Monday, August 31, 2020

Happy > Prolific

It's funny what will spark an idea for a post.  I saw this tweet on twitter yesterday from BigDinAZ Cards & Collectibles:

https://twitter.com/BigdinazC/status/1300173095332790272

( I tried to get a screen shot of it on here, but had no luck)

Basically, he was quite happy with his collection of Steve Young cards so far, even though it wasn't prolific.   When I saw it, I immediately tweeted this

Happy > Prolific

Isn't that what a lot of us have been preaching for years?  For some reason, the thought came instantly to my head when I saw that tweet.

There are player collections that I have that I wouldn't consider prolific but I'm happy with what I have so far.  Take my Andrew McCutchen collection so far.  While it's nowhere the fantastic PC of  the Collecting Cutch blog, I'm very happy with what I have to date.  It's now up to 267 cards thanks to Jenny (TCDB ID: JennyMiller) and our quick 4 for 4 trade that netted me 3 cards for the McCutchen collection.


Yes, there's no flash or substance, but in a lot of cases I've added some nice looking cards to the collection.  The Spring Fever card in the middle comes to mind, as I am enjoying my life in Florida now watching the palm trees sway in the breeze.....

But I digress.

All of my player collections will never be prolific, as I'm pretty frugal and will likely not divest in pricey autographs or fancy patches.  But I can easily say that I'm quite happy with what I have so far, and trading to add to the collections via trading has been quite enjoyable. 


I believe that I can honestly say that Happy is greater than Prolific for me.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Time-consuming yet therapeutic validation

I'm sure that there's a few people saying "thank God he's done with the trade posts!!"  The trade posts are usually quick and easy to create, and they keep the blog going.  Plus you never know when someone will come across one of your posts and realize that they have something that you may need.

I've had trades sparked that way in the past...

Sunday afternoon was initially spent starting to page some insert sets that have been sitting in boxes/plastic cases for a while.   The first one that I worked on was a recent favorite, 2019 Gypsy Queen green.


Now putting these into pages was a bit time-consuming, which can be said for any set I imagine.   This set is more difficult for me because the numbers on the back are quite small (Fuji mentioned this in one of my previous posts about this set); I have to use a magnifying glass to see the numbers to ensure that I'm putting them in the correct spot. 

While paging the set, my thoughts on why I wanted to build this parallel set in the first place were validated.  I really do like it.  The green borders work really well, and the set design is appealing to me.

I even managed to find an extra copy of the Manny Machado card in the box....


I have about 2 dozen other sets in boxes, maybe I should check those for doubles as well.

Nah

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Saturday, August 29, 2020

TCDB Trade Week: kdinthejaw

Going to finish up trade week with another regular trade partner, Kevin (TCDB ID: kdinthejaw) who I hunted down to try and knock off a few wants from a set that's been in the works for over a decade now, 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee hockey.


This trade actually gives me a bit of hope for the postal system, as this envelope arrived from the Canadian Prairies in just 10 days!!  I still have one trade envelope that hasn't made it from south Florida to Maryland yet, I shipped that on 8/6.


I didn't notice at the time I offered the trade, but apparently I still need a lot of cards from cities that start with the letters C or D.  I'm still hunting down Felix Potvin cards that feature him in other uniforms outside of the Leafs, so this McDonald's Pacific card from 2000-01 is a welcome sight indeed.

The 07-08 OPC set is coming along, it's 61% complete.  I started picking off some of the cheaper SPs on Sportlots recently, and they're going to arrive in a couple of weeks via my first box order, which I am kind of excited about. 

Thank you Kevin for the cards, they are appreciated!  Looking forward to the next trade.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Friday, August 28, 2020

TCDB Trade Week: Hawkking

Joseph and I traded for the first time recently, an even 9 for 9 swap.  I sent him a page worth of Blackhawk cards, and he sent me a page of player collection needs, including a healthy dose of Keith Tkachuk.


I started off with the horizontal cards from the mid 90's.  I like them both, but the 3 Star Selection which could easily pose as an insert, but is actually a base card from the 96-97 Collector's Choice set.  I also like the dual photo in the 97-98 SPx card on the top, one in his Kachina style Coyotes jersey, the other featuring his All Star Jersey which was in San Jose.


More Jets/Coyotes base cards which include the tough to pull die-cut SP insert card from the 94-95 SP set.  After all these came in, the Tkachuk count has grown to 163 cards, not bad for a secondary collection.  Still lots on the want list though!!


It's always odd to see Tkachuk in the later years of his career without an "A" or "C" on his jersey, although it appears that there's one on the white jersey on the Upper Deck Ice card from 05-06 on the right.  Tough to tell though...


To finish off the page, a card each for the Potvin and Sakic collections.  I do like the 95-96 Topps card that features Potvin on the left, although if I could change one thing, the size of the team name would be a bit smaller top to bottom.  It looks a little too stretched to me.  The script for "Felix Potvin" is something that I have always liked and I wouldn't change it at all. 

Thank you for the cards Joseph, they are appreciated!!  Look forward to the next trade.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Thursday, August 27, 2020

TCDB Trade Week: Clay

This trade, my first one with TCDB ID Clay (my apologies, I didn't write your name down...) netted me a page worth of football cards.   I traded away a handful of Steelers cards and gained 8 cards towards my 2018 Panini Prestige FB set


A few stars showed up, along with a trio of Rookie cards that depict players that I don't know much about.  I still kind of regret starting this set, but I blame it on myself for not researching more before taking the plunge.  I found a few of these on Sportlots recently for cheap, so there is light at the end of the tunnel with just 32 cards left on the want list. 

Filling out the page is a T.Y. Hilton card from the same year but a different brand.  It's from the Panini Playoff set, and I decided to take a quick look at the parallel sets to see what colors they were.

I was wrong, they're actually named by situations, 1st down, 2nd down, 3rd down, 4th down, Goal Line, Kick Off, Red Zone and Touchdown.  The "downs" are serial #'d starting at 99 and work their way down to 10.  The Touchdown's are 1 of 1s.  Goal Line, Kick Off and Red Zone aren't numbered, and have just the moniker stamped on the card to differentiate.   Not very inspiring for me.

None the less, the cards plug a few holes and the trade was completed in both directions in less than a week, so I certainly cannot complain.

Thank you for the cards Clay, they are appreciated!

Enjoy the hobby, Robert

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

TCDB Trade Week: The Bucs Stop Here

This is the 3rd of 3 consecutive trade posts featuring fellow bloggers on the TCDB website.  This trade features Nate from the The Bucs Stop Here blog and it netted me some goodies across a few different interests.

Let's start with a pair of Andrew McCutchen cards, the GQ on the left is another of the "I thought I already had this one in the collection" cards.  I bought a lot of cards off the racks between 2011-15, and the GQ card is one I'd seen many times before.  May have traded it off many years ago, not sure to be honest, but I'm glad to have it in my hands now.

The black bordered 2014 Heritage card on the right hand side is a beautiful card, the border goes great with the road black jersey he's wearing. 



This pair of cards featuring players in blue jerseys added to a couple of different collections.

I especially love the Ichiro Topps Chrome card featuring the '84 design.  If I were to own a Mariner's jersey, it would be the teal colored one that Ichiro is wearing on this card.

Blake Snell knocked off one more from the '85 insert set from this year's flagship, with the series 1 portion now at 58/100 in hand.


A serial numbered card out of 50 featuring Felipe Rivero/Vazquez formerly of the Pirates.  We won't go where this fellow has been over the past couple of years....


Last up is a couple more cards for the serial #'d/99 collection, both featuring Pirates (of course)!  Adam Frazier's Chronicles card is a purple parallel, and the Polanco card on the bottom is one of those Topps Tek cards, which I didn't notice until now is a RC for Gregory.   The collection is still growing, although slowly and is currently at 74 cards. 

Nate, thank you for the trade, the cards are appreciated!! 

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

TCDB Trade Week: CrazieJoe

This is the 5th TCDB trade between Joseph and myself and each time hasn't disappointed me.  Joseph runs the CrazieJoe's Card Corner blog, which features cards of varying sorts, even wrestling! 
This time I sent him a bunch of early year Blue Jays cards for his collection, and in return I received 7 cards towards various want lists.


