Trade received from Morgan over at the Silver Slugger

I received some cards the other day from Morgan over at the Silver Slugger blog.  Morgan is even newer in the blogging world than I am, and we completed a trade that helped us both out.  In return for a few Braves cards that she needed (have I ever run into quite a few Braves collectors!!), Morgan was able to get me even closer to completing '11 Topps Series 1 by sending me these cards below...

I'm now only 12 cards away from completing Series 1.  I'm sure there's someone out there that can help a brother out??






























Here are the 12 card #'s that I need:   6,14,15,28,90,105,113,165,203,230,267,313.  Please send me an email at rmitchell6700 at yahoo dot com, or comment on this post if you can help me out!!  Thank you very much for the trade as well Morgan!


Thanks for reading...Robert

Heritage hobby box break...packs 19-24

Final 6 packs everyone, including the promised hit that the box brings.   Here we go!

Pack 19:

98. Minnesota Twins team card
155. Brian Wilson (not the Beach Boy)
227. Cliff Lee
233. World Series Game 2
266. Jose Ceda
361. Randy Wolf
384. Oakland Athletics team card

Drum roll please............................the hit arrives!!

Dirty David

I do not believe that I have ever seen a game used card that actually had dirt on the jersey.  The scan actually doesn't do the dirt portion justice, there are some nice dark brown spots in the lower left hand corner.  For me, this was really cool.  I'm torn about whether I should keep the card or trade it, because I'm sure that there are David Wright collectors out there who might enjoy this card.
















Pack 20:

50. Albert Pujols
62. Brandon Inge
78. Matt LaPorta
191. Ryan Dempster
217. Don Mattingly
219. Jeremy Hellickson RC
256. Ruben Tejada
329. Yovanni Gallardo
337. Adam Laroche

Pack 21:

82. Kevin Kouzmanoff
92. Armando Galarraga (still was a crime what happened to him last year)
125. Vladimir Guerrero
161. Bobby Jenks
202. Corey Hart (does not wear his sunglasses at night)
341. Lorenzo Cain
385. Mark Buehrle
409. Pittsburgh Pirates team card
417. Lucas May RC

Pack 22:

7. Carlos Beltran
56. NL ERA Leaders
89. Jake Peavy
135. Babe as a boy (I really do like this idea of Babe Ruth subsets, I hope they continue this with other great players, such as Gehrig, Aaron, etc. )
290. Ty Wigginton
307. Jair Jurrjens
381. Orlando Cabrera
424. Leo Nunez
428. Josh Willingham SP

Pack 23:

80. Jay Bruce
111. Brad Lidge
119. Scott Cousins
146. Placido Polanco
158. Atlanta Braves team card
207. C.J. Wilson
356. Jose Bautista
380. Tim Hudson
451. Ben Revere SP

Pack 24: (last one!)

12. Brad Mills
53. AL HR leaders
105. Max Scherzer
222. Franklin Gutierrez
223. Ryan Theriot
251. Texas Rangers team card
328. Raul Ibanez
342. Zack Greinke

and the final card, a News flash backs insert: NF-5 Navy Seals are activated

All in all not a bad box, 8 high number SP cards, along with 2 Jackie Robinson SPs, a cool David Wright dirty relic card, a few inserts and some chrome cards to boot.  All the inserts and chromes are up for trade, and I'm willing to listen to any offers about the Wright card.  I also have quite a few doubles if anyone needs to finish their sets, take a quick look at the baseball for trade tab and see what you can find.

Thanks for reading, Robert...

Plaschke, old English for "great trade"

Yes folks, another trade post...kinda becoming a habit of mine.  I have to do it though, emails aren't enough of a thank you sometimes, and for Greg over at the Plaschke, thy sweather is Argyle blog, this is a little more of a thank you.  But first, I gotta say it...great blog name, plain and simple, maybe one of the most creative I've seen.  OK, enough of my blather...on to the cards!!  First, another diamond parallel to add to the collection (closing in on 100 now)

Bruuuuce

Jay Bruce of the Reds, #191 in the set.


















Next, some more Blue Jays to add to my collection, only have a couple pictured here.

