out the Bowman, here’s the link:

Pete Pihos was the epitome of an early football player:  hard-nosed, intelligent, and more than anything he played the game the right way.  Pihos was a two-way star at Indiana before leaving to dedicate a year of his life to the U.S. Army in 1944.  Upon Pihos’ return in 1945, he helped lead Indiana to it’s first Big-10 title en route to a 9-0-1 season.  The only blemish that year was Pihos and Howard Brown’s first game after returning from WWII (a tie w/ Northwestern in the second game of the season). He led the Hoosiers in scoring in both 45 and 46 and was eventually named to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1966.

Pihos began his nine-year professional career, a career in which he’d miss only one game, with the Philadelphia Eagles.  Originally, Pihos was considered a two-way player before primarily switching to offense.  However, with Philly in dire need of a defensive end, Pete switched to the defensive side of the ball in 1952 and didn’t miss a beat as he put together an All-Pro season.

On offense, Pihos wasn’t spectacularly quick or fast, but possessed terrific hands and the physicality to repeatedly out-muscle defenders.  Pihos helped the Eagles to their first Championship Game in his rookie season, in large part due to a blocked punt that he returned for a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The Eagles would go on to win three consecutive division titles and two championships after Pihos’ arrival.

Pete Pihos would make the Pro Bowl from 1950 to 1955 (inclusively) and take home six All-Pro or All-NFL awards.  He also lead the league in receiving in 1953 through 1955.

On his career, Pihos amassed over 5600 yards on 373 receptions and will forever be tied to the early Eagles with Steve Van Buren and Chuck Bednarik.

Card: 1989 Score Football, Card #72

Team/Position: Philly Eagles, Minnesota Vikings / Wide Receiver

Cost:

If Cris Carter isn’t a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I don’t know who is.  Jerry Rice is obviously going to be a first-ballot guy; but realistically, do you have to be the greatest player at your position to be deemed worthy of first-ballot status by the grumpy, old, balding men known as the HOF Selection Committee?

Cris Carter finished up his career as the second best wide-receiver ever, if you’re just going on statistics.  Before becoming a mentor to young players everywhere he went, Carter had early off-field issues.  Rather than rewarding such a turnaround, the Hall of Fame committee decided to punish Carter in 2009.

Cris Carter’s yet another Ohio State Alum, adding to the already gigantically prejudicial list of Paul Warfield, Jack Tatum, Jim Parker,  John Stallworth, and  Orlando Pace.

In his third season (1989,)  Carter caught 11 touchdown passes but in a shocking move, was cut by Buddy Ryan before the 1990 season.  Carter’s life was falling apart and behind the scene, Carter’s addiction to cocaine and booze, was well known.  Carter later credited Buddy Ryan for changing his life (I’m sure Eagles fans took solace in that as Carter went onto have a HOF-career).

Carter’s career slowly built up steam with the Vikings until it exploded with the acquisition of Warren Moon.  In 1994, Cris Carter set a then-record for receptions in a season with 122.  Carter continued to dominate until the Vikings drafted Randy Moss in 1998, at which point he entered the stratosphere.

With Moss opposite him, Carter was free to put up career-best numbers and continued to find the end-zone  at a torrid pace.

Carter finished up his career with the Dolphins in 2002.  When all was said and done, only Jerry Rice had better numbers than Carter’s 1,101 receptions and 130 touchdowns.  Marvin Harrison has since surpassed Carter for receptions, but his recent nightclub incident will probably reduce him to a second-ballot HOF inductee as well.  Ugh.

Carter’s the only player to ever post two seasons with 120+ receptions and hopefully he’ll find a way to sneak into the HOF in 2010, a year in which Jerry Rice and Tim Brown both become eligible.

If you were third-and-goal from anywhere on the field, Cris Carter is the wide-receiver you’d look to.  In that regard, even Jerry Rice couldn’t compare to Cris Carter’s hands and body control.

Two final things in closing:

1. It’s awful that so many of the greatest rookie cards of all time were over-produced to the point that they’re worthless.
2. Cris Carter definitely looks stoned as hell on the rear of his 1989 Score Card.

Card: 1950 Bowman Gum, Card #23

Team/Position: Philadelphia Eagles / Runningback

Cost: Acquired in a $20.00 Lot

After writing about Steve Van Buren’s Leaf rookie card yesterday, I received a wonderful surprise today:  Steve Van Buren’s first Bowman card that doesn’t look like a boring old stock photo.

While the 1950 Bowman set looks a lot better than the earlier efforts, it doesn’t have the intricate team logos that make the ’51 and ’52 sets so gorgeous. 

I’m currently contemplating putting together the cheaper 1951 Bowman set because of cards like the Van Buren pictured right.

The cards have a good assortment of completely random backgrounds — I mean, Steven Van Buren running through a coniferous forest can’t be touched by modern cards.

Van Buren’s got the ball in his off hand, retaining all three points of contact.  Van Buren’s elbow’s a bit wide and the ball’s not as high and tight as we’d like to see but we’ll chalk this up to artistic license.

The market for vintage cards has also stabilized, which doesn’t make for terrific profits in the short-term, but if you’re ever forced to sell off your collection, you’re not going to lose too much money.

If cards are the stock market, than Vintage cards are the blue-chips.  Maybe they’ll lose ten-percent based on a poor auction time, but for the most part you’ll get back what you paid for ‘em.

Modern cards on the other hand will absolutely screw you over.  Even if a rookie succeeds, unless he’s on pace to break every conceivable record, you’re going to lose money.  There’s very little appreciation from early speculative prices.

Even if Sanchez goes onto multiple Pro Bowls, his cards won’t touch the early prices again unless he starts playing like Manning, or winning like Brady.  Even then, the cards from Playoff Prestige, Bowman Draft or Upper Deck Draft won’t come close to touching their early prices.

I suppose we just live in a society of instant gratification and pissing contests.   Throw in eBay and you’ve got cards going for ridiculous sums of money only to drop in value like a new car driving off the lot.

For the price of a loose pack of just about any product at your local card shop, you can acquire an early-50′s card of a Hall of Famer.  The rush of winning a great card at a damn good price should equal that of rippin’ packs.  You’re never going to pull that $300 Sanchez though, but you’ll avoid the awful cycle of ripping, selling, using the profits to rip more, and eventually selling more.  In the end, you’ll end up with a shit-tonne of base cards and no-name autographed rookies.

If you consider that fun; then, so be it.