This was supposed to be it

A bit of follow up on last week's post about receiving the Ken Giles base card from the '19 GQ set instead of the green parallel.   A couple of you spoke wisdom in the comments and suggested reaching out to the seller to see if anything could be done.

Voila!

There's Ken Giles in hand!  He arrived yesterday in the mail, 4 days after the seller reached back and said he was sending the card my way.  

That's 299 out of 300 with only Manny Margot to come my way.  Gavin is taking care of that (thank you Gavin!) with an envelope heading down here to the swamp.  Finishing this up will have me halfway through the Next 10 sets completed.  I'm still working away on getting the other 5 done, the 2002-03 Upper Deck Vintage set looks as if it'll be a tough nut to crack with a bunch of SPs on the final 25-30 cards needed to get it done.

Persistence will payoff in the long run...

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

That's 390 in the books

I was fortunate to get a shout out from Steve on Twitter (@cardboardjones) last Wednesday when I posted my Wednesday want list that featured '86 Topps football.  Steve mentioned that he had a few to send my way and asked me what my TCDB ID was (rmitchell6700 in case you didn't know).  A few hours later I had a trade offer in my inbox which was quickly accepted.

Exciting times here, as my want list has shrunk by 15 and just 42 cards remain.  No slouches in this group of 15 cards...

Bears team card, a pair of record breakers, the decimation of the Patriots in SB 20 (sorry to the Patriot fans out there who may have watched/remember that massacre), the Fridge, McMahon and Marshall are all great cards.  Not that Lester Hayes was any slouch ('86 was his last season) and LeRoy Irvin also was a pretty good corner (35 career INTs) round out the first scan.

Now if I'm Sean Landeta, do I want a do over for my rookie card?  I mean that pose just gives punters a bad look, don't you think?  

Again, more great names on this scan.  Jones and White off of that great Cowboys defense, Mark Bavaro was part of the Giants Super Bowl team when they beat Denver in SB XXI 39-20.  The 49ers team card features their RB Roger Craig.  I even remember John Spagnola as the regular TE for the Eagles for a few seasons.  Great bunch of cards in this trade.

I've been on a bit of a roll over the past few weeks and have made my way closer to the 400 trade plateau on TCDB.  This trade with Steve was #390, there's a handful on their way and 3 more in the proposal stage.  

400 is just a matter of time now...

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

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

'86 Topps Football has never stood a chance

It really wasn't that long ago I announced my intentions to start putting together the '86 Topps football set.  I didn't think originally that it would take me a long time to put it together, what with the only real big $$ card in the set being the Jerry Rice rookie.  But I certainly didn't think that I would be on the verge of completing the set this quickly.  

The want list is down to 57 cards after receiving 4 more today from fellow blogger Chris who sent me a quick trade offer last week and the PWE arrived quickly at the house today.

This was the original group of 5 cards offered up in the trade, the key pair being the Bruce Smith and Al Toon RC's.  All 4 footballers I do remember from the 80's, which is another reason I've enjoyed collecting this set.  A lot of recognizable names makes it more fun, especially when you start taking trips down memory lane.  

What was very cool is Chris added these 4 cards along with the others to fill up the PWE a bit more.  The Goligoski is from the 16-17 OPC set, something I've barely started on so far with just 27 cards in hand.  I'll never sneer at any Maple Leafs base cards from current sets as I slowly build that collection as well.  

I have another TCDB trade en route which will knock off a quarter of what I have left on the list, meaning my want list will be in the 40's.  A lot of trades with both bloggers and TCDB members have really made this set easy to put together, much easier than I originally thought it would be.

The want list really never did stand a chance...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

My bookkeeping failed me ---a little

Well, there have been some interesting developments in my quest to finish off the '19 GQ green parallel set.

• The eBay transaction last week that resulted in a fail is turning into a positive.  The seller is sending me the Ken Giles green GQ card!  A wonderful result to say the least
• While going through the binder today, I found that I'm missing #116 Manny Margot.  Thought I had it, but it appears that I don't.  Back on the want list it goes
• I received the card below, thinking it would be the 2nd last card for the set.

Seeing cards like this come in makes me enjoy the beauty of the set (in my eyes) even more.   

I'm glad that I have myself in the habit of checking the entire set that's put away before I declare it complete, as on more than one occasion I've been missing a card here and there.  My bookkeeping keeps failing me.

Or maybe it's my issue of not putting my cards away timely...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Want List Wednesday: 1986 Topps Football

The amount of writing has diminished greatly on this blog in 2021. I think a large part of it was that I didn't have my office space available; it was being used as a bedroom for a friend who was in the process of buying a house.  They moved in to their house this week, so things are starting to get back to normal.  

It has been quite some time since I posted a Want List post on the blog; I figured that the '86 Topps Football set would be a good one to write about since I've been really fortunate to obtain almost 85% of the set in just a few short months.   

I recently picked up this Donnie Shell in a trade with long time trade partner Josh (Royals and Randoms Blog) and when I updated the set on TCDB, I noticed that the want list is down to just 61 cards to go.  

Here's the list:

1,2,8,9,10,11 (Payton All Pro),12,18,19,20,21,24,25,34,44,45 (Marino), 67,74,90,101,112 (Elway),

132,133,144,152,154,155,157,160,161 (Rice RC),168,171,176,181,187,188,189,191,

225,226,244,272,275,282,283,284,285,287,297,298,307,310,345,356,363,371,374 (Young RC),

389 (Bruce Smith RC),390,391,394

The list isn't too formidable, there's a few names that will cost a bit of money but the list should be easy enough to finish by the end of the year.  

The older football sets have become a bit of a fascination for me and I've started picking up random cards here and there from the '79 and '81 sets to see if I can pique my interest in trying to put them together.  

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

2 for 5 is a good day for a hitter--for a card company...well

OK, this purchase result I felt was so funny that I had to share it with everyone this morning instead of waiting till later on today or the weekend.

First off, I'm going to say that the shipping time on this 5 card order was phenomenal.  Ordered from CA on Friday the 19th, arrived at my house in Florida yesterday.   Have to give props when it's due.

Now the cards.   This was a 5 card eBay order from one of the larger card sellers on the site.   I'm not going to mention the name, but it's on the west coast as I've already said.

2 for 5 is how they did.  Apparently the order filler on Friday has an issue with parallels.

First off, the positives

This was going to be a "Sunday 15" post that featured these 2 cards, but like I said, I couldn't wait to post this.

The Yastrzemski '72 Topps and the Esiason RC from '86 Topps were right on the money.  Both cards in really nice shape and they cost me $4.50 apiece.  This part was well done.

Now, this is where the games begin.   Let's start with a couple of cards from 18-19 OPC hockey.

I've mentioned quite a few times about the Next 10 set project.  18-19 OPC is one of the sets and I decided to start knocking off some of the cards.  Card 555 is Hellebuyck on the right and #557 is the Sedin twins on the left.  Both needed for my BASE set.

For those who don't know, these are the retro parallels.  Not even close to what the base cards look like.

What's even better?  I finally put up the retro set on the TCDB website as a want last week.  Luckily for the seller, this ends up as just a minor fail, as I'll just end up using these to fill my retro set, which hopefully will be completed by 2030.

Now, for the true fail....

The primary reason I started this order was to finish off my 2019 Gypsy Queen Green set.  Ken Giles of the Blue Jays, card #281, is the final card I need to complete the set.  Notice I said need and not needed.

Forget the Topps logo, where in the world do you see any GREEN on this card?  

I even checked the packing slip that they sent in the envelope.  It even says 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Green #281 Ken Giles.

How is this not a total fail?  One, I only spent 99 cents on the card, so I'll just hunt around for it on Sportlots to finish the set.

