Four by Four

The trade similarity run continues today as there's a pair of trades that also came in during the past 7 days that netted me 4 cards apiece.  First off, we have a pair of cards from two different collections via repeat trader Jerry  (TCDB ID: nozzlemaster).

I had bought one of those repack boxes from Target on my last visit there a couple of weeks back, and one of the packs inside was 2019 GQ.  While I didn't pull anything that helped my collections, a couple of cards inside (including a Roger Maris SP) went Jerry's way for these 4 cards.

The GQ green is slowly making its way towards completion, I'm at 229 out of the 300 cards in hand now.  Again, what I thought would be a lengthy project looks like it has a chance of being finished this year which is great!

Jim Thome's collection is also growing nicely; finally getting his cards on the TCDB site and putting up a healthy want list has made all the difference.  The '99 Pacific is the 49th card just from 1999, and that's not even the most I have from 1 year for Thome (2002 has 50).  Have a good shot at hitting 600 cards for this collection by the end of the year, as I have some relics that I'm sure I haven't added, and I'm just 27 cards away from that milestone.

In contrast, the T.Y. Hilton collection is still in its infancy, just 65 cards in hand.  No worries though, this collection is something that's cool to add to on the side, but not a major focus right now.  These came from a first time trade partner, Shawn (TCDB ID: herkyone) and arrived quickly, well at least as quick as PWE's are getting through the mail these days.

Thanks to both for the trades, the cards are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

2 trades with 3 common traits

Ichiro.  McCutchen.  2020 Topps '85 inserts.  Each of these appeared in 2 consecutive trades that would take up a page each.  It wasn't until a few days after I received both that the similarity took hold.

First up is a trade with new trade partner James (TCDB ID: jlcre2003)

6 big names knocked off the 2020 Topps '85 insert want list.  Aaron and Clemente are both big names I'm happy to have off the list, as are the other 4.  Was surprised that I was able to gather a group like this in one fell swoop.

One each of Ichiro and Andrew McCutchen round out this trade, both inserts from 2019 sets.  I kind of wish I had pushed forward with collecting the '84 Topps inserts like I said I would last year, as I probably could have bindered them together with the '85 inserts from this year.   Oh well, I'll just enjoy the McCutchen and move on.

The 2nd trade has more Ichiro and Cutch cards, what's good for me especially is the 4 subset cards from the 2016 Topps & Topps Update sets.  There's 60 total, I believe I have the base set of 30 done and now have 10 from the Update set.

I've really started to ramp up lately on the early 2010's from both McCutchen and Ichiro, and probably wouldn't have had to if I'd started their collections years ago.  No matter, I'm having a blast trading for them and reliving them over again, or in the case of the Opening Day Elite Skills card in the center, seeing them for the first time.  This 2nd trade is from first time trade partner Corey (TCDB ID: corey42080) and was a great mix of cards for sure.

A big thank you to both traders, the cards are great and very much appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Even numbers

It's funny what you notice when starting to write a post.  I had made a purchase early this past week from The Battersbox on eBay, one of my favorite sellers.   I took advantage of the free shipping when you buy over $10 worth of cards, which usually isn't a problem for me.

When going through the cards and scanning them this morning, I noticed that I bought from 3 sets, 1972, 1974 and 1976.  No 1971, 1969 or any odd numbered year sets.  I did buy an odd number of cards, but I was shipped an even number of cards.   Let's take a look and I'll explain why.

A pair of star cards from the slowly dwindling 1976 Topps want list to start.  Combined I spent $5.50 on these two, but they are in pretty good shape and finishing this set up is on the radar.  Love the palm trees in the background on the Don Sutton card.

This pair cost me slightly more, $5.75 of which $4 was for the Lou Brock.  The Tom Shopay was $1.75, but I'm starting to get into the higher numbered common cards for '72, so here and there I'll have to pay a bit more, and the card is in nice shape, so I didn't mind so much.

This pair also cost me $5.75, which is pretty good considering one of the cards is part of the Hank Aaron special subset at the beginning of the '74 set.  I also wanted to finish off the World Series sub set so I grabbed game 4 which is the only one I had left on the want list.

Now, the last card is the most interesting story of the purchase.  Consider this Rod Carew/Joe Morgan card.  $2.25, not a bad price.

This wasn't the copy that I ordered.  Anyone who has dealt with the Battersbox knows that they have a numbering system for their auctions, and you see it on the back of the card saver when the card arrives.

Apparently, they were unable to locate the copy that I purchased, so they sent the one above, and ….

this copy as well.  Along with it was a note stating that they apologized, couldn't find the card I bought, but hoped that one of these two copies would make up for it.

For me, I thought this was outstanding.  They didn't have to do that at all.  So I wound up with 8 cards instead of 7.  Would love to hear from anyone out there what their thoughts are on this replacement method.

I'll likely head back to the Battersbox auctions again this week to buy up some more of my want list.  Maybe try and finish off the '76 set this week, who knows.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Serial Saturday #35: 50 in the rearview mirror

Never did I think that I would hit the 50 card mark for my #'d/99 project so quickly, but here I am!  I hit the mother load with 8 cards on my last twitter purchase for this set; I was actually going to post these last Saturday, but I never got around to writing anything that day.  There's a nice mix among the 8 cards I'm about to show, football, basketball and baseball.

Love the powder blue uniform on Melvin Gordon of the Chargers, I certainly wouldn't be upset if they went to these full time instead of the darker blues.  This is from the 2018 Panini Classics set, #'d 78/99

I don't know much about today's basketball players, so I'm kind of learning on the fly when picking up cards to fill this set.  Andre Drummond is nicknamed "the Big Penguin", maybe not the greatest moniker if you're a basketball player (assuming that it's for his running style), but his numbers on the court seem pretty solid.  Andre's averaging 17 pts and 15 rebounds per game so far this year.

Tony Allen is another player that I couldn't have said anything knowledgable about before writing this post, but it appears that his career finished up a couple of seasons ago.  13 years in the league as what appears to me as a starter for about half of the games he appeared in, averaging just over 8 points a game for his career.

Next up we have J.J. Hickson whose NBA career ended in the 2015-16 season,  He started just under 60% of the games he appeared in, and averaged 9.5 pts per game for the 5 teams he played for.

Both of these cards were from the 15-16 Hoops set, Artist Proof parallels.  Both scanned really well, the shine really pops on the scan, just as if you're tilting it in your hands.

The last four cards are all baseball, and I'm saving the best player for last...

All 3 of these cards are from the 2016 Diamond Kings baseball set, more Artist Proof parallels.  They're all recognizable names as well, which is great, and all of them were just a buck apiece.  I've been kind of a semi fan of Matt Carpenter, mostly for his hitting.  I like that he doesn't use batting gloves, and he reminds me of how Albert Pujols was for the Cardinals in the early stages of his career, playing multiple positions.  Carpenter's average has been sliding for the past couple of seasons, but has had some good power numbers to make up for it.

Last up is a hall of famer, and a card that hit the budget ceiling of $2.50.  Loved when I saw this Rod Carew card up for sale, and I especially like the '58 design front and back.

#'d 55/99, and I believe that each card in this order had their own unique serial #.  Has me thinking that I might just see if eventually I can fill all the #'s from 1-99 for this little collection.

These 8 cards bring the collection up to 52 cards, almost 6 pages worth.  I do have a couple of more in my COMC cart, so in a few weeks when they start shipping again, we'll be in the mid 50's.   No rush right now though, as the world is on a bit of a pause....

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Night Lite

So my De Lux post last week garnered a response from a long time trade partner, and even longer time blogger, the Night Owl.  Needed the Gavin Lux from Series 1 to finish my set, and his was the first response saying he had an extra one somewhere and would send it my way.

I'm quite positive that my envelope was part of his P.O.'d post on Tuesday (which I totally related to BTW).  Just a couple days later, my PWE had arrived, with a half dozen cards from a trio of sets.

Why wait until the end, let's start off with the main reason he sent me the envelope, the final card for my 2020 Series 1 flagship set, Gavin Lux.   Along with it he sent another card for the '85 insert set from this year, Chris Paddack.   I have no idea who Paddack is (sorry Padres fans), maybe someone will educate me a little ( or a lot ) in the comments.  Still haven't quite hit the 30 card mark on this, but with a trade or 2 on the way, that should change soon.

Next up is a pair of '69 Topps cards, most welcome here at my house!  Most of you will know Bob Rodgers by his more famous nickname Buck.  1969 would be Buck's last season as a player in the majors, all 9 seasons spent with the Angels.  I remembered him managing the Expos and the Angels, but did not remember that he was the skipper of the Brewers in the early 80's before being replaced in 1982 by Harvey Kuenn, which would spawn the "Harvey's Wallbangers" season for the Brew Crew.

Finishing off the envelope is a pair of cards from the 1970 Topps set, including Seattle Pilot John O'Donoghue.  John was actually part of a pretty decent bullpen in Seattle, appearing in 55 games in 1969 with an ERA just below 3, and 6 saves.  There were some names in the pen you may or may not remember, Jim Bouton and Diego Segui were also part of the pen, and one of the starters would become a rubber armed reliever just a few seasons later, Mike Marshall.  John's son would also pitch in the majors, albeit just 11 games for the Orioles in 1993.

Greg, thank you as always, the cards are really appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Want list Wednesday: 1978 Topps

A trio of Yankees start off this post, as this recent TCDB trade with John (ID: herkojerko) knocked 3 more cards off of my 1978 Topps want list.  With roughly a handful or two of these cards in my COMC cart, with ship date to be determined, I decided to show the want list to the masses on tonight's blog post.

3,4,5,7,10,19,20,34,40,45,60,72,96,99

120,131,143,170,175,179,189,196,200,203,205,206,212,216,259,270,282,293,

300,301,320,325,336,350,374,378,400,411,419,450,451,479,499,510,530,580,

606,670,689,700,705,707,708,709

Everything highlighted in bold is on the way via COMC, leaving me with roughly 50 cards to go.  Just looking at the list there's a trio of Blue Jays that I need, so I'll probably end up raiding my Jays collection to take care of those.  A couple of key RC's including the Dale Murphy, along with the Molitor/Trammell combo are needed.

Plenty of other big names like Ryan, Morgan, Carew, Bench, Rice and Seaver are also part of the remaining numbers on the list.  Not many commons left, so finishing this one will cost a few bucks to pick them up on various sites unless I can swing a couple of more trades for a few of these.

Hit me up if you have anything extra you're looking to trade, as I'm still doing PWE trades here for the most part.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Miscellaneous colors

Sitting and thinking for a minute or 2 while starting this post, I remember back to when parallels were just one color, gold.  Then as we got into the 10's the colors really started to explode.  Blue and red parallels based on what big box store you bought the cards from.  Purple from Toys R Us.  Black parallels limited to double digit serial numbering.  Some releases had fancy parallels such as amber, emerald and ruby.

Go back to 1991 Fleer and you even have a set completely in yellow!!  What made me think of this is a few cards that I picked up on twitter last week, one on purpose and the others just because of the colors.

This is the red and yellow parallel from 2018 Optic.  When looking at it in hand, I thought that it was more orange than anything, which would make sense as it features McCutchen in a Giants uniform.  But when scanned, the red really pops.

The next 4 cards are all from 2019 Prizm, and there was really no rhyme or reason to buying them.  This Carolina Blue parallel featuring Odubel Herrera is actually great as it matches the old school Phillies uniforms, which I wouldn't be upset if they came back full time.   Makes me wonder who thought of creating a Carolina blue parallel at Panini....

How about these against the old school teal of the Seattle Mariners (it was teal, right?).

This is just plain old blue, which certainly would look good against the Blue Jays dark blue tops but certainly not with the black(?) of the Cleveland Indians.  Maybe it's just the scan and the navy blue just didn't show up well.  Any other teams you can think of that would fit this blue?

OK, so now seeing the Shane Bieber card I'm more convinced that the tops are black.  But the red T-shirt does go with the red parallel here.  Maybe the old Indians red tops from the '70s would fit with this style?

One color combo that I think that Panini does well is the Red, White and Blue, such as you see on George Springer here.  Every time I see the basketball version of the RWB, I think of a barber pole.

I'd love to see somebody do a frankenset featuring a bunch of the different parallels.  Be great to see the pink, gold, green, navy blue kaleidoscope, neon orange donut circles, cosmic haze, power plaid and purple parallels along with the handful above.

No, it won't be me....

Enjoy the hobby and be safe!

Robert

A trio of trades

I decided to combine three trades into one quick post.   A grand total of 11 cards came my way courtesy of 3 repeat trade partners, which is becoming a common theme now that my trade numbers have grown over the past 16 months.

Mike (ID: 49ants) sent me just one card, but it adds to my Felix Potvin collection.

I will never tire of getting cards of Felix and his cat mask into my collection.  This is the hobby predictor gold winner card from the 94-95 Upper Deck Set.   Felix didn't get a Vezina vote that season, the Sabres Dominik Hasek won the 2nd of his 6 Vezina awards in the strike shortened 94-95 campaign.

Some more player collection cards arrived care of Jenny (ID:  JennyMiller521), and I especially like the '83 Topps look on the upper left hand corner card.  The inset photo looks as if it was taken when someone pissed off McCutchen, which seems so out of the norm as I'm used to seeing a smiling Cutch, similar to the '18 Topps Chrome card.

Not only is the McCutchen collection growing lately, so too is the Ichiro collection, partially thanks to the 3 cards in this envelope from Edward (ID: Detfan6897).  The first thing that came to mind when I received this trade offer was 6 cards from 6 different sets, and even more pleasing was the '74 Bert Campaneris card.  Still 84 cards to go on that want list, with 4 of them in my COMC cart currently.

What's been cool over the past 3 weeks is that virtually every trade offer that's come my way has been of the PWE variety.  I'm sure that people are doing that purposefully (at least I hope so) so that minimal contact with others is maintained.  I know that the bakers dozen trades that I've completed, and the 6 others in progress have all gone out in a PWE, which means a walk to the P.O. for me and drop into the snorkel box.  Keep 'em coming!

Thank you to all for the trades, they are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe,

Robert

Breaking into The Stash

With the order down here in Broward and Miami-Dade counties requiring anyone entering an establishment that provides essential services to wear a face mask, it appears that more people are having no trouble speaking their mind with their face mostly covered.  Almost like the keyboard warriors on Twitter or Instagram who have no problem "speaking their mind".  So, until the insanity down here has died down somewhat, I've resolved to avoid the big box stores.  No more Target or Wal Mart until the mask order has been rescinded.

This is going to be tough for me, because that's where I get my pack fix.  This was the first weekend in quite a while that I didn't hit either of those stores to get anything to rip, and it's been a bit tough to be honest.  This morning I decided to do something about it, and broke into my stash of packs.  I have a plastic tub filled with about 75 packs of cards of various sizes, sports and years.  Something I've been adding to lately, as a just in case.   I figured that this is about as good a time as any to grab a pack to open.

2008-09 Upper Deck hockey jumbo pack, series 1.  32 cards, with a chance for Young Guns such as Stamkos, Giroux, Wheeler and T.J. Oshie.  I've not had any luck with these so far, but hopefully with the last 3 or 4 that I have I'll get lucky.

A few names on the first page that are still going over a decade later, such as Marc-Andre Fleury and Jonathan Cheechoo.  I'd totally forgotten that Mike Smith started way back when in Tampa Bay and was part of the trade that brought Brad Richards to Dallas (you'll see him here in a minute).  Another player on this page is Scott Gomez, who I remember almost strictly as a New Jersey Devil.  Then I look at his career stats and see stints in Ottawa, St. Louis, Florida, and San Jose, along with 3 years in Montreal.  It's time for me to start taking some memory pills it seems!

A lot of solid players on this page as well, such as Marian Gaborik, Patrik Elias and Bill Guerin.  Carey Price is the headliner, in an 2nd year card showing him shooting the puck around the boards.  I still remember the battle that he had with Jaroslav Halak when the both of them were in Montreal, which would stay and which would move on.  Halak's been a part of 5 organizations since he was traded in 2010, and Price 12 years later has 6 more years on what likely will be his final contract.  I'm sure when it ends he'll hold a majority of the Canadiens goaltending records.

Funny, when I look at this page the name Matt Niskanen jumps right at me.  I remember when he was traded by Dallas to Pittsburgh back in 2011.  That may be the worst deal Dallas ever made, as Niskanen and James Neal went to the Pens for Alex Goligoski.  Yes, Goligoski had some good years in Dallas, but Neal and Niskanen was probably a bit too much for Dallas to trade, in my opinion.

All of these cards went to my trade list on the TCDB website, as you never know what sets people are still trying to put together.   There were also a couple of inserts in the pack as well...

The Masked Men set has been popular, I've traded off quite a few of these over the past few months.  The All Star jersey you see on Vinny Lecavalier on the right is one that I have hanging in my closet, featuring that years Leafs representative, Tomas Kaberle.

I'd held off on breaking any of the packs I've had in the Stash for a long time, and I've been slowly adding to it over the past several months.  But while the mask edict is in place down here in S. Florida, I'll work on staying out of Target and Wal-Mart to keep some level of sanity in place, and just have fun breaking some old packs here and there.

Rest assured I'll post any stash pack broken here on the blog for all to see.

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

De Lux

As I close in on the 250 transactions completed milestone on the TCDB website, I still lament about not getting started sooner.  No worries though, as I seem to be making up for lost time quickly.  The latest trade that I'm highlighting tonight is from another repeat trade partner, Brandon (TCDB ID: stoob).  Knocked off 11 cards from various want lists on this deal, starting with a few from the monster that is 2007 Upper Deck.

Roughly a month ago I decided to add a boat load of base cards and minor parallels to my Ichiro want list, and boy have people come knocking with them!  This trade made my Ichiro collection grow past the 250 card mark with the two above, and the '09 Upper Deck Icons below...

I don't know what it is about the '07 UD card that features him in his All Star jersey, but I really like the card and it has become a instant favorite in my Ichiro collection.  The Thome collection is slowly closing in on the 600 card mark, making me start to wonder if a 2nd binder is in the works.

I'm now just about ready for Series 2 to come out as these 6 cards knock me down to just one left on the Series 1 want list.  I found out that it helps to get a want list up for a current product quickly, as there's a lot of collectors out there looking to move doubles as fast as they can.

The only card I need to finish Series 1?  Number 292.   Gavin Lux.

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

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

Lightning strike

Had 3 PWE's roll in today, made me feel pretty good I must admit.  It's good to see that there are folks out there that are still willing to trade and ship cards on a moment's notice.

One of the three envelopes that arrived was from Justin (TCDB ID: Lightningfan7609), a repeat trade partner.  It's actually one that I initiated, as I saw that he had quite a few 2020 Heritage needs come across my trade list, and I looked at his trade list and spotted a page worth of cards that I needed.

Two days in a row Marcus Stroman is featured on the blog, I didn't put him in the #1 card slot on purpose though.  Had no idea who Tom Anderson was, so I read the card.  Makes sense now, I have never used Myspace, and probably never will.  A&G teaches me something today.

Was also happy to see a card featuring the Big Cat, Andres Galarraga (I always have to stop and check when typing his last name).  I'd forgotten that Andres extended his career until his age 43 season, getting 10 AB's in 2004 with the Angels.  I'd also forgotten that he played in Texas in '01, and for the Giants in both '01 and '03.

Nine more cards in gets me to 201 in hand, just over 57% done.  I didn't care much for the look of this set when it first came out, but much like other A&G sets, it's grown on me over time.  

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

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!!

Robert

Thick as a brick

I really haven't bothered much over the past year and a half trying to add to my Blue Jays hits collection.   I've been so focused with trying to complete sets that anything else has been set aside.

So a couple of weeks ago when I saw my favorite twitter card seller Joe (@cheapcardsales) offer up this card for $3.50, I took the bait.

2019 Topps Tier One Marcus Stroman jersey card.   Great blue swatch!  Needless to say I grabbed a bunch of other cards with this one, most of those will be posted on Saturday's serial numbered post.

This is the first card I've added to the Blue Jays hits page since last August, and it is pretty thick.  I don't know what it is about the thicker jersey cards that I like, it shouldn't make a difference thin or thick, right?

I follow a lot of card sellers on twitter, but Joe is the only one that I buy from regularly.  The communication is great, he ships fast and is patient with me when I ask to verify what I have purchased.  I generally write down what I claim from Joe, but this last stack I'd forgotten about this card and another in my total.  He was kind enough to type out all the cards I bought, and showed appreciation that I actually keep track to make sure we're on the same page.

I guess there's a few others out there who don't keep track.

Thank you Joe for the cards, they are appreciated!!  More to come...

Enjoy the hobby and stay safe!

Robert

Serial Saturday #34: SNI revisited

So my wife and I are on the back porch just chatting earlier today when she brings up that I could revisit the Serial Numbered Insanity set in a post or two if needed.  Today is Saturday after all, so I figured why not?

So I brought up the Random.Org number generator and had it pick a number between 1 and 1500.  Up came 434.

Miguel Flores, 2009 Bowman Chrome refractor.

One of the pitfalls of putting the set together was getting cards like this and not knowing anything about the player.  I decided to hit up baseball reference dot com and it took a couple of minutes, but there's a story worth telling.

Miguel didn't make it past Rookie ball in the Cardinals organization, and spent the final 3 years of his career playing Independent ball in the North East.  In 2009, he played for a team called the American Defenders of New Hampshire, who were formerly known as the Nashua Pride.  They were part of a league known as the Canadian-American Association, which is still running with half a dozen teams.

The Defenders squad lasted just one season, and couldn't even finish that.  Their uniforms were designed in the style of military camouflage, and the team's mascot was a soldier doll named "9-11".  Well, it didn't seem to take very well in the town of Nashua, as crowds were sparse and debts piled up.  The town finally had had enough and parked a tractor on home plate so they couldn't finish their remaining scheduled home games.  Miguel started 19 games for the club and had the 2nd most wins on the team with 6.  Miguel moved with the team to Pittsfield for the next 2 seasons, and by the time the 2012 season rolled around he was out of baseball, at least as far as I could see.

Funny how finding random cards can expand one's baseball knowledge, even if it is about an obscure independent baseball league.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

A trio of shorties

This doesn't happen two days in a row on this blog often, another post featuring football cards!  This time it's 3 cards from the 2018 Panini Prestige set from new trade partner Bill (TCDB ID: brodiescomics).

Upon entering the trade as completed on my end I decided to look at what I have left to finish this 300 card set.  Eighty three cards remain, 53 of them SPs.  A lot of big names as well on the list, Allen, Mayfield, Barkley, Fitzpatrick, Chubb and Michel to give you a quick half dozen names of rookies on that list.

It's nice to get some cards off the list for sure, but with as many SPs as I need, there's certainly no hurry to finish this off.

When I took a quick look at the Denzel Ward card, I immediately thought I saw Denzel Washington.  I guess that's how the brain works when you get older!

Just a little note on the side, I've been trying to keep posting, as I have a goal of getting to 2000 posts by the time my birthday hits in late October.  When this drops, I'll need 95 more to get to the milestone.  There was a time a year or two ago when I thought that 2K was never going to happen.

Now it's something I'm looking forward to.   Thank you for the trade Bill!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Oh my, there's how many left?

I probably went a little over a week without receiving or making a trade offer on the TCDB.  Not sure what to make of all that's going on right now.  Hard to think of a word that described how I felt.  Worried?  Not really good, because I know that times have changed.  Bored?  No, that's not it, I've totally been enjoying my hobby over the past year.

While writing this first paragraph, the word I was looking for came to mind.   Understanding.  I get that people might not have cards first on their minds, or even want to head to the post office or come within 50 feet of one.  I've also been worried about making offers, because you just don't know what people are thinking on the other end, even regular trade partners (although a couple of my regulars have hit me up in the past few days, more on that in upcoming posts).

Within the past 6 days, I've actually received 8 trade offers, 7 of the PWE variety, which I think works much better in these uncertain times, because if you have a supply of stamps on hand (I keep quite a few now, including the extra ounce 15 cent stamps) and a lot of envelopes (office supply junkie here), you don't have to interact with anyone.  All 8 trades were dropped in the mailbox in front of my P.O. more than 50 feet from the door.

The first trade came in today, with new trade partner Matt.  A nice exchange of 2019 Donruss football was made, and my end knocked off 19 cards from my want list...

No SPs or anything, which is fine, but there's still some decent names on the scans, past and present.  Looking through these quickly made me decide to look over the checklist, and doing that I noticed there's not really a whole lot of commons in the set, which is cool.  But then I looked at my want list and realized that I have 107 cards still to go to complete the 350 card set.

You've got to be kidding me!  Thought I was much closer than that to finishing the set.  Thinking back, I really didn't buy a whole lot of packs when the set came out last year, and I still see some product on the racks when I hit Target.  Wondering if I shouldn't pick up a pack or 2 here and there to try and get closer.

Nope....I'll wait and try and trade for the rest.   Thank you for the trade Matt, cards are really appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

You don't see this too often

Decided to stop at Target yesterday and avoid any cashier related incidents regarding my purchasing of baseball cards by hitting the self-checkout line as I did in the past.

I came home with a couple packs of Heritage and one pack of Series 1 Topps (the store was cleaned out of Donruss baseball), and I decided to only open one of the Heritage packs.

What I saw inside was kind of interesting, and I had to validate it this morning by entering the cards onto my trade list at the TCDB website.

Here's the scans....

There's your 20 cards, scanned for your viewing pleasure.  Notice anything unusual?

Take a good look, give yourself a minute or two....
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There's no inserts, parallels, short prints, photo variations of any kind in this pack!

Thought I was seeing things for a minute, then as I was entering them into the site just now I made sure that there wasn't anything I was missing.

A straight 20 card pack of baseball cards, just like they did it in the old days.

You really don't see this too often, if at all in modern packs.   Too bad I wasn't putting the set together.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert