bought this at auction right after it was mentioned on an early Sports Cards Nonsense episode. Learned a quick lesson in pausing when something is spiking. Luckily it is a card I enjoy but easily paid double what I needed to.

My vintage card of the week: 1973 Topps Nolan Ryan. Nolan is one of my main PC guys (I’ve built complete runs of base Topps cards for Nolan, Brooks, and Hank). The 1973 Nolan card is one of my favorites. It’s the year he set the single-season strikeout record for the modern era. And it’s just a gorgeous card from an underrated vintage set. Now, this specific example is one of the cards that taught me how to favor eye appeal over technical grade when building my collection. In general, the ’73 Nolan is really, really hard to find centered. It’s maddening. And there are often odd fisheyes or faded colors on the surface. After looking for a long time for a PSA 6 or 7 example for my run, I stumbled across this PSA 5 example with nearly perfect centering and bold color. Indeed, I've had this card for two years and still can’t explain why it only earned a 5 from PSA (touched corners is my best guess). But I’m happy as hell to have it sitting between my PSA 6 ’72 and my PSA 7 ’74 in my Nolan run.

My vintage card of the week: 1973 Topps Nolan Ryan. Nolan is one of my main PC guys (I’ve built complete runs of base Topps cards for Nolan, Brooks, and Hank). The 1973 Nolan card is one of my favorites. It’s the year he set the single-season strikeout record for the modern era. And it’s just a gorgeous card from an underrated vintage set. Now, this specific example of the '73 Nolan is one of the cards that taught me how to favor eye appeal over technical grade when building my collection. In general, the ’73 Nolan is really, really hard to find centered. It’s maddening. And there are often odd fisheyes or faded colors on the surface. After looking for a long time for a PSA 6 or 7 example for my run, I stumbled across this PSA 5 example with nearly perfect centering and bold color. Indeed, I've had it for about two years and still can’t explain why this card only earned a 5 from PSA (touched corners is my best guess). But I’m happy as hell to have it sitting between my PSA 6 ’72 and my PSA 7 ’74 in my Nolan run.

At the same auction that I bought the Nolan Ryan inscribed Bugs Bunny print I came across this beautiful baseball autographed by Nolan. I paid more than I wanted having had several Nolan autographs, but this will look great in my display case.