HOFer and the Crime Dog

Before Monday, I had never owned a Sportflix card in my life, now I have 2, this one being Fred McGriff...plus one of the main catalysts of the Jays World Series champion teams of 92 & 93, Robbie Alomar.  (kind of ironic that I scanned two players that were traded for one another)









Next, Greg also collects hockey, so naturally we hooked up here and he sent me some Maple Leafs cards to add to my collection.  Two of their marquee players are pictured here, Darryl Sittler and Wendel Clark.  Two great captains, and two class acts that have represented the organization well over the years.  These cards will fit in well with my LTP Maple Leafs collection, which I will begin to post about when hockey season rolls around in October.

2 of the greatest in my lifetime

Finally, I also received my first Leafs relic card....a very nice blue swatch of an up and coming player, Luca Caputi.  I was more than happy to send a Getzlaf relic Greg's way.  I also was able to put a dent in his A&G needs for the base set, along with the Hometown Heroes insert set. 

Into the vault, never to see the light of day again

Thanks again Greg, we'll have to do it again in the future....

Thanks for reading everyone, have a great Tuesday,  Robert

Trade post...bonus received today from Bench member SGBT4

Good evening all, if you're reading this then you've survived your Monday as I did.  Pretty much all the trade posts that I've made so far have been via trades and generosity of fellow bloggers.  Lately, I've made a few trades on the Bench website, and today I received a package that was worthy of some of my fellow bloggers in generosity.  Member ID SGBT4 on the Bench is Scott from Wisconsin, and in our original trade I had sent him some A&G inserts in return for some A&G base cards that I needed.  Well, imagine my surprise when I arrived home this evening and opened his package up....I got a few extra bonuses in there...

First was another diamond parallel ( a common, but I'm 1 closer to the set now ), plus 30 Jays cards!  I haven't cataloged them yet, but I do believe that I don't have any of them in the collection, so of course they are most welcome!  See the scan below, there are a couple of really nice Joe Carter cards that I had never seen before...

The card on the upper left of the scan is from a set that before today I had never seen before, 1996 Aficionado, from Pinnacle.  These are great looking cards, the picture on the left of the card feels kind of "gritty", almost like fine sand.  The upper right card is from 1996 Sportflix, again another set that I had never seen a card of before today.  The 3D effect is really cool, and another thing that I like, which is difficult to see in the scan, is that the 2nd image is of Joe Carter signing something for a fan.  (this might be an idea for a topical set for me to chase, cards of players that are signing something for fans).

The bottom 2 cards are from Fleer Tradition, a team photo, well just because...and David Wells' card was scanned because I liked the Jays logo they had then.  A lot of Jays fans prefer the original logo with the baseball in the background, but I really do like the Blue Jay without the ball...for me a little more realistic. 

I have two more envelopes to go (got 5 today in the mail, a record), both from bloggers whom I will post about in the next day or two.

As always, thanks for reading....Robert

Yes, I do stupid things too, such as.....

Paying $8.22 to have Topps ship 11 cards to me (in state no less).  I don't know what I'm more mad at, Topps for charging me that much, or myself for actually paying it, because I normally shy away from auctions on various sites if the seller charges what I feel is too much for shipping.  What makes this kind of funny for me is that the 11 cards shipped to me (as you can see from the scan below), are probably not even worth what I paid to have them shipped. 

Heritage hobby box break...packs 13-18

Good Monday morning to you all, I trust that your weekend was great and found you and yours safe from the hurricane that swept up the east coast.  Here we go with the continuation of the hobby box break of 2011 Heritage, packs 13-18.

Pack 13:

37. Bomber's Double Play Duo (Cano/Jeter)
101. Jacoby Ellsbury
156. Hank Conger
214. Chris Sale
319. Tim Lincecum
354. Hunter Pence
379. Travis Hafner
408. Chris Coughlan

and another Chrome card...a refractor no less.  C45 Adrian Beltre 425/562

Pack 14:

8. Brian Roberts
14. Carlos Pena
43. LA Dodgers team card
138. The Famous slugger (Jackie Robinson SP)
149. Ryan Franklin
184. Kurt Suzuki
317. Ichiro (10 straight 200 hit seasons)
386. Michael Cuddyer
473. Joe Mauer AS SP

Pack 15:

2. Francisco Cordero
32. Russell Martin
139. Babe Hits 60
198. Tony Larussa
210. Evan Meek
250. Joe Mauer
279. Bengie Molina
333. Lucas Duda
498. Rookie Parade SP

Pack 16:

57. AL win leaders
103. Brandon Phillips
211. Midway masters (Andrus/Kinsler)
244. Lars Anderson RC
295. Paul Maholm
305. Mike Aviles
327. Jose Lopez
391. Martin Prado

and another baseball flashbacks insert: BF-7 Harmon Killebrew

Pack 17:

38. Coco Crisp
139. Robinson Takes ROY Honors, Then MVP   (2nd Robinson SP)
200. Derek Jeter
215. Asdrubal Cabrera
221. Jeremy Guthrie
276. Darwin Barney RC
277. Pedro Alvarez
310. Andy Pettite
320. Jason Heyward

Pack 18:

21. Carl Pavano
102. Matt Capps
175. Adam Dunn
183. Mike Pelfrey
245. Jason Bartlett
377. Carlos Santana
378. Ubaldo Jimenez
406. Tyler Colvin
425. Kevin Youkilis

Also not a bad group of 6 packs here...a couple of Jackie Robinson variation SPs were nice pulls, along with the Beltre refractor and a couple more high number SPs.  All we have left is the last 6 packs, with the hit still to come (I promise you this as well, the hit is kind of dirty).

Thanks for reading, Robert

'06 Artifacts case break pimpage for the Daily Dimwit

Hello all, just a quick note to all that the Daily Dimwit is doing a case break of 2006 Upper Deck Artifacts.  There are 12 slots left, so hurry quick!  Linkage is right here.

Thanks, Robert

Heritage Hobby Box break...packs 7-12

Good day all, I hope your Sunday is going well.   Continuing on here with packs 7 through 12 of the Heritage hobby box break.

Pack 7:

11. Joe Nathan
41. Chris Valaika
188. Freddy Sanchez
218. Buster Posey
271. Jeremy Jeffress
288. Mike Stanton
344. Fernando Salas
416. Jim Leyland
491. Torii Hunter SP (not bad, 3rd SP out of the box already)

Pack 8:

10. Andrew McCutchen
70. Justin Morneau
91. Gaby Sanchez
131. Bret Sinkbeil RC
199. Aroldis Chapman RC
257. Scott Kasmir
291. Bobby Cramer RC
294. Phillies team card
and another insert card...NF-6 Dodger stadium opens its doors

not a bad pack here...3 RC's and an insert

Pack 9:

23. Carlos Lee
51. AL Batting Leaders
77. Chase Utley
114. Kyle Drabek RC
126. James Shields
303. Daric Barton
373. Carlos Gonzalez
375. James Loney
382. Casey McGehee

This was the first pack that didn't have an SP, Chrome or insert card...although it did have the Drabek RC and a couple of star cards in there.

Pack 10:

24. Tigers team card
59. AL strikeout leaders
169. Curtis Granderson
190. Todd Helton (This is either the 4th or 5th time I've pulled this card...)
246. Andrew Bailey
284. Jimmy Rollins
357. Brett Anderson
420. Miguel Montero

Pulled another insert here as well...NAP-2 Jim Thome

Pack 11:

15. Fausto Carmona
25. Starlin Castro
100. David Price
192. Florida Marlins team card
205. Scott Rolen
315. CC Sabathia tosses a curve (pictured below, I like these 4 panel cards)
393. Hanley Ramirez AS
399. Roy Halladay AS

Plus another insert...TN-2 Frank Robinson/Miguel Cabrera

Pack 12:

34. Ian Kinsler
65. Robinson Cano
72. Philly's men up the middle (Rollins/Utley)
267. B.J. Upton
281. Eduardo Nunez RC
283. Danny Valencia
301. Clay Buchholz
374. Charlie Manuel
459. John Buck SP

not a bad group of 6...plenty of RC's, 2 SP's and 3 inserts....still have yet to open the hit pack

Packs 13-18 will come tomorrow....thanks and keep on reading, Robert

It has been 8 (yes 8) years since I last....

Bought an actual hobby box of cards.   I thought about that today, I'm 100% positive that the last time I bought a hobby box of baseball cards it was for the 2003 Heritage set.  For eight long years, when I did buy cards, it was a pack or 2 at a time, or maybe a blaster box here and there.  I don't know what is worse, the fact that I went that long, or the fact that I actually remember the last one!!

Indeed, I followed history and bought a hobby box of '11 Topps Heritage today, and opened the first 6 packs.  I'll show them off to you here and start off with the box toppers.

Box toppers

The top picture is an advertising panel, which basically consists of an uncut sheet of 3 cards, in this case they are the NL HR leaders, Derek Lowe (who doesn't really look too impressed), and the San Diego Padres team photo.  On the back is some Topps advertising, along with the back of Roy Halladay's card (#453).  The other box topper was an actual buy back card from the 1962 set, card # 188, Chuck Hiller of the SF Giants.  The card is stamped in the lower left corner with a 50th anniversary foil logo, and to be honest, the card has been pretty worked over to say the least.  All 4 corners have wear, and as you can see the lower right corner is totally rounded.  The edges have some wear, and there are a couple of visible creases as well. 

What I'll do over the next 4 days is break the box 6 packs at a time and give everyone the rundown...so here we go!!

Pack 1:

26. Josh Thole
106. Yadier Molina
141. Babe's twilight years (I do like this subset)
177. J.A. Happ
180. Jim Thome (he of the 600 HR club...belated congrats to Jim)
302. Ramon Hernandez
311. Derek Jeter (Jeter turns the double play, a great 4 pic card)
396. Carlos Gonzalez (NL all star)
and a Chrome card, C82 Nyjer Morgan (0826/1962)

Pack 2:

4. Ben Zobrist
85. Ike Davis
88. Joe Girardi
172. Dusty Baker (2 straight manager cards)
254. Chris Carter (no, not the Viking WR)
275. Billy Butler
353. Neil Walker
369. Dan Haren
465. Cincinnati Reds SP team card (I haven't had many SP's in the packs I've bought so far)

Pack 3:

29. Terry Collins
48. CC Sabathia
49. Jordan Brown
164. Jason Kendall (2195 hits and 5th all time # of games caught..not too shabby)
186. Rick Ankiel
220. Ryan Howard
252. James McDonald
355. Brian Matusz
And....another chrome!!  C66 Bobby Cramer (Rookie) 0265/1962

Pack 4:

45. Evan Longoria
115. Alfonso Soriano (1 of 2 contracts that got Jim Hendry canned)
142. Babe's Coaching for the Dodgers (this I did not know)
160. Garrett Jones (they should have left him at 1st Base all year, he can't play right field)
179. Mat Latos (inside joke to Chris at Nachos Grande...see, I get Latos' cards also!)
234. Rangers Retaliate (Game #3 of WS)
235. Bumgarner Baffles Bats (Game #4 of WS)
347. Nyjer Morgan (what would make this set even better IMO, would have been making the chrome cards have different photos from the base cards)
Finally, BF-2 Brooks Robinson of the Orioles slams Kansas City

Pack 5:

71. Jonathan Sanchez (again same photo as Chrome card, see yesterdays' post)
124. Brian Duensing
127. Pride of the A's (Braden/Cahill)
178. A.J. Pierzynski
324. Tommy Hunter (not the country singer)
331. Mike Leake (I can hear the Bermanism now...Mike "gotta take a........")
346. Felix Hernandez
411. Michael Young

Another insert finishes off this pack.  TN-4 Then and Now (Aparicio/Pierre)

Pack 6:

74. Hanley Ramirez
79. Jordan Zimmerman
109. Ted Lilly
150. Miguel Cabrera
212. Roy Oswalt
280. Hiroki Kuroda
334. Tampa Bay Rays team photo
364. Russell Branyan
435. Huston Street SP (Huston was born in Austin, figure that one out...)

there you have it folks...packs 1-6.  2 Chrome cards, 2 SP's, and 2 inserts...not too shabby so far.   Packs 7-12 to come tomorrow....

Thanks for reading, Robert...

Week 5 starts...ebay auction arrival

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far.  Today's mail brought me a nice little 4 card jersey lot from the 2008 Upper Deck Heroes set.  When I decided to bid on this auction, I didn't realize that the Sheets card was limited to 25 copies...I was actually just hoping to start building up a stash of jersey cards for some trade bait.  To be honest, I think I wound up with a pretty good deal here.  A better scan of the cards is below:

Four jersey cards cost just under $7 shipped

Nothing special to the jersey swatches, but again I wasn't looking for fancy when I bid on this.  Also today, I went out and did something that I hadn't done in at least 8 years....my next post will tell you what that was.

Thanks for reading...Robert

Week 4 comes to an end...I've lost track of my mind, Friday visit to card store, and LTP Blue Jays is well on its way

Friday!!  Couldn't have come at a better time.  To say I've lost track of mind (financially) is an understatement.  I mailed out 5 envelopes on Monday, have at least 3 more to mail out tomorrow, involved in two other group breaks...I failed to keep up with my running total this week.  Needless to say I've blown my budget.  Of course, sticking to the $30/week was the original plan, however I never really anticipated the success that I've had over the past 4 weeks meeting and trading with other bloggers, and generally having fun ripping packs again.

I've kind of made Fridays my day to hit the card store that is reasonably close to where I work (a great excuse to get out of the office in the middle of the day).  Today, all I decided to buy was a couple of packs of '11 Heritage.  I've always enjoyed the Heritage brand, and this year is no different.  My luck this week was similar to last weeks, the 2 packs that I bought contained the following cards:

NL West pitchers (at least at one time)

A pair of Green bordered Chrome Refractors...C94 Ubaldo Jimenez and C18 Jonathan Sanchez.  Both are up for trade if any is trying to complete that set, or add to their team collections. I should be putting up my want list for this year's Heritage set in the next couple of days, so keep an eye out for that as well.

Speaking of team collections, my LTP Blue Jays will easily pass over the original goal of 250 I set for the end of the calendar year (I'm still not done cataloging the group I received this week).  I'm at 241 now, and have approximately another 75 cards to add to the have list.  Another thank you to those who have hooked me up recently.

Thanks for reading....Robert

Thursday random thoughts about .....stuff

Good evening all, glad to see you made it through your Thursday.  Just some random thoughts that creep into my head (some good, some well....kinda scary) that I'd thought I would share with the blogosphere.

• I had the recent pleasure of becoming acquainted via email with another blogger, Napkin Doon.  Very nice and pleasant to converse with, but I'll tell you this.  I thought that I had quite a few sets on the go right now, but Napkin....well let's just say Napkin leaves me in the dust, WAY back in the dust.  Don't believe me, see this post.  (BTW Napkin, congrats on the 200th post, keep up the good work!!)
• For some crazy reason, anytime I read or hear someone mention the Topps set Gypsy Queen, I start singing this song.   Also, when I see the initials "GQ" used to refer to this set, the magazine comes to mind, not the cards.  Just another reason that I am still far behind the times as collecting goes.
• I bitch and moan all winter, can't wait for summer, can't wait for summer.  This summer has been the hottest and nicest that I have enjoyed in 15 years, and what am I obsessing most about right now??  The start of hockey season.....
• Bloggers have a lot of power in today's card collecting world. I will admit, I read a lot of blogs as often as I can now, and I enjoy them all.   Their opinions make us laugh, educate us, make us think.  I am making a vow today that going forward, I will treat blogs as what they really are, editorials & personal opinions.  I don't have to agree with them, I don't have to preach what they say as the gospel.  I am going to like sets for the reasons that I like them, not because of reasons that others do (or don't).
• For the life of me, I cannot remember a pitcher for the Jays by the name of Goose Gozzo.  I thought when I received this card this week that someone was having fun with me, until I looked here and saw that he's real.

Yes, he's real

Hopefully my little bit of lunacy didn't make your eyes roll too far back into your head.   Have a great Friday all!!     thanks for reading,  Robert

RIP Mike Flanagan, 1951-2011

I was shocked and saddened to hear of the passing of Mike Flanagan today.  What really saddened me were the details surrounding his death, which I will not repeat here.  I will choose to remember Mike as the crafty lefthander that the Jays picked up towards the end of the '87 season.  I will forever remember him starting game 4 of the ALCS in '89 against the A's, and giving up the moon shot that Canseco hit into the 5th deck at the Skydome (which at the time had never been done).  I will remember him in his Cy Young year in 1979 (23-9 3.08 ERA), part of one of the best starting pitching staffs assembled in the 70's. 

God bless you Mike, may you find the peace in heaven that you could not find in your final days on Earth.

The wife was able to have some fun at my expense today...(but in the end I had the most fun)

I've had the luxury this week of working the early shift at work, meaning I get to be home every day at 530 pm instead of 900 pm.  With all that's been going on with my blog since the beginning of the month, I've been very fortunate lately to have completed quite a few trades, and ultimately receive lots of bubble envelopes in the mail.  My wife, bless her heart, has noticed this and been very supportive.  Today was her opportunity to have some fun at my expense though.  One of my habits when I get home is to check the mailbox, partly because of the trades, and partly because she forgets to check.  So, today when I arrive home, no bubble mailers coming out of the mailbox, and only some letters inside.  I think to myself, oh well maybe tomorrow.  I walk inside the house, and she's already grabbed the good packages...actually in this case, 2 boxes!!  The boxes were full of Jays/Autos/Lineage Group Break cards from both Eric at Manupatches and Chrome Scratches and Chris over at Nachos Grande.  Did I ever have fun breaking these two boxes open!!

Anyone who has followed my blog knows that my Long Term Project (LTP) has been to build up my Jays collection (Leafs LTP coming this fall...kind of a pun), and my initial goal was to hit 250 unique cards by the end of the year.  Well, scratch that...the guys today sent me a huge stack, and I should be close to 300 cards by the time I'm done sorting them all.  I'll show you a few of the highlights of the two boxes.

What's got me chasing the diamond parallels??

Two more diamond anniversary parallels from Topps '11, plus an Andre Dawson diamond parallel from Lineage, I like that card because I always liked watching the Hawk play.

Lineage group break pulls

Some cool pulls from the Lineage group break, I'm lacking in autos for trade bait, even though it's only David DeJesus, it's still an auto.  I was glad to see the Strasburg mini, I don't have much of him at all, and the 3D Mauer looks pretty cool as well (I will forever link Mauer with the Play Station commercial..."well played Mauer").

Jays cards from the Lineage group break

Some great cards for the Jays collection as well from the group break, and I will admit right now, that I was VERY wrong about Jose Bautista.  When he signed his big contract a while back, I spoke up on the Tao of Stieb blog and said that the Jays overpaid for him, and he wouldn't hit more than 25 HR's this year (ha....he's got 37 now and counting...). 

The best outfield in baseball in the first half of the 80's

I still can remember Barfield gunning down base runners with his cannon of an arm...I remember George Bell hitting 3 HR's on opening day in KC...I remember Shaker Moseby running down fly balls in the old Exhibition Stadium (TO's version of a mistake by the lake) and stealing 30+ bases a yr for 5 yrs in a row.  By the way, for my readers out there, any of your teams have a dynamic outfield trio for 7-8 years like we had in Toronto?  Post in the comments please, it definitely will be educational for me, and likely the subject of a post or 3 in the future. 

Three other cards that I really like

Eric sent me a couple of autos, and I know that these players are not household names, but the cards really popped for me.  (I guess what they say about small minds liking shiny things is true....lol)  In addition, I've always liked Dick Perez's artwork, and this sketch of Halladay I really liked, even though it's not the greatest representation of Roy. 

One thing I learned as well today, the Lineage cards are growing on me.  Honestly, they are overpriced, but the design is simple and not cluttering up the whole front of the card.  If the price point on this was more around the $2.50 mark per pack, then I might be tempted to go after the set. 

Thanks again to Eric and Chris for the great trades...be sure to check out their blogs, both of them have some very entertaining reading...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Sticking to my roots....

Well, I still haven't been able to decide on a player to collect, and I doubt I will in the foreseeable future, so I decided to try and collect the first set of baseball cards that I bought packs of when I was a kid, 1977 Topps.  What I remember so distinctly that tells me it was the first one is the flag in the upper right corner with the player's position written on the flag.  I was even able to find a checklist of the cards in the set from the old baseball cards website.  It's a 660 card set, with a few good RCs, Andre Dawson, Dale Murphy, and Bruce Sutter.  I bought a bunch of packs when I was a kid, but alas, those cards are long gone.  I have a grand total of 2 (!) cards from the set.  Pics are below:

My only 2 from this set, and as common as they come.

I obtained these two cards via the card redemption programs over the past two years via Topps, all I had to do to get them was pay shipping (the topic of another post soon to come).  I'm going to try my best and see if I can get as many cards as these via trading.  I'll post my progress as I go along...you'll be able to see it on my BB want list.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Wondering if the Blue Jays actually play in Indianaland

Good evening all, hope that you made it through your Monday OK.  Got two more trade packages in the mail today, one of them was for a trade I made at the Bench website, and another was a "trade" per se from Darren at the Indianaland blog.  I came home to a bursting at the seams bubble mailer, and it will full of Blue Jays, 67 to be precise!  To be honest, I loved the lot  because it had a lot of variety of years and card makers, plus it brought back a lot of memories of the great Jays teams from 85-92.

Mixed bag of Blue Jays history here

Looking at some of these names, not great players, but guys that were team players and each contributed in their own way.  Ernie Whitt caught for years in a platoon with Buck Martinez, big Cecil Fielder started in Toronto before moving to Detroit and hitting 50+HR one year(just think about the string of first basemen that the Jays have had...Willie Upshaw, Fielder, Carlos Delgado, Fred McGriff, now Adam Lind).  Tom Henke was the closer for the great Jays teams in the mid 80's, Candy Maldonado was a deadline pickup in 91 for the Jays and patrolled left field for a couple years.  Kelly Gruber was the first 3rd baseman to play the position full time for Toronto since Roy Howell in the late 70's....and Mike Huff???  I'd forgotten about him, I think he only played for Toronto for a season and a Huff (insert groan here...).   This also brings up my Blue Jays count to almost 170 for my LTP, should have no problem hitting my goal of 250 unique cards by years end.

Darren also hooked me up with some more set needs from '10 & 11' topps and a couple A&G's as well, PLUS another diamond parallel...I must tip my hat, THANK YOU very much for the trade, I'll be on the lookout for some cards to send your way. 

Bowman Platinum...meh

Made a trip to Wal Mart today...stopped in the card aisle and decided to pick up a couple of rack packs of Bowman Platinum.  I fail to see the excitement with these cards.  I just cannot fathom spending $3 a pack for 4 cards, so I will not continue to purchase any of these.  The biggest laugh I got out of these packs was reading card BPP97, Carlos Perez.  The card front says he's in the Blue Jays system, so naturally he's one to add to the LTP list, and it shows someone (I'm not sure who it is) in their catchers gear.  I flip to the back, and it reads "Perez needed only six starts at Danville in 2010 to prove he was primed for a new challenge, going 2-0 with a 1.12 ERA before being promoted to Rome."  Also, the back says that he touches 94 mph, and he compares to Cardinals pitcher Jaime Garcia.  Love it, a total screw up of a card, pretty cool that Bowman is now measuring catchers ERA!!

Oh, and another reason that I'm meh about this set...check out my luck with the purple parallels you get...

2 cards with doubles...gotta love it...

even the parallels for me aren't exciting

LOL maybe I'm in a bit of a mood this evening, but these cards just don't do it for me.  They're all up for trade if anyone wants them.  Just comment or send me an email

Thanks for reading, Robert...

A quiet Sunday...pause for reflection and my good fortune..

Good afternoon all, has been a quiet afternoon here at home, aside from the thunderstorms that rolled in about 130 pm.  I was kind of struggling thinking of what to post, then I realized just how busy I had been so far this month, and what a difference it has been since the last time I was this involved in card trading on the internet (which was back in 2003).  I've bought cards off and on over the past several years, but it was usually on trips to Wal Mart, never to a card store which is where the selection is better and the hobby is more relevant. 

Towards the end of July, I was starting to get the itch again to get back into the hobby on a consistent basis, so I did some poking around.  I found a few card blogs that I liked, and started to read them and get involved.  I completed my first trade and had my cards in less than 1 week, and I was hooked.  I will say this, what I see on the internet now is much different than it was many years ago.  People are friendlier, and it's much more of a community now than it was many years ago.  I read all the time on blogs about how people are saving cards for other collectors, sending packets in the mail out of the blue, and it's amazing.   

So, I decided at the end of July to start my own blog.  I sat down, and tried to figure out my own little niche, and that evening came up with the title, and just started writing, hoping that I might find a couple people that would read the blog from time to time and maybe spark a trade or two once in a while.  To say that I'm shocked with the results so far in my 4th week is an understatement.  Never in my wildest thoughts did I think I would have 24 followers, over 500 page views since I started writing on a daily basis, and have worked over 15 trades with fellow bloggers so far.  Every person that I have traded with so far has been 1) generous to a fault 2) quick to ship their end of the trade 3) friendly beyond compare.

Guys, and gals...you are what makes this hobby run...not the card companies, not the players, but you the collectors.  For without you, the Topps machine slows to a halt, Upper Deck never comes into existence, and Panini remains in Europe.  Praise the cards you love, bash the ones you hate, but most importantly....have fun doing it, no matter what!! (this has been a public service announcement from your local PBS station.....)

I plan to keep on blogging for quite a while, and I look forward to sharing new products, new ideas and great trades with as many people as I can.  If you have any ideas for posts, or trades, don't hesitate to leave a comment, or send me an email.  

As always, thanks for reading....Robert

A blast from the past..2006 Topps

Standard stuff from the flagship back in 2006.  660 card base set, loads of rookie and manager cards, along with some team photos (which I wish they would keep every year).  This rookie crop has some very talented players, such as Ian Kinsler, Dan Uggla, Matt Cain, Geovany Soto, Ryan Zimmerman, and the two players pictured below, Prince Fielder and Jonathan Papelbon.

Standard posed photos

Now I had never noticed this until this evening, but check out the Rookie Card logos on both of these cards.  Prince's on the left, has the standard MLB RC logo, but Papelbon on the right, has the logo in silver outline, no coloring or filling in of the letters.   I wondered if this might be unique, but I found another Papelbon that I had and sure enough, it had the same silver outlined RC logo.  Printing error?  Anybody have one with a filled in RC logo?  If you do, let me know, and if possible send me a scan please.

Shouldn't the Fielder pic be the hot dog? (just sayin...)

I did like the card back from that set...the card numbers were a decent size, and had different colors which I liked.  Not sure why they repeated the key stats on the left hand side when all you had to do was look to the right to see them.  I liked the team color scheme on the backs as well.  I found it interesting as well that Papelbon was a "flourishing" starter in the minors (although if you look at his '05 stats, his ERA is less than 3 and his WHIP was less than 1.00 at AA and AAA!), but now he's been a successful closer for the Sox for several years.  I guess Prince didn't rate as highly in the description on the bottom, all it mentions is that he became the youngest Brewer to hit a walk off HR, it was against Pittsburgh (wasn't everyone hitting HR's against Pittsburgh pitching that year?)

This set has been added to my BB want list....still need quite a few cards, mostly in Series 1 (why is it that way with me every year?)  If you have any for trade, let me know via comment or email....

Thanks for looking, Robert...

Week 4: Trade received from Cardboard Collections

Good afternoon all, week 4 has begun for me in the $30 a week blog. So far now, I'm $9.61 ahead to start the week.  I will say that the last three weeks have been very good for both my blog, and my collection.  To wit, I am giving a very big THANK YOU to Colbey over at Cardboard Collections for our trade that I received today in the mail.  Colbey put a big dent into both my '10 Topps and '11 A&G want lists, as well as sending me 5 more diamond collection cards from '11 Topps, pictured below.

This brings the grand total of diamond parallels that I have to 65, or approximately 10% of the set. If you have any of these for trade, send me an email at rmitchell6700ATyahoodotcom.  I'll also be adding more sets to my want lists that I'm going to try and finish, as well as update my trade lists as well (I'm still far behind where I should be)..

Thanks for reading....Robert