Week 9 comes to an end with a couple of envelopes

Happy Friday to all, I don't know about you but I'm ready for the weekend.   For the most part this week was kind of quiet for me.  Not a whole lot going on trade wise right now, I'm in the middle of an '09 OPC box break, and I received a couple of envelopes today in the mail.   First was an ebay auction I won on the cheap earlier this week.

$0.99 plus shipping...gotta love it

You can see to the left that I added to my Leafs jersey collection with a Nikolai Kulemin Winter Warriors card from the '10/11 Zenith set.  As a bonus I got the Milan Hejduk card to add to my trade bait.  Not  bad for under $4 shipped. 




























I also recently completed a smaller trade with Eric from Manupatches & Chrome Scratches, in return for some Royals and some Mustache cards I sent his way (along with a John Grahame RC...I was glad he figured out why that card went his way lol), I received some more Blue Jays for my LTP...see below

6 cards from 2007 Bowman, including a Lind RC + a Yunel Escobar card from this year's A&G set.  I love the green color of the Lind, it really stands out more than what the scan shows.  Once I add in the mini John Olerud card collection I found, I should be over 700 Jays cards in the collection, not bad from the humble beginnings at the beginning of August of around 90 cards. 























Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend, Robert...  (42 days)

2009 OPC box break...packs 7 through 12

Round 2...here we go...

Pack 7:

189. Zach Duke (Pirates)
269. Jose Arredondo (Angels)
338. Mark Derosa (Indians)
426. Justin Verlander (Tigers)
537. ERA Leaders
566. Kevin Jepsen Black Parallel RC

Pack 8:

FF1.  Face of the Franchise Vlad Guerrero
41. Xavier Nady (Yankees)
284. Andy Sonnanstine (Rays)
467. Shane Victorino (Phillies)
575. Trevor Cahill (A's)
455. Justin Morneau Black Parallel

Pack 9:

330. Jake Peavy (Padres)
347. Jason Kendall (Brewers)
421. Peter Moylan (Braves)
439. Johnny Damon (Yankees)
545. Moments card
417. Jered Weaver Black Parallel

Pack 10:

166. Felipe Lopez (Dbacks)
207. Jeremy Bonderman (Tigers)
451. Miguel Tejada (Astros)
559.  Moments card
1323. Mike Schmidt 20th anniversary retrospective
496.  Vincente Padilla Black Parallel

Pack 11:

87. Andy Pettite (Yankees) First dupe out of the box...
197. Juan Rivera (Angels)
289. Mike Gonzalez (Braves)
303. Jose Guillen (Royals)
518. Nationals Team Checklist
105. Francisco Liriano Black Parallel

Pack 12:

57. Bobby Crosby (Athletics)
301. Brian Bannister (Royals)
331. Curtis Granderson (Tigers)
483. Rich Aurilia (Giants)
523. Rockies Team Checklist
51.  Ross Ohlendorf Black Parallel

No hits yet, or no Jays for that matter...we'll keep on busting though...packs 13-18 next

thanks for reading, Robert...

Random thoughts for a Thursday

Getting closer to the weekend folks..and you know what Thursday means, time for some random thoughts.

• I absolutely LOVE the way Brendan Shanahan is handing out discipline so far in the NHL.  I don't think any other sport actually has their disciplinarian making videos showing exactly why a player has been suspended, while explaining what the exact rule is that has been broken.  If you haven't seen any of these videos yet, take the time to look at the James Wisniewski video and see exactly what I mean.
• The baseball season has come to an end, my Jays are on the outside looking in again, and the Pirates are well...the Pirates.  It should be an interesting post season this year, right now I like the Phillies to win it all.
• Both the Bills and the Lions are currently 3-0 in the NFL.  I watched the game against the Patriots on Sunday, and after the Bills went down 21-0 I thought they were dead in the water.    Funny, but the Lions were down 20-0 to the Vikings, and they came back as well.  The announcers of the Buffalo game mentioned a stat where teams that started 3-0 over the past so many years made the playoffs 79% of the time.  Anyone out there think that both of these teams are going to help that stat or hurt it??  Here's saying that both of these teams HURT this stat this year.
• Anyone out there think that the mandatory waiting period for the baseball HOF should be waived for Derek Jeter?  I do.  Don't get me wrong, I despise the Yankees, but this guy is a true class act and was overshadowed by other shortstops his whole career.  Ripken, Rodriguez, Tulowitzki all had the big power numbers, the adulation, and all Jeter has done day in and day out is produce in the media circus that is New York.  
• Has anyone out there really noticed that the NBA is in a lockout?  If Lebron James sinks a basket from behind the mid-court line but nobody is there to watch it, does it really go in?  Several hundred thousand people on the shores of Lake Erie would say  "hell no" to that question.  Basketball in my opinion is really shooting itself in the foot by extending this lockout, because baseball is heading into the postseason, the NFL is in full swing, and the NHL is getting ready to start next Thursday.  The NBA is on the back pages right now, and will likely stay there until a deal is imminent.

