Just one Jay away from completing a 2012 goal

As promised, here is the remainder of what Ted at Crinkly Wrappers sent me in the surprise envelope.  

First, as always the insanity is there...5 more closer to 1500!!

I love the Twins team card with the Kirby Puckett Pl street sign overlapping the World Champions sign.  That was one photo where Topps (or someone that Topps bought the photo from) got it right.  A lot of the teams that Ted sent in this package were a little on the low side as far as number of cards goes, which makes this group of cards even better.

Ted also sent 2 Jays autographs, which brings my total Blue Jays relics/autos count to 29, just one shy of the goal of 30 that I set for myself at the beginning of 2012.

Even though both players are former Jays, they are still welcome here.  Brandon MaGee sent me scurrying to see where he is now, and it appears that he's out of baseball altogether, since his last stats were for an independent team in Gary, IN in 2010.  The VW autograph is on a 2006 Bowman card, but the hand numbering and only the Topps certified sticker on the rear of the card tell me that the card is a buyback.  From what year, I have no idea.   If anyone has info on this card they can pass along, it would be greatly appreciated.

Ted, thank you very much for the surprise envelope, it is greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

A yellow Blue Jay and some more '64s

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I had some envelopes headed my way while I was out of town.  Two of them I was expecting, but the third one that was waiting for me was totally unexpected, and most welcome.

Ted struck again.

Fellow Blue Jay collector Ted from the Crinkly Wrappers blog once again surprised me with an envelope out of nowhere that contained some fantastic stuff.

Have you ever seen a card that looked spooky to you?  I did when I took a look at this next card, which was the 2nd one out of the envelope...

Awesome...meaning I was in awe, and then some

Dumbfounded was the word.  I looked at the card and had absolutely no idea what was in my hand.  Then I looked at the back.

Wow.  Hot Damn.  I had never seen a printing plate, much less held one in my hand, and now, this Scott Rolen '09 Topps Ticket to Stardom Yellow Plate was in my possession.  I was awestruck to say the least. 
I have long considered 1/1's to be unattainable for my collection.

Wrong again. 

But wait, there's more!!  (cue cheesy commercial...)

Ted also sent me a lucky 7 of Milwaukee Braves cards from the '64 Topps set.  Here's a scan of the 5 that I needed...

A few steps closer

great looking cards all around.  Ted's generosity prompted me to get off my duff this evening and post a list of 64's that I actually own on my want list.  So now the '64s and the '86s that I have are listed on the want list tab up top, so feel free to peruse and let me know what you can do to help. 

Great envelope you may think...but of course, there's more!!

Tomorrow, I'll share the autos (yes, plural), and a little more insanity.

I may have to change the name of the blog to "indebted to Ted"

Thanks for reading, Robert

Just how long can I carry a grudge?

You might find this one of the more interesting titles for a thank you post.  Tom over at The Angels, In Order posted a while back about some '86 Topps that he had promised someone...but he couldn't remember who.  I piped in that if somebody didn't claim the cards, I would gladly take them off of his hands. 

'86 Topps is my ugly duckling set, meaning that it's kind of neat in an ugly sort of way.  Ugly is probably even too harsh a word to describe the design, but to say that the '86 Topps set is one of their more notable designs would be overstating things.

OK...time to show off the cards...first, the basics

Love the DeJesus stache...

Now, some cards that were interesting, and also stirred up some memories.

First, Juan Samuel

It doesn't show very well in the scan, but this card was interesting because of the gum stain, front and back.  The stain extends from Samuel's left knee, all the way up to his forehead.  It is interesting because of the texture of the stain on the front, you can see the bubbles where the gum actually was stuck to the card, and the points in between where contact was minimal.  I may upgrade someday, I may not...this is not a set that's going to transcend time by any means.  I'm just going to have fun putting it together.

Next up, a couple of pitchers that will stand the test of time.

I love when cards make me look at statistics.  Did you know that Vida Blue wore five different uniform numbers while he was with the A's?  I also remember him pitching for the A's and Giants, but for the life of me can't remember him pitching in Kansas City in 82 & 83! 
Dennis Eckersley, yep I remember him with all the teams he played for.  Cleveland, Boston (twice), Cubs, Oakland and St. Louis.  I remember him being lights out against my Jays in the '89 ALCS, and then the Jays got their revenge in the '92 playoffs against him.  I remember him giving up the HR to Kirk Gibson in the '88 World Series.  But what I do really remember the most, is the absolute dominance for 3 years between 89-91.  Walked only 16 batters total over those 3 years.  1.74 combined ERA, including a 0.61 ERA in 1990.  If there was a period when a reliever was as automatic for such an extended period of time as Eckersley was, I would love to know.

Where's the guy who I hold the grudge against?   After all these years, this guy's name still brings a grumble when I say it.

10/16/85.  ALCS, game 7, Kansas City at Toronto.  6th inning, KC leading 2-1.  Jays have their ace, Dave Stieb on the mound.  Stieb is struggling a bit in the 6th, as he has walked 2 batters and hit another to load the bases with 1 out.  Up comes double play candidate Jim Sundberg, and Jays fans are thinking, "Stieb is gonna get out of this now".

Wrong.

Sundberg hits a triple off of the top of the right field fence, clearing the bases, and then scores on a single by Frank White to turn a 2-1 close game into a 6-1 lead that was insurmountable.

It was tough to say the least.  I was one of many fans who thought the Jays that year had a legitimate shot of winning it all.  They had won 99 games in the regular season, and had come home for games 6 & 7 with a 3-2 series lead.

Damn.

Damn you Jim Sundberg.

Oh yea, by the way Tom, thank you very much for the cards...only 600 to go to complete the set!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Back in the saddle again

It's amazing how far you can fall behind when you're out of touch for 9 days.  I spent a good portion of Monday evening reading the Word Press blog emails that I have sent to me on a daily basis.  The blogs I follow and read regularly on Google, well let's just say if they were children, I'd have been reported to the DCS already. 

Add to all this the packages that I received shortly before I left on vacation, and let's just say I've been a bad blogger over the past 2 weeks.  I will, however, rationalize it all by saying:

I haven't had a 10 day vacation since the last time I was unemployed, so there.  (sticking tongue out in defiance...LOL)

So let the catching up begin...

First off, I have to say a big thank you to two fellow bloggers who sent me some stuff, which up until now hadn't been acknowledged:

Jeroen, better known to us all as The Dutch Card Guy, sent me a handful of cards out of the blue, to help cure some of the insanity blues I was having right before I left for Florida.  My goal is to get a package put together for him very soon and on its way. 

5 more towards the 1500

Eric, who everyone knows as the purveyor of the Manupatches and Mustaches  blog, also sent me cards thanks to a contest I had won a while back.  Eric sent me some insanity as well, in the form of Royals no less (I know that had to be painful).  I especially enjoy the Butler Topps Finest card, the scan doesn't do the blue background justice, it really does stand out nicely.

Eric also sent me some Jays as well for my winnings.

A little bit of old and new for the collection

My apologies gents for the delay in acknowledging your packages.

Thank you both very much!!  I'm sure that by the time I get home from work this afternoon that there may be couple of more packages from the 10 days of mail that I will be pouring through. 

Let the catch up games continue....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Random Jay Monday: '03 Victory Shannon Stewart

OK...vacation is over, back to reality, and with that returns the random Blue Jays card on Monday evening.

This week's random choice is an interesting card, #100 from the 2003 Upper Deck Victory set, featuring Shannon Stewart.

The card design reminds me of a playing card, the corners are rounded and the borders black, like we've seen on other MLB playing card sets.  The back was more interesting...

The card number on the back looked to be the #300 at first glance, which cost me a few minutes when I started researching the card, because that research showed there was only 200 cards in the set.  When I finally pulled a set checklist I figured out that the first number was actually a '1'.  Duh me...

I had never seen this set, and it appears that the back was some kind of baseball simulation game, using the stripe at the bottom with a baseball play in that stripe...in Shannon's case it says single.  The only other images I've found online for this set so far all have positive offensive plays (HR, walk, HBP); I've yet to see a ground out or a strike out.

The backs also contain a 3 year snapshot of the player's stats, and in Shannon's case they were 3 pretty good seasons.  Stewart hit better than .300 in each of those seasons with double digit totals in HR's.

Here's an interesting tidbit about the 2003 season for Stewart, he was traded mid-season to the Twins, and finished the year 4th in MVP voting.  I don't think I can ever recall a player playing for two teams in a season finishing that high in MVP balloting.  Maybe somebody out there knows?



Thanks for reading, Robert

Milestones and millstones?

As I've said a couple of times before on the blog, I do enjoy writing.  It's a task that I've grown to really enjoy over the past several months.  The most challenging part for me sometimes is thinking of titles for posts.

The reason I chose this title today is that this is my last day on vacation, and I needed something easy to write about.  It's a pain in the ass to take pictures of cards, load them on to the laptop and then upload them to the blog (for some reason it takes forever....).

Millstone is defined as a heavy and inescapable burden.  Blogging is just the opposite for me.  It is a task that is fun and challenging at the same time.  I've enjoyed doing it for quite a while now, and can see myself continuing this blog for the foreseeable future. 

Now milestones are easier to talk about.  The month of May has shown me that even when I'm not around, I'm still around.  I hit 2,000+ page views for the 5th straight month; not too shabby for not posting for 6 days this month.  I also set a one day record for page views with 161, which for me is awesome. 

I'm also getting closer to 100 followers (I've been stuck at 98 for a while now).  As I did with 50 followers, I will run a contest once I hit 100.  What I will do, I don't know.  I plan on giving away cards (naturally), I don't have any plans to throw any cards away (not yet anyhow), and with the mixed bag of emotions regarding this years sets, I'm not sure what to give away. 

First things first, have to find two people who have been hiding under a rock to start following the blog.  Once the milestone is hit, the millstone of running the contest will be on!  Maybe if I'm lucky, by the time I get home Monday I'll be at 100....

For those of you who have plans this weekend, whether it be a long drive to visit relatives or a backyard BBQ, please whatever you do, do it safely and responsibly.

Thanks for reading, Robert

OK, so what do we call it...Heritage Lite?

Yes, I've been truly out of touch for the past few days.  I had no idea until today that Topps Archives had been released to the masses.  Of course, I decided to partake to see what was what.

Excuse me while I ........  yawn.........

We've already done the '54 Topps set in Heritage....quite a few years ago as a matter of fact.

The '71 Topps set will not be done for a few years with the Heritage treatment, and frankly, this guy   is paying homage to the set way more effectively than a Topps reprint could.


The '84 Topps set was OK, and the '80 Topps set was better represented back in 1980. 

excuse the granite background, I don't have a scanner

The inserts, well I'm not too sure about them as well.  The Nelson Cruz seems to pay homage to last year's Lineage set, while the Troy Tulowitzki...is a little loud to say the least.

Both have blank backs, which makes me feel like Topps is either standing on the card itself, or the company really just doesn't have anything creative to say.

The Catfish Hunter is a cloth sticker in the design of the '77 Topps set, which is the only redeeming quality I've found so far.  The Jay Buhner card worried me at first, then with a little research it appears that it is one of the all time fan favorites (high numbers), which are seeded in packs at a rate of 1:4.

Honestly, I'm not impressed.  I get the idea, but to be honest, I prefer having the Heritage lineup rather than these.

I'm also not too thrilled with the price point of these.  $3.19 for an eight card pack just isn't cutting it.  There is nothing new or original in here,  so why the same price point as Heritage?  The Heritage card stock is a much better quality, and at least with Heritage the set size is more substantial and pays homage to a much more historical set (at least this year).

Like I've said a million times while playing euchre...

Pass

Thanks for reading, Robert

Out of touch

I'm back.

For the first time since I moved to the States many years ago, I went four straight days without the internet.  Away from the posts, the blogs, the cards, and the collectors.

After spending the better part of 9 1/2 months reading, writing, and collecting on a daily basis, I went cold turkey for 4 days.

It wasn't easy, but I made it through.

The place where we were staying on the west side of Florida was gorgeous, and I spent the better part of 4 days baking in 90 degree heat, watching the fish jump out of the water, and generally relaxing.  I listened to a lot of music on the radio for the 4 days, and one of the songs that I heard was the inspiration for this post.

You're out of touch, I'm out of time, but you're out of my head when you're not around..  (Hall and Oates, Out of Touch, 1984)

Hall & Oates was on the radio, and the song made me realize just how out of touch I was for the first 4 days of my vacation.  It's amazing how little I had thought about the blog and writing.  (In case you were wondering, I didn't run into Potch here in Florida as well.)  I only stopped at a store that had cards just once, and naturally I picked up a few packs.

I had never seen a 2012 Heritage blister pack, and what piqued my curiosity was the three packs with 3 black parallels.  I wasn't aware of any black parallel version, only the Target reds and the Wal-Mart blues. More on those in a later post.

I am looking forward to a trip to a card store here in the Ft. Lauderdale suburbs tomorrow.  I'm hoping to find one of the legendary dime boxes that I'm hearing about on other blogs.   This will also be one of the rare posts that you will not find any scans/pictures of cards, since I really haven't pulled anything of note. 

I should be back in the ball game as far as posting regularly again; hopefully I've not lost anyone along the way.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Reverse psychology

I've hemmed and hawed for a few days about the merits of 2012 Gypsy Queen.  I really am stuck on what to do.  You've seen me write in the past on how I was kind of ambivalent towards the main set, what with its large amount of short prints and retired stars gracing the 300 card set.

Don't get me started on the minis...

A list of minis for trade, including these black beauties, are on the 2012 sets tab

What's totally bass ackwards for me though, is I have developed a fondness for the inserts.  At least the retail ones that I've encountered so far.  I've not pulled one duplicate in any of the insert sets so far, and I've bought 3 blasters and 2 rack packs.  That's totally out of character for me as well, as by now I am usually grousing about the crappy collation on most Topps products. 

Love these all, especially the Moonshots and Sliding Stars

I like the coloring and the artwork on all these sets.  Love em all.  This may be the first time ever that I decide to collect just the inserts, and (gasp) not worry about the base set/SPs.

I've even thought about putting together the base set/SPs and doing something on the blog with it...I don't know. 

I've got a vacation coming up...10 days, heading south to the warmth and fun of Florida.  I'll definitely take some time to think about it then and decide.

I think the Gypsies have taken my brain on this one...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Let's put 2000 into some perspective...

OK, I'm going to say it right off the bat and I will not mince any words.

This is an ass-kissing post, pure and simple.

But for me, it's necessary, because the Night Owl just hit 2000 posts the other day, and I felt something had to be said about it.

By the way, if you've been living under a rock for the past couple of days, Greg is running a contest over there, so hurry up and get in on the action.

When I saw his post yesterday stating that it was his 2000th, I pondered for a while.  Any of you that have read my insanity/drivel over the past 9 months know my love of numbers.  Think about the number 2000 for a minute...

If you, a blogger wanted to hit 2000 posts by just posting once a day, it will take you 5 years and 175 days to hit 2000.   That would mean a post on Christmas, 4th of July, Cinco de Mayo, and every other holiday over that span.  Think of all the Memorial Days, Labor Days, Easter Sundays and Good Fridays, and the Arbor Days that you would need to post on to hit 2000.  Just in case you were wondering, Greg hasn't even hit 4 years on his blog.  Football players bitch about 2 a days.  For the Night Owl, it's the norm. 


Let's go a little bit further.   There is no filler on his blog.  I know I can't say that.  There are times when I've written short posts, or written posts just to pimp a contest on another blog.

Greg writes about one sport...baseball.  There is no other.  Greg writes about one team.  The Dodgers.  There is no other.

I guess what I'm trying to say is whether the Owl is writing about why this guy should have been MVP last year

Or about two of the greatest pitchers the Dodgers (or the game of baseball even) have ever had..

I'm glad to say that his is one of the two blogs that have inspired me to write, to challenge myself, to think, to feel and to enjoy the hobby that we love.  The other one has a ways to go to hit 2000, but when he does, I'll write him one of these posts as well. 

Why did I write this post you may ask?  Well when I saw the post yesterday celebrating 2000, I was kind of surprised and disappointed that very few people took the time to congratulate him.

Hopefully, we don't take greatness for granted.  I'm trying not to.

Thank you Night Owl for the first 2000 posts.  I'll try my best to be around when 4000 hits.

Thanks for reading, Robert 

The last of the loot

Yes, I know, I've dragged on way too long about the card draft over at JABOs.  What can I say?  I enjoyed the draft, it ran very smoothly, and I got some cool stuff at a good price.

I'll make it end tonight..I swear!!

Parallels...another weakness I have to be careful of.  I snagged a few golds from a couple of different Bowman products.

Some more shiny/foil type cards...

I also snagged a leather nameplate, I wonder now that this guy has broken his wrist is this card Werthless?
(I know, please keep the booing to a minimum)

I never realized how thick these things were

A jersey card of a future Hall of Famer...I'm going out on a limb by saying that, but he's had a pretty damn good career.

Finally...# 28 in the list of Jays autos/relics....2005 Topps auto of Chip Cannon

Yes, Chip may have never even seen the inside of a big league dugout during the regular season, but this guy overcame something that would have stopped a lot of people in their tracks.  Chip had club feet, and although there have been many people who have overcome this and had success (Charles Woodson and Troy Aikman to name two...), I still think of the difficulty he must have had growing up and explaining the condition to people. 

Chip Cannon was a power hitting 1st baseman, who in his first year in the Jays system hit 32 HRs at 3 different levels.  Chip got as far as AAA in 2008, but was stuck in the system behind another power hitting first baseman by the name of Adam Lind, and left baseball for good in 2009.

Sometimes the best stories come out of the most unexpected places...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Random Jay Monday: 2000 Vanguard Carlos Delgado

This card is the most recent card to show up in the series so far.  Back in the days when Pacific was making sets with multiple colored parallels (remember Paramount had 5-6 colors at least?), the company's more premium brand, if I remember correctly was Vanguard.

The card had a little thicker card stock than your basic brands, and it was very glossy..

The design made it look as if Carlos was actually glowing, which might have been appropriate coming off of the '99 season he had.  .272 average, 44 HR and 134 RBI, not too shabby to say the least.  I took a quick look to see where he finished in the MVP voting that year, and he was 12th.  If you get a chance, take a look at the numbers that the top 11 players posted, including Pedro Martinez's masterful season on the mound, and you'll see why he finished so low with those gaudy power numbers.

I really didn't collect a whole lot of Pacific baseball back then, but their designs appeared to be very collector friendly.  Not a whole lot of bells and whistles on this card, outside of the glow, and the back was pretty clean as well, with another pic, a quick blurb about the previous season, and finally the previous season's stats above his career stats.

Thanks for reading, Robert

One guy who quietly has returned to his normal self

For all the folderol that surrounded this guy's season in 2011, you would have thought that Adam Dunn was a God. 

Yes, he struggled...mightily.

His final batting average was my weight when I was a freshman in high school (159).

But you know what, I could say that I shouldn't have been surprised about it.  Adam spent 10 years in the National League, and comes to the White Sox last year full of expectations after signing a 4 yr/$56 million deal.  The manager in Chicago, well let's just say that Ozzie is a character.  The 10 years in the NL were with Cincinnati, Arizona (44 games) and 2 years with Washington.  No real pressure cookers there.

Now he's in Chicago.  One of the 'big 3' in terms of US cities as far as population, and pressure on sports athletes.

No doubt he beat on himself last year, and tried way too hard.   The numbers don't lie.  11 HR, .569 OPS, 177 K in 415 ABs.  In my lifetime, I can't think of anyone else who struggled more during a season.  Not even the mighty Dave Kingman had an average so low, or power numbers so meager during a full season.

But now, quietly, Adam Dunn is back.  Well, to his normal self anyhow.  In his first 34 games this year, he has already matched last season's total of 11 HR.  He's hitting .248 (4 points above his career average).  If he keeps up his pace for the rest of the year, his current OPS of .997 will be his career high.

All for a guy who many said was finished last year.

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that if he stays healthy, he will hit career HR #400 this year (he needs 24 more this year to hit that number).

Why the focus on Adam Dunn?  Well, during the card draft at JABOs blog a few weeks back, I snagged this Adam Dunn relic..

I'm kind of glad that Dunn has gone out and quietly gone back to the numbers that made him such a sought after free agent during the 10-11 winter free agency period.  Yes, he did have a really bad year in 2011, but he really didn't deserve the beat down that he received from writers and fans alike.

Welcome back, Adam

Thanks for reading, Robert

Chopping down some insanity

A couple of weeks back, Derek over at Tomahawk Chopping posted about some cards he was going to sell on eBay, and gave readers an opportunity to snag a few of them first.  I found a handful that I was interested in, and within a few days after emailing Derek, those cards were in my hand, plus a few other surprises!!

First, the main reason was the insanity set that I'm putting together.  Derek added a handful of cards out of sheer generosity, and here we are a few steps closer to the 1500!

The scan on Hawpe is poor due to the warping that the '10 Chrome cards suffer from, even still the card will make its way into the binder with the rest.

The key acquisition for me though was this card:

Jeremy Accardo 2006 UD Future Stars Clear Path to Greatness signatures.   I love this card, and it puts me one step closer to my 2012 goal of having 30 Jays autos/relics in my collection (this is #27). 

Derek was also kind enough to send me a bunch of Jays cards as well, mostly from '12 GQ:

If you can't spot the error on the Topps Bautista card...shame on you!!

More on GQ in an upcoming post in the next couple of days..

Finally, there was one card in the envelope that absolutely puzzled me to no end...here it is..

Hmmmm....I wasn't sure why Mr. Urlacher was in the envelope.  I've kind of shied away from football card collecting, it is a numbered card but the insanity project is strictly baseball cards that are from Topps/Bowman products.

So why would this card be in there?  Then I figured it out.  Derek is a mind reader, plain and simple.  Derek knows that I have a weakness for...

Thank you to listal for the image

Jenny McCarthy, who recently has been linked to Brian Urlacher.

What were those card numbers I couldn't remember before??

Oh yeah...38  24  34

Derek, thank you for the cards, they are much appreciated..


thanks for reading, Robert

Suddenly, this card is a little more relevant

Imagine my eyes this morning when I saw the headline and was instantly shocked and happy at the same time.

Vladimir and Canada: Together Again

I'd really been out of the loop the last couple of days because of work, but when I found out this morning that the Jays had signed Vladimir Guerrero to a deal, I was quite happy.  But of course, it makes me think.

The Jays have signed a 37 year old veteran to a minor league deal, but no doubt will call him up to the big club when he's had some time to work out the kinks down in Dunedin.  Vlady's knees really limit him to being a full time DH with the Jays (the Sky Dome is artificial turf), and with the success that Edwin Encarnacion (EE)  is having there, the signing poses some questions.

EE's natural position is 3rd base, currently occupied by one Brett Lawrie.  No movement happening there.
EE has also played some first base, currently occupied by Adam Lind.  Adam is currently hitting .187, and with his offensive power numbers decreasing from his monster 2009 season, this signing may see Lind become some trade bait for the Jays...

As far as the card front goes, I snagged this card in a box break quite a while ago, and now it becomes a little more attractive...

I likely will not see any Guerrero Blue Jay cards until the late season releases (Topps Update, maybe Chrome..), but I'm looking forward to adding them already.

Of course there may be some Angels or Vlad Guerrero collectors out there who may be interested in the card, and I'm sure I could be persuaded to move it to an owner who may appreciate it more.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Some more '64 Topps pickups

After going about 3 weeks without any eBay wins, or bids for that matter, I was able to score a nice lot of 10 '64 Topps cards for just over $4 + shipping.  The scans on the auction didn't do the cards justice, they are in decent condition.

First we have a mixed bag of 6...including Danny Murtaugh, manager of the Pirates

Every time I see 'Roebuck' I think of Sears

The next two cards are of a pair of pretty good ball players

The Joe Pepitone turned out to be a bonus for me.  I thought while bidding that it would be good to have this card for cheap, since it is listed in the magazine.  Turns out I already had the card!  This copy however is an upgrade, so if anyone is looking for a mid grade Pepitone for their Yankees collection, let me know!  I now have two of the 3 Alou brothers in the set (Jesus is the only one left).

I also scored my first high numbered card, Jim Kaat....

This next and final card I just had to have a little fun with.

Don Larsen!!!

You just pitched a perfect game in the '56 World Series!!   Where are you going to go now??

Is it really picture day?

Nowhere dammit!!  They aren't giving out trips to Disney for another 40 years!!!

Sorry...couldn't resist...

Taking the lead from other bloggers, I also went through this sellers other auctions, and found this little beauty for $3 more...

'61 Topps NL strikeout leaders, card # 49.   Drysdale and Koufax on the same card, that's all right.

I'm almost at 20% of the '64 set already, a lot farther ahead than I thought I would be.  Hopefully my luck will continue.

Thanks for reading, Robert

OK, so Gypsy Queen hasn't been that bad to me

Nothing major in this post, just wanted to show off a card that I pulled out of a blaster last weekend.

Hiya Pops!

Willie Stargell relic, not too shabby for my normal luck!!  Yes, it's not an epic pull similar to what Sam at the Daily Dimwit  snagged (and sold for a nice chunk of change, wtg Sam!), but considering I don't pull too many great cards of legends, this card works for me.

thanks for the quick look, Robert

Numerology, JABO style

I'm not sure what it is, but I'm into card drafts lately.  I'm actually in the middle of two more that are in the process of gaining drafters, you can see them here and here.

I was into box breaks for a while, but I had one where my luck was really poor and that kind of soured me on box breaks for the foreseeable future (it was no fault of the blogger, that's just the way the balls roll sometimes...).

As I had mentioned the other day, I participated in Kyle's card draft a couple of weeks ago. I'm following up on the promise to post what I obtained.

Needless to say, part of the allure for me was a string of numbered cards from '08 Heritage and other places.  I was fortunate enough that nobody else really keyed in on these particular cards, and I scooped up a good portion of them.  First, the handful that will actually fit into the insanity set...

4 more towards 1500!

I also scored some others that I can use as trade bait in the future...

All the Heritage Chromes that I grabbed turned out to be refractors #'d/559, an added bonus!  The Barajas will stay here as part of the Jays collection (of course), and if anyone is interested in the Miles, Beato or Morrow cards, just let me know.

Yes, we really didn't study any numbers here, but at least the cards shown involved numbers...I tried!!

thanks for reading, Robert

The silver seven and one step closer to insanity

For a guy who has sat in his chair and pontificated (a word my wife uses to describe my blog writing, more on that in a later post) about many a topic on this blog, I sure have been an absolute disappointment as far as trading goes lately.

The 2nd week of April saw me hit 43 envelopes sent so far in 2012, and I thought to myself that I would hit my New Year's goal of 100 pretty early.  3 weeks later, I'm at 44.  Not good. 

I finally completed a trade last week with blog reader Brendan, who had sent an email to my g mail account a while ago.  You know the one that I apologized to everyone a couple of weeks back on the blog because I don't check it?  Yea, that one. 

Well, Brendan was very patient with me, and once he prodded me (again!!) about our trade, I got off my butt and we finished up a deal pretty quickly. 

First, he knocked off a couple of wants on the 2008 Upper Deck series 1 list...

I'm down to needing 7 cards now to finish that set (hence the silver 7 reference).   They are #'s 100, 136, 138, 225, 257, 291 & 349. 

In tune with other themes on the blog, Brendan also sent a couple of other cards my way as well.

Blue Jays, you betcha!  '10 Topps Toppstown insert TTT9.  The Russell Martin is a '11 Heritage Chrome towards the insanity set, one step closer to the magic number of 1500.

Every little trade helps, and maybe this one will get me off of the schneid and start hunting through people's want lists again.

Thank you Brendan for the trade!  Much appreciated..

thanks for reading, Robert

This post is not X-rated

Sorry guys, have to try and keep it as clean as possible.   I've noticed that there has been the odd curse word thrown into my posts lately, and I am almost beginning to wonder if I should be setting up a swear jar for each 4 or 5 letter word I mistakenly post (lol..mistakenly, yeah right).

Well, I'm hoping that this post will help me along to a weeks worth of posts describing the loot I received from Kyle over at the JABOs blog.  Kyle's card draft went quickly and without a hitch and was a great value from where this guy sits.

(Speaking of card drafts....Greg over at Plaschke, thy Sweater is Argyle is getting one together and needs 4 more peeps....let's go!)

OK...enough pimpage...let's get on to the cards.  This post is not X-rated, but it is about cards from the Upper Deck X sets.  I had never seen one of these cards before I had joined a couple of box breaks at other blog locales, and the sets quite intrigued me.

This card draft netted me just one X card, from the 2009 set, but it's a good one for me...

Roy Halladay from the 2009 X set.  Compare/contrast this one from the 2008's that I have in my collection:

Reminds me of a beer I used to drink when I was younger.

I would say that the 2008's look a lot more like an X than the 2009 die cut does.  These cards became kind of a curiosity for me, because I thought that the X die cuts were kind of cool, so I decided to look them up in the magazine.

100 cards?  That's it?  Disappointing that is for sure.  If the set had have been 200 cards, I probably may have put that on the list to collect it.  100 cards is a time waster for sure, I wonder if Upper Deck was just looking for a place holder set later in the season and came up with this.  The '08s are for trade if anyone is looking to add to their respective team collections.

Sorry if you were expecting something else when I mentioned in the title that the post isn't X-rated.  Maybe you were expecting some Benchwarmers photos?

 All right then, but just a couple....

Hopefully they weren't too provocative for you!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Random Jay Monday: '90 Fleer Tony Fernandez

I loved watching Tony Fernandez play baseball.  Everything he did both at bat and on the field looked effortless.  You can also see from the scan below that he had a helluva lot of fun playing the game.

1990 Fleer #80

I will always remember the flip throws he would make from short left field to get guys out at first...just amazing!  A lot of his swings at the baseball it appeared that he was just flicking his bat at the ball, and he'd end up at 3rd base with one of  the 72 career triples he hit while a Blue Jay.

Tony had 4 tours of duty in Toronto...83-90, 1993, 98-99 and 2001. This is one guy whose number I would like to see retired by the Blue Jays, because to be honest it pains me to see anyone else wear the #1 in a Jays uniform. 

I'm not a big person as far as trifectas go, but if I could put one together of Tony, it would hold a special place in my collection.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Are GQ minis actually Rookie Cards?

I kind of stumbled upon this post today, because I had planned to do another angle to go along with the Gypsy Queen posts that I had made last week. 

I purchased two Gypsy Queen blasters yesterday during a trip to Wal-Mart.  I didn't have a chance to open them yesterday, so I opened the first one this afternoon.  Nothing fantastic to shout about, but I did get one card that kind of made me think.

Exhibit A is below:

Card # 208, regular back, Adron Chambers of the St. Louis Cardinals.

Notice the prominent RC stamp in the lower right corner.  This made me think for a minute.  Aren't RC's supposed to be from the base set, and not portrayed by any kind of insert?  This was always my impression, so I did a little hunting, and found this definition of a rookie card from about.com.  [NOTE: the paragraph below is the 2nd paragraph of the webpage, and is used to illustrate my question/point.]

Note that a rookie card is not necessarily always produced during a player's rookie season, as there may have been cards that fit the definition printed in previous years. It is generally agreed that to be a true rookie card, the card must be numbered as part of a product's base set. Thus, insert cards of any type are generally not considered to be rookie cards.

Minis have always been inserts as far as I'm concerned.  Does this further muddy the waters of how RC's are defined, or has Topps over stepped their bounds here by stamping GQ minis as Rookie Cards?

I am curious to hear the responses out there....

Thanks for reading, Robert