TCDB trade #622, 2 of this, 2 of that, and a guy formerly known as Mike

Man that was easy.  Trade offered by Chris (CH34) on the Wednesday, I replied the same day and within 8 days we both had our new cards in hand.  Some Heritage went Chris' way, and I received 5 cards that helped with some collections.

The Jim Thome collection is now up to 669 cards:

I've been getting a lot of his cards lately in trades; I remember not long ago my Thome collection just passed 600 cards.  Now I'm hoping to hit the 700 card mark later this year.  I've been getting them 2 and 3 at a time in trades, so I think 700 is very possible.

The Ichiro Suzuki collection is now up to a nice 333 card total:

No goals are in place for Ichiro, but I'm enjoying the growth of his collection over time.  I'll never go after his big ticket items, the base cards along with the cheaper parallels and inserts are good enough for me.  

My 2013 Allen & Ginter set build increased by one in this trade also:

Stanton is #303 out of the 350 card set that I have in hand.  47 to go, almost half of them are the Short Prints.  All but one of them are baseball players, the soccer legend Pele is the only one that stands out from the others.  Interesting the two versions of the Pele card, one has no description at all on the back, The prices I've found for them on eBay are around the $15 mark, not bad.  

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

Robert

Hanger Box Delight

Every once in a while, I will buy a retail pack or 2 off the shelves, just to give me something to open.  Nothing serious, just something to rip and put up for trade on the TCDB website.  

Today, I decided to grab a hanger box of 2023 Heritage.  I've seen a few here and there on the blogs and I've liked what I've seen.  Why not?

Having finished the '74 set a couple of years ago (maybe more), I liked looking at these, and being able to put the cards on the scanner bed without having to adjust them to fit the various cuts and such that the set featured over the years.

I kind of like some of the action shots that I see, Hunter Dozier comes to sight right away with the umpire in the background awaiting the throw that's inevitably coming towards first base.  Adam Cimber's pitching motion provides a great option for the horizontal view, seeing the ball leave his hand and it still being in the shot looks really good to me.

The mix of pitching and action shots blend well with the still photos.  Posed shots like Oscar Gonzalez take me back to the 70's, and interesting poses like the Kyle Schwarber card are a nice change as well.  

I only received one insert in the box, the New Age Performers of Nolan Gorman from the Angels.  I thought it was interesting that the insert card has an RC logo on it.  I thought RC's were base cards only?  I guess things have changed and I just haven't been paying attention

Now those who have bought hanger boxes know that there are 35 cards inside, packaged much like a small deck of playing cards.  You've seen 34 cards so far, so here comes the Hanger Box Delight.  It delighted me so much that I immediately showed the missus, my best pull out of a pack in a long time.

Steve Carlton Red Ink auto, #54/74!!!  That is truly a holy shit moment for me.  An on card auto as well.  I'm certainly not going to run out and buy more modern product, but it was nice to get a little bit of luck out of a $12 box.   

Robert

Bookkeeping errors. Again

First off, just want to congratulate the Night Owl on 5300 posts.  Incredible number!  I'm on #2144 here, just a little bit behind.

So last night, instead of writing, I took to putting away the recently acquired '59 Topps cards that I've blogged about.  While doing that, I did something that was long overdue.  I checked the binder and compared it against my current want list.

Wouldn't you know it, another bookkeeping mistake.  Turns out I was missing two common cards, 324 & 325.  How I missed those 2 I will never know.  But they are on the want list now and after today's post I'll need just 38 cards to finish up the set.  

So, while searching for the latest '59 card to bring the set closer to completion, I had to find a couple of other cards from the same seller (as always) to try and help some other sets along.

A '71 Fergie Jenkins was a good start.  Just under $5, typical well loved '71 card, but I figured why not as it was the 3rd of 3 cards to go in the cart.

Also picked up the '69 All Star card of Carl Yastrzemski for $9.  I've been trying here and there to knock off the All Star cards from the '69 set, so this was a nice find.   One hundred and fifty four more to go to finish up '69.  Maybe next year...

Now we get to the '59 I acquired, Gil Hodges of the Dodgers.  $18 it cost me, not bad.  This would have got me down to 36 cards for the set if I had learned to count properly.

I searched last night for a few other cards I need, and found them more reasonable than I thought.  I have a feeling that I should be able to get to around 10 cards to go before I really start feeling the pain.  

That's what I signed up for years ago.   

Robert

High Number, High Number, Hi #, etc. etc.

Been waiting a few days to write this post.  I managed to get 5 of the high numbered cards off of the '59 Topps want list into the house about 10 days ago.  I never thought at the beginning of 2023 that I'd be taking a whooping stick to the wants for this set that have been on the list for years.   Grabbing these cards all from the same seller for a little over $42 was worth the budget busting.

I decided to scan the 5 cards individually, instead of the group at one shot.  A small spelling error on the Mike Cuellar card starts us off.  

The 2nd rookie card of the post is Rodolfo Arias. he of the White Sox.  The cartoon on the back said that a publisher in Havana, Cuba gave Rodolfo $1000 for the no hitter he pitched against Rochester in the International League.  

RC #3 is of Jim Perry, the older brother of Gaylord Perry.  Jim's Major League career started in 1959, winning 12 games and finishing 2nd in the Rookie of the Year voting behind Bob Allison.  Willie McCovey was the unanimous ROY in the National League

Tom Morgan spent his career primarily as a relief pitcher for a handful of teams.  He was also the cheapest of the 5 cards pictured, just a few cents under $6

The back of Frank Malzone's All Star card does him justice by listing all the defensive categories he led.  Games played, Putouts, Errors, Assists, Double Plays and Fielding Percentage.  1959 was the third of 3 consecutive gold gloves that Malzone earned, along with 3 straight years with some MVP votes and a trio of all star games.

37 left to finish the set.  I do have some reasonably affordable cards still on the list.  Stay tuned.

Robert

Small, but effective

Not writing a lot on the blog has kept people in the dark.  Not on purpose, just how it has been with life being busy over the last few months.  But I'm writing again, and in case you're not aware, I started a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. collection.   I've always enjoyed watching Vladdy play, the excitement you see when a big hit is made or a crucial play is executed with him on the end of it at first base is always evident.

 

So while this collection never will be large, if an opportunity comes up here and there to pick up a reasonably priced card, I'll take advantage.  The only want list I have on TCDB for VGJ is the 30 card player highlights insert set from 2020 Topps, 2 of them visible above from a recently completed trade on the site.  These 2 bring my total to 8 out of the 30 cards, and the other 22 are the only want list I have for him.  

I bought a Series 1 blaster of 2023 Topps a couple months ago, and I was lucky enough to nab these 2 cards from the box.  Young Vlad got card #300 in the set, the old hero number from days gone by.  Interesting on the back of the Stars of MLB insert card is a discussion of exit velocities that Vlad has performed in his first 4 season.  You won't see anything like that on vintage cards.  

This collection is nothing like the long time stars I have like Sakic, Thome, or Fitzgerald.  But a card here or there of the young Jays 1st baseman certainly won't be turned down.  

Robert

Back in black

Been taking a few days off here and there between blog posts.  There's no doubt thought that blogging is still in the front of my mind even when I go a few days away from the keyboard.

Trades are coming in at a nice clip (I just accepted one this morning) and it's always great to move some cards on to a person that's looking for them for their collection.  

While the 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes set isn't at the top of anyone's discussion list at the moment (I doubt it's in the top 50), I received a couple of trades recently that involved a few of the black parallels.  While it's not a critical part of my collection, it does keep the modern card portion of the trade list going (I have 3 other parallels from this set on my TCDB lists) and helps to keep the trade lines moving.

I really do want to put together this set; it's an easy build at 200 cards.  While the big story line on the blog lately has been the pursuit of a couple of vintage sets, over the years I've managed to put together two parallel sets for my collection.  I guess you could say that the parallel universe is another part of my collection that intrigues me, and I do hope one day to be able to show off a complete set of this black parallel.

I've only got 57 out of the 200 so far, so if you have any laying around that you're looking to move, hit me up on TCDB for a trade.   It would be appreciated.

Robert

Come for the football, stay for the 59 Topps

Been meaning to post these for a few days, but life getting in the way.  I bought these on the latest ebay binge a couple weeks ago, concentrating on the lone '59 Topps baseball card I bought, but found a few vintage football cards at a reasonable price that I just couldn't leave behind.

Tell me Vince doesn't look the part of a football player.  Also please tell me that the Redskins logo doesn't look awful?  '69 Topps football is just 11 cards in, but I love the look of this set and hopefully will have the opportunity to collect some more in the not too distant future.

1970 Topps was my first real foray into collecting vintage football.  I really enjoyed the lot of about 70 cards that I bought, even though the condition wasn't the greatest.  Back then, the photos weren't the greatest, but the guys actually looked the part of a football player.  

Darrell Johnson's high number card from the '59 set was the main purchase of this lot.  I spotted it for under $6 and thought it looked in really good shape.  The want list is getting lower, and more and more expensive.  42 cards are left in the '59 set with very few cards that won't cost at least $10 to purchase.  I'm not scared yet, but it's getting to the point where the cards I have to get are big names and the bargain shopping will really begin.

Jim Perry high number for $10 on ebay...he might be next.

Robert