Serial Saturday #26: Matty Ice

A quick and simple post on this late Saturday night.  I did notch one more card for the mini collection of cards #'d out of 99 that cost me less than $2.50.  This time I picked up a star QB, Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons.

2019 Panini Donruss Elite Purple parallel, #'d 40/99.

$1 spent as part of my recent COMC order.  Not bad at all.

I'm expecting 2020 to be focused on finishing a boat load of sets, this might be the last card for this mini PC that you'll see in a while. 

I imagine that there will be a lot of cards purchased next year that wouldn't fit into this PC price wise anyhow....

Be ready

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Stalling?

The biggest order I've made on COMC came with just 5 cards from 2 OPC sets that I've been working on for quite a while.

These 2 12-13 OPC cards bring this list down to just 6.  Why in the hell didn't I just buy the other 6?  I don't know what it is about refusing to over pay for some of these SPs.   Maybe I shouldn't be putting these sets together if I flat out keep stalling to finish them up when I'm so close.

2013-14 OPC is a little further out, 30 cards remaining.  Now there are 3 cards that are worth a few bucks that I still need, names such as Tarasenko, Gallagher and Marchessault.  Those I can live with waiting for a bit to purchase.  Dougie Hamilton and Alex Galchenyuk are needs also.  Most of the other names are guys that have had their cup of coffee and are on to doing other things, or are 3rd/4th liners in the NHL.  But my stinginess prevents me from ponying up the $$ to get these sets out of the way.

Maybe it's time to make a plan in 2020 to finish up a bunch of sets.  Sometimes just sitting and writing posts gives me ideas for the weeks/months to come. 

2019's lead off post turned out to be a success for me because it was simple, two goals, both of which were completed easily (150 trades!).  I didn't stall on working on both of those goals.

2020 will be a year of clear vision.  More on that next year.  No stalling either. 

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Christmas Cards

Good day, and Merry Christmas to those of you that celebrate the holiday! 

I stepped a bit out of my comfort zone this year as far as buying cards for myself for Christmas.  Let me explain.

I found a gentleman on the TCDB website who had posted on the forums that he was selling lots of mid 70's Topps baseball on ebay.  I took a look and it was sets that I'd already completed, or was near completing.   So I reached out to him and asked him if he could put a little lot together of '71 and '72 Topps together for me.

Next day, I had a response.  He had a bunch of cards (nearly 150 to be exact), and would send them to me for $75 shipped (priority mail).  I really didn't know him too well, but I decided to take the plunge and accept the transaction.  I sent the $$, and that afternoon I had a tracking # for my package in my inbox.  3 days later, what you see below arrived at my house.   It was very well packaged, so I was quite pleased. 

Enough of my chatter.   Enjoy the cards, and the holiday!

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Bits and pieces in chronological order

This latest COMC order showed me that I've got a lot of sets that I'm working on.  Maybe too many.  I think once I start seeing a little more clearly in 20/20 that I'll concentrate on one at a time and get them finished and off the books. 

Here's anywhere from 1 to 16 cards from eight different sets for your viewing pleasure.  Nothing amazing, just numbers off a want list....

Joe Jay brings the '59 Topps want list down to 96 cards.  I have vowed that every COMC purchase going forward will contain at least one card from this set.

1968 Topps is slowly approaching the 50 % mark.  It is already bindered, which at this point is probably the earliest into any set build that I've decided to put cards into a binder.  I usually wait until I'm well over 50%.

I always say to myself "I love '69 Topps, it's time to get serious about putting it together", and then it lags behind every other set I've got working.  Even '71 and '72 have blown past this set in terms of how many cards I have.  This will probably end up being the last set I put together from the '68 to '86 run.

A RC, a rookie cup, and the World Champions card #1.  A good trio.

I must have found this cheap, because that would explain why I only grabbed this sole '74 Topps card.

Yes, I started getting serious about finishing the '76 Topps set on this order.  16 cards down, just 20 to go.  I think this is going to be next.  Anyone got a spare Nolan Ryan from this set?

Down to 24 left for the '79 set.  This will be done very soon as well.  Lefty is a common card I've needed/bought recently as I'm whittling away at a lot of sets.

Looking for #358, Mark Wagner to finish up 1981 Topps.  That's it...

Looking forward to the new year as I really start to knock out a lot of sets.  Being focused will be a theme in 20/20.

For as long as I'm able to stick with it.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Now that it's finally here...

It appears that I wasn't alone in waiting (im)patiently for a COMC order to arrive.  After 5 days in purgatory, my order popped up at my post office today, and wound up in my mailbox late this afternoon. 

This was my biggest COMC order to date, 125 cards in total.  I'll show off just 9 of them today, for a good reason.  These 9 finished off two sets.

1976-77 O-Pee-Chee hockey is now complete with these 4 cards in hand.  I knew that the checklist card in the upper right hand corner had some centering issues, but it almost looks like it missed the cutter altogether.  The back is centered about the same.  No matter, it's unmarked, and it's in hand.

1989 Upper Deck is also done now that these 4 are in hand.  Vizquel RC, Ryan throwing the football, Finley RC, and the correct version of the Gallego card were 4 of the 5 that I needed, with the 5th being...

Number one.  Never had I owned this card until now.  It's not perfect, there's a minor ding on one of the corners on the back, but if memory serves me I only paid $15 for this, so I'm a happy camper and can cross another set off of the multitude that I have in progress. 

Still quite a few cards to go through in this monster package including Prizms, vintage baseball, 1 card for last year's Prestige football set, all kinds of cheap OPC hockey SPs, and some player collection adds.

I'll try and figure it out and get some posts done.

One teaser, the 125 COMC card box wasn't the largest package I received this week.  More on that in a few days as well.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Who needs TMZ when you have TMV?

I was at the top of the list!  Dennis from the Too Many Verlanders blog had sent a tweet out saying that he was sending cards to fellow bloggers for Christmas, and good old @30aweekhabit was the first he mentioned (gotta be worth something, right?).  Very, very cool for me to get some cards from a long time friend on the blogs.

It's even better when they hit a bunch of the Player/Team collections.

I've stuck with just a pair of wide receivers for my football collections.  I've always been partial to WRs, as I played the position in high school and I know what taking some shots on deep routes feels like (oh to be able to run like I did in high school again....).  My favorite card on this page?  The blue 2008 Topps Chrome of Fitz sporting his Pro Bowl uniform.  If I was smarter, I would have added the die-cut Bowman in the lower left corner to the next scan...

Which features a trio of die-cut cards, including the Jim Thome Power Brokers card in the upper left which I can honestly say I've never seen before. 

I'm sure that there aren't many Leaf fans out there, but wouldn't it be good to have James Reimer back in a Leaf uniform as a backup?  I loved the way he battled in the net as a Leaf, and I'm sure that the guys would play with a bit more confidence with him on the ice than their current backup. 

Dennis, thank you very much for the great PWE, it is appreciated.  I am long overdue to send some cards your way....looooonnnnngggg over due.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Serial Saturday #25: 5 for $1.65

I never really know what I'm going to end up with when I hit the monthly card show.  Today was no exception, as I added 5 cards to the #'d/99 collection, all of them plucked from 3/$1 boxes.  Today, I get to learn about a few players that I really don't know a lot about as I show off the cards.

Not following basketball for the past couple of decades has led to not knowing who a lot of the regular players are in the league, such as Wesley Matthews above.  750 games into his career as of this writing, Wesley is now on his 6th NBA squad (Portland, Dallas, Utah, NY Knicks, Indiana and Milwaukee), and has averaged over 13 pts a game during his career.  Love this Green Laser Beam parallel from the 2016-17 Donruss set, and it's #20 of this mini PC.

All I could find on Sheldon McClellan shown here is that he played a half dozen games in the G League in 2016-17, averaging 10.7 PPG for the Delaware 87ers.  Guess that's what happens when you start reaching to put RC's in a set.  None the less, Sheldon is the 21st card in the PC.

Topps Pro Debut brings up card #22, featuring Astros prospect Cristian Javier.  Cristian climbed the minor league ladder quickly this year, moving from high A-ball to AAA Round Rock for a couple of starts in late August.  In 113 innings, his ERA was a great 1.78, 170 K's and a WHIP just below 1.  Maybe see him on the major league roster in 2020?

Chris Tillman has had a decade long run in the majors, pitching for the Orioles between 2009-2018.  I didn't see any stats for Chris in 2019, making me wonder if he's out of the game altogether now.  He's card #23 in the PC with this 2015 Donruss Gold press proof #'d 22/99.

Many of you will have heard the name Grover Cleveland Alexander, who pitched for 2 decades for the Phillies, Cubs and Cardinals.  I've heard the name many times, but never really looked into how great a pitcher he was.  Case in point, a 4 year stretch between 1914-1917 where he won 121 games, a combined ERA of 1.74, and a WHIP of 0.985.  He started 170 games, completed 140 of them, led the league in K's each of those 4 seasons, and recorded 42 shutouts.  This 2018 Diamond Kings Red Artists Proof becomes the 24th card in the /99 PC.

I can honestly say that I likely will never beat these prices on any of the internet sites.   Ever.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Well, if you insist

In the mail today I probably received the biggest package of cards from a TCDB trade yet, and I've received quite a few decent sized ones for sure.

So, I received an offer at the end of November from repeat Canadian trade partner Hugo (TCDB ID:pennytendencies) which took me a little while to get through.  Let me explain.

Hugo asked me for 15 Montreal Canadiens cards of varying types, such as serial #'s, silver signatures, inserts, you get it...

On my side, there were 13 cards that either fit my player collections

and 3 that helped a couple of early 2000's Topps Heritage hockey sets...

I LOVE these two sets, and can't wait to finish them.   Someday

But apparently that wasn't enough, because I guess Hugo had a few extra 2018-19 OPC hockey doubles lying around.

Good ol' Henrik Lundqvist was one of two hundred and six cards that I was able to mark off of my 2018-19 OPC want list.  In one shot, I gain almost 35% of the set. 

If you're familiar with trading on TCDB, you know that 222 cards will take quite a while to scroll down on the screen, and I'm sure it took Hugo quite a while just to click and enter them on the trade proposal.  Above and beyond for sure.

Down to 157 cards for the 18-19 OPC set, 1/2 of which are SPs.  Doable.  But after I finish about 10 other sets that I'm close to finishing.    Priorities you know.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for the trade Hugo, it is very much appreciated!!

Robert

Hawaii Five-Seven

One of the sets that I've had some really good luck acquiring during 2019 is the '83 Topps set.  I've pulled in a lot of this set from trades, along with some generous starter sets as well from the blogosphere.   Most recently, I received 57 cards from regular trade partner Al (TCDB ID:alh) from the great state of Hawaii.

1983 Topps is the 4th set that Al's sent me a large packet of cards of, as want lists are no match for his trade box...

I didn't take the time to scan everything (cough, lazy), but I did manage 3 pages worth of cards to show off, including Aurelio Rodriguez in his old school White Sox jersey which is a stark contrast to their 70's style black and white unis.  I loved Cliff Johnson when he was with the Jays as he was the right handed portion of the DH platoon that featured names such as Willie Aikens, Al Oliver and Jorge Orta.  Numbers note for Cliff, he hit more HRs and had more RBI's as a Blue Jay than he did with any of the other franchises he played for.

Love the wad of chaw/gum featured in the cheek of Rick Manning's inset photo.  Rusty Staub doesn't look like he aged much during his 20 years in the bigs, huh?  Would love to see the Brewers bring back the gold on the front panel of their caps for a retro night some time in the future. 

The FuManchu mustache that Rich Gossage grew made a big difference in how he looked.  Did Alan Trammell ever go above 170 lbs. during his career?  Every photo I can remember of him he looks so thin.  I think the only player that I don't remember on this page is Don Werner, so I decided to look up his career stats.  Turns out '82 was his last season in MLB, and the most games he ever played in a season was 50.  Both his career homers were off of lefties named Bob; Owchinko was on the Padres and Knepper was on the Giants.  They were hit 2 days apart in 1977...

The '83 Topps want list is now below 30 cards, and this weekend's card show may be a hunt for the two big name RC's I need from the set, Sandberg and Gwynn.  Finishing this up early in the new year shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks for reading!

Robert

One almost done and one almost half done

So I decided to grab a couple of cards on ebay from the Battersbox, and for some reason I only bought one card from 2 different sets.   Don't really know what my thought process was that day, but I added a HOF hitter from the '76 Topps baseball set and a HOF defenseman from the '71-72 OPC hockey set.

For just over $3, this Mike Schmidt card found its way here.  After my COMC order arrives, my want list for the '76 Topps set is down to just 20 cards.  That along with the 79T and 82T sets will likely be finished early in the new year (hopefully).  I'm quite excited about this, because I've kind of overwhelmed myself with catching up on all these older sets, and knocking a few of them off my want list will probably let me breathe just a bit.

For a little over $5, I grabbed this Serge Savard card, which is in great shape.  I'm starting to run low on commons that I need for the '71-72 OPC set, so I've resigned myself to grabbing star and semi-star cards when I can find them at a decent price.  My biggest concern about this set is condition, especially paper loss on the back and creasing on the front, and this card has no problems at all which means that I'm quite happy!  The 71-72 OPC set is just 9 cards short of the halfway point, and while I don't expect it to be finished anytime soon, I'm pleased with how I've progressed so far.

I may just hit ebay really quick this evening and see if I can take advantage of the 8% bucks available and find a couple of more cards for these sets...

Thanks for reading!

Robert

Want list Wednesday: 1982 Topps

So a couple of days ago, I receive a couple of plain white envelopes in the mail.  No big deal right?  We get them all the time.   Funny thing is, I only expected one of them.  The other one came from Colorado.

It was sent August the 14th.

Yes, it took 110 days for a PWE to get from CO to FL.  No damage to the envelope.   It was addressed correctly as well.  The thought is that either the envelope wound up in a big bag that never got completely emptied, or it fell between a dock door and a trailer to the ground and never got picked up.

It happens.

The Carlton Fisk you see here was one of 5 1982 Topps cards in the envelope that I never did try to replace (the 7 '89 Upper Deck cards I eventually did pick up).  So these 5 cards bring down the want list to just 25 cards, as you'll see below...

50 Buddy Bell

191 Tim Wallach RC

300 Reggie Jackson

328 Ed Farmer

341 Andre Dawson AS

355 Dwight Evans

433 Alan Ashby

446 Wayne Garland

475 Alan Trammell

493 Chet Lemon

500 Rod Carew

501 Rod Carew IA

502 Braves Future Stars - Steve Bedrosian / Brett Butler / Larry Owen RC

545 Reggie Smith

553 Dave Winfield AS

582 Luis Pujols

600 Dave Winfield

608 Jerry Royster

624 Fergie Jenkins

651 Carl Yastrzemski IA

750 Jim Rice

755 Joe Morgan IA

766 Twins Future Stars - Lenny Faedo / Kent Hrbek / Tim Laudner RC

770 Rich Gossage

781 Pete Rose IA

Just the Tim Wallach and Braves Future Stars RC's left, along with about a dozen star cards to find.  Probably will not see any of these at next weekend's card show, so I might just wait to the new year to finish this off.  {EDIT:  4 cards already removed via trade offer on TCDB}

Maybe I'll get lucky and someone will see this list and find some (or all) of these and let me know.

Thanks for reading!

Robert