Serial Saturday #32: Shameless

I usually don't make it a point of writing to companies customer service departments.  More often than not, you get the stock email back.  You know the one "we're working to fix your problem, there's nothing else you can do at this point".  No kidding right?  People are looking for you to do something to fix it, and fix it quick.

Well, I actually wrote to COMC's customer service this week.  Kind of shameless really, as I wanted my cards that the site said would be shipped on the 21st.  Tuesday was the 25th, and no notice from them that the cards had shipped, so I fired off a quick email.  I actually received a fairly quick response a few hours later.   COMC stated that they had received an unusually high number of shipment requests, and were backlogged.   OK, fair enough I thought.

Later on Tuesday, my order was boxed up (more on that tomorrow) and yesterday my cards were in hand!

This was a small order for me, just over 50 cards, and only 5 of them met my serial #'d needs.  All 5  were for various player collections.

I'm up to 6 out of my 500+ Jim Thome card collection from the Moments and Milestones set.

I truly do have mixed emotions about the Moments and Milestones cards from 2008.  They fit my serial #'d wants yes, but there's so many of them (I think there's over 450 for Thome alone) and multiple colors that it's a daunting task to go after them.  So, I'll end up just maybe grabbing one here and there to scratch the itch.

The T.Y. Hilton collection is really still in its infancy, with only 59 cards in hand before adding these 2.  The orange die cut from Prizm on the left is one that I especially liked.  I bought a couple of packs of Donruss football back in 2016, and liked the design that's featured on the right, but never did chase the set.  Smart...too much going on around here.

Most of my serial #'d cards that have come in over the past couple of months have been Panini parallels, so picking up a Topps product is a nice change. The Museum Collection card on the left I believe is the first one that I own, and the Sapphire Blue parallel looks very nice in hand.  I decided to check and see if he was gong to be ready by Opening Day, but this report says that he's likely to start the season on the IL.

Yes, in the end my request to have my cards might have been shameless, but I learned that sometimes you just have to grease the squeaky wheel in order for something to happen.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

OPC all over the place

This evening I'll be watching what arguably could be the biggest game of the regular season so far for the Maple Leafs, as they'll be right down the road from my house here in Sunrise.  The defense corps just lost its 3rd person, as Jake Muzzin is down for a month with a broken hand.  the current defense is nearly the same as the one that won the Calder Cup (AHL championship) two years ago.  Yikes!

So while I'm doing that, this post will automatically appear on the blogger site, featuring a group of OPC cards that came from Canada via new trade partner JF (TCDB ID: althib).

These are the bits and pieces of the trade, 4 cards from 3 different sets over the past 5 years.  No big names out of these 4, but they do remove 4 numbers off of 3 want lists.  Maybe this weekend I will get around to adding these want lists to the blog.

Since I really started focusing on trading on the TCDB at the beginning of 2019, the 1990-91 OPC set is one that I'm surprised that I haven't been able to complete yet.  I was sure that I'd get a lot of requests for trades, especially from north of the border.  Alas, that hasn't been the case, but the set is getting closer to being completed as I'm down to just 44 cards to go.  Been a long time coming...

JF pretty much cleaned me out of my 83 and 85 Topps baseball traders, which is cool as I'm glad that they found a good home.  Thank you for the trade JF, the cards are really appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby!   Go Leafs Go!

Robert

When 1 turns into 3

Like a magician, old friend and trading partner AJ from the Lost Collector turns 1 card:

Into 2:

Then into 3:

Scanning skills improving

AJ for several weeks now has been reminding me that he's had a single GQ green card for me (see AJ, I wasn't ignoring you!!).  So we agreed upon a quick trade on TCDB where I sent him a Gleyber Torres card from 2020 Topps for the GQ green above.  By the way, I'm just 2 cards short of 75% complete for the Green set, very exciting.

But when I open the envelope, not only do I see the 95 CC silver signature card featuring Joe Carter's HR to win the '93 world series, but then  I see the Larry Fitzgerald Air Command card from 2012 Panini Gridiron.  

I guess now all that's left to say is TA DA!!

Thank you very much AJ, as always.  The cards are very much appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Number 11?

I've talked pretty regularly on the blog so far this year about the 10 sets I'm going to finish off first in 2020.  Pretty much a way to keep myself motivated and not try to get too distracted.  But, with this recent trade that I received from 2nd time trade partner Aaron (TCDB ID: suedehead) I may now have the 11th set that I could finish this year.

This was actually a very big hockey trade, the biggest trade I've done in a while.  I wound up knocking off 84 cards off of 2 want lists, both of them being recent OPC sets.

First up is 9 of the 11 SPs that were part of 27 cards from the 2015-16 OPC set, which I had mentioned recently was just starting to get off the ground.  This set doesn't really have any big name RC's (the most notable I found was Sam Bennett), and the other half of the SPs are the Legends, which usually add a bit more to the cost.  I only have 81 cards out of the 600 for the set, so it's nowhere near worrying about yet.

Still need to figure out how to scan 

The 2018-19 OPC set was really bolstered with 40 cards from the base set, 18 of which are shown above, in whole or in part.

And 17 of the SPs, including 7 of the team cards, an idea which I've said that I love in the past.  I've also mentioned this before, but I like what Upper Deck did and instead of pushing the same old Legends cards on us year after year, they added the League Leaders cards at the end (See Ovi and Freddie Andersen above), and the Season Highlight cards #'d 551-560.  It was very nice to see a change, and I hope that they keep this trend going.

This 57 card lot that came in brought the set total to 501 out of 600 cards; there's been quite a jump towards completing this set with the past two trades.  With less than 100 cards to go now, this might be the next set up once the first 10 sets are done this year.  There's other sets that are close to being complete as well, but this is now in the mix.

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

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

It had only been 18 months since a Jays hit

It's gotten to the point where I've run out of witty blog post titles.  Eventually I'm going to have to come up with more ways to describe trades, but for now I have my 2nd trade with Greg from the Collective Mind blog so far this year.   Not quite as big as the first one, but I still was able to add a couple of dozen cards to the collection.

More Jim Thome cards to add to the collection.  It's amazing just how many base cards he had over his career.  Which just tells you how many products were released over a nearly 2 decade span through the 90-s and 00-s.  Bottom center is a Upper Deck Sweet Spot that is serial numbered, one aspect of the Thome collection that is somewhat lacking, a lot of serial numbered cards.

The rest of the 14 are featured above, the Prestigious Pros card adding to the serial #'d total.  The one card I really don't fancy all that much is the '07 Artifacts in the upper row center, with the old style typewriting font on the back, it looks too much like news print to me.  Just the opposite, the Donruss Kings Timeline card is great, featuring two artist renderings of Jim as both an Indian and a Phillie.

There were 10 cards from the '83 Topps FB set for my friend Chris, but I neglected to scan them before I moved them on to my friend, so no luck in showing them.

Finally, this is the 1st addition to the Blue Jays hits page I've made in over 18 months.

Very cool to get a certified autograph of Anthony Alford in the collection, but I will say that his auto is much like most modern athletes....too short.  It almost looks like he wrote "A of A"on the front of the card.   Nonetheless, it is good to update the Jays "hits" page after all this time.  Maybe when I get this run of sets I'm working on complete, I'll try and chase down a couple more autos of current Jays if I can find them cheaply.

Greg, thank you very much for the cards, they are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Serial Saturday #31: Cheap Cards

Leave it to me, a person who loves cheap cards (who doesn't?) to find a seller on twitter with the handle Cheap Cards.  Joe holds sales usually Thursday through Saturday evenings, and I've been able to find a few cards here and there to add to my various collections.

Especially cheap serial #'d cards.  That's what Saturdays are about on the blog, right?

This week I have 5 more cards that I was able to add to the #'d/99 collection, all of which were purchased for less than the designated $2.50 ceiling.

I'm likely not going to find a lot of the current youthful Blue Jays squad #'d to 99 for less than $2.50, so I made do with this Aaron Sanchez gold press proof card for $2.  This scanned out pretty nice if you ask me...

My biggest fear about adding basketball cards to this collection is finding guys whose names I knew.  This post features 3 cards of guys who I do know, starting with this Brook Lopez purple Prizm from back in 2015-16.  Love how the purple looks and scans, and for $1 how could I go wrong.

I don't know much about him, but I do know the name Andrew Bogut, and similar to the two previous cards, this card scanned really well.  Doesn't hurt that there's the old fashioned "Traded to Mavericks" tagline on the card.

I will admit that my basketball curiosity started up again at the end of last season while the Raptors were making their run to the NBA title.  I had heard about the DeRozan for Kawhi Leonard trade the previous summer and that the Raptors had a good shot at winning it all.  I'd never heard of Serge Ibaka previously, but it appears that he's a vital part of the Raptor machine averaging 15 pts and 8 rebounds a game last year.

This Crown Royal card also had a great scan to it, and is the only cards that featured the serial number on the back...

Finally, the last card of this week's additions to the collection is a name I remember, but hadn't heard in quite a while, Jacquizz Rodgers of the Atlanta Falcons.  He didn't do too bad for a 5'6" RB, lasting 8 years in the NFL mostly as a depth performer.  This 2013 Rookies and Stars Longevity parallel also scanned well, with the serial number at the bottom clearly visible.

Finally this week, this next card doesn't fit the #'d to 99 set, but is a nice add for the Larry Fitzgerald collection.

2019 Panini XR blue parallel, #'d to 199 for $3 is a very nice add to the growing Fitzgerald PC.  The gold lettering didn't scan very well, but the blue popped nice and the red Cardinals logo also looks good.

$10 for this lot is a great deal as far as I'm concerned, and Joe's shipping is very fair priced and he doesn't skimp on the packaging as well.  So far he might be the best twitter shipper I've come across to date.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Two new

I always enjoy seeing new cards.  Things I haven't seen in the past, especially when they are shiny or do things that you don't expect a card to do.

Take for example this pair of cards I received from new trade partner David (TCDB ID:DavidAndrew21).  One card each for two of my player collections.

Andrew McCutchen gets the shiny portion of this post.  2016 Finest Franchise Finest insert.  If I didn't have so many sets and players to collect, Finest would probably be a set that might interest me.  For now, I'll just stick to picking up parallels and cheap inserts for my guys, or trade for them as I did here.

This 1997 Pinnacle Inside Dueling Dugouts card is something I hadn't seen before.  It was quite interesting for me, since you can rotate the dial on the left hand side, and the year and stats change.  It covers the 5 year period from 1992-96.

I decided to scan the card twice with two different years to show it off.   Even better, check out the other side...

Chipper Jones is on the front of the card, and as you dial the years, they match on both sides so you can see stats for 1993 for both players just by flipping the card.  A pretty cool idea indeed.  We're probably way beyond this now, meaning you likely will not see companies doing something unique such as this anymore.

I could certainly handle more 2 for 2 trades such as this one....

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Now I know where the Thome cards were

Out of the blue not too long ago I received an offer from another new trade partner, Ora (TCDB: OrainPA) with quite the trade offer.   Ora is a Red Sox fan, and I had a few cards that he wanted.  In return he decided he was going to increase my Jim Thome collection by almost 5%.  When you have just over 500 cards of a player, that's a sizeable increase.

In the lower left is the Pinnacle Inside card from 1998; in doing a little research to see if there was a Jim Thome can (there isn't), I was surprised to learn that Inside ran for 2 years, instead of the 1 that I had thought.

The Topps HD card (Center row right) was thicker than I remembered the set being.  The MVP in the lower right is a set design that I don't remember, I guess 2001 is a set that I haven't come across yet.

I find anytime I come across a Diamond Kings card from the early 2000's, a smile comes across my face.  The artwork on each card is top notch, and the feel of the card is a little like canvas.  Very cool.  I don't have a lot of Thome's cards from later in his career, so it's nice to get a couple base cards from the 2011 showing off his time with the Twins.

You almost got away without seeing a serial numbered card in this post....almost.  The SPx Star Focus card is #'d out of 7000.  The Aficionado card I believe is only the 3rd card from that set that I've owned (it may be one or 2 more than that, I don't exactly remember), but the look is pretty cool as well.  And who doesn't love Crown Royale?  Diecut cards that fancy are always a treat.

547 cards in the Thome collection now.  I remember when I first started collecting him back when I lived in PA, I never thought I'd get anywhere near that number.  There are still hundreds of base cards that I haven't managed to find/trade for yet, so who knows how high this collection will grow!

Ora, thanks for the trade, the cards really are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

The same, only different

I guess that I could have posted all the cards that I've shown over the past couple of days on the same post as tonight's, but I really am trying to keep a steady flow of posts.   It doesn't hurt when you have just over a half dozen trade envelopes arrive on your doorstep in a 2 day period.  It's more hockey today as these two envelopes also knock down some OPC want lists.  One old, and one not as old.

Let's start with the newer part of the post, with a set that's coming along nicely, 2009-10 OPC.

3 time trade partner, and fellow blogger Joseph (TCDB ID: CrazieJoe) sent me a page worth of OPC cards, nearly getting me to the halfway point of this set.  The trade market has been the biggest source of cards for this set, as I may have had only a dozen or so when I put this set up on the site as one to build.  Up to 278 out of the 600 for the set, so we're doing all right.  Joseph also sent me another card for my Keith Tkachuk collection:

Very nice looking card, and it helps that UD put the year of manufacture on the front of the card, as often times it's very hard to see it when it's on the back.

Next up is an older OPC set that I've worked off and on since it came out in 1990-91.

25 cards off of this set's want list make this another set that's completable by the end of the year.  71 cards is not a whole lot for a set that doesn't have any cards that are high value.

These are the other two cards I received from another repeat trade partner, Andy (TCDB ID: andyroy3) who I'm sure was glad to unload all these cards for a few inserts and base cards from the 08-09 season.  As you can see, I still haven't figured out the new computer and scanner combo, as I keep cutting off the top of cards on my scans.  Practice makes perfect.

What has been great lately is that I've been able to knock off a lot of wants for my player collections as well.  It hasn't just been one or two of the ten, it's been most of them that have had cards added, which is great!!

With all the trades coming in, these posts are pretty much all the same, only different.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

These aren't exactly on the radar but...

Lots of pairs happening here as I have 2 trades to show off (for lack of a better phrase) today, and another pair for the next post, hopefully tomorrow.  First up is someone that a lot of you know from Twitter, Jenny (TCDB ID:  JennyMiller521).  We completed a relatively small trade for our first go on the TCDB site, sending 5 cards her way for a half dozen A&G wants from 2017.

No really huge stars here, but for me it was good to get Joey Bats as he was a favorite of mine during his time with the Jays.  I'm making slow progress on this set, with these 6 bringing the total to 185 out of the 350 needed for the set.   That means there's a lot of base cards to go before the remainder of the SPs get tackled.

Next up I grabbed a few cards from a set I've barely started, 2015-16 OPC hockey.

This represents just over 1/4 of what I have so far for this set, with just 54 cards in hand so far.  This trade came from repeat trade partner Nick (TCDB ID: tenlbpain) and cost me a bunch of dupes that I'm sure that Nick can make better use of.  I have a lot of want lists for the modern OPC sets, and at 600 cards for each set, it'll take me a while to get them all together, but the challenge is what all set builders enjoy, isn't it?

I've already hit the 25 trade mark for 2020 with 4 still in the pipeline, and 2 active offers.  I wasn't sure what this year would bring after a big trade year in 2019, but if the first 6 weeks is indicative on how this year will be, I could surpass last year's total.

I can live with that...

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Just two

A big run of trades came in this past week.  7 envelopes in total, which is probably the best run I've had in the 14 months that I've been trading seriously on the TCDB website.  3 of the envelopes were light, containing just two cards each.  All of them were quite good though.

First up was a 2 for 1 deal with repeat trade partner Colin (TCDB ID: nwcardsupplies).  I sent off a Didi Gregorius card and got a couple of base cards for a couple of player collections.

I've had a pretty good run over the past 2-3 months since I've put my Jim Thome collection/want list on the site, adding a great deal of base cards in trades so far.  The Andrew McCutchen collection is still gaining ground, as that's well over the 200 card mark now.   Both of these collections still have a lot of base and minor inserts/parallels needed so those numbers should climb as the summer goes along.

I made a 4 for 2 trade with new trade partner Shane (TCDB ID: obxyankeefan), knocking a couple of star cards off of the '79 and '76 Topps want lists.  Shane was a great communicator, asking me to wait a few days until he pulled the Johnny Bench card and was able to give me an idea of the condition.  Honest all the way, and the cards arrived promptly as well.

With a few purchases on COMC, and the Bench card you see above, my '76 want list now stands at 13 cards.  The '79 set is only missing the Ozzie Smith RC, so once I find a nice copy at a decent price, that set will be complete.

This trade was the most surprising as I was only expecting the Willie Stargell card on the left from Andy (TCDB ID: BrewerAndy).  I was kind of absentmindedly taking the Stargell card out of the Card Saver inside the envelope, when I realized that the Dave Parker card was also inside.  Needless to say, that was a wow moment!

The '74 want list still is in the 80+ range, but finishing this one is a few sets away.  It's nice now though that I have both the Parker RC in hand, and the Winfield RC on its way via COMC.

Thank you to all 3 traders, great stuff filled my mailbox this week!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Serial Saturday #30: How the mighty have fallen

Managed to grab a couple of more cards for the #'d/99 PC from a twitter seller, both cards combined cost me $3 so naturally, I was happy.  Both of these are footballers, both currently playing, or want to play.  First up is Gerald McCoy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers:

Bit of an improvement with the scanner, card doesn't look crooked and it's cropped well.  I'd never heard of the Gold Standard release from Panini until I bought this card, but it's a real nice look and a little bit thicker than your standard card stock.  It's not the brick that the ultra premium brands employ, but still a nice sturdy card.

Gerald is also the 2nd "McCoy" in the collection, as I previously featured LeSean McCoy a while back.  Yes, in case you're both wondering, they're both real.

Would love to know who, or what got into Antonio's head over the past 18 months.  I can't recall a player hitting the skids as fast as he did.  Going to from perennial All-Pro with the Steelers and almost a lock for the HOF to being released by two teams, including the Patriots who specialize in rescuing players careers, within weeks.

This guy is a heckuva football player, he ran great routes in Pittsburgh and caught pretty much anything that came his way.  I hope he gets whatever help he needs to get back on the football field and resurrect his career, because it would be a shame if his career ends with the crash that it did at the beginning of the 2019 season.

These 2 cards bring the collection up to 31 so far, with football leading the way with 11 cards to date.  I have 2 more basketball and one baseball card to come from another Twitter card seller, so the collection is starting to grow nicely.  I just need to start finding some more hockey players on the cheap.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

What a difference a couple of years makes

Have 8 cards to show off for tonight's post from a regular trade partner Craig (TCDB ID: DukeyDevil).  It always has been easy to swap cards with Craig, and this time was no different.  But, when I started to scan the cards this evening to try and come up with something to write, I struggled for a few minutes.

Then it hit me.  These cards represent two portions of my card collecting life.

The first part is 3 cards from the '79 Topps BB set.

This is one of the last sets, baseball anyhow, that I remember collecting as a young lad.  Seeing these cards again reminds me of walking to the corner store and buying packs for a quarter (or something like that).  Where the cards that I had went from when I was a kid, only my mother knows.  I was 11 years old going on 12 when these cards were first released.  Still young.

Fast forward 3 years to 1982.  1982-83 to be exact.  I was 15 at the time, and have not one memory of these cards or buying any packs of them.

For a period of almost a decade, most of the 80's is a non card blur in my life.  I didn't start picking up cards again until 1990 when Upper Deck released it's first hockey set.  Seeing cards like the 5 above make me realize what I missed for those 9 years.

A lot of great sets.  I'm still working on a lot of the hockey sets from that decade.  The baseball sets, at least the ones I wanted to build, are complete.  I did a lot of things with my life in the 80's and sadly cards weren't a part of them.

I'm slowly getting that part back.  Sorry about the nostalgia, but sometimes inspiration hits in the weirdest of places.

Thank you for the cards Craig, they are always appreciated.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert