Week in review: Panic relief and the larger half

Before I show off a bunch of 1972 Topps cards that I believe you'll enjoy, have to relay a quick USPS story.  Well, I got another offer from repeat trade partner Mike (TCDB ID:49ants) who lives in CA.  2 for 2, quick and easy, with the key card coming my way being this Ichiro '09 Heritage Chrome

LOVE this card

His end arrives nice and quick, 4 days if I remember correctly.  I sent my end on the 12th of this month.  Mike sent me a message 10 days later, saying nothing had arrived yet.  Now I even paid the extra postage to send it as non-machinable, and was kind of surprised that my end hadn't arrived.  I replied and told him that I'd sent my end as always, PWE on the date that the transaction was updated.

I followed up on the 26th, 2 weeks after I had sent the envelope, asking if anything had arrived.  Nothing.   Now the panic starts to set in, as one of the cards I sent was a 2019 Topps black parallel, which would cost me a few bucks to replace.  Imagine my relief when he updates the trade on 29th as arrived.   17 days!  USPS trying to give me a heart attack!

OK, onward.  The larger half of my trade from Greg at the Collective Mind was a healthy lot of 1972 Topps.  So much so that I'm now above the halfway mark for the set!!  Let's take a look at the bounty.

5 sets of full page scans make up the first 45.  Most of these in the VG to VG-EX range, perfect for my collecting tastes. 

Trying to keep most of the scans reasonably even, I made the next scan just 6 cards.  Nice big rookie cup on the Steve Braun card, and the Sandy Alomar is a nice head shot in my opinion.

Had 11 horizontal cards, and it just worked out that there were 4 Rookie Stars cards and 4 team checklists, including the Yankees!  I remember when putting the '64 set together that the Yankees team card was one of the last, but certainly not one of the cheapest, so I was glad to get this one for this set out of the way early.

Billy Conigliaro was the last vertical card, so he wound up with the remaning 2 horizontal cards.  Love the AL ERA leaders card, all great pitching names, and the Ron Bryant In Action card shows something you don't see on cards much now (that I remember anyhow), and that's a bunt in progress.

Finally, a little Hammerin' Hank for you...

Joe Torre and Willie Stargell as well.   Great looking card, slightly miscut (you can see it plainly on the right hand side of the card), but I still love it.  This haul brings me up to 414 cards in hand, or just over 52% done.  A big lift which has made me a little more serious about completing the set relatively timely.  I'm sure that the high series cards will straighten me out quickly....

Greg, thank you very much for the trade, it really is appreciated!!   Look forward to the next one.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

The smaller half

Maybe calling this post 1/2 of this trade might do a disservice to the other half, but I decided to break up the trade with Greg from the Collective Mind blog into 2 pieces, so both posts get the "half" designation.

In what started as a harmless trade involving just a few cards going in both directions turned into a 100+ card trade that took a chunk out of both of our want lists.

Totally unexpected were these 4 1974 Topps cards, including Canada's own Ferguson Jenkins!

Little bits and pieces of want lists like these 4 are always great, especially when you get Jenkins and Ken Griffey Sr.'s rookie card.  Still 88 cards to go to finish off '74, but that's a task which is a few complete sets away. 

1978 Topps was nicely represented in this envelope, as 14 cards are now off of that want list.

Unmarked checklists.   Check.

The hitters portion of the group, including the man who managed the Jays to two World Series titles, Cito Gaston.  894 wins as the Blue Jays manager still ranks him 1st all time with the club.  I remember Butch Wynegar well, 2nd round pick of the Twins in the '74 draft, he was up with the big club by 1976.   A quick dive into his stats and I noticed something interesting, his number of BB's vs. K's each season.  Butch walked more than he struck out each season of his career but one, which was 1987 in which he barely had 100 plate appearances.  A pretty good eye indeed.

Decided to scan all the pitchers together, and I started to notice the names.  Carlton and Tanana, lefties.  Denny and Leonard, righties.  So I wondered, what were the chances of having an equal number of left/right hand pitchers of this group of 8.  Sure enough, 4 lefties and 4 righties.   Bullet points for all!

• Paul Mitchell was part of the trade that brought Reggie Jackson to the Orioles.
• Joe Kerrigan's birthday is today, happy 66th Joe! I remember Joe as a pitching coach for the Expos, Red Sox and Phillies.
• I didn't know that Ken Brett died young in life, just 55 years of age back in 2003.
• Steve Carlton and Frank Tanana combined for just under 7000 K's, Carlton still ranks 4th all time, Tanana is 23rd.
• Dennis Leonard missed most of the '85 season, the year that KC beat the Blue Jays in the ALCS.
• John Denny had that one great season, 1983, in which he won the Cy Young.  Only won more than 11 games one other time in 13 MLB seasons
• Doug Rau had a great 5 season run with the Dodgers, winning 73 games.  His rotator cuff gave out in '79 and his career ended after a 3 game stint with the Angels in '81.  Doug tripled in his first career AB, and never hit another one after that.  The same picture on his '78 card above is used on his baseball reference page.

 Next up, the bigger half.  1972 Topps.  Lots of them.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Gotta love the quick and easy trades

Another couple of trades came in yesterday, one was via the blog, and the other was with fellow TCDB trader Jimmy (TCDB ID: torcato).  Jimmy sent me 7 cards that hit various want lists, and as always was fast and friendly with the trade.

I've probably added more cards to my Jim Thome collection in the past month than I had in the past 12 months.  Finally getting around to adding the cards/want list onto the TCDB site I'm sure had a great deal to do with that.  There's still quite a few base cards to obtain for Thome, as well as the Larry Fitzgerald.   Love the look of the 2007 SPx base card; I still don't have a lot of the cards from the 2000's for Fitz, I'd love to add more of them over time.

Here's the horizontal portion of the trade, a Stadium Club Power Zone insert from 2018 featuring Andrew McCutchen whose collection is approaching the 200 card mark.  Was also happy to see another card for my buddy Chris' 83 Topps FB set, which I posted about last Wednesday .  There's still 77 cards on the want list, so if you have any doubles hiding away you're looking to trade, let me know!

2 more Ichiro's and a 2nd McCutchen round out the trade.  Never heard that Chrome had an update set (shows how much Chrome packs I buy) until I grabbed these 2 cards on this trade.  Still need a lot of Topps Heritage cards for most of my player collections, both base and Chrome parallels, so it's good when I see any of them come by. 

Thank you for the trade Jimmy, the cards are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Serial Saturday #29: A couple of numbered cards for the player collections

A pretty slow week around the house trade wise, and card wise.  I put $40 into my COMC account and bought a few cards for the '79 set, along with the Dave Winfield RC from '74 Topps.  I probably will not see those until some time in February, so let's move on with the one trade envelope that I did get in the past few days.

Traded with a newer TCDB member Bob (TCDB ID:abide), a quick 4 for 2 swap.   I sent off a Kris Bryant manupatch card and a serial numbered card from the Astros and received a pair of Ichiro cards and a pair of Jim Thome cards.

2 serial #'d cards, one for each player, and that's what we'll show today.

A slight crease in the upper right corner was a bit of a bummer, but it's still nice to have an older Ichiro card, this being a 2005 UD Gold exclusives parallel, 54/99.  It's only the 2nd card I have of Ichiro numbered to less than 100, so it is a nice add for sure!  My Ichiro collection is now up to 225 cards, a drop in the bucket for him as he has 16,943 cards listed on the TCDB website.  

I didn't discover these Topps Co-Signers cards until a few years after I started blogging back in 2011, but I kind of developed a soft spot for them.  Lots of foil, and as you can see, Paul Konerko is kind of washed out with the scan.  But the serial numbering is my weakness as you all know, and having one of just 175 copies is always a plus for me. 

I'll look to add more of these serial numbered Co-Signers cards to my collection over time. 

I now have 524 cards in my Thome collection, which only trails Joe Sakic in my player collection counts.  I'm not actively seeking them out for purchase, but I'll add them here and there via trades as time goes along.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Want list Wednesday: 1983 Topps Football

I'm actually going off the board for this post.   When I say off the board, I mean that I'm writing this post for someone else's want list.

I built about 80% of this set for a buddy of mine for Christmas this year, and I'm hoping that I can get some more cards for him just by reaching out to the masses.  The list is 78 cards in length.

1 Ken Anderson RB
3 Dan Fouts RB
4 Joe Montana RB
5 Mark Moseley RB
8 John Riggins RB
10 1982 NFC Championship (Already on it's way)
12 Super Bowl XVII
16 Bobby Butler
29 Brian Baschnagel
32 Noah Jackson
33 Jim McMahon RC
34 Emery Moorehead
36 Walter Payton
38 Mike Singletary RC
41 Otis Wilson RC
46 Tony Dorsett
47 Tony Hill
50 Harvey Martin
53 Ron Springs
56 Danny White
70 Billy Sims
101 Randy Holloway
108 Rickey Young
117 George Rogers
120 Butch Woolfolk
126 Mark Haynes
128 Dave Jennings
133 Lawrence Taylor
141 Dennis Harrison
142 Ron Jaworski
147 Max Runager
157 Elois Grooms
165 Randy Cross
168 Ronnie Lott
169 Joe Montana
174 James Wilder
177 Neal Colzie
186 John Riggins
189 Vernon Dean
190 Joe Jacoby
193 Rich Milot
194 Mark Moseley
198 John Riggins
202 1982 Passing Leaders
205 1982 Scoring Leaders
230 Pete Johnson
235 Cris Collinsworth
240 Anthony Munoz
254 Ozzie Newsome
263 Rulon Jones RC
271 Gifford Nielsen
284 Joe Delaney
293 Marcus Allen TL
294 Marcus Allen RC
297 Cliff Branch
299 Ray Guy
302 Ted Hendricks
316 Don McNeal RC
321 Don Strock
323 David Woodley
327 Rich Camarillo
329 Steve Grogan
334 Stanley Morgan
336 Kenneth Sims
347 Marty Lyons
353 Richard Todd
356 Gary Anderson RC
358 Terry Bradshaw
362 Franco Harris
363 Jack Lambert
366 John Stallworth
372 James Brooks
374 Dan Fouts
377 Charlie Joiner
389 Steve Largent
393 Jim Zorn
395 Checklist 133-264

The fact that I typed this all out instead of copy and pasting off of a website hopefully shows how much I'd like to get some or all of these cards for my buddy.

Let me know in the comments what you have (if any).  Thanks for looking...

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Maybe this set should have been one of the 10

At the beginning of the month, I wrote a post about the next 10 sets that I planned to finish to start 2020.  So far, I've done well sticking to that plan, as I've finished the first 2 (81 & 82 Topps), I'm closing in on the 3rd (83 Topps) and I'm picking up cards here and there for some of the others on the list.

But, there's one set that I put up a want list for last year, the '19 Gypsy Queen green parallel set.  Figuring that I didn't have a parallel set that would take me a while to finish, I decided to add this on as another project.  I expected this to take a couple of years, and be something that I'd slowly work towards.

Funny how a lot of people don't see it that way....

I just recently completed two more trades on TCDB, which takes the want list below the 80 card mark.   Far better than I would have ever hoped to have already had in hand.

Colbey from the Cardboard Collections blog sent me these two in return for a bunch of set help I sent his way (which I was very glad to do).  I will say that David Price's card features him looking quite happy, probably throwing someone out at first.  I'm guessing that the logo just under his feet is for Sam Adams beer, written out in full as Samuel.  Framber Valdez's card also features some advertising, for the Bank of America. 

New trade partner Jeff (TCDB ID: jcouvy) sent me these 5 greens along with the blue parallel below

The blue he sent by mistake, thinking it was a green.  I actually didn't get his message about it until yesterday, and I felt kind of bad about it so I sent him a Clayton Kershaw card today to hopefully "even out the trade". 

The want list is at 78 cards as of this morning, and I'm also looking for an extra green and blue parallel for my Andrew McCutchen collection. 

Thank you to both Jeff and Colbey for the trades, they are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Serial Saturday #28: I forgot about these

The last order I pulled in from COMC actually began before the New Year.  I started nibbling here and there with some random stuff, including the #'d/99 set.  I wanted to try and keep adding some recognizable names to the collection, and I think I did pretty well with these 3 cards.

As I was adding this 2013 Topps Museum Collection John Smoltz card to the collection, I had to figure out which parallel it was, because for some reason upon first glance, I had no idea (duh).  When I looked at the last shipment of cards on COMC, the listing showed that this is the blue parallel, which I should have figured out quite easily.

Sometimes the brain just doesn't function well on a Saturday, you know?   Cost was $1.25, a very reasonable add to the collection.

Why not a little football?  I followed along with the Bills all season with my friends who are big Bills fans, and I'd seen a lot of Jim Kelly on the sidelines at games.  I decided to see if I could get any of his cards on the cheap, and this 2016 Donruss Elite green parallel fell into my cart. 

Cost?  $1.19.  Another Hall of Famer to add to the group.

After purchasing the other 2 cards, I decided I wanted another basketball card to add.  I also wanted a Raptor, as I was feeling a little nostalgic for my hometown, and something from the World Champions seemed like a nice pickup.  This is a 2016 Donruss Optic Swishful thinking red parallel insert (is a parallel insert set a thing?  I guess it is), #'d....

73/99.  Cost?  $1.35, the most expensive of the three.  So,for just under $4 I have 3 more adds to the collection.

I'd forgotten about these to be honest, they were sitting at the bottom of a pile of cards on my desk.  But as I'm slowly getting cards put away and posts written, these were found and behold!  Another Saturday serial #'d post in the books.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Week in review: Chipped away at a lot of items

I guess I'd have to say that the best part of this week is that I minimized the card purchases, both online and in the stores.  I only spent $3 online and did all right; Justin (Twitter ID: @Jloza330) sent me some cards that hit a couple of want lists....

Justin saw my tweet about knocking off the Judge and Trout greens, so he sent me a message to let me know he had these 4.  $3  and these 4 were in my hands, and he generously also sent me this Andrew McCutchen rookie reprint

This is the sapphire version from the 2013 Bowman set, and it goes along with the Jim Thome sapphire rookie version I have from that year as well. 

Speaking of Jim Thome, I also picked up one of his older cards from a TCDB trade with regular partner John (TCDB ID:herkojerko).  Not only did I get the Fleer '94 card, but he sent a couple of Ichiro's as well.

Gotta love the '19 Archives version, using the '75 design.  I think it looks great, and it does a good job on the back as well, even if it doesn't have all of his stats.  The cartoon quiz I also found interesting, so I'll share it with you. 

How many .400 hitters played for a 1st place team?  Answer at the end of the post.

I've also developed a soft spot for the Diamond Kings cards for my player collections so I was glad to get this year's Ichiro also.

Not only did I get those 3 from John, I nabbed a trio of well loved '78s as well.

Yep, they don't look too bad via the scan, but John's grading on them was a bit tough, they are actually better than I expected.  The scan didn't pick it up very well, but there is a "33" to the left of George Mitterwald's name.   Uniform # maybe?  Nope, George played from 74-77 with the Cubs and wore the #15.  There's no telling why that 33 is there. 

Didn't even make it to half of the weekly budget this week, I spent just over $10 in postage for 4 envelopes, and $3 on twitter.  I even completed a trade with long time fellow blogger Colbey, hopefully repaying a bit of the kindness he has shown me and many others with his free breaks over the years.   I wound up sick last weekend so I didn't hit the monthly card show, thus the reason for the low dollar amount.  I'm hoping to pick up one of either Ozzie Smith's or Dave Parker's RC sometime this week to make up for it.

ANSWER:  None

Was shocked to see that answer, so I took a look.  Assuming that 1900 was used as the cut off for the modern era of baseball, then yes indeed it is true.  A few 2nd place finishes, but the teams that had players hit .400 were never a pennant winner.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

A couple of more trades come in

A rare day when I receive a couple of trades in the mailbox, and none of the cards end up going towards any of my sets.   Mind you, it was only 7 cards that came in, but still...

A pair of really nice refractor cards from the early part of the 10's came all the way from CA courtesy of multiple time trade partner Mike (TCDB ID: 49ants), who received a duplicate I had of McCutchen, and the Oracle Park black parallel I had from this past year's Topps set. 

These 5 cards came from new trade partner Leo (TCDB ID: LO212257) and had me scratching my head at a couple of them.  The T.Y. Hilton portion of my collection is starting to fill up nicely, as these two cards put me solidly into the 50's.  When I made the offer to Leo, I couldn't believe that I didn't have either the McCutchen or the Fitzgerald base cards in my collection.  Had to stop and check both binders to make sure.  Needed them both...

Now you may be thinking the Greg Cater card from '83 Topps FB is a little random, but I actually have a want list on TCDB for the set for a friend of mine.  Need about 75 more to go to finish the set, a lot of them star cards, but it'll be fun to see if I can get a few of them for him via the trade route. 

Another trade or two to come in and I'll hit the 200 mark for completed transactions on the site.  Not bad since I started 2019 at just 37.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

2 down, 8 to go

Just as quickly as the '81 set was done and written about last week, my recent COMC order finished off another set.  Since I'm going in a specific order, '82 Topps is the 2nd set in the predetermined order and the final 10 cards I purchased will be shown off this evening.

Decided to lump the 3 in action cards together, not only because they look good all on the same scan, but there's a lot of hits in those 3 bats.  I decided to take a quick stab at how many hits these 3 Hall of Famers combined for, and I was about 700 shy.  I'll give you the total hits at the end of the post...

No shortage of star cards on this scan as well.  All 6 of them Hall of Famers.  Combined cost was just over $4, and you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you that Alan Trammell's card was the most expensive at 95 cents.   Took a quick look at Fergie Jenkins' career stats, and I had no idea that his career started with 8 relief appearances for the Phillies back in 1965 and '66.

I knew of Jenkins time in Chicago, Texas, and I even remembered his 2 seasons in Fenway.  Fergie also liked to finish what he started as he recorded 20 or more complete games in 8 out of 9 seasons between 1967-75.  That included a Cy Young in 1971 when he won 24 games and completed 30(!) while posting 325 innings and walking just 37 batters.   Wow...

The Braves future stars card rounds out the set, featuring speedster Brett Butler and closer Steve Bedrosian, winner of the '87 Cy Young award in the NL with 40 saves and a sub 3 ERA.  I took a look at the Cy Young race that year because Bedrosian's stats while good, weren't off the charts.   There really wasn't any starter that year that was really dominant, but the most interesting pitcher was Nolan Ryan.  Ryan finished tied for 5th in Cy Young voting with 12 points, but led the league in ERA with 2.76 and K's with 270.   Problem was, he went 8-16 for the Astros that year, and the team won only 78 games. 

ANSWER:  Morgan, Yastrzemski and Carew combined for 8989 hits.  I guessed around 8200, thinking that Yaz only scratched 3000 hits (he was over 3400), and that Morgan was around 2200 (he was over 2500). 

1983 Topps is up next, and I should have that done by the end of January.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Stained glass on a Sunday

I don't know of anyone else on twitter or on the blogs that collects Larry Fitzgerald.  I haven't seen anyone else post cards of him....ever.  I've been fortunate on a few occasions to have other bloggers approach me with offers of cards featuring him.

This luck happened again this past week, as fellow blogger Jon (A Penny Sleeve for your Thoughts) sent me a DM on twitter asking if I had the stained glass version of Fitz's card from 2015 Prizm Draft picks. 

Stained glass?  Yeah, I was pretty sure I didn't have anything that resembled that, so I provided a quick response of no.

Now I do!  Great looking card and a very nice add to the Fitzgerald collection, which is now up to 342 cards, a far better amount than I imagined when I started collecting him. 

Jon also mentioned he was going to find a card to add to the envelope so it wouldn't arrive alone.  I thought it might be another card from one of my player collections.   Nope...

'68 Topps #306, Mike Ryan.   Totally unexpected.  Only 37 more cards to hit the halfway point of the '68 set.   Not a priority at the moment, but anytime you can add a card to a vintage set it's great. 

Blogger generosity at its finest, thank you very much for the cards, they really are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Serial Saturday #27: Free is good

Advertising apparently works.  The other day I posted about picking up the final card for the '81 Topps set after writing a post about the card a couple weeks before. 

Recently I updated my TCDB profile and added this line

Side collections:  Cards serial #'d/99 that are purchased for less than $2.50

I'm not sure why I added it at the time; I imagine I wanted to get the word out about the collection.  A few days later, I received a trade offer, 3 for 1.   I traded off 3 of the 2019 Topps Gallery Wood border cards (which look great if you ask me) and received this in return.

Art by Carlos Cabaleiro

Now, if I didn't have a few dozen sets in the works currently, this set might have been something I would have gone after.   These are great looking cards, and having this as part of my #'d / 99 collection is a great plus for me.

If I'm Brad Keller, do I really want a card depicting me with my face covered?  That's up to him I guess, but this is definitely a unique add to my collection.   Even better is the serial #...

This is numbered 99/99!  Probably the only one I will ever add to this collection with that number. 

Many thanks to Robert (TCDB ID: golfslocum) for the trade offer, it really is appreciated. 

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Week in review: trades aplenty and some minor pack purchases

During my travels this week, I bought cards at Target a couple of times.  At the Target near my house, I bought one of those Fairfield repacks for $11.99 which contained 10 packs of hockey cards.  Nothing major in the 2 MVP 5 card packs, the 90-91 Pro Set series 2 pack was also fine, but I did pull a Martin Brodeur RC out of the 90-91 Score American pack that was inside...

Can Enterprise pick you up?

The remaining packs in the Fairfield were Upper Deck packs from 2016-17 to current, a nice deal, including a jumbo pack!  Those went into my hurricane stash of packs that I have accumulating at the bottom of my bookshelf. 

I had to hit Target one day at work to pick up some supplies for the office, and no visit is without a pack purchase.  Didn't see any hockey there, so I picked up a couple of packs of Panini Rookies & Stars football, and the first parallel I hit wasn't too shabby.

The Green didn't come out very well in the scan, needless to say it will be added to my trade bait on the TCDB website.  Speaking of TCDB, I mailed out 4 trade envelopes this week, at a cost of just under $6.  Incoming was a different story, as I received two packages from Canada, along with 3 others from the US.

One of the trades came from Washington state, and inside was 11 GQ Green parallels including these two key players, Trout and Judge.  I was worried that I might have to buy them as this set came to a close, but now I don't have that problem. 

The same trade netted me a nice add to the T.Y. Hilton collection, which is starting to grow nicely.

I see all types of collections out there, does anyone collect cards that feature the elements on them, such as the two cards in the middle row that have T.Y. running in the snow.   If you do, point me to some posts/scans so I can check them out.

Finally, one of the trades from Canada added a few older cards to my Joe Sakic collection, which is slowly inching it's way to the 800 card mark.

The Score card in the middle row?  That's a Kellogg's card from 91-92, a great food issue that I thought I might never see.  The 90-91 UD next to it is the French version, of which I have none.  Even with all the cards I have from the 90's of Joe, I'm still adding more with these 5.  Great stuff.

So, total spent this week was $26, knocked off wants from the Sakic, Potvin, Sundin and Olerud player collections, several set builds also had some cards added, and a bit of trade bait crossed my desk.

Card show tomorrow.  Hopefully find some cards to finish off the '83 Topps set, maybe some '79s as well.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

One down, 9 to go.

I decided at the beginning of 2020 to finish 10 sets, in order.  First on the list was 1981 Topps, and I mentioned a couple of weeks back that the set was down to just one card, #358 Mark Wagner.

Why he wound up being last, I'll never know.  Well, thanks to the post I made, and fellow collector Bruno from the TCDB site (ID: sandyrusty), I have 9 sets left to finish.

Bruno also sent 5 singles from the '82 set, which brings me to 10 on the want list, which I'm waiting patiently for COMC to send me.  By the way COMC, 8 days to pack up 23 cards?   That's assuming you're going to ship today.   I know you have a vast inventory at your warehouse, but in my opinion, that's just a bit slow.

9 more sets to go, and 2 of them are really close.  Once '82 and '83 Topps are done, that's where the fun begins.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

One in a million

I'm sure that many of you are familiar with Beau on twitter (@onemillioncubs is his handle) and his 1,000,000 Cubs cards project.  Honestly, that is more than I could ever think of handling in my house, and I'm sure that my wife would give me a look if I ever suggested doing something like that.

Beau had mentioned on twitter on Friday about some eBay auctions that he was running, and asked people to go check them out.  I've traded with him in the past, and the experience was very good, so I gave it a shot.

I click on Beau's ID, and I swear to you, this is the first card that was on his list for me to look at...

Yes, big brother is definitely watching.

So for $7.50 shipped, the other half of the dynamic duo (Sandberg was last night's post) arrived today and has dropped the '83 Topps want list down to 24 cards, 9 of which are on their way from COMC.  I'm hoping I can find some or all of the last 15 at the monthly card show this weekend, and if so that will make 3 sets complete when my shipment from Washington state arrives. 

I will say, 2020 is off to a great start for me.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Giving credit where credit is due

Not a long wordy post, but had to give a quick shout out to an eBay seller that impressed me today.

I bought this Ryne Sandberg RC on Friday the 3rd.

Paid $6 + $3.25 shipping.  Pretty good price for the card, but as you've seen and heard all over the place, you just don't know what you're going to get for shipping from someone you've never brought from in the past.

This was in my opinion, perfect.  Shipped in a bubble mailer.  Sleeve, top loader and team bag!!

There was even a note thanking me for the purchase.  I loved everything about this pickup.   Thank you to Mark (eBay ID: dduman5) for a great experience that was well worth writing about, even if it was only 130 words worth.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Week in review: Progress made on a couple of fronts

I've wanted for quite a while to start up the weekly review posts that I used to write on Friday's a long time ago.  Seeing as I'm dedicating to doing things this year such as finishing off 10 sets, I'm going to try and dedicate some of my energy to these Friday posts.

So, let's begin.

I went a few bucks over the mythical $30 spending limit, but unlike in the past where I spent it willy-nilly on crazy stuff, I'm working towards finishing a few sets.

$20 deposited in the COMC account helped me finish up the '82 Topps set, grab a few cards for the '83 Topps set, and have them shipped my way with just under $5 left in the account.

A couple more exhibits from a recent TCDB trade

Oh, and by the way, COMC raised their shipping rate for the economy shipping level to $4.99 at the beginning of the year.  Adjust accordingly...

Woke up this morning and turned on twitter, and lo and behold Beau (@onemillioncubs on twitter) had a link to his eBay auctions.  I've enjoyed reading his exploits as he heads towards his 1M card goal, so I clicked on the link.  To my surprise, the first card on his auction list was the Tony Gwynn '83 Topps RC.   Big Brother is definitely watching.

So along with a cheap Ryne Sandberg RC I had in my cart, and using the $4.25 eBay bucks I had accumulated, the 2 key pieces I had remaining for the '83 set are on their way for just over $12. 

Finally, off to the post office I went this morning to send off one trade envelope for $4, which will net me a couple of key cards in the '19 GQ Green parallel set that I needed, along with a nice boost to my T.Y. Hilton collection.  Hopefully I'll be able to show them off sometime toward the end of next week.

So, spent just over $36 this week, not too bad considering I have a nice bunch of cards headed my way. 

Fingers crossed that I can keep up these Friday posts...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert