Koufax don't need no stinkin' post title

Here is the final part of my birthday loot.

I landed some cash for the occasion, which is always thrilling and definitely not "impersonal."

It wasn't a lot of money, but it was enough for me to decide to pick up a handful of Koufax cards. This is always a big decision because prices for Koufax cards never go down. In fact, I think they're going up by the hour, and in the near future we'll be talking about rumors of how Koufax was against chewing bubble gum, so he had the manufacturers pull his cards from all sets, and then Wayne Gretzky will buy one of his cards and they'll write books about it.

But before we get to that point, I snagged a mere five Koufax cards.

The first Sandy is the card at the top. It's from the hobby shop handout set from this year. It's a key find for me because I don't think my hobby shop -- which I rarely go to -- even has these. Maybe they do, I don't know, because I don't go to it.

The card doesn't do much for me. Koufax is throwing in front of the wallpaper in my grandmother's spare bedroom during the 1970s. I never liked that bedroom. Probably because Koufax wasn't there when I was. But the card back mentions three of the records I listed in the previous post, so that's cool.

Here is Koufax's card from the TCMA 1960s set from 1978. This is an awesome set that I should have sent away for when I saw the little cut-on-the-dotted-line order forms in Baseball Digest. By the way, did you know that Koufax's career World Series earned run average (four World Series) was 0.95?

I'm sure I overpaid slightly for this, but the diamond sparklies make me think I got a discount! It's card hypnosis! This is the short-print diamond parallel from Series 2. Do these short-prints also come in non-diamond parallel version? Just asking. Not attempting to collect them all.

Entering vintage Sandy Koufax territory. This is big boy collector turf. The prices on vintage Koufax cards are almost shameful. But I was able to land this card of two of the most successful World Series pitchers in Dodger history. This is from the 1961 Topps set, as most everyone knows. Koufax really hadn't hit his peak yet. Probably the reason it just said "southpaws" instead of "pitchers you WISH your team had."

Final card. It's a slightly tattered, slightly faded 1962 Koufax! And, no, I didn't get it because it's a No. 5. Although, I'm sure seeing it on Matthew's blog subconsciously spurred me on to obtain the card.

Slowly -- and this is another card project that will last the rest of my life -- I am acquiring Koufax cards from his playing career. My acquisitions would go faster if I just figured out a way to have multiple birthdays every year.

I think it's time to create a second identity. Oh, wait ...