• Have to post something about cards or card blogs here don't I?  Well, only the Night Owl can turn Fleer Checklists into an entertaining and insightful blog post.  Here are 3 items that I bet Greg can turn into blogging gold.  [Ed:  This is meant in fun, and not mean spirited in any way]

1. Turning change under the couch cushions into the blaster box he swore he'd never buy again.
2. "dummy cards" in packs.....Friend or Foe??
3. Why the California/Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels will always be an inferior, 2nd rate LA team because of the DH rule. 

• You know you're getting old when it's been 20 years since a song has been released, and you only think that it was last year.....Nirvana is the song choice this week...

Thanks for reading....Robert     (43 days)

2009 OPC Box Break...Packs 1 through 6

It's Wednesday...counting down to the weekend here....

Figured I'd post the first 6 packs that I cracked from the hobby box I received on Tuesday of 2009 OPC Baseball.  Each pack contains 6 cards, including one black bordered parallel.   A scan of the parallels/inserts is below.

Pack 1:

102. Doug Davis (Dbacks)
139. Ben Zobrist (Rays)
253. Josh Bard (Nationals)
305. Brad Ziegler (A's)
551. Moments card
25. Chien-Ming Wang  Black parallel

Pack 2:

65. Alexei Ramirez (White Sox)
277. Bill Hall (Brewers)
471. Juan Pierre (Dodgers)
553. Moments card
1318.  20th anniversary retrospectives (Yogi Berra)
31. Martin Prado Black parallel

Pack 3:

84. Scott Olsen (Nationals)
285. Josh Johnson (Marlins)
290. Carlos Delgado (Mets)
365. Jacoby Ellsbury (Red Sox)
531. Average leaders
113. Matt Capps Black parallel

Pack 4:

64. Chone Figgins (Angels)
255. Jeff Samardzija (Cubs)
353. Bob Howry (Giants)
457. Emmanuel Burriss (Giants)
538. ERA Leaders
505. Oakland A's checklist Black parallel.

Pack 5:

FF3.  Face of the Franchise (Eric Chavez)
87. Andy Pettite (Yankees)
89. Chris Snyder (Dbacks)
115. Max Scherzer (Dbacks)
579. David Freese (Cardinals RC)
479. Orlando Cabrera Black parallel

Pack 6:

WK10.  Walk off winners, Dioner Navarro
141. Clayton Kershaw (Dodgers)
217. Chris Young (Padres)
321. Manny Parra (Brewers)
584. Shawn Kelly (Mariners RC)
391. Ryan Dempster Black parallel.

Not too shabby so far...packs 7-12 next post...

Thanks for reading, Robert   (44 days)

Contest pimping

Speaking of blogs that I have just found, here's one that's running a contest.  Check it out over at The Card Hobbyist.  It is going to run through the month of October, so be sure to keep on following...Good Luck!!

Robert

Working, reading, waiting

Good morning all, hope that your week is going well so far.  I apologize for the lack of posts the past couple of days, have felt more compelled to start getting more organized as far as my collections go.  You'll notice at the top I have split up the trade lists for baseball into two tabs, one for base set cards and the other for inserts/parallels.  I figured I would do this so that those people that are hunting for specific cards would have an easier time finding them (hopefully). 

I also received my contest winning from Larry over at the Sewingmachine Guy blog and thought I would show it off really quick...a '79 Topps Eddie Murray graded card....PSA 8...not bad at all!  Thank you again Larry.

Contest winnings

I've done a lot of reading of blogs over the weekend as well, still playing catch up on some of the older posts of blogs that I enjoy, and still discovering more blogs that I hadn't seen previously. 

I'm also waiting for my first purchase from Dave & Adam's cardworld to arrive today, my '09 OPC hobby box is scheduled to arrive via UPS.  I fell in love with these cards when I received my portion of the group break from Sam over at the Daily Dimwit blog, and decided to try and put the set together.  This also ties in with the vote I held at the beginning of the month asking readers what they wanted me to purchase.   "Other" won out, and so I decided to purchase something different.   Now there were some good suggestions from readers, the Obak set in particular intrigued me but I didn't know enough about the cards to warrant a purchase of an entire box. 

I also made a friendly wager with Brian over at the Waxaholic blog, so my readers are going to have to look forward to these 6 dates;  October 6th, October 22nd, January 21st, February 11th, March 3rd, April 7th.  These are the days that my beloved Maple Leafs play their long time rival the Montreal Canadiens.  For those of you not into hockey, think rivalry along the lines of Yankees-Red Sox, Celtics-Lakers, Packers-Bears, and you'll get the idea.  These posts will be fun to do, and hopefully my Leafs will come out on the better end of the scores on those evenings. 

Finally, I have decided to remove one of the sports from my crazy amount of sports cards.  Yes, football is being kicked to the curb (pun intended).  Hopefully these cards will be able to find a good home.  I do have a handful of jersey cards, along with some OK RC's that I'll post on here.  If anyone out there is looking to add to their team collection, just let me know and I'll work with you on getting cards sent your way. 

As always, thanks for reading....Robert

Packs Across America: Tallevast, FL

I have Marck from Troll at the plate! to thank for these two packs of cards, well one pack of cards and one very obscure pack of scratch off cards that I had never seen before I opened his trade envelope earlier this week.

Here we go:

     City/state:  Tallevast, FL
     Location: LCS (?)
     Packs: 1 pack of 2011 Allen & Ginter (Hobby), and 1 pack of MLB Scratch Hit from 1994 (approx).

Pack 1:

5 base cards:

233. Ben Zobrist
157. Corey Hart
99. Placido Polanco
253. Mike Minor
236. B.J. Upton

Sadly, none of these hit my want list, but that happens.

Then we have a Hometown Heroes of Prince Fielder, a code breaker code of the Iron Chef, and a mini World's Mysterious Figures of Fulcanelli. 


Easily a good pack overall with 3 tradeable cards.  An A for sure.










Pack 2:  1994 Scratch Hit (raise your hands if you've seen this before)

This is the wrapper...I've never seen these before...it had me intrigued for sure, so naturally I had to rip it.

And this is the back (on the left), and front of the card.  Similar to a scratch off lottery card, only there are 6 letters under the baseballs,

O=out
W=Walk
S=Single
D=Double
T=triple
HR=Home Run

You keep scratching each inning until you hit the O, then you move on to the next inning.  Play all 9 innings, tally your score, then scratch off one of the visitor's scores at the bottom, and see who wins.  What was interesting is the various team logos on the back of the cards.  I received 7 unique teams, Cardinals, Expos, Reds, Cubs, Rockies, Phillies, and Braves (2x).  For entertainment and educational value alone, this pack gets an A+. 

Week 9 starts, and my first card show in quite a while.

Hello all, and hope that your Saturday is going well.  Was able to attend my first card show in I don't know how long.  It was pretty small, only 14 tables total, but I happened upon one dealer whom I spent most of my time there perusing his boxes of cards.  He noticed me stretching after the first 15-20 minutes of searching and asked me if I wanted a chair!  I gladly accepted and spent another 20-25 minutes searching through his boxes. 

Needless to say I picked up quite a few cards from him today:

Original Jays

First are some 77 Topps Blue Jays...including Bill Singer on the bottom left who threw the first pitch in Blue Jays history, a strike against the Chicago White Sox back in April of 1977.

Some other interesting 77's

Next, we have a few interesting cards that I also picked up.  The top two would fit right in on the airbrushed Fridays column on the Cards on Cards blog.  Randy Jones on the lower left appears to be a hairdresser's dream.  On the lower right, is the revenge of the hideous red uniforms part deux, Ray Fosse of the Indians.

2 cards that didn't quite make the cut

Next we have Jay Johnstone's card, which is slightly miscut.  I figured it needed a good home, and he threw it in the deal, so I figured why not?  Next is another classic Blue Jay card from the 70's, Doug Ault's 1978 Topps card.  Most of you know why I say this didn't make the cut, but if you don't know, check here to see why. 










Just baseball cards you ask?  Why of course not, there's more...

Guess you could say Joe is my PC King.

Several Joe Sakic's I picked up on the cheap to add to the player collection.

I have always admired Joe, this comes right from his first days in the NHL back in the late 80's.  Joe was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques, who at that time were a pretty poor hockey team (on the ice).  Joe within a year or two became their dominant player and captain.  But what impressed me even more was his ability to learn the French language so quickly.  Quebec city for those of you who don't know is probably 99% French speaking, and very hockey mad to say the least.  For Joe to care enough about the franchise to take on the task of learning the language and conducting interviews completely in French instantly impressed me, and I have been inclined to collect his cards ever since.  I will be adding another tab in the near future at the top of the blog with the Joe Sakic cards I have.





Finally, we have some older Leaf cards to look at:

Vintage Leafs in more ways than one

The scan kind of cut off the top of the Clark and Ullman cards, but rest assured they are in near mint condition.  I was especially excited to find the Ullman card in a $1 box, as it is a 73-74 Topps card, a set in which I have never owned any of the cards.  The blue border is in very good shape as well.  The Curtis Joseph on the lower left was found in a 4/$1 box, and I didn't realize until I got it home that it had the word "SAMPLE" written on the back.  Bottom right is Darryl Sittler, who still holds the NHL record for most points in a single game, with 10.  (6 goals, 4 assists). 













Not bad, for $24, I was able to purchase 1/10th of the '77 Topps set, 35 more Jays to add to my LTP Jays list, 15 Maple Leafs cards and 10 Joe Sakic cards.

Even though the show was small, I was able to have some fun there and put another dent into some of my want list/personal collections.

Thanks for reading, Robert...

Week 8 is done and hockey season is upon us.

TGIF!!  With Friday comes the end of another week for my blog.  Week 8 was a very quiet week after Monday was done.  Only one trade was finalized, and no other trades were started.  After blowing out the doors the first 7 weeks, I'm sure it was my time to cool off.  The only purchase I made during the week were a couple rack packs of Topps Lineage at the Wal Mart on the weekend, which incidentally coincided with the purchase of a new scanner/printer.  The $20 I didn't use this week will hopefully be spent well at a card show on Saturday.

This week also saw the start of preseason games in the NHL, and yes I am excited.  I cannot wait for the regular season to start for my Maple Leafs on October 6th versus the Canadiens.  I don't know if any of you have looked lately, but I have updated my Hockey want list, and believe me that is only going to be a fraction of the sets that I plan to have on there before too long.  Notice as well the sad addiction to parallel sets.  There's 3 of them on there, one from as far back as 94-95 (yes, I'm shaking my head).  But now that I'm blogging, I hope to find more hockey collectors out there as well, and work on getting some of these sets completed.

Over the next little while I'm also going to scan a few of the jersey cards I've collected over the years, mostly off of cheapo eBay auctions.

Two color swatches

On the left is a Cam Neely Winning Materials dual jersey card from 07-08 SPx.  Naturally I like the black and yellow swatch on the right.  On the right is an Ales Hemsky 05-06 UD Ice card, with the copper and red swatch.  These are both up for trade, as are about 70 other jersey cards I've collected over the years.   Take a look and if you see something you may want, send me an email or leave a comment. 

Thanks for reading, Robert...

Playing catch up with all the blogs all out there

Good Thursday evening all, I hope you're all primed for Friday and a great weekend to come.  I took a little time out today to start reading some blogs that have been around for a while, and I suppose it's probably wise for me to do some reading of older posts that veteran bloggers have made over the past couple of years.  I found one blog that I started following not too long ago, the Chronicles of Fuji.  This post that piqued my interest was one about the the post office, especially the rates that are being charged to ship brown bubble mailers.

First off, I want to say that Fuji does make some good points here.  Yes, it is getting more expensive to mail cards out at the post office, and when you do make a lot of trades as he does, it does become quite expensive.  $40 to send out 15 trades is a little steep when you look at it that way, that money could be used to buy a couple of blaster boxes, or a reasonably cheap hobby box if you're so inclined.  With the 150 trades he made last year, that's over $256 worth of postage (and that's assuming all envelopes were sent at the minimum $1.71).

My question is (and I'm not being critical of Fuji at all here), did the items he received in return give him "value" worth that money spent?  I hope they did, because if not, then I can definitely understand the frustration with the cost.  Don't get me wrong here, I am as cheap as they come, and I'll do anything to save a buck.  But I would say that the approximately $70 I've spent in postage so far in the past two months has brought myself (and hopefully those I've traded with), easily that much pleasure, if not more.  Trust me, until now I had never even thought of the total amount I've spent on postage since I started blogging 8 weeks ago. 

I guess what I'm really saying here is that postage should be looked at as a part of the cost of collecting.  We pay postage for boxes that are sent to us by online card merchants.  We pay postage for our eBay purchases (sometimes we overpay, but that's another topic altogether).  Postage for trades is actually something that is easier for me to swallow, because I know that in return someone is sending me cards that I want, whether it be Blue Jays for my collection, or singles towards building the plethora of sets I'm working on. 

One more point, and you can trust me on this one.  Postage, and the post office are definitely a necessary evil, because without the post office, there are very few alternatives, and believe me, the alternatives aren't pretty.

Finally, without postage, these are three beauties I never get to add to my collection:

Courtesy of other fine collectors, and the USPS delivery service.

As always, thanks for reading, Robert...

Packs Across America: Mobile, AL

This is going to be a quickie post, but I received a pack of Bowman Platinum from Sam at the Daily Dimwit blog as a bonus for participating in his 06 Artifacts group break.  So here we go...


     City/State : Mobile, AL
     Location: LCS (?)
     Packs:  1 pack of Bowman Platinum

4 cards in a pack, pretty straight forward...

Trade anyone?

60.  CC Sabathia
BPP 92.  Trey McNutt
85. Jacoby Ellsbury
6. Miguel Cabrera

Kind of cool that I got a red parallel of a Red Sox player, so that in itself is a bonus over packs I get here in town.  Picked up two stars as well in Sabathia and Cabrera, along with what might be the best prospect name in quite a while, Trey McNutt.


Definitely worth an A grade for a single bonus pack.  Thanks again to Sam for the extra bonus.

Random Thoughts for a Thursday

Hello all...just some random thoughts that pop into my head during the week that I thought would be worth sharing.

• Please somebody tell me what the reasoning is behind Topps numbering system for their Update set last year.  Every time I read a  "US-000" number on the card, I feel like I should be reading a road map looking for the nearest state route.  Maybe Topps can't count as high as 990?

Anyone know where US-8 is?

• Personally, I'm tired of the Sidney Crosby "saga".  Every day here in western PA all I hear is "there's no change in Sid's condition".   Please update me when there is a change!!  Yes, he's good for hockey blah blah blah, but again, much like the football lockout, the drama just gets too much exposure and I'll be ready for Luke Schenn to take Crosby out again with a clean body check.
• I'm sitting here thinking to myself , boy I wish there was a decent minor league team close by that I could go watch for cheap.  Then I chuckle and think to myself....the Pirates are only an hour away..
• I am very curious to see what happens to Topps baseball products next year if Panini makes as big a splash as everybody hopes they will.  If Panini is a hit, does Topps have the lead time to make changes to their products?  I mean, if Topps has already released the design for their 2012 baseball products (base set and Heritage are pretty much set right now..) what are they going to do to respond?   
•  Your Thursday music is from a band that I didn't even know was Dutch...I learn more and more as I continue blogging.....  Golden Earring...Radar love

Patience is indeed a virtue

Hello all, the midweek is upon us, and I'm still catching up with all the trades I received on Monday in the mail.  All the cards I've received so far have been great (they always are), but when it comes down to it, this envelope that I'm gonna go over was the best of the bunch, from the Troll.  Needless to say that the wait I had while Marck tended to his ailing wife was well worth it (Marck, I'm very glad she's doing better).  Marck sent me some great stuff from my want lists, and a couple of packs that will be featured in my "Packs Across America" posts that I'll be doing later this week.

First, the A&G want list items:

The oddball portion of the set

A dancer, a faker and a baker (well chef, but chef doesn't rhyme) on the top row.  I couldn't honestly tell you who the two on the bottom row are.

The Nachos Grande portion of the deal

I saw these four cards back to back to back to back and thought that the package might have been sent to the wrong portion of Pennsylvania.

Finally, you get some stuff, well....it's really hard to put into words...so I'll let the picture do the talking.

Free beer, scantily clad women...I'm in!!

There were several over sized postcard type flyers in the envelope, along with a program.  What would have been really cool (yes, I'm being greedy here...lol) is if the program had been auto'd by one or two of the girls on the back.  Now that would have been a keepsake for sure!!  Still some very unique and fun items to receive in the mail!  By the way, if anyone comes across a Joe Maddon relic from A&G, Marck is wishing to add one to his collection, please send him an email or a comment on one of his posts.

Thanks again for the great trade Marck, it was really appreciated on this end...

As always, thanks for reading...Robert

I learned something new today... Anathema (nothing really rhymes with this)

I'm sorry, but I couldn't come up with a more original title.  I'll be damned if any of you out there can come up with a unique way of putting the word "Anathema" in a title.  I actually had to look up the word, and was surprised at what I found. 

Anathema:

1. One that is cursed by ecclesiastical authority
2. Someone or something that is intensely disliked or loathed.

Well, I can't say for sure if Matt from the Card Anathema blog is cursed, but I'm pretty sure after the trade that we completed that I don't dislike or loathe him.  Matt hooked me up with some A&G off of my want list, plus a lot of shiny Blue Jays for my collection.

Lots of chrome and finest in this lot, as well as a Vernon Wells Refractor, which I believe is the first refractor in my collection.  There was also quite a bit more of the mid 90's stuff that I still need quite a bit of.  A quick shout out to Matt to say thanks for the great trade, and check out his blog too, he's working on the '71 Topps set (Something I would love to try and put together someday), plus a couple of others that he's close to completing.  

Thanks for reading, Robert...

I was so proud of myself last night because....

I cleaned my desk off...all the trades, and piles of cards to be mailed, and packs to be "processed" and put away...done, desk clean, even my wife couldn't believe it (I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to that).  Well, that went by the wayside today.  4 more envelopes arrived in the mail, and I'm sure that the mailman has a hernia after today's haul! 

Two group breaks arrived today, as well as 2 more trades...Blue Jays aplenty, some more cards off of my want list, and some interesting oddities/packs as well.  Where to begin....well, why don't I tie in one of the group breaks with the poll I ran last week asking what should I buy...

Let's start off with the group break from the Double D blog (sorry, but I've read enough of the blog and emails back and forth with Sam, and dimwit just doesn't apply here).  I jumped on the opportunity a few weeks back to get in on the group break from 2006 Artifacts, especially since my Blue Jays were tied in with the Angels and Royals.  Here we go...first, some neat cards from Upper Deck X and Timelines.

RIP Rick Adenhart

Three cards pictured here...Torii Hunter's is by far the coolest of the bunch, actually die cut in the shape of an 'X'.  The Rick Adenhart card snapped me back into reality for a moment; it made me remember that there were some very young pro athletes that passed on over the past few years.

















Next up are some cards that I really enjoyed seeing, again because I'd never seen them before.  2009 OPC baseball... I believe that these have convinced me to open a hobby box of 2009 OPC.  The card stock reminds me a lot of the early 2000's UD Vintage releases, and of course the OPC name for me is something I've enjoyed for a long time as well, going  back to my collecting days of the 70's.  Another plus is I found a hobby box online for $37+ s/h, so that will not break the bank for me. 

The next set to collect, 2009 OPC

Finally, some of the meat of the package, the jerseys/auto.

Another Jays auto, Gustavo Chacin, #'d 51/800.  Interesting to note that the card states that it was "sent to Upper Deck directly from Gustavo Chacin".  Why then use a sticker instead of hard signing the card itself?  Just askin...Both of the Ervin Santana jersey cards are gray swatches and serial numbered (the larger patch being 40/45!)









The envelope also included a pack of Bowman Platinum, which I'm gonna save for my "Packs Across America" post later this week. 

The Angels cards are up for trade, so if anyone is interested, just drop me a line.  Thanks again Sam for a great group break, it was enjoyed very much on this end.  

Thanks for reading, Robert...

The case of the mysterious disappearing want list...Chapter 2

Good Sunday afternoon to all, I hope that your weekend has been good so far.  The mailman decided to tease me yesterday, he was a block and a half up the street, so before my wife and I went out we decided to wait for him.  Naturally I was waiting because I was expecting some padded envelopes...but was disappointed when he only brought one white envelope to me (useless junk mail, of course).  I figured that my items were going to arrive early next week, so we started to get ready, and as I was pulling out of the driveway, the mailman comes back and says "I forgot about these"..3 envelopes full of cards.  Nice!  Two of them I already discussed in yesterday's post (DFG and Community Gum), the third one was from Charlie over at the Lifetime Topps Project blog.  Leave it to a guy whose blog is all about his lifetime topps project to get me over the hump with another set...2011 Topps Series 1 is finally done!  2011 Topps Series 2 is down to only 7 cards....343,471,517,523,570,573,618,650 is all that is left.  


Charlie also hit me up with quite a few of the diamond parallel cards, 37 of them as a matter fact...which brings me up to 137 total (2 were dupes, but I'm sure I'll find a home for them with somebody), or almost 21% completion for the diamond set.  My scanner is currently on the fritz so unfortunately I am unable to show you any of the cards via scans...

 I bought myself a couple of rack packs of Lineage today...pulled a couple of inserts that are already in envelopes to send to some fellow bloggers.  One was a Cloth sticker of Tom Seaver; this card felt pretty funky, something I have never experienced before.  I'm sure that it is going to a good home.  The 2nd one was a 75 mini of Hank Aaron...I must say that I've had some good luck with the 75 minis, because I've also pulled a Stephen Strasburg and Andre Ethier from other rack packs as well.  Those three minis are going to a good home as well.

I have recently added the '11 Heritage set to both my want lists and trade lists...please check them out and if you feel we can make a trade, don't hesitate to contact me!

As always, thanks for reading...Robert

Week 8 begins..and week 7 purchases all arrive simultaneously

Good Saturday morning to all, hope that your weekend has started off well.  I have many purchases to talk about, the first being a nice little 10 card lot I received off of the bay this week.  Record fast shipping as well, I paid for it on the 13th, had it on the 16th.

First two of what I hope to be many Jays relics

A couple of decent Jays relics, an '02 Josh Phelps Tools of the Trade from Topps, and an '07 UD Game Materials Alex Rios.

Assorted Gold/Chrome etc.

All in all I'm quite happy with this purchase...$0.99 + $3 s/h, got me 10 cards that I didn't have, including a couple of numbered Topps Gold parallels, along with 5 chrome cards from various years, and a Travis Snider RC from 2009 UD A piece of history.


These 10 bring the current count to 555, with more coming in trades in the near future.












Next up, we have another auction that was won on the bay this week, this time from a fellow blogger, The Real DFG.  Now this is a guy that I am willing to do trades/sales with again in the future.  Not only does his blog name remind me of Rick Steiner, but his auctions are top rate, and the card he sent me was hermetically sealed for freshness!   Once I broke down the package, this little beauty for my Maple Leafs collection was inside..

'10-11 the Cup base

Phil Kessel, who I'm hoping pots 40 goals this year, is featured on the card here.  Base card #9, serial numbered 031/249.  DFG, thanks for the opportunity to add this to the collection!!
(oh and BTW, lighting fast shipping as well, 3 days between auction win and card in hand)


















Finally, I received a great little package from Jon over at the Community Gum blog today, a nice little value pack which included some Topps Lineage parallels...

2 more to add to the Jays pile

Aaron Hill Diamond parallel and the platinum parallel of Doug Drabek's boy, Kyle.  I was glad to see that the Jays brought Kyle back up, and using him in the pen will put less pressure on him for the rest of this season.  Jon also threw in as a bonus a Jays team set from the Lineage release, much appreciated.  





Finally, this is my favorite card of the bunch....

Scan doesn't do the card justice

A great auto/bat card of Jays catching phenom J.P. Arencibia.  I saw the card up for sale on Jon's blog, and asked via comment what a price would be.  The quote was very reasonable, and voila!  3 days later this beauty is in my hands, never to see the light of day again (except when I take it out to look at it). 

All in all, a good week for adding cards to my collection, and all 3 purchases were made for around $26 (including s/h), keeping me below budget for the week. 

Week 7 comes to an end with a buzz in the blogosphere

Good evening all, and I hope that you Friday finds you all safe and well.  As many of you have weighed in over the past few days on the announcement that Panini has been granted an MLBPA license to produce trading cards, I have done quite a bit of reading on other blogs enjoying weighing the pros and cons of other collectors opinions. 

For me, as far as what I've seen from one picture, to be honest it's a "wait and see" attitude from my desk here.  If I were to base my opinion on the one picture of Josh Hamilton using a hitting pose with no sense of baseball in the background (stadiums, grass, etc.), then I would say "sorry, but I'll stick with Topps thank you".  But as any reasonable collector knows, one picture does not tell the whole story.  So until I see the first release from Panini, which from what I understand will not be until December, I'll reserve my judgement. 

Do I feel that the Topps monopoly should be broken?  Absolutely, competition is good for the marketplace, and good for the collector.  Do I think Panini will be a solid contender for Topps, well that's hard to say, because they are limited right now by the fact that they only have half of the pie.  If Panini acquires a MLB license to use logos/team names, then yes they will be a major player in the baseball card market in my opinion (here's hoping). 


There will always be some burning questions for me as far as baseball cards go.  Don't get me wrong here, I have always loved collecting baseball, for me it is a close 2nd to hockey.   But why oh why am I still seeing new products for 2011 (or the end of any calendar year) coming in December,   For me, this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.  Maybe in the south, where the winters are warmer, I can see it, but here in western PA...December through February I am worrying about other things, such as digging out from under feet of snow and following football and hockey seasons as they progress.  My birthday is at the end of October, and by then I'm ready for baseball season to be done, and I generally don't think about baseball again until I'm ready to be done with winter at the start of spring training in February.  I see that Topps 2012 baseball is being released on February 1...I'd love to see that date pushed back to coincide with the start of spring training.

Hockey for me has the same issue....why in the hell are card companies releasing super premium products in August for the -'10-11 season?  I'm sweltering in August, and you want me to pay hundreds of dollars for a high end hockey product?  Release them in January/February, there's a winner in my books then. 

Yes, I am but one collector, but that's the good thing about having a blog.  I get to voice my opinions, and those in the world can exercise their right to agree or disagree (or even ignore as my wife does) with my opinion. 

As always, thanks for reading, and have a fantastic weekend....Robert

Random thoughts/stuff for a Thursday

Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to come up with anything for my Thursday randomness, but a couple things have sprung to mind, so here we go.

• In my previous post, I posted a trade and mentioned the diamond parallels from this year's Topps set.  I was poking around the other day, curious to find out when the Topps Update set is going to be released.  When finding out the date (October 5th), I also stumbled upon the fact that there will be 330 more diamond parallels added to the set.  I thought for a minute and said "what have I gotten myself into"?  990 total parallels, of which I now have 102, am I crazy??  This is one part of my collecting vice that tends to create problems for me.  I fall in love with parallels, such as the diamonds, and start to collect them.  Then, when the next year comes along, or the next big thing, then the old collection falls by the wayside (watch for a  post on the 94-95 UD Hockey Electric Ice parallels when hockey season starts, you'll get the drift).  Honestly now, I have to make a decision....do I go full bore and try to finish this set, or just grab a few more and use them as trade bait down the line.  Maybe it's time I develop a little discipline like a lot of other bloggers I see out there and keep focused on a specific goal.  Speaking of other bloggers..
• I actually won something in a contest!!  Unbeknownst to me, Larry over at the sewing maching guy on cards blog ran a contest when he hit 100 followers (congratulations again on the milestone Larry ! ).  If it wasn't for Potch from Indianaland emailing me this morning to let me know he received his end of our trade, I may not have found out for a day or 2 that I even won.  Best of all, Larry is giving away 3 PSA 8 Graded cards, all 3 HOFers.  2nd year cards of Robin Yount and Eddie Murray, along with a '81 Fleer of George Brett.  Some nice swag moving about...thank you Larry, it is appreciated on this end.  Oh, now that I mention contests...
• I'm sure that I will be running one someday.  I would do it at 100 posts, but I yammer on too much and that will be an easy goal for me to attain.  Let's shoot then for 50 followers.  I'm at 37 now, and have been in a holding pattern since the 4th.  I'm sure that I'll have some time to acquire some more items before I hit 50 followers....speaking of followers and contests....
• Ryan over at this card is cool - my life in baseball is running a contest, and to enter you have to give some input on how many blogs you follow/read , and how you access them.  Check it out when you get a moment or three.  And finally, as I normally end my random thoughts, you get some.....
• Random music for a Thursday....I've seen these guys 4 times, sadly all were after Keith Moon had passed away.  But I will always remember the time I watched them in a rainstorm just outside of Pittsburgh.  I still remember it as one of the best concerts I have ever seen.....this is my favorite song of the Who.

Thanks for reading everyone....Robert

He says no one is going to trade for this...he was wrong this time...(or a quick trade post)

Good evening all, the weekend is getting closer by the minute, and as usual...I'm ready!  Received another trade in the mail today, this time from Jeremy over at the no one's going to trade for this blog.  Jeremy responded to one of my posts last week stating that he had some cards off of my Topps want lists for the past couple of  years, and we were able to put together a little trade to help each other out.   I'm down to 21 cards total for this years Topps set, and 61 for 2010...getting there slowly.  As usual, I won't scan the base cards, you've all seen them many many times...but he did add in a diamond parallel....a Blue Jay no less!!

Number 102 so far

Thanks again Jeremy, the trade is appreciated!!  Thank you for reading....Robert

Packs Across America: Webster, NY

Good day all, hope that your Wednesday finds you well.  This is the 2nd in a series of posts on packs that I have purchased from different towns/cities across the country.  As you may know, I was away for the long Labor day weekend in upstate NY, and while the women were out shopping, I decided to hit the Target store to buy a few packs:

City/State:  Webster, NY (suburb of Rochester)
Store:         Target
Purchase:    2 packs of Topps Heritage BB and 4 packs of UD Victory Hockey

Pack 1:

9. Juan Uribe
67. Zach Duke
114. Kyle Drabek
178. A. J. Pierzynski
188. Freddy Sanchez
271. Jeremy Jeffress
296. Ian Desmond
357. Brett Anderson
371. Victor Martinez

Pack 2:

58. NL Victory leaders
70. Justin Morneau
124. Brian Duensing
178. A. J. Pierzynski
186. Rick Ankiel
228. Marlon Byrd
263. Rangers Danger
319. Tim Lincecum
336. John Lackey


It's funny, I opened these two packs on Saturday really quickly, and just flipped through the cards and thought to myself "well, the bad luck continues".  Just before I started this post and was ready to declare them a total bust, I  took a closer look at the cards and realized one of them in Pack 1, the A.J. Pierzynski card, had a reddish tint in the background. Hadn't seen one of those before, so I do some research and find out there are blue and green tints as well.  Thus, the scramble begins as this idiot runs through all the Heritage he has bought to see if there are any other tinted cards.  Lo and behold, I do find a blue tint....Ryan Franklin of the Cards. 

I need to start looking a little closer when I bust packs

So, for educational value alone, the packs get a grade of "B"

Now, on to the Victory, which for those of you who don't collect hockey, this is UD's version of Topps Opening Day.  A 99 cent pack that contains no relics/autos, but just something fun to get the hockey season started.  I pulled a couple of rookies, and a couple of MVP parallels, which are seeded 1:2 packs.  Nothing fancy here, just a fun rip to get the hockey season started (training camp starts next Monday the 12th).  Grade of  "C".

All in all, my luck was OK up in western NY, hopefully as I obtain cards from around the country my luck will be better.

Thanks for reading, Robert

$50,000 for one card....really? (no, really???)

I honestly had nothing in mind tonight for posting, so I decided to do a little eBay surfing.  I then stumbled upon a listing that is really ....well..... frightening...

$50 K Sidney Crosby ebay auction

Here's a pic of the card/booklet, whatever you want to call it.

Just 8K more and you can buy my house instead.

OK folks, I enjoy cards, and a nice looking card of a star player is what everyone would like in their collection..but $50,000 is beyond ridiculous, it's clearly certifiable.  How anyone in their right mind can even think that someone would be willing to pay that kind of money for a card with 2 autos, and 2 NHL shields, I will never know. 

What's even scarier...someone out there will probably pay close to that amount.