My how time flies

Gotta love the unexpected PWE's that arrive on your doorstep, especially those filled with a handful of cards that hit various needs.

I received such an envelope while I was away for the weekend from Doug at Sportscards from the Dollar Store.  Doug not only hit a couple of my hockey wants, he also knocked off a couple of serial numbers that I needed for the insanity set.

I updated the list this evening, and couldn't believe it had been 4 weeks since I had removed anything from the list. 

Behold, the 53rd and 54th cards from the 2013 Topps base set that are now part of SNI:

Evan Gattis on the left is the 40th Braves card out of the 50 required.  It looks as if Evan is going to surpass all his rookie totals in hits, HR, RBI and batting average.   Not sure if he's making Braves fans forget Brian McCann yet, but it appears as if over time he will.  Gattis' card is serial number 1074.

Not sure how I missed Juan Nicasio's card in my top 5 for the 2013 Topps set.  What an amazing facial expression that Topps captured on his card!  Nicasio was sent down to AAA a week ago to make room for 24 year old Kyle Parker (0 for 6 with 4K's so far).  Nicasio's card is the 27th card for the Rockies out of 50, and is serial numbered 885.

Just 368 cards to go to reach the 1500 mark!  Still need help with the Rockies, Orioles and Astros.  All 3 of those teams are still under the 30 card plateau.

Doug, thank you for the envelope, all the cards are great and really appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Raising the Delabar

It's so easy to say that it always bears repeating.  As far as the card collecting universe goes, there are none more generous than those I've encountered in the blogosphere.  For nearly 3 years I've been a part of it, and it's almost as if everyone is trying to top the other. 

I reached out to Judson over at My Cardboard Habit when he asked everyone to send him their series 2 doubles towards building the set.  A lofty goal, and one that I can completely admire.   If I could build a set on trading alone, I'd be all for it.  Anyhow, I had 10 doubles to start him off, and I offered to send the cards to him, no questions asked, nothing expected in return.

Who doesn't want to move the doubles out of their collection, right?  It's even better when the cards get into the hands of someone who wants them.  I didn't need anything in return, nor did I ask.  As of yesterday, because of Judson's appreciation, I now am the proud owner of this beauty.

Yes, I know that my play on words is horrible, but when I score a Blue Jays certified auto in trade (appreciation was the word Judson used) for 10 series 2 cards from Topps, I have to say that the bar has been raised in terms of blogger generosity. 

Delabar has had a tough time this year in Toronto, so much so that they optioned him out recently to Triple A Buffalo.  It's not too often that a 30 year old pitcher gets optioned to the minors.  I'm hoping that he can regain his all star form of 2013 and get back to the Jays to help maintain their slim lead in the AL East.

Judson, from one habit to another habit, thank you very much for this card!!  It is really appreciated.

Thanks for reading, Robert

What's next? Round of 16: (4) 1976 Topps vs (13) 1970 Topps

When looking over the cards I have already for each of these two sets, for some reason I decided to show off a card from teams that no longer play in their respective cities.  Seattle of course has a team now, and I'm still surprised by the rumors that Tampa Bay could end up moving to Montreal.  This is another match that intrigues me; I'm very curious to see how the votes will play out.

Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1976 has 660 cards.  1970 has 720 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1976  Dennis Eckersley, Ron Guidry  1970 Thurman Munson, Darrell Evans
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1976  $250      1970  $2000
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more: 1976: 0   1970: 2 

Blogs:  1976 Topps vs   1970 Topps

Both blogs that I have linked are written by veteran writers.  1976's is courtesy of Matthew R, while Jim from Downingtown makes another appearance with his '70 Topps blog. 

A shocker

This goes to show how much I truly know about cards (and people).   I honestly thought that this match would go to '62 fairly easily, with a few people voting for the '67 set.

The '67 set grabbed 9 of the first 11 votes, and wins the match comfortably by a 16-9 margin.  That means that the '62 set, which I initially had thought would probably get as far as the semi-finals in this tournament, falls early.  As you hear a lot on TV, "that's why they play the games".

The '62 would have been a bit of a killer to finish monetarily, even though I already have a head start with a quarter of the set in my possession.

'67 takes home the second highest vote total so far, again a surprise for me. 

I do appreciate the fact that the tournament received the highest number of votes in a week (25), thank you to all who voted!!

Tomorrow starts off another great match, as '76 Topps battles '70 Topps.  I have a feeling on which set will win, but then again I thought '62 would have no problem defeating '67.

thanks for reading, and keep on voting!!   Robert

Another Mickey for the '64 set

It's really nice when you can find good deals on eBay.   It's even better when you find a really cool seller that combines shipping and is willing to negotiate.

No, this isn't a Mickey Mantle, instead it's a RC of the other Mickey in the set.

Easily one of the nicest cards I've purchased for the '64 set, this Mickey Lolich cost me $8 including shipping, and arrived at my door in fantastic condition.  This card brings me down to needing only 14 more to hit the 80% goal by year's end.

The National in 5 weeks should take care of that.....I hope

thanks for looking, Robert

The damn things just seem to keep multiplying

I can honestly say that I try to move these onto other bloggers.  Trade packages are "added on" with 2, 3 or more of the damn things.   But they keep on multiplying.

It's no secret that I've always had an affection for the serial numbered parallel.  The SNI set is a testament to that love.  But over the course of the past couple of years, I've gathered a small collection of serial numbered cards that don't fit into the set.

I actually found a 100 count case full of them a couple of weeks back.  Cards I had forgotten I owned, such as this one...

Dig that funky atomic refractor of David DeJesus.  Serial #'d 212/225.  Couldn't use him because that spot was already taken by a card sent to me by Too Many Grandersons (yes, that's how long ago it was sent...).

There's also cards with priceless reactions on the player's face.   Take a gander at this Mark Grace card for example.

He's pointing downwards, maybe someone gave him the old hotfoot?  Serial #'d 88/183.  Great card, but it's from Donruss.  I limited my SNI set to cards from Topps/Bowman products, so this remains in the pile.

One of the earliest pages that I completed in the SNI set was page #1, cards serial #'d 1-9.   Sadly, that wiped out any chance of these two being inducted into the set.

I have 8 of the 2008 Topps Co-Signers so far in the SNI set.  The Vidro/Sexson card just happens to be serial #'d 8/100.  On the right, the Emmanuel Burriss is serial #'d 6/59 and is from the 2010 Topps set.  Neither of these poor cards has a home. 

You might think that Topps has a lot of colored parallels going on, but remember the Upper Deck Heroes set?

Nice low serial # (10), easy to see because it's on the front of the card which makes the card even more appealing to me, but since it's Upper Deck, it fails the test. 

My plan over the next few weeks is to create another page with all these serial #'d parallels, and hopefully people will take a look and locate certain cards that they are looking for.  Gotta stimulate some trades somehow, right?  There may be a few teams that are thin because of the larger amount of bloggers that follow those teams (Dodgers, for example.)

Speaking of blog related activities, I have a little tournament happening.  You may or may not have noticed.  This weeks vote still has a couple of days left, so if you want to get in on the fun, just follow the link and leave a comment on the match up between '67 Topps and '62 Topps. (Tip of the hat to  the Night Owl for the push earlier this week!!)

thanks for reading, Robert

I wonder if it was the cold that killed his career

Sometimes you come across a card that strikes you as funny.   Then you look at the player on the card and you think to yourself "did he really play for the Jays"?  Then you look up his career stats on baseball reference and think that the cold in Toronto may have done this player in.

Reference the card from 1997 Score for Carlos Garcia.

I'm not exactly sure what that is on Carlos' head.  I do know that this picture was taken on the road somewhere during his time with the Jays, because with the dome in Toronto, he wouldn't have had to wear that whatever you might call it on his head.

What I do know is this.   The 4 years before he came to Toronto he played in Pittsburgh, and actually fared quite well.  His average ranged between .269 and .294, he stole double digits in bases 3 out of the 4 years, and had 100+ hits in each of those 4 years. 

It wasn't the same during his lone season in Toronto.  A .220 average and only 77 hits started the downward trend for the remainder of his career.  The '98 season saw him move to Anaheim and play in only 19 games, and the '99 season would be the last in the majors, just a half dozen games with the Padres.  Carlos played for a couple of seasons after that in the Yankees minor league system before calling it a career.

Carlos is actually back in the organization where he started; he is the manager for the AA Altoona Curve in the Eastern League.  I've been to Altoona, it's a nice place.  Definitely not as cold as Toronto.

thanks for reading, Robert

Speeding up the process

I've learned a lot in the nearly 3 years that I've been writing this mess I call a blog.  I know now that it is a lot of hard work keeping up with everyone, and everything blog related on a daily basis.  For those of you out there that are able to do this, I tip my cap to you.

I've learned that blogger generosity is a great thing.  I've also learned that this generosity extends to others that don't write, but follow along with those of us who try to entertain them with witty banter and pictures of men on cardboard (both old and young).

The biggest thing I've learned, in my opinion, is that there are a lot of resources for card crazy addicts like myself to work on their collections.  Ebay has long been a source for me, along with card shops and shows that offer a lot of different pieces of cardboard that I normally would never see. 

When I set my goals at the beginning of 2014, I didn't even think about how I was going to increase my PCs of Jim Thome and Joe Sakic.  I set goals that I believed I would accomplish by hitting card shows and trading with other collectors.   I never even thought about searching these specific players on sites like Sportlots to speed up the process.

The light bulb came on recently, and I've actually hit the 200 card mark for my Jim Thome PC a lot faster than I ever would have believed.

It almost seems like cheating for me.  I'm so used to building things slowly, sometimes taking up to a decade to complete a set, that having this goal of 200 cards for the Thome collection completed before the end of June is a little mind boggling for me. 

I heard somewhere earlier today on one of the sports broadcasts that I watched that we are in the age of instant gratification.  A true statement if I've ever heard one.  Maybe my problem is that I'm still stuck in the 80's, a time where things took a little bit longer to get accomplished.

Maybe speeding up the process of completing sets and tasks is a good thing for me.  I'm sure it'll be even better when my brain starts thinking like someone who is living in the 21st century.

If anyone knows of a way to speed up that process...just let me know....

thanks for reading, Robert

What's next?: Round of 16 (5) 1967 Topps vs (12) 1962 Topps

This is the match in the first round that pits two sets that are closest in terms of age, with only a 5 year difference between the two.  I'm going to enjoy following the votes on this one to see how everyone compares these two sets.  The key RCs for both sets feature 4 Hall of Famers in Brock ('85), Carew and Perry ('91) and Seaver ('92).

Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1967 has 609 cards.  1962 has 598 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1967  Tom Seaver, Rod Carew  1962  Lou Brock, Gaylord Perry
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1967  $5000      1962  $8000
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more: 1967: 9   1962: 13 

Blogs:  1967 Topps vs   1962 Topps

Again, another great blog written by Jim from Downingtown is featured, as he is the author of the 1967 Topps blog.   The 1962 blog unfortunately only contains a trio of posts.  However, if you'd like to see Lou Brock's RC, check out this post from  Brian at 30-YOC.

thanks for reading, and voting, Robert

A couple of rack packs to give away

OK, I've randomized the list of 20 names, ran it through three times, and got this.

 

Congrats to Capt Kirk and Jim from Downingtown!!

I will email both of you gentlemen today for your addresses and other details as needed.

thank you all for reading, and voting,  Robert

3 more pieces to the '64 puzzle, and the weekly winner

This has been a good week to obtain vintage cards.  Not only was I successful in winning the 3 card '57 Topps lot, I managed to pickup 3 more cards towards my '64 Topps set. 

Yes, the Jim Campbell is off center.  The 3 cards all have decent corners and no pen marks, so I thought that $1.49 apiece wasn't too steep a price to pay.  I'm only 15 cards away from my 80% goal for the year, a goal that I'm hoping to knock out at the National in August.

Moving on to the tournament, the winner for me was no surprise, and there were a few more votes for the 1980 set than I expected, but moving on by a margin of 13-7 is....

'69 Topps.  The next match, which starts tomorrow, is the first that features two sets from the same decade.   The battle between '67 and '62 Topps should be an interesting one, and I look forward to reading what everyone has to say about these two sets.

The tournament page will be updated this evening for everyone's viewing pleasure.  I will also give away a couple of rack packs tomorrow morning; everyone who voted for this week's match will have a chance to win one. 

thanks for reading, Robert

Sometimes good things happen by accident

Once in a while, I'll take a peek at the auctions on Sportlots.  I think I may have won a couple of them over the time I've been on the site, but I don't spend a great deal of time perusing their auctions.

Last week, on a lark I bid on a few vintage card auctions, putting up a disgustingly cheap max bid and letting the chips fall where they may.  I didn't expect to win any of them with the amount that I bid.

Surprise, surprise, I wake up Sunday morning to find out I won a 3 card lot of '57 Topps.  Take a look:

Yes, the Bobby Avila is off center, and the Dave Pope has a crease or 3, along with some very soft corners on the bottom. 

But when I can add 3 more cards from the '57T set to my collection for a whopping fifty cents (plus shipping), I'm not going to complain too loudly.

Even the mrs. was shocked when I told her the final bid. 

Maybe I should go buy some Powerball tickets tomorrow.   My luck couldn't have run out already, right?

thanks for reading, Robert

Now you can see his face

A Facebook group that I was a part of had a poster ask this question.

"Is anyone else getting series 1 cards in their series 2 packs?"

Now I see this and immediately the OCD in me has to go and check and find out if I pulled any series 1 cards.

Sure enough...

It appears that everybody and their brother has a SP variation with the USA or World uniform variation. 

Kind of diminishes the novelty of pulling a SP, doesn't it?

What do I know, I don't have a license to print money....

thanks for reading, Robert

Sometimes you have to stop and think

The last week has left me a little stunned to say the least.

I'm currently 46 years old, and I've heard of the passing of 2 baseball players in the last 7 days that were not much older than I am.

Last Monday it was Bob Welch, 57 years old.  Dead of an apparent heart attack.  Owner of one of the best pitched seasons I've witnessed in my lifetime (27 wins in 1990 for the A's). 

Today, it was Mr. Padre, Tony Gwynn:

I was aware of Tony's cancer issues, but I wasn't aware that it had progressed to the point that it was going to take his life so soon.  54 years old.   Way too young.

Tony's passing made me think of my mortality today.  It also made me think of a conversation I had with my father this past December. 

My dad, God bless him, turned 70 at that time.  When I talked with him he told me that he planned to be on this Earth at least another decade.

Between that conversations, and the untimely passing of the gentlemen above, I realized that I don't have a plan for myself.  Yes, I know you can never predict how long you're going to live.  But you can have an idea of what should happen while you're here, and what will happen when you're gone. 

Yea, this is a little deeper than what you should be seeing on a baseball card blog.  Sometimes I just have to get things off of my chest.

And now that I've totally depressed the hell out of you, go and enter Red Cardboard's contest.  He's got some cool stuff up for grabs (personally I'm hoping for a shot at the gold parallels...imagine that!).

Thanks for reading, Robert

Breaking the seal on series 2

It had been a few weeks since I cracked any packs of cards, and with series 2 being released this past week, I figured today was a good time to break the drought and see what's what.

I splurged today, buying a hanger box (there were no blasters!!), and a handful of rack packs.  There were some good cards in amongst the rubble, and some new inserts and parallels that I will show off here.

I pulled two of these cards which contain codes good for $4.99 in "in-game currency" for MLB the shot 14 for the PlayStation system.  If anyone is interested in them, let me know.

Your standard play at the plate and double play cards.  Solid photography as always.

I only pulled one of the minis.  It's earmarked for a certain Texas Rangers collector.

I also found an assortment of red:

gold:

and Wal-Mart blue parallels.

But I didn't expect to find this color:

Not sure if that's orange, or a different shade/hue of orange.  They are not serial numbered, so it's just another parallel.   Damn.

It was only a matter of time before we saw advanced saber-metric stats come into play.   The WAR stat is listed on the back of cards, and now we have inserts featuring stats such as BABIP. 

The rack packs each contained one of the green parallels as well.

Not too long ago Fuji asked us what teams we seem to pull more of than our own.

These are 3 of the more popular teams I pull, and the Mets seem to be the team I pull the most. 

Team collectors may be interested to know that I pulled the following cards, all of which are for trade:

Wal-Mart Blue:

Jason Kubel (Twins)
Brian Wilson (Dodgers)
Josh Willingham (Twins)
Robinson Cano (Mariners)
Sonny Gray (A's)
Ervin Santana (Braves)

Gold:

A.J. Ellis (Dodgers)

Ruby Red:

Chase Headley (Padres)
David Price (Rays)

Need/want any of these for you collection?  Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

By the way, I only opened 3 of the 5 rack packs.   I will give the other 2 away this Friday.   Any one who comments on this week's "What's next?" match from yesterday's post will have an opportunity to win one.

Trying to give a little something back to the blogosphere...

thanks for reading, Robert

What's next? Round of 16: (6) 1980 Topps vs (11) 1969 Topps

A quick monetary note about the disparity in price between these 2 sets.   The Reggie Jackson RC, in NrMT condition, books for 2.5 times more than the entire 1980 set.  I have a feeling that even though this should be a lopsided vote, the younger voters that have been contributing may show a little love for the '80T set.


Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1980 has 726 cards.  1969 has 598 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1980  Rickey Henderson, Dave Stieb  1969  Reggie Jackson, Rollie Fingers
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1980  $120      1969  $3000
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more: 1980: 0   1969: 4 

Blogs:  1980 Topps vs   1969 Topps

The 1980 blog has been inactive for just over two years now, while the 1969 blog is still running strong.  Jim from Downingtown also writes this blog; I checked and there was no post for Dick Dietz to link to (yet).

I appreciate all the votes that I've received so far, I'm hoping that the total weekly votes will start hitting the mid 20's soon. 

Thanks for reading, and for voting, Robert

The votes are in, and a milestone

Another week, and another round of 16 match is complete.  To be honest, I did not expect the vote to be this close for the 59T vs 66 T match, but in an 11-9 "thriller" (the last 2 votes broke a 9-9 tie), the winner is...

1959 Topps.  I thought the '66 set would get some love, but I didn't expect the match to go down to the very end.  As always, thank you to all who voted, and I will have the tournament page updated tonight with this result.

I know that there is a blogger or 2 out there that is a fan of Russell Martin.  I've gained quite an appreciation for him while watching him play for the Pirates during 2013 & 2014.   They announced at the start of the telecast tonight that this is Martin's 1000th game behind the plate.

2013 Heritage #364

Russell earned a lot of praise for how well he handled the Pirates pitching staff last year.  The Pirates really struggled during his time on the DL this year.  He's got a few good years left in him, but I'm not sure that at age 31 he has enough time left to hit the 2000 games caught plateau, which would be quite an accomplishment for a catcher (there has only been 5 catchers to catch 2000 games in the history of MLB).

The next match for the tournament could be another lopsided affair, as 1980 Topps faces 1969.

Then again, maybe not...

thanks for reading, Robert

This, that, and another thing or 2

Whilst working hard (pffft) on the 60s Topps checklists this weekend, I failed to notice that I accomplished a partial goal from my New Years Day post.  The cards that I picked up at last month's show towards the '68 Topps set put me over the 20% goal for the set, leaving me a little more free to work on the other two parts of the vintage set building goal that I'd like to accomplish.

Since the '68 set was bounced out of the "What's next?" tournament during the play in match, you probably will not see any cards from the set such as this Ted Uhlaender stuffed cheek beauty in the near future.  By the way, if you haven't voted on this week's match (59 Topps vs 66 Topps), why not?  Click on the link and cast your vote before Friday evening!

Next up, the beat up cards that I offered up the other day...namely the '71 Topps lot.

I had 3 responses requesting these.

Max, I found a couple more off center cards (though not quite as bad as the other two I displayed).  I'll get them in an envelope for you this week, hopefully with a few more Mets cards to pad the stack.

Chuck Bartz and Gavin, my plan is to split the remainder between you two.   Chuck, since you've started a set already, do you have a list of what you already have, so I don't send you any doubles?  Once I get that put together, I'll get the rest out to Gavin.  I'm hoping to get these out this weekend if possible, so please let me know as soon as you can.

Next up is another card from an envelope I received last week from Matt at Bob Walk the Plank (his end of the trade is linked).  I basically listed the cards I had for Matt, and requested that he send back what he thought was fair.

Damn, this guy treats his peeps well, because my envelope was a handful of relics/autos, including this Anthony Gose auto.

To be honest, I am not a huge fan of GQ.  I've had a passing interest at best.  But I like this card.  Love the shades, and the dark blue Jays unis are always a favorite of mine as well.  The signature....well, it's interesting to say the least.

I can see the start of Anthony on the left, but on the right, I think that's a fish hook?  Anyone have any minnows?  No matter, I still love the card and I appreciate Matt for sending it my way!!

I'm hoping that a Sportlots order that I placed on the weekend comes in during the next day or two, because when I do receive the cards, I'll be able to check off another 2014 goal. 

Fingers crossed....

thanks for reading, Robert

A productive Sunday

My wife and I have developed a Sunday routine that I really enjoy.   Do as little as possible.   Saturday's are spent running errands, such as going to the post office to get packages in the mail (!), groceries, lawn cutting, etc.

Sunday mornings have become time for me to catch up on some blog reading, and writing as needed.  Yesterday I decided to take a different route.  I had a big block of vintage cards that I had purchased last month still sitting on my desk, being used on a weekly basis to get the weekly tournament posts started.

Yesterday I finally started the long overdue exercise of starting checklists for each of the Topps sets between 1959 and 1969.  I had bits and pieces from all those years that I had purchased over the past couple of years, which only amounted to a handful of cards from each of the various sets.   Now I have checklists for every set that I have a portion of, 1959 through 1976.   Some have as few as 10 cards checked off, others have half the set put away.  Over time I'll get to each and every one of these, and I'll enjoy every minute of putting these sets together.

I also took the time (finally) to go through the large '71 Topps lot that I purchased a few months back, and dutifully went through each card and decided if they would be worthy of being part of a complete set.  The final tally wasn't too high.  54 cards total made the cut.

These cards have more creases than all the pairs of pants in my closet.  It kind of looks as if someone drew an extra mouth on Bill Mazeroski's card.  Tim McCarver may have been folded in 4 parts at one time.

Believe it or not, these two cards aren't poor scan jobs.  They represent a couple of horribly miscut cards.  Other than the miscuts, their condition isn't all that bad really.

The top row sees 3 more ink victims, including Tom Haller who is now a member of the "Tigeks". 
Even the great card of Lindy McDaniel succumbed to the crease monster that was prevalent in a lot of these cards.

In the end, there's 174 cards in varying conditions that need a home.   If anyone is interested in all or part of these beauties, just drop me a line.  Just because they don't fit into what I'm doing, doesn't mean that someone else might get a kick out of owning these. 

All in all, it was a productive Sunday for getting my collection a little more organized, even at the expense of not writing a post. 

thanks for reading, Robert

What's next?: Round of 16 (7) 1959 Topps vs (10) 1966 Topps

I'm interested to see how this match turns out.  While the '59 set gets a fair amount of attention, the '66 set is one that really intrigues me.  FYI, the Grant Jackson RC in 1966 Topps books for more than the Palmer and Sutton cards, but I didn't include it as a key RC because it is short printed. 


Tale of the tape:

1.  Set Size:  1959 has 572 cards.  1966 has 598 cards
2.  Key RCs:  1959  Bob Gibson, Norm Cash  1966 Jim Palmer, Don Sutton
3.  Cost of complete set in NM condition:  1959  $8000      1966  $4000
4.  Number of cards with high book at $100 or more: 1959: 14 (includes Mantle $1K) 1966: 12 

Blogs:   1959 Topps  vs   1966 Topps 

The '59 Topps blog was recently wrapped up by Commish Bob, while the '66 Topps blog is written by Jim from Downingtown, and is still going strong.

I appreciate the support I've received so far; 19 votes last week was pretty good.   I'd like to hit at least 20 a week if possible, so get the word out if you can.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Mail day: Outgoing and Incoming

I managed to get off the deck this morning and get 3 bubble mailers together.

26505
13601
75201

If you live in those zips, you've got something coming your way.

I also received a bubble mailer yesterday that had a lot of cool stuff in it from Matt at Bob Walk the Plank.   Matt seems to have an endless supply of fantastic stuff, and he was good enough to send me a bunch of it!

Here's the latest addition to the Jim Thome jersey card collection.

That brings the total Thome jersey count to 4.  Very sharp looking card with a nice gray swatch.

Thank you Matt!!  I'll show off the rest of the envelope sometime this week.

thanks for reading, Robert

Death by trouncing

You kind of had to expect that this 1st round match between the 1965 and 1978 Topps sets might become a little lopsided.  '65 is probably one of the best (if not the best) set of the past 45 years, while '78 doesn't have a great deal of star power to boast.

So, without further adieu, here is the winner of the 8 vs 9 seed match.

The unibrow of Mr. Moon moves on, with a 17-2 trouncing going into the books.

That margin may have already earned the '65 set the top seed going into the next round.  There are still 7 matches remaining in the round of 16, but that may be a tough score to beat.   Unless the contest attracts a lot more voters in the upcoming weeks, in my estimation there may be only 1 or 2 more matches that have the possibility of a lopsided score such as this.

The next match starts tomorrow with an interesting contest, as '59T faces '66T.

Thanks for reading, and voting, Robert

Let me explain

I took the time last night to add a new page to the top of the blog.   It's for the what's next? tournament, and I will use it to keep track of the tournament, and the number of entries each voter has so far.   The bold number in brackets beside your name is the number of entries you have so far, entries which are earned by commenting each week on that week's particular match up.  You don't have to write the great American novel when you comment, I promise...

There are a few people that have commented each week so far, thus the (3) beside their name.

Now unfortunately it's a little late for the first two weeks, but there is still time to vote on this week's massacre match.   If you wish to do so, please head over to this post and cast your ballot. 

Remember, guys like Luis Gomez need your love....

Hey, I had to sneak a Blue Jays card in somehow....

thanks for reading, and voting!  Robert

Cub, Cub, Cub, Cub, but no Pie

Another great and unexpected bubble mailer arrived today, this one from multi-blogger P-Town Tom, who was gracious enough to send me a handful of serial numbered cards.

Let's start with former Cub, Blue Jay, Dodger, Athletic, Yankee, and Expo (!) Ted Lilly.  I never thought much of Ted to be honest, but I learned that he reeled of 9 straight 10+ win seasons.  Ted is serial number 1459.

The Triple Threads line has been very beneficial to the SNI project.  The Derrek Lee card you see here is the 57th card from the TTT line, and as you can plainly see, this card is serial numbered 843.

Richie was a 4th round pick of the Cubs in 2003 out of FSU.  When this card was released in 2004, he'd only appeared for part of a season in A ball for the Lansing Lugnuts (love that name).  Tony progressed as high as AAA ball in 2008 before calling it a career.  This card is serial #'d 671 in case you were wondering.

Tom was more than gracious enough to spare this horizontal beauty of Marlon Byrd sliding into home plate.  If I'm guessing correctly, he is trying to take out John Buck at home plate.  Byrd is serial numbered 587, and these 4 cards bring the Cubs total up to an even 40.

This next card cost me about 15 minutes of my evening, and it wasn't to get some Pie either.

This card is serial numbered 875.  It also made me look like an idiot (like I needed any help with that...right??).  I go through the spreadsheet, and there's already a card in that spot.   I check the binder to make sure.   Yep, 875 is there.

Ugh.

The next 15 minutes are spent comparing the spreadsheet with the want list on the blog page.  I probably deleted about a dozen numbers, and actually had to add a couple back.

Hopefully the want list is up to date now.  I do know that I now have 1130 out of the 1500 cards needed, just 370 to go.  That is until I receive the next duplicate that is my fault because I don't know how to properly maintain a want list.

Tom, thank you for the cards, they are greatly appreciated!!  I am grateful that you paid Wes' hospitality forward.

thanks for reading, Robert

Seeing double

Taking an extra opportunity to go through the latest envelope I received from reader JT Steele, I came across a  couple of pairs of cards that made stop and do a double take.

Let's start with one of the best hitters of our generation, Paul Molitor.

On the left, 95 Bazooka card #102.   Needed it.  On the right, a red tinted parallel that I had no idea about.   I wasn't even aware that Bazooka did parallels.  Sure enough, on the right is the Red Hot insert card, #RH-19.  Need that one also.  There are two Blue Jays in the Red Hot insert set, with Roberto Alomar being the other.  Yes, I need the Alomar...

Chalk up another learning experience for me.

Next up, Alex Gonzalez.

First, let me just say that I'm glad to see how well the card on the right scanned, because I wanted the logo to stand out.   Perfect.

Now I see that both cards are from the 94 Bowman set, and when I see foil on one of the cards I immediately jump to the conclusion that the card on the right is some kind of parallel.

Wrong.  It's another part of the base set.  I had forgotten that Bowman in the early 90's was famous for including foil backed cards as part of the base set.   No matter, I needed them both and was able to knock two more cards off of the giant want list. 

The mid 90's consists of a lot of holes in my collecting knowledge (not that I'm any savant to begin with).   What's cool is packages like this from JT help me fill in some of the gaps.

It's too bad that my collecting knowledge has more holes than a block of Swiss cheese. 

Thanks for reading, Robert