#219 Bobby Shantz

#219 Bobby Shantz
Progress: 1st of this card
110 of 407  27% complete
How acquired: $3.99 on ebay
Condition: Good

I paid more than I would have liked for this card, but Shantz for reasons I can't really explain has always been a player I liked.  Even though he retired about 15 years before I was born.  It's also been a card that I've bid on and lost about dozen times on ebay.  There are a few other cards like that.  They aren't stars and they don't sell for much, but for whatever reason, I get out bid in the closing seconds over and over again and it really makes me want the stupid thing even more.  In any event I can cross Shantz off of that list now.

Shantz was MVP in 1952.  At one point this card was probably somewhat in demand due to that.  Back in the mid-1980's Beckett used to list the MVP/CY/ROY for each year in it's price guide.  It was my understanding this was because collecting the award winners from the set in the corresponding year was a popular thing to do.  I never did, but that was my understanding of why it was listed.  I'm a numbers and history geek, so that always struck me as a cool thing to try to do.  My most recent price guide was bought about five years ago in an airport, but it didn't list the MVP's anymore.  It did list whether the card was a rainbow refractor or silver sparkle edition though.  Which made me happy to be a vintage collector and not a collector of today's "cards."

Stats: 16 seasons, 3x All-Star, 8x Gold Glove, 1952 AL MVP, 119 wins

Best Hall of Fame Showing: 1970 & 1972 2.3%