This is a pair of cards from the 2009-10 OPC set, immediately I put them both into the "where are they now? category.

Of course, Atlanta lost its hockey team for the 2nd time to Winnipeg several years ago.  Maybe if they had brought the Flames back to Atlanta it might have worked, but the Thrashers never really caught on.

I certainly remember Christian Ehrhoff in the NHL about a decade ago, but I wondered what had happened to him when I saw his card.  Off to hockey reference for a look.

Christian played 2 years in Vancouver right after leaving San Jose, and had his most productive seasons in the league.  He scored 14 goals in each of his 2 seasons with the Canucks and garnered Norris Trophy votes for the best defenseman in both years.

After having those 2 solid seasons, he was traded twice in 2 days, both times for 4th rd picks in the 2012 draft, which kind of baffles me.  Christian would play 3 years in Buffalo, then finish off his career in the 14-15 season playing for both LA and Chicago.  789 games over 12 seasons, 74 goals.  A solid NHL career if you ask me.  I just couldn't remember him leaving the game...


This will go into the Ichiro binder, but to be honest these Triple Play cards will always leave something to be desired in my books. 


I was going to grouse on how the Upper Deck First Edition cards were just another rehash of their base sets in the late 2000's, but then I remembered that Topps does the same thing with Opening Day and their designs.   Moving on...


Finishing up with a trio of Keith Tkachuk cards.  I especially like the one on the right that features him in the classic Kachina style Coyotes jersey (I own one myself).  I've really expanded the want list for Tkachuk cards on the TCDB site and this is the first of 2 trades that I'll show this week that has helped this collection along. 

Thank you very much Joseph for another great trade!!  Look forward to the next one.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Monday, August 24, 2020

TCDB Trade Week: Kep75 (Diamond Jesters)

Next up on trade week is a familiar blogger to a few of you, Matt from the Diamond Jesters blog.  (read those repack haikus, they're great) My last Want List Wednesday post featured the '85 Topps inserts from this years flagship set, and Matt jumped on the opportunity to send a couple my way in order to bolster his Red Sox collection.

This was a quick and easy trade, and I snagged a little bonus out of this one as well.


Another benefit of beefing up the PC want lists, this 2020 Ichiro die cut insert is now part of the collection.   I'd pulled a couple of these in series 1 packs, can't say if I recall them being diecut.  It was SOOOOO long ago....


The reason for the trade to begin with, a couple of big names from the insert set.  Still a ways to go to finish this off, but there's no hurry as this is more of a fun little side build compared to all the other sets I'm chasing.

Matt was also very gracious and snuck in a little green....


Very cool add to the envelope, a '19 GQ Jake Cave Green parallel, knocking one more card off that want list.  I don't normally binder up the insert sets, but this set is making me rethink that "policy".  Maybe that's a project for the Labor Day weekend, start bindering this and show off some of the pages, as I do love the look of them.

This is the first of 3 straight blogger/TCDB trades on the blog, and I must say thank you for the trade Matt, the cards are appreciated!!  Looking forward to our next.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Sunday, August 23, 2020

TCDB Trade Week: mcg324

Time to get some cards off the desk!!  I have 5 or 6 trades that are sitting on my desk that I've been too lazy to get posted on the blog, so it's time for my 2nd trade week on the blog. 

The last time I did this, I had a reason for doing it.  I was heading out on vacation for a week and didn't want the blog to go cold.  A post a day for 7 days did the trick. 

I have a mixed bag of stuff to show off this week, nothing more than a page worth of cards in any of the deals.  First off is new trade partner Michel (TCDB ID: mcg324) which involved a swap of hockey cards in each direction.


Let's start off with the "I had this card once" chronicles featuring Joe Sakic's card from the 1996-97 Bicycle NHL Hockey Aces card deck.  I know I had a deck of these cards somewhere a long time ago but I'll be damned if I remember what happened to it.  No matter, the Ace of Diamonds is back in my collection again, not to be disappearing anytime soon.


I won't mince any words here.  I LOVE this card.  Love it, love it, love it.  The look on Potvin's face, and the "set up" of his equipment.  I can't say that I remember the Cat having those style of pads, but I think they look incredible, and even though this card features him as a Bruin, this is instantly one of my favorite Felix Potvin cards. 

The remaining 7 cards all feature Mats Sundin, starting with the horizontal Upper Deck Ice card from the mid 90's


I still remember how popular these cards were at McDonald's in Canada back in the 90's.  They were hard to find indeed.


I can still remember how a lot of people in Toronto howled when the Leafs traded Wendel Clark to get Sundin.  Outside of the Calgary trade to get Doug Gilmour, it's probably the biggest Leaf trade that I can remember during my lifetime. 

He only went on to be one of the top 5 Leafs of all time in my opinion.  That #13 looks great in the rafters, it's only a shame that he doesn't have a Stanley Cup ring to go with it.

Have had some luck with trades recently by beefing up the PC want lists, and this trade is certainly part of that.  Thank you for the cards Michel, they are appreciated!!

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Saturday, August 22, 2020

If there were one basketball player that I would collect it would be....

1961-62 Fleer #8 Wilt Chamberlain Front
Image copied from the TCDB website

Wilt Chamberlain.  Larger than life.  The back of his rookie card lists his height at 7' 1 1/16".  I got a real kick out of that specific measurement.

I'm not a fan of basketball now, but I did follow it during the Celtics-Lakers rivalry in the 80's. I remember watching in the 70's also when Buffalo had the Braves.

There's a lot of people that say Michael Jordan is the best player ever.   I have no problem with people making that statement, because Michael dominated his era.  6 titles.  A 6 year run where he averaged 33.3 points per game.  I see a 69 point game in 1990 against the Cavaliers. 

For me, Wilt stands head and shoulders above everyone who has ever played the game.  100 point game against the Knicks in 1962.  Wilt's first 6 seasons in the league he averaged 40.4 points a game.  The only player in NBA history to average over 50 points per game in a season.  The first player to record a 20/20/20 game (Russell Westbrook is the only player to do it since). 

I could go on and on about numbers, but when you have a nickname like "The Record Book" (Thanks to basketball reference for that bit of info), that says it all.

I recently came across one of his cards on twitter that Joe from Cheap Cards was selling and I had to have it.



I thought Panini did a good job with this card, it's almost as if Wilt is saying "that's my ball, you can't have it" on the card.  A photo featuring a Lakers-Celtics matchup also works well for me.

I thought about going for a rainbow of this particular card from 19-20, but there's 40 versions if you count the Prizms, and even though I enjoy a good color spectrum (colour for my Canadian friends), that's a little overkill for me.

I was a little bit surprised to find out that Wilt only has 1808 cards listed on the TCDB (yes, I used only) site.  But I guess when you played in the vintage era instead of the modern card collecting it would put a bit of a damper on the number of cards one has. 

Maybe one day I'll put together a small collection for Wilt. 

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Friday, August 21, 2020

Sometimes a gentle reminder is all it takes

Much to my delight and surprise, I received a bubble mailer yesterday from the one and only....

Love this card.  Need to get me an autographed copy one day

Totally unexpected was this fine package of cards, and it provided me a reminder of my first National back in 2012.  I'll get to that shortly.

First off, the meat of the package.   A bunch of 2017 A&G which is quickly getting close to completion.


7 base cards, including an Ichiro which I also believe is needed for the Ichiro PC.  Seeing Nick Jonas reminds me of driving to South Carolina last summer and "Sucker" was being played on hit radio constantly.   I really like that song, and taking a quick look at the back also let me know that Nick collects baseball cards.  Cool!


To go with those were 7 Short Prints, very nice!!  I still look at these cards and remember 3 years ago my disdain for them when they were first released.  Boy that changed, as I can honestly say that my tastes have shifted and I've become more of an A&G fan overall.  My only beef?  Well of course it's the price, as I'd love to see it be a little lower.   You can't have everything though, right?

22 cards left for the set, 14 base and 8 SPs.   This set will be part of the "next 10" that is completed when I finish the '74 Topps set, hopefully some time soon.


The lone Jim Thome card in the package is from the 2005 Fleer National Pastimes set.  It's either #601 or 602 in the Thome PC.  Nice card, you can't see it in the scan but the photo of Jim has a kind of 3D look, almost raised off the card a bit.


Both this package and the last one that Greg sent my way each contained a lone 1969 Topps card.  Not a set that is on everyone's radar, but it's one that I love. 

I can actually tell you when I fell in love with it.   Let's go back a little over 8 years ago to the 2012 NSCC show which was in Baltimore.  It was my first, and I can still remember my awe when I walked through the hall.  The enormity of it just astounded me.

I went for two days, and I remember on the 2nd day I sat at a table in the back of the hall, and if I remember correctly, I was the only one at the table at the time.  It was a woman running the table, very pleasant and easy to chat with.  But it was one card that jumped out of the box and into my pile that I think was the highlight of the show for me, and started my love of the '69 set.


Lefty was just $12 (yes I still remember the price), I loved the look of the card and the pink back had me hooked.  I was pretty sure that one day I would start putting together this set.  Roberto Pena up above brings my total up to 207 cards, still not even a third of the way through. 

Pena was a reminder of my love for this set, and it's got me wanting to give this set a little push before too long. 

Thank you for the envelope Greg, the cards are really appreciated!!  And yes, you did beat the Trading Card Database guys.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Sunday, August 16, 2020

Tradecenter--2s and 3s

It's been a busy month on the trade month so far.  17 trades completed and a lot of walks to the post office, sometimes with 2 or 3 envelopes in hand to send to fellow collectors.

Today's post is just a quick homage to 5 trades I've made that all saw me receive just 2 or 3 cards, which for me works just as well as bigger trades, but I don't have to stand in line at the post office to send PWE's.


The 3 cards I received above were my first trade with someone from Slovakia!  I remember him telling me that the trade might take a little longer because he's in Europe, and I thought to myself it's not a big deal, I was only sending a few cards so why not?

I received the cards in a little over 2 weeks, no different than if they came from Canada.  Fabulous.



Loving the chase for the '85 inserts from this years flagship, and the two trades above netted me an extra card for a pair of player collections.  A fairly large need for the Olerud collection are cards that feature him as a Met, Mariner, Yankee or Red Sox player.  70% of the collection features him as a Jay, even though half his career was spent elsewhere...


I was going to chase the series 2 set this year, but the card insanity at the retail stores, and the brick and mortar shops selling boxes at $120 (really!) has made me think twice.  I grabbed the McCutchen in a trade and that will be all for Series 2.  Meanwhile the 2019 GQ green release keeps chugging along, and it will certainly be part of the next 10 sets that I work on once '74 Topps is done.


Haven't really shown off a lot of vintage on the blog in recent weeks, so a trio of '72 Topps I'm sure is a welcome sight for some.  I really haven't looked at this set much recently in trades, and now that I've worked my towards the semi-high and high numbers, this will probably stay slow for a while.  There's a long way to go though, as the set is only 55% complete. 

Still have more trades to show off, mostly player collection stuff which I've taken some time to enhance my want lists on the TCDB website.  These will be more of the 7-9 card variety, filling those Ultra Pro pages in the PWE's quite nicely.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert


Saturday, August 15, 2020

Serial Saturday #41: Two more Sakic's on the way to 1000

Inspiration struck in a couple of different ways for this post.  Naturally, the pair of serial numbered cards you're going to see shortly, but I've also been buoyed by a pair of bloggers who have recently hit the 1000 card mark for one of their player collections.

A couple of days ago P-Town Tom notified us that he hit the 1000 card mark with his Ryne Sandberg collection with this post celebrating that milestone.  Love that the card he chose from the group that put him over the top glows in the dark, well done!!

While I wasn't aware of the approaching achievement by Tom, AJ's Tino Martinez milestone was more in my radar, as I followed it on Twitter for a while as he counted down to 1000.  AJ's post notifying us all of his accomplishment with this post .  I also liked AJ's choice for 1K, as it was the silver signature parallel from the 2000 UD MVP set, long one of my favorite parallels out there.

I've been collecting Sakic cards since the early 90's, and it is one collection that I never gave up on or decided to pare down or sell.  I did go quite a long time in the early part of the 21st century without adding to it, but since I started blogging almost a decade ago, I've off and on noted the additions to the collection, which now stands at 832 cards, including these 2 serial numbered cards.


If I had a preference for this insert from the 2002-03 Rookie Update set, is that Joe Sakic should have been featured with a younger star player that might have looked up to him as a role model. Otherwise, the card for me is just fine as it's always good to add a serial numbered card to the collection. 


Artifacts is a set that should be right up my alley; serial numbered cards, colorful parallels and lots of rookie and star power.  Alas, the packs are a bit too pricey, and my luck with blasters in the past has been pretty awful for the most part, so I'm pretty much down to buying singles on the secondary market for as cheap as possible. 

Both of these cards hit the mark price wise, each was $1.99.  Maybe it's time for me to get cracking on the Sakic collection a little more on eBay if I can keep finding prices such as these...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Friday, August 14, 2020

Nets, strings and other Sakic things

I was on a bit of a buying binge over the past couple weeks after going dry for a week or 2 before that.  I guess I end up justifying going over the $30 weekly budget for a short time when I don't spend anything before that.

When I hit the eBay listings a week ago Wednesday, I had no idea that I would end up spending about an hour looking through nothing but Joe Sakic cards.  Funny how that works isn't it?  I started out looking for starter lots of the earlier A&G sets, and when I found nothing that I liked I hit the Sakic listings, and stuff just started hitting my cart.


I used to see these Pacific Dynagon 2000 Lamplighters cards all the time at shows, dealers would be asking around 8-10 bucks a pop, and while I liked the card, I didn't think it was honestly worth that price.  I bought this for $1.90, which I found much to my liking.

3 years later, Pacific decided that the Lamplighters insert was to their liking again, so they included it in their base brand as an insert.


I like the overall design on this one over the Dynagon version, but the only think that is lacking is the netting doesn't happen on this card.  The card above has some kind of nylon string, where the net on this Pacific version is just a photo on the card.  This card cost 9 cents more than the other.   Still for under $2 I was happy.


I liked the look of the Rookie Year Milestones insert from the 18-19 SP Authentic set, largely because it contains a photo of Joe wearing his rookie year jersey with the #88 on it.  The less than $2 price tag was also endearing to me, so in the cart it went.


This is a card I've been looking for for a looonnnnnggggg time.  1996 Pinnacle Duracell L'Equipe De Beliveau insert, which has been tough to find.  When I did find it in the past, I saw it for anywhere from 10-20 bucks, which as you know doesn't work for me.  For $1 (!) this quickly jumped into the cart.   What I wasn't aware of previously is that the back is in French, which when you think about it makes sense considering the name of the insert is also in French.  Great find for me here!!


A pair of more recent OPC finds also climbed aboard the highway to S. Florida.  The 14-15 OPC sticker insert on the right is another one of those "I thought I had this one already", but apparently that wasn't the case.  $1.20 was the price tag, so that was an easy decision.

The 2011-12 OPC Rainbow parallel on the left was the priciest card of the whole bunch at $3.  Considering it's one of the SPs from that set the price tag was quite reasonable. 


Finishing off the post with a couple of older inserts.  Pacific did hockey really well in the early 2000's in my opinion, I can't say that there's an insert or parallel that they made that I didn't like (I'm sure I'll turn that statement around someday).  The Rink Immortals card from the 03-04 Heads Up set on the left chronicles Joe's 10 ASG appearances to that point in his career. 

Another company/brand that I wish was still going with hockey is the Fleer Ultra line.  I always liked the Gold Medallion parallels (some more than others), and the Scoring Kings and Ultra Action cards were also pleasing for me.  This pair of inserts cost me less than $3 combined. 

The entire order, which includes a couple of serial numbered cards for Saturday's serial numbered post cost me $23 shipped, not bad for a dozen cards (2 of which I had already in the collection).  Best of all, I enjoyed going through it all and realizing that there's still deals to be had if you search hard enough.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Yes, Virginia, there is still some good in the collecting community

We're a society that focuses on the negative.  For me this is true.  Generally, you'll hear about negative news stories first, and then "if" there are any feel good stories, they're buried at the end of the news program.

