The Kings of Vintage vs. the President of Shiny

Have you ever traded a card away only to regret it later?  In my 4+ years around this card blogosphere, I've only made two trades I wish I could take back.  One was for a card another person really wanted and I saw them trying to sell it after I sent it to them.

The other was a 2004 Topps Chrome Presidential Pastime John F. Kennedy refractor.  I traded it to the one and only Beardy.  Much later, I decided I'd like to collect the whole set of Presidential Pastime refractors. Since I started my Ebay shop-a-thon late last year, I've periodically searched for those refractors and finally picked up one at a reasonable price.

President Van Buren didn't scan very well, but with that hairdo, we'll cut him some slack.

As with most of my Ebay purchases, I generally search the sellers other items to see if I can get a few other cards to maximize my shipping costs.  Well, shipping here was free anyway, but I found some sweet vintage to accompany the shiny President to Texas.  The seller had  a bunch of 1952 Topps cards listed and had reduced the prices 40% so I had to at least look.

I looked so hard, I ended up buying 5 of them.  I picked the lower priced cards. Only this Clint Hartung was obviously damaged.  It has a water(?) stain and and a little chunk missing from the bottom.

I love the old Cubs logo.  This Frank Baumholtz has a small crease across the top right corner.

This Ken Raffensberger is my favorite of the bunch because you can actually see another player int he background.  This one has a few minor creases along the right side as well.

I wasn't chasing Giants on purpose, but for the price I couldn't resist this Monte Kennedy.  It has very round corners, but I don't mind a bit.

The final addition was this oddly colored Wayne Terwilliger card.  The background color clashes with the Brooklyn blue cap, but again, I don't mind at all.  It's a work of art if you ask me.  This is the black back version if that matters.

For an average price just under $6 each, I'm very happy to have these amazing vintage cards in my collection.  As much as I like the Presidential Pastime refractors, I'd rather be holding a 1952 Topps card in my hand any day.