Living in the c i T.Y.

I've been wanting to write this post for a while, but for some reason have put it off.  Now that I'm headed up to New York state for a much needed vacation, I decided to put this in as a auto post while I'm away.

I've done quite well with my Larry Fitzgerald collection (over 300 cards now!), and I wanted another football player to round out my player collections. 

I figured 10 guys to collect was a good stopping point....

I've always admired wide receivers as well, the speed, the ability to take a hit in mid air, the pass catching skills of a lot of these guys is really fun to watch.   One such player that I really enjoy is my height; that would be T.Y. Hilton of the Indianapolis Colts.

I really don't have much for him so far, just 18 cards in the collection, but I've noticed right away that similar to Larry Fitzgerald, I am able to get parallels for Hilton on the cheap.

Everything I have so far for T.Y. I've bought off of COMC, no trades so far off of my small want list I have posted on the TCDB site.   Maybe while I'm on vacation I'll expand that list to hopefully generate some more trades.

The one aspect of football collecting that I notice is that there is no shortage of parallels.  I already have a black, orange, red and green parallel of T.Y. in the first group of cards I've acquired. 

I also have wanted to collect someone born and raised in south Florida, and T.Y. fits that bill as well, as he's from Miami Springs, and attended college at Florida International. 

Now I have even more cards I can pull in from trades on TCDB, there's less and less room now for someone to say "I don't have anything that you need".

With 10 players on my collecting want list, there's no shortage of cards to find...

Thanks for reading!!

Robert

Dos Equis y Tres Ichiros

Showing off a little bit of what I've learned in Spanish so far.   Dos Equis was actually easy, as I'm not unlike any other sports enthusiast, you see enough beer commercials featuring the world's most interesting man you know the 2 X's...

My latest trade with Jimmy (TCDB ID: torcato) brought 5 cards from the west coast to the east coast, including these 2 2008 Upper Deck X die cuts.  Still need 48 out of the 100 cards to complete this set, but it has been nice to see some movement since I added this to my want list a couple of months ago.

The 3 Ichiro's you see here are from the 2016 Topps Update Chasing 3000 insert.  I knew about the 30 that were in the base set, and snapped those up pretty quickly.  Had no idea until recently that there were 30 more in the update set.  When I did find out, I added them to the want list, and will look to get the remainder of these sometime down the road.  I'm closing in on the 200 card mark for my Ichiro collection as I've been lucky to find a lot of base cards in quarter boxes at card shows over the past few months.

Jimmy's trade will already be #77 that I've completed on the TCDB site this year.  100 is well within reach, as I have 3 others already en route to the swamp.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Eight

This post, like most of the others on this blog, is going to be very simple.

This is card #8 from the 93-94 Premier set,  It is the gold parallel that features Kevin Miller.

This is the 8th card in a stack of cards from the 2018-19 SP retail only set, a blue parallel featuring Sam Steel of the Ducks.   I wish I had bought more of it when it came out a month or so ago...

This is the 8th card in a stack of hockey cards on my desk that need to be added to the TCDB.  This 95-96 Select Certified Gold card features Kelly Hrudey, one of my favorite intermission analysts on the Hockey Night In Canada telecasts.

This is the 8th card in a stack of baseball cards that is right next to the stack of hockey cards.  It also needs to be added to my trade list on the TCDB.  2017 Opening Day #75 featuring the Millville Meteor, Mike Trout.  Maybe the player of this generation?

This was the 8th card in a tin of jersey cards that I have sitting in my card closet.  06-07 Sweet Shot featuring Luc Robitaille of the Kings.  I don't know how I was so lucky to obtain the last card in the print run of 200.

This is the 8th card I own of the 1962 Topps set, featuring Dick Donovan of the Indians.  This is the only set that I have started that currently does not boast a want list either on my blog, or on the TCDB site.

This is the 8th card I have in a hard 100 count plastic case that features nothing but Joe Sakic duplicates.  100+ unique Joe Sakic duplicates.   Yes, I've been collecting Burnaby Joe for a very long time.

This is the 8th and final card of this post, my favorite $1 box find of all time.   Don't care about the heavy crease in the center, or the soft corners.   I was able to purchase a '67 Topps Ernie Banks card for a dollar, and that is the story I will always be able to tell.  It sits at the base of the monitor I look at every time I write a post.

You may have noticed a pattern on this post...today is the 8th anniversary of the day I started this blog.  I've slowed down quite a bit for the most part over the past 3 to 4 years, but when I get the urge, I still enjoy writing and sharing cards with everyone.   That's one of the big reasons I still do this. 

I enjoy it.   It's my hobby.

Thanks for reading, it is appreciated!!

Robert

Made a liar out of me

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I thought the 1979 Topps set might be a bit more difficult to finish than the '81, simply for the fact that I seemed to see more of the '81s up for trades online.

Well, the last 2 card shows I've attended since then have made a liar out of me.  I showed 16 cards from the '79 set last week, and today here's 28 more that I knocked off of the want list.

Would love to see the Indians bring back the solid red uniforms some time on a turn back the clock night

I've bought so many Jays cards lately I'm beginning to wonder why I haven't broken into my collection

Just looking at these cards, I count 6 teams that are wearing powder blue uniforms (Jays, Twins, Brewers, Expos, Royals and Rangers).  4 more teams wearing stripes (Yankees, Braves, Phillies and Cubs), plus the Astros which I guess you could say are wearing stripes, although not of the pinstripe variety.

Those black uniforms had to be hotter than blazes to wear in July and August. 

Just 141 cards left to finish this set.   I'm more hopeful now than I was a couple of weeks ago that I could possibly finish this set by the end of 2019.

I've barely touched the '81 set recently because I haven't found any at the shows I've attended.  I'm now less hopeful that I'll finish '81.

Funny what a couple of weeks on the calendar can accomplish.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

It isn't much, but it's a start

Well, last week was the monthly card show, and the one dealer that I've frequented lately let me know about another show that was this weekend, at a flea market that is right down the street from where I work.

Easy to get to on the weekend, only about a 25-30 minute drive.  So, off I went yesterday. 

Really wasn't much of a show, just a handful of dealers, but he was there, so I dove back in to the dime boxes he had last week.   He also mentioned that he had quarter boxes where the cards were in a little bit better shape.   I dug into those as well, and to my surprise, he had hockey!

Now, this post only contains a dozen cards, but when you're finding 70's OPC at a show in south Florida, you have to jump on it.

Don't remember if I've ever shown a Cleveland Barons card on the blog

In the top scan, the big shocker was the lone 72-73 OPC card of Noel Price.  Can't recall seeing these down here, especially for 25 cents.  The remainder of what he had were 77-78 OPC, not much as you can see but the 11 cards went quickly into the pile, as I really didn't have many of them to start that set. 

No really big names, but some recognizable names including Pit Martin of the BlackHawks who wound up playing the final 2 years of his career with the Canucks after spending a decade in the windy city.  Butch Goring wound up getting traded to the Islanders a couple of years later and was a big part of their dynasty in the early 80's.  Butch is still in hockey, working for the MSG network.

1977-78 would be the end of Gerry Desjardins career in hockey, as he took a stick in the eye and would never play after that.  His injury is long believed to be the start of the change away from the solid fiberglass mask to the helmet/cage, then the hybrid fiberglass/cage masks that are common today.

Like I said, it isn't much to show off today, but it's a start for both of these sets. 

Thanks for reading!

Robert

With 2 small orders, #1 is done

Last Sunday, I tabled a post with 9 sets that I'm hoping to finish by the end of 2019.   It actually has helped me a little bit, as I now will try and focus on working these more intently than everything else.  Save for the $20 I spent at the card show, which was spent on set building (yay!), the 2 orders I placed online last week knocked off the 1st set on that want list.

The 1995-96 Collectors Choice Players Club parallel set is now in the books.

Here's the 2 small orders I made to finish this off.

First, a 2 card ebay purchase...

I could only imagine the guy at Burbank Sportscards (one of my fave ebay sellers btw), when he saw this order.   "What the hell is this guy high on?"  They only had the one players club card of Bruins legend Ray Bourque, and I didn't want to just buy one card, so I looked around and found Terry Francona's dad from the '69 T set for just over a buck, so I added him in.

Just 2 to go.  So, the same day I hit Sportlots and found a seller that had both the remaining cards I needed.  18 cents apiece, a steal for these cards (in my opinion). 

Now the funny part of the story is my negativity when it comes to online ordering sometimes.  I placed both of the orders the same day.  I received the Burbank order in 3 days (CA to FL, wow!).  I waited, and I waited for the 2nd order to come.  10 more days to be exact.  

I had started thinking that the required time was going to elapse and nothing was going to come, because I was sure that the seller wasn't going to bother sending a 2 card order.  

Stupid me, hadn't checked close enough on the shipping rates, and if I had, I would have realized that the cards were coming from Canada.  2 week minimum. 

Needless to say they are in hand.  A big thanks to seller ID CentrIce for finishing my set(Cheers Jim!).

8 more sets on the list, just over 5 months to go.  Let's see what happens....

Thanks for reading!

Robert

You just never know what you'll run across on a card

Finishing off the run of card show posts (finally) is a nice group of '78 Topps cards.  42 in total. 

Enjoy the scans...

Things I noticed on these cards.  The mustard and brown of the Padres that everyone loves (well most everyone).  A guy with the last name of Zdeb (is the Z silent, or is it Z-Deb?).  Airbrushed goodness featuring Cardenal and Eastwick.  Probably Medich (the T is kind of huge) and John Hale were also victims of the artists pen, were there any Mariners photos of the actual hat?

But after looking at the fronts of all these cards, and enjoying the blast from the past, I found the back of Larry Haney's card, and was quite intrigued.

Love that Topps added the "homer in 1st big league game" line

Not only does it have the "Play Ball" rules on the back, which I don't think I've ever seen before, but the stats between 1970 and 1973 caught my eye.  Seems a bit cruel to have those stats over a 4 year period, doesn't it?

I had to look at his baseball reference page.   Larry spent most of those 4 seasons in the minors.  Started in Buffalo/Winnipeg (cold to colder), then all of 1971 in Iowa.  1972's MiLb stint was in Hawaii (finally warmer), and then '73 was in Tucson, AZ.  He certainly paid his dues over those 4 years, as he never played a minor league game after 1973.  11 major league games over 4 years, 9 ABs, 1 hit.  I don't know if I could have handled that run...

He was also purchased, not traded, purchased, by teams 5 times between 1972-1976.  You really don't hear about players being bought anymore.  Oakland bought him twice.

That my friends, is perseverance. 

'78 Topps likely will not be finished this year, as I'm just under 60% done.  Probably finish this one in 2020. 

Thanks for reading!

Robert

For that price you can't leave it there

This is my wife's mantra.   We've been together since just after 9/11, and it has served me well over the years.   Home improvement, groceries, clothing and many other things I've added to my life at good deals because my wife is in my ear.

You never know when, or if, the deal with come your way again.

This goes for the monthly card show.  I loaded up on dime cards from the late 60's through '83, and even though they aren't in perfect shape, they don't look like garbage either.

Today's bunch comes from 1972 Topps...

Love the mutton chops on Jim Grant, so typical of the 70's.  I called them mutton chops even though technically they're not, as mutton chops also contain a mustache.   If anyone knows what style of beard Grant has, let me know...

I managed a few of the In Action cards out of the 28 total I picked up this weekend, including Tom Haller.  I didn't know anything about Haller at all, so I did a quick look at his stats; 1972 was his final stint in the majors, playing 59 games and hitting .207.  He was an all star for 3 straight seasons, 2 with the Giants and 1 with the Dodgers.    I was also surprised to see the Sparky Anderson card in the dime boxes, didn't think I'd ever see one for less than a buck.

One of the first times I ever heard the term platoon used on a baseball telecast the announcers were talking about John Lowenstein.   John and Gary Roenicke formed a platoon in the outfield for the Orioles between 1982 and the first couple of months of 1985, and were so effective that this article called them the 34th greatest Oriole(s) of all time. 

Bill Melton's In Action card (slightly creased) finishes off the post.  The set build is slowly progressing, now standing at 230 cards complete.   From what I've read around the blogs, there probably won't be any hurry to finish the set as some of the high numbers will be tough to find at decent prices.

You can bet though that if I find them at a good price, I won't leave them there.  My wife taught me that.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

In the teens

Wasn't but a few years ago when I would turn on a weather report and cringe when I heard the forecaster say "and the temperatures will be in the teens over the next few days".   Luckily I don't have to worry about that anymore, unless a forecaster here says that the real feel temperatures are going into the 1 hundred and teens, then there's cause for worry.

Luckily, this post is just about baseball cards, and more specifically a pair of sets that had cards added to them this past weekend at the card show.  Both sets had want list reductions in the teens, not a bad number in the least.

'79 Topps is right in my collecting wheel house.  I was 11 years old when this came out, and I remember everyone on this page, save for Mr. Gonzalez in the lower right hand corner who was on the Padres and they didn't get much air time in the great white north. 

Love the pinstripe style of uniform on John Milner, a style that I forget that the Pirates wore as well during the late 70's.  Everyone remembers the gold tops that you'll see on the next scan.

I really don't remember Reuss as a Pirate at all though, my earliest memories of watching him pitch were with the Dodgers.

Another thing I've noticed over the past few days is just how big pitchers gloves were back in the day, Johnny Sutton of the Twins is a good example of that on his card. 

I probably could have picked up a lot more of the '79 cards, but unfortunately I never remember to bring my glasses (used specifically for reading), and the card numbers on the back are so small that my eyes get tired from straining very quickly.  Maybe next time I'll remember.

Finding some '74 Topps in the dime box was quite nice as well, and I managed to grab 15 of these for the ride home.  This is one set that likely will not be finished this year, but if I can get the want list below 100 cards, then 2020 should see this set come to completion.

The big name that I still have remaining in the set is the Winfield RC, as well Nolan Ryan, Seaver, Rose and a few other stars are still on the want list. 

I'm guessing that the Ralph Houk card was photographed while he was still with the Yankees, as I don't remember the Tigers wearing pinstripes.  The airbrushers didn't do too bad of a job with the fancy D though!

Still have '72 and '78 Topps posts to go, those 2 have bigger numbers to show off. 

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Binder worthy

More dime finds from the monthly card show today.   This group of '70 Topps brings this set build close to 50% (actually just 2 cards shy) and will prompt me to get them put into pages and in a binder within the next week.

Scan looks a bit blurry to me, although it could be my eyes hallucinating from the heat down here in south Florida.  Two straight days with Rico Carty in a post, although this card was about $1.50 cheaper than the '69 I showed yesterday.

While still not the greatest looking set, '70 Topps is growing on me a bit.   I'm starting to notice little things, such as the Red Sox card of Vicente Romo in the upper left corner.  Wondering why the Red Sox lettering isn't in red.  Carl Yastrzemski's lettering is in red.  The one other Red Sox card I found on a quick search of what I have has the same yellow lettering.

The two A's pitchers that I found both have A) their hands over their head, and B) black lettering on the A's in the upper right corner.   The lettering for the team name doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason that I've figured out (yet).  Maybe someone out there has more insight into this

This last group of 5 brings today's total to 23, a nice add for a dime apiece from an early 70's set.  The checklist?  Has only one card checked, card #542.  You guessed it, #542 is the 6th series checklist.

I'll never figure out how I managed to add almost 360 of these cards to my collection.   I haven't chased them on purpose even once over the years.   They just seem to find their way into my pile at card shows more often than I can imagine....

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Monthly card show: Bits and pieces

Even though money is a bit tight right now, my better half convinced me to hit the monthly card show yesterday.  She knows how much I like getting out and sifting through boxes of cards looking for cards to complete my sets, and then regaling her with the tales of conversations struck at the tables.

So, here goes the bits and pieces portion of the show, everything that only has a handful of cards or less .

First up, 83 Topps:

Just 4 cards to show here, nothing spectacular for sure.  Had a hard time wrapping my head around the Brian Giles card, I kept on thinking when I looked at the back of the card that it was the Brian Giles circa 1990's-2000's that played for the Indians and Pirates.   Damn same names...

Knocking 3 cards off of the '76 short list was nice.   The Kirby and Lopes RB cards were a dime each, while the Winfield I pulled out of a stack of 3/$5 cards.   Just 44 more to go to finish this set off, I'm still looking to take care of it before the end of 2019.

Finding '69s in a dime box, even though very few, was still an exciting thing for me to see.  The Queen and Johnson were the two that I found, while the Carty was in the same 3/$5 stack as the '76 Winfield.  Still a really long way to go to finish '69T, but there's still no hurry here.

Just as exciting as finding the '69s was finding these 5 '68s. Nothing fabulous condition wise, but there's no pen markings or crazy scratches. Just a few experienced cards that look like they're over 50 years old.

Had a lot of fun hitting two tables and spending just $20 yesterday.   I still have a lot more to show off, and I plan on breaking that up into a couple more posts.

Gotta go now, trying to add a twitter screenshot to this post totally drove me (and this post) crazy.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

The Green Machine keeps rolling

I've built a grand total of 2 complete parallel sets in my collecting "career", so there's not a lot of data to go on.  But if past indications hold true, my latest parallel venture, the 2019 Gypsy Queen green parallel set should be finished around the year 2039. 

I'm happy to say I'm a bit ahead of that pace already, as two more trades from the TCDB  rolled in yesterday, bringing my total to 101, just over 1/3 complete already!

First off, my 2nd trade with Colin (TCDB ID: nwcardsupplies) was another successful one, as I was able to bring in 5 more for the set, along with an Ichiro GQ base card that I needed for that PC.

The next group of green cards comes from 2nd time trade partner Pat (TCDB ID:  itsjustoldcardboard), who sent me 17 not so old cards for this set...

Love the Jackie Bradley Jr. card in the first of the 2 scans, it looks as if he took a bit of a beating to make that catch!   I also love the two catchers cards side by side at the top of the 2nd scan, both of them fully outfitted in the tools of ignorance; for me I'd like to see more catchers cards in the crouch pose. 

I believe that this set will look great in a binder and pages, and I'll be pretty excited when I get far enough into the set to make buying a binder worth it.   I guess it's just a matter of deciding when that's going to occur.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

The push to complete sets is now on

We're already halfway through 2019, and I've had a pretty good year trade wise.  I'm over 70 completed trades so far, so the goal of 100 trades by the end of the year should not be a problem.

My goal of 5 complete sets will easily be knocked out as well, as I'm very close on a few of them.  But I decided to write a countdown post largely for my own benefit (I know that there are many out there who don't care for these types of posts).  I'm hoping that putting something in print will help me get my thoughts together on how to progress for the remainder of the year on my set building journey.

Here goes:

1.  1995-96 Collectors Choice Players Club Hockey

Cards remaining:  3
Confidence level:  Very high

Comments:   It's been a quarter of a century, time to put this to bed.  If I don't finish this by the end of the year, it's time to turn in my collecting badge and move on to basket weaving.

2.  1976-77 OPC hockey

Cards remaining:  9
Confidence level:  Medium High

Comments:  A common theme through out this post will be my cheapness.  I gave up hunting a few months ago for cheap copies of Ken Dryden, Bobby Orr and Tiger Williams, so sometime in the near future I'm going to have to bite the bullet and get this beauty of a set completed.

3.  1989 Upper Deck baseball

Cards remaining:  18
Confidence level:  Medium High

Comments:   A recent trade on the TCDB put a major dent in this set, dropping my want list from just over 100 cards to 18.  Mostly the big name RCs are left; Griffey Jr., Smoltz, Biggio and Johnson.  Again, just have to dig in and start adding them.

4.  2012-13 OPC hockey

Cards remaining: 18
Confidence level:  High

Comments:  There is nothing overly expensive preventing me from completing this set.  Some of the cards on sites like COMC are just ridiculously priced, so I might turn to trading for them to get this done.

5.  1976 Topps baseball

Cards remaining:  47
Confidence level:  Medium

Comments:  You know, if I didn't have the 4 sets above that I wanted to finish, I'd probably be quite confident that I could get this done by the end of 2019.   Even with the fact that 90% of the cards remaining for this set are stars.

6.  2013-14 OPC hockey

Cards remaining:  36
Confidence level:  medium

Comments:  Another set that has just some ridiculous prices on fringe rookies, mostly for the simple fact that they are SPs.  My refusal to pay such stupid prices is the reason that this is below '76 Topps BB.   Stubborn, yes I know I am, but sometimes you have to draw the line.

7.  1981 Topps baseball

Cards remaining:  185
Confidence level:  medium

Comments:  This set right now has the exact same number of cards left as the next set on the list (79T), but I rank this higher because I see so much more of this on trade lists than I do '79s.  By the way, someone on twitter had a question recently asking about underrated players from the 1980s, my answer would be Carney Lansford.

8.  1979 Topps

Cards remaining:  185
Confidence level:  Just below medium

Comments:  I just don't see a whole lot of these up for trade, and buying lots of them on ebay aren't very feasible (too many doubles), so I'll be patient and see if I get lucky and find someone willing to part with a bunch of them on the cheap.

9.  1973 Topps

Cards remaining:  2
Confidence level:  Lower than I can limbo

Comments:  Approaching 2 years now at 2 cards to go.  Mike Schmidt RC.  High number checklist.  Do I expect to find these 2 cards at a price I want to pay by years end?   Hell no.  Maybe it's time I just ignored everything else and went after this.   My frugality will likely prevail and this will end up on 2020's list of sets to finish.

I had a lot of fun writing this post.  I got a lot of my thoughts on these sets and current pricing out there for everyone to see.   I'm not ashamed to admit I'm cheap, but as you can see from what I've written above, maybe it's time to just move forward and concentrate on finishing these sets.

We'll see what happens and revisit this post at the end of the year.....

Thanks for reading!

Robert