Swing and a foul tip?

OK, so last Sunday night I find out at 10PM that there's the 8% ebay bucks promotion going on, and it ends in a few hours.   So I jump on the site and start looking for card lots to try and help me along with the 80's Topps set quests that I'm working on.   I see a 100 card 1981 Topps lot for $10 + $4 shipping, which I didn't think was too bad, so I jumped on it.

The listing didn't show any of the card #'s, so I figured I'd take a shot since I needed over 400+ cards to finish the set.   My thought process also was that any dupes that I may get I'd just add to my TCDB trade list in the hopes that I can swing them for some other cards that I need.

Well, out of the 100 card lot, I'm about to show you the cards that I needed for my set.

Yep, that's right, just 32 of them were crossed off the want list.  I was a bit bummed out at first, but I'm hoping when I put the other 68 of them into my Trading Card Database trade list that someone will need some of them and offer up a trade.  So I'll call this purchase a full swing and a foul tip just because more than 2/3 of the lot wasn't needed, but in the end might do me some good.

The seller also did a good job with the shipment; the cards fit in a 100 count box and the extra room was filled with a solid piece of foam which did the trick nicely. 

I've got a couple of more auctions on the way (Single card auctions), and a couple more trades/purchases from outside ebay as well. 

It's been a busy week indeed...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Little by Little

Been in a bit of a mood to trade lately, and I've been using the Trading Card Database to help in knocking a few cards off of my want lists.

Nothing major, just a couple of cards here, and a few cards there.

First, Eddy (User ID:setshot68) was kind enough to send me a handful of cards from my '83 Topps want list.

I really haven't pushed all that hard to put this set together, largely because it doesn't appeal to me as much as it does a lot of people in the collecting world.  This set is similar to the 84-85 hockey design where the inset photo is in a circle, and that set also isn't one of my favorites.

It's not bad, it just doesn't stand out for me like '81 Topps does (I'm a big fan of the hat) for example.  None the less I will get this one put together for the collection.

Second, Paul (User ID:pjdionne12) took a couple of '59 Topps duplicates off of my hands and sent me a couple of '69s

Great stuff here!!  Glad to be able to knock these two off the want list, which is still quite large as I only have 119 cards from the set in hand.   That doesn't even equate to 20% of the entire set, so there's a ways to go.

Two great things about these trades.   First, they only cost me a postage stamp each.  In this day of rising postal rates, trades for 50 cents are always welcome.   Second, I no longer have 4 cards in my collection that I had no use for.  Dupes and inserts, be gone!!

Thanks to both Eddy and Paul for the trades, they are appreciated.   Rest assured I'll keep on adding cards to the trade list (which currently stands at just over 1000) and trying to find more trade partners.

My user ID on the TCDB site is rmitchell6700, just in case you need it....

Thanks for reading, Robert

Close and Closer

It finally happened.  I got stiffed on a Sportlots order.  It kind of surprised me that the order never came, as I had used that particular seller a few times in the past.

What bothered me the most is that the seller lied.   Don't mark an order as shipped when you haven't shipped the cards.  2 weeks later nothing had arrived so I filed a non-receipt complaint (for lack of a better word).   The shipper asks for 5 more days, which really just delayed the inevitable fact that they weren't going to fulfill the order.

So, I used that money and added a bit more this past week to chop down 2 1980's Topps want lists down to pretty low numbers.

First off, I knocked 30 cards off of the 1980 list....

Not a lot of huge names, but some of them you'll recognize, such as Lou Piniella and Ron Guidry of the Yankees, along with co-rookie of the year John Castino of the Twins.  I remembered that Matt Keough had some rough years at the beginning of his career with the A's, so I turned the card over and learned that he was originally an infielder in the minors, hitting over .300 in 1975 before being converted to a pitcher.  His '79 season was a forgettable one, with an ERA just over 5.00 and a 2-17 W/L record.

These 18, plus 12 other cards brought the 1980 want list down to just 22 cards.  Number 482 is on that list, which means I still need the Rickey Henderson RC.  Once I have that in hand it'll all be down hill from there.

That set is close to being complete.   The 1985 Topps set is even closer.

For me, it was disappointing that I had to buy 3 Blue Jay cards from the set.  With the seemingly half million Blue Jays dupes I have hanging around, Fernandez, Bell and Stieb were all part of this purchase.  As you can see as well, there were some more notable names in this group.

I didn't bother scanning all 47 cards, but among the 29 you don't see here are names such as Garvey, Strawberry, Molitor, Gibson and Schmidt.  That want list is now down to 13 cards.  Maybe this coming weekend I'll just hop onto COMC and finish that set off.

I don't know if I should be as surprised as I am that I'm this close to finishing these sets already.  The cards seem to be quite easy to come by in large lots, so I guess I really shouldn't be.

It'll be nice to finish these 2 sets, and hopefully knock off a couple of more late 70's/early 80's sets by the end of the year.   We'll see how that goes....

Thanks for reading, Robert

1700th post: An A&G blaster break

Hopefully my enthusiasm for this set comes out in the video, as I really do enjoy putting this set together (this will be my 4th A&G set).

I really like the Baseball Equipment of the Ages insert set and will be putting that together along with the base set.  These are 4 I have so far, so I have plenty more to pick up (26 to be exact).  If you have any that you don't want, let me know and I'll be happy to trade for it/them. 

The minis are always up for trade.  Zimmer and Clemens are A&G backs. 

The inserts above are also available to anyone that wants them.   Let me know in the comments if you're interested.

To everyone, thank you for all for reading the blog.  Glad to hit 1700 posts, and like I said in the video, I hope to double that over time.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Monthly card show spoils: 7 for 30

The last few times that I've hit the monthly card show I've gone for quantity.  Trying to come home with as many cards as I could for as cheap as possible.   That attitude has knocked off quite a few cards off of the want list recently.

Yesterday's show was going to be the same.  Hit some dime or quarter boxes and try and knock off some more cards.  A funny thing happened though.

There weren't any dime or quarter boxes.   That is rare for this show.  So I decided to go and hit up my vintage dealer to see if he had any 59's for me.   I got to his table and couldn't hit the 59 Topps box. 

Turns out I didn't need to, as he has another box that contained miscellaneous 70's and 80's goodies.  I only wound up buying 7 cards, but they featured some great players at great prices.

Both the '74 and '76 Topps set builds are at a point where I'm starting to get into the star card purchases.  I haven't looked in great detail at how many commons I still have to pick up, however I know that both want lists are below 200 cards and thus buying cards such as these will be a necessity.

The Yaz was $6 and the Carew was $2.   Not bad.

Both of these were $1, again not a bad buy in my opinion.   The 1980 want list is getting low, just 52 cards to go (including the Henderson RC).  The Seaver was one of the "hero numbers" that I still needed (#500).  The '81 Topps Stolen Base leaders card didn't make as big a dent into that want list as the Seaver did, as I still need over 400 cards to complete that set.  I might try and find a large/cheap lot of cards in the next couple of months to knock that list down some.

I mentioned last Sunday  that I had pulled in a nice lot of 1985 Topps cards for cheap.  In that post I also talked about needing 6 rookie cards that were listed in the Beckett price guide.   Yesterday I grabbed the 2 biggest names off of that list, plus another star player...

Purchased these three cards for $20.  Can't beat that if you ask me.

I walked into that show with a 400 count box to take a whole bunch of cards home.   That was the plan.  In the end, you can see it wasn't needed.  Not a bad haul for one week's worth of spending money.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #47: One Million Cubs Project

Now that I think about it, I've spent a fair bit of time on twitter lately.  I'm following a lot of card collectors on the site, trying to keep up with all the collections and great cards that are pulled, traded and won on a daily basis.

A few weeks back I started following an account that many of you likely know, the One Million Cubs Project.  Beau tweeted one day that he had a bunch of 1980 Topps cards that were available for anyone that was putting together the set.

I resembled that remark, and quickly sent him a DM with my want list.

Beau really hit the mark, sending me 135 cards from my want list, which is down to a very manageable 53 cards to go.  The only real "hurdle" is the Rickey Henderson RC, which I've seen in several places for less than one week's spending money, so finishing this set off soon should not be an issue.

I was a bit concerned at first, as I only had 95 Cubs cards to send his way (this kind of surprised me as I thought I'd have a lot more).  I sent Beau a message asking what I would need to do in order to make up the difference.  He replied back "no need".   Fantastic

Still get a kick out of seeing cards with old style uniforms such as the black White Sox, pinstriped Pirates, and the original Mariners uniforms. 

The very first card in the top scan might be the best of the bunch; I had no memory of both Yaz and Brock reaching 3000 hits in the same season.  The card states that they were the 14th and 15th to reach that milestone, that number has now more than doubled to 32. 

One last little tidbit regarding this package.  It traveled a few more miles than it should have.

It started in Wisconsin, and was headed to South Florida when it made a left turn and wound up in Charleston, South Carolina.  That's about 550 miles from where I live, and that was on the day it was supposed to arrive (last Saturday).   I decided to request text updates to my phone to see how it was going to progress from Charleston to my house.

I received one text that afternoon that the package had moved to Columbia, SC.  Two more texts on Sunday showed the package first in West Palm Beach and then Opa Locka, FL. 

The next day I received this and Kin's package at 1130 in the morning.  By the way, I never get mail at 1130 in the morning (usually comes after 430 PM).  Wonder if the post office felt a little guilty...

Thank you Beau for the cards, they really are appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

Inbound and Down #46: Bean's Baseball Card Blog

This might be something worth noting on this blog.   This is the first package that I can think of in a very long time that did not contain one single Blue Jay card.  Yep, that's right.   No Blue Jays whatsoever. 

I've been buying random cards here and there on Twitter that fit into my collection (that's a pretty wide open statement, more on that in another post) such as Maple Leafs cards, players in my personal collections, stuff like that.

When I saw Kin from Bean's Baseball Card Blog starting to sell, I figured that there might be a chance of seeing some hockey cards that I needed.

I don't normally spend $5 on a card on twitter, but when Kin popped out that Auston Matthews SP from last year's OPC set, I had to jump on it.   Auston Matthews cards are not going to get any cheaper over time, so finding any at a reasonable price now means pulling out the wallet.  The Mats Sundin card was $3 and I believe is the 3rd jersey card for his PC that I own.  

As you can plainly see, the young guns were 50 cents apiece.  None of these 3 players are part of the Leafs organization now. 

Shane Harper managed 14 games with the Panthers 2 seasons ago.  He is now playing in the KHL with Lada Togliatti.    Kyle Rau is also no longer with the Panthers, as he signed a free agent contract with the Minnesota Wild last year.

Any SPs from the UD base set that you can get for 50 cents apiece can't be left there.

Kin was gracious enough to send a few extra PC cards my way.  Unfortunately all 3 of these I have, but the Sakic appears to have more gloss on it than the original that I have (still need to check) so I'm wondering if there is a variation of the card that isn't listed.

If anyone has the Green and Red versions of the Sundin Starquest on the left, I need them, please let me know if something can be traded your way...

Finally, a couple of new Ichiro's to add to the collection.  I have maybe 1 or 2 cards from 2018 of him, so the Opening Day was a nice add to the envelope.   I remembered that Victory was a set from the early 2000's, so I knew that the True Gamers card was something from early in Ichiro's North American career.  Turns out that there are 4 cards of him in the base set, and one of them (at least) has 3 parallels. 

Thank you for the great cards Kin, they really are appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert

25% of a set for $10

Before I started writing this post, I decided to take a quick look at the latest Beckett baseball magazine that I purchased (July/18) and see how much the 1985 Topps set is priced.

Was I surprised to see that the complete hand collated set is listed for $50.  Geez, a set with Clemens, Puckett and McGwire RC's is only $50?  Those 3 rookie cards that I just listed combined go for $47.

What I read is that the remainder of the set goes for $3.  789 cards for the price of a gallon of gas.  Just can't see it.

Well, in my quest to get the 80's portion of the 1968-86 Topps run completed, I stumbled into an ebay auction for singles, 3 cents apiece.  Can't say that I've ever seen that price anywhere, online or at a show.  You know I had to test it out.

So, I sent in an order for 195 cards.   The auction said $3.75 shipping for any amount of cards, so you know the seller is losing $$ on an order this size. 

The offer came back for $9.93.   With no delay, I hit accept and PayPal was sent. 

You just never know with a seller that you've not dealt with before how things are going to turn out.  Will the cards be in reasonably good shape?

Will the cards be packaged well.  Will everything that you asked for in the order arrive?

I did quite all right here.  The package didn't come postage due.  As you can see from the scans of the first 54 cards that they are all in good shape, and the time it took for them to arrive from NJ wasn't too bad (one day later than the anticipated arrival date).

I could have gone on with scanning all the cards, but if you really need to see them all, there's a blog that can quell that thirst here.

So pulling in the 195 cards in this package has my want list down to a very manageable 63 cards.  There are 6 listed RC's left on my list, Clemens, McGwire, Saberhagen, Davis, Hershiser and Gooden.  While writing this post I hit COMC and picked up the Saberhagen RC for 61 cents, so I feel pretty good about getting the rest for cheap as well.

To be honest, I still can't get over picking up a quarter of this set for just under $10. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

Try A Pack #15: 2018 Allen & Ginter

I've been pretty good at staying away from this years products.  Not because I don't like them, but because of my effort to build a boat load of older sets.  If you haven't noticed, I have updated my want lists for baseball and hockey at the top of the blog, they should be much easier to read now.

While at Target yesterday buying a birthday card, I decided to see if there was anything worthwhile in the card aisle.  I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money on cards, so I decided on a couple of packs of this year's Allen & Ginter.  I've put together three of these sets in the past, and usually have some decent luck with packs.

Assuming the SPs are the same numbers this year (301-350), I didn't fare too badly.

Pack 1

2 retired players and one RC for the 3 base cards.   Not bad so far.

SP of Dennis Eckersley.  3rd retired player out of 4 in the pack.   Interesting...

I've never been a big fan of minis, many of you who read regularly know that.  But A&G always seems to put some interesting topics on them.  This Hawaiian postage stamp was an interesting read, as I didn't know that Hawaii was a kingdom at one time.

I've never been big on going to the beach, but this might be something interesting.   I'll have to look into how many of these are in the set and see if they're worth collecting.

Pack 2

The base cards.  No duplicates yet so all is well.

2 packs, 2 SPs.  Just 48 more packs to get all 50 (like I'm that lucky...).

Mini A&G back of Bradley Zimmer.  Didn't need to show the front, because if you look 2 scans up you'll see Zimmer plain as day.  This is available for trade if anyone wants it.

Another interesting insert.   I'm not big on inserts either, but seeing classic pictures like this old catcher's mitt might be worth a look.

If there is any set from 2018 that I might put together, it's this one.  I don't know how much more I will buy pack wise as it tends to get swallowed up quickly down here in the swamp.  Plus, the amount of luck I've had finding bargains and snapping up cards off of my current want lists has been really good, so my focus on those is likely to continue for the near future.

I do like what I see so far, the design is nice in my opinion; I'll have to look at the checklist to see if there are any non-sports personalities in the set that interest me.  I'll be sure to let everyone know if I decide to build it so a trade or 3 might happen.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Optic-al Illusion

You don't see free group breaks very often, but Colbey from the Cardboard Collections blog offered up a couple of 2016 Donruss Optic boxes this past Saturday to the card world, asking only shipping costs be sent.

Very generous indeed.

I did quite well for myself in this break, getting most of the base team set....

There's a SP version of the Bautista showing the ever famous bat flip which I'd like to find.

I thought that the Diamond King card of Josh Donaldson was an insert; turns out it is part of the base set.   I wound up with 3 of those, along with the Power Alley insert featuring Joey Bats.

Love the purple parallels, and I guess I was lucky enough to get 4 of them (2 of them were Josh Donaldson). 

Last but certainly not least was the Aqua parallel of Jose Bautista, numbered 53/299.  Colbey pulled quite a few of the numbered parallels out of the 2 boxes, and I was happy to get one for myself!

I will say this, a lot of online sellers can learn a lot from Colbey.   27 envelopes went in the mail first thing on Monday morning after a weekend break, which is quite incredible. 

I'm still waiting on a Sportlots package I ordered on the 19th...but that's a story for another day.

Thank you for the break Colbey!!  The cards are really appreciated!!

Thanks for reading, Robert