Same goes for the card collecting brigade.  There's a witch hunt on twitter now for the guys that hang out at Wal Mart and Target waiting for the card rep to come in and restock the shelves.  I've seen the tweets, giant lots of Chrome and Chronicles and the latest new thing at a sizable mark up.

I'm going to say this now.   You guys that are doing this, you're doing me a favor.  I don't expect to see anything on the shelves anymore when I hit the stores, so my shopping experience is much quicker.  AND.....I spend my $$ on stuff that I'm really looking for.

Case in point, I hit a bunch of Andrew McCutchen cards on ebay recently to take advantage of the 5% bucks promotion.  (I did the same thing with Joe Sakic last week, those posts are coming soon)

One of the sellers actually sent me what I thought was a great note....

New message from: kingpins (7,574Green Star)

Thank you for your purchase and speedy payment. Your package will ship tomorrow. Your shipping and purchase details will be available in the "Purchase History" tab on your eBay summary page. Please be mindful, because of the COVID-19 pandemic and unusual budgetary issues, the USPS is experiencing extreme delays in mail delivery. Please allow a bit of extra delivery time. Thank you in advance, for your patience and understanding. I have left positive feedback for you. After you receive your item, please consider doing the same if you are satisfied. If there is any problems... please let me know. Customer service is a top priority for me.
Be well and take care.
Bill


Ebay has become so impersonal and cold lately that seeing messages such as this is refreshing.   A public thanks to Bill for sending this.   By the way, I only bought one card from Bill for $2.  Very cool indeed!!

Speaking of great stuff, I received an envelope from one of the best traders out there, and I promised him I would give him a plug when I got the cards, even though he's not blogging currently (hoping one day he'll return).  

DDDDDDOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!

Yes, the legendary Napkin Doon is still out there, and he's on TCDB so I hit him up for a trade.


Nap had 3 more GQ Green parallels that I needed, knocking that want list down to 54 cards.  I've said this probably a dozen times before on the blog, but it still amazes me how fast I've whittled away at this set.

Mr. Doon was good enough to add a couple of Andrew McCutchen parallels from 2014 that I needed for that PC.


These were two more cards that I took one look at and said "I needed these?"  Sure enough they were both on the want list.   Not anymore!!

Thank you Nap for the trade, it's always a pleasure to trade with you!!

Enjoy the hobby, and focus on what's good!!

Robert

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

Want List Wednesday: 2020 Topps -- 1985 Topps Baseball 35th anniversary

OK, so I've been a slug.  Haven't posted in a week.  The main reason has been I'm working the "late shift" this month and don't get off until 715.  Usually after turning off the computer I'll go and spend the rest of the evening with the wife, watching some Netflix, or some hockey, depending on the mood.

Had to get back into the posting routine today, and I haven't done a want list Wednesday in months, so let's go!!


I've always liked '85 Topps, I think largely due to the team name being in a large banner at the bottom.  I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but for me it was worthy enough to try and put together the 150 card set from this year's flagship release. 

The 3 cards above are the first from Series 2 that I've obtained via the trade route.  In several trips to the big box stores in my area, Series 2 is constantly cleaned out, so I'm thinking that I'll have to completely finish this off via trades or purchases.

Here's the want list...

Series 1

1,2,7,8,10,18,20,23,24,25,26,28,29,31,35,37,43,44,45,46,49,50,51,57,58,
60,62,67,68,69,70,71,73,74,75,77,79,82,88(x2),92,93,94,97,98,99

Series 2

1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,28,29,30

31,32,33,34,35,36(x2),37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50

I just added the Series 2 list today since I just obtained the 3 cards above yesterday via a very large PWE haul over the past few days.  Even though I haven't posted, I have been busy.

Note #36 in series 2 is Andrew McCutchen, so I'll need 2 copies of that.  Number 88 in series 1 is Ichiro, so 2 copies are wanted as well.

If you have any you want to trade, drop me a comment, or hit me on TCDB if you reside there (rmitchell6700 is my user ID).

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert