Serial Saturday #11: Two more pages

For those of you who were part of the 100 words/cards giveaway, this is a heads up to let you know that I finished the order today and have requested shipment.  Hopefully I'll have the cards in a couple of weeks and then I'll start to work on shipping them to everybody. 

It certainly was an educational project for me, as I learned a lot about what people collect.   There were some interesting sets/collections out there, and I'm looking forward to what people thought about the cards I sent their way.

Now, back to regular blog news, I decided to get a couple of SNI pages scanned and posted today.  I have approximately 1/2 of the serial numbered hockey cards into pages and hope to have them put away this week. 

Hope you enjoy pages 32 and 33 of SNI...

Card 280:  Justin Upton, 2010 Topps triple threads #280/1350.  Arizona card #8
Card 281:  Alexei Ramirez, 2011 Topps triple threads #281/525.  Chicago White Sox card #7
Card 282:  Danny Espinosa, 2012 Topps Heritage #282/563.  Washington card #12

Card 283:  Rod Barajas, 2010 Topps Gold #283/2010.  Toronto card #17
Card 284:  Evan Anundsen, 2010 Bowman Chrome #284/777.  Milwaukee card #5
Card 285:  Tyler Clippard, 2007 Bowman Chrome #285/500.  New York Yankees card #8

Card 286:  John Danks, 2013 Topps Gold #286/2013.  Chicago White Sox card #8
Card 287:  Tyler Colvin, 2011 Bowman Green #287/450.  Chicago Cubs #7
Card 288:  Collin Balester, 2009 Topps Gold #288/2009.  Washington card #13

Both the White Sox and the Nationals represented twice on this page.  The Milwaukee card leaves just the Pirates as the only team not to reach the 5 card plateau. 

The John Danks card was the only one on this page that I was responsible for, the other 8 were courtesy of the blogosphere.  The Night Owl sent me 2 of these, while 6 other bloggers sent 1 each.

Card 289:  John Lackey, 2007 Topps gold #289/2007.  Los Angeles Angels card #15
Card 290:  Brian Bannister, 2009 Topps gold #290/2009.  Kansas City card #11
Card 291:  Colby Lewis, 2011 Topps gold #291/2011.  Texas card #11

Card 292:  Joey Votto, 2011 Topps triple threads #292/525.  Cincinnati card #9
Card 293:  Javier Vazquez, 2010 Topps Chrome purple #293/299.  New York Yankees card #9
Card 294:  Lance Berkman, 2011 Bowman blue #294/500.  St. Louis card #16

Card 295:  Brian McCann, 2011 Bowman green #295/450.  Atlanta card #11
Card 296:  Tom Koehler, 2013 Topps gold #296/2013.  Miami card #11
Card 297:  Anthony Ortega, 2009 Bowman blue #297/500.  Los Angeles Angels card #16

I purchased 4 of the 9 cards on this page, 3 of the 4 coming via two different visits to the National in 2012 and 2014.  Both of the pages today had one card come from Ted who ran the Crinkly Wrappers blog (hope all is well for you Ted!). 

The most interesting card for me is the Brian Bannister card.  I thought that the placing of the glove over the mouth to prevent the other team from reading lips was a more recent phenomena, but I guess it's been going on longer than I thought. 

Next page up will bring the set to over 20% displayed in page form.  Still quite a ways to go.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Jimmying up the Jays collection a bit

I received an email from Jimmy a few weeks back following up on the 2016 Topps post that stated my desire to get rid of as many inserts/parallels as I could. 

Jimmy had a nice chunk of Blue Jays cards to send my way, and how can I say no to that?

A nice group of 4 1995 Donruss cards, which may be the first 4 '95 Donruss cards to come my way.  Still need 8 more Jays to finish off that particular want list. 

A trio of '95 Leaf cards came my way from my Jimmy, which reminded me a lot of the Donruss cards above (I actually thought all 7 came from the same set at first).  I only need 3 of these cards to finish off that particular Jays list...

Honestly, when I saw these I wondered if I actually needed them.  The 2009 Topps Blue Jays base set is something I thought I had completed long ago.  Turns out I still need 4 more of them.  

How can this be?

I still need quite a few of the 2015 base set Jays cards.   Goins knocked one of those out.  The other 4 finished off the base needs for the '15 update set.   The only cards left there are the sparkle/sabermetric variations.   No hurry on those.

I'm looking forward to a full season of Tulo and Donaldson on the left hand side of the Jays infield, which might be the best left hand side in all of baseball.  Hopefully they can stay healthy...

Jimmy, thank you for the trade, the cards are really appreciated!!

thanks for reading, Robert

It's funny what a little focus can accomplish

Focus (v) - pay particular attention to

As I've aged, I've also gained the knowledge that focus is something that I've clearly lacked during my lifetime.  I'm a person that can easily shift from one task to another quickly, often leaving tasks half finished.

I can also describe my collecting habits as focus impaired.  Start one thing, work on it for a while, move on to something else that I find interesting, work on that for a while, and so on.

With the SNI set down to its final 100 cards, I've started working towards the finish line.  I'm using my weekly budget (or parts of it due to lower amounts of discretionary spending money) and chipping away at the remaining serial numbers needed.

The last 2 purchases from COMC.com knocked off 19 cards, 5 of which I showed off the other day.  The Goodbye Ohio post showed the final cards of the Cleveland and Cincinnati clubs, and today I'll show off three more teams that were finished recently.

Up until last week, the Cubs were down to just 2 cards to finish off their portion of the set.  Fukudome (#1047) and Gallagher (#1006) made the Cubs the 12th team to have all 50 cards in house.

The Dodgers became the 13th team to be completed when the sole remaining card arrived in the same order.  Delwyn Young (#1421) is the final piece of the Dodgers puzzle.  In case you were wondering, Young is still playing baseball, with the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League.

Jake Peavy (#753) is the final part of the San Diego Padres portion of the set.  Peavy is probably not the same pitcher now as he was with the Padres many years ago, but I'm sure that the sting is lessened with two consecutive WS rings on his resume.   To get a third, he's probably going to have to be traded, because we all know that the Giants can only win in even #'d years...

Not only have I completed those teams with recent orders, I've added cards for other teams as well.

I only grabbed a couple of Phillies so that they would be over the 40 card mark.  Same with the Tigers below...

Little did I know that these two teams would be in the sights of another blogger, to be completely wiped out with one single order.   When they arrive, I'll be sure to show them off and give many thanks to the generous person.

Lastly, in what I can only call a moment of non-clarity, I ordered 4 Braves cards.

Nothing against the Braves of course, but for some reason I ordered just 4 when I needed 5 to finish them off.  Duh me.  I corrected this mistake in the order that I placed today.

Speaking of that order, along with the generosity of a fellow blogger I have a little more than a third of the final 100 cards headed my way.  With just under 6 weeks left until my blogoversary, there is a chance that I can finish this set before the start of my 5th year in the blog world.

Let's see if I can stay focused enough to do it...

thanks for reading, Robert

Goodbye Ohio

Over the past few weeks, the desire to finish one of my "bigger" set builds has intensified.  With money tighter than normal, the choice between chasing the more valuable cards to finish the '64 Topps set versus obtaining the remaining cards to finish off my serial numbered insanity set became much clearer.

The ability to purchase serial numbered cards off of COMC.com at a reasonable price won out, and so over the past couple of weeks I've placed two small orders on the site.  In addition to about a dozen cards for my 3 player PCs, I started knocking off some teams from the SNI set, which is making the task a little less daunting, at least in my eyes.

I decided for today's post to say goodbye to the Ohio based teams.   I only needed a handful of cards to finish off both teams, which made scanning the cards all that much easier.

In trying to complete the set, I've been trying to purchase cards from various sets to enjoy a little more variety.  Picking up a lot of Triple Threads cards had made the process somewhat stale, so finding a David Ross from 2007 Topps helped. 

I only needed two cards to complete the Indians portion of the set.  The Casey Kotchman was one of the lowest serial numbers that I still needed, #395.  Most of my focus on buying these cards has been on parallels with larger print runs, such as the gold parallels of Lou Manson on the right, but with only a few serial numbers left that are below 500, I was able to grab a Bowman blue parallel for some more variety.  I will probably do the same thing for the final 3 serial numbers below 500.

With the Indians and Reds complete, I now have over half the teams finished, 16 to be exact.  The Braves only need one more card, while the remainder of the teams have anywhere between 5 and 10 cards left.

Even better than all I've said so far is the fact that I only need 100 cards to finish the set.  I bet you thought this might go on forever....

So did I.

thanks for reading, Robert

Cub, Cub, Cub, Cub, but no Pie

Another great and unexpected bubble mailer arrived today, this one from multi-blogger P-Town Tom, who was gracious enough to send me a handful of serial numbered cards.

Let's start with former Cub, Blue Jay, Dodger, Athletic, Yankee, and Expo (!) Ted Lilly.  I never thought much of Ted to be honest, but I learned that he reeled of 9 straight 10+ win seasons.  Ted is serial number 1459.

The Triple Threads line has been very beneficial to the SNI project.  The Derrek Lee card you see here is the 57th card from the TTT line, and as you can plainly see, this card is serial numbered 843.

Richie was a 4th round pick of the Cubs in 2003 out of FSU.  When this card was released in 2004, he'd only appeared for part of a season in A ball for the Lansing Lugnuts (love that name).  Tony progressed as high as AAA ball in 2008 before calling it a career.  This card is serial #'d 671 in case you were wondering.

Tom was more than gracious enough to spare this horizontal beauty of Marlon Byrd sliding into home plate.  If I'm guessing correctly, he is trying to take out John Buck at home plate.  Byrd is serial numbered 587, and these 4 cards bring the Cubs total up to an even 40.

This next card cost me about 15 minutes of my evening, and it wasn't to get some Pie either.

This card is serial numbered 875.  It also made me look like an idiot (like I needed any help with that...right??).  I go through the spreadsheet, and there's already a card in that spot.   I check the binder to make sure.   Yep, 875 is there.

Ugh.

The next 15 minutes are spent comparing the spreadsheet with the want list on the blog page.  I probably deleted about a dozen numbers, and actually had to add a couple back.

Hopefully the want list is up to date now.  I do know that I now have 1130 out of the 1500 cards needed, just 370 to go.  That is until I receive the next duplicate that is my fault because I don't know how to properly maintain a want list.

Tom, thank you for the cards, they are greatly appreciated!!  I am grateful that you paid Wes' hospitality forward.

thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Insanity cards 1071-1075

These 5 cards are courtesy of Daniel at the great It's Like Having my Own Card Shop blog.  Daniel responded to one of my posts last week when I showed off some emerald Diamondbacks cards, and a trade was born.

5 closer to the 1500 mark, and the 2 New York teams hit the 48 out of 50 plateau in this post.

Enjoy...

Card #1071: Ron Coomer

Serial Number:  1366
47th card out of 50 for the Yankees

I'll admit it, I had a tough time remember Ron Coomer when I saw this card.  It hit me why I couldn't remember him when I looked up his stats; he spent the better part of his career as a Twin in the mid to late 90's.  Ron had a decent big league career, 911 games played, hitting .274 with 92 HRs.  Also made the '99 All Star team in the AL.

Card #1072:  Paul Konerko

Serial Number:  569
32nd card out of 50 for the White Sox

Does Konerko need to hit 500 HRs to have a legitimate shot at the HOF?  It doesn't appear as though he'll reach 3000 hits; he will be 38 by the time opening day rolls around and he needs 703 more hits.  Paul needs 66 more HRs to reach 500, so unless he has a bit of a comeback year in 2014, and lands one more contract after that, 500 looks to be out of reach.

Card #1073:  Carlos Beltran

Serial Number:  1228
48th card out of 50 for the Mets

Probably a good thing that Carlos signed in the AL, because he can rest his knees more as a DH and still keep his bat in the lineup.  Carlos would probably like to see Kyle Lohse come to the AL, as he's had quite a bit of success against him (25/51 6 doubles, 4HR and 12 RBI).

Card #1074:  Nelson Cruz

Serial Number:  1257
45th card out of 50 for the Rangers

It's kind of interesting that he's still a free agent.  I'm sure that there are a lot of teams out there that can use a power hitting corner outfielder.   Nelson has more career home runs against Toronto (14) than any other non AL West team. 

Card #1075:  Alex Rodriguez

Serial Number:  303
48th card out of 50 for the Yankees

The way he's going right now, we might see a card in 2016 that reads "A-Rod Oldest to 700 Home Runs".

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Insanity cards 1031-1035

Believe it or not, this is the final post for the SNI set this week (try to hold the cheering down please).  After this post, I only have 2 cards on my desk that haven't been documented, so I guess you could say I'm caught up.

These 5 cards bring the set to 69% complete, and I'm quite happy that I have been able to proceed this far in the set.  With another trade proposed to me today, the goal of 1100 by the end of the year still has a small chance of being completed.

With all that being said, here's the last 5 cards of my mini "marathon".   Enjoy.

Card # 1031:  Richard Hidalgo

Serial Number:  251
45th card out of 50 for the Mets

There has been a lot of Mets cards on the SNI posts for the past week.  Remember the 2000 season of Richard Hidalgo?  44 HRs, 122 RBI, .314 average for the Astros.  This card shows him during his only season as a Met, one in which he hit homers in 5 consecutive games.  Hard to believe that he was out of the major leagues by age 30.

Card # 1032:  Grady Sizemore

Serial Number:  598
38th card out of 50 for the Indians

Injuries cut this very talented outfielder's time in Cleveland down, but I just read an article here that states the Phillies may be interested in signing Sizemore as an extra outfielder.  This guy is too talented to have his career end the way it did in Cleveland, so I'd really enjoy see him getting a chance to play somewhere with a fresh start.

Card # 1033:  Ryan Perry & Rick Porcello

Serial Number:  1438
27th card out of 50 for the Tigers

It's been a long time since I had a multi player card come into the set.  Porcello has been a mainstay of the Tigers rotation since his rookie year of '09, and '13 was his best season for K's (142) and WHIP (1.282).  Perry has had a bit of a rough time after his first two seasons, 2011 and 2012 were not good statistically, and 2013 was spent in the minors between AAA & AA.  At 26, he's got some time to get it back together and find his way back to the majors...

Card # 1034:  Chris Narveson

 
Serial Number:  610
29th card out of 50 for the Brewers

Narveson is the first card from the '13 Update set that I've shown off here, courtesy of Pat from the Hot Corner Cards blog.  Narveson pitched in only 2 games for the Brewers in 2013, before being sent to the minors where he spent the remainder of the season in AAA.  At only 31, and being a lefty, I'm sure he'll end up somewhere in 2014.

Card # 1035:  Kyle Lohse

Serial Number:  509
30th card out of 50 for the Brewers

Would love to know what he learned to turn his career around.  In his first 10 big league seasons, he only had only one season with an ERA below 4, and 4 other seasons his ERA was above 5.  The last 3 years, he's won 41 games, his combined ERA is 3.19 and WHIP is 1.140.  What changed?  You'd also think that with a turnaround like his, he wouldn't have had to wait until a week before the '13 season started before landing a contract.

Thanks for reading, Robert