Feedback wise, I'd love to hear how you'd do it in the comments, but I'm going to give:

• 2 positives for the Yaz and Esiason cards
• 2 neutrals for the Retro Parallels
• A negative for the Giles card

I don't give negatives very much, but to mess this order up like this, I feel its warranted.

A little bit of a delay in showing off the GQ set will happen because of this, but it's coming...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

Sunday 15: Seven & Seven

 Stuck to my plan with the $15 purchase on eBay, trying to knock some higher dollar cards off the vintage want lists.   This past week, I grabbed a couple of $7 high number cards from a set that I've pretty much neglected over the past several months.   1959 Topps.

These are two players that I hadn't heard of, but with the way that card prices are rising in the current economy, 7 bucks apiece for a pair of high numbers was something I could live with.

I took a quick look at the remaining 77 cards on the '59 want list and I found a bit of hope.  I believe that there is about 2-3 dozen cards that I can hit up with my new plan and start to chip away at this set.  Probably the more doable plan for the near future will be focusing on hitting the 500 card mark in hand, which is just 5 cards away.  

Hitting that milestone may make me a little more motivated to get this done, but then when I look at what's left I cringe and put that thought in the back of my mind.

3 Mickey Mantle cards will do that to a fellow.

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert

The Green Machine

 Staying true to my word at the beginning of 2021, I'm steadily working on finishing up the Next 10 sets.  4 are already complete and last weekend I decided on the 5th that is going to be completed.

Thats the 2019 Gypsy Queen Green parallel set.

I didn't think for one minute when I started this set back in 2019 that it would get done, or at least close to being done, this quickly.  My Sportlots order last weekend got me down to just 4 remaining cards.

Found 3 of the 4 on eBay, one of them still on the way here (Gerrit Cole), which left me with just one card remaining.   A Blue Jay no less, Ken Giles.  I found him last night on the bay for under a buck and combined that with a few other cards to take advantage of the one price shipping from Burbank Sportscards and this set should be done by this time next weekend.

I do plan to show it off in its entirety on the blog when I get everything in; 33 pages of scans isn't going to be too bad.

One of the 5 remaining sets on the Next 10 project, the 02-03 UD Vintage set, appears to be a tough nut to crack.  A good portion of the remaining cards are short printed star cards which have been a bit tough to find.  I have one card coming in by dog sled from Canada, but the others are going to have to wait for a bit.  2018-19 OPC hockey seems to be calling my name...

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Sunday 15: Card #1 and 3 others

To go along with working on my "Next 10" set completions, I've recently decided that I need to start getting a little more serious with my 68-72 Topps baseball set builds, along with the early 70's OPC hockey sets.  I can only go for so long with purchasing commons for a buck or 2 to whittle away at the sets.

I need to start getting a little more into the meat of the sets.  Cards that are in the $5-15 range.  Cards that have some star power.  In some cases, certain high numbers for sets that are a little more pricey than your average commons.

So I decided to give it a go.  My first purchase on ebay to get the Sunday 15 in flight was never shipped.  OK, so I got that money back and found another seller to get this started.  I honed in this week on the '68 set and started with card #1

I thought that this card was somewhat underpriced at only $9.25, so I jumped on it right away.  We all know Mr. Clemente and most of us are familiar with the Alou brothers.  Personally, I don't know Tony Gonzalez very well, so I decided to look him up on the baseball reference website.

Tony had a 12 year career in the majors with 5 teams, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Atlanta, San Diego and the Angels.  Tony had a career .286 average, with 1967 being the big season of his career, hitting .339 with 172 hits and an OPS of .869 which was 9th in the NL.  Defensively he was solid, fielding pct. of .987 for his career with twice as many assists as errors during his 12 season run.

Clemente would finish 18 points ahead of Gonzalez in the batting race, Alou was 3rd at .338.  

These three cards brought the total to $14.  All of them are in pretty nice shape and bring me just 20 cards shy of the halfway point for this set.  I'd really like to be halfway or better on all of the 68-72 sets, but there's work to be done to get there.  

I'm sure thought that finding deals like the one I found on the Clements will make the task of finishing these sets a little easier.   I'm going to try and keep documenting these purchases on the Sunday 15 series, which I hope to keep going for a while.

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

Finished pages are always good

 One of the goals at the beginning of the year was to start filling some vintage pages.  Sometimes those holes can get a bit depressing.  I put a dozen cards away from my '72 Topps set build this morning and I was able to knock off two more pages from the binder.

The pages with one hole should for the most part be easy, at least until I start tackling the high number series.  That's something I'm not looking forward to...yet.

The last card on this page that I needed was another of the Boyhood Photos of the Stars subset which featured the legendary Pirate Willie Stargell.

Not only did this page have a handful of the boyhood photos (plus one), it also featured Rangers slugger Frank Howard and the Braves Rookie Stars card.  I recently watched on YouTube a video of an early 70's All Star Game and I was able to see just how big a man Frank Howard really was compared to some of his teammates.

This page was an unexpected surprise to complete.  You don't expect with a dozen cards to put away that you will fill a page that is missing 3 cards, but lo and behold!

The more I look at this set and the completed pages, the more I get to enjoy this set and how the cards look side by side in the binder.  There's still a long way to go to finish this set for me, but the 500 card mark is just around the corner.  Just 3 more cards to hit that plateau, 27 more to go to reach the 2/3 complete mark.

I certainly didn't expect to make a push on this set in 2021, but maybe I will if I can keep finding cards at a good price as I have recently.  

I'll keep you posted...

Enjoy the hobby!

Robert

No pack pressure means...

Vintage coming aboard!  The retail insanity that is taking place has actually helped me.  I don't need to make side trips to Target or Wal Mart anymore in the hopes that there will be something in wax form for me to rip.  

I won't be chasing any Series 1 base, Heritage coming up is a no and likely nothing new for hockey until next year's OPC release.  Probably the only current product I'll be looking for is Allen & Ginter when it comes out in the summertime (July if my memory is good).

What's happening now is I'm still chugging along at my set building.  Still working on The Next 10 sets project, I have 6 of those remaining.  I'm slowly pecking away at those on Sportlots and hope to start knocking some more of those off the want lists soon.

But for now, vintage.  I've bought a lot of singles on Sportlots lately and I've even taken a chance with a bigger card or 2 without seeing it first.  Plus, I've started to reduce want lists for sets that I've been working off and on for a few years now.

Nothing fancy or spectacular here, but it's nice to see some '68 come into the house.   That set is almost halfway complete and there's a few more on the way via ebay likely the end of next week.  The Monday has a crease in it, but for a buck I thought it worthy of being part of the set.  

I've mentioned several times on the blog that '69 Topps is one of my favorites; I was able to find a dozen all reasonably priced (don't think I paid more than 60 cents for any of these) and get them off the want list.  Not sure if I finished any pages with this bunch, I'll be checking on that either this evening or tomorrow and update everyone on that.

I believe I paid $5 for the Ted Williams, which I didn't think was too bad.  Someone in its past life stamped a blue T in the bio, but the card is still pretty nice otherwise and I'm glad it is off the list.  

I would love for a team to bring back the sleeveless jerseys again, the Dick Green and the Rick Monday '68 card are 2 reminders of why I feel that way.   It's just a good look.  With the way a lot of these young players take care of themselves now, I'm sure the gun show would be a good look for a lot of them...

I'll have to go back and look again at my TCDB history on the '72 set, but I believe I've knocked off at least 40 cards from this set this year.  Much like the '69 set, I didn't pay very much to get these into the collection.  I'm pretty sure that the 60 per cent mark is closing in for this set, but with the size that means there's still a long way to go.  

I think combined I spent a blasters worth here, the best part being it all came to me.   No chasing cards at big box stores at all.  

I could get used to this...

Enjoy the hobby!!

Robert