Commonality

Not a word I would use too often, commonality.  A shared feature or attribute.  The more I think, the more I believe that I've heard a commentator use the word on a telecast.   No matter, this is an attempt to show off another dozen cards I bought for the Jim Thome collection on Sportlots. I decided to divide them into groups of 4 based on commonality (now I'm using the word a little too much).

Let me know what you think...

First group of four:

Give up?  How about four things that baseball players do every game.   Throw, hit, run the bases, and drink water in the dugout. 

OK, maybe that was a little bit of a stretch.   How about group #2?

Simple again, 4 cards featuring Jim in a Phillie's uniform.  From four different sets no less.  One of them is even a dreaded "pictured in one team's uniform while shown as a member of another team" card.  Do I include cards like that in my Jays collection?  No.  It just doesn't make sense, right?  The blue foil on the '05 Opening Day card in the upper left scanned really well, and looks just as good in hand.

OK, final group for today.

If you said "poorly scanned horizontal cards", you'd be correct.  I don't have a whole lot of Thome cards from his brief stay with the Dodgers, so the '09 Heritage high numbers card was a cool pickup.  The Turkey Red instantly becomes one of my favorite cards.  The infamous bat extended pose that is probably more famous on the 2008 A&G card (#87) is a classic. I still have to get that A&G card....(note to self).  How about another fun fact.   The two Heritage cards in this post list Thome at 6'3".  The rest of the cards list him at 6'4".  I wonder if he shrank towards the end of his career...

There's 12 more cards to add to the collection...I'll be at 200 before I know it.

thanks for reading, Robert

I like where I am right now

I can honestly say this, I no longer feel the need to chase the latest and greatest that's on the shelves.  Shocking, yes I know.  I've spent a lot of time lately doing a little soul searching, trying to figure out what I really like in this hobby.

I mentioned the other day that I had gone two weeks without a card purchase, but still felt the itch.  For me, that's a good thing, because it means I'm not bored with card collecting.  There were times in the past where I would go full bore collecting cards, then get tired of it and drop the hobby for a while.  I think that writing about cards, and my experiences with them, has helped keep my interest strong.

Another thing that has helped me so far this year was setting clear and concise goals for 2014.   Goals that were aimed specifically at sets/PCs that I am very interested in continuing or completing.  They've certainly helped keep me on the right path. 

This past weekend also saw two things happen that reaffirmed the path I'm on.   Sunday's trip to Wal-Mart and the card aisle saw me return home empty handed.  In this case, that's a good thing, because I am really not interested in anything that's on the shelves right now.  2014 products for the most part have not done anything for me.

Saturday's purchase from Sportlots, however, was very focused.  Amazingly, I got the first envelope today from that order.  BTW, if anyone tells you that the USPS is slow, I received a bubble mailer today from California...in 2 days.   Fantastic!!  This envelope contained cards of one player....Jim Thome.

I mentioned at the beginning of the year that I wanted to have 200 Jim Thome cards in the PC by the end of the year, and this first purchase brought me 37 cards closer to that goal.

 A half dozen basic, no frills, 90's base cards.  18 cents apiece.  Easy enough.

Six more cards featuring Thome in various stages of swinging the bat.  I just love watching his swing; check out this video of one of the longest home runs in Jacobs Field history to see why. 

Jim Thome is just one of things I like about this hobby.   I plan on writing another post or two this week about other things that I like.  Why?  Because I like where I'm at right now.  I might occupy an insane corner of the collecting universe from where you're sitting, but for me, I think I've finally made a bit of peace with the hobby and what I want to do.

Finally....

thanks for reading, Robert

A little bit of shiny for your Saturday

Well, I've made it through two weeks with zero purchases.  I felt myself going through withdrawal last night and hunting through eBay to see what I could find.   Luckily, sleep wound up winning and I managed to go another day without any impulse purchases putting a dent in my wallet.

I decided to hunt through some recent additions to the collection to find some shiny cards to show off.  Shiny always makes the day a little bit brighter.

Now this is a loud card.  1998 Pinnacle Aurora Pennant Fever #23 of Jose Cruz Jr.  1998 was Jose's first full season as a Blue Jay, and I remember all the type when he came to Toronto mid-season in 1997.  When looking up his stats I was shocked at how much he moved around after he left Toronto following the 2002 season.  Cruz played for 7 teams during the 2003-2008 period, including 3 teams in 2005.  Makes you wonder what went on in his life during that time to end up moving all over the place.

 

2013 Topps Chrome orange refractor of Josh Johnson.  It appears that the Jays made the right decision by letting him go after the 2013 season.  Johnson is slated to have his 2nd Tommy John surgery soon, costing the Padres a cool $8 million in the process. 

Serial # 525

There's the first card from the 2014 Heritage set to make its way into the SNI project.  Orioles slugger Chris Davis found his way here via another PWE from the 48895 zip code.  The Orioles are finally past the halfway mark, since Davis' card represents the 26th Oriole card for the set.  The total for the set is 1123/1500, only 2 cards shy of 3/4 complete.

Pat also included a little less shiny, but still quite welcome, chrome parallel of Jose Bautista in the envelope.  I already have serial #660 for the insanity set, so this slides nicely into the Jays collection.

I think it's high time that I start getting something together to send out to Pat....

thanks for reading, Robert

48895

I should have these 5 numbers memorized by now.  I've seen them so many times on PWE's that arrive from Michigan that they should be ingrained into my brain.  Yes, Pat from the Hot Corner Cards blog sent me another trio of cards that meet the needs of a couple of want lists...

2014 Opening Day SF-44

It may not be the greatest idea for an insert, but something about this card just grabs me.  The colors maybe?  When typing the card into my Blue Jays spreadsheet, the SF-44 automatically popped up, which as anyone who uses Excel knows means that the characters were already in that column.  So, instantly I thought I had this card already.   Turns out that the Jose Bautista Spring Fever card from the 2013 Opening Day set also was numbered SF-44.  Coincidence?

I like the South Philly sluggers card.  This was the first time I'd seen this card, and I had to look at the back to realize it was actually the insert from the 2010 "Cards your mom threw out" set.    That's 1160 combined career HRs with their arms raised in the air.  It's funny, I decided to enter a few of the Jim Thome cards I have into the Trading Card Database, and I became a little bit depressed when I found out that there are currently 8638 cards listed.   That includes parallels, jerseys, oddballs, autos, etc.  If that's the case, I only need 8528 more to be complete!! 

That's not happening...

Thank you again Pat!   Another great trio of cards.

thanks for reading, and my apologies for slacking this week...Robert

Some more Jays goodness from Wes

I took a closer look at the cards that I received from Wes as a prize for correctly guessing the winner of the blog of the year contest.  There were a dozen cards in the group I wanted to show off today, some great Jays goodness from yesterday and today.

How about a couple of Topps' finest?

Just for fun last week, I tried peeling off the sticker of an older Topps Finest hockey card.   I wound up tearing the card (the front came apart from the back), teaching me that I shouldn't be messing around with the protective coating.  One of these days I'm going to have to sit down and figure out how many Carlos Delgado cards I have in the Jays collection.  It must be closing in on 150.

A little more modern you want?  Sure...

Ice blue and chrome Bowman versions of Joey Bats, you betcha.  The Eric Thames is only the 3rd gold sparkle (if that's what that version of gold is called) from 2012 that I own.   I thought I had more of those.  The Bowmans Best card of Delgado is from 1999, and is another set that I own very little of.   One day I'll have to try and rectify that.

Here's a half dozen cards that you don't see everyday on the blogs.

Hard to say which of these is my favorite, although the John Olerud Toys R Us rookies card is right up there.   The Alomar is a food issue, from Hostess back in 1993.   I can still remember all the press that Cliff Johnson received when he broke the all time record for career pinch hit home runs (Cliff finished his career with 20).  That record has since been eclipsed by Canadian Matt Stairs, who has 23. 

The Blue Jays total now stands at a little over 4300, with some cards still to be sorted out from recent acquisitions.  I think I'm going to need a bigger storage box to hold everything I need to get into binders.  The 3 row shoe box is starting to burst!

Thank you for the cards Wes!!  Very much appreciated.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Black and Blue

A few weeks ago I sent off a few OPC cards to Justin at The Hopeful Chase to help out with his 2012-13 set pursuit.   No need to send anything in return I advised, as I was happy to send him a few cards that were just doubles for me.

Guys in the blogosphere sometimes just don't listen!!

Check this out...

2013 Topps Black parallel of Mark DeRosa!!  Serial #'d 16/62, and a great add to the Jays collection.

A great PWE, and a great way to start the weekend.

Thank you Justin, very much appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Week in review: A little purging is necessary

Posting this week has been a little sporadic.  An odd work schedule for me this week is a big reason for that.  Having to get up at 3 in the morning on Wednesday, and then 330 AM today has really messed with my sleeping habits. 

So, instead of having 6 posts like I normally would, I sacrificed a couple of posts and got some sleep.  You could say that I purged the need to post every night.

Another need for purging came to me last week.  I felt the need to start cleaning up and organizing the multitude of monster boxes that I have lying around in my bedroom.  There are so many partial sets that haven't been looked at in almost a decade that it kind of made me a little sick to my stomach.  I even have a monster box that is starting to fall apart; even cardboard that gets moved around a lot over a 15 year period is going to take a beating.

My goal was to take the cards that were in that box and either start putting sets together, or get rid of the cards.   I didn't have the heart to throw the cards out, that didn't seem right.  Having become more charitable over the past couple of years (thanks to my wife), I started thinking about donating some of the excess.  I then remembered reading a long time ago about an organization that accepts donations and gets the cards out to children.

Commons4kids.org was the right thing for me.   I gathered about 1000 cards, boxed them up, and sent them off.  For the price of postage, I freed up some room, and did something good (in my opinion) for the hobby.  Hopefully there is a kid or two out there that will get some enjoyment out of these cards and become a future collector.

I'm sure that as I look through more boxes I will find more stuff to donate, but clearing out a little more than one row from a 5000 count monster box is a good start. 

I have to start making room for stuff that comes in that I want to have as part of my collection, like this..

An '84 Fleer sticker of Dave Collins.  The 1984 season was probably the best of Collins' career, hitting 15 triples and stealing 60 bases.  The back of this sticker was an interesting boast by Fleer...

"Collect Fleer trading cards, rated best in '84!"  I went to a more reliable source to see if this was the truth.

Turns out they were right.  What do I know?

Total spent on the hobby this week:  $0

It looks as if I'll be on the cheap for a few weeks (hopefully) until the big Robert Morris card show in Pittsburgh the 3rd week of May. 

thanks for reading, Robert

This guy made the right choice

I can honestly say this, I do get lucky every once in a while.   JBF's blog of the year contest at the beginning of 2014 gave everyone the opportunity to nominate who they thought was the best sports card blog.

So, I put a bunch of names on a dartboard, threw three darts up there, and when the 3rd dart finally hit the board, it landed on the Night Owl.  I know, not the most scientific way of choosing a blog, but sometimes you have to let the chips fall where they may.

Lucky me, the Night Owl won for the 3rd year running, and my nomination scored me some Blue Jay goodies from Wes. 

The most intriguing card in the envelope was this graded card of a fellow whose card you might not expect to get graded.

Danny Ainge's career with the Jays lasted a grand total of 3 seasons, and after the third season he decided to try his luck with the NBA's Boston Celtics.   14 seasons, 2 championship rings and an all star appearance later, Danny sure made the right choice.

Ainge is still hanging around the NBA, as the GM of the Celtics.  In those 12 seasons, the Celtics have made the playoffs 9 times and won the title in 2007-08.

Interesting note about the jersey numbers Danny wore during his playing career.   5 different teams, 2 different sports, 5 different jersey numbers (2 in Toronto, 44 in Boston, 7 in Sacramento, 9 in Portland, 22 in Phoenix).   Usually most players are superstitious about what number is on their jersey. 

I guess Danny was different...

More on this great package from Wes to come.   Thank you Wes!!

thanks for reading, Robert

English Insanity

I guess no matter where you go, insanity follows.   Case in point, the envelope that Martyn sent me last week had a few serial numbered cards towards the SNI set. 

Martyn added 5 more cards to the insanity set; it would have been 7 but unfortunately 2 of the cards he sent my way were Yankees, which have already completed their 50 card allotment.

Here's the latest and greatest to be added to the SNI set:

Starting off is the Will Middlebrooks RC from the 2012 Topps Update set.  This card is serial #'d 919, and is the 40th card out of 50 for the Red Sox.  Middlebrooks is currently on the 15 day DL, and is due to come off on the 20th. 

Another RC card here, this time from the 2013 Topps Update set.   Grant Green's card is serial #'d 703, and is the 48th card out of 50 for the Angels (close!).  Green is a former 2009 1st round pick who was traded to the Angels by the A's last season for Alberto Callaspo.  Green was optioned on the last day of training camp to AAA.

I can't say that I've heard of Marwin Gonzalez before I received this card.  Mr. Gonzalez is already one of my favorite types of players, because so far this season he's already appeared at five different positions, plus DH.  Gonzalez's card is #791, and is the 28th card for the Astros.

Gallardo is off to a great start in 2014, having only given up 2 ER in his first 18.2 innings.  The Brewers looked pretty good in handing the Pirates a 3 game sweep on the weekend, and they are the first in the majors to 10 wins this year.   Gallardo's card is serial numbered 764, and is the 34th card out of 50 for the Brew Crew.

Last up we have Carlos Ruiz of the Phillies.  Surprisingly, Ruiz has more stolen bases than RBI's to this point of the season.   Yes, it is still early, but I'm sure that the Phillies are counting on a little more from him than the goose egg he has for his RBI total.  This card is serial numbered 1302, and is the 35th card out of 50 for the Phils.

1122 out of 1500 so far towards the set.  Just 3 more cards until the set is 3/4 done.

Thank you again Martyn!

thanks for reading, Robert

I even collect ball cards from across the pond

Another batch of great Blue Jays cards made their way into the house this week, courtesy of Martyn from the I collect ball cards blog.  Martyn did a fantastic job hitting various sets on my want list, and he even introduced me to a 2014 set that I hadn't seen or read about.

Let's look at some stuff from a couple years back.

 

Mastroianni is now property of the Twins.  Sean Ochinko is currently serving a 50 game suspension for the use of amphetamines.

Deck McGuire's Bowman Platinum card is an X-fractor, which unfortunately didn't scan very well.  Deck's time may be running out as far as being considered a prospect; he's now 25 and in his 4th season at the AA level.  The Casey Janssen was on my want list, and I wondered why that was the case.  It turns out that I never updated the 2012 sets when I typed out the Blue Jays want list a few weeks back.   That error has been corrected.

Since there were a few humorous comments when I posted my Opening Day Dickey a few days back, here's another one for you.  This Dickey is in gold!!  The tattooed Brett Cecil is now a fixture in the Jays pen, and thriving there.  After struggling for a few years as a starter, Brett pitched well enough in 2013 to earn a trip to the All Star game.

Not sure how much Topps Tribute from 2014 I've seen out on the blogs, but these aren't too bad.  I did a quick ebay search for the Tribute release, and the cards look really nice.   Take a look at this ebay auction of a Steve Carlton auto for an example.   Martyn sent me a couple of more Dickeys (I guess a guy can't have enough of those!), including the blue parallel #'d out of 99.  Great stuff!!

Martyn also sent me a quick fix for the SNI set, knocking a few more numbers off of the want list.  I'm saving those for another post.

Martyn, thank you for the envelope, it's very much appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

2014 Topps Series 1: My top five

The final 4 cards for the set arrived today with the last of my Sportlots purchases from this past weekend. This might be the fastest I've completed a set since I started the blog.

My standard M.O. for selecting the top 5 is by going through the set twice, and pulling out the cards that strike me as interesting as I go.  I usually end up with anywhere from 10-15 cards that I really like, and from that smaller group I whittle down to the top 5.

This time, I only found 8 that I really stood out for me.  The honorable mentions this time go to Nick Hundley (the tongue), Nate Schierholtz (great diving catch), and Chris Getz (double play/potential kick to the groin).

So, without any further babbling, here are the 5 cards I thought the best in Series 1.   Feel free to disagree.

#5--  194  Joel Hanrahan

I just read that Hanrahan is going to hold a showcase sometime during the next couple of weeks for teams that may be interested in his services.  Boston unfortunately got the worst of the deal with Pittsburgh (as a Blue Jays fan I'm secretly smiling), but if he can rebound to the point where he left off with Pittsburgh, then some team is going to be very lucky.  This card showing him signing for the fans was an easy choice for me, as cards that show players giving a little something back to the faithful have always been a winner in my book.

#4--  8  Coco Crisp

Better than the Oscar Gamble cards of the 70's?  The green and gold A's colors, the fantastic afro neatly trimmed.  Great look, great card.

# 3--  326  Khris Davis

It looks as though the ball is in the glove, it's very hard to tell though.  Great photo of man meets wall.  Ryan Braun's suspension helped launch this guy's career last season, and 2014 has Davis hitting over .300 so far. 

#2--  212 Jason Heyward

I can sympathize with those who weren't happy because they couldn't see Heyward's face on this card.   But this is one helluva shot.  Does he catch the ball?  Does he hit the wall?  Full extension, eyes on the ball.   Fantastic.  This would have been #1 for me if it wasn't for the next card...

#1--  42 Mariano Rivera

July 28th, 2013, Mariano Rivera comes trotting in from the bullpen with the game tied 5-5 and throws a 3 up 3 down inning on 12 pitches.   The Yankees score in the 9th to win the game. 

I don't like the Yankees, and I never will.   But for me, this card pays a great tribute to the man who will probably be the best closer I will ever see in my lifetime. 

At least Topps got it right and gave him card #42 for his swan song.

And that, is my top 5...

thanks for reading, Robert

Another handful off the list

Still doing a reasonable job keeping up with the incoming Blue Jays cards.  The 2014 issues are arriving faster than I ever could have imagined, and with new releasing seemingly happening on a weekly basis, I have to be sure to keep the Jays want list up to date.

Thanks to these 3 cards, I already have 10 of the 2014 Heritage Blue Jays team set in hand.

Say cheese Munenori!

Gotta love the Munenori Kawasaki card.  I'll be hard pressed to find a card that I'll enjoy more than his in any of the 2014 releases.  His offensive stats weren't the greatest, but his hustle and personality won him a lot of fans in Toronto last year (myself included).  We'll see if he makes it back to the major league roster again in 2014.

This next card is my first 2014 Opening Day card, and it's a beauty.

get a grip

The blue parallels from Opening Day have always been a favorite of mine, and the red Canada Day uniform on R.A. Dickey just stands right out.   Great card!!  Speaking of 2014 Opening Day, my want list is now up, and I was a bit surprised that there were only 4 Jays cards in the set.  With only 220 cards in the set, I know Topps is kind of limited, but 220 cards divided by 30 teams would mean 7 cards per club, right? 

I guess logic doesn't always win out.   That's why I don't make the big bucks folks....

The last card that I'll show off tonight is a reverse of the R.A. card...but it's not him.

Thank you again Pat, great PWE!!

Red border along with the  blue uniform top of Kevin Pillar is featured on the Target red border card you see here.  This is the 1st Target red parallel I've received, and I don't know if it's just me, but there just doesn't seem to be as many flagship cards flying around.   I haven't seen a lot of the big box store parallels on the blogs at all, and I wonder if that's because people are tired of them already. 

Maybe Topps needs to reinvent the wheel, come up with something that isn't quite so square?

Pat and Jason, thank you for the cards, they are tremendous!!  Always appreciated...

thanks for reading, Robert

Generic Brand

No name products.  We've all bought them over the years to save a buck or three.  Back home, we also knew them as "yellow label" products, because the cans/boxes had yellow labels with black writing.  

As plain as plain can be.

Today in my mailbox I received such a yellow labeled bubble mailer.  Black writing on the front.

No note inside.  No return address.   Nothing.  Almost as if the person who sent it was ashamed that they sent me this envelope.  I can only think of one question for this person.

Why?

Four Blue Jays cards from 2009 Allen & Ginter is nothing to be ashamed of.  Take a look and see...

I know nothing of A&G from the past, so my first thought was "is there a difference between the red, green and blue backgrounds"?  I highly doubt it, but if anyone can tell me if there is actually a difference, it would be greatly appreciated. 

If only the postage that was paid by this generous person was cheaper than the usual bubble mailer, then this could have been truly a generic brand package.  Oh well, I guess you can't have everything.

Will the mystery guest sign in please...

thanks for reading, Robert

The pages just keep coming

Another completed page folks, thanks to the great lot I received from Jason W., there are now 18 completed pages toward the SNI set.

Behold, page #15  cards 127-135

Jason's contribution to the page is the Mike Fontenot card in the top center.  Other bloggers who contributed include:

Erik from Sandlot cards (Travis Hafner)
Kyle from Juust a bit outside (Jordan Walden)
Max from Starting Nine (Dee Brown)
Dennis from Too Many Grandersons/Verlanders (Vincente Padilla)

thanks to all, and keep them coming!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Another completed page for the SNI set

I apologize for the lack of posts the past couple of days.   I decided to take a small break while starting to clean up the desk area.   I spent some time putting away a bunch of cards yesterday, and part of that effort was the serial numbered cards that I showed off last week.

One of those cards completed another page of the insanity set.  Page 46 is now complete, so I can show off cards numbered 406-414!

Two horizontal cards in the center column, and the Ryan Madson card looks as if he is horizontal.  It was also pretty cool to put away the Aaron Hill in the lower right hand corner and find that there are two Blue Jays from the same set/same limited parallel on the same page. 

I had help with this page, so I have to thank the following:

Nick from Dime Boxes for the Aaron Hill
Michael from Nomo's Sushi Platter for the Ryan Madson
Ryan from "O" No another Orioles blog for the Yadier Molina
Adam from Thoughts and Sox for the Kenny Lofton
Tom from Waiting til Next Year for the Justin Upton

The set is closing in on 3/4 complete, only needing 8 cards to reach that milestone, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading, Robert

These are Unique

Continuing on from last night's post, blog reader Jason W. did send me a great envelope filled mostly with serial numbered cards.  This envelope is probably the biggest dent into the sent that has taken place in quite a while. 

This group of seven that I'm going to show off today are all from the 2009 Topps Unique set.  I've received a few of these before, but each of the other times it has been just one.

They are pretty sharp looking cards, and a little thicker than I had remembered they were.

Brandon Phillips is serial number 990, and the 38th card for the Reds in the set.
Joe Saunders is serial number 92, and the 46th card out of 50 for the Angels in the set.
Carlos Pena is serial number 831, and the 43rd card out of 50 for the Rays.

I'd forgotten about Braden Looper until I saw the card in the upper left corner.  2009 wound up being his last season in MLB, even though he had 14 wins.   I'm guessing the over 5 ERA and 39 gopher balls probably had something to do with why he couldn't find a job the next season.    His serial number is 1141, and the Brewers now have 33 cards out of 50. 

Russell Martin has been a god send for Pittsburgh.  Stability behind the plate, handles the staff really well, and had a lot of timely hits for the Bucs in 2013.  His card is serial numbered 461, and is the 32nd card out of 50 for the Dodgers.

The 2nd Reds card in this post belongs to Scott Rolen, who wound up with the Redlegs after being traded by the Jays for Edwin Encarnacion.  The Jays were hoping for better power numbers for him, but alas that wasn't the case.  Rolen is serial numbered 667 and is the 39th card for the Reds.

Finally up is Paul Konerko, currently in his 16th season on the south side.  Paul only needs two more hits to reach 2300 for his career.   Konerko's card is serial numbered 470 and is the 34th White Sox card for the SNI set. 

1109 down, 391 to go.  There's still more to come from Jason's great envelope!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Yes, I'm 2 days late. Maybe I'm 3 days late. Or is it 11 days late?

Am I mistaken, or at one time did opening day start in Cincinnati?   So many things change that I can never keep up with it all.

Speaking of keeping up with everything, I am behind on some trades.  I've been fortunate lately to have received several emails from people who have been reading my dose of insanity here via a link on the trading card database.  One of those great readers is Jason W., who sent me a healthy dose of serial numbered cards, along with some other goodies.

Two of the cards that came by were from the 2014 Topps Opening Day release.  You know, the evil blue parallels that would be very tempting to chase if I didn't have 654 different collections already on my plate.

Not only are these the first two cards from this years OD to grace our presence, but each of the players featured on these cards make their first appearance in the SNI set.

First, let's meet Mr. Craig Kimbrel

Serial number 1340

I believe that this card needed to be horizontal in order to fit all of Kimbrel in.  Even Topps lists opening day as March 30th, so maybe the series in Australia didn't actually take place?   Kimbrel's card represents the 39th out of 50 for the Braves.

It's rookie cup time!!  How about Jedd Gyorko. 

Serial number 1024

See, cards like this would look great with the camo parallel that Topps had.  The camo uni and camo border would blend in together so well that the card may not even end up existing at all.

Gyorko's card is the 42nd out of 50 for the Friars.

There's plenty more from Jason to show, but I'll save those after I make sure that my insanity list is correct....ugh.

thanks for reading, Robert

They tried, they failed

A gang of bloggers decided to try and load me down with Blue Jays cards in the hope that I wouldn't get them cataloged by the end of the day yesterday.

Of course I'm kidding, but the decent sized stack that several people sent me has been diminished.  I spent about an hour going through the cards last night, and I am declaring myself caught up with both the pile on my desk, and with the Jays want list.

(Crosses that off of 2014 goals list)

On the way home this past Saturday from the card show, I was jonesing to bust a few packs of cards.   It's hard for me to sit near all those cards like I did on Saturday and not buy any packs.   Yes, it's an illness, I know.

So, I stopped at Wal Mart and grabbed a few rack packs of Heritage.  I bought 5, and I opened 2.  I'm OK with them, they just don't jump out at me for some reason.  The '65 set is a classic, but maybe the Heritage line has just become a little bit tired for me.

Maybe I've become a little bit tired of the Heritage line.   I don't know, I just can't put my finger on it.

In the 2 rack packs, I did pull one double, that of Matt Dominguez.

I also pulled Then and Now inserts out of both packs.  A pair of lefties on one, a pair of righties on the other.   No hitters though.  Maybe somebody will want either of these.

I also got a SP card in both packs.   I guess that means in theory that I would only have to buy 75 rack packs in order to get all the SPs?

Somebody out there might want these as well.

say SPs!!

I don't think I'll be chasing this set, and I have already been sent most of the Jays already (a good thing!), so I don't think I'll be buying much more of this.

Now, with all that said, it is time to wrap up the contest that I ran to celebrate my 1000th post on this here blog....

Congrats to Hackenbush!   He is the purveyor of the Can't Have Too Many Cards blog, one of the great blogs out there.  His birthday posts are among my favorites to read.

Thank you all for joining and reading my little slice of insanity, it really is appreciated.

Robert